What is the etiquette on presenting work-in-progress that's mostly literature review in a conference talk in the humanities? Is it socially acceptable to present a conference paper which is not (yet) highly original research?

Being in the humanities, research requires much of literature reading rather than experimental or lab work. So, in a sense, it's inevitable that I need to take the existing literature as a starting point.

Personally, I consider journals to be the proper place to disseminate original research. As a starting PhD student I am trying to participate in workshops and conferences as much as possible.

Many times my presentations are work-in-progress and a personal synthesis of the vast amount of literature I have been processing. These presentations help me to make a "coherent story" of months of reading work. Making such a coherent story also helps me to orient my future research and accomplish intermediate research goals. Many times I submit an abstract to conferences to have some "external motivation" to finish some work before a certain deadline. Repeating this process, eventually, I am able to integrate these research goals to a higher plane where truly original research can be done.

Furthermore, I also consider conferences in a more broad sense. Rather than being a place to impress other people with your results, it's an opportunity to receive feedback and criticism. I also consider conferences as occasions where people with different backgrounds can meet each other, that is, meet each other qua human beings (not their research).

To formulate my story as a question: (a) How common is my vision of conferences? (b) Is it socially acceptable to present something which is derivative work-in-progress (and not yet revolutionary research?)

Although I'm in the social sciences rather than in the humanities, I'll give a general response:

"Socially acceptable" is an odd question. I understand that you are asking about if people who attend your session might find your presentation appropriate or not. However, academic conferences are peer-reviewed. That means that before youre presentation can be presented to an audience, it is evaluated not only by the conference committee, but by two or more subject experts. So, if your presentation is acceptable to the committee and to the peer-reviewers, then I expect that that answers your question--yes, they have approved it for presentation before an audience. (Of course, and especially if you are only submitting an abstract for consideration, you must be explicit that your final presention would be of a literature review.) If they don't accept it, then no--though their rejection might not be because it is a literature review per se--it could be for many other reasons.

Also, note that what is acceptable for one conference might not be acceptable for another, and indeed, what is acceptable for one conference one year might not be acceptable another year (since you often have different evaluators). Only by actually submitting would you know.

So, in short, submit it for peer-review and then you'll get your answer. You don't need to worry about the audience; the peer-reviewers are there to protect them from inappropriate material.


Is it possible to complete a PhD program early to leave it with a masters? I'm extremely unsure of what route I want to take in life.

I desire to study at a top UK university, studying earth science. I've found a PhD course which sounds like a dream (it teaches all the skills I would wish for). No one in my family/ancestry has attended in university (I come from a long line of farmers from a developing country), never mind a top institution. While this gives me the desire to apply for graduate studies, it leaves me unsure of my capabilities or what possibilities exist within graduate school.

I'm uncertain if I'm cut out for a PhD. Originally I was only after a masters, but this PhD seems more appealing in terms of skills taught than everything else I have seen.

If I were to take an earth sci PhD at a top UK uni and decide it isn't for me, is it possible to complete it early and leave with a masters?

Further Details

I wish to study at graduate level at a top uni.

I've decided to go for a 1-yr masters to play it safe, as I'm unsure of my abilities. However, masters all seem to either be one long dissertation or a dissertation alongside lectures/field trips. I would love to also learn "hard skills" related to lab work, programming, etc...

Found a earth sci PhD that teaches programming, thesis writing, maths, lectures across multiple departments, earth science overview, project planning. A well rounded course! I would love to take this course, but as mentioned, have no idea if I'm capable of composing dissertation level research/thesis/publications.

(I've struggled to figure out if you are able to drop out after 1/2 years and receive a masters of sorts, but here is the link to the course)

Most U.K. universities don't give out MA/MS degrees to PhD applicants because most U.K. universities assume you already have one (or are an exceptional student). In contrast virtually every PhD program in the US will award you an MA/MS if you leave after two years. This is because there's no expectation of having a masters and so the first two years of a US PhD are pretty similar to a masters program.

Some UK universities will give you an MPhil if you leave early, but that's very different from a MA/MS degree. An MPhil is still an advanced research degree and if you split post-graduate degrees into "things that are approximately MA's" and "things that are approximately PhDs" it falls into the later category. Wikipedia says:

  The Master of Philosophy (abbr. M.Phil. or MPhil, sometimes Ph.M.; Latin Magister Philosophiae or Philosophiae Magister) is an advanced postgraduate research degree. The prerequisites required for a Master of Philosophy degree make it the most advanced research degree before the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D. or D.Phil.).1 An M.Phil. is in most cases thesis-only, and is regarded as a senior or second master's degree, standing between a taught Master's and a Ph.D.[2] An M.Phil. may be awarded to graduate students after completing several years of original research, but before the defence of a dissertation, and can serve as a provisional enrollment for a Ph.D.

As always, it depends on the specific policies of the university though.


If my professors didn't respond to my emails about recommendation I have an issue with my professors not responding and I wish that you could help me.

So in May, I talked to a few professors about recommendation letters and they all agreed to write me letters. I emailed two of them three days ago, and I emailed a new professor about whether he could write me a letter one day ago. But none of them replied. My first reaction was if the emails were sent successfully because I attached 4 documents to every email, and it had happened before where people don't receive my emails with large files, even when it says it's sent. However, I also BCCed myself to my school email (which have the same server as my professors) and my school emails received all my emails. And it's really strange for one of the professors not responding to the email, because he is really nice and he usually replies.

My question is since I'm not sure if it's a technical issue that my professors didn't get my emails, or it's simply because all of my professors don't want to write me letters (two of them agreed to do it earlier). If they all chose to say no by not responding to my emails, would it be annoying if I keep sending checking in emails to them? But I also can't sit around and wait forever.

Thanks for your time reading this and I'd really appreciate your advice!

My mother used to say (this was in the days before the internet) that the moment the letter she'd written got picked up by the mailman, she was ready for an answer to arrive.

Three days is too soon to worry.

Normally one should wait two weeks before starting to worry.  Try to wait two weeks.

If you really can't sleep, though, I suppose you could write again, briefly and politely, after one week.  You might also visit them in their office hours to ask in person.


BSc thesis proposal: how detailed is the norm I'm in my last semester of a computer science BSc and need to write my thesis. Highly competitive environment, apparently it's the norm here that BSc theses should try for a publication. In Europe. I have gotten informal (but written) confirmation from a professor that the topic I suggested is ok, they even assigned some additional mentors. But none of them is very responsive, the thesis is not formally registered yet (it's mandated by university policy that registration needs to happen quickly/before substantial work) and I'm supposed to write a proposal.
I'd like to get an idea of what the norm is for such a proposal (to tide me over while I wait for feedback on the one I wrote). I think for a good research proposal I would need to do a literature review (even if just condensed into the introduction), but that would be a substantial amount of work (read multiple dozens of papers I guess). That can't be the usual expectation (before starting the thesis, while applying for a topic), can it?

I have gotten informal (but written) confirmation from a professor that the topic I suggested is ok, they even assigned some additional mentors...the thesis is not formally registered yet (it's mandated by university policy that registration needs to happen quickly/before substantial work) and I'm supposed to write a proposal.

Write as little as possible: The professor has informally agreed that the topic is okay and has assigned their resources. The professor is satisfied. Write something, check it is okay with the professor, and submit it. The professor is unlikely (imo) to be interested in the formal requirements, they (imo) just want you to get on with the work.


Will they send offer letter within 15th April In this fall 2016 I have applied  for graduate admission (PhD, Physics) few universities and I have received an admit from one of them. The university gave me a deadline (April 15)  to accept or decline the offer.

On the other hand, I emailed the other few universities(my priority university selection where I would love to join.) to know my application status.  They have put me on a waiting-list.

What is the possibility of these university that they will send another round offer letters within the 15th April ?

There is certainly a possibility that you will get moved from the wait list to acceptance before April 15th, but there is absolutely no guarantee or requirement of further contact. By "possibility", I mean this happens to students every year and it isn't particularly unusual - but I also mean that this only happens to a minority of students, and is hard to predict due to the nature of statistics and small numbers per program. Some programs might admit 2 students and both admitted students accept, while others might admit 20 yet go 2+ full rounds of wait list contacts before admission decisions are officially finished.

The general advice in the US is that you are safe to wait until close to that April 15th deadline for acceptance if you are not certain that's where you want to go, even if you are just holding out to see if any wait listed programs might accept you. Waiting past that deadline is risky unless you request and obtain an extension, as programs are well within their rights to rescind their offers and move on to their own wait list after the dead line.


Are dressing habits at poster presentations influenced by implicit sexism in STEM disciplines? I am currently attending the meeting of the American Chemical Society and was surprised by the way people were dressed for the poster presentations. In particular, many young women (and some young men) seemed to be dressed for a night out (tight clothes, heels, make up, etc.). This is not what I'm used to in European or international meetings (including international meetings at the US). More senior female (and male) researchers were wearing clothes I'm more used to in this kind of setting.

