Common for department guidelines/traditions to require tenure track academics rotate courses? In the context of academics in research universities on their tenure track; how common is it for their promotion and tenure to be conditioned upon how many courses they have taught?

Is it more or less likely that they are given an initial set of courses to teach and that this remains as the class set continuously? Would it be normal to find that a department explicitly requires academics to rotate courses throughout their tenure track experience?

Almost all top research universities also have a teaching mission. Most have an undergraduate teaching mission as well. Some of those have a special faculty track for the lower level courses (Professor of the Practice, say, at Duke), but many also require senior faculty to teach a few courses per year. For some courses it is common for certain faculty to specialize, say the Compiler Course in CS, for example. But, in the absence of specialized track faculty, everyone has to have some contact with undergraduates, even if it is as a coordinator of all the TAs teaching, say, Calculus I.

Eventually junior faculty need to be integrated into this system. Given that the tenure probation period is typically about seven years, only the earliest part of this is likely to be free of teaching responsibilities. But for a new faculty member, it is common enough to get a year without teaching duties and another year or so of teaching easier courses for which a lot of resources already exist. Of course, you can probably request a specialized course as well.

But, in many and I hope most places, the teaching assignments are more or less decided by request and consent rather than being imposed, as long as every course has coverage. An especially collegial place will likely give new faculty first choice (or second,...) of courses, rather than dumping the hard ones on the new faculty after the "plums" are chosen by the senior faculty.

And, of course, in some fields, having extensive external funding can relieve you of the need to teach at all.

But a new faculty member teaching an intro level course will find a bit of shock when they find out there are 500 students in the course and you need to manage 20 or so TAs as well as give lectures.

As to the question of tenure, some places don't care too much about whether you can teach undergraduates effectively provided that you are a superb researcher and can effectively teach grad students and, especially, direct doctoral work. Others will place more emphasis on teaching. Most will also place at least some emphasis on flexibility. How willing are you to "take one for the team" and teach a difficult course? Everyone needs to do this occasionally, of course, and refusing shows lack of collegiality that can lead to problems at tenure time.

But, also, I hope and expect, that most research universities will find ways to "nurture" tenure track faculty and integrate them into the local culture as well as supporting their research goals.


Importance of having a "connection" while applying to PhD I am applying for a PhD to top schools in engineering. Whenever I talk to my peers I hear the word 'connection' very often. I started thinking that it is almost impossible to be admitted to these schools without knowing a professor ! (I am an international applicant)

How important is having a connection when applying? What If I don't know one and I believe that my profile qualifies me for admission? Should I apply or just not bother?

At least for schools in the US, it is not necessary for you to have a direct "connection" or contact at a department to be admitted.

In general, where contacts can be useful is if one of the people who writes your letters of recommendations for you knows a particular person in the given department. If that "connection" is good, and you get a good letter of recommendation, that will carry more weight than a typical letter of the same quality, since you will be better "known" than someone who the department doesn't know at all.

That said, though, there is no expectation that you would directly know someone already at the school—although your research interests should align with the department as a whole.


Whether to ask journal editor to review two papers simultaneously because the papers are mutually dependent on each other? Having read this earlier question I find myself in a similar, but different situation and would like to ask your advice.

My colleagues and I have created a new medical imaging system, and have performed a series of standard tests on this system. We want to publish two papers - one describing in detail the design of the system including some key performance parameters, and another describing in more detail all performance (with a brief summary of the design). Ad the device is now commercially available, there is significant interest in the community to have more details in peer-reviewed format.

Both papers were submitted to the same journal, and were reviewed by different reviewers. Comments were along the lines of "this would be great if it contained [more of what is in the other paper]". In other words - neither paper is currently accepted because it is missing information that is in the sister paper.

Unfortunately the journal in question has a hard limit on length (5000 words including reference) and figure/table count; combining the two into a single paper would seriously hamper our ability to communicate the details that would be of interest to our target audience.

So here is the question: would it be considered acceptable to contact the editor, explain the situation, and request that the two papers be published side by side in the same journal? It would largely address the reviewers' concerns. The alternative would be to request an exemption from the word / figure count.

I don't know whether either of these things is commonly done. Your advice is appreciated.

Honestly, it sounds a little like you were trying to Salami-slice your papers, and the reviews are showing this. If the design is not interesting / understandable / plausible without knowing the analysis, and the analysis is not understandable without the design, then the solution should be that you make this one larger, better paper, and not that you somehow make the reviewers aware of the other publication. One of the fundamental rules of scientific papers is that they are supposed to be self-contained - every paper should, by itself, be understandable and add something to the state of the art.

If the journal you are submitting to requires papers that are too short, you can always go for a journal with higher page limits.


Is teaching on YouTube for non-teachers illegal? I'm planning to start a YouTube channel to help non-Italian speakers learn how to speak Italian. I was wondering if it may be illegal to do so, given I'm not a qualified teacher. Can anybody help? :)

Youtube is not a teaching platform, although it is used for such a purpose. People are uploading everything on youtube and they are allowed to do so as long as the content of their videos is legal.

What I mean by legal here, is that the video should fulfil the conditions set by youtube, namely, copyright and Rules of the community.

Otherwise, the content is evaluated by youtube users, whatever its nature. Overall, I would say YES, anyone is allowed to upload his own video to youtube from the legal point of view. However, he should care about giving correct information (especially if it is considered as a teaching video) from the ethical point of view.


How do I show others what I am capable of? I just turned sixteen this January, and I have started thinking about where I will go to pursue research in theoretical physics and mathematics. I live in India, and, sadly speaking, research here in India is awful, even though many claims of scientific advancements in India are made. First, I would like to share what I do at home.

I have mastered differential and integral calculus, and I have independently proved, and discovered some of my own proofs of theorems in Real Analysis(Proofs which I haven't seen in some other source, but they might exist). I have also independently discovered the well known techniques of solutions to certain kinds of differential equations, without having any knowledge of how to solve them. I continue to explore higher level mathematics, and try my best to prove each theorem I encounter myself.

Now, the thing is, nobody at school, neither the teachers nor my friends, know anything about this. Even my parents are not fully aware about all this, but I try my best to share this with them. At school, the curriculum is such that the teachers are teaching to the test, and a heavy focus on contests and olympiads is laid, and to choose subjects of your own choice, you have to score high enough in subjects like Social Science and English, which don't even matter in research. Unnecessary debates and discussions are held, and I try my best to not share anything with these guys, to prevent getting into an hour long debate on what you should pursue.

In India, the major institutions are the Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institute of Science etc, where almost everybody focuses on getting into the IIT. To get an admission in the IIT, a standardised test, comprising of problems from Math, Physics, Chemistry and MAT has to be given. The admissions are solely decided by the score obtained in this test, which comprises of contest-like questions, which do not describe the research capability of the candidate. Even coaching centres have been set up all over the country, which train for this exam(called the JEE exam). The situation is really worse, and recently, I was demotivated by my teacher for not scoring enough in my social science exam. I have gotten used to this.

I would like to get admitted to institutions like MIT, Harvard, and I have read how I apply for them and what are the requirements for admission. The main thing is I have to distinguish myself from others, take part in extra-curricular activities etc, and maybe win math/science contests. But the thing is, I am not great at contests, which are timed, and I rarely would like to participate at school, where conditions are horrible. I have started taking leaves from school, because I think nothing productive is going on there.

Now, I would like to ask if I apply for these institutes, how do I share what I am capable of? As a young mathematician, I think I am really doing well, and will do well in research too. But, other than my notebook, where I write all my thoughts and all my findings, I don't have anything that can show my abilities. If I just tell my abilities to them, like I did here, they would not believe in me, which I understand.

So, my question is, how do I show the institutes my abilities? Is it necessary for me to win contests at national/international levels, which is not that easy?

To apply for admission as an undergraduate at ... (MIT, Harvard, etc.) ... their web sites shows the steps you need.  There is an exam (SAT, Scholastic Aptitude Test) such applicants may take.  Probably there are opportunities to take it in your country as well, but maybe just in one or two cities, so you may have to travel there to do it.  (16-year-olds generally haven't published papers.)


Should I assume that attendees have read my papers when I give a talk? On occasion during talks, presenters will say, "as you know from reading my papers" or during a Q&A someone will say "you should know from my papers".

The above clearly seems inappropriate for most settings outside of a group meeting. However, to what extent should I expect my audience to know what I am talking about vs. completely assuming that my audience know nothing?

This really depends on your audience.

