PhD research, research doubts? I am a computer science PhD candidate. I have been reading and learning a lot of my interested research area - and now it's time to formally defend my research proposal.

There is a computer architecture that has already been discussed (online articles) over blogs and videos and some companies are using it already. it's relatively new architecture though (2 or 3 years old). But I haven't found out any academic research done on that architecture for deploying/implementing it with use cases. But it has been referenced (online article, blogs etc) in academic research journals and articles.

I was thinking to write my PhD research on that new architecture with proper use cases and references. But at the moment I am having doubts about whether I should proceed or not? Or what approach should I apply in order to proceed?

Your suggestions/opinions will be highly appreciated either positive or negative.

Don't stress too much for your proposal. In all likelihood your PhD will evolve as you progress. As you said you've been reading a lot. Don't be surprised if there is little material to reference. After all, that is the point of doing Ph.D. research: you will be adding to an area of knowledge which at present is little understood.

My Prof once told me that in year 1 the student should be guided, in year 2 the student finds their feet and in year 3 the student leads their supervisors

And yes, speak with your supervisor. This will answer your doubts and display you are really commited to being rigourous.


At what point in the rankings is having a PhD from one university no different than a PhD from another (differently ranked) university? There are some websites like topuniversities and times higher education that rank universities based on several criteria.

I don't know if the ranking of a university is directly proportional to its actual reputation.

It is obvious that top universities such as MIT, Harvard and Stanford in US or ETH, Uppsala, KTH in Europe should be considered apart from the rest, but at what point is having a PhD from one university no different than having another? Is it after 100? Between 300-400? Or is it due to another criteria than the ranking?

It's worth keeping in mind that the overall university ranking is not synonymous with how they are regarded in the field.  Even the breakdowns by discipline are not always going to reflect how the university is perceived in a specific field.

For example, a university may not be in the top 10 in these overall rankings or even in a discipline (e.g., Computer Science), but they may be considered in the top 10 or even the top 5 for specific research fields (e.g., Database research).

For a PhD, the ranking in the field will probably carry more weight than the general ranking of the university (depending on the field), as will the overall quality of the research.


Who reads teaching evaluations? At the end of each semester, usually a month before final exams, my school (in the US) distributes teaching evaluations. What people will read these? Do people only see these after the final grades are posted?

While this may vary significantly from institution to institution, my understanding is that, in the US at least, evaluations are at least read by:

The instructor, who needs to get feedback on their teaching efficacy
Others in the department who are evaluating the instructor, e.g., as part of tenure and promotion review, as part of peer mentoring, as part of a departments' own ongoing self-management.

They may also end up being read by other administrators (internal or external, e.g., certification authorities) who are monitoring a department's teaching quality, and may be distributed to students to help them decide which classes to take.  In these latter cases, it is likely that a summary will be distributed rather than the raw evaluations.

Timing with respect to finals and grading varies.  In all cases, however, institutions tend to take pains to preserve student privacy so that unless somebody leaves a clearly identifying mark in the comments it should be unable to affect their grades either way.


What does an employer want to see from recommendation letters Assume that one is searching for some permanent research positions. I am a bit curious what does an employer wants to see in recommendations letters.

Obviously, recommendations have nothing to do with scientific achievements. For that, they can check the publication lists. As I can imagine, the purposes of recommendation letters could be:

demonstration that the applicant can socialize normally with other
people
they want to see recommendations from high-profile people, since these  demonstrate that the applicant has established enough connections and potentials for influence in the community
they want to see recommendations from the applicant's current boss, since it demonstrates that the applicant has worked hard and loyally for his/her current employer
they want to see recommendations from people who they want to collaborate with, such that hiring the applicant would help with social connections
(from  xLeitix) they would like to see the community's view about the applicant's work -- which means anyone in the community qualifies as a referee.

Are these valid purposes for recommendation letters, and what else am I missing here?

I think all 5 points are valid. I would add two more:

Due diligence: Institutions want the insurance in case something goes wrong with the faculty in the future, e.g. the person commits scientific fraud or sexual harassment. Of course, there can be nothing in a recommendation letter that would guarantee that the faculty will behave, but in an inquiry, the institution must be able to say they did their due diligence. So, they just need a certain number (typically three) letters on file, not necessarily for their content.
Intangibles: They want to see enthusiasm in the recommendation letter. I have heard many times that a merely good recommendation letter is a terrible recommendation letter. If someone's adviser/colleague cannot be bothered to write superlatives for the candidate, it might be a "red flag" that there might be a something intangibly wrong with the candidate.


Can a letter of recommendation be rescinded after submission/acceptance? I have been working in a research position in a DOE lab in the United States for the past year or so, and my mentor wrote me letters of recommendation for my graduate school application. I have been, to put it bluntly, worse at my job recently than I had been when he wrote the letter, and I would quite like to leave soon as:

It has always been a poor fit for my interests, and I am rapidly losing the motivation to continue;
I have not been challenged/learned anything new for months, and I do not have the discretion to change this;
I am not vital to any of the ongoing projects in my group;
I have saved enough to support myself through matriculation.

I am very worried that, given my recent job performance, if I leave soon, my mentor might try to contact graduate programs to which I submitted applications 1+ months ago to give an update on his impression of my character/abilities/etc. Is this a real possibility? If so, how would graduate schools react, receiving this so long after submission, or if they've already accepted me?

Anything is possible, of course, but (warning - opinion coming), I think it would be very unlikely. First, I doubt that your mentor would do that, though I don't know the person so can't be definitive. I would not, anyway. Second, if you have been accepted (and told them you are coming) you have at least an informal contract that is unlikely to be broken. In some places it would likely be against regulations to withdraw an offer after acceptance. But again, I suppose it is possible that it would happen.

However, you might be questioned by your mentor or others about this, so be prepared to give an honest reply. People learn as they live and they change their minds about things. Other people generally understand that and accept it as long as it doesn't cause disruption.

But I think your worry is probably based on very little. (Sorry about all the "weasel words" here.)


What should I do about my non-English publications when applying to a University in an English-speaking country? I've recently finished obtaining my PhD in a non-English speaking country. All of my papers have been published locally, so I've never felt the need to translate them into English before. Now I'm looking to continue my career as a postdoc in an English-speaking part of the world. One of the basic requirements in Universities abroad is to provide samples of your previous publications. I wonder what my course of action should be.

I have translated all the annotations, keywords, reference information and short summaries of my works into English - but is that good enough? Should I also translate the texts of my most important works and perhaps even my PhD thesis (which would take an enormous effort, to be frank)?

Or should I focus instead on writing more articles on the topic of my research and publish them in international journals? How valuable would my translated articles be to potential employers if they weren't published in an English journal in the first place - would they be taken into account when considering my candidacy for employment?

Thank you!

It depends on the language

The accessibility of academic publishing is not a binary of English vs everything else. Rather, one can think in terms of a continuum, with major world languages towards one end, and languages with limited global reach at the other. Moreover, this continuum is highly dependent on geography (e.g.: French is spoken widely in Africa; Spanish is spoken widely in the Americas) and context (literature, area studies, and linguistics are obvious examples, but by no means the only fields where languages other than English are very important). In assessing whether the language in which you publish is a "major" language for your purposes, consider:

is it one of the handful of languages used very widely in large parts of the world?
is it used widely in the publication's sub-field/specialism?
is it used widely in the field/specialism of the job/position for which you are applying?

I am based in the UK, and most of the literature I cite is in English, but my field has a lot of important literature published in German, to which I make reference (like many scholars in my field, I can read German reasonably well, although I would not describe myself as fluent). Some of my colleagues have published articles in German despite being native English speakers.

The point I want to make here is that publishing in English is not automatically more prestigious.

For the purposes of applying for a job in an English-speaking university...

it is important to demonstrate is that you are capable of publishing in English in a medium subject to peer review, and...

...translating your existing publications would be one way of demonstrating that, if you then publish the translation in a peer-reviewed medium (in my field, it is quite common for collected volumes to include chapters that are translations of work published originally in another language -- usually, these translations are done by a third party, such as the editor of the volume)
...writing a new article/chapter/book and getting it published in a peer-reviewed medium in English would be another way of demonstrating that, with the added bonus that you are enlarging your publications-list

publications in English are more accessible, but publications in other languages are still valuable, and...

...providing an English-language abstract is an excellent idea (in some fields, there are scholarly databases that do this for you)
...there is still a good possibility, if the language is used widely, that the publication will be read. When applying for a particular position, you could scrutinise the profiles of your prospective colleagues. It may be the case that one or more of them has published in your language, reviewed literature in your language, or translated literature from your language to another language. If so, there is a good chance that somebody would be able to read your publications.

so-called "internationalisation" is very fashionable in UK academia at the moment, many British academics take their obligations as global citizens seriously, and engage with non-English publications and...

