Hesitation about writing a paper The situation maybe a little bit unusual, and I am asking for your opinion.

I have taught an undergraduate course on differential geometry of curves and surfaces last Fall semester. One of the students in my class, whom I think is really bright, told me that he found the proof of a certain well known theorem is a little bit hard to understand. We had some discussion on it, but I was quite busy so I wasn't paying too much attention on it, so we didn't get any good conclusion.

Recently I was revising my lecture notes and I was reminded of his question. Then he and I found that no fewer than three books (two textbooks and a research monograph) give wrong proofs of that theorem. We are quite satisfied with what we found, and his question was settled. Then he asked whether we should write a paper on this issue and submit it to some undergraduate research journal, like Involve. At first I didn't think it was a good idea because finding a mistake of a proof of a theorem in three books isn't really a big deal, and I told him we could send an email to the authors of those books about the mistakes. But then I think his idea might not be as bad as it seems to be because, essentially, when an undergrad can find some mistakes in well-known textbooks that (it seems to me that) nobody can find, it means something to me. My concern is I don't know even if we are talking about an undergraduate research journal, do the editors think it's certainly not worth a try or the opposite?

On the math side of that theorem, those three books use the same techniques but with different assumptions (or you may want to call simplifications). However, the proof in each of those books have different mathematical mistakes (i.e., not just some simple typos). So far we only found one textbook which gives a correct proof. The other books which contain a correct proof of this theorem are either too sketchy/wordy or those books are research monographs.

Since I have no experience on writing a paper based on the "discovery" of this nature, any comment is welcome. On one hand I think it's something to an undergrad student and on the other hand, I am not sure about what the editors think.

Thank you.

Given that a correct and satisfactory proof exists in the literature, you would not be providing "research results" per se, so a full research article probably is not worth writing at this stage, unless you can devise a more elegant or straightforward or otherwise "improved" proof.

If you are unable to provide that, it would certainly be appropriate to comment on the difficulty of correctly proving the theorem, and do a "comparative" study in the form of a letter to indicate the challenges and make them known to a wider audience.

But, as you said, it's certainly a matter worth talking about—it really is a question about the appropriate "form" of writing your results up.


Can somebody with a PhD in theoretical physics become a Assistant Professor / Instructor in Mathematics? Most community colleges and universities ask for PhD / Master's in Mathematics in order to become a Assistant Professor / Instructor in mathematics. I know that this will greatly depend on the particular school, but do people in academia view theoretical physicist (someone with a PhD in theoretical physics) as equivalent to someone who has a PhD in mathematics? It's not mathematical physics, but I would expect theoretical physics to be a mathematical science too.

Can somebody with a PhD in physics become a mathematics professor? Yes. My department has (at least) four such people.

Is this common? No, not particularly. I think my department is rather unusual in that respect.

do people in academia view theoretical physicist (someone with a PhD in theoretical physics) as equivalent to someone who has a PhD in mathematics? No, as a general rule I don't think anybody will say that they're equivalent - theoretical physics is certainly very distinct from math, and most theoretical physicists will not be seriously considered for a position at most math departments. Nonetheless, some theoretical physicists publish work that is close enough to pure math, or even outright do a career change after their PhD and start publishing exclusively in math journals, to make them a good fit for a position in a math department.


When is it necessary to consult a university lawyer? A comment on this answer of mine about e-book lending suggested that it would be better to talk to a lawyer. The situation is as follows: My head of school asked me to explore means of providing our core text books in electronic form to our students. I talked to Library services and IT services and they recommended iPads with standard consumer licensed e-book versions installed. I passed this information on to my head of school, who instructed the school manager to buy the iPads, copies of the books, and other associated hardware needed for running an iPad lending service. Have I, my head of school, or my school manager been negligent for not consulting a lawyer in this manner? Should academics really be consulting university lawyers on a regular basis?

Well, first of all it's good to check the license yourself. Here you will find that it says that

  (i) You shall be authorized to use the iBooks Store Products only for personal, noncommercial use.

So, in this case it wouldn't even have been necessary to contact a university lawyer for the simple reason that the license is incredibly clear. In cases where it isn't you should at all times contact a university lawyer or contact the company in question itself, because in general IT and library personnel are not trained in legal matters (I just dropped by the library to ask). Now a valid argument could be made that it's the libraries responsibility to ask the university lawyer instead of you, but that's up to the mechanisms within your institution, the core issue remaining that one should be consulted somewhere down the line.

As to the question of negligence, I think (as a non-lawyer) you might be attributed negligence for not reading the license yourself, but not for not consulting a lawyer and just asking library/IT personnel. Still, it all depends on who was technically responsible for what and how the question towards the library people was phrased.

Additionally for future reference in case people find this through Google, the license also says

  You acknowledge that you are purchasing the content made available through the iBooks Store Service (the “iBooks Store Products”) from the third-party provider of that iBooks Store Product (the “Publisher”); Apple is acting as agent for the Publisher in providing each such iBooks Store Product to you; Apple is not a party to the transaction between you and the Publisher with respect to that iBooks Store Product; and the Publisher of each iBooks Store Product reserves the right to enforce the terms of use relating to that iBooks Store Product. The Publisher of each iBooks Store Product is solely responsible for that iBooks Store Product, the content therein, any warranties to the extent that such warranties have not been disclaimed, and any claims that you or any other party may have relating to that iBooks Store Product or your use of that iBooks Store Product.

So not only would you need permission from Apple, but also from the third party selling every single individual book.


What is the usual process for forming a business partnership with a university lab? I'm the co-founder of a small US-based startup.  As an applied research company, we'd like to form a partnership with my a certain laboratory in my alma mater that would involve the following:

Joint research projects in fundamental and applied science.
Joint grant-writing for said projects
Our partial funding of the laboratory
Collaboration with other departments

Patent and publication ownership will have to be negotiated and is outside of the scope of this question.

Beyond piquing the interest of the lab's director, what is the usual process for formalizing such partnerships with the university?

How this gets arranged depends a lot on where the money is coming from.
If you are interested in working with a university on government-funded projects (or other third parties that act similar to government funders, e.g., research foundations), then it's pretty straight-forward.  For many such funding programs, companies are just as eligible as universities to bid as either a prime contractor or a subcontractor.  You thus form your research collaboration just as though you were both universities (or both companies, if you're more familiar with that) and bid jointly.  With a business involved, some programs will not be applicable (e.g., you are not "Young Faculty") but many others are specifically targeted to small businesses---SBIRs and STTRs, for example, are set-asides specifically designed to enable small-business R&D and partnerships with universities.  You'll need to figure out how to comply with government contracting rules and your contracts people and the university's contracts people will need to come to terms (every university has its own unique procedures), but this is a very normal and well-supported interaction.
If you want to fund the laboratory's research from your company's own funds, on the other hand, it may become a bit more difficult.  Universities are often well set up to handle this as well, but it more usually comes from large businesses rather than small businesses, and you are likely to find the arrangements much stickier, particularly regarding IP and publication control.  This is because you are a small business, and so the risks involved in taking your money are much more difficult for the university to predict and manage than the risks involved in taking money from a large company.  Still, if there is motivation on both sides, it's likely to be doable, and again, every university will have its own procedures.
In both cases, the right starting point is probably not money, but engaging the PI(s) you want to work with on an intellectual and scientific level.  The really good sort of people that you would probably like to work will will have many possible options available to them, and you're much more likely to get good results in this fashion rather than taking the chance that they may feel you're trying to "buy their science."  Once you've got intellectual buy-in, your primary PI contact will know the starting point in the university's contracting organization, who will in turn be able to hand off to others as needed to work out the contractual particulars of the deal.


Should I refer to the line numbers in the PDF generated by the submission system? When you refer to your revisions in your revision submission, should you refer to line numbers in your manuscript document or the line numbers in the PDF generated by the submission system?

If reviewers used one particular system, stick with that. Otherwise use the ones that best match up to the actual lines in your manuscript (lots of editorial management systems add useless "line numbers" which don't correspond at all). If you think there'll be any confusion, just state at the top of your response which you're using.


Should I include the proposed method name in manuscript Keywords section? The JASA manuscript template contains the Keywords section to insert 3-6 keywords. Is it appropriate to insert there the proposed method name as one of the Keywords?

If yes, should I use method's acronym (well-sounded but not self-explanatory, a 5 letters-long word) or the full name (4 words)?

If the method is important to your work (e.g. if the method has a "blind spot" so the results might have a loophole) then yes, include it as a keyword.

As for whether to use the full name or the acronym, either is fine. When the template says "3-6 keywords", chances are very good that each group of words is one keyword. For example, "United States" would be one keyword, even though it's two English words.


How to justify quitting PhD because of a professor in statement of purpose? I planning to drop out of a PhD program after one semester because of my encounter with a professor with little experience.

This professor is also very intervening, non-perceptable, unapproachable, and worst of all, willing to go to any extent to sabotage my career.

The advisor altered credits of some courses to make sure that even though I got As in those courses, they will have a tiny efect on my cumulative average grade.
Obviously, when I apply for another university, the fact that I've quit and my average grade will raise some questions.

