Citing full names of authors Different journals have different standards regarding author names - some mention only the first name (i.e. "William Webb"), some mention also an initial of the middle name ("William A. Webb"), some mention only initials ("W. A. Webb"), etc.

So, when I copy BibTeX records of papers to my bibliography manager, the names are copied in different styles, and also appear in different styles in my bibliographic listing.

My question is: is this a problem? Should I go over all my bibliography, each time I write a paper, and make sure all names have the same format?

No, you shouldn't change your bibtex database every time. Bibtex converts automatically from its native format "Surname, Firstname I. and Other, Author" to whatever the journal style is (for instance: F Surname, A Other), as long as you have full names in the database. Name formatting is something that people often get wrong at first when they have little experience with bibtex.

So you should aim for having full names in the database, at least for those papers that you need to cite with an unabbreviated first name. Everything would be easier if all journals used initials, but it's a tough world.

I suggest initials for theses, preprints and submissions, and only switch to full names after the article is accepted in a journal that demands them (and after being asked by a copy-editor that demands them). This is the solution that minimizes the workload on the author.


How to copyright unpublished work during Phd How do I protect my unpublished phd work (which i am planning on publishing soon)?
I am conducting expert interviews and I will have to send parts of my work to them for validation. But, how to ensure that they don't copy it or use it in their work before I publish it?

In most countries your work is copyrighted when you create it. That is simple. The other question you need to address yourself is, why would folks you have contacted steal your work? This is a fear many people have, but almost never actually happens. Get over that fear.


Bad answer to a bad peer-review I submitted a paper together with other people to an important journal. A couple of days ago we received the answer from the editor and the paper was rejected (I was 3rd author) with very bad comments. One of the reviewers wrote that the paper was lacking innovation or originality. Another one sent us more than 20 comments. To be honest the comments weren't really appropriate because we did particles loaded with gold or FITC and one of the comments was "It seems that the FITC and gold are encapsulated inside the nanoparticles, not the other way around." He did not understand a lot but still, he also did a lot of interesting comments.

Anyway, the main author yesterday emailed the editor saying that the reviewers do
not have enough knowledge to correct this paper, that they are unqualified and that people like this should not correct this kind of work. This person sent the email to the editor without speaking to any other authors, therefore we discovered today what happened and some of us still don't know.

Do you think that the journal, following this email, can do something to the authors of the paper? Like, e.g., sue us? or ban us to publish there? or stuff like this?

What should we do now?

What do editors do when authors send them angry emails questioning the competence of the reviewer? When I edited a journal, if the author provided technical arguments against the reviewer's comments, I would forward those to the reviewer(s) and see what they say. If they didn't, I would usually say something generic about our faith in our peer review process and apologize that we cannot accept the paper. Either way the dispute does not usually escalate beyond the three of us (author, editor, reviewer).

Filing a lawsuit would be unprecedented. Banning you from submitting is more conceivable, but still unlikely. After all, it's to their advantage that authors submit potentially-publishable papers there. If it happens my guess would be that the author wrote something that crosses into the realm of personal attacks: for example, "tell your reviewer to take a gun and shoot himself".

In any case it is not something to worry too much about - after all it's not you that sent the bad answer - unless the author did write personal attacks, in which case you could send the editor an email distancing yourself from the author's behavior.


Is it a good idea to mention previous rejection and subsequent improvement in motivation letter? I am applying to a Master's degree in Finland. Last year I applied to the same programme and unfortunately I was not accepted.

While I am writing my motivation letter I wonder if it would be a good idea to mention that I was not accepted last year but now I have improved as a professional during last year, so I can tell that I am a better prospect now.

If you think you might know the reason for rejection and over the course of last year you have managed to resolve the issue then IMO it is worth mentioning. On the other hand if you added so much prestige to your profile during the time then it's worth stating that you had applied last year and also state your qualifications and skills earned since then.


I am preparing the presentation of a co-authored research, who owns the copyright? I have a question about copyright. When I make a presentation based on my research (together with co-authors from other countries), who owns the copyright of the presentation? I think, only I have the copyright since I give credit to my co-authors.

The problem is now that the university (I'm living in Germany, if that is important) tells me that they have to copyright on my talks since they pay me.

Do you have any answer for this or any comments?

German copyright is very different from UK or US copyright. In German law, copyright always belongs to the author(s), and cannot be given away. What you can give away are the various rights of use.

The question here thus should be whether your university has a right to use your presentations, potentially even an exclusive right to use them. In the case of computer programs, §69b of the German copyright law explicitly states that the employer has the exclusive right to use the work.

I am not sure whether a lawyer could argue that your presentation is a computer program - maybe he could if it is a tex file :). Otherwise, as F'x writes, it depends on your work contract. If there is not an explicit statement in your work contract that the university has the right to use any copyrighted works that you authored during your employment, they will generally not have such rights. In the typical employment contracts at German universities, such statements are not included.


Academic career start: Postdoctoral or AP I am a fresh PhD and I have job offer of Postdoctoral researcher in world  leading university (QS rank 6) and assistant professorship in an average university (QS rank 339). What is good for long term academic career?

Well, probably about the "long term carreer" it depends on the laws of the country you are working in. Moreover it is related to the type of studies in which you are involved in the "world leading university" compared to the "average university".

In my humble opinion you should decide first of all with the feeling that you have with your future working group. In fact the rank of the university is just an index but you should love the research you are involved and give everything to be one of the best in your field.


What to do about a proposed research idea during the waiting period after submitting a grant proposal? Grant proposals can take months until you hear back. What should researchers do during that period?

Start working on the research since the idea could be implemented by others and publish without acknowledging the funder.
Similar to point 1 but in publishing wait to hear about the results and acknowledge the funder if you were funded.
Wait since you don't know if the idea will be funded and there are no funds to support students but the idea could become obsolete after 6 months.
Something else

Start the work if you can.  Acknowledge the grant if you get it.

If you don't have the necessary resources to start the proposed research without the new grant, the only thing you can do is wait for the new grant.  Yes, your idea could become obsolete after six months; in fact, your might already be obsolete.  Nothing you can do about that.  Let it go.

If you do have the necessary resources to start the proposed research without the new grant, go right ahead.  (Those necessary resources definitely include your time and expertise; they might also include specialized equipment, money for research assistants, money for publication costs, money for travel, ethics board approval, and/or other things I didn't think of.)

But while you're waiting for the grant decision, remember that developing a research idea into a publication also takes several months.  You have to do the actual research; you have to write the paper; the paper has to be reviewed and edited.  All of these steps take significant time.

If you can get a paper all the way to print before the proposal decision, you don't need to acknowledge the new grant, because it doesn't exist yet.  But this seems rather unlikely; any idea that you can get to publication in only a few months is a weak basis for a grant proposal.

On the other hand, if the grant comes in before your paper is actually published, pat yourself on the back and then acknowledge the grant.  Even if you are already revising the galley proofs.  ("Research by this author is partially supported by XXX under grant ZZZ.")  You have nothing to lose by being generous to the funding agency.


Why is it customary to call people with doctoral degrees doctors but not people with masters degrees masters? Why is it customary to call people with doctoral degrees doctors but not people with masters degrees masters? They are both graduate degrees that supersede the undergraduate degree.

If you're talking about the use of doctor as a title, as in "Dr. Smith", I doubt there's any compelling explanation.  Most degrees don't come with titles: nobody say Master Smith or Bachelor Smith or Associate Smith.  Historically, magister (corresponding to the master's degree) was just as appropriate a Latin title as doctor was, but it simply isn't used in modern English.  These titles are nearly gone, with just one remaining.  It's probably no coincidence that the last remaining title is also the fanciest, but that's just speculation.

Even for the doctorate, the use of the term "doctor" has degenerated to the point where in English it can only be used as a title, and not as a general noun.  If you say "my friend John Smith is a doctor", practically everyone will assume he's a medical doctor.  You could only get away with the more general usage in the narrowest academic context, and even there it would be considered pretentious and archaic.


Making a short summary before a set of paragraphs? Of late I noticed that recent books or long articles tend to make a short summary before every set of paragraphs. For example, we might have:

1. Introduction

We so and so ...

Therefore, so and so ....

What is so and so: Let us consider ...

Properties of so and so: We notice that ...

where every boldfaced phrases is followed by a set of paragraphs. For a real example:
http://modular.math.washington.edu/edu/2011/581g/misc/Darmon-Diamond-Taylor-Fermats_Last_Theorem.pdf

My questions are:

1) Is this style of writing really a trend?

2) Is it still a good idea if we are writing an article of moderate length such as a statement of purpose or a short report?

In my opinion, such style seems much more intelligible.

Ah, it's just LateX's \paragraph{} command.

It's not the most widespread style, but I think it's clearer, too, and I suggest you to go on using it.

What problems could there be? I can only foresee issues with journal articles, if you encounter overzealous copy-editors. A good card to play is "if your house style contains \paragraph{}, I am using it".


