Can a casual comparison of phenomena and assumptions based on it be presented in a journal/conference paper? In comparison to the size of the universe, humans on earth are like bacteria on a speck of dirt. Much like in the animated movie "Horton hears a who".

When writing a journal/conference paper, if one would like to present a fact:

  Universe being huge and Earth being negligible in comparison.

and compare it to similar phenomena and also present assumptions:

  There might be a civilization of creatures living on specks of dust
  that we see everyday.

... is it considered acceptable to present such assumptions? Normally, scientific papers expect experiments and tabulated results, but can one present something purely philosophical as long as it seems logically sound (but there's no evidence to support it)? If yes, then what is the appropriate format to present the text? Can it be written as shown below?:

  Observable Phenomenon: The universe is 92 billion light years in diameter. In comparison, the Earth is a mere 12742km in diameter, and
  the average human height is 1.7m and viruses can be just 20 nanometer
  in diameter.
  Our hypothesis: If the Earth could be assumed as a universe, it may very well be possible that there may be an entire civilization of
  creatures living on atoms or electrons.

Would mentioning something like this make the reviewers reject the paper immediately or make them criticise it for being too casual or lacking in evidence? Or is a researcher allowed to philosophize such thoughts and present unproven theories/assumptions? If yes, then how should it be presented?

ps: This is not for the field of humanities or pure philosophy. This is for a journal in the field of computer science. The question is not exactly about the universe and civilizations on specks of dust. The question is about how to present the author's assumptions that don't have proof.

In comparison to the size of the universe, humans on earth are like bacteria on a speck of dirt. Much like in the animated movie "Horton hears a who"... There might be a civilization of creatures living on specks of dust that we see everyday.

I think the example you have chosen here is obscuring your real question. It's not clear that this example makes any scientific sense, so if I saw this in a computer science paper I would find it very strange and probably suggest that the authors delete it. But your real question is about some hypothetical opinion, not about the (scientifically indefensible) suggestion that there are entire worlds on specks of dirt.

So, to the question I think you wanted to ask: it is OK to write casual comparisons if the comparison is useful and illustrative. Not all arguments have to proceed with a hypothesis test or linear regression or something. Your job is to convince the reader of your hypothesis; the argument for that can be heuristic, philosophical, or on a totally meta level. If it's a compelling point of view and the reviewers buy that it is plausible, they will likely be happy with your paper.

  Observable Phenomenon: The universe is 92 billion light years in diameter. In comparison, the Earth is a mere 12742km in diameter, and the average human height is 1.7m and viruses can be just 20 nanometer in diameter.

  Our hypothesis: If the Earth could be assumed as a universe, it may very well be possible that there may be an entire civilization of creatures living on atoms or electrons.

Assuming that the "Observable Phenomenon" and "Our hypothesis" are replaced by something less ridiculous, this seems entirely fine. You are starting with some quantitative observations, and asking the reader to draw a conclusion about some hypothetically possible scenario.


What are the drawbacks of HTML5 presentation software? I use pdf files, generated with Beamer/LaTeX, and whatever pdf viewer is available on the computer I am presenting on. While I like the Beamer/LaTeX/PDF combination better than PowerPoint type applications I am not particularly happy with its ability to embed media (sounds and videos). Further, common PDF viewers (e.g., Acrobat, Evince, and Okular) do not provide any type of "presenter" view with a clock and notes on one screen and the slides on a projector. The presenter view in advanced viewers like impressive are pretty limited. I am thinking of switching to an HTML5 based system (possibly reveal.js), but wanted to know what the drawbacks of HTML5 based presentations are.

From a web developer perspective, the only issue I can see is compatibility. If the provided computer does not provide an HTML5-ready browser, the presentation may not work. Unfortunately, having been in labs and lectures with institution-provided computers, there is no guarantee that an IT department has provided the newest browser. While I'd like to think that people, especially at institutions, are keeping their machines up to date, we have to assume that some machines have been forgotten or have not been maintained.

This HTML5 readiness graph demonstrates that IE8, which still has a huge market share, is woefully prepared for any HTML5 feature. IE9 has some functionality over IE8 and appears to cover the audio/video portions you require, but only IE10 appears to be HTML5-ready as of last year.

I tried the reveal.js demo on IE8 just now. The rotating transitions don't work at all (it acts like Powerpoint basically), but it was usable. Since there are no videos or audio, I can't test those, but a standard presentation would at least be doable even in that browser.

It is unlikely that any IE9- browsers will ever reach full HTML5 support due to the security risks and time drain required, so any attempt to present on an IE8 browser is likely to be bare-bones and equivalent to viewing a PowerPoint.

However, this can be largely mitigated with the use of a PortableApp web browser such as Portable Google Chrome. A small footprint that can be carried around in a flash drive with the presentation.

From a student perspective, reveal.js might appear to be more confusing if you share the files, as it probably isn't just a foo.ppt file, but a source document, the JS, and so on. You will probably need to provide a read-me for being able to view the presentation. I'm sure everyone here knows how to open and view a PowerPoint, but some of us might stumble a bit with a more complex solution that may depend on multiple files and folders. That, and the student would need an HTML5 browser to get all the features working.

You probably will also need to direct PDF copy of the slides because I didn't see any noticeable way to print the presentation unless the stylesheet natively does that from the print menu.


What tense to use when referring to self publication in a monograph chapter? I have a question regarding what tense form should I use to refer to an earlier self publication in a monograph chapter.
For example, if I want to say (in the chapter), "most of the results were published in [1]", is that OK? Or should I use the present perfect tense?

I would generally go with "are published", since "were" would suggest to me that the results are no longer published. In some odd situations "were" might be better, for example, "the results were published online [1], but the website has been taken down". Similarly, in a case like "the results were published in the first edition [1], but have since been removed", I think "were" might be better since although the results are still technically published in the first edition, the point is to note that they are no longer published in the second edition.


Is there a tool that can retrieve subject area listings for a journal using an API I'm attempting to characterise a corpus of journal articles by their subject area and categories. I can do this for individual journals using e.g. The SCImago Journal & Country Rank (https://www.scimagojr.com), but I'd like to retrieve the data in bulk. Does anyone know whether this data exists, or whether it's available via an API?

Not an API, but still machine-readable: Scopus provides an Excel file comprising the database's coverage, including each journal's disciplines and subject areas. See this page and click on "Download the Source title list".
(Elsevier provides an API, too, so it is possible that you might obtain the same information through that venue.)


How can I convince my supervisor that I have enough data to support my findings? I am a final-year Ph.D. candidate in a physics-oriented field. Over the course of my program, I have developed a postulate which leads to some contradictions with some of the tenets of my field, and I have obtained what I would consider a suitable amount of data which both supports my postulate, and conflicts with the (pre-)existing conclusions.
I am in the process of writing a paper on the matter with my supervisor. While initially supportive of my ideas/work, he has unfortunately seemed to change his mind recently, for a number of reasons which I find questionable. Of note, he has repeatedly stated in writing that the work is unsuitable, because I have failed to "either prove that the postulate is correct, or disprove the existing work" (according to further discussions, he believes that having conflicting data is not proof that the existing work is incorrect).
However, in my understanding of the scientific method, it is not possible to prove that my postulate is correct, or that the existing work is strictly incorrect. As I understand it, all I can do is provide data which agrees with what I am trying to say, and which contradicts with what other work has concluded. While I believe that I have done a sufficient amount of work necessary to support my thesis, he is of the opinion that I haven't, and is threatening to withhold granting my degree if I don't meet his expectations.
Perhaps related: he is an engineering professor and as far as I can tell has not published on a postulate before. However, to be fair, neither have I!
My questions are then:

Assuming I obtained the data in the best possible manner, is my supervisor correct in that I have not reached the required threshold for my work to have suitable academic merit necessary to receive a doctoral degree? (Generally speaking - I am aware that practices may vary depending on location).
If not, what must I do in order to reach this threshold?
If so, what can I tell/show him in order to convince his that my work is indeed suitable?

I don't think that anybody can possibly provide an answer without having access to many more details. The precise field matters, how well established the prevailing theories in your field are, how the quality of your data compares to previous work, how the rigor of your arguments compares to other work, etc.
Generally, making these sorts of judgements is what your advisor is for, because he/she has many years of experience in the field.
Now it can happen that your interests and those of your advisor are not perfectly aligned. Your advisor may be too conservative, because he/she does not want to make a mistake. You may be overly aggressive, because you want to get your thesis done.
The question is how to proceed. You could ask your advisor to let you finish a draft, and show it to a third person, an expert in the field (possibly a member of your thesis committee) with no direct interest in the outcome, and who you can trust to keep a confidence.


Meaning of "Degree of approval" in a recommendation letter Anybody knows what degree of approval means in a letter of reference?

