What are the benefits of an oral exam? A recent question about reducing stress in oral examinations asserted that

  Oral exams can have various pedagogical benefits in certain circumstances

Based on the reputation of the poster I'm inclined to believe this, but what exactly are these benefits? As an engineer who has never had an oral examination in my academic career (excluding thesis and standard presentations), it's not clear to me what the benefits are. The only intuitive benefit I can think of is for courses where the oral aspect is inherent in the subject matter, such as foreign language or debate. Are there benefits that are more general and not directly tied to the subject? Are there subjects for which an oral exam is never appropriate?

Pedagogical advantages:

It is much easier to catch misunderstandings early and thus "rescue" an answer. After all, bad exam questions aren't that rare (bad as in: if the student has a very good understanding of the subject, they may be able to guess what topic the examiner has in mind).
Misconceptions can be corrected: while a written exam gives a snapshot of what the student understood or not, in an oral exam the examiner can ask the student to think again if the answer is wrong. Or can give a counterexample that takes into account the student's answer
In the end, an oral exam can be a discourse on a subject, which IMHO allows for better/easier grading.
Related: the difficulty can be adjusted during the exam according to how much the student knows.
Many oral exams I had had a "mixed" approach for deciding how deep into each subject to go: often 2 subjects were covered in depth (one by choice of the student, one by choice of the examiner) and a number of other topics touched. Particularly letting the student choose a subject of their liking (usually as the beginning of the exam) is not possible with written exams.

Practical consideration:

if only few students are to be examined, oral exams take much less time for the examiner.

Disadvantage:

If the examiner is somewhat off in estimating the difficulty of their questions, a written exam at least has the same questions for every student.


How do Academic Journals protect against empirical results given by bugs? As the title says.

My background is in Economics/Finance(mostly), many topics in those fields (and I am sure other fields) require fairly complicated programming, enough to where one can easily screw something up. How do Academic journals defend against results that are generated by bugs?

As far as I understand nobody ever sees my code, it could be hundreds or even thousands lines of garbage code without a single function in it (not to mention no unit tests) laced with bugs, and I kept "fixing" things until my results "made sense", and then happily reported them. How could a journal tell that my results are trash?

Journals never make any guarantees regarding the validity of the content published in them, though this may seem to be implied. Ideally, errors are caught during the review process. Note that this problem is not specific to programming bugs, subtle errors can occur in all kinds of settings including physical experiments. It is important to always be critical about any results in any article, even highly cited articles in top journals (though these are less likely to be wrong, they still might be).

Letters to the editor are not uncommon in my domain when questionable results are published. In a worst case scenario, published papers can get retracted after the validity of their results has been formally rejected. Retractions for this reason seem to be fairly rare, though.

This is one of the reasons why reproducible results are so important. If several independent researchers seem to reach similar conclusions, they are likely correct.


My supervisor accidentally forwarded some private e-mail communication to me. What to do? My supervisor has wrote to another cooperating professor regarding our project and had put me in the loop (CC). But I believe he has made a mistake and had also forwarded some of their previous private important chats and communications. I am afraid if he was willing to share those information with me. Even if part of those are relevant, but one may consider this as sensitive information of these big guys. Is that my responsibility to write back to him and inform him about this? Most of times the sender will notice such a fault, at least after sending the letter, but what etiquette say about this? I cannot say "you have wrongly put me as a receiver," because he had told me "I will put you in the loop," but this was just for the last email, not for their previous communications.

This happened to me on two occasions, one of which would have been personally and professionally embarrassing to my advisor, or worse.

I had a pretty good relationship with him, and it was very clear the content wasn't meant for me, so perhaps my situation was slightly different, but I said something to the effect of:

'Woah, looks like the horse left the barn on this one. Glad it was just to me!'

In doing this, I admit I understand the embarrassing/sensitive material, but make clear that I appreciate it was a mistake, and also give him piece of mind that I am a safe confidant that can keep something to himself.


What is the recommended option for a faculty applicant after accepting an offer and getting another better offer? As universities provide short deadlines for faculty position offers, applicants can accept an offer-1 (verbally or by signing a contract) and which is not the best. What is the recommended option if a late and a better offer-2 arrives after accepting offer-1?

Reject offer-2 and stay with offer-1.
Reject offer-1 and accept offer-2.
Accept and delay offer-2 for a year or two if possible, and work for a year or two with University-1.
other options?

This situation should not actually arise if you are handling your faculty job search properly.  If you accept an offer, you should withdraw all your remaining job applications.  Otherwise either you are wasting their time in considering you for a position you won't accept, or you were insincere in accepting the previous offer.  If you aren't comfortable withdrawing your other applications, then you aren't comfortable accepting the job.  You can negotiate on this point, for example by telling them that another job would solve your two-body problem and you hope they can wait on a final decision until you hear about that job, but there's no guarantee that they will agree.

The basic ethical principle here is honesty: you shouldn't give someone a decision they understand to be final without actually meaning it.  By default, job acceptances are considered binding decisions in the parts of academia I'm familiar with (certainly in mathematics in the U.S.), so you can't just assume that of course they knew you might change your mind.  If you have any reservations or conditions, you should make them explicit before accepting the position.  This can't hurt you if nobody really considered the decision to be final in the first place, and it will avoid unethical behavior if they did.

Even though this shouldn't happen, people do occasionally get themselves into this situation.  If you unilaterally rescind your initial acceptance and take the other position instead, you face almost no legal risk, since nobody's going to try suing over this.  However, you can hurt your reputation, which is a serious danger.

Instead, the way you should handle it is by careful discussions.  Typically, University 2 will let you defer their offer for at least a year, since otherwise they look like jerks for trying to steal you away from University 1 after you already accepted an offer.  (Another possibility is that University 2 had no idea you had already accepted and will rescind their offer upon learning this.)  Then you approach University 1 and apologize profusely for inadvertently creating a terribly awkward situation.  You explain that you are willing to come to University 1 and fulfill your obligations, but you have an offer from University 2 and you would very likely leave after a year to go there, so you wonder whether there is any chance they would release you from your acceptance.  If they agree, then you are ethically free to accept University 2's offer immediately.  (University 1 still won't be happy with you, so you shouldn't do this unless it really matters to you, but asking them for permission is much better than just announcing you aren't coming.)  If University 1 insists that they need you next year, then you defer University 2's offer and show up at University 1.

But you really shouldn't let yourself get further faculty offers after you've already accepted a job.  You might be able to get away with it once by explaining that you accidentally forgot to withdraw your other applications, but you really don't want to develop a reputation over time as someone who deliberately manipulates the system in unethical ways.


The reputation of a researcher: number of Citations vs Quality of publication From my social circle and from google scholar I learn that sometimes a trendy work with very less scientific depth gets more citations compare to  a less trendy work with high scientific depth. So the question is how to determine the quality and reputation of a researcher?

Quality is not easy to define in general and this is even harder when it comes to scientific work or even scientists. One may say that any judgment of quality is subjective and hence, as Pete L. Clark suggested, you have to form an opinion yourself, e.g. by reading the articles/books or listening to talks if you have the chance. You may also ask colleagues about their opinion to help you to form your own opinion. To see that quality is subjective: The formulation of your question suggests that for you, high quality work has to have some "scientific depths". For other people "high quality" may mean "great and simple ideas" (which may not be too deep, after all).

Reputation, on the other hand, is something that is more related to a community, so you can get a good impression of someones reputation if you ask colleagues who are in business for some time. To see that quality and reputation are not the same thing you may get a response like "He/she has a good reputation in the field but I do not like his/her work very much."


Do universities in US contain rooms for discussions between students In India, many universities I know personally does not have any discussion rooms intended for students. There are class rooms(for normal lectures), faculty cabins, seminar halls, administrative buildings, library and labs. None of them allows discussions between two students.

I want to know whether there is concept of discussion room for students in US.

There is, but it will vary by the university and the department. Some anecdotal examples that I've experienced:

University #1: When I was an undergraduate (some time ago), our new building had explicit meeting spaces at the end of each floor. (But not rooms; just a semi-encoded area with furniture.)
University #2: When the library of my previous university was rebuilt about 6 years ago they put in many custom meeting spaces for students to work. These rooms have monitors built into the walls to facilitate meetings and discussions, and the rooms could be booked by students and/or faculty.
University #2: When the building that I worked in at my previous university was built, about 4 years ago, they also put in several custom meeting rooms for students on each floor. The rooms were similar equipped with monitors.
University #3: My current university added a building to our department about 15 years ago that has desks in an open area with several cubical-like meeting rooms that can be booked by students. (These are very rarely used by faculty.)

I've visited other universities that have similar spaces. From the discussions that I heard around these buildings, creating space for students to meet seems to be a common value in current construction. But, I haven't typically seen such space available in older buildings or buildings that are highly space constrained.


How to access microfilm data at a university library in another country? I am writing a research paper and need to access some data that was collected by someone long deceased. The university library that has this data is in another country, and has the data on microfilm. The data contained in the microfilm is a manuscript (not sure if that’s helpful).

