Contacting EiC on social media I am in a very frustrating situation. My article is under review for almost 8 months and I didn't hear any response. The average review time for the journal is 3 months. The journal is highly reputed journal, and based on the average time one can expect a response within 2.5 to 4.5 months.
I sent several emails to Editor in Chief (EiC) but I receive same answer, a kind of auto response. Moreover, according to journal policy I can not know the name or contact information of Associate Editor (AE).
The EiC is with me on various social media plateforms like Linkedin and facebook. We had few conversations on various topics, but I never told him about my article. The question is can I discuss status of my article with EiC on social media in informal text messaging?  Is it ethical and fair? I want to expatiate the review process to same level as journal average time shows. I don't want to get an unfair advantage.

I personally don't think that neither "ethics" nor "fairness" are at stake here because if I understood your question correctly what you want to do is simply ask a question using an informal method of communication. I don't see how this can create an unfair advantage to you or even raise ethical issues since the question alone doesn't mean things will get done more quickly/unfairly. You simply want a status update on your paper.

However, I also don't see how such course of action can help you. You should also take into consideration that these things to take time and unless you have a pretty urgent reason, it might not be worth asking it again. Sometimes the EiC is having trouble finding a suitable reviewer for your paper or the reviewer itself isn't finding the time to read your paper (keep in mind that they're usually invited to do so, without any remuneration), sometimes older issues of the paper are delayed... my point is: whatever is going on, it isn't good for the EiC either and he's probably already taking the measures necessary.


What is an "Advanced Studies Diploma" equivalent to? To be admitted to my PhD in Mechanical Engineering, I had to have a 1-year coursework, with 8 subjects and a research-proposal defense. Here in Portugal, an “Advanced Studies Diploma” in Portuguese "Diploma de Estudos Avançados" is awarded, but I would like to know what it’s really worth because I am thinking of moving to another country, and I am not sure whether I will finish my PhD.

What is that equivalent in countries such as England, Germany or the USA?
Can I ask for a degree recognition in an university of one of those countries? Here in Portugal it is not considered a degree, just a 60 ECTS diploma.
What does this diploma give me in terms of jobs? Do I have an easier access to some jobs? If yes, which kind of jobs? I am a Materials Engineer MSc., with an Advanced Studies Diploma in Mechanical Engineering

As a PhD student from the Universidade de Lisboa (https://fenix.tecnico.ulisboa.pt/cursos/deic/curriculo), who is also a student of mobility (Erasmus Mundus), I hope I can add some of my observations which might be helpful.

Advanced Studies Diploma is everything of PhD, except the PhD defence (since it also includes the research proposal defence, that we call "CAT"). In my university (IST-ULisboa), CAT usually comes by the end of the 2nd year. To pass that, you would already have a solid research plan with possibly a few publications and research done.

So, this is part of the PhD (in IST, "Advanced Study Diploma" is used interchangeably with PhD), than a prerequisite to be accepted to a PhD.

I would assume, you already have completed your masters and half-way through your PhD since you have completed all the course works and defended the research proposal, hence making you a "PhD candidate".

However, unless you already have some arrangement with another university or a professor in another country (as in Erasmus Mundus and other exchange/mobility programs), I would strongly advice you against contemplating the idea of migrating/halting half-way through. It is not going to be easy to move your credits to the new university.

With your advanced courses, you may have gained some expertise in academia and research. However, it will be still something half-done than a complete degree. But this part is just my personal opinion. You may list it as an on-going PhD in any case, I suppose.


scholarships/fellowships/funding not available to Masters in the US and UK Is this generally true? If so, how to find those scarce sources of them?

Depending on what program you are looking into, the universities (at least in the US) should have grants and fellowships predominantly based on merit. (Some grants may be issued by the university based on proven financial need, but it is often not much and there does need to be a need). Your best option is to see what fellowships are offered by the university and apply early on, as most deadlines for the fall are early January.


Is the postdoc salary negotiable in Canada? I'm a statistician being offered 45k CAD for a postdoctoral position in Canada. I have a few questions:

Is this number negotiable at all?
Is it rude to ask for extra money to cover relocation expenses (US to Canada)?
The cost of a parking pass is 1000 CAD per year at this place (compared to 200 per year for faculty at my current university). Is it weird to ask for this to be compensated?

In my experience, postdocs are grant-funded with a nonnegotiable salary. It doesn't hurt to clarify though.
The department chairs I have known would not have considered this rude. Reimbursement for moving costs is often offered as a sort of signing bonus.
Reimbursement for parking is unheard of in my experience. Again, asking politely shouldn't be a problem, but I wouldn't get my hopes up.


Did conferences have poster sessions before PCs were widespread? At modern scientific conferences (at least in my field), poster sessions are a very important part of the conference.  Most posters are prepared by the authors using modern computer software which may or may not be fit for purpose, but which does fulfill the task.

How was this done before 30–35 years ago?  I'm aware that oral presentations (mostly) used transparencies.  Of course poster printing as such existed, but preparing a poster would have been much more difficult.  Did scientific conferences before the 1980s have poster sessions?  If so, how did scientists design and prepare their posters without the aid of GUI-based, WYSIWIG, or LaTeX + viewer software?

My technical career started in the early 1980's before the IBM PC came out. On campus we had a large mainframe and various minicomputers. I was running experiments using a Terak personal computer with an (one) 8" floppy drive, 16k of memory, and UCSD Pascal.

For typesetting, one could use text processing languages such as nroff, troff, and spinoff (IBM's version of nroff/troff) on the mainframe, Vaxen, and HPs. Tektronix graphics monitors were available on various machines, and they had thermal printers attached to save a hard copy.

For talks, generally everybody hand wrote on overhead slides. Graphics were also copied by hand onto the slide by using the printed graph underneath. If you had lots of time, the graphic arts folks would be happy to make great plots (which you definitely had them do for papers). Sometimes you would have them photograph their professional graphics onto slides for talks. Most conferences had an overhead projector at the front of the room, and a slide projector at the back. You learned to show up early to get your slides into the projector and test for up/down/reverse so it actually looked OK. Some really good speakers went ahead and free-formed the talk on the overhead projector, writing as they went.

By the late 1980's we had actual PCs, TeX/LaTeX, and HP pen plotters for great output onto overhead sheets. Thus, for a talk you could assemble a set of machine-generated overheads that looked clean and fancy.

Posters went much the same way. In the early 1980's you would format blocks of text and print them out, often cutting up the printed sheets into pieces (e.g. for descriptions of graphs). The graphs were often the thermal prints, or perhaps (with enough time) output from the graphic arts folks. One would physically cut and paste (or drymount) things together into some number of parts that could be carried to the conference and assembled with push pins on the supplied cork boards. Some folks did substantial portions either handwritten or using various graphics arts tools. In high school I took drafting classes, and certainly knew how to use Lettreset and other tools for neat, consistent lettering.

A (fairly late) example of 'assembled' posters can be found at AIP's Emilio Segre Visual Archives, where people have pinned up various bits onto boards. This is late enough (1999) that the various pieces look computer-generated, but the general idea is the same. Another from the archives is also at the AIP. I think you get the general idea.

Large poster scale printers became available at places like Kinkos in the early 1990s. I can remember taking a 3.25" floppy disk to a conference in Boston and having my poster printed on the spot for what seemed a lot of money, but it looked a lot better than my earlier ones. Now folks seem to have given up on the just-in-time mode, and lug giant tubes around with their posters. I'm not sure that is progress.

Perhaps next we will just be allotted a huge monitor, and can plug a USB stick into it, or just have the poster appear on virtual reality goggles.


How can author deal with late reviews? Another problem I personally struggle with in peer-review publication process is the situation when review takes really, really, really long. The precise definition of "long" is probably very area-specific: for example a paper in Maths will probably took longer to review than one in Physics. Many well-established journals and major publishers, sadly, prefer not to specify the "rules of the game" precisely, particularly how long the review process should normally take. Fortunately, I quite often serve as a referee with the very same journals and know the amount of time I am given to write a review. Unfortunately, when I am an author, I do not observe these deadlines to be always met. For example, a notable U.S. publisher would ask a reviewer to send a review in 2 months; but in practice a first review of my paper once took as long as 8 months.

As a rule of thumb, I usually start writing to editors with questions about "the status of my paper" in X+1 months time, when X is a deadline time for a reviewer to submit a review. This strategy is not particularly successful — what I usually get is a recommendation to be more patient. Since there is no "official" deadline time announced, there is no formal ground for complaints here.

Of course, such delays lead to a whole bunch of funny situations, particularly if a preprint is put online (e.g., on arXiv) and the results are presented in some conferences. Follow-ups with no official paper to cite, grant applications in which you can not justify by a solid publication, good research but bad bibliometrics or CV, to name just a few.

Could you recommend an efficient way to deal with this problem?

I have found that a polite, terse e-mail to the associate editor with a clear history line often works in getting some response.  Occasionally, I have written the editor-in-chief if an associate editor is ignoring me.  As Peter points out, there may be legitimate reasons for a delay, including:

The editor is having a hard time finding a competent reviewer (maybe the area is too narrow).
Your paper is very hard to understand (sometimes, if it's badly written but seems to have some elements of novelty, a reviewer will try to plow through to understand what is going one).
The editor needs an additional reviewer in order to break a strong difference of opinion between the original reviewers.