So, what can I say in my statement of purpose that will put my quitting in the best possible light?

I planning to drop out of a PhD program after one semester and apply
to another top university for a PhD program.

Not all universities allow applicants from current Ph.D students. Although not 'illegal' it is looked down upon based on the requirements that I've seen thus far in my applications. Also try to finish the year at the very least. Perhaps your struggles are due to you trying to adjust to a new environment rather than the institution itself.

This is because of my encounter with a professor with little
experience and who is very intervening, non-perceptable,
unapproachable and worst of all willing to go to any extent to sabotage your career.

You mentioned a number of extremely negative attributes. Have you tried to talk to this individual about your reaction to their actions? If so, don't you have alternative options within the university? As in, changing advisers? Your judgement of a professor after one semester as inexperienced, micromanaging, unintelligible, hostile, and malicious seems rather premature.

The advisor meddled with credits to make sure that I cannot be in good
academic standing even though I got A's in courses.

Perhaps this is my lack of experience, but professors can only give grades to their class. The assignment of credits for different classes are determined well before you matriculated to the university. In other words, the class credit was predetermined when you signed up. At the same time, unless the same professor taught all of your classes, I don't see how it could have affected your academic standing. If you got all A's then the connection doesn't make sense.

Obviously, I have to submit my transcripts from all universities, and
my quitting and grade will raise some questions. So, what can I say in
my statement of purpose (or anywhere, I suppose) that will put my
quitting in the best possible light?
Thanks in advance for all your help!

I say don't quit, yet. Finish the year before making drastic actions such as this.
The evidence you've provided thus far are self-contradictory and doesn't seem to lend the idea that you tried to resolve the issue within your dept. If you did, then within the institution as mentioned by Mohammad Ghassemi. See if you can sign up with another adviser. You are running away from the problem rather than addressing it rationally.


How soon do I need to submit the reference letters? (TT job) I'm applying for tenure-track positions for the first time (STEM). One of the schools (School A) contacted me today, saying the committee would like to see my reference letters. The application deadline for School A was only ten days ago. They did not ask for the letters up front, and I did not have a phone interview with them. So this is quite unexpected.
I contacted my references only last week, told them I am applying for the TT jobs. All of my references already told me that they could write my letters by the first week of December.
Would it be too late if I submit the letters to School A in early December? It's not easy for me to ask the references to write the letters sooner.
Thanks!

"Dear School A Professor,
Thank you very much for your interest.
My references told me in advance that they'd be able to finish my letters by the first week of December. Will this be enough time, or shall I ask them if they can finish sooner?
Thanks, eggfry"


How can I overcome feelings of unworthiness after finding mistakes in my research? I'm currently a PhD student suffering from extreme anxiety after finding some mistakes in my scientific paper 7 months back. I've talked to my supervisor about it and he said that those were simple errors that would not affect my conclusions... Something that triggers for my anxiety is the fact that we issued a formal statement to correct them, hence this will be forever on my record. Furthermore, I discovered a ridiculous calculation error in the estimation of one of the parameters that I'm comparing in my paper that would change the looks of three points in my graph (which has around 30 points in total) -and this wasn't corrected in the statement because the estimation I used, even though originated from a silly mistake, can still be valid depending on how you consider the system. I suffer from constant fear of people thinking that I'm a dishonest researcher and that I fabricated data, because the data that I got from a mistake looks better than the "correct" one, even though the main parameter we show in this particular figure doesn't change in either case... I'm really against dishonesty of any kind, so this is a huge deal for me.

I know that my supervisor assured me that everything was ok and that he is happy with my performance regardless of those mistakes, however I can't help but think that my record is "stained" and that I'm a bad person that does not belong in academia. I was doing pretty well so far, but then my entire life fell apart after this. I feel like I lost the ability of feeling excited about my research... I think I've failed my life goals and my moral values.

Have someone gone through something comparable in academic life? How did you cope with the constant feeling of unworthiness?

Thanks in advance...

Edit: Differently from the question pointed out as duplicate, I would also like to know how researchers view my mistakes and how can I regain my confidence to carry on with my work..

I'm going to suggest you attack this on three fronts:

1) As you progress as a researcher, I think you will come to realize that minor errors in published research are actually quite common. I define minor errors as those that don't affect the conclusions of the paper. See this question/answers: How common is it for submitted papers to have minor errors?

2) Understand that corruption is actually about intent and secrecy. High profile cases of corruption and ruined careers only generally happen when the researcher or the study is famous and the problem involves purposefully lying. You can easily avoid this type of situation by putting a corrected version of the paper on your website. See this question/answers: How does an Erratum on one's own paper affect one's career as a researcher?

3) Get a handle on how you think about problems like this, which are relatively common in the life you have chosen. I would suggest that there is a long way between "reasonably cautious"/"feeling embarrassed" and "extreme anxiety"/"failed my life goals and my moral values"/"bad person that does not belong in academia." I am going to strongly suggest seeking out your university counseling services, if available. See my answer to this (only somewhat related) question: How do I know that I have truly lost interest in research and should drop out of a top CS PhD program?  Or similar: How to deal with fear of failure as a PhD student?


Can I use my university email address for job applications? I just started a postdoc position in England, but I have a personal problem with the place. I want to apply for another postdoc position in other cities.

Am I officially allowed to use the university email to contact other professors for finding possible postdoc position? Because, it is not an official use related to my job, but personal.

I wish to use my university email, as it can attract more attention, as I am already working in England. Many Indians send email to professors, and they do not read them carefully.

I, personally, wouldn't use anything else.  This might depend a little on the culture of your field (see Should I use my university's letterhead for a cover letter for a job application? for a similar discussion), but exactly as you say, using your professional email address might well cause someone to give your email an extra second of attention.


Asking for reversing my decision after declining a PhD offer I received a great PhD offer from University A (in the US) and after a very hard time making decision, I ended up not accepting it for family reasons and instead I accepted an offer from University B (not in the US) (because if I go to A, I most probably wouldn't be able to visit my family at all for 5 years, whereas I'll have the option to do that with my current choice, B). I explained this reason to the department chair after declining the offer and expressed my regrets for this issue stopping me from doing my PhD at A in a field I always dreamt about.

Now, over a month after April 15, a few things has happened that I regret what I did, and I really want to change my decision and tolerate those years of distance from my family but go to A:

Perhaps most importantly, the 2-body problem: My partner just
got an amazing offer near A, and while she may also get an almost
equally-amazing offer from somewhere near B, the one near A would be still more tempting for her.
My realization evolved. A is a world top-10 in the field, but
that field is a field I have very little background in! I always
dreamt about working in that field, but never thought I could actually do
that and spent my entire academic life in a different field.
So, I think I was still confused about the opportunity I was given,
didn't quite appreciate it, and frankly, was very scared. This is
while B, a top-tier in the world in my undergrad field, is an
institution I always knew and it wasn't hard to fully appreciate the
offer from there. In the past month, my understanding about myself
and my situation has evolved, and I regret my decision.

My questions:

Would it be acceptable if I contact the department at A again and explain these two reasons and ask if they could still take me in?! It's been so long since 4/15, but I think there's a chance they didn't actually fill in all the available spots for the position as I declined on 4/15. Would I destroy my reputation among the academics at A if I do ask if I could reverse my decision now? I'm afraid I may sound immature and unable of making a decision (which is obviously not too wrong, I did have issues, and was indeed too slow in getting to know myself from the time I received the unexpected offer until 4/15).
If you think I can ask for reconsideration, who should I contact and is it better to emphasize on point 1 or 2?

I suggest you contact the department, minimizing overly personal details - but basically outlining that the life situation that caused you to decline their offer changed unexpectedly, and you would like to know if it would be possible to attend after all.

It is basically down to: 1) no, spot is no longer available or they can't extend/re-extend the offer, but you can probably reapply next year, no guarantees; 2) sure, that is possible, 3) it depends, they will ask additional questions or want to talk to you more before rendering a decision.

If you are professional in the communication then it will not cause everyone to look down on you, all reasonable people know life situations can change unexpectedly. It really isn't that big of a deal, they can either help or they can't/won't.

As for who to contact, I would tend to suggest whoever contacted you with the offer and/or the person who you contacted to decline. As for what to emphasize, I'd just keep it simple and relate it most directly to why you declined in the first place, but try not to over-explain. Perhaps you just realized that there are ways to mitigate being away from family that you had not considered, or that you will have other family you can visit, or just that you'll end up having to be away from some parts of your family regardless so you'd rather persue something you are passionate about rather than stick with the familiar - etc. A sentence or two is probably all you need to include in the first contact - the situation has changed and you just want to see if attending would still be an option.

The only other thing you should be clear about is that you are in a position to accept such an offer from A - i.e., you have not already accepted a mutually-exclusive offer from another US graduate school, as that will tend to create additional bureaucratic resistance (such as needing a statement from the other school, etc.).

It might be an option, or it just might not, but so long as you act reasonably (maybe have an especially rational friend read your email before you send it to make sure you keep it short and professional) there is no long time harm in asking. Life happens - good luck, regardless!