How would something like this normally be handled for researchers who cannot visit the country in which the microfilm is held?
Is this a common issue for researchers?
Can microfilm be duplicated and sent over somehow, perhaps to another library?

You should file an interlibrary loan at your home library. The ILL librarian will contact the lending library and come up with a solution.

A common scenario is that the lending library will scan in the applicable section and send you a PDF, or they may just mail your library the film on loan. (In times past, they would print out the section and mail you the pages.) If the film is valuable, they may restrict it to library use only. It is possible to copy a microfilm though I suspect that people these days will digitize it instead.

It would be helpful to talk to the ILL librarian after you file a request to they know exactly what sections/pages to get you or whether you want the whole film.


Term to describe paradox where those with less subject matter expertise can sometimes make better teachers? A teacher of teachers in a field I'm involved in frequently says:

the best teachers are often those who only recently learned the material themselves

The rationale for the statement is that someone who has recently learned the material is more intimately aware of the stumbling blocks someone goes through when learning it, and can therefore be cognisant of those when teaching it to other beginners, thus making them a better teacher.
By contrast, someone who has known the subject matter for many decades may have completely forgotten what it was like when first learning the material, and could be therefore prone to impatience, or underestimating complexity or learning time.
Question
Does this concept have a name? Or is there any study that backs up the idea that more experienced instructors can sometimes be blind to the most basic concepts in their discipline (since they take them for granted), and therefore (paradoxically) make worse teachers than those with less subject matter expertise?

This is called the curse of knowledge. From Wikipedia:

The curse of knowledge is a cognitive bias that occurs when an individual, communicating with other individuals, unknowingly assumes that the others have the background to understand. [...]
For example, in a classroom setting, teachers have difficulty teaching novices because they cannot put themselves in the position of the student. A brilliant professor might no longer remember the difficulties that a young student encounters when learning a new subject.

Writer and organizational psychologist Adam Grant nicely illustrates the concept in this article:

Two decades ago, I arrived at Harvard as an undergraduate excited to soak up the brilliance of professors who had won Nobels and Pulitzers. But by the end of the first month of my freshman year, it was clear that these world-class experts were my worst teachers. My distinguished art history professor raved about Michelangelo’s pietra serena molding but didn’t articulate why it was significant. My renowned astrophysics professor taught us how the universe seemed to be expanding, but never bothered to explain what it was expanding into (still waiting for someone to demystify that one).
It wasn’t that they didn’t care about teaching. It was that they knew too much about their subject, and had mastered it too long ago, to relate to my ignorance about it. Social scientists call it the curse of knowledge. As the psychologist Sian Beilock, now the president of Barnard College, writes, “As you get better and better at what you do, your ability to communicate your understanding or to help others learn that skill often gets worse and worse.”


Can I include a note on extra-curricular activities in my SOP? I am a Molecular biology graduate, aspiring to do my doctoral study in U.S. Currently I am applying for several graduate programs. So far, my statement of purpose (SOP) mentions about my academic and research activities conducted till date. Should I mention about extra-curricular activities like playing badminton, active volunteer (weekend art classes) in an orphanage, etc.? Or I should be just professional by not adding the above stated activities.

I am confused of varied responses when I surfed internet for SOP templates. To be precise, I want to know whether adding extra-curricular activities in Grad school applications will boost my admission or not??

Thanks.

Think about this from the other side of the application: why would these activities cause someone reading the application to believe you a strong candidate for admission to Ph.D study?

If you can make a (non-tortured) case that your teaching skills improved because you taught art, that's a point in your favor; consider including it in the SOP. Badminton doesn't strike me as terribly relevant to molecular biology research, however, so I'd leave it right out.

(The calculus may legitimately be somewhat different for a professional program. The one I teach in looks for community involvement and leadership development, among other things, because both of those augur well for people in the professions we train for.)


How to cite computer terminals like Bloomberg or Thomson Reuters? Consider that I looked up some data, more specifically credit ratings for a sovereign, in the Bloomberg and the Thomson Reuters terminal for my thesis:

  The sovereign is rated Aaa by Moody's, AAA by Standard and Poor's, and AAA by Fitch (Bloomberg).

What is the best practice to cite a computer terminal as the source after using data from that terminal? I mean there is no specific author or authoring date other than "Bloomberg" and the date that I've accessed it. And just stating "Bloomberg" as above looks odd.

This question is not directly related to any citation style, however I'm using BibTeX with the APA style for my thesis.

Unless there is a unique, persistent link to the statement from the rating agency - e.g. a link to their archive of ratings, etc, you cannot use that information as a citation. You should imagine the reader far in the future, reading and trying to verify your work - what would they consult, if anything in order to validate your statements, or reproduce your work.

If the agencies do not maintain a public archive, you may be able to take a screenshot of the terminal, and publish it to a place which will keep a persistent public archive of it, e.g. figshare.


Asked editor for review prolongation to do further experiments, can't meet deadline. What do? My paper received a good review, but we've been implicitly asked (interpretation of my supervisor, not mine) to do two experiments to verify a method I use. We then asked the editor for some time to perform these experiments, which the editor accepted. Then two things happened:

The experiments were messed up due to some unfortunate technical error and now I can't meet the deadline.
After some deep digging in preliminary experiments and literature, I found data that could replace these experiments just good enough in my opinion.

The question is now: Should I ask for more time to retry the experiments, or should I just send the literature/preliminary data to the reviewers? Which choice would be wiser?

Based on the reviews and the willingness of the editor to provide an extension, your paper clearly is worth it for the journal. You should definitely contact the editor, briefly explain the problems (don't focus on excuses but on what remains to be done) you have had to meet the deadline and ask what can be done. It will be advantageous to provide a solid plan for the remaining work so that this is clear from the beginning to the editor. So assess the remaining work, make up a realistic plan for what is required and provide this to the editor. If all this requires the assistance of your advisor then plan it together. In the end, it will be up to the editor to provide an extension and a clear plan is necessary.

In my own experience as editor, I much more appreciate realistic plans than optimistic ones that fail. In your case it seems as a case of force majeur and such things happen. I am, however, always suspicious of long excusing accompanying letters since I really do not care about the reasons but need to focus on the timing of revisions for planning issues and the like.


Should I use fancy paper for non-resume application materials? I'm applying to an assistant professor position at a private institution. I bought fancy resume paper on which to print my CV/resume. There are other components of the application package that I need to include:

Official application (contact info, criminal background statements, employment records, etc.)
Teaching statement
Cover letter

Should all of these be printed on fancy paper? My feeling is that all except the official application should be, but at the same time that might make the relatively flimsy paper stand out.

The applications materials are being mailed directly to the chair of the department, and it is a very small department. There are only one or two other faculty.

Above some minimum quality threshold (like, it's actually a piece of paper that is roughly a uniform white), the fanciness of the paper has had no bearing on any hiring decision that I've been a part of.


PhD thesis layouts from around the world About to do this PhD thesis here - but am not really satisfied with my layout. Could somebody point me to some interesting layouts, templates or whatever?

Use the one that is provided by your institution.  The formatting guidelines are not "guidelines", but are instead "requirements" that are checked by someone who deeply cares about them.  So you should use a template that has successfully been used in the past at your institution.  If you do otherwise, you are setting yourself up for a lot of formatting work.  All of that said, University of Oregon's style file, which I used for my degree there, may be found here: http://www.ctan.org/pkg/uothesis


Is Dean-hood largely irreversible, and if so why? In academia, I have noticed a number of cases where a professor who becomes a Dean (or other non-department administrative post like Provost) effectively permanently stops being a researcher thereafter.  Rather than serving an administrative term and then returning to research (as often happens with department heads), they end seem to stay in administration until they retire.

What I am wondering is this:

Is this confirmation bias in my perception, or is this a real trend?
If it is a real trend, is this more due to selection bias (i.e., only people who would prefer to administer become Deans, unlike department heads), or to having one's research so disrupted as to make it hard to continue, or to some other factor?

To become a dean at a research university, you have to have some prior administrative experience. So, chances are that you were department head for 4 or 8 years before you become dean. By the time you step down as dean, you've been an administrator for more than 10 years. You may have been able to keep up some kind of research program as a department head, but that's almost unheard of for deans -- certainly not at the level where you would be able to keep a lab running, write grants to support your lab staff, etc.

In other words, when you step down as dean, you're in a situation where you likely haven't kept up with the literature in the field for a good long time, where you don't have any current grants, where you no longer have grad students and postdocs, and where you haven't been to a lot of conferences to interact with the other people in your field. If your plan is to go back into research, it's going to take a while to make that happen -- and it does, and universities usually also give deans a year of no teaching after they step down to get back into their field. Or, you can decide that your many years of administrative experience are useful skills and continue to use them in other roles.


reviewing a review: Referencing I have been reading a paper and in the Background section the author said something like:

Recent studies suggest that...

and then gave a citation.