This made me wonder: is there some sort of implicit sexism at play here, and do some of these young female researchers feel the need to impress other researchers (both male and female) with their appearance?

I probably should also add that I usually attend physics meetings rather than chemistry meetings, where the ratio of female/male is much higher (we really need to work on improving this in physics). So perhaps dressing habits are simply different across fields.

This made me wonder: is there some sort of implicit sexism at play here, and do some of these young female researchers feel the need to impress other researchers (both male and female) with their appearance?

It is certainly possible that this is because of some sexist problems in this specific society / community that are not present in the international community. However, given Occam's Razor, I think we should assume that the more simple and straightforward answer is that this is just a regional peculiarity of these meetings, and that we should not extrapolate too much from this without further evidence.

It is not at all uncommon for individual conferences or communities to develop their own standards and behavioral patterns. Basically, this is true for each event where students are likely to attend over multiple years, hence can learn from their experience in the year past. Assume, for instance, that you are a young female PhD student that attends such a meeting for the first time in casual wear, and you see many other students in a similar career phase dressing more formally. Would you not bring more formal clothing next time? I don't think that this should be qualified as "feeling the need to impress", or as any problem that needs addressing.

It is also not overly weird to see more senior people wear differently - they have been attending this meeting for a long time, and (a) don't care much about the current dress code culture, and (b) have probably been nurtured at a time when the dress code was completely different anyway. These things change over time.

Also keep in mind that your own expectation of what is "normal" wear in conferences has also likely not been set in stone from day 1, but is the product of what you have seen in "other conferences". There is no god-given law that jeans are more natural to wear to a conference than nice dresses, heels, or suits.

(Actually, in most non-science conferences, it is normal to dress rather formally, so one can argue that what you have seen in your conference is closer to "normal" than what you are used to)


Co-authors request that others do not use "he" as a pronoun - is this reasonable? We are a bunch of people writing a collection of papers. Two of the writers are from Iran (where the common language does not have gendered pronouns), and they have expressed to me some concern with regards to the lack of gender-neutrality in our papers.

As you may know, English writing often exhibits some degrees of gender-bias, mainly the use of "he" to refer to a person with an unspecified gender. These co-authors would like to avoid such bias if they are to put their names on the papers.

They've told me this as we are close, but haven't talked to anybody else (there are 3 others). Is this a reasonable request? What's the correct thing to do here? I could just ask the others, but what do I do if somebody gets offended by the request and refuses? I doubt it'll happen, but in the current public discourse where "political correctness" is the new pejorative buzz word, I am not so sure.

This is an entirely reasonable request and you should honour it. It is very easy to write English in a manner that avoids the unfortunate use of 'he' as a placeholder for either gender, and doing so avoids needless sexism in your writing.


What if a lecturer has to use the bathroom while on stage? If a student has to use the bathroom, s/he may simply politely and quietly excuse him/herself for a few minutes.

But is there any established etiquette for what an instructor is to do when nature suddenly calls?  Let's say this is a typical classroom lecture of about 90 minutes, meaning a student body of about 80-90 and no scheduled breaks.

Oh, also, let's assume that there's no real illness or other crippling circumstance that forces the instructor to leave; just a good old-fashioned porcelain inspection, resulting from consuming just a bit much V8 an hour earlier (seriously, that strawberry-banana V-Fusion is addictive).

Ideally, you use the bathroom before lecturing which should prevent you from needing the bathroom during the lecuture. In cases where you are unwell, I find it best to let the class know ahead of time to tell them you are unwell and might need to suddenly excuse yourself, but that you will be back.

Regardless of if you have told the students in advance, if you must excuse yourself, do it politely and tell them you will be back in a few moments.


How detailed do I have to provide sources I am currently writing my master thesis and I am extremely insecure where and when to give the sources. I tried to google for any recommendations but could not find anything that helps me.

How often do I need to give the source for information when it belongs to the same topic and I introduced the one and only document to this topic already?

For example I am referring to a technical standard and when introducing this standard I give reference to its standard document. Now I will give more information later on on this standard as I compare it to other standards. Do I repeat to mention the standard document? Since this document is quite long: Do I have to exactly say where in that document I found the information?

EDIT:
Also while we at it: I also give information about a the Java programming language. Can I assume that everyone knows this? Especially since it's the teaching language, the most widely spread language used in industry, most probably all my readers know it and it is very easy find out about this language if not. Do I still need to give the source for my information?

When you first introduce the technical standard in your thesis, you should provide citations to any and all relevant documents.  By "any and all", I mean the set that you are making use of directly, but not previous versions, commentary, or ancillary documents.  Each reference should appear separately in your Bibliography.

After that, you do not need to provide additional citations even when you refer to that technical standard later in the same chapter, or in later chapters.  However, if you are quoting text from the standard, or otherwise you are analyzing/critiquing the standard in detail, then it would be helpful to your readers to provide citations to the specific reference and page numbers.  Sometimes, depending upon the standard, it is more appropriate to cite chapter, section, and subsection numbers.  You say that you are comparing different technical standards.  If so, then it would be very appropriate to provide chapter, section, and subsection numbers for the respective standard sections.  Somewhere on the page (e.g. footnotes) you could provide citation to the technical standard document(s) themselves.


What do you call research that has no hypothesis? Background:
I'm just wondering - I'm writing my bachelor's "thesis" in information-systems management, which should in theory be a paper about a hypothesis I make, an experiment and an evaluation.

I have an "experiment" which is comparing reality of information-systems management to various theories of information-systems management.
I have my evaluation.

But my "thesis"... is basically my assumption based on experience that says: "theory is based on assumptions that practice do not always exist". And my "experiment" neither proves nor disproves this triviality, but is supposed to show how you can tailor the management theory for it to be useful under economic constraints to a real specific problem.

Question:
What should I call this thing, since it isn't a thesis?

It is a thesis. From what you've written, your hypothesis is that

  you can tailor the [information-systems] management theory for it to be useful under economic constraints to a real specific problem

You might also be doing exploratory research, or blue-skies research, where you don't start with a research question, you start with a direction, subject or area, and go wandering off looking for interesting problems.


Is it appropriate to copy a drawing from a book in my master thesis? I would like to know if it is appropriate to copy a drawing from a book (specifically a directed graph) and develop my theory on that drawing? It is sure that I am going to make a reference for that drawing.

Note: The author of that book I intend to copy the drawing develops his theory based on that figure, but I am going to approach everything it matters more deeply.

Well, to my eye this is a good case of improving the state of the art, of course citing appropiately your sources. It is the same as quoting from a book.

On the other hand, if the publisher is especially nitpicking, maybe you could just use a software editor to re-create the drawing (still sourcing!) instead of using the "edited" drawing from a book.


Is scanning an handwritten peer-review suitable for editor/authors? I peer-reviewed a manuscript and am about to send my conclusions to the editor. It occurs to me, though, that because there are many details to be checked/changed in various places of the paper (mathematical notations, in particular), it will take quite some time for me to type it into a proper review (probably using TeX, because it is math-heavy).

So, I am wondering: since my hand-writing is decent and people don't usually find it too hard to decipher, could I simply scan my annotated copy of the paper, along with one page of notes, to the editor? Or will that be unacceptable to them?

I think it raises a few questions, going from practicalities:

will it be as useful as a thoroughly written-down review?
does it give more work to the editor?
should I also include a summary of my comments, in computerized form?

to ethical questions:

does handwritten notes breach rules of anonymity?

I suppose people used to do that in older times, but it have never received a hand-written review so far, so it is (at least in my field) unusual.

So: should I do it? if I do it, what precautions should I take?

I do not think that there is anything wrong with a scanned handwritten report. As for anonymity: you may even sign your referee report as it is your decision to stay anonymous or not. As for usefulness: I once received an annotated scanned manuscript as a referee report at is was tremendously helpful (as there were several suggestions for formulations which greatly increased the readability). A computerized summary would also be helpful for the editor to form the decision and also for the authors to find out what you main points are (so that they can distinguish between just typo corrections and serious remarks).


Why are PhD salaries so low? In many European countries, PhD salaries are incredibly low if compared with industry salaries. In my field, computer science, a young programmer can gain in one in one year what a PhD student gains during all the PhD.  Which are the practical reasons of this?

Some possibilities:

Money: university have not enough money to pay higher salaries to PhD students. I don't think this is the cause of the low PhD salaries, as given a budget for a project, the PhD students are hired in function of the budget.
PhD is not considered a job. This, in my opinion, is wrong. PhD actually is a full time job, that requires skills that in many cases (for instance in computer science) will be highly paid in the industry. Projects faced during the PhD are often more complex than homologous industrial projects. The real fact is that a PhD student often (but not always) doesn't produce revenues; but this is true also for professors, for people who take care of the cleaning of the university, and for all the staff of a university, that receive a higher salary then PhDs.
PhD students are the weakest group of the academia. Nobody, when salaries are decided, says "PhDs should gain more!", because, when salaries are decided, actually they don't have any voice.

