Using a graphics tablet to support recorded lectures? My lectures (mathematics) are delivered in a theatre with full projection facilities, and my lectures are given as PDF slides.  But I often need to explain something not covered in enough detail on a slide, in response to a particular student difficulty (my lectures are very interactive!).  For that I can use the whiteboard in the same room.

However, my lectures are recorded, and the recording system only picks up, as its video, what's projected through the computer onto the projection screen.  My whiteboard ramblings (which often amount to a significant part of each lecture) aren't recorded, although my voice is.

A simple solution would be a graphics tablet which I could switch to and write on; as it would be projected through the computer system it would be recorded.

So - does anybody have any advice for a relatively inexpensive graphics tablet which would work for this purpose?

(A few years ago I used a Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet, running Android, which came with a nice digitizer pen.  But my newer Lenovo Yoga tablet doesn't support such pens.  And I don't want to buy a new whizz-bang tablet+pen.  A cheap-and-cheerful solution is my hope here!)

My personal experience with different media used during lectures (basic calculations during an engineering course)

Tablet:

I experimented with my tablet (Galaxy tab S) but to be honest, my handwritten notes look like a child had written them. The Galaxy S is not particularly designed for taking handwritten notes, so maybe other tablets are suited better.
Graphic tablets from Wacom may be suited well. The possibility to project the notes live while explaining something to a particular group anywhere in the classroom may be a big advantage but in my opinion it does not outweigh the unprofessional look. Unfortunately, no shop in my town has Wacom tablets in stock. Otherwise I would try them. One of my students uses the new tablet-laptop from microsoft and is very satisfied with his handwritten notes. Still, the writing looks not very professional.

Document camera:

There are different models and I used a document camera in the price range of 700 $. The camera itself can be used to capture the notes while writing on a notebook. The video can be streamed live using standard video software. Additionally, it is possible to record the session and save the data on a SD card (including your voice). I like the feeling of a pen on paper and my notes look much better than on a tables. In my opinion it is the easiest solution right now.

But nothing beats the white or chalkboard. The possibility to teach while using my whole body for supporting the things I said is most comfortable for me. Furthermore, there is no device or desk between me and the students. As a consequence, it is easier to focus their attention.

Since most questions do occur every year again and again, I produce short videos at home using my hq-webcam. It is much easier for me because I can focus on one particular goal (producing a video, or explaining something to one student in one particular class). I am not the multitasking type.

To sum it up:
If you like the feeling of a pen on a paper you might want to search for "document camera"

You may want to look at those two videos:
Tablet for Tutoring Wacom Pad in Teaching


Can I work alone on an extension of a paper that had multiple authors? Is it permissible for one of the authors of a paper to work alone for the extension of that paper?

There is nothing illegal about this, nor is this publicly frowned upon.  After all, it's very possible for some of the original co-authors to simply not be interested in the extension.

However, your co-authors might see this as impolite, to say the least.  If you offer to include them in working on the extension and they decline, then everything is fine.  If you don't make such an offer to them, they might not want to work with you ever again.


Are there any undergraduate research/internship opportunities in math/science education/history? (Apologies if this isn't the right place for such a post. I see lots of advice for undergraduates hoping to pursue research in math and science, but haven't come across anything for the "soft" stuff like their history and pedagogy.)

I'm an undergrad math student (will have one more term left after the summer) and I'm hoping to get some advice on summer plans. While I really like math, and I'm considering grad school, I've always been really interested in science education, science in pop culture, and the history of science. I love the book A Short History of Nearly Everything and Youtube channels like Vsauce. Working as a science writer or museum curator would probably be a dream job for me. I'm hoping to do something in that realm in the future.

Does anyone know of any good ways to get involved in this sort of thing? It seems like people in this arena come from a pretty wide range of backgrounds. When I think about the parts of math and science that I really like, I keep coming back to the historical, cultural, philosophical, and pedagogical aspects, so something along those lines would be awesome.