I went to that references section, took the name of the other paper and downloaded it.

what was a surprise for me is that this paper also in the literature review section refer to the same studies.

I thought that the first paper refer to this second paper. So, is this allowed on literature review without considering secondary citation?

I don't think there's anything too unseemly going on here, unless the cited paper that also lists the other papers does not actually produce the results that follow "Recent studies show." In that case, there's a problem.

Otherwise, however, you do have to give some deference to the fact that there are only so many papers out there on a given topic.


Adjuncting with a "day job"? Let's say I want to be a college professor, but the field I am interested in is known for having an unbelievably bad job market (worse than usual). We're talking people coming out of top 5 programs not being able to find jobs at liberal arts colleges. To add, let's say I would prefer to be working in a very specific region (e.g. northeast), which narrows my options further.
Is it feasible, after my PhD, to try to get adjunct work in my desired region, while also having a "day job" in something totally different? In other words, working a <= 40 hr/wk job to pay the bills, but teaching two classes or so at night at a college nearby? While publishing independently on any remaining free time, maybe?
Or do the demands of adjuncting make this setup basically impossible? Is it difficult to find adjunct work even in a major city?

First, adjuncts get paid almost nothing unless they have exceptional skills in some narrow field.  Skills far beyond those of the typical recent PhD graduate. Those who try to live on adjunct pay have an impossible schedule and are unlikely to have health, etc., benefits.
However, some people I know, have made a success at it because the money means little to them and they already have a very secure research position in industry. They teach a course per term "just for fun", rather than for any significant boost in income.
That can be a viable lifestyle, but you have to love your day-job for it to make sense, and it needs to give you the freedom to spend several hours a week on your hobby - teaching. The latter isn't a problem for many unless they are in some pressure cooker environment.
These folks don't interact heavily with other faculty, however, since their work day doesn't give the freedom for that - not face to face anyway. They publish, but more as a result of their full time research position than their adjunct position. They are probably limited to undergraduate teaching, which can be challenging, and are unlikely to have supervision over theses, and such, though it may be possible in a few rare cases.
Find a stable position of some sort and then ask around for teaching opportunities. But, I suggest, that you draw your main income and also satisfaction from that day job.


Does undergrad score matter very much when applying for a second Masters? When applying for a second Masters, does one's undergrad score hold a lot of importance or does it get discounted in favor of better score in Master's?

Adding more information:

I have a BS in Mathematics from one of the good Indian university colleges. I spent a lot of time in my BS studying only my favorite subjects at the expense of others. I have a 66.67% in BS. Contrast this with the university topper who will be somewhere close to 90%.

I also have an MS in Economics from one of the good (in India) Economics grad schools. My MS score is decent (3.14 / 4.00). Though my batch topper scored 3.44, the typical top score from the school is close to 3.75.

I am considering applying for MS in Data Science (or CS with concentration in DS). I want to understand how much my bad score in BS will bring down my chances of getting a good school.

PS: I currently work as a Data Scientist for one of the leading analytics companies in India (will soon finish a year).

Your question is difficult to answer confidently because you don't provide information about the program you're interested in or your prior studies. What did you study in the past? What do you want to study?

Did you do well in your undergraduate classes relating to your prospective masters area? Is your most recent masters in an area closely related to that of your second masters? Did you perform well in your first masters program?

To make things easier, you should perhaps call the admissions office of the program/department you're interested in joining. Be straightforward about your situation and they'll likely be helpful in guiding you.


Importance of grades when applying to Master's degree program? I am planning on applying to a Master's degree program (in Canada, if it matters) and I've noticed that there seems to be quite a few grade cut-offs for applications. I've read elsewhere that these are not set in stone, however, how important are they compared to other criteria such as references and research?

In my opinion, which I have no proof for, it seems almost absurd to put an emphasis on grades without knowing a class average or having a detailed knowledge of the course when examining a grade. However, this is my personal biased opinion, so I would like to see the rationale behind the opposite view. One argument I have heard is that school build up a database of GPAs from a certain school and classes (from the comments to this question), so I can see how this might be considered mildly accurate.

This is similar to this question, consequently if the response is similar, I will not be surprised. I'm applying to a researched focused engineering program, but a developed answer with respect to multiple faculties and multiple types of programs would be ideal.

Actually, admissions to master's degree programs are quite different than PhD admissions. Doctoral programs are research programs, and therefore promise as a researcher is perhaps the most important criterion of all to satisfy.

However, at the master's level, this may or may not be the case—many master's programs feature no research (purely coursework), or only a small amount of research (for instance, a one-semester research project, or a lab course, or something similar). In such cases, research is not emphasized nearly as much, and undergraduate track record takes on greater significance. Similarly, "terminal master's" programs—ones that represent "end degrees" in their own right—will likely have less of a research background focus than degrees that are intended to prepare a student for doctoral studies.

The other issue is the style of admissions: for "US-style" admissions, research will likely be more important than it is in "European-style" admissions, where research plays essentially no role at all in admissions to master's programs (although research is a prerequisite for PhD studies!).


What is a good grade for an MS student expecting to apply for a PhD in a top-tier school? Although I understand that getting an admission into a PhD program depends on many factors, for example--BS and MS GPA, number of journal papers and their quality, number of conference papers and their quality, GRE, Statement of Objective, job experience, profile of other applicants, funding situation etc-- what should be the GPA of an MS student in the US, who is expecting to do a PhD in Mechanical Engineering in any of the top 30 grad schools?

Thanks in advance!

Anything above a 3.5. Grades higher than that are unlikely to make much of a difference for your application. The most important parts of your application are letters of recommendation, research experience, and personal statement. As long as the GPA is above 3.5, with no unexplained low grades in highly relevant courses, the precise GPA is not relevant.


Paper accepted subject to minor changes – should I comply if I do not consider them minor? My paper met acceptance (through email notification from editor) with one reviewer requiring a minor change which is not minor according to my perception and would revise all my figures and results. The detail is:
Editor’s comments:
Your manuscript entitled "xxxxxxxxxxxx" has been accepted for publication in IEEE xxxxxxxxx.  The comments of the reviewers who reviewed your manuscript are included at the foot of this letter.  We ask that you make changes to your manuscript based on those comments, before uploading final files.
Reviewer 1 comments
Recommendation: Accept (minor edits)
Comments:
I  think the authors have either answered all my questions or made the relevant revision concerning the suggestions raised by the reviewer. I have no further comments
Additional Questions:
Does the paper contribute to the body of knowledge?: Yes
Is the paper technically sound?: Yes
Is the subject matter presented in a comprehensive manner?: Yes
Are the references provided applicable and sufficient?: Yes
Reviewer: 2

Recommendation: Accept (minor edits)
Comments:
The responses of the authors are satisfactory. But they can incorporate the sensing error parameter to bring more realistic scenario in their model.
Additional Questions:
Does the paper contribute to the body of knowledge?: Yes
Is the paper technically sound?: Yes
Is the subject matter presented in a comprehensive manner?: yes
Are the references provided applicable and sufficient?: Yes

Should I mention that I will undertake the recommendation in my future work? If I do so, can it lead to rejection of my paper after acceptance?

Whether you should comply or not should be ruled by asking yourself if doing so will improve your work. If you come to the conclusion that it would improve the paper, you really should follow the advice. Most other considerations such as if it is a lot of work should be very low (if at all) on your list.

As a self-confident researcher the quality of your work should be in your focus. It is therefore never mandatory to follow reviewer advice, but it is mandatory to explain the reasons if you decide against it. If there are good reasons not to do as requested, you can explain it accordingly to the editor. In any case, the editor is the one to convince, so you could discuss your question with her/him.


Is it common to have exam questions 'peer reviewed'? How common is it that exam questions, after being designed by the instructor and before being given to the students, are checked by a colleague in one's same institute, to make sure that they are appropriate and unambiguous and that their results are correct? Is this normally enforced by universities across the world?

I am asking whether there is a formal check required by the department; I am not speaking simply about instructors of the same course writing the exam collaboratively.

Motivation: anecdotal. A recent answer mentions "having [exam questions] checked / verified for quality, consistency etc". And I heard from a colleague from a country in the English-speaking world that in their institution something similar goes on: they prepare exam questions one week in advance, and then they are sent to be checked by a colleague. OTOH, this is completely unheard of for me in Italy --- the instructor designs the questions, then they are sent out to the students without any form of review imposed by the university (though the Italian system is somehow peculiar when it comes to exams.)

Yes; as mentioned in the UK it is expected that assignments (usually those greater than a certain proportion of the overall mark) is both internally checked and externally checked before being sat by students.

I have acted as an external examiner involved in the checking of the exam papers of another university. It is a valuable role that experienced academics can play in both improving the student experience, and the quality of the learning and teaching of an institution.

Another aspect that is also worth mentioning is post-exam error checking. In my department (some considerable time ago) we did an experiment of random error checking and to our astonishment, discovered that despite the diligence of the most experienced marker, things got missed. Our checking showed up whole missed script pages, ridiculous arithmetic errors in the final score and whole class transcription errors where spreadsheet cells were "off-by-one". As a result more regular clerical checks were done on everyone's marking and result recording to gain much in quality and student satisfaction.


