Revised manuscript take too long to process I send out my first article to be reviewed on 12 Jun 2018 and received comment from reviewer from Journal of international quantum chemistry on 13 July 1018. Problem is, I have sent in revised manuscript to that particular journal since 8 August 2018, the publisher inform me through email will let me know the editorial decision within two months. We wait until two months still doesn't receive any news. My supervisor has sent in a requiry for the manuscript to Wiley publisher but Wiley reply that they still waiting for another review. I quite afraid my article won't be review forever if that reviewer forgets to review my article. Other things makes me worry is,  my article cannot get other places to published when being rejected after a year by Wiley due to the value of an article. What should I do? Thank you very much.

First things first, relax. You are worried about the status of your paper, but nothing out of the ordinary has happened.

When you submitted it, the editors of the journal sent it for review. From your description, there were at least two reviewers. Peer reviewers are volunteers, so editors cannot force them to submit reviews. They can invite them of course, but whether or not they actually submit a review on time isn't something that can be directly controlled. From your description, one of the reviewers hasn't submitted a review. This is perfectly normal. It's not desirable, but it's normal.

What happens next is that the editor can either look at the review(s) that were submitted and make a decision, or wait. Again from your description, the editor has chosen to wait. How long will the editor wait? Only she will know, but you can be confident that she won't wait longer than ~1 month. If the reviewer still hasn't submitted a review more than one month after the deadline, the odds are he will never submit one. Maybe he forgot about it, maybe he was too busy, maybe he had some serious personal issues that stopped him from reviewing, who knows? It happens often enough that editors have probably dealt with it before.

Here's what will likely happen to your paper.

The reviewer submits a review.

Everyone is happy, the editor makes a decision, and you move on.

The reviewer doesn't submit a review.

The editor could make a decision based on the reviews she's received so far. This depends on how good those reviews are. If they're convincing enough then she might decide.
If they're not convincing enough then the editor could decide to invite new reviewers. This is the nightmare scenario for you, since it'll easily add another 1+ month to the review time. There's nothing you can do about this however except for withdraw your paper to submit elsewhere (in which case you'll have to put up with another 1+ month of review time anyway).

One thing that definitely won't happen is that your paper will be reviewed "forever". Eventually the editor will stop waiting and make a decision, especially if you remind her. As for the other thing that worries you, if your paper is indeed rejected, it's not likely to take a year. So far it's been two months, which in the physical sciences is very much within the norm. Chances are you'll receive a decision in another month.

As for what to do: do nothing and wait. You cannot rush the reviewers (you don't know who they are anyway) and you cannot rush the editors (it's their journal, things are only ever published when the editors are satisfied). If it goes another month+ without word from the editors, then you can send them a reminder, but otherwise just keep waiting.

If you are really concerned, don't take my word for it. Speak to your supervisor. Ask him how long it takes in his experience to publish in your field, or how long is a reasonable time to wait before worrying. If your supervisor isn't worried, you shouldn't be worried either.


Sweden admission deadlines I have researched a few Swedish universities such as Uppsala, Lund, and Stockholm, and the Ph.D. admission deadlines vary a lot. When I go to ScholarshipDb.net and search for positions each has different deadlines too.

I have finished my MSc. in Geography and want to apply for Geography Ph.D. programs. I have a time shortage because in our country six months after graduation the student will face two years of mandatory military service. I am confused right now because there are lots of different deadlines and admission dates.

Are Swedish programs deadlines have a typical norm and are on fixed dates such as U.S. (Nov, Jan, Feb) or they're based on the advertising dates and are somehow unique?

Are Swedish programs deadlines have a typical norm and are on fixed dates such as U.S. (Nov, Jan, Feb) or they're based on the advertising dates and are somehow unique?

The most common way to announce PhD positions is on a case-by-case basis with unique deadlines for each position. There are no fixed dates that universities have to adhere to. You will see an increase in the number of available positions during the first quarter of each year since big funding bodies like the Swedish Research Council decide on grants in the fall.

(I'm a PhD student at Karolinska Institutet).


Is it rude to ask the associate editor about manuscript status for second time? About six months ago I submitted a paper in one of the very reputed IEEE Transactions. I have observed from different papers published in that journal that the average time for receiving the first review is around 3 months. That is why I politely inquired about the status of the manuscript after around 4 months from the date of submission by sending a mail to the associate editor (AE). The AE promptly replied me about the status and said that two out of three reviews were still being awaited. However, it is now six months and I still do not see any change in the status of the manuscript in the online portal.

So, my question is: is it too soon to send a second mail to the AE asking about the status of the manuscript and can such second mail irritate the AE to the point that it might negatively impact the review process of my manuscript?

I think it should be fine to inquire (politely, of course) at this point. While it may be a minor irritant, it should not affect the outcome of the acceptance decision provided the journal follows ethical practice.

If you have a decision to make about the paper it is important to get the information. If it is just to ease your uncertainty then you could also let it go a bit longer. But there shouldn't really be a downside. Maybe a note would get the editor to prod the reviewers a bit.


Plagiarism and academic dishonesty Yesterday I was accused of plagiarism by my professor. who earlier in the  week I had called him out for one of his policies being against  the school policy. I feel like now I'm experiencing some kind of personal vendetta on his part. Then yesterday that professor pulled me aside  and said theses are the facts and said I had deliberately done falsification and plagiarism and It was a bit overwhelming at that point . so I took a few minutes to collect myself then marched myself into his office and sat down and tried to discuss the matter with him. He began to show me what I did and I had always thought plagiarism was not giving credit to the authors but I had done In text citations and a bibliography citing the authors and I was under the assumption that this was a research paper so I was just putting in the cold hard facts and didn't think I was committing any academic dishonesty. Then my professor  gave me two options the first one was to take it to an higher authority which he repeated several times that it would not be wise for me to do so and if I did he would tarnish my academic reputation at this university  2nd was to go through the rest of the class and act like nothing happened and know I would automatically be getting an failing grade at the end of this semester. I feel like I'm being black mailed here idk what I should do.

The first thing you should do is calm down, and realize failing a class, or even getting kicked out of school, is not the end of the world.  (Note administrative punishment for plagiarism will probably be worse than just failing a class, though I think most schools would not expel you for a first offence.)

The second thing you should do is make sure you understand what plagiarism is (see also, e.g., here), and understand whether you truly, intentionally or not, committed plagiarism.  Here the main question is: does it look like you were trying to pass off someone else's work as your own or not?  It seems that your professor thinks so, though it is possible he is being more strict with you.

After you do the first two things, you should apologize to your professor (in person) for what you have done wrong.  This includes (a) confronting him in a rude way about his policy, and (b) improper citations.  Your apologies should be sincere, explain your original intents (at least assuming you didn't mean to be disrespectful or dishonest), why what you did was wrong, and show that you know now what you should have done.  During this meeting, you should try to be as respectful and non-confrontational as possible.

If your professor then seems somewhat placated, and convinced of your sincerity, you can politely ask him if there is something you can do to make up for this, such as redoing your assignment.  If he says no, you have to accept his decision.  Unless it is clear from your assignment that there was no intent of plagiarism, it probably is a bad idea to take this issue higher up.


What is a concise citation format for grant proposals given constraints on page counts? Many grant applications have page limits. They also often allow the writer to chose their preferred  format for references.

Thus, I was wondering:

What is a good concise referencing system that minimises the impact of references on page count?

Equally, perhaps there are other considerations beyond being concise, such as readability or highlighting that an author on the paper is also an investigator on the grant. Or perhaps it's better to stick to the reference format dominant in your discipline?

My initial thoughts were:

Use numbered references rather than author (date) format
Use first author and then et al for other authors
Use abbreviated journal names
Show only first page number

Depending on whether the grant proposal is computer read only or not there is a possibility of hiding the References list from your MS Word (or some other word processing applications). Once clicked on, the References will pop up as a full list.

If the references have to be visible at all times, then the shortest way of referencing would be to use in-text numbered references. And in the end of the research proposal, you could change the font size/style to accommodate "more" space for your full references.

There are many different referencing styles (some more academic than others) but if the goal is to use up as little space as possible for the references then short form full references would work for you. A short googling session yielded this result for a short form citation style: http://anton.cromba.ch/2016/02/07/a-minimal-citation-stylefor-grant-proposals/

Another way of referencing to consider could be the under-line references on each page. That font style can be changed more before it begins to clash with the overall "style" of the document, making it possible to create very space efficient references. Although space efficient, some extra space is needed to accommodate the paragraph styles and readability.


How can I tell if an honor society is legitimate? I recently received an acceptance letter from a honor society (I am leaving off the name for now but can include a link to the website).

The offer said I qualified because of my grades or a nomination. I read a little into it and it a lot more like a sales pitch. Offering discounts, exclusive scholarships, and career services in exchange for a biannual fee.

The website does look very professional. I am not sure if it is a scam, a profit driven real honor society, or what else. Aside from intuition is there any ways to tell what an invitation entails without all the hype?

Also, even if they are a profit driven business is it likely worth time to invest in a short term membership?

