Book recommendations for a PhD supervisor I will start mentoring my first PhD student this fall, and I would like to read some books to have it start the best way possible.

I have already supervised some Master and undergrad students, but I was not always happy with the way it went. I would thus like to improve my "managing" skills to help my student become a good researcher. I looked online for book recommendations, but couldn't find anything useful (tailored for mentors, and not students).

As a current PhD student thinking about what I'd like a supervisor to be aware of, I can think of a few book recommendations which might be useful. The challenge of doing a PhD which I've noticed is learning how to be efficient and happy in the face of a really different kind of challenge than my previous studies were. These books offer models for that, which might help you make more concrete suggestions to your students when they (inevitably) struggle or at least help you understand them more.

Deep Work by Cal Newport. A really good advice-filled book about how to get productive, creative work done by relegating distractions and creating the right kind of time/space.
Becoming a Successful Scientist by Craig Loehle. A general book about the sorts of things a scientist in training might need to think about and adapt to.
A book about depression and other mental health struggles, for example Curse of the Strong by Tim Cantopher. This is very likely to be a challenge that your students may face, and knowing a bit about it will make you better equipped to help them.
A book about how to communicate when difficult things are happening. For example, NVC offers an interesting model, as in Nonviolent Communication -- A Language of Life by Marshall Rosenberg.

Hope that's helpful and good luck! And remember that your students can probably tell you a lot about what you need to know to help them if you can get to a place where you can listen and they can share.


Is there some standard protocol to suggesting reviewers/referees for a paper? I'm submitting to a journal and they require me to suggest several reviewers.  Do they mean that I should select from among members of the editorial board, or do they mean that I should recommend from among all experts in the field?  It doesn't say anywhere.

I'm thinking they must mean to select among members of the editorial board, because I assume they're not going to bother some random member of the community who has no connection with the journal and ask him/her to work for them.   So, I'm guessing they must want me to select from among members of the editorial board.

On the other hand, selecting from among members of the editorial board is a miserable process.  Other stuff I've read on the web suggests I need to make sure the people I'm suggesting have some connection to the subject of my manuscript.  However, I find it hard to tell what each board member's interests and expertise is.  Often it's hard to find their web page (e.g., because I only have their last name and initial of their first name); many of them don't have web pages; and even if they don't have a web page, it might not be updated or might not be in English.  If they really mean I should select from among members of the editorial board, this sounds like a really bad system, which makes me doubt my guess.

So, which is it?  Who do they want me to select from?

Yes, I've seen this thread, but I don't really think it answers the question (at least the ones I have) well.

No, the editorial board serves a different purpose from the reviewers. Typically, your paper will be assigned to one member of the editorial board, who will be responsible for managing the review process, and making a decision based on the reviewers' recommendations. However, the reviewers may be anyone with sufficient knowledge to understand and assess your paper.

So, feel free to list reviewers from the wide world! Note that there is typically no obligation for the editor to use the names you suggest; often they will make their own selection, based on their knowledge of the field.


What if the lecturer is not rigorous? I study mathematics as my major subject and theoretical physics and statistics as my minor subjects. I found that, sometimes in physics or statistics lectures, the lecturer makes mistakes, like forgetting to prove that a series converges, or computing multi-dimensional integrals by using only one path. Once I spent three weeks to find a correct reasoning why one particular series converges. Should I say anything about these mistakes to the lecturer?

In physics we deliberately do not prove the series converges, because we are not interested in teaching concepts like convergence.  Physics courses are not intended to be mathematically rigorous.  It just is not one of the goals.


What are the differences between teaching in the quarter and semester system? I am currently working as a junior faculty member at a university where we teach a 2:2 (2 fall, 2 spring) on the semester system. I would like to know the differences between this and teaching a 2:2:2 (2 fall, 2 winter, 2 spring) on the quarter system. What is the workload difference? How is class preparation different? Intensity of each week? Grading timeline and expectations? Other considerations?

Edit: @Buffy is correct. The current courses are each 3 credits. The 2:2:2 courses are each 4 credits. The three-credit courses meet once per week for 3 hours (or are online) and the four-credit courses meet once per week for 3.75 hours (or are online).

There is another variable at play, actually. Some places 2:2 will mean two courses each semester where the courses meet 3 times (hours) per week, where 2:2:2 means two courses each "quarter", but where the course meet 4 or even 5 hours per week for fewer weeks. The students also, typically, then take fewer, but more intense, courses in a term.

But that means that you may be able to handle about the same amount of material in a course under each system as you meet for more hours and the students are (hopefully) more engaged in your course.

Another possible variable, is the quality of the students (and faculty). Dartmouth has traditionally been on the quarter system, and the students are very (very) good. And in CS, at least, they work very (very) hard. You may have a challenge keeping up with them. This is likely true for other similar institutions as well.

I'll note for completeness that some institutions, including Dartmouth, use the quarter system so that they can run four terms of equal length per year (hence "quarter" system). Faculty normally get to choose three of those four terms, but may not, in general, be permitted to avoid summer quarter always. Students likewise, my be required to have schedules that include some summer quarters and some "time away" quarters (for travel in Europe, duh). This makes better use of other facilities and funds.

Under such a system, it is also (theoretically) possible, if not encouraged, to have a year's "sabbatical" "every" four years if you teach for six consecutive quarters, then take off for a year and then teach six consecutive quarters. Twelve quarters over four years is a full load, if you are required to teach (on average) three per year. This requires the dean's ok, of course, which is granted only occasionally and for good reason.


Mathematical Equations in Research Papers and Plagiarism Good Day - I am writing a review paper of some techniques, which involve mathematical models. The authors utilize some equations to represent their model comprised of different components. Since I need to explain their methodology, its not possible to do it without referring to their equations. So I have to add their equations in the review. I will properly cite every author's work, which makes sense as I am explaining their work.
What could be the issues I might face when it comes to plagiarism in this case?

Following up on my comments, you state that your context is writing a review article on variational approximations. There's no need to cite individual equations. The standard format might be:
"Rasmussen et al 2021 introduce the SuperVar method, which uses a factorised joint p(x, y) = p(x)p(y). Under these assumptions, they show that
[ equations ].
They also bound the variance of the SuperVar estimator as
[ equations involving a,b,c ]
where a,b,c are some things."
Since this is a review article, there's no a priori expectation that any equations/results are your own. So much so that if you were to give any of your own results, I'd point that out, rather than pointing out equations from other papers.


How to obtain research data about IT related subjects? I'm doing a study which requires me to get data about which operating systems are used the most on mobile devices. Since I need to refer to the sources in the official document, those sources need to be confirmed. I've seen some researches, but I either can't confirm the source, or need to pay to see the survey/research.

Is there a way to obtain data on this subject? Or, preferably, on all IT-related matters?

Statista.com claims to be what you're looking for: a statistics aggregator. However, I don't think there's a general well-defined methods to get any statistics.

The way I usually proceed is that I attempt to find as many statistics as possible from multiple sources, I eliminate the ones that are too old / really inconsistent with the others / describe a shaky methodology for data collection, and I present all the remaining statistics. So instead of having one reference for a peer-reviewed document, I get 3 or 4 concurring non-peer-reviewed documents.

EDIT: one other important aspect is how 'fresh' the data you use is. First-hand accounts from Microsoft about Windows apps are arguably trustworthy. Second-hand accounts that don't indulge too much in interpretation and who publish rigorous documents (the difference between Financial Times and BuzzFeed) can be used, too, ideally having multiple sources. For any other source or things that are more than second-hand, you want a large consensus over multiple sources.


Should I put "PhD Candidate" in a book biography? I am a PhD Candidate and fortunate enough to be an author on a technical book. Should I put "PhD Candidate" in the biography? The book will persist forever, but that title will not (presumably, I will graduate).

If you should describe yourself in one or two words (i. e. if the other authors write "professor" or similar), I would not write "PhD candidate" because this does in the view of many readers not sound very competent. Don't describe yourself as someone who hasn't finished something, but rather as someone competent. Write instead i. e. "Jan Gorzny, Gender Researcher".
If you should write a longer text about yourself, you can mention this. However, write then also about things you have already achieved (e. g. your masters).


Is It Common For People To Write Literature Reviews On A Topic For Someone Else? I am working as a research assistant for a professor and I was hired to write a literature review on a rather broad topic that is well outside of my knowledge domain. I am concerned that i'll most likely create a bad product because I don't have a crystal clear idea as to what it is I am intending to search for, I only have an approximate idea. It seems sort of strange that I would be hired to write a LR on a topic for somebody else and I am wondering if this is a common occurrence? Do professors typically hire students write the literature reviews for them?

I don't know how common/typical it is, but it seems to be certainly part of a job description for a RA, especially if your implication is that you are a doctoral student.
One reason for it is just part of your training and when it comes time to do your own dissertation the practice would help.
But additionally, if the professor is exploring some new research direction it would be helpful to them to have help in assuring that they don't miss something important.
And anyone starting out in a new research area will have the same dilemma as yourself. It is hard to know where to look initially. You need to review a lot of papers and chase a lot of references. That is the nature of the task.
If it were crystal clear it probably wouldn't be necessary.
It is good that  you are humble at the start. I'd guess that the professor knows that it isn't easy and that the initial product might require refinement. Just be honest along the way about what you have "covered" and any gaps you think might still exist.


