Advice for having children during graduate school My wife and I just found out that we're having our first child.  While this is a wonderful thing, it also concerns us a bit.  Particularly because we're on limited funds (TA & RA combined salary) and we're still 1.5-2 years away from graduating together.  Also, since our academic careers are so demanding, we're also concerned about balancing time taking care of our newborn.

I read the responses in this post, but I'd like to ask for more specific advice for new parents in graduate school.  What strategies have you used to enable you to handle having a newborn while both parents are finishing their PhD?  Both in terms of time management and making ends meet, financially.

Any personal anecdotes, experience, advice, and tips are welcome! :)

Congratulations! First of all, you are in for a wonderful and life-changing experience.

However, your life is going to change quite drastically - so try to be prepared.

Some things that come to mind in no specific order (some of these are not specific to academia):

On the personal side, you must first realize that you will have much less time to work. Get used to the idea. The way to deal with this is to organize your time and stick to your schedules. No more random web browsing during work hours - use your time with your child as time for brain rest. As a scientist you may know that it is not always easy to be creative/focused on cue, but you will learn to get used to it with practice.
As JeffE commented, if your advisors don't know yet, notify them. A supportive advisor can make a huge difference in terms of flexible-work time, working from home, and even moral support. I would also try to gently ask if they increase your salary or offer some other kind of financial benefits. Also, your graduation will most likely get delayed, hopefully not too much - try to see that your supervisors are ok with that.
If possible, have your family help as much as possible.
The first year with a child is a huge change and can be quite difficult, especially in your situation. Help each other and be understanding towards each other.
Your school's HR can give you information about benefits you could get for children (healthcare, day care).
You can find tons of used baby/child stuff (toys, clothes) for free or very cheap, because they are often useful only for a short time.


Advisor threatens to discontinue fellowship. What should I do? This July I will be in the fifth year of my PhD. I am doing my PhD from India in bioinformatics. Within my four years, one year was for coursework, so that I did not get to delve deep into research in that time. In our institute, every year we have an annual evaluation, where it is decided whether a student’s fellowship will be extended for the next year or not. Today, my advisor expressed to me that he is not happy with my work.

My current work status:

one published review article,
one article has been rejected four times in peer-review. Most of the times, the decision was based on technical issues raised by the only peer reviewer. I try to incorporate all the reviewers’ comments as much as possible.
Not much of language related issues by reviewers.
two articles are ready for their first submission to journals (my advisor still not happy with grammar),
another article is in preparation.

I think the amount of work is pretty good to get an extension. When I asked him why he is unhappy, he said he had no question regarding the volume of work but my grammar mistakes are too much (I did tell him that I make my paper go through Grammarly (free version) and Microsoft word and also my husband who himself is a PhD). He also said that my papers are not getting accepted; hence he isn’t happy. Each draft that I write goes through about twenty times of checking by my advisor, yet they are getting rejected.
I am not getting any technical help from my advisor so I have to depend on the reviewers’ comments for this.

My point is: The work is in my hand but not paper acceptance right? It’s no one’s fault that paper isn’t getting accepted, right?

These uncertainties of probable fellowship discontinuation are stressing me out. I do not know what to do. Sometimes it feels like I will give up. Can somebody please tell me how to make my professor understand that paper acceptance is not in my hand and that he is increasing stress in my life which is doing me no good? How do I make him understand that grammar mistakes and papers not getting accepted are either too trivial an issue or out of my control (respectively), so that he does not discontinue my fellowship?  Can someone point out to me where my mistake is?

What I have understood is that he wants me to work till 2021. My institute will allow me to submit my PhD before 2021 and not beyond that. But he wants to stop my fellowship. It's like working without pay. He wants me to work without fellowship. He is not saying he doesn't want me as a PhD student.

Also, my institute does not have the privilege of having a writing center or having someone who checks English before publishing. We do all of this alone. Indian universities mostly doesn't have these priviledges. And mine isn't even a university, it's a research institute.

Now many of you may be thinking I am not working hard enough. I try to dedicate as much time possible to my research.

This is a tough one.

To be brutally honest, from your post I can gather that your English is not up to scratch for English language journals. And that's not a minor issue.

Thing is, it's not your supervisor's job to fix your English mistakes and it's not ok to keep giving him draft over draft over draft. Academics are super busy people. And if you want a paper published it has to be free from English mistakes. No-one is going to fix that for you.

In regards to the rejected paper, four rejections is a lot. It shouldn't take more then 2 revisions to get it accepted. Do you fully understand what the one reviewer want fixed? You need to fully address the issues the reviewer raised, otherwise you won't get it accepted.

Having said that, if you've done enough research for five papers, you've done very good work. It looks to me it's your English that's holding you back, not your research.

Can you get help with English from someone? Don't rely on software, that's not going to fix it for you. Can you afford to pay someone to fix it for you, there are people you can hire to proofread? Can you take a 3-6 month break and do an advanced English course? Is there someone at your university you can talk to?


Do I need to contact professors before sending my postdoc applications? I intend to apply for a call for a postdoctoral position. Is it necessary to contact professors before sending my application formally? If so, which documents should be sent? Is my CV enough or should I also send a research statement?

My field is mathematics and I am applying to positions in France and Italy.

It's unclear if you mean cold-emailing professors for positions, or if you're planning to utilize the network that you've built from publishing and attending conferences.

I would highly recommend emailing other academics you've meet a conference that are already familiar with your work and letting them recommend postdocs to you.

Cold-emailing is unlikely to help much as professors are inundated with emails from prospective students who want a leg-up on acceptance, and your email is likely to get lost in the clutter.

EDIT:

The last sentence was unclear.  By cold-emailing, I meant looking up the email of the hiring manager/professor for the postdoc and sending them a follow-up email.

Most professors receive HUNDREDS of legitimate emails every day from the students they teach and advise, journal/conference submission request, other professors, or their side consulting business.  A "cold-email" is likely to get relegated to the spam box.


Thesis Advisor conundrum Last semester, I took class A and loved the material. It was a subject I excelled in and professor A' was someone I understood well.

I thought it was perfect to take the course 2A and make A' my thesis advisor, but this entire semester, he missed many classes (due to sickness and/or being the Chair of our department), was only available for 'pop in' office visits, rather than scheduled ones or scheduled office hours, and we rarely had homework we could do, because our class was riddled with confusing theory and no examples.

For a grade, he asked us to learn and present material in class. I'm a student who needs to bounce ideas off others in order to really understand material really well.

Since no one (fellow grad student wise) could help and he was always unavailable, I stuck to books and mathstackexchange.

I got turned around many times, and when I had to present, he constantly interrupted me to tell me "what [I] meant to say". After 40 minutes, I got so worked up I started to tear up.

I felt like the time I spent trying to work through material by myself was worthless, and anything else I could say wouldn't be "up to snuff" in his eyes, but I pressed on through hiccups and tears. I know he was trying to make me a better student, but I'm not sure I can take a year of trying to do something right on my own, rarely meeting up with my thesis advisor, and falling flat during my thesis defense.

Questions: do I find another thesis advisor? Is this just a personal problem, and I should consider counselling?

You've not really commented on your thesis advisor's role as a research supervisor, which is quite different from being an instructor. Someone can excel in one role but be [almost] incompetent in the other.

Consequently, it's hard to give you solid advice. The basic question is if your advisor's unavailability is impeding your research progress. If so, then you should definitely explore other options, if possible. For instance, look for a co-advisor for your project with A'. If no options with A' pan out, then you should consider switching advisors.

However, if the teaching style doesn't carry over into research issues, then it may be worth your while to wait and see if things improve.


Should I leave out bad undergraduate research experiences? I am a mathematics and physics double major student entering my third year. Over this summer and the previous semester I have been working with a research group in physics writing simulation code. But I have been taking an incredibly long time to finish writing this objectively simple code that I have become very dissatisfied and pessimistic about my future in physics. I have been thinking about applying to graduate school in mathematics instead but I wonder: Would it even help to list this in my graduate school applications? I've spent a lot of time on this project yet I have near nothing to show for it. No publications or even interesting results. My code isn't done yet! Should I bother asking for a letter of recommendation from my PI knowing I did a terrible job at it? I have good grades but I do not know anyone who I believe will give me a strong letter of recommendation, which I know is crucial to admissions.

Make sure you have some good talking points about the experience and then keep it on your resume. (My opinion as someone who has reviewed resumes for the company I work for, granted graduate school apps may be different.)

What did you learn about the subject matter or about yourself? What struggles did you overcome or how would you do certain things differently? Is there anything that went well, or that you could spin positively?

I would see it as a bigger red flag if I saw your resume and thought you did nothing over the summer/semester than if I saw you worked and didn't have publications (that isn't an uncommon experience).

As for the letter, you're going to have to make that call based on your relationship with your PI.  If you're really struggling with the decision, just ask your PI about your performance and what they thought you did well/could improve on - that could be telling as to what they would write.


Does one need a specific field in mind to apply to a PhD program in mathematics? When applying for the PhD program in mathematics, usually, one is not required to specify in what field (e.g., PDE, dynamical system, etc.) he/she intends to do. However, I don't know whether it will be disadvantage that one does not have a specific field in mind at all.

