Is it possible for people with a stutter to have a career in academia? I understand that it is difficult for people with stuttering to verbally communicate and explain their ideas/research or to give lectures. Does that means there is no chance for them to work in academia even with the PhD degree?

I don't want to turn this into an answer about how universities or society in general should deal with disabilities.  I will offer what I have witnessed first hand through a good friend.

Can you work in Academia?

Yes.

Will people make fun of you?

Probably but who cares.  People make fun of others for everything.

But...

don't try to hide your problem
embrace the stuttering.  Nobody cares that much unless you do.
spit out what you are trying to say.  The content and meaning are key.  Don't let the stuttering stop your speech.
don't try to dumb down your words to help the stuttering (to a point).  You will be judged by most on what you say, don't let stuttering get in the way of that.

So my friend - let's call him Paul (sorry Paul for using your real name) had a big banquet speech he was asked to do after much of his research was published.  Four of the faculty members/advisors Paul was thanking were named John...  So he says, "I would like to thank Joh-Joh-Joh-Joh-Joh-Joh-John.  (He catches his breathe and smiles at the crowd).  Well I had fou-fou-four Johns and I think I thanked too many."  It could have been two hours of drinking but people were honestly laughing for two minutes straight.

In reality it probably would effect you more if you were in a field were public speaking were part of the field.  Paul was a scientist.  I hate to say this but I think the stuttering became his calling card and made him even more likable, and even better presenter.

Add:  After seeing this question get a ton of hits I want to be clarify my answer.  Stuttering and other issues, whether it is a disability or just something that someone isn't good at - be honest with yourself about any "shortcomings" and don't make others feel awkward (I know this is hard).  Whether it is a strong accent, stuttering, talking low, saying "ummmm", whatever - if you know you have an issue own it and put your audience at ease.

A perfect example of this is Jeff Foxworthy.  He readily admits that he talks like a redneck.  That is his shtick.  People like him and think he's hilarious because he openly talks about his accent and redneckedness.  If he came out to an audience, unknown to them, and tried to (poorly) hide his accent and redneck background, people would feel uncomfortable.   Everyone has issues, some worse than others.  Acknowledging your issues makes your more personable and relateable to your audience as they know that they too might have trouble talking in front of a large group.


How to rectify no publication after PhD graduation? My situation is very strange.

I have completed a sociology PhD from a well-regarded university. As I was a part-time candidate and holding a full-time job in the private sector, I guess my supervisor did not impress on me the importance of publishing. In addition, the university has no requirements to publish in order to graduate (though all academics there, including my supervisor, have strong publication records).

I cannot blame my supervisor entirely because I should have known better (but doing it part-time outside the university environment and in a role that puts no importance to academic research are the main reasons for my current situation).

I am now realising that lack of publication is severely restricting my career aspirations. For instance, I want to pursue university teaching (one of the main reasons for me to do my PhD) but I have not had any luck so far because most roles require "a proven / demonstrated record of publication" etc. Another example is that I want to establish a credible standing for myself and a list of publications would certainly help in this regard

I can point to various "research" I have done in my current role but they don't count as research in an academic (peer-reviewed) or formal sense.

As I have graduated now, I am no longer affiliated with any university. To make matters worse, my supervisor is mostly out of country doing research etc., so he is largely uncontactable. I can use my company's name, but it is a small obscure firm in the overall scheme of things. My PhD is in the field that I am currently working in, so I can get some credibility in that sense.

I have thought about open access publishing (in reputable journals) and turning my PhD into a book but unsure about them.

QUESTION: How do I rectify my situation of no publication?

Summarising details from the comments, the final verdict would be

  Start publishing now!

If you did qualify as a PhD in a reputable university, you should have the ability to publish a peer-reviewed paper. And so it seems that there is no excuse out of this way. As stated by @GEdgar, academic affiliation is not a primary requirement for paper publication. The only way to rectify would be to start framing your manuscripts today.


Are there any Books/Guides to developing researching skills for academia I will be doing an Honours in Commerce next year at a GO8 university.

This is essentially a stepping stone into a pathway to academia (or sometimes a resume booster for getting into industry).

It will be my first time getting an exposure to reading and researching academic articles, and I was wondering if there was some sort of guide or standard to researching and reading academic papers, particularly in finance and economics.

In essence, I was hoping to find something of a similar nature to this guide on studying university level mathematics.

I feel this question may be received as vague, thus I will give an example:

suppose I am looking for research inspiration, for instance. Then, in searching it would (perhaps obviously, or perhaps I am entirely wrong) not be the best idea to read articles and thoroughly understand every single detail of each and every one of them, but rather, read articles and see where there are knowledge gaps and potential for future research.

there is surely a methodology to roughly follow or guide or book out there which helps you become/build the skills to be a good/more efficient/effective researcher?

any help is appreciated.

These are things I found useful
I don't have enough reputation for links, but you will be able to find them

Standalone articles/talks/papers/blogposts:

You and Tour Research by Richard Hamming
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html

10 Things You Should Know Before Starting A PhD from Next Scientist
http://www.nextscientist.com/graduate-school-advice-series-starting-phd/
especially the point that your job is to write papers

The care and maintenance of your adviser by  Hugh Kearns and Maria Gardiner

The illustrated guide to a Ph.D.by Matt Might

Advice books for scientist

Advice for a Young Investigator by Ramon Cajal, Old but good and everything written there is still relevant. Mostly about important mindsets, personality traits and skills for success in science. It's good to realize that in 1897 common concern of new grad students were that The most important problems
are already solved.

Crafting Your Research Future: A Guide to Successful Master's and Ph.D. Degrees in Science & Engineering By Ling and Yang, Has very concrete guides for finding a research gaps, branding yourself, reading papers etc

Books not necessarily for scientist

So Good They Can't Ignore You by Call Newport, about developing valuable skills

Valuable blogs

Next scientist

Matt Might

Thesis whisperer

Fumbling Toward Tenure


If I get a paper for anonymous review, can I discuss it with a friend? Sometimes I get a paper for review, and I am not sure about certain points in the paper. It could be really helpful for me (and for the paper) to discuss these points with a friend who might understand these issues better.
Suppose the friend is unrelated to the authors, so has no conflict-of-interest. Is it, in general, allowed to show the paper to the friend and ask for opinion?

The main point of peer review is that the reviewers and authors are blinded, which you would not necessarily violate in this situation. In the past, I have been given articles to review where I did not understand the statistical methods used for that particular study. I felt that it was a larger disservice to write a positive review about the article without knowing if the stats were completed correctly with adequate results than to consult a colleague about the issue. I printed out the manuscript and asked her questions about the methodology without sharing data or findings with her. I did not email or share copies of the manuscript with her. I also did not tell her what journal I was reviewing for to further blind the process. I felt that this was appropriate and you could do the same.


Might colleges and universities not consider me for an assistant professor position because I'm a professional tutor in addition to being a teacher? I'm a physical scientist, having completed both my Ph.D. and postdoc at top 5 U.S. universities. After working in industry for more than 10 years, I decided it was time for a career switch to academia, not due to economic reasons, however due to a strong passion for teaching.

I taught for 5 years in graduate school, and established my own private tutoring service years ago. In total, I've been tutoring for more than 12 years. Recently I spent one (1) year teaching at a top 10 public university, and am now teaching at a community college.

During spring 2014, I sent out ~32 assistant professor applications, and heard back only from one school. I interviewed there, however did not get the position.

QUESTION: Is there a possibility that, once discovering my tutoring service (simply a matter of a Google search), colleges and universities might not want to hire me?

Interested only in science education research, my passion is exclusively in teaching at the undergraduate level, and I've used the tutoring to hone my skills over the years. Understanding exactly where students experience the pitfalls of my branch of physical science has provided me with a unique insight into teaching, however I'm not certain everyone perceives it this way.

I very much appreciate anyone who indicate whether or not the image of a tutor might take a toll in terms of applications and interviews.

Thank you!
Pensive

I decided it was time for a career switch to academia,[...], due to a strong passion for teaching.

As others have already mentioned,

sending out 32 apps and getting one interview might actually be a good success rate in physics.
your absence from academic research for 10 years (if indeed you've been absent in the publications game) is a much bigger issue than your private tutoring service.

But I wonder also where you're applying. If you're focused on teaching, but are applying to R1 schools where research is the main focus, then you're less likely to get any traction (especially if you indicate this love for teaching in your applications). I realize that this sounds awfully cynical, but the fact is that at research-focused universities you're competing with people with heavy research profiles and an unbroken sequence of postdocs and publications.

At a more teaching-focused school, it's possible that your tutoring experience will be viewed as a positive, because it demonstrates a track record and commitment to teaching.


What's the best way to deal with questions that I don't understand because of accent during/after a talk? You can prepare a talk from a to z, know exactly what you are going to say and how (and this is even more important when English is not your first language and your skills are not top-notch) - but what can you do when you are asked a question with a thick accent that you just don't understand?
You can ask the asker to repeat the question, but this is only possible once, and if you still don't understand, you're in a jam.
This can lead to some seriously awkward moments...