They aren't that low. For example, here in Finland:

a typical salary for a PhD student: 2400–3000 e/month
a typical salary in the industry for someone who just got their MSc degree: 3500 e/month.


Can someone call themselves Dr. so and so (ABD)? Someone in my profession is referring to themselves as Dr. so and so (ABD). It is my understanding that they are not a Dr. since they have not completed the dissertation process. Doesn't it seem fraudulent to refer to yourself as Dr. without completing a doctoral program?

Yep, can't do that. Either you do or you don't have the "Dr." and if you're ABD, you don't.


Switching field of study from computer science to GIS in the post graduate level I have a B.Sc. in CS, but I want to further in the GIS (geographical information system) line. I am thinking I'd have to do some sort of post-graduate diploma in GIS, before I can go for a M.Sc., which is necessary to hit my mark, seemingly...

I need your guidance about this case.

Thank you very much

I can't comment with authority on your specific case, but some GIS masters courses may not assume much GIS-specific prior knowledge. You should probably have an interest in mapping, cartography or spatial data, and - since you are coming from a CS direction - in databases or spatial computing; but interest does not necessarily mean in-depth knowledge.

I think my advice would be "find a course that interests you, and discuss it with the person in charge of admissions".


If I didn't learn much in my PhD program, should I do a coursework-based masters in the same field? I am thinking of quitting my PhD program to leave with a master's degree.  I don't think I learned much in my PhD so far, and I would have gained more skills if I got a normal master's and took a bunch of classes instead of spending the past two years doing research.

Is it a good idea to quit my PhD program and then apply for a second, coursework-based master's degree in the same field?  Or is there some way I can accomplish this at my current school?

If you want to try making a few changes, to see if they have a positive effect, before deciding, here are some ideas:

Each semester, take one of the classes you're interested in.
Before reporting the week's results to your advisor, anticipate what he might prescribe as the next step.  Write up your ideas about next steps each week, to show to your advisor for his opinion and/or green light to go ahead as you proposed.
Set aside one or two hours every day for literature research (reading of papers).  In the beginning it might take you more than a week to get through a paper, but it will get easier with practice.

Please note, your distractibility is something you could talk over with a doctor (general practitioner), if this is a significant problem for you.  There are a number of things you and your professors can consider trying that might help.

If your doctor screens you and finds a noticeable difference between you and the general population in this regard, you can get some assistance with management of the distractibility from your university.


What is a Pro-Chancellor? I was looking at a document describing setting arrangements for a ceremony and ran into the phrase:

  The president of the Student Guild shall sit in the front row, with
  the Vice-chancellor, the Chancellor, and the Pro-Chancellor

What is a Pro-chancellor?
I've never heard of one before.

In-case this is a regional term, I am at a Australian university.

A "pro-chancellor" (or similarly a "pro-rector," which we have in Germany), is a deputy to a chancellor (or rector), who handles certain duties on behalf of the chancellor (or rector). In the particular case of Commonwealth countries from which you hail, the pro-chancellor is the person who heads the university's executive council on behalf of the chancellor.


Changing research disciplines during Graduate school I am about to start a masters on track to phd program at a graduate school in the US. I study archaeology and intend to focus my masters on a geoarchaeological research project. My archaeological background is focused primarily on geochemical studies of lithic assemblages and as such i have developed a foundation in geology and chemistry (although haven't had any formal training) alongside my archaeological knowledge.
However, my interest in earth sciences, particular planetary science, has recently grown and i am wondering if it is possible to swap disciplines furthur down my grad school career. At the moment i want to see through my archaeological training but want to know if it is possible to skew my research towards planetary science/geology for my phd if the interests still persist.

It's certainly possible, at least in the universities I'm acquainted with, to apply to a Ph.D. program in a field different from your masters degree. But to be accepted into such a program, you'll have to convince an admissions committee (or the professor with whom you want to work) that you have the necessary background. You mentioned that you have relevant background but not formal training, so this may present a problem. If you can take some relevant courses while you're in the masters program, or if you can get recommendation letters attesting to your background knowledge, that would help. If that's not possible, then you may need to take some classes after you get your masters degree and before you apply to Ph.D. programs.


The overwhelming silence in shy classes I have been part of several classes where no-one wants to answer questions or actively take much part in the discussions. I am sure this must be frustrating for the lecturers, who try really hard to get us to answer and get an interesting discussion going.

Obviously, one answer to fix this is to suck it up and just answer the question and explain your opinion. However, as I am sure some of you know, such silences are overwhelming; it is as if the air forces you to not do anything, just sit there and wait for the one person who saves the class every time.

However, what can the lecturer do? Once the lecturer knows they are dealing with such a class, surely something should be done? In my opinion, the lecturer needs to stop asking questions to the entire class, but point at students and make them answer in that way. "What do you think, Pat?", is what I mean. If Pat does not know, that is fine; then move on to another one. As a student myself, I think this is the best way for a lecturer to approach this. Often the students are friends, or loosely know each other, so there is no rational reason for why the students don't dare to say anything. As I said, it is as if there is something in the air.

So, I know there are lecturers out there. What at your strategies for fixing this? Or perhaps other students have experienced lectures that cured this problem? I am talking mostly of small classrooms, not 100+ lecture halls.

I think the best way to deal with this as an instructor is to set the tone right from the first day.

Make it clear you want an interactive class room, and that includes the students asking questions and even challenging you as well as having the students answer your questions.
Make sure your questions are worth answering. No one wants to answer an obvious question that was in the book they read for the day ("How may valence electrons does an oxygen atom have?"). Students like questions where they have to think a bit or interpret a bit.
Conversely, make sure your questions are not too hard, and that they are not unclear.
If all else fails -- and it often does the first time you ask an interesting question on the first day of class -- this is what I do. I wait a moment, then smile and acknowledge the awkward silence. And then I let the class know that I want an interactive class and that I'm perfectly happy to stand at the front the room through the awkward silence for as long as it takes. From my tone, I make it very clear that this not me being strict and judgemental, but that I want to work with them and that's why I am doing this.


Caption or title: which should I use? I have a figure in my paper. If there is much to say about the figure, I will have a brief title and a descriptive caption for it.

What about the figure about which I have not much too say? Do I replicate what I have written in the title in the caption?

Since caption is also used for reference, it must exist. Can I then remove the figure title and use the caption only?

What is your paper for? I think figures (for example in journal articles or thesis) usuaully have a caption below them, in addition to their number:

  Figure 1.  Cumulative food intake in rats during intragastric treatment

But typically there is no "title", unless you have a "list of figures" somewhere in the beginning of the document: then it is ok to use the same phrase as caption and title, because they are not written at the same place.


Difficulty in admission to online software engineering graduate programs I am currently in my junior year of undergraduate work at Creighton University and have found out that my employer may possibly pay for me to work towards a Master's degree. I don't know all the specifics yet, but I have been browsing schools that offer Graduate programs in software engineering (or computer science with a focus in software engineering). It appears that the only school near me is the University of Nebraska-Omaha, so I have been checking out online programs as well, since I would have to stay in the Omaha area. It looks like USC has an excellent program in computer science, and I have also looked at Penn State and Drexel. So my questions are:

How difficult are these programs to get into?

Is it worth it to work towards a Master's Degree right after undergraduate?

What other programs should I be looking at?

I currently have a 4.0 GPA in my Computer Science Major, but I still have 4 classes left to take. I am also minoring in Business Administration and Interactive Web Development(basically Graphic Design classes).

Thanks ahead of time!

Kgvnova,

Congratulations on all of your success so far and your decision to consider furthering your education.  I'm in a very similar position as you and I'm currently considering distance education for a Master's degree in Computer Science or Software Engineering.  I'll do my best to answer your questions the best that I can.

1)  The difficulty of getting into programs varies, but I would say it's probably easier to be admitted into an online program than the live/in-person program.  I was accepted into all programs that I applied to.  (I graduated with a science degree at the top of my class, have good test scores and work experience, so I'd say I'm a strong candidate for most programs.)  Just be careful about some "diploma mills".  Some schools are "for profit" and let everyone in.  Just try to find an established school that has a distance education component and you should be in good shape.

2)  Whether you go straight to a Master's degree or not depends on you and your life situation.  You can consider your situation from a few angles.

Job Opportunities/ Return on Investment:  I think that most computer related careers are available to people with a technically-oriented bachelor's degree so the return on your investment might be neglible since you already have a bachelor's.  You mentioned that your employer may pay for it, so your investment might just be your time and energy.

Timing and Other Life Events:  If you are willing and able to invest 20-40 hours per week for the next 2 years or so, then getting a Master's could be a good idea.  If you're planning on having a family in the next few years, maybe it's a good time to get this done.  If you're just starting a family or have other commitments, then maybe you should wait.  Graduate schools aren't going anywhere.

