Should I include all relative publications in my manuscript? I am a PhD candidate and when i'm writing a manuscript for a conference or journal i have the same question. Let's say my manuscript is about a topic A.
When i'm doing my bibliographic research i find lets say 30 papers (or more) relative to the topic A. Should i do exhaustive reference of all of them in my manuscript or i am OK if i mentioned the most important of them or the most representative that proves my point? I have a feel i should include everything but maybe its a thing of my OCDish personality, because it doesn't seem every paper add something so different from another (at least from my manuscript point of view).

For a thesis it is normal to include a much more complete bibliography that results from a literature search. This seems to be what you are describing.
However, for a paper, it is much more normal, and useful, to include only those you need to cite in the work itself; those from which the current work derives. Don't send the reader astray from the advances you present in your paper.
There are a few exceptions, such a the inclusion of an especially seminal background paper on which the whole (sub) field relies, and certain review papers whose intention is to give a broad overview of a topic, rather than, necessarily, to advance it.
It is good, of course, to keep an annotated bibliography for your own future use.


List of average page number per journal There are lists of journals in various fields of science by impact factor, cites per document, total cites, etc.

Does there exist something comparable if I want to know the average number of pages per article?

There is no certain rule of thumb for determining the number of pages in a journal article. If you are asking for a sheet with all the information about it, then I think nobody here is going to be able to help you out. If you need information on a specific journal, however, then you may look into the journal's "Author Information/Instruction" page or "Paper Submission Page".

However, you should also note that there are often three different types of paper welcomed by many journals:

Short paper (least number of pages) E.g. 8 pages for IEEE
Regular paper (more pages) e.g. typically 12 double column pages
Review papers (most pages). e.g. I don't know.

However, everything depends again on publishers, including whether it is a double column or a single column format. Typically single column formats have higher page numbers than the examples given above.


If the purpose of a registered study changes, is it still a registered study? A study was registered in 2004 at ClinicalTrials.gov with identifier NCT00080171. It defined its purpose as:

  Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common cause of disability in adults. The "Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI): A Knee Health Study" is a nationwide research study that will help researchers gather more information about the physical changes that occur prior to the onset of arthritis symptoms or before OA gets worse. The purpose of this study is to examine people who have knee OA or are at high risk for knee OA; information will be used to better understand how to prevent and treat knee OA.

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a paper, Fried potato consumption is associated with elevated mortality: an 8-y longitudinal cohort study, with the stated conclusions (emphasis mine):

  The frequent consumption of fried potatoes appears to be associated with an increased mortality risk. Additional studies in larger sample sizes should be performed to confirm if overall potato consumption is associated with higher mortality risk. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00080171.

On closer inspection it appears that the fried-potato paper relied on data collected for the osteoarthritis study. But the study registration mentions neither fried potatoes nor mortality.

Given the divergence of purpose, should the paper make the claim that the trial was registered?

First off, as you state it your worry is as follows:

Given the divergence of purpose, should the paper make the claim that the trial was registered?

Unpacked and clarified, I think this worry contains the following assumption:

A paper should only claim that it is a registered trial if the purpose of the trial that is registered and the claim that the paper looks at are closely connected.

I think this assumption is basically false and misunderstands the purpose of registration.
Looking over clinicaltrial.gov 's explanations of why and when to register trials, they suggest five benefits of registration and five benefits of the data, one of which is:

Facilitate systematic reviews and other analyses of the research literature

Several of the other things they state are similar in function. (There's also public benefit, ethical review, avoiding bias in the use of the data, and other features).
The data from Clinicaltrials.gov is free for anyone to use subject to these terms and conditions. The relevant item is :

In any publication or distribution of these data, you should:
Attribute the source of the data as ClinicalTrials.gov
Update the data such that they are current at all times
Clearly display the date the data were processed by ClinicalTrials.gov
State any modifications made to the content of the data, along with a complete description of the modifications

Thus, if you use data from Clinicaltrials.gov to produce research, you must cite that you took it from there and presumably should say which trial you are working from.
The specific method to correctly cite would be a conjunction of these terms and the journal's policies for citation.
On a general level, there's nothing ethical wrong with saying where the data came from. In fact, it's an obligation.

Returning to your final question, I think we can nitpick them for their English a bit. The authors might be better suited using a different phrase than

This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00080171.

which they use in this paper and another publication where in the full-text they state:

Data for this trial (NCT00080171) were obtained from the Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI) database.

This leads me to believe they are using "trial" in a somewhat odd way (at least from the perspective of a native AmE speaker who works in the humanities).
Something like:

This research is based on the registered trial NCT00080171 from clinicaltrials.gov.

seems better in both instances.
But while nitpicking for English, I think that they must state that trial they used is registered but shouldn't make it seem like this was that trial's purpose.


Is an emphasis on "novelty" necessary in academic papers? I often come across papers which have a 'Novel' in their titles. In the content the authors go out of their way to explain how their work is the first to the best of their knowledge to come up with the results.

Isn't novelty a necessity in research papers? Is a separate emphasis really needed? What is the best way to convey novelty without sounding extravagant?

The authors need to make it clear that the paper makes a contribution and to be explicit about what that contribution is. Otherwise the work is not original and does not deserve to be published. (This excludes survey papers and such things.)

The emphasis on novelty need not, however, be placed so explicitly in the title.

Good ways of emphasizing the novelty are

Include a short discussion at the end of the introduction stating explicitly what the contributions of the paper are.
Back this up with evidence in the body of the paper.
A proper comparison with related work. (As El Cid's answer states.)


Delay master's thesis: Appropriate to mention personal reason? I'm at a European university, where I'm currently writing my thesis to finish a master's degree. The deadline is in a bit over a month. Due to a serious family issue, I have not been able to work much, thus I likely need to postpone the submission deadline (which is allowed without providing a detailed reason).

I have not had much supervision (not unusual at my uni), and, apart from not being able to work much, the project is going fine. My concern is that I could be subject to unconscious lazy-student bias at grading if I dont tell him the (at least vague) reason for my delay.

Is it appropriate or relevant to mention the reason for my delay to my supervisor? Or should I simply tell the supervisor that I have to delay the submission date?

Thanks for your input.

I don't see what would be inappropriate here. I would welcome it if my students would feel enough at ease with me to confide the reasons why their projects are running later than planned.


Applying in Germany - how far back should the documentary evidence go? Let's assume that some of your applications go for W2 professorship positions at the German universities of applied sciences. One of such potential employers asks the candidates to supply

  Lebenslauf, belegt durch Zeugniskopien und Nachweise der beruflichen Tätigkeit [...]

(CV, supported through credential copies and evidence of occupation [...])

Let's assume you have been on a lot of academic short-term contracts and stipends since your undergraduate studies. Is it really expected that you supply all the documents (over 15 in your case)? Or are documents for the recent n years sufficient? (Yes, you asked the person in charge, and that person did not respond. Moreover, you know noone from the faculty...)

On the one hand, you may be afraid that in case of a huge number of incoming applications for the position there could be a pre-selection phase, in which some assistants would reduce the number of applications to look at by simply filtering out the applications which are not 100% conforming. Or that some committee members insist strictly on the rules.

On the other hand, properly preparing all the documents would take you 1 full working day. Reason: the documents are not in easy-to-handle formats (PNG, multi-page TIFF with different-size pages, white paper, etc.), the salary needs to be blackened, all kinds of printer issues have to be dealt with, etc. One day is a lot for you. It is unknown whether any of the next 100 potential employers would need these documents (the previous 60 did not need them), so the work you are doing might not be reusable.

If you did not get an answer from the person in charge, I see two possibilities:

Go all in and send all documents. You have them all ready anyway (you have them, right?) and if they request it, they can have it. If you go for this option, make sure that your CV is well organized and that the whole application document is perfectly ordered as well.
Just attach the most recent ones and add something like "Complete documents can be given if needed". This may save you some time and maybe the committee will not need the documents anyway.

From my experience, these rules often sound more strict than in reality and in reality the committee often does not know the exact rules anyway. But there is always the possibility that some committee member insists on following all rules to the single letter.

Another thing: Often there are two people to ask questions about the ad: The dean and the head of the committee. You may also ask other faculty members at the institution if you happen to know somebody there.

Another remark: As a head of a search committee it is pretty normal to receive phone calls close to the application deadline, so it a question is urgent, rather call than write an email.


Computer Science, MEng or BSci + MSc in the UK? In Spain, it is fundamental to do the first 3 years of bachelor and the last two years of master to get a job, so I find very difficult to understand the UK system. I am currently enrolled in Computer Science and I have to find out whether I want to do MEng or BSci.

For what I understand:

with BSci I can later do a master MSci for a total of 4 years
with MEng I can in the fourth year choose master courses but MEng is considered undergrad course

The M in front of Eng is really confusing. I don't want to go into research but I would like to get a greater insight of Artificial intelligence and Big Data, thing that I could do either way choosing MEng or BSc+MSc.

What is the difference between MEng and MSc in the industry? Given that I will spend 4 years any way, should I invest my time in MEng or Msc?