What would be the best way to deal with such a situation?

What I usually do is to try to piece together as much of the question as I can and then rephrase/guess/fill in the blank in my own words ("So you are asking whether..."). If my guess is close enough the person asking usually relents. If not, repeat this process until the question is clarified.

In the long term the only solution is to try to expose yourself more often to different accents so that you learn to understand how they differ from the "standard" ones.


How to handle newly discovered problems in second and third round reviews For the first time, I had to review a revision of an academic paper (I have already reviewed several other papers, but they were all rejected after the first round). While the authors had clearly improved the paper (after the first round, major revisions were requested by the editor (and myself)), several major issues mentioned in the first round of reviews were still not (or not correctly) addressed. Furthermore, due to the improvement in writing and structure, the paper was easier to read, and I was able to identify several flaws or strong limitations that I did not report in the first round. Consequently, I, again, recommended major revisions (while I hesitated with rejection due to the major flaws).

After having submitted my review, I received the reviews of the two others reviewers. To my surprise, both were positive (1 line comment such as "Issues have been addressed and I have no further comment") and the editor requested minor revisions.

In view of this, I am wondering if I have misunderstood how I should review a paper after revision as I did not make a real difference between round 1 and 2. Therefore my question is how far can/should we go in reviewing a paper? If at each round, improvements are made but new flaws or mistakes are spotted, should we stop mentioning them at some point?
This process might be theoretically infinite. Furthermore, as an author, I know that several rounds of reviews are exhausting and stressful so I do not want to be "that reviewer" (the one who is too picky and who completely slow down the publication process).

(1) The comments of other reviewers should not bother you; often reviewers will be from mutually exclusive fields, so as to provide better representation. You should stand by your professional opinion irrespective of the others.

(2) I firmly believe that you should spend a lot of time on first and second review. If you are finding new and significant errors beyond these rounds, it means you didn't do your job rigorously before.

EDIT: Several comments highlight the valid point that sometimes revisions are required just to make the paper readable. My position on this is that if more than 2 'readability-reviews' are required, the authors are either unable to use the language adequately (and should be directed to a suitable resource- a reviewer is meant to check technical content, not be a style coach), or are unwilling to make these suggestions; in which case there is no point asking once again.

Comments/questions regarding your previous objections are ok, but entirely new objections in third or subsequent rounds leave a bitter taste and lead to a lot if time being wasted.


Lack of confidentiality for a letter of recommendation I was recently invited to write a letter of recommendation for a colleague applying for a tenure-track position at UCSD.  The email said:

Although a candidate may request to see the contents of letters of evaluation in accordance with California law and University policy, your identity will be held in confidence. The material made available will exclude the letterhead, the signature block, and material below the signature block. Therefore, material that would identify you, particularly information about your relationship to the candidate, should be placed below the signature block. In any legal proceeding or other situation in which the source of confidential information is sought, the University does its utmost to protect the identity of such sources.

Firstly, how does this protect my identity, if the applicant knows whom he has invited to write letters?
Second, doesn't this policy lead to worse letters, without personal anecdotes and examples?
Third, the industry standard has been to allow applicants to waive their right to see the letter, and if they don't waive that right then the letter writer may refuse to write the letter.  Doesn't UCSD's policy remove this safeguard for letter-writers?

As I understand it, although job applicants, grad school applicants, and so on, can nominally "waive their right to see the letters", in most states this seems to be not enforceable, in the sense that it is not legally possible to genuinely waive this right.
When I've written letters, I construe peoples' waiving of "rights" to be an expression of intent, plus, an acknowledgement of the actual state of things. Yes, I've had people (misguidedly, in my opinion) refuse to waive these rights, which makes me wonder about their perception of things, and who's giving them advice.
And, yes, if someone is of the turn of mind to explicitly refuse to waive, I am much more guarded in my letter... ironically, usually because there are concommitant awkward issues as well.
And, yes, letter readers certainly understand that (in the U.S., in academic math, anyway) there is an expectation of at least pretending to not plan to ever demand to see the letters.
Yes, if we imagine that letter-writing should be fair and unprejudicial, then the issue of non-confidentiality might seem an unhelpful complication. However, decades ago, and, still in many scenarios, information is passed and decisions made in some sort of good-ol'-boy network rather than on a level playing field. That was, and continues to be, a bad thing, and needs pushing-back-against. (My own dept's faculty hiring has traditionally been a sort of star-chamber proceeding, and only this last year some of us have objected to it...)
So, yes, ... complications. :)


Found one major literature review paper, how to differentiate now? I started to write my own literature review today for my master's thesis and I found a very good paper which sums up/overviews the history and concept of the specific topic I am writing about. Usually I track down each cited source to read the original and paraphrase it in my own words. However and with that paper as a guide, I feel like I am 'copying' it or copying its chronological order. Is this a bad thing? I am also reading other papers and I will also try to address the gaps in such papers.

First off: Using review papers as a guide line for your review is perfectly normal. What you should consider is, that even if the review is comprehensive, since its release there has been new research and publications were released that you should address.

Personally I don't think there is anything wrong with using review papers for tracking down other papers, but the least you can do is to also cite the review paper and remark that the review has a good take on the topic.

If you have any additions or own takes on the reviewer's opinion: do that! Discuss why you added other papers to your literature that the author neglected, give a different order to the topics if you prefer it, etc. In a historical context it might be difficult to change many things, but you should try not to copy it too much. As long as you formulate own sentences, your're fine.


Should I send a follow up email? I had a PhD interview nearly 3 weeks ago and it went well. I spoke to the supervisor after the interview a few days after and he said I was the candidate they want but that was 2 weeks ago. My question is, should I send a follow up email politely asking what the status of my application is. If it helps, I'm in the UK

I would be fine to ask. Thank them for their interest. Ask about the current status. Ask whether there is anything they still need from you.

Three weeks is about right. If there is a problem then it is time for you to know.


Is it OK to publish the slides for a conference paper on a personal Web site? Due to copyright issues, I cannot provide the full-texts of my conference publications on my personal Web site. Can I make the presentations of these publications available on my Web site?

Have a look at the copyright transfer document that you have signed. Typically, it will only transfer the copyright of the conference paper that has been included in the proceedings. That means that you or your university / institution remain the copyright owner of the slides.

Be careful, though. Often the slides contain figures that are also included in he article, and the copyright of those may have been transferred. Many copyright statements allow you to use figures and such on you own or your institution's website, but not all.

If you do have figures or other material in your slides that you do not own the copyright of (anymore), then it is wise to either:

ask the copyright holder for permission for them to be used on your own website, or
leave that material out, or
create a new version of the respective material (which often can be done if you have the underlying raw data)


How to ensure that a reference letter is sent on time if not knowing the reliability of a referee? It has happened to me the second time that I was turned down by a referee (different one) not taking his responsibility seriously. Of course, I let each of them know about my application and the reference request well ahead of time.

The first time I requested the reference letter I was told that everything would be sent on time, etc. But one week before the application deadline the reference was still not sent (even despite my reminders) and so I quickly found another referee who rescued me. I never told the first referee that I found somebody else and the referee never got back to me over the email again...

The second time I had the "advantage" (or rather a deception) of being able to meet the referee everyday in person and so the day before the deadline I reminded that professor in person concerning the reference, also sent emails, etc. He promised into my eyes he would send it on that very day, but the deadline passed and the reference was never sent... No, the referee did not die, did not have an accident or a bomb in his office. They just could not be bothered.

I think it is very sad to know of the existence of such people and their behaviours, especially considering the fact that they used to be (some of them still are, probably should not be) my close collaborators with whom I spent many hours together.
I believed them. I thought I knew them, but only afterwards I realized that whatever smooth words they may have told me in the past, they did not mean them.

How do I ensure that the reference gets sent on time, how can I determine that I can trust somebody who I test the first time?

Usually more than one reference is required and I know that on some people I can rely 100%. Their yes means yes and their no means no. But what about the new referees? I was thinking of telling them of a deadline that is e.g. 15 days earlier than the actual deadline and in case no reference gets sent by my deadline, then I would contact an emergency referee to send the reference by the actual deadline. But sometimes, an electronic application tells the referees of the actual deadline and therefore I cannot make my own deadline.

Also note that many referees do not want to give you their reference that you may read it, but rather want to send it directly to the application committee. Thus something like having a backup letter, I am afraid, is not an option, especially in cases when the reference needs to be signed electronically by the referee oneself.

But one week before the application deadline the reference was still not sent (even despite my reminders)

This strikes me as entirely normal.  I try to write most letters a few weeks before they are due, but I end up writing some letters during the last week, and I believe this is pretty typical.  I don't have any statistics handy, but I'd bet that a substantial fraction of all letters of recommendation are written in the last week (or later!).  It may be stressful for applicants, but it's not unusual or particularly worrisome.

