How to speed up publishing papers? In my field, good journals often seem to take around 12-20 weeks to review papers. As was suggested in a previous post, "How is it in my best interest not to submit a paper to two journals simultaneously?," one should not submit same paper to two journals. But none is omniscient to do multiple papers on various topics. Can any one kindly suggest how to speed up the publication process? Can journals reduce time? Or is this suggestion acceptable only after acceptance?

If I'm understanding correctly, the problem you're concerned about is what to do when you've just submitted a paper, and now you have a long wait before you can submit the follow-up paper.  Your question then presumes that a good solution to this problem is to try to accelerate the publication process.

I think that is a bad assumption.  There is no reason that you need to be stalled on your forward progress just because a paper is under review.  Here are two good alternatives that work within the system.

You can continue directly building on the same direction.  If you get to a major milestone and are ready to submit a new paper before the previous one is finished reviewing, you can submit a paper citing the one under review as "submitted," and include the draft paper as supplementary review-only information.
Research typically has a lot of "branching path" options getting catalogued in your "future work" sections.  Why not take a secondary path that you've wanted to investigate but isn't in the same exactly line of progression as the paper currently under review?  That will likely lead to its own interesting results that can be published without dependency on the paper currently under review.

It also seems possible to me that this concern may have arisen due to trying to publish too incrementally.  If you cluster your work into larger "publication units" the time lag will likely be less problematic and a smaller number of significant papers is generally better for your career than a bunch of little incremental papers that nobody cares about.


Can i put the submitted paper in the arxiv? I'm not so familiar about the regulations regarding arxiv and conference papers.

Recently i submitted a conference paper and it's under review, but i couldn't put all the supplementary materials (proofs and extra analysis, pseudo-code etc) in the submitted paper due to the limited space!

So legally can i put the complete version in arxive, hoping if the reviewer search for the related works he might notice the complete version by chance. Then he can benefit from the extra supplementary materials provided there to better understand the submitted version?

Also arxiv is like putting the paper there, or you also need to wait for the acceptance from arxiv?

If you have just submitted the paper, chances are you haven't given the rights over to the committee. As long as you haven't agreed to some terms and conditions that gives temporary ownership to the conference, then you should still have ownership of the paper and can do what you want with it.

If you want to be doubly sure, a short email to the conference proceedings editor can erase any doubt you may have.


Is there a reason to report standardized test scores on crazy ranges? The SAT comprises two sections, each scored on the range 200-800 (in 10-point increments, so it's really 20-80), so the final score is on the range 400-1600. It used to have three such sections, for a total range of 600-2400.

The GRE, on the other hand, comprises three sections, two of which are scored on the range 130-170, in 1-point increments, and the third is scored 2-8, in 1-point increments.

This makes scores hard to interpret from a lay perspective, even though you can easily look up percentile conversion tables (SAT, GRE[pdf]).

Is there any legitimate reason to make scores more difficult to interpret than necessary? Why not report percentiles? Or even just score on 0-100?

There is indeed no statistical reason to use these unusual ranges - zero to one hundred would do the job just as well. So why don't they just use that scale?

The main reason is that most standardized tests need to use some kind of difficulty scaled scoring system, to allow having different editions of the tests etc. One easy way to stop people from mixing up the scaled score and say a raw percentage score is to use a different range for the scaled scores. See e.g. Why Do Standardized Testing Programs Report Scaled Scores? written by two ETS psychometricians (Xuan Tan and Rochelle Michel) in 2011. Relevant quote:

  If two test takers taking
  Forms A and B respectively got the same scaled score of 194 (corresponding to raw
  scores of 95 on Form A and 96 on Form B), we know these two test takers exhibited the
  same level of performance on this test. One might ask: Why not report the adjusted
  scores for Form B instead of the scaled scores? This is because the adjusted scores
  would be on the same scale as the raw scores and could be easily misinterpreted as the
  raw scores. Thus, the scaled scores are used and are commonly set to a range of values
  different from the raw score values.

The same is true for percentile scores, which are easily misinterpreted for the percent of correctly answered questions. The test takers can probably figure out the right interpretation either way, but with this approach e.g. parents less conversant with SAT scoring or percentiles are more likely to go "oh, 1500, is that good?" rather than "only 52%?!".

Next, the test designer has to pick an actual range. As far as I understand it, this is somewhat arbitrary. It involves picking an increment (e.g. 1 or 10),

  For example, the scaled score can be reported in various increments (1-point increments,
  5-point increments, 10-point increments, etc.). Usually, we want each additional
  correct answer to make a difference in the test takers’ scaled score, but not such a large
  difference that people exaggerate its importance. The selection of a score scale, with
  appropriate increments, aids in the usefulness of the reported scaled scores to the
  test-score users.

Then you naturally have an interval of scaled scores, which can be offset to whatever minimum you prefer. See e.g. the answers to Why do some tests have a (nonzero) minimum score? for more details.


Recommendation letter for a good student that you don't know? Let say you a professor and there are lots of students, say 100 in your course. After the exam, a student whose final mark is, say 85/100, sends you an email to ask you for a recommendation letter. Assuming that you don't know him, or just remember that he went to your lecture some times (of course you can check his mark). Will you write a recommendation letter for him?

As ff524 said, if the professor has only the grade to go on, there is little to write an recommendation letter about. The only situation I an think of where this would be very relevant is:

if the course is an essential test for further studies. Doing an American undergraduate with a mathematics major might only have a few courses that are really challenging your abstract thinking skills. Doing well in those courses might be a good predictor of doing well in further studies.
there were other students that got similar scores in that course and went on to do well in further studies. Best case scenario: last year the same university accepted a student who got an 80-84 in this course.

So both the course needs to be very relevant for the further studies you are considering and the grade itself should be high enough as to clearly predict success in those further studies. If either is not the case (the course is one of many, or your grade is just not exceptional), the professor simply can't write a good recommendation letter, regardless of how willing (s)he would be.


Leaving my tenure-track position for industry in January 2021, Things have really gone downhill in our department because of Covid-19, and I and a few other colleagues (also on the tenure track) are planning to leave at the end of this semester, for industry.
To whom should I first resign with?  The Chair of the department?
My mind is made up, so I'm seeking the least painful path forward.  I have a job offer lined up already.
Thanks in advance.

When I left I first informally talked to my direct line manager to whom I usually reported (which was in my case the head of the department). Then my official (and signed) letter went to human resources to formalize the termination of my contract. Then talk to your PhD students / postdocs etc .. It was a slightly different situation as I left after I already had tenure but I guess the same procedure might work best for you as well.


Is there a way to improve the readability of equations in research papers? I read a lot of computer science papers, and have to understand a lot of equations. Most of the time the concept is so easy, that someone could explain it to me in 5 minutes. I one the other hand need up to an hour to get it.

It is difficult for me to search for the variables in the text, and often I print the paper out and write the meanings of each variable down on the side.

My questions:

So why is it not common to make equations and algorithms more readable?

Is there some PDF reader plugin which highlights the variables in text?
Any tips on how to improve in reading such papers?

Why do authors not add an additional list to each equation with a list and explanation of each variable. Should I do that?

I do not believe that the problem is fundamentally about space, but rather is a cultural problem that stems from three things:

Reviewers do not demand clarity in their mathematics
There is often a perception that "fancy" or "difficult" math means more important science (related to #1)
Really clear presentation of mathematics is difficult and takes a lot of work
("I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.")

Ultimately, a community tends to get what it rewards.  There is no reason that math must be impenetrable.  Even if one is faced with a space problem, you can play the same sort of games that you do with figures and data in order to fit.  Right now, however, it is typically understood and accepted that you don't have to do that with your mathematics.  In fact, some scientific communities will punish a researcher for presenting mathematics more clearly, because it makes the work look "less significant."

Technology cannot help solve this, because ultimately it is a problem of human communication.  Anyone who is bothered by mathematical impenetrability can, however, take their own small steps towards changing this culture:

In your own work:

Include tables and clear explanations in your papers.
Use as few symbols as possible, and choose the symbols to improve clarity, e.g., matching the symbol to the first letter of its description.
Buffer your equations with explanatory prose that restates their content in plain English.

When considering other people's work:

Call out mathematical impenetrability as a reviewer
Ask for tables, clear prose, etc. in the papers that you review
View the mathematical impenetrability of a work as a flaw rather than a good thing.

This is a very difficult problem, and unlikely to change any time soon, but it can be made better one paper at a time.  Moreover, it is my belief (and experience), that clearer mathematics can make for a higher impact and better cited paper, so it will likely be valuable to you in the short term as well, unless you are in a community that has a toxic relationship to mathematical impenetrability.


Do professors procrastinate? I'm a Masters student and graduating in two weeks. I need to admit that I procrastinated A LOT while working on my thesis. If I do my Ph.D. I expect myself to procrastinate a lot there too. However, I'm wondering if this habit vanishes as the individual gets more senior in academia. So maybe as the person gets more senior in academia, they learn to handle this habit better.