...may value a colleague who has a track record of working and publishing in multiple languages (as long as English is one of them)

Conclusion

Since you have already written English-language abstracts for your existing non-English publications, my advice would be to concentrate on writing new publications rather than spend a lot of time translating existing ones. Having said that, if you have a particularly significant/groundbreaking paper, it may be worth translating that one into English (and into other major languages), ideally with view to publishing the translated version in a peer-reviewed medium (when you do this, make sure that you get credit as the translator of your own work). You may need to get permission from the publisher of the original version, but any decent academic publisher should be accommodating (provided that all parties sign a licensing agreement).


How big is the difference between the sustained PhD thesis and a version publishable as a book? In other words, how much improvement of the submitted thesis (and presented in front of the evaluation board) is allowed, if you want to later publish the thesis at a normal publisher of dissertations (with ISBN and sell on Amazon)? Is there a conflict here? Should it be exactly the same thesis, or if mistakes are found, or recommendations given, they can be implemented, no matter how much different from the submitted and approved thesis? I'm interested in at least a general view on this, at european level. I imagine there are country differences...

It depends mostly on whether publishing your thesis as a book is a requirement in the PhD process or not. As JeffE notes in his comments, publishing the thesis as a book may be a university requirement before you get your PhD. Though, in the cases that I know, publication is after the defense, and you are allowed to make smaller modifications to the originally defended version, as long as the thesis reviewers agree to these.

Things would be different if publication is not part of the PhD requirements (maybe you have your certificates already in your hands). It's your work, and unless there are specific regulations to the contrary, I'd assume you can do whatever you like with it. In particular also publish a derived work as a book. In this case, I'd still recommend to state that it is based on your thesis (not your thesis), and discuss it with your PhD advisor.


How should a teacher approach a student with distractingly strong perfume? How might a professor approach a student who comes to class and/or office hours wearing perfume or cologne that is distractingly or overwhelmingly powerful?

Certainly, different people have different thresholds for this sort of thing. Lets say that in this case it is unclear the extent to which this is distracting other students in class but it is clear to the teacher that it is strong enough to distract the teacher. Of course, it might be affecting other students as well.

I might ask quietly and privately to speak to the student immediately after class. At that point, when no one else is present, I would politely say, "I am sensitive to the strength of your perfume". After that, I would let the conversation unfold. When the student would be defensive, I would just politely repeat the one statement "I am sensitive to the strength of your perfume". I might add "This is a health-related issue for me, as much as an allergy might be. It could eventually affect how I could continue to teach in the class". I would NOT ask or even suggest the student should NOT wear the perfume or take any action. I would hope the student would volunteer that step.


Can I accept two funded offers from universities and decide later after April 15? I am an international student. I received several offers, but I am interested in two options:

1) Option A: It is my top choice. However, it gave me only partial tuition, so I will need external sources of funding. The resolution of these sources is going to be in June (federal funds), several months after the April 15th deadline.
2) Option B: It gave full tuition and a monthly living stipend. I am very grateful to the university.

For both programs, I have until April 15 to accept offers. I have been reading about April 15 Resolution and it has complicated me to make a decision. Since both schools gave me financial aid, I think there is a problem in there about accepting an offer concerning financial aid. As far as I understand, in Option A, if I pay my deposit fee I accept their financial aid. Nevertheless, to attend Option A I will necessarily need external funding. If I don't receive it, I will not be able to attend Option A.

I already have an opportunity to study a graduate program in US (Option B). I would not like to be in the scenario of rejecting a good and safe opportunity and not have external funding, that would mean not to attend graduate studies this year. I would love to go to Option A, but I am restricted to external factors as funding.

Is there any advise you could give me in this situation?

No, you cannot do this.

According to the April 15 Resolution of the Council of Graduate Schools, you cannot accept multiple award offers simultaneously. You are not committed to any offer signed before April 15, in that you can submit a written statement declining a previously accepted offer. But you cannot accept multiple offers before or on April 15, and changing offers after that date requires a written release from the school with whom the offer that was “in force” on April 15.


Can we withdraw a manuscript after acceptance but before publication? I wonder whether we can withdraw a manuscript after its acceptance but before it has been published online.

As noted by @Joe_74, it is possible but very bad form.  If there is not a good reason for such withdrawal, the authors are subject to poor reputation at a minimum and sanctions (such as a ban) at a maximum.  You haven't said why you wish to withdraw.  As Joe said, if there is an error, it is unfortunate, but withdrawal is probably best.  If it's like another recent post, and it's because of simultaneous submission or some other less ethical behavior, you would deserve whatever comes your way.


What must one do if the time at which a conference talk was to be presented is assigned to someone else? I recently submitted an abstract to a talk as a contributed paper. I was informed, through email, that the paper was scheduled to be presented in person on XXX date. The email also said that I could look for my name on a link mentioned in the email; going to the link, I found that my name was not on the list at all. I checked it multiple times, but my name was simply not there.

I found that the time at which I was assigned to give my presentation was on the list, but with someone else's name and paper title. I assumed that this was a timing and/or update problem, and left it at that for some time. However, this was not resolved even after two days. Thus I sent an email regarding this situation to the email address that was in the email, saying that if I had any questions I could email that address. I still have not received any email, and the conference/talk is coming up in about a month. This is the very first presentation that I will be giving, and I am not sure what to do in this situation. My questions are as follows:

  Did I deal with this situation correctly, sending an email to the "query'' email address?
  What must I do if I do not receive an email in a few days?

P.S. As it was inquired in the question, the conference that I submitted this to is the AMS Fall Sectional Meeting in San Francisco.

Edit: It looks like the situation has been fixed and my name is now on the list. Thank you to all who offered me advice!

I do not think this usual. How big is the conference? If it is small, it is possible that the organizers made a mistake without realizing it. Inquiring over the email was absolutely the right thing to do. I would follow up a week from your original inquiry if you don't hear back from them sooner.


I am an engineer by qualification. But want to do a PhD in marketing. Is it possible? Or am I day dreaming? I wish to get into a PhD program at a US/Canada university in marketing. I have five years experience in international marketing. By qualification, I am an engineer. I graduated from LSU with a masters degree in Electrical Engineering.

I have a little research experience of about 8 months, but that was in electrical engineering.

With this background, will it be possible for me to get into a PhD program in marketing at all? I know what I want to research on, and I am sure I can prepare a decent SOP. But will that be enough? I am targeting fall 2017.

It will depend on where you apply. One question an admission committee would have is your academic preparation. If your transcripts show marketing prerequisites it will help tremendously.

Practical experience is valuable but a PhD requires basic knowledge in the common theories of the field.


Self-plagiarism to re-use figures and key phrases on poster I have submitted a conference paper to an IEEE conference, which will be published in IEEE Xplore, once I have appropriately finished presenting this paper in either a lecture or poster setting (of which I was selected to do the latter). Most questions regarding self-plagiarism on the net are in the context of selecting snippets of text or figures from previous papers.
However, my question is, is it self-plagiarism to utilize key figures/phrases from the paper that I am presenting in my poster? As in, I am presenting research by poster that will later be published in a conference paper (which we needed to submit to get accepted to present at the conference). I have made figures and statements in this paper, which would be nice to use in the poster.
Must I start from scratch? Thanks.

No, you don't need to start from scratch, and even that might still be self-plagiarism. The proper way is to cite the paper even if it is "to appear". For a slide presentation, a slide at the end pointing out that the figures come from ... would be enough. It needn't be intrusive. For a literal poster, a footnote at the bottom.
The way to avoid all kinds of plagiarism is to cite. "Paraphrasing" doesn't do the job since plagiarism is about ideas, not their literal expression. If the source is clear and a reader/viewer has a way to obtain the original then you are safe.


If no revised date is mentioned in the paper, does this means the paper is directly accepted by the journal? When I am reading papers, sometimes I see statements like

  Manuscript received October 29, 2012; accepted March 16, 2014.

Does this implies that the paper is directly accepted?

Not necessarily. Some journals only state dates for submission and acceptance. In such cases dates for revisions are not mentioned. Since it is not uncommon, at least in fields with which I am familiar, for papers to go through two (or sometimes more) revisions, a date for revision usually refers to only one, the first set of revisions.

I can also confirm Anonymous Mathematician's notion that some journals only accept papers that receive minor revision and reject those with major, but with the explicit understanding the paper should be resubmitted once revised. This will officially shorten the times from submission to accept but is of course a questionable action to manipulate such statistics.


Professor put me in cc when sending recommendation letter to college I am applying to? As the title says, I received an email yesterday, presumably I am in Cc of the email that my professor wrote to the university I am applying to. In my understanding there is always some mystery about the letters. But what exactly is the norm here? Does anyone care?

It is becoming more widely accepted that people have the right to be aware which information is kept on them by various organisations, to request access to this information and in some cases to request this information to be deleted (see e.g. FOI for UK, GDPR for EU). So by cc'ing you in, you professor acknowledged your right to access the same information about yourself that (s)he is sharing with the third party.

No, it does not reduce your chances — it is perfectly reasonable for professor  to show the recommendation letter to the candidate, if they wanted to, and in some places it is even required.