Is there a more positive term for "desk rejection"? I wish to ask a journal's editor if my manuscript will be "desk rejected" (for, if not, it will be peer-reviewed).  He and I both know what that means, but I'd rather say it without prejudicing my submission.

What are you trying to do?

If you've already submitted your article but the status remains "Submitted to journal", you could ask for an update on the status of review.
If you've already submitted your article and the status has updated to something like "Reviewer invited", then your article is likely not being desk rejected because if the journal was desk rejecting, they would not be inviting reviewers.
If you've not submitted your article and are wondering if they will desk reject it, you could ask whether the journal is willing to consider your article.


What to do when PhD advisor wants student to work on two disjoint projects? My PhD advisor wants me to work on two different problems during my PhD. One is the a problem of their suggestion and another is collaborative work with some company. Both the problems are disjoint. I have been given  the option, that if I want to work on one problem  then it should be the problem on for my advisor's collaborative research and I should leave the problem initially suggested. However, I don't want to give up my present problem as that sounds interesting to me and I have already worked for one year on it. When I told my advisor that I don't find the collaborative work interesting, it was suggested that I work on both the problems. However, I am finding it hard to work on two problems. Its like a dual PhD for me. I cannot say anything to my advisor as I'm told I have to work on the collaborative work as my stipend comes from it and else I should leave the PhD. My advisor also does not  advise me when I propose ideas about my previous research. Please suggest what should I do?

The most important line in your post seems to be one that you didn't give much weight to: "my stipend comes from [the collaborative project]". From my experience, this is a common situation, where the money for your stipend comes from a project you're not interested in pursuing.

Unfortunately, the only real alternative for you is to write your own grant proposal, which is a significant investment of time for both you and your advisor, and carries the not-so-minor risk that the grant won't be funded, which leaves you exactly where you started, with the added problem that there hasn't been much progress on the existing grant.

The second alternative is to leave the advisor and try to find someone else, but I would recommend against that for two reasons. Firstly, it's hard to find someone else with funding on a project you like. Secondly, the problem you're having now—the funded project is less interesting than the unfunded project—is one you'll likely face again in the future. Your advisor's approach of pursuing both projects is (again, from my experience) a typical way of dealing with this, and it will likely benefit you to have experience with this approach during your PhD years.

I recognize that it means extra work for you, and I don't really have much advice on that front. Try not to think of it as extra work, but rather as extra publications in different research areas. That helps minimize the sting.


How to decide on the order of authorship for this collaboration? I'm in collaboration with another researcher in the field of linguistics, she wants to try machine learning algorithms/analysis on her dataset. The dataset is not published before, and the contribution of this work is to use ML to better analyze linguistic theories and to support/challenge them with this new empirical evidence (ML).

So, my role here was to try appropriate ML tools based on the goal she described, and also I designed a new ML algorithm to serve the purpose. In addition, I perform the experiments, numerical evaluations, preparing the figures.

But since the main concept and the aim is fundamentally related to the linguistic field, she is in charge of writing down the main structure of the paper (Abstract, Introduction, the purpose, contribution).
But, definitely, I'd write the ML parts and where I need to provide quantitative conclusions and also explanations regarding the new algorithm I designed and ML approaches that were used, and how to interpret the results.

Well, we are aiming for a conference in the area of computational linguistics, and it is not clear for me who should be the first author of this contribution.
Also, I do not know if it is possible to claim equal authorship for such cases, and whether it'd be considered as the 1st authorship in my CV?

BTW, she is a post-doc, and I'm an almost finished Ph.D.!  ;-)

Update: Since the value of this publication (if being accepted) is important to both of us regarding our future proposals and job-search, I personally prefer an equal authorship option, if possible!
But I'm not sure if possible to show that in the CV!

Here is a thought.  (Perhaps it is naive.  I haven't seen your paper, and I know nothing about the publication culture in computational linguistics.)

Could you perhaps write two papers, with you appearing as first author as one and your collaborator on the other?  This would settle the issue symmetrically.  Whether it is a good idea depends more on how "bi-disciplinary" your work is.  By which I mean: is your work coming from two different camps, linguistics and machine learning?  If not, splitting is a bad idea.  If so, if you write one paper "splitting it down the middle" is there a ready-made audience who will appreciate the synthesis of both camps into a single paper?  If so, splitting is a bad idea.  But if not, you might find that your work reaches more people if you appeal separately to the linguistics and machine learning communities.

Again, just a thought.


How portable are NSF grants between institutions and internationally? I'm a fixed-term lecturer (2016-17 academic year) on the job market. I'm hoping to apply for an NSF grant this winter to fund new research. Very hypothetically, if I am awarded the grant, how portable are NSF grants between institutions and internationally? Or if I got both the grant and a job (particularly outside the US), would the protocol be to defer the start of the appointment? Are there obstacles I should know about that aren't listed on the NSF FAQ page?

I just participated in a NASA grant-writing workshop. This question came up there, too. The following rules apply for both NASA grants and for NSF grants. (I'm sure there are differences, but at least what I'm writing is the same for both.)

Can the grant be transferred from one institution to another?

Yes.

Check out AAG II.B.h which describes NSF's grant policy:

  Contracting or Transferring the Project Effort (Subawards)

  a.    Excluding the procurement of items such as commercially available
  supplies, materials, equipment or general support services allowable
  under the grant, no significant part of the research or substantive
  effort under an NSF grant may be contracted or otherwise transferred
  to another organization without prior NSF authorization. The intent to
  enter into such arrangements should be disclosed in the proposal
  submission.

  b.    If it becomes necessary to contract or otherwise transfer a
  significant part of the research or substantive effort after a grant
  has been made, the grantee shall submit, at a minimum:

  (i)   a clear description of the work to be performed;

  (ii)  the basis for selection of the subawardee (except for
  collaborative/joint arrangements5); and

  (iii) a separate budget for each subaward.

  The request must be submitted electronically, and NSF authorization
  will be indicated by an amendment to the grant signed by the Grants
  and Agreements Officer. The NSF grant conditions will identify which
  articles flow-down to subawardees.

  c.    Procurements under NSF grants are also subject to AAG Chapter V.C
  and OMB Circular A-110 Sections .41 through .48. (2 CFR §215.41-48)

The grant is awarded to your institution, not to you. Because of this, your institution would choose to do one of the following:

Nominate somebody (e.g. a Co-I) to take over when you leave
Terminate the grant outright
Initiate the grant transfer process (if certain criteria are met, and both institutions agree...)

According to the NASA VIP leading the workshop, transfers between US institutions happen, though they are rare. Either way, if you plan to do this, you should contact all involved parties: your current institution, the destination institution, and your program officer/manager (your designated NSF/NASA contact person) for the grant.

Can it be transferred to an international institution?

No.

As indicated in 3.c above, AAG Chapter V.C.1.i indicates that funds can be sent under the following condition (among others):

  (i)   grantee is not an individual or a foreign institution;

Since both NASA and the NSF are government organizations, they are prohibited from funding foreign institutions.

There are additional rules for certain countries, at least for NASA: if applying for a NASA grant, you can't have any affiliations with a Chinese institution via the Wolf Act.


What is the purpose of "issues" and "volumes" in journal publications in relation to DOIs and citations? I think I have stumbled once again over the meanings of "issue" and "volume".

So I have found this article which declares both fields. Now I used JabRef's DOI to BibTeX to pull the info and it worked as expected. But it only pulled the volume number.

But sometimes I noticed the DOI database only pulls the issue number for an article, more than only giving the volume number. Why?

I suppose one should prefer using the issue because there are (usually) issues of a journal ("magazine") in a year... right?

I guess your question is about citing an article. If the article you want to cite  is in a journal which have both volume and issue number (this is very often the case). Then you should write both of them.

The issue is the booklet number in which the article was published. They are grouped together to make a volume. Often one volume correspond to all the issues of one given year, but not always. Page numbers usually run sequentially through a volume (issue 2's first page will be numbered one higher than the last page of issue 1 and so on).

Finding the article in a (paper) library is easier if you have both the volume and issue number since you directly know which booklet you need to consult. While helpful, the issue number isn't strictly required in order to find a particular article. Indeed, libraries often bind all the issues of a single volume into a hard-backed book where the page number is sufficient.

Today with electronic paper those notions might have lost their meaning,  and in the end, the DOI is probably the best way to share a reference.  However,  it is still in the habit to provide both issue and volume number, and given what they mean, it does not really make sense to have only one of them. The last word will go to the editor of the journal you are publishing the reference in and the bibliography style may or may not include the issue number. So for your personal bibliography, it seems safer to have it for the day you publish in a journal which request issue numbers.

For this particular paper in jabref, I don't know why only one get pulled. Maybe it is a bug, or a database error.


