Does a college have a legal obligation to offer advertised courses? If a US college/university advertises itself as having a certain major, with supporting courses, are they legally obliged to offer the courses or similar ones? I am thinking of a new program where the school planned to hire tenure-track or adjunct faculty but did not do so. Instead, they tell students to cross-register at other institutions (which costs additional money) or take online classes to meet the requirements. Would this be illegal?

Disclaimer, I am not a lawyer.
If the college/university doesn't offer advertised causes, the obvious law it could be breaking are those related to false advertising. US false advertising laws say that for a successful case, one needs to prove five things:

The advertiser made false statements of fact about its product;
The false advertisements actually deceived or had the capacity to deceive a substantial segment of the target population ;
The deception was material;
The falsely advertised product was sold in interstate commerce;
The party bringing the lawsuit (plaintiff) was injured as a result of the deception. Injury is construed as a likelihood of injury, rather than actual injury.

#1 seems trivial given the assumptions in the question. #2 should also be trivial. #3 reads rather vague to me, but if it means (as another source says) "the company lied about something important", then the plaintiff must show that they went to the university because of the advertised courses (or perhaps they can show that the courses available are a big part of the reason they went to the university, as opposed to say convenience). IANAL, but this seems pretty trivial as well since it's hard to argue that a university's courses aren't important in the university experience.
#4 deals with "interstate commerce", which means "any commercial transactions or traffic that cross state boundaries or that involve more than one state". If the college/university only took students from its own state, it should be fine. For every other case this should be trivially satisfied. Finally, #5 says the plaintiff must show that they were hurt by the deception. If one were e.g. hoping to become a particle physicist and it turns out the particle physics course was not offered, then this should be clear.
So yes, if the college/university advertises a course they have a legal obligation to offer it.
The scenario you described is different. Does "offering" a course mean they have to physically offer a course as opposed to arrange for students to take it from another university? One can certainly argue it doesn't - after all instruction is still being offered. Some advanced courses will even say they are only offered subject to student interest. Further, unless the university actually advertised the courses as being taught on campus, their advertisement wouldn't even be wrong. There are laws against misleading advertisements too, but it is not clear that courses have to be taught physically. Certainly during COVID many classes are taught online, and if false advertising claims have arose from this I'm not aware of it. It is possible one could still argue hurt because one has to pay cross-registration fees, however.
tl; dr: IANAL, but I suspect if the college makes arrangements for its students to take the advertised courses either online or at another university, they will be in the legal clear.


Why as the level of a college course goes up, is the course generally more specific and more specialized? Why as the level of a college course goes up, is the course generally more specific and more specialized but not necessarily the easier one on the lower level, also you don't have to have the knowledge of the previous class, even if it served as a prerequisite?

For example, you study general biology first, then study anatomy or endocrinology, but you probably won't need to have the knowledge of general biology to study anatomy or endocrinology.

Is there any reason that every subject appears to be in that pattern?

I strongly dispute your assertion that knowledge of the more general subject is not needed for the more specific subjects.  To use your own example, general biology will include general cell anatomy and metabolism and probably some basics of evolution.  More specialized courses like anatomy and endocrinology will make no sense without these basics.

Even when a direct subject material connection is not obvious, in a well-designed set of courses there is often an important dependence in skills.  For example, in the mathematics classes that I took, there was not much direct connection in material between Analysis and some the higher-level subjects like Abstract Algebra and Topology that had it as a required prerequisite.  However, Analysis was the subject where students were expected to learn how to properly approach and formulate mathematical proofs, and the higher-level subjects assumed these skills.  Likewise, many engineering departments have a required "general engineering" subject for freshmen, which drums in the general philosophy of engineering through hands-on applications in various areas: even if an electrical engineer never uses a machine-shop again, the "engineering way of thinking" that they have learned will be critical to their success later on.

Returning, then, to your basic question: there's an awful lot of knowledge in the world, and much of it simply is very specialized.  General classes give the foundation required by many different specialized subjects, and so a well-designed curriculum tends to naturally form a "tree" structure that starts general and becomes more specialized as one progresses deeper into a subject.


How much research funding do faculty members get in China? In China, how much research funding do faculty members in physical science departments tend to receive?

What are the approximate grant sizes and grant success rates in natural sciences from the National Natural Science Foundation of China?

For example, would a 100,000-USD/year grant be considered a competitive offer?

I will state here what I know. Which is not too much, I am afraid. I am a postdoc in China since almost 2 years. I am not planning on staying longer as I did not identify with their work culture in the academia. Therefore I did not invest much of my time into learning about funding in China and applying for grants.

From my understanding there are several funding sources, the main ones being Province-level and National-level. They open calls for applications at different times of the year; e.g. September and March. Chances of success are highly dependent on your 'face' with your peers, the status of your college/institution, and nature of the grant call. Foreigners have an edge nowadays, particularly as there are grants specific for international projects. Currently in Biology the main topics being funded revolve around 'applied agriculture' and a few 'hot' fields such as STEM cells, CRISPR.

Currently (as of 2015-2017) there is a lot of funding available for research in China. Grants vary in amount of money they can provide, varying from what I've heard from mere 10k USD to much more. However one should be aware that grants come with specifications on what they should be spent on. For instance, there are grants which more flexible (usually modest) and more voluminous budgets for purchasing equipment, or others dedicated to "projects". I have heard of grants above 100k USD as you mention, for specific projects and head-start for fresh professors. The way it works, there are always workarounds in spending the money outside of the rules, but that will depend on knowing the ways and a lot of 'guanxi'. Beware of being caught redhanded as regulatory measures can be quite strict in modern China.

That said, it is my opinion that 100k USD per year sounds like excellent funding opportunity, but obviously the amount must be gauged in face of what it is, general context, and how it should be spent. If that includes salary, conference stipends, publication charges, and no significant structure or equipment is already available, this amount is likely not much. Keep in mind that because of careless handling and a lack of a maintenance culture, quite frequently equipment which appear listed as available at Chinese institutions actually may not be working properly... hence you may have to negotiate new ones.
I was attracted to my postdoc position by being shown pictures of heavy equipment such as a GC, centrifuges, PCR machines, microscopes, a lyophiliser, which in the end are not working but just sitting around.

My advice: visit first, take a long critical look around, and see through what is being promised and, most importantly implied between vague statements and contract lines. There is a lot of opportunity in China but one must be prepared for some intricate game.


Is it reasonable for a guest lecturer/class speaker to ask for a stipend? I'm not in academia currently, but a former professor from grad school has asked me a few times if I would give a talk to his classes based on my professional experience.

I have said yes the past two times because I like this professor and was honored that he would ask me; I also enjoy teaching, and felt that speaking to his class would be an interesting opportunity. But, I also looked upon it as a favor because as a non-academic, these things aren't going on my CV.

He's now asked me a third time, and I am wondering at what point it might be appropriate to ask for a small stipend. The presentations last about 30-45 minutes with questions, and I do put a considerable amount of effort into preparing for them, plus the time spent travelling to campus. I'm not sure if I would describe myself as more of a visiting speaker or a guest lecturer in this situation because the talks are less about me and more about the field I work in. The classes are at well-known law schools; by contrast, I have received stipends in the past for speaking at events at much smaller colleges.

Is it customary to receive a stipend in this situation, or should I consider this more of a favor to a colleague?

I would look at this from the perspective of the professor inviting you. Most of the people a university invites to speak are professors (or postdocs/ phd students) from other universities. For these, giving the talk is beneficial career wise so there is no additional speakers fee. But they have to travel to the university, very often from out of town. This means there is no easily available budget for paying you to speak but there usually is a budget for your travel expense. Usually this also covers inviting you for a meal.

So I would recommend asking for travel expenses. They should definitely pay for your parking ticket and if you come by car there is probably some fuel money or something like that as well. If you are interested the professor will probably also offer to take you out for dinner afterwards. This should be easy from their perspective. Asking to be paid for the talk as such could be a lot more complicated. If you want that to make it worth your while be prepared that the answer might be no.


How to list a poster on my CV? A poster for the project I worked on was accepted at a conference. I am listed as a coauthor on the poster. I did not attend the conference, present the poster or actually help in making the poster as I had already left the lab/school when the abstract was submitted. Since I am officially listed on the submission I want to include this on my CV. I I think I should not write this under "Conference Presentations" as I did not present the work myself. How should I list this in my CV?

First, I would distinguish between paper presentations and poster presentations in your CV in general, if you don't do this already.

I suggest you list it as you normally would under "Poster Presentations". As long as you make sure that the other coauthors are listed appropriately, there is no reason why this would be an issue.

Unless you are the first author (which I assume you aren't), most people would probably assume that you're not the presenter, though this isn't too crucial. If you really want, you can specify who was the presenting author, but I think this is probably unnecessary in this case.


Instructor listening in secretly in simulated intake assignment -- allowed? Ethical? I am in an online, accredited, public, post-baccalaureate degree program.  I think it's the first time my instructor is teaching a university course -- at least at this institution.