Emphatic
Conditional
Without concerns

My friend has a letter of reference from her former lecturer, but those options were left blank. Is that bad?

It's for a German scholarship, to do a PhD in Chemistry\Forensics.

I would presume that what they're asking for is a tl;dr-style summary of your letter into a single sentence:

I emphatically recommend this candidate. I believe they will be top-quality students and practitioners.

I conditionally recommend. The candidate shows a lot of promise but I have these specific concerns; if thus-and-such happens then I would have no hesitations at all, but if it doesn't you might want to think twice.

I recommend without concerns. The candidate shows a lot of promise; they aren't someone whom I'm sure will be at or near the top of the class, but I have no doubt that they will perform very respectably.


What are the roles and responsibilities of an adjunct faculty? Is adjunct faculty's duty limited to teaching? Do they have any role in course design, grading, etc.?

What are the other responsibilities, as an adjunct faculty?

There's a wide range of people called adjunct faculty.  For example, it may include working professionals in the field who serve as part-time faculty (this is common in law and architecture, and I've seen it with industrial researchers in computer science).  Depending on the circumstances, this sort of adjunct may be treated much like the other faculty in the department, except for being part time.  However, I assume you are talking about the most common use of the term "adjunct", at least in the US, namely low-paid, low-status faculty typically teaching part time on temporary contracts.  (They may be working full time overall, but only part time at any given institution, so the universities can avoid paying benefits.)

For this sort of adjunct, it really depends on the details of the contract, and it may vary between universities, as well as depending on issues such as whether any of the courses are online.  A typical arrangement will include some amount of course design (at least at the level of creating a syllabus), lecturing, grading, and office hours.  Typically there is no committee work or other service and no research duties.


Options for someone who didn't take Math Subject GRE I was to take the math subject GRE for the first time today, for my application to math Phd programs this December.

I receive accomodations because of my disability and ETS did not get back to me in time, though I did submit my paperwork well in advance of the exam.  Because of this I could not take the GRE with my accomodations so I did not take it.  I was doing very well on practice tests with my accomodations.

I have done research at top rated REU's, have taken nearly all graduate courses, since I was in high school, and I have good letters of recommendation, and I am interested in Homotopy theory.

I want to ask the stackexchange community if you know of any options that I have right now.  Do foreign universities require GRE scores?  I am open to learning Japanese for instance to study in the RIMS, or learning French to study in Paris-Sud.

I am not sure that waiting for a year is a good idea for me because a lot of my application is based off of having accomplished a lot at a relatively young age, and I want to do everything I can at this point to avoid it.

I'd recommend applying anyway, with an explanation of why you didn't take the exam.  Not having a math GRE score could hurt your application, but at many schools it won't conclusively rule it out.  (You can always ask the school in advance whether they will consider your application under these circumstances.  I'd bet they say yes.)  Assuming the self-assessment in your question is accurate, you should be a strong candidate for graduate school, and I don't think a missing GRE score would derail everything given that you have a compelling excuse.


What does it mean when a school asks for a missing GRE score that I submitted? I am getting very anxious about being rejected from a PhD program in US school. I was told today that they did not receive my GRE score, which I definitely sent in.  I immediately replied back and sent the score back to them.

My question is:

Are they asking for my missing score because they are actually considering me as a potential candidate?

I know that the question is very silly and self-serving but I am so curious what you guys think because I have been losing sleep over this little thing.

We can't really answer whether the school you sent is specifically considering you, but there are three main things that could cause them to ask for the score (regardless of how/why they said they don't have it). The key is to understand that graduate admissions (at least in the US) is a compound process involving the department and the graduate school.

In order of least encouraging to most encouraging (for your prospects):

The graduate school may have either a policy that they only pass on complete records and viewed yours as incomplete or the graduate school wants complete records for all applicants for book-keeping.
The department did not have the data and wants it before it begins evaluating applications at all. Good side = this would mean the department is looking at it. Bad side = some departments in some fields use a cut-off based on GRE scores to lop off the most unlikely candidates (obviously with exceptions mutatis mutandis)
The department and/or graduate school is making selections and needs to complete files before sending out offers. Slightly less positively maybe they need this as a tie-breaker to figure out the last candidate.

Obviously three would be great, but often the reasons for these queries are much more mundane.


Is it common practice for an admissions office to ask a transfer student for the current semester's grades? I applied to a state university for the Fall semester the first day that applications opened for transfer students.
The admission office wrote that decisions take 8-10 weeks.
After 10 weeks, I emailed the admissions office and they told me they would have an answer in an additional 2 weeks (for a total of 14 weeks from the initial submission date).
Today, 14 weeks after my submission, I emailed them and asked if they had any update since I would have to make living arrangements if I got accepted.

They responded:

  The admission committee reviewed your application and determined we
  need your spring grades. We will review your application once we get
  an updated transcript in May or June. Due to limited space
  availability, it would be helpful to have a back up plan for the fall.

Is it common practice to give students responses in such uncertain terms?
I responded asking if there was anything I can do to speed up the answer (e.g. giving them my current grades) but didn't receive a reply.

I'm not sure that this is relevant, but my GPA is 3.86 (which makes me wonder why they would need to see my grades).

It's not so weird.  A lot of places do admissions the week before classes start, or even after classes start.  Only selective universities plan many months ahead.


Can I mention brand names and their products in my research/technical paper? I want to write a paper on Mobile Screens in HCI, as phones are getting uncomfortably big for users, I want to provide some solution to the big screen phones or how logically state that how small screen phones are suitable for the user.

Coming back to question, for the above-mentioned reason, I was going to make a survey of big phone screen users, and I was going to mention it in my paper, is it okay to mention brand names of phones and their specific products with images?

I don't know about hardware, but in case you feel like mentioning some software (and hardware often comes with software...), beware that the EULA can prohibit researchers and scientists from explicitly using the names of their systems in academic papers.

Oracle is notorious for that, they sued David DeWitt following some benchmarks he had published that mentioned Oracle, see the DeWitt Clause. Luckily the University of Wisconsin supported him, but Oracle banned all Wisconsin alumni for a while.


Why does the director of graduate studies want me to keep my TAship, even though I obtained a scholarship of my government? I am a first year math phd student. I could get a scholarship from my government and notified the director of graduate studies of my department (which is now my provisional advisor) that I wish to decline my TAship position for the next term. He advised me to think more about it and told me to think about it 2 more weeks. He told me that I should keep being a TA.

Well, my TA duties are a burden and I do not learn nothing of math from it. Besides that, it drives me crazy. I do really detest having to deal with those undergrad students. I prefer to devote myself to learn and then do my research. But my advisor wants me to think more about it, Why? If I am not a TA, I could have more time to work on my advisor's projects. Besides that, I do not think my department would have any trouble to find another TA. My school is not Harvard but it is ranked among the 30 best of USA, so there is a lot of people that want to be a TA there.

Why does my advisor want me to keep being a TA?

You need to ask your advisor, since nobody else can say for sure what his reasoning might be, but here are some possible explanations:

You do a great job as a TA, much better than whoever might replace you, and the department would be unhappy to lose your services.
You do a poor job as a TA and need to take this opportunity to improve your teaching skills before they interfere with your career.
Having more teaching experience on your CV or better teaching evaluations may help when you apply for jobs, even aside from whatever you might learn in the process.
If you "detest having to deal with those undergrad students", you may be miserable working in academia.  It's much better for you to figure out now whether/how you can handle teaching successfully without having it feel like a huge burden.  Delaying confronting this issue isn't necessarily in your best interests.


How to address the issue of the widespread use of protected material in informal publications? One thing that always bothered me is the liberal use of protected material in informal academic publications (for example Powerpoint presentations, handouts and internal reports rather than published papers).

It seems that the "everything on the Internet is free" attitude is also widespread in the academic world. And while I regularly spend a considerable amount of time either creating the graphic material I need or search for it on the Internet, nearly everybody else is not even thinking about it. Need a nice picture of a sunset or a little fish to include in your graphic? Just google and use the first one, without thinking twice!

This does not happen on single occasions only, I've made that experience in several countries, working in different environments.

Sometimes, among co-workers and friends I raise this issue and am usually met with understanding. Most of them see the problem with the additional time they need to spend to search for relevant material or the creation of an appropriate space to include copyright notes or references to graphic material. Some also mention that it would be considered unprofessional including a user name on the Internet as the source for their imagery.

My questions therefore is, how do I sensibly raise this issue among supervisors (which may consider this a waste of time) or an unknown crowd, especially considering above-mentioned criteria?

From an ethical point of view, I think most people can still sleep well despite taking the first fish from Google from time to time.

From a legal perspective, it depends on your jurisdiction and the license of the image. As Jeff points out, it's often fine in many places.

