How do industry funded theses differ from purely academic ones? I am at a Canadian university about to choose the topic of my thesis in Electrical Engineering. I have the freedom to choose between different projects at the university. Some projects are purely academic and only funded by the university, while some are funded by large corporation's R&D departments. What differences would I experience while writing a thesis for industry vs. writing one for pure academia?

Your thesis must satisfy the requirements of your committee and university. In that sense the thesis coming out of an industry-sponsored project is no different than a thesis coming out of a government research grant. How you get there, and what happens along the way may differ compared to your peers.
Some differences to consider while working on an industry-sponsored project include:

(1) Additional oversight by your industry contact/group. They are sponsoring the research for some reason, and would like to keep it on track toward their goal. Often this includes meetings and reviews on-site at the company (see #3 below).

(2) Potential delays in publishing or releasing data to give their patent process time to run. Of course, more universities are looking at building a patent portfolio as well these days, but be sure to clear your conference and journal submissions with your industry contact. Up front find out how long this usually takes and factor it in to your submissions.

(3) Remember that you are auditioning for the company, particularly when visiting them. If you do well you might well get a job offer out of it (this is a prime reason for companies to sponsor research at a university by the way - a talent pipeline).

(4) It is entirely possible that you will be encouraged/asked to attend one or more industry meetings. While not as 'prestigious' as an academic conference, it would give you exposure to lots of companies that might want to hire you.

(5) You get to work on a problem that somebody else cares about. Taking something from research to development to product can be an exciting thing to do, and is not commonly a feature of university-based research projects. Either liking or hating the experience you have with the interaction can be a strong indicator of what you really want to do after your PhD.


Author on paper overly similar in content to previously published work I was a summer intern at a research group while I was in high school. They submitted a paper with me as an author and it was rejected in large part due to similarity to their previous paper which I am not an author on. I wasn't aware of this misconduct and am concerned this could follow me into my future career. Also, what is a good way to explain not wanting to be an author on future submissions of this paper, even though I contributed significantly (in fact my work was the only novel part)? I also don't want to burn bridges.

Also, should I refuse to be an author on any future paper with them, even if the paper no longer looks similar to the previous work? At this point I'm not sure if I can trust my former supervisors.

First of all, don't worry (yet). No one gets in trouble because a paper got rejected. If it had been retracted, that would be a different story.

Secondly, I would be slightly cautious on coming to the conclusion right away that this was misconduct. Work builds on old work. My latest manuscript was sent back because it didn't provide a proof that was 95% identical to a now 40 year old proof. If the paper is genuinely attempting to present published work as novel work (without mentioning that it was ever done before), that's certainly an issue. But if it's spends 80% of the paper saying "here are the things leading up to our contribution", that's fine. In my case, I resubmitted my paper with the proof, along with saying "this proof follows a nearly identical form as ...".

Finally, if you still feel that the work is, in fact, attempting to pass published work as novel, now you have yourself a situation. There's not really a nice way to handle it, but perhaps you could begin with saying "what do you think of the reviewer's comments about the work not being original?" If they do not give you a satisfactory answer, you can say "I'm sorry, but I don't feel comfortable putting my name on this work". As uncomfortable as that will be, the good news is that they cannot put your name on without your approval. Telling the group that you don't want your name on the paper will very likely burn a bridge, but it sounds like you may have more concerns by keeping that bridge intact.


What consequences are imposed by an institution when a researcher commits plagiarism? Not sure if you've been following the story of a South Korean Prodigy, who tried to get his PhD degree based on a proceedings article (copyright protected) that his advisor has previously published thirteen years ago, by duplicating everything word-for-word, and rearranging some equations. Not surprisingly, his article was retracted. The advisor and the student are still claiming innocence and saying that the reviewers of the article are not experts of the field. Their case is currently under review by their institution.

What I'm curious about is what happens when graduate students or more senior people are caught by plagiarism. In my fifteen years or so as an academic, I have never seen a paper so blatantly plagiarized, and it got me thinking about what I would do if one of the graduate students committed such plagiarism, and if I were asked to reprimand those who have committed plagiarism in an academic capacity (note that I am not talking about undergraduate students).

I would think that there should be a pretty severe punishment, since when the undergraduate students are caught cheating or copying their homework assignments, after maybe a warning, their transcript contains a record of it. If they continue to cheat, they could get expelled. And obviously, doing this as an academic is a much more serious thing.

So I am interested in those who have served as deans, or otherwise some kind of academic integrity panel in your institutions. Do these things happen frequently (obviously on a smaller scale)? How did you deal with it?

Different institutions have different policies in place; however, it is the duty of the author's institute to conduct a detailed investigation if there are allegations of plagiarism or any other form of misconduct. If the author/researcher is found guilty is confirmed, depending on the nature and extent of misconduct, one of more of the following actions may be taken by the institute:

At first, appropriate steps are taken to correct the damage
Letters of reprimand may be sent to the guilty persons
Sanctions are imposed on them
Their work may be closely monitored to ensure compliance with the funders' policies and publication ethics
The institute informs the funding agency and this can lead to suspension or termination of a grant
In extreme cases, the guilty person may be suspended or terminated from the institute
If copyright violations or fraud is involved, the institute sends the findings of the investigation to the appropriate agencies. The Office of Research Integrity (ORI) releases the names of people guilty of misconduct on its website. This can damage the reputation of the researcher, and he/she might be banned from submitting papers to journals for a certain period.


Is ethical approval needed for online studies? An online study, the participants had the full choice to fill the questionnaire and they signed (a check box) that they agree for sharing their data in the study. In this case, Do we need an ethical approval ?

The answer to the question "do we need ethical approval for X study" is ALWAYS yes.  The format is irrelevant.  Your institution's ethics review committee will have a category for "minimal or no participant risk" which will often have fewer detailed requirements for submission in instances such as the one you describe.

Nevertheless, the issue is about /independent/ assessment of ethical research.  Even when you believe your study guarantees /zero/ risks, you must have an independent panel validate your method.


How to politely explain editor is wrong We have a paper that is a second round R&R at a Journal that is a cognate field which is less technical than ours. The editor has been extremely conscientious and supportive through the process, but has made several suggestion that reveal he doesn’t really understand some of the deeper methodological details of our approach. In particular they are concerned that X could be playing a role but this is definitely not the case.

I don’t want to respond saying X can’t explain our results because textbooks prove otherwise.  We could probably handle this but this is the second round in which they have suggested X is an issue/explanation, despite us gently explaining in our first round response and adding a footnote explaining why X was not an issue. So we need to find a better way of persuading him that this isn’t an issue.

In particular, I am interested in solutions that avoid the need to explicitly contradict him.

I think you just lay out the facts as you see them, pointing to supporting evidence as necessary. If the editor can't be convinced then how you say things isn't going to matter much. Let the facts speak for themselves. Point up the flaws in X as applied to your work. And if you need to reference textbooks, do so, even citing page numbers.

You may lose the battle, but it may not be winnable at this journal. If the reviewer is wrong, but is someone trusted by the editor you have a losing situation. If you sense that then withdraw politely and go to another journal.


Will low grades on my transcript ruin my chances of getting into an MBA program, even if I retake classes for course forgiveness? I'm sure this question has been asked frequently. However, I'm an undergrad, currently finished my sophomore first semester. I have gotten Ds (twice currently, not in the same semesters) on my transcripts due to mental health issues and having not withdrawn before the drop deadline. However, I have retaken the first D and plan to retake the other as well under course forgiveness. They won't be factored in my GPA but they will show up on my transcript. I just wanted to know how bad grades on transcript would affect my chances when will applying to MBA programs?

You will have the opportunity to discuss your transcript in your Personal Statement when you apply. You may choose to discuss it or not, you may have a better story you may want to talk in lieu of it later in your life, i.e a project you worked on, an internship, etc.


How to assess the proportion of post docs in a lab that go on to become PIs? Is there any good resource to figure out the track record of academic success of research lab’s alumni (e.g. how many of postdocs became a PI)?

I'm a grad student in the US who will finish PhD next spring, and I've just started to find a postdoc position. I realized it's crucial to find an postdoc advisor who has a good track record of alumni's getting job in academia, since I want to be a PI in the future.

It looks like many famous labs with big papers actually have too many postdocs and grad students so that not many of them have successful career. Productivity per person is diluted too much in those labs. I also doubt one's publication record is the only factor for success in getting a PI position as far as I hear from people around me. (Of course, I know that if you have a big paper in a big lab, that is the best way to get a position)

I am open to go to any country for work if the working environment is good. My field is biophysics with some flavor of materials science.

One approach is to simply ask the potential post doc supervisors. That said, if I received a random email from someone asking how many of my post docs have gone on to get academic positions, I would probably ignore it. If however, that email came from someone I had previously talked to about doing a post doc with me, I would be happy to tell them about my past post docs and where they went. You should then talk to former members of the lab and see if the PI's view of the world matches their views. While a single descriptive statistic like percentage of students who went on to get academic positions might seem like it is easier to interpret, it likely only provides a portion of the story.