How might I improve my math department as an undergrad? I am an undergraduate math major at a small state university in the US. Our math department has about 20 tenured/tenure-track faculty, including applied mathematicians and statisticians. We have only 3 current NSF grants, two in statistics and one in biomathematics. According to MathSciNet, only 4 of our faculty have published something this year. Additionally, our current department head mainly does applied interdisciplinary research, but I suppose it is not rare for math department heads to be in some kind of applied math field. To be fair, my university was founded less than 50 years ago, but I still want my department to become better.

Is there anything I could do as an undergrad to help improve my department? It's hard to say exactly what would make my department "better", but to be somewhat vague, I would consider research productivity and funding to be important factors to improve on.

Is there anything I could do as an undergrad to help improve my department? It's hard to say exactly what would make my department "better", but to be somewhat vague, I would consider research productivity and funding to be important factors to improve on.

There's not much you can do as an undergraduate to help improve research productivity or funding.  It's not clear whether the department wants to improve in these ways, or should want to: there's nothing wrong with focusing on teaching.  Even if the faculty do want to become more research active, or the administration wants them to, it's not easy and there's little you can do to make it easier.  I'd be careful with how you frame things, since you could easily cause hurt feelings by giving your professors the impression that you consider them substandard.

Instead of focusing on what might improve the department in some abstract sense, I'd focus on what would create a stimulating, exciting environment for the current students.  You don't want to be too demanding, and some things just might not be feasible, but it can't hurt to ask what could be possible and what it would take to make it happen.  You could look into various sorts of activities:

Advanced courses or independent study.
Undergraduate research supervised by faculty.
Informal mathematical activities: math club, Mathematical Association of America student chapter, Putnam team, etc.

If all of these things are regularly available, then your department is doing pretty well.  Otherwise, you could try to initiate or reinvigorate some of them.  You aren't likely to get clubs or courses for just one student, so you'll probably have to gather some other enthusiastic students.  This may be the biggest way you could contribute, as a catalyst to bring together a group of students the department hadn't realized wanted or needed these activities.


How do judges evaluate presentations at an undergraduate conference? I'm giving a presentation at an undergraduate conference. There are awards given for the best talks. The focus of each talk is what the student has been working on for their research project.

What, in general, do the conference judges look for when they evaluate a talk? Is it the general quality of the presentation? The significance of the results? The way the presenter answers questions from the audience?

For context, it is a physics conference and the talks are short (10 min). In the past, the judges have been graduate students or physics professors at different universities.

I apologize for the length of my reply, but I think this is a really great question that I discuss with undergraduates and even grad students all the time, and want to use this as an opportunity to share some of my thoughts with you.

I completely agree with the points that Fábio Dias made in his answer. However, I want to add one general tip with you that I have found to be extremely effective in my experience both presenting talks and posters as well as judging them.

The way I see it, when undergraduate talks/posters are judged, there may or may not be certain specific criteria against which you will be evaluated, but there are certain important subtleties in how you conduct yourself when talking about your work that will almost always affect your evaluation whether there is specific criteria or not. Let me clarify:

As Fábio Dias mentioned, there are many important technical factors that are commonly taken into account when judging presentations, but aside from this, I believe that one of the most powerful tools to get great scores on research talks is to demonstrate some passion and interest into the work you are presenting.

This is typically the biggest problem with undergraduate presentations. Undergraduates are often not very well-versed in the big picture of their research project and therefore end up simply presenting what they did and what data came of it and what they think it means (or what their advisor told them it means). There is rarely any visible interest in the work, or evidence of creative thought on the part of the student, and this is the biggest factor that separates a great undergrad talk from all other undergrad talks.

No matter how dull your research talk may or may not be to you, when you stand up there in front of all those people, make sure to talk and act like you're the most excited person in the room about the work that you have done. This gets people's attention, in my opinion, above all else. Some great ways of doing this are:

Never, ever, ever, ever, ever read from your slides, especially your
title. Always come up with a great "prose" way to describe your whole
project and then your data.
Try to look at your slides as little as possible, unless you're pointing out something on a figure. Look at the
audience, glance around the room. In a scientific forum setting,
simple presentation skills often directly translate into command of
the material being presented.
A great way to prevent yourself from doing the above is to not have
many words on your slides, this keeps people interested and keeps you
from reading to the audience. Many undergrads believe that their research cannot be presented without many words on the slides, but there is almost always a creative way to do this.
Question yourself, and question your research. This does not
mean you should tell the audience that your conclusions are not
accurate, but rather avoid being too rigid in how you describe your conclusions. Avoid words phrases like 'definitely,' 'clearly,' 'this means that,' 'we discovered,' or any version of the word prove/proof/proved, unless used as a technical term such as 'mathematical proof.'
Always talk about your work in terms of what it could mean for the
future, For example, talk about some interesting data that you
couldn't yet explain; offer several possible ways to frame your
conclusions; try to add a few "next steps" to your presentation (and not as a list on the last slide, but work it in in a few places as you talk about your work).
If you anticipate a question or questions from the audience that you
will probably not know how to answer, bring it out in the open as
part of your presentation, and say that you are still working to
understand that particular part of your project.

Some of these things may seem trivial or obvious, but these are probably the most common "mistakes" undergraduate students typically make when giving oral presentations. I say "mistakes" lightly because it is obvious that sometimes the student simply does not get the proper guidance from their advisers, either about their project, or about how to present the work properly, or both. In these cases, of course, acting like you truly love your project may not be possible because it may not be true.

But either way, what it boils down to usually, coming back to something Fábio Dias said above, is that at the undergraduate level, the expectation is less on whether the results are impressive, but rather whether you can demonstrate that you are a good researcher, and that you have done the most with the results that you have.

Good Luck!


Is it ok for an applied mathematician to research a topic that she has personal experience with? Would this idea be too sensitive / too much information / generally a bad idea?

For example, I have a friend who is doing her computational biology PhD at a strong U.S. program, and her main research is about the illness of one of her family members, whom she unfortunately lost recently.

I have also heard of specialist (medical) doctors who got into their field because they suffered from the very illness that they are now trained to diagnose and treat.

For me, at a much lower level, at the MS Thesis level, I have a chance to work with a very well-known applied mathematician, who has joint appointments at our math dept and medical school.  But, I don't have a clue what project I would like to initiate with him, other than about something that I have dealt with personally and medically  -- and this topic could likely be within his research domain.  Of course, I would be naturally very passionate about working in this area.  I am always fascinated, when I see my own team of doctors twice a year to have discussions about my health.

If I could do a mathematical project about my own health issue, do you think that this is ... TMI?  A classic "beginner's mistake" perhaps?  Or, is it pretty common for applied mathematicians to dedicate some (or all) of their research to issues that they are intimately familiar with?

Thanks,

I do not have experience with specifically applied maths, but in general, there is no problem at all with conducting research in a direction that you have some personal connection with. One could argue that many applied research projects are driven by concrete needs, and I fail to see why those would have to be needs of other people rather than a researcher's own.

That being said, you will need to remain cautious of your own bias in your endeavours. As a researcher, it will be expected of you to work on the topic from a neutral, scientific, "big picture" perspective, which is easy to lose if you are at the same time also part of this "picture".

Let me provide one example from my own research. I conduct research on software engineering. Many of our best PhD students have worked as software developers prior to starting their PhD, so in a way they are also part of the same demographics that they research. What can now happen with inexperienced students is that (s)he will, for instance, interview developers with regard to a specific problem, process, or practice, and, during the analysis phase, discard statements that go against their own prior experience as "obviously wrong" or "bad". In that way, a student may overemphasize results that resonate with her/his own prior experience, and discard results that don't, essentially guaranteeing that the results are in line with what the student expected going into the study based on her/his own experience.

You will need to make sure that you do not run into the same trap - don't assume that everybody experiences your health issues the same way, that you are some sort of gold standard of this specific condition, or that your specific variation is more important or relevant than others. However, these are definitely issues that a good advisor can help you with.


Consulting gigs for quantitative sociologist I am a university professor (quantitative sociology) and I am interested in finding consulting gigs, especially for the summer since I'm on 9-month, but possibly year round if just for a few hours/week. Any advice how to find gigs?

What you need to do is establish visibility, especially with those who might benefit from your services. Having an extensive and helpful web site can help, especially if it is, itself, visible, such as one hosted by the university. Perhaps a professional blog or such will give some people an idea of what you can offer. But make it helpful to readers, not just an ad for your services.

But that isn't enough.

One possibility is to make contacts through adult students (MS, and doctoral level). Some of them may be employed by firms that would be interested. But you need to meet the people responsible.

One way to meet people is to do a bit of research on the interests and expertise of people with some authority at local companies/agencies and invite them as guest speakers, either in your own classes or generally.

If you want to cast a wider net, you can use professional meetings to make contacts with others of similar skills and desires and find a way to share contacts. Not a quick process, but it can build visibility.

Another way, not especially lucrative, but possibly rewarding, is to volunteer your expertise to local non-profit or government agencies. I suspect a number of them would be interested in knowing more about their clients. You can also get some of your students involved in this work, to their advantage, perhaps. But this sort of thing will also raise your visibility once it becomes known what you can do.