You should define your goals (ethics vs. legal), and act accordingly (which is my case would be do nothing).


Possible plagiarism advice Last year, I was helping a colleague with statistical analysis. Originally, I was on the paper but after a personal falling out with this colleague, I removed myself as a co-author. Because I am passionate about open science, I told them that they could use the analysis I did (and the computational script I wrote to do the analysis) for their paper. I did not explicitly ask to be credited.

The paper has been published in a relatively good journal. The authors used my analysis but also used my exact words in the methods section from a write-up of the methods and results. It is around 2 paragraphs of direct copy-and-paste. They have also published the computational script along with the paper and have not changed it in anyway (it still has my settings for setting the working directory path on my computer).

I have copies of my original analyses.

On one hand, you could say: what did you think was going to happen? And - you don't have a leg to stand on. However, I am quite irked that they lazily copy and pasted my words into their paper without even attempting to make it their own in any way.

What would you do in this situation? Anything? Suck it up and move on?

EDIT: They also use figures I made in their paper.

In such issues, it pays to be ultra-clear about terminology. This is not a case of plagiarism, as the authors have (based on your description) not copied any existing published text from you. The term here is insufficient attribution.

That said, I see your situation to be in somewhat of a grey area. You have explicitly given them permission to use your work. You may have meant that they were to rewrite what you wrote and re-plot what you plotted, but it is not difficult for me to see that this may not have been what the authors understood. In all honesty, I would also not have assumed that this is what you expected to happen.

A general problem is that there really are no well-understood rules in academia how an author who has contributed significantly can recuse themselves from a collaboration — strictly speaking, the authors cannot publish without you (as you have contributed and need to be acknowledged), nor can they publish with you (as every author needs to agree to be listed as an author). The cleanest solution would have probably been if you could have written up your part in some sort of report (e.g., a preprint), which the authors could have then cited as usual, but it is evident that this is often not possible.

  What would you do in this situation? Anything? Suck it up and move on?

In all honesty, I would suggest seeing this as a learning opportunity and moving on. Your claim seems way too vague and unclear to justify retracting the paper (and, honestly, if you try to get this paper retracted after you explicitly said they can use your work, you'll probably have made enemies for life). There really is not much else that can be done if the paper is already accepted.


Authorship for paper based on my thesis I rewrote my thesis work with improved analytical explanation of major problem statement and included few subsections which were not the part of thesis. Also I rewrote the algorithms with more clarity for better understanding.

One of my colleagues at current working place has helped me in organization of paper and correction of English. I submitted the paper by mentioning my supervisor as second and my colleague as a 3rd author of paper. I also mentioned in acknowledgment that work is extended version of my thesis work under supervision of Mr. X.

After acceptance of paper my supervisor is causing trouble and saying I cannot mention anyone else except him in acknowledgement, and he must be the corresponding author. But as per editor's response, it’s too late to make changes. Now he wants me to withdraw my accepted SCI paper and resubmit according to his wishes (1-He must be corresponding author 2-Acknowledgment must be written according to his wishes 3-Exclude 3rd Author)

My question is whether his reaction is proper? If I don't listen and proceed for publication whether it can cause some problem?

The problem you ran into is one of the prime examples of why one should always get all the coauthors' approvals before submitting an article.

If you have in fact documented approval from your previous advisor for the paper in the form in which you submitted, the facts are on your side. And there's little your advisor can do about it: it is his own fault for not having caught something he disliked and to have given you the OK to submit. (Though pissing off one's advisor is generally not a good career move.)

If you have not obtained the approval, then you almost certainly must retract the paper. All journals I have submitted to and refereed for either requires the assent to publication be individually given by all the authors (in which case the journal will often ask for contact information of all authors to be keyed in when submitting), or that the corresponding author certify that he is in a position to speak on behalf of the other authors about the paper. The fact that your advisor is making noises means that either

He will disagree, as a coauthor, for the paper to be published, or
You have in fact lied when you certified that you can speak for him, in which case the journal will retract your paper for violating their rules

(assuming some form of this question was asked during the submission process). In other words, most likely you are already in a situation where you either voluntarily retract the submission (in which case the only people who will know about it are likely yourself, the two coauthors involved, and the handling editor at the journal), or, if you chose to publish anyway, be forced to retract the paper by the journal, since many journals take authorship problems rather seriously. In this latter case anyone with a subscription to the journal would know that your paper was retracted because of some sort of misconduct (yes, misrepresenting author information is scientific misconduct). Your call.

The above basically answers what you should do in your situation. But what about the case where the paper has not already been submitted, but there are disagreements over authorship and wording of the paper?

My only suggestion is that in that scenario, you should get together with your two "co-authors" and hammer out a compromise yourselves. While I find the objections by your advisor a bit strange, there may be ulterior reasons you are not telling us. A possible compromise in this case would be for you to publish one paper, containing only the contributions of your thesis work, with your advisor, and a second one containing the reanalysis and extension, with the other author.

And do not, in any case, go over the objections of your co-author(s) and submit a paper in a form they do not agree with. That's a recipe for academic misconduct right there.


What is the normal length for a research paper? I did a survey on the demand for complementary medicine among patients of the gynaecologcial department here in Munich. We collected a couple of hundred questionnaires and I am currently writing my research paper. Since I do not know yet to which journal I am going to submit it, I wanted to adopt a very normal and standard structure/style. I was wondering now whether there are predefined standards of length concerning research papers, in particular regarding word count. I intuitively try to stay under 3000, but would it be ok to exceed that number? Moreover, is it fine to have, for example, a comparatively brief introduction and method section but a rather extensive discussion section? Or do the different sections have predefined standards too?

If you're trying to get a paper that you can publish in a journal, then it really depends on the journal, and if it has any specific requirements or constraints. There is no "standard" length for a paper. I've had papers that were 15 manuscript pages, and papers that were 50.


Can conference papers use the original words in published papers? Conference papers are often only about 10 pages. When I was writing conference papers, some words seemed unnatural. Can I directly use the original words in someone else's paper? Not a conclusion or opinion. For example:

In this paper, we investigate and present a new type of hardware vulnerability to covert timing channels exposed by [Other people's methods]

I changed it to mine in the thesis:

In this paper, we investigate and present a new type of hardware vulnerability to covert timing channels exposed by others + [my method]

Is this feasible? I just used its sentences to express my idea

I think you can. Some sentences will inevitably be the same in multiple papers. This is, in my eyes, not necessarily plagiarism. Plagiarism is taking "someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own". What you are doing here is taking somebody else's words that describe work or ideas and passing them off as your own.
That said, in a case like this there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn't just change the sentence to avoid any perception of plagiarism. For example:

Past methods have exposed a new type of hardware vulnerability to covert timing channels [REFs]. Using 'my method' we investigated such vulnerabilities and present them in this work.


How to get teaching evaluations for a course as a TA / Co-instructor Some of the faculty-level academic jobs require teaching evaluations in the submission package, which gives rise to a need to acquire teaching evaluations.

My question is then, how can one obtain teaching evaluations for a course where one is either a co-instructor or a teaching assistant, but not the instructor? The setting is where there is no clear teaching evaluation mechanism for co-instructors / teaching assistants already in place.

With the instructor's consent, create your own evaluation form and hand it out to students on the last day of class. Make it similar to the one they are filling out for the instructor. If possible, ask the same person who  anonymizes the other evaluations do so for you. At a minimum, leave the room and provide an envelope for them to be submitted.


If the arXiv had referees, would conventional journal publications still make sense? In the last decade, more and more researchers read the scientific literature on electronic copies or on printed copies, but not anymore directly from the printed journal.
Nowadays, I think the most important role of journals is therefore only to offer a well-established editorial and refereeing platform.

Anyway, there is a sort of economic loophole. Let me explain.
Research institutions pay both researchers and journals (to have online access and for printed copies) where researchers publish. On the other hand, journals offer a refereeing platform which is based on the unpaid work of referees, which are, again, researchers. Therefore, research institutions pay for all, and journals earn money for the research published. I could be a little naive here, but I think not far from truth.

Therefore, why are journals useful, apart from refereeing?
For instance, imagine that arXiv, or another open-access archive will introduce refereeing and some sort of editorial filtering. In this scenario, will conventional journal publications still make sense?

I used to think in a way similar to the question, but I had a meaningful conversation with a prestigious scholar one time in graduate school, who pointed out that I was missing a key purpose of journals: permanent archival.

The arXiv has been around for about 25 years. We have no idea whether the papers on it will be readable in 100 years. But we know that we can read documents on paper from ancient Egypt, and we have every reason to  believe that journals printed on paper and stored in archival libraries can last just as long.