I'm living in Canada right now, but I'd love to travel so I'm open to any location. I also have good grades (just under 4.0), if that matters for anything. That said, I'm really open to anything, academia or otherwise.

~~~

If anyone has any suggestions I would be very grateful. Thanks in advance!

Find some people doing your dream job.  Write to them and request an opportunity to do a shadow as part of your career exploration process.  Include a copy of your unofficial transcript and CV.  Make it clear that you would be grateful for any advice they may have about where to study, and any additional degree, coursework or job experience that would help you achieve your goal, but make the advice part optional.  Let them know how to contact you if they would find phone easier than email.

Please also consider applying for science outreach jobs.  These might be available at a research institute that is part of a large university.

Sometimes people create such a job organically, starting by doing this and that while employed doing something else (possibly related).  For example, enrichment classes taught after school at elementary schools.  Being a community advisor for a science club at a middle or high school.


Should I treat specialized wikis with the same scrutiny as Wikipedia itself? Suppose I am making a paper on the impact of popular TV shows on the spread of correct knowledge and facts about current and past events. Shows like South Park, The Simpsons and likely others often feature recent events in their storylines, as well as past events as well. These shows often have specialized wikias, usually in the form of "showname.wikia.com".

These wikias are mainly maintained by a dedicated subgroup of the fanbase for that show, people who usually know a lot about it. This means that the information on there comes from more reliable sources. In addition, since most of the information stems from individual episodes, there usually isn't any information about that episode outside of the wikia or the episode itself.

In cases like this, would it be appropriate to use the wikia as a source?

I disagree with the answers that say "There's no difference."

In both cases, you should critically evaluate the content with respect to correctness, reliability, etc. However, there is a difference with respect to the nature of the content.

Wikipedia (for most topics) serves as a tertiary source. That is, it aggregates primary and secondary sources on a topic, but doesn't add original content or interpretation. (In fact, it is against Wikipedia policy to include original content or interpretation.) In these cases, you should find and use the original source, to verify its contents and to give credit to the real authors.

Dedicated wikis on pop culture often do contain original content. And quite a few Wikipedia pages on pop culture do as well, even though they aren't supposed to (see e.g., Mythology of Lost).

For example, the Lost wiki contains a great deal of interpretation and commentary (e.g.: an analysis of recurring themes in the series) - not just a rehash of the episode plots. This makes it a secondary source, not a tertiary source.

You can use this original content (having critically assessed its correctness and reliability), and of course if you do, you should cite it.

For example, suppose you are writing a paper on "Use of the flash-forward technique in early 21st century television" and you read the following on the Lost wiki (or on an equivalent page on Wikipedia):

  In Lost, the flash-forward technique was introduced in "Through the Looking Glass", although it wasn't made clear that it was a flash-forward until the end of the episode. The first episode to feature a flash-forward that was clearly shown to be one from the start was "The Beginning of the End". "Ji Yeon" was the first episode to intertwine flashbacks with flash-forwards, although the flashback element was only clearly revealed to be in the past at the end of the episode, making its temporality a plot twist.

Even if you then go on and watch the episodes "Through the Looking Glass," "The Beginning of the End," and "Ji Yeon" yourself, or read the episode scripts (i.e., verify the correctness of the claim by checking the primary source), you still cannot claim in your work that you identified the use of flash-forward in Lost all by yourself! The wiki page in this case is a secondary source with an original analysis and interpretation, and you should cite it as such.


I've collected years of data using a defective piece of equipment. How to salvage my thesis and graduate? I'm writing my thesis for an Engineering PhD. Our department has a tool for measuring trace metals (an ICP-OES) that I was supposed to use to collect my data.
Unfortunately this equipment proved to be unreliable, and at the time I did not know whether it was my experiment/hypothesis or the equipment that was at fault. I raised concerns about the equipment for years, but everyone brushed me off. It turns out that the equipment was defective after all.
I was awarded extra funding so that I could get samples analysed externally. These results were exactly what I had expected all along. My concern is that my thesis now seems pretty insignificant. If the equipment had worked from the beginning, I would have pursued several additional lines of inquiry.
At this point, there is no time/money to do more work; my advisor wants me to finish up. So: how should I address the rather modest scope of my research when writing and defending my thesis?

I'm afraid there's no magic bullet here; all you can do is proceed as transparently and reasonably as possible.
First, present clearly the proof that the machine was broken. After years of debate about whether the machine was broken, your committee has probably stopped following the interminable discussion. So, you should explain very clearly and unambiguously that the debate is over and the machine really was broken.
After establishing that, I think the main question you should be prepared to address is: why did it take you years to notice that the equipment was broken? Naively, it seems like you should have done calibration runs in the first few days and identified/fixed the problem right at the beginning. Clearly that didn't happen here, so you should proactively and clearly explain why not. Hopefully there is a good technical reason (e.g., there is no way to calibrate this equipment) rather than just a mistake on your part.
Third, consider whether there is scientific value in the procedure you eventually followed to diagnose the faulty equipment. If identifying the problem was not trivial, it follows logically that your successful diagnosis is a significant step. You want to find the right balance: don't inflate your achievement or gloss over any mistakes, but at the same time, don't sell yourself short.
Finally, you should definitely discuss this with your committee in advance. If your professor wants you to graduate, you will probably pass your defense. Still, your defense is not good to surprise anyone. Since you have firm time/budget constraints, any potential issues or objections should be identified as early as possible.


Why is research assistantship decoupled from masters/phd program? I have just been offered a spot in a 2-year full-time masters program at a university in the US. It is very research-focused with a requirement of only a few courses. In the admissions letter they also offer me a full research assistantship (RA) for up to 12 months and say that graduate students typically receive RA support for 2 years contingent on satisfactory performance. The work from the RA is integrated into the graduate course of study. It is somewhat confusing to me why the RA and the Masters program are kept separate as it seems like almost all students would also be a RA. I have two questions related to this:

What are the benefits of this separation from the university's point of view - Is it mainly the ability to kick out students with bad performance?
I may be able to acquire substantial external funding. The offer letter states that the stipend that I receive as a RA would only supplement any external funding to a specified level, meaning that my overall salary would remain unchanged. However, if I get substantial funding this could perhaps allow me to not have a RA/TA position for 3-12 months. Would this be of any use to me? For instance, could I perhaps not have an RA position over the summer to allow me to get some time off?

Edit: This is a prestigious university and my sense is that the department/research group does have good enough finances to provide funding for both years.

2. Edit: The funding is unconditional in the sense that it is simply awarded towards the masters degree without any specific requirements. It is a tradition in my home country to award young students with scholarships to assist them in taking education elsewhere. The organizations providing the scholarships then hope that these students return to their home country after their studies abroad (which many do).

This is very difficult to answer authoritatively because each program is different but here are some reasons:

As @Brian Borchers noted, sometimes the admissions and RA funding committees are separate. At some universities, admissions is handled by the department while the RA funding has to be petitioned from the graduate school.
At some places, the lack of funding in the 2+ year is a weeding mechanism. Weaker students aren't offered funding, so they are disappeared (or they pay full fare which is even better than disappearing).
University or department finances may be such that they are not permitted to make a 2 year commitment. They hope that funding will continue but they are being cautious.
They may hope that rather than a university RA position, you will be switched to an external grant funded RA position. They can make a stronger case for funding "unfunded" students this way.
Something else.

The best thing for you to do is to talk to the director of graduate studies AS WELL AS to current graduate students in the program. People on the internet can't tell you which scenario it might be.


PhD Spring Admission Is there any university in the US offers PhD admission for the Spring? I'm trying to apply for the Cell and Molecular Biology at any university in the US

Not any place reputable. All of the reputable schools follow the standard application schedule of Nov-Dec deadlines and spring notifications for matriculation in the fall.

There may be some online or non-traditional schools with rolling deadlines, however these should be avoided.


Using copyrighted images for research, not publication Does one violate the copyright of images in any sense if one uses them in research (for example in memory tasks) and writes a scientific publication based on these data, but does not publish images in the article?

Is this part of the fair use policy?

While the key would seem to be to make sure that you cite the use of the images, I would also contact the creator of the images to make sure that they are fine with reusing them.  I did this while working on my dissertation, which not only secured permission, but also served as networking.


Requesting a change to conference lodging before accommodations have been verified? I have applied and been accepted to a conference as a graduate student attendee (not presenting any material). They were able to give lodging and promised to reimburse a good portion of travel which is all very good and I am very grateful. However, when I applied for the conference I indicated that I would be O.K. sharing  a hotel room. Unfortunately I have an medical situation that is better at some times than others and it's been rather poor since I first applied to the conference. Realistically if I'm going to attend the conference I'd need my partner to come with me to help with that situation which means we'd need to share a room and I couldn't share a room with another attendee. What is the most professional and effective way to make this request?

I always prefer to say as little about my medical situation as possible particularly because the folks organizing this conference run a Department I'm interested in for my PhD. They have not made lodging arrangements yet but made it clear they will need to make them by tomorrow so really I have about 1 day to request a lone room before they go and make arrangements. Thanks y'all for any tips on approaching this!

The best way is just to be direct, though you may need to reveal a bit about the reasons. Explain the situation much as you have here. I think most conferences would try to accommodate you, but it might not work out in every situation, due to numbers and money.

But do this immediately, so that it doesn't require reassignment of rooms, etc.

Alternatively, if you are willing to pay for your own accommodations and feel that is worth it for preserving your privacy, you can just decline the offer and make your own reservation. It might be best to work with the conference, however, as they may have access to special rates for attendees.