You can also, of course, form a formal group with colleagues and advertise your services.


Why would a professor (say in pure math) want to take PhD students? Why would a professor doing pure math/ theoretical computer science want to take PhD students?

I understand that in computational and experimental sciences taking students is at least beneficial to them. However, in subjects like pure math, it is not obvious to me that there are any significant advantages to take some PhD students. It is probably expected from the department that you will take some students, and it is nice to have someone who can type things up for you. But other than that, I don't see any reasons.

So, why would they want to do that? What are they expecting from their (prospective) students?

They get to train the next generation of mathematicians. They get to establish a relationship with young students, guide new researchers when they are up-and-coming and those people become their students. For the rest of time those researchers will be the person trained by Professor Stella and that is intrinsically valuable for several reasons:

Some people like teaching. I love teaching, and if I leave industry and go into university research it will be largely because I want to teach. The ability to work with and mould young minds really appeals to me, and I get value out of knowing that I've helped people learn.
You develop an attachment, and a sense of pride, in your students. Their accomplishments become, not quite yours, but close to feeling like yours. If you’ve ever served as a TA, you’ve probably worked for a long period of time with a struggling student. Maybe you felt a twinge of pride when they finally got it, or got a good grade on an exam. When you’re an advisor, you get a lot more than a twinge.
They are part of your legacy. They will tell stories about being your student for another 20+ years after you pass away, they will toast you at banquets in their honor and thank you for making them the researcher that they are today.

What a professor expects of you is that you try your very best to be a good scientist, that you do interesting work, and that you continue to carry on the torch of mathematics for another generation after they are gone.


How many articles should a PhD candidate in applied linguistics /humanities optimally publish during their PhD? I'm just wondering of how many publications /articles a phd student in applied linguistics /humanities should optimally publish during the course of their studies? I'm talking about what would considered as an indication of hard work.

To add to GrotesqueSI's answer, while it might be meaningless to associate an exact number to "hard-working" students, as a lot of other factors matter, I am guessing you are asking this question as a way of setting a goal for yourself (or assessing your work-in-progress).

A simple solution might be to pick a sample of 10-20 alumni that you consider to be successful or "hard-working," or at least in a place career-wise that you hope to end up one day. Take a look at their publication record from graduate school: what is the average number of papers? Is there a large spread, or do they all exceed some minimum number? For those who succeeded with few publications, were they particularly influential publications?

This can help you to find the answer that is personally most useful to you.


Can I submit an abstract for an unwritten paper which will form part of my PhD? I am applying for my PhD to start this Autumn. There is a conference coming up soon with a theme which is very relevant to my PhD topic and I would like to submit an abstract for it, write the paper and then develop parts of it for my PhD at a later stage. Is it OK to write a paper for the conference and then later use parts of it for my PhD seeing as it is so relevant?

EDIT: For a little more information, this is for a conference on music and the research has not been carried out yet. Additionally, the area that is being researched is one that has very little scholarly coverage. Due to this, the focus will not be so much on looking for a particular kind of result, but any result that will arise from literature review/qualitative interview data. Interviews have not been conducted but there is quite a bit of time to do so, I feel. I understand if this were a scientific conference that submitting an abstract would be a little risky, but seeing as this is the humanities, I think there is more room for interpretation.

I think norms probably vary by field.  In my experience, this would be totally fine.

I work in a business school, and the expectation is that various parts of the dissertation will be published both while and after you work on the PhD.  Doctoral students also present intermediate results from their dissertation work at conferences to get feedback.

However, do be sure that the conference does not take copyright for the work presented, or you may tie your hands in terms of publication later.


What do I do if my advisor made a mistake? I am a first year masters student and I am just beginning my research project. I had to send a protocol out to my committee and they all have to approve it before I begin the project. The protocol is basically a document that states, step by step, how I will be completing the project. It will be published once my committee reviews it.

I have went through several drafts of my protocol and my advisor has reviewed and edited each draft. So the one I sent out to my committee was the good copy. I told all my committee members that I would like it back within 2 weeks. My advisor is out of the country for 3 weeks, but she just sent me her comments on my protocol last night. However, she ended up reviewing one of my old drafts again. I double-checked the email I sent her, and I definitely sent her the good copy I wanted reviewed.

I'm not really sure where to go from here. Should I explain her mistake to her? Or just send her the good copy and say I revised it?

Just tell her, mistakes happen.

Dear Prof. OutOfCountry,
thank you very much for your comments and review, but it seems that you reviewed an older revision of the document. Find the latest revision attached.
As you can see, most of your points are already addressed in this revision, as well as the following major changes:
[...]
Regards, aspire94


Is a Masters Degree required to pursue a PhD? I recently heard someone saying that you don't need a Masters to pursue a PhD. Since I have never heard of people who got PhDs without Masters, I wanted to know whether this is true and how common is it for people to get a PhD without Masters?

I would also like to know if this is true for Engineering related fields specifically.
In other words, can someone who has just finished their undergrad apply for a PhD?

A master's degree is not required for admission to a Ph.D. program, but Ph.D. admissions are extremely selective, and most students aren't competitive for a Ph.D. straight out of undergrad. In addition to a high GPA (I'd say around 3.8 or higher) and GRE SCORES (around top 10%, though this may depend on the program), you would need several publications/conference presentations, extensive research experience, and STELLAR letters of recommendation attesting to your readiness for a Ph.D. program.

Most undergraduates, even with excellent GPAs and test scores, lack the research experience required for Ph.D. admissions. Also, undergrad (and to a lesser degree a master's program) is a time to explore your research interests. By the time you're applying to a PH.D. program, however, you're committing 4-9 years to researching a specific question/topic. Thus, you need to know exactly what you want to write your dissertation on and have to find a professor that will agree to take you on as a student. Again, most undergrads are still at the stage of exploring their interests, so they don't gain enough research experience in a specific topic. (I'm speaking generally in all programs.)

This is why most people end up completing their master's first, but it's by no means a requirement, and if you do feel you're competitive for a PH.D. program and know what you want to research, then certainly apply to Ph.D programs.

Disclaimer- I'm neither a professor nor a grad. student, nor is engineering my intended field. Again, my comments are meant more generally and apply to the U.S.

Good luck!


What should I do if I think that my former supervisor has published our results without citation or acknowledgment? A few years ago I worked in a lab as a visiting researcher (something like internship). As the result, I had to write a short report which at that moment didn't look like a proper paper.
Recently I've discovered that my supervisor literally 3 months after my leave decided to present a conference paper with the results of, well, our work (at least I think that these two documents contain the same idea).

I do prefer to keep my old works and emails so that I can always check and find something. It seems that I sent a copy to my supervisor and the paper was submitted approximately one month later.

Since it's not so common, I've asked my former supervisor already and I've got a reply "What are you talking about?". Now I'm confused and feel a bit stupid because I might be wrong as well.

I've checked related questions:
Is it plagiarism for my thesis advisor to publish a paper using content from my thesis without citation?
What should I do if my master's advisor used a figure from my thesis in a publication without citation or acknowledgment?
and I need to clarify my problem a bit. The idea of the project came from my supervisor, I was needed as a person to read a lot of papers and to do a lot of routine calculations (6 months(!)).

Is there anything I can do now? It's not like I care now about a conference paper, however, at that moment I was looking for a PhD position and all professors kept asking me about my publications and results of my internship.
And I've sent that letter already.

People's work on a publication is attributed in two main ways: authorship and in the acknowledgement section. Here, you need to know if your contribution was significant enough for an authorship (it sounds like it wasn't), and whether your work actually appeared in these publications.  There are a number of resources and guides regarding authorship: one, for example here. The typical defining factor is making an intellectual contribution. The information you have provided suggests that you do not deserve an authorship, but probably should have been noted in the acknowledgements.

In my opinion, this is not worth making a fuss over. In my experience, admission committees are unlikely to care about whether you appeared in this section or not. They care whether you were an author on a paper, and how your reference letters discuss you and your work. You will have the latter, as long you don't burn any bridges. In your discussions with potential advisors, demonstrate an understanding of why the project was important, and detail how you assisted the main researchers.

Citing your project write-up is unlikely to be appropriate - and plagiarism would probably only come into play if they copied and pasted your text without your permission.


How long should I register a domain name that will be referenced in scientific publications? I have a website (with data and modeling interface) that will be referenced in a series of scientific publications that are beginning to be published.

Currently the website is along the lines of myserver.institution.edu/mysite but I would like to change this to something like mysite.org.

Costs for the site range from $37/year for 2 years to $9.99 for 100 years. Even 100 years would be a tiny fraction of the overall research budget, but my first inclination is to go for five years at $33/year. But I don't even know if the web will still be around by then, much less a server hosting this work.

(this is related, but not a duplicate of related, but not a duplicate of How to archive an academic blog or website?)

Is five years long enough? Is 100 years justifiable?