Statistics for how many different authors post on categories of the arXiv I would like to know how many different authors have posted something on the different categories of the arXiv. Are there any statistics somewhere about this?

To be precise what I'm looking for:

Astrophysics: 2014 - 92348 authors
High Energy Physics - Lattice: 2014 - 45121 authors

If there are no such statistics, a pointer to a search engine that provides such data for different scientific fields would be a great help.

(Now an answer by request.)

The arXiv supports the Open Archive Initiative so in principle this is just a programming question for

Requesting and downloading the data for all articles in Astrophysics and dumping it locally in a usable format.
Extracting the author information.
Culling the duplicates.
Counting the resulting entries.

If the first step is done right (by putting the information in a suitable database format) the other three will be more-or-less trivial.

Note however that name duplication would be a problem that is hard to solve, especially when some articles are listed with a "last name, first initials" format. Similarly authors who use more than one version of their names on arXiv (I'm guilty of that myself) can cause some inaccuracies to the computation outlined above. The mathematicians solve this "manually" by employing 13 people and making this part of their jobs, and I don't know if there can be a good programmatic solution until at least wide adoption of some sort of author ID (like ORCid) system.


Are professors not allowed to work on what they want to work on without a grant? In this video on mathematician Maria Chudnovsky, she says "with the MacArthur Fellowship, I'll be able to work exactly on the problems I want to work on."

Are professors not able to work on what they wish to work on without some sort of grant?

Do professors need a grant before starting research?

No, a professor doesn't strictly need grant funding to start work on an idea (and it's common to do some preliminary work on an idea to help get grant funding for that idea). However, grant funding helps professors to

support graduate students and/or postdocs,
pay his/her own summer salary, if the university only pays 9 months of salary a year,
be promoted/get tenure in departments where there is an expectation of bringing in funding,
sometimes buy out of teaching obligations

Thus a researcher who wants those things, needs grant funding.

Having no-strings-attached grant funding that comes with no obligation to research a particular area gives a professor freedom to do those things, and still spend their research time and effort on whatever they want.


Posting a (non-original research) Masters thesis on arXiv? Based on the following posts:
Posting master's thesis on arxiv?
Should one put their Master's thesis online?
although my question differs in that my "Master's thesis" was not part of a formal Masters program. Rather it is more of an extensive reading project that I did over the last 10 months under a very well-known advisor in my field through the Fulbright Scholarship. I've a 150+ page review on a topic I think would be of interested to others in my field at my level of knowledge. However it does not contain anything new, and I think this means it has no place on the arXiv. It solely summarizes the inception of a topic from the 1960s, and summarizes a new take on the topic that my adviser uncovered in some seminal work around 2010.
Can I get some input on the pros and cons of posting it on the arxiv/ inspireHEP profile?
Pros:

easy to send to friends, peers, potential collaborators, and most importantly, potential PhD advisors at my uni

Cons:

it might look petty/immature

In my field (cosmology), plenty of researchers and professors post lecture notes on arXiv, and of course many people write and publish review articles which don't contain any new results. So there's no requirement of novelty to post on arXiv.
Whether it looks immature largely depends on the quality of your writing. A poorly written review will not be read, and could reflect badly on you if you continue in academia (employers and grant reviewers will look at your Inspire and/or ADS profile). Bear in mind that you can't remove things from arXiv.
I would highly recommend asking your supervisor about this. They are best placed to tell you whether it's appropriate or not, according to the quality of your work and the conventions in your field. If you don't post on arXiv, you could consider uploading the pdf to your own website, a public github repository, google drive or similar. Then you can still share the link with interested people.


Should I report apparent conflict with handling editor during peer review? I have been dealing with an awkward situation regarding evaluation of my submitted paper. The publisher is one of the big well known OA, and the journal is one of their leading journals (in terms of niche visibility and impact factor). We were invited to submit a paper by a colleague who'd be preparing a special issue in that journal.

I have submitted a paper for their evaluation, providing few names of potential reviewers under request by the submission system. I eventually received the evaluation results by three reviewers. Two reviewers suggested structural and grammar adjustments, and one produced overly negative vague remarks which mostly missed the point of the paper. The managing editor (not our colleague) rejected the paper but offered the option to Revise & Resubmit.

Fine: we applied changes suggested by reviewers and replied to all comments, in a politely manner. Through the new cover letter we raised concerns regarding the rather aggressive behaviour of a reviewer. After a while we received further comments. The two previous reviewers accepted the paper, and the one negative reviewer produced further negative vague remarks, unrelated to the previous ones. In short, this reviewer clearly ignored the goal and technical background of the paper. Two additional reviewers were added, who made further questions and structural suggestions. Editor recommended major changes, and gave a deadline of five days to respond.

We did respond within five days with the suggestions applied and a cold, technical rebuttal to the one negative reviewer. Again we appealed to the editor via submission system claiming a suspected conflict of interests.

After a while the paper was rejected, no specific reason given. We read the comments by the reviewers: the additional ones accepted the paper whilst the one negative reviewer made further vague, one-line derogatory remarks without any mention to our previous response.

I wrote to the colleague who had invited us and asked him to take a look into the situation. He said he gave instructions that the paper should be accepted. The managing editor now contacted us suggesting minor changes but now presenting personal concerns about our paper followed by general comments which are beside the main scope of the manuscript alongside a long list of cherry-picked typos and grammar suggestions. This person states:

  "I suspect that the MS is peppered with more mistakes and great care should be taken to ensure that these are corrected before the MS gets published."

We are given three days to respond.

I have submitted dozens of manuscripts and never went through such an awkward situation. I now strongly suspect that the conflict of interests stems from the managing editor itself, and wouldn't be surprised if the resilient nonsensical reviewer proves a sock-puppet.

I am not sure on what is the best to be done. I suspect the paper will get accepted ultimately, under request of of the inviting colleague.

Regardless of the final decision which is certainly coming, should I later contact the EIC and report this situation and managing editor? In case an editor is playing games other authors might be affected.

You have not identified any conflict of interest in your post.  The managing editor can, and should, criticize your work.

It seems that the colleague who invited your paper mislead you by failing to clearly state they were not actually editing the special issue.

The reason you have not encountered this situation before is that most editors are not thorough enough to provide their own advice to the authors.  This is unfortunate.

Do not claim someone has a conflict of interest unless you have solid evidence.  The evidence needs to show that they have some way of directly benefiting from the rejection of your manuscript.  Unsupported claims of conflict of interest hurt your reputation.  Your negative reviewer is much more likely to be lazy, rather than a competitor.


Scholarships or bursaries specifically for software for scientific research I am a graduate student in statistics at a Canadian University and I have a desktop computer in my office which has software installed that I have used for my research. The software is proprietary and the license is for a local machine so I can not access it remotely (via ssh or otherwise).

Due to the current situation with COVID-19, I am working from home. I am able to conduct most of my research using open source software (such as python and R) however I would also like to use some of the software which I had access to on my desktop in order to complete my research since I had code that was working on the proprietary software. I would save a substantial amount of time by running existing code compared to rewriting it in another language.

Unfortunately I can not access the software on my desktop remotely due to licensing issues and I do not want to visit the university since the government has asked us to practice social distancing and the University has also requested that only essential personnel be present in the interest of the safety of the general public.

Therefore I was wondering whether there were any scholarships or bursaries available specifically for students who would like to use scientific software for their research (in Canada or in North America in general)?

I understand that research and education requires sacrifice and I might end up asking my supervisor to help me out with buying a license and I also understand that a lot of software is available at a discounted price for students (however the student price is still non-trivial). Before I try these options however I was wondering whether the community might be aware of some resources for scholarships or bursaries specifically for software that I could apply for?

Moderators, if this is off-topic, please direct me to the relevant stack exchange so I can post my question there.

In your case, you should have a person who is "essential personnel" send you the computer.  For example, security or safety personnel.  This would meet social distancing requirements.  I am assuming that the premise of your question is correct.

More generally, supercomputing centers purchase software licenses.  You can apply for free access to many of these centers.  I'm not familiar with the ones in Canada in particular.


What is considered as the time since PhD degree granted? In certain postdoc positions, the eligibility criteria says, "candidate's PhD has received their PhD within last 4 years."
So, if I defended on December 2019 and got my degree (convocation) on May 2020. Started postdoc from June 2020. So will my 4 years from now will be calculated on the basis of May 2020 or December 2019?

Major competitions for postdoctoral fellowships have detailed rules which answer this question, but in different ways.  Some use the date the degree was awarded.  Others use the date of the defense or viva.
If it is not specified, assume the later date is used.


Is it a good idea to introduce myself via email after submitting application? I am asking this question on behalf of my brother, who has recently submitted applications to several Physician Assistant programs around the U.S. For various reasons, his GPA is close to the minimum level; but he has strengths elsewhere. Therefore, he is worried that the schools may discard his application in the first round, without getting the full picture.
In order to improve his chances, he is considering to send an introduction email (or any sort of email) to the schools in order to introduce himself, so that they don't see him as Applicant # 3143.
Would this be a good idea? If so, what sort of email would be good to send?
Thank you very much.