Should PhD students mention small grants on their CV? I'm wondering if as a phd student, typically people should mention the grants in their CV. For example, even some small grants that you get when you attend a conference.

Just to be clear, it depends on what you are calling grants.  If you apply to an (internal or external) program that has some sort of name (e.g., University Student Travel Grant), then yes, this counts as something you can put under the "Awards" section of your CV.  (Incidentally, related question: List dollar amount of small grants on C.V.?)

If, however, you mean you got money from your advisor's grant, or the conference had a grant that provided you travel money (even if you had to request it), or the university automatically funds you, that does not count as an award.


Is it okay to reproduce the work as a teaching assistant? Next week, I need to give a lecture on a topic (say T).
I surveyed over the internet and found excellent video lectures by a professor (Say P).
I learned T thoroughly. I can able to answer any question. I can able to clarify any doubt.
But I may undergo the following problem:

I may end up in reproducing the same content in all aspects (lecturing
flow, motivations, examples, notations,...). If any of my students watch the lecture
series of P after my lecture, they can easily realize that I reproduced the
same.

Is it a problem or is it normal?
I am feeling it as a problem because of the reason that I feel that my lecture is a subset of the lecture by P. And there is no contribution of mine other than reproducing.

I agree with user11388 that it would be good to "cite" the video you used, but otherwise I wouldn't worry much about this. Truth be told that most of us in academia, in the early part of our teaching career, "emulated" the teaching of our own teachers, especially the ones we most admired. Over time you learn to be more spontaneous, but at the start you try to follow a good model. It is partly what mentoring is about.
However, you will "add value" to the lecture just by being there to answer questions that might arise and to (hopefully) watch the student's reactions so that you can notice difficulties of comprehension.


Do Tier-1 grad schools have a GPA filter Is it true that Tier-1 schools in the US use an automated GPA filter before an application is even reviewed. Especially for international students?
If so, how does one go about getting past it and having their application reviewed?

In my experience, no. The only automatic filter is for the university's minimum required TOEFL score; this requirement is imposed by the university and is not under the department's control.

Furthermore, for international students coming from academic systems that the committee is less familiar with, the GPA is less informative. If you weren't familiar with the Italian system, for example, it would be hard to know what a grade of 27 represents. So in these cases the admissions committee is likely to rely even more on the letters of recommendation. For a successful application at a "Tier-1 school", the letters likely need to come from someone knowledgeable about the reality of such a program (perhaps they received their PhD from a comparable department, or taught there in the past) and make a convincing case that you could be successful there. Even an extremely strong letter saying "This is the strongest student in Country X this year" might not be sufficient, if the committee doesn't have sufficient information to compare that with other applicants.

Source: I have served on grad admissions at a Tier-1 math department.


Grading: students give correct answers, but in the wrong places In the last assignment I've given my students, one of the questions has two subquestions that go as follows.

Explain how Theory X, as developed in Smith (2010) accounts for dataset A.
Briefly summarize the additional data that, according to Smith (2010), fall under the scope of Theory X.

A number of students have submitted something along these lines.

Something that is technically correct, but doesn't actually answer Question 1.
Something that is technically correct and answers both Question 2 and Question 1.

What is the proper grade for this students? The three possibilities that I have in mind are:

Full credit: they have provided correct answers to both questions, even though the answer to Question 1 is embedded within the answer to Question 2.
Full credit only for Answer 2, no credit for Answer 1: they not only have to provide the correct answers, they also have to provide them in the right place.
Half credit for Answer 2, no credit for Answer 1: half credit because the Answer 2 contains more information than I asked for.

I'm inclined towards the second option (full credit only for Answer 2). Would this be appropriate?

Update: in response to some of the answers below, the problem is not that my questions are unclear, as a majority of the students have managed to answer them properly.

What is your purpose of a grade? If it is a numerical certification of their knowledge, full credit is the right choice, as they indeed have shown to know the answer to both questions. If the assignment didn't have time pressure, you may consider applying a small penalty for the not so good organisation, but be prepared to have it challenged.

Don't penalise adding extra, factually correct, information. Other professors welcome it, and even, the expect you to understand that the question has unwritten sub questions that should be answered too for the full credit (I had one of these in high school, and "give three examples of mammals" meant also "explain what they are and why are they mammals, or I will only give you half").

Lastly, if several students have made the same mistake, consider that maybe the questions are not clear. I must say I don't quite understand the difference from your excerpt.


How to balance previous works and current idea in a research plan? I am writing a research plan for a tenure-track position. I wrote a 5 pages of three sub-plans based on my previous successful works.

50% of each sub-plan is about my previous works, and 50% is about how I want to continue them. Is it the correct balance?
Is it required to cite my previous references in the research plan or the search committee see them in my CV?

This is a lot of questions wrapped into one, but let's give this a try. LOL!

First, is this part of an application for a faculty position? If so, 5 pages is very long. The faculty search committee will have statements from many candidates and cumbersome application materials may not get full attention (I've been on a number of search committees and have been chair of search committees). So, try to get it down to 2 pages and stick to the basics. If you are using this statement for something else and have a 5 page limit, disregard this suggestion.

My advice is to try and find a unifying theme that all of your three sub-themes fit under. Then, introduce the larger theme and go into sub-themes A, B, C. Rather than dedicate a specific percentage of space for each (you indicate 50%, 50%), I would spend more time describing how your previous work resulted in specific skills, accomplishments, accolades, awards, grants (etc.) and then discuss briefly what your future plans are. I say this because your future research plans may change based on new opportunities and challenges.

The purpose of most research statements is to (a) describe your area and its importance, (b) demonstrate that you can be successful at research, and (c) can articulate a reasonable plan for securing funding and independently conducting studies in the future. Also, writing too much detail about your future research plans may work against you if a reviewer disagrees with some aspects of your plan. Consider that as well.

I would include citations, where appropriate, in the research statement, but only in-text. I would assume that the reviewers can cross-reference your CV, if it is also given to them.

Good luck!


How to cite a paragraph that is copy and pasted from another source? I’m writing the master thesis, and I’d like to know if the following text would be appropriate or not. Consider the middle paragraph is copy-pasted from the source https://www.lipsum.com/

  In this section, I will briefly overview the Lipsum dummy texts and full details can
  be found in the source [1].

  Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting
  industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever
  since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and
  scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only
  five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting,
  remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with
  the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and
  more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker
  including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

  Bibliography: [1] Source, formatted in APA, IEEE, …

You open with:

  In this section, I will briefly overview the Lipsum dummy texts and full details can be found in the source [1].

This suggests you are providing a brief overview, yet you follow with (what I presume is) a verbatim quote:

  Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

I suggest revising your opening sentence (perhaps provide context and set the scene, then introduce the verbatim quote)
 and indenting the quoted text, you can use  \begin{quote}...\end{quote} if you're using LaTeX.

Comment from the OP:

  So, as I see, using proper indentation and indexing to references is enough to quote a source?

Indentation is appropriate for long quotations, such as the example you provided. For shorter quotations, you can wrap a quote inside quotation marks (and follow with a citation), e.g., "Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry" [1]. In both cases, a reference to the original source must be provided.


Should I mention in an email to a professor that they are referred by another one? I emails professor A about a chance to study with him, and he answers that he's on leave next academic year so not accepting new students, and I might want to check professor B. Should I mention to B that A refers her to me?

More specifically, I think that A is best suited for me. Should I be honest in saying that I have email A first? I think being honest upfront will set a better expectation from him, thus saving time for both.

Below is my intended draft:

  Dear Prof. B,

  To introduce myself, my name is X, from country Z. I'm writing this letter to ask you if you are planning to accept new students this year. I have asked prof A about studying with him, but he has kindly refer you to me since he's on leave next year.

  From reading your profile, I can see that our interests align in many aspects. My interests can be divided into two main categories, which mirror yours:

  The cognitivism in Daoism and Buddhism's epistemology
  The physicalism in Daoism and Buddhism's metaphysics/cosmology

  In case you are interested, here is a proposal I crafted for your reference.

  Do you think the program could be a good fit for me? Would there be an opportunity for me to work with you as a grad student?

  Best wishes and regards,

Both A and B are in the same school in Canada.

The letter is fine, but I'd actually suggest that you replace this:

  I have asked prof A about studying with him, but he has kindly refer you to me since he's on leave next year.

with something like the following:

  Prof A has referred me to you as being a good fit for my research interests.

There is no real need for the rest of it, and might be inferred without saying it directly.

But, your original is fine, also. Good luck.