When even the editor-in-chief does not answer in a timely manner (and I have had this only once in my career), your best recourse is to never submit future articles to that journal.  You will be doing your community (and the next submitter) a service.


Should a teacher help if the student does not ask for it? Alice is teaching a class and one student is clearly not understanding the material very well. Should she approach the student (e.g. ask to meet after class, write an email, or during class itself if it's not a lecture) and offer to help?

The argument for "yes" is that although the student might not ask for help, he or she wants to pass the course, so the teacher's intervention is appropriate. Some students also come from conservative cultures, are afraid to be seen as a fool, or are simply shy.

The argument for "no" is that it's possible the student wants to puzzle it out himself/herself. Instead, Alice should just make herself available for consultation. If the student does not make use of all the resources at his or her disposal, it's not her fault.

Is there any evidence that one style of teaching or the other is preferable?

Part of teaching is figuring out if what you want to teach is actually understood. This is something you should be doing continuously. As part of that you automatically find the students that struggle more than others, and that typically offers natural moments in which you can discuss what that student can do to improve things. So I don't see how someone can teach effectively without answering "yes" to your question.


When can you call yourself doctor? I just passed my dissertation defense. This means there is nothing left but paperwork to get my doctorate. Among the various congratulations I've received a couple have termed me: Dr. My assumption was that I'm not really a doctor until I go through the graduation ceremony, but now I'm wondering. Is there a convention as to when exactly I can call myself Doctor?

Writing as an Administrator:

It is appropriate to use the title when you are a graduate, ie, when the degree is conferred either in notice by letter or by ceremony (which ever comes first).  Prior to that your status is that of a graduand.  If you've been using the work-title PhD Candidate you might consider changing to PhD Graduand to indicate this status: that you're awaiting conferral but you've met the substantive criteria for fulfillment of your degree.  Additional source: Swinburn on Postnominals.

Congratulations by the way!


What are the effects of not taking any humanities courses? I am in high school but soon I will be going to college. I already have a hard time dealing with the silliness of high school (on an intellectual level), and  in particular I have 0 interest in humanities courses (frankly I think literature is pathetic thing to study). I am interested only in maths and science.

When I get to college, I plan only to take maths and science courses and not attend any humanities courses even if they are required as part of the core curriculum. What are the potential ramifications of this assuming the college is one of the prestigious ones like Harvard/MIT. Will a bad grade in humanities course mean less opportunities later on?

What are the potential ramifications of this assuming the college is one of the prestigous ones like Harvard/MIT.

I don't think I've ever been in a humanities courses that had more than 30 people in it.

It is likely the professor will take attendance or require participation to ensure that coursework is being done. In most cases, you have to get a certain minimum grade for core as well.

Looking at Harvard's core in Computer Science as an example:

You have to take 7 of these types courses, and receive a passing grade in each of them.

Foreign Cultures
Historical Study A
Historical Study B
Literature and Arts A
Literature and Arts B
Literature and Arts C
Moral Reasoning
Science B
Social Analysis

So if you decide to just skip them entirely, that will be probably 7 x 3.5 credits = 24.5 credits worth of courses. Let's say you pass with a D, a fantastic 1.0 for GPA calculations.

With an estimate of 120 credits for graduation, and As in every other class (95.5 credits), you'll end up with a GPA of 3.39, which is likely to impact graduate school or professional school applications.

If you AP out or something, and end up with only needing 90 credits for graduation, it becomes a 3.18. I'm pretty sure it's all but impossible to get into any sort of graduate program with a GPA that low.

I'd also like to point out that writing skills are typically looked upon positively as well, in both research and academia.


Writing a research proposal in mathematics for graduate school My question is about research proposal, I want to apply for a PhD program which requires writing a research proposal.

What exactly should I write for the methodology section of a research proposal in the area of mathematics? I have several ideas about my project, but I have not proved anything yet, so how can I know its methodology?

My recommendation is to try to ask some current students if you can see their proposals.  Obviously, what they did can't be all that terrible.

More generally, I would agree that methodology is not a extremely well defined concept in mathematics, but you can write something intelligent about it anyways.  How are you going to approach the problem?  Are there special cases that might be illuminating?  Stepping stone lemmata you might get to before the whole proof?  What areas of mathematics do you hope to use?  Unfortunately, I can't speak for the system in Italy, but certainly in the US with such research proposals, the main point is to see if the candidate can write about and analyze mathematics in a cogent way, not the details of the problem.


Is taking a postdoc for training purposes wise as an industry scientist? I'm considering taking a postdoc after 5 years as an analytical chemist in the pharma industry (small molecule). This may seem backwards and counter-productive due to the massive pay cut but here's my reasoning:

I am extremely unhappy in my current role; I've been pigeon-holed into developing methods for a rather
niche technique that isn't versatile and incredibly uninteresting.
I've also been pushed into pure project management and doing little
to no science.

When searching and interviewing for roles I want, it has been
highlighted that, while I have industry experience, I am not
experienced enough in mass spectrometry or large molecule work, which
I do not have the opportunity to train at my current job. I've been
searching for 6 months now with several interviews that all came back
with the same feedback about my lack of mass spectrometry or biomolecule experience.

A postdoc position is likely available to me through my personal
network and it would be an intensive way to train in mass spectrometry and large
molecule analysis (as well as some data science and bioinformatics). There is a grad student who currently handles most of the technical aspects of the instrumentation and sample prep (he'll be my immediate mentor) while the PI is more on the bioinformatics and publication side of things. I will be asked to help conduct analysis, maintain the instruments, and write papers (the PI has mountains of data but no time or desire to write the papers).

My logic is that, with 2 years of focused mass spectrometry training and 5 years in
industry, I would be a more attractive candidate and have more
options in terms of where I might land a job (different industries,
possible academic facilities staff, or national labs staff). I would also have materials for presentation that highlight my competency whereas right now, I only have my PhD work (in a different technique) and a generic industry presentation (cannot use company data so I can only give lectures on general topics in pharma).

My long term goal is to shift my expertise to mass spectrometry and either join a national lab, core facility, or build up an analytical department at a startup. Mass spectrometry is incredibly versatile and is a critical hard skill in pharma, biotech, food science, environmental, and other key industries.

Am I thinking about this correctly? Or am I making a mistake be treating the postdoc as a training opportunity and stepping stone?

Sorry, this doesn't seem to be a good idea, especially considering some of the more subtle points you've shared. In general taking post-docs after 5-6 years need not be a bad thing, but people would generally shoot for a prestigious fellowship, not something through personal contacts.
I also want to recommend that you take this just because of how unhappy the current role makes you, but considering your situation I can't. You're in that tricky (not uncommon) position where your PhD, current role and future aspirations are in different fields. As such, you should be very wary about letting go of what you have for something that you potentially may get. There is every chance that the grass appears greener on the mass spectrometry side, and after being trained on it (by a grad student!), you may find that there are difficulties and unpleasant challenges that you aren't currently aware of.
You seem to move towards mass spectrometry in the long term, and I get the uneasy feeling that you're jumping onto the bandwagon without enough thought. Primarily because if you really want to make a big switch, getting a nameless (i.e. without a fellowship) postdoc and being trained by a grad student (and neither earning certification nor being under the wing of an experienced academic) doesn't sound wise.
There's every possibility that I'm assuming too much, so please use your discretion and don't be hasty.


Bad GRE scores, but otherwise decent application to PhD program. Still worth it? I just finished my MA in Global Affairs, and I am applying to several International Relations PhD programs, one of which is very competitive.
I have a 3.9 GPA, 1 1/2 years of experience in research including an internship at a very respected research center, and very strong LORs. My writing sample was recently accepted to a conference, and I have received great feedback on it otherwise.
However, my GRE scores suck. I took them before I applied to my MA program, and despite studying like crazy for close to 3 months, I bombed. My combined score, converted to the older system is 1020, and I somehow got a 3.5 on the analytical writing section. This last part really shocked me, since writing is one of my strongest skills, and any professor I've had can attest to that. I wanted to retake the test before applying, but my last semester was very hectic and I could not carve out the time to study. Admittedly, I have had very little guidance on the application process, so I told myself that the rest of my application would make up for it. Recently I have begun to worry that this assumption was wrong.

Since I have made it this far in the application process, I am still going to apply. However, I want to have realistic expectations. Am I doomed, or do GRE scores not necessarily make or break a holistic review?

Good question. Have considering applying abroad where you might benefit from not needing to report the GRE? If you can go abroad, then you should strongly consider applying to universities where you would not only benefit from being able to show your strongest suit (i.e., all of your grades and achievements rather than GRE) but also facing less competition, cost, and higher probabilities of funding. Let me know if this is an option and, if so, I can add more.


"Poster presentation" vs "poster only" in academic conference I want to submit an abstract. I have three options:

Oral presentation
Poster presentation
Poster ONLY

What is the difference between 2 and 3?

A poster presentation generally means that before the poster session you get a short (~3 min) slot to summarise your poster to the audience.

A poster session (poster only) implies that you only want to display your poster, not speak about it to the audience (you should still stand near your poster to answer people's questions about it as they walk around).