Short answer: They are viewed as both roughly equivalent. MEng (or MSci for other sciences) is a 4 year course. BSc + MSc is 2 course (3 + 1 years).

Longer answer/other useful info: I studied an MSci in Physics not CompSci so there might be some minor differences between the subjects, I don't think they are significant.

Although not directly asked I also feel its import to point out that MSc and MSci in the UK are different (MSc is one year, MSci 4years).

Generally in the UK a single 4 year course is becoming more popular. Of my physics course ~60% did the 4 year MSci, ~10% did the BSc and then an MSc somewhere else and the rest only did the BSc. Now these numbers are only an example and details will depend on course and institution (many lower ranked uni do not offer a combined course).

In terms of content both options are likely to be similar. Possibly the BSc and MSc tends to be slightly more research/project based. Although this is very course dependent. I recommend you research the course syllabus for each option.

The main factor to recommend the MEng is funding. For UK students student loans are generally only available for your first degree. This means subsequent 1 year masters must be funded independently/by a bank loan, which is often prohibitive for many people. As you are a Spanish student I am not sure what the situation is for you. Obviously this is something you may want to consider.

In favour of the BSc + MSc it offers more flexibility. You can chose a different institution or a more specialized course after your BSc. The flip side is you are not guaranteed a place anywhere. Additionally many jobs do not require a masters so it gives you the option to only complete the BSc (someone else might comment on how true this is in CompSci).


Applying for PhD overseas After a Break I am a Graduate in Life sciences who has been working in a corporate job for the past 2+ years.

I am currently researching and aiming to apply for PhD programmes in Europe. In requirements for PhD I have come across the need for Recommendation letters from past supervisors.

It has been over three years since I worked under a Research supervisor. And I feel it would not be appropriate to ask them after a long term.

Are there any means by which I can proceed without recommendation letters ?
How will this affect my chances for acceptance?

Actually, I think it is a mistake to try to submit without letters. People will wonder about your motives and worry that you don't think you can get good recommenders.

Your break isn't that long, actually. After 20 years it would be different. Your old professors probably still remember you if you did good work. Of course, you will need to reintroduce yourself, bring them up to date on what you have done recently, and remind them of what you did in the past.

But, assuming that you had a good enough relationship back then to have asked, that hasn't changed. It is certainly appropriate to do so. Many professors, in fact, are happy to hear about old students and to support their further advancement.


Refusing for turning on a zoom camera during an exam? Hello I have a question regarding video during exams.

My professor is hosting an exam using Zoom, and I was wondering if there was any basis for refusing to use the camera during the exam. Each student will be able to see each other unlike a previous question asking about one-way monitoring.

The exam is also open-notes, and open-book. There is also an issue of cheating that is being discussed. The matter is being discussed because three exams already without the camera but the professor says its kind of just to make sure we are not doing anything sketchy. However, I feel its a contradiction because if the class "cheated" doing his past exams, then why give them the grade.

However, I am wondering if that means I can't refuse the camera.

It sounds like your professor plans to monitor video to prevent cheating. Since the exam is open note/open book, this would primarily be to make sure students are not collaborating between each other.

I think there are reasons this situation is unfortunate from the students' side: could students be penalized if their video freezes? (mine does all the time on Zoom calls despite a good internet connection and despite good incoming/outgoing audio throughout...) is it fair to give your class a view into your personal living situation?

It's also quite a difficult time from the professor's side: they're trying to make sure they can administer fair and honest exams while knowing that given sufficient leeway some fraction of students will use that to their advantage.

I think it's reasonable to ask your professor for flexibility, but you should have your reasons/concerns in mind and express those rather than only your solution (opting out of video). If you come at it as trying to work between your concerns and those of your instructor, you are more likely to be able to come to some intermediate arrangement.

However, depending on the time until the exam, size of the class, etc, they may not be able to make any allowances in the sake of fairness unless there is a real serious concern. Having your classmates able to see you is probably not going to be sufficient, since they would normally see you in-person as well, unless you already have some disability considerations related to that. They'll all be focused on their own exams anyways and probably won't even have you on-screen.

OP's logic suggesting that because past exams didn't have video this exam doesn't need video (paraphrased) doesn't make much sense to me. Maybe this is a particularly important exam (a final?), or maybe the professor has some circumstantial evidence that cheating happened previously that is insufficient to act on, like certain students having very similar answers. There might not be much they can do about the exams they've already given, but they are probably hoping for a better result for the next one.


"Warning signs" that candidates should be aware of during an academic job interview I know that a big part of academic job interviews is for the candidate to evaluate whether they want to be in the department (not only whether the department wants them).

Are there some non-obvious general factors that signal a possibly dysfunctional department, or an otherwise undesirable position, that a candidate should be aware of? For example (but not limited to), is a poorly attended job talk, or only meeting a relatively small fraction of the faculty, a warning sign of something awry?

I'm asking this question because I have had two successful interviews and am weighing competing offers. This has left me considering some of the finer aspects of the interview experience.

One thing to consider is tenure rates. Some departments are much more difficult to gain tenure in than others. My undergrad institution is well known for tenure cases that end in litigation. Similarly, I am aware of a department (small liberal arts college, not MIT or the equivalent) that denied tenure to something like six assistant professors over the course of a decade without granting tenure to any of its hires.

Additionally, it's worth considering whether the department has autonomy over the hiring process. If the meeting with the dean is not largely a formality, this might be an issue.


Which role should other graduate students serve in a PhD defense? In some countries and at certain universities, graduate students are advisory members of the committee during the PhD defense. In other countries like the Netherlands, a PhD defense takes place in public and everyone might ask questions at the end. Therefore, I would like to know:

How should another graduate student serve his/her role as an advisory member of the PhD committee?
What kind of questions should one ask in a public PhD defense?
How should he/she prepare for the defense (other than obviously reading the dissertation)?

The first thing I would do is to ask the committee chair what are my rights and responsibilities as an advisory member. In short, what is it expected from me. I guess I would be expected to ask questions but I will not participate on the final decision of the defence.

Participation in a PhD defence committee seems to me as a good opportunity to learn critical thinking about research. The thinking every researcher should apply on his/her own work. Therefore, as a preparation I would recommend:

(as you mentioned) Carefully read the dissertation and

if you find something which is not clear to you even after several readings, ask about it
look at some of the references you find interesting and try to ask yourself: "Is this reference appropriate here? Why?"
in case some formulas or computations are present, you can try to reach the same result as the PhD candidate
if you are interested in methodology you can ask the
candidate why he/she used that particular method

to do more, you can try to find another works on the same topic, read them and compare them with the dissertation as it is always good for discussion to have more information about the topic

In case of public PhD defence, the audience can be very broad from family members who do not know what is the research about to an expert from another department who came to rise his/her ego by asking non-answerable questions. Here, the question depends on the person who is asking. No background knowledge is expected here and one should not feel restricted by the circumstances.

My personal opinion is that one can ask really about anything as far as his/her intentions are good. If the question is irrelevant the PhD candidate or one of the committee should kindly explain why.


Money as a factor in PhD admissions I'm wondering to what extent money is a factor in phd admissions?  For example, does an admissions committee limit the number of students admitted in a year depending on how much the department can afford that year? and approximately what percentage of the departments funds go to graduate funding(I am asking mostly in regards to US universities that rank in the top 20 for math.)?

And also, are qualified students who are less expensive more likely to get admitted because it wont cost the department much, if anything at all, since at many institutions certain groups receive their funding from the central administration rather than the department(such as women and minorities)?

Below is a source where the writer says

  Even as faculty members on committees expressed philosophical commitment to diversity, Posselt observed financial motivations at play. Some universities offer extra funds for minority graduate students, so that a fellowship might be paid for from general university funds and not departmental funds. Where such incentives exist, they appear to have a strong impact, Posselt writes.

and in What do admission committees look for in a diversity essay?, Paul Garrett says:

  being a woman in a STEM field (Science, Tech, Engineering, Math), or of ethnic origin other than northwestern European . . . opens certain money-pots to both the department and to the individual.

Top-ranked schools generally commit to offering accepted candidates a certain level of support during their graduate candidacies. Therefore, finances must play a role in how many students they can afford to admit: if you only have sufficient financial resources to support 30 students, and 40 enroll, you're in for a bit of trouble. Thus, the students who are most desirable are those who can provide their own funding, in part or in whole, via external or internal fellowships or "matching funds" from the department. This frees up money that can be used on other students. (I would imagine that in math, much of this funding is awarded in the form of teaching assistantships rather than RA-type positions.)

This makes deciding how many students to admit a difficult challenge. Top students will have competing offers, and thus universities need to admit enough students to make sure they fulfill their research and teaching needs, but need to not be overly generous in making offers, in case yields exceed expectations.

As far as diversity goes, I agree with the assessments in the article you linked to: diversity only comes to play after candidates have cleared the qualification bar.


How to quickly get complete list of citations to all my papers? I need to get citations (with complete info including authors, journal, date) to all my papers.  What's the best way (hopefully without too much manual copy & paste) to do this?