I think that in most US places, such a letter is likely to be ignored. The application itself should be used to show such strengths, perhaps in a personal statement. But a university with a large number of applicants has fairly strict rules about addenda to applications. I doubt that it would improve the chances, but would, most likely, not harm the case, though it might if he seems desperate.


Is it a terrible idea to aim for a lower journal for a paper? Okay, I'll try to explain what I mean quickly. My research on a topic kind of strayed from its original purpose, and for some reason (bad choice, lack of experience, lack of guidance, etc) I stayed with it way too long. That was my mistake. It's done now. The question is where to go from here.

I don't think what I produced is worthless, but it's certainly not something the scientific world is sitting on the edge of their chairs for. I think it should be put out there but I'm under no delusions that it should be in Science or something.

I submitted it to one mid-level journal and it got rejected, but it was also because it was in kind of bad shape from a writing (i.e., not science) standpoint.

So I have two options: I could submit it to another mid-level journal, but that would require a decent bit of work. They tend to be a little pickier and of course there's a much higher chance it would get rejected again, meaning more work to submit to yet another.

Or, I could submit it to a lower tier journal that has a much higher chance of getting accepted. As the tone of my question probably implies, I want to do this one. I made a mistake staying with the research this long and I want to be pursuing this new direction, and submitting to a mid-tier journal will mean sticking with it even longer. Aside from the fact that I want to pursue this new direction, I absolutely hate pouring more time into this old thing.

So my question is, how bad is it to have a paper in a lower tier journal? (I don't mean an open-access, pay to be published one, but the next level above that.) Is it possibly so bad that it'd be worth it to put in the extra work and aim for the mid-level journals, even if it'd take a few tries?

From my point of view, there is nothing wrong per se with submitting to a low-tier, non-spam journal. I have always maintained the position that if you find out mid-way that your work isn't what you want / should be doing, it's better to submit what you have to whatever is achievable at this point than to either stick it out or throw the work away entirely.

However, in your case it actually sounds like you may want to go for another iteration at the mid-tier anyway, because you don't think your work is that bad, it's just the write-up - and this can be fixed with a modicum of effort, in the worst case re-writing the paper. Also, assuming you are an early-stage researcher, getting more writing practice is basically never wasted effort. In the end, we are not talking about investing a year more into this project - it's a few more weeks for re-writing, and then some on-and-off effort for revisions. Finally, would it not be annoying to you to "waste" your work to a low-class venue just because you did not want to write it down properly?


Research experience not backed up by recommendation letter I have done a three months independent research at a national lab in US with guidance from a scientist who was working there, but he is very busy and not much time is left to ask him to write a recommendation letter (RL) since the application deadline is coming.
I want to include this experience in my SOP, and wonder, in general, how is the reaction of graduate admission committees to research experience which is not backed up by a RL?

One of the duties of a researcher who takes on a mentor role is to write letters of recommendation for his students. Your advisor will understand this responsibility. You may want to read the answers to this question regarding writing your own recommendation letter, as this may be relevant to your situation, but you should always be willing to ask for a letter.


Publishing a paper as the sole author (undergraduate) I am an undergraduate student and I have been working with a computational physics group for three years.

Over the past three years, the code I used for our research has grown from one simple algorithm to a very complex and expansive suite of numerical tools for both simulations and investigating analytical solutions of the specific nonlinear partial differential equation we are interested in. This program has been vital to the two papers I've published during my junior year.

I am working with two professors, professor A and professor B. I showed professor A my program a couple of months ago and he was very impressed. He suggested that I submit it as an original software publication in the journal Computer Physics Communications which publishes such things. He said that I should be the sole author on the paper since I did all the work myself and no one else had any significant contribution. I discussed this with him again a few days ago, saying he and professor B should be my coauthor, but he said it would be dishonest since it's my own work and they didn't really contribute.

However, having known professor B for a few years, I know he likes to have his name on all papers published by our group/international collaboration, whether or not he had a sizable contribution (I don't mean to disrespect him in any way, just an observation, he even says so himself). I have no idea how I should tackle this issue. On the one hand, professor A refuses to be the coauthor and believes I deserve to be the sole author, which of course could be very beneficial for my PhD application. On the other hand, I do not want to upset professor B, and I will inevitably need their help in revising the paper (I'm sure A wouldn't mind revising it, however). I still haven't talked to professor B and I don't know how to bring it up.

Edit: I just emailed professor B, explained the situation and asked him for advice on which option would be best, he replied saying "it would be nice if you can publish a paper on your own." So I guess that's what I'll try to do. Thank you everybody for the advice, I've learned my lesson.

It seems that it is not an ego issue for you even slightly and so if it's easier you might grease Professor B by offering him a co-author credit if he'll handle the revisions and creative changes you hint are needed.  If nothing else you will learn if he is missing the work ethic in addition to completely missing out on integrity already.

You might ask B if he would edit the paper and make the needed changes in exchange for a co-author credit.  As a courtesy you might also consider mentioning that idea to give Professor A a long distance call first so he won't be surprised by finding out about the two you you sharing credit and not including him after the fact.  Men of integrity are not missing from professional teaching completely but i wouldn't say they are not all that common either so I would want to grant him that small courtesy I think he is due.

Life can be easier when you let the Professor B's of this world help themselves to some of what is yours on occasion and getting in their way can make life unnecessarily complicated sometimes.

Then again sometimes telling them to stuff it is just too much fun to pass up.  (You end up having to deal with them anyway though, about every fourth time or so you can get knocked on your ass by these guys.  Either way you'll have done the right thing for at least one good reason.


What does potential PhD adviser want to see from a candidate that is applying for a second PhD/restarting a PhD? I'm about to (not) graduate from a grad school. I've put "(not)" intentionally.
This is my situation. I started working on a project that was new to our research group. The new topic only remotely related to what has been done before in the group and by the supervisor. The project was presented as a hot topic where I can "make my name" and graduate fast.

As far as I now understand, my supervisor didn't have much experience in this field although he's been around for some time - he is not a new professor. At the time when the project was assigned to me, my supervisor was trying to bring a new faculty (who has extended experience in this field) to the department but it didn't work out - this person didn't get the position, although he did help me with the initial experimental setup and some consultations. I'm really grateful to this person for that.

The topic turned out to be pretty well developed, not much room for wandering around in hope to bang into something big. Besides that I was left completely alone to work on the topic - no relevant classes, no seminars, no advice from my supervisor, no one else in the university working in this field. I ended up making my own experimental setup, fabricating samples, running simulations, writhing data processing scripts and looking for the objective for the project completely on my own. The supervisor's approach was to find something interesting but his planning didn't go any further than that. He never showed in the lab during my PhD.

When I raised my concerns about the direction of this activity he would just either mention some irrelevant anecdotal stories or say that others working in the field have better tools but we have ideas and that's why we are better.
During our latest conversation he just said "I cannot help you with that." The funding for the project was over and I had to TA classes that are not related to my undergrad field or the current project - getting some knowledge in the subjects takes additional effort. I had to RA initially.

My work resulted in several papers (not with me as the first author) that were from side projects. I also spent one summer doing an internship at a big company. Trying to overcome the circumstances I put more and more work basically working 80 hour weeks (no weekends or holidays). But I find it extremely difficult to reach a goal when this goal has never been even discussed. My productivity went down. When I asked my supervisor about what the objectives of the project are his response was: "to find something interesting." I feel utterly unsatisfied.

I feel completely drained right now, and in a pretty bad mental state. I applied for several post-doc and industry positions without much success. I feel that I have to compete with the applicants that didn't have to reinvent the wheel every time to get something done. One rejection was due to the lack of the first author publications.

During my PhD work I steered the project towards more fundamental research. Right now I'm applying for another PhD in more fundamental field that I studied by myself. It is rather remotely related to the current PhD topic.

Defending where I'm right now is quite doable even with what I have and my current supervisor is willing to write a good recommendation letter for me. My concern is getting a second PhD and funding issues related to this. What would be the best way to approach potential PIs for the second PhD? If a professor reads this post: how does he/she perceive this situation and what he/she would want to know/get cleared before considering an applicant like me?

I'm currently in engineering and looking to continue in physics. Changing the project doesn't appear as an option to me. I raised my concerns about the current project several times and it didn't result in anything. Besides, this is my 5th year and I should graduate (or not). On top of that, the situation as a whole must be changed, I'm not happy staying here.