Talking to supervisor about PhD projects I am an international PhD student, in the last lap of my PhD, and have a little more than a year to defend my thesis. My work is in theory, and our simulations take a lot of computing time. As we are working on wrapping up my first paper now, I want to only focus on projects which will lead to publications since our Faculty requires 4 papers(published and/or submitted to journals) to be able to defend one's thesis. I have tried to talk to my supervisor about this, but he only spared 13 minutes listening to the project ideas I have had and did not get involved with ideas or give any input.
I am guessing there is a bias how he handles my involvement in his projects since a relatively new PhD student(who is a local and have been in the department since his Bachelor's) receive a lot of his attention. It is not about that my supervisor should be more involved in my prospects, but at least he should give it as much attention as any other. He also holds many other positions, one of them being department head and trying to solve a serious work-environment issue in the department in a different group. So he remains quite busy in meetings since the last few months.
So, what should be my way of communicating my career prospects in the year to come with him and my team so that we can work towards achieving them in a specific time frame? I do lack the field-insights which my team has and in that respect, they can help me a lot to plan efficiently.

These 13 minutes of which you speak, was that a meeting that you planned in advance? Or did you happen to meet him at a random moment? If it was a planned meeting, you should insist on another planned meeting of at least an hour to discuss this point and only this point. If it was a random moment, your supervisor might already be late for another urgent appointment.


How to make notes on journal readings – necessary, or emergent skill? I'll preface by saying I honestly have a load of anxiety associated with this by now, such that it detracts from reading.

I have never been a note-taker (only taking them when forced to by teachers, specific things such as formulas, as outlines of topics in preparation to guessable exam questions, or as a bullet-point list of what I am going to say – on the document that I am writing). Going into the third year of my undergraduate, I began to feel: ‘Well OK, now I need notes, because I am reading a lot of papers.’ A lot of time passes, and I am falling behind. I speak with the study skills folks about my concerns, they offer me some tips about summarizing and stuff, most of which I already put into practice, and their conclusion was that I was probably just anxious.

However, I kept falling behind, despite putting in more hours than most of my peers. It is apparent to me that I do not know how to take notes – possibly because I do not know how to use them.

Most of my notes essentially end up as paraphrasing. While I can then go through and summarize, I always feel this is an aimless activity, that doesn't really aid my understanding. In one case, I have literally more pages of typed notes than I the article has (25 pages of notes for a 22-page article), and certainly my handwritten notes are similar, and are often just lines and lines of prose summaries of paragraphs. (I can comment with examples of both typed and written notes if it'll help clarify.)

This leads me to ask for thoughts: How can I rectify this moving forward? It's gotten to the point where my academic future literally seems to hinge on this silly issue, because it takes me so long to make notes on content that I fall behind, all the while feeling that I am struggling to understand, etc. (Before, in the previous years, I just did a lot of reading, often wider and more extensively than most of my immediate peers, and it lead to positive interaction where people came to me with questions; now, I have really had all confidence shattered, I feel I cannot understand the papers I have spent a lot of time making notes on, even if in principle I do understand them as shown by my ability to answer questions on them. I even have pages of notes on how to make notes, and I certainly feel like I don't understand that.

Is note-taking an essential skill? Would it develop naturally if I 'needed' it? I can't help but wonder if I would find it developing as and when I needed it, without the thought and the stress, and the failing, but it is very clear that, because I never developed these skills, I really have no clue. At this point, I certainly feel as if I would probably understand more of my field at this point if I relied only of reading, because we are talking about days a week to make notes on single papers, and, again, I have not found single-two page summaries of the papers (as many prescribe with several questions about them) to be useful.

I work in the field of biological sciences, specifically computational biology and am a newly graduated PhD. I say this, because I may make statements which are field specific.

  Is note-taking an essential skill?

Partly no. While I do not consider note-taking to be an essential skill (because I have never been able to take good notes), now I lend much higher import to organisational skills and tools for the job.

For example, I have never been much of a note taker, but I have good contextual memory. So for most of my PhD, I invested in a reference manager, where I can quickly access my papers. I read papers end-to-end in the beginning because everything was very new at the time. But, for the better part of my PhD I have never read a paper end-to-end, I start from 1 paper and within the next 2 hours, I will have skimmed through another 5.

Afterwards, for the rest of the day(s) I will keep on thinking about what I had read, what it means, how does it conflict or fit with previous literature and how it relates to my work. These are all my mental notes.

If I need to go back to the paper, I can open up the reference manager and I can locate the paper to read the paragraphs of interest once again. There are many cases where I may not remember the author, title or journal and year of the paper (rarely happens). In such cases, I fallback on other papers which cited the paper of interest and which I may have happened across the same time.

  Would it develop naturally if I 'needed' it?

In my experience, my current process works the best for me. Note taking did not help me when I needed it (under-grad, masters). But, the above process which I developed during my masters works the best for me. The only time I take notes, is when I need to visualise some ideas. Even then, they are not notes, but rather abstract drawings.

  How can I rectify this moving forward? It's gotten to the point where my academic future literally seems to hinge on this silly issue, because it takes me so long to make notes on content that I fall behind, all the while feeling that I am struggling to understand

I would suggest that you make your peace with the idea that you (like me) cannot suitably apply note-taking procedures that have been developed by other people. Once you do this, you can try to tailor a procedure that works best for you. This should also help you boost your confidence. This, I think is key towards increasing your productivity.


Effective way to organize a course so that it can be followed from abroad I'm reaching out because I'd like to take a Master's Degree in Spain (which starts in October), but my current job will end in December, and I'm trying to find an effective way to organize classes with the course's professors to study from home for the first few months, if possible.

The course is a programming one, and a big part of it is interaction between students and with teachers. What I thought would be an acceptable solution is a mix between Realtime Board and Skype, but it would require someone to watch over my assigned "station", and would in my opinion disrupt the flow of the class. Are there any alternatives?

In short, I need two things:

A tool like RB, but specifically for code (although RB itself could be used if no alternative is found); basically an online, self-refreshing collaborative space.
A communication tool. Skype is sometimes unreliable with my current connection, but maybe there are other ways other than recording each lesson to do this?

If anyone needs more information to answer properly feel free to ask, and if the question is not appropriate for Academia, do suggest a better site, I'm all ears!

First, I suggest you consider what are the absolute requirements of this lecture. You say the attendance is not that important. Are there mandatory weekly homework assignments, or a final project which has to be handed out in the end?

It is good that the professor seems to be in goodwill to help you in the process.

I assume this course requires a lot of interaction because it is related to programming, but honestly I have not learned much from the lectures when I have ever had programming classes. Exercises, and actually sitting down and writing the code has helped the most. Of course, the presence of an expert in the field can make things easier for understanding. But, I don't think it is absolutely necessary.

I also believe that the gain that you will have by following the lecture via skype or via Realtime Board, won't be as big as you doing the exercises alone. You might be loosing more time than gaining knowledge from attending the lecture.

The time from October to December does not seem like a long one. Even if it is (assuming that the course might be fast-paced) you still will be able to catch up for the two months when you will be back. Because the introductory parts are easier and you can grasp them faster. If we add other factors to the equation, for example, if you have previous programming experience, this will be even easier.

I don't know what programming language you will be learning there, but if it is one of the programming languages which is covered in one of the online programming teaching platforms (Codecademy), then you don't need to worry at all.

One thing you can do, is to reach out to the professor or any other fellow student and ask them to record the lectures for you; You can listen to the lectures while studying from the textbook. But the main point will be doing the exercises. My experience so far has told that programming is something which you learn by doing, rather than learn by being taught, although some help is welcomed.

Hope this helps!

Note: It would be useful if you could provide the programming language, and your previous experience with programming in the question.


Reviewing a revision, after the original review did not reach the authors A couple of months back, I reviewed a manuscript and recommended a Major Revision. Ten days ago, I received the revision for review, with a note from the editor asking me to expedite, since the review process had already taken a while (not due to me).

However, from both the initial decision letter by the editor and the authors' response, I see that my initial review did not reach the authors (I checked: my review is in the system). The other review, which did reach them, mostly raised points orthogonal to mine, so if I were to review the revision again, I would likely reiterate my original points.

I immediately notified the editor and expressed that I would be happy to re-review, but would appreciate a confirmation that this review would then actually reach the authors. No response. A week later, I wrote again. No response. That was three days ago.

To be honest, I am a little miffed. Not so much that my initial review, which I did spend a considerable amount of time on, was not forwarded - stuff happens. More that I am not getting a response to what to me appears a straightforward question. After having been asked specifically to move quickly on this.

At the moment, I am vacillating between either doing the review ASAP or waiting for any kind of response from the editor first, but this second option seems passive-aggressive to me. Additional info: I know the editor, we meet regularly at conferences. I know that since he has been appointed dean, he is drowning in work.

Questions:

Has this happened to anyone else? How did you react?
Am I overreacting? Should I just review and stop whining?

I cannot say whether the situation is due to sloppiness or due to some technical issue but it seems odd and something that should not happen. I gather that you were in an electronic review system of some sort and then the review should automatically be forwarded. In a journal not working with an electronic system, something like this is more likely to occur but should be a one off mistake in any case. Problems like these, if they recur regularly, will likely sink the journal reputation in the end. you probably have some sense of the standings of the journal.

The lack of response may not mean much and I would not over-interpret it. It is of course not a positive reflection of the journal.