I ask this question because some people suggest the students who are applying to the graduate school should talk to or connect with the professor who is in the school he/she intend to apply for. But if one does not even have a specific interest in mind, how can he/she talk to a professor about his/her application? (Even if the student is interested in analysis, say, there are lots of sub-field in analysis.)

So, here is my question:

Does one need a very specific field in mind to apply a PhD program in mathematics? Would this be thought as advantage or disadvantage of an application?

At least for most graduate programs in pure mathematics in the US, there's no need to have a specialization in mind when applying.  [This may be very different in other countries.]

It's valuable to demonstrate in your application that you have studied some serious mathematics, by discussing undergraduate research or advanced coursework.  However, there's no implication that you intend to focus on the same fields in graduate school.

It's common to indicate an interest in a few possible specialties, usually at a level of detail ranging from "algebra" to "analytic number theory".  If you are completely undecided, then that could come across negatively, by suggesting a general lack of enthusiasm.  However, being too specific is also problematic.  Matching a possible advisor too closely comes across as pandering, while being specific without matching anyone makes it look like you aren't a good fit for this particular department.

Overall, the general feeling is that incoming graduate students don't know enough to make well-informed decisions about specialization, and that anything they say is a little unreliable because their interests may shift as they learn more.  From that perspective, it's not worth worrying about this too much.

As for talking with professors, at least at the schools I'm familiar with this will not increase the chances of admission (the decisions are made by a committee).  After you've been admitted, it's important to talk with faculty and try to gauge the chances of finding a suitable advisor.  However, that can and should wait until February.


Publishing open-source code similar to unfinished master's work My electrical engineering master's program was a disaster. My advisor gave me three different projects:

The first one was interesting, challenging, and solvable, but initial peer review of the paper revealed it to be irrelevant to the field. Essentially it was a very marginal improvement on an obsolete technology. The reviewers used colorful language.
The second assignment was too vague to be actionable, and would have amounted to re-creating a huge, expensive physical modeling package. In order to understand this scope problem, I did a ton of research and coursework. (It would've been easier if the advisor had told me about the pre-existing software in the first place.)
The third was basically just a programming task. I coded it up without learning much — no coursework related to this one. The program solved most, but not all, of its problem set. The advisor said this didn't matter, and to write it up anyway.

At this point, the degree seemed to lack validity, the field had lost its luster, and I was very literally losing my sanity. I stuck around and took some humanities courses, then in December 2008 told my advisor I'd take a hiatus. It was our last communication. I moved to another state and quit programming for a while.

I hate giving up. In September 2009 I started a writing a new program related to the third project, solving the same problem set. I worked on it on-and-off for a year until I got a job. (The problem was an open challenge. Unbeknownst to me, competitions were held in 2011 and 2012.)

Now, six years later, I'd like to polish up my independent work and post it to GitHub. Do I have any obligation to the advisor or to the university, or can I just go ahead and release it?

As long as your new project is entirely original and does not infringe any patents, there is no issue with releasing it.

It is highly unlikely your professor or old institution would possess any patents for a simple program. It's impossible for me to state anything with certainty as I do no know the nature of the software, but software patents are already fairly uncommon and legally questionable. You could look up the concept and professor's name somewhere like Google Scholar to be sure.

The primary concern would be if you re-used source from the time you were at the institution. This depends on the agreements you made with the university; if you are reusing components, you should review what you signed related to your master's program and possibly contact the institution's legal department for advice. You could of course cut out such components as well, which is what I would suggest.

The fact you learned something you later applied does not give those who taught it to you any legal or moral rights over the work. Especially considering it sounds like you did all the leg work in the first place.

If you are worried in an academic context of accusations of plagiarism, you could simply acknowledge where the concept came from / previous work in a README file. If you are not infringing patents or copyrights, there is no reason not to.


How to explain that I do not want to visit a country due to personal safety concern? I have been invited to visit a professor in a different country. I am very reluctant to go. The government of this country is currently under investigation by the UN for suspicions of crimes against humanity targeted at people of the same ethnic background as me. More generally, people from my ethnic background are legally considered second-class citizens (when they are citizens at all) in this country, and routinely get physically aggressed in the street without the police or army doing anything, even partaking sometimes...

How should I explain to this professor that I do not want to go? Should I get into details, invent a different reason?

If I were you I'd have the same concerns. In fact, I'm not like you, and I have the same concerns.

But don't confuse the people of Israel with its government. Certainly there are bad actors there, but I also know many Israelis who are more than decent people and oppose the government actions and attitudes that you worry about.

That said, you may be wise to avoid such a trip. But don't assume, necessarily, that the professor would disagree with your true reasons. There is no way to predict, of course, since opinion about Israeli-Palestinian issues come in "all shades of grey" in Israel.

If it is a question of meeting, rather than visiting the professor's institute, you might suggest meeting elsewhere, say at an international meeting.

To flip it a bit, there are quite a lot of people in the world unwilling to visit the US because of recent trends and attitudes here - and some that are not so recent. And I won't visit Mexico, for example, though I love the place, not because the government is bad, but because of the danger of drug gangs and killings and an ineffective government.

Note that I answered the question based on its original form which was tagged israel. However, the same concerns would apply in other contexts and there might be serious issues for some people visiting some countries. But my general advice still holds. Don't conflate the government of a place with its individual citizens. Some of them would support government actions and others would not. The world currently has far too much of this. I've actually known people who won't visit Germany because of its Nazi past, though, til recently at least, it has seemed completely redeemed.


Where is the latex template for IEEE Journal of Translational Engineering in Health? I was trying to find the latex template for IEEE Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine, but I am only able to find the .doc template. Do we have any .tex template for this journal?

http://ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/create-your-ieee-article/use-authoring-tools-and-ieee-article-templates/ieee-article-templates/templates-for-ieee-journal-of-translational-engineering-in-health-and-medicine/

Usually there should be latex template as well.

It seems JTEHM does not provide any template for LaTeX documents. The standard IEEE template is available with \usepackage{ieeetran} but it does not seems to be coherent with the word document provided (e.g. abstract), so it might need adaptation.


Should I contact the journal because I am not receiving a response after a year? I have submitted a paper to a Springer mathematical journal. The reviewers asked for a revision, and after revising the paper, the editor's decision, alongside with the reviewers' one (of course), was to accept the paper. In the email that I have received it was stated: "You will receive an e-mail in due course regarding the production process". But after that, a whole year has passed and nothing happened. No info after that email. After logging into my author's account, on the main menu in section Completed I can only see:
 - Submissions with a decision: 1
 - Submissions with a production completed: 1.

Generally, what does production completed means? I read about MyPublication service on the Springer website but I never had a chance to see the questionnaire. Just to mention, I did not get any info, nor doi number, nor anything similar. Only that the paper is accepted, a year ago.
Should I write to the journal? To the Editor, the Editor-in-Chief, or some service to inquire about my paper?

There is a similar question (Springer special issue status) but it regards the special issue status. In my case it is a regular one. Also, the comments and answers on that thread were not helpful in my case.

Yes, after a year you should definitely write to the editor and ask for an update.

Production completed likely means that the paper is actually ready for immediate publication either in print or online. But check, nevertheless. Print, especially, takes a while to get out the door. But even online publication takes a while to move from staging to final servers.

But, yes, ask.


What is a reasonable percentage salary increase for tenure and promotion What is a reasonable percentage salary increase for tenure and promotion from assistant to associate professor in the US?

Data on faculty salaries is available from the AAUP survey:

http://chronicle.com/article/2013-14-AAUP-Faculty-Salary/145679/#id=table

Associate professors make, very roughly speaking, 10% more than assistant professors.  However, since professors get a few percent raise a year, you can estimate that the difference between the most experienced assistant professor and the least experienced associate professor is about the typical annual raise.  So, I think the answer is "not much."  However, it varies widely by institution, school, department, governance model, etc.


What is the best philosophy and practice to use smartphones for academic life? I am doing research in theoretical physics, and have learned that smartphones can bring in a lot of distractions to your life if you want to focus on your research and study. Like facebook, twitter messages, random news feeds and so on. If I disable all apps, on the other hand, I will loose the benefit of owning a smartphone. In the limited time of using smartphones in my life, I have collected the following list of apps and things to have on a smartphone. I also have some questions marks for better alternatives. Please let us know if you have any other suggestions and recommendations to make the smartphone great for academic life.