You should continue to apply for postdoc and industry positions and not consider quitting or applying for a second PhD.  The things you've described here are not atypical for someone working on a PhD.  It is expected you will work independently and in a self-guided fashion.  As a PI, I have little sympathy for a student who runs out of RA funding and now has to TA.  Being a TA is valuable job experience that you should be proud of and having an RA position is a luxury to all graduate students that you should not play off so lightly (it is very difficult to get soft money in grant funds to support RA's in the first place).  Your description of working 80 hours per week on holidays and weekends sounds very typical of a student trying to finish their PhD (I did that for many months leading up to graduation).  Going back for a second PhD would not necessarily increase your chance of success in finding a postdoc or industry position.  It sounds like your are simply discouraged by your situation and have not searched for positions long enough.  Keep at it and stay positive.  Finish your current PhD.


Should a student use the email account provided by the university to communicate with professors? I am an undergraduate and I do not know much about the rules of writing an email.
The email system used by our university is not convenient at all: it responds slowly, often crashes, and its common to miss important emails.

I need to email profs in our school and other universities.  Is it necessary for me to use the email account of the school? Can I use my personal gmail account? Is it informal or impolite?

In the cases I'm familiar with (U.S. universities), using your own e-mail account should be completely fine, subject to some obvious caveats.  One is that it's best to have an e-mail address that doesn't look foolish or offensive.  People sometimes choose very strange usernames, and you don't want that to reflect poorly on you; furthermore, you should make sure your e-mails include the name your professor knows you under.  Another issue is that if you are asking for sensitive information such as grades, your professor will likely be unwilling to send this information to an outside account without some verification that it belongs to you.  Finally, you should make things simple for anyone you correspond with.  For example, if you use several accounts, you should check them frequently or forward one to the other, so that there are no delays if someone sends something to an account you didn't expect.

One common solution is to set up your university account to forward to your private account, and to set up that account so you can send e-mail listing your university account as the sender/return address when necessary.


If I leave mid-year, am I still eligible for summer pay? I'm on a what appears to be a 12 month contract (Sept.- Aug.)  While we only work 9 months out of the year, the standard academic job year, we are paid over 12 months.  Well, I am now leaving my post mid-year and thus think I am entitled to half my salary because I worked half the academic year.  The administration says that I'm only entitled to one-third (because I only worked one-third of the calendar year).  As a result, I'm losing close to $7000.  Has anyone ever run into this?  Do you happen to know any sources I can cite?

I've run into this issue many times while I was serving as a department chair at a large US university. If your university's academic year salary system is similar to the standard one used at US institutions (which by your description it sounds like it is) then your analysis is correct, and your administration is wrong.

The point is that paying your salary over 12 months is nothing more than an accounting trick to spread out your salary (paid for 9 months of actual work) over the 12 months of the year. The reasons why this is done (as far as I know) are: 1. tradition, 2. health benefits, 3. the psychological convenience to faculty of being paid each month and being continuously employed, and 4. possibly other advantages involving things like taxation and labor law.

However, the trick is irrelevant to the fact that you performed 50% of your assigned duties for the year. It therefore stands to reason that you need to be paid 50% of your annual salary. I don't have any sources to cite, but this is just common sense.

I can also say from my experience that this discrepancy between the schedule of payments to faculty employed on a 9/12 basis and the schedule of work they are performing causes a lot of confusion, even among experienced administrators: whenever someone joined or left the department in the middle of the academic year, some calculations needed to be done to figure out how to make the salary figures work out, and people would get confused and sometimes require a bit of gentle persuasion to get to the correct answer. Thus, Hanlon's razor might apply here, and it's definitely worth going back to the administrators and trying to make them see the light. Good luck!


My applications for PhD in Neuroscience got rejected? How to be an extraordinary candidate for PhD? Please take time to read this, I appreciate any advice from any Ph.D. student or mentor, an advice from a neuroscience or health science field person is more useful to me.

I am an international student from India, pursuing my master's degree in Pharmacology at a US university (a private university not classified as a research university).

Hopefully, I will graduate in May 2018. I have a serious and never-ending interest in doing research in the neuroscience field. I planned to do Ph.D. in neuroscience and took care of all requirements.

My undergrad was in Pharmaceutical Sciences from India, I made an evaluation of my undergrad transcripts and converted into US GPA score by WES, and it is 3.23/4.0.

My maser's GPA as of now (3 semesters) is 3.64/4.0.

GRE: 151 Verbal, 153 Quant, 3.0 Analytical writing
TOEFL: Reading - 27, Listening -29, speaking -20, writing -28 (Total - 104)

I don't have any published research papers yet.

I wrote a cohesive Statement of purpose explaining my research experience in my master's program and also my future research interests and mentioned the names of potential advisors that I searched in the respective university faculty websites.

Sent all documents before deadlines.

I applied to a total of 10 Universities, they are:

Univ of Alabama Birmingham - rejected
Univ of Texas Austin - awaiting decision
Rockefeller University -awaiting decision
Univ of Illinois Urbana Champaign - rejected
Univ of Iowa - Awaiting decision

Univ of Kansas - selected for an interview, but got rejected few days after the interview

Univ of Michigan - Awaiting decision
Icahn School of medicine - rejected
Univ of North Carolina - Awaiting decision
Yale University - rejected

So, I got rejected from 5 universities, out of which one university interviewed me but rejected later. Now, I am waiting for the decision from 5 more. I feel that my confidence levels are dropping already.

I am not worried about falling, I have failed many times at many things, and I am sure that I will apply next year or in two years to the same program.

But one thing I noticed was, many of the Universities that rejected me replied: "because of so many extraordinary applications, we could not give admission to an excellent application like your's".

I don't know whether this reply from them is generalized one or specific to me. But I don't know how to be the extraordinary applicant. One bad thing in my application that I am aware of is my GRE. If there are any experienced Ph.D. students here, please suggest me what to do.

Thank you

You're being rejected because you're applying to top universities where the other candidates are better.  You're getting beat out on both GPA and GRE.

All but two of the schools you listed are R1 universities.  These are the top universities in the country and will be very hard to get into.  You also have a medical school, Icahn, on the list, and that also will be hard to get into, simply because it's a medical school and all of them are always deluged with applicants.  You only have one R2 university, Rockefeller, on the list.

For a top school, you pretty much have to expect that successful PhD candidates will likely have a 3.8 or better GPA and GRE scores that place them in the 80th percentile or better.  Your 3.2 UG and 3.6 master's GPA is low and your GRE scores are very low.

Consider applying to some more R2 schools or even, possibly, some R3 schools.


I hope to contact a professor in the grad school i want to work under him. What are some tips and things I should pay attention to in my email? I will go to a grad school this summer. I don't want to make mistakes in that email as I really work to work under him. I wrote an email before I applied and he said we can talk.
What should I write now?

I think the main thing is showing a genuine interest in their work. I think the main way of demonstrating this is actually knowing of their work. Good ways of doing this is 1) reading some of their recent and most impactful papers and 2) talking with people in the lab about what the current research directions are. The other thing I would strongly encourage is not to commit to working with them unless you are absolutely sure you want them as a doctoral adviser.


How significantly does the salary amount for tenured faculty impact the quality of a deparment? I mean both the salary a department offers to new hires and to already hired faculty members. I would prefer answers specifically about math departments, but I would also be interested in answers about departments in other STEM fields as well as other fields such as the humanities or the social sciences.

My motivation for this question came from another question I asked recently on another website. I had asked specifically how math departments improve and received the answer that with enough money, a math department could hire and keep the best researchers in some specific field. Now I'm asking here to confirm that that is indeed the case for math departments, but I am now also interested in seeing if this applies to all departments in academia in general.

EDIT:
I cannot give a specific criteria for "quality" as I assume this may vary from field to field. What I can say somewhat concretely, though, is that research productivity should be weighted above attention to teaching. Of course, if a department happens to have one or two extremely productive researchers in some specific field but does not offer a PhD program, then I would not considered that department a top department.

There are several main financial factors faculty candidates must consider when weighing offers:

Salary and resultant standard of living
Overall compensation package (health, retirement and pension, other benefits)
Institutional support (resources, personnel, infrastructure)

The first two are with respect to the financial resources committed directly to the faculty member; the last is the amount of resources committed to the professor's working group. It is difficult to say how much the different factors are weighted, as this is highly subjective and personal.

However, I would caution against considering absolute salaries as a metric; salaries always have to be considered relative to the cost of living in one's environment. (Would you rather have $50,000 in New York City or $40,000 in Akron?)


My manuscript status says "18 reviewers invited." Is it a bad sign if that many reviewers were invited to review my manuscript? So far, that is the only information given to me by the journal.  I have no idea if all 18 reviewers were invited at the same time, or if one at a time.  In either cause, is this a bad sign, something like a looming possibility that the editor might eventually reject my manuscript if they can't find any reviewer to go thru my work?