What i so far tried:

Google Scholar seem to give more complete list of papers that cite my paper that it includes papers in non-English language journals etc.  But i can't see how to get authors, journal title, volume number etc quickly from the Google Scholar search output.

You can use Scopus to do that, but only if you / your institute has access.

Search for an article that you (or someone else) has authored, click on the author name, then click on "citations".

Scopus screenshot, author page

If you click on the 13 link, you will see a full list of documents citing Gerrit Holl:

Scopus screenshot, author citation page

In my experience, Scopus doesn't have many false positives, although it might miss publications in new or unknown journals.

I'm not sure if Scopus deeplinking works, but try this for a direct link.


How to Find Peer-Reviewers Who Aren't Busy (During the Summer) TLDR: How do I figure out who to ask to review an article (who isn't too busy)?

I was asked to submit an article for an upcoming thematic issue for a well-regarded, peer-reviewed journal in my field. Several months after the initial submission, the issue's editor mentioned that they've had issues with finding a peer-reviewer for my article. They asked a handful of people: some have disappeared, some are too busy. As such, they would like for me to suggest names. I don't have an issue identifying people in my field who can review my article. However, I don't know who to identify as someone who would have enough time, especially because it's summer. I know the top people in my field -- the superstars -- but not so much about others I could ask.

You're not being asked to find reviewers who are willing to review your paper. You're only being asked to suggest reviewers. There is no guarantee that any of the reviewers you suggest will actually be the one(s) who review your paper.

Therefore you should not so much identify people who have time as you should identify people who can review your paper. If you're still concerned you could identify people other than the superstars, but suggesting superstars is fine, because the superstars probably know others who can review your paper (so they can suggest someone).


Does ScholarOne really force you to have multiple logins? Why can't I have a single ScholarOne login for every journal I submit or review for?  Is there some way to copy over the address, keywords & password for all my accounts so I don't have to waste time making the same stuff up every time I get involved with another journal?

Thank you for your question. My name is Jasper Simons and I work for Thomson Reuters, the organization behind ScholarOne. Our platform is configured by our publishers as they service their authors and editors. Publishers seek to maximize the value they offer to their journals, their editors and their authors through specific configurations of the ScholarOne peer-review workflow. This doesn't address your concern, but I hope that it sheds some light on the reasoning behind the multiple login requirements for authors. In short, there is one ScholarOne platform but there are many site configurations.


Why do graduate student contracts state "RAs shall work no more than 20 hours per week?" I recently signed a graduate student contract.  I had outside funding for some time but recently became a normal research assistant (RA) again, so must have missed a contradictory clause when I signed a similar contract a few years ago.

I am a US citizen at a US university.

In the contract it explicitly states that graduate students "shall not work more than 20 hours per week on duties given by the advisor."

I have found similar language in other graduate student contracts at other universities, an example is here (scroll down to Duties and Time Commitments).  This example, however, states that RAs "shall not work on duties unrelated to research for more than 20 hours per week."  My contract seems to imply the opposite.

This certainly applies in the first 2-3 years of a Ph.D., since class loads typically require enough effort that RA's will not have enough time to work more than 20 hours per week on research.

But, after a graduate student has completed all class requirements, why is this clause still included?

It is clearly contradictory, as I'm expected to work 40-50 hours per week on my research, especially when I have no more classes to take.  I have signed a legal document explicitly promising that I will not work the hours needed to finish my dissertation in a timely fashion.

If you are working at a US University, they often do this in order to ensure that you are ineligible for benefits under the family and medical  leave act (fmla).  If you work over 1250 hours they have to provide you with additional benefits, which cost more than they are willing to pay for your labor.

http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/workhours/fmla.htm


Worried about Ws (withdrawals) on transcript and letters of reccomendation for a masters program Disclaimer: W stands for withdrawal, it’s when a student withdrawals from a course regardless of grades after a certain deadline for course changes.
I graduated from a Big10 Engineering school with a 3.6 GPA and now work for a fortune 50 company.
I currently am looking at masters programs in engineering (these are non thesis/course work classes) and I am certain I can do very well on the GRE. I am looking at M. Eng degrees and professional masters programs, not MS research based ones.
The concern I have is I have some Ws scattered throughout my transcript(2 were for classes I took and realised slightly after the deadline that I didn’t fit into the topic nor was I interested, they were not relevant to my career) and 3 were because of financial distress and health issues that arose.
My letters of recommendation from industry are from supervisors that have PhDs and prestigious careers, although as for an academic ones I currently am trying to obtain very good ones. It’s been difficult as I only developed a close relationship with 2 and the one I want I did my senior project with. The downside is the project didn’t go as well as it should’ve but I earned an A and a B+ in both semesters of the project, the professor is also very difficult to get in touch with.
Am I in jeopardy for applying to masters programs? These are not super competitive ones like MIT, Berkeley, U Mich. etc. They’re for working professionals and they’re M. Eng degrees with schools like RPI, UConn and UMass. I’m just worried about those W’s. The courses that are relevant to what I want to study in grad school had entirely As and B+‘s, especially upper level math and engineering courses despite one C.

Short answer:  The Ws aren't great, but they're basically unimportant in light of the rest of your portfolio.
I'm a little wary of withdrawals, because I know from personal experience that my own university's academic advising tends to use them as a way to help students avoid failing classes.  So they're not great on your transcript, especially multiple Ws.
But if I saw a record like yours, that included graduation from a good school, good grades in the most relevant classes, successful time in industry, good recommendations from respectable professionals, AND it was for a professional-oriented graduate program on top of all that, I would almost certainly discard them as meaningless to appraising the current you.
Of course, this is based on my experience, and it's possible the departments you apply to could think differently.  But I wouldn't advise anyone in your situation to fret over it.


What kind of design freedom can you permit yourself in academic writing? In scholarly journals, or publicising in certain magazines you are expected to hold true to a certain design pattern and citation style. However, when publishing your own work independently you are free from those constraints, or are you?

I am a designer by heart and every couple of years I create a new template that I use for future academic papers, following contemporary design patterns. In my opinion, my templates look nice. Not too strict, though flirting with kittenish. I am convinced that a nice design leads to a fruitful first impression. However, I am aware that this might be very subjective.

My question is, then, do academics generally look down on "design hippies" and should all retain a strict - possibly even chippy - style? Or does all of this matter not as long as everything is legible and well-formatted?

I use hand-written, cursive fonts in informal paperwork all the time. That's why I posted this question: even though certain fonts are well-suited for distinguished forms of design and publicity (such as magazines or webdesign), how does a formal academic world react to such patterns. On a (possibly less formal) website, for instance, Pacifico would be used without question. Of course, an academic audience is an 'ole other bunch all together. That's where my inner designer and outer academic struggle with one another. Should we stick to the trusted, formal (and, let's be fair, boring) style, or can we go a little (just a tad!) crazy? Note that I'm not strictly talking about fonts. It can be anything, going from structure (column layout), to colours and highlights, to bold face and font families. Heck, maybe even illustrations!

Update: people in the comments seem to focus a lot on the fact that I mentioned Pacifico, a cursive font. First of all I should clarify that I only brought it up as an example. Secondly, I only considered that font as a candidate for large headings with a font size of 24pt or larger - which increases readability. I did not imply to use this particular font as the main typography for my text, but merely as a means for catching titles. I'd also like the emphasise - again - that I am aware that certain fonts are not formally applicable and would annoy rather than refresh an academic reader's mindset. But as said, I am a big fan of design trends (focusing on, but not restricted to, fonts) and innovation, and I am simply curious to know how academics think about this: how far can one go. How different is an academic design style from for instance web, advertising, magazines and newspapers.

I read papers, I don't hang them on my wall. That is the main objective, and your design should subdue to it. I enjoy a well crafted book, but I get extremely annoyed when some unnecessary decoration gets in the way of usage.

In your case, the font of the titles requires a mental effort from my part to read them, which I find unacceptable, and thus, annoying. When reading a paper, I usually skim through the sections to get a broad picture of it; with Pacifico, I need to waste neurons in deciphering it while constructing my mental idea. I also find that the numbers in the text stand out a lot, probably more than they should, as they are not information I would like to get while skimming.

On the other hand, I have encountered a few unique and very nicely crafted documents, and those made a more long lasting impression. If not for anything else, I remember the general image of the article.

Bottomline is, if your design is good, it will be welcomed; but if it has flaws, some picky people like me* may get displeased and cause a worse first impression. A standard template is a safer option; but more difficult to stand out.

*To give you an idea of how much, I find several citation styles to be rather annoying because they are clearly inferior to others. For example, anything without DOI in the modern times.


Should I add my current supervisor as the coauthor of my paper if I am going to transfer to a new university? I am transferring to a new university. And I found a new supervisor at another university. I have told this to my current advisor. But I am still staying at the current lab as the transfer procedure would take like two or three months.
During the two months, I have been collaborating with my new supervisor on the paper and using his experimental facilities remotely. The paper is now almost finished and then we are going to publish. I will consult with my current and future supervisor. But before that, I want to ask if there is a regulation about this.