At a department colloquium, I assume very little background, probably an undergrad degree in math, but not even an undergrad class in my research area. Here the audience will often be smart, but ignorant of the relevant background.
At a research seminar with lots of undergrad and/or masters students, I still don't assume much background, maybe an undergrad class in the area, but even then I "remind" the audience of important information they "should" know.
At a research seminar with mainly PhD students and active researchers I assume more, but even here I usually don't assume that they're familiar with the problem or the relevant literature or techniques.
A conference special session (or minisymposium) is similar to a research seminar with mainly PhD students and active researchers.  Here I often expect that much of the audience is familiar with the background and the techniques, but I still usually review them at least briefly.  I've never gotten complaints about giving too much background and context.

I never assume the audience has read any of my papers.
I typically view my talks (at least in part) as advertisements for my papers.  The audience will never want to read my paper if they don't see why it's important (so that's my job during the talk).  For those few that already want to read the paper, I hope they leave my talk with an outline of the paper, which will make it easier to read.  Any time you're talking to an audience with varied background, it's good to briefly describe the key definitions.  If you can do this quickly, perhaps only verbally, you don't bore those who already know, and you give the rest a fighting chance to keep up.


Can I ask the graduate office (US) if I can submit transcript without WES? I want to apply for a Ph.D. position in a US university and I already wrote the program director with my CV and he encouraged me to apply. Now, this university needs World Education Services evaluation as I am an international student. But my university where I did my bachelor's, had followed the US grading system.
Due to covid, I am tight on budget. My question is- can I ask the graduate office if they can accept my transcript without WES or if they can waive it? I know it's kind of weird as it's a major criterion to evaluate an applicant but still, I want to know if I can ask it or not?

Yes, you can ask. But they will probably say no if they require/request it. Someone has to give a meaningful analysis of your transcript and they are probably deferring this to WES so as not to have to have people do it themselves.
It is a fairly large problem for a large institution and maybe a difficult one for a small institution.
But, in general, there is no prohibition about asking for what you want. Just be prepared for a "no". You won't avoid an evaluation in any case, and one from WES might actually be more useful, since they are organized for that.


Friendship with Professor okay? My professor and I walk to and from for every class I have with her, I am a female senior student and my professor is in her 30's. I've gotten to know her really well, we even had a random dinner together. I go to her office hours everyday and share a coffee or cookie. I go to her for many incidents, including a man who has been harassing her and me. She has a partner who she mentions all the time and she even tells me about her family situations back home. We've had several meetings with the University officials and discuss them afterwards. We email constantly, I consider her a friend or a mentor.

I'm curious to know where the boundaries are between my Professor and me (student)? What is the difference between a Mentor and Friend for professors and does it apply to me?

In my opinion professors are normal people and can have friends as everyone else, as long as it does not affect your grades and how you are treated in the classroom. I used to give classes where I taught my friend who I started studies at the same university with (he took a few gap years...). In the classroom and when grading exams and homeworks I treated him exactly as other students.

There is also a possibility that your institution's code of conduct has regulations pertaining to this situation. Nevertheless, they should be more of concern for your professor than you.


How do you get started organizing a class? As an academic in the university, how do you organize your self from the beginning of a  semester?

For example:

How do you take the absent students names?
How do prepare your materials?
How do you write a syllabus for students and do you hand them out?
What computer programs do you use to plan your lessons?

I started my career as a lecturer last semester and I found myself not organized so I need to learn from your experience.

How do you take the absent students names?

I don't.  If a student finds my lectures boring or useless, they shouldn't waste their time coming to class.  (As others point out, there are very good reasons to require attendance in laboratory-, studio-, and discussion-based classes.)

  How do prepare your materials?

Coffee and LaTeX.  Lots of coffee and LaTeX.

  How do you write a syllabus for students and do you hand them out?

When I started out, I modified the syllabus from the previous iteration of the course, which was taught by an experienced instructor, so I could be sure to include all the necessary details.  I used to hand out the syllabus on the first day of class, but now I just post it on the well-advertised course web site.

  What computer programs do you use to plan your lessons?

I write everything in LaTeX (specifically, TeXShop) and distribute everything as PDF files on the course web site.  (See the first question.)  I also use SubEthaEdit to edit the course web pages themselves.


Disagreement with supervisor regarding sending an erratum I have a paper that is accepted and published in a journal. After it was accepted I realized that some of the errors were calculated in a wrong manner and hence they appeared around 1.5 times smaller in the paper (this was due to a wrong advice that my advisor gave me). I was busy at the moment however later, when the paper was published, I managed to recalculate the errors and realize their difference. I told my supervisor about it and sent the new results to him. Although he seems to admit that his advice was wrong he is opposing my idea to send an erratum to the journal. Here is his argument:

The differences are minimal and do not change the conclusion or the main point of the paper. (Although the actual errors are 1.5 times the reported ones, they are still small because the reported ones are small too)
We have to change many parts of the paper and not only one place.
It will put us and the journal in a bad situation.
I am neither the first person nor the last person who has done a mistake in his paper.
Our code and dataset are public.

I have had serious arguments with my supervisor in the past. The last time it got to the point that he ordered me to do as he says. This makes me worried if I push him harder I will ruin my relationship with him.

What are your thoughts about this situation? What is the right thing to do in your opinion?

You said the error is small.  Therefore the need for an erratum is small as well.  Ideally you would publish the erratum, but if you have more important things to do, that is understandable.


Is it normal for graduate tuition to be much cheaper than undergraduate tuition? The undergraduate tuition in the University of Rochester is $49260 per year.

On the other hand, graduate tuition adds up to only $27684 (18 credit hours).

Am I missing something?

The standard full-time undergraduate course load is 16 credits per semester (32 credits per year). (See here: the four-year undergraduate degree requires 128 credits.) The flat-rate cost for the example you have cited comes out to $1539.375/credit.

The standard full-time graduate course load is 9 credits per semester (18 credits per year). The flat-rate cost for the example you have cited comes out to $1538/credit.

For the school you have used as your example, the per-credit fee for part-time students is $1538/credit in most cases.


Should I submit an expression of interest for another position although I still have 1.5 years left in my current contract? I am a postdoc with slightly more than 1.5 out of 3 years left in my contract. Recently I have received an email about a postdoctoral position in another country, which interests me. The position is not yet formally advertised, but potential candidates are invited to submit a brief expression of interest, and to indicate the date they will be available.

Is it a common practice to submit an expression of interest although I will only be available 1.5 years from now?

Is it a common practice to submit an expression of interest although I will only be available 1.5 years from now?

I wouldn't say it is "common practice", simply because it seems relatively pointless. While starting dates for academic jobs are usually flexible, 1.5 years of delay for a postdoc seems like a stretch. Many postdocs are hired on specific projects, and the project in question would be half-over before you even begin. Even for postdocs paid by some sort of fellowship, the start date usually isn't that flexible. Of course this does not stop you from asking, but I would not get my hopes up too high.


Should I publish this? In the year 2000, someone probed the 3 dimensional quantum dots using a new condition which is important in semi conductor physics. But they basically solved the Schrodinger equation for ground state and discussed the consequences.

I have extended their work for general case , i.e, one can calculate "higher" state energy using those calculations. Also, I have pictured how the wave function looks like at higher states.

But I think that I have done just Math & some computations.

  My query is : Is this result publishable owing to the fact that I am a Junior year student and I did this work without any adviser.

As it is mentioned in the comments, we have no access to your paper to determine whether it is a perfect paper to be published or the content is of value to be published. Also, reviewing papers are off-topic to this website.

But, if you are looking for answers regarding [you are] a Junior year student and I did this work without any adviser; my answer will be YES.

There is no obligation for anybody to send his paper for a journal to be peer-reviewed or even to publish his research. The content of the paper is more important than the education level of their writers.

However, I would recommend you to show your research paper to a faculty member. He will review your paper scientifically besides to the review he will do on the academic writing of your paper.

Also, if you want to apply for a masters or PhD program or even if you are seeking for a job; you will need recommendation letters from the faculty members (and showing your paper to a professor is one way to show that you are eligible to get one). The professor whom you will show your paper to may be so glad to write one for his smart student who has worked upon Schrödinger's equation.


How to estimate cost of a course when price is quoted per semester but program has three semesters? I'm looking to get an MBA at University of Texas at Austin. I'm planning on working full-time while going to school, so I'm interested in their Evening MBA program.

I'm trying to understand costs. According to their website, the program takes 2.5 years to complete, that's equivalent to 5 semesters. The program costs $15,320 per semester, which should mean that the total program costs $76,600.

However, on this page they have 3 semesters per year, which doesn't make any sense to me. Add up all those numbers together, and you end up with a total cost of $107,240.

So which one is it? Is a semester not really a 6-month period in academic lingo?

The program is designed to include two summers.  Spring, summer, fall, spring, summer, fall, spring.  That's two full years (spring, summer, fall constitutes one year) plus an extra spring semester. Here's the tuition cost for the 2019 cohort.

Here's the actual schedule in PDF format for the 2019 cohort.

What @SeanRoberson said is true in general but is irrelevant in this case.

