How can I find images to use in my thesis that are free/unrestricted by copyright? I need to add some  images to my thesis. I would strongly prefer that these are free (no cost) and not restricted by copyright.  I have used Google Image to find images, I don't know how to determine what the copyright restrictions are, or what license types apply. I will not use them in any published paper, just for my unpublished thesis.

Thanks

P.S. Here are the search options for Google Image:

This depends highly on your countries laws and regulations.

For example: The German copyright laws has some limitations for the use of works in the area of teaching and research.

With the CC licenses you risk less mistakes. But you have to take care of the correct distribution.

name the author and source if the license contains BY.
don't change the file and only use it in the original composition when license contains ND (no derivate).
don't use media with licenses containing NC (not commercial) in a thesis or paper that contributes to (pending) patents. That could be interpreted to be a commercial use.
[changed:] according to the (IANAL-)comments one can use SA (share alike) licensed material without putting your thesis under the same license

In any case, pages that give information about the media-license are good sources, because you mostly have a clear licensing statement for any file. So you can easily decide whether and how to use it. I doubt that an author will change the license later on. You could use a web preservation repository service like WebCite to create evidence that the file had a specific license when you found and decided to use it.

Suggestions for search:

Wikimedia Commons
Flickr (thanks to Henning for the suggestion)


Is reviewing papers moving away from voluntary community service? I recently came across reviewing policies which make it a requirement for authors submitting a paper to a conference to also accept reviewing for it. Here is an example:

  In order to submit paper(s) to EMNLP, you must nominate at least one
  author to serve as a reviewer, (usually the most senior author) and
  for that author to take on a full load (of up to 6 reviews).

I completely understand the rationale behind such decisions: the ratio submissions/reviewers cannot grow infinitely while maintaining a proper review process. Yet I'm concerned about the implications for the quality of the reviews, since people who are forced to do it might not be as careful as voluntary reviewers. This also feels like a step down from the traditional "community service" philosophy of the peer-review process.

Is this a general trend in the research community, i.e. is this happening in other domains as well?

If yes, does this imply a change in the peer-review paradigm? For instance, as a researcher should I stop doing "free reviews" in order to keep my reviewing time for mandatory reviews?
If no, are there other solutions being tested to the problem of ever-increasing papers/reviewers ratio?

I will address your three questions directly, and in-line:

  "Is this a general trend in the research community, i.e. is this
  happening in other domains as well?"

I have never seen this before, and never heard of it. Everyone else that answered and commented, except for one person, has said that they have not seen it happen in their field either. The one person in the comments that did see the trend was Franck Dernoncourt, who says that it's definitely a trend in NLP (which probably means Natural Language Processing, not Neuro-Linguistic Programming). So, it is not a "general trend", but it is happening in some fields (such as yours and Franck's).

  "If yes, does this imply a change in the peer-review paradigm? For instance, as a researcher should I stop doing "free reviews" in order to keep my reviewing time for mandatory reviews?"

My answer is "no", but even if it were "yes", I do not see how that means you should "stop doing free reviews". The vast majority (by a long shot) of peer-review is still done for free.

  "If no, are there other solutions being tested to the problem of ever-increasing papers/reviewers ratio?"

I have never seen any other solutions tested. The peer-reviewed conferences I submit to, such as QIP (Quantum Information Processing) keep an extremely high standard for who is able to review. There is a committee of reviewers who are selected because they are recognized world leaders in their sub-fields, and each of them reviews several papers. Forcing any random person that submits a paper to review a paper, would lower the standards of the reviewers, and hence the standards of the conference.


Presenting an expository paper that has already been accepted by a magazine I am an undergraduate student in mathematics and recently I have written an expository elementary paper that got accepted by a magazine (I wouldn't call it a journal, because it mainly focuses on olympiad-type questions, not on reseach) aimed at high school students (in case it is relevant, my paper presents some advanced tools that may come in handy when dealing with olympiad problems and then goes on to actually show some applications to such problems).
Now, my university organises a conference for undergrads where we are encouraged to present papers that contain interesting ideas (they specify that the results needn't be original and they also needn't be research level, they just want to encourage undergrads to do some kind of research). I would like to make sure that, given these conditions, it is ethical to submit my paper to this conference. Of course, I will definitely mention that my work is going to be published in that magazine. I don't see any problem with this, but I am young and unexperienced, this is why I want to make sure that I am not doing something bad. I am not even sure that my question is fit for this forum, because I am talking about an expository paper, not a research paper, but this place seems to be the best place to ask my question.
EDIT: I forgot to state this, but I will definitely let the editors of that magazine know about me wanting to present the paper to that conference, I just want to make sure that from an academic viewpoint this looks all right.

Since you will inform everyone about the situation, there are no further ethical concerns. You need to cite the earlier work in the later one as usual, of course. And the submission to the conference may be accepted there or not, depending on the judgements of others. You are making it possible for that to be an informed judgement, so all is well.
The citation avoids any possible charge of self plagiarism.
I would also give the same answer if it were a research journal and a professional conference. If you give the impression (vocal and written) at the conference that you are presenting prior work, rather than new, it would be fine. Expository talks on existing research should raise no issues. There are ways to step over the lines of propriety, but this isn't one of them.


Is it a good idea to self-fund a postdoc for a year? I am a Ph.D. student in mathematics, and I'm supposed to finish this year. I've been looking for a position next year (not so much in the USA, but mainly in Germany and the UK). While I haven't exhausted all my options, I do feel that maybe it would be a good idea to have a backup plan.

Since I can afford it, I was thinking about taking myself somewhere "productive" and living there off my savings for a year, whilst working with the research group in that university to produce new results. In the meantime, to continue to apply to positions and hope for the best.

My advisor said that this is not a very good idea, but at the same time mentioned one or two people from our field who had done something like that (albeit in the 1970s or 1980s).

How bad of an idea is this? And what sort of strategy I should be considering if I want to move forward with a plan like that?

The alternative, of course, is to go out to the industry for a year or two until I find a position. But leaving and coming back seems like an even worse idea to me.

(I have money for a year in a reasonable place, maybe two if I also work a bit during that time. I also don't have an American, Canadian, British or European citizenship; although my passport is versatile enough that I can move around.)

Clarification. While the question is somewhat general, my field is mathematics. I don't think that not having an affiliation will cause me to be inaccessible to my current network of peers. I have seen several people who did not have an affiliation with any mathematical establishment, but nevertheless continued to collaborate with professors, students and all in all conduct interesting research.

As far as my personal case goes, I also don't think there are others from my field of research who got the positions "and might feel nervous if I'm around". More than implausible, it sounds unlikely.

The job market is extremely competitive, and not having had an official position will not help your CV. This is not the 70s or 80s. Academia is a very different place to what it was then. You should be aware that there is a high chance you won't be able to continue in academia, whatever you do with the next year. Would you be comfortable with running down your savings and then finding you have to change course anyway? If you want to do so, I would strongly advise talking to some tenure-track and newly-tenured professors (or equivalent) about what it is really like. I know some people now are deciding that academia in its current state isn't worth the effort.

For a strategy if you do decide to self-fund:
You need your CV to show the benefit of your extra year. However, applying for maths positions, you don't actually have an extra year, because of the length of the application cycle. To some extent that will help you - you'll roughly still be applying as a new PhD. But you should be looking to have a longer list of good papers. Since getting anything published in that timeframe is basically impossible, I would suggest getting work up on the arXiv, and finding a well-respected researcher in your field as a referee, who feels able to say that they think the paper is of the standard of X journal (or words to that effect). I don't think that's massively easy though.

In addition, I would suggest getting at least one more 'thing' on your CV beyond its current state: organising a conference, writing a grant application, or some solid teaching experience.

The relative merits of going into industry instead will depend on what your field is. For pure mathematics is unlikely you'd be able to move back from industry to academia. In statistics or some applied maths, you can still be seen as a credible researcher on the basis of work in industry. The difficulty is being able to demonstrate your personal contribution to the results. Also, many potential positions will want someone who can teach as well as do research. Demonstrating that would be difficult, but I think not impossible (eg. by supporting colleagues or by tutoring as a part-time job).


Is it worth staying an extra year to bring up GPA for grad school (Master's) I'm currently a junior at a Canadian university studying math. In my sophomore year, I got 2 Cs in two computer science classes, a D- in biology, and then in my junior year I ended up getting two Cs in two of my math (intro to analysis and DEs) classes.

I don't really want to make any excuses. My overconfidence and long term depression (I'm in counselling and on medication now) kind of were my vices for the past few semesters. I'm thinking about my prospects beyond undergrad.

I am hoping to apply to schools for physical oceanography, geophysics, and computational science and engineering. I'm particularly interested in UC San Diego (Scripps, CSME), UC Santa Barbara (MAT), University of New Hampshire (Marine Science and Ocean Engineering), and Dalhousie (Oceanography). Depending on how the rest of my academic career goes, I may apply to more computational mathematics programs.

