Is it plagiarism and/or copyright infringement if research started from one person but another diverged onto a different path? TLDR at the bottom.

Odd situational question for everyone (or maybe not) since this is out of scope for me. Hoping to get a clearer insight from a more experienced crowd about research, plagiarism and copyright. Unfortunately, I'll have to be vague about specifics and names. Apologies for the long post but I hope someone has some insight.

Just for background information but the theory has been around for almost 100 years but different concepts/ideas are used to prove or further research the theory. I'll start the timeline in the year 2000 just for convenience but information is easily accessible at this time.

Researcher A uses proven concepts that have been used in different fields of study but not widely used specifically in their field however it's not known whether or not they're the first to use. The concept used by Researcher A was discussed on a community forum in 1996 (4 years prior) and on another forum in 1998 (2 years prior) to researcher A starting their own initiatives in 2000. A also made their concept and findings publicly available on their website and started self-publishing a book in 2004 in relation to their findings, 4 years after they first started.

Researcher B is new to the field and comes across the concept from researcher A via their website around 2005 and becomes interested in the concept. During this time they're also reading other researchers' findings (100-year-old theory so lots to catch up on). The more B learns the more they find that while the concept may be feasible, researcher A's findings, definitions of the theory and methodology are flawed so B stops referring to A's research a few months later and starts to conduct their own research. In order to do this, B builds up the concept's methodology from what they believe should work after months of research. Because of the flaws that they found with A, B never read the book that A made either.

After B conducted their own research and findings they also release the information publicly and have changed the methodology of the concept. It's shown that both A and B while using the same theory and similar concept have different results and definitions for the theory. A also congratulates and supports B during this time and admits that their findings and methodology are different from B's. After 3 years of research (2008 now), B decides to publish their findings in a book. While writing the book they never referred to or looked at A's findings but did cite any work that they did look at when writing. A is now claiming that B has plagiarized and infringed on their copyright because of 2 of 6 the definitions written in the book have similar passages referring to the concept; the concept itself is somewhat limited as it's limited to 2 variations for each aspect (so if there are 3 aspects there are 6 definitions). However, these definitions which are similarily written are used for different aspects of the concept which results in people achieving different results for the theory more than half the time. Also since it's a limited scope there's only so much you can write that differs from others' writing.

As far as I'm aware you can't copyright an idea which is the concept in this case and even more so since it's been around even before A started. However, I'm not too sure about the plagiarism. A is demanding to be acknowledged for their work however they didn't contribute to B's research nor were they the originators of the core concept. They just happened to popularize it a little and were B's introduction to the concept.

Has B plagiarized A? Does A deserve the acknowledgement for the aspect definitions despite them being different and resulting in different results? Or just acknowledgement for getting B started on this concept? Or none at all?

TLDR: A accuses B of plagiarism and copyright infringement. B was introduced by A to the concept/idea but never used their information due to inaccuracy. Concept/idea has been around before A started just not as popularized.

Honestly, there's too less info provided here for strangers on the internet to guess and come to a conclusion. I'd recommend talking to your research guides to look into the content and sort out the matter. After-all, it's a few definitions, and you have branched off to create fresh research on your own anyway, so your research isn't in danger. "Pick and choose your battles". Some battles may not be worth the time and energy.
   Think about it this way: If you lived in a jungle and heard nothing about Newtons laws but you came up with those laws and definitions on your own and came to the city and tried publishing a book and then Newton accused you of plagiarism, what would be the right course of action? Unless you have hard evidence that you had not heard of Newtons laws earlier, nobody would believe you.


How can I withdraw a manuscript that is placed under-review? I have a manuscript that is placed under review for a month now and during this month I have discovered that there are a few things I want to change/add in the manuscript and I don't want to publish this manuscript in this particular journal anymore.

How can I ask for this manuscript back?

Should I just send an email to the editorial office and what do I say?

This is the first time I done such a thing.

Thanks,

Just contact the editor in charge of your submission.  It may not be the main editor but an associate editor. Usually, when you login in the website for managing submissions, there is often a link to contact the editor. If not, you may also know who is the editor in charge of your submission by reading the e-mail that was sent to you as confirmation when you submitted the paper. Otherwise, you may look for an e-mail on the website to contact the editor. Those are general guidelines. It may vary depending on the journal. But don't worry. It is not a problem to remove a journal paper. This happen quite often.


Could I write a review paper as my B.Tech (Bachelors in Technology) final year project, rather than presenting an experiment based work? I live in India.
Currently due to the coronavirus pandemic, all colleges have been shut down and the country has gone in lockdown. As a result, my final year project work on electrocoagulation has come to a standstill.
The apparatus and the materials took time to arrive, and when they finally did and I was beginning to do the experimental work, the colleges were shutdown.
In the light of these events, my mentor has suggested me to write a review paper instead, however I am afraid it might not be accepted as a final year project.
Therefore, for my own peace of mind, I would like to know if a review paper could work as a final year B.Tech project.