Everyone who makes a sufficient contribution to your paper for authorship should be an author on your paper (and no one else).

It doesn't matter what institution they are at nor does anything else: everyone that contributes at a level appropriate for authorship is an author.

Standards for what contribution constitutes a sufficient contribution for authorship vary by field, and your plan to consult both your new and old advisor is a good one because part of their mentorship is in helping you make decisions about what governs authorship in your field.


No Systems Course CS Master's I majored in math and minored in CS. My grades are excellent and I have coursework in all the core areas of CS except for Computer Systems/Computer Organization/Computer Architecture.
Is this going to really hurt me in admissions to (self-funded, US-based, terminal, thesis-based) MS CS programs?

If you do really have everything else, then I doubt that it would have much effect for most MS programs. There are probably exceptions, but, generally, admission to a MS program doesn't imply the need for a BS in the same field.
But only by applying (or otherwise asking a university) can you be sure. You may need to take a systems course as part of your MS, though. With a math degree, I doubt you'd have much trouble with it.


Are old (>35) faculty candidates discriminated against all over the world? I think that in India research institutes will never take a faculty candidate who is over 35. Is it so all over the world?

I am asking this question from the point of view of if someone starts their PhD. at the age of 27 then its unlikely they will be faculty candidates till they are 40.

Absolutely not.

Age discrimination is explicitly illegal in the US.  (I believe the same is true in Canada and most European countries.)  Even as the chair of my department's recruiting committee, I am forbidden to ask the age of any applicant.

If you're worried, just don't put your date of birth on your CV.  But this really is a non-issue.


Teaching uninterested/under-engaged students in science courses How should one engage uninterested students in a fast-paced, densely fact-packed science course such as chemistry or microbiology? I find that the only students who truly understand and engage with the material are those who already have a strong background in the material being covered, while the rest of the class is usually ranging from bored to panicking, depending on how much they care about grades. (For most of the students in these classes, the science courses are required for their major, so they are taking them because they have to, not because they are intrinsically interested in the sciences.)

So how could I engage the interest of these students without dumbing down the course material or slowing down the pace of the class? Neither seems a viable option given department wide standards at this institution.

From a pedagogical standpoint, you always want to teach with a couple of things in mind:

You have to have a standard for the class.
The standard you set should be influenced by the level your students start at.

These two criteria frequently are at odds with each other, which is a shame: you want to teach the most engrossing, intellectual class so that each student can obtain a mastery of the important details of the subject, yet sometimes your students don't have the background and are not prepared to learn at that level, or are unmotivated for other reasons.

A third issue, and the one that you brought up, is the question of what to do when you have a heterogeneous set of students where some are unprepared (or unmotivated) and others are well prepared. If you are at an institution where the standard is very high, one option (and probably the right one) is to teach the material with the expectation that everyone will try their best and that it will be challenging for everyone, and let the cards fall as they may. Do your best to point the struggling students who want to learn the material to avenues for help -- office hours, tutoring, key reading material, etc.  Don't worry particularly much about the ones who don't care -- if you're teaching an engaging class and they are bored because they don't really want to be there, that isn't your problem.  If you find that you do have too many panicked students, you probably need to re-evaluate your teaching style or assessment plan, and slow things down.  This is just the reality of the situation: too many of your students aren't prepared for the class as you envision it.

From your comment:

  This is a community college so many of the students are working parents who juggle multiple demands on their time.

I believe in this case you may end up in the situation I just mentioned more than you'd like. I would venture a guess that many of your students have academic priorities that are less about getting every bit of learning out of your course, and more about doing well enough to graduate and be prepared for whatever the next step in their career is.  I urge you to try to put yourself in their shoes (this is always a good idea) and try to see from their perspective what the course means to them.  I have taught a college physical science course to non-science majors at the community college level where I was happy to give them the exposure to the material -- most of them had never taken a physics or chemistry class in their life (high school or otherwise), and I knew that it would not have been a good idea to try to force a lot of math-heavy science down their throats.

So I haven't really answered your specific question about how to "engage the interest of these students without dumbing down the course material or slowing the pace of the class." My suggestions are (1) to re-evaluate why you think you're already engaging (and tweak it to meet your students' level), and (2) to make sure you are providing concrete assessments for them to study for (or work on in lab).  If your students know what they have to do to get a "B" versus an "A", this might lower the level of panic if they see that shooting for that "B" will be obtainable while still giving them time to keep the other priorities in their life straight.


What would be the best way to find foreign professors for a PhD defense panel? I need some researchers to review my PhD thesis. I am from India and my university is also in India; the research data was collected in India. My university rules say my thesis should be reviewed by experts from the same field and another country before submitting it.

Question: What would be the best way to find specialists in a specific field to participate in a PhD evaluation panel or as reviewers? Should I just leave it to my supervisor?

Given that you've written a thesis on the topic, you should know who the experts are.  They are the authors of the papers you read and cited.  Hopefully you have also met them at conferences.  Of course, your advisor should also know these people.


Is doing a mid-career PhD worth it? I currently teach part-time at a Canadian technical college. Over the past few years I've applied to full professorship openings in my department, while they require at least a masters degree preference is given to PhDs.

Each time I've been beaten out by PhD applicants, including those who are fresh out of school, and upon speaking with HR they've said that there is a lot of pressure on them to hire PhDs, and that if I have any PhD even loosely related to my field then they'd be happy to make me a full time offer.

Taking 4-6 years off of my academic career, and my full-time work seems like it would be a huge set back, and a huge financial burden. But, I can't seem to find any part-time or distance education PhD's that do provide funding/research funding/TA work.

I thought I'd see if anyone here has any insights or advice?

The MA glass ceiling is real.

I can't talk specifically to the situation at a Canadian technical college, but the same thing happens in the DC policy world I work in.  A lot of think tanks and policy shops have researchers with years of experience who can't get promoted above a certain point that is practically entry level for incoming PhDs.  Some places are starting to address this, recognizing that a PhD is not better than years of successful research experience, but it's still a wide-spread phenomenon.

So, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out you don't have any recourse.  If anything it's likely to be a harder ceiling since you're actually at an academic institution.

As for whether taking the time off to do a PhD is worth it, which I think is the root of your question?  That's hard to answer.  You could run down some hypothetical bullet points:

If I did the PhD, and then got the SAME job at the same pay after, would it still be worth it?  That is, would the accomplishment on its own be gratifying?
If I did the PhD, and then got a better job but no more money, would it still be worth it?  That is, would getting through that glass ceiling be enough of a motivator?
How much more money would I expect to make after my PhD, and how much money would I be giving up by leaving the job market for 4-6 years, and would I be coming out ahead?  Also account for whether you can get funding for your PhD or would have to self-fund it all.  In other words, the pure economics of it (you say it would be a financial burden, but that's not necessarily so in the long run).
All other things aside, am I willing to make the sacrifices necessary?  You would likely have to temporarily give up lots of things to do this, like having disposable income and the ability to relax on nights and weekends.  If you have a family that can be a hard adjustment, though lots of people do it, myself included.

Good luck!  My overarching piece of advice would be that if you're not passionate for the subject you shouldn't do a PhD in it.  But if you can tick that box off, the rest is up to your preferences.


CS PhD Addmission: Contacting prof about unpublished work I have applied to PhD programs in US in the area of TCS for FALL 13. I have two unpublished work in the area of theory which was part of my master thesis. I have other published work but they are not in theory. Also it appears that these univ have started contacting their successful candidates.

Recently one of the unpublished work has been upload on arxiv however the other work is still not there. I can't put it on arxiv as I am not the sole author. Should I mail these two papers as pdf attachments to my potential list of advisors? (3-6 per univ) What should be done? I have mentioned the titles of my work and their contributions in my cv : e.g. this paper improves on paper X and gives 3 approx algorithm using technique Y. However why should anyone believe me if it is unpublished. Or how to gauge the amount of research done/involved in that work.

Any suggestions?

As I understand your question, you did already submit your application, but didn't include the unpublished papers nor any reference to them? Because that is what I would have suggested: if you have an unpublished paper with high relevance to the field of your application, you could include it with your application documents.

In your case, since you didn't include it in the application, I wouldn't send it unsolicited to potential advisors, especially not if you didn't send your application directly to these people. Rather, you could ask the contact where you submitted your application whether you could amend it with a recently finished paper relevant to the proposed research topic. You would have good arguments if the paper was only finished after the application deadline.

I wouldn't expect too much though. If decisions are already taken, it's unlikely that they will be reconsidered. Anyway, since you mentioned the papers in your CV, I don't think it would be a major factor for your application whether they are included or not.

Note that these suggestions would only apply to unpublished work which is already submitted for consideration in a journal of conference. If it is not yet submitted, I wouldn't send it with the application nor to potential advisors.


How to negotiate the salary for a UK faculty position? Following several interviews, I have been offered two faculty positions in the UK. Salary is among the factors I consider to choose one of the positions.

How can I reasonably negotiate the salary? Can I suggest the highest value in the range advertised? Or I shouldn't be greedy.

In general, how negotiable is salary in the UK universities?