If you consider the data of permanent value and essential to your paper, then you should try to preserve it permanently.  The question in that case is not how long to register a domain name for, but rather how to find an organization that's willing to archive the data in the long run.  If you don't have that, then it's going to disappear eventually anyway.  If you do, then you can do whatever you want with the domain name as long as you provide enough information that someone could access the data from the archive even once your domain has expired.

Most scientific publishers solve this problem by archiving supplementary information and data along with the paper.  There are also field-specific data banks.

On the other hand, if this isn't an essential part of your paper (but rather just for illustrative purposes), then you can do whatever you want.


Good book on English for academic writing and speaking for non-native speakers I'm not native speaker so I always have some problems with academic writing and speaking. Any good book for English in the academic context generally or for Computer Science in particular (writing or speaking)?

English is not my first language either, but have taught myself through "academic-immersion".  Here are a couple of recommendations that may be of help:

"Computer Science Writing" - this is a website with an outline of good practice and links to various other sources.

"Writing for Computer Science" (Zobel, 2004) - this book has a couple of high reviews.


When should I tell a potential employer about a spousal accommodation? The title sums it up: At what point during the interview/negotiations do you let a potential academic employer about  spousal accommodations?

I don't believe there's a universal right answer for this question. I think it depends on the level of accommodation required, as well as the particulars of your own situation. In general, if you're not being considered for a tenure-track or permanent-level position, there often isn't a lot you can do in terms of getting spousal accommodations, unless you have a very generous employer. In that case, I wouldn't think there's ever a good time to bring up the matter, because there won't be much in the way of possibilities.

For a tenure-track or equivalent position, on the other hand, I think that I would wait at least until the level of having secured an interview before bringing up these issues. Any earlier, and some employers may (perhaps illegally, depending on jurisdiction) wash their hands of the issue by skipping you in making the list of finalists. Once you've gotten the interview, though, that's no longer a concern.

Whether to mention it during or after the interview depends on the ability of the school to do something about it. I would lean towards mentioning at the interview, and particularly so f the school has a "dual-career" office in place. If you wait, then you may spend your time negotiating and having to accept or decline the offer without a firm commitment of help in hand at the time.


Why official transcripts should be directly posted to the employer? Official transcripts are only those that arrive directly from the registrar's office. What is the concern about making sure transcripts are official? Fake or tampered transcripts can be sent by post too.

What are the security guarantees of a directly shipped transcript?

There are a number of security concerns:

The postmark will match that of the university
Many universities' official transcripts contain authentication features
that can't be easily replicated -- deterring fakes.
The receiver can contact the university to verify that the transcript
was indeed sent on the date listed on the transcript and that the details inside are correct.
The transcript may contain a letter from the registrar with a signature.
As in responses 2 & 3 this can be used to make authentication possible while
deterring duplication.

The question I'm left with is why do you ask?


Dealing with a huge number of textbooks As an undergraduate in the field of biology/Chemistry, I've seen plenty of professors recommending at least two textbooks for a mere credit hour of two, each of which comprised of more than 1000 pages. I'm somehow confused by this huge amount of text and it came to my mind to only rely on my class notes instead of the books from now on. Plus some of these books, despite being said to target undergrads' needs, are so hard, complicated, and extensive that even many master's candidates wouldn't take a look at according to my conversations with other people in the field. How should an undergraduate focus on the subjects with this bombardment of information, specifically how should an undergrad prioritize among textbooks, class notes, papers to be read(if any)? and roughly how many textbooks should one read for the whole four years to obtain proficiency in the field? (Is it a good idea to count them in the first place?)

I went to college more than half a century ago. I accumulated and still have all (I think) of the books in math. But I never actually read any of those books front to back. They were used as a resource to make it possible to gain insight and to solve problems. Some of them were more useful on the insight part, of course.
But, to answer the question, one way to use the books is to let the lecture notes be your guide as to where you should focus within them. Use keywords from the lecture, along with the table of contents and the index to find the things you need to focus on.
Textbooks aren't novels. They provide the outline of a field and, hopefully, plenty of useful (hard) exercises to build skill. With enough hard work, insight may come.
Read textbooks in "snippets", stopping frequently to think about what you have read and find associated exercises to solidify the ideas.
This is especially true for the later chapters. It may be necessary to do more, such as re-reading, for the early parts, since you probably start out with very little skill. But the exercises may be more important than the text itself.


What are the aspects associated with working in a 'liberal arts environment' in academia? I am asking with respect to decoding a job ad for an assistant professor position at a US University. The ad essentially asks how my talents and goals relate to a 'liberal arts environment'. Previously I associated 'liberal arts' with the major that goes by that name, or thought that it simply meant well-rounded, which is something a student could get at any school. So I guess another version of my question is, what isn't a liberal arts environment at a US university?

There is an important distinction to make between a "liberal arts college" and a liberal arts environment in general.

The former indicates a particular kind of school, normally without graduate schools and professional degree programs, which specializes largely in undergraduate education. While faculty and students do participate in research activities, they are not nearly as extensive or as important as at research universities.

The liberal arts environment, on the other hand, is the tradition in which essentially all modern Western university operates.


How to write mail to super senior renowned mathematicians? I am 36 year old researcher in field of mathematics. When I get stucked at certain problem I use to write mail to mathematicians expert in the field. Sometime they are of age 80 and above. Most amazing thing is that they respond quickly to every of my mail. Most of the time when I  write mail to young researchers of my age or younger than me I start my mail with word "Dear Sir......." and when I write mail to super senior researchers I start my mail with word "Respected Sir.......".

Is my way of writing  "Respected Sir......." is correct or should use some other words for gesturing greater respect to them?

"Respected Sir" seems off and pretentious, at least in an international setting. It's not commonly used.

Use "Dear" to be on the save side, and by the way, there's no need to gesture "greater respect" in your greeting. Your appreciation of the researchers previous work and career should be prevalent in the content of your message, in which you demonstrate knowledge of their achievements and capabilities. Attempts at scoring cheap points with cheesy greetings are not the way.


Do publications outside your primary field of study help or hinder your early career? I'm an interdisciplinary PhD student and I've heard conflicting reports on your publication record in your early career. Some members of my host department say that you should stay focused while others outside the department say it can help. Given that my dissertation is by publication and I've got one core field and two secondary, what would a hiring committee expect my CV to look like? Would publications in tertiary field (as primary author) be looked upon negatively?

If you have 5 publications in 5 different areas, I would be concerned that you might become the eternal prodigy or that you are not willing to perform some long term research. However, if you have a clear focus and can document that you are working continuously on one project, then activities outside your core area indicate that you are able to work together with very different people. So you won't be hired because you have many publications, if there is no area where you are really convincing. But among applicants, which are similar in the area the position is aiming at, other activities become a significant advantage.


Why use unique digital researcher ID? I recently discover the existence of unique digital identifier for researchers (such as the one proposed by ORCID or ResearcherID).

I never really heard about it, maybe because it is not common in my field (biological sciences) and I was wondering about the interest and use of such identifier.

So my question is twofold:

  1) What are the interest of using an unique digital identifier as a researcher?

  2) Is it commonly used in the scientific community (by publishers, databases, commitees)?

PS: related but not the same question here

Well, search for publications of a John Smith (no middle name), or a Lee Wang, or any common name, and you'll have a hard time identifying them because of the many homonyms… Publishers and database owners are trying hard to help users, by trying to guess who is who (Web of Science calls this “Unique author set”), but their algorithms don't do very well.

As an example, I have a colleague who has a paper completely outside her main field. None of these algorithms pick it up.

Thus, because a researcher’s name is not unique, many people argue that there is need of a unique ID scheme. (Others disagree: “I’m not a number!”). As a researcher, the benefits are:

easier for others to identify your articles in databases
easier to keep track of your citations, especially for items other than conventional journal articles
possibilities for cool web hyperlinks, like DOI has brought

The Orcid registry was launched yesterday, so noöne uses it so far…

My own concern about it is that I don't know in detail on the ORCID consortium will use the data they will be able to mine. In particular, this worries me:

  I consent to the privacy policy and terms and conditions of use, including allowing those who access the database to make commercial uses of the public data.


How much cost a graduate student to a supervisor? In order to hire a certain number of student in an office, I was wondering how much should one supervisor should think about the money involved. To restrict the answer, I'd like to focus in a biology program in a Canadian university.

Beside the stipends (which can be very different depending on the country or the university), what is the "basic" cost of the activity in which a student would need to develop professionally.

By basic cost, I would for example say, paying for conferences, fees of the equipment needed (laboratory accessories, computer, field equipment, office supplies, etc.), cost of publication or any activity you deem necessary to put.

As stated in the comments, this is impossible to give a general answer to; you would need to choose a field and a country.

That said, I think the factors you list are generally pretty negligible. The major expenses are usually the stipend, tuition, and overhead on the stipend+tuition. That can easily be $60K USD per student per year, often more. Also, students require considerable training (i.e., faculty time) before they start becoming useful. Those are the main drawbacks of hiring a student; no one is too concerned about the extra pens or an occasional conference fee.


Should I include my thesis supervisor as an author for new derived work? I would like to make a variation of one question already answered here.

