Is SCI Impact Factor valid for a year? And, my PhD publication dilemma regarding it My advisor asked me to publish in an SCI-indexed journal with better impact factor (say more than 1). I found a journal with impact factor as 1.2. But the journal says that its present impact factor is based on 2015 journal citation report (JCR). It does not mention anything the year 2016. I couldn't find their name listed in 2016 report too. But I found a journal with impact factor .4 in 2016 report. My questions are

Is the Impact factor valid only for a year?
If I publish my work in a journal that says having an impact factor (in the year 2015), can I claim it when I publish in 2017?

Some theoretical background regarding the impact factor:

The impact factor released in the summer of year X ist the impact factor X-1 which means, it takes into account all references of the papers published in year X-1 citing papers published in the years X-2 and X-3.

Currently, in spring 2017, the latest impact factor was released in summer 2016 and it's the impact factor 2015. It has analyzed all references of the papers published in year 2015 citing papers published in the years 2014 and 2013.

To make a long story short, the current impact factor of a journal says nothing about the current journal and especially nothing about one single article recently published in this journal.


How should I interpret a journal rejection of "not of sufficient interest" or "does not meet journal standards" without mention of any errors? How should I interpret a journal rejection of "not of sufficient interest" or "does not meet journal standards"?

This is what happened to me particularly. Papers were rejected for those reasons and the journal never told me that they had found any error or that anything was wrong or inconclusive.

When a paper is rejected, do reviewers let you know if they found any error or they will never tell you even if they found one?

When a journal rejects a paper because it is not of sufficient interest for them or it does not meet the standards of the journal, it generally means exactly what they said.  They thought the paper wasn't interesting or important enough.

Journals vary enormously in how selective or prestigious they are.  Some journals will accept any paper that seems to be correct, original, and at least somewhat interesting. If a journal like that rejects a paper for this reason, then either it's not a very good paper, or they are being unfair (perhaps accidentally - peer review isn't perfect, so occasionally you just have to try again), or you submitted it to the wrong sort of journal (the line between different subfields can be blurry, but if you choose the wrong side it decreases your chances of acceptance).

Other journals impose extremely high standards and only want to publish papers on exciting breakthroughs.  In that case, there might be nothing wrong with the paper at all, and the only issue is that they have received other submissions they like even better.

And, of course, there's a whole range of journals in between these extremes.  Depending on where the journal is in this range, it will shift from a statement about your paper to a statement about the journal's high standards, and there's no way to be more precise without knowing more about the situation.

The best source of advice is a trusted mentor in your field, but I wouldn't get too worried on the basis of one rejection.  Look over the paper again with fresh eyes, make sure the introduction and conclusions are compelling, choose another journal, and resubmit.  If you run into this problem repeatedly, then something's wrong (either the paper needs work or you need to choose more appropriate journals) and that would be a good time to seek more detailed advice.


What to do when co-authors want to submit manuscript for publication and you think it still has problems? I am a junior member on a research project. We have written a paper. I feel the work is not ready for publication and have issues. We have discussed the issues, and other members of the group including the lead author agree with me that there are issues. But the lead author who is more senior is too eager to get the results published to the extent that he is ready to mislead the reviewers/readers by exaggerating and misrepresenting the partial inconclusive results to get the paper accepted. I don't think I can convince him to allow more time for the project to reach a more satisfactory stage before publication. I am rather junior and have limited say on the project. I am new to the field of the project, and the senior author is established in the field and publishes several papers in top venues each year. Other members of the project are his students.

We don't have conclusive evidence for one of the central claims in the paper. It might turn out to be false under more experiments. The lead author, however, believes it is correct even though he agrees the evidence we have is not sufficient. He wants to publish the results and the idea as soon as possible, but accurately stating what we have and what we don't have will make the acceptance unlikely at this point. He is fine with getting the flawed results published and then continuing to work to fix the issues for the later publications.
I am not comfortable with my name appearing on the paper.

One option is to ask for the removal of my name as an author and to be mentioned in the acknowledgments. However, I have worked on the project for a considerable time and would like to get credit for my contributions, and I don't feel just being mentioned in the acknowledgments is good enough.

What would you do if you were in this situation?
How do you deal with major disagreements in writing a joint paper?
Would it be helpful if I post a different edited draft copy of the paper online where the claims are more accurate in my view?

I wanted to add a fourth possibility to @artalexan's nice answer that might be more diplomatic:

Make the paper technically correct with the results you have (even if preliminary) and submit to the current venue.

The major problem with submitting the paper is that it is dishonest, not that it is preliminary.

If the paper can be made technically correct and honest -- even if the results are preliminary -- it would be fine to at least submit it and let the reviewers judge if it is mature enough.

If you are a co-author, you should have the power to edit the misleading text. If the main author is stopping your efforts to do that, then ask to be removed from the paper.

Of course if the results themselves are incorrect (rather than preliminary) there may be no saving the paper.

On a side note, the attitude of the senior researcher in question towards publishing may be productive in the short term (getting some initial papers published quickly by misleading reviewers), but it is utterly counter-productive in the long run. Having a reputation for sloppy results/writing will seriously harm the trust that reviews/readers have in your paper ... and reputation is so important in research! I don't know your situation, but if the researcher shows no inclination to change their attitude, try to put distance between yourself and them.


Is it OK to send another reminder after prospective research leader stops responding to my email? Long story short. I was look for some undergraduate level research for this July and August, so I contacted a professor like a month ago. Things went very well, and two weeks ago I even had a Skype conversation with one of their PhDs, from which I can tell that they are preparing to include me into their research group, because we talked about a lot of details like everyone's schedule, and they will presumably be my research leader in the future.

At the end of our remote meeting, the PhD told me they will send me a detailed schedule and research topic to me "in one or two weeks", and "feel free to shoot me an email in case I forgot about this". It has been over two weeks since then, so I sent an (extra polite) reminder three days ago, but I still haven't got any response yet.

Is it OK to sent another reminder to them? How long should I wait before doing so?

This is not a duplicate of How to get people to reply to emails and what to make of a no response?, because I am talking about a reminder to a previous reminder that is already sent. Also, the recipient is a PhD instead of a professor.

You can wait for another 1-2 days and send a reminder again. In the reminder, ask if there is any change in the prospect of the planned collaboration. You can also offer yourself to help with the situation, if they see you fit for this (even if the chances are small that you can actually help).

Of course, keep being polite (but do not over-do it).

Good note from @user2912328 in the comments: verify the correctness of the e-mail address of the PhD guy.

Note from me: please also verify the SPAM folder of your email. A friend of mine found (by mistake / luck) no less than 3 messages from me hidden there - while I was worried that he might be upset with me or something.


How do I cite my own PhD dissertation in a journal article? I recently finished my PhD, and now I'm in the process of submitting a journal article on the work I did in the final few months of my degree. This work is an extension to some conference papers that I'd published earlier, and so I've cited them in my journal article stating how the submitted work differs from the published material. When I submitted the article to the journal, I mentioned in a cover letter that the same results/algorithms exist in my PhD dissertation.
After submission, I received a note from the journal to also cite my own PhD dissertation in the article, as there is a fair bit of similarity. The note said:

You can resubmit after you have referenced the original article, and explained in your new article how this new work builds on your previous publication(s).

Considering the work presented in the journal article is not really an extension, and is pretty much the same as in the dissertation, how do I properly reference it? In my experience, I have not seen papers where the authors cited their own dissertation in the text.

In my experience (Theoretical Computer Science/Mathematical Logic) this issue is typically handled by having the sentence "This article is based on Chapter X of the author's PhD thesis \cite{myThesis}." as a stand-alone paragraph at the end of the introduction section.
Having just the plain sentence is consistent with the article having been edited only minimally to turn a chapter into a stand-alone article. If there are substantial differences, these can be pointed out in addition. Eg "We refer the reader to \cite{myThesis} for a much more detailed exposition of the proof."


I discovered a mistake in my application after being accepted to a master's program. What should I do? Will my offer be rescinded? I have been accepted to Duke for the MS in ECE program for Fall 2021.
I just checked my proof of application and there has been an error. It lists my minor as "Economics" whereas I have no such minor.
I have not deliberately tried to falsify my education, I think it could've been a human error on my part (I wanted to specify minor as Electronics since it only mentioned Electrical Engineering as the major). I only saw this right now, and I didn't catch the mistake when I first submitted the application or I would've contacted the admissions team right then. I was able to view this from my "proof of application" which is for personal use only.
I have been accepted to a STEM MS and I don't see how not having an Economics minor should change anything.
Duke's my first choice, I don't know what to do.
Should I email said university about the error? I don't think I made the mistake. Will they rescind my application?

I doubt that it would be rescinded if you tell them what happened and apologize. But failing to tell them might lead to some future charge of fraud, which could be grounds for expulsion. It might depend on how prominent the minor is in the application materials.
It is possible that the error was already noticed and dismissed since your transcripts show your coursework. So your informing them is just "In an abundance of caution, ..." statement.
No one can guarantee an outcome (other than the university), but errors happen. It might have been a bigger issue had you named Math or CS as a minor since that might have been a part of the decision to accept.