Universities in the US are not, in general, allowed to discriminate against people for medical conditions, so I wouldn't be overly concerned about revealing that you have a medical issue, leaving out details as you see fit.


Should I email Head of Depart. personally to seek faculty (unadervertised) positions? I am finishing my Ph.D. and now I am looking for faculty positions globally.

If I contact the head of the relevant departments (HoD), will it be ok or will it leave a good impression that I am too eager for the position?
Note that I am talking about any unadvertised positions.

Thanks

I doubt that it would be appropriate and would be considered a bit odd. Most places, anyway. If there are no advertised positions, there are likely no positions at all. If there are advertised positions they will come with stated application procedures.

The department head normally isn't responsible directly for hiring faculty. It is a faculty committee decision and in some places the laws of the land require advertisements and fair consideration of candidates using published criteria.

I think it would be a waste of time to request a job. You don't say where you are, but I think that most in most places it would be improper to hire without advertising.

However, you might ask if the department contemplates hiring in the near future and where to look for announcements. But I wouldn't go beyond that.


Signed up for a talk, not enough material I am a PhD student in pure mathematics about 4 months into my program. After consulting with my supervisor and some peers, I have signed up to give a 20 minute talk at an online conference, which has invited final year undergraduates writing a bachelor's thesis, masters students, PhD students and postdocs to sign up and optionally give a talk.
My supervisor and peers have told me that it is a good idea to sign up as it's really good for my CV. At this point in my program however, I am mainly learning about my field, and haven't produced very much original research. I have however come up an (in my opinion) interesting question that would make for a good talk if I had a partial answer, but at this stage I have not had much time to explore the answer.
The conference is in about a month's time, and I think it would be a great exercise to write a talk giving an introduction to the field and how it came about, but at this stage this is all I could do, and even this would be quite a task to do in a month!
The sign up page for the conference does encourage works in progress however, but I am not sure how much I can do in a month.
My questions are:

Was it a mistake to sign up for this talk?

If, in a week's time say, I feel that I can't present any partial progress, can I ask to be removed from the schedule, or is this unacceptable?

Twenty minutes is not long for a talk.  Moreover, most students drastically overestimate how much material you can put in a short talk.  Giving a short introduction to the field and how it came about will be more than adequate to fill that amount of time, and would be a perfectly reasonable topic for an incoming PhD student with only four months in the program.  Time permitting, it might also be nice to mention your research question and the general avenues of inquiry you are going to use to solve it.  You should also leave a few minutes for questions and comments, particularly since this will give researchers in the audience an opportunity to offer suggestions on your research idea.
So no --- you didn't make a mistake signing up for this talk.  Don't bother trying to cram out new research results for it --- just stick with your plan to give a short introduction to your field and a brief outline of your research question.  That should be enough to hold people's interest and solicit some questions, and the twenty minutes will go by in a flash.  I doubt a short talk like this is really going to help your CV all that much, but it will be good practice for giving conference talks, and if you are lucky, it might precipitate a longer conversation on your research idea with one or more of the researchers in the audience.
(And as Buffy points out in the comments below, no one will be upset with you if you don't use all your time --- running over time is bad, but having time to spare is fine.)


Computer science degree vs. post-bachelor computer science certificate My background:  I'm currently 1 year out of my undergrad in psychology and I currently have a job working on a educational grant project at a university.  I've lost some interest in the field of psychology as a whole and I'm considering going back to school for computer science.  When I expressed this interest to an adviser at my old school she mentioned that I might be interested in a post bachelor comp sci certificate.  The certificate is 30 credits and can probably be done in about half the time that another bachelors could be completed in.  I asked her if any of the graduates of the certificate program had had any trouble getting into graduate school with said degree and she said no.  However, I believe there is probably more to this than she let on considering that it is her job to promote this program.

Question:  I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with these type of certificates?  I know that I will have a more complete computer science education with an undergrad but I'm wondering if it is completely necessary.  All said and done I would like to get a masters in computer science because it seems like the smart career move.  Will I be limiting my job potential by only having a certificate and a bachelors in an unrelated field?  Is graduate school really possible with just a certificate?  My dream job would be working for a company in research and development for human to computer interfaces.  I also have a fleeting passion for gaming and music production, but I consider these to be more hobbies than serious career interests.

There are two issues: whether it will be a formal barrier (i.e., you'll be screened out before anyone ever looks at your application carefully) and whether it will impress people.

For graduate school applications, there's no way you'll be officially screened out for this reason.  There are several programs aimed at encouraging post-baccalaureate certificates to help women enter computer science.  They attract excellent students, so grad schools are happy to see these applications; furthermore, if any grad school ever turned down applicants with such a background just because they had no "real" degree in CS, they'd be in big trouble on gender equity grounds.  So you have nothing to worry about there: grad schools are aware of these certificates and willing to consider applicants with them.

Of course, there are still issues of people's personal reactions, for example how rigorous or extensive they think the program is.  It presumably depends on the program, and also perhaps on which courses you take within the program.  If take you challenging courses and do well in them, ideally do some sort of project with a faculty supervisor, and get strong letters of recommendation, then you should be in good shape for grad school applications.  As a sanity check, you should ask about the placement record of previous students in the program: without some reason to think otherwise, you can expect you would end up somewhere in that range.  If they all do well, that's a very good sign; if some but not all do, then you need to make sure you end up in that top group.

As for industry, CS hiring is much less credential-driven than some branches of engineering (where there are more regulatory or liability issues).  If you can demonstrate talent and skill, then nobody will really care what your degree is in (except sometimes for research jobs that require a Ph.D.).  There are some tricky issues: for example, some of the top tech companies get enormous numbers of applications and have to filter them rather brutally.  However, even there the filtering is more often by prestige (did you get impressive grades at a top university) rather than the field the degree is in.


Oral vs Plenary at a Conference In my field (Computer Vision), the largest international conference (CVPR) has the following format: two simultaneous oral sessions (with talks awarded to ~10% of accepted papers), followed by a single poster sessions (awarded to ~90% of accepted papers). I have recently had an oral presentation of my work at this conference, and I am now writing a cover letter for a job which will be reviewed by a non-specialist, who will not necessarily understand the prestige of such a talk.

So, rather than writing "I was awarded an oral presentation of my work", I'm wondering how fair it would be to say "I was awarded an oral / plenary presentation of my work", to indicate that the oral sessions are to half of the entire conference delegates. If I just wrote the first option, then it may be assumed that the oral sessions is just with a small group and among many simultaneous oral sessions, as is typical at many conferences.

So would it be correct to say "oral / plenary", or does this imply something even more prestigious (e.g. a keynote)?

Thanks!

No, your talk was not in a session that would even pass the definition of plenary session.  More importantly, it sounds as if the conference organizers also did not name you as a plenary speaker.

Definition of plenary session: In a conferences running multiple simultaneous sessions, a plenary session will be a special session when  only one session will be scheduled.(no other sessions scheduled in that slot). The plenary speaker(s) are usually quite senior or somehow big-name-draws, and may give a general, high level review talk(s). Rarely there may be only one plenary speaker with a few (only) invited speakers in support without the 'plenary' title,  particularly if the organizers wish to not dilute the honor they are giving to a particular big name draw.

Common sense rule in CV or similar document is to use the exact nomenclature used by the conference program to describe your talk  (This includes also not messing with the listed author order in pretense of making yourself look better). If the organizers did not distinguish your talk  from the regular talks as  being an 'invited', 'plenary', 'keynote', or  'review' presentation, then do not rename it yourself. (You can always add some sentence or phrase that explains some additional context why you think it is so much more important than it sounds, but usually, if the prestige of one presentation makes or breaks your document, then you have other problems!)

Not all multi-symposia conferences will choose to spend time to run plenary session(s), or they may not use the nomenclature for what seems like a plenary-look-alike session. However, if they do not, renaming it yourself will usually lead to you look like a potential sleazeball when people inevitably check a few details of the CV.

(edit) added keynote to the list of prestigious designations that a program may designate a particular speaker.


Letters in high-end interdisciplinary journals – how much do they weigh in a CV? Are they only for experts? Some journals, especially some prestigious ones like Science and Nature, have these types of articles called letters which are usually an opinion/argument on a certain topic, e.g., to point out something that has not been discussed or some new research direction to take in a particular field.

How much do these publications matter in a young scientist’s CV? Because they are not really based on a specific study. Or are these mainly for researchers who are considered an expert in their discipline?

Also, I am wondering if PhD students or postdocs are taken into consideration if they submit such letter to a prestigious journal, or if a senior scientist needs to be among the authors.

Example: Bushmeat Hunting As Climate Threat

Jedediah F. Brodie and Holly K. Gibbs

Science 16 October 2009: 364-365. [DOI:10.1126/science.326_364b]

Pretty much anything in a very high-end journal is difficult to get there and reflects a judgement on the part of the editors that your contribution will be of broad interest within the field.  Thus, it is likely to have a significant positive effect on your CV.

Moreover, depending on the journal the difference between "Letter" and "Article" is often of little significance.  For example, in Nature, the difference is that a Letter is 1500 words and an Article is 3000 words.  Since most Nature papers are really just the tip of a much larger iceberg of Supplementary Information in any case, this distinction doesn't really matter all that much, and probably few of your readers will even notice which of the formats your article is in.


Leaving a short-term teaching position early I'm a little over a month into a 9-month teaching position, to cover two semesters' worth of courses.  It's my first "proper" job since finishing my PhD.  I've just been offered a 2 1/2-year postdoc (which I'd much rather do than my current job), and been told that the latest I could take it up by is 2/3 the way through next semester.  So if I left to take up the postdoc, my current department would have to find someone else for (at least part of) next semester's courses.