Should I contact professors in Europe to enquire about PhD positions given the ongoing pandemic? I am a 2nd year masters student in Mathematics in an Asian University and my masters will be completed this month.

I wrote to professors in December and January asking about open positions in their working group for PhD in number theory but could find only 2 offers, and 1 without funding.

So, I am thinking of writing to some more professors in Hungary and Sweden.

  My question is, is it the right decision to mail my CV and ask them about open positions when COVID-19 is affecting the whole of Europe?

Universities in Italy are taking PhD applications, but still I want to ask opinions of users here and also due to the reason that the admission process in my country are completely stopped due to the pandemic.

Any advice will be really appreciated.

It is always good to send inquiries and applications for positions, in consideration of the pandemic, you need to think about transportation, amount of time you can potentially wait until the position must be filled, and whether you are qualified enough to be worth the inconvenience of what was previously mentioned. Many airlines are open, so I don’t suspect transportation will be an issue, and with the vaccine rolling out in Europe, I don’t suspect they will be too picky about foreign hires, the main issue arrises on how long you want the institution to wait before you will start in your position, as applying with the hope of waiting out the virus most likely will end up with you not landing the position; otherwise, it’s a great idea to apply to the institutions that meet your standards and vise versa.


What is the possibility of being rejected by Graduate school if a professor has already acclaimed to give me a RA offer I have passed several loops of evaluation by a professor, who would like to be my future advisor. He told me that he made his final decision on me and was pleased to offer me a RA position in his lab. He asked me to submit my application and he could expedite the application so that I could get the admission quickly. But I have a weakness of undergraduate GPA(3.01/4, he didnt ask for any transcript information during our connection). I'm waiting for the admission information but very uptight about the result. I'm super worried about being rejected by the graduate school because of my undergraduate gpa.

If the Graduate School has the final say, then you will have to wait for their decision - we cannot guess their response, and probably neither can the professor.

However, if the professor has the final say and the Grad School just processes his acceptance then you should be fine, assuming there are no hidden things...


What does it mean "a dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction"? It appears in thesis, e.g. "A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction
of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics".

Does it mean the thesis is OK for a Ph.D, just some reviewers have comments? or does it mean that it's not good enough for Ph.D, and although the one summits it will not continue to work on the thesis, but still decide to submit it for, i don't know, archiving?

This is a standard bit of text that means that the dissertation is submitted towards one of the requirements for the PhD degree. There are other requirements (e.g. coursework, oral defense), so the dissertation alone is not enough to earn the degree.

It says nothing about the quality of the dissertation.


In a new job; is it OK to recommend a partner for a job search? I just started a new job teaching at a university last September; because of that, I’m also in a long-distance relationship. (We’re not married or even engaged at this point.) My partner is also in my field and has applied for a job in my department which would start this September. My question is: is it out-of-line for me to contact one of my colleagues on the hiring committee, explain the situation, and ask about the status of my partner’s application? Obviously, since I am a brand new hire, I don’t want to be overstepping my bounds here, and I’m unsure if I have any real “say” in the matter to begin with.

Any advice would be appreciated!

My question is: is it out-of-line for me to contact one of my colleagues on the hiring committee, explain the situation, and ask about the status of my partner’s application?

This is definitely out-of-line --- any contact with the hiring committee to attempt to influence them in favour of hiring your partner is contrary to the assurances that universities make to applicants to hire on merit.  If you do this, you will rightly be seen as attempting to influence the hiring process based on considerations where you have a personal interest.  Secondarily, the hiring committee probably has no right to give any information to you on the status of any person's application, since you are not part of the hiring process (and if you were, you would need to declare a conflict of interest).

I would strongly recommend you don't raise this at all, particularly if you are a new staff member.  Depending on the particular rules of your institution, there is a possibility that this could be considered a breach of university rules, or even a form of employee misconduct, which is not a good start to your position.  Please bear a thought for the other applicants for the position, who are not dating an academic in your department.  These people want fair consideration on their merits, without any "whispers in the ear" of the hiring committee.


The GRE: Why does this still exist? I did my undergraduate degree in the US and am heading to graduate school here in less than a month, so I myself have taken the Graduate Record Examinations (the general as well as two subjects tests) and I guess it always just seemed as a sort of un-avoidable formality that nothing could be done about, and so I just took it and got it over with.

In the intervening year between undergrad and the start of my Ph.D. work, however, I traveled overseas to Cambridge where I found that I was quite mistaken:  the GRE is very, very avoidable.  The solution is simple:  don't apply to universities in the US.

By the time I had arrived there, I had already gotten it over with myself, but for most of my peers there, this was not the case, and quite a few of them had simply decided to not even bother applying to the US because of the inconvenience that comes along with that in the form of the GRE.

This made me wonder:  are admissions committees at US universities aware of the number of highly qualified candidates they miss out on because of the GRE?

I could understand being willing to miss out on the potential recruitment of these students if the GRE were a significant part of one's application, but I have yet to find any US professor tell me that the GRE scores are weighted highly when it comes to making admissions decisions (perhaps I just haven't asked around enough?).  In fact, I've often been told it's the least important factor when deciding whether someone should be admitted.  (Indeed, my impression is that the general GRE is more or less a joke and only serves as a convenient way of tossing out applicants who would have been found un-qualified for other reasons.)

Putting aside for a moment the issue of those who decide not to apply to US universities, let's consider the inconvenience faced by those who do.  Once again, if you're from the US, I can imagine simply not being aware of this (I know I wasn't), but I now know of several people who have had to fly (sometimes the flights have even been inter-continental!) in order to sit to take a GRE test.  And even for those who don't (like probably most of us in the US), there is the ridiculous price:  almost $200 for the general and an extra $150 per subject test. I was under the impression that admissions committees encourage people from all backgrounds to apply, rich or poor, but how can they honestly expect this to happen if even those who don't have to fly have to shell out anywhere from $300-$500 in addition to the application fee? (I personally find it a bit nuts that these tests cost several times more than the application itself.)

So, could somebody please explain to me why we still require students to take these things? Do they really add information about the applicant and their abilities that could not be found out any other way?

Empirical evidence on the relationship between GRE scores and post-graduate performance

There is a massive meta-analysis by Kuncel et al (2001) that empirically evaluates the correlations between various aspects of the GRE with multiple post-graduate performance criteria.

Based on hundreds of studies and thousands of participants, GRE shows  reasonable correlations with post-graduate GPA (i.e., around observed r = .21 to r=.43). Similar correlations emerged between GRE and faculty ratings of the student.

Correlations of GRE with research productivity and publication citation counts were smaller, but still positive. This is not surprising given that these are more distal outcomes and there are many non-academic reasons why people may or may not pursue an academic career or have publishable results.

The authors thus concluded that GRE was a valid predictor of a wide range of graduate outcomes. They also noted that "subject tests tended to be better predictors than the verbal, quantitative, and analytical tests."

In general, selection decisions are assisted by standardisation, and a big part of academic achievement involves measuring baseline ability. Thus, the GRE combines both standardisation and competence measurement.

Response to comments

There have been a few points made in other answers and in comments, which I'll comment on here:

Conflict of interest:  @msw wrote that they "consider the cited paper to be junk because ETS provided all available data". In general, I don't find the results in the meta-analysis surprising. Most tests like the GRE tend to have fairly strong correlations with general cognitive ability. It is well established through thousands of independent studies that IQ scores correlate fairly well with both school grades and job performance (i.e., in the r=.50 range; see Neisser et al 1996 for a field consensus review). The results show correlations less than .50, but that's not surprising given some of the issues around standardisation, practice, range restriction, domain specificity and so on.
Belief there is no correlation based on personal observation: Note that if the correlation is around .20, that means that 4% of variance has been explained. That leaves a huge amount of variance in performance to still be explained. It would not be surprising to meet many people that did well on GRE and poor in graduate school or vice versa. Thus, it is problematic to rely on personal experience when it comes to evaluating the validity of tests where such correlations are likely to be only modest.
Small correlations are useful: While a .20 correlation is small, it can still help make selection decisions. In particular, when evaluating the suitability of selection tools, you need to contrast the validity of a given tool with other available tools (e.g., interviews, GPA, references, and so on). I'm not as familiar with results in the graduate selection domain, but certainly in the employee selection domain, which is quite analogous, cognitive ability tests tend to correlate more highly than interviews, references and so on (for a comprehensive meta analysis of employee selection, see Schmidt and Hunter, 1998). That said, the best selection decisions are typically obtained by integrating multiple selection tools. Furthermore, the small correlation also should highlight to individuals who score poorly on the GRE that it is not that predictive, and therefore it shouldn't discourage an individual from pursing post-graduate study.
Does training invalidate the GRE?: @user8134 wrote "many people significantly improve their GRE scores by taking courses with prepping companies like Kaplan. So it seems GRE test does not measure any intrinsic ability/talent necessary for grad. school." I agree that individual differences in training and preparation for the GRE may influence test scores. That said, if you characterise test scores to be determined by true ability, training, and error variance, then I would expect that true ability would remain the much larger source of explanation in test scores. This is based on general observations about testing for ability based assessment. In general, the degree to which training is an issue would depend on how much the test materials teach to the specific test. Overall, I would assume that this would reduce the potential validity of GRE, but that the GRE would still be useful. Furthermore, training and nuisance factors can be used to do better on many selection instruments. For example, people can be coached on how to frame their CV or how to answer questions in interviews. Such training is potentially a source of error variance, but it doesn't invalidate CVs and interviews completely.
Why would anyone care about post-graduate GPA? (@JeffE) @JeffE further notes " in PhD programs, the only thing that really matters is the student's research output.".  Some post-graduate courses include meaningful graded coursework and others don't. For the courses that do include meaningful coursework, then such coursework provides a more standardised way of measuring post-graduate performance. So the validity of GRE  in predicting  such outcomes is not surprising. And thus, presumably we could generalise this to being indicative of how people perform in less standardised aspects of post-graduate performance. Of course, there's an inferential leap here, but in general, performance in related domains tend to correlate (e.g., coursework in mathematics with research performance in mathematics); it's not perfect, but it's still a positive correlation. Furthermore, if the validation study includes some post-graduate coursework where everyone gets top marks and such data is mixed with studies where grades are valid measures of performance, this would only serve to attenuate the observed correlation. Thus, this would suggest that the correlation between GRE and post-graduate GPA is higher than reported by the meta-analysis. Also, the meta-analysis does report correlations with research output and they are weaker but still positive. It also reports correlations with supervisor ratings.
Better alternatives to GRE: None of my comments above are necessarily advocating the use of the GRE. Developing an effective selection and recruitment system whether it be for employment or post-graduate admission is a complex task. That said, most post-graduate selection systems would want to get a reliable and valid measure of academic aptitude. GRE, IQ tests, other ability tests, undergraduate GPA, all have reasonably validity evidence. And in general standardisation and efficiency are important. So, for example, administering your own selection tools takes more time, whereas taking pre-existing measures like GPA and GRE is more efficient.
Ethics of requiring applicants pay money to complete GRE: Several people are critical of the GRE on the basis that it costs several hundred dollars to complete. I think that this is a perfectly legitimate question, but that the question of predictive validity can be answered separately. Such a fee could potentially discriminate against low income applicants. That said, presumably the fee in comparison to forgone wages associated with completing a post-graduate degree is fairly small.

References

Kuncel, N. R., Hezlett, S. A., & Ones, D. S. (2001). A comprehensive meta-analysis of the predictive validity of the graduate record examinations: implications for graduate student selection and performance. Psychological bulletin, 127(1), 162. PDF
Neisser, U., Boodoo, G., Bouchard Jr, T. J., Boykin, A. W., Brody, N., Ceci, S. J., ... & Urbina, S. (1996). Intelligence: Knowns and unknowns. American psychologist, 51(2), 77. PDF
Schmidt, F. L., & Hunter, J. E. (1998). The validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: Practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research findings. Psychological bulletin, 124(2), 262. PDF


how to be successful in CS field with inadequate background? Can just passion help for surviving grad school? My background:
5 years ago, I did my undergrad from an Indian University and did some random jobs unrelated to my field of study.My undergraduate grade is 2.92/4.0. Now, I got admitted to grad school(in US) for CS and my grades are not well, I scored 2.80/4.0 for the course design and analysis of algorithms. BTW, I am still interested and feel passionate to complete masters.

My questions are:

How to survive grad school with bad grades and inadequate background knowledge.
How should I work to improve my programming skills? and what are the prerequisite skills in order to be successful in this field?
how to access myself if I am the right fit for grad school?

For now, I am trying to solve online coding challenges(project Euler, coder byte etc). Their easy level questions are a bit hard but I  am slowing trying to solve by myself. And want to utilize this summer break to fullest.

Please help me in figuring out things like, and what I should or shouldn't be doing both in my break and to survive grad school. Thanks!

You do not sound like the strongest CS student. It appears that with luck, you will just "get by" in CS, and graduate near the bottom of the class. As long as you are resigned to that likelihood, and to just doing what you need to survive, you should continue.

The potential rewards could well make the effort worthwhile. Modern corporate development, particularly management, is about computing. I envision a "management" track for you, rather than a programming track. And if so, your skill level, such as it is, will give you the advantage over many managers. Your "passion" would be a big plus in this environment.

Your "endgame" may well be a degree in management, with CS only as a stepping stone. It might even make sense for you to leave CS, take a degree in management (MBA or Indian equivalent), and return to CS later when you have better idea of how to "manage" yourself in such a program. Some MBA programs even offer CS as a minor, so you could take "a few" more CS courses there without risking a whole degree.


What are differences between various indexing service: SCI, SSCI, SCOPUS and others? I wanted to submit a paper to "Computer & Education (IF: 3.819 and indexed in many other indexing system)" journal by Elsevier, but unfortunately submitted a paper to "The Internet and Higher Education (IF 4.238 and indexed in few services compared to previous journal)" journal by Elsevier. I have only checked the impact factor and ranking of journal in the ICT and education domain but forgot to reconfirm whether it is indexed in SCI or SSCI.

My most of the peers talk about the SCI and SSCI papers, and they ignore SCOPUS indexing papers. My paper that I submitted to "The Internet and Higher Education" has already gone for review process. Is there any way to get rid of it?

There are lot of questions embedded in your question. Follow the following links:

Difference between SCOPUS and Web of Science
What is the difference between SCI and SCIE?
SSCI-Wiki

Googling further would result in more comprehensive answers. See the related question on the right-hand side of your academia SE page.

  My paper that I submitted to "The Internet and Higher Education" has already gone for review process. Is there any way to get rid of it?

Answer is YES and NO. YES: You can write email to editor and ask for withdrawal. NO: You should not do it.


How to answer the question "Why do you deserve a scholarship?" when applying for a scholarship? I'm in the process of applying for master of "Parallel and Distributed Computer Systems" in VU university. The university requires me to write a letter describing why I deserve a scholarship. I have written this letter multiple times, but every time I read it from beginning to end I feel it contains pride words and I think this will not help me to get scholarship.

Can someone help me to write effective letters like this?

Committee must be convinced that the money will be well used. It would look best if you told you would invest the money to become better at the field of your studies (buy literature, go to conferences, pay for some courses or certifications, publishing your articles in journals). However, trying to look perfect could backfire. In my country it would be reasonable if you wrote that part of the scholarship would be spent on something not related to education. But that depends on the country, culture, traditions, committee members etc.

You must also convince the committee that you will do good in studies. That is why you should mention your study results and achievements.

You must convince the committee that you like the field of your studies, you are passionate and will keep working hard. If your studies have helped you at your work, mention that. Also mention your short and long term goals - educational and professional.

You can also mention your strongest characteristics and give arguments. (example: leadership abilities, you lead a student team in project x which was successful. )

The motivation letter as a whole is the answer to the question "Why do you deserve a scholarship?”

edit #1: I changed the part about spending scholarship money on something not education related, because of the comment by Trylks.


Is it possible to use one thesis for two degrees? I am currently a masters physics student and doing my master thesis abroad during an exchange. At the moment my master thesis will be graded by my home university, but I have the option to enroll on the exchange university, thus being a master student there (and my master thesis will be graded there, too). Furthermore I will get a master degree from this university, and not from my home one.

Now my question is: Is it theoretically possible to use this master thesis for graduating at my home university, too (getting me two master degrees)? If not, should I still enroll on the exchange university and only get my masters degree there (it would not result in a loss of time; I would finish as I would have finished my masters degree at my home university)? Why?

Yes, it is theoretically possible that a university accepts a thesis that has been used to acquire another degree (I even know cases where this happened for two different fields). Usually, the only way to find out is to ask the responsible people at your home university and your exchange university. The latter matters because it might cause trouble if they have some regulations about you “reusing” your thesis. I can imagine that some universities have existing regulations for this matter, so you might check them first to avoid annoying people by asking something that you could have looked up easily.

If this is not possible, I can think of some factors to consider as to which university’s degree you want to get:

One university’s degree might have a generally higher prestige.
Relatedly, a foreign degree might not be accepted or be less valued by potential future employers (be they academic or not). This might even hold, if there are international regulations to make degrees comparable (I know somebody who did a second thesis partly due to this).
Finishing the degree at a foreign university while not completing the degree you originally set out to achieve might be regarded as unfinished studies by some bureaucrats, which is more likely to be negative than positve. Even worse, this may ring title-mill alerts to some. And yes, this would all be rather silly but unfortunately very real.

So, if this is any realistic, make as much decisions about your future as possible and ask potential employers as to whether they have any preference regarding this.


How to organize a session at a conference? I was recently asked by the cluster chair
to organize a session at a conference on topic X.
How does one go about organizing a conference session?

In my field, applied mathematics, this would mean find 4-8 people who are willing to participate in the conference and give a talk in your session. Small print: they are going to have to pay their own conference fee, and we do not reimburse any expense to them or give financial support of any kind.