Should workshop papers be cited (computer science) In my subfield of computer science I observe that workshop papers often are not thoroughly reviewed. It even appears (attention, possibly controversial assumption incoming) that workshop-paper acceptances are used to increase the number of participants at the conference, because authors of accepted workshop papers are required to register for the conference. Moreover, workshop organizers are often desparate to get enough submissions in order not to be forced to cancel the workshop. Hence, they are happy to accept submissions even if they do not completely fulfil certain quality standards.

Speaking about the quality of the papers, they often do not contain rigorous evaluations, hence, the presented results possibly are not really reliable (please note, that, of course, there are many terrific workshop papers out there!). I have a feeling that these papers would not get accepted at a (good) conference due to lack of maturity etc. I am aware that (especially in computer science) the publication path is often like this: early/initial work in progress is submitted to a workshop → if the work gets more mature it is sent to conferences → after some more work it is probably sent to a journal.

My question is: Given the above circumstances, should workshop papers be cited?

Since the quality (hence, the results) of such papers is often lacking, I ask myself whether it's a good idea to make a reference to it. One further thought is that references are often used to show that something has already been done or addressed. Therefore, the reference is used to argue that the problem addressed by the workshop paper should not be addressed anymore which is probably a wrong assumption if we assume that the work done in the workshop paper is sub-par.

Don't cite bad quality work as evidence.  Judge the quality yourself.  Only cite things if you think they are of a sufficient quality to demonstrate the claim you want to reference.  Don't rely on peer review (whether in a journal or conference).  Lots of poor quality work gets into journals, too.

Work in progress and early results do not equal bad quality. Something that is still in progress, or hasn't been rigorously demonstrated yet, may still be worth reporting.  This doesn't make a bad quality paper, as long as the paper is honest about the interpretation of what is presented.  Falsely claiming that early results are definitive is bad, but "Our early results seem to show this, but we aren't sure yet" can be a perfectly good paper.  There is nothing wrong with citing such results, as long as you similarly are honest about what (and how much) they show.

In short, There is no reason for a blanket refusal to cite conference papers.  Such a practice might make you miss important evidence.  Do consider the source and the quality of the work, and try to cite the strongest source(s) when possible.  This will often (but not always) mean preferring a journal article.

I'm assuming you are thinking of cases where you are searching for evidence in a particular area and can choose what to cite. Of course you also have an obligation to cite anything your work relies on or uses, regardless of the source.


Applying to PhD programs when you have two research interests I am in the process of trying to formulate my statement of purpose/intent for a PhD in criminal justice. I’m not sure how to go about this when I have two distinctly different areas that I’m very interested in. The first is wildlife crime (falls into conservational criminology, a very new field) and the other is biosocial criminology/mental illness. These are not related to each other in any way, but I’m fascinated by both.

There are a lot more schools that have faculty working on biosocial than wildlife crime. However, I have found one school that has one professor working in wildlife crime, and the rest working on mental-illness-related issues. I don’t know what to do. Should I write two different SOPs and submit them to the appropriate school? One for wildlife and one for biosocial?

When my past professors ask me for my research interests, I want to mention both of these, but I don’t want them to think I’m unfocused. I am going to a criminology conference in November, and I will be talking to the professors who are writing my letters of recommendation. Should I tell them everything I’m interested in or narrow down one specific thing?

I'm not sure how to go about this when I have two distinctly different areas that I'm very interested in

A PhD research project is judged on many attributes, one of which is if it has a single focused reasonable, scientifically interesting and unique research question or null hypothesis that can be studied/test.

You seem to have a problem identifying between two of your interests. This is quite common, scholars always have a number of interests and choosing one among them could be daunting and anxiety inducing, but the simple fact is that it is better to take control of the situation and decide between one of them, lest other external factors decide that for you with you having no say.

Also, please mind that it is not just your interest that decides your research project, but a myriad of factors such as your guide's and the research group/department's own long-running interests, laboratory facilities, your long term plan (how will your PhD help you in your career), etc. Please look at the topic again against other factors you might have ignored - you will find that your two topics are not equally attractive.

If you still can't, you could probably identify two guides and write two research proposals. The quality of each may suffer since you will divide your attention between them. But you might have postponed your decision crisis.

  When my past professors ask me for my research interests I want to mention both of these

Guides usually will prefer their PhD candidates to be utterly loyal to their one research project - fidelity will ensure that the project has your undivided attention. Having two interests is not wrong in any way, but might be less appealing to a Guide. You may want to downplay the other interests.


Is it fair to punish absent students with a one-question exam? I recently came across a post (that I won't disclose because it contains the professor's last name):

Attendance in this course was regularly low, so the professor used a one-question exam to punish students who weren't attending a class. Those who weren't in class would have obviously failed this exam, and those who were in class (presumably) would have all gotten A's. The final remark on the note on the door was "maybe we'll do this again some time".

Let's assume a few factors about the course and this one-question exam, since we don't actually know how they're implemented:

The course has an attendance policy (3 days max missed before your grade starts dropping, for example)
This one-question exam has an impact equivalent to a homework assignment (could drop your overall grade by 1% if you get a 0).
By the language of the original post, this is not something the students would have expected to happen; this means that the policy would not be outlined in the syllabus.

What if the course didn't have an attendance policy and the professor is simply annoyed that students aren't attending the class? What if this one-question exam was only worth a point or two instead of a whole homework grade?

Is it fair (ethical, if you will) to use this kind of tactic to impose additional punishment on students who don't attend lecture?

Clarification: Students who are absent (if intentional, extraneous circumstances aside) deserve to lose the points for the work they missed. However, this tactic is being used to additionally punish students solely for being absent; this is also why I posed different assumptions about attendance policy.

I think that this is unprofessional, and is leaving the institution open to all sorts of action (up to and including legal proceedings, if it impacts on a student's progression, for example). For example, what if a student is unavoidably absent?

If it's only "worth a point or two", then I don't think it's worth antagonising people in this way. The sarcastic note left on the door simply underlines how poorly thought-out this whole thing was...


What should I do if a paper makes false claims about my work? I recently found a paper published in the proceedings of a very important AI conference that makes a false claim about my work, i.e., claim that is false from the technical point of view.

I already contacted all the authors when I found the paper on arXiv, kindly explaining that they may have misunderstood my work, and asking to adjust that claim. They never replied and now the paper is published in a quite good venue.

Should I try to contact them again, or what?

That is what the editor or technical chair of the venue is for: to act as an independent moderator. Contact them, clearly and briefly explain the situation and indicate that you previously contacted the authors before publication but received no reply.

With overzealous spam filters, there is always a chance a reply came but was blocked. Start a constructive dialog so that the correct facts can be brought out in the correct publication (maybe yours will be revised to specify clear limits of applicability). It's a slow process to resolve such things, but it is certainly doable.


approximate time for indexing a conference proceeding Maybe some of you could help me with this matter based on your experiences. I presented an article for an IEEE congress which was held in March of this year, and accordingly, to their webpage, the proceedings will be indexed on IEEE Xplore. I have checked that previous versions of this congress, for example, the one held in 2018, was indexed in Scopus. We are on August, and still, the proceedings do not appear on IEEE Xplore either in Scopus. Is it normal to take that long time for the articles to get indexed? By the way, we sent the final versions already ready to be put on the conference proceedings, so there was no need for a new review for style.

Also, I got an article accepted from a journal which is also indexed in Scopus, which has a monthly basis. For what I saw on the website of this journal, which is Q3 or Q4, from the 30 articles published, only two are appearing actually in Scopus. The articles from July are completed; why is that? Did maybe Scopus decided not to put the other articles?

Bottom line, should I contact the editors?

It might sound like particular cases, but I was not able to find any information about the time-lapse from presentation or publication to appear on Scopus or other sites like IEEE.

Thanks

Yes it is possible for a significant amount of time to elapse between the conference and appearance of articles on IEEE Xplore. For example, here is a link to one of my papers which appeared in the proceedings of an IEEE conference that was held in September 2016, and it was added to IEEE Xplore in the end of February 2017.

Note that you can actually see both the Date of Conference and Date Added to IEEE Xplore on that page as well, right below the abstract. So you could also look up some articles from previous editions of the specific congress that you went to, and see how much time it took for that congress in previous years (but of course it doesn't have to be the same this year).


PhD.-Application; How to deal with reference-letter requests when being out of academia for 2 years? Two years ago I did a M.Sc. in cognitive Neuroscience and then started working as a DL / ML-Engineer up until now. Back then I got two positive reference letters for a specific graduate program from my supervisors.

I want to do a PhD now, but I wondering how I should deal with reference letter requests. In my current company there is no one with technical expertise in Data-Science or Machine-Learning whatsoever.

I see two options now:

a) Should I ask my old supervisors to update my reference letters?
b) Should I just send the old ones, maybe adding some short note why the reference letters are old and obviously for some other program?

Any recommendations on what to do?

I suggest asking your old writers or others at the institution for new letters. Treat it as a chance to catch up with old professors which is a good thing to do for any prospective academic.

The old letters have less relevance and new ones, while still dealing mostly with what you were like two years ago can give some assurance that you've been active in the interim.

Two years isn't that long. But if the gap gets much wider people will start to forget you. This is a good time to renew old ties.