You should check the official site of your university and see if you get the solution for your question otherwise you can ask your mentor or guide for research and they will help you for sure.
It is probably possible that they will allow you to write a review paper, rather than doing a final year project because the system is totally based on credits and credits are nothing but the amount of hours you put in to get a credit and writing a review paper is a difficult job and needs lots of hours to do , so I think they will allow you to that.


Should I be credited for my programming contribution to a dissertation? A psychology PhD candidate has been doing research on students (sorry i don't think I can be any more specific than this).  They needed someone to develop a application that gathers metrics about each student and then reports back to a central database. The PhD candidate then accesses the database and runs various metrics on the data to try to uncover patterns.  I was the person chosen to code the application.  I put about 100 hours into building this software application and I was compensated fairly for my effort.  Since then I have done regular maintenance and updates on the software/database and I continue to get compensated. Other than the software aspect, I really know nothing more about their research or dissertation.

My question is: Is there any expectation that I should be credited in the dissertation for my work on the software?  Without my software, the various studies simply would never have happened because there currently doesn't exist any commercial software that does what was needed.  On the flip side, I didn't actually help with the research, i had no say in the design or manner of the studies and was essentially uninvolved with anything that did not directly deal with the code.

The reason I am asking this question is mostly to see if I can use my work on this project in future resumes or CV's and actually list myself as a contributor on the project. In my normal life, I am not an academic or involved with any sort of academia other than this one incident so I am pretty clueless when it comes to this type of stuff.

You did work for hire for a research group. Since you say you were strictly involved in developing the tool and not in the research, authorship of subsequent publications is not to be expected. An acknowledgment in the thesis would be appropriate but it would have very little weight in a CV, inside or outside academia.

At any rate, you can definitely list your contribution to this project in your CV regardless of which kind of acknowledgment you might get. In fact having delivered a working software and gotten paid for it will be much more helpful than any kind of authorship/acknowledgments when applying for jobs outside academia.


Changing level of difficulty of assignments for a course based on average class performance As a teaching faculty in mathematics, do I need to change the difficulty level of assignments after assessing the average class performance in the first couple of lectures? I am not sure if this is done across universities in graduate level courses.
Or do I continue to maintain the rigour irrespective of whether students are following(enjoying) the lectures. Should the teaching faculty worry about the faculty grades from students at the end of the semester course?

In the most common scenario, there will be students from weaker background, and we need to be responsible for them as well.

I would suggest that you step back and ask yourself why you are giving these assignments. Some people give out assignments purely so that they can grade students and then they think about fairness of grading, etc.

But, if you consider that it is through reinforcement and feedback that students actually learn then the solution becomes clearer. If you consider that the human brain works by actual physical rewiring - connecting synapses - then you see that students need these exercises to make the material clearer in their minds and so that they can move the ideas from short to long term memory. This is discussed in the book The Art of Changing the Brain by James E Zull. It is pretty fundamental to learning theory in general.

Thus, the exercises should be there to enhance learning, primarily.

So ask yourself whether the exercises you use are enhancing learning or not. Or are they just a stumbling block that some students can't get over? If it is the latter, then you should use different exercises that better enable learning.

My goal was always to teach every student. If I had a reasonable number in a class and if they were willing to do what it takes to learn, then I could be successful. But for many students it takes a lot of practice to come up to speed, as well as a lot of feedback.

But my goal was never to just deliver information and use what you want of it. Wikipedia does that job pretty well.

However, for your weaker students - those who are willing to do the work, anyway, there are other options. If your current exercises are good in some ways and you don't want to drop them, you can provide additional exercises for those who want to try them. These might be chosen to better enable good performance on the current set. But you should also provide some mechanism for the students to get some feedback on these new exercises. From you is probably best, but sometimes peer-review might be sufficient. Or even set up study groups among the strugglers.


Approaching a professor for a postdoc, after not taking his previous postdoc offer in favor of an industry job I had a postdoc offer from a great research group at a US university towards the end of my PhD in April 2018. Around that time, a family member became severely ill. The nature of the illness was such that the doctors told me that they had to wait a few months to get a clear diagnosis and know whether it was going to be a long term condition or a one-off event. This put me in a dilemma - should I find a full time job that would let me relocate close to my family overseas if need be or should I stay in academia and hope it was just a one-off event? I decided to buy some time and wait a few months and never got back to the professor about the offer - I was very embarrassed to mention the illness as it's a highly stigmatized one. Morever, the professor wanted me to join immediately after my PhD and did not seem to be very flexible about my joining date. He never got back in touch after not hearing from me - I suppose he retracted the offer a few weeks after he made it.