My questions:

Is true that the more senior you become, the more you are able to handle this bad habit?
Do professors procrastinate too?

No. I think that procrastination is a lifetime problem. I'm doing it right now, and while not a professor, I'm a senior researcher at a university.
Yes. Everyone procrastinates.

I suppose that some people manage to never procrastinate, but my brain doesn't work that way. Don't worry, it's normal.


CV heading to include participation in scientific/organization commitees? How do you name the section on your CV to list your participation as scientific/organization members in academic events (e.g. conferences, workshops, etc.)?

Thanks

"Service" activities are usually listed under a heading such as "Professional Service" or "Professional Activities." However, this does not apply to simply attending or presenting at conferences and workshops, but rather to organizing or scientific committees.


Is there a tool to visualize the citation network which works with Google Scholar? I know about tools like CitNet Explorer and VOSviewer, but they only work with Web of Science, which doesn't contain many papers I'd like to have in the network.

Is there any software, which does the same thing with data from Google Scholar?

To my knowledge, at the time of writing, Google Scholar does not define an API to access data, so presumably no software exists. Beyond Google Scholar and the tools you've already mentioned, you could try  https://www.semanticscholar.org or https://aminer.org. (I'm a little unsure what you mean by citation network, so perhaps they don't satisfy your needs.)


Is a Master of Research qualificaton appreciated in Australia? I feel like they are fairly unknown. Are they considered worthwhile in academic contexts? What about in the health sector etc?

In the Australian context a Masters by Research is typically a 2 year research project. I.e., it is intended to be smaller in scale and scope than a PhD (which is notionally 3 years, although often takes more).

The degree to which students do Masters versus PhD research degrees varies quite a bit across disciplines. I have a casual impression that a masters by research might be more common in engineering/computing disciplines, but I could be wrong. In contrast, in my discipline of psychology, almost all research students do a PhD (or start a masters with the intention of upgrading to a PhD).

A few points

Some people do a masters by research if they want to do a PhD but did not do an undergraduate thesis (e.g., an honours thesis). Thus, the masters gives them the research experience that they need to then enrol in a PhD.
Some people enrol in a masters by research with the intention of upgrading to a PhD. This can be a requirement where the student does not meet the entry requirements for a PhD (e.g., grades not high enough). If the student demonstrates good progress in the early period of candidature, they may be permitted to upgrade.
A third group of people start a PhD, but decide part way through that they are unable to complete a project at the scale of a PhD. They then may apply to submit a Masters thesis. Similarly, one outcome of submitting a PhD thesis for evaluation is that the PhD is not awarded but a masters is (this is clearly an undesirable outcome).
Other people simply want to get some research experience, but they do not wish to do a project as big as a PhD.

If you are wishing to get an academic position, a PhD is usually required.


What steps can faculty and staff take to promote excellence in, and importance of, teaching? tl;dr

Faculty don't think teaching is as important as their other responsibilities; how do we change that?

Long version

I've been working in academia for a long time and whenever I see instructors half-assing their teaching the go to excuses are that they have no time, or that it doesn't get any respect/grants/promotion/tenure/etc. I don't doubt they're busy, and I know departments don't typically reward teaching excellence (or punish teaching mediocrity...) but the students are suffering as a result.

How can we (faculty that care about teaching and staff supporting faculty) change this situation? What can we do short-term to make faculty care about teaching now and what can we do long-term to make departments care about excellence in teaching, and not just in research?

Note: I'm aware research brings in money. Keep in mind most faculty are adjuncts who aren't doing research but still have tenured research faculty that don't care about teaching as their role models.

Putting in place a better system for evaluating teaching than today's student evaluation forms would be a good start.  Getting serious about the assessment of student learning outcomes (rather than simply assigning grades) would also be extremely helpful.


How do I distribute a survey questionnaire to obtain a reasonable response rate? I have built a survey questionnaire focused on Software Engineering Researchers and now I need to distribute it, but I am not so sure how. My questions are:

Are there any other means to distribute it to obtain a reasonable response rate while bearing in mind the survey population?
Is it ok to use a electronic mailing list for it? (Regarding both the survey integrity and the mailing list protocols)
If so, are there any appropriate mailing lists to my field?

I have recently subscribed to SBC's mailing list and I got used to receiving questionnaires through it. I have done some research and only found ACM's SIGSOFT.
Editions made to solve any misunderstandings are in bold

The University you are affiliated with likely has a 'behavioural research ethics board' or some similar title as was pointed out by @GEdgar. Such surveys constitute behavioural research and require approval by an ethics committee. The ethics application will usually require that you provide information about how participant anonymity will be maintained (YES -- even if that's a 'given'), how/where you will store the data and for how long, and what you will do with the data. The application, in most cases, can be completed online. If you are not the PI, bring your PI in the loop and get them on board. If applicable, you will LIKELY -- not necessarily -- need them to 'sponsor' your endeavour.
Edit
It is okay once 'ethics' says it's okay, which it likely will. This is minimal risk behavioural research that will likely see a quick turn around time. Also, the ethics application will require that you share with them the survey you are distributing. As you likely know, if you are using Qualtrics (or equivalent), it should be straightforward to download the questionnaire/survey. Search "YOUR INSTITUTION" AND "ETHICS" on Google. No doubt, you will find the right contacts, and I'm sure they'd be delighted to provide you with additional information, such as sample applications.


How can I make sure I'll get credit for my work when working with unwanted and untrusted collaborator? I am taking a course with a major final project. I was looking for a topic when my co-advisor noticed this. He suggested that I do a project related to my master thesis, and I agreed since I didn't know what I was going to do. He suggested that we do a certain design in half between me and a colleague of mine during a brief meeting with the course instructor. The course instructor asked if we are going to team up and I said no (I am not a team player). I submitted a proposal saying what I will do and as stretch goal, I will complete the whole design on my own.

I ended doing a very smart design in one week and my co-advisor was very impressed. He said that one part of my design could be patented. The whole design can make it to top conferences. Now he is saying you both, me and my colleague, should work together to finish the whole design. I still have 3 weeks to go and I have almost finished his part too. I feel very mad now and I don't want to give him any credit that he didn't deserve(His is part is much simpler than mine).

He is asking me to show him my design and I am not comfortable with that since he, in two occasions, performed "unethical actions" during these projects. He could easily claim that this is his work as well.

On the other hand, I don't want to start a fight with my co-advisor who suggested a paper that helped me in my design. He also knows my design and likes my colleague much more than me. He could easily tell him do this and that.(I feel like I made a mistake showing him, my co-advisor, my design).

What would be a smart move in this situation ? What words should I use to explain this to my advisor ? I just want to protect myself and get the credit for the work I did.

Communication is needed and you need to communicate to your co-advisor your feelings rather than second-guessing things and increase your frustration. You may lack some aspects of the picture that your advisor's see. So I would suggest the following:

Prepare everything to as close as the final product (manuscript) you can at this point. Add your name as sole author (unless anyone else deserves co-authorship at this stage)
Present the work to your co-advisor for discussion and point out what "little" is left to do and discuss what remains to be done. This can then lead to understanding of what other could contribute that is not accomplished in your work.
Once you have the situation a little more clear and depending on the outcome, state how you would like to see the distribution of co-authorship and take any discussion that follows.

Hopefully this will put you in a clearer position when considering taking on additional collaborators.

Please also check the tag authors or search for contributorship here on academia to et input on what should be involved in adding names on a manuscript (here is a link to one example).


Will dropping out of a masters make it harder to get accepted to a masters in another field? I'm first year master's student in Iran, but I'm not happy with my field and my university. I want to apply for a new master's program in field of my interest and in europe, say Germany for example. To do that I have to drop my current education. But I worry that dropping my current master's would have bad effects on my application for new master's program. Any idea what should I do?
Thanks in advance.

I can only say this with all of my heart:

Above all else, choose a field that maximizes both your earning potential and your love for the occupation.

In that statement, I've narrowed it down to two variables. You can make it more complicated if you choose, but I'd advise against it. Trust me. 25 years from now, you don't want to regret having chosen the wrong occupation. I can't stress that enough. Look at this resource regarding occupations.


Applying to PhD position (Scandinavia): what should be included in personal letter So I'm thinking about applying for a PhD position in Norway (life sciences). They use a jobb portal for the application, meaning that you just upload your diplomas (bachelor, master, etc.) and write a personal letter. However, I am a bit unsure of what I should include in this letter.

I have written one outcast, where I ended up writing a lot about myself, what bachelor I had and why, and also what master degree project I had, and what came out of this. Then I discussed a bit what I have learned, both my weaknesses and strengths. And finally I try to explain/summarize what laboratory methods I have used, etc.

Does anyone have suggestions of what is more or less important to include? Is it a bad idea to discuss my weaknesses as well, and how I handle them? Should the focus be more on what I know compared to the position, or should it also be a bit personal so that they get the sense of who you are (and if you will fit into the group or not)?