$107,240 is correct.

(May I suggest you talk to their advising people to find out how feasible it is to work full time while enrolled in their program?)


How to title a report on a project that is not final I thought about posting this in English.SE, but since it occurs in a university setting, I decided to post here - hopefully it's on-topic.

I have been working on a project that is being transitioned to another group member so she could take over the project. The project involves the design, development, and application of "Model X". I have done some useful work on it, but some work still needs to be done to complete it. I'm putting together a documentation package to describe what I've done so far, the design of "Model X", and how to use the code I've written thus far.

This report is internal to the group (whether this will be part of something that is published in the future, I do not know). I hesitate to title the report "Model X" because it's not, and might not be close to, being the final model. How should I title the transition report?

Some options I have thought of:
"Current status of Model X" - but this seems like an email subject
"Incomplete Model X: Design and Usage" - this sounds a bit degrading

What would you suggest? And are there in fact accepted titles for this kind of report?

I have typically seen the word "Draft" used, as in:

  Draft Model of X (Date)

If you want to track multiple drafts over time, then you can give a version number as well:

  Draft Model of X (Version N, Date)


Is it too late to ask the faculty for a summer research internship position? I am wondering if it's too late to ask the faculty about the availability of a summer research internship position? When would be the best time for this?

More information as requested:

I am looking for the positions in the US from May 25th onwards.
I am also a graduate student and I'm thinking of a summer internship with an eye towards the possible continuation as a post-doc.

No, it's not too late to ask. But whether it is too late to get one depends on the local situation and so we can't help with that.

So, ask. If you don't ask you won't get one.

There is a Chinese proverb: The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is right now.


How to tell if a paper is behind a paywall? I am trying to figure out if a paper is open access or not. My university subscribes to many non-open access journals. Some journals offer mixed models where some papers are open access and others are not.

Some journal websites tell me I have accessed them through an institutional subscription, but if the journal uses a mixed model of open access, that does not mean all papers are behind a paywall. Is there a reliable way to tell if a paper is behind a paywall?

In particular I am interested in knowing if this Nature paper is behind a paywall.

To answer your particular question: When trying to read it from home, it tells me "To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right)." (costs: 30 $US).

You can easily check this by logging in from home, some public WiFi, or even with your mobile device (as long as it is not using WiFi in your university network to connect).


Do students have the right to see how their papers were graded? Note: You may refer previous revisions for more context.

I read Academia varies more than you think it does, but in any school or university I've been to or heard of, students can always see how they were graded for any assignment. Or, at least, if the school won't let them keep it, but they will at least let the students view it (usually final exams).
I believe it's every student's right to know how e was graded on, well, a graded requirement. (see Dan Fox and David Hill's answers) The only exception I can think of is Educational Testing Service, which administers the TOEFL and GRE, but it's not really a school or anything.
Recently, my sibling was a little surprised with a grade on a paper and wants to know about how their particular paper was graded. But when my sibling tried to ask to view the marking of the paper, this was the reply:

Are you an exchange student? [University] does not provide marks to students after the examination. The only thing that can be released is the Grade or Pass/Fail. Giving you the marks would be a violation of the regulations. In fact, all such information will be destroyed after a period of time. You can try asking other teachers about marks, they will also tell you the same.

(My sibling is not an exchange student.)
Main question: Do/Should (see here also) students have the right to see their how exams were graded?
Some guide questions for the main question:

Is this policy unconventional or unethical or unfair? Based on
Corvus' answer to this
question
or Dan Fox's answer to this
question,
I kind of think my sibling's university's policy is unconventional
or something.

How will any student get feedback on their communication or their mistakes if they do not see any of the marking of their work?

Is it unconventional, unethical or unfair to tell them to ask other teachers rather than point to the specific university regulations?

Is it unconventional, unethical or unfair to not have specific university regulations on this matter?

I doubt that this is a case of a student "offending" an individual professor and more one of rules in place that may not make sense and that you may not approve of, but still, rules.
I don't like, personally, such rules. I think they are wrong, but an individual professor has little actual control over rule making. They may not be willing to break the rules, especially if they are a junior faculty member.
Personally, I probably wouldn't give back final exams, though I did give back all others. But I would certainly let a student look over the grading. But I was bound by no such rules.
And, note that, depending on the scale of the institution, it might be very difficult to permit students access to final exams. When I was a TA, we graded Calculus finals as a group, with each TA grading only one problem. So, a student's grade was an amalgam of judgements. We were guided by a rubric, of course. But the professor didn't grade the finals and so might find it difficult to respond to exactly why a point (or ten) was lost. Smaller institutions can "afford" a more personal touch and usually strive to do so. It should be (perfect world) possible for larger ones to do so also, but often don't. And if there were a few hundred students, it is difficult to respond to individuals, just for the time it takes. Ideal? No.
Intermediate exams are a different matter, in my view, since they can and should be used to guide the student's learning. But, Rules.
And usually, by enrolling in a university, the student makes an implicit (at least) agreement to abide by the rules in place.


A paper I received to review has (independently) duplicated work that we are writing up. How to proceed in light of peer-review confidentiality? I did some research with some collaborators, and we have been writing an article ("paper A") describing the work.

A few days ago I received a request to review an article ("paper B") that covers most of our work. The authors of paper B have clearly worked independently on the same topic and beaten us to submission. (And fair play to them.)

This leads me to a number of related dilemmas:

The first, and I think easiest to resolve, is whether I have a conflict of interest in reviewing paper B. I think I can write a fair review, but I intend to tell the editor and allow them to decide whether I should proceed.

The other dilemmas arise mainly because I am bound by peer-review confidentiality. I should note that paper B is not available as a preprint.

Can tell my co-authors about paper B? I am convinced that confidentiality forbids me from showing paper B to them, but can I tell them that it exists and what it covers? My feeling is that the answer is 'no'.

But then, if I cannot tell my co-authors about paper B, then it seems I have to allow our paper A to proceed to submission even although I know of the overlap with paper B.

I am extremely uncomfortable with this, although one can take the view that since our work was independent, our paper A could still be published.

Furthermore, my first impression is that paper B is not suitable for the general journal to which it was submitted, but that I would recommend acceptance to a high-quality specialist journal, such as the one to which we intended to submit our paper A. This raises an unpleasant prospect: if our paper A proceeds to submission and publication, the authors of paper B might believe that I had rejected their paper and plagarized their work (a situation discussed in this question). This situation could arise even if I turn down the review request. Naturally, I want to avoid this.

How should I proceed? Could I ask the editor for permission to inform my co-authors about paper B?

Your question raises several quite serious ethical questions - thank you for posting it!

From the last part of your question it looks to me that you actually do have a conflict of interest, since you are afraid that what you write in your review may impact your future relations with this research group. I think it is best for you to withdraw from reviewing this manuscript, and fully explain your decision to the editors. I would even consider sending them a draft of your manuscript, if this does not violate your arrangements with other authors.

I am not sure your own paper can not be published. In my area it is not uncommon for two groups to produce similar results almost simultaneously (the second paper is submitted before the first is printed). This does bring some hard discussions sometimes, especially if the ideas are published on arXiv or presented at conferences. However, this does not stop papers from being published. Of course, you should not use anything from paper B to improve your paper A.

To summarise: In my opinion, it's best for you not to study paper B in too much details, withdraw from reviewing it, explain this decision to Editors, and continue working on your paper A.


What tense should paper titles use? I have recently noticed that the tense of paper titles can be somewhat odd. This previous question, In what tense (present/past) should papers be written?, has some great information but it doesn't directly answer for titles.

Some random titles:

Improving source code search with natural language phrasal representations of method signatures
A comparison of stemmers on source code identifiers for software search
Using Formal Models to Objectively Judge Quality of Multi-Threaded Programs in Empirical Studies
Modeling Programmer Navigation: A head-to-head empirical evaluation of predictive models

Most titles (in Computer Science) look to be present progressive. Is there a rule/reason behind this?

First: the usual (read: boring) way of writing academic paper titles is indeed without verbs:

  A study of acquired growth hormone deficiency
  and hypogonadotropic hypogonadism in a subject with repeated head trauma

or using gerunds (which is a verb form, but in that case is used to construct a present progressive but a noun phrase):

  Understanding acquired growth hormone deficiency
  and hypogonadotropic hypogonadism in a subject with repeated head trauma

However, I think include a verb is possible, and oftentimes makes the title much catchier and appealing to the non-specialist reader. For example, the titles I “quoted” above are of my own making, but the real title for the article (and believe me, you want to read it) is:

  Acquired growth hormone deficiency and hypogonadotropic hypogonadism in a subject with repeated head trauma, or Tintin goes to the neurologist

There: even if I know nothing of “acquired growth hormone deficiency” and “hypogonadotropic hypogonadism”, I know what the paper is about.