In all of my experience: no one within academia cares about honor societies whatsoever.  To expand on that: in academia we routinely (closer to constantly) evaluate people based on their academic qualifications, in a very serious way: i.e., the "winners" get offered substantial scholarships and/or jobs.  Not once have I ever heard anyone mention membership in an honor society in any of these decisions.  Not for faculty hiring, not for graduate admissions, not for picking TA's...never.

When I was an undergraduate I did join Phi Beta Kappa (junior year: whoop de frickin' doo) and Sigma Xi.  The way I recall it, I was moderately encouraged to do so by my undergraduate program.  And I must say that the amount of money that I gave to these people -- if any; maybe my school paid it themselves? -- was truly negligible: at most $40, or something like that.  Based on this money, for many years afterwards I got:

Regular newsletters from the organizations that made what looked like reasonable attempts at giving me some kind of scientific / academic contacts.  (Not that I read them...)
Semi-regular very strange calls offering to sell me gold-laminated books and other such frippery.  Often these were done with enough of a "hard-sell" solicitation to get me a little steamed: one caller spoke breathlessly about the gold-laminated books and at the end asked me how many additional copies I wanted to order at a discounted price.  I mentioned that she skipped an important step, and she asked what that was.  I revealed that at no point in the conversation had she asked me whether I was even the slightest bit interested in buying anything from her.  The rest of the conversation was brief but tense.

Based on these experiences, whenever any student asks me whether they should join an honor society -- the ones which are not supposed to be scams, like Phi Beta Kappa -- I say "I do not advise you to do it if you have to pay more than the most negligible amount of money."

However, I have occasionally talked to other faculty and university personnel about this issue, and their experiences are not always as negative as mine.  What I suspect may be true (but I have unfortunately never had the occasion to find out!) is that: academic honors societies may be useful for people who are leaving academia, by providing some kind of modest continuing contact with the academic world.  I mean, the idea that I need to open up a bi-annual newsletter and read about what other academics are doing makes no sense for me: I learn about what other academics are doing by going to work.  But for people who go off into industry -- or something else -- maybe it is valuable.  On the other hand, I have to imagine that, as with so many things, the internet makes this kind of thing largely obsolete: the amount of access that any citizen of the world with an internet connection has to current academic activity is greater now than what any professor had twenty years ago.

One final question: does anyone care if your CV says you are a Phi Beta Kappa (junior year!)?  I suspect not -- as someone else mentioned, these awards are given for your GPA, and you put your GPA on your CV anyway.  But I would, as ever, be interested to hear other perspectives.


Can a project be a PhD research? I am preparing PhD porposal
the proposal itself is a project design plan.

Is that possible for a Project to be a PhD research?

My Project is about web portal from data science.

A "project" sounds like an implementation of something. A thesis isn't normally about implementation, though it could be based on an implementation. Something that can be shown to be an improvement over current best practice, for example. But it is the proof, not the implementation that forms the key to the thesis.

For example, in Computer Science, a thesis often starts with a project. Suppose, for example, that you build a more efficient Garbage Collector for a runtime programming system than any currently known. That implementation isn't the thesis. You need to prove, somehow, that it is indeed more efficient and show the benchmarks. That proof is what makes it research and results in the thesis. But the program you write (the garbage collector) isn't the thesis.

Think of dissertation research as being about knowledge. After the proof is given we know something that we didn't know before. Building stuff isn't, per se, about knowledge.

Caveat: I will edit this if more information from OP makes it advisable.


Where do English/History or Humanities professors post their research publications? What's the search engine for research papers that professors of English,History or Humanities wrote? I looked up my english professors on google and couldn't find any of their dissertations or papers. Google scholar fails.

It's possible that this question will be closed as a "shopping" question, but I'll try to provide some general information.

In the humanities and social sciences, scholars have been slow to adopt the practice of putting preprints of articles up on the web for other scholars to read.  There are some preprint servers for various areas in the humanities and social sciences, but these are not nearly as heavily used as (for example) ArXiV is used in many areas of science and mathematics.

A further issue is that much of the scholarship in these disciplines is published in the form of books rather than articles.  For example, a typical expectation of an assistant professor in these disciplines is that they publish one book out of their dissertation within the first few years after the Ph.D. and have a second book published before the end of the tenure period.  Publishers of scholarly books in the humanities are mostly unwilling to allow the authors to make versions of the books freely available.

In my experience, Google Scholar does often include journal articles in the humanities and social sciences.  Furthermore, it's quite common for the web pages of faculty members in these disciplines to list their publications.  Thus I'm surprised that you say you can't determine what they've published.  Are you saying that you can't find any information about what they've published, or are you asking why you can't find freely accessible copies of this material?


PhD: Switching Universities and Subjects After Three Months? I was offered a PhD place at an Institute of Technology in my hometown to do interdisciplinary work in Psychology and Computer Science. Although it wasn't my original interest, I was offered to have at least my fees covered so I took it.

Three months in however and I am having serious doubts about the program. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I was registered as a Computer Science PhD student. My background is in Psychology and my supervisor's area is in Computer Science. I am working entirely alongside computer scientists and there isn't any faculty members or even other graduate students in the institute who are experimental psychologists (there a few psychotherapists). Not only has it been very isolating socially (there isn't a great campus atmosphere and the people in my lab are introverted. In some cases the language barrier has been difficult), but academically it has been frustrating also. Given our respective backgrounds, I am expected to be the expert in Psychology right away, when I always conceived of a PhD as the process of becoming an expert in a particular (sub)-discipline over the duration of the project. An example of this expectation is when I offer work to be reviewed by my supervisor, I don't get a lot of feedback, primarily because my supervisor doesn't know the relevant psychology literature (I do get on well with my supervisor however). I have also felt held back by the Computer Science aspects, as I feel I need to shoehorn in technology into any project idea I have thought of.

As a consequence of these issues, I am considering dropping out of the program and taking up a Psychology PhD at a University in my hometown. The University is considered one of the best in the country and has a good Psychology department. I would have to self-fund (unless I manage to snag funding somewhere down the line), but I would have the opportunity to focus on Psychology entirely. These last few months have really made it clear that I love researching Psychology and I want a career in it.

Some of the already practical steps I have taken is to ask previous supervisors or lecturers I got on well with for advice, and I have also sent initial inquiries into potential future supervisors at University. I am yet to hear back (which is no surprise given the year and the fact I only sent these emails a few days ago).

I would love any advice or comment on whether I should switch. Also, I guess my ultimate question is about: Would I be better of switching to the other University in terms of future career prospects (e.g. getting a Post-Doc Psychology role afterwards?) Or do you think as long as I work to ensure my current PhD is heavily related to Psychology, I should be fine? Thank you in advance.

Although it wasn't my original interest, I was offered to have at least my fees covered so I took it.

You made a wrong move here, in my opinion.

A PhD is not an undertaking to be taken without strong motivation. It is certainly not something to do while what you really want to be doing is something else (whether that something else is another kind of research or a different activity).

Also, being a PhD candidate is work. They don't "cover fees", they pay you - because they need your research output; a university is (among other things) a research institute, and it hires researchers. The payment might be super-low, but that's because academic staff members are often non-unionized, or have extremely weak unions, to fight for decent recognition and pay.

So you're telling us that you took a job you weren't interested in taking because they pay a salary; as opposed to a job you are interested in (again, if I understand you correctly), but which doesn't pay at all.

I'd say the decision now depends on your economic predicament.

Option 1: You have some economic fall-back

If you have some money put aside - even not a large amount; or parents to support you; or can stay somewhere where you don't have to pay rent (dorm, friends' place etc.) - then I'd advise you switch to the university and department where you actually want to do research at.

As A Ph.D. candidate, you mentioned you might be able to "snag" some funding; but there's also the possibility you can be employed as a teacher or teaching assistant. And sometimes you might be eligible for a dorm assignment or other benefits. Try to look into this with your prospective PhD advisor or department administrator.

Caveats:

If you don't feel absolutely sure about the Psych department either - especially seeing how you don't have a specific intended research subject, even a tentative one, nor an intended supervisor - I would try to "flesh out" the alternative a little bit more before leaving.
Leaving is not entirely binary; you might want to read on even if this option sounds more like your case.

Option 2: You absolutely have to have your steady income

If simply have to have your monthly income, and have nothing to fall back on; and especially if you have dependents (spouse, children, parents with no income) - then life has been cruel to you, and you're stuck. You can't be a PhD candidate and live off air. Where you're at right now is certainly not the best of all possible worlds, but it seems you're not failing to do what you're expected - you're "just" dissatisfied and are worried about the expectations from you.

In this case, try to find some in-between arrangement, such as letting you spend half a day or a day a week at the other university - for grad-level courses, for meeting with potential collaborators etc. Since you're an inter-disciplinarian, and you're the "ranking Psychologist" around, it's quite likely they'll oblige. Maybe you'll even manage to arrange for inter-university collaboration on some project, and have a co-advisor from the other university? Who knows.