I am just starting to study for the GRE and have a number of research projects under my belt and have presented an independent project at a math conference, which I hope to publish in the coming months.

Should I consider staying for an extra year or semester and maybe retake the math courses I did poorly in, seeing as they are important courses, and perhaps some other courses to boost my cGPA overall. I will be able to manage a 3.0 (B) average, which is what most (if not all) the schools I'm interested in are looking for... but I'm unsure if those sub-par grades will or can be overlooked.

Any help is appreciated! Thanks!

My friend, you're being answered by a guy (me) who entered the engineering graduate school of his choice despite having several Cs, 3 course "withdraws", and an entire scrapped semester so that I could "find myself". All of this occurred because I was seriously questioning, in my junior year, whether or not I wanted to continue in my major. Working at a crappy, low-wage job for an entire semester made me get my head screwed on a little better. After all of that, I completed my B. S. degree with a 3.50.

Despite your comments, I think you might be in a better position, academically, than I was!

My gut feeling is that you should apply to all of those graduate schools because re-taking classes for a year would be a possible, sizable waste of one year. If those schools don't pan out, then you can re-group and decide on your next steps.


Citing papers, that are cited within a paper? I am reading a paper which discussing the change in a specific idea in a field of science over time. I would like to basically summarize the points in the paper but in a smaller fashion by taking some quotes and explaining how they relate to my situation.

For instance, in the paper I am reading the author said "in 2002, Stanley and Miikkulainen [SM02b] argued that the topology of a neural network also affects their functionality" where the tag [SM02b] is a reference to a entry in the author's bibliography.

Is it sufficient to only cite the author of the paper, or do I need to cite both the author of the paper and the author of the paper the author cited in the paper?

This will all become much clearer if you shift your perspective away from paraphrasing and towards giving a context for your own work.  Start by pretending that the other paper doesn't exist, and asking: "What does the reader of my work need to know about this concept?"

When you know that, and you know what level of detail you want to go into, then you can look to the other paper (and other things as well, I hope!) as a source of information to help you build your discussion of the context of your work.

A useful phrase at this point is: "A thorough discussion of [subject] can be found in [review paper]."  Then you can explain your view of the material, which the reader will understand is heavily influenced by the nice review paper you've just cited. In digesting the review to produce your own explanation, you will need to choose what you think are the important points for understanding the context of your work, and the key references supporting those points will be the ones that you should cite: as these references are the ones that were important for your understanding, so too should they be for your readers.


What's the bargaining space in a post-doc employment contract - in the Netherlands? Motivation

I'm soon going to start a Post-Doc in the Netherlands. The labor laws are different from where I did my Ph.D. work; the academic culture is somewhat different; the unionization situation is different; etc.

So, I've gotten the informal offer over email, and I'm now expecting the formal contract offer. I already have a copy of the collective employment agreement which covers post-doctoral researchers where I'll be working.

When I did my PhD, like I said, the situation was quite different - plus, I didn't actually get to sign any contract and no bargaining was involved. But now there might be some bargaining (although I'm not sure to what extent as employment conditions are mostly standardized).

The actual question

My question is: What are, in your experience or opinion are points that are possible/useful to bargain about in the individualized contract? If you can, please give an example of better vs worse options for the same point. Long lists with less details are also quite ok by me :-)

Examples

(some more academia-specific and some more generic)

The extent to which the academic institute controls copyrights to your discoveries: Partial copyright in your works / Institute controls everything / Automatic publication under free license.
The extent to which you can be required to perform duties other than your chosen specific personal research: Not at all / At their discretion / Upto x% of the work week
Funding for attending conferences abroad

Notes

Somewhat-related question: What questions should I ask when I visit labs for potential post-doc employment?
Please answer even if your experience does not regard the Netherlands. I'm particularly interested in inter-national differences, because the prevalence of alternatives elsewhere is a point I can use in bargaining.

Legally, as far as I understand, it is not possible to negotiate new terms that contradict the terms of the applicable collective labour agreements in the Netherlands. Many labour agreements however leave some room for negotiation, see e.g. Appendix 3 in the file you linked. In practice however there I would not expect there to be much room.

As for your example questions:

As Bill Barth pointed out, Section 1.9 arranges IP ownership, and indeed the employer owns everything. See also point 4 of Article 1.9.3. I don't see much room here for negotiation.
This is not part of the collective agreement. Your contract may have certain provisions, for example the amount of teaching (if applicable). You should discuss this with your supervisor/boss on what is expected and how much freedom you will have. Here there may be some room for negotiation.
Again, this is something the supervisor can answer. It depends on how much budget the group has available, or if your work is part of a grant funded project, how much there is available there.


In what order to list potential future advisors? In the department form I have to turn in each academic quarter (before I find a thesis advisor), there is a question:

  Which faculty members do you consider to be your thesis advisor (in the future)?

Suppose my answer includes four different professors, what’s the right order to list them? Should I list them alphabetically by last name, list them by academic rank, or something else?

@Bill Barth, @Jon Custer and @jakebeal said "Order of Preference" (subjective, of course), and requested their comments be written as an answer so that it could be upvoted. I'm happy to oblige!


Is it possible for me as a graduate student in the US to a sign a contract with an US company to create a US patent from my PhD research? I'm a third year graduate student in the US and a company in the US is interested in a special part of my PhD research, which was about developing an algorithm and create a software based on that algorithm for biomedical applications, and they want to sign a contract with me to create an US patent based on that algorithm and software. I know cause this work is originally developed in my university, the intellectual property is owned by the university, but it's not really clear in the university's intellectual property policy that in these kind of situations that a third-party is interested in a student's work what would be the procedure? I really appreciate if someone has any idea or suggestion regarding this matter.

In general, the procedure works roughly like this:

Optional, depending on how potentially valuable this situation might be: Contact an intellectual property owner of your own, especially if considerable monetary amounts are involved.
Optional: It can be very helpful if you can see if anyone in your department has had experience with this personally, as you can go to them and they can often provide a few insider tips and suggestions that would be more relevant to your local situation.
Contact your University's Intellectual Property Office (or equivalent) to schedule a meeting to discuss the situation. Initially you just attend yourself with any co-creators, company isn't involved yet at this stage.
If you are in a place where the University claims ownership, you'll need to file something like a discovery statement outlining the intellectual property. If the University doesn't have ownership, they'll often be willing to discuss the option to assign it to them as part of a royalty agreement. If they do have ownership, as the creator it is still typical to receive royalties as part of the process (it is not ownership that is strictly free of responsibility on their part), but refer back to the IP office and your lawyer for specific guidance.
Your assigned representatives (lawyers, generally) will try to work out a contract with the company to define the transfer of rights, limitations, royalties/payments, etc.

As you are new to the process, the only way anything is likely to work out well for you is to get experienced people on your side to look after your rights (and ensure they themselves get paid for doing so).

If you are working with a University of any significant size and experience - and just having a PhD program suggests the place probably qualifies - there will be an office of people who have done with this many times before and can advise you better as to your specific situation.

There is huge variation in the IP agreements you signed between institutions and local laws, so I believe what I outline above is as close to a universal answer as possible. The devil is always in the details, so make sure you talk with people who are familiar with the local laws and policies that will apply to you.


Writing a peer-review suggestions letter for a journal editor I am submitting my review for a journal but they ask for a letter with peer review suggestions (3), but it is not templete, and i am not sure if I can suggest any peer for the review or they have a specific list.
Thanks.

If I'm interpreting your question correctly, you're asking about how to respond to a request for potential reviewers by the editor.
It is what it looks like on face value - you suggest potential reviewers, which the editors may or may not use. There is no "list" to choose from. You can suggest anyone as long as they have the technical know-how to review your paper. You should avoid suggesting people who might have a conflict of interest with you (so e.g. other members of your department are excluded).


How does 'accepted' but not published paper look on my CV? I am an undergraduate who recently worked on a 1-page abstract (as a team of 3) and got it accepted to the conference.
However, neither our advisors nor the university agreed to aid us on the registration fee, which means that our paper will not be presented (I am not saying published here, because 1-page abstracts are not published in the journal).
Now I am wondering if I included this in my CV, how this paper would appear to whoever's reading my CV.
To be more specific, I will probably be applying for a Master's degree, and I was intending to use this to simply showcase my various experience and that I worked hard.
The paper I wrote is not related to the major I will be applying in.
I am basically asking this question whether it will be worth it to pay for all the fee ourselves to get it published(presented), or would it serve its role as it is.
Thank you in advance.

Submitting work to a conference, having that work accepted, and presenting that work at the conference has value, such accomplishments should appear on CVs.
Withdrawing an accepted work from a conference due to no funding shows lack of foresight, perhaps even disrespect (by wasting time), and likely shouldn't appear on CVs.
Seek other funding sources, e.g., the conference itself or a national funding body, perhaps ask your advisors for suggestions.
Whether you and co-authors pay yourselves depends on personal factors, e.g., can you afford to?