Thriving in a competitive lab My advisor has bred a very competitive lab culture where students frequently compete for power and attention. I am not naive to think this is uncommon, and I suspect many PhD students are by nature very competitive.

My overall question is this: How does one thrive and remain at the top of the pack in such an environment? How do I cultivate influence and power within such a group?

These scenarios have occurred frequently for many people in the group.

During presentations, when my advisor doesn't know what the presenter is saying, students from the audience frequently interject the presenter and try to explain concepts from the presentation. To me this seems very rude as this doesn't respect the fact that the presenter normally knows more than the others students in the room. Students frequently stand up in the middle of a presentation and start having side discussions on nearby white boards. This has happened to many student presenters in my group.
During paper discussions, students tend to filibuster and interrupt each other and try to talk for as long as possible.
During group meeting, my advisor may ask one student to complete a task, but other students will also try to complete the same task with the belief that they would be able to one up the other student and do a better job.

The most successful students in the group also happen to engage most frequently in these demonstrations of power.

My advisor does not actively encourage such behaviors, but by inaction condones them.

From what you are telling, your advisor has not bred a competitive lab but rather a horde of children. The behavior you are describing is unacceptable and shows no respect for each other at all. It normally is the professors job to make clear how the lab is working, to make sure the speaker in a talk is listened to and discussions are postponed to a break or after the talk, etc.

Furthermore, if everyone in the group is competing over a task, this shows that they don't have enough tasks of their own and go for everything that is available. Once again, it is the professors job to have regular discussions (in private!) with lab members about their current projects, to make sure that they go along well and that such a case as you described in the last point, i.e. everyone has nothing to do, does not happen.

All in all, it looks like this lab you are describing has no real leader, no one capable or willing to set ground rules and advice and guide everyone. I think and hope this is not the common case in labs and would advice you to avoid such a place if possible; maybe you are able to find a new advisor?

Side note: Of course competition will always be a thing and a healthy competition is good. But what you described is not healthy at all and in all the labs and research groups I visited so far (math, CS and engineering mostly), there was a decent amount of respect for each other.


Lack of take home examinations in mathematics classes? Why are so few grades in undergraduate formal math classes in most US colleges based on take home examinations or papers, barring one or two research/self study class?

The formal math classes I am referring to are topology, analysis, number theory, and calculus etc.

The writing class in my college is based on a take home paper, but I do not see similar grading schemes in math courses in other US colleges.

The American system often favors testing over project-based demonstrations of learning in mathematics and other quantitative subjects. The reason for this, at least at my university, is that you cannot be expected to do original work until you have a significant foundation in the field, and this original work is often extremely time- and resource- intensive. Thus, you will often find that for the first several semesters, the vast majority of courses in science and engineering are assessment-based. However, once you have gotten a solid baseline of knowledge, you can do original work in your upper-level classes (some people might even say this is a signature of a good program). This is in contrast to many humanities classes, where most of the papers you will write are inherently original, even without a well-rounded background.


As a part time volunteer, how can I ask my advisor to let me work independently, so that I can have a chance at first authorship? TL;DR As a part time volunteer, what is the best way of communicating to my professor that I would like to be able to work independently on a project of my own to work towards a first authorship paper, rather than playing second fiddle to a full time graduate student?

Hello!

I am planning on applying to MD/PHD programs next year, and to that end, I am volunteering in a lab and trying to get some research experience and a  publication under my belt.  My primary goal of doing research as a volunteer is to be able to independently complete a project and obtain a first authorship paper, even if it's a very small one.

This may seem a bit crass to say this straight out, but with a first authorship paper, I believe I can show admission committees that I am able to independently perform research at a graduate level, so this is my utmost priority.

I have been working part time (~10hrs/week) at a lab as a volunteer, working independently so far.  I entered the lab a couple months ago and independently researched and explored the lab's field of study until I came up with what I felt to be an interesting and novel project.  I communicated the details of this project to the professor a week ago and he also seemed very excited by the potential implications and findings it could yield.

To my dismay, at this week's lab meeting, this professor more or less assigned one of his full-time graduate students to the project I proposed to him last week.  He heavily implied that I would be assisting this graduate student.  As a part timer, I know that 10 hours a week would definitely not be able to keep up with a 40+ hour a week full timer, so a first authorship on this project seems increasingly out of the question.

I'm not trying to obtain credit for work I didn't do, nor am I trying to find shortcuts to an easy first authorship paper.  I know both things are not possible, nor is it my wish to game my way out of hard work and effort.

However, I do want a fair shot at being able to independently do my own work, even if it's for 10 hours a week, in order to achieve a small first authorship paper that I can claim as my own.

I don't want to present an image to the professor of being greedy, scheming or not a team player, because I honestly don't feel that I am any of these things.  However, I do have my own goals for working hard and volunteering my time, and I need to be able to fulfill my goals or else I am wasting my time.

I know professors can get defensive about "cutting" a larger paper in half into two smaller papers, so that seems out of the question as well.  I want to ask my professor if I can work on another project (if I can come up with another one), but that makes me seem like I'm being difficult/uncooperative.

TL;DR As a part time volunteer, what is the best way of communicating to my professor that I would like to be able to work independently on a project of my own to work towards a first authorship paper, rather than playing second fiddle to a full time graduate student?

In general, you should explain to your advisor that you are really interested in taking the lead on a research project, and ask if there is any way you can do that in the scope of your role in the lab.

Some suggestions:

Have this conversation sooner, rather than later. It's easier to sort out before too much work has been done on the project.
Ask "What do I have to do to..." rather than "Can I...". As in, "What would I have to do to be able to be first author on a paper coming out of this project, or another project?", not "Can I be first author on this project?" (He may say something like "I think that to submit a paper by December, we'll need to put in around 60 total hours per week of work" - and then you may decide that you can't do that, but that second authorship and a great letter of recommendation is better than no paper. Or not.)
Don't assume that your solution - working independently - is the only one. For example, your professor might suggest that multiple papers are expected to come out of the project, each with a different focus, and you can "specialize" in a certain part of the project and be first author on the paper on that part, even while collaborating on the project as a whole. Be open to other suggestions.
Don't assume that you have the full picture. For example, this grad student may be working on the project with you for a few weeks just to get you started, or on the side while also pursuing another project. Etc.

Note that just like you have goals and want to put your time towards them as efficiently as possible, so does your supervisor. Supervising one student per project, especially when that one student is a temporary part-time student without much research experience,  may not be an efficient use of his time. (That doesn't mean he'd never agree to it; it does mean that you may have to be flexible about what kind of solutions you'll accept.)


How do I withdraw a paper from a journal after it was accepted but before it was fully published? On the advice of a senior colleague, I decided that I do not want to publish the paper anymore and with that journal. I wrote the editor several times; he has received the emails, but refuses to reply. I know he gets the emails because if its on other matters he has replied but not on the paper. I am ready to forfeit the processing fee I gave them but they refuse to reply and have already published the abstract of the paper to their site but not the full paper. Is legal action an option and do I have the right to sue? What are the guidelines in matters like these?

Check out the journal’s policy. While they do not always address the issue of what stages a paper can be withdrawn, you can find some indirect information. For example, if the policy says:

  Manuscripts for which page proofs are not returned in a timely manner will be withdrawn from publication.

(here in the case of the JACS journal), then you can still withdraw the paper at the proofing stage.
Leave a bit more time to the editor… it's a time-consuming job, and he might just be very busy. You can send a gentle reminder. Just mind that you are the one asking for something out of the ordinary, so mind your manners.
Where are you at in the publication process? If you have signed the copyright transfer agreement, paid the processing fee (you mentioned one; no all journals have them) and sent back the final proofs with your corrections, you might just be too late legally speaking. It probably doesn't hurt to ask, but you might not have legal recourses apart from retraction (and avoid that).
Whatever you say, don't ask for retraction. Retracting a paper once published is a grave decision to make, and it is not appropriate in your case.


Structure of research statement for a tenure-track position I am going to prepare a research statement for a tenure-track position. How is the structure of a research statement for a tenure-track position? Must the sections be separated into "Past Experiences" and "Future Plans"? Or it is possible to describe future plans within the text of past experiences?

Discuss your past experience only to demonstrate that you are the correct person to carry out the ambitious program of research which you are proposing. Your CV, letters of recommendation and sample publications will already speak highly of your prior work, so your research statement should be almost entirely forward looking. Good luck!


Citations in graduate school applications One of my graduate school application question asks me to analyze an economic/ social problem and give solutions. For this question, I need to use facts and statistics in my essay.
In such case, do i need to use citations in the essay? If so, do I need to use footnotes or in-text citations? As for reference page, since this is a grad school application form, there is no separate section for references.

I need to use facts and statistics in my essay.