I have also submitted my Master thesis manuscript to the university library and I have verified that there is no conflict of interest if I publish a summarized version in a journal (in fact, the university urge me to do so to gain visibility). The thesis was based on a previous paper I have published along with my supervisor and one colleague. For that paper  I didn't participate in the creation of the algorithm because my role was testing and finishing paper's drafting. How ever, during the thesis, I added original algorithms to cover some existent deficiencies and the supervisor merely limited himself to check typographical errors and confirm the quality of the results.

One of the thesis evaluation committee's member suggested me to improve the quality of the evaluation parameters by using a state-of-the-art method I didn't consider before, so I am thinking to add the new method (and the obtained results) to the submission of the next paper.

Since I finished the Master program (some months ago) I haven't mentioned to my supervisor that I am considering to make a new submission, in fact, he is involved with new master candidates and projects, and I am working full-time in industry. Should I still mention him the idea of submiting a new paper or adding him as a contributor?

Note: the first paper was published while I was working as a lab assistant in university A, and I completed the thesis in university B. University A's legal office was fine to let me continue with my thesis as long as I were using a different implementation on a different language (which I did), so I don't see any problem on that aspect. My thesis supervisor is still a professor in both universities.

If he hasn't participated in the new work he isn't really a co-author. Of course you cite the older work as usual and can also acknowledge his help in getting you started.

However, if you want to continue the work with his participation before publishing then he would naturally be a co-author.

Just working with you previously doesn't give him, or anyone, authorship on new work.


Paper rejected based on "informal review" - any point in appealing? I've recently been trying to get one of my papers published, and have come across the following issue. I started by submitting it to a fairly high-impact journal. It got three reviews, two of which were positive. The third reviewer seemed to find it personally offensive for some reason and hated it. I felt I could respond to all the comments (the negative ones seemed to me to be based on a misunderstanding of the basic premise of the study), but unfortunately the paper was rejected outright without the opportunity to respond.

So, I edited the paper based on the previous reviews (attempting to address all the comments I received, major and minor), re-formatted it and submitted it to a middle-ranking journal in my field (ecology).

This time, the paper received two reviews, both of which were largely positive - mostly minor suggestions for improvement and comments praising the paper. However, the editor said that following comments from an "informal review", he has concerns about the methodology. When describing this he uses the exact wording used by the negative reviewer from my initial submission. Once again, the paper is rejected without opportunity to respond to the reviewers.

I find this very frustrating - both the actual reviews were positive, but the rejection seems to be based on an "informal review" that I'm unable to see, or respond to.

To me, this isn't how the peer review process is supposed to work. Do you think it is worth emailing the editor to appeal his decision? Or is it a waste of time, and I should submit it to another journal?

Thanks

I'm going to guess that personalities are involved here and that you aren't going to win any fight you start. However, I think it would be appropriate for you to write to the editor asking for an explanation of "informal" review and how it is considered appropriate. You could mention that your paper seems to have been rejected not using "normal order" and ask, also, if that is appropriate.

I doubt you will get much satisfaction, but it is just possible that they will re-think their process. This might help someone in future, even if it doesn't help you.

But if it were me writing the letter, I would be polite and just ask for information and a judgment of appropriateness.


Can I cross reference in a masters application? When applying for a masters degree, you usually have to submit your CV, a covering letter and a transcript. Do I assume that these three are usually read together, or do I need to repeat certains bits of information between the three?

For example, on my transcript you will find all my grades from my undergraduate degree, and on my CV I have a short list of some of the units I have taken, but I have not written the grades for the units because they are in my transcript. Is this ok or should I also write the grades next to the units? I worry that it'll clog up my CV.

They would normally be read together so it isn't really necessary. Some redundancy might be good if you want to emphasize certain things. But it would be normal to have your materials in a folder that is reviewed by members of a committee. If electronic versions are used, they would most likely be kept together also. But your cover letter might provide some emphasis on the things you think are most important.

Many places also ask for a Statement of Purpose (SOP), in which you can write about your goals and how your background puts you in place to achieve them. You can also provide the needed emphasis in such a document.


What is a "trade journal"? I often encounter the expression "trade journal", but what is it exactly, and how does it differ from "academic journal" or "scholarly journal" or "scientific journal"?

From Virginia Tech Libraries:

  Trade journals are geared towards professionals in a discipline. They report news and trends in a field, but not original research. They may provide product or service reviews, job listings, and advertisements.

  Scholarly journals provide articles of interest to experts or researchers in a discipline. An editorial board of respected scholars (peers) reviews all articles submitted to a journal. They decide if the article provides a noteworthy contribution to the field and should be published. There are typically little or no advertisements. Articles published in scholarly journals will include a list of references.


French master student, equivalent honours in the UK? I am completing my second year of Master in mathematics in France and applying for a PhD in the UK, I wonder how to present my grades. I had average grades of 17.1/20 and 17.4/20. Shall I just write this (I'm afraid the 0-20 scale might be confusing), add that it is equivalent to First Class Honours (I was for sure in the first 10% of the class, maybe first, but there is no record of the ranking), or do you have any other suggestions?
I appreciate your answers

I would be careful when trying to make a direct comparison between the grades. Having "honours" after your degree in the UK generally means that you didn't fail any of your courses, so a 1st class and a 1st class hons. are not equivalent. Furthermore, research-based Masters degrees in the UK are generally marked Fail/ Pass/ Merit/ Distinction rather than 1st/ 2:1/ 2:2 etc. The exception to this are so-called "integrated Masters" which are common in the sciences. These are four year courses where the candidate finishes with (for example) an MSci rather than a BSc, and are graded with the usual classifications.

So, I think there is no direct equivalent, so you should simply write your grade as you have it. Understanding a mark out of twenty is not too challenging and chances are there will be academics familiar with the French system wherever you apply, or at least they will have dealt with French applicants before.

One additional detail that would be helpful is to write next to your grade "top 10% in my year" or "one of the top 5 students", if you have that information. You could also ask one of your referees to write that in their reference letter too.


What is a “capstone track” in a Master’s program? I've read in this other question:

  The Master's program (Software Engineering) I'm enrolled in offers both a thesis track and capstone track.

I'm somewhat familiar with the overall US academic system, but I've never heard of a “capstone track” before. I web-searched it, and found quite a few institutions that offer it, it seems a sort of more practice-oriented or business-oriented way of completing a given degree. It does not appear to be universal.

So: what is a “capstone track” in general, and how is it different from a Master of Engineering degree?

Many software engineering programs offer the option of a "capstone" software project instead of a thesis to complete the degree.  This is typically a project that stretches over a full semester, or year, or even longer.  In my department, these projects are designed in cooperation with local industry, so there are real "customers". The  intention is that the project will force the student to synthesize all the skills and knowledge acquired in other classes in the program, and will give them something closer to real-world experience that a typical class project.

As for "how is this different from a Master of Engineering", I have no idea.  Everybody gives their degrees different names; there is no standard. (My department offers a capstone project only for undergrads; the degree is a Bachelor of Science whether you do the project or not.)


Using "we" in mathematical reports Recently, I have submitted an early draft of a report summarising the results of a year-long project at my university, to my advisor for review. We have met up for a review of the paper, and he pointed out my frequent use of the word "we" in the paper. He considered it a mistake and asked me to change everything to a third-person view.

Personally, I found this incredibly strange. I am in the field of mathematics, and based on other papers and publications in math, it is very common and even considered "good" language to use the word "we" in writing, especially in proofs and discussions of results. For example, instead of

  This proof demonstrates Theorem 3 to be true

it is considered desirable to instead write

  We have thus proven Theorem 3.

The reasons cited for this preference, I have seen, is due to both convention and to avoid dodgy writing (third-person wording may suggest that the authors did something, but it could have been taken from somewhere else).

I have seen different questions on this site pertaining to this issue. This question, for example, has answers which suggest to take reference to the style guide provided by one's university, which unfortunately mine does not have. The accepted answer deals with economics, so I am unsure it applies in mathematics. This question suggests it is good to use "we" in mathematical and scientific writing. A quick search on Google, however, apparently suggests it is always undesirable to use first or second person pronouns in academic writing (see this site).

Thus, I am asking this question for my specific scenario for clarification. Should I follow my advisor's advice, or should I discuss with him further? Again, I find his advice rather odd and I definitely prefer to be able to use the word "we" as I please when appropriate.

If you were writing for a journal, you would want to check the journal's style guide. If it doesn't cover that issue, then the next step would be to check previous publications and see what the norm is.

For an internal report with no applicable style guide, one should write for the intended reader/s. If your advisor is going to be the main reader for this document, then write it in the style that he requests.

To me, this change seems unnecessary, but it may help to consider this story from the development of the computer game Battlechess:

  The producers of the game were known to demand changes to the game, presumably to make their mark on the finished product. To this end, one animator added a small duck around the queen piece, but made sure that the sprite would be easily removable. Come review, the producers, predictably, okayed everything but asked for the duck to be removed.

