Synonym for the job title of assistant professor I often go to meetings and professional events outside academia.

I am meeting new people all the time, and most of them are not acquainted with academic ranks and job titles. It happens often that when they realize that my job title is 'assistant professor' they slightly dismiss me and suddenly give an impression that they see me inferior.

Some even ask me who my professor is. So I don't think I am misinterpreting the situations.
Outside academia 'assistant' has often a connotation of a lower and dependent ranking, which may explain it.

I am not obsessed with titles, and I am happy with my job and position, but I have a feeling that in these situations it may close doors as I am getting dismissed before I can show anything.

As I am getting convinced that this happens only because of the job title, I started to think who can I introduce myself with another generic job title that sounds better and does more justice (that I am more senior than I appear: a project leader, supervising people, and do not assist someone).

Is there a synonym that I can use instead? The requirement is that a title isn't fake. I don't want to claim a title that does not belong to me. I just want to find a better way to introduce myself to those who are outside academia.
I was thinking about using titles such as senior scientist, research director, lecturer, but these are actual job titles. Principal investigator, while truthful, may not be understood.

Maybe I should also state that I am male, so it is not about gender. I can imagine that if I were female it would be even worse.

I think you should just introduce yourself as

  I work as a professor at the University of X.

omitting the assistant rank that can cause misunderstandings.

The following conversation line feels also very safe:

  – Where do you work?

  – I do research and teach at the University of X.

which might be a better fit since it explains your job in a short sentence. However, nothing wrong with the first line that does not require a question to feel natural.

The actual rank (assistant/associate/full) might matter in a formal (mostly, written and official) context and rarely means a lot outside of the academic system. And that seems to be exactly the situation you happen to encounter issues.

Related questions:

How an assistant professor is called in North America?
Can I call an assistant professor Professor?

Cultural and linguistic differences can play a role, so it might not be as appropriate in certain countries; though, I doubt that would matter at all in a circle that is not familiar with academic ranks at all. Moreover, it is likely that there is no confusion because the rank in the other language is very different.

You might also dig in the direction of "Head of XXX lab" (in case it applies) or "research group supervisor", but I don't think there is a good reason. An assistant professor is a professor and no elaboration is needed in a laid-back unofficial atmosphere.


How to refer to a theorem in a book of which I don't know the source? I am writing a paper in math.  In that paper, I need to quote several theorems/propositions from a classic textbook on the subject.  All of them are quite standard results, but I am not sure what are the original sources for those.  The book didn't say that either (unless it's a quite famous theorem, then it would have a name attached to it).  How do I properly refer to that?  I heard that if I don't put a name next to it, people will think I am claiming it, which I am not.

Contrary to intuition, it is often inappropriate to try to cite well-known and foundational material to its original source.  The reason is that you did not actually learn the material in its original form but instead from some modern reinterpretation of that material (e.g., in a standard textbook).

To see why, try reading the original for something like Newton's Laws of Motion.  First of all, it's in Latin.  Even if you get a translation, however, you'll find that the notation is strange and difficult to comprehend.  That is because even though the fundaments of Newtonian physics have not changed in the centuries since it was discovered, we have improved greatly in our ability to understand and teach the material, as well as in how we integrate it with other material.

In short: if it's textbook material, it is most honest to cite a textbook as your source.  Two modifying notes, however:

It doesn't have to be the textbook that you personally learned from---any good presentation will do.
You only need to cite a textbook if some of your audience may be unfamiliar with the material. In a computer science paper, the halting problem needs no citation; in an interdisciplinary paper expected to be read by e.g., economists or biologists, it does need a citation.


What is the difference between research assistantship and teaching assistantship? These two names - RA and TA are more popular for the students who apply for a postgraduate program. My question is: what is the difference between TA and RA? Are these TA and RA facilities only available in US universities or others? Finally, what should a student seek for as either a TA or RA in their postgraduate studies or PhD?

At my university, RAs are paid for 20 hours of nominal work a week, usually through grant funds, to work on a research proejct. TAs are paid for 10 hours per week per course with departmental or university funds to assist the professor of a course. Their duties may include: teaching so-called recitation sections of the course where the week's lecture materials might be reviewed or homework questions discussed or clarified, holding office hours where students can come to ask questions about material they do not understand or get guidance on homework, and marking homework problem sets. TAships generally do not involve doing research with a prof, though students with a TAship may transition to an RA with a professor if they sufficiently impress one during their TAship. The level of pay and benefits is the same (per hour) at my university. Both TAs and RAs are generally restricted to 20 hour per week of nominal work, and health insurance benefits don't kick in until they reach that level.


How much of a grad-school dissertation fellowship should I personally keep? I've recently been awarded a graduate school dissertation fellowship which (unlike many other fellowships) is awarded directly to me personally rather than to my institution. Normally, when fellowships are awarded through my institution, the amount of the fellowship is deducted from the stipend that my lab pays me. For example, when I received an NRSA (National Research Service Award) Fellowship, my actual take-home pay didn't change -- the NRSA money was used to cover my tuition, and to pay my stipend, instead of my lab paying it.

In this case, since the fellowship is being awarded directly to me, I have the option of asking my PI whether I can keep some or all of it -- in effect, giving myself a raise. The fellowship is $20,000 annually, and I was considering asking for $10,000 of it, and allowing the other $10,000 to be applied against my tuition. Does that sound reasonable to you? I haven't heard of other people doing it, so I'm not really sure what the rules around this are. I also don't want to annoy my boss.

I'm a graduate student in biology.

If money is awarded to you personally as a gift, you may do what ever you want with all of it.  You should consult with the awarding agency to determine if the award is a gift or if it comes with contractual obligations.


how to avoid to being blamed of self-plagiarism in this case? We have the following "weird" situation in the institution that I am currently working on. We have a master´s degree in CS that requires that the students present a thesis or a research article so that ourinstitution could grant them their MSc title. The background of the situation is the following:

a) Some students had published an article or had an acceptance letter, from a conference or journal, related to their MSc research. This situation has occurred, in some cases, just when they had finished the compulsory courses.

b) It is required from our institution that all the master´s students must present a public dissertation of their research work, this is commendatory to do it for grant them the MSc title. After this dissertation, the student should submit their research work, article o thesis, to be stored in the public repository of our institution.

The problem that we are facing now is how to avoid that one student who had his research work, accepted or published, before it has been put on our institutional repository or vice versa to be blamed of self-plagiarism. For example:

A student X has decided to submit its research work when he is about or just finished his master´s courses. The publication get accepted so it appears in the web page of the conference or journal in which he has submitted his work. This student X need to make the public dissertation and put his paper on our institutional repository, in this part we see two probable outcomes:

a) Somebody could blame the student that he has put, in our repository, a research work that has already been submitted; so it is a case of self-plagiarism.

b) Let´s suppose that the journal or the conference proceedings suffer from a delay, which usually happens when the proceedings are published by a third party, so this student X makes his public dissertation and his research work is put on our public repository. Then one person from the conference or journal could say that this person has made self-plagiarism because the work has already been published in another repository.

How to deal with this situation?

Thanks

There are two issues here. One is self plagiarism as the term is commonly used and there is what a University will accept for any course or degree work. The latter can be stricter than the usual rules because the goals are more nuanced, involving the student's education, not just the validity of the work.

I doubt that this can be considered self plagiarism, provided that what was submitted to both places is the same. Keep in mind that the purpose of self plagiarism is that a reader needs to be able to see the entire context of a work in order to judge it and to extend it. If people just copy without citation from their own work it breaks the chain of reference that scholars require. But publishing the same work in different venues doesn't do that. Each work is complete. And when copying does occur, citation avoids any claim of self plagiarism, since the thread of context is maintained.

But, given that, the student may still not be meeting university requirements, in particular if there is a rule that submitted work not be previously published. If this is the real nature of the problem, then you need to find a local solution, since we can't advise on rules we haven't seen and have no ability to enforce or not.

Multiple publication of the same work might run afoul of copyright rules, but I don't see a hint of that in this case. And multiple publication does occur as when old papers are put into collections. This can be valid or not. But it isn't plagiarism or self plagiarism.


How and when to cite code from MATLAB File Exchange What are the rules/etiquette to cite MATLAB File-exchange submissions on paper publications?

There are different scenarios where I am curious what is best:

FEX submission is clearly code from a paper written by the same person.
Code is from a paper, but the author of the code is not the same author than the paper.
Code is a nice tool, but has no available citation. E.g. inpaint_nans, nice tool to fill "missing" data.
Code that is a nice tool, someone coded it, but its little effort to rewrite as it's not a complex tool. Still, someone write it and, time==gold!
Code that is a nice tool, takes little effort to rewrite, but its code referencing more than one paper. E.g. 3D Shepp-Logan Phantom, references 2 papers, and its a short function.

MATLAB uses the BSD license in FEX, meaning all software can be used and redistributed as long as the copyright is maintained an disclaimer kept.