Now, if you use verbs in article titles, they are mostly going to be about established facts, generic questions, mathematical proofs, … which means you should write in the present tense.

  Vitamin C enriched diet can prevent scurvy
  Minesweeper is NP-complete

I particularly like to use questions in titles, as they make quite clear the problem you're tackling:

  How hard is the measurement of quartz hardness? A review of the commercial available apparatuses and their robustness
  How fast does the swallow fly? Reexamining the impact of the bird's geographical origin

In a few cases, you would talk about a historical event, and then you'd use the past tense:

  How World War One was won: the role of time travelers from the twenty-second century
  The CERN measurement was not a fluke: finally establishing the Higgs discovery at the 10-sigma level


Is it worth doing a poster presentation? I submitted a paper to an IEEE conference (Computer Science). My paper was not accepted for publication but it has been accepted for poster presentation there.

The conference requires the authors to pay full delegate registration fees as is required for authors of published works. Is it a common practice ?

I was a novice student in the field when I submitted the paper, but have worked a lot in past few months in the area. And I am not looking for any specific inputs into that work anymore.

Is it worth doing a poster presentation in such case ?

EDIT: (some additional information)

It is not a top tier conference
I am self funded

I have some experience publishing in CS, so I'll give you my point of view.

  The conference requires the authors to pay full delegate registration fees as is required for authors of published works. Is it a common practice ?

Yes. In general, every participant is expected to pay in full, no matter what kind of contribution he/she has submitted. You are paying the conference, not your publication. One could argue that this is the main point why many (weaker) conferences even have poster and short paper tracks - to get more people to pay full registrations and attend the conference without having to accept too many papers.

  I was a novice student in the field when I submitted the paper, but have worked a lot in past few months in the area. And I am not looking for any specific inputs into that work anymore.

I should comment that this is a somewhat questionable attitude. Even if you are not planning to continue a certain line of research, hearing what others think about your work will help you a lot in future research projects and papers. Also, I don't think that you can go from novice to can't learn anything in the field anymore in the timeframe of a conference paper review process, so I'll wager that some in the audience will still have reasonable input on your work.

  Is it worth doing a poster presentation in such case ?

I would say this depends on practicalities. Is your advisor OK with paying your conference trip without a full paper to show? Is it far, will the travel be expensive? Is it a top conference that you want to attend for the conference's (and associated networking's) sake? Have you done many presentations, or will it at least be good training?

That being said, from a scientific point of view, most poster presentations are not very valuable. They don't count a lot on your CV (except, maybe, if it really is an absolute top conference), and you will not get that much feedback, realistically.


Not convinced by your own knowledge I'm 26 and an Bachelor-Student in the Electrical Engineering field.
My interests are Control-Theory and Robotics.
My Grade are good (maybe i get an 1.x Grade for the Bachelors Degree).
My Control-Theory Prof is very convinced of my knowledge and gave me the advice to go to an University.

Im currently studying at an Fachhochschule and want to go to an University for an Master Degree in my interest field.

The Problem is, that Im not very conviced about myself. Im thinking that I have to learn everything (math, physics) from Scratch to be prepared for the Study there.
The Problem is not that Im not ready to invest a lot of time for it (I am!), but I think that i should learn the Mathematics from Scratch again for getting an feeling about whats happening (control-theory is very mathematic).

I can calculate a lot, but developing own Ideas and get behind the Ideas of other People is at some point very difficult and ends often in accepting things. I want to have an intuitive feeling for whats going on, and for that I think I should repeat the mathematics (Analysis, Linear Algebra, Integraltransformation) and start to dive in Functional-Analysis.

At this University the Master-Course starts twice a year, April and October.
I have emailed the Faculty and being told, that I have to complete the Math III Exam with is part of there Bachelors-Degree Course, and maybe another exam which i dont know (maybe theoretical electrical engineering).

My idea was, to spend the first Semester to get skilled in mathematics and consist the 2 Exams, and maybe If the time allows, to finish some other Courses which are held in the first Master-Semester.

My problem is, that Im 26 and I think Im very old. Im working since 2016 as an Working-Student at an Global Player in the Research&Development of Photovoltaic Systems.
If I see other students which maybe starts with me.. they are 21,20..
But I think Im doing right, if I want to employ in that Field, I have to learn. Im living only once, and If that is my dream, I have to forget my age.

What do you think about my Plan?
Sorry if this is very confusing to you.

Have a nice day!

There is no reason to panic.

A 1.x grade in Bachelor is good. Master's programs in Germany in Electrical Engineering tend to be less mathematically heavy that Bachelor's. They also tend to leave you enough free time, which some students use to work for money and you can use it to revise the basics in Mathematics and Physics.

You do not need to start from scratch. If you got good grades in those courses, you will be able to pick up the content quickly again.

It is normal not to fully understand every single idea and have to "accept" some things at the beginning. Intuition comes with time.

26 is not too old. Many students (especially international students) get a job for a few years between Bachelor's and Master's. Starting a Master with 26 is not the most common thing but it is not rare.

You seem to be worried about the switch from Fachhochschule to university. Don't be. Mathematics and Physics are the same everywhere. From what you write, you seem to believe you performed well in your Bachelor's. Your professor also thinks you are ready: listen to them.


Homework Policy - Extension with Partial Solutions for Partial Credit I'm going to be teaching my first course in the fall semester, and I've been trying to think of ways to make the homework benefit the students. One thought I had was to have the homework be due the week following its assignment for full credit, at which point partial solutions would be posted to the course site, or at the following lecture for partial credit. I can think of variants where parts of the assignment could be submitted at each deadline, so if a student figures out how to do problems 1, 3, and 4 but has no idea on problem 2, he can submit the three he figured out for full credit at the first deadline, then use the partial solutions to figure out the last problem and turn it in for partial credit at the second deadline.

What are the benefits and drawbacks for the students and administrators of such a system? Students: Is this a system that you would find helpful? Instructors: Have you tried anything similar in the past, and if so, what were the results?

This is what I've been able to think of so far:

Administrators

(+) Encourages students to look at the solutions
(+) Helps homework be a learning experience
(-) Requires two sets of solutions if full solutions are posted later
(-) Requires more organization, especially if students are allowed to submit on multiple days

Students

(+) Provides an extra resource when working through the assignment
(+) Encourages completion of the assignment, which should increase retention because students are using (some) of the knowledge
(-) Confusing system
(-) Assignments will overlap if assigned weekly

I give weekly assignments and post the full solutions immediately after the assignment is due.  However, I also give partial credit (50%) to any assignments turned in after its due date but before the final exam.

I have seen a handful of students utilize this system.  Typically they are the ones who normally complete assignments but missed the deadline due to extraneous circumstances.  I consider these use-cases to be exactly in the spirit of my policy.  Occasionally, I will have a student who submits virtually all of the assignments in the last week of the term.  I see this as an unintended consequence of the policy (I would actually prefer to discourage this kind of procrastination).

There are a few downsides from an instructor's point of view:

There is a higher organizational load than if you enforce a strict deadline.  I find the marginal cost of grading a late assignment to be surprisingly high.  If assignments came any more frequently than weekly, I am confident my system would become onerous, and the one you propose would be even worse.
There is a risk that an honest (but poor) on-time effort by a student could be surpassed by a dishonest late effort by another student.  I haven't seen this but it is a worry in the back of my mind.  I try to avoid this by actively encouraging students who do poorly (worse than 50%) to re-submit after looking at the solutions.


How to be properly cited with a two-word last name I have a two-word last name which gives as full name something like "Mike Adam Pince" (just an example) with "Mike" the first name and "Adam Pince" the last name (no middle name).

I have published few conference papers and I noted that Google scholar is referencing me (author's name in the results) as "MA Pince" which I'm sure other people would do too.

Now that I'm writing a journal paper I'm thinking of adding a hyphen to my last name "Adam-Pince" to avoid any confusion with others authors.

I wonder what's the common practice in such a situation.

Make it easy for people to cite you correctly.

People are lazy. When I cite a paper, I usually copy-paste the citation from some website. This can be the publisher's website, the author's website, or some index like Google Scholar or DBLP (for computer science). I suspect most people do this too. So you should make sure the correct citation appears in these places.

Make sure that the publisher of your papers has the correct citation on their website. Put the correct citation on your website (e.g. create an "export citation" link). Create a google scholar profile and make sure it has the correct information. In some places it may be appropriate to even include the suggested citation in your paper itself. These actions won't ensure 100% correct citation of your name, but they will make a difference.

Another note: You get to choose what name to put on your paper. It doesn't have to be your legal name. (For instance, someone who changes their legal name upon marriage may choose to keep publishing under their maiden name.) So you do have the option to choosing a professional name that avoids these issue -- e.g., by hyphenating. Just be consistent.


