Ethical implications of withdrawing a paper during the rebuttal phase and submitting it somewhere else I have submitted a paper at a certain conference that has a rebuttal phase (authors are presented with initial reviews and can write a rebuttal, which will be used for the final decision). Based on the reviews, it seems that the chances for the paper being accepted are zero. The submission system of the conference has a "Withdraw" button, which makes it easy to withdraw the paper and submit it to another conference. I intend to make use of that option, after using the available reviews to significantly improve the paper.

To my surprise, a senior colleague explained to me that doing so might be considered unethical. The explanation was one could see it as a wasteful use of reviewer time, comparable to a double submission.

This explanation did not really get clear to me: Assuming that I use the reviewer comments to improve the paper, I have used the reviewer time in the intended way. The situation would be exactly the same as if the paper had been rejected right away, and I had proceeded to submit to another conference.

Am I missing something? What are the ethical implications here?

One certainly can withdraw a paper after initial reviews and if the reviews indicate that the paper does not fit well with the conference topic-wise or has to be significantly improved/re-worked. In the latter case, the paper author should assess how much time is required to work on the paper and if it is possible to meet the deadlines (taking into account additional development, data collection/re-collection, work on the text and visualizations, literature review, etc.).

If the timeline does not seem viable, withdrawing and resubmitting to another conference is certainly the right call. In addition to the potential adaptation of the paper to the new submission, it would be very wise to use the feedback from the original reviewers to improve the paper.

I would certainly agree that in the case of withdrawal and resubmission, you would have used the reviewers' feedback and time in an intended way: to improve your work and make it better/more accessible to your reader/listener. However, there is a small catch: different entities (people, organizations) intend different things for the use of their resources, in this case, the pool of reviewers and their time.

In this case, I would say, the authors' good intentions matter the most.

If the author of the paper submitted it to a conference/journal primarily to get the feedback of the reviewers and get "free" advice knowing that the submission itself is doomed to fail — this is unethical in my opinion.

On the contrary, if a particular paper failed to go to a particular conference during peer review and its improved version ended up in another venue — this is great. Peer review and research win!

If this situation happens to the researcher consistent and too often, I would certainly agree that there is at least a hint of being a bit unethical, more from the point of being a bit lazy and wasteful of ones' peers' time.


I got into grad school, now I need to retract my commitment I got into a fully funded PhD program and accepted it. Somewhere along the line, my decision to attend grad school changed. My problem is that orientation week is in two weeks and I have not retracted my commitment.

I am afraid of what the outcome may be. My potential advisor was so nice to me and I assured her that I would be joining her lab. What should I do? I can’t just not show up... but I don’t know how to tell them that grad school is not something I want right now. I don’t want to offend anyone or ruin my academic reputation.

It's never easy to break a commitment but you have to let them know as soon as possible, the earlier the better so they can make proper preparations for themselves, perhaps even extend a last minute offer to another student. Hang in there!


Is it possible for an undergraduate to get involved in an independent research project unrelated to his/her concentration? Assume that I am an computer science undergraduate, and I am interested in how studying distractions influence exam scores in the long run, i.e. do you gain a tolerance by studying with distractions eventually?

If I had done significant investigation in this area and found that there were no previous research on such a matter, is it possible for me to get this project started, although I have no experience in the related field (in this particular example, cognitive sciences)?

If so, how?

TL;DR: This is possible, but there are costs and you need to decide whether this is worth your while in the long run.

At the undergraduate level, there is some benefit to you learning about research methods. I find that undergraduate students get a better sense of the breadth and messiness of research methods when actually engaged in a research project. In my view, this experience can take place in a number of fields, although I would prefer that this not be the case. The reason is because the experience of research is much more than the method. Beginning students can pick up research habits that are at odds with the way research is conducted in their own field.

Let me give you an example. A medical student wanted to do a systematic review on health promoting hospital design on patient outcomes. She was interested in a particular approach involving an architectural perspective, so she partnered with the academics from the School of Architecture. Now, systematic reviews are performed quite differently in architecture than in medicine. The systematic review was completed and it was a confusing read because the approach was strange. She submitted it to a medical conference with no luck, but it did get accepted in an architecture conference. Good on her. Still, given that her main academic field is medicine, she has admitted to me that she had found it difficult to unlearn some of the habits she picked up in the research project and wished that she had learned within the field.

In another example, I often have quite a number of research tasks requiring completion and regularly issue invitations to undergraduate students to work with me. These tasks involve clinical contexts -- osteomyelitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, obstructive sleep apnoea -- that may not be relevant to student assistants from the Department of Civil Engineering or the Department of English Literature. I don't reject student volunteers because of their degree, but inform them that the techniques that they will learn may be less relevant to their degrees.

Good luck to you.


How often do you email a supervisor? I'm doing a PhD related to my supervisor's research area. Sometimes, I think about problems that I do not immediately know the answer to. Naturally, I come to Stack Exchange and other forums and ask :) But on some occasions, the question is rather specific so I email my supervisor instead.

How often do you generally email a supervisor about research questions? I know he has other PhD students plus his own research to do. I have a weekly 45 min meeting with him, so I try to save questions for that and give a report to him about what I did in the previous week. On very rare occasions, he comes down to the lab and we talk in person. I usually email him when there is some administrative stuff we need to talk about, but I'm asking about research questions here or about giving updates about the progress of my research.

When you email him, at your current rate, how often do you get responses? Has he indicated that it bothers him? (either directly or by showing signs that it annoys him) If not, why are you worried about it?

I'll add that the right question to ask is probably not “how often can I email him?”, but rather “am I emailing him with the right questions?”. What will definitely annoy your advisor, and pretty much any other person, is if you ask them series of questions to which you could have found the answer yourself, or questions whom they are not the right person to ask.


sharing ideas for collaboration or working on them individually? I'm in the middle of my PhD and published 2 conference papers only with my supervisor, But i always want to have collaborations with other academic people in the field. Unfortunately i am a bit confused there!

I met people in conferences who were working on similar problems in the area, but i do not know how to initiate/request for collaboration? especially with a professor or a high level researcher.
Sometime when i read a paper related to my work, an idea for improvement of the proposed approach comes to my mind. But i put it somewhere in the shelf to get back to it later. But i'm not sure if it is a good idea to share it with the author or keep it to myself and work on it alone? In case of the first, should i contact the student author or the professor?
BTW, my field is computer science and i deal with machine learning and data analysis! so the most probable scenario which comes to my mind is getting some specific data from someone and working on that, but then it wouldn't be considered collaboration!

As a PhD student you are not usually required to have significant collaborations outside your school or department, although it does happen. So, if you are thinking about external collaborations, the first think you should do is talk to your advisor about it. Your advisor almost certainly has many connections in the field. Thus, they might be able to recommend someone to work with. But, they might also discourage this. You are (at least in theory) being trained by your supervisor. This gives them a greater responsibility for helping you develop your research abilities. Working with someone externally can put some of this burden onto them if your advisor isn't also involved.

For instance, I have a current PhD student that is part of an external collaboration, but I do some work to ensure that anything that we do that goes to our external collaborators is high enough quality that we aren't wasting their time. My colleague does something similar when his students work with me.

When I receive an unsolicited research request from a colleague's student, the first thing I do is contact their supervisor to see if they know about the request. I don't want to be seen as going behind their back to work with their student, and I wouldn't want someone else doing this with students I'm supervising.


A text which is not a draft, but expected to be updated - upload to arXiv? I've been working on a text which you could call a short monograph. Without going into details (which might lead to another question) - I'm considering posting/uploading/"publishing" it on arXiv.

It's not a draft - I've gone over it several times and it seems in pretty good share; but, at the same time, it is not finally done: I expect that, with feedback from others, I will need to make several additions, rephrasings, and possibly even slight correction of certain details regarding existing work.

Now, I would have liked to have received this feedback before ever publishing, but this is unlikely to happen; and I've been "sitting" on this for quite a long time already.

Is it legitimate, and is it reasonable, to upload an initial version on arXiv, expecting that an update will be necessary?

Yes, it’s legitimate. The fact that arXiv has a versioning system tells you everything you need to know: the ability to post updated and improved versions of your manuscript is an intentional feature of arXiv. So your question really amounts to “is it reasonable to use this feature?” - to which the answer is, yes, of course.

Now, keep in mind that the versioning feature can be, and at times has been, abused by people who post way too many versions of their paper with many confusing, incremental updates, usually in an attempt to bring an originally very low quality paper up to an acceptable level. This type of behavior is certainly looked down upon as a form of “noise pollution” and may be seen as a signal of low quality content, so if you think you’ll be posting more than, say, three versions (including the original submission), I’d suggest rethinking your approach. Also remember that the older versions of the paper remain accessible indefinitely. If you care about your reputation, you’d want to make sure that even the original version of the paper is of a high enough quality that you can accept being associated with it far into the future. With that said, your desire to share the work even in non-final form, whether because you think it may be useful to others and/or because you need some feedback to put the finishing touches on it, are quite understandable and acceptable, and shared by many; that is why the versioning system exists. So as I said, it’s totally legitimate.