Salary is generally not very negotiable in a UK university. Further, the benefits of a higher salary are less pronounced in the UK than in the US. Pay in the UK is defined by a universal salary scale/spine. There is a maximum point on the spine you can achieve through normal progression. Progressing pass the standard maximum is extremely rare.

I have never heard of a department hiring beyond the standard maximum. What this means is that if you start at the standard maximum (the highest point on the scale obtainable through standard progression), you will make 10k more  then a colleague who starts at the bottom. After 3 years, the pay gap will be only 5k (still a 10% raise) since the person who started at the bottom progressed and you did not. If you both get promoted at that point, you will both start at the bottom of the next tier. In other words your negotiation to move from the bottom to the top was worth 20k over the course of your entire career. If promotion takes longer, the difference maxes out at around 36 k (depending on the specific spine points).

Many department offer the lowest spine point. It is often, but not always, possible to negotiate up a few steps based on years of experience. In my experience as an American who worked in the UK, Brits find it insulting to negotiate a startup package and salary. It seemed most Brits took what they were offered (or maybe an extra step or two) while international candidates asked for the top of the range since the salaries are much lower then they expected. The international candidates are then internally laughed at for being cheeky yanks, but often paid more then their British counterparts.


Is international Ph.D. student's stipend enough to support a partner in the U.S.? Something that is not clear by any kind of research is this:

  Is associateship (which waives tuition and fees) stipend enough (annually 20k) for a student and his wife to take care of all their necessities and carry on during the whole Ph.D. period, without any other financial support?

I'm just asking in general and I know costs may vary a lot between different places. But since being a bit more specific is better, let's talk about the cities with medium cost of living according to Cost of Living Index 2018. For example, Columbus or Minneapolis is around 60 vs. New York that is 100.

I am hoping to start a grad program in one of those medium cost-of-living cities, and have been doing lots of research. Since it sounds like I'm more familiar with the US than you, I'll give you what I've learned.

This will of course depend on your standard of living. I assume because you are married, you would like to live in your own apartment/house and not live in one bedroom in a four-bedroom house. This answer is based on that.

As another caveat, I would say I'm moving from a very expensive area, so it's possible I'm overestimating other expenses based on my experience here.

At more than $30k (the value of some awards), I feel like I could minimally support myself and my wife (who is also going back to school). We also have a nice chunk of savings that we've been accruing for two years that helps me feel better about living on the stipend.

At less than that, around $25k, we would plan on my wife working 8-12 hours a week to supplement my income.

Those numbers are totally unlivable in high cost-of-living areas, like where I live now. I couldn't imagine trying to live here on less than $50k combined; and that's a totally unachievable PhD stipend.

Tl;dr:

< $20k - Not a chance, would expect my partner to work at least part
time
$20-25k - Doable, with decent savings and a few hours of work on your partner's side.
$25-32k - Much more doable, but still tight living
>$35k - As comfortable as you can be on a PhD stipend.


Why could an accelerated education be seen as negative? I've had discussions with professors in conjunction with my postgraduate application. Many were very skeptical at the fact that I completed one BSc and two MSc within 4 years. This would normally take at least 5-6 years in my country. I explained that I did it because I was very interested in my subjects. However, they thought it was strange and concerning since I had a small portion of "bad grades". This can be explained by a combination of heavy workload, bad family situation, and poor mental health during one or two semesters. I did not mention the latter parts due to social stigma. As a result, professors said I may have "learned more", i.e. gotten straight A's, if I'd have studied a year or two longer like most people. Other than this I have a very good record, which made this seem strange to them.

I live in a small country that has a lot of ex-Soviet professors, many of which believe that a student must have straight A's and a standard educational history to succeed. However, in my country universities are very diverse in terms of expectations and grading. Every university has their own grading scale and level of education. My university, for instance, likes to fail 50% every module to weed out bad students. Sometimes, up to 85% fail, because they give undergraduate students graduate modules because "life's tough, just learn it".

So, depending on where you study, your grades will be wildly different, and it can be hard to convert between places. There's even massive variation within my department alone, where they have the same module but different formats depending on who takes it. This means that an architect taking linear algebra who gets an A may be counted as a C for someone who studies physics, for instance.

Given this knowledge of the educational system, what could be the reason that professors dislike accelerated education? If asked at my university, where it is common, they'd just say good job. When asked at the universities I applied to, it's almost unheard of. How can one highlight the advantages of having taken a fast educational route?

Given this knowledge of the educational system, what could be the reason that professors dislike accelerated education?

There is not a good reason, and most professors do not hold that view.

  How can one highlight the advantages of having taken a fast educational route?

I have not have much success with that, and I am not sure you should try.

The advantage of accelerated education goes to you personally, not your supervisor.  If you complete you degree at a younger age, then you work for more years between that degree and your retirement.  As a result, you achieve more and earn more.  Graduate school supervisors will not care much.  It's true that students who have successfully accelerated their education are hard workers, but they are not the only hard workers.


Why is the "citation/reference page" counted towards the maximum limit of pages in many journals and conferences? In recent years

the number of authors working on a paper is growing to be quite large,
the titles are getting more and more lengthier and intricate to distinguish between the state of the art while still trying to be self-explanatory.
the list of references are growing. One cannot imagine to be interdisciplinary and be stingy on the number of citations.

This leads to a massive list of reference at the end of many paper, each sometimes taking 4 if not more lines in a standard Latex document. Also, the names of the authors can be quite long in many instances.
It just doesn't make sense to include references towards the maximum page limit of a conference or a journal. It not only discriminates those with long names (leading them being cutoff from the citation), it also constraints the entire research community to only make marginal/tangential contribution so to limit the size of the references.
What should be limited instead is self-citation. But even that can be disputed.
Is there any good reason why the reference page contributes to the total number of pages these days?

Traditionally, one goal with length limits is to reduce costs related to printing, typesetting, and distribution. If that factor is at play, it makes perfect sense to include references and author lists in the length limit. It has some unfortunate consequences (undercitation, in particular), but the journals/conferences have to decide what they value more.

the list of references are growing. One cannot imagine to be interdisciplinary and be stingy on the number of citations.

Unfortunately, I can easily imagine that. Some "glossy" journals even have rather low limits/guidelines for the number of citations allowed.


Do I need permission from motorsports organisations to write a research paper about motor racing? I have written a research paper analysing the aerodynamics of racing cars in a particular motor sport as a hobby project (using my own 3D model and resources). However, now I’m beginning to question if it is required of me to seek permission from that particular motorsports organisation (ie. F1 or NASCAR) before writing and publishing this research paper? Thank you in advance!

You only need permission to talk about something if you use information you have gotten from someone for which they own the intellectual property (copyright). I specifically say "talk" because writing a research paper is, in some sense, still speech.
In other words, if all you have used in your paper is publicly available information, then you don't need written approval. If you have used a computational geometry in your work that you have obtained from someone else who has intellectual property ownership over it, then you do need approval.


Sending multiple revisions to editor/referee I'm finding that this is a problem for me.

All of my papers have been solo efforts so, naturally, nobody else is really invested in them before I submit to journals.  After I submit a paper, I either notice mistakes or cannot resist making significant stylistic changes.  Then I send a revision to the editor to forward to the referee.  This has happened multiple times, sometimes more than once for a particular paper.

I would like to hear from other researchers:

(a) Do you have similar tendencies?
(b) As a referee, how frustrating is it to get these revisions?  On one hand you're getting an improved version (in the eyes of the author), but on the other hand some of the referee's work may be wasted.

(a) No, I don't have similar tendencies. When I submit a paper for publication, I'm so relieved to have finished it (usually much later than I had planned) that I usually ignore it until I get the referee's report.  I usually have plenty of other tasks that need my attention because I had postponed them while finishing the paper. (b) As a referee, I don't mind getting an improved version of the paper provided it comes with clear information about where the changes are. I don't want to check the part of the paper that I've already read (and my notes on that part) against the new version just to find that nothing has changed in that part.


How to identify A/A* Journal The academic promotions procedure at my Australian university includes specifically publications in A/A* journals. What defines A/A* and where can I find out which journals are in this category?

You can look at CORE if you're in computer science, like a commenter mentioned: conferences, journals.

There's also the ERA outlet ranking lists (unofficial website): conferences, journals, but it is old.

Though you're best asking your institution as to where they are getting the rankings from.


Institution refuses reimbursement for grant awarded? After managing a project at a research institution in the US, I was awarded a grant (did it for free, so this is the remuneration). The grant covers travel, books, research equipment ("that does not contain a hard drive") and some other things. They strongly recommended confirming with their representatives if certain expenses are covered by the grant. I decided to purchase PC components and just build it myself. Last August I contacted them to check if they would cover the components cost (2 reps said it should be fine, both were in 1 email thread). Over Black Friday I purchased all parts and sent them all receipts for reimbursement. Now, middle of January, they claim they did not realise I was building a PC (although I explained everything in detail in our email communication back in August) and would not reimburse me as the institution tracks parts "as part of their on campus computing inventory". It is past return period time now for the components I purchased. What should I do now? All communication was over email, so I have everything in writing.