There is an arXiv mobile app so that I can read paper anywhere whenever I find a chance (like sitting on a bus for commuting). I am sure you can use smartphones for StackExchange Q&A as well. Any apps that can allow me to read recommended papers based on my interests from all sourced journals as well as arXiv if possible?
Use a PDF scanner--in my case, clearScanner--to transfer a paper/blackboard note to the e-version and synchronize on a cloud (like dropbox or OneDrive) by taking a photo to a black/white-board or paper note. I also use EndNote to put all my notes together in order to edit them on my Thinkpad Yoga or X200 tablet when I get a chance.
Use twitter to only tweet academic content and build a network with researchers in the field. Then connect twitter with facebook to synchronize my content. This way, maybe less spam for me. Any other social network sources I shouldn't block and should cultivate using a smartphone?
I do use open-source version-control ideas for academic writing and coding. But I haven't found a way to get benefit from a smartphone for this purpose as I have a tablet and laptops to handle most of the mobile jobs. For example, I use github to version my bibtex file for bibliography records, but I haven't found a proper app to mobile bibtex on the go. Maybe there are some apps useful on a smartphone.
Use voice record to record my own talks and discussions with people if things are hard to understand and solve in a short time or I want to put the talk online along side with my slides. I haven't found an efficient way to combine the voice and slides seamlessly, though.
Keep the calendar running in the background for scheduling things with notifications. Same to emails.
Smartphones can easily track my physical fitness, but is there any way to track my academic fitness?
I have heard people using smartphones to track experimental equipment remotely and use all kinds of smartphone sensors to demonstrate physical lab experiments, but I really didn't go that far. Let's also keep this thought of train open if you have any recommendations.
Install a bar/QR code scanner, and it could be useful to scan and download a poster on your phone in conferences/workshops nowadays.

We live in an era flooding with information, most of which that seem interesting but are utterly unnecessary to our lives and that could easily be replaced by something else that is both as interesting and more meaningful, but that requires more work than just scrolling Facebook or SE threads. Academia is no different, and if you are exposed to this kind of environment you have to pay attention not to drown, which appears to be what you are trying to accomplish.

The simplest solution is not to expose yourself extensively to this kind of environment (e.g., your phone).

Even if you crowd your twitter feed with important scientists and journals, chances are you will be just as unproductive as if you were browsing a celebrity's instagram. Most of that information will be irrelevant to you. If you can't help but use your phone for something during time you are supposed to do work, it's not crowding it "productivity" apps that will set you forward, it's ultimately your attitude towards it.

This is not to say having a mobile isn't important for research -- I use my tablet for several research-related activities, from reading RSS feeds from journals to writing papers and using SE, and even several of the applications you listed seem interesting --, however, chances are you can be more productive not using it most of the time. I wouldn't be so hesitant in blocking apps (if you really cant help but using them) instead of making them look "sciencey".

Here's my current approach towards using a smartphone/tablet:

I don't block apps or turn them off, but I usually reserve some time to use my tablet during the day for general browsing, which is usually early in the morning and late at night.

I have a Feedly RSS feed where I follow journals and authors that mostly publish in areas related to mine, so I usually don't  miss anything new.

I do have an exclusive twitter account which I use to follow research-related feeds and communicate with my peers.

I use OneNote to keep notes and Agenda to keep track of what I have to do during the day.

I have bluetooth keyboard and mouse that I carry with me (I use sharelatex to write), so carrying my laptop with me is unnecessary most of the times.

I use Teamviewer to access my office or home computer if I need to do something that requires a computer (e.g., programming).

I use my tablet during meetings to access papers/figures that I have generated.

My research is in the cloud and accessible through my tablet, phone and computers, and so are my papers (Mendeley), hence I can produce them whenever I need or am requested.

I rarely print papers. I read and annotate them using Mendeley.

I am however concerned about conservation of my notes and research in general, so I keep paper notebooks, which are also regularly scanned, and print important papers/notes that are meaningful and important and store them in binders.

The important thing is that I keep my mobiles with me all the time during work time, but don't use them unless necessary or requested.


Is it possible to apply to a PhD program, then transfer a year later to a higher-ranked program? Is possible to apply to a PhD psychology program, and if accepted, then transfer a year later to another program that is higher in ranking?

It might be possible, but I would not recommend it unless there are very special circumstances. For example, if your advisor is moving institutions, it might be appropriate to follow them if you have their backing.

The higher ranking program is going to wonder why you were unable to complete your studies at the original institution, and will question your ability to play well with others. They will have many, many applicants that are as qualified or more qualified than you that lack the uncertainties you will bring ("will they stay?" "why did they leave?" "are they being totally honest?"). Further, there is almost nothing you will be able to accomplish in your first year of graduate school that will distinguish you to the point that a school that originally rejected you will suddenly want to drop everything to have you.

Two more pieces of advice: first, the ranking of the school you do your graduate work at matters less than your choice of advisor and ability to thrive in the lab you join.

Second, if you feel like you need more experience or to improve your resume to get into the school you want, you will be much better off getting a research job for a year that is not part of a graduate program - this is very common, and will not be looked upon as strange by an admissions committee. Changing universities after a year will.


How to deal with multiple affiliations as an author? From the upcoming autumn on, I will be a tenured full-time professor at a regional university. In addition, I will have a 10% side job at an extramural research institution. And on top of that, I'll be an adjunct professor (only title and right to teach and act as thesis supervisor, no contract nor money) at another university.

My question is: What is the correct way to deal with these affiliations on potential publications?

The options I see are the following:

On each and every publication, I list all three affiliations. I am not completely comfortable with that, though, as the main draw of being a professor is independence - and in the 10% side job, I am of course not independent. Also, it's possibly questionable whether the other university should receive credit for having me as unpaid adjunct lecturer.
I always list my main affiliation (i.e. the university which pays my main salary), and add the other affiliations when this really applies (i.e. if a work is clearly the result of being affiliated with the respective organization).

Is there other options? Or anything in between? For my academic image, the combination of all three affiliations is certainly not a bad thing, but I feel putting something on my homepage, in my CV or in a public bio is probably different to assigning work outputs to organizations that pay or don't pay salaries.

I'm professor at a university, which pays my bills, and I'm also affiliated with another institution, without any money involved. I do as in 2: I put always first my university affiliation and second the other affiliation for papers in collaboration.

It should be noted that in the recent past I had to fight with a journal because the copy editor arbitrarily changed the order of affiliations just to compact the list of affiliations.


Should I wait to quit with MSc or quit right away My situation is as follows. I started a PhD 5 months ago in a reputable university. However, I am not happy with my lab and supervisor and do not want to spend 4 or more years here. I shared my thoughts with my supervisor and he told me it is better to stay one or more years and finish with a MSc than quitting now, and if I like it then I can just stay and complete my PhD.

I already have a MSc but from much smaller university unlike my current one, what is the best action to take now?

Is staying and having two MSc a good option, or quitting now would look better on my CV as I did not spend too much time in the program and start looking for other opportunities?

If it matters, the reasons I am not willing to stay are:

The current projects in the lab do not interest me and I do not want to be working alone, specially my supervisor told be it is better to work in the same line or else he would not have much time.
My supervisor has joined this field recently and does not provide useful feedback with no post-doc or other seniors to help. Much of what I will do would be completely on my own.
After working for one semester, the research we are doing in the lab in far from the state-of-the-art and mainly focuses on getting papers accepted in a coming conference, (Is this reasonable motivation to quit? I prefer to be working with people more involved in the field.)

Look for other opportunities whilst still continuing with your PhD. Hopefully you find something by the end of your masters year and you can part ways then.

If you can go to an employer and say you're in the middle of a PhD but have realised it isn't the path you wish to follow and are looking for other employment it looks better than dropping out and then looking for work.

Also, not that I'm trying to change your mind but, I don't know a single person doing a PhD who hasn't doubted it was the right thing for them at some point. Make sure quitting isn't something you would regret later in life and think about the reasons you chose to apply for a PhD in the first place.


The position that I have applied is being advertised again. Should I be worried? I am interviewing within a couple of days for a position. As far as I know, that position has been rejected by at least one candidate before me.

I know why the position was declined in the past, this aspect of the job was discussed with me.
However, I just realized that the College has started to advertise the position again on the usual academic job boards.

Should I be worried about this? Is this something that was mandated by the people leading the search or something that HR Departments do on their own?
If anyone with insights on this process could give some perspective that'd be great.

Should I be worried about this?

Nope. It is totally out of your control and impossible to guess what it means. It could mean they have already written you off and are just wasting time (and money) bringing you in for an interview. It could also mean that they are hopeful about you and need to satisfy some HR requirement. It could also mean lots of other things.


Is copying an image from a previous paper of mine and citing its source considered self-plagiarism or unprofessional? Last year, I wrote a paper and it got accepted and was presented at a conference.

This year, I am writing a more in-depth paper about a similar subject; but since one of the figures in my first paper is adequate for my purpose, I want to reuse that one (of course citing it adequately).

Am I OK in doing that, or is that seen as self-plagiarism or unprofessional?

There is such a thing as self-plagiarism, but I would say that your case (reusing a figure that you created and providing a citation to it) is not an instance of it.  I also don't think it is unethical or unprofessional.  As Ran G. says in his answer, just make sure you ask permission from the copyright holder (if it isn't you).


How can I anonymously store supplemental research data that I submit with papers? I'm writing a contribution for a double-blind submission system.

Since I would like to supply more data than I could show on a small number of pages, I'm looking for a way to reference supplemental data in my manuscript, such as software scripts, figures or databases.