You should always indicate the source of your facts and statistics. That means you will need to use citations. Which format to choose? The social sciences typically use APA, MLA, or Chicago Manual of Style. They are very different: MLA uses in-text citations while CMS uses footnotes. Use the one you prefer and be consistent. It helps to make a good first impression, but of course even a perfect mastery of style will not get you accepted. That depends on the quality of your analysis, so focus your efforts on that above all.


Do visiting professors make for good PhD supervisor? I am currently thinking about pursuing a public policy PhD after my MA is completed. One of my top target schools employs a visiting professor who has been at that university for the past several years. The main reason I wanted that particular professor is that his previous background included posts at several very high-ranking positions within the US government that I feel like would be helpful to me throughout my doctoral education and with the potential dissertation. But I'm worried that as a visiting professor, he'd make for a poor choice as a supervisor due to him being "visiting" instead of a more permanent professor at the school (is it?).

Rules vary, but visiting professors should not be permitted to supervise PhD students because they are not employed for the duration of the supervision period.  So while they might be skilled supervisors, they are not suitable supervisors.


What should I do, as a reviewer, if I see another reviewer suggesting the authors to cite papers not relevant to the manuscript? I have just submitted my review of a manuscript to a journal, which allowed me to see other reviewers' comments once I submitted mine. I have points of disagreement with this other reviewer, but I am sure this is normal. What alarmed me was that, his/her review comments ended with a suggestion for the authors to cite additional references which, in my opinion, are not directly relevant to the manuscript, but were suggested on the pretense that they were published in the same journal, which is weird. These references have something in common in them: they are authored by the same group of people. Although I cannot be sure that this reviewer is one of them, I have the feeling that h/she may be, and that this practice may be common. In the past, when I was the author, a reviewer also suggested me to include additional references, but these references were not authored by the same people, and anyway I ended up not including them as I thought they were not directly relevant. But as a reviewer, what should I do in this case?

I would recommend raising your concern to the editor. If the editor is honest, they will not ask the authors to follow the citations en masse.

Given that the citations are all in the same journal, however, it is possible that the editor is part of the same citation cartel and may blow off your concern. In this case, it may be worth raising the concern to the publisher and/or one of the major indices. Citation cartels have been gaining attention in recent years, and if this is part of a systematic pattern of coercive citation, then those larger organizations may be motivated to investigate and sanction.


Graduate studies (phD & Masters) after a double degree I am planning on doing Bachelor of Computer Science - Bachelor of Mathematics at University of Wollongong, Australia. Do you think I will be able to do a phD in Mathematics by studying Mathematics as a double degree?

TLDR -- Yes.

Long answer -- A Ph.D. in Math is possible for a student who has double majored in Math and CS. A double major (at least in North America) consists of almost all the courses for both degrees. Taking some CS courses in undergrad is a good idea anyways for most math career paths.

With that said, Alexandros is right to point out that this is a bit premature. High school (and early undergraduate) math bears little if any resemblance to the math that a Ph.D. requires.


Asked Professor for Reference - No response for 3 weeks now I have asked a professor for a reference for a graduate study application by email and havent heard back in 3 weeks and the deadline is in a few days.
Does this mean no ?  I just got no response at all.
Should I follow up - he is a slow email reader in my past experience with him.  I can't call him since he is working from home.
What is the protocol/etiquette here ?  Should I follow up again by email ?
Sent email from email address they have answered me from before.

If you only have a few days left then it probably is effectively "no" if your professor is super busy. If you don't hear back on something important like this, you should forward the email again after about a week, politely asking for an acknowledgement.
If you are lucky enough to study somewhere where your professor has an administrator, you should contact the administrator rather than email the second time.
It is also possible that your professor has instructions on their Webpage about how to ask for letters of reference; I've seen that occasionally. If so, they may not think they need to reply to emails that ignore those instructions. But most people know that not everyone will read every Webpage.
You could forwarding the email again with "urgent" in the title, but if you do, write a short note at the beginning apologising for not having checked on them earlier and saying you realise this is probably too short of notice now if they missed your previous email, but you just wanted to double check.
Be sure you have sent them everything they would need to know for their letter, e.g. complete details of how they know you, where you are applying, how to submit the letter, etc.


Collaborator omitting my name from their CV I started working at a new university one year ago. Within this year I started working with a colleague, who before we collaborated had no experience on research, i.e., he was on the teaching side. We developed a couple of proposals, with me as principal investigator. One got rejected, and a second got accepted. We also started to work on initial ideas for a couple of papers, without any substantial work or input from him, i.e., I identified the journals, the theme for the paper, the structure, etc.

With the initial funding that got accepted we made a research trip to the university of my previous employment, where I still have collaborations. Within this process my colleague decided to apply for a position there, and while preparing his CV he omitted my name from his CV listing, for example, the projects with only his name as co-author, or co-investigator with no investigator listed, under directions from the new Head of my previous place of work that a disassociation or omission of my name might make it easy for my former colleagues to offer him a position, as I did not get along with a couple of them. I found out when he gave me his CV to review and I asked him to add the credits to those projects and future papers, indicating that there were credits messing for other people as well. I mentioned how this was unethical, including the fact that papers that were not yet written should not be mentioned. He disagrees and believes that this was acceptable, so long as he did not claim he did the whole work himself, alluding to the readers of his CV that other people are involved as he is a co-author.

Having spent all my academic life being extra careful with details and credits in my CV and others', as some time that is all a person gets for academic effort, I wanted to ask whether you find this behaviour ethical or unethical within academia?

Some of what your colleague did is unethical, some of it is not.

For listing grant funding, I haven’t seen a whole lot of official standards for how they should be presented. Listing one’s own role (PI, co-I, etc.) should be sufficient. One need not list all the principals for the grant (unless specifically asked).

However, when it comes to papers, leaving off who’s a coauthor on a paper is definitely unethical. It’s also unethical, in my view, to list a paper that you couldn’t produce if asked. So anything that’s just in the planning stage should not be listed.


Manuscript status changed immediately from "With the Editor" to "Decision in Process" I submitted a manuscript in a journal (Springer) and after 3 days the status of my MS changed to "With the Editor" followed by "Decision in Process" after 5 days. My MS apparently did not undergo peer-review. Should I expect rejection on this stage?

If the editor decided not to send the manuscript out for peer review, then the decision is almost certainly a desk rejection.

In theory, I suppose it might have gone out for peer review and just been an unusually speed process, but in practice that is extremely unlikely.

The canonical journal workflow question may provide more detail if you wish.


What are the chances of getting an academic position year after completion of PhD? My situation is as follows:

When I will have completed my PhD, I will not be able to immediately apply for a research position at a university, as my girlfriend will want to move to a certain city and she wants me to come with her. My chances of getting a job at the university in that city are very slim (since getting a job in academia in general is very slim). I'll leave out the details here, but I cannot really opt out of this plan anymore.

Another important piece of information might be that I am in the Humanities. So it's not like I could work in my field so easily and then later get back into academia. The type of work I would be doing would be quite different.

So I will have to work out of academia (and out of my field) for a few years. I could try to set myself up as a part time independent researcher - would that help? I would really like to work in academia, but it's quite difficult given the circumstances.

I am completing my PhD at a very strong university, if it helps.

You could consider working as a lecturer (with a lower income) to at least get the teaching experience needed, and then you could do some research through the department and some as an independent researcher.


Eventual Career Objective I am a Front-End Developer with several years of experience as well as I have my B.S. in Computer Science. I am doing research and pursuing my MS in Computer Science. However, I am somewhat struggling to word my career objective correctly and in a fashion in which I could be considered for admittance into Grad School. How could this snippet be modified to accomplish the goal while remaining under 150 characters

  I've been interested in computers from a young age. Xxxxxxx Xxxx offers a great program to further pursue my education and passion for computing.

The snippet doesn't state an objective. It's just a personal story about how you got into computers, but it doesn't say what you want to achieve (by pursuing an MS).

What you did when you were ten is unlikely to interest reviewers. Perhaps say "I've been interested in computers from a young age" but right now you're wasting a lot of characters on a lot of fluff. Perhaps you should leave this out entirely, unless how you got into computers from an early age is relevant to your current goals.

Also, try to narrow down your interests a bit. They're more likely to care about somebody who wants to passionately investigate a specific topic rather than someone who declares they're interested in just about everything. Again, consider leaving your interests out entirely unless they're relevant to your objective.


What do reviewers look for in a paper? This may be a naive question but it would greatly assist me in preparing my first paper for a peer-reviewed journal.

I can identify at least 4 papers that I can extract from my recently completed PhD dissertation in the social sciences.

What do reviewers look for in order to assess that a paper is suitable for publication in their peer reviewed journal?

Generally speaking, they are looking for something new which contributes to the current literature of the field.
If your paper fits in this context (i.e. you believe your paper will enhance/improve current methods or even solve particular problem, then you got publishable work regardless of the reviewing output.

For a particular journal, other factors are added to the significance of the work (for example journal scope, writing level, paper format and methodology).