The instructor said he had found someone to play the part of a potential client.  We were supposed to have a simulated phone intake call with this person.  She would give us her basic demographic information and the reason she was seeking legal and advocacy services, and we were supposed to probe for more information about the problem she was seeking help with, because the pretend client had been instructed not to volunteer all the important information on her own.  We were to fill out an Excel template and then write a letter to the client.

The instructor provided feedback for my homework. When I read his response, I eventually came to understand that he had listened in secretly to the phone intake call.  He had not made clear in the instructions that he would be listening in.

This made me uncomfortable.  But I don't know if my reaction is reasonable.  Are there any typical institutional guidelines, or ethical considerations, that would help me figure this out?  I'm not sure whether this is something to let the program chair know about, or whether I need to adjust my own expectations.

I did let the instructor know a polite version of how I felt: "I hope that for future semesters you'll make clear that you'll be listening in on the call.  I, for one, would be more comfortable knowing this ahead of time."  The response: "I don't find this necessary.  It should be presumed I am listening in on the assignment I provided so I can accurately grade."  Note, I don't know why he didn't just play the part of the potential client himself....

Further clarification:

The school is in New York State (part of the SUNY system).  From the exchange we had, I'm confident he only listened, and didn't record.
I thought we would be evaluated and graded on the written submission (spreadsheet plus letter) only.
I am asking about what's generally allowed or considered ethical by university policy or relevant professional organizations. Less interested in quasi-legal advice.
I checked with a classmate.  He didn't realize the instructor would be listening in either.  He himself wasn't bothered but understood why I was.

I have to side with your professor here. You did not have a private phone conversation. You had a simulated conversation with a person you knew to be a fake client with the purpose of evaluating your skill. If the professor listens in to the conversation that means he will evaluate you himself instead of relying on the person he got to play the potential client. This is good for you.

I honestly don't see what the problem is, you did something that you knew to be a test, so your professor gets to see/hear it to evaluate you. If instead of doing this over the phone this would have been a live interview, would you feel different about your professor listining in?


How to re-use information that is itself a conclussion drawn from another source Example of what I want to address:

"For characterizing emotions, either for synthesis or for recognition, suitable emotional speech database is a necessary prerequisite (Ververidis and Kotropoulos 2006). An important issue to be considered in evaluating the emotional speech systems is the quality of the databases used to develop and assess the performance of the systems (Ayadi et
al. 2011)."

I am an undergraduate working on my final project. I am not sure if it is because of the way I work, but I am finding myself time and time again in the process of quoting some text I found that is exactly what I need, and that specific paragraph or phrase comes from somewhere else.

I get that is very useful, in order to get a better understanding of the paper, to follow and read said sources. But I find overwhelmed under the amount of sources most paper provide, and I feel like it makes sense at some point to stop digging and write something about it.

I find two options and I do not want to be dishonest at all, it's just that sometimes I don't know what is the proper way of doing things.

A) I could quote the paragraph entirely, and with the proper notation, show where I got it from. For example: "In [source A] is stablished that a database is a prerequisite and that the quality is an important issue to be considered"

B) I could say the same, but using either both sources, or just the one addressed in the text, since it's where apparently the info comes from (AND source number 0, where I am getting the explanation, is been referenced anyway). Example: "In [source B1] is stablished that a database is a prerequisite and in source [B2] that the quality is an important issue to be considered".

What is the proper way of addressing this? I don't want to sound lazy but am I being lazy by not following every source that sustains certain ideas/phrase I am writing in my text?

It's definitely easy to get overwhelmed with all of the sources/papers available. I'm a graduate student and it still happens -- there's always lots to read and never the time to read it all.

Nevertheless, the proper thing to do here if you wish to cite the information in (Ververidis and Kotropoulos 2006) is to read that paper and use it. That doesn't mean you have to read it in-depth, but you should at least skim it. The same goes for other papers.

There's a couple of reasons for this:

Remember the point of a citation is to give credit where credit is due. That means you give credit to the original author, not someone who summarized their idea.
What's to say that the authors of the summary correctly summarized the idea? It's (generally) safer for you to go straight to the source.

A notable exception to this rule might be when reading a survey paper/book. These provide overviews of an entire domain -- if you're not actually exploring that domain in your own writing, the survey paper can be an acceptable way of citing an idea. That being said -- it's always preferable to cite the original source.


Is it obligatory to participate in conference if accepted? I submitted my article to a Scopus-indexed conference. A month later, they informed me that my paper was accepted and that all that was left to do was paying registration fees and present the paper in order to get it published. However, when I discussed this with my supervisor, he told me that I should have looked for Thomson-indexed journals/conferences.
Can I cancel this? Are there any consequences if I do?
Thank you.

As long as you haven't signed over any copyrights the paper is still yours. Yes, you can withdraw it. The organizers will grumble a bit, but you can ignore that. And even if you have already signed rights away you can ask to have them returned, which might happen or not.
But don't make a habit of this. The reviewers spent some effort on your paper that is now wasted.
The only other consequence is that your paper gets delayed. That could be a problem or not, depending on how many others are working in closely related areas.


Why are some professors critical of even casual use of Wikipedia? Many of the professors and lecturers I come across are very critical of Wikipedia, but they never give proper support for their claims of "Wikipedia is bullshit!". And they threaten "Do not use Wikipedia if you want to pass!", and they mean it seriously.

It is true that "any Tom, Dick and Harry can edit it", but it is also true that Wikipedia takes a lot of effort to add in citations.

I do understand why we should not cite Wikipedia directly, instead go for the primary sources, but many do not even allow Wikipedia as a introduction to a subject matter. If I tell them "I read from Wikipedia that..." I get dismissed immediately, yet in online forums we use it like a Bible.

What is the real reason Wikipedia is perceived negatively among many professors, even for informal use (e.g. as an introduction to a subject)?

A small sidenote to start things off:

  If I tell them "I read from Wikipedia that..." I get dismissed immediately, yet in online forums we use it like a Bible.

Well, one of the reasons for that is that "I read in Wikipedia" is almost synonymous with "I have exactly 5 minutes worth of knowledge on the topic". The problem here really isn't the fact that you read Wikipedia, but that citing from it implies that you have read nothing else on the topic. If I am an expert in whatever field, I would probably not take a concern from somebody who implies that all his knowledge comes from a few-minute Internet recherché very seriously, either (no matter what source (s)he actually found). Also, which online forums "use it like a Bible"? Most that I hang around at are very critical of Wikipedia quotes, mostly for the reason I stated above - arguing based on a Wikipedia entry does not exactly establish creds as a person knowledgeable about the subject.

Now, let's discuss the real question here:

  What is the real reason Wikipedia is perceived negatively among many professors, even for informal use (e.g. as an introduction to a subject)?

(note that the question is specifically about using Wikipedia as an introduction to a subject, not as a primary, citable source)

Honestly? It is probably a combination of feeling threatened, reluctance to embrace change, and lack of knowledge how Wikipedia articles actually evolve over time.

"Feeling threatened" in the sense that Wikipedia is kind of decentralising knowledge compilation, which is of course not necessarily something that makes academics (the people that used to be more or less the definition of "compiled knowledge" in pre-internet times) very comfortable.

"Reluctance to embrace change" in the sense that Wikipedia is (in comparison to text books or lectures) a very new (and radically different) way to get an introduction to a topic, and most humans tend to be sceptical of this kind of disruptive technology.

"Lack of knowledge" in the sense that many critical academics simply have not taken the time to study how (especially popular) Wikipedia articles actually evolve over time. I am convinced many would be positively surprised if they knew how well quality control in Wikipedia actually works in practice. I remember that in 2004, c't (a well-known German magazine widely read by IT professionals) ran an experiment where they took random articles out of various encyclopaedias, anonymised them so that one could not tell the source anymore, and had domain experts compare them to anonymised Wikipedia articles for quality and technical errors. Wikipedia was consistently rated higher-quality than even well-respected standard encyclopaedias. That being said, I assume that the average quality of Wikipedia articles degrades a lot for entries on more esoteric topics, so I actually agree that for deeply scientific topics, one should be somewhat skeptical of Wikipedia, just as one would be about any other single source.

Finally, I have to say that I know many professors that don't have a problem with using Wikipedia as a starting point for your review of a subject. However, if you write, for instance, an seminar paper, you are expected to read the primary sources (and I fully agree with this).


Background review in a multidisciplinary paper I am writing a paper which will include concepts from statistical mechanics, quantum mechanics, relativity, information theory, and thermodynamics. Potential readers will probably not be familiar with all the different fields. I need to find the right balance between assuming that the reader knows all of the concepts, and explaining all the concepts from the beginning.

Any tips on how to find this balance?

Write the introduction to the paper last. Start with the content: the data, the proofs, the discussion of pseudocode, whatever it is. Then think about your target audience. Who read the kinds of journals you are hoping to publish in? Who attends the kinds of conferences you are hoping to present in? Then add whatever perambulatory context those people need to understand the paper. Hoping to accommodate everyone who might be interested is hopeless.