Typically you find these people by asking them in person or sending them an e-mail. Do not overbook, as people accept more often than not, if it is a good conference.

This is how most conference sessions are organized -- if the conference itself is respectable, there is nothing suspicious about it.


Is it okay to print an ebook downloaded online? Good day everyone. Today's era allows us to download an ebook of some books easily using a search engine such as google.

I just need your help about the question: Is it okay to print an ebook downloaded online for reference purposes?

Thanks for your help.

There are two cases here:

You bought and downloaded the ebook legally. In this case it most likely came with a license, stating exactly what you are allowed to do with it. Most of the time you will be allowed to print it for personal use. However, there are also ebooks available by library services, which you only get for a certain amount of time (e.g. two weeks). In this case, printing it would be just as illegal as going into a library, getting a book, go to a copy shop, print the whole thing and then return it. In most cases, such library services will have a way to prevent or at least hinder printing, so if you need special software and some "hacks" you found online to print the book, you have to be careful.
You downloaded the ebook for free. In this case the question at hand is not if you can print it or not, it is if the download was legal or not. There are books available online for free, but many of them are not legal. If in doubt, contact the original author. I would say that if you downloaded an ebook and then print it out, the printing itself doesn't make a potential illegal download any worse - unless of course you distribute the book - but I'm no expert for copyright, so I can't give a definitive answer on that.

I will furthermore not comment on "how bad" an illegal download of an ebook is, depending on who you ask it might differ from "who cares?" to "you are going to jail!".


Is being the second author out of two authors for papers from my PhD thesis going to affect my future job prospects? I have completed my PhD recently and will be looking for academic jobs. During my Phd thesis work I published two papers with my thesis advisor and have put him as a first author. It was out of reverence for the guide and I have never discussed this openly with him. Both of these papers have two authors with me as second author. My question is that since I am not the first author, will that create a major issue for me while applying for academic jobs? My field of research is in computer science.

There are a lot of variables here. I'm in the US and personally never considered the order of authors significant, assuming generally that all were contributors. But in other places and with other persons it may be different. Do people assume that the first (or last) author is the "real author" and everyone else gets a free ride? I hope that isn't so. But I can't guarantee it.

Many people, it seems, include their dissertation advisor on papers arising from that work. I doubt that it is necessary and others are recommended to ask the advisor before they send the paper for publication. Many would suggest they not be included, but other advisors would have other advice. You might be able to avoid the OP's dilemma.

For purposes of job applications it will be useful, of course, if these are not the only papers you have in publication. If you have a few more, on which you are the sole author you will likely be in a good place.

However, your job prospects depend on more than your CV. Focus on that. If someone is hiring and gets a lot of applications, the first thing they do, typically, is to sort the candidates into two piles. The big pile is people who won't be considered. You want to get yourself into the small pile, but that will depend on more than the publications on your CV, including what you say about yourself in the opening (cover) letter. It will depend on your experience as well and how suitable your background is for the advertised job.

If you can make up a complete application package that gets you into the small pile, then your concern won't matter at all, since you will probably get an interview for the job and, if necessary, explain that this work was your dissertation work, done by you, with appropriate assistance. Your respect for your advisor led you to list him/her first. I don't think you can successfully explain that other than in person, however. It isn't the sort of thing that should be in the CV.

However, it might be possible to add a parenthetical note to the listings of the articles that this paper was based on your dissertation. Don't say more, however, and be careful even about that. I suggest it as a possibility, but don't necessarily recommend it.

But, again, your goal is to get an interview in which you can show the interviewers how suitable you are for the position.

And write a lot of papers as sole author if possible.


Internship research is too complex for me to understand I'm studying CS and this year I should obtain my bachelor's degree.
I'm required to do a mandatory internship, and I'm doing it with a professor that asked me if I would join his research project. Right now, my assignment is to search for a paper about a challenging task in computer vision and to implement it (prostate segmentation in TRUS images, without using supervised learning).
The problem is: I've only taken the first basic course in computer vision, and I don't understand at least 80% of every paper. What should I do? Should I tell my professor I'm not suited for this task? If I change the internship, and consequently, my thesis, I almost surely won't be able to get my degree this year.

You should definitely talk with your adviser about your concerns. Perhaps asking them to point you to the relevant material you should read before you start reading the papers, which in many cases are written for the experts in the field. Your adviser can estimate the level of knowledge you have according to your resume, so I doubt they will be surprised if you ask to help with finding out the right literature for you.


Is scientific misconduct relatively normalised in some countries or academic cultures? My question was provoked by this comment, and the fairly popular responses to it. I've seen similar sentiment expressed before, though always as asides rather than any direct 'accusation'.

In my country (UK) and perhaps the West overall, academic dishonesty is a cardinal sin - whether committed by students or especially by researchers. As a completing PhD student who returned from industry I can see why: the whole system depends on trust to a degree that frankly surprised me a little initially*. The threat to one's name and career that dishonesty would pose looms far larger than any potential benefits.

Are academic cultures from other countries more lax on this point? Are researchers from these countries more likely to prioritise "getting ahead at all costs" over the validity of their work? Do the comments I've seen reflect informal prejudice (perhaps widely held but nonetheless anecdotal), or an objectively evidenced phenomena?

Surely the scientific output from such a culture would be completely bankrupt? At minimum I cannot see how such a system (which serves to keep scientists in jobs more than producing new knowledge) would interface with the West's: on an individual level at least, once someone is outed as a charlatan many potential employers and collaborators will not touch them with a barge pole.

To reiterate, I am asking whether there is evidence that some countries or academic cultures take a more relaxed view on dishonesty. I'm also interested in what the consequences are for the international standing of those cultures and their scientists.

*Industry benefits from the natural selection of frequently reused ideas by high, proximal cost of failure. The scientific equivalent should in theory be replication...

To answer directly, yes, but this needs to be detailed for a complete understanding. In my opinion, there are two aspects that must be considered

Lax view on dishonesty
what counts as dishonesty

There are some countries that have a more lazed view on dishonesty, one is my home country.

Cheating in an exam is always punished (not harshly though), but rarely looked upon by colleagues. Moreover, you usually have options to retake the exam if you were caught cheating and if you pass, you're at par with everyone else. But to really understand the phenomena, you need a little bit more context.

Where I come from, I had university classes where we had to memorize full lectures and all you had to do at the exam was to write the full lecture on paper. The whole exam was pointless, you didn't learn anything anyway, so if you could bypass the exam, it would mean that you managed to save some time that nobody gives you back. I even had a senile (literally, it's sad) professor who was giving sort of random grades, barely correlated with the number of pages you wrote and the graphs you made, without even reading what you wrote. Moreover, the study material was about techniques not in use for the past 20 years at least. If you take what I just said for granted, I think everyone would reach the conclusion that studying for this class in order to pass the exam is not only pointless, but the wrong approach, since the goal is to write as much as possible and draw some pretty, barely related graphs.

By now you probably think that the university I'm talking about must be some fake/scam university in an underdeveloped country. Again, you have to trust me, and I see how I am very hard to trust, but this university is considered a respectable university in a EU country.

To conclude this point, some countries have a more relaxed view on academic dishonesty, but things still go on, because the academic is pulled by other aspects of the society that work better. For example, I went through all this classes of this university and graduated, and this granted me a diploma that allowed me to join a masters programme at a world TOP 50 university, in another EU country. So basically, the good politics were good enough to join the Bologna system and EU, which allowed this backwards university to exist in order to provide diplomas for people for which diplomas are vital for their future. Even though I had such a horrific background, I performed well on my masters, at least at par and sometimes even better than students with good backgrounds.

Now going to the second point. Not everything that would be considered academic dishonesty in western countries is considered dishonesty in other countries. For example, a failure to cite half a page of verbatim copy in a PhD thesis in a western countries would be academically fatal. Where I come from, these things get relativized to other issues that there are in the countries, and I would add, for a good reason. It's easy to see plagiarism as the worst sin ever if in your bubble it is indeed  the worst sin ever. But when one public person is accused of embezzling millions or even tens of millions of dollars, and then the accused accuses the accuser that he copied some paragraphs in his PhD thesis, it is easy to see how the public opinion doesn't care about, literally, some copied words on a piece of paper. Then these things work as examples for the public, and the conclusion is: it is fine to plagiarize, but it is not fine to steal millions of dollars from public money. Both are bad, but at scale, the first is negligible and can be approximated with "not bad".

I don't want my examples to be used as some sort of reasoning to discriminate people that come from countries with different ethical standards, because everything that someone from these countries does, because he developed different cultural ethical standards, a person from a western country can do as well, just because he doesn't hold to his cultural ethical standards.

Considering the original question, and my cultural background, I think it might be valuable for the answer of this question, my answer to the original question.