Anyway, I would recommend you to basically re-use your earlier review. Look through it after reading the paper and authors comments to see if anything can be removed. If you catch anything new that needs corrections, of course, add it. You have done the work once and unless the paper is completely rewritten with significant changes to discussion and conclusions, your comments still stand. You can only reiterate your verdict of Major Revisions, which should lead to a third round. I think, under the circumstances that would b fair, unless the authors fully comply with your suggestions, in which case the editors can use his/her discretion (depending on a second reviewers response of course).

So bottom line: your initial review needs to reach the authors but with corrections for whatever has been changed. Unless you receive some explanation for what has happened from the editor, you have to draw your own conclusions about the quality of the journal and particularly the editorship. Try to form a well-founded opinion, whether you think the journal is worth your attention in the future. One mistake is reason for caution, but not reason for judging.


Lecturing (teaching methods) for a diverse group of students with weak science backgrounds I just started teaching three courses at small medical training college: anatomy and physiology, medical terminology, and microbiology. Most of the students have a weak background in the sciences, and come from varying professional/educational backgrounds.

I currently end up preparing 4-5 hours for each hour that I end up lecturing. But find it difficult to keep the students engaged for the duration of the lecture. Any advice on improving teaching/ lecturing methods?

Teaching 'unprepared' students is always a challenge and prep takes a lot of time (four to five hours of prep for one hour of lecturing sounds about right...and maybe a bit low). So, overall, your numbers seem to be inline with norms.

If you want to make your teaching more effective, you should read some books about teaching (there are many). You should read this question for some ideas on improving yourself as a lecturer.

Generally, 'active learning' - where the student is the focus of the learning process (as opposed to the lecturer being the center) - focuses on engaging students, putting the load on their shoulders. Group work is particularly useful. I've seen studies (not handy) that say that in every learning situation, group learning (e.g., group discussion) always improves the learning effectiveness.

You should do more prep and you should do less in class (they should do the work in class) and they should do work outside of class. All of this needs your careful planning but some students will think they you are not doing anything...but they will end up learning more in the end.


Is there a website for academic computer science jobs in the US like mathjobs.org? I know there is a mathjobs website in the US called mathjobs.org, which is the main website for posting math jobs in the US universities. But is there a similar one for the computer science jobs? I'm asking because I searched for csjobs.org and computersciencejobs.org, but I couldn't find a relevant match.

Thanks in advance!

The best source for CS jobs in the US is the Computing Research Association (CRA). They maintain a jobs site that AFAIK most departments post to.


Are Systematic Reviews Efficient To Familiarize Yourself With The State-of-the-Art? Problem
I have to familiarize myself with a new sub-field fast, to the point where I can recommend an agenda/recommendation for further research. I thought about doing a systematic literature review to achieve this, but have to work somewhat cost-efficient due to external deadlines that I have no influence on.
Background
Systematic Literature Review
When I say "systematic literature review" (SLR) I'm referring to a speficic concept which originated in medical science and was  introduced to computer science by Kitchenham (2004), for a hands-on guide see Kuhrmann et al. (2017).
Purpose
The purpose of conducting a systematic review would be to acquire the necessary knowledge to be able to argument for new research endeavors (i.e. defend their relevance). Additionally, it would be nice to get a publication out of this, which is part of the reason why I think about doing a systematic review instead of just writing up a state-of-the-art document for myself.
Narrowness
The topic I want to research is part of Software Engineering, and deals with the application of a specific concept in a more-or-less specific environment. I could not find any systematic reviews (or indeed, any reviews) covering this.
What I found
Ressources
Time
The approximate time to become familiar with the state-of-the-art in a field that one is already familiar with, according to this answer, is one year. Even though the question was about a PhD, and not just a work project, this strikes me as a little high. An answer to a question about the usefulness of SLRs warns that spending 6 months on a SLR for just a paper is excessive.
Human effort
Even though the literature on SLR recommends multiple researchers, this answer says that it is quite possible to conduct and report a SLR on your own. I might get a senior colleague to look over my draft and maybe recommend specific papers, but I should expect to do almost all of the work on my own.
Paywalls
I don't have institutional access to a lot of journals and such, which means that I will mostly be able to read exactly those papers that are either published in Open Access journals or are otherwise available through researchgate and similar platforms. This answer predicts that a restriction like that will render the SLR of little interest to publishers. Since I not only support Open Access publications for various reasons, but also really don't have a lot of choice in the matter (I can't convince my institution to pay for the access I want, nor do I have the money to pay for all those subscriptions), I do hope that this is not true.
Usefulness
Even though it is considered useful to write a SLR in order to get a good foundation in a field, it might be more efficient to just read some papers (specifically reviews, if they exist) and follow the references. However, this efficiency calculation does not factor in the expected utility of publishing a SLR as paper.
Questions
Main question
Is it really useful to write SLRs in order to familiarize yourself with a topic in a short time, while a publication is nice-to-have but not mandatory?
Sub-questions

Is it possible to do a SLR on your own, in a matter of weeks?
Do paywalls effectively keep me from writing and/or publishing SLRs?

Performing a systematic review is very time consuming. Also, it may result in a "high dispersive work", if a very specific research question is not set "a priori".
Also, SR is not only "indexing" evidence, but also effectively aggregating them in a readable and useful summary. If you are not an expert in that field, you may not be able to do that, and the quality of the overall work may be low.
If your goal is to improve your knowledge in a specific field, performing a systematic review may not be the most suitable option in the first place. You'd rather read existing reviews and summary (if any) - this would be extremely more time-effective.
To answer to the other two questions:

Yes, it is possible to do in a matter of weeks, but not entirely on your own (the process of screening requires at least two independent reviewers, according to the PRISMA guidelines).
Yes, if you are not able to reach those literature that meets the inclusion criteria of your SR (and this is quite probable).


Making sense of PhD Transcript At my university, there is no grading on a PhD transcript. There is no exam or predefined coursework (i.e. you can work on any aspect of the dissertation and in any order, which is not assessed but reviewed by the supervisor). At the end of the program (three years), the candidate must submit a dissertation for examination.

The PhD dissertation is examined by internal and external examiners and their reports give either a  pass or a fail. There are various shades (e.g. pass, pass with minor revision, pass with major revision, fail, fail but allowed to resubmit, fail with a lesser award, fail with no award etc.).

The final transcript states "satisfactory progress" for each semester of enrolment and "pass" for the final semester. The graduation then takes place and the degree is awarded.

I recently had a request to provide the transcript of my PhD. The problem I have is that "satisfactory progress" and "pass" can both be seen as equivalent to a "C" grade (as per the key to grading that explains the grading for all university programs e.g. bachelors degree) I know this is not the case for a PhD. (I got some outstanding feedback from the examiners!)

How do I reconcile this situation?

I know I can alawys provide the examiners' reports but each report is close to 10 pages, with positive and negative comments. The award of the PhD is subject to the candidate making changes to the dissertation as per the examiners' comments (or otherwise defending why the examiners' comments are not valid in regard to the study). The final dissertation is not the same as the one the examiners assessed and in almost all cases it is a better product (hence the examiners's comments are no longer a true reflection).

How does the grading of PhD work in other universities?

EDIT: The 'issue' with no grades being available is that the Official Academic Transcript lists the six semesters (three years) with "Satisfactory Progress" for the first five semesters and "Pass" for the last semester. On the back is the grading information (i.e. what "Satisfactory Progress" and "Pass" mean). "Satisfactory Progress" is coded SP and means meeting all requirements to progress to the next course in a sequence of courses in a postgraduate research program and "Pass" is coded "C" and means demonstrated satisfactory levels of achievements in all objectives designated as essential for passing the course. The grading information also provides information on the highest grade which is HD (High Distinction) through to the lowest grade F (Fail). In this situation, why shouldn't a person see "Pass" as a C grade for a PhD!

How do I reconcile this situation?

You don't.

It will be clear to the anyone reading you transcript that your university does not provide grades for preliminary stages of your PhD.  Most likely, what they're really asking for is merely proof that you have the degree.  If they actually want more detailed grades, that's too bad for them, because those grades don't exist.

  How does the grading of PhD work in other universities?

In the US, dissertations are not graded; you either get the degree or you don't.

Along the way to the degree, PhD students may take classes (either by requirement or by choice), and grades for those classes typically show up on the transcript just as they do for undergraduates.  US PhD students also typically sign up for research credit hours as a "class" during semesters when they aren't taking real classes, but those "classes" are almost always graded pass/fail or equivalent (for example, at my university, "satisfactory/unsatisfactory").  The actual dissertation and defense never shows up in the transcript, even if a student fails their defense.

I can't think of any circumstance where anyone (at least in the US) would even look at the transcript of someone's completed PhD program.  Proof of degree, sure, but grades?  Never.

  In this situation, why shouldn't a person see "Pass" as a C grade for a PhD!

Because PhDs don't have "grades".