It is difficult to give an informative answer without knowing the culture of the journal to which you submitted.  In the journals where I am an editorial board member, 18 would be a high number to get the number of reviews necessary for a decision (often 3).
A couple of reasons to be pessimistic:

It could be that your manuscript is being handled by an associate editor (AE) who likes to fire off a huge number of review invitations routinely, in which case I would suspect that this AE does not work hard to find good expertise matches.
It could be that the information from which the potential reviewer has to decided whether to accept the invitation (author list (unless double blind), title, abstract (usually)) is not enticing the reviewers to accept.  If this is true, you could try to take this as constructive feedback that your title and abstract should make someone want to read your manuscript.

On the optimistic side, I do not think that having a large number of reviewers invited is particularly bad news for the ultimate acceptance of your manuscript. Best of luck.


How do I cite a quote in the title of a paper I have written a paper (only internally marked) and I have a title:

"GCR2: A Riddle, Wrapped in a Mystery, Inside an Enigma".

This was initially a Winston Churchill quote about Russia (after the colon anyway). However, it seems silly to reference it directly in the title and I have been looking around on the web and cannot find how to reference something that only appears in the title.

Any guidance or links to websites will be very helpful (although I couldn't find any!)

No-one would expect a reference in the title. There are a few alternatives you can consider.

The simple one would be to add "(Winston Churchill)" after the quote in the title.

A better option in my opinion, is to start the introduction with the same quote built into an explanatory sentence and then add the reference there. After all, the quote must have a significant meaning for your work, otherwise it would not form the title. I am not sure what the "GCR2" stands for but in general one should avoid abbreviations in the title.

A third possibility is to rewrite the title to something more explicit. you can have the quote as the main title followed by a subtitle that explains the significance. Different field have different ways of handling such titles so I cannot say what would be suitable for you. The title should draw attention to your work and make readers decide whether the work is worth reading. For me it has no meaning and although I am in a different field, I think that is a sign that the construct is not optimal.


What can be done about an unintentionally disruptive classmate? I have a classmate who frequently disrupts class by asking nonsensical or unrelated questions, or by making nonsensical or unrelated interjections to the professor. He is autistic, and all the professors I have shared with this classmate (he and I are the same year in the same field of study) have followed the same pattern of humoring him to an extent by attempting to answer his questions, or by thanking him for his interjections, but eventually just ignoring him. I'm sure he has good intent (thinks his questions and comments are relevant or useful) but he doesn't seem to catch on when the professors no longer reply to him (and all of his classmates are rolling their eyes and shaking their heads).
Today in lecture, he sat at the far back of the auditorium (there were tens of empty rows in front of him) and then asked the professor to speak louder. The professor responded by asking my classmate to move closer, as he could not be loud enough to be heard in the very back. My classmate replied by stating that he was comfortable, and then asked a series of questions about whether the lecture material was available online, in the textbook, etc., all of which had been covered in previous lectures anyway, and were on the class website and syllabus.
It has become apparent (after three years of being with this classmate) that the department and/or professors do not have any intent of trying to encourage acceptable class behavior with my classmate. Is it safe to assume that they are aware of his disruptive behavior, and are simply not addressing it due to his mental condition, or should I bring it up with the professors or the department? Would such a report be frowned upon as insensitive due to the classmate's mental condition?
Edit 14 January 2017
In regards to the linked question, the student is not actually being offensive, just disruptive. Being offensive (specifically in regards to racial slurs) would merit additional discipline.

It sounds like everyone who's dealt with it decided the student's behavior was a minor annoyance at most, or even that their questions were valid and worth answering. Repeating material that was covered in previous lectures, in the syllabus, or on the website is...well, part of the job, and many professors explicitly welcome questions about past material or any general course questions of that nature. It is generally assumed that students aren't tape recorders with perfect memory, and if a professor is really bothered by it they are free to answer with "that's covered in the syllabus". Off-topic questions are typically easily handled with "that's beyond the scope of this course, so questions like that would need to be asked in office hours/email/someone else." If the professor goes off on 30-minute tangents about meatballs because a student asked a question about them that has nothing to do with the course, well then you'd have a valid issue to raise with the professor.

Based on your descriptions, all the past professors found minimally disruptive ways of handling less-than-perfect questions - such as limited answering, ignoring comments that did not need a response, etc - and found a way to move past it. If there is regular behavior by another student that rises to the level of such a disruption that you feel you are materially harmed in your education by being subject to it, by all means bring it up to the appropriate faculty/administrative contact.

However, I must point out that there is a baseline reality that standard deviation in the human population is greater than 0; people are not all the same.  This means that your standard of behavior will not be followed by everyone, and others will have different standards of behavior than you do. It often pays to first ask yourself: "is this so far out of line that it I really need it to be dealt with?" If it's just an annoyance, or something that really isn't really that big of a deal, empathy and patience might be a more useful strategy than complaint.

As to how a potential complaint would be received, that rather depends on what you are complaining about. If you complain that a fellow student asks questions about the class that are already covered in the course materials, some professors will agree (they wish students read the syllabus too), and some will think "that's a weird complaint, I wish more students asked, because it sure isn't like the ones that don't ask actually read it all". If you complain that the student is a bit odd, well, yes, they probably got that idea by now. If you complained that a student was, as an example, yelling racial slurs in the middle of class, then that would certainly be seen as a valid complaint, while another complaint about a student with tremors shaking and you find that distracting...not so much.

So in the end, I would advise you to consider the seriousness of your complaint. If you feel that what you've witnessed/experienced is materially harmful and wish to make a complaint, make sure you specifically address exactly what is the issue and what you would like done about it, such as: "a student regularly asks questions that are not pertinent to the course, and the professor allows the distractions to cut into class timer, or ignores continued talking and comments instead of telling the student to stop."


What if my focus of undergraduate research does not match what I want to study in the graduate program? Good morning/afternoon/evening and good night

I am a psych major-undergraduate senior and have actively engaged in being part of and/or conducting research for past 2 years.

My past undergraduate projects are, in a good way, "interdisciplinary": developmental psychology, cultural psychology (immigrant's cultural identity development) quantitative (machine learning approaches in big data analytics) psychology, cognitive psychology (priming studies), educational psychology (academic performance), health psychology (drug addition)etc.

This may also means that I am just very-all-over-the-place, indecisive, impulsive, ADHD, and so forth.

I look forward to applying to graduate programs for cognitive psychology or developmental psychology (and if I can pursue developmental clinical psychology later on the way).

However, as you can see, my undergraduate research experience lacks "any kind of" focus in neither discipline.

I am concerned whether this counts as minus.
I just enjoy doing research & running analyses, but perhaps I should have been certain with what kind of research I wanted to be part of in past years.

Thank you as always,
I appreciate any comments!

I can't speak to psychology in particular, but I did a bunch of undergrad research that ended up being totally unrelated to my Master's and PhD work. Any research experience will help strengthen your application, and nobody expects you to have it all figured out during an undergrad degree. Some programs even allow for time to choose a topic in the first year of grad studies.


Why do vanity journals exist? I'm confused about the existence of vanity journals. My impression is that they often charge significant sums of money yet provide no peer review, editing, etc.

If I want to claim I published something to stoke my ego, why wouldn't I just create my own "Journal of articles that were totally peer-reviewed" and "publish" there? In the days when things were published in print I can understand the difficulty in doing this yourself, but now surely creating a "Journal" is no harder than throwing up a quick website?

We do not call them "vanity journals."  We call them "predatory journals."  They make their money from people who do not understand how journals work.  Their customers do not know that anybody can set up their own fake journal website.  The person who is fooled by the predatory journal might be the author, or it might be the person responsible for evaluating the author's publication record.  Ego stroking is not as relevant.

They continue to exist because they are profitable.


What citation style allows the author to reference sources with superscript numbers? What citation style allows the author to reference sources with superscript numbers?

I'm at the very edge of my page limit. I'm allowed to use any citation style. I need something concise that can point to the relevant works I've listed on the works-cited page.

Anyone have any suggestions?

I am presuming this is a coursework assignment. If you're that tight for space, are you sure you haven't written too much? Be careful that your finished piece doesn't "feel" cramped.

The Nature journal uses superscript numbers for in-text citations1 and then references them in the bibliography like so:

Hynek, B. M. Implications for hydrologic processes on Mars from extensive bedrock outcrops throughout Terra Meridiani. Nature 431, 156–159 (2004).


How can I prove that my article has not been submitted to another journal? I just submitted a paper to some journal. Since they didn't specify a template, I used the IEEE template. Unfortunately, they immediately rejected my paper because they think I already submitted the same paper to one of the "IEEE Transactions" journals. I know for sure that's not the case. But how I can prove to them that my paper is not submitted to another journal. Is there a database for a list of submitted papers?

If I understand you correctly, they thought it was a double submission because the template you used included the header "IEEE Transactions on ..."?

Email the editor and explain that there has been a misunderstanding. If you make it clear that you only used the template because there was no template specified and you liked that one, a reasonable editor will probably at least remove you from their blacklist, unless they have other reasons to find your submission shady. They may or may not agree to consider your submission after all.