The scholar I spoke with was not particularly worried about refereeing. He was worried about whether his work would still be available in 1000 years. Of course, I didn't ask him if he thought anyone would still be interested in it :)


How should I help students establish career goals? Every time I get a new research student, I ask them what they want to do after they graduate.  I want to help them achieve their goals.  Invariably, it goes like this.

Me:  What do you want to do after you graduate?

Student:  I don't know.

Me:  Make an appointment with career services.  They are experts in helping you make career plans.  The earlier you plan, the greater your chance of success.

One month passes.

Me:  Did you go to career services?

Student:  No

I have never worked outside academia.  How can I improve on this process which has been failing miserably?

You do not mention if your research students are graduate or undergraduate students.

First consider the extent to which career services at your university may or may not be helpful for your students. For instance, it may be helpful for resume and cover letter writing or interview strategies. However, it is designed for the whole student body and many not be helpful in pointing students in a specific discipline into a career path. So, they may not value career services as a resource for learning about future careers.

Second, it may be that your students have a narrow definition of what types of jobs there are in your field or what type of work is involved with different types of jobs. Your students may be open to learning more, but are unsure what questions to ask or where to research job opportunities. This may also be why students are more likely to look into job opportunities later in their education, than early in their education. They know more later about the field.

One suggestion to improve the process is to organize a seminar that includes faculty in your department and local professionals in your field to talk about careers in your field. Students will find this more inspiring and can learn more. You can make this a regular event (annual, each semester) and rotate the panelists so that students can see a variety of job opportunities and perspectives. I've seen this done in several disciplines and students seem to appreciate it. Also, since the panelists are basically discussing their own experiences, there is minimal prep for the people who volunteer.


Should I list campaign consulting on my CV? (the campaign I consulted for was Republican) I am going on the job market this fall and I am updating my CV before I send it out to search committees.

One area of my work and experience has me somewhat worried. I am a postdoc statistician, I am interested in policy, and currently advise a US congressional campaign on using their data. This work is primarily predicative modeling, descriptive statistics, and geographic information systems modeling.

Now my questions are two-fold:

Is it worth listing this experience on my CV?
Should I omit the fact that it is for the Republican party?

My concern is that a search committee member might view my consulting work as a statement on my personal ideology.

If the experience is related to your academic work then yes, you should list it. Ideally, the party you worked for shouldn't matter, though our politics in the US is very polarized. So, while I likely disagree with your policy stances, should that affect how I view you professionally?

No, it should not, and many would fight against the tendency to view you negatively, but not all. And while many might not consider it disqualifying, some might consider it a negative factor. Of course this is all true if you had worked for a different party as well.

There is no need to specify which party you worked for, though it may be obvious from any letters of recommendation. Be honest if asked, of course.

On the other hand, if you are viewed as very political then polarization would be a bigger factor.

Two additional thoughts came to mind a bit late.

First, if you are volunteering, rather than a paid consultant, there would be no need to mention it as it is more part of your private, than professional, life.

But in general, it is almost always an error to hide anything from your past. People don't normally react well when the learn the truth.


What are the responsibilities of a Program vs. General Conference Chair? What are the responsibilities of a conference's program chair versus its general chair? Computer science conferences like STOC and FOCS list separate program and general chairs.

A guess would be that the program chair is in charge of the technical content (which papers are accepted, etc.) whereas the general chair is in charge of administrative aspects. However, some conferences, like FOCS, list a third group of local arrangements chairs who sound like they are in charge of the administrative side of the conference. Others only have one group of undifferentiated "chairs".

What do each of these jobs entail? Are they considered "equal" in terms of service to the community?

Conferences in theoretical computer science like the ones you mention typically don't have general chairs. They have a local arrangements team for organizing the event, and program chairs to manage the review process.

Many conferences in CS outside theory have a general chair because they have many more activities. The general chair might be in charge of selecting

The workshop program chair
The posters chair
The tutorials chair
Publicity (and social media) chairs
Treasurer
Local arrangements

And so on. The general chair can be viewed as being in charge of everything except the technical program and then delegates.

But this may vary even within iterations of an individual conference.


What makes the difference between "summa cum laude" and "magna cum laude"? The evaluation of PhD candidate is done based on his/her thesis, his defence presentation and the oral examination (in some countries). If the examiners do not find so much to argue about, the candidate gets "magna cum laude". In some cases, he may get "summa cum laude".

By attending some PhD examinations and reading the theses, I could not find the key factor, which distinguishes between these two academic honours. The publication list was not a criterion as well. Note that I am talking about examinations in the same faculty of the same university.

Since there is no concrete evaluation of the PhD examination, how examiners decide to give "summa cum laude" instead of "magna cum laude"? In other words, what can the candidate do to make this difference?

There is - to my knowledge - no universal guideline. But basically "magna cum laude" is the go to grade for good students, so hopefully the one most students of an institution receive.
To get a "summa cum lauda" a student needs to really show outstanding promising work, winning awards for papers can be an indicator, but is neither a necessary nor a sufficient criteria. Basically the supervisors need to believe they see a future professor/inventor/researcher in the making who has the potential to shape the research in some area.

On the other hand (where available), if the candidate does okay, but with some let-downs, there is often also the "cum laude" option.

Note that this also can vary by country and institution. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctorate or (German but way more on grades, checkout the "Bewertung" section) https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promotion_(Doktor) for a list of varying grades (again, there seems to be additional institution/area variation in addition to the country defaults).


I may leave a postdoc for industry after 6 months for health/family reasons...is it ok? I have started a postdoc far away from home overseas, away from my family and with quite a large time difference. The original idea was for my wife to move over after obtaining a work visa, although this is appearing to be very difficult since the country I am in has an extremely slow process in granting work permits and many places are refusing to grant her one due to "legal reasons". The other option was to join right away as a family member, however there are two problems with that: 1. The pay isn't a huge amount to support us both and 2. Becoming a resident is such a slow process, she may have to wait up to a year before she can start working. That aspect of it is looking very glim at this point.

A couple months in and my mental health is suffering greatly (I have a long history of mental health that I have struggled with, but managed to obtain a PhD and get quite a good number of publications). I can cope in the short term, but I am concerned for my health. I always wanted to do some more research in the field I am interested in (physics), however I am pretty certain I won't be following the academic route forever. In my heart of hearts, it does not seem worth it to be this far away from family and struggling like this - it has become much more important that I thought.

Has anybody experienced this situation before? If it does not appear to have changed in the next couple of months (my wife doesn't get a job, my health doesn't improve), I would plan to give 1 months notice (as per contract) and return home, hoping I do not burn any bridges along the way. My PI already knows the trouble I have in relocating my wife over here, and he has even tried to help. Ultimately, I will be honest and give these reasons upfront because it is the right thing to do. On returning back home, I would plan to make the move into industry.

This will get closed...

But You need to do what is best for you, your health, your wife and your family.

You seem to have thought it through and your PI will understand - may not be happy to loose you but will understand...


MPhil vs. MSc. in the UK? I'm currently finishing a B.Sc. Honours in Canada, and I'm applying to Edinburgh (among other places) to do a Masters. They have two research-based degrees, and I was wondering if people with experience in academics and CS could help me distinguish between the two. I'm not overly familiar with the British Education system.

The M.Sc. is a one-year degree of independent research, with very little to no classes. The MPhil is a two-year degree, where classes are taken in addition to independent research.

In particular, I'm wondering:

Which is considered "more academic" or "more prestigious?"
Which would be better for getting into a PhD program?
Since there aren't classes in the MSc, are you expected to have a higher level of knowledge coming in?

In the UK it's relatively unusual to apply for an MPhil - MSc and MRes are much more common. MPhils really exist to cover failed PhD candidates. When you apply to study for a PhD in the UK, for the first 12-18 months you are placed on "probation" (even if you alread hold an MSc/MRes). After this time, a review (and mini-viva) of both your progress and quality of research is conducted and you are either "confirmed" as being a PhD candidate or are relegated to MPhil.


What are typical examples of "scholarly work"? I am looking into applying to a teaching position at a liberal-arts institution. The application page asks for an example of scholarly work. What are good examples of scholarly work? For the sciences, is this like published articles?

For sciences, scholarly work means peer-reviewed publications.  Conference papers count if they are peer reviewed.

In other disciplines, it can mean different things.


What are the differences between the Statements of Purpose for Terminal Masters and Ph.Ds? When applying graduate schools, what is the difference in the elements that go into writing a SoP for a Masters program vs. writing a SoP for a Ph.D. program.

As background, I'm looking into Computer Science graduate programs.

It depends on the differences between the MS and the PhD.