I personally consider that it is not unethical if, the person that was asked to write a recommendation letter (the professor), does not mention the incident, if he truly recommends the student for the PhD position. Moreover, I consider it unethical to include negative comments in a recommendation letter. My reasoning for this is that a recommendation letter is just that, a recommendation letter. It should only include why you recommend someone, the fact that you recommend that person is already clear from the existence of the letter. A recommendation letter is not a summary report on previous activity. The moment you include negative comments in a recommendation letter, you start being deceiving towards the person that you are recommending, by giving false hopes, and also towards the committee to which the letter is addressed, by recommending someone you do not truly believe it should be recommended.

In my opinion, if someone writes a negative recommendation letter (logically broken expression), the letter says more about the writer, than its subject.


How to test (admitted) grad students before hiring them in your lab Recruiting "bad" PhD students who only become emotional, temporal, and financial drag is not good for anybody. I was listening to the recent freakonomics podcast episode, and thought it would be great to use tricks for testing the candidates before hiring them. Interviewing only can tell you so much, but unlike industry, PI's have more time to test the students before committing to seriously bring them into their research program.

In a related question, some qualities of successful students were discussed. Specifically, I want to test for

persistence/focus
creativity
logical/systematic thinking
communication
teamwork
"smartness"
some basic skills (programming, computer skills, writing, etc.)

At the same time I do not want to punish for lack of knowledge or experience. Also, I'm okay with eccentric personalities to a certain degree.

I've seen PIs testing their candidates by giving them mini research problems before hiring them (or while they are rotating in the lab). Some students will quickly finish the task and further explore the science on their own write fantastic reports/papers, while some students never finish the simplest first step. This seems to work fine (but some students might think it is not fair). I would like to learn if there are some quick tests that would reveal the quality of the candidate.

What tricks/procedures do you use?

P.S. I am in a computation/theory heavy science in US.

EDIT: I am especially looking forward to King Solomon's cutting the baby in half type of creative solutions. Perhaps PI can ask the student to do an impossible task and see how long it takes before the student says he/she thinks it is impossible.

What tricks/procedures do you use?
I am especially looking forward to King Solomon's cutting the baby in half type of creative solutions. Perhaps PI can ask the student to do an impossible task and see how long it takes before the student says he/she thinks it is impossible.

You're contemplating starting out a long-term, intense professional relationship with this person. "Tricks" like this are dishonest. Dishonesty is not a good way to begin such a relationship.
The situation is similar to an ordinary job interview. In a job interview, it's not just the employer who is judging the candidate. The candidate is also judging whether the employer is someone they'd want to work for. Manipulative interview techniques are a flashing red light telling the candidate that this is not an employer who respects his employees.
Another thing that a job candidate is looking for is an employer who will support him in his long-term professional growth, rather than treating him as a labor commodity who needs to be productive from day one. This holds even more for a student getting started in a PhD program; the reason universities claim that grad students are not employees is that they're supposed to be focused on learning, not on acting as cheap labor.
In the usual case where the student does a rotation in your group, that's the opportunity for each of you to see if you're a good fit for the other. It's meant to be an experience that helps the student to learn and grow, not one that produces a lot of research. Part of what the university is paying you to do is to provide these opportunities for these students to learn and grow. If, by the end of the rotation, the student has shown a lack of aptitude, then you've provided the service you're being paid to provide.


Department head said that group project may be rejected. How to mitigate? I'm a Computer Science student in Bangalore, India, doing a part time MTech at an autonomous university.

My classmates were avoiding working with me, and formed their own groups. I tried approaching one group but they were not willing to reveal their topic idea. So I spoke with students of three different branches: Electronics, Civil and Automotive, to see if I could work with them. While they were initially okay with it, they later backed out citing lack of time from company work.

A Civil dept teacher said I could do the project alone, so I told my department head that I would be doing the project alone. He mentioned by email that university norms require 4 people working on a group project and the Academic Registrar's permission would be required to do it alone. I replied (CC'ing my mentor) asking if I would have to meet the registrar. I received no reply. Subsequently I created my pre-project presentation and initial demo and showed it to my mentor and the department head. I got an okay for the project topic. Yesterday I presented the completed project. My mentor and two other faculty members loved it. My mentor asked if I got the Registrar's permission. I said I thought department head sir was going to handle that. I asked if it would be a problem and she said it might not be a problem.

Today my department head emails this:

  I recall that your topic was okayed but not that you alone would work on the group project as it was mentioned that university has its norms.
  So if your project is not accepted by university for the reasons that you are not in a group, your project  may not be considered. Please be aware that this may happen. This was also about working in a group.

How do I reply to this? During the entire two months my mentor, the department head and even classmates were aware that I was doing the project alone. Is this a way of setting a precedent for other students? Can the university reject the project? I'm a working professional. Working in groups is an everyday job. Even companies have realized that certain people perform better when not in a group and are hired as "individual contributors". What is a university's purpose in forcing people to work together.

I'm scared now. What would be the right way to respond to him without sounding defensive? (I have cordial relations with all my teachers and department head. They know me as a good student)

Update 29th May: acknowledging my error was crucial. I did that and the HoD, my mentor and the registrar gave a retrospective approval, knowing that my not obtaining permission was not due to disobedience and that I had genuinely tried hard to find and convince project partners. Big relief. Thank you all for your help. And y'all were right. There was a good chance the university could have rejected the project.

It seems like this will come down to your university's rules and the personalities involved. Still, let's consider:

  He mentioned by email that university norms require 4 people working on a group project and the Academic Registrar's permission would be required to do it alone.

So you were very specifically told, in writing, that you would need to get approval from the registrar.

  I replied (cc'ing my mentor) asking if I would have to meet the registrar. I received no reply.

And you didn't get approval from the registrar. As a "working professional", you should know that you can't just send one e-mail and then drop the matter -- it's your responsibility to run this to ground.

  My mentor asked if I got the Registrar's permission.

Well that was predictable

  During the entire two months my mentor, the HoD and even classmates were aware that I was doing the project alone.

They probably assumed that you had gotten approval from the registrar as they had told you to. It would have been nice if they had followed up on this, but this is not their responsibility.

  I'm a working professional. Working in groups is an everyday job. Even companies have realized that certain people perform better when not in a group and are hired as "individual contributors". What is a university's purpose in forcing people to work together.

This is very much not the point. The program can impose whatever (reasonable) requirements it wants. Learning to work in groups is a reasonable goal, regardless of whether you personally already have background working in groups.

  What would be the right way to respond to him without sounding defensive?

This is the part that comes down to your university's rules and the personalities involved. It may be that this is a strict rule and there is nothing that anyone can do. Or, it may be that there is a process for an appeal or exception. I would start by recognizing that you are in the wrong.


Selecting the relevant papers for a survey paper I have to write? I have to write a paper as an assignment for one of the courses that I take in University.

The main outcome of this lecture is having a good final paper in the end. As we are Masters students, the paper that I am going to write resembles more a survey paper in a given topic, rather than a research paper presented by the authors of a specific research.

I have my topic assigned already. I have done my literature search and organized all the papers that I want to use. Unfortunately, at this point I am not that deep into the topic. But, everything I read seems to me like relevant for the topic, and somehow useful.

I have had difficulties with a similar situation before. As I was trying to include as much as possible relevant material to the survey paper, to make is complete. But in the end I was blamed that the paper loses its coherence.

Now I am stuck. In fact I am reluctant, because reading multiple papers, multiple times, writing them and then getting bad remarks does not feel nice.

What criteria should I use to filter my papers all over again, and what approach should I use when writing a survey paper.

The answer may differ from field to field.

First of all ask yourself "What is the central question" or the goal of you paper?

Do you want to give an overview on all aspects of the theory / concept? Or is it more about the central aspect of the theory / concept and extensions / applications are not that interesting? Or something else?

Then think about the story you want to tell. If its about the theory itself you might want to talk about the development of the theory, central aspects, proofs, and maybe some applications or extensions at the end.

If you want to give a general overview, try to create groups, are there some main movements, aspects, fields of application? Where are the links between these things?

Then select your paper according to this "central story".

While writing think about the audience of you paper, which concepts are common knowledge? Which are important to explain? Which depth of information is appropriate?

And, of course, try to get more feedback: Read the feedback of your old paper, then read your paper and try to find the flaws. Ask the person who graded you to give you some advice. Read some paper of your fellow students which got good marks, find out what you like about them.

in short:

1. Identify the central question of your paper
2. Create a structure / central story
3. Think about the audience
4. Fill the structure, create links between your sections.


Is it OK to add citations from low impact factor journals? For example, let us consider that I write a manuscript which is to be submitted to one of the prestigious journals such as PRL, PRB, etc. In this manuscript, is it OK to cite from some journals which are generally considered as not-so-prestigious journals? If I cite more papers from low impact factor journals, does it play a negative role?

Of course, you should cite any relevant work.

You can't ignore work just because it is in a journal that someone believes to be lesser. That doesn't mean the work is bad.

As long you do a thorough literature review and avoid predatory journals, there should be no negative impact on your paper.


How to start research as an undergraduate CS student I am an undergraduate CS student, and I would like to start doing research, because I want to boost my chances of entering a graduate school, and research is something that sounds interesting to me. Currently I am in second year and in the top of my class. I live in Southeastern Europe.