If that doesn't work out, well, I guess you'll have grit your teeth and try to do your job as best you can. Psychology won't disappear, not will the other university - nor, in fact, the possibility of doing academic research there in a few years when things change. You might consider devoting some of your time to forming a Graduate Researchers' Union - so that people who follow in your footsteps would be able to save up money more quickly, or alternatively, get paid as Psychology Ph.D.s from the get-go.


How long should an academic CV be for someone applying to post-doc positions in Europe? I am preparing my CV for applications to post-doc positions in the field of social sciences. I will apply to positions in the EU, mainly in German language countries.

I have updated my CV with my current position and experiences and I am wondering myself how long it should be at the max. Currently, with all details (Experiences in academia and in teaching; my course of education, language skills, a brief summary of my diploma thesis and my dissertation -- about 5 sentences each -- social commitments, IT skills and interests) I reach about 4 pages.

A CV for a job in a company is said to have at a maximum 2 pages. I could not find any hints how long a CV should be for a academic position. Does anyone of you have ideas or experiences how long it should be?

The notion of a curriculum vitae is confused by the fact that it gets used in two very different ways:

A comprehensive list of all of one's academic accomplishments
A short summary of one's background and skills (like an American resume)

For a postdoc position, you will generally want to be using the first---at least, that has been the way it has been for all countries that I am familiar with.

That, then, may be as long as it takes to list everything out; when applying for a postdoc position, your record will likely still be fairly short.  Well established researchers, on the other hand, can easily end up with 20+ pages and may consider switching to a "best of" format in which only the most significant highlights are shown.


Giving tenure if you know the faculty member is leaving We had a tenure track professor announce she was leaving at the start of the academic year. Documented in faculty meeting minutes. Job posting appeared shortly thereafter. Candidates brought in and offers were made. This person was up for tenure. The committee voted no for tenure since she was leaving. Is the committee in error here?

Usually people leave before they are up for tenure when they think the answer won't be a good one. A tenure package that doesn't get you tenure at Princeton might get you tenure no-questions-asked at state school. If you make that move as fast as possible, everything you have in the pipeline can be attributed to your new institution and help with promotion there, rather than throwing your output down a poisoned well. During my time at Mid-Ivy university tenure candidate A (best candidate) was denied, future tenure candidates B and C (weaker candidates) promptly left as soon as they lined up offers elsewhere.

Is the committee at error here? Ethically if they have submitted their package, I suppose it "should" be evaluated without respect to what the candidate does afterwards. However in the real world any offer of tenure or permanency is only provided at a cost of significant intraorganizational capital all the way up to dean & potentially president level and is only offered when the expected returns on such investment are likely.

At my previous job my colleague was up for a permanent scientific position in government and had completed his entire package when he started having stomach pains. Turns out he had stage 4 cancer, and the division did not put forth his package. We all donated our sick leave to him so he could keep his salary and insurance. When I resigned I brought up that he was not put up for the permanent position he had worked over a 6-7 year period to attain and my director said "well, when he beats the stage 4 cancer and can come back to work we will put his package forward" (paraphrasing). While extremely cold, I took it to mean that he would not create a permanent position for a terminally ill employee because then he wouldn't have the capital later on to get another one. So certainly if someone is unlikely to accept the offer of tenure the tenure process would not continue. For example, try interviewing for a job and then telling the hiring manager that you were going to take an offer elsewhere. Do you think you would still get a formal offer from this hiring manager?


Changes in major revision Can I change statistical results (mistakes) a discussion section with new results in a major revision stage? I corrected all the comments of reviewers but I don't know what should i do in this case. Might this situation affect the editor negatively?

In addition to making changes according to the reviewers' comments, you may also make other corrections and changes that improve the quality of the paper. However, you should indicate to both the editors and the reviewers that you have made such changes, and explain why they have been made. Given that it's a major revision, the paper would go back to the reviewers anyway, so it makes sense to correct everything possible.

As a caveat, however, such corrections should not be made in an attempt to skirt around flaws raised by the reviewers. I recently reviewed a manuscript where there were several anomalies in the data, and I mentioned these in my review. The authors completely removed the offending data, and replaced them with new results that better "fit" their conclusions. Such behavior is not acceptable, as they did not explain why the previous results were wrong; they just replaced them.


How important is seeing the face of the instructor? So, I am yet to make up my mind on which is a superior mode of teaching in flipped classroom videos:

Khan academy type model where you see slides or a digital drawing board and only listen to the instructor.
Or a video in which you see the instructor communicating with you. Maybe in one third of the video and the rest of the screen real estate is focused on graphics, video etc.

Let us assume that you have a superb communicator in both cases.

Which model is superior? Have there been any studies in this field?

I cannot cite studies, but extensive anecdotal observation (maybe 5,000 undergrad students, 500 grad students) suggests that about 1/4 of students do not need, or do not care, about the person who is the instructor. But a vast majority, perhaps 3/4, do care. There is a sense of needing/wanting reassurance from a person, and caring about the insights of a person. The lack of this need/want comes in (at least) two very opposite forms: obviously the oblivious/incompetent failure to see what's going on, but also the relatively-very-competent student who scarcely needs or wants reassurance and has better ways to spend their time. The middle ground seems not to exist.

So, operationally, for almost all purposes, the person who is the teacher matters, whether or not they are a truly wonderful teacher (as long as they're not completely inert as a human being).

(The "funny case" is the few students, both at undergrad and graduate levels, who for some reason expect/demand the teacher to be an automaton, reciting a text, not looking at students, not caring about students, not contributing, not critiquing, not improving. Yet they come to class rather than read the book? Maybe in anticipation of "books on tape", to have the classic text read to them out loud, in a room with other people?)

(The aspect of trusting in the expertise of the instructor seems, sadly, less relevant than the mandated understanding of their "authority". Tsk.)


Should I learn the research methods first? I'm going to start my PhD in 10 month time. My general area will be HCI (Human Computer Interaction). Should I read papers and look at the method used in that paper then read about that method? or should I read about most research methods in the area before I start reading any paper?

Learning styles differ, but most people find it easier to understand a method as they see it applied. In order to grasp a solution, you need to understand what problems it is trying to solve.

I would probably start with one or more applied papers in the field. Though it's fine to jump into more detail about the methods as soon as you have questions. Really this need not be two separate activities.


How to become a journal editor? Being an editor of a journal can be time-consuming, but has obvious benefits (especially if one enjoys reading and reviewing manuscripts). So I expect many academics have a desire to become an editor.

I have never seen an advertisement for a position on an editorial board, which leads me to believe that most positions are not filled this way.

How do most people become editors, and how might a person wishing to become an editor achieve this (without setting up a new journal)?

Open positions in journal editorial boards are frequently not advertised (though that happens). Instead, when a vacancy appears, the chief editor will typically look for people with the required expertise and ask them whether they would be willing to serve.

Often, editors will have different specialties. So an editor who is stepping down would need to be replaced in his specific area of expertise. Given that he is an expert and should have a good overview of his specific field, he will most likely be asked to suggest possible replacements.

Chief editors will usually be "elevated" from among the non-chief editors, since these already know the journal and its specifics.

So, how to go about to be invited as an editor? Two things:

Build a reputation as an expert in a specific field. Submit good quality papers to the journal you are most interested in (and others), go to conferences etc.
Build a reputation as dependable and articulate. Hand in reviews promptly, and write good reviews. Editors remember people who write good reviews.

Of course, this is not a guarantee of being asked for an editorship.


Does taking on an assistant professor position prevent me from doing post-docs later? I have been offered an assistant professor position at a university in my home country. As I don't have any other offers at the moment, I want to accept. However, I believe that a post-doc or two will help me improve as a researcher, and also will help with my two-body problem.

I want to know that if I take this position, am I still eligible to apply for and do post-docs? My field is physics.

I'll have to guess a bit on this, never having heard of the situation before. I think you are wise to be worried, though. The intention of post docs is to provide research (sometimes also teaching) experience to people who have just finished their doctorates. Some positions will be explicit about that.

But even if you are technically eligible, I think a lot of people would wonder about you if you took that path. "Why is he leaving a regular position..." They might even question your qualifications since leaving an Assistant Professor position (in the US) often means that tenure was denied or the candidate assumed it would be. That isn't a good impression to leave, even if it is inaccurate.

Assistant professor may mean something different in your country, of course. But consider the "expected" career path of such a person in your decision.

On the other hand, it is also (US, again) possible to move from an Assistant Professor position at one university to a similar, regular, position at another. The new position might enable more research possibilities, especially if there is a larger, more active, faculty.


Should I include teaching feedback from students in my CV? Some time ago, I worked as a teaching assistant in a college. That college had an online form for collecting student feedback. After the end of the year, they sent me an official letter with my final "teaching grade" and the verbal feedback, both of which are very good.

Now, I am near the end of my Ph.D. and I am working on my CV. Should I include this feedback? I thought of including it in the end, after the "recommendations" section, since these are officially-documented recommendations from past students. Is this a good idea?