This means that legally, one can just copy-paste the code and use it without any worry, as long as the license file is kept. But law aside, how should one act in the above mentioned cases?

This answer is from my own personal experience in academia and may/may not be strictly SOP, however, I'll do my best to answer.  Most of this is assuming that you have not drastically altered the original code for your work.

1) FEX submission is clearly code from a paper written by the same person.

In this case, contact the person and let them know you are using their code in your work, cite their paper, and acknowledge their code in the paper.  This is especially important if their code was critical to your work.

2) Code is from a paper, but the author of the code is not the same author than the paper.

Cite the original paper as it is providing the basis of the code that you are using.  Contact the author of the code and acknowledge them.

3) Code is a nice tool, but has no available citation. E.g. inpaint_nans, nice tool to fill "missing" data.

This is an example of when the code doesn't accomplish the goal of the research and is therefore not going to be mentioned in the paper.  In this case, you can acknowledge the author in your own code/ software, but not in your paper.

4) Code that is a nice tool, someone coded it, but its little effort to rewrite as it's not a complex tool. Still, someone write it and, time==gold!

In this case, it is probably not even worth any mention.  I think everyone on the exchange understands at some point, contributions are designed to further programming itself, not themselves.

5) Code that is a nice tool, takes little effort to rewrite, but its code referencing more than one paper. E.g. 3D Shepp-Logan Phantom, references 2 papers, and its a short function.

In this example, this code is copyright protected but also released under GPL. Follow the procedure for GPL and when in doubt, contact the author.  If the code is central to your work, acknowledge the author at the end of your paper.

Summary: If the code is central to your research theme, contact the author.  If the code is a tool that 'fills in the blanks', it doesn't need to appear in the paper, but should be referenced in your code.


Can I keep items purchased out of my startup funds? I am a new faculty in US based university. Surprisingly, when I arrived to my new office, there was no computer in it. I wonder, if I will buy a computer with my startup, would I be able to keep it for myself when I will leave the university?

In general, equipment purchased with university-provided funds belong to the university, rather than the individual faculty member who ordered the items. On the other hand, items procured through individual grants (where the university did not directly provide funding), can often be transferred from one institution to another.

However, it is also true that such property is not normally something that you can normally keep for yourself! The primary exception to this might be if the property has been in service long enough to be declared "obsolete," and no longer needs to be inventoried. Then, the university will typically have some sort of policy on the disposition of such equipment, and that is what you should follow.


How to cope with feelings of powerlessness on a PhD? I am currently a third year PhD student of pure mathematics.

I've been dealing with a feeling of burn out for a long time now. Quite frankly I struggle to find interest in anything related to my branch of science right now and am all but fully decided not to pursue academic career afterwards anyway. This furthers the feeling of disinterest in my field as anything I do seems irrelevant to me in the future.

Furthermore, I have a major personality clash with my supervisor in that I would like to approach PhD as a regular job, establishing a routine et caetera, while he is a very spontaneous person, often coming up with a brilliant idea in the middle of the night and wanting to share it ASAP. Also I am sure that if I told him I want to abandon academia he would be quite disappointed in me (to put it mildly).

Because of that I find it very hard to motivate myself to read papers or even textbooks on my chosen subject. The feeling of falling behind furthers the depression and inability to progress in anything. While everyone talks about how much new skills and knowledge they have mastered throughout their PhD, I feel as if I haven't learned almost anything new since I finished my Masters. I look at my PhD and don't know what I can do to make it better and I am very unsatisfied with how it is going so far. I thought that maybe trying to just write up everything I have so far would rekindle the motivation in that I would at least see I already have 20/50/100/whatever pages worth of work, but just thinking of writing everything up is so intimidating I am unable to even start doing it.

I feel like a terrible student and a horrible person in that I am wasting so much time I am, in principle, getting paid for (from my funding). What can I do to get as much out of my PhD as possible and to finish it to satisfaction of all interested parties?

Although I agree it may be worth considering whether you're suffering from depression as Alexandros suggested in his comment, and it's something you should bear in mind. However, I think that's either a symptom or a related-but-not-the-main-problem-here-problem. This seems to be, at the core, a case of professional burnout. Possible triggered by depression, possibly causing you to feel depressed, and certainly something you should bear in mind if you feel it is affecting your life: but for the rest of this answer I'll focus on the direct issue, while suggesting you consider seeing a counselor.

You've likely been in education or academia for the last 20 years or so by now, possibly including 3-6 at your current institution, and perhaps you need a change. If you were in the working world, you'd probably be starting to look for other opportunities if you felt like this: moving on to pastures new, the next challenge, something which interests you. This is pretty common at this stage of a career, most people move on from their first job within 2-4 years of graduation (as an undergrad). If you see your PhD as employment following your degree (albeit one that confers another degree) you can draw the parallel (lol, maths joke)

Unfortunately with a PhD, you're "locked in" for a fixed period. You have a vested interest in time and, likely, money, along with a concern that if you back out of it before it's completed, it will look bad on your resume.

It's certainly a slightly tricky problem to negotiate, but let's look at your options

Continue with the PhD, battle through, get it done and then look at what you really want to do. This has the advantage that you'll complete the task, which looks good on your Resume, but may be too much if you're still fairly early in your PhD
Back out gracefully. Accept that you've made a mistake in your career path, apologise to your supervisor that you've only realised this now and then move on with your life in the direction you'd like to go. Your supervisor will likely be disappointed, yes, but I hugely doubt he will think any less of you. People change their mind, people realize that they're on the wrong career path all the time, and people involved in education tend to understand that. His disappointment will not be that you've upset him, but because he almost certainly believes you will be an asset to the discipline/department.
Try to change the current situation - talk to your tutor and explain your issues and concern. See if there's any "wriggle room" for changing the approach and the way you interact. State it tactfully, in a "Would it be possible to try xyz, which I think will help me because abc and def" way, rather than a "You do abc, and it annoys me". This may help you to actually enjoy the PhD for a while.

My personal opinion is that you're better off backing out unless you're in the last 18 months of the PhD (in which case you've already invested a lot of time/effort and it's probably worth powering through). If you intend to move away from Academia, you probably don't really need a PhD anyway, and I think it's better to cut your losses and go find something you really want to do.

I'd also recommending this answer which covers some of what I've just said, but also some things I haven't.


Arxiv equivalent for medical research article I'm looking for a suggestion, for a medical journal counter part to the arxiv. A minimal frill, open access online repository
to time stamp articles with some visibility.

To elaborate on the answer by ddiez: bioRxiv has been deliberately designed to fill the same sort of role for life sciences that arXiv does for physics, math, and computer science.  A key reason for this is the growing recognition amongst some practitioners in these fields that scientific communication is being inhibited by the long time to publication and pre-publication secrecy that is typical in life science fields---it is not uncommon to be hearing privately about work for years before one is able to read the details or cite it.  Overall, this is a very good thing: it improves communication, it reduces the chance of being "scooped," and it reduces the "all-or-nothing" pressure associated with targeting super-high-impact journals.

That said, bioRxiv is still fairly new, and the conventions for its relationship with journals are still evolving.  Some journals are very supportive and encourage authors to deposit in bioRxiv.  Others still tightly embrace the prior publication culture and consider deposit in a preprint repository a prior publication that precludes submission.  Check carefully what the policy of the journals that you are targeting with before you make a decision about whether to deposit.


How to say please erase\cutoff my lower gre score information from my application Want to admit an abc university. GRE is not a requirement for them originally, BUT since i have taken it, my score is REALLY lower than what they can consider. This is an academic program and in case of having a GRE test, UNFORTUNATLY, their policy is that it cannot be too low. 12% is not acceptable. Need help to write a letter about erase/cutoff gre information from my submitted application and  give me admission on.

If have any query please ask,thanks in advanced.

Here's an answer assuming you have already sent them your scores.  If not, then you don't need to do anything.

There may well not be any mechanism set up for removing information from a submitted application, but it can't hurt to ask.  You should be able to find contact information for graduate admissions somewhere on the website (for example, here is where you'd find it for the Berkeley EECS department).  You can send a short e-mail saying something like "I applied to [name of program] this fall and accidentally submitted GRE scores that do not properly reflect my background and accomplishments.  I understand from [web page] that GRE scores are not required, so please remove them from my file.  Thank you!"

They might not actually do it: just because they don't require GRE scores, it doesn't follow that they must ignore them if you submit them and then change your mind.  But I don't think asking them to remove the scores will hurt your chances of admission.

I'm puzzled by the whole idea of having a strict cut-off for an optional test score.  It makes me think that either the department is doing something weird or they aren't communicating clearly.  In any case, though, submitting a very low score when it's optional looks weird and could hurt your application, so asking to remove the score from your application seems sensible.