How to choose references for postdoc application? I am applying for a postdoctoral position in Chemistry (mainly in US and UK universities). I have zeroed on two persons other than my mentor- One is associate prof. and other is an assistant prof. Both have taken my course classes as well as practicals in M.Sc. Both are widely active in their respective research field which aligns with mine.

1) Is it wise to give names of junior faculties? Do the academia look for the repute of the person as well or just they look into the recommendation letter?

2) Does any personal account matter while considering a recommendation or a generic looking letter does fine? I am confused between a professor who was a member of my advisory committee (familiar with me and my work and quite friendly) and another one who is an asst. prof., but is popular for giving excellent recommendation.

I think, what really matters is the quality of the reference letter. As you mentioned that both the persons that you have chosen other than your mentor are highly active and are happy with your work, so getting a good recommendation letter from them would be very fine then getting a bad recommendation from a noble laureate.  Position really doesn't matter as long as you get a good recommendation.  Make sure that the person you have chosen as a recommender gives you really a good one.

  Does any personal account matter while considering a recommendation or a generic-looking letter does fine?

A well-written letter on an official notepad would be fine, having all the necessary details of your recommender with the phone number and email id.


Late graduation and prospects of getting into a good Master's degree everyone, I hope all is good and you're safe during this difficult time.

A little background about me; I'm studying in Europe and I'm graduating this semester (economics) , however this is my 6th year of studies. I have a quite good GPA around 8.3 (out of 10).

University took a lot of time  for me to finish due to a variety of reasons such as chronic health issues (physical and mental), playing a competitive sport, volunteering, working etc. In my 2nd year I attempted suicide due to the stress of being unable to even attend classes. Basically, I started going to classes and passing exams during Y3. This has left me feeling terrified, since during my secondary education I've always been a perfect grade student. It's an unprecedented and uncharted situation for me, which has crashed my confidence and belief in my abilities.

I really want to get into a good or top Master's program for economics in Europe (Or potentially China/Singapore since I'm fluent in Mandarin) and then continue towards getting a PhD since I want to get into academia.

However I feel I've missed my chance, that I've been left behind and that I'll never get into a good program and teach in a university since I'm graduating so late.

Not to mention I don't have the financial ability to pay for a  degree without any kind of scholarship.

So, my question is; is it possible to be accepted into a good postgraduate program even if I have finished my undergraduate late. Is it also possible to get a scholarship? Or is it too late for me?

The time you take to complete a degree should matter little for the future, provided that it isn't explained by laziness or sloth. There are a lot of valid reasons for taking a long time. Medical issues, including depression, especially if now resolved, are one.

I think you will be judged in any application process just about the same as anyone else would, but perhaps with an asterisk to remind someone to ask you about it. People will want some assurance that the delays of the past won't affect your performance in the future, or will, at least, want to be prepared to deal with that if it comes.

But, I think that this is a case in which your materials other than grades become much more important. Your Statement of Purpose needs to show a strong commitment to your field and your career. But it is the letters of recommendation that become especially important in such a case. But they needn't try to explain the past, but, rather, to assure a reader of your readiness, commitment, and likelihood of success.

And it is worth talking to a personal/professional counselor about your mental state and to learn how to cope when things get tough.


Fear of overbooking during job interview season. How is cancelling an interview to take another interview viewed? I know someone who is finishing a postdoc in mathematics and is in the thick of the tenure-track job search.  He had something like 15 interviews at the Joint Mathematics Meetings (JMM) last week.  At the moment he has four invitations for on-campus interviews.  Of these, exactly one is one of his very top choices.  He sent me a list of seven institutions at which he had JMM interviews, has not yet received campus interviews, but would prefer them to some of the places for which he has received but not yet accepted interviews.  He is getting worried that he could book too many interviews at these less desirable places and then be boxed out of later interviews to come.  By the way, I think he is excellent and unusually broadly appealing, and I absolutely expect him to get more on-campus interviews than he now has.  I don't think I have heard of people who have actually booked so many interviews that they have no slots left, and I am tempted to tell him not to worry so much about that -- the calendar is full of days -- but I suppose it could happen in his case.  What do you think he should do, e.g. how should he respond to two on-campus invitations that are less desirable than many of the JMMs he's waiting on?

Here is what I said so far:

1) Contact all seven desirable places, let them know the situation, and see if he can shake loose interviews from them or at least information about timing of the interviews.

2) Countenance the possibility of cancelling a job interview if he really does get booked solid.

I am not really sure about 2).  Clearly you should cancel all interviews once you've accepted a job, and cancelling interviews when you already have an offer in hand makes just as much sense.  I'm not sure about the ethics of cancelling an interview to take another interview instead.  Is this commonly done?  Would it annoy people or look shady to some?  If this is going to be viewed as dishonorable behavior even by some, I think he would really like to know that: he is as "fully honorable" as anyone I've known.

I know the hiring process in Math is a little unique. My answer is based on the assumption that an "interview" means a 1.5-2 day campus visit and that interview season is 10 weeks. Further, I assume that when contacted about interviews a candidate is typically given 3 choices of dates and that departments are interviewing about 5 candidates.

As long as you avoid campus visits on Wednesdays, you can fit two visits in a week. This means there are about 20 interview slots in a season. As the number of interviews approaches 10, the likelihood that the 3 options offered for one of these interviews will clash with previously accepted interviews. To calculate an exact probability you need to know the rate of Wednesday campus visits. At 15 it is very likely for a clash and at 20 you would have to get very lucky.

I think in this particular case the post doc is looking at 11 interviews at most and has already gotten a few rejections so likely fewer. This means that the post doc might need to tell a school that none of the dates work, but would still be able to offer 10 alternatives dates within the prime season as well as early and late visits. On the hiring committees I am familiar with providing a wide range of alternatives would not indicate disinterest. The likelihood of the availability of one of these dates depends on how busy the department is, but I would be surprised if none of them worked. If in fact there is a clash, and the school is highly desirable, then the post doc would need to cancel (or reschedule) a previously scheduled interview. Again, contacting a school to reschedule an interview is not a sign of disinterest, but rather a reality of job searches.

The real problem is not scheduling, but the ability to do a large number of interviews. The number of "slots" can be drastically reduced if the post doc has teaching requirements. Similarly, having a campus visit on Monday and Tuesday, traveling to a new city on Wednesday, and having another campus visit on Thursday and Friday is tiring. Doing that for weeks on end is the craziness of the job search. I know lots of people who have managed 10 interviews in a season with a 1 class teaching load. I don't recall anyone getting to 15.

  I'm not sure about the ethics of cancelling an interview to take another interview instead.

As I said above, I would suggest rescheduling prior to cancelling. If there really is a clash, cancelling is the only thing you can do. Cancelling the less desirable interview (after factoring in likelihood of getting a job), is the only sane thing to do. Some search committee members will complain, but no one will hold it against the post doc for long.


Pursuing PhD with no relevant coursework. Is self study and publications sufficient to show competence? I am from metallurgical engineering background. I am doing PhD in mechanical engineering. I have an average of B+ in my undergrad advanced mathematics and programming courses. I have no past exposure to Non linear mechanics and Finite Element Analysis.

I am in the first semester of my PhD and I don't have the courses on Nonlinear mechanics and Finite element analysis being offered in my university for the next two years.

If I manage to self study the material from books and publish 2-3 papers on the application of the subjects in the next 5 years, will that be enough to show competency in the topics on my future career applications?

Reading "stuff" doesn't demonstrate competency, but publishing papers certainly does. If you can "use" something, and demonstrate it, then no one will really question whether you are capable of using it.

Don't worry about it, other than to worry about the difficulty of getting yourself to the point where publishers are willing to accept your papers. The rest will follow naturally.

I'll point out that professionals do this as a matter of course. If they need competency in a subject to publish, then they just do it. They wouldn't normally take a course (for credit) and wouldn't require any certification. Academic life is, among other things, a continuous path of study.


Postgraduate certification/diploma in software engineering I have just done my Bachelor in computer science and got an offer to a software engineering position. Some people told me that a master degree is very beneficial for my long-term career development. Unfortunately I do not think I can get into any good master program because of my terrible undergrad gpa + no academic references. A postgraduate certificate program requires nothing.

My question is, what is your point of view on postgraduate certificate in software engineering? Is it just a joke comparing to master degrees? What about starting salary?

Short term wise, the postgraduate certificate will help you to find a better job with a higher salary because the certificate shows that you have some skill printed on the certificate. However, whatever the technology you learn while getting the certificate could become obsolete in a few years.

Long term wise, the master degree proves that you know more fundamentals than just a bachelor. It may not help you that much when looking for a job with better salary. Some employers would think you don't have the skills they want immediately. However, you'll learn those needed skills faster and better because you know more fundamentals.