Let's say you want to make your paper accessible to general knowledge physicists. You can assume that they all have a good understanding of undergraduate physics. You probably can't assume that they've kept up with all the coursework they did as PhD students, but the kinds of things covered in the first year or so of classes should be pretty common across disciplines. You're reminding people of the content from those courses, not teaching them. But anything that's at an advance graduate level or research level probably isn't something someone is going to know, unless that's their field.

If this is being published in a journal on GR, you can give less but deeper GR context because readers of GR journals know more about that. Spend more time and less depth presenting the thermo or QM topics.


Motivate students to work on exercises if solutions are provided I am in the following situation. I got a class with theory an exercise once a week. The students do the exercises at home and have the opportunity to discuss them at the exercise sessions. In each session, there is a test about the exercises from the previous week (similar, but different questions).
I am unsure if I should provide the solutions of the exercises directly after the session, the week before the test.
Pros: They could see if they solved the exercises correctly before the test. (They may think they got them correct and don’t ask). Unfortunately, I cannot correct all exercises individually as there are too many students. I have about 130 students and 2 TAs.
Cons: There is little motivation to work hard on the exercises, as they see the solution before the test. (Yes, good students know they should do them on their own. The problem are the not-so-good students.)
Is there better solution that encourage students to work on exercises on their own?

The way for a "not so good" student to become better is to work harder and solve more exercises. Reading a solution is not at all like finding a solution. Your test becomes one of memorization rather than skill if you test on exercises for which the students have already seen correct solutions.
I would suggest that if you provide solutions, rather than individual help on finding solutions and seeing where the students went wrong, that you post them after the test.
And, the key, post those answers with additional exercises for those who did poorly on the test to get some additional practice. If you want to incentivize them to solve those exercises, provide some bonus to the test scores for submitting correct solutions to the follow-up exercises.
But you have an additional problem in that your "practice sessions" are probably ineffective if they depend on students knowing that their supposed solutions are wrong and that they need help. Students have misconceptions often enough and need to be pushed past them. If they "solve" exercises but no one checks the solutions, then they are unlikely to see where they made a mistake. The exam only tells them that the are wrong, but may not indicate why and it probably won't help them dispel those misconceptions for the next try.
The combination of a bit of stick and a bit of carrot might help. You have the stick (the exam) but you are missing the carrot. Give points not just for success but for hard work, even if it is re-work.
I often learned lots of math by doing lots of exercises beyond what was required. It was only through that extra work that I was able to achieve insight. Luckily I was self motivated in those instances, but not everyone is. In another course the professor provided lots of external "motivation" through "pop quizzes" which we hated but knowing they were coming, forced us to be ready every day. Remember "flash cards" from early elementary school? Lots of repetition. Lots of feedback.

An option that I've never used, but might consider in your situation is to require that students who did below a certain mark on one weekly quiz, submit their work for review in the following week (or two). This might reduce the number of papers you need to give feedback on and also make it feel like a reward for the better students who don't need to submit. Or even, make submission optional to everyone. And comment on the papers you do get.
With TAs, have them comment on exercise papers and pass them to you for review.


How to effectively use blogging as a tool to gain visibility in academia While a lot has been said in this site about the importance of visibility in academia, I specifically want to know about the effectiveness of blogs: are blogs an effective means to communicate your presence in the field? I envisage the blog to contain posts which informally talk about selective publications.

What points should one consider when writing blogs about published papers? It is a significant challenge not to exceed the usual blog lengths when writing on a technical paper. Are there effective tips an academic blogger should keep in mind?

I think it is well accepted that an online presence for early career researchers is a good thing, even though a minority actually have one. As an example, blogs on my website have been reposted a few times on various news sites, and they also appear high up the search engine list for keywords relating to my field of research. I also managed to get invited to speak on the back of my website, so in my experience a website really does improve your visibility.

The first challenge with blogs is deciding who they are aimed at. Remembering back to my early PhD, understanding papers was hard, and so I decided that I would focus on researchers in my field (magnetism) but try and avoid all unnecessary jargon, which should also make it accessible to undergraduates in the discipline. If you are blogging about your publications, then it means you can simplify the result for a broader audience, without compromising on the detail (those who are interested can look up the paper on your site - don't make them hunt for it or have it stuck behind a pay wall).

My main tips for an academic blog are:

Talk about all your publications - what is the main result in laymans terms and specify why it is important.
Don't worry too much about length limits. Academics are used to reading long documents and a blog a couple of pages long doesn't take long to skim. However, research is generally technical and so it is difficult to write a superficial post such as 'I had omelette for tea' or some such.
A blog is as much about you as the subject, so write in the first person and include your wider activities. For example, I always write up conference visits and talks I have attended/done.
Pictures and figures are a lot more effective than words, so use these extensively if you can.


Should I emphasize my existing PhD in my master's application? Should the fact that I already have a PhD in another (useful) subject be downplayed on the personal statement? I'm concerned that it would make me look unfocused, but I also think I may want to emphasize it because it demonstrates prior success.

In case it's relevant, my PhD is in physics, and the Masters is in Computer Game Engineering. I am applying to a one year, full time taught Masters at a UK institution.

A person qualified in another area (such as a Phd in Physics) who wanted to learn a new topic (like computer game development) would likely be welcomed on a full-time taught masters course. Full-time taught masters courses are often designed for those who want a change in direction and have the motivation to focus for the year to achieve that goal.

There are people who want to be an astronaut, for example, who go back and learn new skills and knowledge and collect several degrees in the process.

You do have to have an interregnum in employment, as a full-time course is exactly that. A lot of daily, weekly and monthly time needs to be devoted to it to learn all that material that others will have picked up in a three year Bachelor's degree.

I teach on such a course and we have many "career change" applicants who are well qualified in other fields. It is quite normal.


Does peer-reviewing for journals/conferences which advertise to attract reviewers; harm one's academic reputation? I always thought that the way journals elect their reviewers is that probably they or their editors ask some famous researchers to review some of their papers. I mean, reviewers are probably asked to review papers.

Recently, I have seen some journals and publishers which advertise on their websites saying something like

  If you want to be a reviewer for our journal/conference, please send your CV to our email address; we will assess your background and if you are accepted, we will inform you where to start reviewing our papers.

This is very good opportunity for students who are not very famous in their field and want to start reviewing for journals and conferences to send their CV and assess their opportunity to review for a journal or conference; but I want to know if somebody does reviewing for these journals which have such system for attracting reviewers, and mentioning involving in such volunteer paper reviewing in his CV; will this harm his academic reputation?

Is it acceptable for academic community that somebody send his CV for a journal and ask them to accept him as a reviewer? How such advertisement on a journals website is considered? Do reputable journals and publishers have similar advertisements for attracting reviewers to their publication group and can such advertisements be considered a sign of a non-reputable journal/conference?

I am hard-pressed to imagine a situation in which reviewing would hurt your reputation. It does pay, as your question hints, to check up on the journal you'd be reviewing for to be sure it isn't scammy, but asking for reviewers isn't much indication one way or the other -- almost every journal needs a stable of willing reviewers, and what harm does asking do?

Yes, editors do choose reviewers for a given paper as carefully as we can, but we mostly haven't the luxury of "who's the most famous person working in this area?" because Most Famous Person is swamped. So we keep a stable of folks who have signed up with us, and we look through it for potential reviewers.


As a TA, Should I allow students to ask their doubts without schedule? In the first or introductory lecture of a course, either associate professors or professors of my university tells to students to clarify doubts with teaching assistants. Faculty do not say to students any explicit statements regarding how, when and where to ask doubts.

In general no course site or any centralized communication channel is present.

Most of the students comes with lot of doubts without proper study and asks for TA time individually. For example some students asks TA to tell the entire course in an easy manner. Some students asks advance questions that TA cannot answer. Some students ask for mobile number, personal mail etc., Some students asks for appointment and lot of time for discussions.

In the scenario of academics, is it apt for a TA to inform to the corresponding faculty about these issues or is it apt to give strict instructions to students in the absence of the faculty regarding how to ask, where to ask and when to ask their doubts based on TA's personal comfort?

Note: I am asking this because faculty consider these as minor issues. But as a TA, one mayn't able to manage such unorganized stuff.

From the student's standpoint it is very helpful to learning to be able to ask questions when they arise, rather than waiting hours or days for the opportunity. But if you are managing a number of students you need to be able to respond to student needs both effectively and efficiently. Also, responding to student questions doesn't always mean actually answering them. More often, actually, you can show them where to get the answers themselves. Their learning will be deeper if they put effort into it, so make them do that. One exception is that you sometimes need to dispel misconceptions that people have so that they don't waste time on unproductive study.

One of the best techniques that I used in the past (I'm retired now) extensively was an email list to which I and all the students were subscribed. I didn't answer questions sent to my normal email - individual questions - but I always saw that student questions directed to the mailing list were answered. But other students were also encouraged to answer questions posted to the list, so that not all answers came from me. I normally had to answer about a third to a half of the questions. Moreover, every student was able to see every question and the answer. Then, you don't have to answer the same question multiple times. And you also have a record of questions that can be useful for future course preparation.