PhD programs are always research programs, so your statement of purpose is going to testify to your preparation for undertaking scholarship, your research interests, and your fit with the program in a research context. You'll name specific professors whose research interests align with yours; you might list some resources (like labs, archives, libraries, etc.) that the university has that make it a good fit for your work. Some students choose to say a little about their career goals and how the program will help you towards them, but there's really no need - if you're applying for a PhD program, professors will assume you want a research career (probably in academia).

If you are applying to a research-based MS that is designed to prepare scholars for further PhD student or for research-oriented careers, your statement probably won't be much different than a PhD statement. It may be advantageous to state that you want a research career and a PhD eventually for MS programs that explicitly state that they exist primarily to prepare students for the PhD.

However, if you are applying for a professional MS program, your statement will be a bit different. You still want to talk about experiences you've had that have prepared you for graduate study, but in addition to talking about research and some coursework, you also may want to mention professional non-academic prep (like work experience, internships, maybe even extracurriculars if they are highly relevant). You can still mention professors and research interests if you want, but it's not necessary. Instead, in the tailoring paragraph, you'll focus more on other resources that the university has - like close ties with employers, a co-op program, a specialization in your area, etc. And you'll want to close with a short statement about your career goals and how you think the program can help you reach those.

When I applied for graduate school, I applied to both PhD programs and master's programs in my field that were mostly for professional preparation. I used essentially the same template for both kinds of programs, but I put a little more emphasis on non-research resources at the prospective program and career preparation in the master's statements.


Does any university require students to release their source code in order to graduate? I wonder whether there is any university that requires students to release their source code (or at least part of it) in order to obtain their PhD.

Note: My answer pertains to schools in the US.

  Does any university require students to release their source code in order to graduate?

It depends on what you mean by "university." That is, I think there are fundamentally two different interpretations of your question. Since OP has not yet provided clarification, here goes ...

Interpretation #1

If what you want to know is:

  Are there dissertation committees which require students to release their source code in order to obtain approval of their dissertation?

The answer to this variant of the question is yes, this is fairly common in the engineering departments I am familiar with. Typically what is done if source code is required by the dissertation committee is that it is included in the dissertation appendix. Other alternatives include placing the source code online and citing it in the dissertation (e.g., placing the code on GitHub).

Interpretation #2

If, on the other hand, what you want to know is:

  Are there universities which adopt a university-wide requirement for students to release their source code in order to obtain approval of their dissertation?

The answer to this variant is (most likely) no.


Can my PhD admission offer be rescinded due to COVID-19? I had applied to some PhD programs to start the upcoming fall semester. I have got two offers. Tomorrow, April 15th, is the deadline for accepting or declining admission offers. I accepted one of the offers. Some people wrote on online forums that their offers of admissions have been rescinded due to the coronavirus situation. Now I am afraid that if I decline the other offer, the university whose offer I accepted might rescind it. My question is: how likely is this scenario?

Can a university rescind an offer of admission because of this?

Thank you

I don't think any of us here really knows. My best bet is that most universities will choose to honor offers of graduate fellowships and certainly will honor acceptances that come without any financial support.

But it's a legal question that will likely depend on the laws of the country and state the university is in, whether the university is public or private, and a number of other possibilities. It may also depend on the financial position the university is, or will be, in. You're unlikely going to get a definitive answer here, but you can always ask the people at the university that gave you the offer for guidance.


Is it common to cite the numbers of results a search engine yields as evidence for the prevalence of something online? Is it common in academia to include the number of results a Google search on a keyword yields as an evidence for the prevalence of something online?

I'm not intending to base my research paper on this evidence; it is just a supporting point in a paragraph.

For example, I'm writing a research paper on Stack Exchange; one of the paragraphs is about how popular Stack Exchange is in the internet.

In one of the paragraph, I would mention that a Google search on the keyword 'Stack Exchange' yielded about 49,600,000 results, which shows how popular it is among netizens.

Do not do this. The "approximate" number of hits Google reports is completely worthless. To see why, look at this number on both the first and the tenth page of Google hits:

First results page

Tenth results page

When I just did this, I got "approximately 9,010,000 hits" reported on the first results page... but only "approximately 48 hits" on the tenth page.

Your results will probably vary, depending on your search engine bubble (another reason why this number is useless).


Thinking about switching to a Masters from a PhD, advisor wants a decision now Main Question:

Three semesters into a PhD program, I am still unhappy with my project. I am currently in a summer internship where I was offered a job, and as I have enjoyed it so far and they pay well, I am considering finishing a Masters degree and leaving after that.  I emailed my advisor to let him know about the offer, asking his advice about that and about the logistics of switching tracks.  He has now asked me to let him know what I decide so he can give my TA position this coming semester to a different student (only PhD students at my university are guaranteed funding).  I don't want to be misleading and take funding away from students who are committed to a PhD, but I honestly don't know what I want to do yet.  I wonder if there might still be a chance that everything gets better and I do finish a PhD.  But since I am not committed, is it better to officially switch?  I don't know if it is possible to switch back, because my grades have not been the best and my university is very selective.  (But I worry that the department does not look highly upon me at this point anyways - my first year was rough, and I ended up taking leave last fall for personal/health reasons.)

How should I handle this situation?

Possibly relevant background information:

almost 23, US, computer science.  Finishing the requirements for a masters degree will take 2-3 more semesters (five classes and a paper).  I majored in physics in undergrad but added a computer science major my junior year, and then decided to apply to graduate school for that because there were many things I hadn't gotten to learn about yet and found interesting.  So I am now in a highly ranked program doing a project related to AI / NLP, which I had very little experience with prior to grad school.  The project is old, in a language I hate and struggle with, has mostly been bug fixes and reimplementing things that have already been done before.  With the exception of last semester, when another student joined (she has left already) it was just me working on it and three professors giving out tasks.  Entering my third year, I am starting to feel pressure to figure out a topic, but I still feel as if I don't know enough to decide and have no clue what would be acceptable or even what I would want to do.

I miss the excitement of undergrad days when I would write simple AIs or algorithms for my own amusement and edification - I thought grad school would be like that, but I haven't done anything of the sort since.  I've enjoyed my industry internships and class projects far more than any 'research' tasks because I got to build something that actually works.  This is why I am considering not going through with the PhD and just getting a job, although not ruling out the possibility of going back later when I have a more clear idea of what I want to do, after narrowing my interests on my own time.  I am not interested in a job in academia at all but rather I just want to have a high-tech job where I can make something novel and useful - which in some cases might be more accessible with a PhD, but I think is also possible with just a Masters.

That is a tough decision, but do you think it's mainly the project or just the whole concept of PhD that isn't appealing? Would it help to switch projects or advisors? It sounds as though you have a good fit with your internship, so perhaps it would be a good to gain that work experience and, if you want later, return to school with a clearer idea of what you want to work with (as you mentioned).

With regards to the type of job you want in the future, have you spoken to other professionals to gauge whether or not a PhD is really necessary? That might help in your decision as well. Good luck!


Advice for getting professor to submit letter of recommendation I'm applying to four master's programs. My former professor submitted his letter to the first two schools last month. But he has not submitted to the other two schools. One of them is rolling admissions so sooner the better, and the other had a "priority deadline" that passed last week so is now also rolling admissions. I've emailed him three times over the past 10 days but have not heard back.

One of the schools is clear that they won't look at your application until the letters are received.

I have the professor's cell number, should I text or call him about it? Should I give him more time before bothering him again?

Call or better visit in person if you can.  We all get a lot of email these days, maybe too much and it is too easy to overlook an email.  If you phone and the person recognizes the number he/she might ignore the call.


Using large parts of a research paper I am writing a (maths) paper that generalises an earlier work, and aplies it to something slightly different.

The problem is, I am literally having to step through the previous paper, and point out how the more general case would differ. My paper is therefore essentially entirely based on this work (though there are substantial chunks here and there whcih are original). I am not entirely sure how to approach this case. On other SE posts, it suggests to paraphrase. That is clearly not suitable in this case.

You should note that you can use all of the ideas of the other paper, so long as you give proper attribution and citation so that you don't claim the original as your own. You can't, however, use "too many" of their actual words and must quote and cite the ones you do. The first issue is plagiarism and the second is copyright. Be sure to avoid both.

But if you write a proof that has the same structure as the other, using the same lemmas and referencing the same earlier work, it shouldn't be a problem, especially as you say you will explicitly state that the overall structure is the same.

You don't need to work to make it seem different where it isn't. For some sorts of things, especially in math, there may be, in essence, only one way to properly state something. This is recognized both in law and in practice.

However, it is possible that reviewers will suggest to you that your work isn't especially novel and may want to reject it on that basis. But if your conclusion is sufficiently interesting, and you support that idea by making it explicit, you may avoid that pitfall also.