As a side note, "IEEE Transactions" is not even a journal. There are many "IEEE Transactions on <Topic>". If the template really only said "IEEE Transactions" you could note this in your explanation.


Performing Poorly on Mentor's Exam I was recently assigned a research mentor in my Master's program who also happens to be my professor (in a quantitative economics course). We've had a  brief meeting to introduce ourselves, and I made it clear that I'm very interested in his research subject; needless to say, I want to impress this professor.

I just took the exam for his course which accounts for roughly my entire grade, and I did terribly. I studied a ton, but apparently focused on the wrong topics. At this point, I am wondering if I should somehow reach out to the professor basically telling him my thoughts of the exam, or if I should simply wait to hear from him, and if I don't hear from him, simply not say anything. He'll be my research mentor for the next year on this subject, so it almost feels like there is now an elephant in the room.
Would you recommend reaching out to the professor preemptively?

My advice is to reach out AFTER he has graded the exam (if needed).  This is for a few reasons.

I have seen (and experienced) lower grades on an exam after a student told prof they had done poorly.  Teachers are humans and prone to halo effect bias.  If you did a bad job, let him decide that.  Don't do something to make him think that a priori.
You don't want to exert (or be seen as exerting) any influence on the fair grading of your paper.  For example, that prof cuts you a break since you will work together.  (If you get that anyways, now, well...que serat.)  In theory, he is an inviolate Roman judge of fairness.  But in reality, teachers are people.
It may be seen, even accurately seen, as you being nervy, not strong.

If you hose the exam, then yes...talk to the prof about still having collaboration interest. Let him know your feelings.  But also be open to some real two-way discussion (even to include him saying "this would be a bad idea" or "let's see").


How to handle getting offers from two PhD supervisors who know each other? The problem: I have a professor that accepted me to take on a thesis when i'm ready but another one offered me one also. The second one did it while the first professor was in the room and I felt the obligation to deny it, even though we have way better communication with the second one.

Both of them know each other very well (they even have neighboring offices) and denying one of them will complicate things and the worst case is that none of them will give me a thesis because I will seem too selfish.

The question:
How can I choose the second one (if the offer is still on) without making a mess?

I recently posted a question about being on the other side of this scenario - a professor in my university offered to take on a student who had already agreed to work with me (and had been working with me for the previous year already).

You'll notice from reading that question and its responses that while I was a bit annoyed with the professor, I wasn't upset with the student. In fact, I advised the student to choose the advisor he thought would be best for him, and gave him a good recommendation to the other professor in case that's what he chose.

That's because the student is supposed to act in his/her own best interest (while still being responsible and professional, of course). It's not being selfish, it's being smart.

The first professor shouldn't get upset with you for pursuing an opportunity that is better for you - if he/she does, then you really don't want to work with someone like that, anyways.

So, go talk to the second professor: "I was thinking some more about your offer to advise me on my thesis and I have reconsidered my original decision. Is the offer still available?"

If he/she says yes, accept the offer and go talk to the first professor: "I really appreciate your offer to advise me on my thesis, but I've decided to work with X instead. Thanks, again."


How to deal with unavoidable failure in my first year of tenure-track applications? I got my PhD recently. I applied to many tenure-track positions and got selected for several onsite job interviews. Yay. However I have actually been told in no uncertain terms by several trusted people that this year, my chances are extremely close to zero, considering my short track record.

I cannot help but get my hopes up. How do I deal with this upcoming unavoidable failure and put a good spin for myself on my situation?

It may sound stupid but like many people in academia, so far I have been quite successful and have not had to deal with professional failure much... (Consider this: good in school, good in university, graduated with honors, got accepted to masters, got accepted to PhD, got the PhD - most people in academia follow this kind of path. I hope this does not come across as immodest, I am very aware that I am just a cog in the grand (grant?) scheme of academia. I am good at what I do but not at the rest.) Of course I met failure very often in my private life, but this does not feel the same.

I suggest dealing with the situation by revising your (misguided, IMO) definition of “failure”. Even if it is, as you say, “ineluctable”, that you will fail to land a tenure-track position this year, you will still be a highly qualified and highly successful person with excellent career prospects. To refer to this as a failure is itself a failure - a failure of the imagination, that is.

I and most other successful academics had to spend multiple years after graduation to get a good tenure-track position. Almost all of us struggled with repeated rejections, job uncertainty, and geographic dislocation before arriving at a good place career-wise. Keep your eyes focused on your long-term goals and on the fun and passion of doing research, and given your description of your situation I predict that you will be fine. Regardless of what happens with your current job search, a “failure” you most certainly are not.


Is it appropriate to email a professor saying you enjoyed their class, after doing well in it? I recently finished taking an undergraduate class and I enjoyed it. I was thinking of emailing the prof and saying this, but I don't know if it's appropriate or not, for a few reasons:

I would have already said this in the class evaluations, which the prof will read.
More importantly, I recently received my final grade and it was good. If I email now, it might come off as an implied "thank you" for giving me a good mark, even though I mean nothing of the sort.

My question is whether or not such an email would be appropriate.

As my experience of being a TA for multiple courses with various profs, such personal gestures of appreciation are welcomed by the professors. I have actually heard professors refer to the email as something that "made their day". As long as you don't refer to your grades, I don't see a reason why someone would misjudge your intentions, especially after the course has finished.


Statement of purpose addressing expected contribution and outcomes I am writing the statement of purpose for a PhD application (applied math, in the US) and wondering about how to address these two questions:

What are your expected outcomes from the program?
What do you expect to contribute as a student and later?

The university I am applying to expects answer for these questions in the SoP.

I am confused because at this point, I do not know which professor I will work with. And more importantly, what the professor (And I) will work on during PhD. Of course, it is possible to write a general statements such as I will conduct original research and expect to gain deeper understanding of the matter being investigated, and I will acquire skills of publishing a scientific article, etc. However, I do not think these sentences add any value to SoP.

Can someone comment on how to address these questions?

Edit:

I have a clear idea about the professors I will work with and the area I will work on. However, it is difficult to decide on a single professor because of many reasons. For instance, the said professor may not be able to accept any new student etc. Looking at the group's website, I can get ideas what the professor is working on, in general. But, one cannot say what projects will be worked on in future.

Note: I am not in the field of Mathematics. The below reflects how I would address this based on my experience elsewhere.

It sounds like you have a very clear answer to both of these.

  What is your expected outcome?

You're looking to perform original research, become more familiar with the process and responsibilities of the academic Mathematics field, and contribute to the broader community. You say as much in your post; write that in your letter! Furthermore, you added later that you know which sub-field you're interested in... write that specifically! "I'm interested in studying <field>, and specifically investigating <subfield>." That makes you sound even more promising, because you're coming in with an understanding of the literature and existing research.

The fact that you haven't identified an advisor is something they are unlikely to penalize you on, as its expected that you're still working on that. You should focus on convincing them that you have done your homework with respect to understanding what academic Mathematics is.

  What do you expect to contribute?

You stated that as well; you want to do original research, publish, and gain expertise in a specific subfield of math. That's likely all they're looking for. They do say "...and later"; it may be worth mentioning that you're looking for a long-term academic position, as opposed to, say, banking. That will likely reflect well on you.


Should the first letter of the axis label be uppercase? Suppose you have a diagram in a bachelor's thesis (which is written in English) with one axis

"mean stroke count"

and the other

"standard deviation"

Should the first letter of "mean" and "standard" be uppercase?

From a general survey of style books, yes, at least the first alphabet should be capitalized:

American Medical Association Manual of Style: Title format (e.g. Average Consumption Index, %)
Chicago Manual of Style: Sentence format (e.g. Average consumption index, %)
Scientific Style and Format (Cambridge): Sentence format

An easy way to see this: axis labels are akin to the row and column titles in a table. If those titles are generally capitalized (which is the norm), then the axis title should also follow. So, I'd recommend at least follow the sentence style capitalization rule. This is not to say lower case titles are absolutely wrong, but I am sure they will raise more eyebrows in a bad way.


How do hiring committees for research positions view getting "scooped"? Suppose that an applicant got scooped on a research paper and is applying for jobs. This is reflected in a lack of publications. Is that taken into consideration? Or will it be a huge blow to an applicant's chances to highly competitive jobs?

I'm a little surprised by the implicit assumption that "scooped" ==> "no paper whatsoever."

It's often possible--and desirable--to publish the scooped work anyway. It might have less impact than it otherwise would have, but it's miles better than nothing. Furthermore, it's unlikely that both papers tackle the problem exactly the same way; highlight those differences in your revised version. If nothing else, replications are increasingly appreciated. This is especially true in trendy areas, where both scooping and dubious, non-replicable results are most likely.

It would be gauche for you to complain about this directly on your cover letter or CV (how would this even work?!). With a publication, however, your references can write:

  "Grad Student's main project, characterizing the properties of
  l-Phlebotinum and d-Phlebotinum, was just accepted at the Journal of
  Decent Results. Although his thesis committee praised the work as a
  technical tour de force, it unfortunately attracted less attention
  than it might have after Evil et al. (2018) published similar
  results last December in Science."