I'm graduating engineering program in only six semesters but have gotten no serious work experience along the way. How much will grad schools care? I am a pet and Nat gas engineering student. I am graduating in six semesters (three yr) and this fall will be my fifth semester. I did not apply for an internship my freshmen year because I was under the impression no one hired freshmen. Therefore I assumed a rather standard summer job and figured I would certainly get one the next year. Now the oil and gas markets have completely crashed and there are almost zero internships right now. This was my last summer to find an internship before graduating and sending in graduate school applications. How much of a detriment will not having had any serious work experience be to my application?

I began college right out of high school. I have a 3.5 gpa and though I have not taken the GRE yet, I imagine I will perform 95+ percentile judging from my SAT and looking at a few problems.

I do not necessarily want to go to a top 20 graduate school for engineering, but I want to leave the door open because I am not quite sure what discipline I will be pursuing (but it will be some type of engineering or mathematical field). Do you think a six semester graduation in eng. (which judging from lack of online posts about it is almost unheard of) will be enough to be accepted into top 20 schools?

One more question: I have both a stock and Foreign Exchange account which I do profit from. I write backtests and apply statistical analysis to determine what to buy. I do not usually list these "jobs" on resumes or applications because I'd find that pretentious, but do you think I should include it in my graduate school application since I am lacking serious work experience?

EDIT: My question is not answered at all by the recommended question. I am seeking advice from ACADEMIA on this matter as I am not quite sure what to do. I am applying for a masters, not a PhD

The lack of professional or industrial experience will likely not significantly influence graduate admissions committees, particularly if you're planning to apply outside of your undergraduate field. However, what will matter is that you don't mention any real research experience that you've acquired in any field, whether your own or another. When applying outside your "home" area, this will almost certainly raise alarm bells for committees, because they will have little solid ground to decide whether you will succeed in their program or not. (For instance, they may have a hard time deciding if you can successfully complete the coursework phase of their program, and they may not be able to tell if you will be able to become a competent researcher in that program, if research is part of the degree.)


How can a conference paper publication be guaranteed? Is such a "guarantee" even possible? My cousin, a freshman in college, recently heard from a private education institute that a conference publication will be guaranteed if she joins their research tutoring program. In their program description, they mention that their student will be promised to have their paper published in Scopus indexed conferences.

This intrigued my curiosity- how can someone promise that a college student who has never done any research before will be granted a conference publication? I don't think they would dare to write the paper on behalf of the student.

So here comes my question - how can a conference paper publication be guaranteed?

It isn't that difficult. All that happens is that a private university pays an association (IEEE or something else) to host a conference. Then since they host it, they can choose to publish conference proceedings, with a journal sponsor. That is how most special issues work.

A more comprehensive answer is here


Flow of the Discussion section Some journals expect the Discussion to have the following structure and order (with some flexibility):

summary of results
strengths and weaknesses
interpretation/context/comparison with previous studies
implications

This makes sense: discuss the study strengths and limitations before interpreting the results and discussing their wider context and implications.

But how about putting the "strengths and weaknesses" after "interpretation/comparison", or even at the end after "implications" (and before the conclusions)? It this less logical/convincing?

I think this mainly depends on the journal, and of course the specific study in question.

While the first order certainly does make sense, the second approach coule also be viable for certain studies.

An example would be a study where a somewhat small sample was conducted, and the results show a significance of some kind. You could go on and discuss the reason/interpretations for the significance, and later mention that to quantify/verify the effect, further studies with a larger sample size should be carried out.

Again, this is highly dependend on the study and the format, so if a journal specifically asks for the first approach, you might want to follow their guidelines.


Should I call professors on their office phone for inquiring about research internship opportunities? There are many established university research internship program, which ask to get an acceptance from a faculty to apply for the internship. I tried mailing them, but none of them responded. Should I call them over phone to ask about any opportunity? At least that would help me know where I am lacking so that I can prepare myself for the internship the next year. But I'm not sure if the researchers would view it favorably.

What's an "office phone"?

We used to have these white (sometimes black) boxes with buttons on them many years ago, but the last round of budget cuts took them away. I don't think many people noticed their disappearance.

On a more serious note, you're sounding a bit like a stalker or an annoying salesperson. If the emails aren't being answered (you should send one follow up after the initial one, but no more than two total), take that as a strong NO**. Phoning the professor is only going to annoy them.

** You didn't ask, but reasons for the NO:

I have no internships.
I have internships but they've all been allocated.
I have internships but they're restricted to our undergraduates or to local high school students who are in the internship program.
A quick scan of whatever you sent me makes it clear you're inappropriate (you can't spell, you just graduated high school, you have no background in the field, our internships are restricted to particular categories of enrolled students, etc.).  However, HR told us to never say 'no' in terms of justifications that could open us up to lawsuits, so it's best to just ignore.
Internships are handled through a committee or other open process that if you did some googling you could easily find.  And I really have no use for an intern who can't find things by themselves.

As to why I don't send a 'no': I have five grant proposals, an external tenure review, two journal reviews, and my own research papers to write. Writing a polite no takes more time than a simple 'no' and again opens me / my university up to a lawsuit. Finally, answering what is essentially spam e-mail is my lowest priority.

If you are going to phone anyone, phone the department front office, university HR, or university student services or career services program (assuming you're an enrolled student). Be prepared for a 'no' answer and don't badger.


Academic Conferences: Are "program committee" members always present at the actual conference? For example, this conference (https://www.monash.edu/tenor2019/committees) is being held in Melbourne, Australia; but the Program Committee consists of over 40 members from interstate and overseas. Would it be expected for all of these committee members to be present at the conference, or could their roles be carried out without actually attending?

Program committee members are not expected to be present at conferences. They are responsible for reviewing submissions (before the conference) and helping to select submissions to be presented at the conference. Nonetheless, program committee members may attend, possibly even to present a submission that was selected (by other members of the program committee). Beyond the program committee, other committee members may be present, indeed, some must be present.


What to do about academics who fail to fulfill their collaborative responsibilities? So, a colleague at another university and I agreed to collaborate on a series of papers 5 years ago. To avoid clashes in style, etc. we agreed that I would write a couple and he would write a couple, with us both commenting and editing each other's. So far, so good. I produced my couple of papers in the first year or so and these were published with me and my colleague as first and second authors, respectively. I was expecting to see the same from my colleague but didn't. I have been waiting ever since for them to materialise but they haven't. We have repeatedly set deadlines, which come and go, with my colleague saying he has been very busy (teaching, marking, blah, blah) but that he'll get to them in a couple of weeks. 5 years later, I am still waiting to see something but I think it's now safe to say that I have been well and truly shafted.

Does anyone else have any experience of this behaviour and, if so, what, if anything, have you done about it? I am on the verge of writing a rather snotty email to this individual's manager to point out the retched state of affairs as, after all, it doesn't reflect at all well on his institution even though they have benefited from having their institution's name on effectively my work.

As  zibadawa timmy mentions in his comment, something smells fishy here. I really see only two possibilities how the scenario you describe can transpire:

Your collaborator did  in fact provide input to "your" papers to the extent expected for "second authors" in your discipline. In this case, you are really not supposed to expect anything more from him, and writing a snotty email will reflect only badly on you.
Your collaborator did  in fact not provide input to "your" papers to the extent expected for "second authors" in your discipline. Rather, you expected that the "value" for you will come in the form of later papers for you, to which you would have contributed equally little. This is called a publication ring, and it is considered highly unethical. Writing a snotty email calling out the fact that your collaborator did not do his part in a more than shady deal sounds like a terrible idea.

Of course there is some amount of grey area between those two possibilities, but at the end of the day, you should never "pay forward" an authorship on a paper that the other person doesn't really deserve with any sort of expected or promised future benefits.

And if the other person has in fact contributed sufficiently, then what is there to complain about? Sure, one can be disappointed if the other person promised to lead a different research project and never gets to it, but that's a different story altogether.


On some cases where exam results are manipulated This problem has been bothering me as a lecturer and future PhD student for a while now.

A student just finishes filling his exam sheet. He then gives the sheet to the lecturer. The lecturer is then grading the result. He then returns the result to the student.

(Bad student) After seeing his score, the student does not accept it, but he knows this result is fair. He then reports to the person above the lecturer that his exam sheet has been changed by the lecturer (which is possible, isn't it?). He claims that this is not his exam sheet. He then argues and keeps arguing by bringing made-up facts and made-up evidences.
(Bad lecturer) This case is similar to case 1, but this time the lecturer has indeed change the exam sheet. The student is then surprised and he can't prove it wrong somehow.

How can we prevent these two possible cases? I have seen case 1 but that was a long time ago and I forget how it was solved. However,  I think it is fine to prevent bad things before they happen rather than handling them after they happen which usually turns out to be too late.

One solution I can think of is going online. Do test online, share exam sheets online, etc. Is there another countermeasure?

There is no counterneasure which is bulletproof and administratively feasible. If I want to cheat as a teacher, I will always find ways around such a system.