I had to monitor the list, of course, in case incorrect answers were given, and I had to set some ground rules so that answers to exercises weren't given, but generally, the list was very open. People were encouraged to help their classmates learn, by pointing to resources, for example.

Such a list is also helpful if some students are dissatisfied with the course and complain on the list. I never had to "defend" myself on the list but occasionally students would themselves respond to complaints of their peers.

There are, I assume, other ways to do this, but the keys were (a) complete transparency of questions and answers, and (b) ask a question or express a concern at any time, day or night.


Minimizing cheating in online final exam? What technologies or techniques are practical for minimizing cheating and collaboration in a University final examination that is to be held online?

I have seen some third-party arrangement which requires the student to keep a webcam operating during the entire duration of the examination, and read here of using a Zoom teleconference to monitor all the students as kind of a remote proctoring.

As we get into the fall term with COVID-19 restrictions still in place in many countries, this has to be a common concern to ensure the value of the resulting credentials. My immediate question is triggered by a colleague teaching an advanced undergraduate 4th year online course in an engineering discipline, and the student body is pretty international both ethnically and probably (at that time) geographically, so time zone differences may be a factor. Questions are more theoretical than numerical so the MOOC techniques of randomizing are unlikely to be of much value.

My thought is that some form of remote proctoring (preferably by an as-yet unidentified trusted third party recording the webcams and flagging suspected transgressions) and to force the students into one compromise time period (regardless of their location and time zone) would suffice.

I think online protocring is a terrible idea. It is invasive, discrimatory, and doesn't work. It reveals things about a students living conditions they might reasonably want to remain hidden. It relies on having access to a device with a functioning web cam, and good enought internet for it to work properly. As the end of all that, a webcam can't capture you typing on your phone on your lap anyway. Or having someone stood behind your screen helping you.

In fact, I don't really like the idea of synchronous remote exams. It is really not fair to ask some students to sit an important, stressful, multi-hour exam in the middle of the night. Not does it really work for students who might share a laptop with another hosuehold member who needs it for their job, or has unreliable internet.

I think the simple fact of the matter is that it is not possible to prevent cheating while assessment has to be online, other than through the use of one-to-one oral exams and many of the things people are despirately trying just make life harder and less fair for everyone without actaully preventing cheating.

If your questions are theory based, then surely you can tell if a student is cheating, becuase in order to paraphrase another student sufficiently for you to not pick it up, they would have to understand what they were paraphrasing?


Should I include a course in which I was strikingly successful in a statement of purpose? I'm writing a statement of purpose nowadays for my intended linguistics MA program. The first draft is about to end, which I will edit harshly later.
What I'm curious about is this. When I was a sophomore student, there was a must course that I was much more successful than the the rest of the class. When the results of the first midterm were announced, a good number of people in the class withdrew from this course, while I got the highest grade. Mine was 27 out of 30 and the class average was around 15. Moreover, many people who didn't withdraw failed afterwards. In this way, I was the only student the course instructor calls by name during lectures. This professor now happens to be one of my recommendation letter writers and I reminded him about that when requesting the letter.
Should I mention this "achievement" in my statement of purpose or would it be irrelevant as the admissions expects us more than grades and being successful?

Actually, I suggest that you find somewhere else to mention this, and make the SoP entirely forward looking. The CV and such give your history. The introductory letter can give something of motivation.
But the SoP should be used for just that, what is your purpose going forward. It isn't about what you have accomplished in the past. What do you want to study? Why do you want to do that? What are your long term plans after you earn the next degree? That is what people need to hear in the SoP. Don't assume people will correctly extrapolate your future from your past. Spell it out. Don't waste the limited space on other things best said elsewhere.


What do conference organizers expect from an invited speaker? I am asking this because I am going to be a plenary speaker in a couple of months (this is not going to be my first invited/keynote/plenary talk, but for some reason I never stopped to think about this issue before). I've spent  10 minutes thinking of plenary/keynote speakers I've seen in past conferences, and they roughly divide into two classes: (i) a majority who give a talk that, other than being longer, is pretty much indistinguishable from the talks of speakers that get in through peer-review ("here is a very well-delimited problem, which I propose to solve as follows"); (ii) a minority that attempt to give a loftier, programmatic talk ("recent developments have this overarching theme, which is pointing the field into this direction; here are some remarks on what this means for us all and a sketch of some neat things we can do if we take things seriously").

The organizers of this particular conference don't really have a preference either way, but I am wondering if audiences at large do. Personally, I prefer (i), but that is just because I'm more of a problem-solver than a theory-builder.

Here's my take: as a plenary speaker, you will have an audience that is broader than those who may come to a minisymposium or parallel session, and consequently also have a less deep understanding of technical details of your particular field of work. They may also lack an understanding of the motivation for what you are doing: For things in my particular field, I know why people want to do them, but for other areas I often would like to know "why should I care" before I want to hear the details.

Consequently, the talks that I have often found to be a bit boring are those that really are just longer minisymposium talks. The ones I find interesting are those that explain to me the bigger context of a problem: where does it come from, what are the historical connections, were there dead ends in developing solutions, etc. Then show me how you approach the problem and where this leads. I also find it interesting to hear about open problems and ideas for future research -- an invited talk should not just be about the great results of the speaker, but also inspire others to work in this field.


From an author's point of view, what would you consider as negative peer reviewer comments? I have been reading about how authors deal with negative peer reviewer comments. This got me wondering what kind of reviewer comments would authors consider as negative? Of course, most authors would consider harsh or rude comments as negative, but I feel that harsh comments, if directed at improving the paper, are at least better than dismissive or superficial comments that do not add any value to the paper. What kind of reviewer comments would you categorize as negative?

When reading reviewer feedback, I generally divide things up into five mental categories (sorted from best to worst):

Praise: It feels really good when a reviewer "gets" a paper.
Little stuff: Anything that can be cleaned up easily, like typos and grammar failures, dropped minus signs, mislabeled figures.
Suggestions for improvement: Things that are legitimate issues, but are reasonable to push off to future work if necessary.
Legitimate complaints:  This is where a reviewer points out actual significant problems with one's work.  If you were unaware of them before, or thought they were less important than the reviewer explains them to be, then this can really sting, but it's a reasonable judgement.
Nasty, unfair reviewer #3: This is the stuff that really burns, when a reviewer seems to have an personal agenda or grudge and is taking it out on your paper.  A recent example I encountered included the phrase: "All the hard questions are systematically discarded."

What's very difficult, as an author, is distinguishing between suggestions for improvement, legitimate complaints, and unfair reviewing.  This is particularly true when things are presented harshly: I find a major difference between directness (which raises a clear issue about the science) and harshness (which might or might not be clear, but is presented with a side-dish of personal attack).

However, especially when it comes to things where you have feelings like "but it's obvious!" or "but we already addressed that!" or "they must not have read the paper carefully!", there is usually a legitimate difference of viewpoint, which it's important to figure out how to overcome.

That's why I always read feedback more than once, at at least a couple of days separation.  The first reading lets you see how much the review is praise vs. little stuff vs. the other three categories.  At that point, though, you're generally too emotionally involved and reacting (particularly if you got a rejection) to distinguish which category the issues raised by the reviewers actually fall into.  A couple of days distance, though, and I find it much more possible to parse out the different strands of negativity, figuring out which are legitimate, which are unfair, and which are more appropriate to push off to address other papers.


Can I ask the author of the research paper to use his program in my research? I am doing a research in a field of psychology and I would like to do almost the same research (just with different groups) as one other published research. I can make similar research but actually I want to compare my results with already existing ones.

The thing is, that researchers made one simple application, more like a game. In their article they put a link for that game but if I want to use their game in my research I need to have theirs other application for recording each test session. I know for sure that I will ask them to use one part of application but if it's rational, I would like to ask them and use the whole game and the other application for the data collecting.

I know that this is more individual question, but I would like to know what is the common practice in computer science. Do people usually/ rarely ask someones applications/ programs for they own research? Unfortunately, I don't have a time to collaborate with someone in computer science to make other similar game. And even if I had a time I wouldn't be able to exactly compare the results with that published research which I would like to do. Anyway, I don't know the researchers but I thought to send them an e-mail to ask them.

I am a researcher in the computer science field, and I'd say it's not unusual to ask authors of published papers for their code/applications. Sometimes, however, people might be reluctant to give you the software, because research code is often unstable and badly documented, and they might be ashamed (or worried that you will find bugs that could invalidate their previous publications!).

You should surely contact the authors, explain the situation, and stress that you are (of course) going to cite their paper. There's no harm in asking. In my experience, the worst-case scenarios are:
a) they will not reply;
b) they will reply, and ask you to be included among the authors of your future paper, in exchange for the software.

You could try to prepare for these two outcomes, while hoping for a positive answer :-)


How to justify research assistant's role in the grant application How can we justify the role of Research Assistant in the grant application?
Everyone knows that faculty members are busy with teaching, admin tasks, writing grants etc. so they actually seek PhD and MS graduate students as assistants. But how to justify it in the grant application without mentioning that we will not be doing actual research, but supervising in fact.