What you need to do is work it out locally. If necessary, the grant funder may need to make a judgement. But it seems like you were trying to get around a restriction by somewhat questionable means. Not necessarily ethically dubious means, but questionable. A pedantic interpretation of the statement in the grant, and ignoring its likely intent is what got you into the current situation. You need to argue that your interpretation is correct and you need to get others, who have some authority here, to agree with you.

I can't guess whether you will win this or not, but the situation is between you, the institution and the funding authority. Make your best argument there. And note that you can't impose your own will on this.

If this is PC level equipment, I doubt that it is going to be a serious setback to your finances. Maybe it is best to just absorb the cost and spend the funds on things that aren't so close to the margin of acceptability.


Can I ask professor to send me a copy of papers? I'm a senior in college and working for my final year project. I am required to read more than 8 papers. However, 2 of them cannot be found online or in the library (Summon system). The library delivery service is inaccessible now, and I believe my advisor have that papers.

Can I ask professor to send me a copy of the papers? Is it impolite to ask such favor or illegal?

Yes, you can, and you should. It is not impolite (unless you actually have access), and it is not unethical. I don't think it is illegal, if you do not distribute it further, and it is certainly not uncommon.

First, make sure you really don't have access (otherwise, you risk looking a bit like a fool), then ask him. Don't make a big deal of it, just explain that you lack access and you believe he may have them, if so could he please send them.


Taking a course while dating the TA Is it OK to take a graduate-level course at a US university while you are already dating one of the prospective TAs?

I think that the instructor should be informed. My question is about the implications of such an action.

Will anyone else beyond the instructor be informed? Can it cause any inconvenience for the TA/instructor and is it possible that a record pertaining to this situation will be stored in any university-related platform/communications?

Context: The relationship started well before the time one can take the class.

This really depends on the country, the institute, and its specific rules. If you're concerned it would be worth speaking to the TA about it as they would be 1) more aware of the rules and 2) probably more likely to suffer if it goes wrong.

I know in my institution in England, I was told when training to be a TA that it's fine as long as you're not directly marking their work. The advice was you can go to the course leader and say 'I can't mark the work of student X because we're dating'. But I've heard in the US generally rules are a bit stricter. And I'm sure rules differ across the UK too.

I'd say in any case, transparency is the best option here. If you try to keep it secret to avoid consequences, the consequences may end up more severe.


Prof. never responded to email about LoR I am in community college, and I emailed my calc prof a few days ago asking if he could give me a LoR so I can transfer.

I'm not close to him on a personal level, but he knows who I am and I have been involved in the class (going to office hours, attending review sessions, sitting in the front, etc.) I also gotta B in his class. I mean I could go ask one of my English profs, but as a Comp Sci major I feel asking a math prof would be best. Plus he knows this is my second attempt at Calculus.

The very main reason why I am asking him is because he is an alum to the school I want to transfer to, and which I am asking a LoR to. But also, he is the only prof that I have been somewhat willingly involved in the class.

He hasn't responded to my email for a few days, should I give it more time? He has office hours tomorrow, but I don't want to take it away from the students using it for review for our finals next week. Should I wait till after finals to follow up? This isn't a university I'm at, it's only community college so like the classes aren't that big, so he know who I am and stuff. It's not even due until June 1st, but the admissions is rolling admissions so it's not the decisions are all out at once. So I just think I'll set the due date to a month whenever after he agrees to do it.

I've never done this before so I have no idea any criterias or anything. I just know that I should give him a decent amount of time, and have been told about a month seems reasonable.

Some people answer emails the next day, some after a few days, and some forget about all emails that they do not answer immediately.

As a rule of thumb: I would write a gentle reminder after about two weeks. If he still does not answer, I would try to meet him in person. If you yourself are under time pressure to get the LoR, then you might need to react sooner.


Purpose of participating in "student doctoral programs" in conferences I am finishing my third year in PhD program, and have at least 1.5 more years before finishing.

I have just recently submitted a regular research paper for a conference, will be waiting for around 2 months to hear back. Meanwhile I see a deadline for the  Student / Doctoral program, for which the conference is expecting a 3-4 pg. research writeup.

I see such student / doctoral program section in almost any reasonable conference. I was wondering what to expect from such programs? Also I was wondering if it makes sense to apply for one, considering I am already submitting a paper there. Of course the paper isn't accepted yet.

Any general feedback about such programs? Thanks

In my field these are usually called doctoral symposia or graduate consortia. They are a great way to get feedback on your research direction.

They are generally setup as a discussion between a panel of professors and the other students that are participating. The students have an opportunity to present their research and receive feedback from everyone. This is nice because you also get to see other students in various stages of their PhD talk about their work and the feedback they receive.

  Also I was wondering if it makes sense to apply for one, considering I am already submitting a paper there

That is the best scenario to participate! You'll get to present your conference paper and get feedback from the doctoral program. Two birds, one stone!

Additionally, it is something you can put on your CV, the paper might be published in the proceedings depending on the conference, a great way to network with other students and professors, and some of these programs provide travel funding.

I'm currently working on applying to my second graduate consortium (this time as a mentor) and am really looking forward to it! The one I attended previously helped me a lot.


Wildly Varying Scores on GMAT and GRE - Should I Send Both? I am applying now to PhD programs in various management related fields (quantitative marketing and finance) and took both the GMAT and GRE back in October.

My score, specifically in the quantitative section, wildly varied between the GRE and GMAT. Basically, this was the breakdown of my scores:

GRE:

Verbal
159 (81%)

Quant
160 (78%)

Analytical
4.5 (80%)

And on the other side...

GMAT:

Verbal
40 (91%)

Quant
41 (49%)

Total
660 (80%)

Analytical
5.5 (81%)

Integrated Reasoning
8 (92%) [Perfect Score]

None of the schools I'm applying to exclusively accept the GMAT, but many do state that they prefer it. I'm wondering if I should just simply hide my GMAT or if my GRE in combination with my GMAT make the quantitative section there look like a random fluke.

Since the fields you mentioned (quantitative marketing and finance) are both heavily based on mathematics, I would think that the quantitative score is by far the most important. If you can possibly avoid it, you don't want to be in a position of having to explain away a weakness, especially where the weakness is at a very important criterion.

Thus, I recommend that you submit only the GRE score and make no mention of the GMAT. Although your verbal score in GMAT was quite good, it isn't quite as important for those fields you are applying for, and the mediocre quantitative results would probably outweigh anything positive you might otherwise have.

That said, you could simply call the schools you want to apply to and ask them directly; since each school might have different preferences for GMAT and GRE and their respective scores, one blanket answer might not be suitable for all the schools you are applying to.

Specifically, you could try to talk to the department chair or to the graduate program director (just call the department office and ask to be transferred to the right person). You don't have to identify yourself; just say that you want to anonymously ask a question related to admissions.

I know that that last suggestion might sound wild, but believe it or not, it often works surprisingly well--I recently used that kind of strategy to receive anonymous answers from a research ethics office concerning a grey research ethics question I was faced with, and I quickly got the exact clarity that I needed for my situation. Never underestimate the power of picking up the phone and calling.


Data sets of questions asked in conferences I am looking for data sets of questions asked in academic conferences. Ideally, it should contain a timestamped transcript as well as some reference to the talk (e.g. the paper it was presenting), but a simple list of questions would be already of interest to me.

I am mostly interested in the field of computer science (natural language processing and machine learning), and English-speaking venues.

Such a data set probably does not exist, due to human subjects considerations.  While conference speakers are often asked to consent to possible recording of their talks, conference attendees are not generally asked for such consent.  Sometimes questioners do get recorded anyway, in those rare talks that actually are recorded, but they have certainly not provided any explicit consent for becoming experimental subjects.

Now, some researcher and their IRB might well be able to work out a way to build a data set from the decidedly biased sample of publicly available talks that happen to include questions. Doing so and then executing that project, however, is likely to be a rather large research and coding effort and with that much work the authors would certainly end up wanting to publish papers on it.

In short: if your literature search isn't turning it up already, then it doesn't exist.


When to approach my dissertation supervisor? I am about to start a masters degree in the UK.
Our induction day is late next week and on this day we will have a talk on choosing our modules and preparing for the dissertation. Formal teaching begins in 2 weeks time.

On the website it says that we can select dissertation topics listed on the website or if we have a topic in mind, we can pursue this as long as we can find a supervisor.

Say I have already found a topic that I would like to pursue.
Would it be inappropriate to contact the supervisor for that topic this early before the start of term?
Or should I wait after induction?
I do not want to miss out on this topic.

Guidance is typically provided on when you'd be expected to come up with your research question and your nomination of supervisor. Follow that guidance. If you haven't been told yet, then at least wait for the induction week to find out how things are organised. To kick off on choosing a dissertation topic and supervisor before induction really would be too early. Indeed, it would just look silly. So at the very minimum, do at least wait for two weeks.

On our (UK) Masters courses, the selection of thesis topic and supervisor doesn't happen until the second term. That's because the taught modules in the first term gives the students the grounding in research skills and research areas, and an introduction to the staff, that enables them to make better decisions.