Should I come up with a research idea myself and then approach the faculty staff, or should I just tell them that I am interested in research and see where it goes?

The two options you give are not mutually exclusive.

In some universities some members of the faculty will have summer internships, you can ask staff about such opportunities. Since you are studying Computer Science the internships are likely to be somewhere between research and implementation.

If you are interested in research-proper or you are still finding out what interests you then it is also good to approach faculty. However, stating you are simply interested in research will not provide them with a way to help you. I suggest reading some papers related to a course you enjoy and start looking for gaps in the research, thinking of - very small - improvements you can make and - then - discuss with a member of faculty who may give suggestions on how to approach the problem and offer to look at any progress you have made. This second approach makes it much easier for faculty to help you.

This second option is not coming up with a research idea yourself, but instead finding a small gap and getting the advice of staff on where the research may lie (that you could feasibly conduct).

I must stress that it is important to be realistic about what you can do; faculty will be more receptive if what you want to do is manageable (i.e., you show them you're a grounded type of person).


What are the available postdoctoral fellowships in Europe that non-European can apply for? In life Science, What are the available postdoctoral fellowships in Europe that non-European can apply for?
Once joined an EU research center can a non-EU researcher apply for Marie-Curie postdoctoral fellowships?
during a PD interview, PI said, it's not possible once the applicant already joined an EU center?

To answer your second question first, the Marie Curie fellowships require evidence of mobility - specifically, that you haven't worked in the proposed host country for more than 12 months total in the past three years. So if you join a lab in, say, France, after one year you will no longer be able to apply for a MSCA fellowship in France.
However, you'd still be eligible to apply for one hosted in any other EU country where you had not worked for more than 12 months in the past three years.
So, if you're happy and able to move labs, then you would still be eligible to apply for a MSCA fellowship. The full eligibility documents are on the call website if you want to read in more detail.
I don't think there's a short answer to your first question - the EU contains dozens of large scientific funders and probably hundreds of fellowship schemes, with differing requirements. There are likely search tools for specific countries/opportunities which would give a better answer.


Is the "meal plan" chiefly a North American thing? I've noticed that this idea of a "meal plan" among students is pretty common in the US. Usually this involves:

Some amount of money (e.g. "flex dollars") that can be spent on any food (or sometimes even other things) that the student desires, provided that the student spends this money on certain on-campus locations.
The student may get a fixed number of "meal swipes" for eating at the dining hall.
This is all paid for in-advance by students, often as part of a "room and board" fee.
Some universities even require students to purchase such a plan if the student lives in certain parts of university housing, even at some urban universities where there might be more dining options. (I have heard students claim that it would cost the same amount of money as a meal plan to eat at neighbourhood restaurants.)

I have also seen some version of this in Canadian schools: for instance, there was a complaint circulating about poor dining hall management at Memorial University, which alludes to a required meal plan. Generally speaking, as a student, it seems that such meal plans are chiefly used by undergraduates, although I've also seen graduate students eat at the dining hall.

I suspect that this system is specific to North America, although I'm not completely sure. For instance, I saw this document, which stated that the Hebrew University doesn't carry meal plans. I've noticed that university cafeterias in Hong Kong make students pay for food with actual cash when they get their meal, even if there are occasional loyalty schemes (of the same variety that might appear at any fast-food restaurant) or discounted items (where things are much cheaper than they would be off-campus). From a quick glance, HKU and HKUST's housing websites appear to make no mention of any sort of "meal plan". (Meanwhile, the University of Chicago's housing website has a page for residential dining.)

Thus: is the meal plan system (where students pay in advance for dining hall meals and potentially other on-campus perks) a chiefly North American thing? For obvious reasons, I would assume that it would be more common in heavily non-commuter universities (which perhaps dominate the US and Canada more than the rest of the world), but I'm wondering if this is generally true, even if we take the commuter/non-commuter thing into account.

This is not unique to North America and the idea of a meal plan exists in the UK. In the UK halls (i.e., dorms) are either self-catered or catered. Catered halls usually provide breakfast and dinner and in some cases either lunch, a boxed lunch, or points that can be spent on campus.


What is the purpose of a Dual Degree? I'm in Germany studying a Master of Computer Science, and the program has options of Dual Degrees with other Universities from outside of Germany (US, Europe, Asia). I'm thinking of applying to the Dual Degree, but i have doubts about the purpose of getting two degrees.

Is there a defined purpose or career profile for such double degree programs? In what case should I apply or in what case I shouldn't?

I think you should apply if you find both the degrees interesting, and they are complementary. For example, Physics and Computer Science if you aim at writing very good quality physics models (e.g. climate models). Maybe it is hard for you to say what you really want, and therefore it might be hard to judge whether or what dual master (if any) would work for you. On the short term I would try and see if you are drawn towards both masters. If so, you could get a dual degree. Do mind that I suspect two degrees is more work. If you are up to it, and willing to dedicate the time, it could be worth it. On the other hand, I would not recommend just doing it because you feel it might look good on your resume.


Conducting a training seminar without projector What is the best way to conduct a training seminar inside a computer laboratory without a projector?

Is there an existing software program that could achieve the same results as conducting a training seminar with the aid of a projector?

Put your seminar material online, and just have people view it at the same time as you talk. It can be any easily readable format, like PDF file or simply series of web pages. If you are not sure that people will follow, just put large bold numbers on each page, and announce what page you're at when you change page. (A bit like kids' audio book!)

Either that, or hard copies of the material.


MLA multiple parenthetical citation essay without page numbers I have an older source that has no pagination. My question concerns the correct mode of multiple parenthetical in-text reference to the source according to MLA style.

In the works cited section:

Smith, Alexander. "The Problems of Writing." New Inquiry (1940): n. pag.

In text (version 1):

Smith argues that writing is "a problem of its own" (1940). He goes on to refer to the "complicated process of writing a text." He explains it in ...

Question: How do I back up the second, third, etc. reference to the unpaginated source in my own text? Is the text above right or do I need to have the year in brackets every time I quote from the text? Something like:

version 2: Smith argues that writing is "a problem of its own" (1940). He goes on to refer to the "complicated process of writing a text" (1940). He explains...

Or do I reference "n.pag." in the text:

version 3: Smith argues that writing is "a problem of its own" (1940 n. pag.). He goes on to refer to the "complicated process of writing a text" (n. pag.). He explains...

Thank you very much!

Well, normally with MLA in-text citations, you should have the author's name in the parenthetical citations followed by the page number. Since you do not have a page number, you could remedy this by putting the chapter name in quotes instead ( e.g. (Levitt, "The Hidden Side of Everything")). If neither of these are available, you could put the name of the piece in the citations in quotes since you have already said the author's name in the sentence (e.g. ("Freakonomics")).

MLA Rules: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/2/
Chapter Name in Citation: http://www.easybib.com/guides/citation-guides/mla-format/how-to-cite-a-parenthetical-citations-mla/


What can I do about my institution taking a long time to correct a mistake in my transcript? In January of 2016, I completed a Master's in Library and Information Sciences in Norway.  My transcripts were verified and signed by three universities as it was a joint course in collaboration of three universities.

The transcripts appear to incorrectly list my grades in 4 courses as "Recognized" instead of providing the actual grades.  I didn't gave focus to that grades before because it was signed my the rectors of three universities so I thought may be that is some kind of grade.

Later on when I applied for a job in a company, they refused to grant me the job because of that error in my diplomas.

I then complained to my university about the error. After that, the universities send me temporary grade papers within few days by saying that they are going to send another copy of transcripts within a months as they have to have the transcripts signed by three universities' rectors.

The total process it took 1 year, which had wasted my time. So what shall I do to the universities regarding this issue?

Wait

You should do nothing. The universities made a mistake and claim to be fixing it. Unless you have a reason to believe they will not fix it, then you should do nothing but wait.

Mistakes happen and it is unfortunate.

If you have a reason to believe the universities are not honest and will not fix the issue, then you should edit that reason into the question.


How to cite a French thesis in an international journal? What is the right way to cite a French thesis in an international journal like Biomedical Signal Processing and Control? Should I convert the name of the university and the school to the English language?

Example:

  Aina Frau Pascual, Statistical models for the analysis of ASL and BOLD
  Magnetic Resonance modalities to study brain function and disease,
  Ph.D. thesis, Doctoral School of Mathematics, Information Sciences and
  Technologies, Computer Science, GRENOBLE University (2016).

Link to the French thesis: http://www.theses.fr/2016GREAM086.pdf

A bibliographical item should allow people to find the referenced work. This means that you should at least report the original title. Alongside the original title, you can add a translation, usually enclosed in brackets (this is not an issue for the thesis of interest because it's written in English). Other elements, like the university name, should not be translated, and you probably don't need to report the school name (but this depends on the bibliographical style).

Thus, I would cite that thesis as follows:

  Aina Frau Pascual, Statistical models for the analysis of ASL and BOLD
  Magnetic Resonance modalities to study brain function and disease,
  PhD thesis, Université Grenoble Alpes (2016).