Difference between Related work and Background section? I am writing my first Computer Science conference paper. The thing I don't understand is the difference between "related work" vs "background", could someone explain this?
I have read some related papers, some of them have long "background" section with short "related work" section, while other papers just simply have a long "related work" section.
I am confused about what to put for the related work and background section, I thought those two parts may have many overlappings since both sections will describe how previous work approach the problem. If I would like to have both sections, then I need to describe how previous work approach the problem in both sections?

From my understanding:

Background: Explains all concepts the reader needs to understand the present paper. This typically includes references to existing work that introduced the concepts, but usually a limited number thereof (<= 5, unless your paper builds on exceptionally diverse foundations).
Related work: Discusses other related work. This should not only summarize the existing work, but also discuss how your present paper differs from it and why this is a "step forward" (new or better).


Is there such a thing as a "general semester"? I’m an MSc student and write my thesis about academy retention.

So far the only model I know is that a student enrolls to a certain faculty and begins his studies there.
I’m trying to find models in which the students start their studies in a global semester or year and only after finishing it, choose their desired faculty.
Are there universities or colleges with such a model?

Also, is there a formal name to such a “global semester/year”? I haven’t been able to find anything on the net.

In the U.S., it is common to start at a university as an "undeclared major". This gives students an opportunity to take courses in a variety of areas to figure out what interests them. Typically, after a year they must choose a major.


Can an outsider use university facilities for a technical discussion group? As one with significant interest and some knowledge in the subfield of computer architecture, living reasonably close to a university, the idea of organizing and facilitating a discussion/reading group in this subject area came to mind.

Would a university be open to the use of its facilities for such an activity offered by someone with no official affiliation with the university?

(Holding such on-campus seems likely to be convenient for the most likely participants but such is not necessary.)

Also, what would be the best way to present such to faculty and students?

While I do not anticipate being ready to offer to organize such a group any time soon, such might be something to look forward to.

You'd probably want to find a contact on the campus to host you. They're going to want an employee or student organization to hold responsible if your reading group trashes their facilities.


Would going to Teacher's College be useful, if my ultimate goal is to become a university math professor? I am close to entering the fifth year of a five-year Concurrent Education program. What the program involves is four years spent working on a bachelor’s degree, while “on the side” taking education courses and doing placements contributing to a bachelor of education and teaching certificate. The final year of the program is regular Teacher’s College, which is a combination of education/curriculum courses and, in total, about 14 weeks of placement.

I’ve thought about dropping the education part of the program a few times since it started, but stuck with it because it left teaching open as an option, while only requiring one education course and a 3-week placement each year (which is good experience anyway). About 2 years ago, I started considering going to grad school for math, but by the end of last summer, still wasn’t 100% sure, so I didn’t write the GREs. This year I took a graduate-level algebra course, and about halfway through, realized that grad school for math is definitely something I want to pursue.

As the deadlines for applying to grad schools had passed / were soon approaching, my plan then became to finish the program and get my teaching degree, and apply for math graduate programs this December/January for entrance in Fall 2017. Spending the next year in Teacher’s College, I’ve been thinking, might actually be a good thing, as a way to set me apart on applications for grad school and for jobs in the future, as well as a way to develop good teaching and other related skills. On top of that, it would leave teaching as a back-up just in case.

I would sincerely appreciate hearing the opinions of those who are in or who have been through graduate school in math. Do you think it will it be worth it, in terms of a future as a mathematician (ideally as a math professor), to finish the teaching program? I fear that the final year of this program will be painful for me, as it will require a lot of placements, which I already mostly dread. Alternatively, if I didn’t do Teacher’s College, I could spend the next year taking more graduate courses at my university, learn more math independently, focus on the GREs and honing my applications, and try to see if any professors at my university are willing to supervise me in some research experience before entering grad school for math.

In case it’s relevant, I come from a smallish university in Canada, which is probably not very well-known in the US, and I am graduating top of my class in math.

I’m sorry if this question is not general enough.

Spending the next year in Teacher’s College, I’ve been thinking, might actually be a good thing, as a way to set me apart on applications for grad school and for jobs in the future, as well as a way to develop good teaching and other related skills.

If you want to get into a research Ph.D. program in pure or applied math, this will do extremely little to set you apart.  Taking more graduate courses and doing well on the GRE (especially the math subject GRE) would certainly do more than education or curriculum courses.

The most basic reason for this is that Ph.D. programs are essentially only worried about your ability to complete research in that discipline.  Any life experience or preparation that isn't relevant to that is likely to be ignored.  I suspect education courses are particularly likely to not be helpful, since (at the risk of way over-generalizing), many mathematicians have a pretty low opinion of the way classes in education are taught.  I suspect, for example, actual experience teaching in a school would be more helpful.


Why say source code is available with an ArXiv paper when it is not? I sometimes come across ArXiv papers where the authors claim the source code for the project discussed can be obtained, but on checking the link provided the source code comprises no more than a place holder. So the code is not available, and on subsequent checking months later (in case the authors were in a rush to publish the paper before the code was quite ready to release) the code is still unavailable.
Now I understand there is no obligation to provide source code with commercial potential, unless maybe the project was subsidized with public funds. But what do authors have to gain by claiming it is available when it is not actually available?

There is no advantage to claiming the source code is available and then not doing that. All it will achieve is irritating the really interested readers.
The most likely reason is it’s a simple mistake. Something like they wanted to do that but forgot. Or other reasons, maybe department policies came up that prevented the author from doing that. Or maybe the author found another more suitable place to publish the code and forgot to update the link in the paper. Or...
The simplest solution is to contact the author directly.


Destructive bureaucracy and how to oppose it In my country researchers are overburdened with paperwork and are struggling with increasingly overwhelming bureaucracy while being underpaid. This all leaves them not much time for actual research and demotivates them. What is the best way to make impact against such trend? When I discussed such issues with my colleagues they all seemed depressed and pessimistic. They can't imagine any kind of protest and noone believes in succesfull lobbying since science isn't "politically attractive". All other social groups (from teachers to medical doctors and from miners to farmers) are able to protest. Why can't we?

If my question does not belong here, please just tell me where to seek for help.

This is a very old question. People in my country are also insane and love their bureaucracy. What I learned is that they are also deadly afraid their paperwork won't be done right. So, I started to get the people at the offices to do my paperwork for me. It is their job anyway.

When I got first into my job, my first idea was to gather enough support from my colleagues to mount a strong protest. I heard, but I can't find a link, that Polish researchers got fired the staff of their state grant agency after complaining how those guys hinder them. It is not possible in my country, and it may not be possible in yours. So, in my experience, the best way is to totally neglect paperwork except for what is essential: travel-related and buying equipment for research. Then, your bureaucrats will come begging for signatures and you train them like that. If you get chewed on by your boss, you can just reply that you "forgot", you are "very sorry", etc.

In any case, giving up the notion that you'll ever do competitive research in a system like that might help, but I didn't succeed at that myself.


Quoting advice from others in a paper Sorry, I believe that the title of this post is a little misleading, but can't understand what the best keywords are.

For my thesis, I have asked some help for a statistical analysis to a faculty member, getting more or less a 3-hours tutorial on the analysis. After my thesis, I have written an article on a broader topic that includes some preliminary data taken from that experiment. My article has been accepted, and I would like to mention the involvement of the faculty member that has advised me on the analysis. What are the possible methods?

I would like to ask you for different ways to do this, so to discuss this with the faculty member mentioned. As written in this article (http://www.labtimes.org/labtimes/issues/lt2013/lt02/lt_2013_02_40_40.pdf), the role of this advisor has been significant - otherwise I wouldn't have been able to complete my thesis -, but really too little in relation to the theme and scope of the article.

In any case, this is showing preliminary data (very basic), and I have written it completely by myself, with half the article covering a different topic. I am actively working with this advisor right now on a proper analysis to be published in a journal with this advisor as a coauthor.

If the paper has been already accepted, I am not sure that you are even allowed to add co-authors at this stage. So, the only option that you have is to mention his/her contribution in the acknowledgment (e.g., "I am grateful to XYZ for his/her help on data analysis"). Anyway, if I understood you correctly, the help was limited to 3 hours consultation. For such contribution a person usually will not expect to be part of the paper (unless you promised this explicitly).


Interpreting admission requirements I am reading through the application requirements for this programme. However, as far as I see it, there are some ambiguities

Motivation
A clear and relevant essay in English (1,000 – 1,500 words)

I contacted an experienced prof. working for admissions committees and she emphasized that a letter of motivation should not exceed 1.5 pages. Also, words "clear and relevant" makes me feel that 5 page "sheet of text" is way too much. On the other hand, there is "essay" in the quote above, which maybe makes the word count relevant. I currently have a concentrated letter of motivation with about 350 words in it (1 page) that includes all the points that must be covered.
In my opinion, 1000 - 1500 words feel bloated. I am interpreting the numbers given as the maximum top boundaries for the essay / letter. Or am I missing something here?

By giving you a word range (1000-1500 words) they are telling you how much detail they want the letter to go into. Your 350 word letter is likely too superficial.

Give them what they are asking for. "Does not follow instructions" is generally not a good look.