My professor has left the university and his official email ID is no longer active I will be applying for MS in Computer Science in the United States and I want to ask for a letter of recommendation from one of my professors, with whom I share a strong relationship. He has left the university and won't be able to write the letter with the university's letterhead. He will have to send it from his personal email ID, since his official email ID has been deactivated. Will this put a dent on the authenticity of the letter? Are the admission committee members willing to contact my professor in case of any doubt or discrepancy?

If he is still prepared to write you a reference then he will.
He can state that you were a student when he was teaching at X institution and that will be accepted.
If the admission committee feels it is necessary to contact him then they will do so.
I have sent reference letters to the Academic secretary and she printed them on letter headed paper - this was while I was on holiday in a different country and the student needed the reference quickly (comes down to planning ie 5 p's: proper planning prevents poor performance...)


How important is it to have a PhD advisor in mind when applying to math PhD programs? I am about to begin my final year as an undergraduate/masters student in mathematics (my school lets us pursue both degrees concurrently), and I will be applying to pure math PhD programs in the fall. I didn't decide to take the PhD route until somewhat recently, so I am trying to learn as much about the process as possible in a short amount of time.

This being said, I know that in many fields, it is expected that you apply to a PhD program after talking to a researcher at that program who you plan to conduct research with if accepted. For example, it is basically impossible to get into an anthropology PhD program studying archaeology if an archaeologist at that program hasn't already guaranteed you a research position in their lab. Is this kind of relationship important for math PhD programs? I have done a lot of online research about applying to PhDs, but I haven't heard much about needing a connection like this prior to applying to math programs.

This is a case where there are very large differences between disciplines and also large differences between countries.  In this answer, I address the situation in mathematics vs. laboratory sciences in the US.

In mathematics, in the US, most graduate students are supported as teaching assistants rather than as research assistants.  The research assistantships that do exist are usually given to more advanced Ph.D. students.

In the science disciplines in the US, where most students are supported as RA's it makes little sense to admit a student to a program unless one of the faculty is willing to support that student as an RA.  Since faculty want to get the most out of their graduate students they are very selective and put a lot of effort into training the students in the particular work needed in their lab. As RA's, graduate students are skilled and valued employees that contribute significantly to research.  This is particularly important in disciplines with lots of fieldwork or lab bench work.

What makes a graduate student attractive as an RA candidate is not always just their academic background.  Particular skill sets (programming and data analysis, or scuba diving, or mountaineering) can make a student attractive for certain RA positions.  For one project that I collaborated on, graduate student RA's collected rock samples at altitudes of 18,000 feet above sea level in Peru.  I've worked with other graduate students that did fieldwork in Antarctica.

At most universities in the US, first-year graduate students in mathematics are expected to take graduate courses, work as TA's, and start to look for a research advisor.  There's no rush to start on research because the students are supported as TA's and because they typically need one or two years of course work before they can do anything useful in research.  Furthermore, most graduate students in mathematics contribute little or nothing to the advisor's research.

As a result, graduate admissions committees in math usually work to admit the strongest available students without much thought about who the advisor will be.  Since these students will be working as TA's, there may also be some emphasis on recruiting students with the communication skills and personality to be effective TA's.

Note that mathematics departments with research groups in different areas of mathematics will often times allocate x TA slots to research group A and y TA slots to research group B.  This helps to spread the students out among the research groups.  It's based on the student having some idea of the general area of research that they want to pursue but not on whether a particular advisor wants the student.


Publishing someone's argument What if this happens:

Say I contacted a researcher R in my field about particular question I had.  They answered the question in a private email to me.  Their sketch of the argument was about 5 sentences long, and it can be turned into a rigorous proof.  I really like the result.  However, R has been unresponsive for 2 months and has not replied to any of my subsequent emails where I make various offers and seek their advice.

Would it be unethical to include their argument as a small part of a publication I'm preparing, assuming I give credit to R?  What constitutes proper credit in this case?  A sentence in the introduction when I first mention the result?  A sentence preceding the proof?  In Acknowledgements?

In most places a citation (ack) would be enough. For a citation, list it as a "private communication". That is normally enough. You avoid plagiarism because you properly credit the idea.

There may be a few places, though I can't name them, where it requires specific permission to do this. It isn't needed in the US, but seek local guidance elsewhere.

Most likely you will be paraphrasing the communication rather than quoting it. Quoting a communication in full may have different rules, even if it is only a few sentences. To do more, you need permission.

One way to get permission, or at least acceptance, is to send the person a copy of your finished paper, saying that it is about to be submitted and asking for any advice on it. If they have issues with how you have presented their ideas they have a chance to correct them.


How much does the academic family tree matter for a PhD? I remember my MSCS advisor often refers to his "academic grandfather" (his advisor's advisor Dr. Leonard Kleinrock) as the person who sent the first data packets.  Although distant, I think it is cool for him to be a descendant of someone famous.

For PhDs, have you ever traced your academic family tree?  Does it matter for those of you that are not in academia?  I am also a PhD student now and would it be too early to imagine folks in my lab as my "academic brother/sister"?

Would like to hear your thoughts on this. Thanks!

I have traced mine, using the Academic Tree website. Honestly, it's one of those things that doesn't really matter, but can be quite entertaining. It can be good for a story or two, or to better understand the history of the field, but I'd doubt it'd do much career-wise - whether it's academic or not. However, referring to academic relatives can be an interesting tool when teaching - it can give a more personal touch to an otherwise dry subject, for example.


Some typos in my formulas in my thesis I found some typos (or errors) in my thesis, one formula, the label of one figure, and one citation. My thesis is done. What should I do? I know some students faked data and their degree were revoked. I did not fake data, but I am not sure how serious these typos are.

UPDATE

I cited and used 5-6 statements from an online report A and changed a little of them. They looks similar. But citation is wrong. I cited B in reference. What should I do? Is it Plagiarism?

Now that you have discovered the issues, you need to get to the bottom of whether they matter. If they typos make the conclusions wrong, you have a more serious issue than if they don't change the overall results.

It doesn't seem like a figure caption is likely to matter (unless it implies the exact opposite of the correct caption, like "Death Rate" instead of "Survival Rate").

An equation typo is unlikely to matter unless it invalidates a proof or gives the wrong values in the final form of an expression. You ought to be able to determine this now.

The citation mistake is annoying because a stickler could accuse you of plagiarism. I think that's unlikely, but it's probably worth fixing if you can.

My recommendation would be to show these three errors to your advisor (assuming your relationship is good) and ask for their advice. Helping out with these kinds of issues is their job. Also, they can probably help you navigate/find your university's policy for dealing with thesis errata. Given that pretty much everyone makes mistakes, I'd expect there to be some sort of mechanism for correcting inconsequential mistakes.

If the errors are more important or change the results of your work, you're really going to need your advisor's help. I think talking to them and working through the consequences together are your best bet.


How can I tell whether it is the volume or the issue number that is given? If I'm reading a journal article for which the reference for example is stated as "Journal of Examples 3, 74-78 (2014)", how can I tell whether it's the volume or issue number that is given? In many circumstances, I understand that it's quite easy to tell. For example, if the number is quite high, it's probably not the issue number. And if it's a journal which I know have been in existence for long (for example Science), I can surmise that if I'm seeing a low digit, it's probably not the volume number.

However, sometimes it's not unambiguous. In the example given above, is it a new journal which  has only released three volumes? Or is it just issue three of some, unknown volume number?

Is there a system to all this madness? Is there a way to always tell what you're actually looking at?

The general rules are:

If there is only one number, it's the volume.
If there are two number, it's first volume, then issue.


Scope for the role of peer reviewer As a young scholar I frequently struggle with knowing the extent to which I should be critical of particular components of papers I am reviewing. I can formulate a rough hierarchy between major concerns (things that need to be changed or this shouldn't be published) and relatively minor concerns (things I think would improve the manuscript, but aren't substantive enough to affect whether the paper is publishable or not).The question here concerns the latter, in essence I don't know where the cut-off in reasonableness should be for minor concerns.

For one example, being curmudgeonly I would say bad graphics are the norm rather than the exception in my field, although they aren't frequently so bad I can't figure out what the author is trying to say. Are minor critques of graphs appropriate (e.g. your gridlines are very obtrusive, the aspect ratio of your chart isn't appropriate, your colors/patterns are hard to distinguish, you should use a dot plot instead of a stacked bar graph, etc.) Frequently my suggested improvements would be somewhat arbitrary though, so I frequently hesitate to give such advice.

Is there any advice to guide the role of the peer-reviewer? Another side question too, does the scope change if I'm doing this for a colleague versus as an anonymous reviewer for a journal?

I think everything you're asking about is within the scope of the reviewer's role. Generally speaking, I divide my review up into three sections:

Summary: A summary and free-form critique. Here I communicate what I think the "gist" of the paper is about, its strengths, and offer some weaknesses that might exist in the paper as a whole. For example, if I think the authors were slightly too timid in not offering a interpretation of the data, or if they've missed or glossed over some major point.