In my experience, this is a very broad tendency among managers/advisors, and now that I'm a manager myself I understand the temptation to micro-manage. Even if a document is quite good enough as-is, if we don't suggest changes we don't feel like we're doing our job.

It may be that your use of "we"s is the sacrificial "duck" shielding you from more annoying change requests.


Do PhD Committees separate applicants based on whether they are a fresh undergrad or have MS/Work experience? (USA) Does the PhD admit committee look at applicants differently based on the number of years they have invested?
Example:

Set 1: Undergraduates directly applying
Set 2: Master's applicants
Set 3: Undergraduate plus Work Experience

Set 2 and 3 are obviously way more experienced than simple undergrads. So is there any striking differences the committee tries to search for, or are there pre-defined number of seats for the various sets?
Or is all looked at the same? If so, is that really a fair judgement?

If a university were to do that formally, I hope (and suspect) that they would say so. But you can't account for individual preferences in such things. And, I'll also guess that individual bias cancels out in such committees.
Some professors might prefer to admit a student or two who they think might finish early, freeing up resources. Some professors might prefer to have students around for a longer time so that they can get to know them and also have more of an influence on their future.
Work experience might be a plus, but some early research experience is a stronger plus. Work in industry isn't generally a good indicator of success in research, though there are a few exceptions.
But even a student admitted with an MS/MA has to pass qualifying/comprehensive exams, so, in the US, entering with a masters may not bring a big advantage. They also have to choose an advisor with less information since it is sooner. This works well for some, but not all students and professors recognize that in the admission process.
I think that the most important thing, far outweighing all others, is whether the committee can make a fairly accurate projection that admitted students will succeed, both in the degree and thereafter. This is one reason that letters of recommendation have quite a lot of weight in admission decisions and can overcome some deficiencies.
But, for a direct answer, no, there is no strong preference for any of the groups you list.


Getting in touch with a professor who has no longer an e-mail address... how to? This question could sound weird. I'm reading through a computer science book which is the only reference I personally have about an algorithm, and I'd like to get in touch with the author of the book, which is quite famous in the field. I don't understand some of the conditions stated in order to make the algorithm work. I have another book which implements the algorithm, but some of the key aspects are not actually explained, and somehow I don't find the correspondence with some of theoretic aspect.

Just to clarify the algorithm is a long division algorithm for which I've tried to work out the theoretic aspect exposed in the book by myself. Some of them are fine other instead aren't clear enough, at least to me. I've tried to ask in math exchange for some help I didn't get much information XD.

The issue is that apparently this professor has no longer an e-mail address, and he suggests that if someone wants to get in touch with him it's for the best if you use the "old fashion" mail post service... which I mean... it's not that handy...

Do you have any suggestions?

Do you have any suggestions?

My suggestion is for you to get some perspective. If the person you are referring to is who I (and everyone else here) think it is, you need to understand that this is a person who has reached an extraordinary level of celebrity in the scientific community. Saying he is "quite famous" doesn't begin to describe the situation accurately -- I'm talking about a level of fame where (I have seen this with my own eyes) when he gives a talk at another institution, star-struck graduate students and postdocs approach him one after the other asking to have their pictures taken with him. Moreover, this person famously dedicates his life to thinking, writing, and speaking at public events in various places. Being in close touch with his very large fan base is quite at odds with his lifestyle and his legendary dedication to his work.

In other words, there is a very good reason why he does not have a publicly listed email address.

For the same reason, I expect that even if you go to the small trouble of writing him a letter (which, amusingly and for a reason I can't quite understand, you seem to think is an incredibly onerous thing to do), the chances that you will get a reply seem rather low -- I wouldn't expect that he can spare the time to explain long division algorithms to random people asking for more details than he already put into his books. But in any case do give it a shot, in the event that you do get a reply you will have something to brag about to your friends. And maybe it will help free you from your psychological inhibition against writing old-fashioned letters, which is something that could be of independent benefit.


Allowing a student to sit in during class I'm a grad student who will be teaching a course for the first time over the summer, and I'm not sure what the convention is on allowing a student to "sit in" on the class (that is, attend class without being registered, not getting credits, etc). If a student asks before class for permission to do so, is it to my discretion on whether or not to allow it? I suppose it's always within the instructor's right to deny the request, but it seems like approving the request without the school's permission could be a mistake, since I am an employee of the university. The faculty handbook seems to only consider if the student audits the course, in which case they have to officially register as auditing the class, but nothing about unofficially sitting in. Am I extending past my right as instructor if I let a student sit in?

EDIT: This is at a private university in the US.

If you want to find out what exactly is within your legal power as an instructor and what is not, check your university regulations. They do vary from place to place. The general rule is that if there is no official policy in the handbook, the choice is yours, but you may also ask the chairman to be on the safe side (this is a good general strategy, by the way: while in doubt and seriously concerned about any legal stuff, just pass the issue up the administrative ladder). As to the rest, I usually allow people to sit in whenever they request it under two conditions

1) The classroom sitting capacity allows it

2) The student behaves in a non-disruptive way

So, unless you have a clear reason to say "No", I would say "Conditional yes" and tell the student any conditions you care about right away with the understanding that if any of them get violated, the sitting-in gets terminated.


Change of author sequence after accept with shepherding Is it ethical to change the author sequence in paper that has been accepted with shepherding at an ACM conference? How likely is it that the shepherds will raise questions on such a change?

Presumably you know the shepherds and can ask them. But I suspect that if the authors all agree on a change the conference won't object provided that it doesn't come so late as to require changes to websites or proceedings. But in general, order of authorship should be up to the authors.

I might change this opinion if shepherds had made specific advice about authorship, but I've never seen that done. But still, the paper belongs to its authors.


Why are some conferences no longer indexed by Scopus? I have seen in Scopus that there are some conferences that are still running nowadays, but they not longer appear indexed on Scopus. For example, in the field of Computer Science I see that the ICCSIT conference is indexed only until 2010, but now they are in the 2015 edition. I know that some indexing units such as DBLP exclude from their current rankings some conferences when their quality has decreased substantially. Does this situation also happen with Scopus?

Scopus, just like DBLP, has standards.  In fact, if you look at Scopus' description of the conference coverage, it appears that they actually just scrape DBLP to get their computer science conference listings.  As such, while I don't know about the particular conference that you mention, I would expect that anything that DBLP drops, Scopus will drop as well.


What does YEAR: NNff means in research papers? eg 1965: 47ff I am reading a book called Foundations of Statistical Natural Language Processing, in which there is a section called further reading. It states the following:

  Chomsky (1965: 47ff, 1980: 234ff, 1986)

I am not able to find any paper of Chomsky written in 1965! Any help?

"ff" stands for "and following" so in your case it is page 45 and following pages that are indicated. It should be used when no stop page can be given. The abbreviation comes from the latin for page foilum plur. folia. Originally one would write page 45f to indicate just the following page, i.e. "45-46". The two f's indicate more than one page so "45 and on".


When am I supposed to get an acknowledgement for a paper submitted via e-mail (CS conference)? I have submitted a paper to a CS conference. Am I supposed to get an acknowledgement email, so I know it hasn't ended up in the spam folder by accident, and that it will be considered for the conference? If so, how long after submission? Is it OK to contact the conference organizers and ask if my submission has been received?

In computer science, paper submission by e-mail is non-standard. Therefore, there is no default answer to your question.

However, it's in the interest of the conference organizers to show good professional communication that does not leave authors "in the dark". I would expect them to confirm your submission immediately after submission, within 24 hours. If you have not heard back from them after 24 hours, it's absolutely OK to contact them.


How important are extracurricular activities as a Mathematics Major? So I'm about halfway through my Sophomore year of college at LSU and on my way to a major in Mathematics with about a 4.05 GPA so far. My main objective is to be a desirable candidate for a good grad program. It doesn't really have to be a super top-tier school, but I wouldn't like to do a grad program in Mathematics at a school like LSU; I would like it to be a higher tier than that. I understand that my GPA and internships/work experience in my field are the two most important things for my major. So far, I haven't done any extracurriculars at all during the semester and worked at a summer camp the summer after my Freshman year. I plan on doing a math-related internship this summer. So, how important are extracurriculars during the semester? I find myself not having as much free time as I'd like when school is in session, so I held off on them. Is it important that I do something such as a community service group (which would be my main extracurricular interest) in order to make myself more desirable as a grad candidate? Thanks

In the US, and I suspect elsewhere, such things have little bearing on admissions to graduate school. People will look at your academic achievements, mostly, but not entirely, in your major subject. They are looking for evidence of academic success and want to be able to make an easy prediction about your fit into their program. It is a much more important thing for admission to an undergraduate program in the US, but not a graduate program.

However, evidence of hard work and dedication to a goal can also be evidence of academic success. But the more important thing is the courses you took, your grades, and any writing you have done.


Is it possible to change paper title after send back from reviewers for revising? Me and my supervisor were written a paper on medical imaging as a part of my master thesis, we sent a paper to a journal for publishing, after a period of time the journal send us back the paper with some comments from each reviewer. In our perspective a number of questions from reviewers comes from a word "Novel" that we wrongly put it in a title. And I want to ask you professionals that is it possible to change the title? is it a good or bad idea? this will make our paper to be refused by reviewers or not?