According to the terms of my contract, I'm within my rights to leave, giving 3 months' notice. But if I did that, would I piss the department off so much as to find myself in some way blacklisted in years to come?

You need to talk with someone in the department about how to handle this (presumably the teaching coordinator, or chair, or whoever hired you).  In the sorts of departments/universities I'm familiar with, it would be difficult to arrange for someone else to take over a course partway through the semester.  Then your options might be teaching the whole course or leaving a semester early, and in the latter case they might need to know soon to line up a replacement.  On the other hand, it's possible that something very different could work out, depending on the local situation.

  But if I did that, would I piss the department off so much as to find myself in some way blacklisted in years to come?

Maybe, if you announce a decision without consulting with them and if that decision is extremely inconvenient.  However, it sounds like a reasonable thing to request, if you're flexible about trying to meet the department's needs as well (for example by quitting in between semesters rather than partway through the spring).


Can a peer-grading system still work despite malicious students? I'm asking this as a purely theoretical question, out of curiosity.

Let's say you are teaching an undergraduate class with complete autonomy. Instead of grading it traditionally, you decide to have the students grade each other. The goal is to significantly (by at least 50-90%) reduce the instructor's grading burden and promote self-assessment for students.

My initial instinct is that any such system will always be vulnerable to students collaborating to grade all papers 100 or 0, disregarding the rubric. Is this the case? Are there any peer-grading systems that work without the "honor principle"?

The goal of reducing grading effort in this way is malfeasance. As the instructor, it is your judgement that should be the dominant factor in student evaluation. And I'm a big believer and user of peer evaluation. But you can't substitute the judgement of non professionals for your own and expect any good outcome.

Self-assessment is different from peer-assessment, by the way and it is also a useful and valuable thing to do, but not if the main goal is to make the instructor into a mere clerk.

In an ethical system in which student evaluate and mark their peers the instructor effort is actually likely to increase, not decrease, since you have to both judge the original papers yourself and the evaluations given by others. It is valuable to do that if done well, but is inconsistent with the goal of reducing instructor effort.

And of course, if the students need to expend effort to evaluate their peers the results should be part of their own evaluation as well.

I've often used self and peer evaluation to get some feedback on what students do in a project setting where their work is done outside my direct view. I still have to evaluate the project, of course. But the self evaluation is to have students describe their own main contribution to the work. The peer evaluation is to ask students who were the top contributors to the effort and why they make that judgement. Note that all of the questions are stated positively. What it has taught me is that some students who don't appear to be particularly engaged in the classroom can be major contributors to group work. That is valuable to know and it has to come from students, but it doesn't reduce my effort.


Proper pronoun in a response letter for a single author manuscript I am currently in the process of responding to reviewer comments for a journal article submission, and I realized I was using the scientific/royal "we" in my response letter, even though I am the only author. For example, I have written, "We thank the Editor and reviewers for the constructive comments..."

This is my first time as a single author and I know in the actual manuscript it is still normal to use "we" to indicate the author and the reader. There are multiple questions here that address that question about pronoun usage (most refer back to this question which has a great answer: Choice of personal pronoun in single-author papers), but I have been unable to find a question or an answer that directly addresses my question about the use of "we" in a response letter to the journal from a single author. I understand that since it is a letter and not a manuscript, it doesn't have to be quite so formal, but much of the content is still scientific and so I am still apprehensive to use "I" (when using a passive voice would be awkward).

So, should I continue using "we" or would it be more appropriate to use "I"  in a response letter to the journal? Additionally, would these guidelines be any different for an initial cover letter that accompanies the first submission?

You're really overthinking this. Response to reviewers are relatively informal, and frequently quite terse1; you can certainly use "I" and no one will raise an eyebrow.

1For example, if I've made a change suggested by a reviewer, I simply reply: "Done".


friends or competition for work I am in doubt if I should share new academic opportunities, studies, etc with college's friends, because they will may be my future competition for a job and they may get the job thanks to the help I gave to them. What do you guys think about this. Am I being selfish?

Yes - it's not only good practice to share new information about career opportunities or research findings with your friends, but that's one way to build a healthy network of collaborators and a healthy community. Even if there's a chance that a friend gets a job you were hoping for, ideally they remain your friend and you can learn from their experience second-hand.

It's also good practice to share new discoveries with people who aren't explicitly your friends, both from the perspective of open science and because, well, you're probably not going to apply for every job you see or write every paper you can conceive.


Evidence of adequate funds for U.S. university I am  an international applying for graduate studies to some US universities. As part of the application process I need to show evidence that I, or a sponsor, have enough money to cover the cost of living and tuition fees.

However, I need to provide the university with this evidence before they even consider my application.

My question is, is there any way I can apply for a loan and access the money only if I get an offer?

I want to avoid taking out a loan then not getting into any University and having to pay that loan back.

Any other solution is welcome.
Thank you.

From my experience, during the application process, you only need to sign the form that you are responsible and have the necessary funds to cover the tuition and living fees. You will need to have this evidence (scholarships, own funds, RA/TA assistantships) only after the admission and mostly for the F-1 visa application.

I would definitely contact the department you are applying to for additional information. If they actually require the firm evidence, you are limited to the following options (as far as I know):

Applying for a loan in your home country. – In this case, the letter stating that you are approved for XX,XXX USD will be enough. Depending on the regulations within the financial institution, you might only have to cover some fees in case you don't need the loan.
Applying for an education loan in the US financial institution (tricky, but possible).
Borrowing money from friends and family for a short period. Can be the cheapest option; however, it is not a firm evidence of sufficient funds. One might actually require the statements for the three-five months period and it will become obvious that this amount of money is not really natural and probably an instantaneous pump.
In some cases, you might state that you own some property (house) in your country that you will sell in case of admission. It might satisfy the admission committee (though again, asking for financial documents before considering an application is IMHO too much).
Finding a guarantor (preferably in the USA, but maybe in your home country) that states he is responsible for your tuition and living costs. You will have to submit the documents for his financial situation then.

To sum it up, I would definitely confirm with the department the requirements as they seem to be a little harsh. They might also offer some other options, I doubt it's their first case.


Will an advisor schedule a PhD defense just to get rid of an underperformed student? Last week, my PhD advisor commented that I can postpone my thesis defense for couple of months if I was not ready to defend. However, I was adamant of completing my defense this year. As a result, my advisor has scheduled my defense for december and I have few weeks to prepare.

Now, on second thought, I was wondering that probably her suggesting the postponing of defense was a way to tell me that I am not going to pass the defense.

In that case, is it possible that the advisor thinks that I am unsuitable for PhD defense and she just wants to pass the onus of passing on the judgement about my qualifications/research output to the committee. Probably she doesn't want any confrontations with me but doesn't approve of my research work either.

Is it possible that she aggreed to defense scheduling to get rid of an underperforming student?

I am in Canada.

Based on what you say, I doubt that there are any issues other than getting yourself prepared. The comments here at this writing are all valid. It seems like she just deferred to your own judgement about scheduling but was giving you a way to extend prep time if you thought you needed it. I don't read anything negative in to that.

Likewise, I can't see any professor scheduling a defense just to "get rid" of a student, whether a superstar, a typical student, or an underperformer. In fact, in the latter case, most would rather give the student time to come up to whatever standard is expected.

Some professors, of course, when faced with a seriously underperforming student would be more likely to counsel them to leave academia and find a more suitable career before possibly facing a failed defense and then carrying that record for the rest of their lives. But there is no hint of any of that here.

Some professors press their students pretty hard to finish, but because they judge the student ready to move on.

But, you did ask, and you were adamant. You can live with that and get ready, or you can go back to her and say you misjudged and would, indeed, like a bit of extra time, if that is what you really want.


How to apply for a research funding for companies? I recently graduated from PhD and right now I am working in a consulting company. My manager asked me to write a proposal to get public funding to do research. The topic is computer science and semiconductor industry. Since the company is located in Germany, I can apply for funding institutes in Germany and Europe. However, I have difficulty in finding funding institutes to support research in the industrial section.
So, I am looking forward for your suggestions and help.

In  the US through our National Science Foundation, you'd need to partner with a university who would, at least in name, lead the project. All NSF programs have eligibility requirements, and those don't usually include private non-educational entities as leads. Also, you'd need to openly publish your results. In the end, due to the Bayh-Dole Act, the university probably has the right to patent and license for sale the results, but your company would probably not be able to do so itself.

I assume that the EU and Germany have similar constraints on government grant funding, but I'm not 100% sure. It would be worth looking at some prior EU and German grants and see if they do.

You could also look at trying to satisfy government contracts in the defense industry. There are whole multi-billion dollar defense contractors in the US (Raytheon, Lockheed-Martin, etc.) that do research on behalf of the military here to deliver much more than guns and planes and such. The government frequently wants algorithms (e.g., weather prediction, signal processing), etc. to satisfy our defense needs. I suspect that yours do, too.


Resume Question: How do you put mastering out of PhD on resume? I am currently in my 2nd year in a PhD and going to master out in May. Should I put "leaving PhD" on my resume? Or just Masters? My field is in Computer Science where mastering out is quite common.

My suggestion is to list the degrees you have earned. You don't need to list or mention the ones you haven't.

But be prepared to be honest in any interview in which you are asked. There are a lot of reasons for leaving any degree program.

In any application process stress the skills you have and your suitability for the position.