Certainty:  How certain are you that this is the career/industry for you?  Do you have significant experience working in software engineering?  I just ask because you may find that this is not what you actually want to do, especially if you've never done it before.  I've changed my mind a lot in the past.  Since I've graduated a few years ago, I've worked in sales, health services, teaching, insurance, and web development.  I always thought I was going to enjoy those fields until I actually worked in them.  Once I started doing web development and LOVING it, I decided it's worth pursuing an education to take me a step further.

3)  There are a lot of programs to consider.  I started by looking at US News to see a list of highly-regarded schools.  I then visited their websites to see if they had distance programs in Computer Science.  Another few schools that I've considered are:

Brandeis University - Master's in Software Engineering
University of Bridgeport (CT) - Master's in CS with Software Engineering Concentration (ranked in top 10 online CS programs nationally)
Harvard Univerisity - they have an Extension School where you can get a Master's in Liberal Arts with a concentration in Software Engineering

You should also consider the finances and "pacing" of programs.  Some programs are really expensive.  Also, some degrees are accelerated and take 18 months, while some programs take 3-4 years to complete.

Sorry for the long response.  I just wanted to give you the information I've been researching this for several months.  I wish you the best of luck with everything.


How to present participation in undergraduate research experience programs on CV when applying for jobs in industry? I am mathematics undergraduate student interested in joining the workforce out of undergraduate (quant finance and data analysis). The past few summers I have been participating in pure math research programs (REUs), and I am struggling to write a résumé section for the REUs.

If any mathematicians are reading this, my most recent REU problem is PDE regularity. I'm at a loss for words on how to explain that to a layperson without making it sound useless.

How do I effectively talk about my work/results in the context of a resume read by applicant tracking systems and human resources?

As a general note, do not use so many contractions and abbreviations. Writing terms out in full, at least the first time you use them, will never be wrong and may save a reader some time and effort.

You need to think of your resume in terms of what it tells the expected reader about your suitability for the job you are seeking.

Don't try to explain the subject matter of your research project "to a layperson". If the project does relate to a potential job, the hiring manager will either be a mathematician who understands the area, or will have mathematicians who understand the area on their technical staff, or at least will have arranged to consult a suitable mathematician on the hiring decision. If it does not relate, the reader of the resume probably does not care what the project was actually about.

A research project may tell a potential employer other things about you. Can you work independently on a specified problem? Can you write a coherent, readable report? Is your work good enough to lead to being accepted for a research project at a high prestige institution?


Correctly licensing someone else's photo for publication in open-access journal When articles are accepted by open-access journals such as PLoS journals, the editors sometimes ask for a 'striking image' to attract attention to the paper on the contents page (see examples here; every paper has an accompanying image). When in this situation in the past we have used images which I or my institute own, but I know a couple of very good commercial photographers and can easily see situations where their images would be more suitable. What sort of license would I need to buy the photos under in order to have the authority to give the journal permission to publish them under a CC-BY-3.0 license?

Buy the work under a contract that gives you exclusive license or copyright transfer under which you can sub-license or transfer to the journal publisher.


How to avoid the repetition of "I" while writing a cover letter for an academic job? I use active voice for cover letter and while doing that I end up with too many "I" and most of the sentences in my letter also begin with "I". This makes my letter quite boring. I would appreciate if you share your suggestion/tips to avoid this while writing a cover letter.

Since cover letter is the first thing that the potential employer notices, I want to write a concise and attractive cover letter. It will be also helpful if you share a link of a well-written cover letter.

Because it's a cover letter, I think it's quite natural that you say a lot about you in it. That's actually not to be avoided, because you want to give the addressee a good idea of your background, your motivations, your interests, etc. In short, you want to show them who you are, so they want to work with you. This is a totally different exercise than usual academic writing.

Now, regarding the redundancy of I, it is a matter of writing style. It probably wouldn't bother me much, but if you want to diminish it for some reasons, here are worthy alternatives:

Instead of starting your sentence with I, just push it somewhere down in some sentences. That way, you avoid the pattern of I as the first word of every sentence.

  Looking at your group's wide range of research, I must confess a certain attraction for your recent groundbreaking work on the correlation between beer-drinking and publication rate.

Use constructions that, while retaining the first person, shift from the subject pronoun to other cases:

  It has been my intention for a few years now to shift my research interests from pure psychology to experimental psychohistory, and I have thus taken in 2009 a post-doc position at the University of Trentor (group of prof. Seldon)

instead of “I decided a few years ago to move to the field of psychohistory…”. Similarly, you could say

The standard techniques of academic writing… introduce the pronoun once, then shift the discuss to avoid being the actor, e.g. using passive voice.

  During my thesis, I introduced a new data reduction technique called XXZ. This algorithm, when applied to large datasets, was used to univocally establish whether data was being manipulated. In particular, results obtained on the 2000 election showed systematic bias against a specific candidate, highlighting its power as a diagnostic tool for real-life applications.

Be aware that there are downsides, though: most of these alternatives are longer than a direct sentence starting with I, which means overusing them could make you sound windy.


How to find host institution - Marie-Curie individual fellowship How to find the list of host institution for Marie-Curie individual fellowship? Does it mean that the host institution must have already received or get approved for Marie-Curie individual fellowship?

Another post on host institution MSCA IF

How to find the list of host institution for Marie-Curie individual fellowship?

There's no list, any legal entity in the EU or in a partner country is eligible: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/wp/2018-2020/main/h2020-wp1820-msca_en.pdf p.76

As far as I know it's more common to apply with a university or a research institution, but companies can be host institutions as well.

  Does it mean that the host institution must have already received or get approved for Marie-Curie individual fellowship?

No, but it's possible that the institution would have to be registered on the EU portal (this is how it works for H2020 proposals, I'm not sure about Marie Curie actions).

The eligibiity conditions are rather easy to satisfy, but in order to have any chance of success it's very important to understand that the selection relies very strongly on the excellence of the research proposal in collaboration with the host institution. This means that before applying, any serious candidate must contact a potential PI and design a detailed research plan with them. I think it's crucial to understand what the EU expects to achieve through these grants in order to write a decent application, because they are not just giving away funding to kind junior researchers :)

Some EU institutions have a specialized office to help applicants write good applications. If the target host institution does it's a really good idea to contact them and ask them for advice, it can drastically increases your chances.

(and yes, the EU website is a monster, but given time one can find really useful information in there)

[Edit] additional sources of information (among many)

https://www.mariecuriealumni.eu/magazine/news/want-become-marie-sk%C5%82odowska-curie-fellow-individual-fellowships-if-spotlight
National Contact Points (NCP): https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/support/ncp (select target country and Marie Curie Actions)


How can I get research experience in between degrees? I'm a recent graduate of a major university in Ohio, but recently moved to the DC area for my job (full-time software engineer).

I plan to go to grad school for computer science in the next few years, but I'd like to get involved in some research to find out what I do and don't like about research (and, more importantly, the research topics) before I apply.

I'd love to volunteer my skills to a professor in the area as an RA. There are obviously major universities in the area with research undertakings that interest me, but without rapport how can I let them know I'm interested in working with them?

As someone who hires research assistants in my own department, here are some concerns I would have about such an offer.

There are students in my own university who would appreciate the research assistantship. My department has more qualified students to do research than supervisory capacity to give them all that opportunity.
I have an aversion to taking on a student who has not made any real commitment to the job and has no accountability. (I will only take on students who are either getting paid or getting credit for their work with me, partly for this reason.)
I strongly prefer to work with students who will stick around for a while, e.g. undergrads who still have a couple of years left, or M.S. students who may be interested in doing a PhD in my department. Working with research assistants initially takes a lot more time and effort than they save me, and I'd rather do it with someone who has a chance of sticking around long enough to give me some return on that investment.

So for me to consider taking on a research assistant in your situation, you'd have to assuage some of those concerns.

Tell me what skills you already have that will help me and my students advance our current research efforts in the short term. (This obviously requires that you do your homework and know what my group has been working on recently.)

For example, when you say "I am interested in learning about X, which your students are currently doing," I hear "This is someone who I or my current students will need to spend a lot of time training to do X - which we don't really need, because we already have students capable of doing X - and who may or may not stick around long enough for it to pay off."

On the other hand, when you say, "I already know a fair bit about Y, and I think it could advance your research in Z that your students are currently doing," I hear "This is someone who offers a promising risk - benefit ratio. We won't have to spend a lot of time on training, and he/she will bring something useful to the table immediately."
Are your plans to go to graduate school fairly firm? Do you have a timeline in mind for applying? If I think that you are committed to the work because you really need it to bolster your graduate school applications, I'm a little less concerned about you disappearing as soon as something gets difficult, or your day job interferes, etc.
Are you seriously considering applying to grad school at my institution? If you are, you should definitely say so.


Undergraduate school affecting acceptance to a prestigious graduate school Currently, I am just about to finish my sophomore year in an undergraduate school studying computer science. I am worried about my current school impacting whether or not I will get in to a prestigious graduate school.

Without giving away too many details, my school is fairly well known and has an undergraduate class size of around 30,000. Also, the school is ranked around the 80s of schools in the US.