It's also worth noting that many deadlines for letters are actually flexible, and experienced faculty often know which ones are.  For example, NSF graduate research fellowship deadlines are absolutely inflexible (if you miss the deadline by one minute then you can't submit at all), while graduate programs in mathematics at U.S. universities are almost always flexible about letters (if you submit a letter a few days past the stated deadline, it won't do any harm).  Someone who doesn't seem to care about a deadline may just know that it doesn't actually matter.  It's not nice to do this without explaining the situation to the student, but it's not necessarily as terrible as it looks to someone who thinks the deadline matters.

Unfortunately, a few people really are irresponsible, and I don't know of any ideal solution to this problem.  One strategy is to propose frequent reminders, along the lines of "I know you are juggling a lot of things this semester, so I wonder whether you'd like increasingly frequent reminders to minimize the chances of a last-minute rush.  I could send you a reminder e-mail once a week for the last four weeks before the deadline, and once a day for the last four days (of course stopping once you tell me it's submitted).  Would that be helpful?  Or what sort of reminders would you prefer?"  I doubt anyone would be offended to be asked, since they could always ask for fewer reminders.  This can't guarantee that someone will make the deadline, but it minimizes the role of forgetfulness or poor planning.

  I was thinking of telling them of a deadline that is e.g. 15 days earlier than the actual deadline and in case no reference gets sent by my deadline

I would feel a little offended if an applicant deliberately misstated the deadline in this way.  As an alternative, you could explain that you feel very nervous about deadlines and ask whether your recommender could please submit their letter two weeks before the actual deadline.  They might not agree, but the worst case scenario is that they say that's not convenient.  (I would agree if someone asked me, assuming they gave me plenty of time to write the letter, but not if they asked too close to their proposed deadline.)  I wouldn't generally recommend asking this, since it would come across as eccentric, but eccentricity is better than dishonesty.


Algorithm plagarism? Say I watch some YouTube videos to learn merge sort, and during the lesson the code for merge sort is shown and explained, if after this I write my own program and use the merge-sort algorithm I learned from the video, am I plagiarizing?

Say if I need to hand in an project for university and it requires a mergesort on an array of integers in a part of the program like the example in the lesson was, can I get wrecked for plagiarism if I used the mergesort method from the lesson to use in my project?

edit: assuming that I completely understand the algorithm and can explain every part

Plagiarism is using the words or ideas of another without proper credit.  So, if you don't give credit, you're plagiarizing.  If you do give credit, you're not.  It is really that simple.

In your particular case, there may be something else at work.  If your professor taught merge sort, and the assignment is to demonstrate that you know how to do it, then you might be in trouble for copying another's code even if you give proper credit; it's not plagiarism, but it still might not be allowed.   As Mad Jack has said in the comments, ask your professor.


Politicians and other students caught in plagiarism? This is something I don't understand: how come many degrees have been revoked due to plagiarism after approval if Turnitin and many other software against plagiarism exist?

For example, there was a case in my country where a politician got his degree revoked when it was found that he copied from other student's thesis, the thesis of that student was in her college repository, how come anti plagiarism software didn't detect the fraud before approval?

Actually, it is not just politicians. The media only report on politicians, though. I work with the VroniPlag Wiki academic group, there are over 200 published documentations of plagiarism, and many of these degrees have been revoked: http://de.vroniplag.wikia.com/wiki/%C3%9Cbersicht (sorry, in German, but you get the gist).

As others have noted, Turnitin and other systems are just a tool, not a litmus test for plagiarism. They can only find what their algorithms can find in the database they have been able to populate. There are very many false positives and even more false negatives. The reports are very difficult to interpret, to boot.

For your particular question, I know from my work testing plagiarism detection systems that very many repositories of dissertations are not indexed by the software. One reason is that they are very difficult to traverse (and each has a different structure). There only tend to be the dissertations stored in the databases that have previously been checked. So in your case, if the student's thesis A was not checked, it was not in the database when B was potentially checked. But if a human reader sees that the topic is the same and then compare's thesis A with thesis B, they can quickly see and document the overlap. And of course, not all theses are checked, for various reasons, not all of which are academic in nature.

If you want to know more about the work that goes into documenting plagiarism in (oldish) theses, I blogged about that ages ago:  https://copy-shake-paste.blogspot.com/2012/10/how-to-find-plagiarism-in-dissertations.html (in English).


I am unable to submit online quizzes on time due to technical difficulties, and it is negatively affecting my mental health. Can I get extra time? I am an undergrad student taking a chemistry class. We have a 50 minutes quiz every week during the discussion section. The TA usually emails this quiz to us, and while my class is at 1:00 pm, the TA usually emails it to us at 1:01 pm. So, once I get the quiz on the email, I need to print it out (it takes some time to print out) then I start working on it. Usually, I try to finish the quiz by 1:48 pm so I can camscanner it, then email it or airdrop it to my computer, and then send it before 1:50 pm, because after 1:50 pm it considered to be a late submission which results in a zero for the quiz.
This is challenging:

One time, I finished it at 1:48 pm, and at 1:49 pm I emailed it back to my TA. However, for some reason, the email was received late, and the quiz appeared to have been submitted at 1:51 pm. The TA gave me a zero for late submission, and I had to go to the professor to receive a full grade.

For the next quiz, I thought writing an exam on an iPad would be much faster instead of printing, scanning, and emailing it. But, the file was too big for Gmail, so it took some time to upload. So I airdropped it to my computer and emailed it to the TA. My exam was 1 minute late again. I sent him an email right away with the screenshot that the file is big so it took a long time to upload.

Today was the third time that this put me into hysterics. I went back to printing, camscanning, airdropping, and emailing. But, airdropping didn't work, so I emailed it to myself and sent it to the TA from the school email. Once again I wrote him a huge email with explanation and as well with proofs with time. My hands were shaking so as my head, I started crying because this was my third time when the devices are glitching, and I was going to get a zero again.

How can I get more time for the quizzes?

About your actual question, yes, there is a way to get extended time based on having anxiety during exams or related things (although I cannot make any guesses as to whether you would qualify given your specific situation). Here is what I think is the relevant office at your university to consult about that.
About the broader context to your question, this situation is very sad and unfortunate. I think your instructors are probably unaware of how badly their tech cluelessness is affecting their students. If they are aware, then treating you and your fellow students this way intentionally seems unconscionable to me.
Given this, I think you should consider going not only to your professor but to someone in your program with the story of how this situation is creating an impossible learning environment for you. I’m sure there are sympathetic, well-intentioned people at your program (e.g., an adviser, undergraduate program chair or vice chair, etc) who have authority and would be able to advocate for you, and would genuinely want to know about and address these types of problems, not just for your sake but for all the students’ sake. I can tell you that just as you are struggling with studying in an online environment, many professors are equally struggling with teaching in such a setting as well, and do not always have everything figured out about addressing the many practical and logistical challenges that come up. Hearing from students about what is working and what isn’t provides vital feedback that would enable them to correct course where appropriate.
Good luck!


Is it easy to find a job in industry in a different area? I am doing a PhD in the field of atmospheric chemistry at a good university in Canada. I feel I do not like my research very much and I am not very interested in teaching or doing research in my area.

But I will fulfill my PhD study and get a degree as an international student. In the meanwhile, I am learning or plan to learn a lot of online courses on coursera, especially in machine learning and data science.

I also think about quitting from PhD program and apply for a master/PhD in data science, CS, machine learning or something. But the investment would be huge and it may be not a good choice. I think maybe it is easier to get some courses online and certificates in a certain area like data science, and then I can convert to another area that I am more interested in in terms of future career building up. Also it is bad for my adviser if I quit from his group and I do not want to hurt anyone even if I am trying to seek for alternatives of my future.

My question is that is it easy to find a job in industry after I complete my PhD? Of course I will not find a job in my area but in data science.

Yes it is possible to find a job in a different area than your field. But you need to gain experience. In my point of view.. follow these steps..
1. Take courses of your interest. (Online or from institute)
2.Gain experience (Paid or unpaid internship)
3. Find a real job based on your experience.

I am electrical engineer and working as software engineer.


How do international PhD students typically obtain health insurance in the United States? Could anyone kindly provide me with information about how PhD international students can be covered by health insurance in the US? :

Is it often granted by the University?

How much does it cost, on average (for the student and possibly spouse/children) and what does it cover?

Does "Obamacare" reform affect it anyhow?

I would appreciate any information. Thanks in advance.

This is very university-specific. My university pays the health insurance for students who are appointed to a graduate research assistantship or TA-ship at the half-time (20 hours/week) level. Half-time is the minimum to get the insurance paid, the maximum time allowed for a graduate student to work, and the usual appointment for the vast majority of graduate students. To add a spouse is about $450/mo. I do not know how much children cost to add. The coverage varies all over the map because insurance varies so much by state, institution, and plan in the US. The plan at my institution is for medical care only. Vision and dental are separate and funded entirely by the employee (though they're pretty cheap).

The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) may have changed this for some institutions which did not provide insurance options to grad students, but mine has for the last 20 years or so, so I don't really know.

All of this information should be on the website of the university you want to attend. You may have to look in the section for employees rather than students, but it's usually there. Look for "benefits" as well as "insurance".