In CV, mentioning of a report that summarizes the postdoc research without publications? During a one year of postdoc of mine in pure mathematics, I didn't publish anything. I definitely did a research report and wrote down the main questions (in the form of conjectures) we were after and some ideas on how they could be solved. I'm now doing a new postdoc in an applied area as my next postdoc, and I was wondering whether it's okay/encouraged/discouraged/harmful to mention that research report in my list of publications/pre-prints. Clearly, it's just an expository report without proving any new results, which will never be published or even put on arXiv, but it does reflect the fact that I was not idle during my postdoc.

What do you think?
Thanks!

I doesn't sound to me like it should go on the CV. I'd say that if you're applying for jobs you'll probably get to recycle some of that material for your research statement, but it seems weird to put that piece on your CV.


What affiliation(s) to list in an oral presentation at a conference? I'm a doctoral candidate at a big university and am teaching as an adjunct at a smaller university. I'll be graduating with my PhD in a few months and I'm hoping to get a tenure-track job at the smaller institution I'm teaching at in the next 1–3 years (skipping postdoc).

I'll be giving an oral presentation at an upcoming conference and am wondering how I should list my affiliation. My primary affiliation, the one in which I did the research I'll be presenting, is the bigger university where I am a student. My research is funded through this university. However, I do work for the second university and have already done some work for my project since being hired by them.

Should I add the smaller university, the one at which I am teaching, as a secondary affiliation?

I don't see this as a big deal, either way. Of course, the conference may not have a way for you to do this comfortably and might object (doubtful, but possible). You might have some contractual need to list the university at which you did the work (more likely, so check). But it is even more unlikely that they would require "exclusive" mention in affiliation.

But I doubt that listing the smaller university is going to make any difference in whether you get hired there. It might make it easier for people to find you there over the long run, provided that  you do get hired, but harder if you don't.

Assuming that there are no obligations that force you to do things one way or another, I'd say is is just a coin-toss. Do it if it makes you feel good.


Is it legal to upload CC BY papers to academia.edu? Terms of Use are vague on this There have been discussions regarding academia.edu's Terms of Use (https://www.academia.edu/terms) and some responses have stated that it is impossible to upload published papers to academia even with the most liberal copyright licenses is illegal (Why does academia.edu reserve the right to sell, modify, and "exploit" my papers if I post them there?). They have recently updated their terms of use and changed the paragraph "License granted by Member".

However, does this new agreement allow articles under CC BY licenses of open access journals to be uploaded? The new terms state that academia may modify and sublicense any materials, but that they will not claim ownership. Is this sufficient for legally uploading a document licensed under CC BY?

Edit: To further clarify, CC BY requires the citation of the original publication usually embedded in final PDFs. Do the current terms of use comply to CC BY by means of the statement that academia.edu will not claim ownership?

If you own the copyright of the paper, which is common for open access papers released under a CC BY license, then you can do whatever you want with it, provided you haven't signed any separate agreement not to do that.  The Creative Commons license is irrelevant, because it's not exclusive: you can distribute the paper under other licenses as well, so there's no legal obstacle to giving Academia.edu whatever non-exclusive rights they want.  (I would never give them the rights they ask for, but that's a personal decision.)

If you don't own the copyright, then you are stuck.  The CC BY license requires attribution for derivative works, and the Academia.edu license does not, so they are asking for more rights than the CC BY license guarantees.  Unless you are in a position to grant those rights (as the copyright holder or through some other agreement), there's nothing you can do.


How are DOIs managed for ongoing time-series? I'm familiar with DOIs been allocated to historic time series, to give academics a unique, citable identifier for datasets. Similar to how a DOI is allocated to a specific journal article.

As the International DOI Foundation says:

  A DOI name provides a means of
  persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property on a digital network and associating it with related
  current data in a structured extensible way.

What's the procedure for DOIs for datasets that continue to grow: for example, a time-series of external temperature data for an airport? Is one DOI allocated to the ever-growing time-series. Is there a DOI for each year's worth of archived data? Something else?

There does not seem to be an absolute rule, though "new DOI for a new version" seems most common. Speak to whoever's hosting your data in case they have a different preference.

The California Digital Library summarises various approaches here. Some require registering a new DOI for each new tranche of the data; some will reuse the DOI but use a new version number or date to help you identify the relevant bit; some distinguish between major and minor additions.

It's worth noting that the "generate a new DOI for a new version" approach assumes that you're adding, say, a new month's data to the set with each version. If it's being updated on a daily or hourly basis, this approach breaks down; you don't want to generate dozens of DOIs for only marginally different versions! Here, the "snapshot" approach recommended by the Digital Curation Centre is much more efficient - produce a static copy of the dataset as it currently stands, on an as-needed basis or at standard intervals, and cite that.

Update: the new STM Report on scholarly publishing, out today, notes that the "The RDA Data Citation Working Group is investigating possible
technical solutions [for dynamic data]" without giving much more detail (p. 140); the most recent material to come out of that group seems to be this workshop report from last year.


How to write formal letter for PhD after completion of MS I have recently defended my MS thesis and want to continue as a Ph.D. student in the same department. Department secretary told me that I have to write a formal letter. When I asked her what things do I have to write in the formal letter she said she doesn't know. So there are two parts of my question

How to write a formal letter?
What do I write in the formal letter when upgrading to a Ph.D. program after completion of MS?

If you studied in the same department, you (should) have at least two advantages:

1) You know the culture there -- how important "rules" are.

2) You know people: Professors (your MS thesis advisor), Master students, PhD students, your student union.

So try to use this to find out how to write the letter. Ask the people you know how they wrote their letter/ what they recommend/ if it really matters. (You may find out that nobody even cares if you really write the letter.)

In my university for example, there is also such a rule -- however, in reality, nobody looks at the letter and it's even possible to just write "I want to do my PhD". The official rule of course doesn't say so and secetaries also have no idea.

If this fails and you do not get any information, include at least: your name, your previous studies, your prospective advisor, if you will get funding and how and a detailed description of your project.

I wish you good luck!


How should I present my work to my advisor? I am a master student, working on something on my own. One day I came up a new definition (My field is mathematics) of something. I am not sure if it is publishable or not (Not even sure if it works). So I decided to present my work to my thesis advisor to a look first (His field is related to my work).
But the question arises, should I finish my work first (This includes the background introduction, comparison with other definition, etc), or I just present my rough idea first (After all, it is just a definition, I just need to explain why it works)?
For the first approach, it sounds reasonable, but it may take longer time for my advisor to read, and may not worth the effort if it is not publishable. For second approach, it is quick, and the result is not worth trying, I can work on something else. The drawback is my advisor may not understand what I am doing.

I think the advantages of showing it soon (i.e. unfinished) outweigh any disadvantages. The advisor may have some suggestions as you note and may point you to prior work that you may not be aware of. That could make further work more or less desirable, of course, but either way, it is good to know.
And, whether publishable or not, it may indicate that you are gaining needed insight into your field.
I think that very few advisors would not want to be bothered.


How should I cite an open letter with a large number of signatories? When citing an open letter, is it appropriate to cite all of the signatories as authors?
I would like to cite the following open letter: Dear Oprah Winfrey: 142 Writers Ask You to Reconsider American Dirt
The letter has 142 signatories.  The byline says it is by "141 Writers" with no particular author name.  So would I cite the author as "141 Writers" or would I cite it as though the signatories are the authors?
This particular paper is in APA but I would be interested in information about MLA as well in case it comes up, since I use MLA in the classes that I teach.

I got an answer from APA Style on twitter.  They say to use the group name that appears in the byline, and make sure to capitalize "Writers".
Source: https://twitter.com/Zupancia/status/1309502673406881792


writing a paper as an independent researcher I have completed my undergrad degree and don't have any universities nearby where I can find research work. I want to write a research paper in Machine Learning and have been working in this field professionally. I read quite a few research papers as a part of job description but am unable to come up with a new idea for a research paper. How do I go about finding an idea? If I find something, generally its way too broad. Like I read about Hypergraph decompositions or HTMs and got really psyched about them. I couldn't get to a point though which would be a concentrated topic that could lead to a reproducible research.

How do I go about finding ideas for writing a paper considering I dont have anyone to work with me or guide me in the process?

First point - don't force it. Getting ideas for academic papers comes over time and has to be a natural process. The more you try to get good ideas for papers, the more unnatural the process can become and the less likely you will be to come out with something worthwhile.

The best way to get a good topic is just to carry on reading around in your field as you normally would. At some point you may well come across a topic or a research gap that needs to be filled and one which excites you and stimulates you at the same time. That is the point where you can start planning your research.

Bear in mind that a good research article topic can take time to discover. It can be weeks - or months - before you come across something worthwhile and that you feel you can turn into something research-worthy. You don't necessarily need anyone else to do this with, but you do need natural drive, enthusiasm and acumen in your area. If you have these, you will come across a topic and be able to write about it and conduct research effectively. But don't search too hard: writing academic papers should be a natural process and you'll find that something will present itself soon enough.