If lab partners form a hypthothesis together and write the same hypothesis worded differently, is that considered plagiarism? My bio lab TA seems to think that lab partners cannot have the same hypotheses. My partners and I formed the hypotheses together, then we individually wrote them down our own ways. Now she's claiming we plagiarized, but I don't see how that could be considered plagiarism?

For reference, I put "There will be no change in population density between days 7 and 14." My lab partner put "There will be absolutely no change in the density between days 7 and 14."

Plagiarism is copying someone else's work and representing it as your own. This is not what you did. The hypothesis is joint work, even if each of you wrote it down individually. The differences in wording are not relevant, it remains joint work.

If any of you would present the hypothesis as their and only their work, this would be misrepresentation of authorship, which is also an ethical misconduct in research. On an ethical "seriousness scale", I would consider it to be about as bad as plagiarism.

To do things correctly, you should note down all contributors when writing down the hypothesis. Using slightly different wording that does not affect the meaning does not change anything, although to avoid confusion I would actually recommend to use the exactly same wording.


How to establish ties with the industry as a young engineering professor? Next January, I will start as an assistant professor in a respected university. My field of work is civil engineering, and I have diplomas (Masters, PhD) in the engineering studies (Hydraulics, Geotechnical, Construction, ...). What I lack, however, is an experience in the field since I have devoted my time to academia.

I am clueless as to how I could establish ties with the industry: consulting firms, labs, ... Many professors in my field are expert consultants, and are renowned in the community of engineers, even though their main activity is research.

First, Congratulations!

Second, I see you are in Canada.

The first thing you should do is join your local Canadian Society of Civil Engineering chapter.  Become a member, and attend their events (this may include dinner meetings, speakers, tours, etc.).  Talk to people: start with "Hi, I'm Dr. X and a new professor in Civil Engineering at the U of X, where do you work, what do you do?" Get to know the local executive of the CSCE, offer to do a talk about what you do.

Attend the CSCE conferences.  There are many practitioners there who are presenting on their most technical and most research-y work.  Get to know them, they might like to collaborate.

Next, make sure you are on the mailing list for the local chapter of your provincial engineering association.  Go to their events.  Offer to do a talk for them (at lunch meetings, annual events, etc.).  They also likely host professional development workshops, another great way to meet practitioners.

At these events and though your colleges and students, find out which consulting firms do projects that are closest to your research area.  Find people that work there at local engineering events.  Great ways to get to know a firm as a researcher is "Hey, I am teaching a class on (insert topic here) do you have any interesting case studies I could use to illustrate (insert concept here)."

Finally, (as Mad jack says) in engineering programs in Canadian universities, students often must complete a capstone design project.  Find out how your department handles that, and if you will be involved.  Perhaps volunteer to mentor a group.  Then at local meetings you can say "next year I will be mentoring some fourth years students doing a capstone project in (insert discipline here), do you guys have anything interesting coming up that would be suitable for a fourth year group to tackle?"  Then make sure your students do a damn good job.


Was my student being disrespectful by using shouting language in her email to me? I have a PhD in statistics and teach statistics for humanities students in a university. One week before the start of the semester I posted all the required information regarding the course textbook, as well as guidelines for how to access it (it is available online). I also explained all of this to the students verbally on the first day.
It is now the third week of teaching. At the beginning of the week I posted the first online homework. Three hours before the deadline, one of my students sent me an informal email, without a subject line or her name. She said in her email that she needed a help with accessing the book in order to do her homework.
I requested that she let me know her name and section number. She replied at 8pm with the information. I politely responded to help her with the problem. At 10pm, she sent me another email with another problem, that I also helped her with.
Then she sent me a final email a few minutes before the deadline. Her email was really informal and disrespectful. I replied saying that it is not acceptable to request help on the same day as the homework is due and that it is her responsibility to be ready for everything as we are at week 3. Then, I helped her and told her that if she needed any more help with the course book she should contact the bookstore and not me.
Then she replied with some sentences in full capital letters. For example, 'SORRY', 'THERE IS NO ACCESS CODES IN THE UNI BOOKSTORE'. Then, 'the uni must save CODES'. Then she said "you try to challenge me".
I replied that I did not want to argue and that she should be careful about what she said.
Was she disrespectful in her emails? Is it acceptable to send an email in all caps? Am I wrong to deal with this point?

For a one-off or short-term rudeness, my policy is to respond with pure facts, served chilled. If you have a good instinct for delivering comebacks at just the right level, a hint (but just a hint) of sarcasm might work wonders.
Manners are important, but it's not our job to teach the students manners - and they are rarely grateful for it, especially those who would need such a lesson the most. Most certainly, I generally ignore capitalized letters as they signal inadequate acquaintance with netiquette or a really immature person.
That being said, your student is probably more in total panic and loss of control of the situation than expressly rude; this probably deserves more of your compassion than your anger. This does not preclude you to use aforementioned strategies for response and to decide how much time you are willing to allocate to help them and to enforce your decisions strictly. How they decide to communicate is their business - understanding why they do that, and what to respond are your businesses; and two separate ones, at that.
Do not use language that can be interpreted as a threat ("she should be careful about what she said"), a better response to a challenge ("you challenge me") is to just ignore it or to ask - without any emotion -what they mean if you really cannot ignore it. Think of Spock's raised eyebrow when you do it, it will put you in the right attitude for this.


A quick question about deadline extensions I'm applying for several summer schools, workshops, and travel funds. I've also applied for a few fellowships. Almost all of these have extended their deadlines for application submission and/or supporting material submission. I've completed (or plan to complete) all of the applications before the original deadlines.

My questions are:

What are the typical reasons that deadlines are extended?
Do you think it'll increase my chances for admittance since I submitted my application before the original deadlines?

Possible reasons for extensions:

Not enough applications have been received
The applications/applicants are not up to he expected standard (Almost the previous point in th esense that more applications is hoped to raise the standard)
Something has happened in the bureaucracy that means an extension is necessary

Sending in an application to meet a deadline is always necessary and being early may set your application apart from the others but there is no guarantee. Having an impeccable application is a better bet on getting noticed than sending it in early. By impeccable, I mean well written, clear and concise, including all the necessary materials in neat order. But early is certainly not a negative but may not really show to the persons responsible for evaluating the applications.


Double affiliation: is it understood as simultaneous part-time in each of them? If I write a double affiliation, would it be understood as

I'm in both institutes
I was in one institute and I am working for the other.

There are many interpretations for dual affiliations. You must explicitly provide an interpretation, if required. You could do so in a footnote on the first page or in the acknowledgements, for example.


Is it normal to reject a paper based on the review of a single referee? I just received the answer for my first submitted paper. It was rejected but they annexed the answer of just one referee. Is it normal to reject a paper based on the review of a single referee? Can I use this as an argument to ask for reconsideration? Of course this would not be my single argument, since I found issues with the review itself as well. (It questioned the validaty of my methodology even though I cited a review just about the methodology used.)

It is normal. Often there is one referee who writes an extensive review, whose judgment weight heaviest with the editor. If there are 4 reviews, 3 are in the "publish" half of the spectrum but are brief (not adequately justifying the recommendation), and there is 1 "reject" review which extensively argues against publication, an editor will either have to apply his/her own knowledge of the field and decide which argument carries the day, or will need to request an additional review. Good editors do not just count up the plus and minus values, they have to evaluate the evidence in the reviews.

If you make the case for reconsideration, I think it should focus on the question of whether positive evidence in the reviews has been undervalued. There's not much you can do if the negative reviewer is (unbeknownst to you) The Leading Authority.


Non-traditional graduate student? Back in the early 90s I got a Secondary Education degree with double-majors in English and Mathematics. I went on to get an MFA in Poetry from a well-respected department. But I never got a book together as I found that I enjoyed teaching almost more than I enjoyed writing. But after a two-year instructor position wrapped up, I was unable to find a full time English position; since I feared trying to live on a part-time instructor salary, I had to look outside academia for something else and I've would up selling cars for the last seventeen years. But I was laid off very recently and now I think I want to get back into teaching. English positions are few and far between, but I notice all kinds of advertised Mathematics positions. Is it crazy to think about a PhD in Mathematics Education at age 46? I don't even know who I would have write letters of rec for me... Everyone who knew me as an undergrad or even as a grad student--well, that was 20+ years ago. So where do I start? Is this possible or pipe dream? Any thoughts would help...

A PhD in mathematics education is a highly sought after qualification these days, although it isn't clear to me whether the long term prospects over the next 20+ years are particularly good for any academic career.

Getting a PhD late in life is certainly possible- two of my colleagues in a relatively small mathematics department got their PhD's in mathematics well into middle age after other careers.

Given that you got your bachelor's in math more than 20 years ago and haven't done anything in mathematics since then, you may have some difficulty doing mathematics at the level you were at when you completed the bachelor's degree and without current letters of recommendation you may have a very hard time gaining admission to a graduate program.

One approach that might help you to reestablish yourself in mathematics and get into mathematics education would be to start taking graduate level courses as a part time student.


How do I change schools/advisors without making my advisor angry? I am currently a PhD student in a program that I do not find challenging. A part of that may be due to the fact that my advisor has an EXTREMELY hands off approach. He will not return my emails for weeks on end and rarely gives me things to do, despite the fact that I am being paid as an RA.I worked with him for two years as an RA during my masters and I am currently in my first year of a PhD agree.

I also don't know if the program I am in is good for my career. I am generally unhappy with the required coursework I am taking and just weary of my future career options. Given the previous internships I have done at renowned institutions, I think I can do better.
I have been toying with the possibility of switching schools for quite some time now. Here is my problem: How do I apply to a new school without burning bridges with my current advisor? The problem is my advisor is NICE and so amiable. The hands off approach just doesn't work with me. Sometimes I get the feeling that I am not important or the least of my advisor's priorities.