My growing ambition and love for computer science has grown greatly during my time here and I would to continue my education at a prestigious graduate school.

As of now, I have a 4.0 GPA and I have been and will be involved  with internships during my summers. If I continue my current path, what are my chances at getting into a top 10 american graduate school?

Getting into a good grad school has more to do with demonstrating your potential for being a researcher than the quality of the school you attended as an undergraduate. If you don’t have any evidence of research, it’s unlikely that you’re going to get into a top-10 school. If you have an extensive body of solid research as an undergraduate, it can compensate for weak(ish) grades.


How deeply should one understand other people's work before building on them? I have a few results during my math PhD that I used in a black-box or grey-box sense. I have a rough idea of how it is proved but the proof itself is extremely long and detailed. I cannot reproduce it off the top of my head without looking at the paper and going through it line by line again. Some of these proofs also themselves refer to other lemmas and proofs in different papers and it can become quite a deep rabbit hole.
I am at a stage now where I can either spend some weeks studying these proofs in detail or I can focus more new research and take these results as black box results. What is the right/expected thing to do from a scientific mindset? On the one hand, understanding everything from scratch would be nice but on the other hand, the reason we write lemmas is so that others can use them as a springboard to develop new ideas.
TL;DR how deeply do mathematicians understand other people's work before using their results? My practical concern would be my thesis defence but the broader scientific "best practice" would be good to know too.

This depends on the individual case and requires judgment.
On the one hand, understanding the past work completely gives you a better base of understanding going forward.
On the other hand, there are circumstances in which you understand the past work sufficiently to go forward, and you have enough trust in it to know that you won't be embarrassed in future for doing dead end work.
That complete understanding takes time, as you note. It is seldom necessary for a mathematician to recapitulate the entire history of mathematics since, say, Euclid, to do significant work.
For some problems in some (sub) fields, more understanding is needed. In others, less. But there is an old saying "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good." (Usually attributed to Voltaire.)
If you are good enough to recognize problems with lines of thought and you have insight into the underlying structure of the field, then trust your judgement. If you smell a skunk, delve deeper, otherwise, move on. It isn't a perfect defense against error, but.... Voltaire, again.


Permissions and copyright for a figure from an unavailable source I would like to use, in a journal manuscript, a figure for which the original source (a website) no longer exists. What can I do?

I found the figure in a Ph.D thesis, the author of the thesis is however not the copyright holder of the figure. But the website of the figure's reference no longer exists, and is also not saved in the internet wayback-machine.
I have a copy of the figure, but i do not see any possibilities on how to ask permission to use the figure.

Any suggestions on how to proceed?

I don't want to make this question too case specific, because I think it is a problem that could occur often, in different countries and settings. But of course I would like a practical resolution: the specific source indicated in the Ph.D. thesis is A2Engineering.com retrieved march 2010.
I already looked a lot on google, also using reverse image search, and I could not track the copyright holder, or their nationality or country of residence. The difficulty is that there are many companies with similar names, but their field of interest does not seem to match with content of the figure.
Is there any chance that i could still use it, based on the idea of "fair use"?

We have a serious problem, worldwide, with copyright now. To protect yourself and your reputation, I think you are better to assume that you cannot use the figure or a recreation of it unless and until you can determine positively that you can. Copyright differs greatly by country now. Unfortunately many works have been abandoned by their authors but copyright law generally makes no provision for that. Fair use and "use for research" differ greatly by place.

My suggestion is to give a reference to the original, even if it cannot be found and to create your own figure separately from this one, using, if possible, different data. Don't try to make it similar. Don't try to disguise the original. Make a new figure that illustrates the point you are trying to make in your own work.

I would do something like presenting my own figure illustrating the point I'm trying to make and the note that author X made a similar point at Reference Y, including illustrative figures (without reproducing them). Your readers are informed. The previous rights holder is respected. You have done the best you can do given (possibly unreasonable) restrictions on sharing.

Whether or not you would be "caught" or "challenged" in reproducing something without permission, your own reputation can suffer. It is better to be conservative here.

But it is also better to use whatever position you have to work toward more sensible copyright rules that deal with abandoned works and with scholarly research without having the original rights-holder suffer.


Is it appropriate to ask a professor for a discount on his expensive book? My question is similar to this  - Rude to ask a book chapter.
I have bought the first of two parts of a research monograph. The second part is even more expensive (around $150) and in my currency it is prohibitively expensive. I do not know the professor and he does not know me either. On the other hand it is possible we may collaborate in the future as we are in the same field. Is it appropriate to send him an email and ask him for a discount on his book? Would it harm a professional relationship later on in my career?

Authors usually don't and cannot sell directly copies of their books, and the price is decided by the publisher.

Of course, an author has their draft copy in electronic format, but they might not even have the final electronic version as published. Authors typically receive a few courtesy copies of their books, but they have no access to other copies for free.

My suggestion however is to borrow the book from your university library: that's what library are for, after all.

If the library doesn't have a copy, depending on your position, you can:

Suggest the library to buy a copy. Many university libraries buy books according to the suggestions of their faculties: if you cannot do this directly, probably your adviser can.
Ask your library if they can loan it from another library. In many countries there is a system of interlibrary loans, and sometimes it works even across different countries.


Can I use abbreviations in the title of a research paper? Is it a good practice to include an abbreviation in a title of a research paper.
for example : PC , IDE , RAM

It is acceptable if (Edit: and only if) the abbreviation you are using is common (in your field or in general) and there is no risk of confusion.

I have two papers whose titles contain the abbreviation (RD) which stands for (Rapid Decay). Since it is an acceptable abbreviation in our field these titles are fine.

The best way to find out is to check similar papers or titles in your field.


How is the energy bill split in academic departments? Consider a physics department for example. Does each lab get metered and pay its own bill in the United States, or does the department itself cover overhead? Do energy leaks get noticed and managed? Do you get yelled at for leaving the lights on?

What's the norm on who foots the energy bill?

At the institutions where I worked in the US, a fixed overhead from grants, negotiated with the granting agency usually (e.g. X University takes YY% from all NSF grants held at X) went to those kinds of costs. I do not know of any exceptions, but we were more likely to be running refrigeration units and ovens than ion accelerators and each individual institute may have special exceptions. You would have to inquire directly.


Could I ask a recommendation letter from a professor who left the university? One of my friends had a pretty good relationship with their undergraduate professor; however, the professor decided to retire and no longer teaches at that university. In a few months, my friend is deciding to apply to graduate school, and he is wondering if it would still be appropriate to ask his retired professor to write him a letter of recommendation?

If the faculty is retiring to emeritus status then they can still write on letterhead. Many emeritus still maintain an active research profile or use the time to write, but in any case they might be willing to write for you. Many enjoy keeping one foot in the teaching/advising world.

There's nothing to be lost by asking.

And from the perspective of people on admissions committees, a strong letter from an emeritus faculty who compares this student against their thirty or forty years of other students can be very persuasive.


Pros and cons of including mathematical equations in presentation slides As a researcher in CS, I give often presentations, where I always ask about the feedback from my colleagues. I personally don't like to put equations in my slides because I believe that nobody will have enough time to read the understand the equation (especially because in CS the equation is a tool to solve the problem and not the heart of the topic). Instead, I enrich the slides with intuitive figures and demonstrations. I've heard some professors encouraging the same approach, but in my current group, my professor and my colleagues believe that equations illustrate the complexity of the method and we should put them.

I don't think this is a question of preference, therefore, I would like to have more opinions about putting or not putting equations in presentation slides and why.

You are starting from the wrong point if you are asking the question of whether to use formulas in isolation.

When you write a presentation, a paper, a proposal, an expose, or anything else, here are two questions you should ask yourself:

Who is my audience? What is their prior knowledge? Why are they there and what are their motivations for attending/reading? What do they want to take away from you provide them with?
What is my own motivation? Do I want to teach them something new? Do I want to illustrate how smart I am? Do I want to give an overview of a field that everyone in the audience should understand, or do I want to impress a few key people?

If you have answers to these questions, then (and only then) should you start writing. You will find that, maybe unsurprisingly, the question of whether to use formulas will have different answers depending on your audience and what you want to achieve. If you are giving a job talk and you want to provide depth to your talk, then formulas are probably a fine approach. If you are giving a department colloquium that should have broad appeal to grad students and professors alike, then maybe using words instead of formulas is the better approach.

The point is: It all depends -- on the audience and what you want to achieve.


I applied to tenure track positions in the US when should I hear about interviews? I have a PhD in Chemical Engineering and have applied to a handful of tenure track positions in December/January. When can I expect to hear about possible interviews? At what point should I just move on...

This will vary widely depending on the institutions. Since most new positions will only start around August there is plenty of time to have committees do some initial sifting of candidates. It might take a few weeks to a few months, actually. It is somewhat dependent on how needy they are to fill a position. If they feel at risk of not filling the position in the initial search they will want to save a bit of time for a follow up.