If you want to find a job as of now, you want to have certificates. If you want to be an excellent software engineer in the future, you should get a master degree


Best practices to teach while wearing a mask The title of the question pretty much says it all: starting Fall 2020, my university should resume face-to-face classes, requiring that

all faculty, staff, students, and visitors […] wear an appropriate face covering while inside campus facilities/buildings where six feet social distancing may not always be possible

Assuming that social distancing will not be possible while I'm teaching at the white board (we may have to use the first row, which is fairly close to the white board), what are the best practices to teach while wearing a mask?
My main concern is my voice may be muffled, but there may be other issues that I've overlooked.

I grew up in Canada and was a PhD student and lecturer in England, before moving to Japan from 2013-2016. Before 2013, like most Westerners I did not wear a mask during flu season, and couldn't imagine wearing one while teaching. When I arrived in Japan in 2013, there was no COVID-19 or SARS-2003 going on, but people everywhere were wearing masks: On day 1 people were wearing masks at the airport when I landed, at the convenience store where I asked for directions when I was lost, and in the audience when I gave my first talk at Kyoto University.

"My main concern is my voice may be muffled"

Don't worry: People have been teaching with masks for decades in East Asia (I witnessed it myself for 3 years in Japan and know from my colleagues that it was nothing new).
My advice for best practices:

First try to get used to wearing a mask. If you're like me, I had never worn one before 2013 and wasn't used to it right away. But it's like wearing glasses: it's a bit annoying to see the side arms of the glasses at first but after wearing them everyday for years you don't notice that anymore. Maybe wear a mask when you go out to the store, between now and Fall 2020, so that when you start teaching you are not uncomfortable.
Get a mask that's comfortable for you to be speaking loud for long periods of time. When teaching we often have to project our voice so that people can hear us in the back, which means we speak louder than normal, and might be moving our jaw more than normal. A lose mask that falls off or moves around if you move your jaw bones too much, might be a bad idea. You can try various masks before Fall 2020 to find which one you'll be comfortable in. This is the type I use and it's the type they were wearing all the time in Japan:

(source: homedics.com)
I got 50 of them for $30 in Canada with inflated COVID prices (they were cheaper before). I don't find myself needing to speak louder, and my voice is pretty much the same as without a mask (if you stick with this classic mask instead of trying to use an N95 or some t-shirt fabric turned into a mask, I think you'll be fine and don't need a visor).

The first comment pointed out that if you use a microphone between your mouth and mask your letter "p" can sound bad. I agree and I never wear a microphone when teaching, and in fact I ask the conference chair to turn down my microphone when I'm giving recorded talks at conferences, because early in my career people told me I was too loud. For centuries we didn't have microphones and lecturers like Richard Feynman didn't use one in lectures like the one in this link, so getting used to projecting your voice is part of teaching (even at conferences they don't always have microphones). If you do still prefer wearing microphones for some reason, I think you are teaching at a rather huge lecture hall where the students will be more than 1 meter away from you, so you are likely not to need a mask. Your question says "Assuming that social distancing will not be possible while I'm teaching at the white board" which makes me assume you're in a small enough room that you don't need a microphone.

If you absolutely must record your lecture, notice that the microphone in Ilya Kuprov's 900+ youtube lectures is nowhere near his mouth/mask. You can use a body-microphone or put it on a microphone stand somewhere.


Is it impolite to not reply back during the weekend? When someone writes to me while I am online during the weekend (a student or a colleague), is it impolite to not reply back, especially when they can see that I am online (on Mattermost for example or on any other app ...), although I reply back first thing Monday morning?
Edit: First of all, thank you all for your answers! :) I would like to clarify something: Even if I am working on the weekend, would you still say that it's not impolite to not reply back?
Edit edit: Since it was pointed out in a recent answer that this might depend on the location of the university, for me it's in France, but I guess (?) it would be more or less the same around Europe, though outside Europe, there seem to be other etiquettes..

No it’s not rude, it’s called boundaries and you are allowed to have them. Simply because you are online and doing something else does not entitle anyone else to your response. There’s some nuance to this though, depending on your relationship to the person emailing, but boundaries can and should be established.


How to treat the results of symbolic computations in a paper? I am working with quite complicated (i.e., numerous) trigonometric functions. Let’s say one equation does not fit on an A4 sheet of paper. Rewriting the expressions by hand would be extremly tedious, but thanks to computer algebra systems, I managed to do a symbolic computation and arrive at something like f (0) = 1 (for the sake of the example) as a final and main result.

How can I explain such a thing in a scientific journal (in mechanics)?

A few possibilities, that I considered:

  The calculations yield f (0) = 1

But I feel guilty because I did not make the calculation by myself.

  Using ComputerProgram++, we showed that f (0) = 1.

But should I provide the code in this case?

In an engineering paper, it's not appropriate to have lengthy, non-novel symbolic computations in the body of the article. The requirement however, is that your readers are able to reproduce it in some way. Here are a few options:

Write all symbolic computations formally in an appendix to the paper.
If you obtained the results with a software (free or commercial), give the exact name and version of the software you used together with all the necessary parameters you used in the methods section. I don't think there is anything to be 'guilty' about using a faster, controlled way of solving maths providing you know what you are doing.
If you obtained the results with a piece of code, make it available in some ways (like a public repository or your institution's website). This can sometimes also be done by submitting it to the journal with your article, but few engineering journals host code.

This being said, it's very uncommon to see symbolic maths solved with software in the engineering literature (I don't think I ever read it in any paper). Generally either the concept is well-documented and does not warrant a formal proof in the context (e.g. don't copy the Fourier theorem every time you do an FFT) or it's application-specific and should be written formally.


Best approach to suggest a PhD student from a external collaborator to be her/his PhD co-advisor In several international collaborative projects I am working, it happens that in some cases I have to teach and do a thorough supervision of PhD students from the other groups. This is something that I like and I am motivated to do, but in such situations I think I might deserve to be her/his PhD co-advisor. I could ask this directly to her/his first PhD advisor, but I prefer better to ask the student first. What is in your experience the best way to suggest this to the student? Of course I would respect her/his opinion. For me the main advantage is that the hard work I am doing would be merited on my CV and for promotion/habilitation aspects. Besides, I do not think this would harm her/his PhD, but just the other way around.

I worry about the politics of it and urge a bit of caution. The relationship between the student and the formal advisor is essential to completion of the degree. The politics arises because there is the issue of the personality of the formal advisor and how s/he would interpret such a "move". I think it would be vastly different for different people. Some would take it as very helpful. Others as interference.

I think the best way is to propose it jointly to the student and the advisor and using somewhat tentative language. "I'm happy to help out there. Is there some way that we can come to a formal arrangement?"

You don't want the student to be conflicted. You don't what the advisor to be annoyed. And most of all, you don't want the student to be getting different, possibly conflicting, advice from you and the formal advisor.

However, there isn't really anything wrong with your intent. Just be sure you know the personalities and what the worst case scenario might be. Eyes open.


Can a research statement contain research interests which are not concrete? I am applying for postdoc in physics this year. Every place asks for a statement of research or research plan/proposal for the application procedure. I have been recently following papers on a very interesting topic of research. Although I have no concrete problem/question in mind. I cannot resist myself from mentioning this topic of interest. I was wondering if I can write something like the following in a statement of research :

"I am also very interested in X. I have been closely following the rapid progress in this direction and hope to contribute in recent future."

(I want this part to write at the end of my statement of research but these sentences don't sound nice to me at all!)

If a statement does not sound right to you, it is highly likely not to sound right to other people. So you might have as well just leave it out of your statement.

Focus on what you know and what you know you are in a position to focus on as part of your further research.

If you are selected, you will have plenty of opportunities to nurture your thoughts and ideas with stimulating colleagues.


Is there a way to prevent the production team from messing up my paper? After reading this post and this post, and after I also encountered a production team that made many unwanted edits in my paper (such as changing words and numbers in the text itself, removing separating lines in tables, etc.), I would like to know if there is any way to prevent this from happening in advance. I.e., after my paper is accepted and before it is sent to production, is it reasonable to contact the production team and say something like:

"Please do not edit the text of my paper. If you think there is a grammatical error that must be edited, please notify me in the author queries and I will fix it myself".
"Please do not remove the separating lines from the tables, as they convey important information".

?

Is there a way to prevent the production team from messing up my paper?

Production teams don't want to mess up papers; the ones that do are performing poorly. Unfortunately, poor performance seemingly occurs amongst all publishers, regardless of prestige. So, you cannot prevent the production team messing up your paper.

Requesting that the production team, do not edit the text, makes the team's job impossible. Attempting to pre-empt mistakes, e.g., by instructing that they do not remove the separating lines from the tables, as they convey important information, won't help much, since you cannot pre-empt all mistakes. Moreover, such contact with the production team will suggest that you have a low opinion of them, which isn't in your favour.

Following the publisher's prescribed style may reduce errors, since the production team won't need to make as many edits.

All is not lost, since mistakes can be fixed before publication, albeit this is expensive (in terms of time). In addition, preprints or technical reports (which aren't edited by the production team), can be made public.


I did not include all undergraduate schools in the university I graduated from. Have I lost my chance at ever applying to graduate school? I've been really looking forward to the idea of returning back to school to complete my higher studies in a field that's both similar to my undergraduate degree, and the nature of my work. There are a couple of graduate schools I am interested in, located in Canada and in the UK, now I graduated from the United States. The university I graduated from contains transfer credits from another college I attended, but in total I attended 2 colleges (one is included in the transcript) and one community college.