The funders are more interested in the research question(s) you intend to pursue and your likelihood of successfully completing the research than they are about who, specifically, does what. Normally the PI has a guiding and supervising role over all team members and is the one to make critical decisions about the direction that the team takes. There is nothing unusual about that. Also, it is understood that some types of research require more than one person to be able to carry out the research in a timely manner.
I suggest that your application focus on the research questions and the need for a small team to be able to do the work in a timely fashion.
The supervisory role, properly construed, is appropriate for the PI. You guide and make important decisions. You provide the concepts/ideas that drive the research. Others help you realize those ideas and explore them. It shouldn't be a problem unless you imply that you wouldn't be "involved".


The school's guidance on SOP doesn't match to what I know about it. What should I do? In the application form of the school I'm applying, there is a short definition of SOP:

  Your statement of purpose should explain why you want to study your proposed course and how it will help your life and career.

The message is direct: why I want to study here and how it will help my life. It doesn't ask for my past research, it doesn't ask for my community service, it doesn't ask what I'm working on. My research proposal is asked in another field.

This contradicts to what I know on SOP. My prepared one is strictly followed to this question: Choosing research ideas to include in a statement of purpose.

My questions are:

Does this mean that the school actually doesn't care about my past research, and talking about it just waste my space?
Unfortunately I just noticed the difference after I submitted my application. If the answer for the question above is yes, then how bad my SOP is?

I assume this is for a PhD or research-oriented Master's program.  Almost certainly the admissions committee will care about your past research.  Here are some possible reasons why they don't explicitly mention it in their description of the SOP:

They don't assume that you've already done research.
Someone wrote it without much thought or experience.
Presumably any past research would play a role in your desire for a further degree, so it is implicitly covered.
They were just expecting this information as part of your research statement.

Also, regarding your comment "This contradicts to what I know on SOP": different departments (and different committee members on the same committee) look for different things, so this place may not look at community service at all.  Answers on this site are not infallible universal laws.


When to reject a manuscript for publication? As a reviewer, when would it be appropriate to reject a paper (rather than recommend "major revision") for publication? I am interested in views from seasoned reviewers/editors who served for journals with moderately high importance factor (IF > 4.0) - primarily in engineering/science fields.
Thank you,

First, I'll take the position that if a paper can be salvaged, then the author should have the opportunity to try to salvage it. However, some situations are beyond help.

Situations that call for rejection

The paper is out of scope for the journal/conference. But usually an editor will recognize this and send it back.

The results of the paper follow trivially from well known facts.

The result itself is trivial. That is, not worth the paper it is written on. Obvious. Sometimes the question, itself, is trivial.

The author seems unaware of recent work that impacts on the results. Here, it may be a judgement call about how much was missed. Naive author.

The methodology is unethical.

The methodology is inadequate to answer the question posed.

The results don't follow from the methodology.

The results can be shown to be wrong. Or dangerous.

If revision has been offered and the author is overly argumentative about revisions.

Plagiarism or other ethical lapses.

However

My personal view is that poor expression/writing should not be grounds for rejection as long as the author can find a way to make the presentation clear enough for a professional reader. However, writing can be so poor that the reader can't make a connection between the methodology and the result. If you can't understand the paper as a reviewer, you may not be able to make any helpful suggestions. Then, you may be forced to reject.

I might have missed a few cases, of course, and it depends on the field. But generally, leave it to the editor to make fine-grained decisions.

Note that I don't think the answer to this depends, really, on the level of the journal. I think the "scope" qualification covers that aspect pretty well.

I don't think that there are a lot of "questionable" cases here.

The implication is that one prefers to suggest revision unless one cannot.

Actually, I think a much harder situation is one in which a paper seems "obvious" for rejection but has some gem of insight in it that requires tweaking out. This might imply a truly huge revision and acceptance of something in the future. These are hard to recognize, of course, due to the limits of the review process.


Undergraduate resume for PhD application: Include publication in preparation? I am an undergraduate student currently applying for PhD programs. I am trying to decide whether I should include the citation of a work that will be submitted for publication in the near future with me as a coauthor. I've confirmed with the PhD candidate and my PI that the work will definitely be submitted for publication, but I am not sure how to mention it.

Some answers on this site have said not to include any work that hasn't been published yet, and one answer said that it might be good for an undergraduate student to show that level of involvement. What would be the proper way to indicate my contribution to an upcoming submission?

I would definitely include the (future) publication in your applications. Add a section for publications to your CV. In this section, simply write

  [Title of your Paper], Author A, Author B and Author C, in prep.

This is a common shortening for "in preparation" that is used in academic CVs, talks and even published papers to refer to a work which is nearly ready for submission to a journal. You can talk about the work and your contribution to it in more detail in your personal statement.


How to handle a paper by a reviewer who wants to be paid? A reviewer declines to review a paper because he wants to be paid. Some time later, this reviewer submits a paper to the journal (or to another journal who's aware of what happened – very possible with today's editorial management systems). How should the journal handle this?

Possible options:

Pretend we didn't notice and review as normal.
Write him an email to tell him we're aware of it, but are reviewing the paper anyway because we're a magnanimous journal.
Charge him a submission fee which we then use to pay the reviewers for that paper only.
Charge him a submission fee which we then use to pay the reviewers for that paper only, plus some extras which we use to pay the editor.
Desk reject because "our reviewers are on strike because they're not paid so we can't find reviewers for your paper".

I'm concerned taking retributive action will come across as petty and / or lead to a lose–lose situation. However, not taking retributive action doesn't feel right either – if the reviewer is not willing to review unless paid, then it's hard to expect other people to review (or handle) his paper unless paid either.

If it matters, only the first part really happened: The reviewer used the "decline to review" button with a reason that went something like: “Sorry, I don't review unless I'm paid. Feel free to contact me again to discuss rates”. Still, this decline reason is logged in the EMS, so it can happen in the future.

First of all: Is there a rule that you need to be available as reviewer if you want to publish in that specific journal? People decline reviews for all sorts of reasons (often lack of time, which may or may not be the case), and I never heard that somebody got "punished" for that.

Your reviewer wanted to get paid. It is very unusual to pay reviewers, but on the other hand, it is not per se unreasonable or offensive to ask for compensation for work.

I would see it this way: Either you establish a general rule that authors must be available as reviewers or you accept that some people do not review papers (although they publish).


Where and how are Computer Science researchers publishing datasets? We are publishing articles that use several different datasets acquired from user (clinicians, physicians and radiologists) analysis through interaction to our healthcare systems [1, 2, 3]. We would like to share them so that other researchers can use the same data for post-process analysis and verification.

Our work is a relation between both Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Health Informatics (HI) fields by study human behaviour, as a user of an AI-Assisted system for breast cancer diagnosis. From here, we measure several attributes, with several scales (e.g., NASA-TLX, SUS, Time, Number of Clicks, Number of Errors and Qualitative Analysis). It seems to us really interesting to not only publishing around our work but also to provide the information to other researchers.

Our question is as follows:

What strategies are available to share our dataset?

In a near future, we would like to take advantage of Google Dataset Search. However, our idea will be to publish the dataset on Kaggle and then publish an arXiv document to link the dataset. By doing this, we will not only promote the dataset for the scientific community but also have the chance of being cited by.

[1] Francisco M. Calisto, Alfredo Ferreira, Jacinto C. Nascimento, and Daniel Gonçalves. 2017. Towards Touch-Based Medical Image Diagnosis Annotation. In Proceedings of the 2017 ACM International Conference on Interactive Surfaces and Spaces (ISS '17). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 390-395. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3132272.3134111

[2] Maicas, Gabriel, Gustavo Carneiro, Andrew P. Bradley, Jacinto C. Nascimento, and Ian Reid. "Deep reinforcement learning for active breast lesion detection from dce-mri." In International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention, pp. 665-673. Springer, Cham, 2017.

[3] Tiago Dias, Helder Araujo, and Pedro Miraldo. 2016. 3D Reconstruction with Low Resolution, Small Baseline and High Radial Distortion Stereo Images. In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Distributed Smart Camera (ICDSC '16). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 98-103. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/2967413.2967435

Zenodo is a EU-funded dataset storage site ran by CERN that seems to be slowly gaining traction. Each dataset gets a DOI immediately when you publish it, so you can refer to the dataset in your manuscript. You can also update your dataset later, which gives a new DOI to the newer version and still keeps the older version there for reference.

A workflow could look something like: (1) Publish dataset in Zenodo, you get DOI for v1. (2) Refer to v1 in your manuscript, submit it. (3) Referee wants to have more stuff in the dataset and you agree. (4) Update your dataset, get a new DOI for v2. Everyone who uses the link to v1 also will be notified that there's a new version available. (5) Submit your edited manuscript, refer to v2 there. (6) Paper gets published, readers see a reference to v2.


What are the reasons for not using title and designation in publications? In primary publications, such as journals or conference proceedings, it is a common practise not to use the title or designation of authors in the front-matter.

What are the most compelling reasons for not including those information? Or in other words, are there any disadvantages?