Major criticisms: These are things that must be fixed in order for me to consider it a publishable paper, and if I have the chance to review the revisions (some journals do this), things I expect to either see changed, or have very good arguments for why they're not. Stuff in this category includes:

Flawed or inappropriate methods
Major intuitive leaps that aren't supported by the data or analysis
Study design problems that need attention
Major failings of interpretation
Journal specific problems, like failing to properly report your protocol to established standards for a clinical trial, or the inappropriate use of p-values in some journals.

Minor criticisms: These are all things that are essentially "The advice of someone reading your draft with a critical eye". Importantly, these are things where, if they all made it in, while I would possibly be annoyed, I wouldn't be upset that the paper hit the press. This does include things like advice on graphics (my pet peeve is graphics that are unintelligible when printed), missing citations, etc. Things that are above the level of a copy editor, but aren't going to move my decision on the paper one way or another, unless there are a lot of them.

Occasionally I'll put in one or two small copy editing notes if something jumps out at me (insure vs. assure vs. ensure, etc.)

The cut-off I use is "Will this irk me when I see it in print, and will I think less of the authors that produced it?" To use your example of bad graphs, yes, this would annoy me, and it results in a less usable finding than one with the appropriate graphs - just like garbled language in the Results section might. If its minor stuff, like a turn of phrase I wouldn't have used, or a slight fondness for run-on sentences? That falls below the radar.

As for friends vs. anonymous reviews, I think the scope does change slightly. For a friend, you're helping them polish a paper - I think a great many more things fall under that umbrella, including things like "That's really not what a semi-colon is for" or fiddling with the graphics parameters on a plot. For a reviewer, you're one of the last gatekeepers before this goes out into the world - but you aren't an editor. Your focus should be on the research, and the appropriate presentation of it, unless the errors are so bad as to impede one of those.

In either case, you should be polite.


What should a technical thesis' conclusion entail of? I can't speak for other CS students but I personally don't have much imagination regarding what to write sometimes. I have nearly finished finalizing my thesis regarding a Rubik's Cube Solver I have developed.
I'm having trouble writing the overall conclusions of the paper. The chapter is titled "Conclusions and Future Work". I had no issues writing a plethora of ideas for the Future Work but am struggling to think of good things to write in the conclusions section...
Any recommendations would be brilliant. THANK YOU!
p.s. Supervisor is busy marking work, thus does not reply as fast as the stack-exchange. I have emailed him regardless.

Discuss your main conclusion(s) in a few sentences. Discuss the approach to the solution; the general structure of the technique. If you specialize a known technique, name the one you specialize (or generalize, perhaps). Discuss any comparisons with earlier work. You can point to various sections of the paper for details if you like.


What can we do as faculty to make tuition more affordable for students? Do we have an obligation to make tuition more affordable? The inflation rate of tuition in the US has been higher than the general economy's inflation rate for some time, sometimes it is twice as high   What can the faculty do to stop/slow this down?

Use OERs instead of a commercial textbook! This wouldn't affect tuition, but it means students have more money to eat, pay rent, etc.

If you have any say about which texts/materials are used in your classes, then you can be directly responsible for saving students a lot of money.


What does "Application review begins ..." practically mean in job ads in computer science in USA? As opposed to Do they really mean "in all areas" and "will continue to be accepted until..." in Computer Science faculty opening ads in the US? , we sometimes even see a softer language without a final deadline in faculty opening announcements:

  Application review begins Date Y.

No final deadline ("until...") is given. How long after Date Y can one apply in the typical case?

(An aside: Assume that the applicant cannot get this information directly by asking, e.g., due to the absense of contact data, and that the applicants network, including that of the supporting advisors if there are any, does not cover the location.)

This question seeks answers from folks who have participated in search committees, have supervised them, or have received feedback as applicants. If it is the case for you, say so.

It means that, shortly after date Y, the committee in charge of reviewing applicants will meet and discuss the applications that have been received up to that point and, if they like some of the candidates, they will be invited for interviews and, depending on how it goes, may get an offer. They committee may revisit the applicant pool at a later date and, if the position is still open, they may consider further applicants. So, in principle, you can apply whenever you want but if you wait until after date Y, you may miss out. Of course, it can happen that all good candidates are late but you shouldn't count on that.


Is it possible to get a teaching job in US/Canadian universities with an NZ/Aus PhD? I am dithering between an NZ/Australia PhD, and the US/Canada one. Is it ever possible to teach in the US/Canadian universities with an NZ/Aus PhD?

Australian Ph.D. programs tend to be shorter than American Ph.D. programs because their system is similar to that of the United Kingdom; I believe that New Zealand is much the same.  This isn't "worse", just different.  This sort of difference is familiar to many scholars, and there are no special barriers to Australia/New Zealand scientists getting faculty positions in the US or Canada.  These days, of course, they will likely need to do a postdoc first, just like any other scientist.

A nice example of an Australian scientist who has done well in America is Rod Brooks, famous roboticist at MIT for many years before he headed out for greener pastures.

So why do you see so few Australians and New Zealanders in the US and Canada?  Let's start with the simple fact that there aren't all that many around, period.  Right now, there's about 24 million Australians and 4.5 million New Zealanders.  By contrast, there are about 320 million Americans and 35 million Canadians.  Thus, even if there were perfect mixing between the two countries there would be a pretty small percentage of Australians and New Zealanders in American and Canadian faculties.  And of course, it's not perfect mixing: scientists are much more mobile than many other professions, but even scientists are most likely to stay in their home country, where their professional networks are strongest and where they are likely to have good personal reasons to stay as well.  Put those together, and I would be surprised to see more than about 1% Australians in US faculties, no matter how good their education.


Two simultaneous part time master's degrees while working full time I hold a BS in Mathematics with a minor in Statistics and I've been out of school for several years. I recently began applying to part time online master's programs in Statistics and Computer Science. I've been accepted to the online MSCS program through Johns Hopkins University and I'm hoping to be accepted to the online MAS (Master of Applied Statistics) through Pennsylvania State University as well. My goal is to earn both degrees, and with expertise in both disciplines become the ultimate statistical programmer!

The catch here is that I don't want to (and can't really afford to) leave my current job to pursue school full time, hence the part time online programs. I could do one degree after the other, but that would be another 8-10 years I'd be in school, all the while working.

It's useful to note that I'm already a statistical programmer. Degrees are helpful, especially if at some point I'd like to transition to being a full-fledged statistician or a more general-purpose programmer. In my mind at least, it offers a level of career flexibility not readily attainable with just a bachelor's or even a single master's.

But my question is this: Is working 40 hours/week and taking two online master's level courses at a time in two different subjects from two different institutions completely insane? My family sure thinks so. Does anyone have experience or input they could share?

Better to do one or the other. What you don't want to do is to fail out of either program. Pick the better/more prestigious one and do it. Also, I don't see how stacking up masters's degrees really helps you. I can see how one masters would help, but I don't see what value the second would add.


How can I politely explain to my students that the texts in my course are all in English and it is their duty to read it nonetheless? Eventually I grew tired of having to explain over and over why all my class material is in English. It's a mandatory course in Art History. I want to put some warning in my syllabus to minimize any arguments. The problem is how to do it politely, yet clearly.

The reasons are clear: there is no material in their native language for the courses I teach; obviously I cannot and will not translate the material; and it is their duty to read in English. I guess I cannot tell them straight that if they do not read English well they will not even understand classes well and will get low grades. I don't want to sound rude.

Is there a way to explain the situation, or is it better not to include such a written statement in a syllabus and keep things as they are?

I agree that it makes sense to set expectations as early as possible.

I'd just put

  Note that all XXX for this course are in English.

in the syllabus. You should of course be specific as to what XXX is:

Class slides
Required reading
Supplemental reading
Lectures (you could have slides in English but speak the local language during the actual lecture)
Quizzes
Exams

If quizzes/exams are in English, you should also note whether students would be expected to answer in English.

Whether or not you also want to include the reasons for this is really up to how much space you have in the syllabus and whether there isn't anything more important to put there. I'd say that a warning might be a better use for the space:

  If your English is not up to reading/understanding/writing technical documents, this course likely is not a good fit for you.


Will it cause problems if I publish under a different version of my name than I use in my future medical practice? I'm a medical student who is also interested in research and scientific publishing.

Although my legal name is Asian, I go by an English name with peers and supervisors (which is not on my degrees/official school records). In the future, I will have to use just my Asian first name when I practice medicine (but this won't matter because I will just be Dr.LastName anyways).

I'm just wondering what I should be publishing under - I found that a lot of people on pubmed/GScholar share my Asian name...and with my supervisors I am known by EnglishName-AsianName LastName.

Will publishing under this hyphenated name pose future problems if I practice just under AsianName?

I'm thinking problems such as not being recognized in research communities, hospital affiliations with research-based hospitals, etc.

I really doubt it will cause you any problems in future.

A lot of people would change their family name as a result of marriage and even that not too terrible.