Does it make sense to translate my bachelor's thesis? I'm currently applying to several PhD programs in the STEM sector in Europe. Some universities invite me to submit my bachelor's thesis as an optional document for my application. I would like to do that because the thesis can give some insight about my background, even if it wasn't about anything new and it wasn't published.
Problem is, my thesis was written in a language different from English. Does it make sense if I translate it into English and send both the original and the translation for the application?
The thesis is less than 30 pages long and it would be quick to translate. However, I wonder if it is common practice and if it will be considered by a potential committee.

Yes I would translate it.
Some pros:

It helps you demonstrate your capabilities in research;
It may help you demonstrate your knowledge of the subject matter in your field if relevant;
It demonstrates that you are oriented toward communicating the findings of your research, which is a graduate capability they are looking to develop anyway; and
It shows initiative.

Some cons:

Its too expensive to translate;
Its too technical to translate;
You think your application would be stronger without it!

These are the only cons I can think of...and my guess is based on what you have said that the pros definitely outweigh the cons :-)


How to include text intended only for reviewers in main manuscript submission? When I submit papers using blind review, I sometimes need to include text to reviewers that is not intended for the actual publication.

For example,

Sometimes I include a URL to the OSF that has all the materials and data for the project. However, because the paper is blind review, the url is not yet active. Instead I include a special blind review URL with comments along the lines of "while this paper is under peer review, an version of the repository without author names can be accessed at ....". I often place this in a footnote.
Other times I might want to put a black mark through something identifying like the institution that approved the ethics of the study, because this might give away my identity. And I might want to include some text to the reviewers explaining why this was blacked out.

However, I often find that these kind of notes to reviewers end up in the proofs. Of course, at that stage, I can just ask the the people doing the proofs to remove this. But I think it would be better if I didn't have to do that, and I didn't have to worry about whether they would make the change correctly.

So, the question:

How do you include text in a journal submission manuscript that you want the reviewers to read, but that you don't want to appear in the main publication?

I've tried using footnotes and that didn't work. I thought maybe putting such text in a textbox with some special words might help.
Has anyone solved this problem?

You mentioned the online e-companion approach which works well in some situations.

Another I've used is adding an Appendix to the paper so it is organically included in the initial submission only. We explicitly label it for the reviewers' convenience only and that it will be removed from the final version. After the first round of reviews, we typically remove it and place as an appendix in our Response to Reviewers. This has been convenient for us as authors and for the editor. It may not work for all situations.


Can a researcher hire 100% themself with funds from H2020 project (or other call)? Once in some conference I heard that some guy was working as researcher (PI in different projects) at some university in Italy, but he had no official position. I understood that somehow, before entering this university he applied to an H2020 project (no ERC, StG, CoG, or AdV) that he got and that in the conditions he put in the budget 100% of his salary. So he kind of hired himself. Then he was always applying to H2020 (or other) calls in order to get continuity of his contract.

I wonder how this works.

It's quite normal for people to pay 100% of their salary (or the salaries of researchers, post docs, etc) out of H2020 project grants. I'm not following what you see as the problem. It just means that person spends 100% of their time on that research.


Reviewing papers at a journal where your own work is currently submitted As an editor, how appropriate do you think it is to send a referee request to an author who currently has a paper under review at the same journal (with you as the editor with final say on whether that paper is accepted)? Because of the power imbalance, it seems as though the author might feel compelled to agree to review the paper even if they didn't otherwise want to. Or maybe they will feel an instinct  to say the paper is terrible if they believe fewer other papers being accepted might increase their own chances.

Context: I am an editor myself and I never do this on principle. But as an author it has happened to me on a number of occasions, and I'm not sure how justified I am in finding it so annoying.

For further context (in case it matters) this is in pure mathematics.

Bonus question: Is asking for a "quick opinion" (rather than a full review) in this context more or less appropriate than asking for a full referee report?

I think this is normal.

  Because of the power imbalance

I think the power imbalance is a bit overstated here. Editors want good papers for their journal; a good editor is not primarily just farming out the job of peer review with as little effort as possible.

If I...

1) submitted a paper,

2) received a request to review a paper,

3) denied that request for good reason, and then

4) had my paper rejected by the editor,

...either those outcomes are unrelated and the paper should be submitted elsewhere, or the journal is crap and the paper should be submitted elsewhere.

  it seems as though the author might feel compelled to agree to review the paper even if they didn't otherwise want to.

I think this is not really a very crucial ethical issue, although I am not in mathematics where maybe the burden of review is greater. Certainly if this compelled someone to review a paper they were not qualified to review, that would be a problem, but I don't see this being a substantial issue.

If you are submitting papers you should also be reviewing them. If all papers were single-author papers, then the number of papers you review should be greater than the number you submit. If a journal is in your area of study such that you submit papers to it, you are among the people in the best position to review other submissions applicable to that journal.

  Or maybe they will feel an instinct to say the paper is terrible if they believe fewer other papers being accepted might increase their own chances

I can see this being an issue for grants where there is a limited pool of money and a zero-sum game. I don't know of any journal where it is a practice to rank order articles and then reject one for publication because it wasn't the 12th best article submitted this month. Journals just don't operate on that time scale, and if a journal did decide to be more or less permissive due to overall submission and acceptance rates, that would be over a longer time scale than the review of a single paper.

In summary, feel free to feel annoyed: feelings don't necessarily require justification. However, I don't think there is an ethical violation here.


Why do people say you shouldn't do a PhD unless you want a career in research? I know a PhD is supposed to be an apprenticeship for future researchers.  But what if you enjoy getting the PhD, but have no intention of doing research in the future?  It seems like being a professor is really stressful and there is a lot of competition, and same thing for other sorts of non-grad-school research jobs.  If you think this way, does this mean you shouldn't get a PhD, and why?

Research is not just the most important aspect of any PhD program worth the name; it's the entire point. Everything you do as part of the program (teaching duties aside) is to prepare you for a career as a researcher. So getting a PhD without any intention of putting this research training to use would be like spending years as a baking apprentice without any intention of becoming a baker: maybe not a complete waste if you really like baking (but not enough to make it a career?), but almost inarguably not the best use of your time.

Lots of people get PhDs and don't become researchers, but if these people had known beforehand what industry they would end up in, odds are they could have gotten a better jump start on their career by getting a  Master's degree focused on that industry and entering the workforce after one or two years (rather than 5+ for the PhD). There are exceptions to this principle, but they are relatively uncommon, and usually involve industry jobs that somewhat resemble research anyway.

I can think of only two other justifications for getting a PhD: learning for learning's sake, and prestige. The former is a noble goal, but if all you want to do is learn without contributing to the body of knowledge in your field, this is contrary to the spirit of (good) PhD programs as stated above. Furthermore, you can learn all you want in your free time without entering a PhD program. Find out what the standard graduate-level textbooks are in your field, and work through them. If your knowledge gets up to the research level in a particular topic, you can start reading recent research articles. (Your local library will likely have access.) As for prestige, this may be subjective, but spending five years of your life for a piece of paper is unlikely to be satisfying in the long run. And, speaking as someone who has a PhD, you'll soon learn that most people will not really want to address you as "Doctor."

Having said all that, if you do like (or think you would like) research, but are put off solely by the expected competition and stress, I urge you to be more open-minded. Academia is certainly competitive and stressful, but so are most careers worth having.


Accepted a postdoc offer by just emailing, have not signed any contract, what to do if other offer comes Hi I am a Phd student (Phd thesis submitted). Recently, I have received a postdoc offer from a reputed university and accordingly accepted the offer by emailing them. Now this is just a offer letter, no salary is written there (the PI has told me unofficially the salary amount). In order to join the job, I have to defend my Phd thesis, then they will send a formal joining letter (where salary will be written). In other words, I have not signed any contract till now. Now, my Phd thesis reviews have not come yet (in my country thesis is sent to two reviewers: one within and one outside the country). Till I defend my Phd thesis what should I do if I get postdoc offer from other places.

Any help/suggestions will be useful. Thanks in advance.

Your honor is at stake here. The email should constitute an agreement, even if not legally binding yet. You can, of course, by mutual agreement with the PI, still change your acceptance, indicating that it is tentative because of the restriction. This should be easy and natural, if the condition was raised after your "acceptance."

Just don't get yourself in the position of the PI thinking he has "caught" you and you later "get away." The consequences will be on you.


Approximate time frame to switch to different research area I made a conscious decision some time back to pursue a career in academia and I got back into graduate school this year, working in an 'applied computing' area--educational technology. While I thoroughly enjoy what I am currently working on, in the near future, I intend to conduct research in more mainstream computer science areas. My question is, how long would it theoretically take for one to radically switch research areas? I know there is probably NO fixed time frame for this, but I am especially interested in hearing from individuals that did this or attempted to do this early on in their careers. I would also appreciate additional advice on how I could start working towards this at an early stage. Incidentally, I came across an interesting CACM article [1] that ascribes a 10-year 'once-in-a-career' shift, mostly as a result of evolving technology.