Discovering an error after publishing? My paper was published 6 months ago. A few days ago, while reading it I discovered that one of the equations had the wrong power: instead of x it should have x². After checking my old notes it turns out that they had x², so its just a typing error. I should point out that this doesn't change the end result and the equation before and after it are both correct.

What should I do? Should I tell the journal about this mistake?

This is the sort of thing that corrections and errata are for. The journal should have a procedure for informing the editorial staff and correcting the record.  Follow it, and you should be able to fairly quickly and easily correct the record.


J2 or B Visa for Postdoc's spouse My spouse and I are both recent PhDs. Spouse has got a post-doc position in the US and will be applying for a J1 visa. I expect to get a post-doc (also in the US) only a few months down the line.

Now, I am considering two approaches:

Apply for a J2 dependent visa, then apply for J1 when I get the post-doc position.
Use my existing, valid (multiple-entry) B1/B2 visa to travel to the US, then apply for a J1 when I get the post-doc position.

What are the pros and cons of either approach? Are there rules for 'conversion'/tranfer from from J2 to J1 or B to J1? Does either require travelling back to, and applying from the home country?

PS: Although this seems to be a Travel.SE question, I ask here because it pertains to the J visa which is specific to academia.
PS2: We're both Indian citizens.

Are there rules for 'conversion'/transfer from from J2 to J1 or B to J1? Does either require travelling back to, and applying from the home country?

There are no particular rules. When you apply for J1, you need to go out of the US, not necessary India, e.g. Canada.

Advantages of J2 over B1/B2:

You can work. However, in order to do so, you need to obtain a work permit (EAD) first, and this process often takes 3 months.
Staying time in the US is longer. You are dependent of your spouse, you can stay in the US as long as him/her (indicated in your DS-2019), even after your J2 visa is expired.

On the other hand, you have to leave the US before the day your B1/B2 is expired.

This may be a disadvantage for you on a J2 visa: it is required by the law that J2 dependent needs to be covered by a health insurance that satisfies some requirements (please google yourself since I do not remember all the details). If you buy it independently, it can cost thousand(s) per month. While you can have cheaper health insurance from your university after you start your post-doc.

Your spouse's university may also have health insurance for partner, but it may require you to buy the whole year as your spouse, etc.

B1/B2 doesn't need a heath insurance. However, if you are unlucky to get sick/injured in the US, it is not uncommon at all that one day in the hospital (in particular in the emergency room) can cost you more than 10 thousands or more.


How long between the acceptance and proof correction of Elsevier? My paper has beed accepted by Elsevier's International Journal of Electronics and Communications (AEUE).

I want to know how long I should expect to wait until I receive the notice of online proof correction.

You can answer this question is to look at the date stamps sequences on some of the existing papers.  Many journals (including the one you have asked about), include all of the major dates in the publication process, e.g., "Received Date1, Accepted Date2, Available Online Date3," as well as the final date of publication.

Note that the "Available Online" and final date of publication may often be very different, but except in rare cases it is "Available Online" that you should care about because that is when people begin to be able to get your paper.  However, some journals do not do all of the final proof correction until closer to the date of publication, but essentially just have your preprint up online for quite some time!

Applying this analysis to this particular journal, one can find the following:

Acceptance to available online looks like 1-3 weeks
Final publication happens ~6 months later

So you will probably get contacted about the proof very quickly (if they follow the normal method of proofing before online availability), or not for several months (if they do late-binding proofing).


Why do universities have to spend money on journals? Obviously this is a question in the light of the recent Elsevier boycott. Currently we do have an arXiv, maintained by academia and where researchers regularly upload parts of their work. In such a case,

Why do universities spend lots of money to publish in third-party journals?

The question especially applies to journals that operate with a rigorous profit motive. The subscription is very high, so wouldn't publishing in such journals affect the paper's citation count and deter the spread of knowledge about the work within academic circles?

Why should not universities collaborate to create free, open access, peer-reviewed journals?

Moreover, given the need to conserve paper, why should journals spend on printing research papers? Wouldn't an online version suffice, as most people use only local computer printouts anyway? In other words, why can't we have a Wikipedia-like system of sharing research knowledge, having properly established standards for such journals?

This is a really big question, which unfortunately has no simple answer.  Some short comments:

Universities have very little choice about subscribing to journals, as long they publish good papers, since faculty need access to those papers to do their research.  The solution has to start on the publishing side.

Collaborating to create free, open access, peer-reviewed journals is a fine idea, but either you need to convince universities to support this financially, or you need to recruit enormous numbers of dedicated volunteers.  (Whenever this topic comes up, someone is sure to point out that volunteers run some free, high-quality online journals.  Of course they do, but the question is how to recruit hundreds of times as many volunteers.)

Printing is a non-issue.  Everything is already available online, with printed copies only for those who want them.

In a mathematics context, see http://gowers.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/elsevierstatementfinal.pdf and http://arxiv.org/abs/1204.1351 for more details.


Can I include in my CV the invitation to a conference I'm not sure to attend? I have seen this question (Unable-to-attend conferences in CV), but the situation is a bit different. In my field, we don't usually submit papers for conferences. Rather, the organizers directly invite a number of persons whom they think interesting to give talks (sometimes participants can contribute talks or posters, but that is not the case here). I received such an invitation, but for a number of reasons am not sure yet whether I will attend.

Can I still add the invitation to my CV?

One could of course argue that it is strange to get credit for something (a talk) I might not do. But one could also think that the invitation itself is a distinction and therefore worth mentioning.

I would say no.

I often turn down invitations that could be considered a distinction, i.e. an indication that somebody thinks I am reasonably competent at this research thing:

Will you speak on this panel at this research open house?
Are you willing to review this paper for this journal?
Would you want to do a research internship with us this summer?
Do you want to submit an invited paper to this workshop?
Can you mentor this undergrad who is doing research in the lab?

All of these things would go on my CV if I actually do them, but not if I turn down the invitation.

An invitation to speak at a conference is no different, in my opinion. It's certainly a nice validation of your work that the conference organizers recognized your ability to contribute. But if you don't actually give the talk, it doesn't go on the CV.


How to indicate a 'summary' of some sort in a presentation Soon I will give a presentation in college for a few professors. In this presentation I research a somewhat complex concept, though the focus is how said concept can be used in company X.

So I'd rather not spend too much time elaborating on the concept and spend more time on the actual findings of my research. How can I do this though?

Currently I have a slide with a rather long quote on top, 5 key points in the middle and a 'summary' or a 'simplified' version below. I'm not entirely happy with this though, as in my opinion a simplified sentence implies the stuff above is less important or even too complex for my audience.

I recommend short simple words no matter how complex the audience is. Just highlight main points of what is being said per slide. I don't recommend quotes on a slide though especially if it requires inhaling to read.

If you need hard data shown, I recommend bringing a printout and handing it out.

Be sure to include your name/contact info at the last slide.


Including images in a research proposal presentation? Is this frowned upon? Expected? I have never made a presentation for a research proposal before and I'm not sure about what is expected. I was considering using a timeline to illustrate roughly how long the research will take and what the milestones in the research process will be.

The exact expectations for a research proposal will vary by context and audience (e.g., a formal proposal to a government funding agency will require specific rules to be followed) but, in general, any aid you can provide your audience in understanding your planned research is helpful.

It's easy to neglect details like the amounts of time and other resources your research may require. Visual aids can help to make those details clearer. As you suggest, a timeline can clarify the time your research will require. Similarly, a flowchart is often an excellent way to establish not only the order of your project stages (or even if some stages will be concurrent) but to identify outside resources you plan to use, like databases or established protocols. A single figure may also serve to explain detailed methods. That's especially useful if you have a page limit to deal with.

So yes, include helpful figures if you can, as long as they further the goal of explaining what you plan to research and how.


What makes securing faculty positions difficult? This question is an off-shoot from this one, where it has been agreed by most that securing faculty positions is difficult in general. I would like to know what exactly makes this so.

Though in theory university rankings may be pointless, there is a broad quality-based classification of institutions in any country which many will agree on - for example, the crème de la crème, top tier, middle tier and decent universities, of which there could be a few hundreds. We shall assume the student has passed out with a good thesis and impactful publications.

Is it tough for a student graduating from a higher rung to gain a position in the lower rungs?
What factors dictate the difficulty in securing a position in a university in the same league?

PS: In India, the answer to Q 1 is "not at all", as there is a heavy crunch for faculty positions even in top institutes. Instead the difficulty arises only when students from low rung colleges seek top positions: in most cases, such students are found wanting in skills.

One of the strange effects of faculty hiring (and graduate admissions) is that offers do not necessarily go to the strongest candidates.  Departments have limited resources to interview, recruit, and hire faculty.  Interviews are expensive; startup packages are really expensive; faculty job offers burn political capital even when they aren't accepted.

So hiring committees make strategic decisions based on the perceived probability that candidates will accept the position.  The University of Southeast North Dakota at Hoople would most likely not interview superstar applicants, because they don't want to waste their time interviewing someone who's "obviously" going to get offers from stronger schools.  As with any self-selection process, this assumption is partly justified and partly Institutional Impostor Syndrome.