It's normal to change titles during the review process, sometimes reviewers even ask for it explicitly.

If it's causing a problem or confusion, change the title.


Digressing in Footnotes I am currently writing my thesis. At times, I find it may be helpful to add additional context to a quotation or I may want to include an additional, interesting fact that complements the main body of the text whilst not being directly pertinent to the point at hand.

For example, I'm quoting "God does not play dice" and want to add a footnote regarding the discrepancy between the popular interpretation of what Einstein meant by god and his "cosmic religion". It's not relevant to the academic point I'm making with regards to quantum physics but it is interesting and pertinent to how the reader may interpret the connotations of the quotation.

Is it acceptable to include things like this in the footnotes or should I leave them out entirely?

While I’m a big believer in “ask your adviser” about many questions, it’s useful to remember (and to remind yourself occasionally) that this is your thesis. You are the author. With that status comes the freedom (in a technical sense, at least) to write literally whatever you want in the thesis. That’s what it means to be the author of something.

So yes, you don’t want to annoy your adviser and other readers of your thesis too much, but remember: it is your thesis. If it makes you happy to discuss Einstein’s metaphysical beliefs (or lack thereof), there’s no need to overthink the issue. You worked very hard for several years to come up with interesting things to say, the least that people can do to respect that monumental effort is to humor you by putting up with a few not-very-relevant side remarks.


How to symbolize that figure is cropped? I need to add a photo with some additional data drawn over it to my thesis in computer science. But the photo is large and I want to crop bottom half of it. But then it could be misleading, that there is a part of the image missing.

I will write it to the image description, but I want it to be obvious at first sight without reading the description. Is there some standard way to display that part of the figure is cropped?

What kind of a figure is that? If it is a plot, and you want to zoom in to a particular range of it, then you may want to include full plot, then a zoomed in one. For the latter, you may mention that "plot of y from x{a to b}" in the caption. Plus, it would be much better if you say a few lines about why this particular range is important to be emphasized this way, in between your text.

This is not a symbolization, but an effective one to crop something out of a drawing. Thus, I'd prefer this if I were to read your thesis.


Ideal ways of making a call for nominations We're currently putting out a Call for Nominations for graduate research and historically we've received very few nominations. What are some good strategies to get more nominations. Should we be more specific or broaden the qualification.

The award is from a minority organization for "doctoral candidates who have demonstrated excellence in research or in teaching".

Improve the reward. If you're not currently offering money, consider doing it. Other forms of reward I can think of can be:

the opportunity to give a talk at a prestigious venue, to a nice audience
the opportunity to give a talk alongside a famous speaker (say, allowing the awardee to give a 15' talk just before a 1 hour talk by some famous person)
an introduction to some influent people, possibly looking to hire researchers


How can I politely tell a student that I already support him several times and that is enough? I have a student who sends me emails twice a week showing me his updated dissertation. At first I supported him a lot. But he literally does what I say word by word and never goes beyond what I tell him in doing further research. I have been clear to him that his limits are the sky. But when he adds a small detail he sends me an email again asking me if that was okay or not.
I think he assumes that he will take a very high mark if I did not tell him exactly what he needs to do for his dissertation. I am a bit worried about how to reply to this student. As I am trying to be polite and nice and I do not want him to fail, but at the same time I need to be genuine.
Please give me advice on how to reply to such kind of students so that I do not offend them. I want to convey that I encourage them to do further research and it is okay to say something I disagree with as long as they support it with proofs and evidence.

I'll assume you already have language that indicates your support. Don't give up on that.
But, ask him for two things. First, that he only asks for feedback once a week (or whatever you are comfortable with) and add a report on changes and why they were made.
Second, ask him to specify in the report things he is unsure about and to detail why he is unsure.
The goal is to get him to think more deeply about why he is doing things and to separate the simpler from the deeper things.


Should I ask my professor giving a lecture to switch languages? I am an international student in a German university. I have participated in an online seminar (in English),in which lecture notes are given. There are lectures in my university discussing the notes and related stuff, I want to join it but it is conducted in German. I basically don't understand what the professor talks about. The course is not mandatory, but the course description said it is in German. Should I ask the professor giving his talk in English?
I have participated in the first lecture (but I was late) and said nothing about the language problem and I skipped the second lecture. Am I in the right position to ask for switching languages?

You can ask, of course. But if the description states that it is in German, then you probably won't see a change. There may be others in the course depending on it being in German, of course.
But giving the professor a heads up that you are having a lot of trouble following because of language issues might possibly result in some accommodation.


"Under Editor Evaluation" to "Under Review" I have submitted a paper in an Elsevier journal. The paper has gone through the "Under Review" stage and was subsequently given the status "Under Editor Evaluation".

The paper is now back to "Under Review". What does this mean in practice?

This is not a duplicate question. I am aware of the journal workflow. This is a specific question about a particular scenario.

My guess is that the editor felt the review(s) received were not sufficient to make a decision on. You can get some extra insight if you know how long the paper was in each stage. If the paper was under review for a long time (depending on how long it typically takes to review a paper in your field) and then went to under editor evaluation for a few weeks before reverting back to under review, that would be indirect evidence for this guess.

If this guess is wrong, then the next most likely thing is probably a more serious breakdown in the review process, e.g. the journal swapped editors responsible for the article. Either way, unless you want to withdraw the paper, there's nothing to do except wait.


Will already having a masters degree make it harder to get funding for a second masters in Europe? If a person who already has M.Sc degree (from the university outside of Europe) wants to enter European university for another M.Sc degree, would having M.Sc degree be a hindrance for getting a scholarship or other kind of funding?

It really depends on the exact degree you already hold and when and where you earned it, and what you want to study at this European school, and why. For admissions purposes you should explain in your SOP why you need another degree in the same field.


Employment history: job title I am currently filling out an application for a lecturer position in the UK, which includes a section on employment history.

Previously I was employed at a Russian university where my official job title was an engineer. However, the work that I did correspond more to a research assistant. The problem is that in Russia you need to be a PhD and go through an official selection procedure (that means for an organisation to open position, to select a pool of candidates, etc.) to get a research assistant position. So usually if your professor gets a grant, he/she usually tries to hire you on a less "complex" position from a bureaucratic point of view (especially if you are not a PhD).

Obviously, I don't want to describe all this country-specific stuff in my application. How do you think, is it OK to put a job title "research assistant" in the application? Are the universities likely to verify this information?

Do not lie.

You never know who is going to read your application. What if the committee includes a Russian person who is familiar with the Russian system and spots the inconsistency right away?

I would write the actual job title and then describe the tasks you had there, emphasizing that they were research tasks.


Accepted vs. published (for grad math admissions) For an applicant to a high ranking U.S. graduate program in mathematics, how much more beneficial would it be to have a (coauthored) article published rather than accepted for publication?

(If more details are relevant, without possibly breeching anonymity, there are a few student authors and one faculty author.  The article is on a recreational mathematics topic in an expository journal.)

I don't think published versus accepted for publication matters a lot for a PhD position (or indeed any position). The date of publication is determined by the editors (I think) and not by you. If your article is accepted for publication then it is already in final form (as far as the content - which for most mathematicians is the important thing - is concerned). The difference between published and accepted for publication is, in a sense, a mere formality.


What are the advantages/disadvantages of a PhD advisor who is experienced vs. one at the beginning of his career? I know in most of the cases, PhD seekers do not have many options and we must stick to what is offered. However, it happened that I initiated connection with two advisors from different institutes which almost have the same reputation. However, one of them is a lecturer (equivalent to assistant professor in north America) and the other is full professor. Nothing is guaranteed yet, so I won't give up on any of them. Yet, before I delve deeper, I would like to know is it better to work with advisor who is still at the beginning of his academic career but with less experience and maybe more demanding. Or it is better to work with full professor who has long experience but might be too busy for you or not really pushing you to work.

The answer that I am looking for is from two parts, during PhD study and the future career:

PhD period: I know PhD student is independent researcher and should not rely much on his advisor in many aspects. However, I have this fear due to what I faced during my Master, whereby my supervisor was just looking for the quantity of papers not the quality. I assumed from my conversations with him that the number of publications was main criterion to become full professor in that institute. One the other hand, other colleagues complained about their advisors (full professors) that they really do not allocate enough time for them and even do not encourage them to publish saying that you are master student and this number of publications is enough.

Future career: I assume recommendation letter from full professor outweigh the one from assistant professor. Do you agree? why?

It is sometimes assumed that less experienced / competent supervisor will try harder instead, spending more working time and will be somewhat a friend to you, not just a teacher. However this depends. A younger supervisor may also choose to give you only the minimum required amount of time.

For a good PhD student, it may be most important to get a good project and ideas that, as a rule, work. This does not require lots of time but does require a lot of competence. I would normally select the more experienced supervisor even if one may have less time for me. Only if the studies require some complex, difficult to learn methods, a younger supervisor who still uses these methods directly and personally at work may teach them more efficiently.