The thing is that most of these suggestions on the web (and here) seemed to be aimed at people who want to apply for degrees in the states, or other places with similar academic structure.  If you take your entire degree in Norway, then there is more or less nothing called internships for life sciences, nor relevant summer jobs (only for a very few lucky people, but it's only routine stuff that you don't really learn a lot from), and master thesis is normally 60 credits (6 months in lab and then writing) which is hardly enough to publish anything. It's therefore hard to know what you should write about. Is it therefore a good idea to discuss who you are, regarding my weakness and strengths compared to the experiences I have? Or should I focus on the courses that I've taken (labs etc), and other experiences outside of academia (e.g. summer job teaching children etc?)?

I believe the general advice given in the other question still applies to your situation. All those you mentioned are good to include, but they are mostly about yourself. To be more complete, you should also include reasons why you choose this particular school to do a PhD, which research topics interest you and why, as well as your aspirations for the future. Remember to be specific and try to relate as much as possible to the school you are applying to.


If I have dropped out of a Masters can I then go on to do a PhD? I attended a masters program in IT and completed everything except for my capstone. Its been almost 7 years since I started and 5 years since I moved out of college.

I now want to apply for a Ph.D.

In these 5yrs I have had one really good research paper published, one patent filled, and worked for two fortune 500 companies. I am presently working as a manager in the same discipline as my masters in a top 5 tech company.

What are my chances to get into Ph.D program?
Also can I use coursework from the masters for a Ph.D?

I assume you are applying for a Computer Science PhD. The following answer is based on my application process (Stanford, Berkeley, CMU, George Mason) in interdisciplinary departments that included CS.  I had two interviews with Universities where I was not subsequently accepted, so I learned something about the decision criteria and process.

That you have Masters-level course work is a positive. That you didn't finish your Masters is probably neutral-to-slightly-negative.  Your published paper is a positive, but your patent will be irrelevant unless it has relevance to research.  Your industry experience is probably also irrelevant to being accepted into a PhD program in CS.

All of these are less important that other aspects of your application: 1) GRE scores (esp. Math), 2) your research goals and 3) recommendations (by one or more academics or researchers).

What I learned is that Math GRE score is a "hurtle" -- you have to have a score above some threshold level to be considered.  They won't tell you what the threshold is, but you should assume that it is the average for their accepted PhD students.

Most important of all are your research goals (and your preparation to achieve those goals) and whether they are aligned with a particular professor in the department. Most PhD students are funded through Graduate Research Assistantships or Graduate Teaching Assistantships.  In CS, it's mostly GRAs.  Mostly, professors admit PhD students that they believe will be good "worker bees" to support them in their research projects.  You may be the most wonderful, inspired, gifted, hard-working applicant in the World, but if your interests don't align with at least one professor who has research funding, then you won't get admitted.

Related to this is recommendations. Admission committees respond especially positively to recommendations from people who are important and relevant to the specific area of research.  Glowing recommendations of your many personal and professional qualities will mean less than specific recommendations that substantiate your aspirations to do research in your proposed area from someone who is important and well-regarded in that field.

Finally, each University has it's own rules about whether they offer credit graduate-level course work.  Mostly it's related to how long ago you got it and where you got it.  Given that it's just 5-7 years ago, you should be fine.  You can position this as: "My previous graduate course work will accelerate me through the PhD program, and allow me to focus time on courses that relate to my research focus."


Alternatives to Google Scholar for citation / lit search / BibTex entries? Simple question: What alternatives are there to Google Scholar for finding citations, doing lit searches, and most importantly, downloading citation data in BibTex?

There are lots of specialized databases (e.g. MathSciNet, ACM, etc.), but I am not aware of any that index across all disciplines the way Google Scholar does. My research is quite multidisciplinary so these specialized databases are usually insufficient.

Paid options: Scopus (bibtex export) and Web of Science (bibtex export)

Free option: Microsoft Academic Search (bibtex export).


Can I mention professors' names in the statement of purpose? For PhD applications, I have mentioned that I am interested in some research areas. Besides, I am thinking about mentioning some professors' names, so that it shows I have read their websites and I am not just sending out generic statements applicable to many schools.

But is it good to mention some professors' names in the statement of purpose, if I don't know them personally? In what cases is it good, and in what cases it isn't?

For example, is it good to only mention

those whose research directions are aligned with my research interests, or/and
those whose books or notes I have heard of, or better, might have read some parts of, or/and
those who are already established and famous (such as having certain titles), or/and
those that are directing the PhD graduate programs, or/and
those that are heads of the departments?

What will other professors who are not mentioned think? How will you do, if it were you?

Your statement of purpose should be specific to yourself and your research interests, first. Mention names only when the owner's work is both relevant and pertinent to your research interests. As JeffE stated,

  If you try to craft the bulk of your statements to different professors in different departments, the result will be much shallower, and therefore much less persuasive, than if you describe your own well-developed research interests.

Your statement of purpose should paint a persuasive and intriguing picture of who you are, and should not be a hodgepodge of famous names and those whom you want to impress. You are trying to sell yourself and your ideas. Mention those whose work you have both read and found relevant to your research (and perhaps cited in your own work), but avoid name-dropping solely for the sake of impressing those who may read your SOP. That said, you should tailor your statement of purpose to the specific department you are applying to. This may include mention of the work of individuals in the department, or those whose work has informed their research. How much of this you should do is a judgement call on your part, and you should lean away from appearing to name-drop for the sake of making an impression.


Publishing an article in a journal without a related degree Are their any requirements to publish an article in a journal without a degree in the field? If so, what are they?

I was curious if people in general can publish in an journal when they have not obtained a degree in the field.

No editor will care (or for that matter could know) about your degree.  What matters is the contents of the submission, and if it meets the standard of the journal.  There are plenty of chemists or electrical engineers who publish in physics journal, plenty of physicists who publish in chemistry or engineering or math journals.


What are the trade-offs of working in the office versus elsewhere (as a professor)? I find that when I'm working on research in the office, at least with the door open, I often get interrupted and am generally less productive.  On the other hand, I often have students ask to meet with me outside of office hours on days when I don't plan to be in my office, and they're unhappy when I mention that I won't be available that day.  I suspect this hurts my student evaluation scores (which are the primary basis for the evaluation of our teaching in our tenure process).

Additionally, as junior faculty, I'm aware that getting tenure is partly about "fitting in" with your department.  In mine, many (most?) folks are in their offices for something closer to 9-5 five days a week, perhaps leaving early on Friday.  When I am in the office, I make a point to stop in and say hi to colleagues, but I'm sure that I'm less visible around the department than many others.

So rather than a specific answer, I guess I'm looking for guidelines in how you approach this type of decision.

I think it's important to set boundaries with students, with colleagues, and with yourself about when and where you're available for meetings.  It's also important to find environments that most effectively support different types of work, and give yourself permission to use them.

Like you, when I'm in my office, I expect to be interrupted; so when I'm working at my desk, I can only productively work on tasks that survive interruption.  Put bluntly, the office is where I have meetings; if I need to think, I find a whiteboard in an empty conference room; if I need to write, I go to a coffee shop.  (Suresh is correct; I am in a coffee shop right now.)  As Daniel says, all three places allow for productive work, but of very different types.  Even in the computer science building, for small meetings where I don't want to be interrupted, I prefer to go to the other person's office.  And because my undergraduate office hours are occasionally very popular (especially right before exams), I don't hold them in my actual office, but in a larger room down the hall with couches and whiteboards.

You express two points of concern, which I'll exaggerate:

My students won't like me if I'm not available on their schedule.  I agree with DQdlM and Nate.  Spread out your office hours to fit as many students' schedules as possible, be in your office (or "office") for every minute of office hours even if nobody shows up, and be willing to offer occasional off-schedule meetings.  It might help to announce in your syllabus times that you're willing to schedule sporadic meetings.  ("I'm also available for occasional meetings Tuesday or Thursday afternoons; send me email to set up an appointment!")  Consider moving (not adding) your office hours if student demand doesn't match your announced schedule.  But then stick to your guns.  Yes, some students will be unhappy, but that's inevitable; don't take it personally.  Your availability outside regular office hours will not be the most significant bit in your student evaluations.
My colleagues won't like me if they don't see me in my office.  I agree with DQdlM and Suresh here.  Yes, it's important to be visible and active citizen of your department; that's not the same thing as being constantly on call.  The amount of time you spend at your desk will not be the most significant bit in your tenure evaluation.  The danger is not that nobody sees you in your office, but that nobody knows what you're doing.  Give regular talks to your colleagues and their PhD students showing off the results of your out-of-office effort.  Go to faculty meetings, and occasionally offer an opinion.  (Careful, that gun is loaded.)  Attend seminars, especially for faculty candidates, and ask questions.  If there is a regular departmental social event ("Tea" in many math departments), be there.  And so on.

Finally, I strongly encourage you to raise these concerns with your department chair or your senior faculty mentors.  (You do have a senior faculty mentor, don't you?  If not, find one!)  They can help you navigate your department culture far better than Some Guy On The Intertubes.