The only way would be to have the exam taken by independent administrative staff, they scan all answers as proof, and then hand it to the teacher.
Online results could be watermarked (e.g. by an MD5 / SHA hash), but I don't know if such systems exist.

If I really want to upgrade or downgrade a student, I would not take the risk of manipulating the exam, but to adjust my measures for deciding what is true and what is false and to which account I'm willing to accept "a good idea which did not lead to the correct result".

As a teacher, I like to have electronic submissions since they are a proof and students usually have nearly no means of changing them afterwards. But I prefer  doing the grading with paper and pencil.


Terrible grade in undergraduate research project, how will this affect graduate admissions? I have graduated this year with a second class first division. In addition, I ranked sixth. However, the problem is that I scored a D+ in my undergrad research project. Now I am aiming to pursue a masters degree at UK. My supervisor did not show up regularly plus he was 2 hours far away from my place.

I am really worried if this is going to ruin my chances into getting accepted in a good university such as Glasgow, Sheffield, Bristol or Bath. Do you think I have a chance?

BTW: I am an international student majored in engineering.

Do you think I have a chance?

Yes.

I was accepted to a masters program with some bad grades on my undergraduate transcript, some courses with less then 40% marks. In graduate school I got a distinction and now I'm a postdoc.

Doing poorly in a single course won't ostracize you from all graduate schools.


Is it possible to be known in academia by a different name? I am currently a Canadian grad student about to publish my first paper. However, I really dislike my real legal name, to the point where very few of my real-life friends know my real first and last name. This is mostly because I come from China, and my legal name is a difficult-to-pronounce transliteration of my original Chinese name, which itself sounds very tacky and funny in Chinese. Even my parents are embarrassed at how they named me and use a totally unrelated nickname to address me even in Chinese. (to use an English analogy, I go by "Jake" when my real name is "Alexander")

Is it possible to publish consistently under a pen name that has no relation to your real name? I am not seeking to use it as a throwaway name for a single publication, but rather to simply be known as a different name. I don't even intend to hide my real name - it'll likely end up being in parentheses on my personal webpage or something. I just don't want to see a name I'm embarrassed of on every single thing I publish.

My answer to another question applies equally here:

Regardless of what your ID card says, you can publish your papers under whatever name you want. Some people use pseudonyms. Much more common is that many women continue to publish under their maiden name when they marry and change their surname.
There's no reason you can't publish papers as [Jake].


Can I get a faculty job in the UK without UK experience? I have worked as an Assistant Professor in Japan for 5 years and can apply for promotion, but for personal reasons, I cannot live in Japan. I plan to apply for a Senior Lecturer/Reader position in the UK.

A friend of mine who works in the UK told me you cannot get a teaching position in the UK unless you have studied or worked in the UK higher education.

She suggested that I have a better chance to get a job in the US where universities do not expect a local experience if the application is strong at the international standard.

I am not sure what type of answer you are looking for. Based on personal experience as an American with all my education and training in the US, my first faculty position was as a lecturer in the UK. There are no laws requiring UK experience to get a faculty position of any rank in the UK. There are laws that give preference to those who have a right to work in the UK, but that is not the same as UK based teaching/education experience.

While some schools may prefer individuals with UK based experience, it was never something that came up during our searches. That said a familiarity with the UK system is helpful for demonstrating you can be a good tutor and help advise students.


If I accepted an admission and funding offer before April 15th, is it considered unethical to rescind if before April 15th Recently I applied to a number of graduate program in the humanities. After applying to ten schools, I received an offer in late February for a full funding package, from one of the universities, which seemed rather early to me. This offer came from an advisor, not the actual graduate school -  the official letter of acceptance from the graduate school came several weeks later. In the offer, the advisor stated that though I had been offered funding, they would appreciate an answer on whether I would accept the funding as soon as possible. Since this was late February, and I had only heard back from one school at the time, this put me in tricky situation, and I couldn't really give her a deliberate answer. I would certainly accept the funding if I chose to attend, but that was not a certainty by any means. The school from which I received the offer was not my top choice, a good school, but not a top choice. As such, I told her I needed more time, without going into any details. Quite simply though, I just hadn't heard back from most of my schools.

A couple of weeks later I heard back from this same advisor, and this time she again asked for an answer as soon as possible, but did notify me that the national deadline in which a decision can be made is April  15th, several weeks away. At this time, I was still waiting to receive a decision from a couple of other schools. I told her (the advisor that contacted me) that I needed more time.  One to two weeks went by, and trying to expedite the decision, I contacted the one last school that I hadn't heard from, and found out I had been placed on the waiting list. My waitlisted school said they needed to receive word from a couple of other students whom they had made offers to, and they could then possibly make an offer to me if these students declined. As such, after thinking myself into a rabbit hole with these complications, rashly, despite having thought of it for several weeks (which may be why I thought myself into a rabbit hole) I accepted the offer from the initial school that made the offer.

I have read elsewhere on these boards that accepting an offer and then withdrawing it after April 15th, for a waitlisted school is highly unethical and can cause dismissal from all schools. I certainly see the reasoning behind that, but if I were to rescind my acceptance before April 15th, hopefully a week or more, would this be considered unethical since they could still easily give the funding elsewhere? Moroever, would it be a disadvantage to the school I did receive the offer from? Finally, could it possibly have an effect on my long-term career if I rescinded the offer and accepted admission to the waitlisted school?

Regardless, is it ethical to rescind an acceptance of funding and admission before April 15th (hopefully a week or more before)? Would this burn a serious bridge that would hurt my career? Would another student not receive funding since I accepted the offer and then withdrew it?  I understand that some programs will reach out to their highly-regarded candidates in order to recruit them, and I'm certainly not against the school, but it sounds like I have a solid chance of getting off of the waitlist. It was one of my top schools, for not just academic reasons but personal as well. Seeing how this is the next five years of my life, it's a weighty decision to make. Please let me know what you think, or if you have any official procedures for going about these matters. Thanks!

The Council of Graduate Schools's April 15th resolution clearly lays out the obligations of students, and notes that a decision made prior to April 15th can be rescinded if the student gets a different offer, so long as it is done in writing.

  Students are under no obligation to respond to offers of financial support prior to April 15; earlier deadlines for acceptance of such offers violate the intent of this Resolution. In those instances in which a student accepts an offer before April 15 and subsequently desires to withdraw that acceptance, the student may submit in writing a resignation of the appointment at any time through April 15. However, an acceptance given or left in force after April 15 commits the student not to accept another offer without first obtaining a written release from the institution to which a commitment has been made.


How to avoid letters while searching pubmed portal? I am retrieving disease related articles from pPMC. Some of the articles contain letters starting with "Dear friends" , "Dear Editor", etc. Can these be considered valid articles? How to filter the search results so as to avoid letters while searching for research articles?

PS: I have tried filtering by publication type. Options include 'letter' and 'comment' etc. but they don't seem to be working.

You are really asking two questions, a technical and a principal. As for the technical, let us assume your search is #1, then you can exclude letters by searching:

#1 NOT (letter[PT] OR comment*[PT])

Note the asterisk to also include the commentary publication type.

As to the other question; "Can these be considered valid articles?" - yes, they can! And in some cases, the information provided in comments can be as important or perhaps even more important than what is provided in the article commented on. So whether you should include them in your search highly depends on what the purpose of your search is. Are you getting a rough idea of the available literature? Then fine, exclude them. Are you doing a systematic literature review? Include them! There might be crucial information regarding data or conflicting findings. It should be possible to quickly (manually) exclude irrelevant letters.


How can I challenge a professor who is ignoring me in an online course? This summer I am taking an online course due to being part of an internship 1000 miles from home. That said, the physics course I am taking the instructor is not grading the tests right. When asked what the right answers are, she responds but then when I ask about the specifics of why I missed them she ignores me.

For example this question,

"An elevator weighing 20 200 N is supported by a steel cable. What is the tension in the cable when the elevator is being accelerated upward at a rate of 3.00 m/s2? (g = 9.80 m/s2)"

She responded that the answer is T = 26383.7 N, then gave me zero points when I wrote 26400 N which seems more correct given significant figures.

However when I asked about it, she ignored me.

Because of this kind of thing my test grade went from a 100 to a C-.

What else can I do?

I would be polite but persistent.

It may be the case that the online test system auto-grades answers. The instructor may have to go into the system to regrade your answers, and this may be causing the delay in the instructor's response. So, make sure your email contains all the needed information to understand what you answered and why, as well as the extent to which this affected your grade (X answers were marked as wrong for the the same reason). And try to be a bit patient before emailing again (a couple of days).

Is there a discussion of significant digits in your text? Often intro texts have something like this in an early chapter or an appendix. If so, you can point out that part of the book and say that is why you thought rounding to three significant digits was correct.

In your communication, I would avoid saying you think your answer is better than that of your professor. I would instead try to emphasize that the book led you to believe that your answer was also correct.