Changing fields after PhD? I have two fields that I am interested in. Field A is historical and requires me to learn two new languages and I would love to focus on this first. Field B is more accessible, that is, there are no extra languages to learn or mathematical methods to comprehend. But it is a more contemporary discipline. I would like to move into this field afterwards.

How does one do this? The fields do not overlap much.

People are often saying 'the value of a PhD is to show that you can do research, so once you have shown this, there is no need for a second PhD. You can move into a new area on your own now.'

However, I feel like it is incredibly important who one's supervisor was, and I am not sure how seriously people would take me in Field B. I would be 'not really one of theirs', as it were. I am also not sure how to get a job in Field B, after having done a PhD in Field A. I could apply for jobs in Field A and try to somehow move into Field B. But then, if a university hires me, to do research & teach in Field A, which I studied for my PhD, how do I explain to them that I happen to have a paper ready in a completely different field? And how would I even find the time to write such a paper, considering that it will be expected of me to do research & publish in Field A - because, this is after all what they hired me for.

Questions, Questions, Questions. :)

The most typical path for shifting your field after a Ph.D. is by means of one or more postdocs.  A postdoc is an opportunity for more training and is often used by people to move between fields.

The challenge is finding the right postdoc (or chain of postdocs) to make the shift, which may be easy or difficult depending on the particulars of your fields. For example, shifting from computer science to systems biology is generally pretty easy; moving from Sanskrit literature to aerospace engineering would probably be quite difficult.

Once you have a more more permanent position, on the other hand, you are likely to find much of your time is consumed by the other responsibilities of that position.  For example,  if hired as faculty you will find much of your time is spent not as a researcher but as a teacher, advisor, department committee member, fundraiser, and administrator.  Combine that with something like a ticking tenure clock, and it can be quite difficult to change fields once you have passed the postdoc phase.


Referencing specific files in source code in a dissertation I am making a statement in my dissertation based on a comment written in the Linux kernel source code. I would like to be able to reference this comment. At least I would like to be able to name the file to which I'm referring.

Is this (citing files in large pieces of source code) recommended?

What is the best way to go about doing this?

It's not uncommon in certain areas of CS to cite specific files. In your specific case, I would suggest that you include the git commit hash of the kernel.org sources in the citation, so that people can find the precise version your referring to.


Enroll in an online program such as Open University provides for PhD, or wait 5-10 years and enroll at a 'normal' school? I have a BSc and an MS.  My GPAs for both are pretty good.  I'd like to start doing more advanced coursework, though there are a couple of things impeding that at the moment.  The first is, I work full time.  The second is, I change my location quite often (once every year or so, typically).

I understand this is a subjective question to an extend but, please give me your opinions.  I am approaching middle age.  Is it worthwhile to pursue an online PhD program (e.g. through Open University), or would I be better off waiting 5-10 years until I am more settled, near a traditional school?

This question is very hard to answer without more about your goals (and what discipline you're thinking of) for getting a Ph.D.  Ph.D.'s are essentially vocational training for entering academia.  If you're really passionate about your subject and think a Ph.D. program is the only way to immerse yourself in it to the depth you want, that's legitimate, but then working full time outside your discipline, will make that pretty difficult.  You might want to think about whether there are ways of accomplishing what you want to without something that requires the commitment of a Ph.D. program.  The fact that you write "advanced coursework" is an enormous red flag: the point of a Ph.D. is not coursework, and in some disciplines there is very little of it.  The point of a Ph.D. is to do research, and that's much harder if you're not embedded day-to-day in a community of other people with the same goals (physical proximity may sound quaint in this day and age, but there's an enormous drop-off in knowledge transfer between different floors of the same building).

I don't like being so negative, but honestly in most disciplines, there are too many Ph.D.s and unless you go to the most prestigious schools, and build a very strong network in your discipline, there's a decent chance it will worsen rather than improve your employment prospects.  Ph.D.'s have a specific purpose, and at least your question doesn't make it sound like you've really homed in on how that will serve you well.


Should I have undergraduate class papers on ResearchGate? I just finished undergraduate and I am now in my first year of grad school and I am working on some real research projects now. I have one paper that I am already submitting to a peer-reviewed journal.

I uploaded a few papers written for undergraduate capstone projects and final reports to my RG. They are never going to be published but I thought they were interesting reads anyways, they were all typical secondary student research papers.

If I went back and wrote them again, I would probably change a few things here and there, there aren't any glaring inaccuracies but none of the papers are journal quality.
I noted the fact that they were for classes in the descriptions.

I thought that was a good idea until one of them started to get more than 100 reads, now I am second guessing the decision.

Is it acceptable to have undergraduate class papers on ResearchGate?
Could it harm my career if the papers are of undergraduate quality? Or is it a good thing to show your interest in different research topics at an early stage in academia?

From experience, both as a member of ResearchGate and as a postgraduate, I would say the main question is more about worth than about acceptability.

Sounds like you did the right thing when you posted these papers the first time, with characterizing them as undergraduate works, therefore managing expectations.

You feel these papers may be of interest to others; fair enough. Statistics of opens and reads, and any message you get about them could be a good indication of how worthy they are to peers. If nobody gets to see them, you might as well keep them to yourself.

Over 100 reads for an undergraduate paper sounds rather cool, and might give you an interesting clue about the popularity of your paper topic, and might encourage you to work further around the same topic for further research and papers.


How to list "Visiting Student" on my CV? As a soon-to-graduate undergraduate student that is on his hunt for a M.Sc. program, I am making sure my CV is up to date.

I would like to highlight the fact that I have attended a nearby university as a "visiting student" and have successfully completed two courses at this institution while still holding a full time student (normal course load) status at my home institution. I had one of the courses credited at my home institution and did not bother with the second. This second course was simply for my own interest and would not have helped me achieve any graduation requirements at my home institution.

My question is two fold:

Is this fact worth highlighting in my CV, considering the limited (and precious) real-estate in the two page CV format?
If so, what would be the best way to present it?

Possible formats that I have considered (should I mention it):

1.

  Education

  XXXX - YYYY: University of Somewhere, B.Sc. (Major in interesting subject, minor in cool subject)

  Also completed heavy coursework in awesome subject. Visiting student to University of Elsewhere during academic year ZZZZ - ZZZZ + 1

2.

  Education

  XXXX - YYYY: University of Somewhere, B.Sc. (Major in interesting subject, minor in cool subject)

  Also completed heavy coursework in awesome subject.

  ZZZZ - ZZZZ + 1: University of Elsewhere, Visiting Student

  Completed N credits: SCI101 and ART102

In my (naive) opinion, I would believe that this sort of "academic diversity" would be favourably viewed by someone looking at my CV.

Some would also say that, in my case, University of Elsewhere has a better reputation and name recognition then my home institution. Should this be considered as a valid reason to give it more space on my CV?

I have my visiting student experiences listed individually as if they were education segments or professional appointments. I just make sure that my current appointment/school is listed first. I use the format:

XXXX - present: University of Somewhere, B.Sc. (Major in interesting subject, minor in cool subject)
  Cool blabla I did here. Credits earned, etc.

ZZZZ - ZZZZ: University of Elsewhere, Visiting Student
  Cool blabla I did there. Credits earned, etc.


Can a University put a Creative Commons document containing a NonCommercial element (NC) behind a wall? Can a University force web visitors to connect with their University ID to access a document licensed under Creative Commons containing a NonCommercial element (NC)?

Enrolling into at University a student often costs money, and the ability to access the document could be viewed as a perk for employees (i.e. indirect compensation): as a result, I wonder whether putting the document behind the University wall is considered as a commercial use of the document.

For example, I see that Stanford University forces web visitors to log in with their university account to access this CC BY-NC document:

Creative Commons "NonCommercial" prohibits uses that are "primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation."  Under U.S. law, where exactly the boundary lies can only ultimately be determined by development of precedent in case law, since the U.S. has a common-law legal system.

It is pretty clear, though, that this type of use would be non-infringing, for the following reasons:

Virtually no person pays to become a university student for the primary reason of access to online documents.  Likewise, it is an exceedingly minor perk for employees and could not be considered to give the university a significant commercial advantage (rare historical documents might be a different matter).
The actual barrier is a University ID, which can typically also be acquired in many ways that do not involve compensation passing in either direction (e.g. research affiliates).


Why do some MOOCs close their enrollment? I have noticed that quite frequently MOOCs close their enrollment, and content is made available only for students who are enrolled. Why?

Example:

Lacking individual interaction between instructor and student, MOOCs often have a policy that this kind of feedback is replaced by interactions with the "community" of other students on web forums. So my sense is that closing enrollments from time to time recreates traditional semesters, that is, batches up students into similar cohorts in time -- and then hopefully this serves to create a "critical mass" of respondents on the forums, who are all working through like material at about the same time, and more likely to respond to each other's questions and concerns in a coherent fashion.