I know that any program I apply to would want a recommendation from my advisor. I just don't know how to proceed! I want to apply to top tier programs in my field -- but want to retain a good relationship with my current advisor just in case I don't get accepted.

1)What is the best way to proceed without burning bridges?

2) Is it possible to apply to a new program without my previous advisor's recommendation?

This is the answer to everything, but talk to your advisor.  If he is, as you say, very nice but hands off, you should talk to him.  Express your concerns, that you really feel you need a more hands-on approach and that right now you feel like you are floundering.  If you're honest and direct without blaming him, asking for help, he may change his behavior or work with you to find a better fit.  Either is good for you, but you need to talk to him.  He knows he's being hands-off, he just may not know that it is not working for you.  You need to communicate that.


How are papers on NIPS Proceedings licensed? I can see that there is a copyright claim on the NIPS Proceedings webpage for the years 1987 to 2017 but I haven't been able to find under what license the papers are copyrighted. How can I see that?

In particular, I'm looking for the license of the images in the paper "ImageNet Classification with Deep Convolutional Neural Networks."

The proceedings of NIPS is presently published by Curran Associates (2005–present) under the name Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems. So, it follows the copyright and license as per Curran Associates regulations.

Please see the link here: [Curran Associates]


Breaking the (perhaps perceived) academic (poverty) cycle Background information: Field: Neuroscience (neuroimaging); Country: India; currently: grad student

Working in a country that may not always have a lot of financial resources, we usually face problems like not having funding to pay for journal charges or the scarcity of funds that allow students to travel to international workshops or conferences etc. This, in turn, pushes the student down in terms of their networking, the number of papers/citations etc. (a slightly weaker CV as compared to other students who may have had these resources). Consequently, when the student next applies for some award or grant, they may get rejected over another candidate who may have had a stronger CV/more publications/better networking, etc.

Essentially, what I am trying to communicate is that I feel that there is a cyclical situation of starting with scarcer resources which in turns keeps getting scarcer (something like a poverty cycle perhaps).

Question: What would be some concrete ways of breaking this (perhaps perceived) cycle?

PS: I understand that my position, compared to many other people, is one of privilege. I also understand that academics have broken free of far worse situations and have gone on to have outstanding academic careers. Not trying to draw any comparison but rather looking for concrete advice!

An example:

Since the field is fairly young and not that many well-established researchers work in the country, it is important for students to attend workshops/training elsewhere
Not being able to go to conferences means that the only way to present your results to the community is via publications (and in turn you don't really get any feedback or get to network with the experts who frequent some of these conferences)
Not having funds to pay for publication charges can sometimes prevent you from submitting papers to certain important journals which in turn reduces visibility of your work
Not being as well trained as your peers, with poorer networking, and with papers not in the most important journals in the field, you end up not building a strong reputation
and ad infinitum

One possibility IMHO is to try to use the Internet to your advantage. In my field (bioinformatics/statistics), there are a few online communities (discussion forums, Twitter) with relatively low barrier of entry. But once in an online community, how do you make useful contact with others - especially those that can "lift you up" (who may easily turn out not to be from the top western universities, but skilled and friendly people from all walks of academia)?
My answer is: be useful. Can you spend some time answering/helping beginners on the forums? Can you proofread and (very politely) suggest improvements to educational materials someone posted? Can you write a tutorial for some tool/technique you've learned? Are there calls for open online collaborations you can join? Can you code and fix bugs/improve documentation in popular open source packages in your field? ... Note that there might be hidden norms on how "good members" of the community should behave and especially if you look foreign it may unfortunately be easy to end up being judged negatively for a good-faith effort - so some social knowledge/skill may be needed.
If the community is healthy (which unfortunately not all communities are), this lets you develop some "currency" in the community and you become more likely to get help yourself when you need it. Once you are not a "nobody", you are more likely to succeed when you ask some members of the community explicitly for mentorship or for consulting and becoming a co-author on your upcoming paper or for joining a multi-lab effort to collect a larger sample of subjects for a study. And if it fails (and it can fail), your effort made the world a better place and that's also not nothing.
My experience with this approach is that being the first person to enter a subfield (Bayesian statistics) at a somewhat lower-prestige Central European institution with basically zero contacts, it was not that hard to get (over a few years) into productive contact with some of the top researchers in the subfield while only attending a single in-person event - you are definitely facing a tougher "prestige gradient" than me and being white and having a western-sounding name surely made my life easier, so my advice may not apply to you or may not apply completely. I still hope it is a useful suggestion and I believe it is actionable even with relatively low resources.
Also my field is less dependent on expensive equipment/reagents/... so keeping up with the top research is easier. And all of this requires quite a lot of time, which you might not have.
You are facing a tough challenge but I hope you succeed!
P.S.: One thing I don't want to suggest is to "compete for attention" of prestigious colleagues. This is IMHO both unhealthy and unlikely to work well. Instead, I think there are many ways in which a good-faith effort to help the scientific community in your subfield can help your career/connections as a side effect. This is a game many can play and all can win without somebody losing.


Overcoming nerves from anticipating conference questions My field is atmospheric physics.

The irony is that I have been a school teacher for over a decade, but soon, I'll be giving a presentation of some of my findings at a conference.  I think that the nerves stem from speaking about my own research in front of my peers - something that I have not done to a large audience.

The questions that will no doubt be ask fill me with anticipation in both positive and negative ways.

Asides from being prepared, making sure the presentation is seamless and that I have a good night's sleep beforehand and 'knowing my stuff' inside and out.  What are some strategies to anticipate the type of questions that would likely arise from a conference presentation?

There are a few obvious questions to ask yourself in planning for questions:

What are the inherent weaknesses in the current work? (Almost no research is completely "airtight," so figuring out where the weak spots are will make a difference.)
What are the ramifications of whatever assumptions I have made? Are they logical? What happens if I strengthen, relax, or eliminate some of those assumptions? Will everything still work in the more general (or more restricted) case?
How would I apply this work to other problems? How will it help others in the field?

And then, with respect to the presentation:

Have I left anything out in the interests of time that would potentially interest the user? Is the research methodology clear?

If there's anything in the last point, you may want to plan on having additional "backup" slides which highlight that info, but that aren't part of the "main" talk.


How much does the ranking of your Master's program/school matter when applying to PhD programs? I'm applying for research-based Masters in Oceanography. So far, I've lined up advisors at University of Massachusetts (an intercampus program), South Florida, Georgia, and New Hampshire.  According to here,they are in top 150 globally for oceanography. Moreover, my current work supervisor says 3/4 are well-known.

I've also been talking to a UCSD prof. He told me he is unsure if he will be taking on students but is more inclined to accept a PhD student (since they'd be with him longer). I would really like to go to UCSD for my PhD.

Will going to a lower ranked MS have a big effect on PhD applications?

What can I do to distinguish myself in PhD application 1.5 or 2 years from now should the MS be low rank?

Don't get hung up on the ranking thing because it doesn't really matter when it comes to a PhD admission.  Top things that make your application stronger are

Skills you gained during MS and prior education/work experience
Letters of recommendation (high impact)
Writing sample (usually your statement of purpose/intent)
Willingness to learn new things
Your vision for a future career

That being said, try to find a program (either MS or PhD) that is best suited to your interests and that has the faculty expertise for you to learn from.


Is it ok to write a professor again who did not reply me yet? I have written a professor who has an available Ph.D. position with my CV. After 3 days the professor replied with an apology for being late and said she went through my CV carefully and my work aligns very well with the project she is offering. She asked me to apply for the scholarship. Also asked if I would like to discuss the project with her in zoom or skype. I replied to her that I am interested.
Its been a week that she did not write me back.
Is it ok to write to her again? If yes, how to address it?

Yes, it is ok to write again. Say you hope she is still interested and hope you can discuss the project soon. You could even suggest one or two days that it would be convenient for you and ask for alternatives. If you have applied, say so.
A week isn't a long time for academics, but it is long enough that a follow up won't be insulting. I wouldn't even mention the earlier mail.
This might not work everywhere, but I think Australia tends to have a fairly informal culture, like the US.


Arxiv conflict with submitted papers I have submitted my paper to Proceedings of the AMS one month ago and we haven't gotten a response yet. Can I upload my paper to arxiv despite of this? Would there be any conflict? About accepted ones, they have written that there is no conflict and so: Can I deduce from this that there wouldn't be any conflict for submitted ones as well?

Thanks

Yes, in mathematics you can absolutely upload both submitted and accepted papers.  I am not aware of a single reputable mathematics journal that would take issue with this.  (If it helps, within the last few months I uploaded a paper to the arxiv after I submitted it but before acceptance.)  What I do not recommend is to upload to the arxiv papers which have been formatted in the journal's style file or which incorporate copyediting done after acceptance by the staff of the journal.

If a journal is published by a big academic publisher and you are the kind of person to worry about this at all (honestly I didn't, for many years), you should be able to find online a relevant policy for uploading preprints.  In all of my experience, even big publishers like Elsevier are quite reasonable about this...because they have to be in order to do business with mathematicians.  The Proceedings of the AMS is published of course by the American Mathematical Society.  The current managing editor of this journal posts his preprints to the arxiv. The linked-to preprint was submitted to the arxiv and for publication on the same day; a modified version was uploaded to the arxiv after the paper was accepted and before the paper was published.  So I think you have nothing to worry about here.


Presenting the publications of a research group online I'm looking for advice on presenting the research publications of my group on our webpage. Most groups seem to go with a simple publication list, sorted by year and maybe publication type. But there are also more elaborate implementations up to browseable publication directories (e.g., http://www.math.rutgers.edu/~sontag/papers.html ). What would be your recommendation for creating an online presence for research publications that is

informative and useful for readers,
visually pleasant, and
easy to maintain for us?

I'd also be interested in links to websites that you see as role models for this issue.