What to do when you hear many bad stories about your supervisor on the first day of your PhD? Today was the first day of my PhD. It's a very prestigious institution and I was extremely excited to start. However, it seems there is a general feeling of discontentment with people in the group and I was told some stories that, quite frankly, shocked me to the point where I was legitimately considering packing up then and there.

I was told that the supervisor of this group has extremely suspicious working practises, blocks papers from students to give the credit to 'preferred' students, has insanely unrealistic expectations (I was told that some students were expected to work through the night regularly), blocking people from graduating to get more cheap labor out of them, and many more things. The term "psychopath" was thrown about a lot.

I have recently completed my master's in a group where there was an extremely poor PI with an incredibly abusive and parasitic attitude towards the group. I don't really wish to go into it because I want to maintain anonymity, but suffice to say that I do not want the same experience in my PhD.

As you may realise, I'm extremely concerned that I've made a truly terrible decision and I would like some advice going forward. I realise that this is only my first day, and I am not going to make any rash decisions without more context and experience, but what should I be looking out for? How do I protect myself from abusive behaviour? And, most importantly, how do I decide when enough is enough and I should cut and run?

I would really like to get the PhD as I'm extremely passionate about the subject, so in order keep a science career possible I think if the option to quit is on the table, it would have to be in the first year. I don't however think that a career in science is worth the exchange of the toll on my mental health that an abusive boss will cause.

Based on my experience because I had the same situation before and regret not doing that right decision since earlier time. I do recommend you first to stay for couple of months and try to figure out how this PI behaves towards you, in the same time try to look for another good lab. I am still burning out as since month ago this what happened to me, you can see my post here: Forced to Quit PhD although the hard and proved work

So, I dont want you to be in the same situation, I really appreciate that you are passionate about the subject, however, if you have a poor supervisor S(he) is going to ruin every thing.

Another advice and really important which I regret not doing it is asking the current students and alumni, don't be lured by citation and their prestige and trust your gut.

I hope you can take the right decision and for sure I don't recommend you to leave, however stay, work hard as much as you can and if you have noticed red flags from s(he), you can switch from the lab.


How to send a reminder to a US prof who has accepted my internship offer but didnt reply to my follow-up mail I am a PhD student and I wrote a mail to an US prof for an internship offer, which will be completely funded by my parent institute (fellowship available) and hence the host US prof does not need to spend on anything. He replied in a matter of few hours that he has agreed to host me. I replied to him thanking him and also asking for an official letter from him that he has accepted my offer. He has not replied after that, it has been two days. The deadline is in a week. Do you think I should drop him a reminder or is it too soon?

Two days is no time at all. But if your first request for a letter didn't emphasize the time constraint then you could send a note apologizing for that omission and giving the deadline.

And if the letter was supposed to be addressed to the institution and not to you personally, it is possible that it has happened or will happen without your knowledge.

But if you were initially clear about the time requirements then a note after two days is just noise. The prof may be busy, even busy composing the note you need.


Am I allowed to teach my online students someone 's book? Is it legal to teach my online students someone's book without getting the permission from the writer? I emailed him many times but he didn't answer me.

Copyright is about copying, not about use. So, it is possible to do this if you use a bit of caution. First, though, you should ask the publisher about fair use in this case. The author may not actually hold the rights.

If you have learned from the book and teach what you have learned then you are probably fine. But if you give them sections copied from the book to read, say over the internet, then you are probably not fine.

Normally there is an expectation that the students have some access to the book even if they haven't purchased a copy. Borrowing a copy from the library or from a friend. So, an instruction to read Chapter 3 or do assignments 3.7 and 3.9 sends them to the copy for which they have access. None of that is copying and so is perfectly normal.

But if you send them a copy of Chapter 3 or even the literal assignments then you are on shaky ground. Ethically and maybe legally.

But you can make up assignments that are similar to those in the book, based on your own understanding. That should also be fine as long as you aren't being devious about just changing a value or two in a math exercise.

I'm hoping that publishers will be a bit more lenient than usual, given the current situation.

I'll note that copyright law varies widely around the world as does the definition of fair use. The creation of the Xerox Machine changed all of that and publishers have become quite stingy about such things. Your academic librarian almost certainly has guidelines about fair use in your country/region.


Is a postdoctoral scholar expected to work during the summer? I am considering applying for postdoctoral positions in the US.
However, I would like to find more information about
how it is like to be a postdoctoral scholar.

Question 1:
Is a postdoctoral position a full-year position (12 months)
or an academic-year position (9 months)?

Question 2:
How should I interpret postdoctoral salaries?
For example, an MIT postdoctoral information page (see link)
lists the minimum postdoctoral salary
for a person with 0 years of experience at $42,000.
Is this salary for 12 months, or for 9 months?

In general, postdoctoral positions—unlike faculty positions (in the US)—are considered to be 12-month positions, with the salaries determined accordingly. You are not normally expected to provide your own funding for the summer months, nor are you expected to find outside employment.

If this is not the case, then it should be explicitly mentioned in the advertisement for the position. However, this is so rarely encountered that it would be very much outside the norm for postdocs.


Can people refer to me as an MD in my recommendation letter if I have already passed my professional exam but my degree is still in process? This year I am applying to an big university's summer camp this year, and I am not really aware of how US Universities handle this situation. I am a Mexican "medical intern", I call myself like that because I know no better term to describe my degree, which would be literally translated as "In-Social Service Medical Doctor". I have already taken and passed my professional exam, but my degree is still in process, and probably (very likely) won't be ready at the submission of my papers.

If it were a Mexican institution I would just use "MPSS" (Medical Intern at Social Service by Spanish acronym). However medical intern seems like I have just finished medical school and I am at my Internship year (which it not the case, I have already finished it, thanks god).

The only question I have is: would it be recommended that my teachers to refer to me as INSTERT FULL NAME HERE M.D. or Dr. INTERT FULL NAME in my recommendation letters? if it is not, how could they call me in those letters?

I am struggling to understand exactly the position you are applying for and don't know much about the medical field, but would expect your references to refer to you on a first name basis in the letter. This seems even more likely in the case where the degree status is in flux/unclear. At some point in the letter it should probably say something like

  Luis has completed their MPSS at University of Mexico, completed the internship year, and passed their professional exam. They have completed all the requirements for their doctorate in medicine and will be receiving the MD degree at the graduation ceremony in May.


Contacting university after graduating for help contacting a professor who isn't replying to emails I'm aware that this sort of idea gets asked a lot, but I'm slightly stumped by what I'm allowed to do and what's considered bad practice.

I had been in contact with the supervisor of my Final Year Project, the person that most likely knows my abilities best after my three years of university, who'd said he'd happily write a recommendation letter for the MSc programs I was planning on applying to. However, for the past several weeks I'd been trying to contact them to no avail. I've left a few email reminders, and two phone calls. I've been told I should contact the Head of Department or someone above them at the university to talk to them.

Is contacting someone above them considered rude, or bad practice?

This professor has a history of taking a while to respond. I tried contacting them early to ensure I would give them enough time to write the letters, but time seems to be flying past as they no longer reply.

I may have the possibility of going back to the university (I'm currently doing an internship in another country) and possibly set up a meeting, is this something I should definitely do given their tendency to be bad at replying to emails, or should I contact their superiors?

you should not contact the head of the department or any other Prof. just to get in touch with a professor, that is just a bad idea on many different levels.

If you are really desperate, I would perhaps send an email to one of his PhD students and ask if he has been around for if he is on vacation. As another resort, you could try calling the secretary of the department and ask if they have seen this Prof. around. Client physically to the professors office does not seem like a good idea either, unless you set up an appointment. If you know the professor well enough that I would perhaps consider just calling his/her office number directly and during office hours. some people acknowledge that they are bad at answering emails, so in that case I do not think he would mind a cold call.


Is application to graduate school asking for period of study, or period from beginning study to graduation date? I'm applying for a graduate school. In the application there is a question about academic history. So I have to key in the schools that I have attended previously. It's in form of:

School:...
...
From:
To:
Grad:

Clearly it asks me to indicate my period of study and graduation date. It's not problem.

However, I realized that my other applications for other purposes (employment, etc.) didn't indicate clearly like this, normally it was just From-To. Therefore, I always listed as:

From:(Start of study) To:(Graduation date) [A]

I'm worried that what I have done previously is not accurate. I think I should do as:

From:(Start of study) To:(End of study) [B]

Please share some advice in this case. Moving forwards, should I use form [A] or [B] if I'm asked only From-To?

And please consider the case that if I change the approach now, would it cause confusion to the places that I have sent my other application to previously?

The form might phrase it this way to allow for differences in national education systems. Not all PhD programmes work on a cohort system where people start and finish at the same time. For example, I did my PhD in the UK and my revisions to the thesis were accepted in December 2011, so I was allowed to carry the title effective December 22; but there are only two graduation ceremonies each year and so I graduated in February 2012.