I'm sure conventions vary, but I know at my university in Australia, when going for promotion, it is important to show a contribution to teaching. However, they specifically suggest avoiding listing individual student comments. The argument is that any academic can find at least a few students who have said something nice about them at some point.

So in summary, I think that official student rated quality of teaching scores are useful, particularly if the scoring is understood by the people reading your CV. My main point would be that selectively taking individual comments is probably not that helpful.

Better means of demonstrating an achievements in teaching include: initiatives in developing content, quality of teaching scores, teaching responsibilities, teaching awards, etc.


Finding Article Template for New Journal - PRX Quantum I've undertaken some novel work as part of my undergraduate thesis and have been advised that this work goes sufficiently beyond the brief of an undergrad thesis and is novel enough to submit for publication. Since this will be my first paper and my supervisor is a subject matter expert, we've decided that we will coauthor an article based upon this research.
The most relevant fields are Quantum Electronics and Quantum Optics, so the logical place to publish this would seem to be Physical Review X's new spinoff PRX Quantum, launched last month.
However, I've been unable to find a LaTex template for articles in this new journal.
Would anyone know where I could find this? If not, would it be inappropriate to email the editor and ask if one exists?

I suggest you use the prx option included in REVTeX-4.2, e.g. using
\documentclass[prx,twocolumn,english,superscriptaddress,floatfix,longbibliography]{revtex4-2} (Without having compared too closely, the style used by PRX Quantum seems to be the same as in PRX.) If you have an earlier version of REVTeX that doesn't support prx, just use the preset for another APS journal. Either way, they'll handle the minutiae of formatting should the manuscript be accepted.
It's not inappropriate to ask journal staff about templates, but they state that submissions in REVTeX or MS Word are preferred, and I think using prx is the closest you can get using REVTeX at the moment.


Withdraw submission due to lack of referees I have submitted a mathematical-physics manuscript to Journal of Mathematical Physics, and I am in a situation similar to the one described here: It has been two months since I submitted, and the editor still cannot find reviewers. I have asked the editor what happens if he/she keeps trying and will still be unable find any reviewer, but he/she refuses to answer me.

The manuscript is in the field of celestial mechanics and is quite specific. However, two months seems a pretty long time to me, and I am incline to think that this is the journal's fault, i.e., the journal or editor is not known enough, he/she does not have a good network of referees, and I feel that I am wasting my time and should withdraw my submission and submit it to another journal.

Do you concur with this? According to your experience, what is the best decision to make sure that the manuscript is published in a reasonable time in this journal, or in another journal with similar impact?

Some reviewers reply to invitations slowly or not at all.  Worse, some reviewers initially promise to review, then later change their mind (there can be good¹ or bad reasons for this).  Worst, some initially promise to review but are then never heard from again.  The job of the (associate) editor is to somehow handle all of this, and since reviews are voluntary there's very little the editor can do.

I was recently a reviewer on a paper that was slow.  The review of my co-reviewer never materialised, and other invitees either ignored the invitation or declined.  After several months, the editor, fed up, sent out 17 invitations in a single day.  6 declined the same day.  6 declined up to 2 weeks later.  4 never replied.  1 accepted and delivered the review.  Ultimately, the discussion phase was extended almost 3 months beyond what was originally planned.

Bottom line: don't read too much into the review being slow.  Although some publishers communicate some details to authors, most don't.  Just wait.  Solving this problem is the editor's responsibility, not yours.

¹A colleague agreed to review a paper (his first) based on the abstract.  When he received it it was almost 100 pages long.  I think he sent it back with a short note along the lines of I can't review this, please shorten it or write a book instead.  I don't know what happened to the paper in the end.


If a reviewer comments that the overall writing needs to be improved will they reject if some errors remain? I submitted the major revision and one reviewer's comment was to improve the overall writing. I'm trying to improve the flow and writing, but some grammatical errors and typos are still left.
Will they reject it directly or give me another chance?

First:  If you know your paper has grammatical or spelling errors, you must fix them before you submit the paper.  Otherwise, you risk wasting the editor and peer reviewers' time, which would be unethical.  Remember they are volunteers with other responsibilities.
If you did submit a paper that was perfect except for spelling and minor grammar errors, it usually would not be rejected.  Most journals make their decisions based on research content, not cosmetics.  Most journals employ a copyeditor to fix cosmetic errors the authors cannot fix.


How to show interest to serve as a TPC or reviewer in top conferences? My Questions: How can I express interest to receive invitation to serve as a reviewer in a top ranked conference? Currently I am registered with the conference review system (i.e., EDAS) and I receive review invitations from ordinary conferences, but I consider review in high quality conferences. Is there any feasible way to express interest and show that I have technical expertise to judge papers in a particular area. I know that having certain academic qualification (like master and more commonly PhD) and research experience is must to become nominated in top conferences.

Background: Researchers more or less receive invitations to serve as reviewer of a journal or conference. I guess the process in journals to identify reviewers is one of three main channels

Author suggests potential reviewer
Reviewer's profile is in the review system from previous submission
Reviewers can express interest to become reviewer in journals (Some journals have link to register).

and there should be other ways to feed information into the journal review system (that I might have missed).

However, in conferences, it is slightly different because

normally there is no registration link to express interest (I have not seen),
usually there is no option that authors nominate reviewers while submitting a paper to conference (at least I have not experienced the same).

the only way left compared to journal is that reviewer registers with the conference review system for paper submission. So in future, when organizing committee is selecting TPCs and reviewers, they can invite already-registered members to play as reviewers.

I can only answer for computer science, but around here TPCs of conferences are generally by-invitation only. You cannot (officially) apply for it per se - typically, the organizers will form the TPC based mainly on previous members, filling any openings with outstanding members of the community not currently part of the TPC. Usually, these outstanding people are personally known to the organizing committee, so no formal search or something like that is conducted.

Of course, writing to the organizers expressing interest cannot hurt, but my impression is that if you do not already know them, your request is sadly likely to be ignored.

Edit:

I should add that I did not mean to imply that it is all just a matter of "knowing somebody". Seeing that you are still a PhD student, you will likely simply not be high-profile enough at this point to be considered for the TPC of a really good conference (these usually only consist of eminent faculty).


Can you self-plagiarize within the same document? The title is the question: can you plagiarize yourself within the same document? For example within a book of thousand pages, do you have to reference ideas from page 50 when you use them on page 950?

The short answer is: No, it is not (self-)plagiarism because it is the same book.

The longer answer is that a reader may want to know more about the subject when reading only the chapter on page 950. It would be highly beneficial for him/her to have a reference to the earlier section on page 50 where more information or more detail about the subject is given.

Finally, you should consider whether it is really necessary to literally repeat yourself within the same book (hint: probably not). This could be an indication of a sub-optimal structure of the book, or maybe providing a short summary and referring to the earlier section for more details is enough.


Must one find references to fit knowledge already known from education or experience? Recently I wrote a course paper on a subject connecting my major to my current major. In the background section, I listed quite a bit of essential information I think is information that is readily available, and which I can confirm through many years of life and work experience, but which my instructor knows nothing about. The instructor has accused me of not providing references for this information.

Do I need to fill my paper with citations to people who wrote books saying the same thing? How do I know where to draw the line between what gets a reference and what does not?

Here is the general principle for citations: anything that is not considered "elementary knowledge" to the community reading the paper must have a citation.
This means that different communities need citations for different things.
For example, when I write for a biology community, I often end up including citations to basic computer science textbooks, to give a grounding for things that are simple undergraduate information in my background, but that would be highly unintuitive to an experimental biologist.  The reverse applies as well, for a biologist writing to a computer science audience.

Something that you know through experience definitely needs to be backed up with citation.  One of the critical values of the scientific method is that it lets us separate statements supportable by facts from myths based on cognitive biases.  We humans are very, very bad at learning from experience, in the sense that we draw many conclusions that are simply not true.  Folklore is full of these types of experience-grounded myths, some of which turn out to be true (willow bark does help with pain: that's the basis for aspirin), and some of which turn out to be false (mercury turns out to be terrible as a medicine).

If you can find things backing up your experience in reliable literature, you can cite them.  If not, perhaps you have a good subject for study, if you can figure out how to design an appropriate experiment...


Master thesis possibly does not work out as expected I'm currently working on my CS masters thesis. The timeline is set up to 5 months with developing the software and writing the thesis itself. My supervisors and me had a nice idea that would (if it were implemented successfully) be a great contribution to a currently running research project of one of the supervisors.

I started out with checking whether the first of the two main problems of the thesis would work at all (I implemented that part of the software, it worked and so we were fine with that). After that, we felt confident to finally and officially register the thesis, so that eventually, with that day, those 5 months of officialy working on it started.

Today, 2.5 months later, I'm stuck with the second part of the problem. Since starting to work on that two months ago this one great problem was cut down into many smaller ones of which a few are solved, others aren't.

Those few unsolved problems are a major issue now. On the whole, our "great idea" with which we started works under the condition that those few unsolved problems would some day work, but currently I feel

that some of the unsolved problems can't be worked out in the remaining time
few of them I might not be able to solve at all - literature on them is very rare or non existend; I suppose we're the first people to try to accomplish that fuctionality with these tools

In conclusion I currently don't believe that the whole "great idea" we initially had can be put into software within the time horizon of my thesis (or at all).