The college and community college I attended were roughly 11 years ago, I rarely attended the classes in those two schools, and I took some time off to travel and work before I made the commitment of going back to school. I graduated with an undergraduate degree 2 years ago in a science-related field with a GPA of 3.8, and I still maintain a great relationship with most of my professors from my program.

It seems that I've made a grave mistake by not including my entire academic history when I applied to my last undergraduate university, should I forget about graduate school?

*Edit

@NateEldredge That's brilliant. I took classes at College A and CC B, I traveled and worked for a couple of years and enrolled in College C. I then decided to move back to the United States, and applied to College D with only College C mentioned as my academic history. Now I'm thinking of applying to a graduate program, using the degree I earned from College D, with the included transcript from College C. Whew.

*Further Clarification
Sorry. I'm not thinking all that clearly right now. I am worried that by applying to the graduate programs my full academic history will come to light, I did not mention the other schools in the application from the university I graduated from. By omitting them from the university I actually graduated from, I will be omitting them in the application to the graduate programs. Maybe it's my older age, but I feel like this is ethically reprehensible. Now I'm thinking of contacting my undergraduate university and explaining my full history, I'm afraid they will revoke my undergraduate degree.

Around 11 years ago I graduated from high school, I went to straight to a university. I never attended class, I eventually went to a community college, and I found myself in the same situation. I realized then, I needed to leave the environment I was in. I traveled, and worked for a couple of years. I eventually decided to go back to school, and started fresh at an international university in the country I was working in at the time. From there, I transferred to a university in the United States, and only mentioned the last university I attended and did not mention any of the other schools I attended.

On the basis of your "further clarification", I suppose that your grades at A and B were bad and that's why you mentioned only C when applying to D.  Now, when you apply to graduate school, you will probably be asked, as part of the application, to provide information about (and probably transcripts from) all the undergraduate institutions you ever attended.  If you're asked that, then you should honestly include all of A, B, C, and D.  You should explain the situation, emphasizing that (if I correctly understood your "further clarification") you became much more mature between B and C, and that therefore your record at A and B has become irrelevant.  (You should explain this so clearly that there will be no need for a clarification and further clarification.)


Does Pop-Science involvement hurt one's reputation? There is a divide between the scientific community about involvement in popular science. I would define it as involvement in NatGeo/Discovery type documentaries, writing columns for newspapers/magazines, blogging about articles of popular nature (Like End of the World, Tsunami or whatever).

Does involvement in such issues harm one's reputation in academia?

I have frequently seen grad students shy away from such opportunities because they think they will be made fun of or won't be taken seriously when they go and speak about "actual" research.

(Although I am talking about grad students, the scenario isn't very different for faculty as well IMO)

Some people like Stephen Hawking or Richard Wiseman have actually authored best selling books. Whereas a majority of people in academia stay in the confines of the journals.

If certain fields of academia do in fact frown upon "popularizing" science, then they are shooting themselves in the foot.

One of the most important ways of securing funding in different disciplines is through getting support by the federal governments in which they are working. Convincing politician X that you should fund research on doohickey X and widget Y to solve problem Z rather than funding their new shopping mall or football stadium requires convincing them that your research is important and worthwhile. The key to doing this is having a message to sell—something that the lobbyists and staff persons working for the government officials can take to them and say "this is what you need to know about why this is important."

An excellent way of doing this is to take part in writing columns, producing features for television, and other "popular" methods of outreach. You'll have to figure out how to distill your message in a way that's exciting for the viewer or reader, and that will help no only you but your peers as well.


Weaker chance of admit if classmate has already been admitted to graduate program? One of my classmates just got accepted into the graduate program I also applied for. We both are strong candidates but she is a stronger one, hence the earlier acceptance.

I was wondering if it hurts my chances for an admit if someone from my undergrad university already got accepted for the program I also applied for?

I am unaware of any graduate program that makes an active effort to diversify with respect to the undergraduate institutions of their students. If our top 10 applicants were all from UC Berkeley, for example, we'd have no qualms about admitting them in exclusion of applicants from any other school. Thus in a direct causal sense, it shouldn't hurt you at all that another applicant from your school has been accepted (other than the fact that there is now one fewer slots available in their incoming class).

However, knowing that a fellow student has been admitted already does change your conditional probability of being admitted, for the worse. Given that at least some acceptances have been sent out and you are not among them, it is now less likely than it was before that you will be accepted. But this logic applies equally well to any acceptance from any school; it is no more discouraging that the accepted student happens to be from your institution.


What is the difference between bachelor of science in engineering and bachelor of engineering in the US? There are many different kinds of bachelor degrees. In my country, there seems to be no difference between bachelor of science in engineering and bachelor of engineering. There is only one kind of degree for undergraduate majoring in engineering. I am now applying to graduate program in the US, and I want to know which one I should choose to correctly get my background known by people in the US.

In the United States there are a number of different types of bachelor's degrees that are essentially interchangeable, and which one a person gets depends primarily on the history of their institution.  As such, the particular name of your degree is not likely to confuse anybody, as long as it has the word "Bachelor" in it, and the correct thing for you to do is to simply name your degree as it has been given to you.


Collaborating with professors after graduation As I mentioned in the title, I was wondering if it's possible to collaborate with professors on any research paper if I have graduated and now working in the industry?
Here are a bit more details on why am I asking this and maybe you can provide alternatives too: While in college, I wasn't very active in academics and I also changed my stream (From Chemical Engineering to Data Science) after graduation. So needless to say that I never existed as far as the professors were concerned. But now I have done a lot more work and currently aiming for an MS/Ph.D. in the Data Science field. But one thing that keeps coming back is a recommendation letter from Professors.
I believe that if I have a few publications in my name, it'll make my profile much stronger but it'll add even more value if it's in collaboration with college professors. Not only will I get a research paper, but I'll also have a good recommendation. So I was wondering if it's even possible to collaborate with them since now I'm not a student anymore? If yes, then in what capacity, do I approach the professors?
P.S. I know that I can reach out to college professors for a recommendation without collaboration but those letters will be very generic. I have much higher aspirations and I need to have a very strong recommendation letter, and the only way to do that is to work with a professor.

It is absolutely possible in principle. What I wonder in your case is what do you have to make it attractive for the professor? I as the professor surely wouldn't be interested in collaborating with somebody in order to make their profile stronger or give them a better recommendation. What do you have to offer that is attractive for the professor? An idea? Access to industry money? Interesting data or an interesting problem?
I am a statistician and have been involved in projects where I was contacted by people from industry who wanted my statistical help dealing with their data, in some cases with potential to publish together, and/or pay. When I liked the problem and had some spare time for this, I did it. Actually in many places industry collaboration also can make the professor's CV stronger or give them a relevant recommendation letter applying for grant money and the like.
Edit, replying to the first comment: The situation is somewhat different if rather than having something to offer that the professor doesn't have (like data, money, or some relevant expertise in a different field or of the background of an industry project) you want to work in the professor's area on their problems. Personally I'd be rather skeptical of such a thing, because it is somewhat risky to have somebody working for me whom I don't know and who has no contractual obligation to do that, so I may invest some time but finally results/a publication may not materialise.
Note that "the professor's projects" can have various shapes. They may have money, a group and a work plan to which they may be committed (including contractual obligations), which doesn't give anybody from outside the chance to just jump in. On the other hand, they also may have some flexibility to do spontaneous projects (as I can do working on industry projects). I can imagine positive responses particularly in case that you propose something interesting enough that the professor can see your competence and expertise. The prospect of having a collaborative publication with just giving occasional input in quite limited time may be attractive for some. Also there are young researchers who need to build up a better list of publications themselves, without already having research students or a team, who may grab such an opportunity. My subjective probability for getting a positive response would be far lower than 50%, but getting one out of ten attempts or so doesn't seem unrealistic. The best way is maybe to propose something specific related to their interests, and if your letter/email looks good and competent enough for them, you may have a chance.


Can I hide my bachelor and master degrees in CV when I apply for a PhD position? I have 1 Bachelors degree and 2 Masters degrees. They are in different subjects, not closely related. I am now planning to apply for a PhD program.

Question: Do you think that I can only mention the most recent Masters degree and hide others? My last degree is closely related with this PhD program. Also, my grades were good in this recent Masters program, unlike the others.

To be honest, I am not happy with my other degrees. My performance was not good and they are not related with the PhD that I intend to pursue. For these reasons, I prefer to not to talk about them. Can I leave them off my CV? If, in an interview, they ask my education before my last degree, my plan is to talk about them briefly.  Do you think this is acceptable?

No. You should not hide anything that you have done -- in academic programs or in work experience.  It doesn't matter whether you think that it is or is not related to the PhD application.

If you made mistakes, then address them directly in your application essay.  What were the mistakes? What did you learn from these past mistakes?  Who are you now, given your experience in these mistakes?

In my opinion, if you aren't able or willing to talk about these "mistakes", then you aren't ready to enter a PhD program.