In answer to your specific question: Where data entry allows comments, I would go for Study start to Study end and manually ad a graduation date. For fixed fields, I would probably go with the date on your certificate as this would cause the least confusion.


What are potential hassles of publishing papers with family name preceding given name? As some of you may already know, family names precede given names in Eastern Asian culture, and furthermore  given names (e.g., Lingfeng) are more differentiable than family names (e.g., Li). This is quite the opposite of Western names.

As an Eastern Asian who just started my career in academia, I am seriously considering publishing my future papers under Li Lingfeng instead of Lingfeng Li (just an example). To me the benefits are two-fold.

This preserves my culture better, and I don't think nowadays Westerners will have problems identifying my family name is actually Li. I guess they are already familiar with this name format, given that in mainstream news (such as BBC or CNN), Chinese names always appear in its original form, e.g., Mao Zedong rather than Zedong Mao?
Citation Li et al., 2016 is way less distinguishable than Lingfeng et al., 2016. It's every researcher's dream to get famous. I think this at least helps clear some ambiguity?

Will this unconventional way of writing my name cause trouble in my future academic career? What are the foreseeable hassles that it may bring?

It will be even more amazing if someone could also help me with this bonus question: for immigration purpose, will it cause me any trouble if my publication records don't match exactly my foreign IC that writes Lingfeng Li?

family names precede given names in Eastern Asian culture

... and in Hungarian, and possibly some other languages.

  As an Eastern Asian who just started my career in academia, I am seriously considering publishing my future papers under Li Lingfeng instead of Lingfeng Li (just an example).

I am not sure this is possible: I have come across various paper styleguides that explicitly requested the given name to come before the surname (or, equivalently, to list the given name first, but then add a comma, to indicate the "original" order of name parts has been changed). For example:

Springer says: Chinese authors should write their given names in front of their surnames, i.e. Linfeng Li
Nature says: Authors should be listed surname first, followed by a comma and initials of given names., i.e. Li, L.
Elsevier says, at least for some of its journals: Author names should be in Western format, with family names (surnames) last., i.e. Linfeng Li

Now, if you switch the order based upon whether adherence to a specific order is required, this can easily create more confusion than always going with the given name - surname order.

  I don't think nowadays Westerners will have problems identifying my family name is actually Li. I guess they are already familiar with this name format, given that in mainstream news (such as BBC or CNN), Chinese names always appear in its original form, e.g., Mao Zedong rather than Zedong Mao?

While BBC and CNN might do so, there are many news outlets that are "mainstream" in their respective countries or language areas. Are you sure they all follow this convention?

In any case, I am not convinced this is evident at all to a "Western" audience. I wouldn't be surprised if quite some people interpreted a mention of "Mao Zedong" to mean that "Mao" is the given name and "Zedong" is the surname, thus remaining oblivious to the (from their point of view) "unusual" ordering and getting the name wrong.

  Citation Li et al., 2016 is way less distinguishable than Lingfeng et al., 2016. It's every researcher's dream to get famous. I think this at least helps clear some ambiguity?

I am not sure about famous as such (which somewhat implies a general audience), but let's say most researchers would wish for their name to be known in their community and associated with certain findings.

While I agree with the issue you outline, my understanding is that you use the surname in citations, no matter in which position it is shown. So, the citation for a paper by "Li Linfeng" would still be "Li et al., 2016". (And then, some might not recognize the ordering and indeed cite "Linfeng et al., 2016", thereby creating confusion again).

To conclude, I fully agree with the problems you outline1, and I do think this is a problem that to date does not yet have a satisfactory solution in the academic publishing world. However, just using the surname - given name ordering as an individual will probably just create new problems rather than making everything nice and tidy.

1: with the restriction that I find terms like Asian and Westerners overly generalizing in this context. As mentioned above, there are also Western cultures with the surname - given name ordering, and also, while many Chinese surnames may allow for relatively little distinction, I am not sure the same can be said about Thai surnames, for instance.


How to number courses in an undergraduate Computer Science curriculum? I am looking to assign numbers to courses in an undergraduate Computer Science curriculum. Are there any formal guidelines?

The "3 vs. 4 numbers" debate has been institutionally settled - we are using 3. I know the convention of numbering the absolute beginner courses as 101.
And that the left-most number indicates the relative difficulty of the course. I would like the other 2 numbers to be meaningful as well.

At the moment, we have courses as follows:

100 level - 3 courses
200 level - 1 group of 3 courses and 2 groups of 2 courses each
300 level - 5 courses
400 level - 4 courses

For the higher level courses, the decision is somewhat easy as the courses belong to distinct areas (parallel computing, artificial intelligence etc.) and can be numbered accordingly. But the lower level courses intentionally span multiple areas and cannot be numbered so.

So, what guides or suggestions can I follow?

The general rules that I've seen (but have not been written down) typically work as follows:

Sequences of related courses should have, as much as possible, consecutive course numbers.
Courses that are prerequisites of other courses should have lower numbers than the courses that depend upon them.
Courses that are closely related to one another should have closely spaced numbers.
Within a century, introductory, general, and required courses should have lower numbers than the elective courses.

Since you have a three digit number to work with, you can use the middle digit to relate courses according to thematic areas (x0y and x1y numbers could correspond to basic or interdisciplinary subjects; x2y could be algorithms, and so on).


How much should I refer to an anonymous reviewer's extremely helpful revisions? I am in the enviable position of receiving an anonymous review from an extremely knowledgable member of my academic community and am incorporating all of their excellent suggestions into my article.  Quite rightly, I want to flag the examples and suggestions they have provided me with, but at what point does this get embarrassing and look like sucking up?  I don't want too many footnotes with, "with thanks to an anonymous reviewer for this..." but at the same time I don't want to pass of their extensive knowledge as my own.
It's minor revisions and the editors have said they will not be sending the article back to the reviewers.  So I'm not including their suggestions because I have to appease a reviewer, but because they're actually great bits of wisdom.

An ack is all that is needed. "Thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their suggestions, many of which were very helpful". Don't try to point out where those suggestions occur or your paper will be difficult to read. You retain full "ownership" of the paper so write it like it is the work of a single mind. The reviewer almost certainly sees it that way.

About one time out of, maybe, ten thousand or so, a reviewer's comments are so helpful that the nature of the paper changes and it becomes appropriate to find a way to work with the reviewer as a co-author.


How to make improvements to an already-published paper? I have written a paper for an IEEE Transactions journal. But now I have several improvements to the original paper. Can I publish the paper again with a slightly different approach? The introduction, etc., would be almost the same and hence I may retain and refer to the already published paper. But the implementation is different. How shall I proceed?

If the improvements are sufficient to constitute a new paper, then write that paper, referencing the already published paper (but not repeating it) and explaining the improvements.  If the improvements are not enough for a new paper, then I'd suggest preparing a new version of the published paper, incorporating the improvements, and posting it on the arxiv (or in some other highly visible place on the web).


My adviser keeps changing his mind about my papers. What should I do? How do you overcome advisers constantly moving the football / changing their minds?

I write papers after recommendations from my advisers and every time I end up redoing the entire analysis or asking an entirely different question. I feel like Charlie Brown and Lucy keeps moving the football. Here are three examples:

I spent the entire third year of my PhD working on a paper with my committee chair using a specific type of model he specializes in to answer my research question. After completing the paper and submitting it to my department for review, my adviser comes back and says to scrap it. I pushed back a bit and asked what should be changed, but nothing could change his mind. He wanted a two-page outlining the new research question and modeling strategy. So I scrapped it and now the paper sits in a folder in my Dropbox.
I spent my summer working on another paper with my committee chair as part of my dissertation. I finalize my results and draft a paper for my proposal defense. My committee approves my proposal, but in a meeting afterwards my chair suggests I redo the research question and thus incorporate a new modeling strategy. The paper has gone through several revisions, is complete, and ready to be sent out for peer review. However, here I am again reworking the analysis with a completely different modeling strategy and question.
And finally, another paper I have been working on has had results for over a year, but is now undergoing a major revision to rework the modeling strategy, again. I am now on the 4th major revision of this paper having redone the entire analysis each time. I was literally writing up the results/discussion section of the paper when I received an email suggesting we rework the model.

On top of these three examples, I have two working papers that need minor revisions and are at a point where they could be sent out for peer review. I have published several papers as lead author and constantly review papers for other academic journals in my field, so while my experience is limited I know my research can be published.

I feel like my advisers keep moving the football and I can't get my dissertation completed. I was on track to graduate in the spring, but none of the papers for my dissertation are complete and it appears I will need another year. But my experience thus far has lead me to believe Lucy will continue to move the football, so I'm considering dropping out and finishing ABD.