So no, selecting an MIT grad is absolutely not a no-brainer for U-Cal-XYZ.

And yes, sometimes reasonable PhD students from very strong schools fail to get faculty jobs, or even interviews, because they don't quite have the research record to get an interview at the best departments, but their pedigree scares off weaker departments.


How to know if a paper is allowed (by publisher/journal/conference) to be put on arXiv? I am a 2nd-year PhD student. I have published two conference papers, and now I want to upload a copy to arXiv. I am aware it is common (flexible) for researchers in some areas (e.g. machine learning) to upload their papers on arXiv; However, it is uncommon in my research area/targeted publications, but I think it would be useful for wide-access (my research area: algorithm-hardware co-design for machine learning)
I wonder how to know If a paper is allowed to be put on arXiv?

Do publishers have rules against that? Or It is the Journals/conferences have rules against that? Where can I find them (generally)?
Are there any rules on the version of the paper that is allowed? e.g. pre-publication, camera-ready, post-publication etc.

Thanks.

Check the publisher's website. They should have policies for putting papers on arXiv.
For example here is Elsevier's policy page, and:

Authors can share their preprint anywhere at any time.
If accepted for publication, we encourage authors to link from the preprint to their formal publication via its Digital Object Identifier (DOI). Millions of researchers have access to the formal publications on ScienceDirect, and so links will help your users to find, access, cite, and use the best available version.
Authors can update their preprints on arXiv or RePEc with their accepted manuscript .

So for this publisher the answer is "yes", you are allowed to put papers on arXiv as well as update them once the peer review process is complete.


Permission to include a segment from Google Maps as a figure in a publication For the application of remote sensing, a satellite imaging of an urban land cover is required. The image I require is readily available in Google Maps.

Who must I contact to receive permission to include a portion of the map as a figure in my paper?

Why, of course you should contact Google. More precisely, the Google Permissions page states that it is okay to use Google Map images for the purposes of research assuming that you provide proper attributions.


What is a "Survey-cum-Tutorial"? I am seeing the term "Survey-cum-Tutorial" for the first time. What does it mean and how does it differ from a survey or a tutorial paper?

Cum means combined with.  It is a Latin word, but used in English occasionally.  In addition to knowing this definition, I think if you look at the specific example (if there is one in front of you), you should be able to tell what the writer of the phrase meant.  I don't think there is some general meaning (like it is a common phrase) beyond that, so you need to look at the context to see the writer's meaning.


Sponsoring scientist for for NSF postdoc fellowship I wonder how do people usually find sponsoring scientist for NSF postdoc fellowship.  Do you find someone you want to work first and then decide mutually you want to apply for NSF funding or you decide you want to apply then approach someone and ask if they want to sponsor you?

I am asking because I don't have one yet, and I wonder if it's appropriate to just ask someone I want to work with.  I feel I am quite late in this game, though I still want to give it a try.

Also, what if I eventually decided to work with somebody else?  Would I disqualify for the grant (if I actually get it)?

I'm assuming you are referring to the math postdoc.
Unlike regular career grants, the postdoc grant is tied to a specific location (usually, the mentor's home university).
I guess that working with someone else inside this institute should be OK (I think that formally the mentor will need to approve your reports to the NSF), but switching institutions is a big thing, and this will require an approval of the NSF (which have been granted in the past in several cases, at least that I know of, but you should not consider this is a regular thing).

You should really think about your application (in the sense of who is the mentor and where to apply), as your number one pick for post doc (well, I guess if you will get a Veblen instructorship, you would probably pass on the grant, but otherwise...).

There are several reasons for that:
First, If you get the NSF, in most cases, the host institution will usually offer you the prestigious instructorship position to complement it (it goes by various names depending on the institute, Veblen (Princeton), Dickson (UChicago), CLE Moore (MIT), Szago (Stanford), etc), as the NSF itself does not finance the whole 3 years. Moreover, you get the answers for the NSF application right before the first round, so you can negotiate with other institutions if needed to.

Second, If you get the NSF and choose to pass, in most cases, the NSF won't offer the grant to the next candidate (it has to do with their guidelines and also the coordinates offers rounds in math), so basically, this money is wasted.

Regarding the timing, now it is definitely the time to work on NSF applications.
Remember that the schoolyear is about to start in most places, so people are busy, and unlike regular postdoc applications (where your future mentor just need to email the hiring committee), here your future mentor will need to write down a letter to the NSF (so he would actually need to read your full application at-least a week before the deadline).

So you should work on both sides - finish your application (this not a wasting of time, as many of the materials will be used to your regular postdoc applications on mathjobs), and contact future mentors to see if they are willing to sponsor your NSF application.
Regarding who to contact, which order, and how to approach, this depends on the personality of the future mentor, and I think such considerations are better discussed with your adviser in person.

Good luck.


Old transcripts for Grad application I thought of applying for master's in US universities in 2011 for fall 2012. So, I had taken official transcripts from my college. But, I didn't apply then.

I'm thinking of applying this year for fall 2014. Can I use the old ones? They were signed with 2011 date on.

In general, a signed, sealed transcript of a completed degree program should always be valid, as there presumably there has not been any changes made to the contents of the transcript since that time.

"Interim" transcripts, of course, would no longer be valid.

One other thing to note—many schools nowadays want the transcript submitted directly by the university; in such cases, it is unlikely that they would accept a transcript mailed by the student along with the application (if they even accept mailed applications!).


Pursuing a PhD in applied math with a large amount of student debt I'm 36 years old and work as systems administrator and lab instructor for a computer science department at a small liberal arts college. I'm also an adjunct math instructor for a community college. I have 1 BA and 2 masters, all from Ivy League Universities. I started college late, at the age of 25.

I always wanted to have a PhD in applied math and do research, but after undergrad, I felt burnt out and instead chose to work so I could pay off my student loans, which did not go well for me, because the economy was terrible in 2012. Two masters and several jobs later, I landed my current position, which I enjoy more than any other full-time job I've had, but would still rather be a full-time mathematics researcher/professor.

So I began applying to PhD programs last December. I was offered two TAships. I'll be attending the one I chose starting this Fall. It's at an R2 university. I'm excited but I'm now experiencing cold feet, because my current student loan balance is about $150K. I'm now beginning to think getting a PhD isn't such a smart idea. In fact, if I don't pursue a PhD, I could pay off $65,000 in about 3 years.

My plan prior to last December was to work at my current job for about 3 years and then find a full-time professor position at a community college or technical college, or to find a full-time lecturer position at a four-year college. I'm thinking I should forego the PhD and stick to this plan instead. Sure I won't be a researcher mathematician as I would love, but it's the smart and safe option. And maybe I can pursue a PhD once my loans are paid off. I'll probably be in my mid-40's by then, but who cares. I don't have kids and I'm not planning on having kids. My girlfriend of 6 years, who I'll probably marry, is unable to have kids anyway.

Any thoughts/advice? Thanks.

First, taking on a large amount of debt at this point could be a big problem. However, several candidates for president are currently discussing forgiving student debt, a good thing to do in my view. It will be seriously discussed over the next 15 months, at least. It may be that your debt problem will get erased. Whoopie.

Second, spending your life doing something you aren't happy with is a terrible existence, but you say you are relatively happy now. There is no guarantee that you will land something better, but having already gone to ivy league places that seems like less of a problem.

Third, ignore any issues about age. You will (hopefully) reach 45 with or without your degree in any case. Graduating after 50 is an accomplishment, just as is graduating at 30.

My suggestion, worth about two cents, of course, is to continue on applying and see what happens. For a degree program in applied math you probably don't need to make an unbreakable commitment and can keep flexible as you see what happens, both in the general political/educational scene and in your life personally.

Of course your future spouse has a say in how she wants to live her life, so don't forget to factor that in as well.

But none of your impediments seem to be actual blocks. Be your best.


How to get into a top mathematics PhD program? I'm a first year student undergraduate at a top US university, and I'm going to major in math. Of course, I still don't really know what I want to do with my life, but I'm really excited about going on to a PhD in math. What does one have to do to get into a top PhD program in mathematics? When I say top, I mean absolute top - like Princeton or MIT. Please understand that I'm not being presumptuous in asking this: I don't know whether I'll ever be good enough to do a PhD at an institution such as these, but I'm just asking for reference - and out of curiosity.

I've read a lot of threads about similar topics, but answers there are fairly vague ("good letters of recommendation", "advanced coursework", etc). What exactly do these terms mean, and what should I - as a first year student - already start doing to at least stand a chance sometime in the future to even dream of being in a program such as the ones I mentioned?

First off, I have a PhD in a top 20 - not top 3. I believe my school was 16 or 17 when I was doing my PhD. So I'm below what you are aiming for. So feel free not to read this post.

First of all, I'm puzzled by your comment:

  fairly vague ("good letters of recommendation", "advanced coursework",
  etc). What exactly do these terms mean, and what should I - as a first
  year student - already start doing to at least stand a chance sometime

Good letters of recommendation: You will need to get about 3 profs to write good letters of recommendation when you apply to grad school. That means you need them to say you are smart as in PhD-smart.