As a postdoc with a one-year contract in Switzerland, am I allowed for a B visa? I worked for a year in Switzerland, but I have been given an L visa, even as a European. This has strong limitations in terms of rentals and bank services. Other people got a B visa for the same contract. Was this a mistake, and how can my university enforce a request for a B visa ?

When did you graduate? A new law came into effect in 2010 which requires that all new postdoc hires of individuals who held a PhD for more than 2 years at the start of the contract be only given L permits. (I only found out after I had a similar discussion with human resources a few weeks ago.)

If you have had your degree for less than 2 years, it is possible your university can sort it out for you. If you have had your degree for more than 2 years, there's pretty much nothing the universities can do (aside for lobbying for a change of the law).

In regards to bank services: for a place to put your money, try PostFinance for which you can open an account at most post offices. They care a bit less about the issue with the permits. The main problem with having an L instead of a B permit, with regards to banking in general, is that they may be unwilling to give you a credit card or extend you a loan; you shouldn't have problem getting a place to put your money.


Should I list my papers which are published in less known journals in my CV? In preparing my academic vita for applications to PhD programs, I came across this question: Since I have some papers published in less known journals, should I list them or not to list them?

Will listing them instead hurt my applications?

PhD admission committees look for evidence of your ability to successfully complete the PhD program. Published papers can be a big hint that the answer is "yes".

Unless it can be argued that the journal is a predatory one, I would suggest mentioning the published paper in your application if you think that the paper is of good quality. Even when the journal is not so well known (but has good standards), it shows that you can perform the type of work expected from you if they choose to accept you.


Are academic jobs easy to get in New Zealand for someone with a good PhD and Post-Doc experience? I have a Ph.D student (in a science related field, I don't want to be too specific) who seems to think that getting a professor job in New Zealand (his home country) would be no problem since he "knows people" who "like him" and just has to "ask around". New Zealand is his native country.

I have some very serious doubts about this since I know how hard it is in the US to land a good postdoc, much less a tenure track appointment. Can anyone who knows about New Zealand's universities fill me in? Is it really an "old-boys club" like the student seems to suggest? Are there really a lot of jobs to go around to New Zealander's with a degree from a good university and good postdoc experience. (I do mean good, not top 5 etc.)

This may be subject-dependent, but my impression is that it is certainly not like that in mathematics (my subject).  I come from New Zealand and would probably like to return to live there eventually, but I'm expecting to have to do at least one more postdoc (I'm already on my second, but my first was just one year) before I have any chance of a permanent job there.  (And I do know people there who I think probably like me and, more importantly, are interested in my research.)

There are so few universities in New Zealand (eight, but one is small and primarily agricultural, I think) that there are by no means anywhere near enough academic jobs available to employ all New Zealanders with PhDs and postdocs from 'good' universities.

Still, I can imagine that if your student does indeed 'know people who like him' in New Zealand, his chances may very well be better there than for US universities of comparable standard (this is assuming that 'liking him' partly includes being impressed with his academic work).


Is it ethical to refuse enrollment of a previously dishonest student if you are the sole instructor for a required course? I am currently teaching an upper level course, and have caught a student plagiarizing this semester.  This course is required by our department for a degree.  I have strict policy on my syllabus that states plagiarism will result in failing the course, a judicial review incident report, and refusing to accept them as part of future cohorts.  Next semester however, I am the only instructor for this course, and possibly again for the following Spring.

I've been pushing my department to add more instructors, as I don't like being in a position where students who are incompatible with my teaching style are forced to take me over and over again, but they are having a difficult time finding someone.

Personally I do not want the student in my class again.  They have been nothing but trouble the entire semester.  From my interactions with the student, they don't have the required prerequisites at anywhere near a passable level, they are disruptive during class, and I had an inkling that they were trying to cheat off their neighbor during examinations.  (I had ensured that every other test was different so I didn't pursue this)

Should I just grit my teeth and waive this policy since they have no other path to graduation?

It's not up to you

It's reasonable for an instructor and syllabus to specify what happens in that course in certain circumstances. However, going beyond your particular course (including future semesters of it), any further academic punishments for plagiarism or cheating, including being restricted from taking or retaking certain courses, are up to the wider department, faculty, study program, or however your institution organizes things. There should be a universal (not made by and for a single course and instructor) policy on what are the wider consequences for certain acts of plagiarism. Perhaps that policy prescribes that being forbidden to retake that course (or some time limit) is an appropriate punishment, in which case your actions are valid. But if it does not prescribe that students will be prevented from taking future courses, then it's not up to the course syllabus or the instructor to unilaterally decide whether the student is eligible or not.

Note that I'm not saying that you should waive the policy just because it disrupts the path to graduation - there certainly can be academic dishonesty policies that may prevent students from graduating in case of plagiarism. But the question does not mention any specific wider policies, and if it eventually does come to a ad-hoc decision regarding a particular student, that still would not be your decision to make, this should be escalated to your superiors.


How to get out of a data use agreement? My project is based on data hosted by a different university than the one where I used to work. When I requested the data, I understood that the work (and cost) to extract it from the database increases with the number of items I wanted. I had no research funds at the time and therefore asked for a rather small sample, with an informal agreement with the director of the inistitute that the person extracting the data would be my collaborator and coauthor.

Several months passed before I received the data and then the sample turned out to be too small to be really useful. I did not make another request as the data extraction process appeared so time-consuming. Instead, I moved on to work with other projects for a couple of years.

The data became relevant again when I started as a visiting researcher at this institute. Although I wasn't employed by the institute, I had direct access to the database and could download all of it in a matter of minutes. I expected that the person who extracted the first sample would be willing to collaborate on data classification and other things where he was an expert. Instead, he seemed hostile and would only answer to exactly what I asked, rather than make an attempt to be helpful.

The most recent development is that the institute made most of this database and classification open for anyone to download.

What should I do to get out of the original data use agreement? I feel trapped in a forced collaboration with a person with whom I'm not in speaking terms. I'm not in a position to renegotiate or entitled to any help from the institute, as it is not my employer.

I took this situation more seriously than anyone should, as my depression renewed and I went to psyhotherapy for nine months. That's telling something about the amount of time I have wasted with this dilemma.

This isn't a question that can be properly answered here as it may have legal implications that are local to the actual case. Don't make assumptions that your old agreement is null, just because the data became public. No harm no foul might not hold up anywhere, especially if lawyers get involved.

You indicate that the director is a different person than the one who helped you. He/she can give you advice. The legal department of the institution can give you advice that should hold up. If your new work is truly independent of the old, make sure that they understand that. The other person may have no moral hold over you for co-authorship, but only an expert can speak about a legal hold.

The question is likely too old to be of help to the OP, but future visitors may have similar questions, hence this very late answer.


Order of taking courses I take my courses in a very specific sequence which I believe maximizes my learning potential and enjoyment. Unfortunately, that means that some key 'checkbox' courses I am to take might be put off until senior year. Will grad schools assume that I'm just not taking them at all? Or will it be OK to take them even as I'm applying?

If you are applying to graduate schools while you are still enrolled as a student, you will normally be asked to provide the most up-to-date transcript you have at the time of the admissions process—and may have to provide a mid-year report if a quarter or semester has elapsed between the time of submission and the decision date. So, the only courses the school may not see may be the ones in which you enroll after such a mid-year report.

Now, in general, if you're not leaving too many classes until the very end (in other words, the "standard" load for someone in the field), there won't really be any questions asked—people know that different departments have different ordering and sequences for classes. However, if you are leaving "standard" courses normally taken earlier in the program for the end, you may need to explain why. However, your local academic advisor should be able to guide you on whether this will actually be necessary for your particular case.


Persistent URL for each DOI pointing to open access papers when available The Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) maintains a persistent URL for each DOI. Example: http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR06849. However, the link often points to some pay-walled article, even when it is freely accessible somewhere else. Is there any alternative service that maintains a persistent URL for each DOI, which points to a open access article whenever possible?

I'm not completely sure what you mean by "maintains a persistent URL for each DOI" - the point of a DOI is that it is the persistent identifier and the underlying resource can be shifted around as needed.

But answering the question...

Why, yes, there is - doai.io

This takes the DOI, looks for an OA version (loosely defined), redirects to that if found, and falls back on the original DOI target URL if nothing is available.

Two examples from a randomly chosen issue of Nature last year:

doi:10.1038/nature14178 > http://doai.io/10.1038/nature14178 - no OA version so falls back on Nature, the original DOI target

doi:10.1038/nature14260 > http://doai.io/10.1038/nature14260 - OA version available on PMC, so directs the reader there


Should citations be included in funding applications I am writing a funding application for the development of a scientific technology, should I include references to back up the most important aspects of my proposal? Is there a standard procedure for this?

Yes, include references. They serve a twofold purpose in your application:

They inform the reviewer about the state of the art in your field, and allow him to judge whether your project would advance it in a meaningful and cost-effective way.
It shows the reviewer that you know what you are doing. Nothing worse than a grant application for a project where the PI did not read the literature thoroughly and does not know that his exact question has already been thoroughly investigated.