If a student approaches a member of staff earlier than that, then a common response would be to note the interest, and to invite them to come back in the second term if they were still interested, but that there's no commitment to do so, as lots of things change after the first term.

An early approach does not necessarily make a good impression. It can look hasty. It can look like you're not expecting to learn anything in the first term.

And we don't really do reserving of research-questions, as such. At least, merely being the first to propose a research question for your dissertation doesn't give you priority in doing it. We work with students to get the best match of question, student skills, and supervisory support. If student B provides a better match than student A, then we'll recommend that student B does that dissertation, regardless of whether A or B proposed it first. In recent cases where we have had overlaps between particular students, then the research area has has sufficient open questions that the students have each been able to do a distinct dissertation within it (and indeed subsequently co-author papers together). So I don't really recognise this notion of "missing out on a topic".

It takes quite a bit of subject familiarity to understand where the open questions are, and that's one of the reasons why we wait until the second term before we get to topic and supervisor selection.


I emailed the professor a research idea, he responded: "Just go ahead". Is this an ok? I'm an undergraduate in CSE doing research this summer under the guidance of a professor. After an initial repeating of a previous experiment, I've been reading relevant research papers for three weeks. The program ends on August 3rd, so I have less than a month left. The professor hasn't said anything to me these past three weeks, and I don't really know what to do since this is my first time. He is rather busy.

On Friday (3 days ago), I emailed him some general ideas of a research direction (very informal, I don't think it was really a research topic proposal), and he responded: "Your ideas make lots of sense. Just go ahead". Is this an "ok"? I feel like he's upset (because of the word "just"), but I might be overthinking. Sorry kind of a stupid question, but this means I am free to continue (and that) he's not upset?

Thank you

So, short answer, that's a yes. However, I think that he wants you to start exploring those ideas and get back to him with more content beyond of what you extract from those papers. Some proof-of-concept or similar.


APA Citation of Website With No Author Mentioned I get conflicting information about APA website citations from different sources. What is the best way to cite website documentation in APA style? For example, if I want to cite an announcement website about Apache Struts project releases (with no author given), do I cite it as:
Apache Struts Team. (2018). Announcements 2018. Retrieved from https://struts.apache.org/announce-2018.html

And in-text citation would be given like this?  Struts 2.3.36 was released as a "General Availability" release on October 15, 2018 (Apache Struts Team, 2018).

DISCLOSURE: I work for Mendeley as a software engineer. The reason I have used Mendeley is to show how it would cite this particular reference with this particular citation style using a tool familiar with academics and scholars.

Based on my findings, the citation would look like:

  Apache Struts Team. (2018). Announcements 2018. Retrieved March 28, 2019, from https://struts.apache.org/announce-2018.html

And the in-text citation would look like:

  (Apache Struts Team, 2018)

Please find below the steps I took to produce this answer:

I imported https://struts.apache.org/announce-2018.html using a Mendeley tool; I manually entered missing information in an attempt to construct a reference similar to yours:

And this how the reference looks like in Mendeley:

I can select this reference a copy/paste it using a citation style:

The formatted citation will use this citation style:

This is what you get when you paste it:

  Apache Struts Team. (2018). Announcements 2018. Retrieved March 28, 2019, from https://struts.apache.org/announce-2018.html

Then I can use another Mendeley tool to produce an "in-text" citation: (using the same citation style as in step 3)

Which gives me this in-text citation:

  (Apache Struts Team, 2018)


Motivation for getting good grades in graduate school Okay, so in grade school, in high school and also in college, a long face from my parents would scare me, so it would in most part act as an extra motivator for me to get good grades. In grad school though, I always have the option of getting a job and fending for myself. If I want to learn something, I always have MOOCs covering me up. I can have the education without constantly thinking of being admitted to a good school or dealing with social pressure.

Now as I am into grad school, what specific points should I think of while studying? I really love studying, and enjoy the company of smart people; but sometimes I lose the extra impetus (which I used to get because of the fear of dealing with social embarrassment) in order to get good grades. Can someone just shed a different angle on the importance of getting good grades which does not include social stigma or the prospect of having a good job?

You are confusing cause and effect.  Good grades should never be a motivation for a truly good student (in graduate school or elsewhere).  Rather, good grades are a byproduct of engaging deeply with the material of a class.

When I was a graduate student, there were some classes that I was quite happy to get a B in, because they were far outside of my main area of work and taking them really stretched my mind; the B was a good reflection of the reality that I am not suited to be a theoretical mathematician, but that I had learned well from them regardless.  There were other classes that I would have been frankly ashamed to get anything other than an A in, because they were totally in my wheelhouse; if I had gotten even an A-, it would have reflected a real waste of my opportunity in that class.

In short: forget about grades in graduate school, except insofar as they are feedback on whether you are screwing up your education.


Is it inappropriate to tell my students to check their school email? I am a new STEM faculty member at a primarily undergraduate institution. I emailed my students (through the school-mandated online course management system) before the beginning of the term about the availability of the syllabus online, as well as other things. Several students told me that they hadn't checked their emails and didn't know where to find the syllabus. I have also sent emails to students about their testing accommodations, only to learn that the students hadn't read my email to them even though it concerned an upcoming quiz.

Would it be inappropriate for me to make a general announcement in class that it is important for students to check their school email accounts frequently, as that is how I plan on communicating with them? I certainly won't call out any students or mention any specific scenarios that prompted this announcement.

At every (US) institution I've attended or worked at, there's been an official school-wide policy that students are expected to check their school email regularly, and that sending official communications there constitutes sufficient notification.  So check your school's policies; if you have such a policy, then it's certainly appropriate to remind students about it.

Moreover, in such a case, you can enforce it: if you send an email to school accounts saying "Please respond by date X if you want Y", and they don't respond by date X (whether because they didn't check their email or for any other reason), you may not be under any obligation to give them Y.  (Disability accommodations could have special rules so contact your school's disability office to check on that.)


Is it necessary to specialize on a topic when writing publications? I have written a couple of papers on a certain topic in network communications.  I would like to write my next paper on a different topic, for example something geared toward the electrical engineering side of communications.  These topics are normally thought of as different fields of specialization.

One reason I would like to do this is to demonstrate a broad knowledge base on my resume.  I am also interested in various topics.  Is it at all harmful to write (and perhaps publish) in different tangentially related subjects?

No, it's by no means necessary to specialise on one topic for all your papers, and many people don't.

You do make it harder for yourself when you don't, though. Going into a new topic requires familiarity with a new area of cutting-edge research, learning which publication(s) to target, and maybe learning new methods.

And one of things I find most time-consuming is that you have to collect a new set of references. Once you've published within one topic, it's like you've laid down foundations in your literature review that you can build on again and again. But when you move to a new topic, you have to lay down new foundations: instead of simply updating your last literature review, you have to start rebuilding the foundations from a much smaller base. So you do find the really prolific people, who churn out maybe a dozen papers a year or more, have often stuck to a very narrow topic, and can get closer to staying on top of all the relevant literature.


Best way to show relevant experience when applying for a loosely related Masters? I am currently in full time employment, but looking to return to University in order to complete a Masters in Computer Science in 2018, so I have plenty of time to implement your suggestions here.

My Bachelors was in an Economics related field, but I only managed to achieve a Third, due to personal reasons and a general lack of passion for the subject area, I should have done a Bachelors in Computer Science, but hindsight is 20:20

I graduated around three years ago and have been in positions with a heavy programming element, having implemented some projects using OOP and T-SQL on a regular basis in real life applications. I believe I will be able to handle any of the programming requirements of any such Masters in the Computer Science field because of this.

Obviously, institutions requiring a strict degree level are closed to me, but many institutions I am interested in state that work experience will be taken into consideration.

How do I best present my experience and attitude to these institutions?

Edit: Thanks for all the good advice so far, just to add that I am UK based, but you have given truly actionable steps so far.

All the usual advice about writing effective CVs and cover letters applies here. Additional advice:

Emphasize the positive and don't explain any negatives, since I really don't see any negatives in your story.
I suggest you take a couple of computer science courses before you apply, in order to (a) get your feet wet, (b) demonstrate your ability to be successful in a graduate CS program, and (c) garner at least one LOR in the target field. You can audit if money is an issue.

I recommend taking one course per semester if you are working full time. Choose a challenging but doable course that you're truly interested in.


How to respond in the rebuttal phase when the reviewer's concern is a blind review issue? I recently received the reviewers' feedback for my paper and I need to respond them in their questions in the rebuttal phase.
One reviewer (who also gave me a weak reject) mentioned that one of my references infringes the blind-review policy of the conference.

Well, I cited my paper Y, which is recently accepted in the upcoming conference X, without using my name, but I mentioned the name of the paper and the conference as well. I was confident that the final notifications would be announced before the conference X takes place, however, i didn't consider the fact that conferences would announce their accepted papers on their website 1-2 months prior to the conference! :D

I think the reviewer tried to investigate further and went to the program of that conference and searched for paper Y to find the name of the authors!