Internship in Data Science in Germany I am a 16 year old who is currently at an intermediate German level. I also have previous experience on working with data science - specifically, Bayesian statistics. I would like to do a summer internship at a recognised German-speaking university for practising my German and getting work/research experience. How should I go about this?
After contacting many professors, many have excused themselves with COVID-19 or their lack of open positions for interns. What can I offer them that they don't have?

Being under age (< 18) means all kinds of hassle in Germany for employment or similar situations, and university administration will want to avoid this additional complexity for research interns (which are anyways organized in a very different fashion in Germany compared to what I hear of the US).
However, there are research institutions (and universities) that offer Schülerpraktika, i.e. internships for 10+th graders. These internships are usually organized by the school, though. So totally different logistics. Also, they usually take place during the term and are therefore much shorter (e.g. 2 weeks) than what you are likely looking for.

many have excused themselves with COVID-19

Which is likely a very valid excuse:

many universities and research institutes are rather closed down wrt. physical presence for months now, and have announced that they will continue like this for the summer term. Also larger scale politics seem particularly unpredictable right now.
The professors will have to put an emphasis on their already existing students who are hampered in doing the labwork they are required to do by their curriculum first. Volountary internships will have to wait until other things are working smoothly again.

There may (will) be additional hassle, e.g. with accomodation since you are under age, and e.g. you may be required to quarantine on arrival in Germany. But unlike an adult student who can legally be told to organize themselves beforehand how to handle this, you are under age which would put additional legal and moral duties to the professor.
E.g., right now, I don't think the regulations would grant you an exemption if you're already vaccinated. I certainly hope they will by summer, but I wouldn't bet too much on this seeing that right now not even closed groups of vaccinated inhabitants and staff of old age homes are allowed to meet...

OTOH, you could learn a whole lot about the cultural differences between Germany and the US right now...

All that being said, I'm not a professor but I've been at a research institute (doing statistical data analysis among other things) that regularly offers Schülerpraktika. I have no idea about their Covid policy wrt. internships, but you may contact me (see profile) and I'll have a look at your application and see whether/where I can introduce you.
All in all, I think you may want to postpone this till next year, or at least wait and see how things look wrt. COVID-19 in a month.


Paper status changed from under review to Awaiting Decision I submitted my manuscript to a journal from 1 month ago in scholar one. The status changed to admin check to under review after one week. Now, it shows Awaiting Decision.

Does this mean that the paper has passed the editorial check and the external reviewer completed?

It depends. If you know that in this journal (and you discipline) the papers are typically reviewed fast (e.g., one month), then it indeed likely that your paper is already after peer-review. In contrast, if in this journal the peer-review typically takes several months, then it might be long desk-rejection. It is indeed not rare to get desk rejection after several weeks. Also, keep in mind rejection rate without review in your journal. If it is low, then it more likely to be already after review.


Changing MSc supervisor late in the game I am considering asking another professor to be my thesis advisor. My situation differs from that of other question-askers in that:

I am in a position where I have done enough research to write my thesis and be done in a couple of months.
My relationship with my current advisor, while rough at times, in generally good.

So why do I want to switch?

I feel that my research topic is a dead end. This wouldn't really bother me too much except that my particular topic turns out to be interesting to very few people (the number one complaint by reviewers). The result is that despite achieving good results, we have been having trouble publishing at the general and more influential conferences.

When I began my project I thought it was interesting, but no longer think this, partially because of reviewer feed-back, but more because of my expanding knowledge of the field.

additional context: I also feel that the work is quite trivial in that what I did to achieve good results is what anyone in the hotter subfields would do. The reason that it wasn't done before is that the method wasn't known/understood by my advisor (or tried by others in the relatively small community).

On the other hand, I have worked on another project in one of my classes that is not only more interesting to me, but is part of a much 'hotter' subfield.

I guess I am concerned with attaching my name to a thesis that few people will care about when I can potentially work on something else with much more interest. Not only that, but the latter project is in the area where I would like to do a PhD.

I don't mind that switching would add upwards of a year to my program. Rather, I am hesitant to make this move for the following reasons:

I don't want to do something that will harm my current advisor. I also don't want to piss this person off as they are my main reference for the past two years of work. Is switching likely to have either of these effects?

The professor I would like to switch to is very new and I don't want to put him in a position that might cause him to come into conflict with my current advisor. How likely is this?

Any advice on the above questions would be great. I just don't have the experience to know if my concerns are valid.

Switching now seems like a poor choice. You can finish in a bit, you say. And then you can change areas. Your old professor is happy with you. You have a success under your belt. The world is open to you.

Anyone can change at any time. There is no real reason to waste your past work.

You can then take up, somehow, in the new area, perhaps with the other professor. Or, maybe even apply for a doctoral program that will support you in the new area.

Being in an area with only a few people is fairly common in some fields (mathematics, say). It is a tradeoff. There is less competition, for example, though you have to look harder for collaborators.

Don't think that finishing in the current track will lock you in to that forever. You have valuable experience that you can exploit in a lot of ways.

And even if you do switch, abandoning old work, don't make a habit of it. Throughout your career other opportunities will sometimes seem pretty bright. If you chase every one you won't ever accomplish much. Finish what you start unless the situation is so bad as to have negative impacts on your life. That doesn't seem to be what you say here.


Is there an incentive to submitting a math PhD application before the deadline? I was aware that there are a few REU programs that began offering positions before their stated deadline. Is there an advantage to submitting my application early, besides the reassurance that my supporting materials like letters of recommendation will be received on time? For example, if the admissions committee starts reading applications early, they may look at my application more favorably when they aren't inundated with applications.

Is there an advantage to submitting my application early, besides the reassurance that my supporting materials like letters of recommendation will be received on time?

I'm not aware of any advantage to submitting a math Ph.D. application early, beyond knowing for sure that you have not missed the deadline.  Not even for letters of recommendation, since it's not clear that submitting early will lead your recommenders to do likewise.

There are certainly advantages to preparing your application materials early.  You'll have more time to revise them, and you can share polished versions with your recommenders before the last minute.  However, this is a different issue than whether you should submit them early.  You might as well submit everything once you're done making changes, but there's no need to rush.

  For example, if the admissions committee starts reading applications early, they may look at my application more favorably when they aren't inundated with applications.

I doubt that many people will look at applications early.  For example, it's common to assign each application to one or more faculty members, who are supposed to carry out an initial evaluation.  (This ensures that no application gets overlooked and that the readers have equitable workloads.)  In such a system, there's no advantage to starting early since the assignments will not yet have been made.

Even if someone does start reading early, I'm not convinced they will necessarily evaluate the applications more favorably.  One can imagine the opposite scenario, in which early readers are harsh, in the hopes that the upcoming applications will be better, while later readers have a more realistic assessment of the overall applicant pool.  Ultimately, I have no idea whether early readers would be more or less harsh, but I'd bet the effect would be very small.  If it's unpredictable and small, then it's not worth worrying about.


Referencing pages of articles and books I have some articles and conference papers that I am citing in my text, in my text cite I am using the page number that is related with the rest of the proceedings or the journal, even I have downloaded it or using the online version which is separate from the rest of the proceedings. I think this (Me, 2015, p.340) is confusing when the link of the document I attach will provide just the paper which probably is 4-5 pages.

So what is the appropriate page number to include in-text citing, even if the paper has the page number printed on it?

K.

The right page number to use is the formal page number in the larger volume, even if the actual PDF that anybody will ever download is only a few pages long.  That is because a citation is intended to give the "coordinates" of a document in an absolute and access-independent reference system.

Thus, if you are referencing an article that was published as page 374-382, then its 2nd page is page 375.  You can also refer to page ordinally in prose, however, in which case you make the reference point explicit and can start wherever you want, e.g., "the third page of the article", "the second page of Section III".


To what extent does the location of a conference impact the number of submissions? Some conferences take place in locations that are considered to be more attractive than others to most people (e.g. UIST 2014 @ Hawaii). Some can be more easily accessible than others. Etc.

Is there any research/study/survey that looked at the impact of the location of a conference with regard to the number of paper/poster/etc. submissions?

I don't know of a specific study on this matter, but I can at least offer one piece of data.  There is a conference that I frequently attend which has a community mainly composed of Europeans and Americans.  As such, it switches back and forth between the two continents each years.  The American contingent is smaller than the European, however, and there has been a clear pattern of American years having lower attendance than European years.  This has been attributed, on the basis of a lot of anecdotes, both to the difference in travel expenses and also to restrictions on the use of travel funds by some agencies on each side of the Atlantic.


Access to Community Colleges in US I'm a teacher in a Vocational Education school in Spain. In our Vocational Education system, we have two different levels:

Vocational High School (post compulsory secondary school)
Community College (this is considered Higher Education)

It's hard for me to establish equivalence with the US System, but I guess you might have similar levels.

In Spain, students with a Vocational High School diploma can't enroll directly in Community College, they need to sit a test first (a sort of SAT test, but not so hard as SAT).

I would like to know how it goes in the US. Is there also some kind of test for entering a Community College if you come from Vocational High School? In that case, could you tell me how this test is called, please?