Obviously, you'd prefer not to get scooped, but this does demonstrate that you're working on 'hot' problems that people do find interesting, which is better than nothing.


How to start a talk about a topic that cannot be explained without some background information? I am going to give a presentation of my research soon at an undergraduate conference. I have read that it is best to begin a presentation with the ‘thesis’, i.e. a brief explanation of the topic of my research.

However, I’m rather stuck as to how to explain it simply. It seems like it won’t make sense until I’ve explained the concepts behind it a little. To be more specific, the topic is a formalisation I’ve done in a proof verification system. But the students attending won’t know what a proof verification system is. Is it better to begin by explaining what mechanical proof verification is before explaining the topic?

Time parameters: 20 minutes for the talk, and 5 extra for questions.

I have read that it is best to begin a presentation with the 'thesis': i.e. a brief explanation of the topic of my research.

I would not consider this piece of advice generally applicable. For example, in my field many people are applying the field’s techniques to some application from another field. As most of the audience is not familiar with this application (at least beyond what is generally known), there is no point in telling it anything about your detailed approach, before making it familiar with the application. And this is what good talks do: They first introduce the application and then they explain how they approached some specific problem.

More generally, one fundamental rule for a good talk (and in fact, any communication) is:

  Do not talk about something that you do not expect your audience to understand.


Can an international student manage his cost of living in Australia if his 4 years PhD tuition fee is waived off by the university? I received an offer of admission from one of the Australian Universities in Perth. My supervisor recommended my application for tuition fee waive off scholarship and university has accepted that. I have to manage my cost of living and travel expenditure. I am not sure that I will be able to manage my cost of living and travel expenses by doing part-time work. So I will be highly obliged if you can provide necessary information so that I can take a decision. Thanks...

It is next to impossible.

I cannot say about Perth, but in Sydney you need at least 15,000 AUD per year to cover your living expenses, assuming you share a room. The minimal salary in Australia is roughly 30,000 AUD per year, and as a low-skilled worker you cannot get a salary much higher than this. This means you will have to work at least a half of your time. Then it is unclear how you will be able to focus on your PhD project and become a good scientist.

In Perth, it is likely to be even worse. Perth is more expensive than the other Australian big cities, although salaries may be higher there as well.

Getting a job in Australia is not easy. I've read that according to unemployment statistics, those people who get unemployment benefits spend about half a year on average to find a new job. If you are a foreigner, and if your language skills are far from ideal, you are at a considerable disadvantage in the job market.

On top of that, there may be restrictions on the number of hours you are allowed to work as a student.

However, if your aim is not to become a scientist, but to migrate to Australia, and if you are prepared to face three years of very hard life, it might work for you, but you've got to know what you are doing. If you live in Australia for three years as a PhD student, you may be able to find a legal way to remain in Australia after your PhD program (e.g., by getting a job). Your Australian PhD degree will be a plus. Remember, however, that you cannot become an Australian permanent resident and later get Australian citizenship simply by legally staying in Australia for a certain number of years. I know people who lived in Australia for almost a decade on temporary working visas and were unable to get the status of permanent resident. The common ways of getting that status are to marry a permanent resident or get a long-term working contract whose end date is more that 3 years after the starting date. You have to be a really valuable worker to find an employer who agrees to sign such a long contract with you.

If you want to pursue an academic career, my advice is to find any place in the world where you can get a PhD stipend that will allow you to fully focus on science. If you have a good academic record, this should not be a problem. Many professors have funds on their grants and need good PhD students.


CV Gap: PhD dropout with no reliable reference I spent 2 years doing a PhD. Not only did the study fail, my paths parted with my main and only supervisor in the worst possible manner. I don't know how to account for the gap on my CV due to the following reasons:

1.) It was 100% research, I cannot say I completed certain subjects or credits to swing it into a positive light.

2.) I obviously don't have a good (or any) reference to account for the 2 years in the PhD.

3.) I can't lie and say I worked as a research assistant during that time to account for the gap. I tried it, and I failed. The recruitment agency through which I tried to work nailed me on the fact that I could not provide them with the contact details of a supervisory figure for the time I spent working as a "research assistant". It's totally impossible to get away with not having a reference for your most recent "job".

I don't know what to do with my CV.

Any help would be substantially beneficial at this stage!

You need to fill that gap. Employers have to allow for the worst case. Currently, they have no evidence that distinguishes your PhD attempt from two years sitting around doing nothing, or even two years in prison.

First contact your former supervisor. Even if they cannot give you a good reference for your research skills etc., they may be willing to say you were a PhD student and roughly what you were doing during those two years.

If that does not work, try the department and the school. You are not looking for a recommendation as a researcher, just a statement that you were registered as a graduate student during that period.

In dealing with potential employers, you can say that you tried being a PhD student but it did not work out, and is not the right path for you.


Is it acceptable to apply for two different postdoc positions in the same institution at the same time It is discussed here that it is generally okay to apply for multiple jobs in different ranks at the same university, but I want to know is it acceptable to apply two different postdoc positions in the same institution at the same time. I think I remembered seeing somewhere that you are not advised to do so because these two professors may talk to each other and find that you apply to both of them. Suppose I have sent an application to Prof. A but did not hear back, is it okay to send another application to Prof. B even if they are in the same institution or should I wait for a definite yes/no from Prof. A before moving on?

It is entirely reasonable to apply for multiple postions at any one time, even at the same institution, provided you do it appropriately. There are a number of considerations to digest, but pretty well most of what is discussed in your linked question is relevant.

The most important thing to consider is that the application you make is tailored for the position you are applying for. You need to be able to highlight what amazing skills and abilities you will be bringing to this partnership, and how it will benefit the project. You need to avoid a cold call approach, otherwise your applications will sound like spam. This means you need to change your cover letter a lot. It is likely, though, that the skills you bring to any project will be very similar. You are, after all, a product of your previous experiences. If you were to apply for two different positions, highlighting two very different sets of skills and abilities, I believe this could be to your detriment if this information was shared between prospective employers.

You need to weigh up the relative value of each position. If they are both about equal, then I would apply to both simultaneously. If, however, one was far more cherished than the other - one was your dream position with a triple Nobel Laureate with access to the best research facilities and guaranteed ongoing funding opportunities and endless publications and the other was with an also-ran professor (do they exist?) who publishes once in a blue moon, I'd probably hold back on the application for the latter, just in case.

However, if there are two positions being offered in the same institution that you are qualified and suitable for, I believe you'd be crazy to let the opportunity slip.

There is an added consideration in that if your two professors discuss your applications, they may realise the potential to be able to share your expertise. And let's face it - professors do discuss applicants.

No professor/academic/employer is going to be that precious to believe that they are the only person in the world that you are willing to work for. No, I take that back - I've met a couple who are like that, but you wouldn't want to work for them!


How do I encourage learning to an underprivileged group Some faculty members are required to perform service to the community. Providing free education that improve societal value is one of the many ways to deliver the service. However, we recently are faced with a difficult situation in this channel, and I hope faculty here who had experience in teaching outside the school or social science researchers working in underprivileged groups will be able to point us to the right direction.

We are a small group of software developers and teachers who give free computer lessons to pretty much anyone who is interested. So far we have taught 32 students and they are all working as programmers in various places. However the dropout rate has been 8 to 1 so far. But lately the big problem is finding new students.

We don't charge money, there are no contracts to sign and we even provide required software and books free of charge. Sometimes we even supply the computers. The classes are online last about a hour a day. Still, even with sharing success stories and having former students themselves talk to new students, we are finding it hard to find new students who would be interested in taking the classes. I personally know people who would rather complain about the unfairness of life than take a job working as a paid intern somewhere.

My question is: What can we do to make free learning more appealing to people who are not in a school environment?

You have a program that sounds almost too good to be true (e.g., free classes, free software, free books, no contract).  And your biggest challenge is that you cannot find new students, right?  Well, two things come to mind.  First, there is a "catch" -- that is, when it is too good to be true, it probably isn't true.  Are there any hidden costs or problems with the program that you have not shared or identified?  Second, what is the extent of the mismatch between the objectives of this program and the needs, values, and interest of your target group?

My recommendation would involve careful analysis of both questions.  You are likely to find a lot of good information by following up with those who have dropped out. Ask them why they dropped out.  Barriers to attendance?  Then you need to figure out why more people aren't signing up.  Consider surveying individuals who were provided the information but chose not to sign up.


How can I secure funding for a PhD in the UK? I am an international (non-EU) student got an offer from a professor from a UK university to supervise my PhD. I have applied for funding for research students within the university, but I couldn’t secure it probably because had lower grades than the requirement for the scholarship.

Now, my supervisor was promoted to the director of research of the same university. Does the director of research have the power to influence the funding committee in my favour, in spite of my low grades?