I could upload on GitHub, RPubs, Figshare and Zenodo, but all of these would expose my real user name (and I don't feel like making a throwaway e-mail account with a new repository for every anonymous publication that I intend to write).

Is there any way to get the above services to do what I want? Or is there a similar service that would allow anonymous hosting of research data?

It would be even better if I could later (e.g. after publication) declassify the information, with the link from the manuscript still being intact.

If an author is very concerned about keeping their data private and anonymous until the last moment before publication, the workflow would be like this:

The authors deposit their data in a private repository while they are finalizing the manuscript, before submission. They ensure that the documents and files they upload to the repository do not have their names on them.
The authors obtain a 'view-only' link from the repository. This link will give anyone access to their private repository in a way that hides the repository metadata so that the authors of the repo are not visible to people using this link.
The authors insert this view-only link into the text of their manuscript, for example in the data availability statement. Then they submit their manuscript for peer review. Their data remains private on the repository.
Anyone with the manuscript, such as the editor and peer reviewers, can click on the 'view-only' link in the paper to download the data. The peer reviewers can anonymously inspect the data on the repository, and they do not see the names of the authors on the repository.
Once the paper is accepted, the authors switch their data repository from private to public, and the 'view-only' link is removed from the manuscript, and replaced with the DOI to the public repository of the data. The editor or copyeditor checks that the paper now has a DOI, because the 'view-only' links typically expire after a few months.

The repositories that I know support this workflow are:

Open Science Framework: https://help.osf.io/hc/en-us/articles/360019930333-Create-a-View-only-Link-for-a-Project
Figshare: https://knowledge.figshare.com/articles/item/how-to-share-cite-or-embed-my-data
-Dataverse: http://guides.dataverse.org/en/latest/user/dataset-management.html#private-url-to-review-unpublished-dataset
Zenodo, not exactly as I describe above, but very close: https://ineed.coffee/5205/how-to-disclose-data-for-double-blind-review-and-make-it-archived-open-data-upon-acceptance/amp/

There may be others I don't know about!


Is it ok to share a a client's dataset on github, along with my code? EDIT: I originally tried to make the context as brief as possible, but I may have overdone it.
Context
I'm starting to put some data analysis I'm asked to do on Github, and licensing all my work (mostly R scripts and markdown files  displaying statistics, graphs and brief result descriptions). These are mostly medical and health research projects by graduate students. Faculty there usually ask for help in statistics/design and suggest their students do the same. Since I'm new, most of them are coming to me. Although I don't think it's relevant in this question, I have recently been offered a part-time position there for this exact purpose.
Reasons
The main reason for this is to provide the user student an always up to date version of the current work in progress. If something is quick to fix, say in a graph, they have an instant updated version of the current report I'm writing (usually in markdown).
I also like the transparency I offer to the researchers that ask for my help when I show the development process, what issues I have identified and the overall organization of my work.
Since most of them are not that tech-savy, I prepare the repo with plenty of README.md and other markdown files so they visualize the results and get relevant files without the need to create a github account. They usually report issues to me by email, and I open and close GH issues myself based on their feedback.
Perceived problem
It just hit me that, while my own work is my own to license the way I want, the dataset is not. I didn't participate in the collection, or curation of it. The first step I take before pushing anything to the public repository is to anonymize the dataset.
I usually show the users students the repositories of previous projects, and indicate they'll have such access to their results in a similar fashion. So far, no one has complained about their data being online. One of those projects I show is from a student of an IRB member.
Questions

Should I ask each user if they want me to remove the datasets from their repository?
EDIT: would it suffice to put a warning on the repository that the dataset is not licensed the same way the code, graphs and other contents therein available?
Should I remove all such datasets regardless? Why or Why not?
Is there something else I might be missing about this scenario?

My take, as someone who tends to use other people's data in extended analysis, and does enjoy having the most up-to-date version of an analysis/etc. up on GitHub:

  Should I ask each user if they want me to remove the datasets from
  their repository?

Yes. You should, fundamentally, be respectful of other people's data. Which includes things like "I'm about to put this on a website". While you haven't mentioned if your repositories are public or private, there's no guarantee that data stored in a private repo won't end up in the wild, one way or another.

  Should I remove all such datasets regardless? Why or Why not?

I don't know that I'd remove all the data sets that are already up there, but I would definitely ask for approval, and if you don't hear back, assume that the answer is "No".

  Is there something else I might be missing about this scenario?

Yep...

  These are mostly medical and health research projects.

You haven't said what kind of data, but beyond just whether or not your anonymization step is actually sufficient, is whether or not the agreements that generated this data - IRB approvals, informed consent documents, data use agreements, etc. actually allow it to be put online in this form. That is, by no means, a sure thing.


What to do when someone does not respond to your email? So, I am struggling with one of my upper division math class(Partial differential equations). I contacted a close family friend to see if he can help me or if he knows anybody that can tutor me because he is a math professor at a college. Long story short, a grad student emailed me and said he is willing to help me because he had the same professor with same class, but has not done that class for a while but is willing to catch on after reading the notes.

Then, he asked to email him the course topics and I emailed it to him. Two days later no respond. I am frustrated because I am really having a hard time in that class and recently failed a quiz, and I am stuck on the next homework assigned and have another quiz this week. I don't want to go to my professor for help because he will ask why I did bad on the quiz, which I feel embarrassed  and I had been going to his office hours for help before quizzes and homework. So, what do you do in this position?

First, forget your embarrassment and go see your professor for help. That is his job. If he asks why you did poorly, give him the most honest answer you can and see if he can provide some suggestions to get over the block. Your difficult with PDE is pretty common as it takes a new way of looking at things after calculus.

As for the tutor, two days is very little time to make initial contact. So, you can ask again, in email, about current topics. But once you do make contact it may go more smoothly. But grad students are pretty busy.

But, I also urge caution with any tutor. Make sure that they don't give you so much help with things that  you don't actually learn yourself. The best thing they can do is give you some exercises and watch as you solve them, with you expressing your thoughts on what to do verbally. The best tutor will give you only minimal hints when you get stuck, and not show you how to approach every problem.


How to learn to make a meaningful study without having an academical background? I am an autist who had been in therapie for 8 years. In that therapie I learned a lot about my own and later about others psychology. I also developed over the years an tendency to just experiment with my own and others perception of situations/interactions and evaluating the differences/similarity of different people's reaction. The amount of information I was able to gain and by that learn from it made me become kind of an experimenter by heart what started taking over to all aspects of my life.

Very often, I had already an idea of doing an experiment I should document because it might be interesting (but not meaningful) for others aswell, but I decided not to, as I had no idea how to do it.

Now through all the therapies I had and especially in group therapies, I figured a really big problem in getting an autism diagnosis is that the criteria for the diagnose are kinda subjective and many therapists hesitate to give it, as its hard for them to give a final judgement if someone has autism or not. I have an idea how this process could be improved by giving the therapists additional backup, so they could make a decision with more certainty and hence reduce the hesitation in the process of giving an autism diagnosis. I talked already with my therapist about my idea and he agreed that the idea sounds very interesting but that he knows from his field, that there are so many different opinions on what are the important criteria for an autism diagnosis, that my idea couldn't be generally applied due to the fact that it had to be individually phrased for anyone to find acceptance.

After that conversation I couldn't anymore let go the idea of making a study proofing that my idea would work. So far, I have an aim with that study, which would be improving the required time and precision of spotting the presence or absence of the criteria required for making an autism diagnosis.
I have a concept of how my idea could universally be applied in form of a questionnaire (despite I haven't considered yet, what questions had to be asked in specific). And I have an vague idea of how to design an experiment that possibly would proof (or disprove) the premise of my idea.

What from my understanding should be enough to (dis)proof a concept.

Now the only thing that prevents me from doing this study is, I have no idea how to perform such a study in a way that it has any means. I don't know how to check what related research others had already done or if someone made this study already before I did. I have no idea how to figure whats the threshold of candidates to participate in my study had to be, so the result is meaningful. I have no idea how to avoid or spot irregularitys in the results of the study. And I have no idea how to actually reach out to possible candidates wanting to participate in that study. As the around 30 other autists I know from which I could be lucky if half of them was interested to participate, I suspect by far wouldn't be enough for getting an meaningful result.

tl&dr

So my question is, if I have no academical background and don't know how to design a study in its detail, how could I learn or find help for doing so outside of academia?

Given the comments of yourself and others here, let me make an orthogonal suggestion. Instead of exploring this on your own, you might try to contact someone in either medicine or psychology at a university or research center and speak to them about your ideas. You might provide a useful resource to someone who might be interested in following up your ideas, perhaps by guiding a student already under their guidance.

But alternatively, your conversation might reveal to you that what you propose has already be well researched. Such a professional contact could, perhaps, point you to the answers you seek.

This would result in minimal impact on your career, and might provide an interesting research problem to someone.

Personal contact via an office visit is probably the best and most efficient way to get such a conversation started. An email might be ignored. Your therapist might be able to point you to a researcher.


Why is online course enrollment limited to specific times when a course is offered? Online course providers like edX and coursera offer free courses, but you can only take/enroll the courses at specific times of the year (not any time). Why is that? If you just want to learn something (not for a degree in accredited institutions), it would be much easier if you could do it online anytime.