I ultimately ended up delaying my PhD defense by a few months and found a corporate software job after that and started in February this year. My mental health has been slowly declining due to the fast-paced, extremely profit-driven nature of the corporate work environment and I am actually thinking of quitting and going back to a postdoc (my parents have decided to look after the sick family member so the illness is not as immediate a concern as it previously was).  I apologized to the professor in March about my non-response regarding his postdoc offer and told him about the illness and that I have moved on to the industry and he was very understanding and wished me all the best.

Here is my question: I know he is still looking for postdocs. How do I even begin the conversation with him on joining his group? I am also a bit concerned that the 1 year gap on my academic CV will be looked down upon negatively in future job searches.

If it is important to this question at all, I am 27 yrs old.

Start the conversation by being honest: describe what had happened, and assure them that it's only because of personal reasons that you could not accept their offer, not just the industry offer. You did the right thing by emailing them in March to keep them in the loop. However, I would emphasize that the reason that you didn't email them sooner was because of the personal stuff.

The same reasoning goes for your 1 year gap: if you do amazing work in your postdoc all will be forgiven. You need to convince the advisor that they can trust you to do well despite the initial setback (which was not something you could control), and the only way I can think of doing this is by telling them the truth.

I had a collaborator (not a postdoc) who left academia for personal reasons and returned to work with me (their story is somewhat similar to what you're describing, though the personal circumstances are different). I was very happy with them and was understanding regarding their situation. I'd like to think that I'm not an exception: most reasonable people understand that their students/postdocs have a life outside academia, and this particular advisor sounds like they should be as well.

Your age is not a major factor in this equation. I'd say that 27 is relatively young (I started my PhD at the ripe old age of 28).


Impact of type of institution (public vs. private) on long-term tenure track career perspectives I am curious about to what degree and how, if any, type of educational institution (public vs. private) has an impact on long-term career perspectives in academia (with eventual target of a tenure-track faculty member). For the purposes of this question, please assume we are talking mostly about educational institutions in the U.S. with a very high research activity per Carnegie Classification.

It is often held that the strongest determinant for career is the strength of a university in one's particular sub-field.  We might then reasonably guess that we can coarsely evaluate the strength of "public" vs. "private" by comparing the ranking of graduate schools (bearing in mind, of course, all the well-known problems with rankings).

Considering a test case then, the current top 10 American engineering grad schools, according to US News, are:

Private: MIT, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Caltech, USC
Public: Berkeley, Georgia Tech, Purdue, University of Illinois, University of Michigan, UT Austin

Yes, that's 11 schools in the top 10, because they list ties in their rankings.  The breakdown appears remarkably balanced, and scanning further down the list it appears to stay reasonably balanced.  Amongst elite universities, then, it appears that public vs. private makes little difference in this case, and is likely to make little difference in others either.


When there are multiple ISBNs, which should be reported in a reference list? Which ISBN number should I use in my literature list?

I have for example used a book about Design Patterns for my thesis. But I found that books have two ISBN numbers. Which is prefered to use?

This is an example from a book I used as reference:

Print ISBN:978-0-596-00712-6 | ISBN 10:0-596-00712-4

ISBN numbers for a specific book vary between countries/regions and is thus not altogether very useful in international publications. When referencing a book, it is not customary to list ISBN-numbers, partly for the reason just stated. Instead you should be able to find a doi (digital object identifier) number, at least if the book is relatively new. There is otherwise no general rules about including such numbers in reference lists. With books the fields that must (or at least should be included are author(s)/editor(s), year of publication, title, publisher and place for the publisher (City).


Doubt regarding uploading Tables and Figures for the accepted manuscript The instructions of the engineering journal I submitted to (IEEE transactions on wireless communications) says this regarding the final submission of figures and tables

  Please upload the Originals (masters) of the tables and figures (in separate files, one
  figure per file). All graphics material submitted for publication must
  be original drawn figures in .eps format, with each figure submitted
  as a separate file. Figures exported from other formats (e.g., PDF,
  PowerPoint) will not reproduce well in print. Appropriate fonts
  include: Symbol, Helvetica, Arial, Times New Roman.

What do they mean by "originals (masters) of the tables"? Does it mean that I should submit each table also as a separate file? If so, in which format?

In my opinion, the guideline regarding tables is outdated, and one can safely ignore it. If you submit your manuscript in LaTeX, put your tables in the main text. This is a current mainstream in (STEM-related) journals, and it is good to delicately push IEEE towards it. In case if they insist on doing this the other way (which I seriously doubt), you can address the questions to their production team.