The funding body you apply to may well have very clear-cut guidelines for your application. (Because applicants have a tendency to write up everything they know about the field they are excited about, and no reviewer wants to read a 200 page proposal.) These guidelines will very likely have a strict page limit and explicitly note whether references should be counted against that page limit or not, along with what citation style to use.

If there are no guidelines for references, use whatever is common in your field, e.g., in common journals or conferences. Use conventions that make reading your proposal easy for the reviewer.


Is it appropriate for a PI to appoint someone who is a family member? I am a junior faculty in one of the top-tier research US institutions. I just joined the department and hired two GRAs meanwhile. In addition, I would like to appoint one more individual in my research group who could be appointed as a research engineer/technician. His/her role would be to support my research program and assist my GRAs on their PhD work. I am wondering whether there are any legal issues/conflict of interests if he/she is one of my family members. How will the department see this recruitment?

The rules differ from country to country, university to university, and department to department.

On a practical note, I would not want to be in a supervisory role towards a family member. In that role I need to be able to make unpleasant decisions, like tell someone if (s)he did a bad job, handle complaints, or even discontinue employment. That is hard enough as is, but if it involves a family member...


Professor just gave an exam that was way outside of the scope of the class, various other issues with assignments, what should the class do? 80% of the exam was super in-depth questions about a topic glossed over for fifteen minutes about six weeks ago, with no prior warning. Its a relatively large class and most students are very perturbed.

There have been other issues with this professor including mistake-filled assignments, assignments given out late, reducing the amount of time students had to work on them. The instructor is very disorganized and does everything at the last minute, and consequently so are the TAs.

Who should the students go to first?

Actually, I don't think there is much you can do. Professors and administration hear complaints about "unfair" or "too difficult" exams all the time and most of them are exaggerated.

If your university has some official representation of students, you should go to them so that they can bring up the issue at an appropriate place. And you can hope that the professor sees that the results of his exam are very poor and that he reacts to it.


If a paper has been accepted at a conference does it mean that it will be published? I have a paper that has been accepted at the International Conference on Advanced Computational and Communication Paradigms (ICACCP).

From the conference website:

  All accepted and presented papers will be submitted to IEEE Xplore (Digital Library) for conference proceedings publication and will be submitted to Scopus for possible indexing, IEEE Conference Record #45516. IEEE Xplore ISBN: 978-1-5386-7989-0.

Note that you are required to actually attend the conference and give a presentation (and pay the registration fee). With any conference, if you submit a paper which is subsequently accepted, you are expected to attend the conference and present the paper. If you do not attend the conference (barring exceptional circumstances which you communicate to the organizing committee), then the paper might not be included in the proceedings (i.e., will not be published).

Note that computer science is a bit of an outlier because it considers conference papers as publications. Many other fields do not consider conference publications as "real" publications as the review process tends to be less thorough. Many papers (even in computer science) which start out as conference publications are later published (in a more polished, expanded form) as journal publications.


Conflict declaration in reviews Consider the following scenario:

  A is working on a problem X and has unpublished new material. A is
  then asked to review a paper: upon reading the abstract, A realizes
  that the authors are also working on problem X and appear to have
  duplicated some of A's unpublished material (the results - not clear
  from the abstract if the approach is also duplicated).

A now has four possibilities:

decline to review the paper, or review it
stop working on X, or continue to work on it

The safest combination might be to (decline to review, and stop working), but would it also be legitimate to (decline to review, and continue working) ?

The only problematic situtation seems to me to agree to review the paper, give it a deliberately bad review so it is rejected and then publish the own results. I personally would not review the paper in question at all because it might turn out that it is legitimate to reject it, and then it would be difficult to continue working independently.

Whether you should stop working on the problem is a more difficult question. In general I would say no unless it's something very specific with limited scope for further work. If you are reasonably sure that your work would go beyond what the other authors have done, there's no reason not to do it. You could always wait to see if the paper is published and if it is contact the authors and propose to work together.


Faculty job on-campus interview: changing flights I am from Europe. I am currently on my tour around the US for several on-campus interviews for assistant professor positions. As I am from far away, I managed to arrange the domestic flights between the places without having to go back and forth between Europe and the US. After my last interview, says at university A, I am booked to fly back to Europe and the one-way ticket was already bought by A.

Now, I have just received another invitation to an on-campus interview at university B. B really likes my profile and they want to interview me as soon as I can (it's also the end of the interview season, so I guess they are in a hurry to grab someone). If I come back to Europe as planned then fly to B again, I will be so exhausted because each flight will be 16 to 20 hours, and I have already spent a lot of hours flying and interviewing so far. So ideally I would like to fly directly from A to B then back to Europe. But the ticket bought by A is non-refundable, and I was told before that it's very unprofessional to change flights like that, which could harm my chance at A. I am thinking of skipping the return flight bought by A without telling them (it's a one-way ticket). My questions are:

If I skip the flight, will A know? They bought the non-refundable ticket through a travel agent.
Do you have any suggestion for a more elegant solution?

Thank you very much!

If I skip the flight, will A know?

No.

  Do you have any suggestion for a more elegant solution?

If time permits, book a round-trip ticket out of pocket (i.e. paying for it yourself) to go from A to B and back to A, in time to make your long-haul flight.


What is the key difference between literature review and related work? I really can not find a justifiable answer to this question. Are they used interchangeably?
One answer that's i found to be true is that we use the term literature review in writing thesis and related work in the writing research paper. but i am not sure if it is correct or not?

I've been looking last week for the difference between the literature review and the background. And I found this which may help you, a good definition of what the literature supposed to be (in my opinion): https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/49629/57676

I'm not sure, but I think the literature review can be regarded as related work in more storytelling style. And yes, related work is more frequent in research papers because you don't have enough space to "build a conceptual structure that ties together all the key ideas". Therefore, you just describe briefly what has been done and maybe try to compare it theoretically against what you're proposing, I think.


Books/resources for new faculty I recently accepted a TT asst prof position in computer science at an elite SLAC in the US.

During my job search I perused Karen Kelsky's book "The Professor is In", and I found it very valuable, especially to reflect about different aspects of the job search process that I hadn't considered.

I'm now looking for a similar resource for new faculty members.

Here's what I found (but haven't bought yet):

Robert Boice, Advice for New Faculty Members, 2000
Russell James, Tenure hacks: The 12 secrets of making tenure, 2014

Does anyone have any comment/review about these books, or advice about any other written resource?

Thank you.

On the teaching side, I wish that I'd read at the start of my career:

Ambrose, et. al., How Learning Works
Bain, What the Best College Teachers Do

And specifically for math instructors:

Krantz, How to Teach Mathematics


Undergraduate research in mathematics I am a European student applying for a PhD in mathematics in the US. Browsing the internet, I have come across quite a lot of American PhD applicants claiming that they have several years of research experience, or even publications. I am rather astonished because in Europe first research attempts normally begin when a student is writing his or her Master's thesis. On the other hand the level of mathematics taught in European undergrad programmes is typically higher than in the US an normally involves courses which are classed as graduate courses in the US. Therefore I would like to ask the following questions:

What does "undergraduate research" really mean in most cases? Original research, contribution to a senior mathematician's original research through some calculations/programming work, independent study of a difficult topic + a paper/report but without any original findings?
Am I right being skeptical that someone who has only taken some courses in linear algebra, real analysis, etc. is ready to do research?
US PhD programmes typically involve 2 years of taught courses and a qualifying exam prior to beginning the work on one's thesis, i.e. research proper. Is undergraduate research really an important prerequisite in the eyes of the admissions committee?
How common is it to have publications as an undergraduate in the US?
As a student coming from Europe, where there is little opportunity for undergrad research and it is generally not encouraged, is my application at an disadvantage? While I have not done any "undergrad research", I have done a lot of independent work. I have written a Bachelor's thesis, given talks at many seminars, and am now working on a Master's thesis which will hopefully contain some original results. Can this experience be regarded on a par with a US applicant's research experience?

To address a few of your points.

There is no standard definition of undergraduate research. In many US universities one can graduate with a degree without doing an independent thesis, so in effect it is possible to obtain a bachelor's degree without having anything resembling "research experience". Therefore some people would be generous and count the research for bachelor's theses as "undergraduate research". For some people the phrase excludes theses but includes REU experiences, and for some only original research leading to publications count.

It is not too unreasonable to expect that the work put into independent projects, even an undergraduate thesis that basically is just a review of existing results, can be beneficial to graduate research.
Yes; but where did you get the idea that undergraduates only learn some linear algebra and real analysis? Combinatorics is a field in which the barrier to entry is somewhat lower, and is especially approachable to the Math Olympiad types; and discrete mathematics is certainly on the rise in the past decade or so in terms of undergraduate education. And many undergraduates do have quite a bit more under their belt than you seem to believe.