Actually for both of them some courses are fully autonomous "anytime" courses, while others are restricted to being offered at particular times.  So far as I can tell, the time-restricted courses derive two benefits from being time-restricted:

It creates a "cohort" of students learning similar things and doing similar assignments at the same time, who can then help one another in the associated forums.
Resources needed to support the course (e.g., TA monitoring, course material updates) can track the progress of the students through the course, increasing the return on resources and minimizing disruption to students.


What is the best practice to mention "conference presentations" in CV I'm going to apply to a graduate program which asks me to declare my conference presentations in my CV.

I have 9 proceeding papers, 8 of which are presented by myself, and I have another section in my CV, called "publications", in which the papers are meticulously cited.

Now, I am thinking of the best approach to mentioning my presentations, which can be some references to the publications section of the CV without rewriting complete information of each paper (such as its title, venue, etc.) as the following:

Publications:

9 - Me, et al., "the title 9", venue, pp., 20XX,

8 - Me, et al., "the title 8", venue, pp., 20XX,

.
.
.

1 - Me, et al., "the title 1", venue, pp., 20XX,

Presentations:

Sept. 20XX - Presenter of the 9th Proceeding Paper, venue 9,

Sept. 20XX - Presenter of the 7th Proceeding Paper, venue 7,

.
.
.

Sept. 20XX - Presenter of the 1st Proceeding Paper, venue 1,

I'm wondering whether this kind of referring is the etiquette and is kinda professional or I better rewrite information of all papers again.

I would try to avoid having the same information twice or referring to another section in your CV, that makes it complicated to read.

What I would do, but this is of course something subjective, is having one section for "journal papers", one for "conference papers", depending on your field they might be worth as much as journal papers, if that's the case then just one section, for example "peer reviewed articles". And one for "oral contributions including conference papers". I guess there's a better name for that but I would put the presentation and the paper into one entry:

  How to write a CV

  DSVA, Some else, another person

  presented at some conference, 01.01.1971, the internet

  published in: Me, et al., "the title 1", venue, pp., 20XX,

If the authors are the same I would leave out the second line.

The alternative would be just adding the information about the talk to the paper section by adding:

  Presented by DSVA in an oral communication at some conference, date

Since the conference paper and the presentation seem to be very tied together this would make a lot of sense.


Blockchain for publications Today`s publications lack of the possibility to be extended by others after being published. A data base paper could for example benefit when contributors would gain authorship by opening data with a meta description.

Blockchain is a technology which offers the inheritance of documents. Each block can be seen as a single owner.

In case of scientific publications that means:

Paper x00 is written by x.
Paper x00 is taken by z and extended to xz0.
Paper x00 is taken by y and extended to xy0.
Paper xz0 is liked most by q and extended to xzq. q finds the advanced paper
xz0 better than xy0 or the original x00.

There would be no merge options (xy0 and xz0 are merged to xyz), but fields within science would develop interesting publication trees over time with self pruning capabilities. Most useful contributions will inherit, none useful extensions will "die out". You can still cite other sources.

I worked as an informatician in the barely digitized field of forestry and found myself citing a technology called optimization developed in the 50`s.
Specifically the "Downhill Simplex" method developed by two authors Nelder and Mead.
I also know that only the basic principle of the algorithm is used in today's
libraries. Details have been changed. Multiple thousands of method clones exists published over half a century. The implementation I rely on differs from
the original published one. I always wondered who contributed most over the decades. Might have been a lot of scientists who made advances on the algorithm which others did rely on. But I do now know.

What benefits and what negative effects would such an application have I do not think of? Energy costs could be another issue which I cannot quantify.

To clarify, the benefit I see is the expandable authorship.

Scientific publishing is certainly experiencing a lot of changes and is looking very different from what is used to, even, let's say, 20 years ago. The increasing role of electronic publications, open-access journals, mere publication capabilities, open preprint services (like arXiv), ability to attach media\data\source code to the publication – all that has revolutionized and will continue to change the way we publish, read and comprehend scientific publications.

Nevertheless, all those advances solved (or attempted to solve) crucial problems in publishing and/or significantly increased the quality of the experience, both for the reader and the author. The extension/correction of the existing work does not seem to me like one of them.

Nobody prohibits (and usually it is encouraged) subsequent publications that extend the subject knowledge. That's why we have references at the end of the paper. Nowadays, a lot of publishers offer easy access to referenced material (sometimes, even across the publishers) in a click of a button. In addition to that, there is often also "Citations" section which would show the papers that cite this paper.

Example (just took a random paper from my field, not implying by any means that IEEE does a perfect job):

The paper "Error analysis for the truncation of multipole expansion of vector Green's functions" by J. Song and W. C. Chew in IEEE MWCL.
IEEE provides references that this paper contains with links to the available full-texts, contexts, and several means of accessing it.
Also, IEEE provides access to papers that cite it both from IEEE and other publishers.

All that ensures the continuity and availability of the research. I certainly do not see the value of creating a new revision of the same paper later to include new contributions from the same or different authors. That would be a new publication.

As for the corrections, with electronic publications, the authors themselves can correct their paper if the publisher policies allow that. Moreover, let's not underestimate the value of the "Correction to the paper" publications. While some of them are not so interesting, others might offer valuable content by showing what and why it was wrong in the original paper. Again, with electronic publications, these correction papers can be linked to the original publications.

To sum it up. While blockchain can be useful to create the system you have described, I do not see the need for this system. And this need, in my opinion, should be investigated and analyzed first in great detail. Also, see some of my points on blockchain usage for avoiding fraud in collected data. Here I would repeat the final thought:

  I am very interested to see practical uses of blockchain in other areas (let's see where the smart contracts go in 5-10 years). Academia and research process does not scream for blockchain and its usability is totally unclear and hard to implement.


How to cite when I want to use a direct quote in the same sentence as an in-text citation with no parenthesis in APA? For example, I want to describe a paper with a direct quote from it. Would this be OK:

Pieters and Wedel (2007) “revealed goal  control of attention even during a few seconds of self-paced ad exposure with an eye-tracking experiment” (Pieters & Wedel, 2007, p 224)

I use APA 6th edition as the guideline.

That is incorrect according to the APA Style Blog. The correct way would be

  Pieters and Wedel (2007) “revealed goal control of attention even during a few seconds of self-paced ad exposure with an eye-tracking experiment” (p. 224)

NB: there is a period after the p.


Is it usual for finished PhD students to send out physical copies of their thesis to unknown persons? Some time ago, a recently-graduated PhD has sent me a physical (book) copy of his dissertation. The graduate works in a somewhat-related field, but is personally entirely unknown to me (I have some loose connections to the advisor, though). I was reasonably confused by this - I personally have never heard of a custom of sending physical theses to anybody besides maybe parents. I was 100% convinced that I received the dissertation in error (also because the mailing was addressed to my name, but using a wrong department name).

Last week I by chance got hold of the graduate and told him that he sent me his thesis by accident, and asked whether he wants to have it back. He seemed confused and a little bit annoyed that I wanted to give his thesis back - it turns out he actually sent me the book on purpose, assuming that I would be interested in his work. He told me that he thought it is customary to send a finished PhD thesis to people that he thought might profit from its results.

So, is this a thing, at least in some fields? If so, why not just send the core papers or a link to a digital version of the thesis? Mailing out printed copies seems extremely expensive, and also (at least for me) very unlikely to result in anything else than me having another book gathering dust in my office shelf. I am honestly very unlikely to read an entire thesis, especially if I only have it in a dead-tree book version.

This is not uncommon in the country where I did my PhD (the Netherlands). There you have to print a reasonably large amount of hardcopies anyway, typically people get around 200-300 copies in my field. It is not uncommon to send some copies to researchers that you genuinely believe may be interested in the work, usually people that you have been in contact with before, or are in contact with your advisor.

The cost of the thesis printing and mailing is generally reimbursed by the university (of course, all within reasonable limits). In countries where printing the thesis is not so common, I can imagine that the practice of mailing around copies is not common.


What defines the legitimacy of an IRB? As we know, researchers without university affiliations who need IRB approval for human subjects research can obtain approval from an independent IRB.

What defines the legitimacy of an independent IRB? Logically, a university IRB derives an aura of legitimacy from the accreditation that its university carries, but how does an independent IRB differentiate itself from a "fake" independent IRB?

In other words, if I wanted to start my own Independent IRB and start approving research projects for independent researchers, nonprofits, and industry groups, what exactly would I need to do to become "legit"? Alternatively, what stops random people from starting up a "predatory" IRB that exists to rubber-stamp any old unethical garbage research in exchange for large cash payments?