EDIT

My suggestion reflects a particular moral and ethical code, and it also reflects a certain culture (US Science, Engineering, and Social Science programs). It may not be appropriate in other cultures, and it may not suit your morals and ethics.

To the folks who recommend "only focus on the positives", my reply is "good luck with that".  In my experience, admission committees (and hiring managers) are keen to find any weaknesses and problems.  If none are apparent, they will ferret them out.

If OP leaves these off his/her CV, then there will be holes.  If s/he doesn't address the holes in the application essay, then you are leaving it up to the admissions committee to fill in the holes with their imagination.  I presume they will assume the worst.  (In my experience, this can happen even with evidence of accomplishment.)

If these are included in the CV, then official transcripts will have to be submitted (this is standard in the US), and thereby the committee will see the full record, not just GPA for each degree program.  And if s/he doesn't say anything about them in the application essay, the committee will probably draw very negative conclusions from them.

Finally, my suggestion to address the problems and learning in the application essay doesn't mean that it needs to be long or detailed. It could be a couple of sentences: "These degree programs were not as successful as I would have liked, and but thankfully I'm much the wiser now.  I learned what I'm good at and what I'm not good at, and I learned what I really want to do in my career."


How to ask for feedback from research students on my supervision abilities? As the lone experimentalist in my group, I end up supervising most of the students (M.S., B.S. and high school) who do experimentation-focused research in my lab.

I am always trying to improve my mentoring and supervision skills. So I would like to ask my current students for some feedback at the end of the summer.

However, I want to make sure they don't feel pressured in any way by this request, that they are assured there will be no negative or positive consequences to them, and that they understand that I really want honest answers. (I'm not fishing for compliments.)

And, I am looking for specific feedback that I can use to improve or build on, not just general complaints or reassurances that everything was fine.

Given the goals stated above, what's the best way to ask for this kind of feedback? Should we speak face to face in an "exit interview" kind of thing, or should I ask them to write something in an anonymous form online, or something else entirely?

What specific questions can I ask to get focused, helpful feedback on my supervision and mentoring abilities?

Does anybody here have experience (as either supervisor or supervisee) with this kind of assessment, and have useful techniques to share?

Set the Stage

At the start of each relationship, let each student know that you value feedback, that you are adaptable/flexible in your approach to supervision, and that you will be asking for their feedback both during and at the end of the end of the supervision period.

Reinforce the Message and Values

During the supervision period, look for opportunities to demonstrate your adaptability, your interest in feedback, and it is OK for them to offer feedback even if they might feel a bit uncomfortable.  (Some people resist giving feedback to supervisors, including for gender/age/cultural reasons. They need to experience the process working successfully to overcome that resistance.)

Asking for Feedback

Aim for a face-to-face meeting, though it's fine if some people prefer to give feedback in writing.  Before you ask for feedback, first ask what is important to them in supervision relationship. You need to understand their frame of reference and values. Then ask: "What worked well for you? And what didn't?"  Then you can ask the feedback question: "For those things that didn't work so well for you, what would have worked better for you?"  You are asking how things could be different for them, within their frame of reference.  You aren't asking them to step into your shoes and advise you on how to be a better supervisor.


How are research assistantships for international graduate students funded in the US? I was recently talking to a professor at a top university seeking advice for graduate school applications. The professor happened to mention that departments in the US have funding concerns when it comes to international students because they aren't eligible for government funding from agencies such as NIH or NSF. Moreover, admissions decisions are made based on whether there is funding available to support the student for atleast 5 years. I had a couple of questions on how exactly this works.

Can international students be paid through NIH/NSF grants (as research assistants) that are awarded to the PI or does a lab use funding from industrial sponsors or other endowments to fund them?
I was under the impression that theses government grants are usually good for a shorter duration (2-3 years). How can the department be certain of further funds at the time of admitting a candidate?

PS: The title of the question might be similar to some other questions but I am interested in understanding the broader mechanism of how this works instead of specific agencies that fund international students.

Can international students be paid through NIH/NSF grants that are awarded to the PI

Yes. International students are generally not eligible for personal federal fellowships, such as the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program, but they can still be paid through regular research grants awarded to the PI.

  I was under the impression that theses government grants are usually good for a shorter duration (2-3 years). How can the department be certain of further funds at the time of admitting a candidate?

They can't. This is a major source of pressure for PIs in some fields; they have to secure funding for already enrolled students, as well as future students. If the PI is not able to secure funding through research grants, there may be institutional fellowships, industry funding, teaching assistantships, or other sources of funding that can be used in a pinch.

But, this is not really any different for international students vs any other students.


What Affiliation to put for Amateur scientist who is an alumni out of school for 15 years? I am an amateur scientist who wants to submit a paper to a peer reviewed journal.  While I have an under grad degree... it was in business and I have been out of school for 15 years.  Do I put my undergraduate university as my affiliation because I was educated there?  It would be nice to put something.

Do I put my undergraduate university as my affiliation because I was educated there?

Absolutely not.  That could be considered fraudulent, since it would suggest you are still affiliated with this university.  You should only list an affiliation if it applies now or applied while the work was done, and in the latter case you should note if it has changed (by including a current affiliation or address).

You don't need to include any affiliation at all.  It's perfectly reasonable to publish a paper with a private address rather than a work address, in which case you can avoid this issue.  If you don't want to reveal your address, you can always get a P.O. box or the equivalent.  The main points are that people can distinguish you from others with the same name and can get in touch with you if needed.

You should not list your current employer unless they are OK with being listed.  If the research is not part of your job, your employer may not want to be seen as sponsoring your research, so you should ask if you don't know their policy on this issue.


Can I contact the author of a paper for questions, even if I've never studied over high school? I've never been in a University in my life, but I enjoy reading research papers to expand my knowledge and go deeper in the understanding of details which are not covered by books.

A recent paper shows that this substance X causes reaction Y. Many others have shown that reaction Y can cause a dangerous consequence Z. I'd like to ask the author of the paper if he thinks substance X can trigger consequence Z. No one seems to have answered this question and, if they did, they're out of my radar.

Many papers covers details and little aspects of how reaction Y causes consequence Z, however I've found that a Wikipedia article does a good job in summing up all of these papers:

Can I link the Wikipedia article to the Doctor?
Or should I link the 20+ papers?
Assuming consequence Z is well known in the field, should I give for granted that he knows of it (thus not linking anything)? Can putting the links to something that is well known make me sound like a pretentious prick?

About your questions:

1) If you want you can link the Wikipedia article or make a small summary explaining your thoughts, usually Professors or researchers do not have too much time to read long emails; so try to keep it up simply

2) explained before

3) It is nothing bad that you point to the other papers of consequence Z, if he knows about them he will tell it straightforward

In conclusion, do not feel bad that you did not have any formal education. Just address to the researcher in a respectful manner and tell him/her that you are interested about his job. You do not need to send your CV or a motivation letter just for asking something, but beware, you can or you cannot get an answer (usually depends how much interested of free time the researcher you are appointing has)

Good luck!


Hyperlink to bibliography reference In Microsoft Word and Mendeley, is it possible to jump to the complete reference in the bibliography section of a document using a hyperlink?
For example, using "Ctrl+Left Click" on figures or table cross-references will take to the corresponding table.

The Manual Way
Microsoft Word supports hyperlinks within documents. For instance, in the version of Word I have (Office Professional 2016), when I attempt to add a hyperlink (1), the menu gives me the option of hyperlinking a "Place in This Document."

If you use styles to designate text Headers in Word, you will see those listed under "Headings" and can use those as links. Alternatively, you can set Bookmarks in Word (2), and then use hyperlinks to point to those bookmarks.
So you would need to set bookmarks for each reference and then put hyperlinks at each in-text mention. It's time consuming, but it works, and these links are even preserved if you're eventually saving to PDF.
(1) You can add a hyperlink by selecting text or a point in the document and (a) right-clicking and selecting Hyperlink; (b) navigating from the top menu - Insert -> Hyperlink; (c) using "Add a Hyperlink" from the search function; (d) pressing Ctrl + K.
(2) You can add a bookmark by selecting text or a point in the document and (a) navigating from the top menu - Insert -> Bookmark, (b) searching for "Insert a Bookmark" from the search function, (c) pressing Ctrl + Shift + F5.
The Macros Way
If you want the functionality to be friendly with Mendeley, you may need a third-party solution like mabentwickeltsich's Mendeley Macros on GitHub, which works for APA and IEEE. For this and other third-party tools, you would want to read the user documentation and make sure you understand what it's doing. That said, they do automate the process.


Co-authorship for not very involved supervisor I have now completed my PhD by research.

I received support from my supervisor in the form of advice on my chapters (for which I am indebted to him; we have a very good working relationship).

The advice mostly related to clarity of arguments. My supervisor was not actively involved in my research and he did not amend or add to any chapters. He just provided broad advice on the contents of each chapter so that I can fulfil the requirements of my degree.

In this case, should I credit him as a joint author in any paper I may publish from my dissertation? I cannot see a case for joint copyright of my work!