Can it be disadvantageous to actively publish in completely different fields? I'm a researcher in a STEM field and work at an institute where research staff salaries (including mine) are dependent entirely on third-party grant money. I've already successfully obtained research grants and served as the PI for a few projects.
In my spare time (i.e., after I go home for the day) I very much enjoy reading and writing about topics in the humanities, and I have recently had contributions on these topics published as peer-reviewed articles in humanities journals. In retrospect I wonder whether having published in these venues was a good idea.
The problem has to do with my current and future grant proposals; some funding agencies require proposals to include a CV listing all of the applicant's peer-reviewed publications in the past n years.  (And even for those agencies without such a rule, the reviewers can easily find all my publications online if they care to look.)  I am wondering how the presence of my non-STEM publications will be viewed by the STEM proposal reviewers.  Are these publications going to be interpreted negatively, as a lack of research focus on my part?  Where feasible, should I include an explanation in my proposal CVs that these publications were avocational (and if so, how should I word this)?  Should I entirely give up my beloved hobby of writing for humanities venues in order to better secure my funding prospects as a scientist?  Or are my fears here entirely misplaced, there being no downside at all (or maybe even some benefit) to having the occasional humanities article in my publications list?
Two further things to note:

I realize that there are a couple possible workarounds that I might try, such as using a pseudonym when publishing in the humanities, or simply omitting the humanities publications from the CVs I include with my grant proposals.  However, both of these necessarily involve some deception or bending of the rules, and in any case won't take effect for the proposals I've already got under review.

There are already a couple of questions here about publishing in foreign fields (Can I publish in a field completely unrelated to my present field?, Is it good reputation for a researcher to publish an article belonging to different research field?), though these are from students who haven't yet started their PhD.  My question is more about how an unorthodox publication list will affect STEM research grant applications specifically, for an applicant that already has a doctorate and some project lead experience.

I've served as a referee on grant proposals to large public-sector research funding bodies on a couple of occasions.  If a PI had demonstrated the ability to achieve peer-reviewed publications in another discipline as well as in the discipline most directly related to the proposed research, I would be inclined to view that favourably.  But that doesn't necessarily mean that every referee feels the same.


Non-Disclosure Agreement & Data Publication I am an Industrial Ph.D. and the company involved in my Ph.D. provides data for my research.
I signed an NDA with the company since the data comes from proprietary source I cannot disclose.
The main problem is that when I write articles I cannot disclose anything about this data (I am in the Machine Learning field), and this decreases the validity and reproducibility of my results.
It is really frustrating. Any Idea on how to tackle this problem?

There are a few solutions:

Use a different dataset for your paper. For example, if you design a new data clustering algorithm but cannot use the company data to evaluate your algorithm, you may find alternative datasets that could be OK to use just for the purpose of writing the papers. I have done this for some industrial project.
Some companies may accept to release anonymized or transformed data. You may try to discuss this with the company to see if this is a possibility.
Some journals and conferences may request that you share your data and code publicly. But some other may not be so strict about this. Choosing appropriately conferences/journals may help.
You may add some text in your paper to explain that data cannot be made available due to a NDA. Reviewers may be satisfied by this explanation or may not be, but it can be good to do that.
You may consider submiting in conferences where there is an industry track. Your paper may be more well-suited for this than for the regular track.

I would also add that doing academia/industry collaborations is great but not all companies have the same level of openness toward publishing papers. It is generally better to make things clear about how paper can be published as early as possible in a colloration. When looking for a new industrial collaboration, I will always talk with the company first about whether or not I can publish papers and what are the requirements to make things clear. Some company will ask you and even push you to publish papers, while others are against it. I even talked with a company that allowed to publish a paper but did not allow to publish the developed algorithm... (which makes no sense...as you then cannot write paper with just an introduction/related work and then a result section without describing the algorithm/method).


How to deal with fear of failure as a PhD student? I am working on a mathematical topic  that is basically my own concoction. I have days where even the simplest thing takes ages to do and I realize that's because, deep down, I am terrified that things might not work out. This is in different way: I am scared my topic might not be novel enough, appreciated etc. ; I am also scared that checking parts of proofs will reveal catastrophic mistakes.

I rationally realize that this is part of the game and I do my best to take mistakes I find as good news that my work is improving, but at times I am just paralyzed and unable to do things.

I am also bothered by the presence of colleagues in my office, afraid they might judge my work (and at the same time going to a hidden place in the library helps a little but is also very annoying and uncomfortable).

I am sure this must be, to a different degree, experienced by many PhD students.

What are some strategies to fight fear as you work?

Note that I realize there really is a deeper confidence issue and I am already seeking help for that. I'd be happy to hear considerations on the possibility of therapy or counseling and how it worked for you as well as day to day tips and strategies.

What you experience is essentially what all grad students feel, though few of them talk about it. I would bet that 3/4 of the full professors on this list felt like that at times when they were grad students, and may still do. I can certainly say that for the first few years of being a professor, I periodically had the thought that I'm just a normal human and that the world would end if my department ever found out -- all while doing, what I believe, good work.

So you're not alone in having these feelings, though you may feel them more severely than others if you find that it occasionally paralyzes your ability to move forward. (Though, even there, I would say that all of us had weeks where we got to work, opened a browser and studied the world wide web for most of the time until it was time to go home.)

The best way to get over it is by talking to others, both your peers and your advisers (including the department's graduate adviser) about these issues. You will find that everyone, even those you think must be sooo much better than you, has these issues. I think it will help you put yourself in perspective. They may also share their own strategies to deal with things.

My strategy if I get stuck on something is to do something else -- work out the part of your thesis for which you already have results, write them up, do the copy editing -- and come back to the open questions when you're in a better place again.


How to reference other people's work There are a few reference citing formats around but I'd like to know what's the relevant information to put in a reference in general. If I want to cite a book, what should go in the reference other than the title which is obvious, same for other media? By formatting I mean content, punctuation, font, size, typography, etc...

My second question is: do references undergo any modifications when the medium in which they are referenced changes (paper, article, tutorial, etc...).

Formatting and desired content depend mostly on the publication venue. Most journals have a citation style, and will often provide a style file for the bibliography manager that you use. So it depends on what venue you have in mind.

If you don't have a venue in mind, then you can use any standard format that's used in your area of study.


How to balance trying hard in a Master's program with stress of working too hard and not having a life? I have a nice problem but it's making me miserable.

My background is in visual communication and I'm used to getting regular feedback as well as seeing what my classmates are up to. Also, the grades we would get back then didn't really matter but the quality of the work was what would land us a job later so I'm always concerned with the quality of what I'm doing. Also, this sometimes makes me feel like I'm starting with a handicap as I'm not used to writing papers and English is not my first language.

Ever since I joined a Master's program in a different field, I can't seem to set reasonable expectations for myself (or align my expectations to the ones for the course). As I work on a project, I keep finding holes and making it better until I'm satisfied. Since there is little feedback and that I don't know what my classmates are doing, I just do my best or as close as I'm able to. The nice part is that sometimes the work ends up having potential for publication, I get a nice GPA and the esteem of my teachers. The not-so-good part is that I just don't have a life until school is over and my stress is really ramping up. The obvious solution would be to not try so hard but that seems like a waste of an education.

Any advice?

Emillie,
I to struggle with the same issues.  I am working on my Masters as well.  I have a few handicaps that make my life a bit difficult when trying to do my best.  When I ask my professors questions, I get, Keep up the good work, if you require more time, let me know.  Never the answer to what I am actually asking for.  Anyways, I strive for one day at time.  I keep my head up and continue to find enjoyment in small things, to keep my head from exploding on the larger things.

Remember why you started what your doing now.  Pull your energy from your roots/background.  And focus on why you want to do what your doing!  What is your end game?

Try to get some exercise, specifically cardiovascular.

Then start to eat the elephant again, one bite at a time.

There are those who don't want you to succeed, and strive on seeing you fail, because that is one less person in the pool or class.  When you do finish, and you will, keep that in mind!  Be a motivator!

Good Luck,
Ron


How to address my multiple undergrad transfers in graduate admissions? I'm kind of embarrassed to talk about this, but I've attended quite a large number of schools throughout my undergraduate career. 6 schools, in fact. Most of these schools I attended for 12 or fewer credits- I was dealing with an undiagnosed chronic physical illness, which I've now totally overcome, but which was disabling at the time.

I didn't know what I was dealing with then so I kept trying to push through school and having to withdraw from classes/schools and re-enroll somewhere else. I'm doing much better now, have brought my total GPA up to 3.52 (with a strong upward trend), and have a 4.0 GPA in my major (psychology). I'm studying hard for the GRE's and I trust that my recommenders will be able to provide strong recommendations for me. I know that my GPA could be better, but what I'm mostly worried about is the large amount of transfers on my transcript.

How should I deal with this? Should I mention in my personal statement that I was dealing with chronic illness and have overcome it? I'm worried that admissions committees will think I'm oversharing, but I feel that something as weird as 6 undergraduate institutions requires an explanation. I'm hoping this won't disqualify me from PhD programs, since I really love research in psychology and would do anything to pursue it further.