Is it inappropriate to ask my supervisor (at a research intern) to review a cover letter for a PhD application? I recently finished my masters degree and I'm currently interning at the same university doing a research project. I'm planning to submit applications for PhD programs at other institutions and I've just finished my first application. The application includes a cover letter of 1000-1500 words. I've sent the cover letter to family members for feedback before I send it off who have given me great feedback regarding the style and language. Unfortunately, no one in my family is in academia and I would really like the thoughts of an academic since they're the target audience and they will understand the technical content of my cover letter. I was thinking of asking my current supervisor or perhaps my old supervisor from my masters program to give me feedback on the cover letter however I'm unsure if this is unprofessional or if I'm asking too much.

My question is whether this is an unreasonable request?

It is, of course, a reasonable request (unless you believe your supervisor is unreasonable).

Furthermore, the supervisor of your master's degree ought to be among the first to write your LoR. There is nothing wrong with requesting him/her to review your cover letter.


citing work that definitely won't be published I imagine this is probably a duplicate, but when I search I can only find questions about citing work that is likely to be published.

I'm writing a math paper for publication, and I want to cite a paper available only on the authors website.  It is unpublished and it won't be published anywhere else.  How appropriate is this and if the answer is not "completely inappropriate", how do I cite it?

Simply cite as you would any other website. Alternatively, you can use the unpublished works citation style. Citations don't have to point to other journal articles.

Do note, though, that the fact that the work you're citing didn't go through peer review and likely isn't as well known will impact how people view the citation. If that particular reference is critical to your paper you may want to search for published literature that supports your argument as well.


Grading term papers and reports written by non-native speakers I'm teaching an advanced undergraduate computer science course that requires a 5-7 page term paper worth about 20% of the student's grade.

The class has several international students, and some of them do not have a strong command of the English language. Clearly, these students are at a disadvantage when it comes to this assignment.

To complicate matters, the course is part of the university's "integrated writing" curriculum, so, according to university policy, the quality of the writing must be evaluated as part of the grading process.

I'm trying to devise a fair scheme where non-native English speakers are not graded as stringently as native English speakers, yet not have the grading be so lenient for non-natives that it becomes unfair in the other direction.

I've already decided that some criteria can be graded on equal footing (such as overall paper organization, and the quality of the overall research), while others (such as word selection and sentence structure) can be looked at on more of a two-tier scale.

I'm wondering if anyone here as dealt with this dilemma before and, if so, how they might have approached this problem.

Grade everyone the same on things like word choice and sentence structure, but make that portion of the grade a small part of the overall grade for the paper.  (If you are in the United States, you will find students who are the product of U.S. high schools with limited vocabulary and no idea of sentence structure.)

Edit: If you don't grade everyone on the same scale, you will inevitably get complaints.  I'd argue that what is important (for learning) to students in your class is the formative feedback on their writing, not the specific number of points.  If the dean complains, 'splain that you teach computer science.

{Time passes} As Damian has said in the comments, you will need a grading rubric that assigns relatively low points to word choice and sentence structure, more points to overall organization, still more points to quality of research, etc.  Then you'll need to show how the overall grade was computed, using the rubric.  To repeat myself, the formative comments you make, particularly on word choice, sentence structure, etc. will be more important to learning than the actual points.


How to quit a potential paper with my Master's supervisor when I am already doing the PhD somewhere else? For 1 year and half I did my master thesis in one laboratory, where although I learned a lot, it was mostly alone, having very reduced supervision and not having a project parallel to any of the PhD students. Finally by the time I delivered my thesis I learnt that I got accepted with a internship in a international institute (application that I did all by myself). My master supervisors were not happy as they wanted me to keep going with experiments to publish a paper. I did what I could before I left for the internship, even taught a new master students with the techniques I implemented. Also I transformed my thesis as much as possible in an article, still requiring just a few more experiments.  Now, one year and half later, having I already done 2 internships and started a very good PhD position in another country and scientific area, they still nag me with questions about the article. They did not contribute with any more experiments for the article and only one of the author corrected once the manuscript, only actually correcting the grammar and formatting. At this point I quitted  the article but clearly they still did not. I am indecisive if I should:
a) just stop replying,
b) sent an email explaining that I want to focus on my PhD now and so I have no longer interest in the article
c) if I send the raw data and tell them to do whatever they want as long as I have the name somewhere and I can read one of the last versions.

The problem with c) is that although is the most "polite", I know they will keep nagging me and I will have a lot of work to prepare all the raw data (which include tons of images) to send them and most probably they will never actually publish it. With the other hypothesis the issue is that I do not want to have bad professional relationships. It is also important to refer that my thesis was presented in a poster in an international conference so it will not really bring much more scientific knowledge to publish it.

I would choose b) if I don't have much time to spare.

Work on every paper incurs an opportunity cost. Time spent at one place cannot be spent at another. If you have many exciting projects that need the time that you cannot afford to spend elsewhere, b) is what I would perceive to be the best option.

If however I have lots of time to spare, and no other project to work on, I would pick c). A publication increase is always a good thing in this case.


What salutation to use for someone with a PhD who is a Lecturer or Reader in the UK? What is the correct salutation to use when writing to someone with a PhD whose academic title is Lecturer or Reader in the UK?

(A related question addresses the case of a Lecturer without a PhD.)

The person's title in this case is (almost always) Dr, so "Dear Dr Last-name" would be the standard salutation for a first correspondence.  If they sign their reply with their first name, then you can consider yourself welcome to write "Dear First-name" in future.

Academics in the UK are very used to receiving email addressing them as Professor, so it's not a big problem if you do this, but there is probably a slight increase in the chance that they might view your email as spam (I say this because the overwhelming majority of emails I get which address me as Professor are at least somewhat spammy).
If someone's title is Professor, this will always be listed on the university website, so if you've done your research and found out that they are not a professor, it's probably best to use Dr.


Would most PhD supervisors stop working with a student who was unproductive due to clinical depression? Suppose a PhD student got clinically depressed and stopped producing research for a year or two.

What would most PhD supervisors do in this situation? Would it be considered usual or acceptable to stop working with him?

Good PhD Advisors(tm) would first of all talk to the student about the issue. Large-scale depressions need to be properly treated and respected. The important thing is to find out if it is the academic work that causes the depressions and to take counter-measures if it is.

Now if the depression lasts, is properly treated and puts obtaining the PhD at >90% risk of failure and all possible measures have been taken to help the student (both on the professional level and as far as applicable and feasible, on the personal level), then the student is wasting time in academia. And nothing is more depressing than that. So a Good PhD Advisor(tm) would help the student with establishing a new working life that makes use of the degrees already obtained as much as possible. This is basically the best the advisor can do to pave the way to a happier life for the student. I wouldn't call that "firing" someone.


Where can I find resources on how to be a good supervisor? I am a relatively new tenured professor. My responsibilities increase gradually, and this year I have started supervising students' thesis: a bachelor thesis and a master thesis. (This is in Europe, so master thesis is not PhD-lite).
Somehow it feels like I am expected to already know how to be a supervisor. There are no resources anywhere that I can find. The training I received at the start of my tenure focused exclusively on classroom teaching, and my PhD/postdoc only prepared me to be a researcher, not a supervisor. Of course, I already know more or less what a supervisor does - after all, I have been supervised through many academic endeavors myself and I was able to observe. I also have experienced colleagues who have supervised students for years that I can observe or to whom I can ask advice.
But I don't think that this is "good enough". There are certainly some skills that I can improve, some issues that I can plan ahead for, etc, that I haven't noticed while I was myself supervised: after all, I was busy with my own project at the time, I was not learning how to supervise. I'm also sure that there are some things that were done / should have been done by my former supervisors that I can't have noticed (e.g. how to set an agenda and stick to it for a meeting, how to adapt to roadblocks, etc). Moreover, like everyone, my own experience is unique, and the students I'm going to supervise are not me: what do I do if a student loses a relative, becomes discouraged, or on the contrary outperforms everything I've expected, needs more guidance than I can provide, needs a less hands-on supervision, needs career advice about a career I've never thought about...???
I realize that this is a huge task, so I am certainly not asking for a full answer right now - knowing stackexchange's reputation, such a question would probably get closed immediately for being too wide without concern for whether the question would actually be helpful to myself and, I hope, many other people. Anyway. I will instead ask for resources on supervisory skills: books, websites, classes, etc. What have you found that helped you become a good supervisor?

There are three sources that I would look into.

Internal: you got a PhD and had fellow students share their experiences. What worked for you? What didn't? Advising is a very personal process so I think it's wise to make it your own.

Departmental: what are the advising norms in your department? Do you have a department mentor, or does the university offer workshops to new faculty? If so - attend them. They are invaluable for you to understand how your university perceives the advisory role, which may be different from place to place.

External resources: there are several online resources, I personally found this piece by The Professor is In here useful; this Science article is also very useful. TL;DR: be consistent, honest (for better and worse), supportive and attentive.

Good luck!


Is it ethical to publish a paper about porting an existing software package to another programming language? In short:

I have ported a package in another programming environment, and I want to write a paper of my ported package. Would it be considered cheating?