[1] http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2013/10/168170-trends-in-computer-science-research

I'm not quite so sure the 10,000 hour rule applies very well here.  There are a couple things that need to be considered -- i.e., substantive expertise and methodological expertise.  Although I am not in the area of computer science, the transition from educational technology to mainstream computer science doesn't seem terribly far apart.  It seems like you have the aptitude for computer science, so you should not have really significant problems acquiring the substantive expertise.  I would be concerned if you were saying that the switch was from educational technology to psychiatry or aerospace.

The other issue is the extent to which your methodological expertise generalizes to this new area.  Have you acquired research skills that are relevant to your proposed switch?  Do you have the core research skills for your new area?  How familiar are you with the research in this new area.  And what is the litmus test that you have achieved "expertise" in the new area?

I guess the issue really comes down to how much your knowledge and skills in your current area of work generalizes to your new area.  So, I'm not going to put a number on this issue -- I just don't think it is possible without more information.


Can I take online courses to make up for poor past community college performance when applying to a four year college? I am wondering if there is a place where I can take online mathematics courses that do not require a transcript for admission. I did ok in high school and not so great at community college, but I found a great math tutor, and I'm willing to put in a lot more effort to get a degree. Before meeting this tutor, I was conditionally accepted to a four-year institution for mechanical engineering and was kicked out after the first semester. My plan is to meet with this tutor for about 20 hours a week until I feel comfortable with material up to calculus, then take a graded online course in calculus, so I have evidence of my understanding of calculus and my ability to excel in classes at a four-year university. I would repeat this process for multivariable calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, applied statistics, numerical analysis, abstract algebra, and real analysis.

I looked at Coursera, and they have calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, numerical analysis, and complex analysis. Do you think that taking these courses is the best chance that I have to re-enter my four-year institution for mathematics instead of engineering? I am concerned because the grade is based on just four quizzes, which means that it might not be recognized by undergraduate schools. If not, what would my best next step towards this goal?

Things are tough I need good grades to enroll at a university to show that I am qualified despite my previous bad performance, but I need to enroll in a university to take advanced classes to get those good grades.

My advice would be to go to the website of the university you are thinking about enrolling in, find out who the course coordinator is, and email them about your situation.  Explain that you are willing to put in the effort to get your knowledge up to an acceptable level.  You may find that they can offer you a bridging course, or suggest having sessions with a personal tutor like you are planning.

I found myself as tutoring a mature-age student who was very much in a situation similar to what you described.  The course coordinator emailed the maths academics to see if anyone was interested in some private one-on-one tutoring, and I took up the offer.  Ultimately, the student opted to drop out due to the feeling of being overwhelmed with the content (and they were struggling greatly to understand basic high-school level concepts), but the fact is the university attempted give the student every possible chance of getting in. There is nothing to lose by trying.


Should one add a "research statement" in their CV Background: CS Undergrad applying to CS PhD (USA)
My CV is 2 pages long. The second page is only half filled.
Question: Should I add two short sentences regarding my research interests? (at the end)
*Note: I already have an online website which has the same explained in more detail.

A research statement is usually a longer document describing what research you did, why you did it, why it's important, and what you want to do in the future. While your CV should just be about stating the facts about your career, your education, achievements etc. So, no, I would not put a research statement in a CV
However you should add a section listing your research projects (completed and ongoing). Example:

(2019-2020) 3rd year Bsc project: Designing a new algorithm to do X.
(2019) Summer project: Built a web app to do Y.

If you craft the description right, you can explain very succinctly what you did, without it becoming a research statement.
Don't worry about the length of the CV, you are applying for a PhD so it's expected that it won't be very long.


How to avoid generalization? One of the tips I learn when writing academic papers is to avoid generalizing, and by that, it means we, as writers, need to understand the difference between fact and opinion and try to express things with different levels of certainty. However, I still find the way to differentiate between fact and opinion quite confusing. It would be great if someone can explain the difference between these two things.

Generalization should be encouraged to extend scope, thereby making academic papers more widely applicable. Perhaps the OP is actually interested in another question: It is unclear what the OP means by generalizing, I don't see a relation with understand[ing] the difference between fact and opinion and try[ing] to express things with different levels of certainty. Maybe the OP is interested in

  find[ing a] way to differentiate between fact and opinion...It would be great if someone can explain the difference between these two things.

Let's look at the definitions (from Google) of those terms:

 Fact. A thing that is known or proved to be true, e.g., hedgehogs have fleas.

 Opinion. A view or judgement formed about something, not necessarily based on
 fact or knowledge, e.g., hedgehogs should drink milk.

So, facts are true, whereas the validity of opinions are unknown.

The first example is also from Google, the second is a widely believed opinion, which is false.


How to write a rebuttal for a conference What are good practices (does and don'ts) when writing a rebuttal for a conference?

For example, for a journal rebuttal letter you can make changes to your paper, and resubmit it for another revision. However, for conferences (and for the tough ones) you cannot make changes to your paper (as far as I know). So you can only address the reviewers comments', don't you? In that case, what are good things to do and what things you should avoid to get a good rebuttal.

Even for conference papers you can still perform (relatively small) changes after the notification. When trying to rebuttal, it makes much sense to address the main issues raised by the reviewer (and not to pick on the minor changes they suggest). Some good practices include:

Acknowledge good suggestions made by the reviewer. If those suggestions are easy to fix, say they are fixable and will be fixed in the final-version.
If the reviewers suggestion makes no sense or is not valid - explain why their review is invalid. However, you should acknowledge the fact that if the reviewers did not get it right, there might be a problem in your paper. Promise to clarify those issues for the final version.
If the review raise up a valid point that makes your result significantly weaker than you claim, I don't think there is a reason to rebuttal, but other might think differently (trying to justify why it is still a strong result).
Don't claim that the reviewer has no idea what s/he is talking about (even if that is indeed the case..)

Bottomline, you should be respectful and polite to the reviewers. Thank them for their suggestions and suggest to fix whatever is fixable even if you think nothing is wrong.


Does one need a bachelor's in Math, if not a master's, before taking a PhD in Math in the US? This is actually just a revision of this question in relation to this answer.
I ask "Does one need a master's in math before taking a PhD in pure math?" (And then applied to the US for this question)
Chris C's answer suggests that in the US, I may just go straight from a bachelor's in mathematics to a PhD in mathematics, but I don't quite have a bachelor's in mathematics. My bachelor's is in mathematical finance.
Edit: Sorry. I forgot to emphasize something. My bachelor's didn't have a thesis. I had a thesis in master's, but it was in mathematical finance. Will this be a problem? I was thinking math PhD programs in the US think students have some background in mathematical research.

A variety of areas throughout mathematics. And that answer of mine that you link was written for an audience completely unfamiliar with mathematical research - someone ready to pursue a PhD should already know what it says. –  Nate Eldredge Apr 2 at 13:33

I am a mathematician. One of my academic siblings has an undergrad degree in mathematical finance. As Andreas Blass comments, grad school admissions committees are most concerned with sufficient background, as opposed to the particular credential.


Copying a proof almost verbatim I am writing a math paper which has an electronic supplementary document. In the supplement, I want to put a proof of a lemma. This proof is copied and pasted from my previous paper and I have changed some symbols (eg. H becomes X) to put it in context.  Is this allowed? I have written on it:

Proof (proof modified from Proof of Theorem 1 in [paper]).
Blah blah...

Is this plagiarism or not? It is only in the supplementary document (which is published online) and I have cited.

I agree this is not plagiarism if you make it clear that is an essentially verbatim extract from your previous paper.

However, it also seems unnecessary, especially if your previous paper is readily available online.  (And if it's not, why not?  Consider posting it to arXiv or your personal web page.)  In such a case, I would probably rather just refer the reader to the previous paper ("see Lemma 4.3 of [8]").  If you feel it's necessary, you can say something like "changing all occurrences of H to X", but I'd expect that a mathematical audience will just do that automatically without needing to think about it.


What's the proper order for multiple educational degrees/certificates? Assuming someone has a PhD, MD, CISSP, CPA, CFA, MS, etc. etc. What's the proper way to order them after their name and is the comma needed after the last name? (i.e. Jane Smith, PhD, MD, etc. or John Smith MD, PhD, etc.)

Questions over titling are almost always a matter of local convention and personal preference. You can read more than you wanted to know over at Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-nominal_letters

A few rules of thumb:

If you're naming someone in a friendly context then your biggest concern is usually etiquette rather than technical correctness. If someone insists on being called "Jane Doe, PhD, MD" rather than "Jane Doe, MD, PhD" then it would be incredibly rude to object to them. Most people would not care, but if in doubt you should ask.
If you're establishing the credibility of someone, such as in a piece of journalism, then you list only relevant degrees starting with the highest degree. Even if multiple degrees are relevant it's likely that one degree will be most relevant.
If you follow the cite note for US degrees in the Wikipedia link above, you'll eventually get to this page, in which a protocol expert says that this is the appropriate order, with ties within each category being broken alphabetically:

1) Religious orders
2) Theological degrees
3) Academic degrees
4) Honorary degrees, honors, decorations
5) Professional licenses, certifications & affiliations

Don't list degrees that have been superseded by another degree. That is, don't say "John Doe, PhD, MS, BS" because the MS and BS degrees have been eclipsed by the PhD.