Having worked in Europe for the past 5 years, I feel comfortable asserting that the claim

  the level of mathematics taught in European undergrad programmes is typically higher than in the US an normally involves courses which are classed as graduate courses in the US.

is not quite true. What is true is that the mathematics in European undergraduate programs often start out at a higher level and with more rigour, but at the advanced undergraduate level the US schools usually have caught up. (Note also that the US degrees are usually 4 years compared to 3 years in Europe, so they have a bit more time to build.) Couple that with the liberal arts tradition you'll often find elective classes at the top level of undergraduate education in the US which have no analogue at all in Europe.

While it is certainly true that good European universities offer undergraduate courses that are at the level of graduate courses in mediocre US universities, the reverse swapping European/US is also true.
It depends on the answer to (1). The rare individual who actually did original research and obtained publishable results will likely get some bonus points when the admission committee deliberates, but it is certainly not a norm and one is not expected to have done such necessarily.
I don't have any statistics. Hearsay suggests that original research leading to something published in a research journal is somewhat rare. (Publications resulting from REU or similar programs, or publications in undergraduate journals are less rare.)
If your master's thesis contains original results, then you are likely more than on par with the typical applicant to US PhD programs, in terms of research experience.


I might not get any PhD offers this year. I would like to apply again , what can I do to maximize chances I am a mathematics undergraduate. I would like to get into a top 10 PhD school and might not do so this year. I would like to apply again and want to do what whatever is necessary to maximize my chances.

I have always heard that a masters in math is terminal and it might be too late to apply for one this year anyway(please correct me if I am wrong here).

What are my options?

Edit: I am currently in India, finishing my bachelors from one of the top schools here. I applied to places like UCB, Columbia, Chicago, Michigan-Ann Arbour and Wisconsin - in the area of algebraic number theory. I now realize that it was a little out of reach as of right now.

I have slightly low grades overall and good but not great math GPA(8.5 and 9.3/10 - 10/10 in graduate courses) and Subject scores(88%). I also do not really have research but from what I understand, undergraduate research is rare.

You've got a couple of options

See what happens with the current applications.  You may be surprised.
Try to get a job as a researcher at your current university.  If a prof. has worked with you and can vouch for you this will be much easier.
Have really awesome GRE or equivalent scores.
Cast a wider net.   Searching "top 10" on this site gets you 200 results!  You may want to apply to schools outside of the top 10 in your field as this seems to be the cut-off most well-qualified applicants use.


“Authors Response” or “Authors’ Response”? Recently, I received a decission letter from an IEEE journal. When I prepared my response, I became confused. The demand from editor is as follows:

  Please start your paper file with an authors response to the review of [paper ID number] which  contains how you responded to the reviewers comments.

My confusions are:

Which of the following titles should I use for my response?

  An Authors Response to the Review of Paper XXX
  Authors Response to the Review of Paper XXX

Should I drop an or not?
Which of the following should I use?

  Authors Response to the Review of Paper XXX
  Authors' Response to the Review of Paper XXX

Should I add an apostrophe at the end of authors?

I really doesn't matter: all of these are close enough to one another to be clearly sensible and have plausible arguments for why they might be reasonable. More importantly, none of them will make it into the published paper: they are merely a transient piece of communication between you and the editor and reviewers which will later be deleted.  As such, any of them is reasonable enough.

That said, personally, I would just say "Response to Reviews" and avoid the whole question.


Enthusiasm in Reference Letter I have written a few reference letters to students for US universities in this recruiting season, and just got an email from a colleague in a university a student of mine was applying to, asking why am I not as enthusiastic about that student.
Here's the thing - I really was enthusiastic about them. I wrote what I thought was a very supportive letter, but I guess that my academic upbringing encouraged less overt use of superlatives. For context, my PhD advisor is an East European mathematician, so she's perhaps not the best role model in terms of showing enthusiasm (as an example, she referred to my first paper submission as a "50% chance of rejection"; that paper got a best paper award).
I realize that my reference letters are not as enthusiastic as my North American counterparts', and that's a cause for concern - this is a potential disservice to my perfectly good candidates.
My question is - what language would you use to describe outstanding students?

It's once again LOR season and I've been writing a bunch as well.  I don't think it's so much a question of finding the right language as it is how you present your case for recommending the student.
I'm not sure if you'll find this directly responsive, but here's how I think about it.  I expect the reader has no idea who I am or what my standards are.  I need to give as much objective information about my relationship with the student and their performance as I can so the reader can understand the basis for my judgement and can decide for themselves whether they agree.  That starts with the classes they took with me or the semesters I hired them as staff and their duties.
Sometimes, I don't know much about the student except their grade in my class (which the reader will already know from a transcript.)  An example would be a sophomore who was in my section in one of our 1000+ student intro computer science courses.  So, I'll describe the class, the assignments, how grading was done, emphasize the difficulty, give the student's final rank and add any additional information information I have, e.g., they were a top participant in our Piazza forum, or at least, that I've discussed the student's plans with them and support them.
Once I give that objective information, then I attest to their knowledge, skills and abilities, suitability for teaching and research, etc., inserting a few superlatives, and give my highest recommendation (assuming I can; if I can't, I try to politely decline) and invite them to contact me if they have questions.
For me, an LOR is usually about one to one and a half pages, including room at the top for the letterhead and inside address, and signature at the bottom.  (Yes, I think it's worth using a letterhead template; it  communicates that you cared enough to put some time into it.  I also think it's worth a signature, but that's just another .jpg in my template.)
By now, it's pretty formulaic for me and I'm usually able to bang out a new LOR in an hour or two.
The really hard LORs to write are the ones where I've known the student for several years, they've been in one of my smaller classes, I then hired them to help me teach it, they've been in my office a ton, they're smart as all get-out, and now I really care about them.  Had one of those a couple weeks ago; I struggled for days how to write the letter he deserved.


What makes someone deserving of a Ph.D.? Few days back while attending a thesis defense, one Professor was asking the defender why does he think, he deserves the degree. I was wondering since then, is there really any general answer for that? or the answer should be given describing my own work and then emphasis them how it is important for research field?

I asked the question here to know your opinion about it and to list down what could be the possible answers to this question.

For a Ph.D., my favorite explanation is this cartoon by Matt Might.

In short: a Ph.D. is a measurable contribution to a sum of human knowledge.

To be able to answer this question, all you need is an idea of how to describe what you have discovered, and how it fits into the context of work by others that has come before.  This is often not easy to answer, but an important thing to think about as one is writing one's thesis in any case.


Which is more beneficial prior to PhD: research experience or a second Masters degree? I will be applying to do a PhD in Applied Mathematics, and have been advised by some professors to consider doing a second masters degree if I do not get in. I have also approached researchers about collaborating on projects with them to improve my profile, and is currently working on one.

I was wondering: if I fail to get into a PhD program, would it be more beneficial for my next application if I enroll in a second masters degree, or would it be better to continue doing research projects?

Edit: Both Suresh and JeffE gave good advice, but I have some points to add.

I am already actively doing research with the possibility of publication (will submit but peer review process is iffy).
Of course, if I am already doing research with well-known faculty collaborators who will write strong letters of recommendation, there is no need to go for a second masters. But would it be realistic to count on a second masters for the opportunity to work with well-known faculty? (IMHO finding supervisors is quite a crapshoot)

I suppose there are quite a few PhD applicants like me: did a masters, but did not excel. Should they try to get research experience with academic collaborators or go for second masters? (there might not be a right or clear cut answer)

The question is framed oddly.  A master's degree without research experience will probably kill your chances for PhD admission, at least into the top programs.

Here's a better framing: Is a second master's degree the best way to get more research experience?  Unfortunately, the answer depends on your personal situation.  If you're already doing active research with a strong possibility of formal publication, with well-known faculty collaborators who will write you strong letters of recommendation, then a second MS is probably not necessary.  If that doesn't describe your current research environment, a second MS might be the best way to find such an environment.


What is the reference manager that can show the list of annotations? I am using Mendeley to organize, highlight and to synchronize my references. I think a feature where you can see a list of annotations/highlight that you have made will be extremely useful during writing.

For example one day you just remember, "Oh I have seen this in some papers, I don't remember which one but I remember I highlighted it."

Right now I have to guess and open one by one the paper to look for the annotations that I meant and scrolling the screen to look for "it", or by performing a search, both are not efficient enough.

Kindle has this feature. Everytime you make some annotations (on different books) they aggregate and put it as a list for you. When you click on that, it will go to the page on the book.

Is there any reference manager that has this kind of functionality?

Qiqqa will do this.
Zotero will also do it, with the Zotfile extension (which can extract annotations from a PDF into a note).


Short summary of other works that cite/build upon your publication Researchers (in particular, in mathematics), in general, clearly write their paper in the hope that their results will be built upon and cited by other members of the community.