I'll assume that you have a good relationship to your PhD advisor and that you can have a reasonable discussion with him. If this is not the case, then ignore the following as you will potentially have much bigger things to worry about.

It sounds as if the papers have not been written yet, so I'd suggest you discuss this with him as soon as possible. Lay out to him which papers you want to write, what will be in them, and where you plan to submit them, and ask him if he would like to be a co-author on any of them.

Now, the important thing is that this co-authorship you're offering is not a free ride. I would assume that a good supervisor knows that this will imply a significant contribution to the preparation of the manuscript and/or any follow-up work that still needs to be done. If he is willing to actively contribute to the papers, then you have a bona fide co-author and nothing to worry about.

If your supervisor is not willing to contribute anything to your publications, then there is no reason to add him as a co-author.

In any case, you should be open and honest about your intentions. Your supervisor is a very important person in the critical post-PhD phase of your academic career, and even if you leave academia, he is your previous employer. In any case, he will be writing all your letters of recommendation, so don't do anything that may have a negative influence on your relationship.

In summary: Ask him first, and if necessary, remind him that co-authorship implies active collaboration. If he does actively collaborate, you have a good and valuable co-author, and if he does not, he will either not want co-authorship, or you will have a valid reason not to add him.


Supervisor does not allow use of commercial software for student project, against student's interests My supervisor does not allow me to use commercial software for my project. I believe that they want to reuse, modify and build upon what I do and thus are interested only in tools/libraries that are widely-accepted in the scientific community (which I do not intend to pursue a career in).

The commercial software products license costs are not an issue as students can either officially use the software for free or licenses are quite cheap (e.g. less than 5 Euro for students). As I know which tools are used in the kind of jobs I want to get in, I do not need the supervisor "to guide my software decisions" to help me in this aspect. I am also already quite proficient in one of the commercial software tools I want to use, but I feel my supervisor is not (and also has no interest in learning more about it - I do not blame him for this).

When signing up for the project, usage of commercial software was not explicitly excluded. The topic of the project itself is actually interesting, it is just the software that we cannot agree on.

How might I persuade them to change their view? If impossible, how can I make the most of this situation?

This question is related to what I am asking about, but it is more normative in nature.

The student license can be cheap, but the standard license is probably not. If the chair doesn't have funding for a standard license, or they are not interested in this specific software, the lab will end up with an unusable piece of software as soon as you leave. This is certainly not in the interest of the lab.

  What would you advise me to do?

There's not much you can do: either accept the chair's choice of software or go find a project in a lab which uses your preferred choice of software.


Disclosing work affiliation in journal paper I'm completing my part time PhD in machine learning/computational finance and work full time at the asset management arm of a bank. I'm writing my first paper, where I've only used resources at my university and not from my work. The intention is to publish to a finance journal. Do I still need to disclose my work affiliation?

The IP clause of my contract is very broad. I'm effectively assigning "all present and future IP rights" during the course of [my] employment to my employer, whether "in whole or in part, alone or in conjunction with others, using work systems or not, during or outside of normal work hours"

[Edit] Ok, my brother is conveniently a lawyer and in his opinion the wording "in the course of your employment" means such restriction is only applicable for work related activity. Before I started my PhD, I've asked (albeit a junior member of)  our Compliance and was told that I can publish papers.

Since you have a contract with the company already assigning all IP rights to them, the affiliation should be the company. Or, perhaps, the company as well as the university.

But a better solution would be to ask a legal officer at the bank what is appropriate here. They can probably dictate what you say, I think, but might agree to let it be the university, depending on the contents of the paper.

Without such an agreement, your affiliation in this case would be "Independent Researcher" or your university. Probably the university would best in this case. The research was done as a student there, not as an employee of a company. The company would be irrelevant. But the signed employment agreement has changed that.

But some advice to others, though it won't help you. If you are already a scholar (or student) and want to take a job with such restrictions, try to work out at the time of hiring any exceptions that are possible for work related to your degree. You may have a bit of leverage here if they really want to hire you.

And, if you are employed under such a restriction and want to take up a degree, try to work out before you start how your academic work will be considered. In this case, you have less leverage, I think, unless the company can find some other value in your work than in claiming it.


When reapplying, does it pose negative effect in the admission process if you use the similar personal statement? I was reapplying the same institution that rejected me last year. Last year, I didn't reach any potential supervisors and this year, one professor told me that he would assist me. I thought the personal statement last year was not the main problem for rejection so I reused it. I added two lines to update my background information. And I reworded two paragraphs though they express the same meaning and intention.

I just realized this problem after I submitting my application. Will the selection committee check my previous application? Will it pose negative effect? I really don't want to mess it up with this opportunity.

No. It is unlikely that anyone would have the ability to discover this repetition (at my institution we don't store applications from previous years), and even if they could there is no reason they would look at your previous application.


Inclusion of `computer code` in a thesis During the compilation of thesis (MSc or PhD) in a case we wanted to include some program codes as chapters:

We prefer to put heading to all program codes everywhere they appear as complete source to clarify the license. Is it nice to do so? Any other solutions?

Something like this:

  3.1.1  Loop
    ...text...
    -------
    Copyright 2013 Coder, ...                   !this part
    -------
    function loop(...) result (...)
    some code
    -------
    ...text...

You should add source codes scarcely and when it is interesting to add the code. Loop does not sound one of the interesting headings. In those cases you should include source code as figures and discuss them in your text.

in other cases, you can give complete source codes in appendix or in a CD/DVD as an attachment.


Do we explain a graph in results or discussion? My project is to characterize a behavior and I have several graphs for the same, that I have put in my results section. Should I explain the graph in the results section or the discussion section of my project report?

For example, say a graph has a groupwise comparison, do I have to explain the inference of the difference in the curves in results or discussion? If I have to do it in the discussion section, wouldn't it be difficult since to explain such a thing I'd have to repeat the graphs there too?

It may depend on your field or specific journal, but typically:
In the results section, describe the pattern quantitatively, with perhaps just a mechanistic matter-of-fact interpretation.
In the discussion section, revisit the pattern but interpret qualitatively within the scope of your research question, tying it into your overall narrative.

For publications with severe space limitations (e.g. Science, Nature), jump straight to qualitative interpretation and present quantitative results in the figure caption.


How do mathematics graduate committees view Mathematics subject GRE scores around the 60th percentile? I am a little curious as to how mathematics graduate programs in the United States view subject GRE scores. Does a low score in the range of 60th percentile rule one out of top 20 programs?

I am quite slow and I probably got 35-38 (attempted 38) out of 66 questions right in the subject test which will probably put me somewhere between 55th and 65th percentile. As an international student, I have no idea how terrible such a score is and I am considering stopping the application process to US universities since I doubt if I stand a chance.

Does a low score in the range of 60th percentile rule one out of top 20 programs?

I am already confused by "a low score in the range of the 60th percentile." A score in the 60th percentile is, by definition, high rather than low.  A math PhD student should know that. :)

In terms of whether that score would "rule you out": again, every program and even every member of every admissions committee has to decide how to weigh the various factors.  But that is why you apply to more than one program.  I think that if your application is otherwise magnificent, you are a very likely admit at several top 20 programs.

  As an international student, I have no idea how terrible such a score is and I am considering stopping the application process to US universities since I doubt if I stand a chance.

Yes, you stand a chance, so please don't stop your application for this reason.  The smart thing to do is to divide the programs of interest to you into tiers and apply to a few schools in each tier.  For instance, my program (at UGA) is about the 50th best in the US, and for us a 60th percentile score would in all likelihood not hurt your application at all.  So it would be smart to apply to some schools in the UGA tier.  (Perhaps even UGA itself...)


What does formal training in a field mean? I was curious what people mean when they say you need formal training in a field?

It means that this person has received explicit, recognized training, following the norms of the field. For instance, for a physicist this may mean having a university degree in Physics. For a medical practitioner this may mean having gone through med school. For a Linux sysadmin, it may mean having some recognized certifications.

The term is usually meant in contrast to learning through self-study or experience. For instance, we would say that a software developer has formal training if he has a degree in Computer Science, but not if he learned his trade solely by working through many online tutorials or through practical experience working in open source projects.


What is the advantage of being a Math/CS double major in graduate admissions for someone who wants to work in TCS? Doing original research in Theoretical Computer Science requires a quite good understanding of almost all areas of Mathematics.
I think double majoring in Mathematics and Computer science for someone who wants to do research in Theory is very important.(Or at least having a knowledge of Algebra, Analysis, Logic, Topology etc.)

I'm wondering how do graduate admission offices take this as an advantage?( Specifically in comparison with other good applicants which have publications or higher GPAs.)

Thanks.

Studying mathematics is great, and I agree that many theoretical computer science students would benefit from studying more mathematics.  However, double majoring is definitely not a must, and it will help only slightly with admission.  It could serve as a tie-breaker, but it is less important than getting good grades and much less important than doing research.  Ultimately, a double major is worthwhile if you would enjoy it or find it useful, but the learning will have to be its own reward.


How do I ask a professor to recommend me to another professor to hire me as a teaching assistant? I have been admitted into a college in the US for a master's program. I am applying for TA positions under various professors because TAs get tuition benefits.