Can a professor ask students to upload a picture ID? This week I had a midterm exam which wasn’t mandatory, but the professor provided it so we could improve our grades. Along with the instructions that was listed, there was a line which says have your photo ID ready. So when the exam came, I logged into the zoom channel and I had my ID with me in case the professor wants to verify it through the Cam. The professor wasn’t there and I found myself answering the questions as it’s a maths exam and it has a time limit. Later on, I received an email from the professor saying that my submission cannot be accepted because I didn’t scan my picture ID and upload it with the exam. I told him I don’t feel comfortable uploading my ID, he insisted that I can blackout sensitive information. Is this normal ? Why would the professor ask for a picture ID to be scanned and uploaded with the exam ? I have reached out to the chairman and I am afraid that the professor would target me more.

The reason for wanting it scanned is so that it can be checked later, rather than in real time. Whether that is reasonable or not, is a decision for the department or university to make. It might be improper to ask that a non-university ID be scanned, but the use of university documents, such as a student ID, is probably within their proper authority.
I think your position is reasonable, but not necessarily the best option. But it might also be that you didn't read the instructions completely.
However, if it wasn't clear that it should be scanned and they just assumed that you would, then you have cause for complaint.
I hope you can work out something satisfactory and that it was just a correctable misunderstanding.


Is it acceptable to contribute a poster to a conference without actually attending? I have a poster presentation that I cannot attend but I have prepared a poster to tell my friend to post for me. Is it common to do a poster presentation at a conference/meeting without being there in person? I have been to a quite a number of conference and this seems like a norm.

Without knowing the particular field or conference:

No, this it's not common to have a conference poster without presenter.

It often happens that poster are on display for the whole conference and nobody stand by their side to explain them and this may give you the impression that there is nobody there to present them. However, usually there is one slot called "poster session" where the presenters are supposed to be with their posters and the all other participants are supposed to walk around and get into discussions about the posters.

However, more importantly:

There may be a rule on attendance stated by the conference.

It may happen, for example, that if some poster had no presenter, the paper that belongs to an accepted poster will not be published in the conference proceedings (or removed from the online proceedings).


Value of "nonresearch articles" section in PNAS I noticed that PNAS website contains the section for the so-called "nonresearch articles" (original orthography is retained), otherwise referred to as "collected articles": http://www.pnas.org/site/misc/collectedpapers.xhtml. Upon a brief look at the section and its categories, it seems that articles published there range from "core concepts" articles (somewhat similar to a brief Wikipedia article) to a topic or field review articles and beyond (papers, based on symposiums and other events).

My question is twofold:

what is the level of acceptance, if known, for articles, targeting the above-mentioned section;
what is the scientific, academic and career value of publishing in that PNAS' section (in other words, is it worth considering targeting this outlet [particularly, for a beginning researcher])?

I had a look at the latest collection paper (Megafauna and ecosystem function from the Pleistocene to the Anthropocene). This turned out to be a PNAS Direct Submission, which appears to be a pretty standard peer-review process and definitely the standard way to submit papers to PNAS ("Direct Submissions now account for more than 95% of papers submitted and 78% of papers published in PNAS"). I couldn't find out any sort of invitation for collected papers, so my guess is that these are papers that have already been published through standard peer-review, which have been grouped after the fact by PNAS editors. So this isn't a "PNAS section", but just a thematic collection of papers that have been normally published in PNAS (which, in 2014, had an acceptance rate of 17%).


Should a professor write a LOR if he does not remember the student but remembers that the essay was excellent? Should a professor write a Letter of Recommendation if he does not remember the student but does remember that the essay the student submitted was excellent?

It's not clear if the question is being asked from the standpoint of a student requesting an LOR or from that of an instructor who's received a request.

If the question is from a student, the answer is, there is no "should".  An instructor is free to decide whether or not to write an LOR based on whatever reasons they like.  They are under no obligation to write an LOR just because they remember the student or a particular submission.  In practical terms, most instructors will decline if they don't think they can write an LOR that will be helpful to the student, either because they don't know the student or their work well enough or because they just weren't that good.  Obviously, there's no point to writing a poor reference so most instructors just won't do it, no matter how much a student might think they "should".

If the question is from an instructor, the answer is, there is still no "should".  You are free to decide on your own whether you think that one submission plus whatever other evidence you have is enough to support a helpful LOR.  You might, e.g., review the student's grades in your class and their other submissions, e.g., if they were captured in Canvas or a similar online system, you can ask the student to provide a copy of their transcript and an essay on their objectives and you can ask to meet with them to help you decide whether and what to write.  If you teach at an institution with large lecture classes (e.g., I have 250 students in one of mine), it's inevitable that you won't get to know even some of your best students but you may still be able to review their work, describe what they did and what that means for their potential, in which case it may be perfectly appropriate to write the LOR.


What makes papers publishable in top-tier journals? What are some factors that enable some papers to be published in top-tier journals while others (apparently similar) cannot?

For example, in the field of control theory, there are so many papers with complicated mathematics. Some paper is related to a very similar topic, but some get published in a top-tier journal while others not.

This question is important because knowing this, then I know which journal my paper might be submitted to that is possible to be accepted in the end.

To be accepted and published it has to be submitted. Some papers that might be accepted just aren't ever submitted.

Some of it is just luck. The editor was looking for something. Even something as simple or stupid as s/he needed to fill an 8 page gap in an issue and yours was the best available candidate at the moment.

Some of it is just the writing itself. Good journals want, and try to get, well written, understandable, papers. If the reviewers have trouble understanding you, it will be hard to get accepted.

But most of it is that a paper answers a question (or two) that seems important at the time the paper arrives. It is the science/mathematics/whatever behind the paper that really matters. The members of a scientific community are fairly often on the lookout for an answer to a perplexing problem. If you can provide that, and submit a well written paper, you are more likely to get published.


displaying mean with sem or confidence interval When I look at scientific papers, bar charts I usually come to see are shown with mean +/- sem.

As stated here,

  When standard error (SE) bars do not overlap, you cannot be sure that
  the difference between two means is statistically significant

and

  If 95% CI error bars do not overlap, you can be sure the difference is
  statistically significant (P < 0.05).

Even if the reverse is not true, why don't we always use the confidence interval instead of the sem in bar charts, since it seems more informative ?

My guess: SEM needs to be multiplied with the constant from the probability distribution of concern (e.g. t-distribution) to become confidence interval. In some study, sample size is so low that the constant can make the bars look huge.

Yet, in your cited link there is another important phrase:

  No surprises here. When SE bars overlap, (as in experiment 2) you can
  be sure the difference between the two means is not statistically
  significant (P>0.05).

So, SE may not serve to tell if there is a significance difference, but can tell if there is likely none. Depending on the researchers' motive this could be a good feature.

What I'd advocate, however, is not to believe these visual comparison as if they are definitive. One illustrative explanation can be found in this online pdf.

Anyhow, a graph is a graph and as long as it's labeled clearly I'd consider that acceptable. What can confuse people is when the authors use this kind of error-bar like device but did not footnote what the bars represent.


Graduate training programs from other departments, how helpful are they? I notice that there are quite a number of graduate training programs across departments in my university that encourage multidisciplinary researches. For my case, I am an EECS/ Computational Biology grad student, and I am considering a training program in biophysics/nanotech.

I don't mind taking one more course per semester, and finding co-supervisors from other departments as the program requires. My main concern: will there be any real advantages of getting that certification in term of (academic) career prospects?

In one of his famous blog post, Sean Carroll advised:

  Don’t dabble. Another slightly counter-intuitive one. You might think that, while most of your research work is in area A, the fact that you wrote a couple of papers in area B will be taken as positive evidence of your breadth and intellectual strength. Very wrong. What will actually happen is that your work in area B will be compared to the best people in the world who spend all their time thinking about area B, and you will probably come up wanting. Even worse, it will be taken as evidence that your interests may wander over time — so that, whereas you were hired to be an expert in area A, maybe in a few years you won’t be doing that at all. Kiss of death. Deep down, there is a strongly anti-intellectual strain within academia; you were hired to work in a specialty and that’s what they expect you to do. Once you get tenure, of course, you can do whatever you want; so it’s important that the department be reassured that you don’t want to do anything else.

I wonder if people will look down on me if they deem biophysics/nanotech a discipline too far away from computational biology (even when my thesis are dealing with all of them)?

Yes, as @JeffE attests, there is at least a balance to be struck in the diversification of your skills and perspectives versus having a clear focus that will mark out your niche. You can overdo either one. My perspective, as someone who has been involved in inter-disciplinary research for 15 years, and who has had a lot of advice from much more senior folk about this, does err somewhat on the side of Carroll. In particular, your goal is to mark out a well defined territory that is not too diffuse. "Trajectory" in your career (mainly your pub record) is a primary consideration for hiring and promotion, and it's difficult to build up a body of work if you dabble in many areas.

My own perspective resonates with Carroll's here: continual, long-term dabbling is Bad for getting tenure. It will dilute what others will be able to confidently perceive/predict about your current and future impact in a specific field. But being a "drone" who just followed faithfully in the footsteps of his/her PhD mentor, using the same perspective that might already be "old-fashioned" and not future-proof to the growing inter-disciplinary pressures (you should be able to insert your own field-specific examples here!), is also Bad. Either because you find eventually yourself bored or devalued as a "mere follower" rather than innovator, or because your micro-focused view dries up in terms of peer interest or funding.