I suspect to some extent it has to do with the wide range of available titles and honorifics out there. Moreover, this can lead to rather strange credits, such as the German system, where a title such as "Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr.rer.nat. Dr.(h.c.) Dr.(h.c.) Dr.(h.c.)" is not as uncommon as it should be.

Keeping to names makes things more egalitarian. If needed, you can always look up a person's credentials. (It also helps to keep things consistent, and easier to track authors and cite papers, if you don't have to deal with titles as well!)


Asking a celebrity Prof to sign a paper they wrote? So we are all fans of some professor at some stage of academia.

If I see one in an upcoming conference/workshop, should I ask them to sign a paper that they wrote as it's also one of my favorite papers? (I'm sure I'm not the only one who brings a paper that someone else wrote when I know they will come for the conference/workshop).

How would you respond if you were the Prof asked to sign the paper?

Has anyone done the same before?

Just ask! In the past, before electronic publishing, one had to ask for physical reprints from authors. They usually signed them with a nice greeting, sometimes a signature, and occasionally nothing. I have sent reprints to other upon request and always with a signed greeting because I appreciate the request. I have a hard time seeing anyone being offended by it although an eyebrow may be raised by the request since it is now quite unusual. But it is a good way to strike up a conversation and contact the person. Personally I would try to approach the person away from an "audience" in order to not interrupt and have a real chance to state why you admire the work (person). I am sure some might say no but I would not be offended if someone asked me, not that I see it happening to me any-time soon.


What are the criteria for degree revocation? I was awarded a degree from a reputable college or university. For what reasons could my degree be revoked after the fact? Should I be worried?
Note to readers: This is a special community wiki 'canonical' question that aggregates advice on a frequently-asked question. See this meta discussion. Please feel free to edit this question to improve it.
Each answer here relates to a different criterion which may (or may not) lead to degree revocation. If you have a new possible criterion, please add an answer. If you have more information about an existing criterion, please edit the existing answer.

Please feel free to edit this answer to improve it.
Short answer: will my degree be revoked?
Almost certainly not. Degree revocation is extremely rare, and almost always involves some major, willful misconduct such as plagiarizing long sections or falsifying data. Almost everyone who has raised concerns on this site over the years had nothing to worry about. The different answers below discuss different criteria that could lead to degree revocation, but these are generally edge cases. The typical person who earned their degree in good faith has nothing to worry about.
But this site cannot give you a definitive answer. Different schools have different staff and different policies, so it is impossible to predict how a particular institution will respond to a particular situation. Nor can we decide whether you committed misconduct (and even if we did, our decision would not count for anything). We recommend checking your school's policy on degree revocation (often available online). If you are concerned about degree revocation, you could discuss the issue with a legal advisor or the school in question, though you may be better off "letting sleeping dogs lie."
Finally, note that degree revocation may be discussed or threatened rather more frequently than it actually occurs. Individuals and/or organisations may respond to some incident or action by 'calling on the university to revoke the degree', and this may gain traction on social (or indeed traditional) media. However, this does not mean it is actually likely to happen.


Official name on paper I'm preparing to publish my first paper. I have a question on my name to use on the paper. I'm commonly known as Steve (which I've been using for absolutely everything) but my passport name is my Chinese name (which almost no one knows about). My enrolment is under my passport name. Do I have to use my passport name as the author of my paper?

No, you don't have to use your passport name, use the name you want to publish under. If you search this site, you'll find guidance on selecting a suitable name.


Where can one find jobs where companies hire mathematicians where they can do (not necessarily mainstream) research? Several companies (google, IBM etc.) are known to hire mathematicians with advanced degrees (Ph.D. and so) to work in different sectors. Many such jobs are also research jobs, if not all. But I almost never find any such job advertisements in the standard mathjob sites I know of, including mathjobs.org, euro-math-soc.eu/jobs, nordic math jobs etc. Where can I find these type of job advertisements?

Industrial jobs are announced on different basis than academic ones. Typically, there is no a position to be filled. Rather (larger companies) are hiring on semi-continuous basis, and assign people to groups internally.

Sometimes there are more research-oriented openings, for example Facebook: Data Scientist, Product Science. Just bear in mind it is mostly very applied science, and in fields like Machine Learning, Statistics, maybe some Graph Theory or Cryptography.

So look at big companies (smaller companies may not have such specialized positions or money to invest in long-term development) in technology (Google, Microsoft, Facebook, ...) and their openings. When it comes to direct positions, usually you can choose only after interviews (you rarely see research positions being on the front page).

If it is nice research, or building webpages in a disguise, the only way is to ask people working at the company. Or look at CVs of your colleagues in your field who did internships in these companies (especially ones that you know are pure mathematicians or computer scientists).


How do you do “research” as a fresh PhD student? I started a PhD in applied mathematics and things seem to be going well after an initially terrible start. My supervisor and I have devised a clear set of objectives for the next three years and I’m slowly starting to learn the ropes of independent researcher life.
I recently hit a snag when my supervisor decided to take a more hands off approach with my learning insofar as they told me to “continue with my research”. Naturally this left me feeling a bit overwhelmed having only just started a few months ago. How exactly does one “do research”? Am I simply expected to keep reading articles and analysing their findings?

This might be simplified but I hope it's useful. You can think of the research process as consisting of 4 steps.
Step 1. Setting your topic
Here you will define your topic, understand the research landscape (the tops and valleys, the things that are important and those ideas that have been discarded).
A key activity here includes formulating your research questions. It's important to note that the research questions shouldn't answer themselves, why else would you undertake the research? :D Also, do not assume the very thing that you are trying to answer ("Why is X a better solution for developing Y" assumes that X is better to begin with).
There is no shortcut to understanding your topic, you need to read, and read a lot. If you're merely interested in understanding the research field, focusing on systematic literature reviews is the best way to go. These are papers that summarize the state of the literature for a given field.
Step 2. Locate information about your topic
In order to "do research" you will need to have access to research databases. Most likely, your university will have access to some of the larger databases, such as Web of Science, Scopus etc. Google Scholar aggregates research papers from a wide array of sources and is a good starting point (there are some concerns with it which I shouldn't skip over, but it's nonetheless a useful tool).
Sometime a book written for laymen could be a good place to begin, even though that book may not be authoritative, they are usually easier to digest than your average journal paper. It may seem silly, but Youtube and Podcasts are a good source for understanding a specific research field, but not particularly useful for citation purposes.
Step 3. Analyze/Evaluate information
Once you have scoped through the research literature, you will need to evaluate your sources and distinguish between primary and secondary sources.
Step 4. Write and take notes
Write! Always write even when you're not suppose to write. Writing a lot will help you. My advise is to set a writing quote (e.g. 300 words/day) and then meet that quota everyday. The text might not be the best starting out, but eventually you should be able to edit the text and make it better (or discard the parts that are not needed). Also: take a lot of notes! Mental notes. Notes on paper. Notes on the screen. Notes while walking.
Step 5. Keep and organize sources
Cite your sources and be sure to use a good reference management software for that purpose. Zotero is Open Source and easy to use but there are many others to choose from as well.
The five steps above will be true for virtually any research field. The remainder will differ a lot depending on your field (quantitative/qualitative research, empirical data vs other forms of data collection etc...)


Can a referee request a paper referenced in the reviewed paper? If you review a paper which relies on results some other paper and you do not have access to that paper, is it acceptable to contact the editor and ask whether the author can provide a copy of the referenced paper? Are requests like this reasonably common?

Or should the referee simply take the word of authors that their conclusions based on the referenced paper are correct, even without seeing that paper?

Yes, if the paper is crucial to the work, I don't think there is anything wrong with asking the editor to provide it to you. I think the editor would probably check for it himself first (in order to save time), and if not possible would relay your query to the authors. As an extreme measure, if the editor was unwilling to do this, I would simply consider writing back saying you are unable to fully review the paper because access to this crucial reference was not provided.

So, in short: do not let your lack of subscriptions get in the way of doing of thorough review.

Now, there are some other ways around this. First, maybe you can find that paper in the usual ways: through interlibrary loan or on the “grey market” (ask a friend who's got more comprehensive subscriptions that yours). Second, maybe the editor offers reviewers some service that can be of help already (for example, Elsevier journals offer a 30-day free access to the Scopus database to their reviewers).


What is a good way of getting peer feedback on my draft cover letter? I am preparing material for the academic job market and I would like to receive feedback from peers on my cover letter.

Additionally to the traditional personal contacts, I have thought about online forums as a possible location, but have not been able to find any that seem good.  I am also not interested in websites that offer consultation from professionals in return for money.

How would you advise I go about getting such feedback?

Unfortunately, not everybody works in big departments or in universities with staff of the human resource management trained for this purpose. Also, it is the end of June: in some countries (in my case Sweden) this means the vacation period is started and it is taken very seriously (vacation=no working activity of any type, besides for doctorate students).

The most German universities have career service departments for questions like this. If this is uncommon in Sweden, I agree with Kimballs comment: show it to people you trust.