The questions now are:

I think I need 6 weeks (more likely 8 weeks) for writing the text of the thesis, so my time is running and I fear I cannot finally and certainly find out which of the remaining problems can be solved; What to do (and write) in that case in my thesis?
I think my supervisors expected this whole thing to work out, being implement in code. I fear I'll not satisfy that expectation. What to do about them telling me I could have done better, worked more, harder?

First of all, you can relax about the fact that you won't solve everything. In research, it's the default case that you will solve some of the problems, and leave plenty of others as future work. (There's a great inspirational comic about this truth.)

As a criterion for selecting the remaining problems you want to work on, I recommend to select the ones that will help you to a tell good overall story in your thesis. For example, it's better to deliever a program that works in certain cases and under certain assumptions, rather than a program that never works, but could possibly work if certain remaining problems would be solved.
Make sure to have the facts on your side. For example, prepare a table with the specific tasks you solved/tried to solve, the time you spent trying to solve them, and the specific issues that made the tasks hard to solve.


May I write a letter to support my girlfriend's application? My girlfriend and I am in the same college, but different major. She is a law school master student.

She just graduated from the master program and wanted to transfer to juris doctor in the same college.

I am wondering if it is appropriate for me to write the dean of law school a letter in support of her application.

Also, I am not sure what to write in the letter if appropriate. I would imagine saying that I would love to be able to continue studying with my girlfriend in the same college and things like that. Would you have any suggestions?

Thank you in advance!

Just say no.  No, it's not appropriate.  This is not even close.  She might as well ask her mother to write the LOR.  "She was such a good girl growing up."

It's possible it might not get discovered but if it is, I expect it would (should!) quickly tank her application before most admissions committees.  She needs to find references who can speak to her qualifications without this obvious conflict of interest.


What are the major informal obstacles students face when they go abroad for a research degree? I have a completely introverted personality. I am seriously struggling with interpersonal relationships with my colleagues, to a point that I am actually at the brink of quitting my job. If I go abroad for a research degree, would there be any problem that may jeopardize my endeavor? My family is constantly warning me against leaving the current job and going abroad for a higher degree; they say that I will surely return without completing my course as soon as I face any rudeness, animosity, or harshness, be it from the adviser or the environment.

A relative of mine in the USA has told me that she has been experiencing harsh behaviors from her PhD adviser due to her religion. One of my cousins in France has complained that he can never get any attention from his instructors because of his ethnicity. He is in service with UN.

It is not going to magically solve your problems. You will undoubtedly face similar issues. People outside often think that Academia is the life of the mind and the ivory tower. It is not. A successful career, including tenure, often depends on how well you interact with your fellow academicians never mind your students.

Being an introvert can be very difficult. You can take this opportunity to re-invent yourself. You'll never not be an introvert but you can work on skills to minimize its impact on your life and career. Search out some books on the subject (there have been some popular ones published recently like Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking).

Very carefully consider who your advisor will be. You don't need the prima donna, but someone with whom you can work with successfully.

Join Toastmasters or a similar organization where you are now or where you end up. Look for social, cultural, or technical organizations for your interests--and get involved. That may help you find connections and friends who can help you when the going gets tough.

You might also look into counseling, not to become extroverted, but to learn techniques to mitigate your introversion.

On a personal note: go for it! I'm introvert who's fine with friends. I'm a SME (subject matter expert) so knowing my stuff makes it much easier for me to speak up in a meeting, raise my hand in class (when I was in class), and so on. Don't let imposter syndrome get you either.


Can I use images from my published papers in my thesis without copyright infringment? I have to fill in copyright form for my PHD thesis submission.
I have used some of the images already published in my IEEE/IET journal and conference papers.
I signed copyright forms during the publication process of those papers.

Do these figures fall under the copyright act?

Can I confidently say that

  My thesis does not contain ANY material of which Copyright belongs to third parties.

You will have to read the copyright transfer form that YOU have signed. Sometimes, there are several options on whether you keep the right to reuse your work.
In my personal experience, you often have some limitations on how you can reuse your material. Sometimes, you will have to place a reference on where this paper has been published first.

However, this entirely depends on what you have signed.


Single or double thesis for double major? I am having a double major in my BSc, first one is Electrical and Electronic Engineering and second one is Computer Science [probably it was a bad idea because my cgpa is low, but anyways I have decided to do it]. Now it is time for thesis. Since both of the major are closely related, either I can go for a single big thesis that is something in between both of the courses or I can go for two different thesis. Now the thing I am concern about is that, single thesis or double thesis which one will look good at my Masters Admission Application?

Write one thesis, so you only have to write one introduction and discussion section, and only have to go through the thesis formatting nightmare once. If you prefer two small projects, you can make two projects two separate chapters for your thesis and just try and figure out a way to relate them in your introduction and discussion.

Make the title of your thesis sound applicable to the field of study you want to get your masters in (no one will read your undergrad thesis on the admissions committee and I doubt anyone will care whether you wrote two theses or one).

You say you have a low GPA. Perhaps two smaller projects (still for one thesis) will allow you to collaborate with two different professors. Why is this advantageous? Because that is potentially two very strong letters of recommendation. Many undergrads have one good letter of recommendation and the rest are just professors that taught a course they took. If you have two very strong letters, that is quite impressive, and will do more to get you into graduate school than anything related to your thesis, short of publishing it in a peer reviewed journal.


Why (what and when) do we cite? Context:
As I am writing my first paper, I cannot determine what, when and how I should cite scientific literature. It is because I don't know why I should cite (or not cite) other work.

My fist 'newbie' approach was "Every assertion you write should be proven by a relevant citation, so that other can believe you". Given that "I know nothing", no one would then take my word for it and thus I must prove that what I'm saying is true.
However, this lead to overcitation (and, I must admit, over-generalization of results), and frustration since I must find a paper corroborating what I want to say for every sentence, or so*

Then if I'm leaving this strict rule, I tend to think I am writing triviality, or affirming things I am not 100% sure. I also fear to unintentionally plagiarize, when I say something someone else already stated.

Question:
In a scientific writing, why do we [have to/need to/should] cite?

Clarifying this might help answering corollary questions: what to cite? and when should we cite?

What to cite? Should I cite a paper (i.e. give credit) for ideas that are in its literature review, and that are totally not related to the core/added value of the paper? Should I cite every paper related to one field? Can I cite only not-that-much-cited source and not classic ones? etc.
When to cite? If I am writing an assertion that is general (e.g. "Polar bears have mostly white fur"), should I justify it?(!) Which is the criteria to determine when an assertion need to be proven by a citation, and when it is admited?  When I define a key term for my paper, should I always rely on past definitions?

Disclaimer: Of course, I am aware of some obvious reasons for why we cite, such as giving credit and proving assertion, and I've read Arno's answer (who lists giving credit, for proof/evidence, and providing context as reasons) on a similar question. The originality of this question would be, to detail the link between the theory (why) and the practice (what, and when) of citing.

Furthermore, I am conscious that there are multiple questions in this post, especially in the bullet point list. However, these are just here for explanation purpose, and should of course be asked separately to get a specific and detailed answer.

* I know this should be done the other way (i.e. basing what I want to say on literature, and not looking for someone who could corroborate what I want to say)

I recommend that you discuss these issues with an academic mentor who understands your discipline. You may also find it useful to visit the writing/tutoring center at your institution.

That said, I've provided some short answers below. My answers are not intended to be complete because many of the questions that you are asking cannot be answered by people who are not experts in your discipline.

  Should I cite a paper (i.e. give credit) for ideas that are in its literature review, and that are totally not related to the core/added value of the paper?

Generally, no. If you encounter something that you want to cite in a literature review, track down the original source. This should not be difficult, assuming that the paper you are reading cited the original source properly.

  Should I cite every paper related to one field?

No. Unless you are defining "field" extremely narrowly, it will be neither possible nor desirable to cite everything.

  Can I cite only not-that-much-cited source and not classic ones?

There is no universal answer to this question. The answer depends on your purposes for the paper and the disciplinary expectations in your field. Talk to a mentor.

  If I am writing an assertion that is general (e.g. "Polar bears have mostly white fur"), should I justify it?(!)

You do not have to cite things that are considered common knowledge, but the question is this: What exactly gets to be considered common knowledge? There's no universal answer. It depends who you are writing for and what you are writing about. Here are some rules of thumb that should generally serve you well in American academic writing situations:

If you would expect any given high school graduate to know something (like the color of polar bear fur), then you probably don't have to cite it.
If you aren't sure whether you need to cite something, cite it, or at least mark it as a problem. You can always read back through the paper later with a mentor, colleague, or tutor who can help you to identify unnecessary citations.

  Which is the criteria to determine when an assertion need to be proven by a citation, and when it is admited?

Again, there are no universal criteria for this. You'll learn the criteria that writers in your discipline go by as you continue to read and study in your discipline.