Remember that institutions at least pay lip service to inter-disciplinary work. Some actually really support it in a meaningful way, and look for fresh, innovative thinkers to join them. As a junior academic, now is a good time to explore what's not too far from your area and learn more about how to position yourself with a unique and/or highly desirable set of skills and body of knowledge. So, this can be exactly how you end up being successful in contributing in a clear direction in exactly the way I interpret from Carroll's blog post.

For you, ask your mentors and colleagues how they see the current and future combination of the two disciplines you are talking about, and what the interesting questions are. Then try to see how you could fit into that and do something innovative while remaining feasible and concrete. It's tricky, but finding that sweet spot should get you a long way, and it could be much more rewarding. Just be careful who you work for. Some places or people talk the talk but don't walk the walk. When it comes to decisions involving money, if your institution's administration or your peers don't know how to properly evaluate your highly innovative inter-disciplinary work then you might "fall between the cracks" and be passed over for a more traditional candidate whose work they can, at least, easily understand! Good luck


How to find references for known facts? It occurs sometimes that I am in possession of a factoid for which I know all of the standard terminology and can express the factoid in that terminology, and also know that the factoid is prior knowledge, but do not have a reference for the factoid.  This is especially problematic in my field (machine learning) where the online resources for learning things are very good, and quite extensive.  However, citations are sometimes sparse in these blog-style articles, and I find myself knowing the subject matter, but not knowing the appropriate citation for it.  Note that the blog is not the appropriate citation, because they're just paraphrasing it from elsewhere.  It would be nice to lean on the experience of the community, but "Does anybody know a citation for fact X?" is generally an inappropriate question on stack exchange sites.

Surely this is a problem in other disciplines as well.  As such, I am mostly interested in general "citation reverse-search" skills, tips and tricks.  However, field-specific answers are also welcome.

NOTE:  This is specifically for situations where the problem is known to be a prior one, and where the terminology is known.  Linking disparate fields with differing terminology of basically the same concept is a known Hard Problem™, and I am not trying to solve it here, except insomuch as those same skills relate to "reverse-search" of problems with known terminology.

To reiterate for clarity:  What are handy tools, tricks tips etc for finding references for known facts?

Actually, there are often many "facts" that really aren't. It is a fascinating research question to dive into the internet and libraries to verify the origin of something taken as a fact. This happens in every field and especially with pithy "quotations" that appear on calendars. Just for fun I like to look for the true source, in one instance I came up with five different supposed authors! This is also why you should reference your facts: So that others can verify that you are stating it correctly.

In the area of machine learning you can use the ACM or the IEEE digital library to dig around and look for a source. There are no shortcuts, this is research :)


Can one or two spelling mistakes in a statement of purpose hurt your chances for graduate school? I am wondering can spelling one or two wrong words in SOP hurt chance of getting accepted to graduate school? There might be a mistake about spelling one of my professor's name wrong.

We once had an applicant for graduate study in mathematics whose statement of purpose explained why he wanted to become a "mathematition". This was not regarded favorably by the admissions committee.  On the other hand, a misspelling of a professor's name might not even be noticed; it depends to some extent on whether the professor's name is "Blagoveshchenskaya" or "Smith".


E-books and e-publishing What options are there, and how do they compare against each other, for digitally publishing (for example, a series of short stories)?

In addition to the issue of format management (producing whatever electronic file formats are appropriate) any information about distribution would also be welcomed.

I am a teacher in a graduate-level literature program and am looking for solutions I can pass on to my students, so this is not just for my own use.

The good news is that once you've got a text in one eBook format, it is relatively painless to publish it in additional formats (PDF being the notable exception, though it is generally easy to get a document into PDF format--you can do a decent job with a converter such as Calibre--see below--but translating the format properly is sometimes tricky).

At the very least, you should publish in PDF format.  While not a particularly good format for reading on portable devices, it is a universal format that can be read on any any modern eReader, and, of course, on a PC screen.

I would also suggest formatting the book in the open EPUB format, and in a Kindle format (either .MOBI, AZW, or .KF8).  I would then link to all of the formats on your web page, possibly with instructions on how to get the volume onto a particular device.  You could also consider self-publishing the volume to the Kindle store, but bear in mind that there may be restrictions, and I believe you will be forced to charge for the volume.  The iTunes Store is another possibility, but comes with its own restrictions and formatting / conversion guidelines.

You should definiltely download the fine E-Book manager, Calibre, which can convert between formats and is free.

In the end, there isn't one true standard for eBook formats yet, but it is not difficult having a few different formats on your web page.


Is it legal/possible to apply for a patent based on an already published/submitted journal article? I want to apply for two patents.

The first one is based on a journal article (obviously written by me) which is published a few months before.

My first question is: Is it legal/possible to apply for a patent based on an already published journal article? Is it a kind of self-plagiarism?

The second patent application which I am currently writing is based on a manuscript which I am planning to submit to a journal soon.

So, my second question is: Will it be a problem if I submit both the patent application and the manuscript to a journal at the same time? Should I write this to the journal editor?

My third question is: Is it unethical to keep the diagrams in the paper and patent almost the same?

Self-plagiarism is not the issue. The patent documents an invention. It is not a creative work itself. You could just stick a cover letter on your paper and submit that, in theory (as a provisional patent anyway). In practice, everyone says a patent that is not carefully written by a lawyer will be worthless. Lawyers especially tend to say this. However, different countries have different rules regarding copyright on the images used. So you may not want to reuse them if you transferred the copyright to a journal.

Patents are required to be both non-obvious and novel. Your own publication can count as "prior art" proving your patent is no longer novel. This is also called a public disclosure, which usually means publishing or offering it for sale to others. Different countries have different laws regarding when you can patent something that has been publicly disclosed. The US gives you a year after publication. Many other countries give you no time; the idea can't be patented there after disclosure. Applying and submitting at the same time may work but you're right on the line there, so need to be careful in other countries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_disclosure


Found reply for a research application from 2 months ago in my junk mail I am a third year undergraduate biology major student.

At the beginning of this quarter, I sent out a bunch of emails looking for research opportunities. I heard back from some of them and got a position.
But today when I checked the junk mail, I found a reply from a lab that I am really interested in. The professor replied me two months ago and asked for my transcript.

I am wondering should I reply this email directly with my transcript and apologise for the late.
Or should I send him another email and apply again?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Suppose you do nothing. Then you remain at your current position, yourwork carries on, and whatever may come of that will happen.

Suppose you respond to this professor's request. You may write something that apologises for the late response, asks whether the position is still available, and provides your most recent transcript.

Then at worst, they reply with rudeness and aggression, and you thank them for their time, then move on. They may tell you the opportunity is closed, but invite you to keep in touch or to apply again when you graduate/advance in qualification.

They may also say the opportunity remains. At that point you must decide whether it is better to

thank the professor and remain where you are (flakey, might be seen as rude),
open a dialogue that allows you to transition once current projects are complete (reasonable, but may not work for the professor or their lab),
try to develop a sideline partnership working in or with both labs (could be a huge job, but also huge rewards if it works), or
jump ship totally (also flakey, reflects poorly on your commitment).


Do graduate students typically finish coursework? I'm taking a pretty high workload class this term and I also have a paper deadline coming up. I'm wondering if graduate students typically finish all their coursework, or if they often have to hand in their assignments incomplete.

I am in a STEM PhD program in the US.

In every program where I have been a student, a TA, or a faculty member, the default expectation has been "Yes."

That being said, individual instructors or departments may have different policies. I have definitely known of places where balancing coursework and research was intended to be a component of the "trial by fire", and failing there was taken as a bad sign. At the same time, most programs I have been in have been fairly generous with extensions and the like.

But yes, if you're taking my course, I'm expecting you to do the coursework. If you're not, you should at the very least let me know and talk to me about it.


Is it OK to include a personal (non-science related) statement in the final slide of a presentation Is it OK to include a personal note telling intention of hard-work on the topic,

  e.g. I am looking forward to work on this problem

in the Conclusion slide of a presentation related to possible research topic in the future?

I believe the Conclusion slide is used to collect the scientific conclusions about the work in the end of the presentation as a takeaway message, how would such a statement stand in the end?

I think that writing on the presentation that you'll be looking forward to doing something is somewhat out of place.

In addition, it appears that you may be confusing two separate definitions of conclusion.

The first is the scientific conclusion, which you have defined. This is, as you've described, the takeaway message from scientific research, i.e.

  This research shows us that potatoes are actually tasty.

The second is a presentation's conclusion. This can be the scientific conclusion in a presentation about an actual study. However, you're referring to a proposal, which has no conclusion, or perhaps to a slide mentioning future possible research topics.

In this case, your conclusion should be a summary of what you've covered during your presentation, preferably onto one slide, i.e.

  Conclusion
   - This research will establish whether or not potatoes are tasty
   - Important to humanity as it helps determine whether or not further investment into discovery of potato recipes are practical
   - Funding this project will be cheap as potatoes are grown a lot already

Then, when you present your situation, you can mention I look forward to performing this research with your support. and it flows cleanly.