From comment: One of the schools was just somewhere I took a single course at while in high school. I left two of the schools because I lost the merit aid I needed to afford attendance due to withdrawing, and one because it was an online school and I was unhappy with the quality of the education I was getting there. I then went back to my local community college and started over, and transferred to my state university from there. I have research experience, and am planning on getting some more after undergrad. I'm hoping I can overcome this but I'm really scared.

On first appearance, this does seem like a significant negative of your application. I have a couple suggestions for you.

One, make sure you follow the graduate school's instructions on submitting previous school's transcripts. Some graduate applications may ask for only the receiving degree transcripts.  If some of the previous five schools' credits did not transfer and were not related to your degree, you might not have to mention those at all. Be careful though, as not including them when you are supposed to is considered a misrepresentation of yourself, and could invalidate your application (and even potentially your later graduation). On the other-hand, you may be asked to provide each and every full transcript from each of your previous schools.

If you do need to include the transcripts from each of the six schools (or they do all appear as transferred credits), I would highly recommend you include an explanation in your application.  Their biggest concerns will be if this number of school changes indicates an inability to commit, the tendency to give up rather than work hard to learn something difficult, and/or the presence of a serious level of indecision about your direction.  These are all serious issues for the successful completion of a PhD, in which you can expect long and difficult work on the same subject. You do not need to give much detail about your medical issues, but be sure that your explanation sufficiently explains the information given to them. For example, repeated withdrawals and restarts or a longer completion time makes clear sense in the context of a recurring medical problem, but why six schools and not one or two? Medical withdrawals and restarts at the same school would seem like a more reasonable option, which could lead them to doubt your justification.

Emphasizing your continued upwards gpa trend and your commitment to the area of psychology over the years will also help combat some of these concerns. Any out of class research will help you enormously as well as it shows you are willing to spend additional time on the subject, have the potential to succeed at PhD level research in general, and have experience to know you enjoy and are willing to commit to psychology research specifically.


Is it ethical to use another university's journal subscription if yours doesn't have access? As a graduate student, sometimes I really could use access to journals or databases of tables that for some reason my university doesn't subscribe to.  I have friends at other Universities that do subscribe to these journals and it would be very helpful to have the data.  Is it acceptable to ask them to retrieve the data?  I don't really want to start this if it's going to run me afoul of the rules.

Is it against the law? Probably.

It it scientific misconduct? A breach of ethics? Hardly.

It is acceptable? It's your decision to make based on risk analysis. If you don't do it on a large scale (i.e. someone supplying many people with papers), it's probably okay. It is common practice.

Also, be aware that many journal articles can now be found either in pre-print or post-print form online (though this depends widely on your field), either on institutional repositories or on the authors' webpages. If you're merely missing access every once in a while, you can also nicely ask the corresponding author.


Can I scan data from a paper for my own research? I am a PhD student working in mechanical properties of materials and will be finishing soon. My PhD is in numerical modelling, so I need experimental data (stress-strain curves) to validate my programs. And this is where the situation starts to tangle:

There is a set of data published by a group from another university that I would like to test in my model. This data comes from lab experiments and they also did some numerical modelling trying to replicate it.
Some data is published in a paper and some other is published in a PhD thesis.
The PhD thesis is not available online, but can be accessed publicly (physically) in the library of the other university.
I have asked for the raw data and a copy of the PhD thesis to the other group and the response I got was: we are not going to send it to you, and we prohibit you to use any of our data in your research.
I then learned that there is a bad relationship between our group and their group because of historical competition.

Furthermore:

I have scanned the data in the paper (I created a program to fit the curves in the image and get an analytical expression for it) and run my simulations.
I happen to have a copy of the thesis (a third person gave me a scanned copy), so I did the same.
In both cases my numerical results are significantly better than those from the other group, which is why we think that my research would have a high impact.
Since I scanned their data I can generate my own figures, so I guess image copyright is left out of the equation.
I will, of course, cite where the data comes from.

I believe in open science, so I would never do what they did. However, I get their point on not wanting me to have the data, since they did the experiments. What I believe is not ethical/appropriate is banning me from using any of their data sets.

Finally, we could prepare these experiments in our lab, but it will take a couple of years, resources and expertise (which I don't have), so this is not viable.

So my questions are:

What are the implications of publishing my comparison with their data?
Is it ethical, given that I have been denied the use of the data?
Would there be any additional problems if we decided to publish a paper or publish the thesis as a book?

It might be helpful to consult some legal assistant at your university, because there is a bad relationship between our group and their group, so if they are really determined, they might want to make problems, so it would be good to have a backup plan, or just be sure that you are really not breaking any laws, and that your party will stand by your side in case things from the other group's side become dirty. (This is an awful situation, though.)

But that aside, the line of reasoning is quite straightforward: anything one publishes becomes publicly available and viable for research by others. I understand that they didn't publish a table with numerical data, but if you think that recreating it from a plot is methodologically fine, then in your paper you should just describe the method and of course give credit to the source.


PhD study (University accreditation) and the ability to teach in the USA I'm thinking of starting doctoral studies at York University (USA). I found this on the York University website information about accreditation:

  YORK UNIVERSITY IS NOT ACCREDITED BY AN ACCREDITING AGENCY RECOGNIZED BY THE UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF EDUCATION

After finishing this doctorate at York University in the USA, could I work as a lecturer at the University or at others in the USA?

What is the general difference in the Universities accredited by the United States Secretary of Education, and those which are not?

Accreditation is supposed to enforce standards of quality in higher education institutions. If an institution does not have accreditation, then it is extremely suspect, and any degree you obtain from it is likely to be completely worthless. This is from the Wikipedia page on unaccredited institutions:

  All fraudulent diploma mills are also unaccredited schools, although they may claim accreditation from an unrecognized agency. Accreditation from such organizations, known derisively as accreditation mills, is unrecognized by any government or reputable private entity, and any courses taken or degrees received from such a school are generally considered invalid.

As you noted, the "university" claims to be accredited by the "International Accreditation Organization". This has the hallmarks of an accreditation mill as described in above.

I would be extremely wary of this particular institution, and it is unlikely that any other academic institution would hire you on the basis of a degree from it.


Are there higher education systems in which is not required to write a thesis? Are there higher education systems in which is not required to write a thesis as a part of the evaluation within the degrees? If yes, could you point me out some of them, please?

Furthermore, are these education systems in which is not required to write down a thesis a minority in the world? (nowadays, I guess yes)

The question is a little vague. Many graduate degrees do not require a thesis. For instance, a law degree (JD), and many business degrees (e.g. MBA) in some universities require no thesis paper.

It has been my experience as a college instructor that university departments are encouraging more writing and defending their written research.


Is it ethical for an instructor to "hack" my system as part of the evaluation for my thesis defense? Background: I remember when I was still in college here in the Philippines, one of the member of the school thesis committee tries to hack my system by injecting some kind of code (I am not sure but I think this is SQL injection). Now that I am working I realized that it is illegal to just hack and get inside of the system. This hacking includes breaking into the security of the system then extracting the datas (some are dummies only and some are original). He said that he do this to prove that our system has not enough security and therefore concluded that it is not safe to use, due to this my team has been subjected to re-defense. Also, there are no proper discussions whether he has the authority to get inside the system, I also don't know the privileges of the panelist.

Please take note that the computer we are using is ours (students) then the panelist are obliged to test the system for certain minutes only (maybe 5 minutes). Also, we didn't use any ISP because it is only a system together with it's database and therefore can be use offline.

During that time we've been subjected to re-defense simply because our system is not secured.

Question: Does hacking the system just to prove that it lacks security and therefore not safe to use, still ethical? Considering that we are on a thesis-defense and are still a learner. Our knowledge cannot be compared to a professional that is expert in system developing.

It sounds like as part of the defense, you gave the examiners access to the system for purposes of evaluating it.

If you gave consent for them to evaluate the system, and didn't place any restrictions on what they can do with it, I don't see any problem with what they did.

You are correct that is generally illegal to just "hack" into a system, but that refers to gaining unauthorized access to a system. That doesn't seem to be what happened here.


Are the referees of a journal allowed to reveal the title of the papers they review after the review process? I am wondering if a referee can reveal the title of the papers he/she has refereed for a journal (either by talking about it in the pub, posting it on facebook or another mean) after the decision has been made.

The reason for my question is that I have seen some people revealing titles of the papers they referee but I have not found an authoritative reference for judging this behaviour.

Don't do that.

Everything related to reviewing is confidential.

You will certainly upset some editors if you reveal your identity to the authors without the editor's permission. (Remember that the authors usually know who was the editor. Perhaps the editors did not want the authors to know that they asked you to review the paper?)

More generally, there is nothing to gain by doing this, and everything (= your reputation) to lose. You do not want to do anything that someone might interpret as a violation of the confidentiality of the peer-review process. (Even if you had both the authors' and the editor's permission to publish this information, others might not know that.)