Is the legitimacy of a self-claimed Independent IRB defined by the soundness of its ethical judgments? E.g. if you make good judgments, approve ethical research, don't approve anything unethical, etc., everything is golden. If you approve bad things (either intentionally or incompetently), you lose face and become seen as "fake".
Is the legitimacy defined in terms of inputs? e.g. if you have enough advanced degree holders, persons who have passed certain research ethics exams, etc., you are legit, else you are not.
Is there some formal accreditation process that wannabe independent IRB's must go through? In other words, if you have the formal accreditation certificate, you are legit, else you are not.
Is there no "gold standard" in legitimacy, and funding sources, journals, etc. all make their own independent determinations as to which IRBs to recognize? E.g. perhaps someone's research results turn out to be groundbreaking, but they can only publish in a third-rate journal because they used a small, discount IRB not recognized by most high-impact journals.
Is the real requirement simply that the research be vetted by someone other than the researcher(s), and using a formally constituted IRB is just a Best Practice that researchers typically choose to follow in order to reduce the likelihood that they will harm a research subject?

Alternatively, what stops the following from being heard more often?

  I got all this research approved by Uncle Bill's Discount Cigar and Research Ethics Adviseorium on Maple Avenue, behind the bowling alley next to the pawn shop, what do you mean they are not legit?

Although one may argue the extent of the problem and where exactly the border line between legit and non-legit is, very few people would dispute that "diploma mills" and "predatory journals" actually do exist. There seems to be no evidence, however, that "fake IRBs" are even a thing in the overactive mind of some busybody, let alone a significant concern. Considering that I have not heard much (actually, nothing at all) regarding allegations of "fake" or "predatory" independent IRB's bilking naive independent researchers in exchange for worthless rubber stamps, I am led to believe that either there is little money in independent IRB activities (e.g. low profit margins, very high overhead costs) to attract predators, or that there is already an onerous approval process that "fake" or less-competent wannabe reviewers cannot pass.

I might also expect that if there really were "fake" IRB's, someone would have performed a sting operation or expose by now. E.g.

  I submitted a copy of the Milgram Experiment to TomorrowIRB 21st Century Ethics, Inc., and they sent it back with a letter saying that they would approve it immediately if I paid them $20,000 by Western Union and signed a piece of paper promising not to use political prisoners. They are either on crack or predatory! Beware!

In the United States, this is governed by Title 45, Part 46.

Paragraph 101 states that this applies to all research funded by or "subject to regulation" by the US Government
The same paragraph also states that an Agency Head may determine that a foreign IRB system is equivalent and may be substituted

The key requirements for US IRBs are:

Subpart A, Paragraph 107: IRBs must have at least 5 members with varying backgrounds (as enumerated)
Subpart A, Paragraph 108: IRBs must have sufficient meeting space, staff, written procedures for its deliberations, decisions, and adverse incidents
Subpart A, Paragraph 115: IRBs must keep detailed records for three years (as described)
Subpart E: IRBs must be registered with HHS (Office for Human Research Protections and/or Federal Drug Agency).

Most of the other subsections detail the basic rules that IRBs must enforce (e.g., involving fetuses, prisoners).

From what I can tell (and I am no expert), the only barrier to people using Uncle Bill's Cigar Shop IRB is that if a subject is harmed by an IRB-approved protocol, Uncle Bill is going to get sued. Uncle Bill may also have legal problems with the Government if they fail to follow the federal regulations governing IRBs (i.e., if they approve something that is clearly not permitted under CFR).


How soon to send dissertation to committee before defense? Basically, I set my defense for 3 weeks from now but forgot that I will need to send my dissertation to the committee before the actual defense (it's been a busy week), and I need as much time to work on it as possible. I'm thinking I will send it to them a few days before the defense (e.g., over the weekend if the defense is in the middle of the following week). Knowing them, it would probably be fine anyway, but would that be really bad form? Just trying to get an idea of what is typical.

The exact requirements vary by institution and program (e.g., some may require a dissertation draft to be submitted to a committee within a minimum amount of time before the defense, perhaps around a week or 10 days) though I suspect that these requirements are rarely enforced. The presumption is that you will give your committee members sufficient time to read your manuscript before you present it to them, both so they're familiar with your work, and so they can catch any obvious problems with the document. It's not their job, of course, to proofread your work or even to review the entire document in great detail before the defense, but they should have the option to read it, and you may find their suggestions are more helpful if you give them more time to review. Otherwise, you may find yourself referring to portions of the written dissertation during your defense despite having only made the material available for a few days. The material is less likely to be surprising if you give your committee ample time to see it beforehand.

So, if your question is "am I good?" then your answer is "possibly, but don't make peoples' lives harder than they already are." A defense is not a good time to irritate your committee members. Give them a week, at least.


What was offensive about the "ladies lingerie department" joke, and how can I avoid offending people in a similar way? Moderator note: A follow-on question about how to avoid the behavior described here has been posted.

In recent news, two academics are at odds over this incident full article here:

  The fuss started when [Prof. X] and [Prof. Y] ended up in the same crowded elevator during a conference at a Hilton in San Francisco last month.  [Prof. Y] said she offered to press the floor buttons for people in the elevator, whom she described as mostly conference attendees and all, except one other woman, white middle-aged men. Instead of saying a floor, [Prof. X] smiled and asked for the women’s lingerie department "and all his buddies laughed," [Prof. Y] wrote in a complaint, the details of which he disputed, to the association later that day.

This incident has escalated to the point that the academic organization that organized the conference has decided to sanction Prof. X.

I don't understand why the joke was funny, but that's not really important.  I would like to understand why it was offensive.  Specifically, I'm wondering

In what way was this comment offensive?

The bullets above are not rhetorical or sarcastic; I am completely sincere.  I am worried because I don't understand precisely what was offensive, so I fear that I might do something similar.  I have wondered whether the remark was offensive because:

It referred to underwear
It referred to women (in any way) and was cause for laughter
There is some unstated assumption about his reason for supposedly going to a lingerie department

But I really have no idea, and I want to understand.  I could not find an answer in any of the news pieces on this incident.

I realize that this question might get closed as off-topic.  However, I think it is wrong to assume that no part of this is specific to academic culture (if that's the case, that's part of the answer).  Certainly it occurred in a uniquely academic environment, and is a dispute between academics and an academic society, that seems to jeopardize at least one academic career.

Please refrain from using this as a place to express your opinion on who is right in this dispute.  That's not what I'm asking.

tl;dr: The joke was funny because it was absurd and taboo (made people uncomfortable). It was "offensive" because it may have been intended to make the person operating the elevator feel embarrassed or singled-out. Avoid making jokes that make people feel singled-out.

How is the joke funny?

As other answers have pointed out, the joke is funny because it makes reference to a time when elevator operators were the norm and people would call out the desired floor in a department store by asking for a specific department. It is an absurd (out-of-place) comment to make in the context (the present day, and not in a department store). Often, absurdity is funny.

There is, however, another layer to the humour. People will often laugh when in an uncomfortable situation. The joke is uncomfortable because of the floor that was asked for: ladies lingerie. In some cultures (I can say Canada and the UK for sure) the topic of undergarments, especially ladies undergarments, is taboo and therefore not supposed to be discussed in "polite society".

In what way was the comment offensive?

I think other answers are close, but slightly miss the mark. The reason I think the joke is offensive is because, whether it was intended or not, it made the person operating the elevator uncomfortable or embarrassed. On a more subtle note the reason is context.

The person operating the elevator may have felt like they were targeted by the joke. They asked an innocent question "What floor?" and the joker replies with the less-than-innocent answer "Ladies lingerie". We can only speculate as to the intentions of the joker, but it is clear that while the joke may have been directed to everyone in the elevator, the answer was directed to the person operating the elevator. Add the fact that the person operating the elevator was a woman, and it doesn't seem so far-fetched to think that she may have felt targeted by the joke.

To further consider this point: why was the department "ladies lingerie" chosen? The joker could have asked for "the hardware department" or "men's clothing" or "sporting goods" and the joke would have drawn a few chuckles. "Ladies lingerie" was chosen because it is taboo, and it is extra taboo because it is a man directing the comment at a woman. More discomfort = more likely to provoke laughs (even though the people in the elevator might feel more uncomfortable than tickled).

Finally, consider the context: a male dominated space. I can say from personal experience (as a man) that it is not uncommon for a group of men to direct lewd or taboo comments at women (or sometimes a young/innocent-seeming man) to provoke embarrassment. Heck, I'm guilty of doing it myself, before I realized how it makes the target of the joke feel! It is likely that the person operating the elevator experienced this sort of behaviour many times before and assumed (perhaps rightly) that the joke was targeted at her and was intended to make her feel embarrassed.

Making someone feel embarrassed for your personal entertainment = bullying. Bullying should not be tolerated, especially in a professional setting.

If it was an elevator full of women and a woman made the joke, the context would be different and the person operating the elevator may not have felt singled-out. Similarly if it was entirely men. However, even in these contexts it is possible for the joke to be construed as bullying, especially if the target of the joke is someone that the joker knows would feel embarrassed.

How do I avoid offending people in a similar way?

Avoid jokes involving topics that make people uncomfortable, especially when telling jokes to strangers or acquaintances. Generally avoid taboo topics of whatever culture you are in and especially avoid jokes that might make someone feel targeted or singled-out based on race, skin colour, sexuality, gender, etc.