Accepted a PhD offer but no reply I got accepted to a PhD program in England. I received a formal offer letter on January 20th, which stated that I was supposed to contact the Graduate Studies Administrator via email in order to accept the offer. So I sent them an email on January 24th, telling them that I intended to accept it. However, I have not yet received their reply, and I am wondering if my email was properly delivered to them. According to the letter, the deadline to accept the offer is February 14th. Should I send them a follow-up email?

No.

It's only been four days. In fact it's been less than four days, since 24 Jan to 27 Jan includes a weekend.

Be patient and they'll get back to you in time.


Any book or tutorial about good practices or typical mistakes when conducting scientific research? Some days ago I read this question:
Feynman describing a scientific error
and I found it quite interesting. Although it seems naïve it could be a typical mistake made by a beginner researcher as me.

My question is that if anyone knows a book or tutorial that explains the typical mistakes or some advices when conducting research (theoretical or experimental). By the way, I am not asking for advices such as the ones described in
Good research practices
even though they are also useful they are generic tips and do not describe the common errors done when doing research.

Thanks!

Thomas Kuhn's "The structure of scientific revolutions." A fantastic introduction about how advances in science are usually made.


How do you ask someone what he or she would prefer to be called? For example, if you are talking to another researcher from a foreign university, how do you ask him or her what title would he or she be preferred to be called by?

"What's your preferred title" sounds too formal.

"What do you like to be called" sounds too informal.

"Can I call you by your first name" sounds too demanding.

"Are you comfortable with me calling you Doctor. John" sounds...awkward.

Can someone please teach me some academic etiquette?

I think that it is best to err on the side of being too formal. I tend to ask after I refer to their name for the first time: "It's so nice to talk with you, Dr. Smith- Do you prefer Dr. Smith or do you go by another name or title?..." Then continue with your conversation.


Did BSc, doing MSc, applying for PhD. Is it frowned upon to not have a letter from my BSc advisor? I am currently pursuing an MSc and am preparing my PhD application. For this reason, I reach out to professors I know well in order to ask them whether they would be willing to write recommendation letters for me. I got a BSc from a different university and I obtained it by writing a final thesis.
My question is:
At the time of the application, I will only have written a BSc thesis and not yet the one for the MSc. Would it be considered a "red flag" if the professor who supervised my BSc thesis is not one of the three references I provide with my application?
The reasons why I hesitate to ask that professor is that even though my thesis turned out fine, I entirely interacted with one of her PhD students during the process of completing it and not with her personally (there are other professors who I know personally). Also, because she teaches at my old university and not at the one I am currently studying at, I question whether she might have lower incentives to positively recommend me.
Related: here

Will you get a recommendation letter from your current (MSc) supervisor? I would assume that would be the most relevant and important one. References from your last position will likely be the most relevant for the next one, as those are the people that have worked with you most recently.

It might be a bit curious that you omit a recommendation letter from the only completed work you have by the time of application, however if the references you attach to your application are more relevant in terms of timing and topic I think it wouldn't hurt your chances.


Slept through final, professor is giving me a zero and failing me – is there anything I can do to change this? I slept through my 8 am final last Thursday, and I didn’t wake up until 11:50 am. By the time I scrambled to remember what day it was, it was already noon. I frantically sent the professor an email telling her what happened and asked if I could take it in her next section (the syllabus said no, but I was desperate). I found her at her office where she said she couldn’t meet with me unless the head of the department of marketing (her boss) was present. The meeting is tomorrow at 12:30, after two other finals starting at 8.

A 0 is the grade you receive when caught cheating. I did not cheat; I did not lie; I slept. I don’t believe an F is a reflective grade of the knowledge and work that I put into that course is an honest one. I don’t believe that a student should learn and learn for an entire semester and then have one time slot to prove their knowledge. People make mistakes and I need a chance. I need to think of an innovative assignment to turn in after the meeting that may interest her in giving me a few points to pass. Or, I need to market to the marketers my case.

Does anyone know what I can do? What I can take upon myself to do – even though my professor said there is nothing – to show her that I am willing to put forth the effort and that I am committed to learning.

It feels like one of the deadly sins but it's actually a physiological need...

If it's a physiological need because you were sick at the time of the exam, then your school should have a policy about how such situations are to be handled.

While I sympathize with your plight, it sounds like the problem was that you were too tired and just slept through the exam. If that is the case, then I'm afraid to say that the professor may have every right to assign you a zero for not taking the exam. There are some schools where the policy would be to assign an incomplete in such circumstances, but this is entirely school-dependent.

The essential issue is that if you do not have an excused absence for an exam, you're at the mercy of the instructor and any existing policies. At my school, for instance, the policy says that anything other than an approved university activity cleared in advance is at my discretion. So if the instructor chooses to give you a zero, there's nothing you can do.

You also need to consider things from the instructor's point of view: giving you a do-over because you slept through the exam would require that she give any future students who did the same the opportunity for a do-over as well—after all, why should only you get special treatment? Granting your request would mean that, in the future, all you'd need is to say "sorry, I overslept" and you could postpone an exam you weren't ready for. This is simply unfair to the instructor and to all the students who prepped for the exam at the scheduled time. This is simply not a fight you can possibly expect to win unless there are exceptional attenuating circumstances that have not been mentioned.


How closely can I follow a cited mathematical derivation in my PhD dissertation? There is a well known result from 60 years ago that only ever has its result quoted these days.  I found a 20+ year old MS thesis that had a very clear mathematical derivation of the result from first principles, although it doesn't have any (meaningful) citations.

The derivation is so clear I would like to include a detailed outline of it in my dissertation because I think it really illuminates why we do what we do in our lab, which is what the dissertation is centered around.

It it ok to put something like "Following the derivation of [MS source], first performed by [original source], we start with..." and walking through the 4-5 page derivation to get to the result?  It's obviously not plagiarism, since it's well known and I am citing the source, but it isn't original work.  On the other hand, something that was done decades ago would never be mistaken for original work in 2016, and I think it would really add to my motivation/background chapter.

The appropriate wording for something like what you envision -- making clear that you are closely paraphrasing another publication -- would look like this:

  Since the derivation of the result by [ABC, 1956] is not widely available in common textbooks, the remainder of this section closely follows the excellent outline provided previously in the MSc thesis by DEF, see [DEF, 1987]. In this thesis, the author shows that ...


What is the optimal way to publish the first scientific article? I am a doctoral student (economics) and I'm about to finish my first scientific article.
Unfortunately I have no experience in publishing.

Can someone explain to me how best to publish this article?

I have some questions to which I am looking for an answer.

A) How do I search for the journals and how do I contact them or submit my article?

B) How do I recognize good journals and is it realistic that I can publish without any scientific reputation in a good journal?

C) Should I have the article professionally checked beforehand? (I am not a native English speaker)

D) How long does a normal process take from the first contact to the publication?

E) What are the advantages and disadvantages of an open-acess publication? I see this positively, because I want to share my results with as many people as possible.

F) What costs will I normally have to pay?

A kind of checklist for publishing would also be good. I think there are many more points I have not thought about.

I hope that someone can help me with his experience. Also I am grateful for further hints about things I have not considered.

Many thanks in advance!

I'm a doctoral student as well with a few articles under my belt. Here's my take on your questions, but first let me say that I would expect your advisor(s) to be able to answer those better than me, and they should have a voice in the process as they are likely to be your co-authors.

A-B) You should aim to publish your articles in journals that are on-topic. You can find good, on-topic journals by inspecting your references, since what you reference should be typically good, on-topic articles. The submission process varies but is usually well-explained on the journal website

C) It depends on your level of proficiency in English, but I'd say to ask your advisor to review it and trust his/her judgment of it.

D) Usually a review cycle takes anywhere from 1 to 4 months. A polished manuscript can take only one review cycle, most articles will take 2 or more. My articles have taken between 9 and 12 months from submission to acceptance.

E) Open-access is nice, but will almost always cost you a fair bit of money (in elsevier journals it's around 2000$ i reckon). What i advise is to submit the pre-print to arxiv (which anyone can access) when you submit to the journal, so you get both exposure.

F) Normally in 'closed-access' journals the publication will be free except for over-page fees (when your article is too long) or to have the article in color in the paper version. Over-page fees are a few hundred $ per page usually

My general advice is to take your time to find the right journal, and don't aim for super high impact factors. It's better to find the perfect (but small) audience for your paper than a lot of people who aren't interested in it. Give it to a lot of people in your research group to read and get feedback. Any criticism you address before submission will shorten the time to publication a lot.

Finally, consider if a journal is the right type of publication. In a lot of fields, conference papers/proceedings are a strong way to show your work and do networking.

Good luck in your research!


PhD in mathematics, science communication jobs I'm doing a PhD in mathematics at one of the world-leading universities. I spend a lot of time engaging in science communication: both speaking (talks for general audience, some of them quite successful) and writing (popular science blog, I started to publish also in some magazines). Even though I enjoy maths a lot, I prefer communicating it to non-mathematicians much more.

Would getting a job in science communication as opposed to continuing research or working in industry be a "waste" of PhD?