Do you need first authorship to use a publication for your PhD thesis? I'm a full-time staff assisting research. Not a student.
Jacob asked me to use the knowledge and skill that I learned during my Masters to help him do a meta-analysis for his Project as he has never done one. He told me that he wanted it to be on 'disease name' and 'target population' on 'phenomenon'. That was it. I ran with it - wrote up the protocol, did the search, initial title/abstract screening, looked through the full paper and extracted all data to see what outcomes we could pool. All throughout I shared with Jacob everything I had done through email. Jacob did not like the research question and outcome that I had decided upon because he wanted something more clinically practical - RCTs and intervention studies - except there were no papers and I indicated this to him. I reasoned with him to say that his outcome may not be clinically relevant, but I foresee it being cited many times as something that many people will probably refer to in the future.
I ask Jacob to do help with the screening as well. I send him instructions and he doesn't follow through saying that he's too busy to do this. I suggest asking a student to help, to which he refused to because he wants to do it himself. I tell him that the screening doesn't take much intellectual contribution and that the data analysis and interpretation is the most important aspect - his contribution will not be overshadowed. Time passed and a year goes by with no further progress. I continue to collect papers and contact authors for extra data during this period.
Now Jacob is claiming the meta-analysis to be his right to have first authorship for his PhD thesis. He says that I must hand over all materials to him and that he will be the one to decide on the authorship order. Never once throughout the process had I been told that this would be part of his PhD. I feel that there has been this imbalance of power - I do not know who his PhD supervisor is and they have never been involved in this process. Had there been a third party to oversee this, I feel that this process would have gone a lot smoother. I also know that I have put significant effort, time, intellectual contribution into this meta-analysis and it feels like all that work has been taken away from me.
I do not mind if Jacob uses the meta-analysis for his thesis but I would like to publish it as first author or, at the very least, first co-author with my name first. Can both Jacob and I get what we want or must he really be sole first author to be able to use the meta-analysis for hid PhD thesis?
Thank you!

Authorship issues within a group should be resolved by supervisors. This is easily found out by a simple web search or by simply asking lab members. It’s probably on your university’s website.
Authorship order can include two lead authors. This can be explicit (ie written in the submission notes) or implicit (by authorship order conventions in your community).
However, from what you describe your coauthor is abusing their position, or just given a lot of authority by the PI. If any of my students threatened a labmate they’d be in trouble. Ultimately the supervisor should decide material access, and more. Indeed, as you say - since two funding agencies are involved the two supervisors (yours and theirs) should be involved if only to agree whose grant the paper goes on.
Finally, this has nothing to do with thesis work. You can definitely include coauthored work in a thesis, with the express permission of your coauthors. I ‘donated’ a nice figure to a coauthor’s thesis and was happy to do it!


How will a "local" master's in CSE look when I apply for a Graduate funding in the USA? Please refer to this previous question of mine:

As someone with low grades how can I prepare myself to study MSc in CS in USA?
Would it be a good idea to quit my job to prepare for the GRE and TOEFL?

I live in Bangladesh. With a background in IT, I am doing a job in a bank. I am 32. Honestly speaking I am done with my job. With an ambition to do a PhD from a USA/Canadian/German university, I have understood that my current job is actually going to get me nowhere.
Some answerers of the previous questions pointed out the importance of having a job in the related discipline, proving research capability, involving in research activity, being a part of a research group and so on.
After considering all these points, I am actually strongly planning to quit my job and get enrolled in a "Masters with thesis" program in CSE in a local university. My previous degree was in Information Technology which is, I guess, considered a professional discipline. So, I am going for a CSE degree. As far as I know, Information Technology degree is not considered a fundamental discipline.
My plan is this: (1) I shall complete a masters degree in CSE with a thesis, (2) write and publish one/two research articles and finally (3) complete GRE+TOEFL, if required.
And one more thing, I want to secure a funding either in the form of Assistant, Teaching Assistant(TA), Research Assistant, Research Fellow or anything else.
Please tell me about my prospect as a Masters-by-thesis candidate along with a funding after completing this series of actions.
Is the risk of quitting the job worth taken?

PhD positions in universities are limited and given to outstanding students who have a potential for research. If your aim is to pursue your PhD in USA/Germany/Canada etc., I'd highly suggest applying for a Master's in those countries UNLESS your local university is well-known, with good professors and coursework. Your application will be evaluated on:

Your GPA & Test scores
Reputation of university you're graduating from (Master's, undergrad) // And as Daisetsu says, the researchers you work with
Research aptitude
Reputation of the journals you're published in
Your statement of purpose
Letters of recommendation
Previous work experience

Also ask yourself, "Why a PhD?" What is your career trajectory and will a PhD help you? What about an MBA? How many years can you invest in this?

To be honest, no one here can tell you your chances of getting into a University for a PhD apart from the admissions committee itself. Spend some more time reading up the requirements of the colleges you're keen on and then arrive at a well informed decision.

Best of luck!


Previous publication of my supervisor and a post-doc is a lie I am in a bit of a situation. Basically, the research on which I was basing my PhD was carried out by a former post-doc in our group. After one year and a half not being able to replicate his results, I exploited my admin privileges on our cluster to download his codes. I discovered that the algorithms he used in his publication are different from the ones used in the experiments, as the ones he claims he is using are not really applicable and the ones he is using do not have the claimed complexity. He even went so far to provide made up (theoretical) timings to cover this up.
My supervisor knows about this issue from me and he also knows that the post-doc has stopped responding to my mails trying to replicated his work. My supervisor is very hands-off and I don't believe that he has any fault in this but his name is on the publication. Moreover, I feel he is disappointed in the post-doc and feels guilty. So, it seems to me that pressing the issue does no good for me and I have stopped mentioning the topic to my supervisor. (I am still quite angry about this issue as this has cost me about a year and a half of my PhD)
I have been able to salvage the original idea of the publication and come up with an algorithm which has the correct complexity and we are now writing the paper. To the reader these two publications might appear extremely similar and I would like to include a sentence in the introduction that the previous publication is not a working algorithm. What is a good, diplomatic way of doing this?

There are lots of ways to go about this.
Since your advisor is a co-author on the previous paper, this may be difficult, since they are invested in the existing paper and have some credibility at stake. Theoretically, they should be happy to retract/rewrite the older paper, but we are human.  You are probably correct that they feel guilty- everyone with their name on the paper is ultimately responsible for all of the content.
At the same time, this can make some things easier for you. Finding an error in previously published work opens some new avenues for publication. Now, instead of a simple sentence, you can issuing a comment or a correction on a previous paper - many journals will allow you to publish a correction or remark on their previous articles, particularly if you can demonstrate a major problem or flaw.
Critically, do not be a jerk about this process. Simply state that there has been an oversight or error in the work by XYZ. Do not speculate as to why it went wrong or how. Even with evidence that their results do not match their data, there could be numerous reasons for it.   Journals don't want to be told they did a bad job, neither does your advisor- but everyone would prefer you correct an error softly and with tact rather than letting someone else do it loudly and disruptively.
Edit:  I am not sure your evidence is legally obtained, nor am I fully confident from this post that the evidence is conclusive that they were fraudulent.  Until both of those conditions are met, I wouldn't recommend making accusations of data fabrication - publicly or privately.  You will have, in all likelihood, a legal battle - for which I am not a lawyer. But you can conclusively say, as another commenter mentioned: "We were not able to reproduce the results."


Evaluating a salary for a physics postdoc in Canada I recently received a 1st-year physics postdoc fellowship offer at a university in Canada for two to three years. The annual salary is 55,000 CAD (44,000 in USD). I haven’t worked in North America at all. I was just wondering how good this salary is.

I vaguely remember some new law-enforced minimum postdoc salary of 47,000 USD in the US. Does it mean it’s not that good? Any information will be greatly appreciated.

There are at least two aspects of your question: is $55000 good for a physics postdoctoral fellowship in Canada; and is $55000 a decent salary to live on in Canada (regardless of profession)? I will answer based on my past experience as a business professor in Montreal (though I will tailor my answer for physics). Right off the bat, though, I will note that your question has nothing to do with the United States, since cost of living issues vary widely not only between adjacent countries but even between cities in the same country. (Actually, I have lived in several different cities in both countries.) I will only answer for Canada.

Is $55000 good for a physics postdoctoral fellowship in Canada? A good point of comparison is the amount of the fellowship awards granted by NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada), which is the government agency that grants postdoctoral fellowships in physics, among other fields. Here are two key points of comparison:

The most frequent amount that NSERC awards is for their standard Postdoctoral Fellowships Program. This should be considered "good", since that would be the standard point of comparison if a university were to fund its own program without a government grant. This amount is $45000. Although universities might pay someone less than this amount, the NSERC award amount is considered a benchmark.
An excellent amount is the one that NSERC awards for the extremely competitive Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships Program. This program awarded 23 fellowships in the last year (not in physics, but in all science and engineering fields). You would almost never see any university fund a postdoctoral fellow that amount, or anywhere near it, unless the recipient is a Banting Fellow. This amount is $70000.

Based on this, I would consider that, YES, $55000 is very good for a physics postdoctoral fellowship in Canada funded directly by a university.