Some institutions will be willing to give you some guidance if you ask and there is probably no real down-side to asking. Some will even list their deadline for decision in the application materials and will need several weeks prior to that to schedule any interviews.

However, if you are a serious candidate, then you will likely hear sooner rather than later after the initial selection is done.

Sorry not to be very definite, but every institution in the US is different in this regard and operates under its own rules and schedules.


Is it unethical if I did not inform the current lab I am in that I am looking for another position? I would like to know whether I should inform the current lab I am applying for other positions. I feel guilty as someone told me it is unethical what I am doing to hide it from the current employer.

I don't feel comfortable with this current lab and I cannot imagine myself in it for many years, but I cannot inform as the PI here is a bully and not compassionate person at all. Yet, I don't have something in my hand, but I am struggling whether I have to be honest or hide it.

The question is: Is it unethical in academia to hide that I am considering applying for another position while I am currently in?

Generally speaking, no, you can seek other employment at any time without ethical constraint. This is especially true if the work environment is abusive in any way.

There is one consideration, however, that you should keep in mind. If other people depend on your work, you need to do what you can so that you don't unnecessarily disadvantage them. So, you may have an obligation to complete joint work before you actually leave, or see that it is put into a proper state. But you don't have to do that first.


Is there a valid way to put up a paper on arXiv or GitHub and make it private just before a conference? I wrote a paper and it has been in limbo for more than a year because I need to re-write the code in C++ to get more proof of my algorithm before sending it to a conference.
To avoid being scooped, I considered putting it on arXiv, but was wary of exposing the algorithm to the public and I heard that it messes with the conference reviewer's double blind review.

So if arXiv and HAL archives do not have the option to keep a paper private, would uploading the paper to GitHub in a private repository serve as proof if I ever need to prove that I came up with the idea first, if I've been scooped? This way, I would be able to give private access to the repository to whoever is investigating. I wonder if this would get counted as scooping if the person who scooped the idea never knew about my paper because it was in a hidden private repository.

would uploading the paper to GitHub in a private repository serve as proof if I ever need to prove that I came up with the idea first, if I've been scooped?

You can prove you came up with the idea first, but you can still be scooped, since credit will be given to the first public work.


Funding faculty position for a spouse My wife is looking for a faculty position. It seems its not so easy to get a position in biology though she is doing postdoc at top 5 genetics programs in USA. I am wondering if I can offer a school funding equivalent to her pay for 5 years plus some more for research? I am wondering if good schools will be interested in it? Why I want to do is because at least my wife will cool down and will live a normal life!

If I may paraphrase your question, it sounds like you would like to use money to tilt the playing field of a faculty search in your wife’s favor. You would like to know if your plan can work.

Sadly for you, but happily for our society and the health of our academic institutions, this has zero chance of working. Faculty positions at respected universities are offered based on merit - that is exactly why those places are respected in the first place. If your wife has what it takes to get a job offer, she will get it without the need for any subsidies. If she doesn’t, she won’t get it with or without your subsidy offer. At all US universities where people I know and respect work, the only conceivable reactions to your offer would be bafflement at your cluelessness, if not outright derision and anger at your presumption to be able to influence their hiring process by offering money. Conversely, any institution that would seriously entertain your offer (and I suppose there may exist some third-rate, cash-strapped universities that might) is one where I would not advise your wife to take a job.

To be clear, even respectable institutions may put a price tag on their reputations. If you were to offer, say, a donation of 50 million dollars conditioned on your wife being offered a faculty job (you’d better ask for her to get it with tenure in that case), and your wife was reasonably well-qualified, I don’t know for sure but I’m guessing that there are departments that might find such an offer tempting. A university can do a lot of good things with such a large sum of money, probably enough to offset the risk of any reputational harm they might suffer. But five years’ salary and change? That’s a complete non-starter.

Anyway, good luck to your wife in her job search.


Difficult student would dispute every grade in the course and now wants letter of recommendation I had a student in one of my courses that for every graded assignment would come to me and challenge the grade given, even though I provided a rubric to show exactly why the points where taken off.

For one of the last assignments, which was a class presentation, this student went off into another topic and for half of the presentation time essentially filled the time with an interesting topic, that unfortunately, although interesting, was not what the assignment for the presentation required. There were other problems with the presentation, which I outlined in the rubric, but twice the student came to me to challenge the grade, because they "worked so hard on the presentation," and that they "did cover what was required" and did not deserve a B (which in retrospect, should have been a C), I explained why again the student got the grade they deserved...and after a while the student saying that they did not agree, left.

But then on the following class, the student came to talk to me about their grade again and was even somewhat aggressive towards me, and very confrontational raising their tone of voice and won't give up on the point that s/he deserved an A. I said that I would be happy to grade the presentation again, but that I was often very lenient and that the grade could either improve/or decrease if I were to grade it again. The student then gave up, and said that s/he would focus then on the final paper and asked whether I give full points (100) in the final paper, to which I replied, "yes, if you exceed my expectations." (haven't graded this assignment yet).

Well, a week went by and then this student asks me for a letter of recommendation! Granted s/he currently have a A- in my course, but after the way the student spoke to me, with complete lack of respect, I was very surprised that s/he would ask for a letter.

...and at first the student did not want to waive their rights to the letter, claiming that we had to sign the page "together" whenever they would pick up the letter. I explained that the student could actually fill out the top part, if s/he wanted to waive the rights, and I would fill out the bottom part, include the form with the letter in a sealed envelope. But that if s/he did not want to waive the rights, that would be fine as well, and I would just sign the bottom part...then the student decided it would be best to waive their rights...

I am now in the process of writing the letter and was wondering if anyone was ever put in the same situation, and what did you do? This is a good student, however, clearly lacks respect for their professors. Any advice/guidance/help? How/Should I mentioned this in the letter?

It sounds like you've agreed to write a letter so I think you are committed unless the student releases you from your commitment.  (Personally, I'd have said no in the first place and explained if asked that, based on their behavior, I could not honestly give a favorable recommendation.  But that ship has sailed.)

But what you haven't agreed to yet, I hope, is a favorable letter.  What I would do in your situation is contact the student to explain that on reflection, you've become concerned that the only honest letter you can write will not be helpful.  You don't feel you can honestly ignore that the student is a difficult, argumentative, confrontational and disrespectful individual.  To be an honest appraisal, that has to go in there.  You cannot write an honest letter that only recites the good stuff.

At that point, you can ask, do they still want the letter?  I'm sure they'll be difficult and disrespectful once again but that's nothing new and if you stand your ground, I think they'll decide to go elsewhere.  Problem solved.  (And maybe they'll learn something from the experience, though, from what you describe, probably not.)


Is it appropriate to share the distribution of grades for a small class? It is common practice to share a histogram of grades with a class after a quiz or exam. However, my institute has very small classes. This year I have 6 students in my class, and in previous years I have had 3. It seems like showing the breakdown of grades (e.g. how many A's, B's, C's there were) in such a small class may be inappropriate, since students may easily be able to guess who got which grade. On the other hand, it seems only fair to tell students how they did relative to the rest of the class.

No, for exactly the reason you give. If just a couple students share their grades with each other, it becomes trivial for others to be discovered by process of elimination.


Do I always have to discuss conference attendance with advisor? As a PhD student (in the US), should I always discuss whether I should go to a conference or summer school with my advisor before I apply? Even if

The conference is providing full financial support, and
I am not currently employed as a research assistant (rather teaching assistant) and the conference wouldn't affect that.

I realise it is common courtesy to do so anyway, but is it still OK if I don't?

Please don't answer to tell me what the "rules" are, or with "why don't you want to tell your advisor about it". I'm rather looking for a practical answer.

Practically, no, you don't always have to contact or discuss your advisor. It is possible that your advisor will not end up even knowing. Now, this isn't advisable just because you and your advisor should really be fostering an open and collaborative environment and your advisor might take this as a sign against this. Additionally, if you are submitting work, many would say that it is your advisor's business because they should be able to know most things about your research and career in order to properly advise you.


What To Do About An Apparently Non-Replicable Paper I am a beginning researcher in a particular real-world application space of machine learning, with papers published in the application space, but not in machine learning itself.  I have identified a paper that is important to my program of research to replicate, have dedicated myself to its replication for a longer period of time than I wish to admit (even anonymously), and failed.

I am asking this question anonymously, and not identifying the particular application space of the paper (beyond the much larger "machine learning" domain) because the community of the application space is relatively small and I do not wish to identify myself or the authors of the paper I discuss below.