Also, would I need a degree in journalism or science communication to be considered a serious candidate for jobs in popular science or media? I've done some research online but it seems that there aren't many scientists (not to mention mathematicians) with a PhD who would focus their career on communicating science.

A PhD is only "wasted" if you believe it is wasted. If you enjoyed your research, and it's helping you to engage in a long-term career you enjoy, why would it be wasted?

However, there is a very clear need for people with solid scientific backgrounds who can clearly communicate complex mathematical and scientific ideas to the general public. People who can bridge the gap—for example, explaining concepts like "herd immunity" or "cryptocurrency"—in ways that the public can understand, are valuable in the scientific community, and we should be encouraging people to make that kind of outreach. It's not as popular as it should be in academia, but I believe that as more people engage in such careers, we will see room for growth.

So if it's something you really want to do, go for it!


Listing a Stack Overflow user as co-author for having provided substantial programming support I received a lot of help from an active Stack Overflow user in my undergrad summer research project, which was based on statistical physics. Now, I'm writing a paper on it under my professor's supervision. The professor knows about the help I received and asked me to mention it in the "acknowledgements" section (and the Stack Overflow user is OK with me mentioning them in the acknowledgements). But, I feel that the amount of programming help I received from the user deserves a little more gratitude from my side, and if possible I'd like to add the user as a co-author of the paper (obviously, after asking for consent). But, given this is my first research paper, I'm not sure what the process would entail.

Would I face any ethical problems in case I send the paper for publication (since the SO user was obviously not "physically" present with us while I was working on the paper)?

Also, do most journals ask for "email consent" from each and every co-author, before publication?

Physical presence is irrelevant. I'm a co-author of a four-author paper which came out of a Stack Exchange Q/A thread, none of whom have met in person.

What matters is intellectual contribution, and the question of whether contributing to code counts as sufficient intellectual contribution depends both on the specifics of the contribution and the field of research. I'm also a co-author of two or three psychology papers on the basis of having provided programming services, even though I would have expected an acknowledgement at most, because the culture of the lab (and probably the field more widely) where the lead author did her PhD was very generous with authorship.

The person best qualified to judge the contribution made by this SO user is you, followed by your professor. Your professor will also know the culture of your field. And if, as I presume, the professor is going to be a co-author, you would need them to agree to add another co-author. If you feel strongly about this, you should talk to your professor before you talk to the SO user about "upgrading" them. But since your professor has already given you guidance, and the third party is happy with that proposal, I suggest that you drop the issue unless you feel strongly about it.


How to tell my advisor I am leaving the PhD program, when he is the reason I'm leaving? I want to give up my current PhD program, which I started 5 months ago, because I really do not like my current advisor's personality and working style. He lives a relaxed life and has no enthusiasm for science after getting tenure.  He does not  have funding and never releases decent papers because he does not work hard.

But I like my current direction. So I want to give up my PhD and switch to the master's program - as I have nearly finished all the coursework, and I do not want a gap in my CV - and then apply to a new school, as there is no other professor in my school doing work in my direction.

My question is: how can I tell him that I want to leave the PhD program? I do not want to tell him the true reason, because I want him to write a recommendation for me, and I think he likes me.

Tell him why you're even more excited about the places to which you're applying.

At University X, Dr. Y is doing groundbreaking work in Z, and has published three papers in Prestigious Journal With A Latin Title in the last two years alone. Her students are also proving amazing results and speaking all over the world about them, and one of them just got a job at Top-Class University W. Every week they have a seminar where they discuss blah-blah-blah... [etc., etc.]
I'm grateful for all the opportunities you've afforded me here, and I think that X,Y, and Z would be an even better fit for me.


Should I rewrite completely an extended paper? If I submitted a paper on a conference, and now a special journal about that conference has asked for submit extended versions of our previous work; I was wondering if I should rewrite completely the first accepted version of my paper. I mean, I already have the additional material, but can I not add it into the original paper? also should I change the title in this situation?

I have seen articles of some authors that the extended version is almost identical to the previous one, only with the extension of some parts. That thing is not a case of self-plagiarism?

A rewrite is a matter of how you an expand your manuscript. i am sure you can start by using the existing text and add whatever is needed. Once that has been accomplished, or during that process, you will get a sense of whether the new material requires some or complete reorganisation of the original manuscript. so there is no clear answer, yes or no, it will clearly depend on the original manuscript and the material you add.

To start by completely rewriting everything does not sound like an efficient method unless you feel such an approach will free your mind from constraints imposed by the old manuscript. As a rule, I would say use the old manuscript as a basis since complete rewriting would probably take much more time. I am sure certain parts of the manuscript could easily be modified while particularly the results and the discussions sections is where most of the work will be.

Regarding the self-plagiarism, it has become evident from posts on Academia.sx that this is seen differently in different disciplines. You need to check with colleagues in the discipline about this issue but the fact that there is a request for the product you aim to produce indicates that no such issues exist.


To include part of a published paper in a dissertation? Context
It's becoming common in the natural sciences for grad students to include papers they have previously published as part of their dissertation as a "sandwich thesis" or "stapled thesis". Some joke about merely "stapling three papers together with an intro and conclusion" and calling it a dissertation. This allows grad students to focus on doing research rather than writing a monolithic document in addition to any other publications.
My Concerns
This practice -- though I love the intent -- concerns me because I care about copyright issues. If I've published a paper, the publisher has the copyright, so I may not be able to use my own work in a dissertation that gets published.
My Question
Assuming that this practice is approved of by one's dissertation committee and university, how might one go about doing this correctly? What legal requirements might there be?
Although the following list of questions might be best split into multiple questions on this site, my intent is to clarify what kinds of procedures I'm asking about.

Which Creative Commons licenses would permit this?
Would one need to ask permission from the publisher(s) of the paper(s)? (I assume so....)
Does it matter whether or not the manuscript(s) are published under an open-access license?
Does it matter how the dissertation is published?
If this is allowed under any circumstances, how much modification is appropriate? Would the paper(s) need to be reproduced in their published form (i.e. with the publisher's typesetting et al.), or could the author copy-paste the text into their dissertation with new formatting?

I acknowledge that this question is similar to Can I use the work in my journal/conference publications as chapters in my dissertation?. Whereas that question broadly asked whether such a practice was permissible, I'm asking more about how to handle copyright issues — assuming one's committee and institution are okay with it.

The copyright issues are the same as always. If you don't hold copyright on something, say you have given it to a publisher, then you need permission from the copyright holder to reproduce it for publication.

But you also need to be clear, if you just include copies of old work (copy paste) that you cite the original to avoid claims of self plagiarism. Claiming old work as new (or seeming to) is normally treated as an ethical lapse, similar to treating the work of others as your own. Cite and be safe.

To me, a "stapled dissertation" should be exactly that. An introduction, some material tying everything together, a conclusion, and literally stapling copies of the old papers. I doubt that very many would agree with me, but if that is what it is, then present it as such. Those places that permit such dissertations believe that a doctoral should be awarded for a body of work not necessarily for a single major work. The philosophy is sound, though I've never used it. That is to say, the "joke" isn't really a joke. It is fine if permitted by your committee and university.

Creative commons doesn't apply if you have all rights to your own work. Any license or no license would be fine. But it is the permission of the actual copyright holder that is needed. If they have licensed it generally under Creative Commons then it is likely that you can rely on the generally permissive nature of those licenses in your work. But if not, you can request permission (an individual license) to do what you want to do. I think that most reputable journals and conferences would be happy to give you back any required permissions, while they still hold the copyright.


Can I cite a URL only instead of author, title, etc. in a research paper? When writing a thesis, is it acceptable practice to cite only the URL of referenced research papers where they are published electronically? Or is it compulsory to give proper authors, title, year of publication, etc... information?
Example:

Data mining is the process of analyzing large data sets in order to discover hidden patterns within these data sets.[1] Stock market prices do not follow random walk.[2]
[1] http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=5FIEAwyn9aoC
[2] http://rfs.oxfordjournals.org/content/1/1/41.short

No, it's not OK to cite URLs because firstly, you are citing ONLY the URL! The URL could change at any given time without notice. Also, you are assuming that everyone is reading your paper electronically and has access to the internet.

You NEED to give the name of the paper, the author(s), the Journal it was published in and the year it was published.


Should I put an apostrophe to indicate a plural or past tenses? Technically, plurals shouldn't be indicated with apostrophes.

However, in maths and computer science textbooks, I've often seen people write things like "if we combine the x's and y's" or "string A is the same as string B xor'd with string C".

Is that right? Should I adopt this convention when writing an academic paper, or is there a better way?

The Cambridge guide to English usage by Pam Peters has a long discussion on the usage of the apostrophe in the case of plural nouns. For what concerns your example, under the section Apostrophes, it says:

  Single letter in lower case still usually mark the plural with apostrophes, as in Dot the i's and cross the t's

The purpose is that of highlighting that you have the plural of a word composed of a single letter. However, under the section Letters as words there is the following remark:

  Yet even the apostrophe is unnecessary if italics are used and the plural s itself is in roman.