How can I deal with this constant momentum shift of my papers with advisers?

I experienced a bit of what you're describing near the end of my PhD. I got a lot of good advice from colleagues that had completed their doctorates. Here's how I dealt with it.

Remember that it's your PhD, and you are (mostly) in charge. At this point,  you should have a pretty good idea of what's really required for a PhD. (If not, skim more dissertations from similar research projects.)

There will always be more that could be done to further the research. There's always another technique you could try, another analysis to do. Your goal should be to do what's required to finish the PhD, no more. (Of course, you want to do quality work, but if you've made it this far, I doubt you'd settle for less.) You can always continue the research as a postdoc, or let someone else continue it. That's what the "future directions" section is for in your thesis.

Your advisors are focussed on the research itself, and the logical next steps, rather than on wrapping up your PhD. That doesn't mean they're bad people, or deliberately trying to frustrate you. They're just human.

Sit down and figure out what you think needs to be done before you are ready to finish the experiments, finalise your thesis, and defend it. Then meet with your advisors and get their feedback. If they suggest doing more experiments or analysis, beyond what you think is necessary, you might say something like "I agree that's a good future direction, but I think that could be done post-PhD." Your goal is not to convince them that X doesn't need to be done, it's to discuss whether X needs to be done before the PhD can be awarded. Negotiate things from that point-of-view, and I think you'll find it easier to reach agreement.


Recommender choice for admission to a MSc program I am planning to apply for an MSc program in Northern Europe or the UK, starting September 2014, which typically requires two recommendation letters from my former university professors. I have the following dilemma:

I have a personal relationship with two professors from my faculty, whom i know are going to give excellent recommendations for me. However, I chose neither of them as my supervisor for my Bachelor thesis, and I prefered to work on it under the supervision of a third professor, whom i have a slightly less personal relationship and spent limited time with during my undergraduate years (reason for that being my subject of choice overlapping with his/his groups research). In fact I only had extensive direct contact with one of his PhDs, under the guidance of whom i conducted my project.

So what I really want to ask is: Is it considered necessary for one of my LOR to be given from my thesis advisor? Is it going to look bad or somewhat odd to the eyes of the admissions committee if not?

If possible, it is always better if you can get a good letter of recommendation from someone who has actually supervised your research, because they can directly comment on your promise as a researcher. At the master's level, however, I don't know if it's quite so important as at the doctoral level, particularly because some fields may not require a bachelor's thesis (they may have a senior project, laboratory, or design course instead).

In the present circumstances, this would be one of those times where you should check with the places you're applying and ask if you can submit a third letter of recommendation. Then you get the advantage of having two people who know you well personally, plus someone who can comment on your research.


Germany undergrad: is it possible to switch from medicine to biology? My niece in Germany is applying for undergrad colleges, at this point she likes medicine and biology both. But she is not sure if she wants to end up being a doctor or a molecular biology researcher. It seems that the German system bifurcates from undergrad itself between medicine and biology - so in her case what would be a good option if she wants to do an undergrad and at the end of that decide to continue with medicine or focus fully on biology? If not possible in Germany, are there other European universities where this is possible?

In the German system, there are many courses of study that cannot accommodate as many students as who would like to enroll. This is also the reason for what you called a bifurcation -- without doing that early, i.e., at the beginning of the studies, the university would have problems allocating the needed resources.
Many universities have both restricted courses of study and courses that are completely open for anyone with a high school degree to enroll.
Note that Medicine is a full course of study taking at least 6 years. It's not a typical undergrad course of study. It should certainly be possible to study for a M.Sc degree in a related discipline afterwards, though. But that is rarely necessary - your niece could jump into research in an area related to her doctoral studies during the MD degree, if desired (many MDs have their doctoral thesis done before even getting their MD degree).
Switching from biology to medicine will be difficult due to the access restriction to the medicine course of study, at the very least without first finishing the complete biology course of study.


How bad would it be to graduate with a thesis not able to show positive results? I'm almost at the end of my research dissertation for my MSc program and my results could not prove any improvement in the techniques already well established. I relied too much on a paper talking about some interesting application and results but when I went deeper to apply the technique in a more careful and thorough way, it appeared to be flawed. I still think I did a great deal of work to reach these results and I learnt a lot during my path. Should I try to fix it or just show what I got?

While your advisor can probably help, don't misunderstand the purpose and process of research. It isn't making some unsupported claim at the beginning and then "proving" (dammit) that your claim was accurate. Research is a reach into the unknown. The answers you get depend on what is, not on what you want them to be.

You are actually seeking knowledge (truth), not verification. If the results of your research disprove your original hypothesis that is still a valid result.

If your "new" technique isn't actually better than the old, then it is useful (maybe vital) to know that.

In an ideal world you should be able to write that up. We hypothesized X. We used process Y to explore it. We found no evidence that X is true. That is still knowledge.

Hopefully, however, your advisor has such a view. And hopefully your process Y was sufficiently sophisticated that you haven't fallen in to easy errors.

If every hypothesis came up with positive (supporting) results, we wouldn't be working very hard and only making trivial initial hypotheses.

But, start out with "what is true here" rather than "this is true and I'll beat it until it yields". That leads to propaganda and isn't research. It is often the basis of misconduct. Tobacco and pesticide "research" too often fall into such errors.

So, it isn't "bad" at all if you reach truth.


How to make use of spare research budget? I have a £1000 of funding that I can use for my research or teaching. I have bought a few books with it, but I have no other immediate necessity (conference trips etc). I do not like the budget to lapse (by the end of this July) and I am afraid I may have looked past some potential benefits I could have gained using the budget.

What are some possible ways for me to make use of this sum in this limited time?

Spend forward (into 2018-2019) with opportunities related to the research which originally got funded.

Why not top up with a last-minute research trip, or a write-up trip completed and paid for by the end of the grant period?


Does one have to list all publications on a CV? Some years ago, I published some papers that I'm not particularly proud of. They aren't in prestigious or widely known venues in my field, and I'm sure that few if any people in my field have seen these papers. When I apply for a job, am I permitted to omit these publications from my CV? Or am I, for some reason, obligated to list all prior publications?

If the CV is for job applications, you can certainly omit publications.  If you omit a lot of publications, you might want to title your publication list "Selected Publications".

If the CV is for a grant application or a promotion, there may be more specific rules about what can and cannot be included, so you should check those.


Is it allowed to submit accepted and published journal articles in Elsevier, to arXiv? As arXiv allows submitting research articles which helps in increasing its visibility. I was wondering if it is alright to submit accepted and published journal articles in Elsevier (Expert Systems with Applications, International Journal of Medical Informatics) to arXiv?

You can easily find the answer following the author guidelines of Elsevier, starting from the link you provided. On https://www.elsevier.com/about/company-information/policies/sharing they explicitly state:

  Authors can update their preprints on arXiv or RePEc with their accepted manuscript .


Should I get informal with a professor if they didn't explicitly invite me to do so but the situation seems to suggest it's appropriate? Some years ago I completed my B.Sc. in a university. I was very young and the default behaviour for all the students (especially the young ones) was to formally address the professors. PhD students were more likely to get informal with them.

After my degree I spent some years working in a research institute and during this period I had some distant collaborations with some of the former professors and I got more familiar with some of them. Also some of my fellow students during the B.Sc. in the same period enrolled in a PhD and some of them became researchers in the same university.

Eventually I decided to enrol again in the same university to pursue a M.Sc. This put me in a weird situation. I was in a very informal relationship with my former fellow students and they were in a quite informal relationship with my professors but still when talking with my professors I was supposed (by these unwritten rules) to address them formally, even when we were all in the same room. Some of my professors were also very casual with me, in some cases one even gave me his personal phone number to have casual chats about technology and similar stuff and meet at an event and have dinner together, another one hugged me and kissed me when I won a competition, and another one invited me to spend a weekend with me (and other people) for a short holiday.

I want to stress that all this behaviours were in general not uncommon in this university and by my personal standard not at all invasive or "bad". They were all done in a very friendly manner and not hidden from other students or other professor. It was all fairly normal among professors, researchers and PhD students.

Said that, I still felt that I was not authorised to get too informal with them because of the relationship professor-student and they never told me to get more informal with them.

I'm not sure if I came across as too cold, but I was not really sure what my behaviour should have been in a situation like that. Should I have been more informal with them by my own initiative?

I would suggest that you handle interactions more on the informal side when you are just around the professors and your former fellow students.

But when around the professors and your current fellow students I would stay on the formal side because otherwise you imply to the other students that every student can adress the professors like that (which the professors may not want).


What is the scholarly value of a report containing experimental results and the procedure I have performed some experiments on approximately 400+ data sets, my PI is thinking of publishing online a report that contains some background information, the software and the procedure used to obtain the results and a detailed table of the results and maybe some analysis and conclusions of the results.