In the US there is first a federal (country-wide) rule: there are high-school diplomas, roughly equivalent almost-like-a-high-school-diplomas called a GED or a variety of other names, and then there are accredited higher education institutions providing certificates, 2-year degrees (called an associate's degree), 4-year degrees (called a bachelor's degree), 5-7 yearish degrees (master's degree), and of course the PhD...in addition to a slew of other special professional degrees for high ed.

Where it gets particularly hard to generalize is we have 50 states that determine all the details of the rest, especially the high-schools. I'll try to provide a broad overview. While this is true across states for the most part, the exact mix, nature of funding, and multi-track availability varies tremendously across the country.

Traditional high schools are the most common, which simply teach a variety of subjects and offer some sports, music, and arts programs (where possible), and don't especially differentiate between students who are planning to go to college from students who don't. Some special programming exists tailored to certain professions or college prep, but this is usually minimal. Graduation gives you a plain high school diploma.

Magnet schools exist at the elementary through high school level, and are focused on a specific area of excellence that permeates their whole school design; some schools specialize in science and technology, math, media/broadcasting, dance and/or fine arts, etc. This isn't necessarily about college or professional prep, but there is often a particular bent to some schools and they generally encourage higher education. Graduation gives you a plain high school diploma.

Vocational schools are high schools that are much like magnet schools, only their focus is on certain professional preparation. There are schools that offer  programs in all sorts of vocations from culinary arts, electrician, building/construction jobs, auto repair, and many others. Graduation gives you a plain high school diploma.

College preparatory schools (prep schools for short) are, at least in theory, designed with college seeking students in mind. Everything is geared towards being ready for college and getting into a good college. Graduation gives you a plain high school diploma.

There are also some "alternative" institutions that seek to provide a high school education to people who didn't fit in well with other institutions for various reasons (ranging from disability, family situation, pregnancy, legal problems, different learning style, etc), as well as religious institutions. All offer plain high school diplomas, generally.

Now, anyone with a high school diploma and usually even a GED (basically a special program or test that allows one to get a diploma - or something like it - without having to go back to high school or through high school at all) can apply to any higher education institution they like.

Most higher ed sets it's own standards for admittance, though, which is usually based upon grades while in high school (GPA), ACT/SAT test scores, essay, etc. Some places have preferences or relationships with certain high schools (the high schools often being referred to as "feeder schools"), but that's about it.

Now, higher ed is yet another ball of wax, and varies tremendously by state - even more than high schools!

Most states have community, technical, or junior colleges, which generally offer the 2 and 4 year degrees. As these places are often smaller in size, they offer limited and differing selections of degree programs (some may have no fine arts programs, others might have no engineering...etc). Florida calls these smaller places junior colleges, Wisconsin has state technical colleges, Arizona has community colleges...etc. They are similar, but funding and "prestige" varies heavily.

The terms differ, but the general rule is the same: smaller, less degree programs, often focused on certificates and 2-year degrees and very limited 4-year offerings (if any at all). It is not uncommon for the smaller schools to focus on providing a lower-cost, student-centered program with the expectation of transferring to another institution to complete their bachelor's degree.

Then there are the bigger universities, which are sometimes called "4-year institutions", and focus on a larger campus, more degree programs, and are centered on the bachelor's degree. Some offer limited master's programs, and even fewer have select PhD options in specific areas.

We also have "polytechnic" colleges, which vary in size but are often focused on certain aspects of the sciences such as engineering. It is not uncommon for other institutions to omit engineering and related programs entirely, and thus specialized colleges fill in the gaps.

Then there are just big "universities", which offer a wide selection of everything, really. Most states have at least one, and sometimes 2 or more, of these. They often cost more, have more options, are located in big cities, and are just massive.

However, no matter what institution, the same rule generally applies: some are "selective", which means you take tests, and some have open access and anyone who can pay the fee can enroll. The tests are most commonly the ACT/SAT if you are coming from high school, but some schools - especially junior/technical/community colleges - will instead offer their own "placement test" mainly in math and reading to determine if you need to take any remedial classes first.

Selective schools limit enrollment, and usually use a multiple factor process: personal essay, maybe reference letters from educators, transcript of grades from wherever you went to high school, ACT/SAT scores, etc. Each school sets their own rules, and this ranges from your MIT schools who are proud of their tiny admittance rates, to most schools who just don't want to admit students they think will not thrive in their programs.

Students who can't get into selective schools but want to are often encouraged to attend the junior/technical/community colleges for a year or two, and then re-apply. When applying then the high school grades and tests are at times ignored completely or at least heavily discounted, and strong preference is given to those with good grades at whatever college they have been attending. This process is very common with mid-to-large state-funded schools.

So, in summary: high school diploma is just a diploma in the US, higher education institutions set their own individual admittance standards (ranging from strict to none, varying by place and state), most selective institutions require ACT/SAT scores and high school transcripts at a minimum regardless of where you went to high school or what you did there.

I hope this provides you with more than you actually wanted to know!


Can I use the same paper topic for two different classes? I recently enrolled in a Master's program at a new university. I'm in the process of finishing my Master's thesis from a previous program, so now I'm sort of doing both at the same time. They are in related fields (political theory/democracy/human rights)
One of the classes in the new program is quite similar to a class I had in the previous program. For the first class, I did a pretty good paper that eventually inspired my Master's thesis. The topic of the paper was roughly something like "Gender perspective on X".
Given that X is like a concept developed by a specific philosopher, the topic is quite narrow. I was excited about the opportunity to write a new paper on the same topic, introducing some things I did not address in the previous paper-- the new paper would focus more on theoretical aspects, etc. Writing such a paper would also definitely help me with writing the Master's thesis.
But having started to develop an outline for the new paper, I realized there will inevitably be some overlap.
Obviously I know I can't just resubmit the paper, and wouldn't want to. But how much overlap is tolerated? I would not copy sections or anything, but is it necessary that I completely omit everything I've previously mentioned? Can I even cover the same exact topic, even if the content and structure of the paper are different?
I have already gotten the topic approved by the new professor, and in the email, I said "In full disclosure, I have researched similar topics before, but from a different perspective". I'm afraid this was not enough.
Admittedly, I am doing this to save time and help develop my thoughts for the Master's, because the topic is something I am already familiar with and interests me. I'm afraid that this alone amounts to academic dishonestly.
Am I just being paranoid- are we allowed to develop our own thinking in this way, by returning to topics? Basically, is it possible to do this in an ethical way at all?

The best way to cover this is to cite the earlier paper in the new one. A citation can be to an "unpublished" work as well as to a published one.
Submitting the old paper in the new course would be a violation unless done with explicit permission, but you aren't suggesting that. You are planning to extend the earlier work in a different direction which is a perfectly good thing to do in any research or scholarly writing.
Many scholars cover "the same topic" in separate papers so long as they have new things to say and also cite the earlier work.
If you want to be really clear, cite the old work and also include a copy of it with the new paper when you submit it. It can be hard to find "unpublished work" as well as citations of "private communications" and such other things that require citation. No one can make any claim of improper behavior as long as you are completely transparent, as you have been so far.


Changing PhD Programs? What to put in my application? (UK-based) Background:
I started my PhD a few months ago. I haven't actually been trained to do anything because they say they don't have the time for it. I've been understanding but I'm becoming very frustrated. In addition, it looks like my project might not work out at all and some other P.I. advised my supervisor to change the direction of my PhD completely. I've come up with a few ideas I could do in the meanwhile but most of them have been rejected. I feel helpless. I have voiced my concerns to my supervisor but nothing has changed.

I am considering re-applying to other programs so I have other options if this situation remains the same. Ideally, I would like to submit my applications without my supervisor knowing. Is it possible, and more importantly is it a good idea? Furthermore, I know I have to disclose that I am currently doing a PhD but how much will this hurt my chances at applying to other places and how do I go about it? Do I just mention it in my CV or should I attach a letter explaining my situation, will anyone even read that? Do I still have a chance to get into another fully funded program?

Sorry for the million questions. I would really appreciate if someone who's been or knows anyone in this situation could help me out. Thank you!

It looks like your question is a typical X-Y problem: you are frustrated with the uncertainty and lack of direction from your current supervisor (problem X), you want to solve this by applying to another PhD program, but you don't know how to present your current situation in the application (problem Y).

So let's take a step back: the best scenario for you is probably to solve problem X in your current institution.
Here is what you can do to solve the problem with your current supervisor:

If there is any experienced academic around you that you trust, talk to them about your best course of action. Advice from a local person who knows the ins and outs of the department is often very useful.
Ask for a meeting with the local ombudsman or your director of studies. At this stage you don't need to tell your supervisor about this meeting and you can ask to talk to this person in confidence. Explain your issue with the supervisor to them and see what they have to say; in this kind of case various options can be considered:

A meeting with the supervisor and this person, where different options for the direction of your PhD are discussed clearly and openly, and you get to express your opinion about them.
Adding a co-supervisor more compatible with the kind of research you want to do and/or more available: this can be a good compromise if your supervisor is not interested in the topic you want to work on.
A change of supervisor: if things really don't work out between you and this supervisor, it's usually possible to switch. This can be a bit more complicated, but it's still much better than quitting.