Advanced coursework: Take ALL the higher level courses if possible. Take some graduate level courses if possible.

Now about grad school: don't think about the top 1 or 2 or even 3 for now. If your goal is math, then your goal is math, not the school. Just focus on math for now.

I do not know you, so whatever I said below might be useless and meaningless.

What can you do as a first year student? Get a good GPA, as close to 4.0 as you can. You want to take as many math courses as you can right? So do some self-study and test out of your gen ed courses. I had a student who tested out about 8 so that he can have time to take ALL the higher level courses.

Are you taking any math courses now? Then focus on them and do well. Doing well does not mean just getting an A. It means being near the top of the class. Your prof knows. Not all profs will take note. But some do.

You have to figure out which profs are interested in growing PhD students. Profs who care will be open to chat with you and guide you. The only way you can catch their attention and learn from them is to be at the top of your class. Ask questions in class (if possible, when appropriate). Do you study ahead? Talk to them during office hours and ask questions so that they know you are interested and are studying your textbook ahead of the class.

When I was an undergraduate I always study ahead. While studying all the courses, I will pick one book and study ahead until I'm done with the book for that course. Then I'll pick another one and study ahead. Etc. Don't just read the book. Do the problems.

It's also a good idea to think about your favorite area in math and study it on your own. Unfortunately if you are not very deep into math, you might not know where to go with this. That's why knowing a prof well will help. He can guide you.

If you have time and if you have not done so, I suggest you look at the textbooks for math olympiads. Study them and do all the problems. Try to finish as much as you can so that you have some time to try some putnam competition books. Math problems in the math olympiad and the putnam are very different from the type of problems you will solve in your regular math classes. In many ways they are closer to research-type math problems. Again, I do not know you. Maybe you have already done lots of math olympiad training.

Another very important thing to note is that it is your responsibility to keep your level of interest in your area (i.e. math) as high as possible. That means spending some time reading up on the biographies of famous mathematicians. Don't do too much of that since you do have to study math.

Books are the most important resource for you right now. Ask your profs for good recommendations. Do not be surprised that your class textbook might not be the best textbook on that subject. It's just one that's convenient and easy to use. I have no idea where you are in your math education. But if you are in Calculus, then you can for instance study "Calculus" by Michael Spivak. If you are very strong in math and have already studied that, you can go on to other books.

Check your math library and see if you can find magazines you can understand. Try the American Mathematical Monthly and the Mathematical Intelligencer.

See if there's a math club you can join. Make sure it's a math club and not just a social gathering for math majors. Nothing wrong with socializing, but if the club does not have math related activities, then it won't help your goal.

If you work very hard in the first 2 years, you might know what area you want to go into. (But it might change.) And if you take some grad level course(s) in that area in your third year, you might be able to attend the research seminar in that area, which might be a weekly meeting. You might be able to start doing some research during your senior year.


Is publishing papers with many co-authors detrimental to one's academic career? I’m looking at some friends’ works, at good labs, in good schools, but some of their publications have 10 co-authors – I even found one with 15 co-authors.

I’m sure the lab and its PI(s) are doing well from such collaborative efforts, but at the individual level, are the PhD students being harmed, because the authorship is spread among so many people?  I wonder if this kills their chances of securing post-docs later on, because they published with a big team of people, and I wonder if this signals that they have not done enough ‘independent’ work.

FWIW, those papers are in medical machine learning.

As mentioned in comments, the normal number of authors on a paper depends heavily on the field.

The issue with getting a postdoc is that you need to demonstrate your ability to do research. That doesn't necessarily mean you need to be the PI, as in some fields as a postdoc you would still be working on projects driven by someone else.

Having one or more individual papers would be one method of doing that. Being lead author on a paper in a field where order denotes role would be another. But for a PhD student applying for postdoc positions, their references will still play a big part in whether they are hired. Their supervisor should be able to include in the reference what part the student contributed to the paper.


How would I judge the status of a researcher without talking to them or reading their papers? I was using Google Scholar to judge the rank of a researcher, but then realized I couldn't find everyone I wanted to and came across this question which highlighted this problem. Looking at Scorpus, which was suggested in that same answer, seems to downvalue any non-Elsevisor publications and not have any current data (from the last year). Microsoft Research seems altogether unintuitive to use and doesn't seem to have h-index at all. I tried PublishorPerish, but filtering data to find the correct researcher's papers seems ridiculously difficult.
I would like to be able to judge status somewhat programmatically, understanding there may be some flaws in this method, as it would be somewhat cumbersome to do it by hand on the scale I would like to. I will probably supplement it my sorting the top 3-5 by hand, but I would not like to do the entire set by hand.
Is there any proper solution to this problem? If not, what is the generally accepted method to do this?
At the behest of many people, I am a student, but this question is geared to generally understanding the current methods of researcher evaluation, not necessarily just by students

Assuming the question is about status and not quality:
Job title is a strong indicator of status.  The meaning of each title typically depends on the country.  For the US, as an example, named professorships have the highest status, followed by professors and associate professors.
The status of the university is also a strong predictor of status of the researcher.
"Status" is not quantitative and attempting to rank status is not productive.


Do I know my GRE scores when I choose to send them on test day? I haven't started preparing for the GRE and I have my exam in a week's time (15th Oct.). I know I'll get a low score which is why I don't want to report the score to any university. So, I have two options:

Reschedule the exam to something like 10th Nov.
Take the exam on 15th Oct. and take it again after 21 days.

I will go with option two if reporting the scores is optional after taking the exams since reporting the score is my only fear in regard to my question.

Do I have to report my score when I take the GRE? Do I know my scores before I choose?

When you finish the GRE, at least a computer-delivered GRE, you will be asked if you want to report  or cancel your scores. If you choose "cancel," you don't get to see them or report them. If you choose "report," you get your unofficial scores, then are asked to report them.

According to ETS (emphasis added):

  On test day, after completing the test and viewing your unofficial Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning scores, you will be asked to designate which score recipients you want to receive your General Test scores.

At this point, reporting is optional, you don't have to report to anyone at this point.

As for whether you personally should reschedule or retake it after 21 days, that's a question we can't answer, but hopefully this information helps you decide.


What does the status "editor discussion period" in editorial manager mean? I have this on editorial manager, but I can't find any information about what it is/means anywhere!
It's been this way for 15 odd days, and before that, it was "under review" (I may have missed some steps in the middle because I didn't check for 3 weeks).

If as you say this "editor discussion period" occurred after the manuscript was reviewed, but before you received a formal decision, then this probably corresponds to the "Editorial decision" section of this answer. The editor(s) are making a decision based on the reviews. It should not take very long unless many people are involved in the decision.


Taking an academic pseudonym? I am a senior undergraduate about to publish my first academic paper, and have been thinking about taking an academic pseudonym to make myself easier to identify.

My full name is shared by at least three famous people (including one celebrity and one international athlete), and at least two people inside academia (one of whom works in my field). This is my major reason for wanting to change. In modern academia, it seems online identity/SEO is becoming increasingly important, and I don't want to have to compete for namespace with other people, who are:

more famous than I'll likely ever be; and
already have established careers and goodwill under that name.

Basically, it seems like it could be a real hindrance when trying to get my career off the ground.

I am quite attached to my first name, so I'm thinking about changing my last name only to an ancient variant of it. It's a similar name, but much less common, and it couldn't be mistaken as a misspelling of my real name (think Busher vs Bouchier, or Lombard vs Lambert). I can't find evidence of anyone online using that name, so it seems to solve all the problems mentioned above.

I hope to continue into academia and become a professor, in which case I would publish and be known professionally under the new name.
I'd rather not legally change my name, or have to change my name within my personal life, so it would be a situation of having separate professional and personal names. In the event I don't succeed/continue into academia, I could always just revert to my real name (unlikely that my published work will be relevant anyhow).

I'd like to get advice from you all, especially those of you that use a pseudonym in your academic work. A couple questions I have:

Does this seem like a worthwhile idea?
Could there be any issues with having different legal and professional names in a university IT system?
Should I change my undergrad enrolment to be under my new academic name? How about when applying to postgrad/PhD programs?
If I don't do (3), could/should I get degrees reprinted (once I have an established career) under my academic name, rather than my personal name?
Are there any hairy issues that could arise from this, which I might not have considered?

Thanks!

Complementary to your own suggestions and the ones in the other answers, you could consider creating an ORCID (or of course any other unique researcher/author ID) and using it in all publications. The benefits here:

By adding a unique identifier to your name, the name collisions can be resolved.
If your change your name at a certain point (e.g., if you decide to change your name as you suggested in the question), the ID will remain the same. Therefore, you even might be able to postpone the decision whether to change your name.
Since you mention online identity and SEO: At least ORCID comes with a profile web site (I am not familiar with other ID systems), where you can add your personal information and even maintain a list of your publications. Usually, a link to this profile is added to the publication, so readers can follow it. As to search engine optimization, I am not expert here but I would guess that the outcome of those algorithms improves if there is a unique ID that groups your contributions together.