If I've interpreted anything incorrectly regarding your situation, OP, let me know.


Must all results be commented on in the discussion section of a research paper? I did a survey on the demand for complementary medicine among hospital patients. We used a questionnaire comprising 38 items and consequentially I have a lot of information.

I am currently writing a research paper and I was wondering whether all results reported in the result section ought to be commented on in the discussion section? I reported various findings I deemed important, but in the discussion part, I only concentrated on the interpretation and analysis of the main ones since it would be too much otherwise. I did an exploratory survey without any specific hypothesis a priori. Is it okay to report many results and then focus only on the essential ones in the discussion section, or is this being frowned upon?

Not only is that OK, that's really what you should be doing. Nobody else is going to spend a lot of time going over your data to find interesting conclusions – that's your job. Busy researchers who are related but not directly in your field are likely to only read your abstract, introduction, and discussion.

Your discussion tells us what was interesting and why. If someone really wants to get the whole story then they'll go look at your results section to see for themselves.


Doing a query on Scopus I'm trying to perform a specific query on Scopus. To be precise, I am looking for books from Wiley that are related to real time systems.
Maybe I did a mistake because there aren't results. The query I tried is:
DOCTYPE(bk) EDITOR(wiley) KEY(real time systems)
Could you tell me how to do it please?

The EDITOR()-field searches for editors, i.e. (usually) human individuals who edit a volume.
You are looking, instead, for a book's publisher. The correct field would thus be labelled BOOKPUB().
With the following query, I find 8 results:
DOCTYPE ( "bk" )  AND  BOOKPUB ( "Wiley" )  AND  KEY ( "real time systems" )
(Note that I added the operator AND between each field as well as quotation marks within the parentheses.)


Can we mention "most likely" employer as current employer for PhD applciation? I recently graduated with a Masters late this year, so I've been looking for jobs for some time. My eventual plan is to enter a PhD program and I'm already working on my applications. Currently I'm in talks with a company, and I'm kind of assured (through networking) that I will get the job there. However, I haven't received a formal confirmation yet. I'm submitting one PhD application this week. So I was wondering if it would be acceptable to mention this company as a current employer in my application. The problem is that it's a consultancy job that's not even remotely related to my grad school research, so for once I feel like not mentioning it at all. But then I was worried that portraying myself as unemployed  by leaving current employer section blank might not be that great for my application either. So I'm extremely tempted to put down this company in the application. It's just the ethical issue that's stopping me. I'm looking for suggestions on how to deal with this situation.

You have no current employer.  If they've offered and you accepted, then they could be listed, but until there's paperwork, they are not your current.

I have seen people list "none" or "Student" as Current Employer.


Dispute grade penalty for reading in class? I am in an large, entry level course targeted at engineers. A few weeks ago, I was reading for another class while my professor covered material I was familiar with, and she marked me down as absent for at least one and maybe two classes. She has a strict attendance policy so that she gives a 5 percent penalty for missing three or more classes, and I already have three marked absences.

The only relevant section in the syllabus says, "Good manners provide the foundation for proper classroom behavior: arrive on time, listen attentively and take detailed notes, remain quietly in your seat until dismissed by the instructor." There is a strict no-screen policy, but nothing about reading.

I am considering taking it up the ladder and arguing that she should have asked me to put the book away if she wanted me to, as I spoke to her multiple times between the time of the alleged offense and becoming aware that she had penalized me for it. Do I have a good chance of a grade appeal? on merit? statistically?

She is a teaching only professor, so I assume she doesn't have huge sway in the department. It is a ginormous class at a large school though, so I probably don't either.

The only relevant section in the syllabus says, "Good manners provide the foundation for proper classroom behavior: arrive on time, listen attentively and take detailed notes, remain quietly in your seat until dismissed by the instructor." There is a strict no-screen policy, but nothing about reading.

I am pretty sure that all department chairs would agree with a faculty member who concluded that reading in class is the opposite of listen attentively and take detailed notes. I would put your chances at exactly zero that the chair would override the decision to not credit you with attendance on that day, but marking you as absent for two days does not seem justified unless there is another penalty for not following proper classroom behavior.


How to choose keywords for papers? Some journals require keywords besides the abstract to 'describe' the published article, some don't. See for instance with keywords http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0049089X16301788 and without keywords http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajps.12313/full
I was wondering whether there are guidelines or recommendations how to choose such keywords? For instance, has each journal a list of keywords that you can use or recommend scientific societies/associations a certain standard of 'how to set up meaningful keywords'? Or do paper authors just make up their own keywords?

Since keywords are meant to be used as search indices for certain topics, allowing authors to generate their own keywords makes little sense. For all journals I know, keywords have to be selected from a list published by the journal. Some journals have adopted common keyword lists (for example most journals in astrophysics use this list).

Keywords in academia play almost exactly the same role as tags on SE sites (except that author cannot invent new keywords). In particular, their selection by the authors follows the same principle: find the most suitable set of keywords for the given study, such that a keyword search brings up the most relevant articles.

Keywords are perhaps not as important now as they used to be since electronic word searches on title, abstract or the whole article.


Is it normal for professors to give credit to their students even when they don't deserve it? My advisor told me to write a blog post, so I wrote a draft of it.  He didn't like it, so he told me to write another draft.  He didn't like that one either, so he wrote a third draft himself, which contained none of the words from the previous two drafts.  He listed me as the sole author of the blog post and has been going around telling everyone I wrote it, even though he wrote the entire thing.

He has also done this with actual research papers (he listed me as the first author even though he wrote the whole thing -- I did make all the figures though).

Is this normal advisor behavior?  It makes me feel a bit weird because I didn't actually write it.

Probably the conclusion that you don't deserve credit is not totally justified. I am pretty sure that the final result contains at least some words from your drafts. On a more serious side, it may well be that professor could never have written the final result without having read your drafts. You know, the first sentence is the hardest, and professors also know how to procrastinate. But they usually often know ways around it! Having somebody else to start the writing process, and giving this guy a deadline (and you know he will make the deadline) and then starting from there is one great way to get started on time.

Actually, in previous days my professor asked me quite often to draft something for him (emails, abstracts, reports,…), but when he got my draft and started writing himself, most of my draft disappeared as well. In fact he even told me in advance, that this will happen, but having some draft helped him to get going.

Writing paper together with an advanced researcher often feels the same. I echo the other answers, that you can learn a lot from carefully studying the edits. And remember that writing the words in one thing, but getting results, sharpening formulations (not sentences) and structuring text is another thing. So just accept that he thinks, that you deserve first-authorship and be happy.


I'm applying for a Master's program - can I include manually calculated GPA I'm applying for a Master's program and I would like to indicate that my GPA in the last two years of college has improved greatly and that my major GPA is high. However, my official transcript does not report major GPA or the GPA in my last two years. I want to manually calculate these two GPAs using the scale and key provided by my university and I will make a note saying that these numbers are not on my official transcript. Is that acceptable? I don't want the admissions committees to think that I'm trying to mislead intentionally, neither do I want to be viewed negatively for providing information that is not verifiable. Of course, I will include the GPA on my official transcript.

Yes, you can manually calculate your GPA. Additionally, mention the method or the formula you used to calculate your GPA so that the application reviewers can evaluate your application better. However, there are various third-party grade conversion/calculation tools available for free of cost, which you can use to get a better idea.


Community College/College Teaching Certificates I have both an MA and an MS in Mathematics and would like to teach community college or college level mathematics. The problem is that I have no teaching experience, and so far I have not even been able to get adjunct positions. I would go for a PhD for the purpose of increasing my chances, but am not really interested in research.
I recently discovered some certificate programs for community college/post-secondary teaching which include a one course teaching practicum.
I am interested in knowing about experiences candidates may have had with such programs and if such a certificate would be taken seriously when it comes to being hired.
Also, would high school teaching experience have any weight in obtaining community college/college teaching positions?

I teach at a community college in the Los Angeles area and have worked on part-time and full-time hiring. The following is based in my experience and may or may not apply to you.

Based on the hiring practices where I work, a teaching certificate does not carry much weight. At most it might be a good sign that a candidate was not looking for a community college job as a short-term stopgap, but instead was serious about teaching as a career.

If you want to signal to a department coordinator, dean, or hiring committee that you're serious about teaching, there are much easier ways to do that than getting a certificate. Just put some work into writing a cover letter that comes off right. Don't list your publications or talk about research. Explain honestly why and how you know that teaching is what you want to do. Describe concrete experiences that have convinced you of this.

  so far I have not even been able to get adjunct positions

In my geographical area and field (natural sciences), adjunct positions are absurdly easy to get, provided that you meet the minimum qualifications. Every science department at my school is always desperate for adjuncts willing to work for the scandalously low pay we offer. If you're qualified and we don't hire you, a dozen other community colleges in the area will snap you up. We frequently hire people who are woefully underqualified or known to be flaky.