PhD advisor making start up company based on my thesis work. How do I prevent this from delaying my graduation? I am a fifth year PhD student who has independently developed a project for my thesis. Recently, I have presented some promising preliminary results. My professor called it a 'gold mine', and wants to start a company based on it. I prefer to publish it and make most of the data open source.

Today, my advisor hired a senior research scientist who intends to learn my work and start a company based on it. Apparently, they have been talking to each other for several months without my knowledge. The scientist intends on becoming CEO of this company and eventually wants equal inventorship, despite not having any experience in this field yet. My PI has made it clear that it is my responsibility to transfer the ideas and technologies that I have developed over to him before the end of my PhD.

I have argued with him that this work is not ready for a company, and such a start-up would rest on shaky foundations (I have not published or patented, or finished animal studies).

I also feel that he is holding my PhD degree ransom, as he has done more than once with other students in the past. He has a pattern of doing this with other students- hiring a 'CEO-type' senior research scientist to learn from a younger PhD student, working with the research scientist to start a company while the PhD student does most of the work, not allowing the PhD student to graduate until the company is off its feet, and then making millions selling the company, with minimal benefit or recognition to the student.

How should I approach this? Is there legal recourse and should I approach a third party? I have already discussed this many times with my PI, but he will not listen. I fear that my graduation will be delayed, andI would like to avoid burning any bridges.

How should I approach this?

Jump at the opportunity! Your professor considers your work a "gold mine" and wants to commercialise. This is an extremely rare opportunity for any student and I recommend that you seriously consider embracing the opportunity. Let me consider some of your ideas and alleviate some of your concerns:

  I prefer to publish it and make most of the data open source.

This is a worthy academic goal, but it mightn't result in your desired outcome. Academics share results for others to build on, yet many results have no impact: If you're hoping your results will have impact, then why not make sure they do yourself? Keep the results private, build a company, make an impact.

  Today, my advisor hired a senior research scientist who intends to learn my work and start a company based on it...The scientist intends on becoming CEO of this company

Is there any reason to believe that this scientist should be CEO? As opposed to CTO, for instance? Why is the scientist even necessary? Consider taking the CEO role for yourself and maybe consider hiring the scientist.

Whether your supervisor should be involved is open for debate. They seem well-connected, so they could perhaps be very useful.

  [The senior research scientist] eventually wants equal inventorship

Inventorship (in terms of IP law) cannot be shared: An inventor has to have invented, they cannot come onboard. Perhaps you meant equal ownership?

  I have argued with him that this work is not ready for a company, and such a start-up would rest on shaky foundations (I have not published or patented, or finished animal studies).

You can start a company, strengthen the foundations, and patent the results. (NB: Your university may actually own the rights to any patents, it depends on your precise scenario. Regardless, you might not need to patent results that would be owned by the university, since patenting later results might suffice.)


Submitting multiple papers to the same journal simultaneously I know that it is ill advised to submit a single paper to multiple journals at once. But what about multiple papers to a single journal? For instance, I have a few different drafts that I could clean up, which would probably fit well in Mathematics Magazine. I don't know how long it takes for a submission to be accepted or rejected. Is it acceptable to submit additional papers before hearing back about the first one?

I don't see any downside to this as long as the ideas in the papers don't "compete" with each other. But if they are sufficiently different it should be acceptable.

That would not be the case for Special Issues, where the editors will be looking for a variety of authors/viewpoints/... but for ordinary issues it should be fine.

However, unless you are a recognized superstar in your field, don't expect more than one paper to appear in any given issue. It might be useful to you, if you are a bit new at this, to try out your best paper first and see what reception you get. If you get a good response you could try to be more bold in the future.


If an editor appoints a non-expert reviewer by mistake, is there any way to convey this to the editor? What to do if somebody is suspicious after reading the review report of a research paper that one of the reviewers may be his ex-coworker, who is not an expert in the subject of the paper?

The question seems to be predicated on two assumptions:

1) If the review was not blind and the OP knew that the reviewer was his Former Coworker, he could make a convincing case to the editor that FC was not qualified to review the paper.

2) Thus, because he suspects that the reviewer was FC, he wants to contact the editor to find out if this was the case.

The second assumption is really a mistaken one, I think: according to the principles of blind review, you shouldn't know the identity of the reviewer.  If you think you do, you should nevertheless act as if you don't, and if you have partial information, you should definitely not go around sleuthing to see if you can solve the case.  This is one of the basic cultural assumptions of peer review.  I think that if the author goes down this road, it is very likely that he will be told that his actions are inappropriate and will burn bridges with the editor and the journal.

I find the first assumption problematic too, in a more subtle way.  The reason that reviews are anonymous is that you should not be engaging in an ad hominem discussion of the reviewer.  Just because you know someone's identity doesn't mean that you are an authority on their academic and intellectual qualifications.  Maybe FC didn't know your subject well back when you knew him, in your opinion.  How do you know what he knows now?

Choosing a suitable person to be the referee is the editor's call, not the author's.  Calling attention to someone's identity -- even hypothetically, as in "I don't know who the reviewer was, but if it was FC..." -- as a strike against the referee report will be regarded by many as obnoxious.  If you have anything to say to the editor, it is about the referee report itself.  If the referee report contains a comment that through its specific brand of inexpertise suggests to you that it was made by FC, forget about the FC part and explain why the comment is definitively incorrect.  If you can point out clear errors in the referee report that are in the serious to egregious range -- i.e., a reasonable person would worry that they compromise the integrity of the verdict -- then you have a case for getting the report thrown out and/or getting an additional independent report.  More likely the situation is not so clearcut, and in my opinion you should still compose a polite response to the editor if you feel that a lack of expertise played a factor in the report, but you fully expect to resubmit your paper elsewhere.

Getting a bad (as in, less than skilled) referee report and having to resubmit elsewhere is quite a common feature of peer review.  Luckily there is a lot more than one journal, so you can just start fresh elsewhere, and doing so is usually a much better idea than trying to extract reparations from the editor and/or the referee.


Should I include my latest job on my CV? I just graduated this April from undergrad and I'm now applying to graduate programs that start September 2019. I'm taking a gap year between undergrad and grad school for various reasons, mostly to travel.

From the past May to August (right after I graduated), I worked in a research lab in exactly the field I'm applying to for grad school (computer hardware). I got a strong letter of recommendation out of it and it made my CV significantly stronger.

From next January to next September I'm going to be travelling. However, I was a bit short on travel funding so I accepted a software development position at a consulting firm this past September that I'm going to quit in December right before I head out. However, after I accepted the job, I soon found out that they only hired me because for various complicated legal reasons, they don't actually have any work for me. So the past 2.5 months, I've just sat at home doing nothing, it's been a paid vacation. Starting Monday, this company finally wants me to start coming in to do some work - however the work is Front End Web development, it doesn't have much to do with the field I'm applying to (computer architecture/hardware).

When I submit my applications to grad school, I'm debating whether or not I should include this latest job on my CV. I was hoping to get some advice on this. Here are my thoughts:

Advantages

I'm taking a gap year, so I'm sure many profs will be concerned about me being away from my field for so long. If my CV says I was working between September to December, it looks I'm only "away" for 8 months instead of 12 (yes, it's a mostly unrelated field, but I'm still working in a computer related field and applying soft engineering skills). It'll make the gap look smaller.

Disadvantages

I haven't done anything for the job yet, and I probably won't do too much in the next 1.5 months either. I won't have much to write about other than my title, and maybe a few vague description points.
My most recent work experience on my CV will now be this joke of a job instead of my research experience over summer. It'll be the first thing the admission committee/prof sees under work experience on my CV, so I'm concerned it won't have as "strong" of a first impression, despite my summer research being right under.

I was hoping I could get some advice, thanks.

Yes, you ought to include it. In committee we don't like to see gaps in a CV, it suggests that the person might be unemployable. Whereas there is nothing wrong with spending a year in the wrong job. If it comes up during an interview, you can turn it to your advantage: it was by working at that job that you understood that you were really meant for graduate work.


Choosing the right journal for your papers - the top journals or the one that you are a frequent guest reviewer? We usually start writing a paper with a target journal in mind. One of my supervisors always encourages me to target the 1 or 2 top journals in our field (operations management), while I myself prefer to submit to a journal that I frequently review manuscripts for which has a much lower impact factor. If published in the former, the paper will be considered more valuable; while in the latter, I suppose, the manuscript might be easier to get accepted.

What would you advise?

If published in the former, the paper will be considered more valuable; while in the latter, I suppose, the manuscript might be easier to get accepted.