  When I define a key term for my paper, should I always rely on past definitions?

In general, you should rely on past definitions if those definitions are (1) technical and specific and (2) an important issue in your paper. If you wish to break away from established definitions, you should explain why and make an argument for the new definition. Finally, a tip: It is practically never necessary to cite a dictionary definition in an academic paper.


Where does one add a Springer LNCS publication in their CV? I was wondering where people add Springer LNCS or LNAI publications in their CV or list of publications, if they were to specify conference, journal or monograph separately.

Whereas Springer itself says it is not a journal, the wiki page says it is a collection of books whereas Scimago Journal and country rank treats it as a journal. I was always of the opinion earlier that it is kind of similar to a conference proceedings and could be listed under such if one were to categorize. Now I am not too certain.

Can someone clarify?

Since a LNCS publication can either be a monography or conference proceedings volume, the natural solution is to ignore the fact that it's a LNCS publication and just list it corresponding to its actual type, that is, proceedings volume (or entry therein), or monography.


How to use international experiences for a US faculty position? I have studied and worked outside the US, now I am applying for a faculty  position in the US.

I understand that the competition is very tough, as search committees prefer candidates who have studied and worked in the US. However, I have a wide range of academic and administrative experiences, which might be unique (in comparison with other candidates).

How do search committees compare local and international candidates?
Do they care about my unique experiences? for example possibility for
building collaboration with my home country or attracting
international students?
Are my administrative experiences beneficial or it is a faculty
position and nobody cares about administrative works?

In general, how can I prove my competency? When my qualifications (publications, teaching experiences, etc) are better or as well as American candidates, how can I convince the search committee that my international credentials are comparable with the American standards?

I've had some experience in interviewing candidates from other countries, although my department has never hired a candidate who was not already working in the US.

The first thing to consider is what kind of position you're applying for.  It sounds as though you are not a relatively new PhD but rather that you have 10 or more years of experience as an academic in another country.

In practice, most academic positions in the US are openings at the assistant professor level, and most candidates for these positions will be recent PhDs (say within the last 5 years) with some post-doc experience but no experience in a tenure track faculty position.  It is not very usual for a more experienced faculty member from another university to be appointed to such a position.  Most universities would prefer to hire a new graduate from a top tier program with a couple of years of post-doc experience and then have that faculty member develop as an assistant professor at their institution.

Some positions are advertised at the "assistant or associate professor level", and you would be a better candidate for such a position.  In these searches, the committee is typically trying to hire the highest quality candidate that they can find, and a more experienced candidate with a good CV can be competitive.  On the research side you will need to demonstrate that you have been consistently productive throughout your academic career.   This means that you've been regularly publishing in good international journals and have published at a high rate.  A post-doc who has published 12 papers in two years in good journals will look better for this kind of position than someone who has published 80 papers over a 20 year career, particularly if not all of these publications were in top journals.  It is also important to have teaching experience in English (be sure to mention this in your CV and cover letter.)

At the full professor level the department is often looking for a distinguished researcher to fill a named professorship and/or lead a research group within the department.  Unless you're one of the top experts in your field, you're not likely to be competitive for such a position.  Often these kinds of positions are filled by recruiting a faculty member away from another university by offering them a higher salary, special facilities, and the opportunity to hire assistant professors in their area.

You might also consider applying for a department chair position.  These are typically part time (varying to essentially full time) administrative positions with some expectation of teaching and research.  The ways in which public and private universities in the US are funded are very different from other countries and their are many differences in university administration that might be challenging to someone coming in from another country.

There are of course immigration issues to consider as well.  Most of the more prestigious universities are generally willing to pay the costs associated with sponsoring a tenure track faculty member for a visa and ultimately permanent residency.  However, some lesser ranked institutions will balk at the cost.

In answer to your specific questions:

  How do search committees compare local and international candidates?

Your research accomplishments should include conference presentations and publications in international venues.  Publications in journals that are local to your country or continent will not receive much credit.

  Do they care about my unique experiences? for example possibility for
  building collaboration with my home country or attracting
  international students?

In my experience this is a relatively minor factor.

  Are my administrative experiences beneficial or it is a faculty
  position and nobody cares about administrative works?

Only if you're applying for an administrative position such as department chair.


Can books be included in literature reviews? I am still not sure what should be considered as "literature" for inclusion in a literature review and what are not when writing a research proposal. For instance:

  A research proposal: 500-1000 words outlining your plans for your PhD
  Please include a 'literature review’ of works you’ve consulted and
  where your ‘contribution to new knowledge’ may
  potentially be made.

Can books be considered as "literature" for inclusion in literature reviews? For instance:

Michio Kaku. (2011) Physics of the Future: The Inventions That Will -Transform Our Lives. Reprint, Penguin, 2012.
Carl Sagan. (1995) The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. Reprint, New York: Ballantine Books, 2000.

I googled and found this and it says:

  "The Literature" refers to the collection of scholarly writings on a
  topic. This includes peer-reviewed articles, books, dissertations and
  conference papers.

It mentions books but does The Literature above mean literature review?

Also, what about online sources/ articles? Are they "literature" for literature reviews? For example:

https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/01/03/baloney-detection-kit-carl-sagan/
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2009/jul/05/can-artists-save-the-world
http://www.theoryculturesociety.org/elinor-carmi-cookies-meets-eye/

Note carefully the word scholarly in that description.  It refers to works whose intended audience is experts in the field, and which either present novel research or interpret existing results in a novel way.  Books can fit that description; often they will have been published by an academic publisher and reviewed for academic merit by expert editors or referees, prior to publication.  Scholarly books are sometimes called monographs, especially in the sciences.

The books you mentioned by Kaku and Sagan are not scholarly books.  They are intended for a non-expert popular audience, and they don't present new research or expand the state of the art.  The same goes for the online sources you listed; they are newspaper articles or blog posts intended for a popular audience.

A literature review is how you show that you are familiar with the state of the art.  It convinces the reader that they should believe you when you say that your proposed project is feasible, novel, and interesting.  You want to show that you are an expert, or are on your way to becoming one. Citing a popular book won't achieve that; it puts you at the same level as any random person interested in science who can read a bestseller list.


I forgot to add preprint submission (BioRxiv) before the actual journal submission, what can I do now? I was entrusted to do the entire submission process on my own (previously done by the PI) as a learning process, so I am learning by trial and error.
I was supposed to initiate and complete all the bits in the submission portal of the journal, submit the manuscript to BioRxiv, and then submit to the journal. At least that was the order I was advised to follow.
In the rush of getting things done, and done right, I forgot to submit to the preprint server, before submitting to the journal. Now that I check the author guidelines of the journal (ACS publishing), they advise:

... authors are allowed to deposit an initial draft of their
manuscript in a preprint service such as or including these specific
preprint servers, ChemRxiv, bioRxiv, arXiv, or the applicable
repository for their discipline prior to submission. Please note any
use of a preprint server in the cover letter and include a link to the
preprint, and as appropriate, state how the manuscript has been
adjusted/updated between deposition and submission.
Electronic posting of conference presentations or posters secured by subscription or
institutional logins are not considered prior publication works. All
other prior/redundant publication is forbidden.
Upon publication in [journal X], authors are advised to add a link from
the preprint to the published paper via the Digital Object Identifier
(DOI). ChemRxiv and bioRxiv add this link for authors automatically
after publication. For further details, contact the Editorial Office.

Since you are supposed to mention the DOI from the preprint server in the cover letter to the editor (which is already written, signed and submitted) I'm thinking that I should not just submit the manuscript to BioRxiv without somehow notifying the editorial office.
The question is how to do that in a nice way. Should I send a mail to the editor-in-chief? the managing editor? I don't want to negatively effect my chances by annoying the editors unnecessarily, but I also don't want to assume anything and make a mistake along the way.

You are being very careful, though inexperience, and this speaks to your good will. It is no big deal. Just submit the preprint and notify the journal, stating that preprint submission was done after journal submission. Most journals have a "contact" link in the "action menu" for your submission that will contact directly the person managing your submission. If you cannot find such a link, look for a "managing editor" rather than "editor in chief," and make sure to include your submission number in the communication.

I would also let your PI know. There should be no reason for them getting angry at you, and it will make you look good that you own your mistake and try to rectify promptly.


What is the chance of an 'invited manuscript submission' to be accepted? I recently submitted a manuscript in a reliable journal in my field through 'invited manuscript' scheme. This is my first time to do such a thing since I mostly publish my paper on a regular submission. Of course, in general, the paper will be accepted based on its quality and merit. But, I was wondering if there is a difference in the chance of getting published when the submission was invited?

In my experience from my own invited submissions to those of my colleagues' being invited means the journal trusts you to produce something worth publishing. Therefore, unless you mess things up, your manuscript should be easily accepted for publication.

However, that means you should be extra careful. Your public exposure relies on your publication record. You don't want to look bad. So make sure (i) the journal is truly respected in the area; (ii) nothing silly gets published. There is a tendency to slacken peer review whenever authors are invited to submit, meaning overlooked mistakes may more easily make it to final publication version. I'd recommend you find yourself one very picky colleague to peer review your manuscript on the side, prior to submission.