My advice is to think about re-applying somewhere else only if none of these solutions are satisfying or possible in your institution.


How can I handle group projects? I'm a grad student and have been assigned to a group with several other students. This is a semester long group that will work on various projects. From the start, this group has been a disaster. I spent two days fixing grammar mistakes in another group member's paper. Some sentences didn't make sense at all and he obviously didn't proofread it because there were mistakes such as "for the for the". Another student in the group, an international student, told the student that wrote it, "great job". This was prior to me correcting it, but the fact that he complimented him made me think that he didn't read the paper at all. Absolutely no one would think it was a great paper, purely based on how many mistakes it had.

After we submitted the corrected paper, the professor sent it back to us with several notes about how to improve it. The original author told another group member that I should fix it since there were grammar mistakes and I wrote it (corrected it). In reality, his original paper wasn't even at high school level until I fixed it.

Another time we had to give a 20 minute presentation. The rest of the group wanted to go over who would say what in 5 minutes before class. However, with some coercing, I convinced them we should review it the prior day instead.

I have to maintain a B to keep my scholarship and I feel like this group doesn't care about their own grades. They seem like they just want to coast by into graduation. Should I approach the professor about this?

Generally speaking, a poor way to handle such situations is to divide up the work to individuals and then try to assemble the whole at the end.

If the group is reasonably small (say five or less) try to have regular meetings to brainstorm and outline things for the report. One person (probably the one with the best language skills) takes on the task of editor, or even writer.

Pass drafts around frequently and update them based on feedback.

If the group is larger, then do some division of responsibility, but to sub-groups, not individuals. Have each subgroup work as suggested above (brainstorming...editing...markups). But then, one or two people take on the task of getting everything together. Those two people need to monitor and shepherd the task throughout, making sure that the subgroups are doing their work productively.

It might even be advisable in a long project, to shuffle the groups a bit periodically. Not a radical reshuffle, but just some cross pollination.

You should also expect, and plan for, the fact that not every member will be able to contribute as much as others, or even at all, for various reasons, both legitimate and not. But just as important, don't set it up so that everyone needs to contribute in the same way. Try to draw on individual skills. Some doing research, some writing, some editing, etc.

A team should be a team, not a herd of individuals.

This might be different in a different field, but for an MBA it feels about right.


Including a note to reviewers in a submission I submitted an article to a journal, and it was rejected. The reviewers criticised some configuration values I used in my software. The comments were very helpful.

I have since improved the software, re-run the experiments, and extensively rewritten the article. I plan to submit it to the same journal. I suspect there's a good chance it will go to some of the same reviewers.

The controversial configuration parameters are no longer needed, and so are not mentioned in the article. I'm worried that if the reviewers saw the earlier version of the article, they may be confused by the "missing" parameters.

For this reason, I am tempted to include a note explaining the change. Is this a reasonable thing to do, or would it seem amateurish? Would it be better to just communicate this to the editor instead of including a note in the submission itself?

When resubmitting a paper after rejection, many journals require the authors to provide a detailed response to reviewers, whether or not the paper is going to be assessed by the same reviewers.

Therefore, instead of including a note to explain the change, include a complete response to reviewers, even though the journal you are submitting to does not require it. It would be useful even if the reviewers are not the same, because it's quite likely that new reviewers will receive the initial comments.


"Educational review articles": How find these Every once in a while I come across some really well-written review articles. They do not review a field of study and provide insane amounts of references to previous work; rather, they review a narrow topic, an experimental method, or a concept, in a way such that simple-minded MSc students - like myself - can understand the topic. Basically, they have written a sub-section in a textbook, but on a topic where the theory has yet to make it to a textbook.

One of these articles, Berera et al. (2009), categorized their paper as an "educational review". This is a genre I would pay to read more of, but I just stumble upon these every once in a while. It seems the term "educational review" is not a very common term for such reviews, and I always end up in journals reviewing methods in lower/higher educational.

So I ask here whether anyone know how to locate these educational reviews that I look for, or whether there is another term I can use more efficiently. I would really appreciate some assistance. My field of interest is anything chemistry-related.

Berera, van Grondelle, and Kennis (2009). Ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy: principles and application to photosynthetic systems. Photosynthesis Research 101(2-3): 105-118.

I've seen them called 'tutorial reviews'. Since you say you're in chemistry, see for example Chem Soc Rev's tutorial reviews, as they call them here:
http://www.rsc.org/journals-books-databases/about-journals/chem-soc-rev/
Here's an extract from how they define 'tutorial review':

Tutorial reviews are concise, authoritative overviews of important contemporary topics in the chemical sciences. They should appeal to advanced undergraduates, the general research chemist who is new to the field, as well as the expert. They provide a solid introduction to the development of a subject, the latest breakthrough results and their implications for the wider scientific community.
Accessible: To advanced undergraduate students and beyond. Tutorial reviews are often used in advanced undergraduate and Master’s studies.
Authoritative: An essential introduction to the field will lay the foundation of knowledge in the area with approximately 25 seminal citations, serving as a springboard to further reading, followed by the most important recent advances.
Jargon free: Specialist terms and symbols should be defined and fundamental ideas simply explained.

I guess that's what you're thinking of?


How many manuscripts per day are sent to leading journals? I wonder how many manuscripts are submitted daily to the top scientific journals, such as Nature or Science. Each of those journals has multiple editors, specialising in narrower fields. The question that follows is how many submittions does one editor handle daily?

According to Nature's website, they received 10,952 submissions last year, which works out to an average of almost exactly 30 papers per calendar day. Given that there are 26 subject area editors according to their editorial masthead, it would appear that the average editor gets about 8 papers per week, or one or two per day.

However, their caseload is probably much bigger, since they also have to deal with all of their other "open" papers as well—so an editor might have something like 60-100 active papers to deal with at any one time (ballpark estimate, assuming a two- to three-month life cycle—although I suspect it's actually much longer than that if multiple rounds of reviews are required).


Is it ok (ethically speaking) to rename features of a dataset for publishing? I work in the machine learning field where I deal with datasets provided by an industrial partner, and one concern of the project is the confidentiality of the data.
My team is working on a fault detection system using those datasets which includes features or columns, with names as Motor_sectionA_speed, Motor_sectionB_torque, Valve_sectionC_pressure, etc. which are subparts of a big system, and if the context is known, they could be traceable to details of our partner machinery and operation.
For publishing some results two options have appeared regarding naming those features:

Name features as Feature A, Feature B, Feature C, etc: I have seen this for synthetic datasets, where the focus is to highlight the algorithm where the importance of the feature is in its nature (distribution, range, etc) not its name or meaning.
Name them as Motor_1, Motor_2, Valve_1: One person stated that from training she/he had, the previous option could be unethical because the meaning of the variables is lost and might be misleading. Instead, names can only be simplified as Motor_1, Motor_2, Valve_3, etc.

Is it the first option considered unethical in all cases? or is this a "depends"/gray zone matter?

There is nothing unethical about renaming features unless you do so with the purpose to mislead or fabricate results. It makes perfect sense to rename features to keep a company secret.
However, a publication stating (for example): "I have some features and use them to predict manufacturing errors with 99% accuracy" has no value whatsoever: for all the reader knows you could be using the phase of the moon, dice rolls, and the position of tea leaves in your cup. The reader would be unable to tell what is going on, and unable to verify, reproduce, or use your results. This defeats the point of publishing and the paper would probably (and hopefully) not be accepted.
If you wish to publish something else, such as a new algorithm, it may be possible to use an entirely different dataset. You can still mention the actual application you worked on and simply explain that these data cannot be shared.
Also, you may be underestimating the ingenuity of others and the power of data. Are you really sure that renaming the features is enough to prevent others from deducing what is going on?


Is it correct protocol to be able to split a bibliography into more than a single column? I've been informed by my peers that a bibliography must always be presented in a single column i.e. each item spans the width of the page - even if the main body of the document is presented in more than a single column. Is this correct?

It really depends on where you're publishing. Two-columns is mandated in some venues, in others one is. I suspect that there may be a few rare venues where there is no single style, but that your field usually uses one column.

If you are writing a paper, then you should look at the style guide for the venue you are publishing in, if there are none (which would be surprising) try looking at past papers published at that venue. Many venues simply supply the latex class you should use and examples. If you are writing a book, then a single column is usual from what I have seen. If you do not have a venue in mind yet, then you can just use a single column and change it easily later.


Supervisor not allowing to submit Thesis I am in very tense situation. My supervisor is not allowing me to submit my Master by Research thesis.
I have already told him that I have some potential fully funded PhD opportunity and he initially agreed but now he is creating problems. Earlier he wanted me to do PhD with him which I refused now I feel he took his personal and creating hurdles for me.

On the other hand, potential supervisor who offered me PhD wants me to join ASAP and I can lose this opportunity if I will not join in 2months.

I am thinking to withdraw Masters and join PhD? Is it a good decision? I have spent 2yrs and worked hard for this but now he is offended and creating issues.