Some salient details:

I'm aware that some papers in machine learning are viciously difficult to replicate, even under the best of conditions.  It is easy to find discussion forum  comments such as "I tried to replicate X, spent months on it, got nowhere," or "I was only ever able to get Y to work by doing thing Z that wasn't in the paper."
Despite that, the machine learning community thrives on Github implementations by original authors, and Github re-implementations by students.  This research group has to my knowledge never published any code from any publication, and while some re-implementations of various papers from this research group exist, this one has none.
It seems, at a minimum, certain key details are absent from the paper such as hyper-parameters, learning rates, and other customary details.  Although in other respects the reported architecture is quite detailed, this does cause me to wonder if the model is unusually sensitive to the hyper-parameters, or if some other small detail has been left out.
A typical piece of advice given when I ask other researchers about this is to e-mail the original authors.  I have done this, as politely as possible (making the explicit assumption that I'm just missing something and asking very specific questions, i.e., about the hyper-parameters directly, so as not to waste their time) several times, and gotten no response at all, even offering to post my own re-implementation on Github, to their credit.  (I've sent enough e-mail that I fear one more will make me look like a stalker.)
Another typical piece of advice is, "Can you fix it and publish the new and improved version?"  Believe me, I have tried, both minor variations on the paper, and updating it with more recent machine learning techniques, with no useful results.  I have nothing publishable for my efforts.

Here are two final factors which complicate the matter even more in my mind (and which I think cause this not to be an exact duplicate of prior questions):

Although the lead author and their research group are well-regarded and well-published, this particular paper is published only on Arxiv  There is no peer review, no conference or journal, and there is an "at your own risk," factor involved.
Despite this, the Arxiv publication is gathering citations from other refereed publications, although it is not obvious to me whether the citing works' authors have been able to (or even necessarily tried to) replicate the results, either.

What can one, and what should one do, when one is Nobody from Nowhere as far as a research community is concerned, but is beginning to suspect that a cited but not peer-reviewed paper cannot be replicated?

I would suggest focusing far, far less on this non-peer-reviewed paper.

Publish the results you have. Use methodology that is as sound as you can achieve with the data and tools that you have. Cite previous work that agrees and disagrees with what you find. Contextualize your findings in an understanding informed by an entire body of work, not just individual papers.

The only time it makes good strategic sense to focus on replication of a particular result is if that result is influential and relied upon in practical use. A discerning reader of the literature will approach any single finding with appropriate skepticism.


How to find decent translator for technical jargon for application? I am in a somewhat difficult situation, and I am not sure if this is the right site to ask this; feel free to close this question if not.

There is a refugee from Syria who has been studying computer science in Syria before he fled. He was 2 months away from graduating. I am currently helping him to get back to his studies (in Germany). To avoid that he has to start all over again, I need a translation of his official University course descriptions from Arabic to German or English.

I have tried two normal translators, who where quite expensive. The results they produced were of very poor quality, since a lot of technical terms are used in these descriptions. I study computer science myself and am thus able to judge the quality of the translation. I am often not able to tell what they mean. I am pretty sure that this is due to the lack of knowledge of technical terms of the translator, not because of the document itself. They try to translate the terms, but it is not clear what they mean. For example "programming paradigms" was translated to "kinds of different types of programming languages", and that is one of the few I was able to guess what was actually meant. With this quality it is very unlikely that he won't have to start from the beginning again.

So how or where can I get a decent translation of computer science technical terms from Arabic for an application to university, so other people at least somewhat knowledgeable in the field understand without too much thought?

Find a local firm of patent attorneys and ask them what translators they use.

Patent specifications and patent applications are full of technical terminology. Holders of a foreign patent wanting to establish their rights in your country will need their patent translated into your local language. Patent firms routinely use the services of translation firms that specialise in translating technical documents. The translators don't guess at the meaning of specialist terms if they don't know the most appropriate translation --- they will query and check candidate translations.


If the same paper had many contributions in many fields, can I cite each contribution separately? I am writing my thesis in computer science and have some issues.
I have several papers with more than one contribution in many fields (enhancement on several algorithms).
I want to mention each algorithm with its enhancement separately. Can I cite the same paper in different paragraphs in the literature review?

Yes

If a paper provides such information that it can be used for several paragraphs - then absolutely you can, and you actually should, cite the useful paper whenever and wherever you use the information from within the paper (in your case, the algorithms with their enhancements).


Level of award - International/Institutional I'm writing a Postdoctoral fellowship application. There is an online form to fill out and for each award I have received and I need to indicate the 'level' of the award. The options are Institutional, National or International.

Is an award which can be applied to by anyone worldwide but is only tenable at a particular institution an institutional or international award? For example: Gates Cambridge.

The fellowship documentation does not provide a definition. Is there a generally accepted definition for the level of an award?

The standard definition, in my experience is if an award is only available to individuals at/applying to a specific single institution, it is institutional. If the award is only available to individuals in/applying to a particular country it is national, regardless of citizenship requirements. If the award can be used at any institution in any country it is a international award, again regardless of citizenship requirements.

The Gates Cambridge fellowship is open to anyone, but can only be used at Cambridge and is therefore a national award.


Is it possible for a student in first year of Ph.D to secure funding for attending conferences? Note: I'm primarily interested in answers relevant to Computer Science (Theory), but answers in different areas in CS / totally other disciplines are equally welcome.

In most (if not all) PhD programs, incoming grad students are supposed to take relevant courses and fulfill their TA-ship duties (I'm assuming not everyone gets a RA from the 1st semester itself). During that time, they are also expected (and highly encouraged) to keep reading on their chosen research field, to have a concrete idea of where all the focus in that field is at that moment.

In my opinion, I would consider that attending important conferences and interacting with leading researchers in their field would play a very important role in the development of a young researcher, as he/she would have the chance to get motivated by the best brains in the business! But, it is unlikely that he/she would have publishable results at such venues within such a short time, and if he/she doesn't have a fellowship/travel scholarship, it is unlikely that he'd be able to afford the registration/travel/accommodation expenses from his own stipend.

So, what are the options in front of such a student to make attending such events possible:

Do advisers cover the expenses for their incoming grad students, for
attending such talks/conferences, or is there a provision for such
funds from the department ?
How much does the answer to the above question vary between different colleges - I've heard (unconfirmed) reports that
higher-ranked institutions have more funds to burn, and as such
students in such departments can afford to attend talks without
publishing in them (at least for the first 2 semesters) ?
Are there specific scholarships/fellowships that exist to primarily cater to conference related expenses for students? If so,
it would be great to get some leads on where to look, and what are
the primary qualifications (>90% of fellowships in US require the
applicant to be an US citizen, making it extremely difficult for
international students to get one!) ?

As Willie Wong says, it depends on your school and your advisor.  As an obvious general rule, departments and advisors with more research funding are more willing to spend it.  (As a reference point, my department does not offer such funding, because individual faculty generally have enough money to support their students' travel.)

A significant number of CS theory conferences have external support for student travel; see, for example, SODA 2012 and STOC 2012.  These grants usually require a letter of support from your advisor, so you at least need an advisor.  (In many PhD programs, including mine, PhD students do not necessarily have formal advisors for the first year; students are admitted to the PhD program, not to any particular research group.)


What needs to be done if an editor requires "very thorough editing"? The Editor's and the reviewers' comments are as follows:

  [...]

  Eic

  a very thorough editing is  a must

What does the last line mean? What kinds of things do I need to do?

I think I need to check the whole manuscript for finding language problem.

You're probably correct, the editor is asking you to check the whole manuscript for English. If you have a friend who's fluent at English you can ask him / her, otherwise you can also contact a copyediting service such as Enago or Editage (this is not a recommendation for either service, since I have never used them before).

Good luck!


How to cite when true publication date differs from journal's claimed year? I am citing in Harvard style, so my entries end up something like this:

  Widom, H. (1975). Asymptotic inversion of convolution operators, Publ. Math. Inst. Hautes Études Sci. 44: 191–240.

With the above entry, I noticed that the same author cited the year as 1975 from his later papers, but the publisher's website says volume 44 is from 1974. I looked at the actual journal volume and sure enough it has 1974 in big letters on the title page, but the small copyright notice says 1975. It seems that this is the journal volume for 1974, but was actually published in 1975. (According to the stamp on it, my university's library received its copy at the start of April 1975, so my speculation is that they only narrowly missed a deadline to pubish in 1974.)

My question is: how should I cite this? Should I mention both years? If so, how should I fit them in to the citation, and if not, which should I use?

With the advent of "online first" and "just accepted" publication streams, this dilemma is becoming even more common.  It is now frequently the case that a publication will become available and begin gathering citations well before its "official" publication date.

As noted in the answer by Wrzlprmft and Jim Oldfield, publication dates serve two purposes:

Extra meta-data to help with a search for the reference
Establishing priority between competing researchers

The citation that you write only needs to do the first.  Thus, my practice when dealing with multiple publication dates is to write whichever is the "most persistent".  For example, I have had citations like "published online June 2012" doi:XXX", then in another later work cited the same paper as something like "34(4), pp 1-10, January 2013, doi:XXX" once it's progressed in the publication queue to actually receive a final volume/issue/date.

Regarding the question of priority: that's not really your job in a mere citation.  If order of precedence is actually important to your discussion, you should be discussing it in the text, and not just leaving it to the reader to infer from citation dates, because the real story is often more complicated.  That's why in the actual text of many publications, you will see multiple dates in addition to the final publication date.  In the most extreme cases, you will see a long string like: "Submitted Date1, Revised Date2, Accepted Date 3, Published Online Date 4."