In details:

I have implemented a package in Python, that is modeled after an R package, which means my package has the design and APIs similar to original's.

The authors of original R package has published an official paper about the package on Journal of Statistical Software. And now I want to write a paper about my python package.

The point is, since the design and APIs are similar, the structure and content of the my paper would be similar to that of the original package's paper. For example, in the original paper, the authors explained what Corpus class is, and in my paper, I would explain that my python-version Corpus has similar attributes.

The biggest differences are brought by the environments and dependence, and some language-specific details.

So, would it be considered cheating if I write the paper of ported software? Of course, the relative sections of my paper would include the comparisons between two packages and I would cite the original paper as appropriate as I can.

Your paper must clearly delineate what is your original contribution and what is the same as, or based on, the previous package. So if you write about your Corpus class, for example, you must say that it is modeled after the R package's Corpus class. Otherwise it is "cheating," as you put it.

(It's also not clear to me that a straightforward port of an existing package would be considered a novel research contribution by most venues for publication. But that's an entirely different question.)


Where can I look for announcements of tenure-track positions? I am looking around to land on a tenure track position in the area of systems and control (engineering) and I would be grateful if anyone can suggest a good strategy to identify possible opportunities. I keep seeing people around me getting interviews for positions I have never heard of, so I guess my search strategy needs some improvements.

My main target is the US, but I am open to positions in UK or Canada as well.

A quick Google Search of

  X faculty position ads

turns up a rather lengthy list of position ads, but they also include the websites which those ads are posted on. You can then "fan out" from there. (It defaults to jobs within 200 miles of your location, so you'll want to change that setting to "any" to see all the jobs it can find.)

Additionally, the professional society for your discipline or another similar organization probably has some sort of "clearinghouse" site where such announcements are collected. For example, in my discipline (Chemical Engineering), an organization called CACHE offers a central posting site for such positions. In other countries, there may be regulations requiring the positions be advertised in specific locations as well.

And, of course, it's possible to ask your friends, mentors, and colleagues where to look for positions! Independence doesn't mean you have to go it completely alone!


My associate editor cannot contact the 2nd reviewer I submitted a paper to an IEEE transactions journal in March. The paper was sent to the editor, then the editor found an associate editor (AE), then the AE found three proper reviewers (but I do not know the reviewers).

At the begining of July, I received the decision for the AE: the 1st and 3rd reviewers gave me Accepted with minor revision, the 2nd reviewer gave Major revision. So the AE decided it to be Major revision. I made some point-to-point revisions regarding the comments and resubmitted the paper.

Now, four months passed, I have not received feedback yet. A month ago I sent an email to the AE to ask for the reasons. The AE said that he cannot contact the 2nd reviewer. So what I can do now?

Can I suggest to the AE that he should make a decision based on the 1st and 3rd reviewers' recommendation? because the 2nd reviewer already gave me Minor revision in the first round peer-review, it seems that he would not have big questions.

Thanks.

You cannot suggest the editor do something - the editor doesn't need your advice on how to do his or her job. What you can do is ask for a decision. Say something like, "it's been four months since I submitted this revision. When can I expect a decision?" The aim isn't to get the AE to make a decision, but rather to look at your paper and its status. The AE should understand that four months is a long time to wait, and that he or she should decide what to do next instead of continue to wait for reviewer #2.

As for probable outcomes, there's a good chance you might have to wait longer. From your description, reviewer #2 was the one that suggested major revisions, which is why the AE is particularly concerned about hearing back from reviewer #2. If the AE is unable to contact the reviewer, then the most likely decisions are 1) accept or 2) invite more reviewers. If the AE trusts reviewers 1 & 3, (s)he is more likely to pick option 1; otherwise option 2 might be the choice and you might have to wait another 4+ weeks.


Do German universities internally track the scientific output of single work groups/professors and with which internal/external goals? We are asked in our group to send new publications for journals and conferences  to our secretary, who told me she has to input this information also into a database of the university. Over the years of PhD/Postdoc my Professor also seems to favor publishing many small papers rather than leaving it to the first author to make a decision on splitting up research results. This sometimes leads to conflicts, as the goals of my professor, my university and researchers without permanent positions can be different as the strategies to realize them.

So, I'm wondering if this kind of quality management/evaluation of the publication output is used by the administration to reward very productive groups and if so, by which kind of number games and really in financial rewards (increasing budget etc.)? (Number of Articles) x (impact factor)...

I would ask your professor, other professors, or people you know in the administration. Presumably, they know how these evaluations are done in your University.

My experience, in a research institute in Germany, is that faculty is evaluated on both output and grants obtained. Similarly, the institute as a whole is evaluated on these points. Typically, professors try to publish as high as possible here, with much less regard for number of papers published. This is reflected in tenure decisions.


Is offering jobs to students I'm teaching as a "representative of industry" OK? I have a simple question to which I was unable to find a simple answer. I was hired by a university as a "representative of industry" to deliver some courses. In my groups I have several promising students to whom I would like to offer a job after the course ends.
I think this would be OK from students' point of view (the job comes to them, instead of requiring them to spend time in job fairs etc). I think this would also be great from a company's point of view (they can get a student whose abilities and skills they can be reasonably confident in). However, this looks almost too good to be true and I have a feeling that there's some conflict of interest here.
Is such an arrangement common (i.e., hiring your students) or is it inappropriate and I should avoid it?
Edit to provide more details: the students are about half-way through their degree and the summer break is slowly appearing on the horizon, so the job would be a limited-term apprenticeship while they do not have any university obligations. The country in question is Poland.

I agree completely with the others that you should check with your university and your company. Their opinions are the ones that matter. Still, it is quite possible that your institutions will not provide guidance in either direction, so I will not end the answer there.
The only conflict of interest I can see is if you are grading (or otherwise holding authority over) students while simultaneously encouraging them to apply for a job. In this case, students could feel coerced into applying for or accepting a job (or could construe this as a reason if they don't like their grade, etc.). The simplest solution would be to wait until the course ends (and some would say this is your only ethical option). But given that a successful hire is a huge win for all involved, and that hiring is often time-sensitive, you could consider other mitigations, such as having someone else from your company handle the recruitment process, and making it clear to the student that you will intentionally be kept "out of the loop" until the course ends. And of course, be transparent about what you are doing by proactively informing your department chair of your plans (preferably in writing).


Accepting a scholarship for masters just to get the money and fund a future masters I have been offered a scholarship for a masters in theoretical physics at my home university, the scholarship covers the fees along with a decent stipend but I would rather pursue a masters in maths at a different university.

I feel alot of pressure to take the money for finical reasons but ultimately its not what I want to do. Part of me is considering accepting the offer and using it to save for a masters in maths. I feel I will be at a disadvantage trying to do a PhD in mathematics if I take this scholarship since I will have effectively spent 2 years of my prime going doing the wrong route.

If do a masters in maths I will likely have to take out a loan of about 8000-10,000. I'm afraid this will be too much to pay of with a PhD stipend and result in me having to work for a year or two again delaying my career.

Would the time spent doing a masters in theoretical physics put me at a disadvantage when applying for math phd's?

Do typical PhD stipends have enough room to pay off loans?

First, my advice is to never think of a graduate school stipend as a way to earn a living (or to save for future goals). Stipends are design to barely cover minimum costs of living, and often fall short of that goal.

Second, I'm not sure whether a Master's degree in theoretical physics will help or hurt an application to a maths Ph.D. It seems that it could be related, depending on the subfield of maths that interests you.

Third, in many fields you can apply to Ph.D. programs directly without a completed M.S. degree first. Maybe that is also possible in your case.


Transferring to a new PhD program Last year, I applied to several astronomy PhD programs in the United States, and ended up attending a certain institution with a pretty good reputation in the field. However, in the eight months since I've applied, I've come to realize that this is not the discipline I wish to pursue for a career for a variety of reasons. Instead, I would like to pursue the field of condensed matter physics, which has many more applications. Unfortunately, these two fields are different enough that they have two separate programs at many universities, including the one I am currently enrolled in.

To make this career goal attainable, I thus need to transfer to a different PhD program. If I were to apply to my own university again, I would have no competitive advantage from what I have heard. So far, I've identified around ten different programs where I could see myself ending up. I graduated summa cum laude from my undergrad institution with a major relevant to both fields, have significant research experience (albeit in my old subject area rather than my new one), and my general and subject GRE scores are great as well. The only issue is transferring itself. Would potential institutions look unfavorably on my application since I am already in a grad program elsewhere? Is my plan feasible?

Any information/advice would be greatly appreciated!

I doubt that it would have any effect. People learn and change and others recognize that. However, the only way to know is to actually apply, or at least make contact with some of the other universities.

You will want to be able to explain your reasons, of course, and be pretty sure you aren't making a mistake by changing.

But you don't have to abandon your current studies to explore other opportunities. Find and contact a professor or two in the new discipline and ask them if you would be a good candidate in their program, or even working under their direction. You could also just make application a few places.