In addition: the Internet is full of resources like guides and tips. Just be aware of possible cultural differences that may appear between countries. A guide targeting to US audience could suggest or advice elements that could count as "no gos" in other cultures. If you want to check your cover letter against some online guide I suggest you to search one in Swedish that considers the national or cultural specialties.


What does in-major classes mean? I am starting to fill out my resume and I looked up a few "recommendations" on what to do. When it got to the GPA, it mentioned that you can list your cumulative, in-major, in-minor, or even last semester GPA (clearly labeled and marked as such).

I was just wondering, what "in-major" meant. Does it mean the classes directly related to my major (Computer Engineering) or does it mean my classes in upper-division or something else?

In-major means classes related to your major. In your case, these would be all the Computer Engineering classes you have taken as well as any major requirements from outside the department. These do not include classes required by the school (e.g. writing requirements) or high level classes from outside the department that do not related to your major.


Can a professor force students to pay a subscription fee for a different site in order to take classes? I have a friend whose has a professor who is forcing students to sign up for a website (that requires them to pay a monthly subscription fee) where they will be posting lectures, notes, assignments, etc. The professor did not inform them of this until a few days before the first class would be starting, meaning students who could not afford to pay it right away essentially couldn't attend class on the first day. We've had departments use different websites before, but this is the first time I'm hearing about someone using one that students have to pay out of pocket for. From what I know it functions the same way as Blackboard, but it isn't covered by the school. They are also expected to pay a lab fee and buy the textbook so it just seems like overkill, but I don't know if it's something that can be brought up as an issue to higher ups.

This started as a comment but I decided to give an opposing view from the one in Anonymus Physicist's answer.
As you might have guessed, the answer to this question is location dependant.
In my University in the UK, this is explicitly forbidden. It is, in fact, forbidden to ask students to register to any website or service in order to follow the course materials, even if the registration is free. There is a (fairly short) list of approved services, for which the University has ensured that they follow the (now local, but still based on GDPR) Privacy Laws, which students may be asked to use. This list is updated yearly, and I believe the process is substantially more complex than sending somebody an email saying "I want to use X in my classes next year".
As this is done to ensure compliance with Privacy Laws, I am fairly certain that all British Universities have the same clause. As the current Privacy Laws are still based on GDPR, originally passed as European Union legislation, I would guess that something similar is in effect through EU Universities as well.
(However, note that since UK Universities are ran much more like companies than public education institutions, as is common on the Continent, they are also much much more careful about any legal liability their actions might cause. So it might be less enforced outside of the UK.)


When should I release deadlines for assignments? Some students have been asking that I release all the assignments and their due dates at the beginning of the course. I suppose that I could create some estimates, but I suspect that we will end up moving slower that I would hope (this seems to always be the case) and may even have to drop an assignment or two. I'd prefer to release the deadlines and assignments as we approach them, but the students allege that knowing this information ahead of time will help them manage their schedule.

I see no problem in releasing your estimate of related dates "as you've been asked to help some students schedule," with the same caveats you give here (which I would highlight). It's always good to be responsive to fairly easy requests by students, but it would be unreasonable for students to expect a schedule to be set in stone.


What is considered as unethical omission of information on an application If someone were to have an opportunity to attend a school, and registered in courses, but was unable to attend due to personal issues, withdrew before the start of semester, never paid tuition, never attended courses, and is now reapplying to other schools, is this information relevant on an application? There would be no transcript to submit, as it would be blank, but should it be mentioned somehow anyway?

No.  You did not attend and it should not be listed.


Is it possible for an individual's TOEFL score to decrease between exams? I heard that if you take TOEFL exam several time your score will never  decrease. Is it correct?

It seems rational, if TOEFL is a standard test, its difficulty level should be equal in all exams. For example if in your first try you get 28 in reading and it shows your good skill in reading, it's not rational that ETS assign a lower  score in successive exams.

I took exam for second time after ten days of my first attempt. I feel the reading section was harder than my previous exam. If TOEFL is a normalized exam, its evaluation of my skill in reading should not be decreased in such short period.

It is possible.

As an International student, I have taken TOEFL 4 times in one and a half year. Personally, I increased my score in every section at every exam.

However, it does not suggest you will always improve your score. The reason is simple. Assume you do not spend time on learning English regularly between two exams. In fact, your score is a random variable with constant mean and variance. You may have got 28 in reading last time and 26 next time.

If you spend a lot of time on improving English skills, you may still get a lower score in writing and speaking sections. For those secitons you can apply for rescoring service.


Is there a certain time of year that Canadian Universities make graduate admissions offers? When do Canadian universities start to offer and finish offering admission to their graduate programs? If it matters, I'm applying for a masters in computing science.

For background, I've already received one offer, but don't know what to expect on timeline for possibly receiving offers from other places I've applied.

It's not uniform, and the lack of uniformity basically makes it a race: it is not uncommon for offers to have a very short window to accept, in the hope of recruiting (some would say trapping) good candidates early on.

It is not impolite to ask for updates or timelines.

It is often the case that faculty must commit some grant monies for student support, and Canadian grants are usually smaller than in the US.  As a result, unless you have a generous scholarship, the system is more dependent on individual "matchmaking", i.e. finding a suitable supervisor willing to poney up the funds, rather than acceptance on pure academic record, although the wealthier and/or larger programs will accept students "at large" without firm supervisory commitments.

If you require funding but none of prospective supervisors has funds left, nobody will be in a hurry to make you an offer. If you have an offer, the better option is to contact these prospective supervisors directly, explain that you have an offer, and hope someone can give you a quick answer.


Scopus and Web of Science give different h-index: who should I trust? I am applying for a job and they ask my h-index. The problem is that Scopus and Web of Science list different citation number for my papers and this results in a different h-index. Who should I trust?

Both (and neither).

Like other citation metrics, the h-index compiled by these databases only depend on what's already in those databases. Both of them have quality barriers, which means you could well have been cited somewhere else but neither of these indexed it. That's why your Web of Science h-index is almost certainly going to be lower than your Google Scholar h-index. In the same way I'd guess that your Web of Science h-index is lower than your Scopus one.

In other words, your h-index depends on what database is used to generate it. You could say your h-index is 15 and it wouldn't carry meaning; you need to say your h-index is 15 as measured by Web of Science.

I'm not sure how seriously the job you describe treats the h-index. If given the option, I'd report both of them (and the one by Google Scholar). Otherwise just give the higher number, and expect to defend it in the interview.


As a PhD student, can my name be included in a research grant to protect my ideas? My ex-colleague (let's call her C) in the Lab is now a faculty member at a university. We have collaborated before in our work. Our works are similar in the methodology but different in the topic. In other words, in her dissertation, she used method X to solve a problem in topic Y. In my work, I will use a variation of X to solve topic Z.

C is now planning to write a research grant proposal about my topic and she asked me to help her in preparing for the proposal. C and my advisor (her ex-advisor) will be the PIs in the proposal. I asked C to include my name (as PI or any other way) because this is my work and I have already a published paper about it but C said that only faculty members can be included. But I feel that if I'm not included in the proposal in any way, my work will be stolen because C tries to get her students in her university to work on my idea.

If the funding is approved, I am afraid that they might hire someone else to work on my idea and then probably I won't be the first author anymore or maybe not included in the publication at all because both of them know my idea very well.

I'm new to the funding stuff so please help me. I might be overthinking about it.

While it depends on your region as well as the specific grant to which your colleagues are applying, I think you are approaching this issue the wrong way.

It is true that after working very hard on a certain field, subject or method, we may become overly attached to the ideas that we generate. However, if you are not willing to accept (and even embrace the fact) that other people are so interested in your work that they are using it and, more importantly, submitting grants on it, why are you even concerned about publishing what you do?

More importantly, they should (and likely already have, given that they are asking for your help to write the proposal) realize that you are possibly one of the most capable persons to work alongside with them on the topic, given that it was you who initially proposed the idea. You can benefit from their grant by collaborating with them -- perhaps by providing guidance to the students who they are willing to hire to work on something you value important!

As someone who collaborates with many other people who work on ideas that I initially generated, here's how I would approach the issue. Tell them which particular research directions you would like to work on yourself (perhaps as a part of their grant, trusting that they will fund you if the grant is funded), and offer your expertise to them on additional directions that they can have other people working on. On those latter papers perhaps you won't be the first author, but you may collect papers as second, third, etc, as well as see your ideas grow into a fruitful research.

Honestly, ideas are cheap. Most students and faculty have a dozen a week. Execution is expensive, and that's the part they are willing to do. I don't see a reason why you shouldn't help them.


Asking a professor to be my advisor (math) I'm applying to graduate school and there is a professor at my home university I am interested in working with.  As a bit of background, I have been doing undergraduate research with this professor for about a year now and he seems to like me (though maybe he's nice to everyone.  I can't be certain).  My research under him has been going well as hes told me I've been doing good work.  In fact, he uses exclamation marks sometimes, which I find to be odd.  Fast forwarding a bit, I've recently wrapped up the project.  Given my academic history with him, if he was interested in working with me, would he ask me to be his student (sorry if this comes off as having an inflated ego, I don't have one.) All in all, I'm not sure how to proceed in asking him.