Of course, all those ID systems are quite recent and might not be accepted (yet) by the journals and/or researchers in your field. Nevertheless, I would give it a try since it comes at no cost (which I presume won't be the case for changing legal documents).


Is it worth doing a 'Pipe Leak Detection' PhD (industrywise)? I have been offered a PhD opportunity in a UK university and the topic is 'Pipe Leak Detection (using acoustic waves)'.

My question is, is it worth doing a PhD in this area considering the industrial opportunities available for such area of expertise?

** the research is co-funded by the UK Water Industry Research (UKWIR), but I am not sure (at the moment) about the possibility of joining them after the PhD.

Could someone with relevent expertise or someone working in the field advice me or drop some comments. I really appreciate it, thanks in advance for all.

I think it sounds awesome.  Huge connection to industry, society.  Both directly with the method and then tangentially with pipes in general (water, oil, gas, sewage).  The basic things you do in acoustics, mechanics, fluid flow will be good training also.

And then the integrative learnings from putting a "fancy" technique onto a basic problem.  And this is whether it "works" or not (in terms of physical results or economic feasibility).  For you, it's all upside in the learning and the connections.

Jump on that thing.  Like yesterday!


How can I compile a study material of a course in this case? Last year I was appointed to lecture a Data Structures course in a university in my hometown. The material for making my notes were based on several books, articles and also some material from Coursera in the cases that I needed to simplify some material or needed some exercises.

The notes included a final set of references at which the student could look after, like books, articles or urls of some online courses that I found interesting and from where I based my lecture notes.

This year the Dean of my Faculty has told me to convert all that study material into a book that could serve as a guide for the new students. The question that I have is if this would be really necessary? I mean it is not enough that the students could check up the material on this course based on the primary authors in which I based my set of notes? I bet to have a look in the original source would be far way better for the student than just considering the set of notes that I made.

What suggestions do you have to convert this study material into a small book for the students who would take this course?

I suppose you are obliged to prepare what some may recall as a minimum learning material. It is what a student might need to get the a broad knowledge of the subject before s/he is to delve into the details.

If you are concerned that the original source ought to be referred due to its importance, then you might include this sentence...

  The provided study material is by no means a complete replacement to the prescribed textbooks/sources on the subject.

...somewhere in the beginning of the material, such as the preface section. It what I usually do when compiling such notes.


Is it ethical to share names and emails of survey participants? My friend has conducted a small pilot survey as part of research proposal and used anonymized results to present his case. Now adviser insists that my friend discloses names and emails of all the participants. Would it be ethical do disclose this information? Since it was a pilot study, my friend didn't bother with consent forms, and I feel like it would be incorrect to disclose this information. I understand that adviser wants to be sure that the study was real. Is there any way my friend can prove that study was real, without disclosing private information of participants?

Your friend can seek retroactive permission from the participants. They can email all of the participants to ask them for permission to disclose their contact details with the friend's advisor for the purpose of validating the survey. They should probably also ask them to complete a consent form of some kind, the details of which your friend should discuss with their advisor. Without seeking permission, it would be unethical. Depending on what the survey is about, the participants may not want their details being shared with your friend's advisor.


Thinking about leaving a master's program I'm at the end of my first year in a food science master's program, with full funding at a good university and I'm seriously considering dropping out.

I completed my undergrad in biochemistry and my research project is more focused in yet another field, which I have no experience in. When I applied for grad school, I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do within the field, but figured I could build interests along the way. I only received the one offer from a new professor that would be starting at the same time as me. I didn't want to let the opportunity slip by and I genuinely thought the project was something I could get interested in. So I packed up my life and left behind most of my support group. This was extremely difficult, as I have a very close relationship with my family and my mother has recently been very ill. Not long after beginning school, I began seeing a therapist as my anxiety (which has always been manageable) started worsening. The majority of my coursework has been undergraduate classes that I find completely uninteresting. We are only required to take 4 graduate credits and I wasn't thrilled with my choices (there are only 2 classes available). The department itself is small, obviously favors the undergraduate population, is extremely unorganized, and most of the lab groups are cliquish (seem nice enough, but not entirely welcoming). Since my lab is new, I'm the only student and the only other researcher is a recent PhD graduate from another lab. I was unable to start much work on my project the first semester because I didn't have what I needed. Now, I've experienced numerous setbacks with contamination and other problems. Not to mention, since the beginning of the new semester, my anxiety has become borderline debilitating and accompanied by moderate depression. In a recent conversation, my advisor expressed concern about my lack of work (which I take to mean, lack of results, because it's not like I've been lazy and unproductive), even though he is aware of the problems I've faced. As far as advisors go, he is just out of his post-doc and is relatively nice, but is extremely forgetful (never remember anything he tells me/I tell him), unfamiliar with the program requirements even after a year in (meaning, I have to get help from anyone but him when it comes to courses), and occasionally makes backhanded comments to me that I find insulting. Overall, I just find myself extremely unhappy. And the prospect of moving on and getting a job just seems freeing to me.

However, I'm not sure how I would go about doing this. There is no formal policy on a leave of absence, so if I wanted to make the leave less permanent in case I change my mind, I don't know how this would work. I'm also not sure when would be the best time to drop out. Regarding withdrawals, the grad school website says that any students receiving tuition remission (which I do) are "responsible for their entire tuition assessment." I'm not sure who, if anyone, I can talk to in the department. I have yet to begin my thesis, 2 courses left to take, and likely have 2 years left because of setbacks. Does anyone who has left grad school or considered doing so have any advice?

You don't find the field you're in all that interesting. That may be because it's not the right field for you. However, depression can make everything seem uninteresting, even activities you used to love. Maybe you just need a break. Your therapist is probably the person to help you figure out what's best for you at this time.

If you decide to take a break, I'm sure your university has some sort of student ombudsman or student services office that can guide you through the process of getting a leave of absence. Look on your university's website, or ask the registrar's office, student health, or the student union.

The setbacks you've experienced in your research don't sound that bad. A few false starts in research are quite normal. One year into my own master's, nothing was working and I was sure I wouldn't have any useful results. My advisor helped to calm me down, and all turned out well. It sounds like you and your advisor just don't "gel".


How can I get back on track after falling behind on my online courses? I need some advice on how to catch up on my online courses. I have gotten really far behind on my work and lack the motivation to keep going. This my second year taking online courses and it seems harder than the first. What should I do to move forward?

As Yoda says... "Do or Do not... there is no 'try'"

As both an educator, and a student in online learning I can feel for you on both sides of the coin. Allow me to inject some of my personal tricks... tools to help you.

First off... contact your teacher/instructor/professor. This is critical point one and both appropriate, and professional. This reach-out opportunity is your chance to tackle a few serious steps toward getting back on track:

it allows you to admit that you have lost motivation and that you
know you are behind.
shows you to be accountable for your lost
placement and willingness to get back on track.

Next, a mentioned before, start "triage"... an emergency assessment & prioritize a list of what must be completed first. Some projects could be banged out in an hour, but worth only a few % points. Others may take 2 days but have serious weight on final grades. Refer to your syllabus and see what is most important for the final grade. After you have assessed their importance and created a complete list of everything due, estimate their completion times (2 hours, 6 hours, 2 days etc etc)

Once you have a prioritized list of what weighs heaviest, and their estimated times... create a time line with the total number of days/hours/weeks remaining in the class. I use excel as it is easy to navigate and layout the time frame. Pen and paper works just as good though. Hopefully you have weeks and you have enough time to right the ship... but if it is days, you need may need to sequester yourself and focus intently on finishing.

Now that you have a list, and a timeline, inject the items to be done into the time line (create a gantt chart) and you have your plan of action ready to go.

...NOW... All of this is the plan. Only you can physically make the commitment to turn off the tv, step away from the video game, opt to not go out drinking, to the movies, or dinner... and settle in and FOCUS.

I find that I often pull up a neflix/amazon selection and put on a movie or something I have seen a dozen times already so I know what is happening without actually  "watching" it. This seems to help to with eliminating that deathly silence in my den.

Only you can find your own motivation, and make the hard decission to actually buckle down and focus. It is hard (and I have done it) to find that once you have lost a few weeks. Perhaps pick a few smaller exercisses or tasks form your plan and finish them first to get that sense of accomplishment to fire off a few points in your direction. That may be just the sense of completion you need to find the next level of commitment.

Last point, and perhaps the most important... DO NOT GIVE UP!


Is it possible for someone to get into a PhD without a thesis in Masters-level? Is it possible for someone to get into a Ph.D. without a thesis at Masters-level?

If someone doesn't have a thesis at his Masters-level, what other criteria can he fill in order to approach a potential supervisor?

I assume that you have a Master's degree but not a Master's Thesis. The answer to your question depends on the location.

In the UK and the US, a Master's degree is not a requirement to start PhD studies, and therefore a Master's Thesis is also not a requirement. The admissions committee will compare your achievements with those of other students who only have a Bachelor's degree, and the expectations in terms of research output and thesis writing will correspond to that level.