You could use BibBase.org. It's a free web service that I created with the aim to solve the problem you describe. I was originally motivated by the third point (easy to maintain). As input you can use a bibtex file, Zotero, or Mendeley, and unlike bib2html you don't need to rerun any program after making changes to your input. Visitors can resort by different criteria (author, year, keyword, number of downloads, type), get the bibtex source entry (even when not using bibtex as input), and subscribe to an RSS. Here is an example: http://www.isi.edu/integration/karma/#publication

(Disclaimer: I'm the creator of BibBase.)


How to properly cite a domain-specific result of a generic concept from a paper? I plan to cite two sets of equations (referred to as Equations X and Y) from a paper. Equations X that hold for a model look like textbook results to me, but the authors give a lengthy explanation with a citation to another paper. Equations Y were derived for a special case of the model, since only the special case is useful in that paper. I am working on a different problem and will use this model. I need to include both Equations X and Y in my paper.

Is it appropriate to cite the Equations X followed by a similar but much shorter explanation as follows:

  The following equations hold for these performance variables, as also seen in [citation]?

Is it enough or should more credits be given?

For equations X, it is quite obvious that it also holds for the general Model. Can I write something like the following?

  [citation] has showed the above equation for the special case where L=0. It can be easily verified that it also holds for L>0.

To be pedantic, you can say something like "The following equation (eq-A) is from [paper-A], in [paper-B] the special case (eq-B) is derived from the above."

Season to taste.


Can I use a professor's letter of reference as a recommendation? About 3 years ago, when I was finishing my Master's, I applied for a PhD position in a Canadian university. Everything went well and the professor provided a letter of reference to the members of admission committee indicating his acceptance to be my supervisor and fully fund my research (he sent me the letter to submit along my documents).

But unfortunately due to some personal circumstances I couldn't continue my studies and attend the PhD position.

Now, I am again considering applying for PhD (in some other universities) and was wondering: Can I use this letter of reference as a kind-of letter of recommendation? If so, should I ask his permission?

Three things:

1) It's polite to ask someone before putting their name forward as a reference. It's a huge turnoff to have someone get in touch with you unexpectedly saying that you're a reference for someone you didn't think you were a reference for.

2) It's smart to ask someone before putting them forward as a reference, because it gives them a chance to respond to you. It's possible that this person may not be able to give you a good reference at this point in time, and nothing will destroy your chances faster than if the admissions committee follows up with a reference who then says they would not recommend you.

3) In this case it sounds like the letter of reference might be highly specific to that institution: "I have the funding to work with this student and want them to do a PhD with me." That's a nice thing to say about someone, but it's not really a general purpose reference. Ideally, applying to a PhD program, you want a letter to explain why you're a great asset to a research program.

If you still want to use this letter, then be sure to ask the reference before you do so.


If I cannot get sufficient recommendation letters, what can I do? I know you should build a good network with your professors as early as possible, not only it will help your study, but also you can get great recommendation letter from them.

But not all students aim at graduate school when they start their undergraduate, for example, I only became interest in research and decide on going to graduate school after my third year of undergraduate. At that time, I have done a research project with a professor and certainly I can ask him for one. However, most schools require 2-3 recommendation letters.

I know a good recommendation letter should speak about the candidate research potential instead of 'did well in my class', but in my case, only my undergraduate adviser can speak about that. What should I do besides asking recommendation letter from professors I get A grade in their classes?

Of course, the best solution to this problem is not to have it in the first place. Being proactive and thinking about the future is sometimes a rare talent, especially in 18 year olds fresh out of high school, but then again grad school is supposed to select the exceptional individuals.

There is a world of difference between a recommendation from someone you worked with, and from a mere acquaintance. The latter kind rarely benefits your application in a meaningful way, and can sometimes even hurt it. No matter how enthusiastic your instructor is, unless the course is at least a project-centric course (eg. grade is based entirely on your individual term project), they will not be able to make a good, in depth argument for your abilities, and the recommendation will therefore be weak.

The point of the recommendation is that the admissions committee will read it, and decide whether you have potential to be a good researcher. How can they, if the recommendation does not talk about your research at all? And how much better if instead of hinting at your potential indirectly by citing course performance, the recommender can just say "this person has potential to be a great researcher because I have personally seen that they are good at research"?

This is why there is a qualitative difference. This can be a big problem when applying to a very selective program. What if you apply to a program where the committee has a philosophy that "an application is only as strong as its weakest link"? Even if you are quite exceptional otherwise, you can get eliminated early on because there are many other applicants who are also exceptional, but don't have a recommendation problem.

Also, similar to how a lukewarm recommendation can mean "I think this person is a bad candidate, but I am not being negative out of politeness", a recommendation from someone who only taught a course can mean "this person is a slacker who never bothered to do real work, so they can't find any supervisors to recommend them".

The best way to remedy is really to obtain more "good" recommenders. Because you want people who supervised you, the solution is obvious: You haven't been supervised by enough people who will vouch for you; you must undertake more projects and be supervised by other people whose recommendation will carry weight.

If still in school, look for faculty whose lab you can work in. If that is difficult, try approaching a former (or current) instructor with an idea for a theoretical or computational project (this requires less commitment from them, so they may be easier to convince). It doesn't necessarily have to be original research, so long as you can come up with a relatively long term (at least half a year) project where you are the primary contributor. It could also be (more) valuable to spend a summer working in a lab at a different university.

If out of school, delay your application by 1-3 years, and look for work as a lab tech at a university, institute or private company. Make sure not to displease your boss.

A related problem is working for a long time with the same person, for instance an undergrad who spends 3 years in the same lab. This is actually better, because you can accomplish much more in 3 years, and you can have a very impressive project to sell yourself with. The issue is that you will have only one supervisor - but hopefully after 3 years, you will have networked with collaborators and other scientists and will not have a problem there.


How can I evaluate the strength of a chemical physics program? I can only find evaluations/rankings for departments such as chemistry or physics, but I am not sure how to evaluate a combined program of chemical physics.

To evaluate the strength of the program, you need to know chemical physics at professor level. If you are an incoming graduate student, you could try to see where the alumni end up. It's not easy, because not all the departments feel comfortable sharing that information, but you can get such information from the research groups' websites. As a rule, if people get strong academic or industry jobs doing research in chemical physics, it means it's a good academic program.

Departments also like to brag about their faculty getting large grants or joining large projects, about endowment, and research groups enjoy posting on their websites their latest published research results. If their work is highly cited, that's a good sign. Generally, if a program is strong, some of the faculty and even students obtain research prizes or fellowships. Another indirect way of telling is if these people have frequently invited famous speakers for seminars.

Still, if you want to apply to a program and you are in doubt about it, you could ask a faculty or a postdoc from the field of your interest for an opinion. Their opinion would probably be more useful than my answer here. Plus, even if you know for sure a program is good, there is no guarantee you'd find the research group that's best for you.


I made it past the first round and I'm a Fulbright semi-finalist — should I tell the graduate programs I applied to? I have not heard from any of the programs (Physics PhD) I applied to yet.
My thoughts on the effect of a brief email to the graduate coordinator are:

Pros —
The admission committee at the graduate program will have the knowledge that another committee (for a prestigious scholarship) has reviewed my project/profile/etc and found me of a high caliber.

Cons — The admission committee may be annoyed by my contact, viewing me as trying to score some "brownie points." It is only semi-finalist, I still have to be selected in the final round.

I doubt that it would have much effect, actually. If you have been, as you say, found to be of a high calibre in one committee, it is likely that you are so viewed elsewhere as well. So I don't think either the pros or the cons carry much weight.

Of course, if there was one program that you were especially interested in and would decline a Fulbright to accept it, then it might be worth trying to "goose" the committee. Otherwise, just congratulate yourself and celebrate with an appropriate beverage.


Previous postdoc supervisor removed my name in the published article In my previous postdoc, I had completed work with my supervisor. The idea was provided to me and I did all the mathematical derivation and generating all the results. We published two conference papers, one with me as the first author, and the second one in which he was the first author. We also submitted the work to a journal but it was rejected. Then, I moved out and took another academic job. I did not have time to work on the rejected journal paper and incorporate all his suggestions. Therefore, we stopped discussing it. Very recently I found that this paper is accepted in a journal paper, and he is the sole author of this paper.
The published paper is 80-90% the same as the rejected paper that was submitted to the journal, and 60% the same to the conference paper that he is the first author (in IEEE they allow the same work to be published in conference and journal). This is completely unethical, to remove my name from the article. In this case, can I complain against him to the editor of the journal, and IEEE? What action can they take, retraction?

It could be that your co-author attempted to reach out to you in order to get your permission to use your name but never got a response, i.e. old email/ not known address, ran out of time and had to publish without your name.
I would advise getting in touch with your colleague first in order to establish what happened before using the nuclear option.  It may be your colleague will assist in amending the published article.


Referring a paper which is still under publication My domain is Image Processing and Computer Vision.

I've written a follow-up paper for my previous paper which is still not available in IEEE Xplore. I am submitting the new paper in a conference. I want to ask what is the best approach for making the previous paper available to reviewers?

Upload the previous paper in arXiv
Submit the previous paper as a supplementary material

Please guide me.

I would make a distinction between whether your paper has been presented at a conference and whether it has appeared in IEEE Xplore.

If it has already been presented, then it's out there in the community and, in my opinion, it is entirely reasonable to take advantage of IEEE's self-archiving options and post it on a personal or institutional website where it can be readily found by search engines.  There is no reason to wait for the (sometimes painfully slow) updating of the IEEE Xplore database.