Though the above remark is probably meant for ordinary text, in mathematics variables are commonly typeset in italics, and I think that the above remark can be applied as well.

According to the above, I'd say that the apostrophes in your first example cannot be considered wrong, but they are actually unnecessary.

In LaTeX, I'd then write
your first example as

if we combine the $x$s and $y$s

Instead, in the past tense of your second example the apostrophe marks the elision of the letter e, and in this case it is required: xored -> xor'd.


Free web hosting for academics I would like to have a professional academic webpage, and for different reasons, I don't want to use the website of my current workplace (mostly because due to some external factors, it's not currently possible where I work, but also because I consider changing affiliation in the future, and I'd like to avoid moving my webpage).

A possible solution I'm considering would be to rent a server somewhere, and to manage it myself, but I was wondering if it existed some dedicated solutions for academics, ideally coming for free (after all, I can archive my papers on arXiv for free, I have a free academic licence for Bitbucket, I use Dropbox with the free version, I can also use Mendeley and academia.edu for free, I currently have a free wordpress.com blog), with the constraint that I'd like to be able to write my own scripts (for instance to publish my personal list of publications Tool to manage and/or make available a list of my publications on the web? , or to manage a list of conferences I'm interested in).

Both bitbucket and github allow you to publish a static website, which is handled under the same version control policies as everything else that you publish there.

You get no php/database support, but for academic web sites a static website generator such as Jekyll, which they both use, is more than enough.

Note added after reading @RebeccaJ.Stones comment to another answer: github is currently blocked in China, while bitbucket is not, so you may want to go for the latter, to make sure that everyone can access your website.


Cite a paper currently under review I wrote a paper a few months ago, which I submitted to a journal and is currently under review. My field is mathematics.

Lately I have been thinking about a few things with a colleague and we came up with a small project which uses the results of my paper. The new paper is already written, and we are planning to submit it to a journal (not the same one).

The results from my paper, while obviously original, are not unexpected, and they extend previous (published) results to more general situations. This means that, at least for experts, the results themselves should be correct, so it's not something suspicious.

Is it acceptable to submit our new paper and cite the relevant results from my previous, still under review, paper? I don't think I want to wait for acceptance since it could still take a few more months and job application time is getting closer.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that my paper is available online, both on my home page and the arXiv.

EDIT: In Citing a paper under review in 2 different conferences there is a somewhat similar situation. I think mine is different in two aspects:

1) the fields, and hence the common practices, are generally different.
2) the second paper in question is with a second coauthor. It's out of the question to consider merging both papers into one, for example.

A common way to handle such a previous submission that is still under review is to create a technical report out of the previous submission, publish this report on your home page or on arxiv.org, and cite this technical report in your new paper.

In this way, reviewers can take into account the previous results without needing to have this paper published formally.

In case your previous paper gets accepted while your new paper is still under revision, you could update your new paper in a revised version.


Should a figure/table go before or after the first paragraph that references it? Should a figure/table go before or after the first paragraph that references it in an academic paper? I cannot find a definitive answer on this. The general advice is to place the figure/table as close to the reference as possible.

Assuming that you are laying things out yourself, as opposed to working with one of the journals that will do it for you, think about the layout from the perspective of a reader: if you are reading text and looking at a figure, it's a pain to be flipping back and forth.  Thus, ideally, you want both text and figure to be on the same page.  Where, exactly, on the same page is not so important.  Sometimes this will be specified by the layout, and in many cases it is stylistically preferred to have figures above text on a page (this is standard IEEE style, for example).

Sometimes, however, it is either awkward or impossible to get them on the same page.  If this is the case, then, in my opinion, it's slightly better to have the figure come after the first reference in the text.  Figures draw the attention, and if you have the figure before the first mention in text, then it can interfere with your narrative.

This is a fairly weak constraint, however, and I often violate it myself when there are overriding reasons of paper narrative to put the figure in front instead, such as:

Spreading out figures through the text, so that you have less pure-text pages.
Getting a figure onto the first page of a paper, so that it can serve as a visual "icon" for the paper.  Example: in this paper, the figure on page 1 is not referenced until page 2.

Most of this, however, is stylistic preferences, and should not be taken as hard constraints unless the particular venue that you are submitting to provides explicit specification.


Should I make a fuss about small typos I found in a reference book? I'm currently taking up a bachelor's degree in history at a distance-learning college. Since history is not a popular degree in that school, they don't revise their history books/ modules regularly. In fact, most of the modules they gave me were published about twenty years ago and contain few typos and outdated information. Should I make a fuss about this, or should I just correct the errors myself?

By the way, in general, the old references are still informative and useful.

Just send an email. Most authors keep an errata on their website.


What, if anything, obligates a student to work with an advisor who lobbied for him/her to get funding? In my department, PhD admissions and funding are two separate processes, which means many PhD students are admitted even if there is no funding for them. To be admitted, an applicant typically needs to impress a faculty member enough to want him/her to take the applicant on as a student (which means this faculty member becomes the applicant's advisor, if s/he decides to accept the offer of admission). To get funding, an applicant need to impress at least one of the several faculty members who controls a training grant enough to want him/her to offer the applicant a slot on the grant. It is very uncommon (if not impossible) for any PhD student to receive funding outside of a training grant via an RA, TA, or other source, at least in the 1st year.

As such, it is fairly common for a professor who wants a particular student to join the department as his/her advisee to lobby for the student with one of the training grant directors. This is particularly true in cases where the student of interest has communicated that s/he has a funded offer from a rival department and will likely not consider our department without a similar funding offer being extended.

Because of this practice, a difficult situation sometimes arises when funded students want to switch into a research area that is still within the scope of their training grant but not within the scope of their advisors' interests. Because both areas fall within the goals of their grant, these students are not risking their funding by switching (although they may be risking an additional year of PhD studies, depending on how late they switch). However, because their initial advisors usually had a large role in helping them secure funding, they are hesitant to make the switch out of a feeling of obligation to their advisor (e.g., "Dr. Z did a lot of work recruiting me and helping me get a funded offer, so I feel bad leaving him").

In situations where funding is not directly tied to one's advisor (but may be indirectly tied to him/her), what obligations does the student have to his/her advisor? Should the student feel free to switch advisors if s/he discovers that another research area appeals more to him/her? Are there any special considerations or etiquette protocols?

I think it is hard to answer this question without actually knowing the system and seeing whether such switches are commonly done. Typically, admission systems are either central (e.g., US-style, you apply with the faculty and once you are admitted you get an advisor) or decentral (e.g., central European, you apply and get funded directly by a specific professor). In the former case, transfers are not entirely uncommon. In the latter case, transfers are a bit of a dicey topic as students really only apply with and get accepted by one specific professor.

Your system sounds a bit like a mixture of both - somehow, admissions are centralized, but it sounds like individual professors have so much say in the process that it in practice may well work like a decentral system. One important question may be how this "lobbying" for students works in practice. Does every professor have an "alotted" number of students that they can choose (either explicitly or by common practice)? That is, does the transferring student "take away" an alotted place for a professor and add one for another? If that is the case, I would assume that transferring will indeed lead to some hard feelings. However, if the system is more flexible, and "lobbying" for a student really just means that the advisor sent a recommendation without many more implications, I think transferring may be just fine for everybody.

In the end, I think you need to see whether transfers happen regularly, and how the students that transferred are seen by the old and new faculty. If they never seem to happen, I would assume that professors will not be thrilled about the idea.


Presubmission inquiry sent to multiple co-editors in the same journals Those editors are from different institutes with different interests. I am not sure who would be interested. I can only send presubmission inquiries directly to the co-editors' institutional emails.

The journal does not have an editor-in-chief.

Is this a bad practice? Shall I disclose that I am sending the inquiry to multiple editors?

Don't ask multiple editors. Ask the one who's most appropriate. Who is most appropriate depends on your query, but the obvious candidate is the editor-in-chief.

Emailing several different editors is kind of pointless because they're all subordinate to the editor-in-chief anyway and probably will defer to the EiC's decision.


How to evaluate the quality of a conference that has a high ERA ranking, but whose organizer has a lot of negative reviews online? In Australia we follow something known as the ERA ranking, when submitting papers to journals and conferences. My lab stresses publication in venues which are graded as only A or A(star), as per this system ( ERA-A increases possibilities of funding). In the area of biomedical engineering there is a specific conference which I found is ranked as ERA-A. Not a lot of international biomedical conferences are ERA A-ranked.

The problem is I found a lot of negative reviews about the conference organizers online and therefore am skeptical about sending my paper there. Yet, I also know that an ERA-A rank publication very early in my doctoral program can make a good impact on the committee, when my doctoral assessment review comes up later this year. Moreover, this will release some pressure/tension in terms of the doctoral review and I could go on to work on larger targets without worrying about the doctoral assessment ( since it would be considered good progress if I can show an ERA-A paper in the first year of my program).