Just ask. There is nothing to lose. Many of us would be hesitant to ask a student, realizing that there are advantages to moving on and coming in contact with different faculty and their ideas. He might even suggest that you move on, actually, and don't take that as a negative.

If that happens, ask for his advice on your next steps. And try to keep in touch with him over the next years. An email every year might be welcome if you are progressing nicely.

These things are best done in person if that is an option.

But think about whether this prof (the easy option) or moving on is the best option for your future.


How to handle an advisor who regularly gives me new work for my thesis? I'm currently working on my master thesis and will have to hand it in in April. Of course, the topic of my thesis is somehow restricted to a certain problem, but my advisor keeps telling me new problems to consider for my thesis, which have little relation to my original master thesis problem.

The problems he gives to me are very interesing, but they do not fit into my master thesis and if I had to include them, I would get into serious time troubles. I talked with him about this and he always answers very vaguely, e.g. with "Let's see how your thesis turns out to be". His answers are also very mood-dependent, so one has to be careful.

How can I convince him that his problems are not fitting for my thesis and that it is simply too much? I have to hand my thesis in soon and now, at this point, he comes up with new stuff to include. Furthermore, I am afraid of getting a bad grade if I don't do what he tells me to do. I am planning to start my PhD study under his supervision afterwards. Could I perhaps propose that I work on his problems after my master thesis?

Thanks in advance, I appreciate any sort of advice.

I am planning to start my PhD study under his supervision afterwards.

Is he aware of that? If not, you should probably consider what the PhD workload would be, if you are already experiencing the pressure you describe with your master thesis. If he is aware of it, it is possible that he is trying to broaden your views in order to prepare you more for the PhD work and probably being a bit overzealous by doing so.

However, in both cases you shouldn't be afraid to talk to him about where to draw the line for your thesis. That is also an important part of graduation. Personally, I don't take much into account the "mood" of my colleagues when discussing important professional subjects. If you adviser is so unstable, that an objective discussion when he is in one of his moods is not possible, that is another and more serious problem. In that case, you should consider finishing up your masters and going to grad school somewhere else, or at least with another adviser.

As for what you should do, as I said, approach him about your problem and determine where you are with your work and what is the scope of your thesis. It is normal to draw the line somewhere and proclaim that that amount of work will constitute your thesis. Once that is down, you stick to it. As I understand it, you have your problem stated, so you can any other proposed problems delay with "My thesis is my priority right now, but I'll keep that particular in mind, and once I've finished my thesis, we can start working on that one."


How common is spousal hire (academic or non-academic) in the Australia/New Zealand system? I am an academic with hoping for an offer at an Oceania university. I want to know how common in this system is it to ask the university to give my spouse a job? It is common and often successful in the U.S. universities, but I don't know in the Oceania (which is largely the same as the British) system.

My experience on this is more anecdotal, but perhaps it will be helpful.

In Australia, I've certainly known plenty of couples that work at the same university. I can also think of a few where I imagine a package arrangement was organised (although I don't know details). Equally, I can think of cases where academics have left a department because the department decided to no longer employ their spouse (i.e., they moved to a new university that would employ their spouse). The ease of making such arrangements depends on how desirable you and your spouse are as academics. It certainly helps if at least one member of the couple is a super star, and  the other member is at least competitive.

Another general point is that Australia has a lot of universities. In particular, if you are in Melbourne or Sydney (and to a lesser extent other major cities) then you would have six or so reasonable universities to work with. So I also know a lot of couples in the university sector who are able to solve the two-body problem by working at different universities in the one city.


Manuscript status "Submitted to Journal" over a week in an Elsevier Journal I submitted a manuscript to an Elsevier journal on 8 days ago. However, the "Current Status" of the manuscript is still "Submitted to Journal".

Is it common that the status "Submitted to Journal" lasts over a week?

When I click "Send E-mail" in the "Action Links", it shows that "This letter should not be used at this time. This submission is not in a status that would allow this letter to be sent to the intended recipient."

I cannot even withdraw this manuscript now because the Action Links do not contain "Withdraw" button. I submitted several manuscripts to this journal about three years ago. I checked the email at those moments. When I approved the submission of PDF files built by the submission system, I would receive a confirmation email from the editorial office. However, this time I did not receive any such email.

What should I do at this moment?

Have patience -- you're asking that many things happen within a short amount of time. Your paper needs to get through an initial administrative check whether the formatting is correct and/or whether there is any plagiarism. Then the editor-in-chief needs to assign the paper to an associate editor. And then the associate editor needs to assign reviewers. Only then does, in most system, the status change to "Under review".

So it requires three people. Any one of them might be on vacation for the week. Or they have a paper or proposal deadline themselves. Or they have a family emergency. Or they need to grade a term paper. You can't expect that they stop everything they do and turn to handling your paper. They'll get to it in due time -- I'd say you can start to get upset if it's been 3 weeks, but before that my recommendation is as stated at the top: Have patience.


Checking whether you have cited some other researcher Sometimes you need to find out quickly whether one of your papers has cited a particular researcher given only the name of that researcher. Is there a tool for that? Assume you have used the bibtex format so far to manage your references, but your bibtex files contain much more than what you've actually cited.  You have no Zotero or Mendely and don't want to mess with them unless really necessary. You have your own webpage with lots of paper copies, and you have profiles at Google Scholar, ResearcherId, and Orcid.

Google Scholar and ResearcherID can tell you who cites you. As opposed to that, you wish to determine whether you cite someone else (or not).  To start with, a binary answer (yes/no) would do.  You would like to run such a query several times, one researcher at a time. Ideally, the query would give you some (or even all) of your papers which cite the given researcher, but it's not a must.

Surely you can do that by putting all your texts together, converting them all to text or html, and then searching there. This is tedious and error-prone, though. Is there any online (or offline) service for that, perhaps? The database in which the search is done must be a (possibly large) underapproximation of the papers you have written so far.

If you are fine with looking at only Web of Science indexed articles then yes, this is easily possible using Web of Science.

Do a "Cited Reference Search" and search for the name of the researcher you are interested in
Select the publication of that researcher and hit "Finish Search", you now end up with a list of every paper citing the previously selected papers of that researcher
Do a basic author search of your own name, you end up with a list of your own papers.
Go to "Search History" and select these two searches and combine the two sets with the "AND" operator.

There's another way to do this using Web of Science. It will take some time and work to set up (depending on how many publications you have) but the process of checking can be automated afterwards. You have to create a list of all papers you cited which includes the author names of the cited papers.

Search for your publications on Web of science
For each publication open the details, on the right it shows the number of "Cited references", click on that number you end up with a list of papers you cited
Export this list to endnote (you have to do this for every page)
Eliminate duplicates in Endnote.

You now have an Endnote database with all the publications you cited which can easily be searched for authors.


Publishing a work which is not related to the work done in the company I am working in a company after completing my PhD. When I get time, I carry out some research work related to my PhD work but not related to what I do in the company. I look forward to publish the work in journals/conferences as an independent author. I guess I should use the present affiliation in the article. Will this affect the chances of getting the article published?

I used "Independent Researcher" and personal email address two times for my papers: published at good venues without any affiliation-related problems.

And depending on your local laws, the company policies, nature of your research, how you conducted it (normal working hours or weekends, use of company equipment) you may not own the research results and may need to work with the company on publishing it using the company's affiliation.


ABD information and assistance with statistical information I am presently in a PhD program and was an ABD student. I am curious as to the following information, which will also assist me in formulating my dissertation topic:
1. How many students are ABD on this site?
2. How did many of you end up in an ABD status?
3. How many ABD students are searching for ways to complete their degree?
4. What opportunities have you found that will assist you with your degree completion?
I hope to help as many ABDs as possible and I would appreciate it if you could help me by responding to these questions. Please feel free to ask me any questions as well.

I was never ABD.  Datapoint to help your survey.


Cons of putting accepted paper on arXiv? If I have a paper accepted for publication in a journal, putting a version of it (that does not conflict with the agreement with the publisher) on arXiv will help make it more easily accessible. On the other hand, are there good reasons not to put it on arXiv, supposing the paper is on topic for arXiv?

It's really hard to find cons. If I were forced to list some, I'd say:

people get to see your LaTeX source. If it contains secret macros or unflattering comments that you forgot to delete, the whole world sees them. It is also possible that they contain other copyrighted material that you do not have the right to distribute, such as a commercial font. (In my experience, no one will look at your LaTeX source anyway).
Arxiv gets rights to distribute your paper online, forever. This may conflict with copyright rules for your future publications. For instance, you may want to insert content from the paper into your thesis, and then publish your thesis as a book with a publishing house that wants full 100% absolute exclusive rights. (In my experience, respectable publishing houses don't.)
Your publication agreements or grants may mandate additional requirements when you publish your work. For instance: provide a reference to the journal version, or acknowledge the National Institute of Funding Grant 1234567890. If you forget about them, trouble may ensue. (In my experience, it hardly ever does).