I tried to change supervisor but 2-3 supervisors refused after knowing name of my current supervisor..he doesn't have good relationship with other faculty members.

Please advise what I should do?

Perhaps you can employ a double track strategy. If the new supervisor is willing, agree to join them and do what is necessary to do so. They should be made aware that it is possible that the masters won't be awarded.

Simultaneously pursue some sort of action at your current place to "force" your current advisor to relent and let you finish. This might require a petition to higher authority with a claim of unfairness. This sort of thing can get messy if you don't have any alternatives, but in this case you have a good one.

So, rather than withdrawing, put the responsibility on your current university to do the right thing. Perhaps they will, but only if you make it a bit uncomfortable for them to not treat you fairly.

But, I would first, you could just inform the current advisor that you are joining the other. You don't need to go beyond that. Perhaps he will relent, but if not, press your case with someone higher in the hierarchy.


My PI is publicly humiliating me: Why would a PI do this and what can I do to mitigate the damage from this? My principal investigator (PI) and I tend to get along pretty well; however, he is often moody and has some quirks about him. Sometimes this means that he is in a bad mood and will take it out on me. He is also very gossipy about other people at the university. Nonetheless, he thinks I am doing very well in our lab and in the Biochemistry PhD program. I always keep my cool with him, even if he is stressing me the f*ck out.
However, there are times in which he really likes to pick on me in front of other students/faculty. It is almost exclusively when he has an audience. Sometimes it is benign - a funny joke, or something lighthearted. But other times, it really bothers me and I get extremely embarrassed. The times when it bothers me is when he makes a disparaging remark about something I said (even though he agrees with me), or will embarrass me when I am training an undergraduate research assistant on a protocol in our lab.
He has told me before that I am awkward, which makes me incredibly anxious to talk to him. He is one of those people with zero filter, but am I right in thinking that there has to be a limit to this? Again, he only really embarrasses me in front of other people. When we talk one-on-one, everything seems fine; he will even occasionally tell me that I am talented. I mean, he does talk over me at times, but it is perhaps not abnormal for a male superior-female subordinate mentorship. I am a pretty thick-skinned person, but these interactions are exhausting, anxiety-provoking, and incredibly distracting from how I want to be spending my time (i.e. on research/coursework).
Why is he acting like this? What could I do to mitigate the damage from this? Keep in mind that, ironically, he is very sensitive. I have addressed something with him before and he took it as a personal attack, which indicates that he is often anxious and paranoid himself. Thus, my options are literally to just deal with these feelings in private and push through. This is what I have been doing, but it is starting to get old.

The best way to mitigate the effects of his behavior is to be really, really clear on what's happening and stop making excuses for him. This will help you separate out blaming yourself for something you have no control over: his bad behavior. It's your best chance at preserving your mental health while you have to work with him.
This behavior you describe from him is toxic, and it is very likely intentional. He has demonstrated that he has the self control to not make you uncomfortable in one-on-one interactions. He chooses to make you uncomfortable in front of an audience.
Also, teasing in any context, but especially in professional situations, isn't fun anymore when the target repeatedly shows discomfort. Teasing is only acceptable at work when all parties are benefitting from the relaxed atmosphere.
Finally, his sensitive/negative reaction to you asking him to stop has the following effect: it creates as much friction as possible so that you won't keep complaining and will allow him to continue enjoying making you uncomfortable and embarrassing you.
He is an adult and should be able to handle hearing, "hey, this was all in good fun at first, but I'm not having fun anymore, and I'd like you to stop." A person managing a lab should have the capacity to listen to that. If he can't handle that conversation, he is the problem, not you, OP.
Also, I would try to avoid speculating about why he's like this or what's going on in his head. It's getting you more wrapped up and emotionally invested in keeping the peace with him, which will make it more painful when he decides to be cruel. Try to decouple from his thoughts/emotions, and just focus on behavior. His behavior is unacceptable. You've asked him to stop, he refuses. That means he's wrong to be saying these things to you. Try to keep that in mind, and hopefully it will help you stay less stressed out and not internalize the negative and inappropriate things he's saying.
ETA: Upon rereading your question, it looks like you may not have directly asked him to stop teasing, but that you know him well enough to know it will go badly. You have the higher moral high ground if you directly ask him to stop, and I would try it once, but you know him best. If he's created an environment where you are sure speaking up will just cause more difficulty, he's still the problem and my advice stands.


University Test Bank Website- Potential Liability Issues? I have an idea for a website, which I'm afraid may land me in trouble. I want to create a website where students from the university I attend can submit exams that they took (with scores of 90% or above), and they will be publicly posted on the site for other university students to utilize and study from. However, would this cause any violation of academic dishonesty rules? Would the professors try to hunt me down and get me suspended from the institution?

Of course, we don't know what your university's academic dishonesty rules say.  But in most cases they are pretty broad, and there is probably a clause that could be interpreted to include your website, if your university's authorities decide to do so.  I think the odds are good that there will be at least one professor who is upset enough to push them to do something about it.  They might just try to get you to take the site down, they might try something harsher.  There's no way to know.

In general, I think most professors are aware that students may be informally sharing their exams with one another.  For that reason, they usually change exams from term to term, and if they reuse questions, do so only after several years.  However, some may be startled to see it done as systematically as you propose, and try to stop it.

I am not a lawyer, nor do I know your local laws, but posting an exam on your website would probably violate the copyright of the professor who wrote it (unless you have his or her permission).  This would be another avenue someone could pursue if they wanted your website gone.

Finally, professors could try to prevent their students from posting their exams on your website.  For example, they might stop letting students keep their graded exams.  Or, they could add a line to their syllabus that "you may not share your graded exams with anyone", on penalty of failing the course or academic dishonesty sanctions.  This could not only deprive your website of material, but also make it so that students can't even share their exams informally anymore, which I assume is contrary to your goals.


Pros and cons of sharing dissertation on a specialised website? I am wondering what are the advantages/drawbacks of sharing a dissertation on a specialised website (for example Social Capital Gateway). There are a number of repositories available and they seem to be more widely known. Are these sites more for the benefit of the facilitators than the contributors (who in this case are the PhD researchers).

I doubt there are any drawbacks to posting on such a site, other than the time required.

But I also doubt there are very many advantages.  I don't think very many people will look on such sites for theses.  If I need something from a PhD thesis, my algorithm would be something like this:

Look for published papers by the student which discuss the work.
Google the student's name and thesis title.
Look for the student's website.
Look on the department's website.
Look on the institution's library's website.
Try to contact the student (via website or Google search) and ask if they will send me a copy.
Try to contact the student's advisor and ask if they have a copy.
Contact someone else I know at the institution, and ask if they can find the thesis in their library.
Try to get a copy from UMI (last resort).

Searching other repositories would probably come somewhere between steps 8 and 9.  So if you can try to make sure your thesis is findable at some earlier stage of this process, you probably don't need to bother with much more.


How would I cite multiple authors from an online forum? How would I cite two authors from this online forum (http://www.thenation.com/article/one-thing-do-about-food-forum)?
The forum is edited by Alice Waters and my quotes come from Wendell Berry and Peter Singer.
In my paper, I include the in-text citation (example below)

Singer mentions that "Etc etc etc" (qtd. in Waters, ed.)

Originally, the citation in my bibliography was ...

"One Thing to Do About Food: A Forum." The Nation. Ed. Alice Waters. N.p., 11 Sept. 2006. Web. 01 Oct. 2014.

but is that actually correct? Do I have to instead reference them like ...

Singer, P. "One Thing to Do About Food: A Forum." The Nation. Ed. Alice Waters. N.p., 11 Sept. 2006. Web. 01 Oct. 2014.
Berry, W. "One Thing to Do About Food: A Forum." The Nation. Ed. Alice Waters. N.p., 11 Sept. 2006. Web. 01 Oct. 2014.

I'm not too sure how I would go about in this so any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Starting with the principle that the goal of a citation is to make it as simple as possible for somebody to find the particular reference, I can see two ways to approach this publication:

Treat it like a journal special issue or chapters in a book, where there are multiple articles bundled together under one editorial title.
Treat it like a single multi-author article.

In this particular case that you have linked, it seems that none of the contributors have titles for their individual sections.  That means that you can't readily separate out the individual contributions.  I would thus recommend citing it as:

  Alice Waters, Jim Hightower, Eric Schlosser, [etc], "One Thing to Do About Food: A Forum." The Nation, 11 Sept. 2006. Web. 01 Oct. 2014.

Then you simply to who you are quoting in the main text like you are already doing.
If they had individual article subtitles, you could do:

  Singer, P, "Singer's Article" in "One Thing to Do About Food: A Forum." ed. by Alice Waters, The Nation. 11 Sept. 2006. Web. 01 Oct. 2014.

Without the secondary titles, though, listing Alice Waters as editor makes it sound like she's the editor of The Nation not the forum.

[Note: I think my style may be slightly off from your required format - the key point is the person/title pairings]


Switching to host university during master’s after research internship project? I am currently a top master’s student at one of the Middle Eastern universities and due to lack of research facilities in my country, I am going to Japan to join a research project this summer for three months at the University of Tokyo. Deep inside, I want to continue my master’s and PhD there, directly after the project ends and I am planning to work very hard to prove my eligibility for the opportunity.