If you haven't had any luck so far getting an adjunct position, here are some things to think about:

Are you in an geographical area where there are many such openings every year?
Are you getting interviews and then not getting hired? Are you not getting interviews? This will tell you whether the problem is with your paper qualifications or with something you're doing wrong when you interview.
Is it possible that someone is giving you a negative reference?
Have someone look over your job letter and c.v. and give you comments. You may be doing something that is sabotaging your chances. E.g., there may be grammatical errors in your job letter. Make sure your application materials connect the dots with the requirements listed in the ad.
In my district, we require people to submit undergraduate and graduate transcripts. Often when we look at these transcripts, we see signs of trouble. Is this the case for you?


Statement of Purpose, should one say "I did X ..." or "My advisor and I did X .. "? In a statement of purpose for PhD applications, should one talk about their undergrad research like

  I did X ...

or, should one (rightfully) say

  My advisor and I / we did X ...

Would admissions committees be concerned that the applicant "lacks confidence", when they talk about their research work and emphasize that it's work between them and their advisor?  Would committees rather hear the applicant talking solely about their own work?

(Option no. 1 seems a bit ... wrong.)

This is an XY problem. Saying "I did X" repeatedly is wrong and offputting, and saying "My advisor and I did X" repeatedly sounds weak and annoying to read. Neither is the right option alone.

You should adjust the phrasing so that subjects are simple, mostly either "I" or "we", and explicitly credit yourself for things you actually did on their own. After all, you did have some independence, right? It's not like your advisor was over your shoulder every minute of every day.

Bad example:

  My advisor and I were looking for a project in field X. My advisor gave me a project to apply X to Y, and my advisor and I planned the general strategy after my advisor taught me the basics, so that after two months, some progress was made, though my advisor decided that the data analysis would have to be redone. Later, a paper was drafted with the editorial support of my advisor, which is now, after having been submitted, under review, at Journal Y.

Better example:

  I wanted research experience in field X and approached Prof P, who agreed to be my advisor. My project was to apply X to Y, and after a brief reading period I began two months of independent work, during which I picked up techniques A, B, and C. However, I found these techniques were not powerful enough for the problem at hand. We decided on a change of strategy, and I modified the analysis with techniques D and E, which I used to produce compelling results. We have written up and submitted these results to Journal Y.

Of course you would use fancier language in the real thing, but note how the second example makes you sound like an actual sentient human being, while the first makes you sound like you were just passively "along for the ride", even though it technically makes the exact same claims.


Do reviews happen more in Holiday season? When I recently inquired about the status of my paper which is currently in the "under review" status, the editorial assistant informed me that they are still awaiting referee reports, and the Editor is expecting that the review process will be completed at the end of the January. Its been a year I have submitted, and I am a bit startled that the editor has given a specific time of completion, rather than just say that it's still pending. Could there be any specific reason? Do reviews happen more in the holiday season generally? Assuming the reviewers have ample leisure time to study the paper? Does this indicate anything about the incoming decision?

Reviewers set their own schedule subject, more or less, to deadlines set by the editor. Some might use holidays to work on reviews. Others might rather avoid anything that looks like work. The "end of January" may be a guess or may be more firm, depending on the deadline request sent to reviewers. Perhaps a reviewer has made a "promise" to be done by then.

And what is "expected" may not come to pass since reviewers aren't employees, but volunteers.


What is a non-tenure-track assistant professor position in the USA and is it harmful? I see some offers on the Chronicle jobs website (such as this one from UC San Diego) for non-tenure-track assistant professor positions.

Is the work of a non-tenure-track assistant professor exactly the same as the work of a tenure-track assistant professor, e.g. in terms of teaching/research ratio?

Also, would taking on a position of this type be more, less or equally helpful compared to, say, taking up another postdoc, for someone that would later want to apply to a tenure-track position?

Forgive me if this question does not make sense to you, but I have taken the impression from some sources that whatever professional decision one takes that is slightly outside the "normal" progression of an academic career can be harmful.

Actually, in this specific case I think it may just be a mistake in the ad.

The application page linked from the Chronicle ad just describes the position as "Assistant Professor" and doesn't say anything about tenure one way or the other.  Certainly the default for an assistant professor position would be that it is tenure track.

Also, I attended UC San Diego as a grad student (in a different department) and don't ever remember hearing about any non-tenure-track assistant professors.  Full-time teaching-oriented faculty at UCSD have the title  "Lecturer".

So I think there's a good chance that these are ordinary tenure-track assistant professor positions, and that someone just clicked the wrong box when submitting the Chronicle ad.

I would suggest getting in touch with the department for clarification.


Ignored Requests Open-Source Software from a Research Group For more than 6 weeks now, I have been attempting to contact a post-doc or their (former?) PI to request access to either the source code or software of a tool that was published in BMC Bioinformatics. The authors did not provide the source as a supplemental file, but assure the reader in the article that it will be made available upon request. This is the first time requesting source code of a research group, but I have yet to receive any kind of reply to my polite requests.

I am unsure how to proceed. Pursuant to the guidelines for publication in the journal, "[i]f published, software applications/tools must be freely available to any researcher wishing to use them for non-commercial purposes, without restrictions such as the need for a material transfer agreement." This group is located in Europe, and it is highly likely that they should have a working knowledge of English, after all, the publication and their websites are in English, so I don't think there a language barrier exists.

Possible actions that I am considering:

Contacting the managing editor for the publication to explain the situation, and see if his/her email attracts more of a response.
Contacting any granting agencies who have provided supporting funding for the project to determine whether they have stipulations about providing source code.
A phone call to the corresponding author.

I think contacting the editor of the journal is your best bet. Contacting grant agencies will most likely not warrant a reply, and I don't imagine many of them have stipulations for sharing code (yet).

That said, I have been in a similar position numerous times, and I have had very little luck every obtaining the code. The editor will most likely not be willing to retract a paper because the author's won't share, and they have little incentive to do so, since it will at most garner a single citation, but could lead to more problems down the road (e.g., the code is buggy and you can't reproduce their results, etc.)

Another tip would be that senior people (i.e., PIs) usually have more luck at this kind of thing because they are harder to ignore and/or have contacts, but it can be harder to get the to actually do it, because it can become political.


Is it considered okay to ask for the opinions of admission staff or committee after their decision of declination? If one applies to a graduate school and gets declined, is it considered okay to ask for the opinions of admission staff or committee, about their thoughts on the person's application package (gpa, experience, personal statement, recommendation letters), for better adjusting his plan of applying to other schools and career?

Thanks!

There is nothing wrong with asking, but don't expect an answer that is particularly helpful (although you may get very helpful answers). You may get a standard response that doesn't tell you much, and I would think it pretty rare for someone to take the time to craft a detailed response.

If you do ask, make sure you do it in a professional manner, with a couple of key questions about particular issues, like those you mentioned. I would avoid a generic email that simply asks, "Why didn't I get the job/an acceptance?" or "What didn't you like about my application?" Obviously, if you do get a response, follow up the response with a brief thank you email (and definitely don't get in an argument about the response if you don't agree with it!).


Is it possible to get accepted in a PhD program without reference/recommendation letters? Is it possible to get accepted into a Ph.D. program without reference/recommendation letters?

How likely is it ?

If it is very unlikely, is there any way to get around this unlikeliness?

Most admissions committees I know people on will not consider incomplete applications.

If there is an application deadline that applies for an entire incoming class, and letters aren't received, then it's probable that the application will be rejected.

If there is no admissions deadline and If the rest of the application looks good, though, they may contact the applicant to remind them to send in letters so that the application can be considered.

The reason for asking for the letters is a form of quality control: admissions committees want candidates who will become productive researchers. Getting letters of recommendation that can testify to their promise as researchers is an integral part of the admissions process.


What to do with gaps in mathematical papers? Assume the following is given in a published paper:

There is an important result.
The important result might contain a gap, as possibly some people agree.
The authors never respond to questions on that and so maybe they do not want to make it public that there is a gap, which can not be filled.
It is not likely to give a direct counterexample to the important result, but only to point out possible gaps.

What to do then? The problem is obviously that some people might quote and use the result in new papers. How about the idea that such gaps could be marked in the published version of the paper as a motivation for future research? Of course a recent editor of the journal should choose a new referee to decide whether to mark such a paper.
Also I think this should not have bad consequences for the authors as there might be reasons one is not aware of.

If the paper has not been published yet and the gap is brought to the attention of the editor and/or referee, they should inform the authors of the problem and ask for it to be corrected. If the authors don't correct the gap then the paper should be rejected.

If the paper has already been published, anyone else who finds the gap, brought it to the attention of the authors and didn't receive a satisfactory reply has two main formal options that I can think of:

Write to the journal which published the paper. The journal can decide what to do, with an obvious step being to retract the paper. For an important result that was published in a serious journal, I expect the journal to take the matter quite seriously and solicit opinions from experts (which is essentially the same as the "gap referee" idea in your question) about whether such a drastic measure should be taken. In the event of a decision to retract, the journal will issue a statement that it no longer endorses the correctness of the paper, and probably add an explanation of the reasoning behind the decision.
Alternatively, the discoverer of the gap can write and publish a paper pointing out the gap.

In both of these approaches, the existence of the gap has entered the official scientific record and most other researchers in the field will become aware of it, so the risk of people erroneously relying on an unsubstantiated result is reduced, though not completely eliminated. The risk can be further reduced by publicizing the gap through other informal channels such as blogs, seminar and conference talks, emails to groups of colleagues, posts on MathOverflow, etc.