However much I try, I have failed to understand how this conference gets a top australian rank, when there are so many negative things said online about these conference organizers. One possibility, is that this particular conference is the only one which may be famous. The other is a lot australian academics might have been ranking it as ERA-A. But if so, why only Australia? What does the rest of the world say? The third possibility is that the online reviews are dubious claims made to malign the organisation.

How to evaluate the quality of a conference like this?

You shouldn't take the ERA rankings too seriously.  Ranking ten of thousands of journals was an enormous job, and they did amazingly well given the size of the task.  However, in the process they made a few questionable judgment calls and every once in a while an outright mistake.

For example, in my field of mathematics, the list of A-rated journals looks rather good overall, but there are a few surprises and at least one journal I am convinced doesn't remotely deserve an A (Fuzzy Sets and Systems).

I'd recommend asking your advisor or other faculty members for their opinion about the IASTED biomedical engineering conference (rather than relying on opinions from random people on the internet).  If they are familiar with it, then they should have an opinion about whether the ERA A rating is well deserved.  If they aren't familiar with it, then that is itself a bad sign.  Not being familiar with a C journal in your specialty is understandable, but not being familiar with a genuine A journal would be more surprising.

You can also investigate it yourself.  Have they published any papers you've read or seen cited?  Can you find any papers in their proceedings that impress or excite you?  If so, then at least your paper would be in good company.  If not, then that's another bad sign.


What are some formal methods in measuring socio-economic impact or broader impact of research topic or individual research papers? By formal method I mean a broadly known, standard and as objective as possible. For example, one of the major criteria for NSF grant are “broader impacts” which is not hugely objective(likewise with other funding agencies).
In recent years, Altmetrics and similar tools and indexes have been devised to measure informal citations and calling them "social impact" – e.g. social media or non-traditional citations/mentions.
In terms of economics and decision making for the policy making in academic research, is seems reasonable that should be some measurement method, performance index, or framework to evaluate “broader impacts” of the work we report in scientific publications or can refer to. Can you provide any references to such methods, indexes, or frameworks?

There are interdisciplinary researchers who study such questions.  It's labeled with various names: "Sociology of Science", "Science, Technology, and Society" (STS), and similar. You should look at journals in those fields.  For example, Science and Public Policy has these articles:

"Opportunities for impact: Statistical analysis of the National Science Foundation’s broader impacts criterion"
"The state of the art in societal impact assessment for security research"
"Introduction: Future pathways for science policy and research assessment: Metrics vs peer review, quality vs impact"


Can research experience in one subject area be relevant to applying to a master's in a different subject area? I'm a computer science undergraduate student at a Canadian university, going into my second year this September. I am interested in going to graduate school in the future.

I don't know specific topic of computer science that I want to study in graduate school yet, but so far I have been looking into human computer interaction. I've been trying to speak to faculty in my department about research opportunities but none of their areas are in human computer interaction, rather their research is in computer science education. (I'm not exaggerating when I say that all of the computer science faculty is on education because the university I go to is new and the department isn't huge, but nonetheless it's a chance to know your professors more).

Anyway, I was thinking, if I do have a lot of research in computer science education and I apply for a graduate program that isn't computer science education (eg human computer interaction) how sufficient is my experience?

Of course the best scenario would be that you can prove you are capable of independent or supervised research activity in the field of interest of those organizing the master.

However, in my perspective field competence is not the only important element, as methodological competence and evidence of successful research endeavors is also crucial.

Personally, as a mentor of dozen of trainees at different levels in medicine, cardiology, and biostatistics, I like most those people who can do stuff independently or with limited supervision, somewhat irrespective of the topic of interest.

So, if you can prove you can achieve in research (or any other similarly challenging field) with limited supervision, then even if you are applying for something off topic with your prior experience, you're still a potentially appealing candidate.


Unaddressed ethical violation I know about but have no connection to: Do I report it? I've been made aware of a situation that blatantly violates the honor code at my institution (also every institution). However it does not involve my lab, and the folks in the relevant lab are not keen to address it in any official capacity.  What to do?

The Situation:

A graduate student proved to be unfit for the lab he worked in. After one year he transferred to a totally different department/school/program at our university--one that is not research intensive.
Upon leaving, my friend hounded him for the data he collected, which was part of a project she is lead on.  He provided her with an excel spreadsheet. The Day 1 observations appear normal, but the subsequent days were simply a formula that changed Day 1's values by a constant and added some variance. To be clear, he actually left the formulas (which linked to the Day 1 observations) in the cells. So, clearly it's fraudulent data.
My friend told her PI and is not using any data collected by this RA in any of her work.
However, what is problematic, IMO, is that the PI and my friend have no intentions of addressing it further. I believe they are motivated by a desire to avoid the bureaucracy and the awkwardness that comes with making such an accusation. They have also pointed out that the program he is in now is totally different and does not involve real research (but still writing up reports about observed data, I would imagine).

The Question:

This student is still at our institution and I feel that the lack of ethical integrity he demonstrated should (must) be addressed!
Am I being a self-righteous, cotton-headed ninny muggins?
If not, what course of action should I take?
NB: I am not in any way associated with that lab or PI... it's a different department too. I am a 2nd year PhD student.

Thank you for any insight.

Bonus Details:

This was intentional fraud. The data are behavioral observations of mice, there should be original video files, and there are for Day 1 but the subsequent files are missing. When asked several times this week it was "oh yeah yeah I'll get those to you... it's just my login isn't working since I'm switching departments..." indicating that he did not actually collect the data. He did not reply "just kidding," "my bad," or "actually I did something stupid." (Sidebar: his inability to realize how obvious he is reminds me of teaching while students not-so-covertly text... I see you!)
The specific formula was Day1Value*1.1+(RAND(-2,2))... so while he added variance it was a naive attempt at doing so... even if he hadn't left the formulas in there it would be as clear as day.

I took action... After carefully reading our honor code and the procedure for reporting misconduct I felt more compelled to act.  Ultimately, I think falsifying data is one of the  worst things you can do as a scientist. I just couldn't stop thinking about the new department he is in, the new advisors he has, and the new cohort he is apart of... all ignorant of this offense.  If I was his new advisor, I would want to know about this.  So out of respect for them and for my institution I knew I would act.  The question was how?

It turns out my university has a protocol for reporting misconduct anonymously, which is great. But rather than go that route, I actually asked the PI if we could meet. PI was taken aback because, although PI knows who I am, we are not at all working together. In our meeting I simply explained that...

"I feel compelled to act in accordance with the honor code given that I am aware of the situation.  But once I report the incident, you will likely be the first person they contact.  So I wanted to come to you instead, out of respect, and explain how I felt regarding the situation and basically find out if you prefer to take care of it or if you prefer for me to move forward acting in my own good conscious."

PI was surprisingly kind about it, empathetic even. PI was very responsive to me explaining that I mostly felt bad for the new people this person was working with, that they were ignorant to his lack of ethical integrity--something the PI had not considered. We discussed how the PI wrote the RA a letter of rec to get into the new program, and I could see a realization on the part of the PI--specifically, that he had a responsibility to let these folks know that he no longer stands by his characterization of this student. In the end, PI assured me that we were in agreement, that taking official action through our university's research office was the appropriate next step. I apologized profusely for meddling but PI assured me I did the right thing and that I would've been equally right to have reported it as well.

So in answer to my own question, I would say that...

First, read your honor code carefully to find out what responsibility you have to report incidents you know about. (This is why S.Diaxo's answer is incorrect; not only is there something I can do about it, I am technically required to do something about it).
Figure out what your options are for reporting misconduct, it may be the case, as at my university, that you can simply report it anonymously and that they will look into it and you do not need to be involved.
If you feel compelled to report something, but you want to be respectful to the people it might involve, consider talking to those people directly (in a respectful and non confrontational manner). That worked for me, and I'm glad I don't need to be the one to report it.

Thanks everyone for your discussion.


Is it rude to ask a professor you do not know and in a different department to borrow equipment? I am a grad student in new lab and my PI like to pinch pennies a bit. I want to purchase an accessory for use with an already purchased piece of equipment. I have emailed a few vendors about getting free samples,but I do not think I will be successful. I was thinking about emailing a few professors based on their area of research and the high likelihood that they may have a similar product that will allow me to perform a quick trial and build a case for my PI.

I would need to borrow it for like 2 weeks and I can autoclave it to ensure it is well cleaned prior to returning.

Is this considered rude?

I don't think it is rude, exactly, but I also don't expect that many would be willing to accommodate you unless you can first establish some relationship with them that is mutually beneficial - exchange of ideas, for example.

But one researcher expressing a need to another isn't really rude, though perhaps a bit unusual and unexpected as you describe it.

But since you suggest you are in the same institution, it has a higher likelihood of success I would guess.


How can I balance the reading requirements for a large survey course? I'm currently developing the lesson plan for a large (~100 students) survey course in history for the fall semester. Since this is my first time as instructor of record for the course I'm having some problems balancing how I would like to teach the course (several books worth of reading) with feedback from others in the department (i.e., limit the reading). My concern is that while the textbook is quite solid, there are some significant gaps that I think should be addressed. How can I balance the reading for the course so that I don't overwhelm the students in my course?