How does a Professor contact another professor regarding a PhD student? I sent my CV to a Professor regarding a PhD position. He asked me to send the name of three referees. I could have sent him the names, but here is an issue.
I have worked in Germany for 2 years as a research assistant and then I moved to my home country and worked here for almost 4 years and published papers in reputed journals. Logically I think I should include the names of my current supervisors or the supervisors I have published works with.
But the professor (I am applying to) is originally from Germany, currently residing in Canada. He asked me to include three referees from Germany.
Is there any specific reason that he asked specifically for references from that country? Also, how do professors usually communicate? Do they call or send emails? Are they more comfortable if they are from the same country?

We aren't in a position to address the question of why this professor made this specific request. However, on a more general level:
You don't specify where your home country is; let's suppose it's Ruritania. Why wouldn't a professor want references from your Ruritanian colleagues?

Reference-writing culture and purpose differs around the world. In US/Canada/Northern Europe/etc, an academic reference is expected to be a fairly detailed appraisal of your strengths and performance. Unfortunately referees from some parts of the world do not appreciate this, and submit attestations about a candidate's personal character or family circumstances. This damages their application, as there are effectively no meaningful references. Perhaps the professor knows, or fears, that Ruritanian professors do not write helpful letters.
Good references usually include information about how the writer perceives the candidate relative to others: "One of the most innovative researchers I have ever worked with", "Consistently ranking in the top 5 in her undergraduate class", etc. Of course, this is only meaningful if the reader is familiar with the comparators. If I have never encountered anyone else from Ruritania, how do I interpret such statements? I simply have no point of reference.
The concept of academic references relies on the fact that the writer stands to damage their professional reputation if they recommend someone who turns out to be a flop. For this to be a meaningful cost, the writer's professional circle has to intersect sufficiently with the recipient's professional circle. If nobody I know has any Ruritanian connections, why shouldn't a Ruritanian professor lie through his teeth in order to get rid of a troublesome postdoc?
Edited to add: The way in which academia operates varies around the globe. It is conceivable that the characteristics that are desirable in the Ruritanian system are undesireable somewhere else. Again, it is helpful to understand the perspective from which referees are writing.

As for communication, most academics prefer to communicate (at least initially) by email. However, a phonecall may sometimes be made for references, to allow transfer of information without generating any paper trail.


Can a dean expel a doctoral student without a trial? My friend, a doctoral student, is being accused of harassment/stalking by the dean, yet law enforcement has not contacted my friend, and the dean refuses to substantiate his accusation, for fear of retaliation. My friend has not been given a trial, yet the dean is preventing him from completing his PhD, suspending him from the university. The dean kept my friend's adviser completely in the dark regarding the accusations. It seems the dean is harassing him, pure and simple.

What should he do?

thanks

Universities do not in my experience hold "trials" in order to reach their decisions, however weighty.  So the answer to the literal question asked is probably "yes".

I guess what you mean to ask is whether the dean has the unilateral power to do this.  I'm not entirely clear on what "this" is: what does "preventing him from completing his PhD" or "effectively expelling" mean, precisely?  But even if I did, I would have to know the rules of your friend's university rather intimately in order to answer.  (Someone in your university has the power to do this.  As @Paul comments, probably more than one person was involved in the decision.  Just because the action looks single-handed to your friend does not mean that other university officials were not involved.)

One tip: if your friend's adviser doesn't know, get your friend to tell her!! (i) Could it make things any worse?  (ii) Won't she find or sooner or later?  Sooner may be soon enough to at least try to do something about it; later, maybe not.

Added "It seems the dean is harassing him, pure and simple." Well then he should report it to....oh.  Seriously, if by this you mean that you think the dean has some kind of vendetta against your friend which caused him to simply fabricate these charges: though obviously I don't and can't know the situation, I find that very unlikely.  Though there may be no "trial" system in the university, there will be some kind of clear guidelines and procedures for expelling students.  If the harassment is simply made up then the expelling couldn't possibly have followed these procedures, which would open the university up to a trial, possibly an embarrassing and costly one.  I think I understand this clearly, but a dean understands it like I can't even imagine.


How to find conference sponsors? I am interested in the basics of how a conference organizer would go about finding potential sponsors for a conference. I am referring to limited sponsorship for things like travel fellowships.

This includes a few questions:

What kind of sponsors are there?
Do they generally expect something in return (in addition to advertising their contribution)? What kinds of things?
How does the process work? Do you just write various potential sponsors and ask if they are interested? Do you promise anything in advance? Is there some kind of negotiation?

Any thoughts on this are welcome.

I will be assuming that you are a member of a university or an academic society hosting the conference and you don't have access to a conference organising group (whether in-house or private).

First, and rather importantly because it is often overlooked, I would recommend that you review whether the university or society has restrictions on the receipt of sponsorship monies. For example, some groups have strict rules about receiving money from tobacco companies or pharmaceutical companies because it would jeopardise existing or future grant opportunities. You have to be careful about this. You don't want to receive GBP5,000 from Marlboro Cigarettes and find out that your lab is now ineligible to submit grants worth millions of pounds over the next two years.

Second, if your society or university has a marketing unit, I would contact them. They have great contacts and often receive unsolicited offers of support from other groups or charities. They might be able to provide leads, introduce you to corporate sponsorship officers or even take on the role of fund raising from your hands.

Third, if this were a recurring event -- say, it's an annual meeting -- then I would pull up the program from the previous year and note the sponsors. I would seek advice, too, from the previous organisers.

Fourth, there's no harm in writing to potential sponsors. For small companies, you would write directly to the CEO or managing director. For larger companies, you might try writing to the director of sales and marketing. You would lay out your needs and invite them to support you. In general, you will need to work out a sponsorship agreement or contract laying out these details. Some companies have such agreements already in place, or your university of group may have its own. Regardless, you need to be aware of the statements and conditions in these agreements.

Finally, most sponsors do this for advertising. Some will want some outrageous things. In one sponsorship deal, we had to mention the name of the company five times during the night of the Gala Dinner. Try as he might, the MC had a hard time working in jokes about a new colorectal cancer drug while people were queuing for the buffet. Some will want time to conduct "continuing education sessions", which are generally closed door meetings about an area related to the company's area.

Good luck.


Is it undesirable to publish a 2019 paper in a 2020 issue? This question is inspired by How to make sense of a 2019 paper published in 2016 journal issue? From the comments to that question, it's apparent that publishing a 2019 paper in a 2016 issue is inconvenient for the author. This question asks the reverse: what if the journal is so "frontlogged" that it publishes its 2019 papers in 2020 issues?

I have handled such a journal at one point. The journal was receiving and accepting lots of submissions, so many in fact that it was publishing issues ahead of time. Previous editors were reluctant to increase the issue count because they feared this stream of papers would dry up, and if the journal ever struggled to fill its issues it would lead to problems like in the linked question, where 2019 papers are published in 2016 issues. The upshot was, by the time I took over the journal it was more than a year ahead of schedule.

Is the journal being ahead of schedule a problem for authors? What about librarians?

In the present day, publication year is essentially irrelevant.  What matters for the job market is the acceptance date.  Usually publishers put the article online within days of acceptance.  At this point people begin citing it.  If the paper is not assigned to an issue until the next year, the only effect will be that people citing the paper will be annoyed by copyeditors asking what the publication year and issue are.


What to do in the summer if math REUs reject me? Should I still apply to grad school? This past fall/winter I applied to 16 of the pure math summer REU programs listed by the AMS here, and haven't been accepted by any so far. Five have rejected me, and the fact that none of the other 11 have sent me information tells me I'm probably on their waitlists.

I'm in my junior year and was hoping to apply to a PhD program next fall. I have a very high GPA, but I haven't taken a really competitive course load since I have been struggling with anxiety/depression for several years. It wasn't until my junior year began that I started the year-long abstract algebra and real analysis sequences. I'm planning to take grad math classes in my senior year, and ask some professors if I can get involved in research (haven't done any thus far).

I'm starting to worry about what I'm going to do this summer if I get rejected from all of the REU's... any advice? And, does this mean that I should look elsewhere instead of pursuing graduate school in pure math? I guess I'm feeling a bit discouraged about the prospects of a career in pure mathematics.

Mid-summer update: I actually did end up getting into an REU this summer, and I'm loving it here! At the same time, I'm really glad I asked this question, since it was important (both emotionally and logistically) to be prepared for the possibility of not getting into an REU. Interestingly, the professor who I'm working with told me that he never went to an REU as an undergrad; he didn't start doing research until his 3rd year of grad school. Somehow I had convinced myself that only students who do undergraduate research will become successful mathematicians. Now I understand that while doing undergraduate research can help students to delve deeper into specific topics, beef up their resumes, and prepare for graduate school, it's definitely not the "be-all and end-all" of a mathematician's career. Thank you for the advice, and good luck to all of the other students out there!

REUs are a nice way to start to get a sense of what mathematics research is about, and can certainly be helpful for graduate admissions.  But they're not a prerequisite.  You don't need to give up on grad school just because you didn't get accepted to an REU.