I was sexually assaulted by a professor writing me a LOR for grad-school applications. What should I do? I’m a foreign student currently applying to extremely competitive doctoral programs in the US. Recently, one of the professors writing a letter of recommendation sexually assaulted me. I live in a country where things like this, when reported, are usually unpunished and even more difficult for the victim. I’m currently deciding what to do, all while trying to get my applications done and finishing up my last semester of my master's program. To put it bluntly, my life is currently hell.

Severe trauma and everything aside, I’m really trying not to let this derail my academic career. My question is, would it be possible for me to contact the universities that I’m applying to and ask them if I could submit just two instead of the required three letters of recommendation? With some deadlines less than a week away, I’m worried that this professor might write a bad LOR to try to keep me out of academia, or threaten me with it. Most importantly, it’s too late for me to find another professor to write my letter of recommendation at this point in time (unless I can explain the situation to them, but even then, that would be extremely difficult).

However, I’m also wary of spinning what might seem like a sob story to admissions committees, even though this is not my intention at all. I’m not sure how something like this would be viewed in the US. Please, I would appreciate any advice on this matter.

That's really awful, and I'm so sorry someone whose job it is to help you instead put you in this difficult position.

When you applied for your masters program did you have strong letters from professors at your undergraduate school?  While all things being equal it is better to get letters from people who have interacted with you more recently, having one letter that's only a year or two old should be fine.  Since those professors already wrote you a letter, there's a good chance that they'd be able to update it and resend it easily.  This may be more practical than getting a totally new person on such short notice.  It also seems clearly better than only having two letters.


How to build a better positive image of yourself to your Ph.D. advisor I am currently a first-year Ph.D. student taking a course sequence with my Ph.D. advisor. The first class of the sequence went really well, however, the second class is not going as well.  The most notable instance is I copied down a problem incorrectly from the homework prompt.  This is the first time in my life I have ever done so, and I was extremely embarrassed about it.  An embarrassing instance outside of the class was during a one-on-one discussion.  He asked me a question, and I froze and could not think correctly, and said a factually incorrect thing.  With the combination of these things, I am beginning to worry my advisor thinks I am stupid, and thus not cut out for a Ph.D.  I think one aspect of why I am so nervous around him is he's extremely famous and I think that gets to me.
Anyway, I was curious if anyone had suggestions on how to proceed with any of the two instances I mentioned to help me improve my situation.

If that's the first time you've copied a problem down incorrectly, I'd bet you're the type of student whose conscientious work is obvious to your advisor and other professors in your department (whom you should also be developing relationships with, even at this early stage, btw). Also, keep in mind that admissions committees (especially in departments that can attract "famous" professors) don't casually accept students; if you weren't cut out for it, you probably wouldn't be there to begin with.
In any case, no reasonable advisor would expect a first-year student to get every fact right or never make mistakes. In the unlikely case your advisor does happen to have those expectations and/or does think, based on two inconsequential mistakes, that you're not cut out for the program, you have plenty of time to find a new advisor, which is not at all unusual. More importantly, it sounds like you may be assuming the advisor thinks these things, since you don't mention any specific reaction he had that indicates as much. But even if he did give some feedback or correction, keep in mind that giving feedback and critique is what they're there for, and receiving that critique and advice is what you're there for. It's crucial for survival in grad school that students not take criticism personally—after all, if you're planning to be an academic at least, proposing some idea and having other people critique it is pretty much what you'll be doing for the rest of your career. If your advisor did give some clear indication he's displeased with your progress, you might consider explaining the circumstances or somehow remediating the situation—but if there wasn't an explicit indication (and even if there was) he's probably forgotten about the whole thing by now. You're likely better off just keeping on with the hard work and reminding yourself as often as you can that you belong there and that all grad students who aren't egomaniacs are constantly wracked with self-doubt and that you're probably doing just fine.
But here's the most important thing, which I don't think most grad students (of which I am one) realize soon enough*: the professors are there because they want to teach students! If you showed up and knew every single thing perfectly before your first year was over, their lives would be pointless (slight exaggeration, but still). Being a professor is about teaching people things they didn't know before and guiding students in their acquisition of knowledge, so don't feel bad when that occasionally happens. A good advisor will genuinely enjoy feeling like they're actually contributing to your development from student to colleague, and your making mistakes early on is part of that process.

*I didn't figure it out on my own either; I was lucky that someone very wise told me this when I was distraught after my first teaching evaluation (which in retrospect was actually full of constructive feedback that I took as harsh criticism simply because it included room to improve).


As a post-doc, can work on applications of existing methods harm my career prospects? I'm a first year post doc in bioinformatics and am currently working on an application project based on other's method previously developed in the lab. The application would simply be applying the existing algorithm to a biological problem and validate with experiment data. Since I'm interested in a academia faculty position, would this diminish my chance (potentially due to novelty issues by simply cashing out others work), or should I suggest to my advisor that I would rather work on other project based on my own ideas and develop my own methods? Does application of an existing method counted as novel by the academia? This project is assigned by my current PI and I'm constantly worry that I will be viewed as unoriginal by working on others method. I had to ask because my PI keep me piling up more of these "case studies" recently. I just feel that my PI care more about successful applications of this existing algorithm. If I did a great job on these projects, would this be helpful to me academically? I just want to make sure before I accept more of these cases or maybe talk to my PI so I can work on a novel direction. Thanks for advices/suggestions.

As a general rule: publications tend to be the measure of whether something is novel. So, if you are publishing, I'd say you indeed are helping your academic career. If you aren't publishing: that is a major complaint you can bring up with your PI. Here you can use the outsize importance of publications in academia to your advantage. You can debate all day long whether your work is novel enough with your PI, but no one can justify leaving you without publications.

Also, it is important whether these applications are helping you grow as a researcher. Are these applications trivial, mindless work, or do you learn things while working on them? Are you getting faster/better at implementing them? Are you ever surprised at results, or can you predict what the results are going to be before the experiments are done?
Note that breakthroughs in science often rely on a strong grasp of the fundamentals and the context in which the work is done. Having strong experience in applying those algorithms could be essential in later designing them yourself.


My paper was rejected following a lengthy delay during which an editor published a similar paper I have had a very bad experience with a journal. After nine months under review, the system showed that a decision had been made; I have checked and was “revise and resubmit”. Two days later, the editor contacted me to let me know that the paper has been rejected.

I don’t how to proceed with that journal and felt really disappointed and frustrated especially after it took such long time to respond. I also discovered that one member of the journal's editorial board has published a similar paper in the following issue.

Any advice on how to handle such a situation?

I would suggest submitting your paper to a different journal, but as a counter to the charge that "it's already published in journal X," include the correspondence you had with journal X.

This should alert a responsible editor to the fact that something wasn't right at the other journal, and may be willing to give your paper a fair shake.

I'd also consider lodging a complaint with the publisher of the journal. This sounds like an ethical lapse somewhere: another paper got published, but yours was out of scope?


Is is inappropriate to bring a +1 to a gradate school recruiting weekend? I have a recruiting/visit weekend coming up for one of my prospective PhD programs (to which I've already been admitted). Travel is covered, and my hotel is paid for. Food is provided the entire weekend. I had intended to bring my girlfriend. She is my SO of 6 years; we live together and moving somewhere for school would be a big decision on both of our parts and she really should be visiting the city/school before I accept anything.

She of course doesn't need specific details about every aspect of the program, as I will no doubt receive, or to meet faculty, and of course the university has no reason to pay for her weekend. My parents also were hinting that they wanted to come, but that's an even bigger stretch, it seems.

Am I overthinking this? Or is it really not appropriate to be bringing a +1 to a recruiting weekend. I can always bring my family members there soon after to show them around.

Bringing a significant other who would be relocating with you to a recruiting weekend is acceptable. In fact, some schools/departments would encourage it. We routinely welcomed SO to our recruiting weekend and saw it as a "good sign" when prospects brought such a person.

I would not bring your parents (would make you seem juvenile, and I have never seen this in practice) and I would also hesitate to bring a significant other who would not be relocating with you.

The next question is which events the SO should attend. This is probably a good question for whoever is planning the recruiting weekend. I would expect the SO to attend social and student-only events (meals, tours, social evening), but not academic events.


Rejected by fellowships, worrying about my future This is the first time I use Stack Exchange. Here are my backgrounds. I am a first-generation poor male immigrant from China to America. None of my members have education beyond middle school. So they cannot help me. Because I was 19 years old, I was too old to go to high school. I attended a community college, transfered to Berkeley to study nuclear physics. I am now a Physics PhD student at MIT. I am now a naturalized U.S. citizen. I applied for all fellowships that I am elligible such as NSF, DOE CSGF, DOE SSGF, Hertz, Soros, Ford, SMART, and NDSEG. I get rejected by Hertz for two cycles and NSF, Soros, DOE CSGF so far. I still have 5 fellowship application pending (DOE CSGF and DOE SSGF are not submitted yet).

I just wonder how to win (or even just get honorable mention or even just move to the interview) these fellowships. I have similar experience when I applied for REU. I applied to about 20 REUs and got an only one REU because the PI was Chinese. I suspect there are connections requirement for some fellowships, which I obviously do not have. Do you think you have any suggestion for my future career in academia if I end up with not getting any fellowships. I also attach the comments of my reviewers from NSF GRFP here. NSF GRFP Comments. Thank you for your inputs.