But, is $55000 a decent salary to live on in Canada (regardless of profession)? This is a cost of living question. My best source for such information is Numbeo, which lets you compare cost of living city by city, which is the most meaningful comparison. I used it a couple years ago when I moved from Montreal to Paris, and I found its estimates to be very accurate and extremely helpful in my financial decisions and negotiations.


Does my paper need to mention a hired editor? I wrote a paper intended for a conference in computer science. Before submission I hired an expert to review and edit my paper. Do I need to mention them? If so, in what way? As a collaborator? In a footnote? In a special "Thanks" section? Would it be unethical not to mention them at all?

The answer will depend on the significance of the editing done.

The one extreme would be significant intellectual contributions to the work -- for example, shaping the overall narrative of the paper, making major decisions on the information being emphasized and de-emphasized, and organizing how the information is packaged into different sections and parts. Such editing would qualify for authorship. The ethical thing to do would be to offer authorship to the editor. If she declines, it would be necessary to at least mention her in an acknowledgement.

The other extreme would be sentence-level editing, like correction of typos and grammar quirks. Such editing would surely not quality for authorship, and it would be up to you if you mentioned the editor in the acknowledgement.

The middle ground between both extremes really is somewhat of a gray area.


Why do faculty use the software "Blackboard"? It is becoming apparent to me that, outside my field, use of Blackboard and other LMS software is becoming extremely common. Indeed, a rash of technical problems here is making it apparent students and administrators alike seem to assume that Blackboard is the exclusive (locked) gateway to the course's content. I have had to explain that, actually, my syllabus and homework assignments are posted on the web, freely available to anyone, anywhere.

I have used Blackboard a little bit (to mass e-mail my students and to post grades) and I find it to be slow, kludgy, and buggy. I would find it painful to heavily use this software, and I find it vastly simpler to create a course website.

My question is -- what is it that drives Blackboard's popularity? Is it that most faculty do not want to learn HTML? That faculty prefer to keep their course materials private rather than public? Are there other useful features which I have overlooked? Or other factors?

Blackboard is used by the university I teach at and I used it at the university I studied at -

Blackboard (BB) is mostly uniform. While you can customize your courses, to an extent, a student moving from one course to another using BB will already know where everything is. BB is simplistic and students have different technical abilities.

Having each instructor learn HTML is a large order. I teach with an 80-year old man who still has a flip phone and can barely use that. Contracting someone to create the webpages would also be an issue because costs and instructors changing the courses that they teach may want to change the webpage.

BB also has (at least where I studied and teach) a copy checker. If a student from Z class uploads the same paper to both Z and Y then when they upload it to Y the instructor is told that there is a paper within the servers (goes back 2-3 years I believe) that is x% similar to a paper submitted in course Z.


Is it ethical to quit your phD aft 6 months for a better phD offer? I recently graduated from a university in Germany, and I would like to apply for a phD in UK. However, my university provides initial funding for me if I choose to do my phD in the university.

I will apply for my dream schools in UK. However, there will be a one year gap and I have no idea how to use it to enhance my chance of getting admitted in this year. I would like to take the initial funding to work as a phD student in my home university, and quit it if I get admitted. If I wasn't admitted, I can stay in the same lab.

Is it ethical to do this if I don't tell the supervisor of my home university before he accept me ? If I should tell him, how can I prevent hurting his feeling, and let him accept my proposal ?

Thanks !

As with most ethical situations, the answer is likely that it depends on the context, your relationship with your Ph.D. advisor at your home university, and the field that you are in.

For example, if you will be teaching or working in a lab at your home university, then you will likely be providing a valuable service to your professor and the university in exchange for funding. I don't know about Germany, but I know in the United States, students don't have any obligation to stay at one university, and I know people who have successfully transitioned from one Ph.D. program to another, without repercussion.

However, when you get to the Ph.D. level, the professional world often gets a lot smaller, and faculty members may have relationships with one another. If you were to unexpectedly leave the program at your home university, you risk damaging your professional reputation, and you could be seen as unreliable when you are looking for work.

I personally believe that it is more ethical to be upfront with your home university, although doing so could put your funding and your ability to stay at your home university at risk.

These conversations can be extremely difficult. As an educator, I personally care much more about my students than about the university at which I work, and I would completely understand if a student found an opportunity that is more congruent with their long term plans.

You could also intentionally time when you disclose to your advisor at your home university - wait until after you have started working at your home university and then tell them that you are applying to the program in the U.K. That way they will hopefully have a heads up that you may be leaving, but you will have already been admitted with funding.

You likely know your advisor better than anyone on here, and thus you are in the best position to decide what to do.

In summary: it is probably more ethical to tell your advisor at your home university that you may be leaving, although it is also not particularly ethical for a faculty member to act punitively against a student for pursuing a better opportunity.

This is an incredibly difficult situation to be in, and I wish you the best!


What should I do if I submitted more recommendations than needed for an academic job application? I am applying for academic jobs in mathematics. Most of the jobs I am applying for ask for three or four letters of recommendation.

At the beginning of my application process, I spoke with an academic who has served on multiple search committees, but who is not a mathematician, who told me that it is ok to send more letters of recommendation than asked for. As a consequence, I obtained five letters of recommendation, and used all five for almost all the jobs to which I have thus far applied.

Recently, I read some things on this site (here and here) that made me wonder if this decision was an error.

In addition, I reflected more on my choices of recommender, which had really been made with the first job application in mind, and wondered if some of the letters really didn't make sense for some of the applications. (I am applying to a variety of positions.)

The question is what to do now. Almost all the applications are through the website mathjobs.org, which allows me to change them at any time. But in many cases the departments are supposedly already processing applications. I wouldn't want to just make a change to an application that is already being reviewed, without comment. The options I have thought of:

1) Don't worry about it. Leave everything as is. Let the departments contact me if something needs to be changed.

2) Contact the search committees and ask them if I should withdraw a letter or two.

  What is your advice for me? Are there other options I should consider? What is your recommended option?

I am particularly interested in hearing from people who have served on search committees, or who have gone through the search process and received feedback from departments about issues related to the above. So if you fit either of these descriptions, please say so.

What's done is done.  Five is no big faux pas, just more than needed.  I would move on and, perhaps in the future, trim the number you submit.


How is the Scimago journal ranking (Q1-Q4) defined? What does it mean that a journal is ranked Q1 according to Scimago Journal and Country Rank?

Q1 to Q4 refer to  journal ranking quartiles within a subdiscipline using the SJR citation index.

Thus, a first quartile journal (i.e., Q1) has an SJR in the top 25% of journals for at least one of its classified subdisciplines.

What is SJR?
The SJR is an index of weighted citations per article over a period of three years ( https://www.scimagojr.com/aboutus.php ). As far as citation based indicators of prestige go it is quite good.
Citations and documents applied in this formula are based on the Scopus database.

  SCImago Journal Rank is a measure of scientific influence of scholarly journals that accounts for both the number of citations received by a journal and the importance or prestige of the journals where such citations come from. (Wikipedia)

How is ranking done? As noted, rankings are done at the subcategory/subdiscipline level. So  for example, journals are not ranked at the level of "psychology" or "chemistry". Rather they are ranked at the level of "analytical chemistry" or "clinical psychology".

Note also that journals are often categorised in multiple subdisciplines, and the quartile can, and often does, vary based on the subdisscipline.
The badge shown on scimago seems to take the most favourable ranking. So, for example, if the journal is ranked in the top quartile for at least one, it will have a badge as a Q1 journal.

Critical commentary:
In general, I think subdiscipline ranking based on SJR is superior to impact factors. It overcomes several biases in impact factor:

It uses a 3 year document window (impact factor uses 2): This is a better window across a broader range of disciplines.
It weights citations by prestige which can reduce the capacity for gaming and aligns within common sense that not all citations are created equally. I believe this also incorporates the idea that each publication only has so much prestige to give, so a citation from a paper with 100 references is worth less than a citation with 20 references.
It uses a more inclusive database of articles (i.e., Scopus) compared to Impact Factor which uses Web of Science.
Even after controlling for many of the above factors, differences in citation practices exist between disciplines, so within sub-discipline rankings are often fairer. Furthermore, often researchers and evaluators are trying to make decisions like where to send their best work or how to evaluate the quality of work of a researcher who operates in a particular subdiscipline. In this case, SJR within subdiscipline can be particularly useful.


description of papers that have not been submitted to a venue? I have some published papers and in my CV, I mention them under the heading of "Publications".

However, I have some papers that I have not yet submitted to a venue (conference or journal). I think that I cannot mention these papers as "Publications".

What is the best and more appropriate description for the papers that have not been submitted yet? e.g. "Research Papers"? Or "Research Manuscripts"? Or something else?

Work in Progress might be good as it implies that there may still be some work to do in the writing - and even some uncertainty about the final title. In addition it also subtly says that you are still active and not resting on your old achievements.

You could, in addition, mark each paper according to its readiness, or at least those that are ready for submission.

I think that Research Papers carries a connotation that they are internal and may not be published.


How to proceed after failing exam to advance into PhD program, and subsequently losing motivation? I have completed masters in Pure Mathematics a year back. I was preparing for an exam for pursuing a PhD program in the same. The results came out in this year in the month of April and found that I have failed to clear it.