In other locations, such as Germany, starting doctoral studies without a Master's degree is possible but very rare (unfortunately, the link is in German, but it says that only 1300 out of 108000 doctoral students that started on the winter semester 2011/2012 had no Master's degree).

The traditional way of starting doctoral studies in Germany is to contact a professor directly, and be selected by the professor, without the participation of any admissions committee. Professors will generally expect a Master's degree, and will want to have access to some of your research output to see how good your research is. They will by default look at your Master's Thesis for this, but you might be able to also get selected without a Master's Thesis if you have enough research output (publications or written reports of research projects).

There are also structured doctoral programs in Germany. These function in a similar way to PhD programs in the US/UK (with admissions committee and more course work), and are more likely to accept students without a Master's degree or thesis. These programs are, however, much less common than "traditional" doctoral studies as per the previous paragraph, so you might have a hard time finding one that interests you.


Accused of not citing a source in an english final paper So I turned in my final paper for English and was soon met with this

Dear -----,
On April 28, 2018, you were involved in a possible violation of the Code of Student Conduct.
Specifically, it is alleged that you failed to cite an online source used when completing your ENG ---- final paper.

I am a first-time freshman at this university and have absolutely no idea what to do or expect. I've combed through my paper multiple times but there is nothing present that indicates a misses citation. I have citied everything I have used and have included works cited page at the end. Is there any way for me to fight this and prove myself not guilty?

It sounds like you're confident you didn't do anything wrong, at least not on purpose. So I wouldn't panic.

The instructor may have used an automatic plagiarism detector. Depending how it was configured, it may have been too strict in identifying similar text, and the instructor didn't apply human judgement. You may have accidentally and innocently written a sentence that is similar to something online. In that case, I would just explain what happened.

Alternatively, someone else may have copied from you.


Teaching advanced courses in a specialized area of math Today mathematics (and probably also other sciences) became very specialized: every researcher works in their own narrow field which usually hardly interacts with fields of other colleagues, even on the same department.

At the same time every researcher is often expected to accept PhD students and introduce them into his/her field. Some mathematical fields (e.g. algebraic geometry, algebraic number theory) require significant background before starting the research, and hence teaching quite a few advanced courses.

  How this problem of regular teaching of many advanced courses on a certain  subject is resolved on your math department? Who teaches all of them? Does there always exist a group in your area on your department so that the teaching load can be shared? How it is decided who teaches what? (Please indicate your country.)

As a combinatorial algebraic geometer in a small, not highly ranked department who currently has a PhD advisee, I think I can say something about our experience.

We do not get to regularly schedule advanced courses.  With 14 grad students total, there aren't enough students to make teaching algebraic geometry viable.  We offer a 2 year sequence in general algebra, commutative algebra, and algebraic geometry on an alternate year basis, organizing the courses so that it is possible to start midway at the commutative algebra entry point.  When we have a relatively capable group of students, we just might be able to get to the definition of a scheme in the last 2 or 3 weeks of the last semester.

If we happen to have 2 or 3 graduate students at the same time who are interested in a particular topic (for example algebraic topology, or more advanced algebraic geometry, or algebraic number theory), we may organize a course for them, but faculty usually have to do this "for free" - in the sense that whomever is doing this teaching is teaching this as an extra course in addition to what he or she normally teaches.

My advisee has answered an algebraic geometry question well enough to write a dissertation.  He has not taken an algebraic geometry course.  How can he do this?  He has learned just enough of the specific bits of algebraic geometry (really just commutative algebra) he needs to tackle this specific question.  Fortunately my area attracts enough interest from combinatorialists and representation theorists that there are some reasonably accessible books and papers, but he has ended up learning what he needs to know mostly from me in our weekly meetings.  (Yes, I am disputing the claim that one needs a lot of background before starting research, even in a fairly esoteric field.)

Does he understand why the question he is working on is of interest to me and to other people I work with?  Not really.  Will he be able to find related questions and answer them in the future without my guidance?  I am skeptical he knows enough mathematics around his current problem to be able to do so, but maybe.  He is applying for teaching-oriented positions where the point of doing research is to provide research opportunities for (undergraduate) students rather than to advance knowledge, so maybe his research experience is sufficient.


What advantage is there to getting a PhD in the life sciences when you can do research with only an MD? During an interview recently Dr. Fauci, the top doctor in the US, called himself "a scientist, and a physician". It appears that he only has an MD, but is an immunologist and a highly cited researcher. This is not a special case, there are many examples of labs run by a researcher with only an MD. That makes me wonder: why bother getting a PhD in say, immunology, when it appears that an MD is objectively better. With an MD you are qualified to run a lab despite not having the terminal degree of a typical researcher, and you are trained as a physician or whatever specialty so you always have something to fall back on.

To me this seems like the 5+ years spent becoming an expert in your field by doing novel research doesn't really matter as you can get a research job with an MD that doesn't require any of that. So what advantage is there to getting a PhD in life science fields that overlap with medicine?

The trick, actually, is to get that job. Without a PhD or other demonstrated research experience it might be harder most places. Most MD programs are focused more on patient outcomes than on science per se.

But yes, if you can convince someone to hire you then you can probably learn research methodology along the way. This will include a lot of things, including something of statistics and more on lab process than is probably normal in the MD program itself. Publishing in the scientific literature is also something to be learned along the way and isn't especially typical in the training of an MD.

The advantage of the PhD on top of an MD is that the focus is precisely on the scientific (rather than clinical) aspects of medicine. You learn to do science under the direction of scientists who also have some expertise in biology and other aspects of the wider medical area.

Note, of course, that Dr Fauci is 79 years old. He has had a lot of time to learn the craft and has been positioned in places where it is well practiced.

Note that in some places, an MD is, in fact, a research degree and requires an earlier degree in medicine. But this isn't the case in the US or Canada. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_of_Medicine


I communicate a conjecture and a colleague/professor proves it; are we both authors? Context: I have a (IMO, very interesting, and rather significant) mathematical conjecture. I communicated this conjecture to a professor at my university; he is a respected expert in the topic. He says he has not seen something like my conjecture before, that it is very interesting, and that he would like to share it with his close colleagues. I tell him yes, and that I have some related conjectures.

Now I'm shifting nervously on my couch wondering what will happen.

In the past, even single theorems on this topic (partitions) have been published in journals as high-roller as the Annals. My question: In the event that my conjecture is proven true (by my professor, or one of his colleagues which he sent the result to) and is sent to a journal, even if I did not majorly assist in the proof (I am a first-year undergrad student, I can only do so much!) is it reasonable to request I be listed as an author, since the conjecture is mine and I am the one who shared it?

Discovering a new and very interesting conjecture is a cool achievement and not an easy thing to do. Congratulations!

About your question, it’s quite possible that your having come up with the conjecture would warrant coauthorship. But it’s possible that it wouldn’t - it’s impossible to say until the conjecture actually gets proved. The issue is that for some mathematical discoveries, the mere statement of the theorem is the more difficult and substantial part of the discovery, in the sense that once the statement is known, finding the proof is not terribly difficult; whereas for other discoveries, it is finding the actual proof that is the difficult part that’s considered more impressive and worthy of recognition.

And sometimes it’s both: for some conjectures, both the people who discovered it and the people who proved it became quite famous for their respective achievements. One such example that comes to mind is the alternating sign matrix conjecture.

So, for example, if the professor and his colleagues spend the next five years working on a proof of your conjecture and come up with an amazingly complicated 100-page proof, I’d say your claim for being a coauthor is weak to nonexistent (although you should of course be credited for discovering the conjecture). But if your conjecture results in a relatively easy proof of a few pages, you can reasonably ask to be made a coauthor of the paper (or more likely than not you won’t need to ask, they’ll just offer you coauthorship as it would likely be seen as an obvious thing to do). A rather similar situation happened recently with a conjecture in linear algebra that was discovered by three physicists. They communicated their discovery to Terry Tao, and this ended with a joint publication by the four authors that was posted less than two weeks later. See this recent article from Quanta magazine.


Section heading sytle I am writing my thesis right now and I vaguely remember that I was once told that in an English paper/manuscript nearly all words of a section title start with an uppercase letter.
For instance:
The Influence of the 19th Century on some Important Stuff
(just something I came up with)
Is this right? Currently I am doing it a little bit inconsequently which is in my opinion even worse. Is there a certain style recommended?

You can find a pretty good summary at: Scribbr
But note that some universities will have a required "style guide" as do many journals. Your advisor can probably point you in the right direction, as could any of the office staff in the department.
But doing it inconsistently is a problem. Stop doing that.


Should I say anything having found out (accidentally) problems with my teaching? I started teaching as a part-time hourly paid lecturer in September at quite a prestigious school. I had no classroom experience and had just returned from a long break off career with depression (even did bar work to get back on feet). I am completely over depression and a new person (in early 30s and more confident).

It was also a return to a subject I had not done properly for 10 years but had conducted research in a different area when working (and in the 9 months preceding teaching). I did desperately want to go back to the subject though having done very well at it when younger.