Survey courses are generally designed to be superficial. The music department offers music appreciation. The fine arts department offers art appreciation. These courses expose you to the major themes of the field for the sake of appreciation and not mastery. The goal is to expose none experts to a field in order to broaden their horizon.

You state yourself that the majority of the students are not history majors. Therefore, why would you treat them like history majors and expect them to develop a deep understanding of military history? Few of us become experts in the electives and GEs we take as students.

If you are worried about the history majors you may want to include additional optional reading so that they can go deeper if they desire but weighing down STEM majors seems pointless. Better to stoke a fire/passion for history rather than burn them up with heavy content.


Are GRE/GMAT or other certificates needed for academic career after PhD? My interest is mainly in computer science. I am wondering if, for a post-doc or an assintant professor poistion, the certifications such as GRE or GMAT are reqired or if they don't have any relevance.

My interest is both for Europe and USA.

Also, what can be said about language certifications, such as TOEFL and IELTS?
Are they required too?

Good GRE and GMAT scores will make it easier to be accepted into the graduate program of your choice. They will have no bearing on post doc hiring decisions

Similarly language testing is used to ensure that English problems will not prevent you from being successful in graduate school. Once admitted your language skills will continue to improve during your studies and your TOEFL scores will no longer matter.

The only exception to this would be if you want to work for a test prep company that trains student for the GRE, GMAT or TOEFL. Ignoring this possibility, your testing results are not important after you are accepted by the University and begin your studies.


University knowledge of student and/or staff viewing free online journal article databases Is there evidence that Universities network administrators are aware of, or actively tracking student and/or staff usage of free online journal article databases such as Sci-Hub or LibGen?

My question is not meant to address any legal issues. I am merely asking about knowledge of student and staff usage by network administrators and by extension the University.

Unless faculty and students are using Tor a VPN or some other sort of anonymity network, University network administrators can easily track what web pages are being accessed over the University network.

University network administrators commonly track access to social media, gambling, pornography, plagiarism related sites and more. Are Universities also tracking faculty and staff usage of sites like Sci-Hub and LibGen?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sci-Hub

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_Genesis

There easily could be, so don't do marginally legal things on your university's network. Mine doesn't appear to do more than shut down bot nets and torrent hosting, but it's not hard to track the rest. It's mostly only in the university's interest to stop crimes and copyright infringement committed on its network so that it doesn't have to deal with law enforcement and/or lawsuits (i.e. paperwork and cooperation). I don't think Sci-Hub and LibGen have risen to that level quite yet. You might get away with it for awhile, but if enough people start accessing scientific content that way, then the paperwork will start to flow in, and the accesses will start getting shut down.


Should I inform about an updated CV post deadline? (CS PhD USA) Background: CS Undergrad applying to CS PhD Programs, USA.
(Assuming) I have a paper A in review at a Journal B, and I get the acceptance for the same 2 months post the deadline of applying.
Question:

Should I send the places I applied an e-mail saying that the paper which was in review (and mentioned in my SOP/LOR/CV) got accepted?
Does it have any effect on their decision?

Should I send the places I applied an e-mail saying that the paper which was in review (and mentioned in my SOP/LOR/CV) got accepted?

No. Your CV/application is a snapshot in time, institutes likely won't update your CV/application, and they don't need such an additional burden. (Especially after two months, institutes are likely nearing or have made decisions.)

Does it have any effect on their decision?

It would improve your CV/application, equally it may annoy the institutes: It may have a positive or negative impact.


On the ethics of continuing current project with another advisor I have been trying to work with a certain professor for a year, since the time I joined PhD. I wasn't paid by her, rather, funded by TAships.

This past quarter, I did a project for a class I took with her. Her student, who was the TA for the course, was super super super helpful, and was basically the driving force for the project.

The thing is, I really like this topic and want to continue working on it. Unfortunately, this professor has still not warmed up to me. She still gives me a very unclear response of whether or not she wants to take me as a student and has told me she'll tell me in a couple of weeks. Since summer is approaching, I really want to finalize an advisor ASAP, or at least someone who would supervise at least one research project for me. I am sick of not having a supervisor for research, as despite having topics that interest me, I am unable to find specific problems to work on.

Anyway, my question is - I have given up on this professor saying yes to me at all, so I am writing to other professors; would it be ethical for me to continue my current project with whoever agrees to supervise me? I am, of course, assuming here that someone will agree to do that, but just in case that happens, is it okay for me to do this?

The project was for a class project, was not funded by this professor Iam trying to impress,but it was a very theoretical one, and the idea, the methods, everything was her student's (who was the TA for the class).

It's really not clear what you are asking. Here is what I understood from your question: You took a course from Professor X. Part of the course was a project, which you did with generous input from Professor X's TA. The course is finished, but somehow the project is not. Now you want to take this project and shop it around for supervision by one of Professor X's colleagues. You want to know whether this is OK.

This strikes me as a misguided approach on a number of levels. First, I don't quite understand how a course can be finished, when the project that was part of the course ("a course project") is still going on. (Did you decide to do some additional work on it?)

Second, how much of the work on the project was actually your own, as opposed to the TA's? Could you have done the project on your own? Could you do a similar project on your own going forward? That is what research is, and the supervisor's role is mainly to make sure you do not take too many side tours in your research, and do not waste time re-discovering known results.

I do worry a little bit about your statement "despite having topics that interest me, I am unable to find specific problems to work on". Admittedly this is often a daunting task, but taken everything you said together, I am wondering whether you are properly prepared to even start a PhD project. My diagnosis (from reading liberally between the lines) is that Professor X shares this concern, and this is the reason why she is not ready to commit.

You've been in your PhD for one year; depending on the field that may be a rather short period for finding a thesis topic. Did you finish all your courses? How did you do? In particular, how did you do in the course taught by Professor X?

I think, if you really would like to work with Professor X, and you are interested in the topic, it would be best for you to talk this over with her, in particular addressing the question of whether she feels you are ready. Shopping the project around to Professor X's colleagues is definitely not a good idea. You did not come up with the topic, and you needed generous help from the TA to do the work. You are not going to be able to rely on the TA's input going forward.


How should a reviewer provide comments to a journal's special issue in a field he is not familiar with? As an editorial board member for a low impact journal, I've been approached to provide comments on whether I think a proposal for a special issue is acceptable or not. I'm quite inexperienced in this role, and it seems rather different from reviewing a paper or grant proposal. I have been provided a list of guest editors as well as a justification statement, however, the special issue is not directly in my field so I can only assume credibility from prior publications (if I can find them).

Have any others been in this situation, and if so, by what criteria did they make a decision on acceptability?

I have been receiving a lot of invitations lately to review proposals for special editions -- mostly open access.  These proposals have been way outside of my area of study (and sometimes discipline).  My guess is they scrape the web for potential reviewers and use a shotgun approach -- but that is just a guess.

I ALWAYS decline serving as a reviewer if I am not sufficiently expert on the substantive or methodological issues.  I also try to highlight in my review where my expertise may fall short so the editor knows where to fill the gaps.

I suggest you decline any invitation if you are not qualified to review the topic.


Any possible solution for this submision mistake? I recently have submitted a CVPR conference  paper (double blind) and made a horrible mistake!

I finished the remaining part of the paper one day before the deadline, and I made a copy of the files just in case anything went wrong.

Then I started to take care of the typo/grammar mistakes and polishing the structure (paragraphs, figures and tables placement).

When I finished I submitted the final version. But the next day, when I checked the submitted version I got a shock!
I had submitted the version before the polishing! The one that I copied for safety!!

The portal is closed and the organizers won't allow any more updates to the paper. Only submitting a supplementary file is allowed for which I'm not allowed to submit the paper again.

My guess is when the reviewers see an unpolished paper with many mistakes they will have a strong bias towards rejecting it!

There is no solution, is that right?

Explain your dilemma to the chairs by email and ask whether they'll switch the polished version (which you should attach) for the submitted version.


How to write a practical computer science research? I'm currently a computer science student at the 3rd/8 level, and there is a competition in scientific researches, including computer researches, at my university for financial aids and I'm thinking of getting involved.

I'm not a fan of theoretical stuff or things can't be applied, instead, I think of writing about Unix and Linux debuggers development and debugging techniques basically something practical that helps to provides the bases and guidelines for someone who want to build Unix debugger starting with the basics of debuggers and then build a proof of concepts small debugger.

I never done such thing before and have a few ideas about writing researches from high-school.

Can this be a research? what type (I need the term so I can look it up) of research is it and it's general structure?

Take a look at ACM Crossroads.

It is a student journal. You can start submitting an small article to be published as a column like this. I have not seen other research journals letting these sorts of tutorials get published. They are usually towards publishing papers that solve an issue, done an experiment, provides recommendations, etc. If you want to write a research paper in those sort of categories, then you will have a lot more choices.