As for what to do with the summer, if you are interested in research, consider trying to work on a research project with one of the professors at your university.  You say you want to do this next year, so it would be even better to start this summer, when you will have more time available and won't be distracted by coursework.  Start asking them about it now.

I think it is definitely a good idea to have some sort of research experience before applying to grad school.  Partly because it is helpful in admissions, but mostly because it will help you decide if it is actually something you want to do.  Mathematics research is a very different experience than coursework, and before committing to doing it for several years, it would be wise to see if you like it.


Should I send a 60 percentile Math GRE score to Applied Math PhD Program? I didn't do well on math GRE(700, 60 percentile) and I have no time to retake the test. I am applying for applied math phd programs(some examples include Rice CAAM, Upenn ACMS, JHU's Department of Applied Mathematics & Statistics or my dream school Stanford ICME), and almost all of these programs do not require GRE subject but they recommend me to send.

I know that this score will definitely hurt me a lot if I am applying for pure math programs, but someone said that applied math is different. So I wonder if my score will have seriously negative effect? Should I send the score to those programms?

Thank you, I appreciate any advice!

I am in a similar situation. Although I am not able to provide you with a definitive answer but I think it's important who your competitors are. For example, I remember once read on Ohio State University's website, saying that the average GRE Math Subject of domestic students are around 65% or 67%, but the average for international students are around 95%. So I think your educational background plays a role here.


Convention for naming something after its discoverers when many were involved I would like to refer to a mathematical construction by the names of its discoverers. The issue is that the same construction was discovered by two groups simultaneously, through quite different chains of reasoning. One paper has two authors and the other has five, so there are seven researchers involved in the discovery in total. Obviously I can't refer to it by all seven names, and I'm wondering if there's some other reasonable convention to follow instead.

So for example, if one paper is by A. Alpha and B. Beta, and the other is by G. Gamma, E. Epsilon, Z. Zeta, E. Eta and T. Theta, would it be reasonable to refer to it as the Alpha-Gamma construction, leaving off the names of the other authors? Or would I have to call it something more ad-hoc like AB-GEZET, after their initials?

If it makes a difference, the field is information theory, so I guess somewhere in the intersection between maths, computer science and data analysis. I'm confident that the authors are not listed alphabetically on either paper.

Also in case it makes a difference, the reasons I want to do this are

It's a solution to a fairly well-defined problem that a number of people have been working on for a while, and it's pretty non-trivial.
There are many other proposed solutions to the same problem, so it's handy to attach names to them in order to distinguish between them.
It seems like a nice thing to do for the researchers involved, at least one of whom spent their PhD on it.

I have heard (I'm not sure how official these things are) that in modern scientific fields people are trying to phase out naming things after the people involved, as it makes learning the subject difficult - remembering a set of random names that don't describe the things as against calling it by what it is or what it does.

So while this might seem like a nice thing to do for the scientists involved, it might make your work clearer and easier to understand if you just describe the thing (construction) and then mention or site the relevant authors.

E.g. the folding solution to the paper box problem presented by Dr. Origami et al. and Dr P. Airplane et al.

(Forgive my silly example, I have no experience of information theory and don't really know what a "construction" is in your terminology.)


What is the expected time commitment for a part time Research Master's Program? Let's say I get accepted to a Master's Degree Program in Applied Mathematics with a Research Thesis component. If I take 1 class a semester for 6 years and work on my thesis each semester, what could the time commitment for my most difficult semester look like? Assume I am trying to get an A in every class and publish a great thesis.

Does spending 40 hours a week on that single class and research for an entire semester every few semesters sound plausible?

Your planned schedule sounds reasonable, but I would be more concerned about the energy commitment with full-time employment, particularly with a learning disability. Depending on the nature of your disability, the kind of work you do at your job, and your schedule, you might find that you have very little left over for quality academic work after your job commitment. So try it for a semester, but have a backup plan in case you find yourself overloaded. Six years is a long time to run yourself ragged.


Academic journals aimed at publishing work by high school students I'm a sixth form student, and one day I would like to call myself an academic.

Do you know of any academic journals that are specifically for students, or would accept work from a student? I would be very much interested to hear about an organisation that does this.

Thanks.

Publishing in early career

If the research is good enough, it will get published.  The challenge is to do good-enough research as a sixth-form student. Actually, that's a challenge for any of us, at whatever stage we're at. The best example I know of, of young researchers getting published, is a paper in Biology Letters from a class of 8-10 year olds. The paper, Blackawton Bees, is a good bit of research and an entertaining read.

  Principal finding ‘We discovered that bumble-bees can use a combination of colour and spatial relationships in deciding which colour of flower to forage from. We also discovered that science is cool and fun because you get to do stuff that no one has ever done before.

Actually, never mind the rest of this answer for now. If you're reading this, whoever you are, and you haven't read the paper before, just go read it now - it's free to view for all. You'll thank me (so remember to come back here afterwards ;-).

Journals for students

As far as journals specifically for students: well, they all are, really. Pretty much all of us who are reading them, are reading them for study. God knows, they're almost always so dryly written that no one would read them for pleasure.

There are exceptions.  For easier reading, there's New Scientist and Scientific American; though the science sometimes suffers in the cause of circulation-friendly journalism, particularly for New Scientist.

More digestible science

And there are quite a lot of science blogs on the web, which make for more digestible reading of recent research. Unfortunately, there's also a much higher number of pseudo-science blogs on the web, that, unless you know a lot about the subject, are hard to distinguish from real science, but contain pure unadulterated nonsense.  For example, Real Climate is respectable science by respected scientists; Watts Up With That is unadulterated pseudo-science nonsense; but to the unwary, they are both climate science blogs. So, for finding new science blogs, reader beware. Even well-established science blogs sometimes go off the rails, when they stray outside their area of immediate expertise.


A stunted PhD: PhD in the time of a pandemic I'm a third year Math PhD student in the US. My concern is that my PhD is going to be stunted in the following sense:

I am my advisor's only graduate student. This is not uncommon for grad students in math. I do however compare this to my friends and colleagues in astronomy who have research groups. They meet every week and discuss their work with each other. On the other hand, I have nobody apart from my advisor to discuss my work with. I can't discuss my frustrations in research or my elation in learning something new in an informal setting. My research area (geometric function theory) is very niche in the sense that we're the only ones working on complex analysis in our department.

So far I have not attended any conferences. I had an opportunity to attend one last summer, but it got cancelled due to the pandemic. It seems unlikely that an in person conference will happen for at least another semester or so. I have not had the opportunity to meet peers in my field from other universities and learn what they do. I have not made any connections.

To summarize, I'm worried that my training in research is not going to be "wholesome". I saw my seniors present at conferences and make collaborations and friends from all over. I'm worried that not attending conferences will be held against me in the post-doc market and that I am currently unable to learn the current advances in my field because of my limited (non-existent) exposure to the math community.
My specific questions are:

What are some practical measures I can implement to make connections? How do I get to know some people in my field? (I do attend talks over zoom but these aren't exactly sociable events due to their online nature.)

How important is attending conferences with regard to post-doc applications and how can I compensate for not attending any, in the remaining two years of my program?

Thanks for your time.

Disclaimer: This is not specifically from a mathematics study or USA perspective, but I think some perspectives may be helpful. Take them with a pinch of salt, depending on local factors.
I started a research career in an applied lab before enrolling for a PhD. Presently I am, like you, in my third year of PhD, and generally struggle to juggle office work with my academic work. While the pandemic created a bunch of problems (especially for experimentalists), it has had a few positive effects. In my experience, all positive effects were linked with peer exchanges, communications, and virtual interactions. (Everything below only addresses your first question.)
(1) Shrinking distances: It is easier to attend webinars, talks and enroll in peer groups when you don't need to physically be present. I found myself attending talks from different departments, which I wouldn't have in person, just because they were a mile's walk away. I understand your field is niche, but this may be the ideal time to explore some peripheral topics and see how your research could connect to those. If you find it difficult to get your question answered on Zoom, don't shy away from mailing the speaker (use an appropriate subject line, of course). That could help set up a private chat or discussion soon after.
(2) Reduced conference costs : Other than the travel costs saved, most conferences have significantly reduced the registration fee. This means that one could attend a lot more conferences than would be possible in person. In my personal case, several conferences and workshops were affordable enough for me to pay for, rather than having to apply for departmental/other grants. As you attend more, you will have more interactions (despite missing the in-person interactions), and it is inevitable that some will be helpful to you.
(3) Newer conference formats: The most recent conference I attended followed a hybrid format, where video presentations of all talks were made available about a week in advance, and during the actual conference dates there were virtual discussion rooms for each session. This is amazing, because you can effectively watch and absorb content in advance, reach out to other speakers beforehand, expressing interest and mentioning any topics that you would like to discuss. This made the discussion sessions extremely fruitful and targetted (arguably more than an in-person conference where social demands could reduce the extent of discussions). Of course, it demands that you do your homework beforehand.
Finally, for the virtual conferences, a few precautions are worth keeping in mind. Its good to keep your camera on as much as possible (facial contact is still very important), a good internet connection is worth the investment (if applicable), and its better to be formally dressed, even if you're attending from home.