But I don't know how applicable this is and how this would happen.
I would like to ask if somebody had a similar experience and also if I should ask the professor directly at the end of the project.

It's impossible to answer definitely without (a) knowing the exact way that you will be studying in Japan for 3 months and (b) the thoughts that the people you will study with both have now and will have at the end of your 3 months.

With that being said, I want to suggest two reasons to not get your hopes up.

you state that you will be at the University of Tokyo. This university has the highest prestige ranking in Japan so there are many Japanese people that want to study there or go there to continue graduate school. This means that they have a harder time playing fast and loose and admissions are competitive (some Japanese universities have rather non-competitive graduate admissions).
many funding sources that would bring you for three months have an expectation that you go back to your own institution after that. Some may have terms that prohibit staying (if the idea was to stick around immediately) or terms that prevent receiving further funding to study in Japan (most everything here is run by MEXT so the same people would know).


Why do people hang up papers on their doors? This has been puzzling me for a long time, I have seen professors and other academic people hang up their research papers on their doors. What is the purpose of this?

My first guess was they were announcing some important papers related to a class they are lecturing, so students can look at them without disturbing professor. This doesn't feel right because there are not many papers studied in a typical class and there is internet to announce these things.

As the time passed I started thinking it is a way of advertising. But, this also doesn't make sense because web pages exists to serve this purpose and few people come to visit the office physically.

Maybe this practice is limited to my country, but any answer is appreciated.

In addition to the reasons mentioned by others, I think there may be something of the big-game trophy hunter about the practice:  "Behold, visitor, I am a mighty scientist, capable of hunting the fearsome [prestigious journal]!"


Are references from an employer in an unrelated field useful when applying for graduate school? I am applying for grad school and a bit confused about taking references. Should I take a reference from my employer where I had worked on an unrelated field for one and half year? Or Should I prefer taking it from academia from a Prof. with whom I have worked on unrelated field again.

You need a recommendation that will convince a committee that you will be able to rise to the occasion (i.e. be successful in your coursework, exams, research, thesis and thesis defense) if they admit you to graduate study in their department.  Choose letters that will have as close an effect to that as possible.

You haven't given us enough information about your employment to enable us to provide an opinion about that potential letter.

Note that if someone asks for one reference, and you have two references which, combined, give the desired picture of you, then the thing to do is submit both letters.

Also note that there are threads here that provide advice to those who don't currently have any suitable references (e.g. take another class, do an internship -- something to garner a new reference).

After you've read some of the related Q&A threads, feel free to edit your question, giving additional information about your situation, and pointing out how yours is different from the others you read about.


Request to move-up interview This may be the wrong place for this question, but the format here is better. Please advise of a better website if I'm totally off base for this site.

My situation: I hold a Masters of Accountancy and am a licensed CPA. I am lucky in that every job for which I've applied has contacted me for an interview. So here's my dilemma:

My initial second choice brought me in for an interview yesterday and I NAILED it! They actually gave me a standing ovation for my teaching demo, and all but told me I was getting the job (I was told to expect an offer within a couple days). The position is non-tenture track, but the department has a massive overload and so I am not concerned with job security. This is a public university. It's located in a small, rural community with a larger city about an hour away....so I would have to commute.

My initial first choice wants to schedule my campus visit a full 2 weeks from today. It is tenure-track (I am starting a doctoral program in 2020).  The pay would be less for this job, but I would teach EVERY class in accounting because the department is small. Also,  the overall workload would likely be less in the long-run. This is a small, private university much closer to my current location in a city that fits me a bit better culturally (closer to what I live in now).

I also have two more interviews after that, but I am hoping to cancel those as soon as possible.

So I have three questions: 1) How long does the school with which I interviewed realistically expect me to take before I accept or decline their offer? and 2) Would it be inappropriate to request the second interview be moved up?

3) Finally, if I do request the interview be moved up, how candid should I be about my reasoning? I just don't know if the first school is moving at super light speed or not....there's just so much I don't know.

Thank you

Business schools operate differently from moreal traditional departments. That said, tenure-track offers still need to generally be signed off on by a dean. Even if you interviewed for the tenure-track position tomorrow, and you are the last planned interview, the offer could still take a couple of weeks.

My opinion is that a tenure track position is enough of an upgrade over a non-tenure track position, that you are justified leaving at any point. Non-tenure track positions are abusive to young academics and if a department won't make a multi-year guarantee to you, I believe you can leave whenever you get a markedly better offer. In that light, I suggest you let the tenure-track process play out withough you trying to speed it up. I suggest you slow roll the non-tenure track offer and if they force you to sign before you hear about the TT, you do, then if you get a TT offer, you back out.


Can I re-submit a rejected manuscript to same Journal after 2 years I had submitted a manuscript to a Journal in December 2012, which got rejected in February 2013 with some comments and advising to re-submit as a new manuscript along with reply to the comments. But I neither modified the manuscript nor submitted to same/other Journal. This is because, the work was not related to my original work. Truly speaking, I got this result accidentally in November 2012 and wrote a manuscript.

This August 2015 reminds me about this manuscript and I modified it as per the reviewers' comments. Now I can't decide whether to re-submit the manuscript in the same Journal? Or to submit in a new Journal? It is already 2 years and half. Can anybody kindly suggest me in this regard.

If you were invited to resubmit, you can.  Unless this invitation was conveyed to you with an explicit deadline, your waiting on it should not be problematic.

However, if you resubmit to the same journal after 31 months, then although you should call attention to the fact that you were invited to do so, you should not expect to get any advantage or economy from this.  In my experience journals and editors keep papers "in mind" for a certain, smaller length of time, after which they can forget pretty thoroughly.  (For that matter, 31 months is plenty long enough for the editor who handled your paper to no longer be working for the journal.)  You cannot count on getting the same referee(s).  On the other hand you might, which is something to keep in mind if there was something negative in the original referee report.

What I would advise is to  reflect on whether this is the best journal to submit your paper.  If you feel strongly that it is, then resubmit there.  If you weren't sure whether that journal was such a great choice and/or submitted there more or less randomly, I would try again with a different journal.  I have had the experience of submitting a paper to a journal, having it rejected, writing back later to the editor explaining that I was able to get the results the referee asked for, and the editor said, "OK, then why not resubmit?"  The paper went back to the same referee, who forgot about it, and then when reminded decided it still wasn't good enough.  Now I might have gotten the same referee at a different journal, but still: annoying!  In general I feel that once a journal has rejected your paper, it's safest (even psychologically) to take future incarnations of the paper elsewhere.


Will not having a publication affect my PhD chances even though I have research experience? By the time I apply for a PhD, I will have almost a year of experience as a Research Assistant, but I doubt I will have a paper published till then. The project is still in the data analysis stage, and it will most probably be in the review stage when I apply. Other than this job, I have no other research experience/papers/projects that are much relevant. Though I have 1.5 years of corporate experience in IT.
I think the above might be a common cause for concern, especially for people looking to switch fields, and thus hope the question is qualified enough for a general audience.

As for my particular case, I am looking for PhD programs at the intersection of Neuroscience and Computer Science (e.g. Cog Sci, Computational Neuroscience, Neural Engineering etc). I have a bachelors in Computer Science, but my grades are bad. My GRE score is quite good however, and I'm from a well-known college in my country.

This is a difficult question to answer and I know little about the intersection of CS and neuroscience. I do know a little bit about the intersection of CS and social sciences (i.e. HCI/information sciences) so I will write about that. In addition, I am the student representative on the admissions committee of our department so I have some limited experience with that process as well.

You do not need a publication to apply for PhD in the US. For other countries, it might be different and I do not have that information. Potentially, you will be more competitive if you have a publication. But remember, that all publications are not created equal. If you have a first author paper (or otherwise depending upon the publication standards in your field) in a top ranked journal/conference in your field, then you are competitive (assuming that other parts of your application pass muster).

If that publication is in a lesser known journal/conference, you still have displayed some knowledge about how to conduct and publish research - which in the end is better than nothing.

However, in my experience, I have seen that detailed letters of recommendation from authors known to members of the admissions committee are usually given way more weight than any published research.

Also, take my words with a pinch of salt. Everything varies from field to field and from year to year.


Do postdoc/professor search committees read the files from all candidates? Or do they do a sort of selective search? If I apply, is there something I have to do in advance to ensure that will my file be opened, at all?

In my department, postdoc applications are read first by the faculty in the applicant's research area. Each area chooses about five of its top applicants, and those chosen applications, from all areas, are then read by the department's executive committee, which decides what offers to make.

Applications for tenured and tenure-track positions are read by members of the department's personnel committee --- not all applications by all members. The best applications are then brought to the attention of the whole personnel committee. Also, faculty members who are not on the committee can and do read applications and bring particularly strong ones to the committee's attention.

So the answer to the question, as clarified in the comment "will they open the pdf?", is that all the applications get looked at by faculty who provide input into the search process, though not necessarily by the members of the search committee.