One of the professors who taught me as an undergrad (Prof. X) knows a professor in the department where I will be studying (Prof. Y). How do I ask Prof. X to recommend me to Prof. Y?

Before asking for the letter of recommendation, you should ask your new department how TA positions are handled in your new program: you'll want to know

does Prof. Y even need TA's—not all courses get TA's assigned;
who is responsible for deciding who will TA which course;
when the decisions will be made.

If you find that Prof. Y needs a TA and that you'd be capable of doing the assignment, then you can approach Prof. X and ask if he'd be willing to recommend you to Prof. Y as a potential TA candidate.


Withdrawing a paper after acceptance due to error I had a paper accepted at a conference in theoretical computer science. However while revising the final version I found an error in the proof of an important lemma. Although I believe the error is fixable, It will require some effort. I will not be able to fix the error before the deadline for the final version.

1) Should I withdraw the paper?

2) Should I leave the lemma without proof, and add the corrected proof at the final version.

What would be the best thing to do? Would I be able to resubmit the paper to some other conference? What would be the damage for my reputation?

I would contact the programme chair of the conference and ask for advice (perhaps suggest the options you have already given).  It could be that by submitting the paper you are under an obligation to attend, in which case you should seek permission from the conference chair to withdraw the paper.  To protect your reputation, at the very least explicitly state in the draft that lemma is currently unproven.   We all make mistakes, without exception, so we should all be understanding when they happen to others.


Is it fine to post my paper's preprint both on my blog and on arXiv? There is no particular reason that I want my preprint paper both on my blog and on arXiv, but I just thought it would look nice on my blog. If I were to do this, will arXiv mark my paper as plagiarized, because there is another copy on my blog? If so, how do I prevent this (is there an option to fill-in alternate links to the same paper)?

The following concerns me:

I have heard that arXiv have their own moderators, so that lead me to assume they might have a plagiarism test done on submitted papers. If my paper is already on my blog, isn't it more likely to be flagged as plagiarized by any average plagiarism software?
I have been surfing the web to understand about arXiv: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAcademia/comments/5dq2jx/what_does_it_mean_to_have_your_paper_rejected_by/ There have been evidences of proper articles being rejected. This being the case, how does it ensure security?
The reason we post our papers first on arXiv is to prevent the content from being stolen by some anonymous person, who first rejects our paper upon submission and unlawfully uses the content elsewhere. How is arXiv different in this aspect?

I haven't used arXiv before, and this is going to be my first time and I apologize if my question is very basic, I don't have much experience with these stuff.

If my paper is already on my blog, isn't it more likely to be flagged as plagiarized by any average plagiarism software?

This won't be a problem, unless you do something really weird, like post your paper on the blog under a different name.  Lots of arXiv papers also appear elsewhere, and the arXiv couldn't function if this caused trouble.

  There have been evidences of proper articles being rejected. This being the case, how does it ensure security?

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by security.  Strictly speaking, nothing is ensured, but in practice I believe very few proper submissions are rejected (almost none).  Unless you are an amateur researcher or are working on something unconventional, I don't think you need to worry about rejection by the arXiv.

  The reason we post our papers first on arXiv is to prevent the content from being stolen by some anonymous person, who first rejects our paper upon submission and unlawfully uses the content elsewhere. How is arXiv different in this aspect?

It's not different in principle, but in practice I don't consider this a serious issue.  I doubt any arXiv moderator has ever stolen a submission, since the risk/reward ratio would be terrible.  (It makes little sense to try to steal a paper when the authors will presumably post it online somewhere else shortly, and when there's an electronic record that you rejected it from the arXiv.)

More generally, I disagree that this is a key reason to post to the arXiv, since theft by reviewers is rare.  When people talk about establishing credit by posting to the arXiv, they generally aren't talking about preventing theft, but rather publicizing the work enough that nobody else will independently make the same discovery and claim credit.


Is it impolite to ask to which journal a preprint was submitted? Is it considered impolite to ask the author of a preprint about the journal to which the paper was submitted? The specific reason why I would be asking is that this would help me gauge how high to aim with my own related preprint.

To give a few more details: I recently run into a preprint by someone, let's call him Smith, who obtained a partial result on a problem that struck me as interesting. After giving it a little thought, I stumbled into some ideas that solve the problem completely* and wrote to Smith to ask him about his thoughts. As it turned out, Smith has independently solved the general case as well, by entirely different methods, and we ended up posting our preprints online days apart. Now, I'm trying to figure out how interesting the new result actually is. As is sometimes the case in (certain combinatorial branches of) mathematics, it's somewhat hard to tell, and a significant part of motivation is that people have been thinking about the problem and didn't come up with a solution. Ideally, if Smith's first preprint had already been published, I would send my work to a journal that's one notch higher, or if I knew where the first preprint is sent I would send my work to a journal of the same caliber. Also, I would probably feel a lot of regret if Smith published his paper in a journal more prestigious than me simply because I didn't aim high enough (if the referees find his argument more interesting than mine that's fine of course, I'd just feel regret about not giving it a shot). On the other hand, I'm worried that asking about where he sent his preprints would be considered impolite - it could be considered too intrusive, and there are good reasons why people don't publicise which journals they have submitted to (some discussed here and here on this SE). Then again, maybe it would not - after all, people are generally willing to share more in private communication than publicly. If it matters, I have met Smith on several occasions before and we talked a bit but not a lot; we're on similar stages of our careers with him being slightly senior.

*) Well, almost completely, depending on how you define the problem.

Yes, I think this question is impolite.  The submission history of an article is usually considered a private matter, because if the paper doesn't appear in the journal where it was submitted, one can infer that it was rejected.  It's a little like asking about their sex life.  If someone I knew well asked me where I had submitted a paper, I might tell them - but if a stranger or casual acquaintance asked me, my reaction would be "That's none of your damn business."   (My actual reply might be a more polite version like "I'd rather not discuss that.")

I suppose that, as Anonymous Physicist says, you could ask Smith if he has any advice on where to send such a paper.  But since you seem to be competitors, he might not be inclined to help you out in this regard - in fact, if he does offer a suggestion, you may not really want to trust it.

It would also be reasonable to contact Smith and propose a joint paper, though of course he is free to decline.


Verbatim copying of text that itself contains references - plagiarism? Author A has a paper where a sentence (25 or so words) that refers to the work of Authors B and C.

If author Y copies verbatim the sentence by A, and includes the reference to B and C (as it's a verbatim copy), this is plagiarism, right? There are no quotation marks.

If there's no reference to A, yes, that is plagiarism.  If Y has not read the papers by B and C, it's also reference padding.

It is possible that Y did read those papers by B and C and happened upon the same sentence structure as A, which is not plagiarism.  That's actually pretty easy when citing one paper.  "According to Smith (2001) blah, blah..." happens all the time.  With two authors and 25 words, it is much less likely that Y independently wrote the same thing.

You don't tell us the context.  I suppose it's possible there is a special case that would mitigate this, but I can't think of one.


APA reference same author, one dated, one not dated: which order? If I have the same author twice in my reference list, and one work is dated and the other is not, which comes first in the list?
E.g.:
Lastname, F., (n.d.). Title [etc.]
Lastname, F., (2019). Different title [etc.]

This has been described quite clearly on the APA Style Blog:

An “in press” work has yet to be published, so if you have one or more references that contain a publication year, these references will always come before an “in press” reference because they’ve already been published.

When dealing with “no date” references, simply follow the same “nothing precedes something” guidance that the Publication Manual gives regarding alphabetizing author surnames in the reference list (see p. 181). Using this guideline, “no date” references should always precede references with “some date.” Also remember that “no date” is abbreviated as “n.d.” in both the reference list and the in-text citations (see p. 185).


What would be the correct response if a teacher gives you their own answer without explaining or giving any indication that you are wrong? It's not the first time that it has happened to me, but I think many times, tons of times. I'm a bachelor's student with Physics as the major. Let me tell you about today's incident:
So we were taking this elective class online on Modern physics. The topic was Tensor. The teacher asked, "Tell me about tensor and try to tell in one sentence" (which I think I find kind of ridiculous in itself). In any case, I said,

Tensors, like vectors, are objects that transform under rotation of coordinate according to some specific rule.

I couldn't tell the rule as I have only one sentence.

The teacher says I will say, Tensors are a generalization of vectors.

And I kind of find it to be the same thing. But I get out of my mind (it might be my fault) when someone does that, that is, giving their own explanation without explaining or even commenting on my answer. They just say, Well Well I'll say......
What should be my reaction to this? Should I just listen and let it go? Or should I ask what's wrong with my definition or my explanation (my thinking)?

There are various reasons why teachers (and people more broadly) do this. In most cases, they think your answer sounds wrong, and want to give you the textbook answer, but in addition:

They may not feel confident pinning down precisely what's wrong with your answer.

They may be feeling lazy and not want to engage with your answer.

They may not be feeling particularly lazy, but your answer may be so confusing/confused/oddly worded that they can't face trying to engage with it.