Is it okay to directly address your reader when writing a scientific paper? I'm currently writing a paper that has some kind of tutorial parts in it. I have written sentences similar to:

«... depending on your operating system, the procedure is different»

Is addressing the reader directly like that in a scientific paper ok? Or should I try to rewrite these sentences?

Except when outlining a motivation for a particular section in a paper, I would recommend speaking in third person as much as possible. An example of the exception is:

  Because our primary interest is in ____ we have chosen to follow the method developed by ___.

For your case I would reword your sentence as:

  Depending on the operating system used, the implementation will differ.

Always shift the focus to the things being manipulated, whether it be an experiment, computer program, or anything else.

As for your sentence in the comment you could write it as:

  How the scripts are run is at the user's discretion; it may be interactive, line by line, or in batches, depending on its function.

I have used the at the user's discretion a lot in my work; it's a professional way of saying you can do this part however you like. Also, whenever I have to identify somebody whose completing a task, I try and identify them based on the task they are completing (e.g. the analyst, the user, or the programmer). If you say you, you are assuming that the reader is the one who will be carrying out these tasks, which may not be the case.

If you have to address the reader, then you can say something like:

  For the reader's convenience, the pertinent information has been summarized in Table 5.

or the famous, albeit witty, cop out:

  _____ is left as an exercise for the reader.


How might being disciplined for participating in a non-violent protest on a public college affect my academic career? I go to a government-owned school that has certain policies regarding a student's speech, namely:

That speech shall not be discriminatory/offensive.
That on-campus protests take place only at a "Hyde Park" location in the student center.

Suppose I decide to form a protest and violate rule #2, and perhaps unintentionally violate rule #1, incurring a disciplinary action of record. How would my doing so affect my ability to pursue a degree at a different school?

Probably not at all.  Most academic institutions support freedom of speech.  However, this depends on the goal of the protest and the type/location of the hypothetical institution.  For instance, I imagine some religious institutions might not hire someone who had protested for abortion rights.


Is it a good idea to leave a PhD program for another one in a better school after two years? I am finishing my second year as a PhD student in computer science and I have an opportunity to go to a much higher ranked school. Is it a good idea to just leave my current program to the future school? Or is it a better to wait and hope to get a good admission for post doc? How much the school prestige for PhD affects the future academic career?

My research is moving okay and I am done with all my coursework in the first year. It is not convenient to abandon all my work and just start over. But I want to know if it is worth moving to a better program for potential greater good.

I would argue it heavily depends on advisor. Are you not just moving to a "better" program but to an advisor who is well-positioned to help you get you the kind of job you want after you finish? If you move to a "better" program but one that does not match you to someone whose interests you share and who has a good track record of placements, it's hard to say whether it's a good move. Don't move for prestige alone; move only if it is likely to have a tangible impact on your career success.


How exactly does a conference abstract differ from an article abstract? I am currently taking a brief course in Technical/Academic Writing. At one point, in passing, the lecturer (who's a researcher in linguistics himself) mentioned that one should not confuse a conference abstract with an article abstract, with the exact phrasing "... that's a whole different story."

Unfortunately, at that moment in time I did not reflect on what those differences might be, but now I am writing a conference abstract I realize that I have never really paid much attention to the fact that I am not writing to a journal. Besides the fact that a conference abstract is preamble to a primarily spoken form presentation (poster/oral) instead of a written one, I don't really see why it would be "a whole different story".

Assuming that there are no differences in requirements and limitations, what are the fundamental differences, between a conference abstract and an article abstract, that one should be aware of?

PS: if it matters, the field I'm mostly concerned about is medical research

To me an article abstract summarizes the entire article including the overarching questions through methods, results to the major conclusions.

A conference abstract will of course also summarize whatever is presented at the conference. The differences lie in several aspects of variable weight:

Conferences are often focused on a specific topic so one can be less stringent with the background
Conference presentations may involve work in progress and as such the final conclusions maybe quite hazy.
The conference abstract may be written before most of the work has actually been done (this is quite common with some conferences in my field) and becomes an "advertisement" for what might come.
The conference contribution may in some cases involve a paper but can also be a poster or an oral presentation. depending on which abstracts may contain varying levels of finalized conclusions.


How to extend and convert a conference paper into a journal submission? I have been asked to develop a extended version of an accepted conference paper. This extended version will be submitted to a journal for review.

Please tell me how to develop the same. Is there any need to provide complete/partial results in this extended version?

Is it not only sufficient to further improve the idea instead of presenting the results?

This varies from journal to journal. For example, in some subfields of CS (where this comes up all the time), the informal rule is that the journal version should have at least 30% new content (including new experiments, new algorithms and so on), and this new content should be identified clearly in a cover letter. In other subfields (like in theory) the expectation is that all proofs will be presented in full detail (no sketches), but new results are not necessary.

So it depends greatly on the subfield and the journal. As always, when in doubt, ask the editor of the journal, or colleagues who've submitted there before.


Making additional changes to manuscript after the refereeing process is completed After doing some revision to my paper to include changes suggested by the referee (who will not see the paper again, having recommended the paper for publication), is it OK for me to make a minor change of my own, in the manuscript (before I send it to the editor)? Should I declare this in the list of changes or should I wait till the paper is officially accepted for publication by the journal? Would it then be up to the editor to check the validity of the slightly changed statement?

(I've noticed something minor in the manuscript, which needs to be fixed - and amounts to changing a couple of words in the comments section).

I always make minor edits (unrelated to the reviewer comments) at the time of doing revisions, and make a comment in the response letter, e.g. "we have also made minor changes to improve the readability of section 4.2." It's in the interests of the journal to have a well-written article.

Depending on the journal, you will probably also have a chance to make very minor revisions during the copyediting process.


is it normal to work as an university professor in engineering but have no real professional experience (in the industry)? I work as a university assistant professor, I teach engineering-related subjects.
However, I have no real professional experience in engineering (in the industry), I've never worked as an engineer or something, and in my country, you can't work in 2 positions obviously (you can't have 2 salaries) even if you are teaching at university, the only option is to start your own firm! and I don't think it's a good idea to start my own firm (my own business) without professional experience in the field.
BUT, sometimes students ask questions about the real world, about real problems and I find it sometimes "awkward" not to answer their questions because I don't have professional experience (in the industry).

so is it normal to work at university without experience in the industry? does not this make me look less compared to the rest of my colleagues?
if so, what are my best options to get some professional experience in the field?
finally, how should I answer students' questions if I stayed without experience in the industry?

What are my best options to get some professional experience in the field?

You could get a secondment to a company to do specific (applied) research for example.
When I was a student, some of the best professors had spent time in both industry and academia. One I remember had used temperature sensors to record brake disk temperatures on a testing rig - they were glowing... So he was slightly amused at how we were finding it difficult to calibrate a temperature sensor for use between ambient and 100 deg C... He got us sorted though.


How can I quickly and easily index my hand-written notes? Research indicates that taking notes by hand is better than using a computer, for long-term comprehension (source). As an engineering grad student, I also find that using pencil and paper for graphs, diagrams, and tables is much quicker and easier than keyboard/mouse (or even stylus).

To circumvent the issue of losing my notes, I take them on loose sheets of letter paper, then drop the stack in a feed scanner every week or so, and the file to a backed up folder on my laptop.

But here is my issue: later on, when looking for specific items in my notes, it is hard to find things without scrolling through the whole PDF. Even if OCR was reliable with handwriting, it would be little use or circuits, diagrams, complex equations, etc.

So, is there a quick and easy way to index these notes, perhaps adding something like bookmarks or an index?

Disclaimer: I do not endorse any of the products in this answer, nor have I necessarily used them in the past.

I've circumvented this problem largely by switching to Microsoft OneNote on a Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga with a stylus. For me, it gives me the best of both worlds: highly-accurate handwritten notes on a digital platform. (I only wish it was an open-source solution!)

That said, if you aren't interested in using a stylus/electronic means of taking notes, here's a couple of suggestions:

Check out a product like the Livescribe Echo pen. Using their special paper, you can take paper notes, get a digital copy stored on the pen, and record the audio of the lecture (synced with the notes themselves). There's also the Evernote Moleskin notebooks, which are specially-designed for OCR.
Before (or after) each diagram, provide a little description of the diagram itself. That way, if you use OCR, you can search for the description instead of the diagram/equation itself.
Learn LaTeX (for the equations, at least). It's not perfect, but once you've got a good idea of how to write an equation in LaTeX, you'd be surprised as to how quickly you can type them in.
As you pointed out -- after scanning the notes in, annotate them yourself using an electronic PDF tool. Most of them let you add comments that can then be saved (and searched).


Question regarding how to slow down and enjoy academic life I am currently an undergraduate student taking an Honours Pure Mathematics degree with an additional major in Astrophysics and I plan to go to a good graduate school (as good as I can get into) for Pure Mathematics to research either Geometric Topology or Convex Geometry.