Both the software used to do the tests and the data sets are publicly available, and we didn't contribute in establishing them, i.e. we didn't code the software, nor did we collect or produce the data sets.

He expects that this report will get cites in the future, at least by his group's future work.

My question is: What is the academic value of such report for a student who wants to pursue a phD?

Short form: if the contribution is scientifically useful, then it will also be useful for your career.

It seems to me that the implicit question within your question is whether you should be investing your energy into something else instead, like try to turn it into a peer-reviewed publication in a high-impact-factor journal, and whether this sort of less formal publication is a "waste of time."  If your PI is well-experienced in journal publication and decides this isn't well-suited for a journal publication, then I would be inclined to trust your PI's judgement.

The nice thing about doing a more informal publication like this is that it can also potentially be much more lightweight to prepare and publish: you don't have to follow anybody else's formatting requirements, nor worry about what peer reviewers will attack you on.  You can just write it up nice and simple and the way you'd like to and post it online.

Then, if it's useful to other scientists, it will be cited and you will get credit.  Not as much as for a journal paper, but quite likely with a similar "value for effort" ratio for you.  Moreover, computer science is a particularly friendly field for getting credit for such alternative forms of contribution, in which many scientists have become famous for their tech reports and software projects rather than their journal papers.  And if it turns out not to be useful to other people, trying to publish it "higher" instead would likely be a worse use of your time in any case.


Writing REU Recommendation: Should I mention the student is an underserved demographic? I've not written an REU recommendation letter before, and I'm wondering what is or isn't appropriate to mention regarding demographics, and what might or might not be in the student's favor to mention.

1a) I know that NSF's broader impact criterion looks favorably on increasing the participation of under-represented groups at the graduate student and faculty level. Do REU sites get any kind of credit from the NSF for accepting underserved demographics? Is this credit meaningful?

1b) If it is meaningful, is it appropriate to point out that a student falls into an under-represented category? I know that there is a great amount of sensitivity to certain demographics questions, as well as a strong preference for self reporting. Also, if this is something that REUs tend to ask in their application process I don't want to reiterate something obvious.

2a) My current institution does some undergraduate research but does not have masters or PhD students. Thus, an REU experience is especially beneficial to our students who have not been exposed to the larger academic research enterprise (particularly if they're considering grad school). As previously, do REU sites get any credit for accepting this kind of student (possibly under the theory of promoting research infrastructure)?

2b) If this is meaningful, is it appropriate to mention? I'm concerned that doing so might raise a great big red flag pointing out that this applicant is a total novice.

3) Lastly, should I mention that this student has said they're seriously considering graduate school? I would think this would be a clear positive statement for the recommendation, since (if the student turns out good) the REU institution will have a good shot at recruiting them. But, I've never been on the admissions end of this process.

All these questions are in the context of a good student who I can write an otherwise strong recommendation for, and are certainly not the basis for a recommendation. If included, these would go in a miscellaneous paragraph that says things like "works well with others".

As has been said in the comments before,

1.a) Most REU specifically say they encourage underrepresented minority students to apply. I understand some of the grants the NSF gives out require that the research group be diverse.

1.b) However the REU application the student must fill out already contains a question regarding this subject, and as @Tom Church pointed out, the student is not obliged to disclose this information. So I would say you should not mention it in the letter

2.a) Again, most REU's specifically encourage this type of students to apply,

2.b) However it is something the student should mention in the personal statement, so again it would not be your place to mention.

3) Yes, you and the student should mention his/her interest in graduate school, as again this is something REU's look for.


Is there a way to get the complete proceedings for an ACM conference? Do you know any way to get the complete proceedings for ACM conferences? I know that I can go to the ACM digital library and see the table of contents for a conference and then get the pdf for individual papers.

But is there a way to get the whole proceedings for a conference in a single pdf?

As far as I know, NO. In the ACM conferences I have attended, I got one USB stick that has a single html file (page) that links to the individual PDFs of the papers of the conference. It is not like a conference with Springer proceedings, that provides a single PDF with the entire proceedings grouped together as a book.

So, as far as I know, there is not a official book-PDF with the entire conference papers for an ACM conference. I do not know if this applies to all ACM conferences, though.


How to take notes while reading textbook? I am very interested in Physics and I want to read as much as I can. Most people, including my teachers, advise me to take notes as I read. But I find this very difficult. I can concentrate only on one thing at a time -- whether that's reading or making notes. When I concentrate on reading then usually the notes that I make are of very bad quality and eventually I lose interest in reading. When I focus on reading then usually I read particular content from various resources and I find this very fascinating. On the other hand, if I focus on taking notes then usually I lose interest in reading.

How can I get rid of this habit of mine? How can I take notes effectively?

I tend to have problems documenting-while-reading as well. What tends to work for me is either:

Read all of the resources on your topic that you find, and then write a summary of what you've learned immediately afterward. Try to have enough detail that someone following behind you can make sense of what you write. (In a few days, you will be that someone!)
If I have a specific need (say, to defend a point I'm trying to make), then I'll quickly jot down bullet points while I research, but no more than that. Then when I'm finished with my research, write the summary described above.


Can anybody help me in letter sample for a journal asking for permission to use figures in the paper? I'm a co-author in one paper and I would like to use some figures from this paper in my thesis, any tips how I can write to journal and what I should write on my letter?Usually, they accept or refused?

Just ask. State clearly what paper the source is, who the authors are, which images are of interest and why. Explain what the use of the images will be, where you plan to publish the result. Ask for the exact way in which you should acknowledge the source.

As stated in comments, if the source of the images is your own paper or thesis, you'd need to check the agreement to publish those.

Make sure you cite the original source (your thesis, in this case) correctly.


Effects of tenure in the US system Suppose you are in a tenure-track position in the US and lucky (or successful) enough to eventually get tenured.

The most important effect is obvious that you now have a permanent position. But what other effects are there? Does your salary increase automatically? Does your teaching load change? Do you get (additional) grad students? Are these changes negotiable?

PS: I am outside of the US system but interested in these facts for the purpose of comparison.

Tenure and faculty rank are somewhat independent in that a faculty member may be hired as an associate (or even full) professor without immediate tenure- in those cases the faculty member is typically awarded tenure after a shorter than usual probationary period of a year or two.

The more common situation is when a faculty member is hired as an untenured assistant professor and then awarded tenure and simultaneously promoted to associate professor after a fairly long (up to seven years) probationary period.  I'll focus on this common case in the US.

  Does your salary increase automatically?

There is typically a pay raise given to faculty who are promoted, but this could be small (a couple of percents) or large (twenty percent) depending on the institution.  There might be a standard pay raise, or it might be determined on an individual basis.  At institutions with unionized faculty that pay raise would be part of the contract.

  Does your teaching load change?

At some institutions, tenure-track assistant professors have a reduced teaching load which goes up when they're promoted.  It would be very unusual for the teaching load to be reduced due to promotion and tenure.

  Do you get (additional) grad students?

Graduate students in the US are typically supported by research assistantships (which are under the control of the faculty members who are PI's on the grants that fund the assistantships) and teaching assistantships (which are awarded to students by the department.)  Students typically ask to work with an academic advisor and then either get an RA from the advisor or are supported by a departmental teaching assistantship if they can get one.

Thus promotion to associate professor doesn't really have any direct effect on your ability to support graduate students.

However, students may be more interested in working with you after you've been tenured.  Students are rightly concerned about starting to work with an inexperienced assistant professor who might not get tenure and leave them with a half-finished thesis.  Another issue is that in some disciplines (pure math is an example) it's traditional for assistant professors to focus more on their own research than supervising graduate students.  In that situation, a newly tenured professor might be more willing to take on students.

  Are these changes negotiable?

It's always possible for a faculty member to ask for a pay raise or a reduction in teaching load.  However, you're unlikely to be able to negotiate a pay raise or different working conditions just because you've been recently tenured.  The norm is that faculty members who are tenured will simply accept a pay raise and continue their work.


Can you submit a paper to a journal that contains a paper already accepted? I have just got a short paper (about 3,500 words) accepted by a top journal and it is currently being copy-edited. Meanwhile I have completed a paper (about 12,000 words) with deeper research that contains the short paper as a whole. The new paper reorganizes and expands on the short paper in a way that improves on the accuracy, although it takes much of the short paper contents verbatim. Then it adds an entirely new section. Is it inappropriate to submit this to a journal?

It is quite common, to publish a short letter-like paper to a high-impact journal first and then follow it up with a more detailed longer paper expanding on the first one.

However, containing the first paper as a subset is (self-)plagiarism, not original, and not acceptable. You must write the second paper independently, though some similarity of the text is okay, in particular if you state explicitly which passage has already been presented in that earlier paper and are only included for completeness.