I do not know what to respond regarding this comment to avoid my paper from being rejected by the PC and also to satisfy the reviewer's concern?!

Ignore it.

Even if  your paper infringes the blind-review policy of the conference, it doesn't change the veracity of the results. It could, conceivably, have led to a desk reject without sending for review, but the editor clearly did not pick up on it, for he sent it for review anyway.

The reviewer's comment was as much a reminder to you as it was to the editor. Perhaps the editor should not have sent it for review, but since he already has, what's done cannot be undone. Just ignore it, and treat the rest of the comments.


Unofficial documents for admission process I have applied  few universities for the graduate admission (PhD in physics) in this fall. Maximum of the universities require all of the official documents for the admission and review process.

Before applying these universities I emailed the graduate coordinator and the admin of the department to know if they allow the scanned copy (I upload the scanned copy of my transcripts and  students copy  of GRE/TEFL score cards.) They replied that the review process can be done without the offical copies but final decision will be made after the official copy they have with them.

My intention is that I want to send the official  copies to the department after hearing the review results from them because if I send the official scores  before the decision I may loose some amount of money and also I may not get an admission  offer (my financial status is not that great).

My question is that, will it create any problem if I send the offical copies after I get any  positive news (admission offer) from any of the university?

"If you uploaded your documents with the application, you do not need to mail anything at this time. If you are admitted, you will then be asked for official documents." this was from University of Tennessee.

Do I have to send official transcripts?
"For the sake of evaluation purposes, no, you do not have to submit official transcripts. You are welcome to upload unofficial transcripts to the on line application website. If you are admitted, you will be required to submit finalized official documents".it is from the Washington state University

I would bet that the postgrad admission process at most universities involves at least the following steps:

You send in scanned copies of your transcripts (I am assuming here that these days most of the admissions procedure is handled electronically, in particular for international students)
Someone checks to which degrees from "well-known" institutions your degree is roughly equivalent to and convert your grades into the local scale (e.g. GPA). On this basis, a first assessment is done whether you satisfy admission criteria.
In my institution the previous two steps are handled centrally, but the next step involves academics: assuming your grades are good enough to satisfy requirements of the department (which for highly attractive departments might be higher than the regulations say), it is checked whether your profile and interests align well enough with one or more academics to be sure that a supervisor can be found, and (if applicable) whether sufficient funds are available to support you.
Only if all of this is checked positively will the university make an offer to you.
When you accept the offer, you have to supply the formal (perhaps) transcripts and have to provide evidence that these are indeed proper certificates (i have heard of cases where this has to be duly apostilled). Clearly, there is a strong expectation that your official transcripts match the ones from the first step.

Universities have a strong interest in getting students (and their tuition fees) so they want to make the first few steps as easy for the "customer" as they possibly can and "lure him in". The onerous part only comes with the last step.


Can I tell the authors I was a referee for the same paper for another journal? I have reviewed a paper for a journal, which I rejected. I wrote a 3 page report with major and minor comments. A week later, I received an invitation to review the same paper in another journal. The authors have nicely decided to ignore all of my comments, including correcting typos!
Is it OK to state in my new report that I was a referee for another journal, without revealing my identity of course. My report is going to be very similar to the previous one, but I was thinking of making a point about taking my comments more seriously (at least the obvious ones!). I am not planning to reject the paper straightaway, as I think the journal is now more appropriate and the paper has a good, if modest, contribution.

I suggest copy-and-pasting your entire review, after double-checking nothing has changed, i.e., your review is still current. You should make your position clear to the editor and I suggest opening with a statement such as: I reviewed this manuscript a week ago for another journal. The authors have not addressed my comments and my opinion remains unchanged: ... Unlike another answer, I see no problem stating you were the reviewer to both the editor and the authors, since it'll be obvious to the authors anyhow.


How is the transition from computational to experimental scientific research? I'm thinking of transitioning from computational fluid dynamics research to doing experimental fluid stuff. How would you contrast the workflow and the big challenges between computational scientific work and experimental scientific work?

I, a Chemical engineer by paper and I recently made a big leap from desktop work - purely predictive modelling of process plants and systems, to experimental lab based work in the field of Biotechnology. Back to the world of pipettes, organic chemistry and filtration!

The experience I feel depends on whether you are going from computational modelling to quantitative experimental work in the natural science field ( like what I have experienced), or to qualitative (or even quantitative) in the social field. I have experienced both!

From laptop work to the biotech lab!

Challenges (I have faced):

It is difficult to get from an experimental planning to execution stage in the labs (often due to over researching online)
There is little evidence of your work ( it is all sitting in a lab).
It is harder to see mistakes and to correct them. It often requires you to restart an entire experiment from scratch ( can not use the find error tool!)
I struggled with work hours and location. When I was doing desktop work, I preferred to change my settings and venues. Also I could work whenever I wanted to. You will now be confined to the same building in the same space, everyday. Your progress will also be limited by this.
not knowing how much time is 'enough' time spent in doing experiments
practical experience is very different from theory - I struggled with dimensions, spatial awareness and quantities. When stuck behind a laptop all day, you lose touch of how much space (and mass) 1 litre of water would take up compared to 1 litre of ice.
when reporting back, colleagues are less interested in your journey to the result or your assumptions. They want results and graphs with error bars.
you have to be more considerate of your work colleagues space and time as you will sharing equipment. I was so used to be only worried about my computer and laptop
your progress seems to be measured on how many times people see you walking up and down to your Lab space ..

Advantages of having done desktop research before:

you can use predictive models to predetermine expected behaviour. I do less experiments on average than most of my colleagues
we have a slightly stronger grasp of factorial design of experiments (looking at all relevant angles and factors)
It seems to come naturally to desktop researchers to immediately interpret results with statistical tools (I am sure you have used a lot)
I seem to have some of my final report already typed out - doesn't seem common practice for my colleagues who spend day in and out in the labs.
our report writing skills seem to be better - maybe due to sitting in front of the computer all day
you are already familiar with the scientific method and hypothesis driven research so this part of the transition is easy.

From laptop work to the social science field ( interviews)

Challenges

you will have to develop real empathy and defer judgement
listening is a skill, evenmore so listening and taking notes
being objective
interpreting results without inferring your own judgement. How does one deal with words and quotes, rather than hard facts and numbers!
Must use words like maybe, could be, I think that, whilst being conscious of context all the time! Which differs heavily from the scientific method that must use x is bigger than y by z% because of factor h.
Being okay with not having an answer but a description of a scenario.

Advantages of having done desktop work here

being analytical
being well researched
easily find the critical function or important points to investigate


How to organize a Joint Collaboration Plan and Fees With today's technology it is very easy to collaborate with people around the world (I totally recommend Vyew for that). When you collaborate with people from different countries, are there any rules for who pays the bills? The expenses could be conference fees, attendance fees, journal fees, etc. For collaborations we use Hardy-Littlewood, but is there any such kind of rules for paying the bills? Or is it just a previous agreement or consensus between your coauthors? How do you normally approach the subject to your fellow coauthors?

In theoretical computer science (which I work in), the most direct answer is "What bills?"

For remote/electronic collaboration, there really are no significant costs.  Each collaborator uses their own computer equipment and their own internet access.  They install LaTeX and Skype and svn themselves.  They typeset and illustrate their own papers.  They each buy their own espresso at their own favorite coffee house.  There are no fees associated with submitting or publishing papers.

On the other hand, if you actually want to travel, either to give a conference talk or to work in the same physical location as someone else, there are real costs.  For conferences, usually each person (or their grant, or their advisor, or their department) pays for their own travel, lodging, and registration fees.  For collaborative travel, every trip is different, but some common protocols include:

The visitor (or their advisor/grant/department) pays all costs for their visit.
The visitor (or their advisor/grant/department) pays for travel, and the host (or their advisor/grant/department) pays for lodging.
The host (or their advisor/grant/department) pays all costs for the visit.

I have used all four of these arrangements (and various ad hoc mixtures), as visitor, as visitor's advisor, and as host.  For some visits, I've had small joint grants specifically for collaborative travel; in others, I've used travel money from a larger grant; in others, I've paid (either for myself or for my guest) out of my own pocket.

In short, F'X is exactly right: It depends.  Obviously.


Should I Cite Logos? I've read in the law that logos are protected by the United States Trademark law, not laws of copyright.  Essentially this means that you have immediate permission to use a logo that doesn't belong to you, without asking for direct permission from the logos owner (as long as you follow legal usage guidelines).  So my question is: Do I need to cite these logos I use if they do not have protection by copyright (thereby giving me usage privileges)?  And also do assume I would follow correct guidelines and include a standard legal disclaimer.

Logos can be protected by both copyright and trademark. This is entirely orthogonal to the issue of citation. By academic convention, you are required to cite any work which contributed intellectually to your work. If I base my work on a paper from the 1800s, I am still required to cite it, even though it is likely to be long out of copyright. This is not a legal requirement, but a question of academic ethics.

Whether you are required to cite these logos will depend on whether they make an intellectual contribution to your work, and the common practices of the field in which you are working. It does not depend on whether the logos are under copyright or trademark.