How does the US National Science Foundation (NSF) research funding system work? Sometimes here on Academia I read messages referring to American National Science Foundation (NSF), "the USA agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering" (page on Wikipedia).

In this question and this question we discussed about NSF postdoctoral funding possibilities. Since I am in the European Union, I don't know very much about NSF.

How does NSF funding system work?
How does NSF postdoctoral funding program work? Does it fund only American citizens or anyone that wants to work as a researcher in the US?

Many thanks!

I'm most familiar with the NSF mathematical sciences research postdoctoral fellowship, which I was lucky enough to get 15 years ago.  The application process is described in detail in NSF's formal solicitation, but here's an executive summary:

Unlike most other NSF funding, this program is limited to US citizens and permanent residents.  (NSF's regular research grants formally fund the institution, not the PI, so non-American PIs can win grants; on the other hand, NSF's graduate research fellowship has a similar citizenship requirement.)  There was a parallel program for international postdocs for several years, but it seems to have been retired.
Applicants must be within two years of their PhD and must have no previous US federal grant funding.  In practice, this means each applicant can apply at most three times: once just before graduating and twice after.  Applicants do not need an academic affiliation when they apply.  (Again, the fellowship funds the applicant, not the institution.)
The application itself requires a bunch of NSF boilerplate, but the main content is an abbreviated (3-5 page) research proposal, a one-page project summary, and four recommendation letters (submitted separately by their authors).  As usual for NSF, the proposal absolutely must contain a paragraph explicitly labeled Intellectual Merit and another paragraph explicitly labeled Broader Impact.
Applicants also need an agreement from a sponsoring scientist/mentor/advisor.  The sponsor separately submits a statement describing their proposed mentorship role, research opportunities available in the hosting department, and promised infrastructure (office, computer support, libraries, specialized equipment, etc.).  The sponsor cannot also write a recommendation letter.
All applications are submitted electronically through NSF's FastLane web site.  Considering how much FastLane has to handle (basically everything NSF does), it works amazingly well.
The applications are reviewed by a panel of mathematical scientists (or more likely by multiple panels, given the number of applications).  Panelists are invited by the program director, but in my experience, NSF program directors are happy to hear from volunteers!
Each panel recommends and ranks a subset of the applications they review.  Standard NSF practice is to fund all applications strongly recommended by the panel, and some applications with weaker recommendations, depending on available funds and other criteria.  (NSF is deliberately vague about these other criteria, but gender, ethnic, and geographic diversity are likely guesses.)
Applications for fellowships to begin in Fall 2013 are due October 19, 2012.  Yes, this is really early.  Winners are usually notified in February and announced on the NSF web site soon thereafter.  All applicants receive a summary of their panel reviews.
The total award amount is $150,000, distributed over a two-year period.  Most of that is salary, but about $30,000 is set aside for stuff like equipment, travel, and benefits from the host institution.  Frustratingly, fellows are neither employees of the hosting institution, employees of NSF, nor formally self-employed; the US Treasury Department simply injects $5000 into your bank account every month.  So good luck with taxes!
Fellows need to submit progress reports once per year and a final report when the fellowship ends.


Does a recommendation have to be from a professor from your university? Suppose I want to get letter of recommendation for a PhD program. Could this letter be from someone not from my institution? Could is be from someone I have collaborated with online? Or generally do schools want recommendations from professors from a student's home institution?

A letter of recommendation absolutely does not have to be from someone at your university. It should be from someone you have collaborated with. In general, a letter of recommendation will be most valuable if:

It can speak to your potential as a researcher: letters from supervisors of research projects are much more valuable than letters from people who have only had you in class
It is written by someone well known in the field that you are attempting to enter. When this person says you have potential to be a researcher, it is much more credible if they have experience working with excellent researchers in the field.
It is written by someone who knows you well. They should be able to point to specific things you have done with them, specific conversations you have had, specific ideas you have had.

You should pick your letter writers by seeing how well they optimize these three properties. It won't matter if they are at your home institution or not. The only reason not to get a letter from "someone you have collaborated with online" is if they don't satisfy these criteria. In particular, I might be concerned that they don't know you well enough if you have never met them.

That being said, it might raise a red flag if none of your letter writers are from your home institution. But if you have one of these, that should be enough.


Should I address a "Charge de Recherche" or "Directeur de recherche" in France as "Prof."? In France, the following are two of the main ways people get promoted in academic positions:

Maître de Conférences (assistant professor whose responsibilities include teaching as well as research) -> professeur (professor)

and

Chargé de recherche (in charge of research) -> Directeur de recherche (director of research).

Note that in the second sequence of academic promotions, one doesn't have to teach and the positions are mostly dedicated to research (although one can opt to teach if s/he wants to).
My question is: while applying to a position (postdoc/permanent) in the team of a chargé de recherche where s/he is the PI of the project, should one address her/him as a professor ("Prof."), say in the cover letter? It's technically incorrect it seems, but perhaps no harm is done because their positions are equivalent to those of professors anyway.
I'd like to know the viewpoint(s) of someone(s) who's familiar with the French system!

French academia is not big on titles. Whether it's by students, colleagues, or the administration, people are rarely if ever addressed by their titles. I'm a "maître de conférences" myself, and nobody addresses me as anything other than "Monsieur", and my colleagues of another gender are addressed as "Madame". That's it, no fluff, no "Prof Dr", no "Maître" -- which wouldn't be appropriate as this is how you address attorneys and notaries, not even "Dr".
If you want to err on the side of the formality, which is perhaps better until you know more about the person in question and how they like to be addressed, you can call them "Prof". It's inaccurate, yes, but we are used to the outside world wanting to impose American title norms on us. You can take comfort in the fact that many institutions have "research professors", so a chargé de recherches could be viewed as a "junior/associate research professor", that you would address as "Prof", indeed.
Personally I wouldn't care if a foreign applicant started an email with "Dear Mr. XYZ" (or Ms. as appropriate), and I doubt (m)any of my colleagues would. But I hesitate to give this advice, as it's possible that in some French academic subcultures some people give more importance to titles. I'm thinking of law and medicine, especially.
However, do not ever address someone as "Dear Chargé de recherches Dupont" or "Dear CR Dupont". That's just not used as a salutation, even if it's the title used by that person on their website.


What are the pros and cons of well compensated STEM graduate students joining a union? Recently, my state has declared graduate students as employees giving them the right to unionize. The students in the Engineering School are very well compensated. The benefits that we get are

Minimum stipend of 29k$ (which was increased ~3 years ago).
Top tier health insurance plan fully paid for by the University and Engineering School
Deans that largely respect student needs and actively address current issues
Plethora of funding for student lead activities
Free services like legal council, psychiatrist, campus clinique, campus shuttle buses, etc.
TA opportunities are always available for those that need them.

Additionally, my department has a very high standard set forth for us. We have nice offices, the Chair actively addresses our concerns and complaints, funds for student activities and community building, computational resources, and more. The quality of life for students in my department (Applied Math) is quite high.

Lately, we've had outside people dropping by to advise us to join a union. The humanities students are largely in support of this movement since they are not compensated as well as the engineering students. In my point of view, there are very few reasons why I can see joining a union will benefit the Applied Math graduate students. Given how well we, the graduate students in my department, are currently treated, what are the advantages and disadvantages of unionization?

Edit: There is a similar question here, however, does not specifically address STEM students.

I am a naive graduate student and will like to be better informed about the advantages and repercussions of joining a union. Whenever administrative University personnel have approached us to dissuade the effort, their tone has been extremely diplomatic and ambiguous about why they are advising against unionizing.

A brief summary of the responses is as follows.

Advantages of unionizing

Security of current benefits
Bargaining power to timely address current, new, and growing needs of the entire bargaining unit
Guaranteed minimum pay
Improving circumstances of students in other schools who are not as well compensated
Human resources like representation for students facing abuse, harassment, or other adversities from their advisors

Disadvantages of unionizing

Partisan representation
Clarifying the distinction between student and employee (though some may argue that this is an advantage)
Paying dues (though contracts usually negotiate higher stipends to offset this amount)
Deterioration of student/administrative relationship

Additional STEM specific points that I'd like to add are

Advantages

Incentives to address issues such as a single student having to monitor experiments running for 8+ hours
For international students, alleviating fears of not being able to find an advisor which prevents them for settling to the 1st person that says yes regardless of their interest
Some departments in the Engineering school offer things like funds for all students in their 3rd year to purchase a new laptop. Adapting this or similar policies universally would be appreciated.
Guaranteed funding beyond X years as set forth by the School, especially when the average is just slightly below X.

Disadvantages

As funds are rerouted into increased stipends, there may be

Decreased support for professional development (conferences, workshops, etc.)
Decreased supplemental resources (rented compute nodes and hours, new lab equipment, etc.)
Fewer graduate student and postdoc hires

Thank you all for your comments; it is all very much insightful. I'll continue to look out for new responses.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 2016 set a minimum salary of $47,476 for professional employees to be exempt from paid overtime. in response to this, the NIH changed its postdoctoral salaries.