The university was short staffed so gave me 8 groups (118 students) to teach and also the chance to lecture in a subject I have never studied before (the lectures being masters level!) I had to design my own lectures - this was all hourly paid.

I taught the first 2 cycles of classes (16 2 hour lessons) without meeting the course leader for any guidance nor even introduction/welcome. I was just emailed handouts with the questions on.

I was neither issued a contract for the first month (written one) and asked to work without one on grounds I'd be paid later due to admin delay (I was paid!!). Due to this I had no library access, ID card, printing nor login to university facilities. This made it hard to teach.

I was there 2 months and taught 5 cycles of seminars to 8 groups (a lot of teaching). Also delivered lectures in the subject I have never studied (and they didn't give me a textbook for this and I had to borrow one off a friend).In the meanwhile I got a full time job at a less prestigious university (usually lucky given hard job market and timeout).

I felt like my teaching was always very good in the second week (last 4 groups) of the circle, but the first two groups it went badly and I learnt from teaching the first groups and remembered more knowledge as I went on (noticed more what questions needed). Most the students never prepared either which did not help.

When I said I was leaving some groups said 'you cannot, why?' and I received a few thank you emails when I left.

I logged into my uni email today (not cut off yet and I needed to access it to write a student a reference). I saw an email sent to all students on the courses saying 'all' my lessons would be repeated and taught again by the other two (more experienced staff) apart from one of them with the polite note 'for obvious reasons as discussed with you all in the last lecture'.. This lesson was my strongest for sure.

I've just found out basically my teaching was considered so crap they are teaching everyone again, but worse of all they didn't warn me - if my first lessons were awful, then complaints will have been made earlier.

This didn't happen overnight so I am embarrassed nobody said anything to me so I could try and resolve it or just step in and help me (easier than reteaching everyone).

Some students really did like my class although it was hard returning after time out.

I am worried about my reputation. Obviously I won't apply for a job there in future and I had no awareness that things had come to this and feel I should have been warned or told. They must have been discussing me (negatively) with a large group of students.

Consider that it may not have been the quality of your teaching that was the issue.

From your description it sounds as if the course was a shambles (probably best not tell us what university this was). Asking an inexperienced teacher to create 32 hours of Masters-level lectures, from scratch, to a large-ish class, without (from your account) any significant discussion of curriculum or assessment?! And hourly paid?  There are circumstances in which each of these would be semi-reasonable, but your account paints a very disappointing picture.

It's quite possible, for example, that the ‘obvious reasons’ are that the course leader/convenor/chair discovered after the fact that you'd omitted to cover a topic that was deemed vital for that course – perhaps the curriculum is constrained by pre-existing assessment or other course dependencies – but which the course leader had never told you about.

The above is of course speculation, but it might be useful for your peace of mind if you can discover if the issue was the quality of your teaching or some other organisational issue. If you are sensitive enough to your teaching, and to its reception, to be able to detect that it improved notably between the first and second cycles, then I would guess that it was at least OK.

Bear in mind, however, that if the real problem was that the course was badly organised, and you badly briefed, then the course leader and their colleagues might be rather sensitive or defensive about it, and you might have to bear that in mind when discussing it.  Also, bear in mind the possibility that – unfortunately and very discreditably – the course administration may have dealt with the problem by blaming the conveniently temporary and now-departed teacher: ‘an inexperienced teacher...; I'm sure I told them what to cover...; anyway, they never asked me....’

If anything like that is true, then it seems unlikely to me that there'd be any longer-term comeback to you. It's even possible that they think of you as someone who was placed in an impossible position but still managed to achieve something.

If you only want to find out details, rather than complain, then an informal setting for a chat might be more informative than a multi-person meeting; and if you know any permanent staff who taught on the course, they might be more usefully indiscreet than the course leader.


How do I politely ask a teacher to write a reference letter as soon as possible? I have 3 days left and I totally forgot I could add more than 1 reference letter to my application.

I need this teacher to write me a reference letter as soon as he can... and it feels so rude asking this.

How can I imply that subtly but clear enough for him to understand my situation?

Should I send him reference letters written by other professors to help him quickly find the form and content for the letter he will write?

Just go and talk to him.Tell him about how much you need the placement and how valuable his recommendation-letter would be to you (don't try to butter him/her).Be frank and kindly request him/her but be brief and direct. Don't worry teachers don't mind it,They want to help you as well.


Is it appropriate to bring coffee and cookies to a PhD defense? First of all, I've already asked my adviser about this, but I just want to see what is the overall idea of the community on this.

In Mexico it is usually required for the student to do this, but that is about the only place I have references of people doing defenses.

I was thinking of bringing bottled water, but since is the middle of the winter I thought coffee might be a better choice.

How I have seen it handle in France: usually, no food and drinks is given out during the defense, except for a bottle of water and a glass who are set on table of each member of the defense committee. However, as you say, it may be cold outside and committee members may be glad for a hot drink and/or maybe something to eat (depending what time it is). So, it is quite customary for the thesis advisor(s) to actually invite the committee members to join him some time before the defense starts, where they can make small talk and drink coffee. If the defense starts early afternoon, they committee can even go to lunch together, giving them an opportunity to discuss practical stuff (who will chair the committee? what order will people talk in? etc.).

Then, after the defense is concluded, there is a celebratory “cocktail” (buffet and drinks) to which the defense committee is invited, and to which they usually attend at least for half an hour.


Do semester, weekly, and daily planners work for undergrad or grad students? I always feel like I’m pressed for time but don’t get as much done as others around me. I’m busy all day, but then I need to pull an “all-nighter” to finish something I couldn’t complete during the day. The day (or sometimes the week!) slips by and I feel like I haven’t accomplished anything. I have read that maintaining planers (semester-wise, weekly, and daily) is often helpful. Some of the universities (Univ. of Melbourne, Michigan State etc.) seem to provide planer templates for students.  Making a planner is not very common where I studied. I would love to know some personal experiences. How well does this work?

Planners are good for certain things, but they aren't going to solve your problem.
Fundamentally, they are good for recording future obligations, such as project due dates, exam dates, doctor's appointments, and the like. But they won't give you better study habits.
Let me suggest two things that might help to get you on a better "schedule".
First, do an inventory of what it is that you are actually doing and compare it to what you think you should be doing to be more effective. All nighters and cramming for exams are an exceedingly poor way to succeed. The worst exam I ever wrote was actually an open book (timed) exam, for which I'd stayed up all night preparing. I couldn't actually think when it became important to do so. But, figure out whether you are wasting time, even time spent studying ineffectively by pushing too hard without breaks. Your brain needs occasional breaks. Aerobic exercise is a really good way to take a break.
Second, make a habit of carrying a pen and a few index cards with you wherever you go. Some of those cards are blank and available for recording notes, but others are summaries of recent lectures (perhaps), and one of them has a list of things to accomplish for the day. You can add time requirements as needed. You can check them off. I suggest actual index cards and not an electronic equivalent, since cards can be easily updated at any time and take up little room in your pocket.
You can read about the Hipster PDA at an answer I gave at CSEducators for more on effective use of index cards. Use that as your "planner".

More than half a century ago, when I was an undergraduate, the top student in my graduating class (valedictorian) carried a hipster pda at all times. I later used one to help manage my teaching.


Is it bad etiquette to come to office hours that aren't for your particular class? I study mathematics at a large state university. My professors sometimes teach two courses in a given semester, usually two undergraduate or one undergraduate, one graduate course. Typically they hold separate office hours for each course.

I come up with questions about what I'm learning at various times throughout the week, and often it's more convenient to ask this question in the office hours for the other course the professor is teaching, i.e. the course I'm not in. Perhaps it's the fastest way to get my answer, perhaps the office hours for my course have passed for the week, whatever reason.

Would you consider using office hours for a different course (but same professor) bad etiquette? (I do try to give priority to students of the other course, and try to avoid taking up too much time if there are students waiting.)

(Note: most of my professors have a open-door type policy, so I don't think they really mind. This question is more on a general level, i.e. including professors that don't have such policies in place.)

I don't think the professor minds too much, but you should of course be prepared for him to decline if he chooses to. Though I myself could hardly care less, I have colleagues who would definitely think unsuitable (because it's not how it's planned).

However, I think the other students might mind, as you noted, if they began to see it as you “stealing” time from their limited allocation. As always, sharing is no problem unless the resource is scarce :)

So, in short, I don't think it's a big problem, given that you are mindful of others.


Applying to state-side Graduate programs with European degree(s) So I'm a bit confused because the structure of higher education is different in America than it is here. In the States the typical undergraduate degree (for example in physics) is around 4 years. From what I heard, most students who end up getting a doctorate go straight to "grad school" after their undergrad degree. However in Europe, according to the Bologna Process , the 3 year Bachelors is usually followed by a 1-2 year Masters program before enrolling in a Phd program.

The question is, how are these 2 systems of education compatible? Let's say I want to do my physics Phd in the U.S., would I need to have both my Bachelors and Masters degrees before applying to a "Grad School", or would a bachelors suffice?