Nowadays most researchers have a list of their publications and copies of their papers (or links to the Arxiv) uploaded on their websites. Some of them also add a summary (much longer than the abstract, but clearly much shorter than the paper) written by themselves or a mathscinet review. And almost anyone pays (at least some) attention to their citation count (indeed, that's one of the reasons why Google Scholar and Research Gate researchers' profiles exist).

However, It doesn't seem a common practice to include next to every paper a list of the works by others that cite or build upon it with a short summary and some commentary of their content and its relation to your paper.

  I think it is very time consuming, but would it be an acceptable and advisable practice (by today standard)?

In case of positive answer: should only the works that build directly upon the cited paper be included in the list (or should one be more flexible and include also papers that are less strictly related)?

The practice you describe is actually quite common in the slightly different form of a research statement. See my comment above.

  Would it be an acceptable practice?

This seems to be a common question around Academia.SE and comes up in many different contexts. My opinion on such things is that this is usually not a helpful question to ask. For a practice that is not common (say, reciting Shakespeare in a calculus class), there will likely always be at least one person who finds it objectionable or "unacceptable". So rather than worry if it is unacceptable, I suggest focusing on the separate question of whether it is a good idea. If it is, go ahead and do it. If it's not, don't do it, regardless of whether it would be acceptable or not.

  Would it be an advisable practice?

Well, as you yourself say, it could turn out to be awfully time-consuming. However, I can definitely think of situations when it would be advisable. If your result was applied in a key way in Prof. Humperdink's recent proof of the famous Griemann Hypothesis, absolutely find a way to tell the world about that. More seriously, as you create a body of work and your work is applied by others in various ways, there can definitely be a lot of value in creating a short summary that allows people interested in you and your work (e.g. colleagues and prospective and current employers) to get a quick overview of your work and its importance. The precise title of the document ("Research statement", "Research summary", etc.) and how is it formatted (PDF vs HTML, etc.) are not so important as long as it's presented clearly and easy to access. Similarly, whether the document summarizes your own papers or whether it summarizes the use others have made of your results (the former practice being more common than the latter, as you observe) does not make a huge difference in my opinion; you can have two separate documents to discuss those two things, or cover both of them with a single document, which could make a lot sense since in many cases they would logically fit together very well. Or you could just cover one of those two aspects if that makes the most sense to you.

The important thing is that any survey that you prepare of your own work be written in good taste and not in an excessively pompous or self-aggrandizing way. If you make wildly exaggerated claims about why your result is revolutionary, groundbreaking, deserves to win some major award, etc., this will leave people with a bad taste and they will quickly develop a discounting factor that they will apply to any future statement they hear from you. (As an example, a friend I had in grad school used to make wildly exaggerated claims in a humorous fashion, leading to some of his other friends inventing the "log" rule, which was that you had to take the logarithm of anything he says...)

  Should only the works that build directly upon the cited paper be
  included in the list (or should one be more flexible and include also
  papers that are less strictly related)?

It's hard to say. My inclination is to say that you should generally focus on the papers that build more or less directly on your work. In certain cases, say if a paper you wrote was used by someone to invent a whole new theory, which now generates hundreds of new papers every year, it may be reasonable to say that your paper played a key role in the creation of the theory and led to the later wave of publications, even though its contribution was of an indirect kind. Again, the key rule of thumb is that your claims should be seen as reasonable and presented in good taste, with the goal of genuinely helping the reader to understand the development of the subjects you have worked on, rather than to make yourself seem important by claiming credit for anything under the sun that your work has touched on in any way.


Would adding paragraph about the motivation provided by someone who doubted me to my final year project acknowledgment be unprofessional? In my final year project, and since it will be my last postgraduate year, I want to add a taste of truth in my Acknowledgment, where I think it's the personal part of the project, where you are allowed to express yourself.

After thanking my professors, supervisors, parents in a very formal and professional way, I am eager to add this paragraph at the end.

I had a period where I was the underdog in the high school, I was treated badly, and I lost motivation to study because I wasn't encouraged, all my work and even good results in exams were not even appreciated. I was called the stupid dude, the person who thinks he knows but knows nothing, and ... and all of the this was by my math teacher, not my colleagues.

After that I was accepted in one of the top universities in Lebanon, in one of the hardest entrance exams, with an acceptance rate of not more than 15%. And after entering the university I was a top student.

For that I have written in the last paragraph of my acknowledgment:

  Since it’s the end of the years I spent in the Lebanese
  University-Faculty of Engineering, I’m glad to thank the math teacher
  who once told me: "you will never pass the entrance exam of the
  Lebanese University-Faculty of engineering, my nephew failed surely
  you will fail ". Thank you dude, you were my motive, and proving you
  wrong was one of my goals.

Would this be unprofessional?

I would refrain from adding this to the written/electronic version of the project report. It's very personal and uses colloquial language that should be avoided in a formal report, even in the acknowledgement section.

Having said that, you may still give to that particular teacher a copy with your personal hand-written dedication.

Btw, great example of negative motivation (or what it's called): a negative comment with positive result.


Preprint citations + Paper citations =? Given that in many areas the peer-review process is quite lengthy (even a couple of years), it often happens that, by the time the journal version of a paper appears, the preprint version (e.g. arxiv) has accumulated a couple of citations.

My question is: do citations of the preprint count as citations of the journal version?

The answer depends on what you mean by "count". If we consider whether they should be counted as citations: yes definitely. Afer all, the citations reflect how your science is read and then cited by others. It is then clear that these "count".

A problem occurs when using the citation counts provided by different services such as Researcher ID through Web of Science. Then it is not certain that the "in press" version is counted. I, for example have papers where in press citations exist. In Web of Science, I can actually see them but the connection is not automatically done so I would have to add them to the appropriate paper count manually. I know it is possible to write to Web Of Science and have references corrected or coupled. I, for example have another paper that occurs in four posts because people have written the wrong volume number, the wrong year of publication etc. Since I am senior and these extra citations are not critical to me I have not tried to get them corrected but they can of course be more important in an early career case.

Other services such as Google Scholar may work differently. I have opted for providing measures from services to which I can link and thereby have others verify my numbers. So in the end this becomes a technical problem, the citations certainly count.


What is a "Graphical Table of Contents" Abstract? For one of my accepted papers, the publication editor sent me this note:

  AUTHOR: Please provide a short “Graphical Table of Contents”
  abstract (maximum 80 words or 3 sentences) summarizing the key
  findings presented in the paper for Table of Content (TOC) entry.

Can someone please explain what that means? I understand the bit about 80 words max abstract but I don't understand why it's tagged "graphical". Is it supposed to be illustrated?

Some publishers (ACS I'm lookin at you) have what they call GToC, which is like a ToC with small images. You might have seen such in some magazines, here's an example.

Accompanying the image is usually a short text that is sort of like a teaser for the article, in a way the coolest tidbit about what you have written. I believe that's what they are asking for here.


Tips for starting a new research direction My research group started a new research direction in a somewhat of a classical engineering field (which heavily relays on experiments/tests). I noticed that reviewers who review our work seem to be extra harsh with their assessment and tend to favor a direct “rejection” without clearly explaining what is wrong with our works or even giving us a chance to respond to their comments/questions. I see a common trend in their reviews in two separate papers so far:
1. Consists of 2-3 sentences max
2. Terms like “I feel that this work does not have merit” and “to the best of my knowledge, I don’t see how so and so”
3. The review takes 9-12 months to be completed - while papers in these journals are constantly being published with 6 months.

My assessment is that reviewers are holding very tightly to traditional methods and do not seem to accept our new approaches - and hence the poor reviews we keep getting. I don’t think that they don’t understand our work, since it is clearly explained + been presented in international conferences with great success. Regarding point no. 3, perhaps it is possible that editors are having a hard time to find “suitable” reviewers(?).

I am seeking any thoughts, tips, or experiences you have to cope with such behavior.

So the reviewers take unusually long time, don't understand parts of your work, or don't see the merit in it? As you say, it's a likely sign that the editors have a hard time finding suitable reviewers. This suggests that you should make heavier use of recommended/excluded reviewers, if the journals allow it. Pick them strategically, but also honestly, and motivate your choices. It's not necessary for all traditionalists to die if you can get more open-minded referees... On occasion, it might also be worth appealing a rejection if there are clear signs of reviewers misunderstanding the paper. Though the probability of success seems to vary a lot between fields and journals, so your mileage may vary.

It may also be the case that your papers don't have clear enough explanations of why your approach has promise or is valid. You might well explain what you're doing clearly, but fail to convince someone else that it's worth doing in the first place - especially if existing methods in the target field work fine. Typically the case for a really novel approach needs to be more convincing than that for some incremental work. Directly benchmarking it against existing methods is often useful. Try to find any patterns in reviewer responses of the "I don't see how so and so" kind and address them head on. Also try to get critical feedback from colleagues to help find any gaps in your arguments.