While the NIH says

  NIH is fully supportive of increased pay for postdoctoral researchers and has proposed to increase the NRSA postdoctoral stipends to levels above the threshold

their behavior suggests otherwise. What they did is simple increase all postdoctoral salaries below the minimum to slightly higher than the minimum. While historically a year 1 post doc made 4% more than a year 0 postdoc, after the adjustment they made the same. There was no increase in the predoctoral salaries. In FY 2016 the NIH predoctoral salary was $23,376 so slightly less than what you are currently being paid.

While you may believe you are well compensated, some would argue that $29,000 a year is not a fair salary if you are expected to perform unpaid overtime (and what graduate student doesn't work overtime). A union can help fight for things like fair salaries.


What software do you use to keep up to date on literature, and if Google Scholar, how do you avoid information overload? I see a lot of people use Google Scholar and ResearchGate alerts, but I find those alert systems too overwhelming to the point I get inundated and treat them like spam. Perhaps I'm not using them effectively, though (e.g., too many AND operators in my searches). Any tips to improve my experience? Any alternatives that you might suggest? I'm intrigued by ReadCube Papers for its capabilities to integrate searches for papers, citations, and annotations (which is something I've also struggled to do, having used three different pieces of software for those functions), but I'd prefer something that doesn't have a subscription payment structure, at the very least.

Some options, most of which are actually not software:

Subscribe to alerts for new papers published in your favorite journals via email or rss feed. (Be selective enough to not become inundated.)

Try a recommendation engine (and pay with your privacy) like Mendeley.

Subscribe to newsletters of relevant research associations and networks.

Ask colleagues what they've found interesting recently, or more specifically what literature they recommend on a given topic.


How do I differentiate between addressing two professors with the same last name? I am currently taking an online course (at a university in the US) in which once a week I am in the same virtual meeting room as two professors, one male and one female, with the same last name. I am unsure in how I should go about directly addressing one of them when I typically address all my professors as "Professor <lastname>" . As a second-year undergraduate student, I have been told it is inappropriate to address both professors by their first name if they have not stated this is okay (e.g. my past professors have typically said "you can call me <firstname>" on the first day of class). Additionally, when I took a course with one of these professors last year, I (and all other students) addressed them as "Professor <lastname>". If addressing them by first name is inappropriate in this context, how would I selectively address one when both professors are in the room?
With the exception of myself and another undergraduate, all other students in this course are graduate students, and address the professors on a first-name basis. So this has not a common cause of confusion in the course.

There are few things you can do.

Call each by their full name like 'Professor Ann Smith' or 'Professor Bill Smith'.
Ask whether you can call them by 'Professor first-name' like 'Professor Ann' or 'Professor Bill'.
Continue to use 'Professor last-name'. They'll either decide who will answer or ask you to clarify which person you wanted.
And the easiest, as pointed out by Buffy, ask the professors if there's an alternate, unique name you can use so you can differentiate between them.


What benefits are there to university alumni mentoring undergraduate students? My faculty is starting a mentorship initiative where they match undergrad students with alumni from the same program. I was contacted by one of my old professors, and asked whether or not I could be a mentor.

Now I have been in mentorship programs before; and I currently have a mentor myself, but I have always been the mentee, never the mentor. I have to say I never considered what the mentors have to gain in these programs. Is it mostly charity, in the sense that you selflessly help/guide the mentee, or are the intellectual/practical benefits to mentoring, particularly within academia?

What can a mentor gain from the mentor/mentee relationship?

Altruistic answers:

Passing on learned knowledge and lessons is a hallmark of a society. What you learned as a student, employee, employer, citizen, etc. is important so that once your brain and the brains of others in your generation are pushing up daisies, the knowledge isn't lost, and repeating mistakes can be avoided. Many people consider this a satisfying endeavor.
As a role model, you can demonstrate moral, ethical, compassionate, etc. strategies for using the education you got from the school. Knowing that you've led someone down an ethical path is a good feeling.
You can act as a sounding board for your mentee's questions about your field, and for the types of questions that don't routinely come up in class. There is a certain satisfaction in being able to answer questions based on your experience.
There might be new ideas that your mentee knows about your field that you can learn from. While you pass on your wisdom, you also have the opportunity to learn some of the new ideas that are being taught today.

Less altruistic answers:

Depending on your field, having been a mentor looks good on a resume or in an interview.
In your case, you'll gain points with your former professor, who might be more inclined to write you a good letter of recommendation some day.

Decidedly bad answers:

Steer the kid in the wrong direction, and that's one less competitor!
You might get your lab cleaned because "it builds character."
In academia, if your mentee has good ideas, you can steal them and publish the results yourself.


Is it ethical to have a former student serve on my hiring committee at a community college? Recently in an interview for a full-time faculty position at the college I work as an adjunct; one of the members was a former student of mine. This student barely passed my class the first time and retook my class a second time to raise his grade. This seemed like a case of conflict of interest. The other adjunct in my dept, who also had this student was advanced to the second level of the interview process. I know this student is not a fan of mine and could have viewed this as a chance to "fail" me. I have spoken to our union rep but their answers are vague. Do I have reasons to take my issues to the next level-HR?

Some colleges and universities have students in hiring committees, either as observers, non-voting members, or full members. In the university where I studied, power was shared roughly 40% / 30% / 30% between faculty, staff, and students. Hence it was obvious that there would be student representatives as full voting members in almost every committee.

Individual members of the hiring committee tend to have conflicts of interest with individual applicants, especially because the committee is often selected in advance. When such conflicts occur, the conflicted member should find a way to handle the situation, e.g. by observing the interview instead of actively participating in it.

The situation gets interesting with internal applicants and student representatives, because every potential student representative probably has a conflict of interest. If university regulations state that there must be a student representative, then the student repersentative may have to participate in decisionmaking regardless of conflicts of interest. The relevant principle here is that if every potential representative has a conflict of interest, then no one has.


What are the steps to establish an academic journal? We want to establish a journal. Also I want to add the journal to various indexes. What are the main steps /guide to building an academic journal? What should be done to enter the SCI/SCIe/SSCI index. What is the difference between ISBN, ISSN, DOI numbers. I'm not interesting basic steps like deciding topic, name ,reviewers and editors of journal. It would be nice if you mentioned about the application/reference prices.

Note:This question might be broad so I can narrow this topic in the direction of your suggestions/comments

This question is indeed rather broad. The specific questions you ask are at once basic and easily researched (you can get basic information about ISSN, ISBN and DOI on Wikipedia, for example) and quite complex (indices have their own rules). This leads me to think that you don't know what you don't know.

I suggest that you contact

A managing editor or production manager of a journal in your field
The publication liaison of your learned society
The acquisitions or new projects person at one of the big journal publishers like Elsevier or Wiley

Good luck.


Why do formal research papers keep statements that should be interpreted informally? In several domains, I came across many popular research papers that do contain statements that should be interpreted informally. If someone interprets them formally, it leads to a totally wrong perception.
The issue is that the authors use the formal terms in-order to make the statements that has to be interpreted informally. The statements I am referring are not the plain English statements, which can be equivocal in nature.
For example, consider the following answer from other stack site

You're right! The generative model f is not the same as the
probability density (p.d.f.) function pdata. The kind of phrases
you've referred to are to be interpreted informally. You learn f with
the hope that sampling a latent vector z from some known distribution
(from which it is easy to sample), results in f(z) that has the
probability density function pdata. However, merely learning f does
not give you the power to estimate what pdata(x) is for some image x.
Learning f only gives you the power to sample according to pdata(⋅)
(if you've learned an accurate such f).

I interpreted in wrong way and tried to understand for much time and I end up in asking that question (on other site). I came across many such formal phrases from research papers.
In general, there will be no explicit remainders or hints or guidelines or suggestions to know which statements to be interpreted formally and which statements has to be interpreted informally in a formal context.
What is the primary reason behind encouraging such phrases either by journals or authors?

In the two examples you give, I don't agree the statements need to be "interpreted informally". Rather I would say that the meaning is clear within the context of the problem. For example, suppose you have a function f(a,b,c,d) or an expectation E_{a~p, b~q}[ f(a, b)]. Often authors will just write f or E[f] respectively. There is no mistake, it's just the notation is being left out. It's basically the same thing in the examples you point out. "our generative model learned pdata" is just a shorthand for "we learn a model f(z) which maps a latent space z to an output S so that we can approximate drawing samples from pdata by drawing a sample z". And that's not unclear or "informal", because the latter is just a definition of what generative model means in that context.
Specific problems can have their own language or jargon, and it can be confusing to read papers without knowing it. Part of becoming an expert in a specific problem is learning how people think about that problem.


Withdraw paper after the conference It is possible to withdraw paper after conference is held but paper still not published in ieee xplore.

The formal "point of no return" is the moment when you have submitted the copyright form. After this, you can still ask the conference chairs and the IEEE contact person to withdraw the paper. While you should not expect a positive reply, there's still a certain chance that they accommodate your request based on good will.

To improve your chances, you should reach out to them as soon as possible. Later in the publication process, the effort for performing the withdrawal may be greater, and you would also have wasted more time on their side to process your paper.