Most of my friends have cleared the exam and have got enrolled in it. I feel left out. Now I am simply sitting in my home and preparing for next year's program.

Since the results came out, I have hardly made any progress in Mathematics, as I don't find it interesting as it used to be. As a remedy I bought many books to bring back my old interest in Mathematics, but failed to do so. I talked to my teachers on this issue but instead they start telling success stories of my friends who have qualified the exam letting me disgusted.

Earlier I used to spend hours solving  many problems both from my books as well as on Math Stack Exchange but I don't find the urge to do it anymore. Though I open this site I feel that none of the problems posted are suitable for me to solve.

I do read books but the problems seem a distant dream. Asked many people what to do; they advised me to take decisions on your own in your life.

Really don't know if it is a good place to ask but cant find better place. Do share your thoughts if you were in a similar situation or so.

Should I change the subject or look for jobs or do something else? Any alternatives you can chalk out for me.

Two things:

A single exam is a high-variance way to measure the ability and potential of a complicated and multifaceted being called a human.  In other words, I wouldn't take a single failure too seriously.  Sometimes you have a bad day; some people simply don't perform well on tests even if they perform well "in real life."  And even if it turns out that you are less qualified than your peers according to the traditional standards of the field, that doesn't mean you don't have something unique and valuable to contribute.
Is there anything in your life right now that you're excited about?  If not, you might consider external factors.  Some days I'm fed up with my problem, and my research, and my career.  But after going for a run, eating well, spending time with friends, seeing a thought-provoking movie, and getting a good night's sleep, I often find (much to my surprise) that I am excited about my life and my work again.  In other words: don't underestimate the value of external factors.  (Especially exercise.  I cannot stress that one enough!)


Where to advertise a postdoctoral position to widen the diversity of applicants? I am planning to hire a postdoc (in mathematics), and have never done this before. My department is far from diverse. I have read that a good way to achieve a diverse pool of candidates is by advertising widely, including circulating them to special interest groups.
I can definitely see the benefit of this. Members of underrepresented groups may tend to be less "well connected" in the community and, as a result, the advertisement might have a harder time reaching them. At least, this seems to be part of it.
I would love to advertise widely, and specifically to organizations which will help me reach underrepresented groups. However, I am finding it difficult to find viable options for doing this... Many sites charge hundreds of dollars for each job posting. While I would love to post it everywhere, it doesn't seem realistic. The main things that I have come up with are:

Mathjobs (https://www.mathjobs.org). I expect that this will reach the largest number of interested applicants (the job is in North America). But this is really just the standard place to post things.
Association for Women in Mathematics (https://awm-math.org/). This actually seems like a really great option.
Distributing the advertisement through mailing lists dedicated to my area of mathematics.
Some professional societies in mathematics allow members to post jobs (I think).
Advertising the job at the end of research talks (although, it doesn't seem to be that commonly done in my area, so it might be awkward...).
Advertise to colleagues and ask them to spread it by word of mouth.
Posting to social media? Although I am a bit wary of this.

Apart from the AWM, I don't really see how any of these will benefit members of underrepresented groups specifically, and, even the AWM is mainly targeting one group. Does anyone have any other ideas? Suggestions?
This post focused mostly on where to advertise the job, but I would also love to get input on all aspects of achieving a large and diverse pool of applicants! Please feel free to share any advice you have.

https://jobrxiv.org/ and twitter although I don't know how much math people use either. For my bio-related field they're pretty good.
You'll probably get plenty of diversity in your applicant pool but you'll end up removing most of it when you filter for prestige PhD institutions and advisors. You should try to remember that URMs from second tier PhD institutions are just as smart in aggregate as the population from Stanford or whatever, but are likely to publish worse and have fewer opportunities. Evaluate them based on who's outperformed for their grad environment and in general you'll probably have a bunch of applicants you wouldn't have otherwise considered. (This is also useful for identifying the halfwits from Harvard who have underperformed despite every possible advantage - don't hire them).


When listing faculty that I'm interested in, would it be a good idea to list faculty that are in a related department? I am currently applying to a M.S. Statistics program and have an easy first choice (whom I will refer to as "A") for someone with whom I would like to work. At this particular university I am applying to, the statistics and math departments are separate. A has worked with a professor in the math department ("B") on a subject that I am interested in.

Would it be a good idea to list B on the list of faculty with whom I would be interested in working on my graduate school application?

I would also agree with sending the email to A. You could also email B to see his view. He may have already worked with MS Stat in the past, for example.

Because the two subjects aren't that too far apart, you may likely also be able to work out something that is tailored specifically to you. I haven't met too many professors who like to shoot everything down, so it never hurts to try.


Can I publish a paper with a group that is different than the one I start with? I am an undergraduate who did research at my university a little while back. It was funded by a non-profit research organization, and I was paid with this money, through the university. I worked alone, but received some advice from people I worked with along the way. At the end of my time with the group, I had a poster with my findings on it, and I was preparing to begin writing a paper on the material. Unfortunately, the head of the group was let go from the university for some some immoral behavior (I'm aware that this is vague, and it intentionally so), and the group was disbanded. The university said that they would try to help me find someone else that I could publish with, but that never happened.

So here I am, sitting on some work that I'm very proud of. I don't want for it to go to waste, but I don't know if publishing my findings with a different group, outside of my university, will be considered plagiarizing. Any advice?

Edit: removed a separate question, asking how to bring the research up in applications

There would be no reason why it would be considered plagiarism—you've done nothing wrong. Getting another group somewhere else to help you get this work published would also not be considered unethical, so long as they actually make meaningful contributions to the paper.

However, if you've done the work all by yourself, why not consider publishing the paper by yourself? Many disciplines have undergraduate journals that would allow you to publish papers without being "sponsored" by a research group.


Will I get docked for including a source in my bibliography which I didn't end up using in my actual paper? I accidentally included a source in my bib, that I didn't end up using in my paper. So basically it included a pointless source that has no info or quote included in the paper. Will this look bad or will I get docked for it?

Some students actually try to last-minute pad the bibliography that way. If it doesn't look like that (i.e. noticeable many unused references to sources, which you were expected to read&know), you probably will be ok.

In general, it is better practice to include a reference to a source pertaining to the topic of your paper, even if you are not directly quoting from your reference, than to arouse suspicion of concealing to having "used" it. Depending on the context and regulations, you might even be prompted to add references to non-written material (like a conversation) to the bibliography.

It is even rumored some reviewers expect their recent work to be referenced, no matter if it's of any real use to your work. On a funnier note, some writers try to sneak in a fun reference (use with consideration!, I'm just reporting what I have seen...).


Wrong PhD better than no PhD? I have BSc and MSc in Chemistry, and I have enrolled in a PhD project in Europe since mid of last year. The project is funded by the food department that means I would officially be a "PhD in Food Science" after completion.
I think I have made the wrong decision to be here because I want to find a position in chemistry department or industry. I have checked job advertisements from chemistry institutions and found that none of them hiring PhD in Food even for the subfield (not Food chemistry, unfortunately) I'm working on.
Chemistry is a highly competitive field and I think I would lose my competence. I also doubt if I'm qualified to be a food scientist without previous education in food.
In the end, my choice would be to quit or stick it out. But I'm debating if an MSc in A plus PhD in B better than MSc in A for a job in A field. Anyone have experienced this situation before?

I don't know what is right for you, but I'll tell you that there is little in life that is worse than a career in something that you don't care about while having unfulfilled dreams.
I suspect that you are early enough in your studies that a change won't cost you much, and spending a year now to avoid 30 years of boredom might (might) be a good investment.
There are a lot of people in the world who don't get a chance to choose. If you do, then, perhaps you should look for an optimal path and see if you have a way to follow it.
Changing fields after a doctorate is not impossible, but hard since you need to perform in the old field while preparing for the new. That takes time also.
I can't answer the specific question about balancing MS degrees and such since I don't know your goals for a "job".

Your life isn't a "dress rehearsal" for something else.


How to address a reader and a postdoctoral research assistant? I want to send an email to two people. One of them is a reader in India and the other is a postdoctoral research assistant in Germany. I do not know how to address each of them at the start of the email - “Dear Professor", "Dear Dr.” or what?

The formal way to address a postdoc in Germany would be Dr. [Surname]. My experience is that at least among Phd students/Postdocs people will quickly switch to an informal first-name address.
But for first contact you should use the formal Dr. [Surname].


How to recruit a post doc from an area outside your labs expertise? I have just been given a dataset, and hopefully the money to hire a post doc to analyze it. The data set requires a post doc with experience in health informatics. No one in my deptartment, including myself, has experience with health informatics. The dataset is about 4 orders of magnitude bigger than anything anyone I know has looked at, and 2 orders of magnitude bigger than the largest published datasets in my field. How do I go about recruiting and hiring a post doc in an area outside my expertise?

A time-honored method is to identify professors around the world who are experts in the desired area, contact them, and ask if they have grad students who will be finishing soon and might be interested and qualified.