Fundamentally, I think your role as a "frequent guest reviewer" is fairly irrelevant to the question. If this is a real, non-spam journal, whether you reviewed for them in the past or not should not have a bearing on your chance of acceptance.

However, similar to every other researcher for every paper, you need to find the best trade-off between "competitive and high-impact" versus "less competitive, potentially lower impact" venues. In my experience, PhD students have a tendency to steer towards lower-impact venues to increase the chance of acceptance, while professors often advise for higher-risk venues. What is optimal for you is really not something that can be answered in a vacuum. However, you should think about the incentives of all involved persons to make an informed decision:

It is my impression that the reluctance of some PhD students to submit to top venues is grounded mostly in an overproportional fear of rejection and the associated delay - when you just started a few years ago, having to wait many more months or even years for your work to be officially published may appear prohibitively risky.
Conversely, as a professor, submitting primarily to the top venues can be the only smart move, as professors often are measured primarily or solely based on their best and most prestigious work (while, as a PhD student, just having reasonable papers alone may be seen as good enough, especially if you are not keen on staying in academia).
Similarly, you should evaluate for yourself why you are writing this paper. Will you be on the academic job market after your PhD? Then go for the most prestigious venue that you have any hope of getting into. Have you decided to move to industry? In that case, the career value of this high-impact publication may be smaller, and you need to seriously ponder whether you would not prefer a "safer bet" personally. Do you mainly want to tell the community and the world about your work? Then submit to wherever you think your paper will find most interested readers - this may or may not be the better journal.


How much does it matter the mentioned intended major at grad school in GRE registration? So far as I heard, it is required to mention intended major in graduate school during GRE registration. I am curious to know, what would someone do if he wants to apply to different grad schools for different (but somehow related) programs? For instance, he wants to apply to the grad schools A, B, C, D for the grad programs P, Q, R, S respectively. My questions are:

When registering for GRE, which one would he select as his intended major at grad school? P, Q or, R?
Would selecting the program P as his intended major at grad school, lower his opportunity to get into programs Q or, R?
If he mentions "Other fields" as his intended major at grad school (that is, he mentions that his intended grad major is undecided) then would it lower his chance of getting into grad programs P, Q and, R?
If S is an interdisciplinary grad program and it is possible to apply to the program S with background in P, would mentioning P as his intended major at grad school lower his chance to get into the program S?

I wouldn't worry about it because that portion is used for statistical purposes like compiling average test scores by major, like in the example here: http://www.ets.org/s...uide_table4.pdf

The information that schools look at that regard majors are if you take a subject test, like in computer science or physics. And of course all of your undergrad data.

Additionally, marking undecided is possible if you really dont want to choose one.


What do I do if someone studied the same topic before, but did so inadequately? I am planning to research on topic for masters by research course. Googling, I found that a "micro-research" study on a similar topic (some objectives matching) has been done by somebody as a part of coursework master’s thesis (project) work. But there is nothing online except some initial pages of thesis (as a blog post on the student's website), so I am unable to read the whole thesis and understand  what has been done. It has not been published in a peer-reviewed forum, and it looks like it was done in around 4 months with a small sample size for coursework thesis. Moreover, it seems to be in a different field of study.

From the available pages it looks like research has tried to touch most of the things but at a very superficial level: three pages of data analysis and one page of findings also make me question how in-depth the analysis was.

I am writing a research proposal and really confused how I should include it. Especially in previous works, do I need to validate or justify each of my objectives against its objectives? (or show the difference)

I am thinking of expanding the scope, objectives of research and planning to use different data analysis methods. What should I do?

But there is nothing online except some initial pages of thesis (as a blog post on the student's website [...]. It has not been published in a peer-reviewed forum, and it looks like it was done in around 4 months with a small sample size for coursework thesis. Moreover, it seems to be in a different field of study.
From the available pages it looks like research has tried to touch most of the things but at a very superficial level: three pages of data analysis and one page of findings also make me question how in-depth the analysis was.

None of this indicates that the previous study was 'inadequate'!
You should definitly mention this study in your proposal, but use better arguments than 'three pages of data analysis and one page of findings' to describe its limitations!


Diverging coauthor opinions - publish anonymously or don't publish at all? This question is a splinter of an earlier question, posted separately upon advice from commenters.

The background is:

(1) I audited a course at an institute I don't belong to. As part of the course, an essay is being written by two of us.

(2) There is a chance that this essay would be published either internally or externally (not necessarily peer-reviewed).

The problem:

My co-author and I differ (significantly) on certain areas we write about. In a sense, we represent opposite ends of the spectrum. My partner is keen to publish; I am ambivalent.

I'm bothered by questions of academic integrity, namely:

(1) Do I withdraw entirely, allowing a one-sided, uncontested opinion to be expressed? This is the easiest option.

(2) Do we submit normally, with our names and affiliations, knowing that some opinions expressed are contrary to my  own views, and may negatively impact my academic work at a later stage? While uncomfortable, this does seem fair.

(3) Do I remain anonymous, with the partner being the first author? This way we can address the divergence and bring out a contrast in perspectives, without me having to worry about long-term consequences. But I don't know if it is an accepted practice. I have come across questions on anonymity here and here, but these primarily discuss single-author work.

Rather than knowing that some opinions expressed are contrary to my own views, you could present both views and clearly label them as such. For instance, you could open by explaining:

The authors opinions differ significantly and each author presents their own opinion below:

Followed by each opinion:

Author Name A: ...
Author Name B: ...


What is the exact meaning of a "Prof. Dr. med. Dr. med. dent. Dr. med. habil."? He is a well-going dentist and plastic surgeon in Germany.

As I can decode it, I can see:

Prof, meaning that he is a full-time permanent teacher on a University
"Dr. med" means he has a Phd in medicine
"Dr. med dent" means he has another Phd in dentistry
"Dr. med habil" means he has also a habilitation (as I know, it means he is an old prof with high prestige, but I what is its accurate meaning?)

Am I correct? Currently there were here some changes in the academical title system regarding the EU, his title may in the new or in the old (non-EU) system.

What does it mean?

The usual doctoral degrees in medicine and dentistry in the U.S. are not Ph.D.'s but M.D. and D.D.S. (for "medical doctor" and "doctor of dental surgery" or some Latin variant of those). So I'd use those to translate Dr. med. Dr. med. dent.

As for habilitation, I don't know exactly what it involves in medicine, but in mathematics it indicates research accomplishment after the doctoral degree. In many cases, it involves a second thesis ("Habilitationsschrift" in German), but it can also be just a collection of published papers.  I imagine medicine is similar, but I have no real knowledge of that.


Is it acceptable to cite a textbook for basic background in a master's thesis? There's one theoretical concept I feel I need to explain briefly in the literature review portion of my MA thesis, but it's very slightly tangential and I don't want to spend more than a paragraph on it. A textbook provides the most all-encompassing, thumbnail sketch of this concept, which would allow me to explain it while citing a single source rather than three or four journal articles.

Would it be déclassé to use a textbook as a reference in a MA thesis for this purpose?

You are right that listing a textbook is generally not seen as 'academic' enough. But I think it would make sense to cite it in a literature review with a note like, 'For a good basic overview of this subject, see…'. This I think is acceptable, given that the rest of your thesis shows awareness of more technical pieces as well.


Moved to a new city – how to start academically networking? I have recently moved away from the town and university where I completed my masters degree to another city for personal reasons. Now I work here in academic information services and part of my work is research.

However, I would like to put a stronger focus on research and concept-level work rather than doing tasks in technical services. To achieve this, I feel I need to do more academic networking outside of work which is quite difficult as my employing institution does not like being mentioned as affiliation in professional networking.

The problem is: How to (re-)start academic networking when I don't really have an institutional or project affiliation?

I know this can be seen as a workplace-related question, but I am specifically interested in academic networking - participate in research discussion groups, maybe get to teach a small Bachelor course related to my work, possibly find a partner for collaboration on a paper... The city I now live in has some universities, but there does not seem to be any connection to the university or institute I graduated in.

I really feel stuck in this situation. Any suggestion on this would be welcome!

Contact the schools doing relevant work and ask to be added to their seminar notification lists. Attend the seminars and participate in discussion afterwards. You needn't mention your affiliation.
Contact the people doing relevant work and offer to present a seminar yourself (if your employer will allow it). Most university schools run seminar series and are always on the lookout for new speakers, especially external speakers. List the affiliation you had when you did the research about which you will be speaking. When they accept your seminar offer, ask if they would also mind scheduling you some time on the same day to speak one-on-one with people working in your field.
If you are in an applied field, look into whether there is an active professional society group in your field in the new city. Join it and attend their events. If there there is no active group, consider starting one: if you are willing to do the leg-work involved in organising a few good seminars, professional networking dinners, entertaining debates or other activities, people will join.