Can you do a masters in Canada with 3 years bachelor degree? Do all Canadian universities require a 4 year degree for masters?

Most Canadian university will admit you to a master if you have an undergraduate degree. This could be a “license” in the European system or a bachelor degree. The reason why universities require a four year degree is because there is no College in the Canadian system ( with the exception of Quebec with its cégep system). Consequently, students enter universities at a young age ( around 17 or 18). If you have completed a bachelor equivalent I would try to apply. School registrar will judge your application based on which education system you are from.
Good luck in your application !


Is it good to label papers as Part I, Part II? If a paper is too long, I was advised to split it into two papers. What is the general opinion of reviewers/editors on having "Part I", "Part II" literally in the title of the papers?

Or is it better if I replace "Part I", "Part II" by more descriptive titles?

Thanks. (My field is in Math.)

You can do that, though a better approach may be to title them something like

  Hypersingular monoids in graph theory. Part I: Definitions and basic properties

and then

  Hypersingular monoids in graph theory. Part II: Applications to semiregular smoothness theory of spiked stars

This way, you're a bit more expressive than just part 1 and 2.

The downside of this approach is that good journals will ask you to make sure that either "Part I" is already self-contained and of independent interest (which is probably difficult to achieve if you are currently splitting up something you've already written), or that you submit the two parts together (so that the combined oeuvre can be reviewed as a whole). The latter, of course defeats the purpose of splitting it in the first place.

Long papers are a hassle all around. It's difficult to get them through the review process, and much depends on what concretely you have in the paper(s). As a consequence, there is little that can be said in terms of specific advice in your situation without knowing the details of the paper. Talk to some of the experienced people in your field about the situation and ask them how they would suggest you handle it!


Is highlighting important references a good idea? My thesis has around 100 references. What do you think if I highlight most important references (for example with bold text)? does it add more value to the work?

Your thesis should have an introduction.  You can highlight the most important references by mentioning them in the introduction and explaining why they are important.


Stress and anxiety related to competition Regarding stress in mathematical research, I saw posts like

Is Mathematical Research Stressful?

But it seems that most answers there don't stress what I mainly feel, that much of my stress (even as tenure track professor at a relatively good place) is related not to some absolute evaluation of my work, but rather to comparing with others. Most terrifyingly, that they are much smarter, group to brainstorm together (I am more solitary by nature), progress, and all I can personally do will always be not fast enough, and subsumed in their work.

This makes me a lot of times reluctant to look at stuff they write, or interact with them, or try to think about things which I feel they can do in a few days if wanting to (so kind of "staying out of their property"). So this self limitation is regulating me into mediocrity, I guess, and of course leading to procrastination and other unpleasant effects, which overflow to the non-academical life (so sometimes it feels like living in constant fear).

Do you have similar feelings, and how do you deal with that?

I doubt that this will really be an answer, and might even add to your stress. I would rather sit down with you for a couple of hours and chat than try to capture all of this "advice from an old codger" in written form.

First, an observation. If you work in a "hot" area of research, mathematics or other, you will be at a disadvantage with respect to collaborative groups. Such groups throw around a lot of ideas, some good, some bad, and find a way to filter out the better ones. It is hard for an individual to gain priority in time in such an environment.

I never had that particular problem, since my mathematical work was extremely arcane (but fun). There were, at the time, only half a dozen people worldwide who had any real interest in it. Math was heading in different directions at the time. So, no, I didn't experience just what you are. But there was a different, perhaps related issue.

My main personal issue was that I was so introverted that it was difficult for me to even speak up for myself when necessary. I would probably have completed my doctorate in four years (rather than seven) if I'd only spoken up to the department head about my need for a better advisor at the time.

But, through an accident of fate I was able to learn that, even though remaining introverted, I could act as if I were not. I could overcome my reluctance, even, to look people straight in the eye as I spoke to them. Painful, but possible. It just requires commitment and practice.

The specific training I got was related to something called Self Defeating Behavior and learned that my natural tendencies didn't need to dominate my actions.

So, the stress increaser, is a suggestion that you find a way to do some collaborations. You don't need to collaborate with everyone or anyone, of course, and you get to choose. But a friendly, small, working group can increase everyone's productivity. Set the rules at the beginning to keep it friendly: equal authorship in all joint work, for example.

Make the collaboration something you do, independent of what you think you fundamentally are.

It will be difficult, at first, if you have any tendencies similar to mine, but, over time, you will find it necessary, even rewarding.

I once had a chance to verify this with a colleague who knew me in both phases of my professional life. He agreed (a bit incorrectly) that I'd changed my personality from complete introversion to a fair amount of extroversion. In fact, I remain introverted, but have learned to act in public when appropriate. It made me a better educator as well. I know others in my field who have made similar transitions. Some of them are very well known in the world of CS.


What is relationship between post-doc experience and number of publications on Salary/appointment levels in New Zealand universities? This question is related to What is the average salary of assistant professor in New Zealand?
and
Are salaries for academic jobs in New Zealand negotiable?

Is the relation between number of years of postdoc experience and/or publications with the appointment/salary level at NZ universities quantifiable? I am mainly interested in the starting level appointment.

New Zealand is heavily invested in the "Publish or Perish" mindset, to the point where it's not even funny. Research funding is allocated entirely on the basis of an exercise called the PBRF (http://www.tec.govt.nz/Funding/Fund-finder/Performance-Based-Research-Fund-PBRF-/) and academics spend a significant amount of their time preparing for this. More publications are better; the venues are not so important (although New Zealand academics do not typically publish in predatory journals.) The quantity of publications is probably the single most important factor in any hiring decision by a New Zealand university.

[PS. Looking at your questions, many of them seem to be about "New Zealand Universities" in general. Bear in mind that there are only eight universities in New Zealand, several of which might not have a program in your area. It might be a good idea to address your questions to people who are in New Zealand, rather than random StackExchangers who may be tempted to Google the answer to earn internet points. For example, you could look for an Australia/New Zealand mailing list for academics in your subject and try asking the same questions there.]


why is the impact factor of mathematical journals "often" lower than the impact factor of journals in other disciplines I was always wondering why is the impact factor of mathematical journals "often" lower than the impact factor of journals in other disciplines?  I come up with some guesses  that I would like to know your opinion about them.

Mathematics papers are so hard to read and follow (or so specialized) that only a few people can read and apply their results.
There are relatively a large number of subfields and branches of mathematics and only a few people are working in each branch.
The number of journals and papers in mathematics (divided by the number of active mathematicians) is relatively higher than other disciplines.
A mixture of these.

Please, share your insights about this issue.

There are a lot of different factors, and I know of no reliable way to determine which is the best explanation.  For example, one theory is that mathematics simply has less impact (in the non-technical sense) than most scientific fields.  I don't believe this, but it's hard to give a principled refutation.  The whole subject strikes me as a little silly, with lots of opinions and numbers with no clear meaning.

One important factor is clearly that mathematicians write fewer, often longer papers than most scientists.  Another is the two-year cycle mentioned by walkmanyi (citations after two years do not count for impact factor, which is incompatible with both the time lag in mathematics publication and the time required to carry out research in mathematics in the first place).

Another factor is the size of the field.  The highest impact factors should occur in an enormous field with some incredibly important research and also a ton of less important papers that cite the great ones.  Mathematics is just not that large a field (compared with biology or medicine, certainly), and it furthermore fragments into a lot of subfields it's difficult to move between.  When someone makes an amazing discovery in algebraic geometry, you aren't going to get a flood of mathematicians from other areas rushing in to take the next steps, because algebraic geometry requires a lot of background.  I don't think that's a bad thing for mathematics as a whole (the things the would-be algebraic geometers are doing instead are probably as valuable as following the latest trends would be), but it cuts down on the opportunities for amassing citations quickly.

Ultimately, I doubt there's any conclusive or satisfying way to determine how much of a role each of these factors plays.

For some published commentary on impact factors in mathematics, see Nefarious Numbers by Arnold and Fowler and Impact Factor and How it Relates to Quality of Journals by Milman.  The first paper focuses on the flaws of impact factors and their abuse/manipulation, while the second explains how impact factor calculations relate to mathematical publication practices (and some of the incentives for journal editors).  Neither directly answers the question here, but they both shed some light on it.


Is it appropriate to put talks that are not related to research, but given at an academic institution, on a CV? I've given a talk at an academic institution that is not related at all to my math research.

Is it appropriate to put talks that are not related to research, but given at an academic institution, on a CV?

The sort of talks I am thinking about are ones about personal experiences, or something related to an interest that is not related to one's primary area of research.

Absolutely!

There are a number of talks that I've given that aren't related to my own research that I consider to be some of my most influential talks. In particular, I think talks about academia in general, or about the publication system, or recently, a talk about open access and open science. Taking the time to speak to younger academics about things about which you are passionate (like for me, preprint servers like arxiv.org and biorxiv.org) is very important.