If it has yet to appear, however, then I would recommend instead attaching it as supplementary material, if possible.


How long should I wait for the response of the referee? i wrote a message to the Editor to inquire about my
revision sent about 4 months ago.  He informed me yesterday(March 20th, 2014)
that my manuscript has already completed 1 review.
However, we are still awaiting the last report.
from the remaining referee. My question is How long
should I wait for the response of the referee? and what do you advise me to do?
n.b. the journal belongs to Springer
Best regards

i wrote a message to the Editor to inquire about my revision sent about 4 months ago. He informed me yesterday(March 20th, 2014) that my manuscript has already completed 1 review.

Since you have contacted the editor and they looked into it (and perhaps pinged the reviewer with a reminder), I don't see that there is much else you could do at this point (other than something drastic like withdraw, which would be entirely unjustified after four months).

  However, we are still awaiting the last report. from the remaining referee. My question is How long should I wait for the response of the referee?

As long as it takes.

  and what do you advise me to do?

You've just contacted the editor and gotten a response. My advice now would simply be to be patient. Try to put it at the back of your mind and focus on other work. (And don't message the editor again for another few months; have faith in them to do their job.)

  4 months for secondary revision is too long no??

In many fields, unfortunately, no.


Uploading papers on sites such as Academia.edu - copyright issues/author copy I'm in the process of setting up an account on Academia.edu and as you may know there is an area that allows you to add publications. My question is how does this work with a copyright agreement (Springer International Publishing) that I have signed?

For anyone that may have also signed this agreement: going by Section 3 it looks like I can upload a non-Springer formatted copy as long as I cite the Springer link as the final version?

I have heard people mention author copies before, but I'm not sure if this is a real thing or just a myth that's been circulated down the line (where you can host your papers as long as you make a slight change from the published copy).

The form if anyone is interested (direct download): Springer Copyright Form

You can check here what you are allowed to do; http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/

Some springer journals are Romeo Green, and allow you to upload the author post review final draft to an open Access repository 12 months after publication.

With Open Access publications you can do that straight away


What is understood under the term "application"? (Europe, Switzerland) I want to apply for a PhD directly to a professor in a swiss university. In the homepage of his group, under the tab "Open Positions" says "Interested students should send an applicatiobn to ProfessorX".

What is exactly meant with "application" at this point?

An application as I have understood it so far comprises a CV, letter of motivation, note transcript, summary of previous work, references, etc. And most openings I have seen at other universities include a list of such documents to include. However in this university it is quite common to just mention an "application" with no further clarifications or indications.

I am pretty sure if I just send that amount of information in the first e-mail I will just saturate the busy professor.

Another possibility I have thought is that it means a short letter of "introduction/inquiry" where I will shortly explain where, about what and under whom I did my bachelor's and master's thesis. I would also explain my research interests, and maybe include some reference to him/his work/his group. And finally, ask if there is an opening in his group.

It is a vague term and all of the required documents will differ between universities and countries. If you are applying directly to a professor (as opposed to an online form) then he/she should let you know if you are missing anything from your application after you apply.

Also, if the department or professor has a secretary then it might be a good idea to contact them as well to ensure you get all the documents to the right place.


Is there any efficient non-linear note-taking software? I'd be interested in tools helping to organize thoughts and ideas, especially in a non-linear way (i.e. not as most existing note taking tools, working with lists and bullets, but rather as a post-it application). Ideally, something like the tool they use in Minority Reports would be cool (without the fancy-touch thingy), but an important point would be the ability to visually connect different ideas/notes together.

EDIT: Maybe to make things more explicit, I have a visual memory, and it helps me a lot having a graphical disposition to classify things (like important things at the top-right, urgent ones on the middle-left, etc). Basically, I'd like to find my messy desk on my screen :)

Mind maps might be what you're looking for.  From the Wikipedia page:

  A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea... Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid to studying and organizing information, solving problems, making decisions, and writing.

There are lots of mind mapping tools out there.  I've used XMind before.

One drawback is that it's hard to put longer thoughts into a mindmap.


How should I list my affiliation? I completed a project while I was an undergraduate student performing an internship at NASA-JPL. I recently graduated and I am editing the paper I wrote to make it conference paper ready, following AIAA guidelines. I also have a new job and master's program lined up at another institution starting in a month.

I don't understand what to use as my Affiliation for this paper. I did the work as an undergraduate student and was in the internship program of NASA-JPL.

Should I list my undergraduate institution as my affiliation and my current address/contact information at my new institution? Or is my affiliation NASA-JPL for the time of work? The work I did has nothing to do with anything at my undergraduate institution. My co-author is my JPL mentor.

Thank you!

A very similar question has a great answer to this.

TL;DR It is a fuzzy area without set rules, meaning you can decide your affiliation without some kind of penalty from the journal or your field.

If you are still editing the paper once you enter the new institution it probably makes sense to use the current location. However if the paper was 90%+ completed at your former institution, whether the school or NASA-JPL, it's OK to use that as your affiliation.

I published a paper in 2014 that was 90% researched, analyzed, and written at one institution between 2010-2012, then underwent a journal review process for two years. I chose to use my current 2014 institution as my affiliation for the publication, but it would have still been acceptable to use the former one where most of the work had been completed.


Is it recommended to email a professor at other institution to work with him over the summer I am currently an undergraduate in mathematics and physics and graduate student in applied mathematics in the US. I am looking for a research position/internship for the summer (somewhere other than my current institution). Is it recommended to cold-call or send emails asking professors or researchers at other institutions around the world for an opportunity to work with them? In what other way can I find a position for this summer?
I am specifically looking at institutions in the US, Europe, Japan, Taiwan and China.

Thank you :)

Sure, just reach out with SHORT emails.  I would not expect too much reply since it is a cold call but "a shot on net is always a good play".  Mention a sentence or two to indicate you looked at their webpage or pubs and have an interest in their work.

In addition, try to send some inquiries (similar format) where have some connection (e.g. you mentioned friends had visited specific places in Italy, England).  Professors like to get some "pipeline".  (E.g. "we have had periodic Elbonia Uni students".) Just gives some slight familiarity for you/them and some feeling for them that they may get more positive experiences in future.  However, note that expectations for undergrad visitors is not high.


Literature search methodology for non-academics? I moved straight into the professional world after my bachelor's degree, and have no experience with formal research of any sort. Recently, however, my university has granted alumni access to a large portion of its collection of research journal subscriptions. I would like to leverage this access to improve my understanding of my field--and of other fields I explore in the future as a hobbyist.

But I do not even know how to search for information relevant to my interests. For example, if I am interested in looking into research done on the relationship between the brain's ability to focus on one task for a given length of time and efficacy of study methods, the first thing I think of is 'attention span,' but this appears to yield articles in primary education journals outlining techniques for managing children with short attention spans. If I try 'focus,' I end up chiefly with results discussing the practice of selecting a focus for one's undergraduate degree. If I try 'concentration,' I end up with myriad articles describing the impacts of either chemical concentrations or demographic concentrations on psychological health and development. None of these things are close to what I am actually searching for, even after filtering the results for the fields I thought would be obvious choices--Education and Psychology.

After sniffing around on my own, a widespread assumption in the existing advice I've found is that the article-seeker will be an academic well-versed in the jargon of their field, or who are looking to expand out from a paper they've already found or been directed to by someone knowledgeable. Is there a consistent methodology for a non-academic to gain a foothold of understanding on a given topic--as with my 'attention spans and study methods' example--that allows one to branch out from there?

It can look daunting but don't be frustrated so quickly. Even academics are intimidated by the vastness of the system as well. The game's rule is to dive into the right partition of the literature to maximize the chance of finding what you want.

Before you start, browse the library website of your school for online resources first. Most institutes have online tutorial guiding students how to use different services. There could already be a workshop or video about what you want to learn.

One particular thing we need to know is that unlike public library which usually has one big catalog, academic literature is largely cataloged by their field of study. For instance, if we are to look for medical articles, PubMed would be a good starting database. For psychology, PsycINFO would be a good database. These databases group all related journals inside, and this can filter out a lot of unrelated articles.

Once the right database has been identified. Learn more about it by signing up for an account. Usually each of these databases has a tutorial and also an alert service for newly released articles. For example, this article talks about how to more effectively search PsycINFO.

For PubMed we have something called MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) which guides the use of keyword. For Psychology an equivalence is the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms. You can try access to this through your school and check out the terms that may interest you.

False positive results always appear. That's why you should also learn the Boolean operators. They can help you refine your search. For instance, using your attention span example, you can try: "attention span" and "adult" or "attention span" not "educat*" (* is usually a wild card, it's to capture any words starting with educat~, including educate, education, educator(s), educational, etc.)

To look for some starting keywords, I will try Google Scholar and Wikipedia. Once you have some seeds, it should not be a problem to snowball for more.

Also, document your search processes. If you ever want to come back to this search, with all your keywords and database written down it'd be a lot easier. Lastly, since most databases allow us to look inside a particular journal, asking field experts for some recommended journal titles will also help you narrow down the search very quickly.

Remember this is not a one-shot activity. For most of the academics searching for information is an iterative process. So, spend some time to play with the search functions, and don't be afraid to get your hands dirty.

Disclaimer: I am not a psychology expert but since OP uses psychology as examples I just rolled with it. If I wrote anything that's outrageous in this answer please feel free to post a comment, I'll promptly correct them.