In short: don't sweat the precedence issue.  In the citation, use the date that will be most useful in obtaining the full publication, and let precedence questions be handled separately.


What should I do if, after choosing a Master Thesis topic, I find an existing thesis on it in another language? I picked a very unique topic for my Masters Thesis, only to find out that there is a Dissertation on the same topic, from 2008, in French. No other books have been published on this topic.

Ugh... I really really wanted to do this. What should I do? Can I do the same topic in English? I can't even translate what the other person wrote.

You can still write on the same topic, you just need to expand the knowledge that's already there and offer some new, original insight to the issue.


What's the consensus on sharing raw data? Let's say I authored a paper or a study - published either in an academic journal or release just on a website. The study is well received, but I've received some requests from "colleagues" who want access to some of the data sources. The issue I have is that either I'd paid for some of the data sources - or spent considerable time and labor (or paid to have the data collected, transcribed etc)- thus I am conflicted about just releasing the data to those who did not expend the same amount of time or resources.

I once requested something similar from a professor (we only knew each other's names via the industry) - and he explained that his research data was as a result of along time relationship with people inside a particular company (who collected such data), and he did not feel comfortable giving it away. I did not think less of him, nor did I think he was hiding anything.

Is there any kind of consensus among academic or professional researchers about sharing raw data?

I'll share some thoughts with you as someone who has made all of his research software publicly available for the past 20 years.

My experience is that the risk of others "scooping" you by taking your data (or code, in my case) and doing analyses with them that lead to important studies is relatively small. The likelihood that they ask you to participate in such studies -- given that you know the data, how it was collected, and how it was curated -- is, on the other hand, relatively high and may lead to you writing papers you never dreamed of. So there are substantial positive upsides that, in my case, have always made it worth my while putting my work out there.


How should I frame my transition from an unsafe situation as I apply to other universities, pre-tenure? How do I frame my exit from a state university under duress in applying for new jobs ?
I am pre-tenure in the United States, and I find myself needing to change jobs because conditions at my University re: COVID have gotten to the point where they threaten my safety, and that of my family. I will not go into detail about this. The situation become so negative that my chair has approached me to offer their support for either my staying, or support through writing me letters of recommendation to leave.
I am in a strong position academically, and tenure is all but guaranteed in two years (including one year added for covid).  I am currently writing for multiple positions.
How do I frame my reasons for applying for new jobs, which is entirely related to the behavior of my state, less so to my university, and not in the least to my department, which has worked hard to protect and help?
As a small additional question I wonder if I even want the letter from my chair, as it may invite questions?

Your personal circumstances should not affect your attractiveness as a candidate.
People move for personal reasons all the time: spouses getting better jobs elsewhere, proximity to better medical care or schools for their kids, less taxes, affordable housing, or because the weather sucks where they are now (shoutout to the British Isles!).
This question may arise in personal conversations when you interview, but should not be a factor (or even mentioned) in your application materials.
If your department head is supportive and your move is motivated purely by personal reasons, then you should have them write a letter.
I would advise against getting into details that may present your current institution in a negative light. Interviewers like candidates who present themselves as team players. Statements like “the university put me in a situation that threatened my health” may come across badly. Try to word it a bit more gently: “I heard that prospective institute name has excellent healthcare and this is a factor in my decision”.
Good luck!


What should you do when your professor does not pay you for completed research work? I had an oral agreement with a supervisor that I was to complete research work for him. We established how many hours I was to work, and my hourly rate, when the work was to be done, etc. I completed the work, sent it off to him, he gave me some feedback and asked me to correct some citations and so, I incorporated the feedback, made fixes to my citations and then never heard back from him.
I recently emailed him about not being paid; he told me that he was not able to use the work and instead offered to find me alternative funding opportunities in the future. When I insisted that I did the work and deserved to get paid for my time, he threatened to report me for academic integrity issues. I'm only a Master's student, and this is my first research assistant position. Is this normal? Who should I speak to about this?
I am not part of a union, and my supervisor approached me to do this work. I do have email correspondence that confirms we have an agreement, but not confirming the specific terms (e.g. he wrote emails where he told me, submit your work and your time/hour log and I will pay you). He later revealed he had used the grant money to pay a different student to do different work.
The oral contract was made in front of others. It was in a lab setting, so others definitely overheard. Another clarification was that another student was to take over the work I began because I was going on an exchange to a different school. So there is more proof of a contract existing between my supervisor and me. My #1 concern is the threat of reporting me for academic integrity. My #2 concern is getting paid. I've contacted my faculty and was advised to report this to the dean of my faculty, which I'll be doing shortly.

Is this normal?

No.  In most places, wage theft is a serious crime.

Who should I speak to about this?

The HR department.  Possibly also the department chair.  Provide a detailed written statement of what happened and when.


What are the expectations for a Ph.D. candidate in Scandinavia in particular? I am willing to pursue a PhD degree in Northern Europe (mostly in Scandinavia).
So, I take advice from differen professors of my university.

The exact question I asked was:

  I want to complete my PhD degree in a Scandinavian Country

Some of them told me that it does not matter where I want to go.
Others told me that it changes with respect to the region I want to go.

I was ready to be satisfied with only one common advise, however, most of them told me completely different expectations.

They can be summarized as:

Cumulative GPA should be 4.00/4.00.
You should publish a conference paper.
You must publish a journal paper in a mediocre journal.
Most important thing is getting very good reference letters.
It is just luck. You should give every university a try.
They mostly look at your cover letter.
You should find someone that you know from that university. He/she should advise you.

Are these sentences professors' own expectations? Or are some of them completely true?

Or...
Should I take all of them into consideration?

To sum up:
I am pursuing a PhD in Scandinavia. What should I do? Are the expected qualifications same as US or Asian countries?

In Finland, you usually start your PhD studies after your MSc studies. If you don't have an MSc yet, get it first.

Other than that, there are no unusual requirements or expectations. You just have to convince your potential supervisor that you personally are the best person in the world for this position. Hiring a PhD student is a huge investment — in the ballpark of hundreds of thousands of euros of grant money, plus numerous hours of their time to supervise the student — and you really have to convince the professor that you are worth all that.

A fairly common approach is to do your MSc studies in the same place, get to know the professors, work as a summer intern in their research groups, write a MSc thesis under their supervision, etc., and this way gradually convince them that you really are not just an excellent student but you also could become an excellent researcher.


Is it normal for a graduate student's fate to depend on the success of a breakthrough idea? I am officially a graduate student in a different department than where I have been working for the last ~6 months. (..(un?)fortunately this department where I were I now work is ranked almost the highest in that subject in the US than my previous...)

For a start, I work with two amazing assistant professors on an exciting project. The work we are doing is breakthrough historical stuff IF it works out. Obviously its insanely hard!

But then its also problematic that this project is so so hard. I get the feeling that my official status in the university and my prospect of getting any of these professors as my official advisers depends on the success of these projects! (I am not sure how to feel about it - its like I can continue in the PhD. only if I can may be also crack the most breakthrough question out there and get a Nobel! - thats what it feels like!)

How do I deal with this situation?
The psychological pressure is immense - its one thing to be involved in a cutting edge idea but its all together a different game when one's livelihood depends on its success! Is this a normal situation?

Might not be the best response but here I go:

Sometimes, it's better to think of a PhD as a process, rather than as a product. A graduate student's success is never solely dependent on a breakthrough, noble peace-winning result. Rather, it is dependent on a multitude of factors.

Will you lose your PhD should this result not work out? The short answer: Probably not.

Will this impact your 'status' at the university? I don't know, I don't think having 'status' is a good thing personally, as I think it creates disjuncture and limits our ability to produce good research when we get so tied up in politics (but I digress).

The PhD is not going to be your best work should you continue with Academia. Having a masterpiece, or breakthrough result will of course, heightened your prospects (should you be credited appropriately) but this is rare and not expected. The PhD is about fine-tuning your critical thinking and research skills, and prepares you for that road to noble peace winning, but it is not expected that you are producing amazing research at this level. If you do, it's a welcomed bonus. Many academics that I meet look to their PhDs 5-10-20 years down the road and laugh about them.

To help you not feel so stressed, my advice to you is:

1. Don't measure your self-worth on the success or fail rate of this project

2. Consider your PhD a process and not a product, and remind yourself that the PhD may be your best work (TO DATE) but will not be your best work in 5-10-20 years down the road.

3. Try to avoid viewing your PhD as something that has to be perfect, amazing and groundbreaking. This isn't to say that your research wouldn't relevant, interesting or groundbreaking in its own right. It just means that it might not be something that extends our knowledge to the point of receiving a Nobel Peace Prize. That also doesn't mean you won't get there either, you've got plenty of time :)

4. Stay informed about politics regarding status if this is going to impact your employability at your university or other potentials, but try to remain an observer as opposed to some who partakes. Doing so will keep you grounded but aware.