However, if you are currently funded, and/or other people are depending on your research to complement theirs, you will need to deal with the consequences of that so that you don't put yourself or others at a disadvantage.

But, as you are early in your studies, I don't really see much of a problem. Just ask at the institutions you are considering.


How do I put professional affiliations on a CV? I am currently a grad student in Psychology. I have heard that many professors like to see a list of 'Professional Affiliations' on a potential employee's CV, because it is an easy way to see whether the two people have common interests.

My question is, are there any guidelines for what I can realistically put there? Should I just list conferences in which I am a current, paying dues member; or can I put any conference in which I've paid dues in the past? Or can I be even less strict that these guidelines?

By 'Professional Affiliations' it is meant that one is a member of certain professional association such as IEEE, ACM, ICE, ASCE etc.

These professional bodies often arranges conferences which anyone can attend, so registering for the conferences does not mean that one is a member of a organizing body. Conference participation information may be put into your publication list as conference papers and/or given talks section.

So, You should only list the organisations as professional affiliations of which you are a member.


Chances of getting into a PhD program (Physics) after an MS from another stream (Chemistry) I am an international student who started my PhD program in chemistry at an R1 university in the US, at the beginning of Fall 2019.
As I credited graduate level courses in Physics like Mathematical Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Optics etc., I realized that I would rather see myself getting a PhD in Physics than in Chemistry. But, COVID-19 made it impossible for me to transition into the physics program at my university. Therefore, I ended up taking summer research credits enough to graduate with an MS in Chemistry.
What are the chances of getting into the graduate program in Physics again if I apply this Fall for starting next Fall?

I'm going to guess that you should do fine. Of course, I'm not going to be on the admissions committee and every one has its own standards, so my prediction may mean little in any individual case.
But I think you have shown some diligence and some awareness of your needs. Changing fields early under the conditions you state seems like a positive thing (as opposed to failing out). You may need to explain a bit about the change in your SoP for any new program, but that should be easy enough.
Of course you will need to meet the entry requirements for any physics program you apply to. And the usual caveats about competition apply.


Very short PhD Thesis by famous people I read that John Nash had a very short PhD Dissertation. A mere 27 pages. See this link:

http://www.princeton.edu/mudd/news/faq/topics/Non-Cooperative_Games_Nash.pdf

Are there other famous people with such short PhD theses? Anyone breaks this 27 page record?

Barry Mazur's thesis "On Embeddings of Spheres" runs 17 pages, as far as I can tell from the paywalled source here: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF02559532


Should I explain a solution to a problem that only existed due to a mistake in the fundamentals in a bachelors thesis? The title is pretty broad, so let me narrow it down a bit:

As part of my bachelors thesis I had a practical part that was about developing a software. Due to a mistake in planning of my architecture, I was stuck with a problem that required a specific algorithm to solve. If I planned that architecture better, or spent the time actually revising the code (would have taken too much time at that point), I wouldn't have that issue. Is this still something I should put in as one of the few "interesting" algorithms I encountered on the paper? Should I admit that the algorithm only existed due to the limitation of my architecture?

If your advisor is an approachable person, ask them! Standards for bachelor theses vary a lot between fields, universities and graders. It may also be that your advisor is the only person who will ever look at the thesis (if at all).

Learning to ask higher-ups is an important skill to learn for your life which is sometimes not tought well in schools.

So, let me summerize my answer: Ask!


PhD situation, is there hope? Next november I will face my third and last year of my PhD. However, my percourse has been torturing and twisted.

I started my PhD in a different group because I was kind of tricked out. My background is molecular biology and microbiology and I ended up in a group about biosensors, which was essentially sensors - nothing bio. The group did not have any senior researcher nor postdoc so essentially we were alone and the supervisor was not there.

I switched group after almost a year to food microbiology. In that period I got another PhD position but I was so stupid to refuse it. However, I was doing fine during the first month in the new group. After some time, I got results that were the contrary of our hypotheresis and I am stuck without any result since then. I must mention that my cosupervisors do not help and mostly critisice my work without knowing about that particular techniques. However, when I do something wrong they are supposed to know, they do not tell me anything, which causes losing months of time. One of them even tried to down my work in front of our boss. Also another important fact, is that our university is so bad organized that the reagents and stuff take 2 motnhs to arrive after you order something.

At this point I have no results after more than a year and a half and my PhD last for 3 years. My cosupervisors are causing me incredible delay and I am just seeing a big failure at the end because they require three submited papers. I end up in a psicologist, I work every weekend and I dont remember the last day I had free since months.

I started applying for jobs because the PhD is not giving me any knowledge at all, just monkey lab work togheter with people who disturb and try to mess around with my very small outcomes.

I just write here because I dont know whether if I can keep going like this anymore. Should I just quit even if I am jobless afterwards? Should I keep pushing harder? Is this even normal? I dont see any other PhD like this here..

I started applying for jobs because the PhD is not giving me any
  knowledge at all, just monkey lab work togheter with people who
  disturb and try to mess around with my very small outcomes.

This is called a toxic work environment! It is not specific to research/academia only, but it is a general problem.
Unfortunately, it is not good for mental health to stay in this kind of work environment.

  I just write here because I dont know whether if I can keep going like
  this anymore. Should I just quit even if I am jobless afterwards?
  Should I keep pushing harder?

Pardon my words: if your supervisor is not aware of the status of your work, you shouldn't be a laboratory mouse for your supervisor. However don't jump out of PhD without any plan.

1. Discuss with our supervisor about the situation and your limits (time, funding, psychological issues).

2. Spend minimum 1 (and max. 2) hours every day for:
2.1 confiding to your friends that you are looking for a positive change by switching to a full-time proper scientific job; preparing your CV and looking for opportunities.
2.2 forging new connections and contacting recruiters, by using online platforms e.g. linkedin etc.

A smooth transition may take sometime. So don't panic, don't be impatient. AND don't be apologetic for this tough time. Be confident when talking to people for job, otherwise the chances are very low that someone with low self-esteem will get a chance.

  Is this even normal? I don't see any other PhD like this here..

Unfortunately this has become normal, and there are many victims. Not all are innocent, but without supervisor's support its almost impossible to complete PhD. So his role is critical.

*
P.S: whatever is written above, is not hollow. I had to quit my PhD in 4th year due to amalgam of problems. And this is how I could rescue myself from PhD-whirpool and change to industry.


When should people ask naive questions? I'm a graduate student in math and I usually have lots of questions about papers I read. Sometimes my questions are about technical things but a lot of questions I have are about "well-known" facts that I didn't learn from courses or from my background reading. I do think about my question to make sure I can't quickly figure out the answer. What is a litmus test or rule of thumb for asking experts naive questions? Over the years the responses I have gotten were: "It's obvious," "Exercise" (when I never figure out the answer due to lack of knowledge), an ethusiastic response, or uncertainty from experts as to the answer.

I don't want experts to think, "How do you not know this?" I want to develop a reputation as a knowledgeable grad student who has potential as a researcher. A postdoc friend confided in me that he doesn't post questions because he's worried he'll look stupid. And I also don't want to annoy people with lots of trivial questions. But I also know that I have to learn from them, and that it's usually way faster to ask someone in person about their paper than to hit a roadblock in their paper and keep thinking about it.

My algorithm so far goes as follows:

Ask my adviser or some grad students.
Do as thorough an Internet search as possible. Look for the answer in papers that may provide a clue.
Ask my questions on MathStackExchange. If I don't get an answer there ask on MathOverflow.
If MathOverflow answers are unclear or I don't get responses, either discuss the answers with my adviser or email an expert out of the blue.

What would be a more efficient algorithm for asking possibly naive questions, if there is one? The main drawback I have encountered is that an expert can sometimes answer my question right away, whereas independent search would take too much time.

Perhaps you are overthinking the effect that asking questions has. Perhaps you are misjudging which questions are "naive". They don't sound naive to you, I think, but you worry that they are naive to others.

I went to school long ago - mathematics. Before the internet. Before personal (or many) computers. But my solution to having a question was to ask it. I asked a lot of questions. I didn't bother people in their offices for simple(ish) things, but in class I pretty much always had my hand up. My mother was often exasperated with me for asking so many questions as a child, but I never got that sense that my professors were.

But the effect was that almost everyone thought I was very smart. Smarter, probably, than I really am. It turns out that I was just bold enough to ask the questions that other students were afraid to ask. Some of the questions I asked, of course, were the result of errors made by the prof in lecture and he/she would then correct them, but most were just gaps.

But the best answer isn't always a direct answer, but a hint as to how/where the answer can be found. The simple answer doesn't usually give the context you need. The "answer to life, the universe, and everything is 42" may be correct or not, but it isn't enlightening. It is the connections between things that are important, everywhere, but especially in mathematics.

Some may think that you are asking things you "should" already know, but everyone will see you as engaged, rather than complacent.

It turns out that, just as in a course, in grad school you probably aren't there to prove to people that you don't need to be there. Ask and ye shall receive.