Most physics graduate students at MIT (and elsewhere) are not supported by fellowships.  Certainly, a fellowship would not hurt, but whether or not you get a fellowship will have very little impact on your future career.  What will matter in the long term will be the quality of your research.

As a graduate student, both your research output and faculty members' evaluations of your research skills will be important.  As you advance further, it will be your personal research quality that will most matter.  Other factors, like the quality of your teaching and presentation skills, will affect whether you get good jobs, but whether you had a prestigious fellowship in graduate school will be basically irrelevant.


Conflict of interest statement for Elsevier I want to submit a research paper to an Elsevier Journal. There is also an invention disclosure associated with this work. I have got the approval of the Technology Transfer Office to submit the paper. Do I need to report anything in the Conflict of Interest statement?

If you intend to license a patent, this might be a conflict of interest.  For example, the interest in getting accurate data might conflict with the interest in getting money from a license.
I recommend disclosure if there is any possibility someone might perceive a conflict of interest.


Am I aiming too high if I am applying to physics graduate schools in Canada? So I'm in the start of the process of applying to graduate school in Canada for a Masters in experimental physics, and am kind of overwhelmed and wondering about some things:

I'm not from Canada and didn't study there, but have Canadian
citizenship. How much help, if any, will this be?
I have somewhat bad overall grades in my undergrad degree (GPA just over 3/4 in a B.Sc(Hons) of 3 years normal undergrad + 1 year higher level courses & research, a high B+ in my uni's system, or 2nd class (1st division)), but am reasonably confident I can get a decent physics GRE score, having done okay on a practice test with no prep. How much would a good GRE score make up for poorish grades, and should I be limiting the schools I'm looking at to less respected ones based on this?
Between 3rd and 4th years of my undergrad, I did a 10 week summer research project, as well as the whole year project in 4th year. Would this amount of research experience be typical for students from north American universities, or not?

I was looking primarily at the University of Toronto, U of Ottawa, and Simon Fraser University, and then just sort of started feeling like maybe I'm wasting my time & money even applying for them. Any help or suggestions are appreciated.

Let me start with the cheat code of Canadian admissions: in Canada, the professors in the department you apply to look at your application package and decide if they, personally, want to take you on as a student.  This means that the decision is up to the professor: if they want you, you're in; if they don't, no GPA or GRE score can save you.  So the secret is to decide who you want to work with at each school you're applying to, contact them, and convince them you would be an awesome student.

More specifically, for each university, look at its website to find out who works in the area you're interested in.  Look for a list of research groups, such as this one for Toronto.  There will usually be a small number of professors per group; for each professor, get a list of their papers from their website.  (If they don't have such a list, which sometimes happens, try Google Scholar, but make sure you're finding the right John Smith.)  Pick the professor (or two) whose work seems most interesting to you and look at their papers in a little more depth.  Don't worry if you don't fully understand them -- if you did, you wouldn't need to go to grad school -- but try to get the general idea of what the authors did and why.  Then email the professor, briefly and politely covering the following points:

Ask if they are accepting new students this year. (They may be low on grant money, going on sabbatical, etc.)
Describe your research interests.  If you wrote a paper or gave any talks about your research, mention it.  Good communication skills are essential in research.
Describe how your research interests fit with the professor's own interests (which you're familiar with from their papers).
Reaffirm your interest in their work and show off your preparation by asking a question about one of their recent papers.

This is obviously time consuming, but it will greatly increase your chances of getting in.  Most professors will be impressed by your interest and level of preparation.  (I say "most" because there is one professor in my department who complains bitterly about getting emails from prospective students.  You may encounter one of these, if you're unlucky, but the good news is that you wouldn't want to work with them anyway.)  Use your institutional email address to minimize the chance of getting caught in spam filters.

One other point: in Canada, at least, many STEM fields have two kinds of master's degrees:

A terminal or coursework master's, which you get by taking a certain number of courses (8 in my department).  You cannot enter a PhD program with this degree (hence terminal) and you usually don't get any funding.  They can be often be completed in a year or sixteen months.
A non-terminal or thesis master's.  These are intended to prepare you for a PhD, so you get the degree by taking a smaller number of courses (4 in my department) and writing a thesis.  These are usually fully funded and take two years to complete.

Now, let me (finally) get to your actual questions.

How helpful is Canadian citizenship?  Somewhat helpful if you're applying for a non-terminal degree.  I mentioned that these are usually funded, which means you get a stipend to cover your tuition and living expenses.  However, the tuition you pay depends on your citizenship.  Canadian universities are subsidized by the government, so citizens (taxpayers) are charged less than non-citizens.  This in turn means that international students need a bigger stipend to cover their higher tuition.  All else being equal, a professor will choose a cheaper citizen over an expensive international student.  Being a citizen will also make it slightly easier to win scholarships, since many require citizenship or permanent residence.
How important are grades? Most programs require a minimum undergraduate average of 78%/B+, so you're definitely borderline.  Stay above the minimum if at all possible, and if there is an explanation for your grades (e.g. illness), include it in your application.  If you did better in later years or courses that are core to your degree, mention that.  Nobody cares if you failed underwater basket weaving, but if you failed calculus, you're in trouble.  Finally, make contact with the professors you want to work with; if they want to accept you, grades will be much less of an issue.
How important are GRE scores? Practically irrelevant.  Students with a non-Canadian bachelor's are sometimes (not always) asked to submit scores for the general test, but as far as I know no program asks for scores on the subject tests.
How helpful is research experience? All honours undergraduate programs in Canada require a thesis or a capstone project in the final year, so this isn't special.  Fewer students do summer research, so that will help your application.  The main issue is that "research experience" is a fairly meaningless term, so when you write your application letter, be as specific as possible about what you did and learned.  "I have research experience" is not nearly as powerful as "I learned the standard technique for measuring XXX and applied it to a project exploring effect YYY.  I then presented the results at conference ZZZ."

Final disclaimer: I'm in computer science at Waterloo.  As far as I know, everything I said is true for physics departments and other universities, but I can't guarantee it.


Why should footnotes be avoided in scientific publications (natural science)? Here are some guidelines and rules regarding the use of footnotes for different journals in Earth Science and IT:

  Footnotes are used only for author affiliations and tables.  Incorporate all other footnoted information into text.

Source: http://publications.agu.org/author-resource-center/text-requirements/

  Footnotes should be used sparingly. Number them consecutively throughout the article. Many word processors build footnotes into the text, and this feature may be used. Should this not be the case, indicate the position of footnotes in the text and present the footnotes themselves separately at the end of the article.

Source: https://www.elsevier.com/journals/information-and-computation/0890-5401/guide-for-authors or https://www.elsevier.com/journals/journal-of-volcanology-and-geothermal-research/0377-0273/guide-for-authors

I am wondering what the reasoning is behind making people avoid using footnotes. Can I not, in some cases, create more readable text by adding some kind of tangential information in a footnote rather than incorporating it into the text?

If you don't stop/discourage researchers from adding footnotes, you will end up with articles with huge amounts of footnotes. As you are doing research you will learn a lot about a specific topic, and most of that will not end up in the final article. The temptation is to add that to footnotes. However, a good article is one that has a very specific aim and does only that. So you should resist that temptation. Such rules are there to help you.


How do you insert links to a printed report? I want to write something along the lines of:

For this I shall be using the foo library

And I wish to insert a link to said library, but I am confused as how to properly write the link. Do I insert it as a citation, a footnote, or just leave it there in the text?

I prefer footnote or in text. Others would also consider using a citation. Check your local style guide. Here is one possibility (http://lib.westfield.ma.edu/webapa.htm)


What is a "running title"? I'm about to submit a paper and the format requires a running title in addition to the actual title. What is it for, and is it supposed to be longer or shorter than the actual title? Should I abbreviate the title, or take the opportunity to convey another message that could not be included in the main title?

Running title: "the title or abbreviated title of a volume printed at the top of left-hand text pages or sometimes of all text pages"

It allows readers to determine which paper they're looking at just by glancing at the top of the page.

If your actual title is already very short, use your actual title. If your actual title is not very short, use an abbreviated version of it as the running title. (The maximum length is often set by the publisher; for example, APA style sets the maximum length of the running head to 50 characters, APS style allows 55 characters, etc.)


Why do citation styles for webpages include accessed date? I do understand that citations should be as precise as possible (including e.g. edition of a book or a page number), so that ideally, the reader can find the information exactly as I found it when writing.

I also understand that the problem with citing webpages is that they can change. But how does including the date when I accessed the page help anything? The reader still won't be able to read the same version I did (unless the page includes history, which is very rare). And comparing the accessed date with the current date isn't very helpful either: some webpages change multiple times per day, some aren't modified for years.

Or is the accessed date useful for some other purpose?

A URL does not refer to content, it is only an address.  Since you are making a claim about what was written at that address, you must associate a date with it, or it is meaningless.

If you do such a thing, you should also save the content, in case it is not recoverable and you want to refer to it again or support it further.