I have also had the opportunity to give a few talks not even at academic institutions that I consider to be worthy of 'academic credit'. Specifically, I spoke at TEDMED a few years ago, talking about the medical education system, which you can see here:

http://www.tedmed.com/talks/show?id=7331

and also at an event called Pint of Science (pintofscience - podcasts from me and many others here: https://pintofscience.us/podcasts/ ).

I've been asked more about these talks at interviews than any others! I think especially in a world where all academics applying for jobs/tenure have excellent CVs, having some 'non-academic' stuff on there can help you stand apart - and show another dimension of you that folks could be interested in.


How do I get out of my overly vain 'trophy' mindset when it comes to universities? I have friends who went to pretty good universities (world top 10), and I would love to apply too after my Masters although I am not sure how realistic this is, as I also had some personal problems during my undergraduate degree affecting my grades. However, I feel bad every time I think about it and realise that my university right now is not Oxbridge / Ivy League -although I too ultimately am interested in a career in academia.

One of my friends got into Oxbridge and I don't think he's more intelligent than me or particularly gifted at all to be honest, -but I just don't understand? - And: yes, I should know that it doesn't matter that much, and that I should not compare myself and not let this take over my thought processes. But I cannot seem to help it, it's on my mind a lot. And it's even keeping me from studying. - any advice?

Since nobody seems to answer this somewhat vague question, I will:

1) Your question is not related to Academia directly, it is simply a question about fighting negative emotions (perhaps, jealousy?) that stem from failure in some sort of a competition. You say your negative emotions interfere with your everyday functionality, so the standard advice is to go to personal psychological counseling.

2) The one bit that is related to academia is:
"One of my friends got into Oxbridge and I don't think he's more intelligent than me or particularly gifted at all to be honest, -but I just don't understand?"

The answer to this is that academia is not an intelligence contest. It doesn't matter at all whether someone is intelligent or dumb. What matters is, for better or worse, whether you can deliver good research results.


How Do I Shift Field of Study? I am medical student at Alexandria University, Egypt and I have a question important to my life. I have no passion in what I have learned. I love medicine but not by that way we have to study it. How can I deal with that? I love programming but I am not professional in it. I am thinking about career shift as I feel my life has been stolen from me, unfortunately I am 23 years old and I don't know what I can do!

Hello User41022 and Welcome to Stack Exchange. First off I would like to start my answer by saying that many people have experienced what you are going through at your age, including myself. 23 is an age where you have enough life experience that you know what you like and what you don't like. I am 29 years old, so I have a bit of perspective and experience on what you are going through. Here is my advice to you:

If you have spent a number of years in a field and decided that it is not "for you", either because you are not passionate about it or you are not good at it, and you have a passion in another field, I would STRONGLY recommend that you follow your passion into the other field. Now, that advice does not mean immediately tell your supervisor "I quit!" and then jump into the next field, it means, slowly begin to transition (by spending time learning) the new field so that you have the opportunity to follow your passion. If you are in medical school, you are clearly an intelligent person who has skills and connections. Your task is to now use the skills, experience and network you have developed over the past few years to transition to the field you are interested in.

You mentioned that you are interested in computer programming. I recommend taking a few online courses in Python (or another computer programming language) and begin applying these computer programming concepts to your current field in medical research. You simply do not want to throw away years of education and experience for a brand new industry, nor do you want to burn bridges with your network. By slowly transitioning from where you are to where you want to be, you will be much better off now and in the future.


Would a graduate program require a transcript from a past institution even if the transcript is empty? I started a new graduate program in September. After a few weeks weeks, I chose to withdraw due to personal/health concerns.

One of the reasons I accepted the offer of admission was because it included a scholarship that covered tuition. After I withdrew, they took away the scholarship (expected) but they also charged me tuition for the first semester (unexpected). They did this because, technically, I withdrew a few days after the "last day to drop classes without financial penalty" deadline.

I am no longer a student, but they are still requiring me to pay ~$1500 to cover the tuition. I can't afford to pay this; I was not expecting this additional expense since the scholarship was supposed to cover it. If I don't pay it right away, they will charge interest.

Now the easiest option (but perhaps unethical) seems to be to just walk away without paying. But if I want to apply for another graduate program some time in the future, I will need a transcript from all past institutions. And if I want a transcript from this institution, they need me to pay the ~$1500.

This seems ridiculous; effectively, it will cost $1500 to get a transcript that does not contain any grades. It just says that I withdrew from all classes.

Would a graduate program generally require a transcript that does not contain any grades? Alternatively, is there any precedent for a situation where a scholarship is revoked but tuition is still required after withdrawing?

For context, this is a major Canadian university.

Update: Thanks for the responses. After reaching out to the department and explaining the situation, it was determined that financial services had made an error when they revoked the scholarship. Basically, the scholarship acted like a tuition waiver and it was not correct to cancel the tuition waiver (and thereby charge full tuition) when a student withdraws.

There are two issues at play here:

You received (or had opportunity to receive) goods or services at a cost and now you do not feel you should pay for said services.
You have asked if a graduate program would require a transcript from a school you attended but received no grades from.

My answer to these questions would be as follows:

If you did not withdraw from the university before the withdraw deadline, you indeed owe them tuition. This is how tuition works. You receive services from the university and you pay them for said services. Failure to attend class does not remit one's tuition obligations. That is the precedent. In essence, laborers came to your house and painted your living room. Originally you had agreed for them to paint your entire house, but you decided you no longer wanted the whole house painted. Do you still owe the painting company money for painting your living room? (Answer: Yes).

There may be several paths you can take in regards to the tuition charges. You can set up a payment plan with the university. This will allow you to pay back the tuition over time while also avoiding your credit being destroyed by your account being sent to a collections agency. Another approach you could attempt is to speak with the university and seek to have your tuition charges dropped because you could not attend class. Be prepared to prove that claim (if true). This would be a path you could take if you were hospitalized for the extent of the semester and you were incapacitated to a degree that rendered you unable to take the appropriate administrative actions and withdraw earlier. The university is extremely unlikely to remit tuition charged to a student who had claimed, yet unprovable, difficulties in attending class.
As for whether you need to provide transcripts for a university you never received any grades at, I would guess that it is rather unlikely that an admissions committee would require your transcripts if you sought prior direction from them on the matter. Simply email the graduate coordinator and say

  "I attended the University of ABC123 during September 2018. Due to health issues, I withdrew from all of my classes before final grades were issued. As such, any transcript from U of ABC123 will be effectively blank and will not contain any grades. Will the admissions committee still be looking for this transcript?"

If I received an email like this from a student I would probably reply and tell him or her that we would place a note in his/her file mentioning the situation and that they should not worry about sending a transcript. (Although, if I knew that the student owed another university $1500 of tuition, he could send us whatever he wanted and I would probably still reject his application. There would be no way that I would go dancing with that type of baggage).


Introduction to Programming with Pseudocode In the University in which I will start teaching the course sequence for Programming goes in this way:

Algorithms and Data Structures
Structured Programming Languages
Object-Oriented Programming Languages

So as you see, the first contact of the students with Programming is the "Algorithms and Data Structures" course in which several programming fundamentals topics are covered (variables, data types, if/else, loops) and also some data structures and basic algorithms. The weird part -at least for me- is that in this first course there no actual programming: all the topics are covered with Pseudocode and Flowcharts written in the Blackboard.

This seems kind of strange for me, and as a new teacher I have little power to change this (Senior teachers said that coding is for latter courses). So, I want to know if any of you is familiar with that teaching approach and if you can suggest me some textbooks that are using that teaching methodology.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

This is exactly the approach taken by the Introduction to Algorithms course at MIT—or at least it was the case back in the early 2000's. The book by Cormen et al. takes a decidedly agnostic approach to programming, and presents everything in terms of pseudocode, rather than adopting any particular programming language.


Submitting manuscripts from a phd thesis when my supervisor is not available to review the final draft due to health issues I'm planning to submit papers from my completed PhD thesis (finished less than a year ago) but recently found that unfortunately, my supervisor who had a significant contribution to my thesis is not well and not available for a review, preparing for chemotherapy :( What would be the ethical way of publishing papers and respecting their intellectual contribution without inconvenient communications with them at this stage?
Thanks, in advance, for sharing your suggestions

My suggestion is that you submit in the normal way, but several days (say a week) beforehand, send her/him a note that you are submitting, along with a copy of the paper. You seem to indicate that the supervisor should be a co-author (field dependent)and if so, do that also.

In your note say that submission is pending unless you are advised against it. Make the note itself short so that little effort needs to be spent to make a quick decision. In particular, don't ask for a review and revision of the paper.

"I expect to submit the enclosed next week unless you advise differently... I will wait if you prefer.".

If you don't get a request to wait then just submit it. If they are well enough to review it, they probably will.

Of course, if there are no time constraints/limitations, you can also just wait.

But note that if the situation is dire and your advisor is near death then it is time for you to step in to the legacy along with his/her other students. You will have sole responsibility for these situations soon enough in that case.