I need help, I am totally unable to understand the process of securing funds in the UK, and what role your supervisor plays in securing funds for you.

I was in a similar situation as you a few years ago. I have written a few answers on this SE on the topic:

General info about funding for PhDs in the UK
A bit more about the same topic
and Some information about why this is so difficult if you're not British or European

In the end, this depends on many factors, including your nationality, your field, and your institution. Funding for a PhD for a non-British and non-European person is rare, because it is the financial equivalent of 3 or so British students. You will be responsible for International Student tuition (at my old university this was about 17k£/year plus living expenses, all of which you need to have the first year prepared for in order to get your visa.

So we need more information, and your first point of enquiry should be the supervisor who wants to work with you.

To be quite honest, even with stellar grades, this would be extremely difficult unless you're very lucky. I had several PhD offers in the UK but in the end I gave up and went to Europe, and didn't look back. I would advise you consider doing a PhD in the EU - in many cases these are fully funded, with no discrimination based on nationality.

But: maybe there is something your prospective supervisor knows about. Maybe there are nationality-based scholarships. Maybe there are scholarships from your home country. The only way to know is to ask your supervisor, the International Office, and google. The remaining scholarships are very competitive (e.g. Fullbright) but worth a shot as well.


Is it polite to ask my mentor to recommend me to Professors she knows in the graduate school? I am currently applying for the doctoral program. One thing I am keep considering is that should I politely ask my mentor who will write me the ref letter to recommend me to professors that she knows in those schools that I will be applying to? I am having a good relationship with my mentor and she knows me well and I think she had good impression on me. The reason I am considering this is because she was the alumni of two of my target schools and also used to be a faculty at one of my other target school. Could someone gives me some suggestion about whether should I politely ask her? I am a little afraid of making her feel like I am trying to rely on 'connection' but I also feel like if I don't ask and maybe she will be willing to, I might feel very regret of not asking so. I will be very appreciated for all suggestion and helps!

Yes it is polite and it is actually proper to ask a mentor for this in most cultures, I suspect. Some professors might be reluctant to do this, but I think not very many.
But what it actually gets you depends on the admissions system at the universities you apply to. In some, say in the US, it might have little effect on admissions but it places (and fields) in which professors hire their own students it would be much more valuable.
But in any case, having been introduced will be a small (at least) advantage if you wind up at one of these schools and it is a good idea to go meet the people you were introduced to. You might even be able to pick up a new mentor at the new place.


How common and expected is it to have published papers or patents as a Master student in Europe? I am writing my master's thesis and applying for PhD programs in Europe, where Master studies are usually composed of mostly coursework and voluntary research projects. I do not think it is very common for papers to come out from such short projects.

How expected or common is it to have publications under your belt when you are applying for PhD programs in Europe?. If I remember correctly, master degrees in the US/Canada are more research oriented from the get-go and a publication record is more expected there.

The most probable option I can imagine is a paper or patent coming out from your master thesis. But taking into account the time it takes to publish/patent something, I can not picture it being expected at the time of applying.

All I have is a patent from my bachelor thesis (also in Europe). How bad are patents seen in comparison to a paper?. Do they even have any importance in the PhD admission process?

While it would be a good indicator of research interest and definitely a good merit to have published prior to graduate studies, but I have never heard of it as a requirement. Definitely not at my home university, but also never from my friends and colleagues at other universities around Europe.

Also I would venture to guess patents are very rare at Masters level students, as it's not as common for universities to apply for patents, as it is in the U.S. The only people I know whose work ended up in some form of a patent application were my friends/classmates who did their thesis work at a company.

Also to answer your question, I don't see why it would be bad to have a patent in your resume, if anything it shows interest in the business side of things. Whether it weighs as much as a publication is difficult to say, however. Practically, it depends on the admission committee, or the group leader for the position you are applying for.


How to approach someone who has stopped replying? Recently, I applied for an advertised post-doctoral position with a researcher in an well-known institution.

After two weeks of not getting a reply, I sent him a reminder, and he replied

"Oh, thanks for getting in touch again, I hadn't seen your previous email. Can we have a chat on Skype tomorrow at X?"

He never showed up for the chat, and has not contacted me since.

Would it be sensible to approach him again, or shall I write it off as a lost cause?

Perhaps it would it be a bad idea anyway to work with someone who lacks the professional skills to keep up with email contact, and stick to commitments?

If this is a high-profile researcher, they are likely quite overcommitted and may have indeed legitimately accidentally missed connections.  When dealing with somebody like this, you also need assume that you need to be the one taking the initiative in contact until you've have an established working relationship.

But it also might be that they are uninterested, and either too polite, conflict averse, or culturally trained such that they are unwilling to express their lack of interest directly.

How to tell the difference?  I personally tend to follow the maxim: "Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action."  After the third failure to connect (or whatever number you set as your threshold), then it doesn't really matter whether they're flaky or evasive: it's not productive to pursue the connection any further without some sort of positive encouragement from the other side.


Can I write for another grant while being funded by a grant? If my university position is entirely funded by grant funds can I write for another grant while being funded by another grant?

More specifically the individual is a project coordinator hired by grant funds to manage a grant, not a faculty member or student.  Can this person spend time writing another grant when the project coordinators entire position is grant funded , no appropriated funds used. A PI on  the grant has asked the individual to start working on another grant during the regular hours, not outside the designated 40 hour work week. Thus, the real ethical issue can a faculty PI of a grant request a project coordinator to work on another grant

Yes and no. While most (possibly all) funding agencies will not allow you to work more than 100% of your time on a single grant, most universities will allow you to allocate more than 100% of your time (e.g., up to 125% or so) which is reasonable given a full time job is nominally a 40 hour week and 50 hours is not unheard of. This means that you are not using your time that is funded by the grant to apply for another grant, but rather some of that "extra" time. The key thing is that you need to make sure you still accomplish what you set out to do in the grant that is currently funding the majority of your time.


Is it an offence to ask a professor to share a soft copy of his recent book with me for my semester? My professor (say Mr. X), a theoretical physicist, is in charge of a course on Math Physics in the undergrads. He had co-authored a book on Statistical Mechanics but he never mentioned anything about it to us, since it had no part in that course on Math Physics.

Now, that course was 2 semesters back. And in this semester, I have to study Statistical Mechanics, and this course is conducted by another professor (say Mr. Y). Mr. Y named a few standard books that almost all universities follow (Reif, Greiner, Huang) but not Mr. X's book (BTW X and Y are not enemies). But I came across X's book in google books and I liked it very much. But there is no soft copy of the book available on the net.

What I want to know is:

  Should I ask Mr. X to give me a soft copy of that book?

The book is not old at all ( published in Dec 2016 ) and well available in the market. I dont know whether it sells good or not, since it was published only 10 months back and very people among my friends and seniors know about this book (although Amazon shows it out of stock). The book is really good and I have a nice relation (as student and teacher) with Mr. X. But there are commercial sides also that he might think, regarding the book.

So will he be offended if I ask him about a soft copy of his book?

In that case, how should I approach him?

As an author I'd feel uncomfortable when someone asks me to share a digital copy of my book. I find it very much different from sharing digital copies of papers. An author of a journal paper gets these days a digital offprint (basically a pdf file), which one can share privately with colleagues. However as an author of a book you get (at least in my discipline) several free hard copies, which one can distribute among the dearest colleagues, but as their number is finite one may not be not always willing to share these with students. Sharing digital copies (which can be the technically last proofs the author gets before the book is printed) of the book may be a breach of the contract the author signed with the publisher, and one would feel uneasy if one has to choose whether to break the terms of the contract or to say no to a nice student interested in one's work.
So if I were you (and as I myself do when I miss a book written by someone I know well) I'd try one of the following: 1) request that your library purchase a digital (or print) copy of the book; 2) order the book via interlibrary loan; 3) buy the book. Otherwise you may send the author a nice letter saying that you are very much interested in their book and asking if they could advise you how to get hold this hard to find publication. (But again if you are at a university that has a library with access to ILL it would imply that you find it easier to trouble the author rather than order the book via ILL; hence I'd resort to this solution only if you are at an institution that doesn't provide other access options [which is surely the case in many countries with undeveloped library systems], and your request would look more reasonable if you explain in more detail why you cannot get the book without the author's help).


"Electronics and Communications Engineering" equivalent in the U.S.A I graduated from a European University with a Bachelor of Science Degree (Engineering Degree) and I'm about to move in the United States.
My specialization/ major would be Telecommunications Engineering.

What is the US equivalent of this ? I've noticed US colleges usually have EE(Electrical Engineering programs), which is the closest I've found.

Electrical engineering and (when it exists) electronics engineering usually cover telecommunications, as well as many other topics. Undergraduate degrees in NA are usually broader in scope than those in Europe.

But it wouldn't try to change the terminology of your own major: keep it as telecommunications engineering if that's what it is, and everyone will understand.