They may not want to get bogged down in dissecting your answer, for time reasons.

Basically, if they'd wanted to engage with your answer, they probably would have done. You ask whether you should try to cajole them into answering you anyway. I would argue that it depends on why you think they haven't engaged with your answer, and what result you're after.

If they haven't engaged with your answer because they don't understand it, then trying to cajole them may force them to admit that, which they may not like (depending on their personality).

If they haven't engaged with it because they're feeling lazy, they might engage with it if cajoled, perhaps.

If they haven't engaged with it because they think it's confused, they might attack the answer, if you irritate them.

If they haven't engaged with it because there's no time, they might tell you that and possibly ask you to talk to them at the end.

So it depends on what you want to achieve, ultimately. Arguably they should have engaged with your answer, if it was understandable. But if they didn't, and you force the issue, you run the risk of annoying them (whether that's fair or not). It's up to you to judge the situation at the time, I think.
For what it's worth, I've been on both sides of this, as a student and as a teacher. From a student's perspective, it's very annoying if a teacher isn't perfect. From a teacher's perspective, it's easy to feel bad for not being perfect (which is impossible actually), and to wish students could empathise a bit more. The reality is that most students wish their teachers could be some kind of all-knowing Yoda figure, and that sadly most teachers aren't, and can't be. The older you get, the more empathy you develop for your former teachers, I find.


Research statement for professional versus research master's programs Are research statements evaluated differently for professional and research master's programs? If so, how do they differ?

Further, I have read that admissions to research programs are more competitive than for professional programs. So can I take admission into professional degree first, and then transition to a research degree in order to increase my odds of admission?

I am an international applicant applying for computer science programs in the US. I do not wish to go for a PhD directly, so I am looking to do a master's first.

P.S. Sorry for asking two questions. But they seem to be fairly related to me.

You don't mention what field you're in or what country you want to apply to, but let me answer for computer science in the US.

  Is the evaluation of research statement done differently for professional masters and research masters? If so, what are these differences.

Professional masters programs won't ask for a research statement at all.

There are two types of computer science masters degrees in the US. One is the research masters, which requires a thesis in addition to advanced coursework.  The other is the professional masters, which is entirely based on coursework, with no research component.  Research masters students generally work with faculty advisors on a research project and may even be funded by teaching or research assistantships that include a tuition waiver.  Professional masters students pay full tuition (or get their employers to pay for them), and take classes and nothing else.

  can I take admission into professional degree first and then make a transition to research degree in order to increase my odds of admission?

In my experience, absolutely not!

Professional masters degrees are considered to be terminal degrees.  Because they lack a research component, they are not considered pathways to a research degree.

  I am an international applicant applying to US. So I do not with to go for PhD directly.

Why not?  At least in my department, a strong majority of PhD students are international, and most of them apply as undergraduates.  And I don't think my department is special in that regard.


How to teach students to ask Polya-type questions I've recently read "How to Solve It" by Polya.  In that book, the author basically explains the method that I use in my own teaching - asking relevant, prompting questions to get students to reason through a problem.

However, I have a problem with this method (including in my own teaching) - the real challenge should be to get the students to ask those questions themselves.  I'm not doing anything other than asking "the right" questions to get the students to move forward, but they aren't spectacularly difficult questions to come up with on your own.

I fear that all I'm doing is pushing the responsibility back on myself by taking away the really hard part of problem solving: figuring out the path you need to take.

So how do you teach students to ask good questions while problem solving without the need for teacher assistance?  We can limit the question to STEM problem solving if we'd like, but I'm sure this problem exists in non-STEM fields.

Like most things, students need to be actually taught to do it. And "taught" doesn't mean having it explained to them, but rather practicing it via some sort of planned exercise or activity.

It is an interesting idea, though.

What I would do is to periodically hold a brainstorming session with students, assuming that the scale is reasonable. Take a problem that they haven't solved and ask for questions about it. Don't answer the questions, but ask for more questions - beyond the horizon questions - outrageous and maybe only potentially useful questions. Spend time on just gathering questions, making something of a game out of it. Note that I've done similar sorts of "gaming" activities with adult doctoral students, so don't assume that this just works with youngsters.

Talk to them about what sorts of questions are generally useful. What is a smaller problem than this that we know how to solve? What is a related question? Where could we find information about this question? What do these words actually mean, individually and it conjunction?

After you have a bunch of questions, try to have the students sort them in some way. Which are useful for this idea? Which are useful for extending the idea, or a related idea.

If you practice this with them they will start to become more comfortable thinking that way, though you can probably expect more classroom interruptions in the normal course of things.


When applying to a PhD program whose strength is not my concentration field, should I adjust my statement of purpose to match their area of strength? I am applying to a PhD in Economics; I am a big in Macro Economics as my background is entirely in macro.

One of the schools I am interested in is more focused in game theory. They have some economists focused in macro & monetary theory but it's just 2-3 members, extremely small compared to the other PhD programs I am applying to.

Should I reword my statement of purpose to areas they have more focus in? I like the school a lot!
Do I make myself more or less competitive by being interested in an area a university isn't its best strength?

Two ways of looking at it:

If I say I am interested in X and most of the faculty is doing Y and the students and program are more focused in subject Y, less of the faculty vote for my admissions and I am rejected.

Or

I am interested in X and most of the faculty is doing Y, subject X is underrepresented, I become a minority and they vote me in.

Which one do you  think is the more likely outcome? Should I reword my SOP to the school's strength?

It seems you are looking at this from the wrong angle.

You should not (primarily) tune your SOP to whatever increases your chances of acceptance, but to your interests. If you are "a big Macro guy", then what good does it do you to pretend like you are really into Game Theory? Do you want to do your PhD in Game Theory, even if you are not passionate about it (hint: you really shouldn't)?

Further, is it possible that you are actually not applying to the right school, if they have close to no faculty in your speciality? Why do you think this school is a good fit? If this question has a good (academic) answer, this is what you write in the SOP. If the answer is non-academic ("I like their sports team!"), I suggest you should reconsider applying to this school altogether. As you can see from browsing various questions on this site, being in the "wrong" grad school can be a terrible experience.


Is it alright to ask recommendation letter from the same professor more than once? Background: I was applying for grad school last year, and asked my professors for a lot of rec letters(likely 15 programs which made the work really tedious). They kindly agreed and send all the rec letter much earlier before the due date, and the outcome is really good, I had been admitted by almost all the excellent universities which I thought I won't had much chance, so I suppose my professors' recommendation helped a lot and I am very grateful.
However, the problem is, due to complicated reasons I had to reapply this year, and I'm not sure whether it would be appropriate to ask professors who already helped me once again since I already troubled them too much last year. And I didn't contact them after I send them a thank you letter which made me feeling like the only thing I did after graduate is keep asking rec letter from professors. I could find enough rec letter from my intern supervisor since I had graduated for a while but my friends told me universities really value the rec letter from undergraduate professors so I better at least have one. My current plan is that I would ask them if they still have the rec letter they wrote for me last year and if so, I will awkwardly ask them again. I really appreciate what my professors already done for me and I really don't want trouble them. It appears to be a very hard time for all universities and professors because of the CVOID situation, so I'm not sure if I should even bother them at this point. Please let me know if my plan would be culturally appropriate or not. I graduated from an american college if it matters.

tl;dr: yes, but do explain the circumstances.
Professors are well aware that writing recommendation letters is part of their job. We know that good letters are a requirement for students to advance, and if students have behaved reasonably well in their interactions with us, we should gladly provide such letters. I had a student apologize to me for asking me to send five letters to distinct employers, so I can understand your reflex to not want to be a burden. Let me reassure you, just as I reassured that student: it is not a burden at all. Writing recommendation letters is a bit of work that results from having had interactions with the student that I enjoyed.
All that being said: you probably will want to make sure that the professors will understand that their work has not been in vain. Thank the professors for their efforts so far, express that you are very happy with the achieved results, and tell them that you unfortunately must ask for a little more of their time. Then write the reasons why you couldn't accept any of the spots last year, and ask them to send the same letters again (only updating the cosmetic stuff, such as the date).
It may be difficult to be open about your personal circumstances to the professors. However, it is probably necessary to tell them why you couldn't make use of the opportunities last round, since this motivates why the professors wouldn't be wasting their time this round. If you write it like that, I would find this request absolutely appropriate, and I would be surprised if your professors wouldn't respond positively.
Good luck with the applications!


Publish collection of papers into a book? I have a very general question. Say I have written 10 papers, published them independently in different journals over the years - could I then just take these papers and make a book out of them and publish that, or is there then a copyright on the published papers which would prevent me from doing that?

It is very likely that you would have assigned to the journal publishers the copyright to some or all of the papers you published, so you would not be allowed to publish the book without getting permission from those publishers. With that said, book anthologies of previously-published scientific papers are fairly common, and my understanding is that journal publishers are generally inclined to give their permission for a paper they hold the copyright to to be published in such an anthology.

A separate question is who would want to publish your book anthology. Unless you are a famous academic, I don't think such a book would be of interest to mainstream academic publishers, regardless of whether you need or can get the necessary permissions.