I know that academia is a cut-throat world where only "the best" end up on top and the ability to get a professorship is becoming harder and harder as time goes on. I enjoy Pure Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and would not want to do anything else with my life just because I could not do anything else since I find them too damn interesting. What I do not enjoy is the grade-driven-here-is-the-next-thing-for-the-exam learning that doesn't give anyone the big picture. I have been working non-stop to make sure I perform in my courses, undergraduate research, etc. and I am just wondering if there is any way to learn about these topics at a slower pace or just have more time to think about the topics eventually. I understand I will have to at least get through graduate school and get a PhD (otherwise there would be a chance I'd turn out as a crackpot), but I'm just really tired of having so much information crammed into me without having the time to think about what I am learning. I want to do my own additional research on topics I see connections between, and think more about the big picture of how the different fields of Pure Mathematics and Theoretical Physics are related. There are so many unfinished papers that I have started throughout my undergraduate on embeddings of low-dimensional manifolds, determining knot invariants by unique methods, etc. but I just have no time to think about what I want to think about when there's that Real Analysis assignment due the day after my midterm in E&M which I had to stay up all night studying for because I had three quizzes the previous week in blah blah blah blah... for years on end.

Essentially, my question is this: Is there any other way that someone (after getting a PhD or a few post-docs) can do research at their own pace and just completely go after their interests without having to justify what they are doing to funding agencies, being swamped with administrative work (such as marking exams and writing grants), etc.?

I know that is asking a lot out for a life style, but I would even be interested in leaving academia altogether to just do my own independent study somewhere and travel around to different universities to collaborate whenever I have new findings or need some new inspiration or ideas. Are there any easy part-time jobs one could do to support such a lifestyle? Julian Barbour would be someone who I look up to in that respect, I believe he did this exact thing by making a living translating Russian academic papers into English.

Any comments, helpful suggestions, about how it would be possible to live an non-traditional academic lifestyle where people still take you to be credible and you can publish your work in journals. I just want to avoid working working working my entire life without a chance to reflect and then just die.

It may not be necessary to wait until you've reached the end stages of your career to have time to explore your research.

If you are able to get fellowships to fund your graduate career—or to find a suitably understanding advisor—then it may be possible to "slow down" your graduate career. In such a case, you'd be able to handle things at your own pace (within reason). That's how I managed to take my time doing my Ph.D., and it allowed me to work on problems I was interested in, rather than other problems.

Similar funding does exist at the professional level, such as "named" fellowships at the US Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories, and through grants like the MacArthur Fellowship (also known as the "genius grant"). It is certainly not easy and straightforward to do, but it could be a way to get the freedom to work without additional responsibilities.

Outside of academia, I don't think the situation improves much. For instance, at the DOE laboratories, you're only able to pursue your own research if you're able to secure your own funding to do so (or have moved so far up the chain that you are a laboratory "fellow," and can do what you want). Similarly, in industrial research institutes, I suspect similar issues apply (you might not have to worry about writing grants the same way you do in academia, but you'll still be expected to "justify your existence" on a fairly regular basis.


Going to academia after research job in industry I have received an offer for an R&D position in a private company. I see that they do quality science, not differently from universities in my field, and they have awesome labs. Plus it’s a fixed term position, I would directly skip the postdoc.
Would such a path allow me to go back to academia in the future, if I will want to? Or would I have to do a postdoc?
This company publishes a lot, so assume that my publication record will be fine.

Sure it's possible. You just need a strong-enough CV to compare against the people who did do the more traditional postdoc route. Couple of examples of people who did it:
Ivar Giaever became a professor at Rensselaer (RPI) without doing a postdoc, but after accumulating a lot of research experience at General Electric.
Anwar Ibrahim had teaching positions at Oxford, Johns Hopkins University and Georgetown University without doing a PhD or postdoc, but with a lot of government experience.
W.E. Moerner after getting PhD worked at IBM research center, served as visiting professor, and later gained tenured professorship


Any good source of information on EU based postdoctoral/researcher funding opportunities I have read several posts on the forum but there seems no good information hub for EU based postdoctoral/researcher funding opportunities. I will be grateful if someone can give me a start.

By the way, I have found this list myself.

I would suggest two options 1) applying for your own funding and/or 2) apply for a job where someone has aquired funding and is looking for a postdoc. Option #1 is far more desirable - though also more risky.

For option 1) There are several EU funding options (many country specific). Not knowing your field, you might have a look the EU call; http://europa.eu/about-eu/funding-grants/

For option 2) Academics post positions for postdocs all the time. Akadeus.com is a good starting point. https://www.akadeus.com/

I hope that helps!


Changing the typeface from the official style in a conference paper I'm a big fan of the Euler typeface for mathematical typesetting, especially compared with the standard Latin Modern. I feel somewhat justified in changing to Euler for a paper, but Euler doesn't usually look very good with the default body text typeface.

It's a small thing to change that as well (\usepackage{charter}, for instance), but at that point you're really messing with the official style supplied by the conference.

On the other hand, some conferences also allow submissions from Word documents, so the visual unity is unlikely to be maintained anyway.

So, two questions:

How unusual and frowned-upon is it to change the math typeface?
How unusual and frowned-upon is it to also change the body text typeface?

In general you are not supposed to make any such changes. Most journals and proceedings have some form of either "instructions for authors" or template, or both, which you are supposed to follow. If you submit something with a different type face, the most likely result is that it will be changed to whatever the journal/equivalent requires.

If you submit to a conference which do not have any specifications on paper formatting, I doubt that anyone will make complaints about your formatting.

The key point I would make is: if there is a set of instructions/template which you are supposed to follow/use, then you should do so. Otherwise trust your instincts and experience of what consitutes good formatting.


One line thank-you emails to lecturers/professors - yes or no? I have always wanted to know the answer to this question (sorry if it's silly):

If a professor or lecturer answers a question or gives advice when replying to an email I sent them, in general, do they prefer if I send them a one-line email saying 'thank you!' or no email at all? If I send a one-line email I'm worried I'm just clogging their inbox, but if I don't send any email at all, I'm worried I'll seem cold/selfish.

Thanks in advance!

It doesn’t matter all that much. But in general it’s good practice to thank people when they help you with something. And the extra workload imposed by dealing with such thank you emails is too insignificant to worry about.

When in doubt about these sorts of questions, apply the rule “professors are people”.


Is it OK if I hate a piece I wrote several months after publishing it? I wrote a blog post for a magazine run by scholars. A few months later, I read the post again. I hate it! I can think of three-four different ways I could have written it differently. Granted, I was asked to comment on an ongoing political issue at the time and didn’t have enough information back then. However, I could have organized it differently, omitted paragraphs, and focused on different issues. Is this normal? Do you have similar experiences? If I don’t like what I wrote four months ago, what would have established scholars thought of my piece back then?

Short answer : Yes

Why - because hindsight is the equivalent of 20:20 vision and writing for tomorrow is like looking through fog...

So, let it go, if there is nothing to apologise for, go and concentrate on the next one - bringing in your experience of this one...


How do computer science admissions committees process GRE essays sent with the scores? I am currently studying for my GRE exam and I came across a book which states that GRE essays are sent with the official score reports. How does the admissions committee process these essays?

I am applying for a PhD in computer science.

I am surprised, but this does appear to be true.  From the ets website we have the following:

  ETS also makes available test-taker photos and essay responses on the Analytical Writing section of the GRE® revised General Test to designated score recipients as part of an institutional portal. Photos and Analytical Writing essay responses of all individuals who report their scores to institutions on or after July 1, 2014, are included in the portal. The photo and essay responses from each GRE revised General Test administration you select from your five-year reportable history will be made available in the portal as part of your score record to the institutions you designated to receive your scores on or after July 1, 2014.

(In some sense, I'm even more surprised they are making photos of test-takers available.)  As for how the admissions committee processes these essays, others on the site can speak more directly to this, particularly in computer science.  However, I'm certain this will vary from department to department (assuming any department looks at them at all).  I suspect the admissions committee of many departments will not even be aware these essays are available through the ETS institutional portal.  Of those that are aware these exist, I would be surprised if much weight were placed on these.  These will convey almost no incremental information to an admissions committee.  (I suppose if you scored a 0 and the rest of your application was outstanding, and the committee knew these were available, someone might look to see what happened.  Maybe.)


What does it mean to have figures included in conference abstract? This is a respected conference. Reviewers accepted but commented this

  Novelty of the topic! Abstract could be better
  explained and have figures.

Ok, I understand that I need to highlight novelty and more info, but having the figure? what does that mean? Graphical abstract? graph from research results? I am ashamed to ask reviewers because they are well-known names in the field. ( H index over 50 and 30)

Unless the submission guidelines/instructions suggest otherwise, they're not asking for a graphical abstract. They're asking for a figure(s) that illustrate the key results of the presentation (for instance, if your talk is "Correlations between A and B under Conditions X", you could include a graph of a against b).

Here's an example of a conference abstract with figures, taken entirely at random from the online programme of a recent ACS meeting.