Usually a BSc would suffice. This is because PhDs in the US typically contain 2-3 years of lectures, coursework and exams before you do any research. This is the equivalent of doing a separate Master's (and indeed, many students pick up a Master's degree on the way to the PhD, almost by default). In the European system, PhD students start research from day one, so most will have a Master's degree already.

You could consider emailing the graduate admissions people at the universities you're interested in, to find out more about entry requirements specific to your own case.


What action is appropriate when co-authors admit that the first author committed plagiarism? I'm the executive editor of a PubMed-indexed journal. Last year The journal published a paper with four authors in the byline. Today I   received an e-mail from the first author admitting that she translated large parts of a research paper published in a local language and used it in the paper's introduction and discussion without referring to the author. She claimed that she did not realize at the time that this was unethical. The other authors, when they discovered the problem, asked her to send us an e-mail containing these details and also sent an e-mail asking us to withdraw the paper.

I could not access the paper written in the local language because it was published in a local journal. Accordingly I'm not sure how much of the text was used.

We use a plagiarism detection software but for this paper it did not yield  any results that warranted attention.

Is withdrawal the solution? If so, how can I contact PubMed to do it?
Are there any further steps to be taken concerning the authors?

Retract the article.

That's what editors of reputable journals do when an author spontaneously asks for it for reasons of plagiarism.

What other options were you considering? Adding a note saying "The authors admitted to have plagiarized large portions of this article but since our system did not detect it, we publish it anyway."?

It's the duty of the editorial board to execute the retraction, possibly with the support of the publisher. But surely your journal has a standard procedure to handle retraction...

It certainly would help to notify PubMed that will publish the retraction notice in lieu of the article. I suspect this is part of the information that your journal is providing to PubMed by default...


How many people apply for a math postdoc in the US? What would be a ballpark figure (or range even) for the number of postdoctoral applications received for a typical US math departmental-wide postdoctoral position?

Sounds like a Fermi problem!

Here's my estimate.

How many new math PHDs are granted in the US per year?

Number of major US institutions (~1000)
Fraction of major US institutions offering a PHD math program (1 in 4, or 0.25)
Average number of doctorates conferred by each PHD math program per year (6)

This gives roughly (1000 x 0.25 x 6) = 1500 new math PHDs per year.

How many postdoc positions are in the US?

Number of US institutions offering postdoc positions (300?)
Number of postdoc positions per offering institution (3?)
Fraction of postdoc positions opening per year (1 in 2, or 0.5) (assuming two-year positions)

That gives (300 x 3 x 0.5) ~ 450 postdoc positions opening per year

How many people apply to a given position?

Number of new math PHDs per year (1500, see above)
Fraction of new PHDs applying for postdoc positions (1 in 2, or 0.5)
Average number of postdoc applications each new PHD fills out (30?)
Number of open postdoc positions per year (450, or almost 500, see above)

This gives (1500 x 0.5 x 30 / 500) ~ 60 applications per postdoc position.

This approach misses something, however.

Not everyone applying for these positions has just received their PHD: competition is increasing. There are fewer tenure-track positions open, causing postdocs to apply to a second (or even third!) postdoc position. Furthermore, not all applicants earned their PHD in the US.

To account for all the other applicants (current postdocs, PHDs from other disciplines, etc.), let's multiply that figure by a factor of 1.5, so there's (60 x 1.5) = 90 applicants per postdoc position.

Thus my final estimate:

I estimate that each postdoc position receives an average of 90 applicants per postdoc position.

Accuracy

This PDF has some great figures (2013-2014) for comparison, though I checked this after my estimate:

1926 math PHDs conferred.
38% (626) are reported to be in postdoc positions in the US (another 200 or so are abroad)

Lastly, the "800 applicants for 2 positions" figure (comment from @Sana) is for an R1 institution, and is therefore likely to be much higher than it would be for an average institution.


Should I choose the same editor for two papers? If I submit two papers in the same area at the same time to the same journal, and the journal allows me to choose from a list of editors, should I choose the same editor or different editors? What are the pros and cons of each way?

I've have multiple papers under review at the same time in the same journal for various reasons (e.g., special issues, highly preferred venue, standard community venue).

When the papers were linked, we made sure to request the same editor---otherwise, you're just making life more difficult for the editors because the editors of the two papers will have to coordinate in any case.
When the papers were not linked (and I've had utterly unrelated papers simultaneously under review, since they came from different collaborations), we selected an appropriate editor to request independently, which might or might not turn out to be the same.

The key principle here is to remember that your selection of an editor is only your personal recommendation to the journal.  Just like a statement preferred reviewers, the journal has no particular compulsion to abide by your selection. If they think a different editorial distribution makes sense, they will assign it that way instead.

Thus: don't handicap a paper unnecessarily by recommending a suboptimal choice of editor.


Publishing several research papers in the same journal In some cases a specific journal is one of the most important and relevant places for a research topic. So, is this normal and acceptable (for a pre-Ph.D. researcher) to have several papers published in that journal? I once heard from a professor that it may affect the CV in a destructive way.

If I have several papers published in the same journal, will people think that my papers were published not because they were good, but because I was somehow able to bypass the peer review process?

It would depend on the journal, of course. There should be no negative effect if it is a high quality, respected journal such as one associated with a professional society. A predatory journal would be a different matter of course. But the several papers in the same high quality journal have been reviewed by a fairly large number of independent reviewers.

Whether the editors would continue to accept papers from the same person is up to them, of course.


How to react to a student proselytising during office hours? A few weeks ago, a student asked me during my office hours whether I was religious or not. More specifically, he asked whether I believed in his religion, and was visibly disappointed when I replied negatively.

How should I react to a question such as this? Religion is a bit of a touchy subject, and even if I am a TA (i.e., not the instructor of the course - and more importantly, also a student), I don't want to be put in a similar situation again.

More generally speaking, how do I react to a situation in which I have to answer a question in a way that I know is likely to upset a student, without lying or making the situation worse?

edit: Some comments have pointed out that the student was never actually preaching, and I understand and somewhat agree. The reason I chose this phrasing over anything else was because he did try to make the conversation into something along the lines of "Do you want to learn about the ways of [religious figure]? There's always time, you know".

edit 2: I'm in computer science; there is no link whatsoever between religion and the contents of the class (or the whole program, really).

You address this by stating directly

  "I would prefer not to discuss this topic during office hours. Can I help you with any questions you have on the homework?"

If the issue persists, I would speak with the professor and perhaps also your dean of students (or something similar).


How to turn something negative to positive in SOP? I did not pass my PhD candidacy twice and planning to apply at other institutes to pursue my PhD dream. In that case, should I mention my failure in candidacy to my SOP? If yes, how can I convert that to something positive to make my application impactful. Please suggest. Thank you

Did you graduate with a master's degree? If yes, then one option is to avoid discussing this altogether. You can approach this (honestly) as "I earned my master's degree and now I want to get my PhD." They may guess what happened (or your letters of recommendation may spill the beans), but it still lets you avoid dwelling on a negative in your SOP.
Your other option (and only option, if you left without a degree) is to provide your own perspective on what happened. "Turning a negative into a positive" is probably too much to hope for, but you can take some of the sting out of the negative. I would suggest to: acknowledge the failure, explain what went wrong, and explain why things will be different next time. You can do this very concisely -- just a few sentences.


Motivation and presentation not explained in the paper My conference paper got conditionally accepted, but one of the remarks of the reviewer was: "The presentation and motivation are not explained." I'm not sure what to think about this. English is not my native language, so I'm not quite following what does this means.

What doeas "presentation" in the paper means? I was at the conference, and I have presented my work, but I guess that definitelly doesn't have anything to do with this review.

And about motivation, I'm not quite following how motivation is not explained? Can someone point to a few examples that explain this issue?

I hope I haven't done anything wrong quoting one sentece from the review. Also, I'm really sorry if it is something that happens quite often. Oh, I forgot to say that I'am a mathematician.:)

I agree with @gnometorule.  It looks like the reviewer wrote a sloppy comment.  I imagine the reviewer meant, "The presentation needs improvement, and the motivation should be explained better."  Presentation means how you present your ideas.  I suppose the reviewer felt that the ideas could be presented more clearly.  Motivation makes the reader care about your contribution.

Hopefully the reviewer also made some specific comments that will guide your revision process.


Are automated online quizzes effective for formative feedback to students I would like to increase my use of formative feedback (feedback showing students whether they understand material correctly without impacting their grades) and would like to integrate it with online quizzes.

I'm wondering if this has been found to be effective.

My goal is to make it simple and automated. While I could write one myself (school generally does not pay for things like this), I would prefer to avoid building it (or paying). What I'm really looking for is something like forms in Google docs but would also somehow automatically and instantly score the answer (limiting student answers to multiple choice) and displaying the results to the student as soon as the submit button is pressed.

So, this is a compound question: Does using online auto-scoring quizzes help students (I believe it will) through formative feedback and is there a way to get Google forms to give immediate results?

If your school uses any sort of online learning platform (like Moodle), they often (and I know Moodle specifically) do this.