Visa and funding options for undergraduate internship in US I wrote to a professor (let's say Prof. X) in a US university (cannot disclose the name) for an internship over the next summer. Prof. X is happy to have me work with him.

The university has a program for interns (that takes students through the J1 visa program) but the dates do not match with my home university's summer break schedule and I cannot overstay. I asked Prof. X about this and whether I could work as a student independent of the program. He's not sure if he can help me with the visa process if I don't come through the program but he said that he's looking into it. I also sent a mail to the program manager's office 2 weeks ago but they haven't replied back.

Also, I cannot apply for a J1 visa without a source of external funding. My country does not have any government scholarships to fund such research internships. I'm unsure of asking Prof. X for funding because I don't know the proper etiquette in the US and if it's polite to ask for funding. I could make do with personal funds, but it would be a big help if there were some external funding.

My questions -

First and foremost, is there any way I can help Prof. X with looking into possible options? I feel bad about not being able to do anything from my side right now.
Should I ask Prof. X if funding is available? If it's not impolite to do so, how should I phrase my request?
Are there any scholarships in the US that I can apply to that would fund me (I have a very good resume)?
If the university is not able to provide a DS2019 for the J1 visa to students wishing to work independent of the program, what other visa options do I have and would they also need external funding? I know that the F1 visa is not an option as that requires enrollment in a university.

Edit 1 - My home university's summer break starts and gets over a month earlier than the specified dates of the program at the US university. I will not be allowed by my home university to register for a semester more than a week late.

I doubt that there is a lot that you can do. A lot of the options will depend on the internal policies of the university and/or the department concerned. Since your professor is better placed to contact the department administration, international students office and any other entities involved in the process, him/her coordinating the process would result in the most efficient resolution of the problem.
Absolutely. You only stand to gain if you do. Professors understand that it could be expensive for international students to fund themselves and will do all they can to help you with it. Its best to phrase your question in a brief, straightforward but polite manner.
A lot of the scholarships require a US citizenship or permanent residency. Your best option would be to contact your home university, destination university or your home government to look into options to sponsor your trip.
As far as I know the F1 full time enrollment requirement is for the academic terms and does not apply to summer programs. The best judge of this would of course be the International Student Office at your destination university since it is a matter of university policy.


How to obtain a readable format of an article? It became a real problem for me. I need to read some old articles for my research but these qualities are so bad that I can't even read the text. For example, this article "https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0012365X74901368?via%3Dihub".

Do you have any opinion on my problem?

You have two options. Either you try to locate a paper copy (or a copy thereof) of the journal issue via your local library and if necessary via the interlibrary loan or you contract the vendor of the digital copy (sciencedirect in your case) and complain about the quality of the digitised paper asking them to upload a better-quality version. I tried this with another publisher (degruyter) and it took a couple of months before they updated the digital copy of the paper on their website.


In single-blind peer-review, can you reveal your identity without the editor's consent? In my field (chemistry), review is always done in a single blind process, i.e. the author does not know who the referees were, but the referees do know who the authors are. In ten years, I have never seen a referee breaching this anonymity, e.g. by signing their review, unless they got prior approval by the editor (in order to continue discuss things further with the authors, once the manuscript was accepted for publication).

So, it seemed logical to assume that in single blind peer-review, the reviewer should not disclose his identity without the editor's consent. Yet, some people have told me (here and there; also IRL a friend from human sciences) that they have seen people sign their reviews, or write emails to them after the review but before the paper is published.

So, in single-blind peer-review, can you reveal your identity without the editor's consent? Does it depends on the customs of each field, or is there a hard rule? (in which case, the few anecdotes I heard were outliers)

I would think that it's a bad idea to open the possibility of referees communicating with authors, since this opens the possibility of authors' influencing referees, compromising the process. Of course, this is not to say that there aren't some positive possibilities, but the conflict-of-interest criterion seems to me in this case to be clearly manifest.

That is, it should be understood, implicitly or explicitly, that referees will remain anonymous "in perpetuity", so that there is no hint or possibility that authors could communicate with them or influence them. E.g., either overt or subtle invitations from authors to a referee to communicate (and get some credit for the paper, maybe co-authorship, etc., as discussed around here some time back...) would be understood in advance to fail absolutely.

Thus, editors who discover referees willing to engage in such would probably regretfully stop asking them to referee, since if such activity became known it would seriously damage the reputation of the journal... if only in principle, but "principle" would seem to be the point...


Addressing a professor - culture clash I am a Ph.D. student in a country where everyone is addressed by their first name (professors etc.). I call my advisors by their first names and when we have visitors in our research group I go by this rule. However, now I am visiting a German university and I don't really know how to address the professor who has invited me. Before my stay, I would call him by his first name - but now that I have met him at his university and his Ph.D. students (who seem to call him Prof. X) I am becoming unsure about it. Consequently, I have been very inconsistent with how I have been addressing him.

My questions are:

should I apologize for being inconsistent/possibly being rude? Or am I overthinking this?
how should I address him?

A lot of us who live in both worlds (I am German and frequently visit there, but live and work in the US), we call colleagues we don't know well by their first name when we meet in the US, and by Professor X when we meet in Germany. In other words, we use the common convention of the place we're in. That's probably a good rule for you to live by as well.


What is the difference between a thesis and a dissertation? I have seen some sites that distinguish a dissertation as what is written as the requirements of a doctoral degree.

Others that distinguish a thesis as a document written for the fulfillment of any degree (Bachelors, Masters or Doctoral) while a dissertation is a more general name for a document where someone is presenting findings.

I am curious if there is any more rigorous definition which distinguishes the two, but my more immediate question is this:

I am writing the document to fulfill a doctoral degree. Within the text of the document do I refer to it as a "Dissertation" or a "Thesis"?

For example: "A more thorough review of this analysis is presented in Chapter 5 of this ________."

Maybe the fact that the [thesis] is the tag used for all of these documents is an indication of the answer?

I've also seen this question on this site, but it doesn't seem to answer my question:
What are the main differences between undergraduate, master's, and doctoral theses?

"Work" is just as good as either. There's no need for precision or rigor here. All three would be acceptable.


Double major in Physics and engineering for career safety I am an Indian undergraduate student completing my BTech in Industrial Engineering in one of top three universities in India. I am planning to move on to physics for graduate school and I have a proper profile for it with research projects and internships in physics. I am confident I would get accepted to a good graduate program for physics, probably in the United States.

After browsing through the forums I found, it appears that a masters or PhD in physics is not a very lucrative option in terms of career. I in fact read that people are still in search of jobs after their PhD for three or four years. I also heard engineers have significantly greater career security after their graduation. So I am considering a double major in Physics as well as in Engineering to increase my future job prospects. I am determined focus on Physics in my masters program so it seems I should either to major in Physics and minor in Engineering or major in both. My primary job preference would be in the field of Physics academia, but wouldn't mind shifting to other areas.

What is the best choice of undergraduate major/minors to provide me the best career prospects?

At least in Europe, and probably in the US too, physicists are highly considered in industry, the unemployment rate is almost a technical zero. Doing research is another different beast: there are not so many positions, and you have to fight for them. Also, Academia not a very lucrative career path: a first job for a physicist or an engineer in industry may grant them 3-4 times more than in grad school (depending on the conditions), and it continues onwards.

I see you are eager to study both degrees, which is commendable, knowledge never hurts. What you need to consider is the costs, both economical (can you afford the university?) and in effort (can you really do both degrees at the same time?). Both degrees are difficult, and will take a great emotional toll.

Some universities offer double degrees, where you end having both titles, and the subjects are (hopefully) sorted and arranged in the most convenient way for the student. For example, in Physics and Maths you need linear algebra; in a double degree you would only take the courses from Maths, as the ones in Physics are a subset. If the university does not have this arrangement, you may find yourself doing the same subjects twice, that may lead to added frustration.

Another cost are the grades: doing two things means you cannot do them both so well. Some admission put hard thresholds on the grades, and they may or may not consider your second degree as a sufficient merit to lower it. On the other hand, and provided the grades are not very damaged, almost any employer will see it as a great CV boost and will make it easier to get an industrial job.

As a last advice: if you go for it, be aware of your limits and ready to drop one of them if things get difficult before it brings you down. A degree and a half is a merit, two three-quarter degrees are two failures.


After completing a Mathematics degree and an Electrical Engineering degree, is it possible to pursue a master in Physics? I am currently studying Electrical Engineering and a Bachelor in Mathematics. I'm interested in theoretical physics, and I wonder if it is possible to pursue a Master degree in theoretical physics after completing my current studies. Or may be if I could later apply for a Master (or Phd) in Mathematics and be able to contribute to theoretical physics in some way, or if you know any other possible way I could get into theoretical physics. Sorry if this was a stupid question, and for any grammatical mistake (if there is any, english is not my mother tongue, so feel free to correct this).

Sure. People change their field of study between degrees all the time. Hopefully you can take some higher level physics courses and count them toward your current degrees. You could also seek out a physics research project to gain some experience in the field. You should talk to physicists at your institution and get their opinions. They may have specific advice.