First meeting with my PhD supervisor In my country, the graduate school and department assign you to a supervisor based on your research and specialization. After admission, you are expected to formally meet your supervisor.

I never met my supervisor before. How should I prepare for this meeting?

My first meeting with both my PhD and MS supervisor were fairly informal. Talk about research, talk about moving to the new area, ect. Generally set up stuff. They also showed me my new office. You don't really need to prepare unless you don't know much about what your new supervisor does. Relax, there will be plenty of time to stress in graduate school: now is not the time.


Should I contact an editor at the journal that rejected my paper, to ask for feedback? Recently I got a rejection of my paper from a reputed journal. There were two reviewers who reviewed my paper.However reviewer1 accepted it while reviewer 2 rejected with some suggestions that can be well implemented. The strong reason for the rejection mentioned by the reviewer 2 was the some similarity with my earlier paper.

My Query
One of the associate editor of this journal is the well known author working in my field and he has also received the mail notification regarding rejection of my paper. Perhaps he has reviewed this work as well. Shall I contact him to discuss about this rejection and ask for help to further improve our work as per his suggestions. I am fully confused and depressed with this rejection. As I was expecting this paper to be published in that journal.

I need help and suggestions. It would be of great help if someone could help me
in such case how to write mail. As English is not my first language I find it hard to write a convincing mail.

No, I don't think you should contact the editor. Journal editors are very busy people, and they don't have time to offer individual comments on every paper.

If you think that your paper did not get a fair review, for example if you have reason to believe the reviewer did not read or understand the paper, then that is worth contacting the editor about. But if you simply want to discuss the paper, the editor will likely view your request as not worth their time. They have already given you their comments on the paper, in the form of a rejection decision: in other words, the editor does not consider your paper appropriate for publication in the journal, and a discussion is not going to change that.

I also think asking for suggestions on how to improve the paper would be inappropriate, because you have already been given suggestions, in referee #2's report. My advice: make the improvements suggested by referee #2 and try submitting the paper to a different journal where it might be a better fit.


Do reviewers get a deadline for reviewing a Paper, if yes, how much? Do reviewers/editors receive a deadline for reviewing a paper?
I wanted to know that whether reviewers/editors receive any kind of deadline for reviewing a manuscript for a journal or they are allowed to submit their reviews any time they wish since they are not paid for this service.
If they do receive a deadline what is the average time the reviewers get for evaluating the following in journals owned by Elsevier, Springer, World Scientic, Taylor & Francis etc.

Round 1 revision or first review of a paper
Major Revision
Minor Revision

I find that if a major revision is required then the authors receive a time  of 2 months for fixing it.
For a minor revision the authors get a time of 1 month.
What is the time given by the journal authorities to the Editors/Reviewers for checking a major revision and a minor revision?
Can someone please let me know as one of my manuscript is in major and other in minor revision?
Any help will be greatly appreciated.

In general when journals contact potential reviewers, they do tend to give a time frame they expect those who accept to receive a review back in. The more enlightened ones also give a time limit to accept the review. As has been noted in the comments, the length of these windows varies by subject and by journal, with mathematics journals noted as being at the long end, and some disreputable science and engineering journals at the short end. In practice, these are soft targets, and editors tend to be happy if they get any response at all, even a late one. My experience is that these windows tend to be the same for initial and subsequent reviews, but I definitely won´t claim that is universal.
Note that for resubmissions there is a strong preference to reuse the original reviewers, since they are in the best position to check that their criticisms have been addressed. Having a strict deadline for review would be likely to slow the process further, since new reviewers would have to be found (and given a new block of time to respond in), who might easily raise points ignored under the original review.
One misapprehension in your question is in assuming that these targets are set by the publisher. In general it will be the senior editors making the decision based on the volume of submissions they have available, and the standard of impact they are aiming to maintain. The exceptions are at the predatory end of the market, and no reputable journal is going to publish an article unreviewed, just because all the reviewers were late responding. Modern editional systems have made life a bit easier by automating reminder emails, but these are often treated as spam messages by the recipient. Your principal solace is that many of these systems track review times and quality, and push editors to request reviews from fast, high quality reviewers.
As an author, your most useful data is average time from submission to publication, which many journals now advertise to win custom. Note that tis is a figure which can be manipulated however, by techniques such as forcing revisions to be treated as a new submission, or by giving up of articles which have sat for a long time.


IEEE in-text citation with page number Is the syntax used in this tex.stackexchange answer valid?

The asker wants to cite a specific page in a single reference and uses the format:

  Some assertion [1, p. 23].

Meaning reference number 1 and page 23 of that document.

Is the syntax used in this tex.stackexchange answer valid?

Yes


Are there usually interviews for postdoc positions? I applied for postdoc positions and I received a few interview offers. I thought not many institution have interview process for postdoc positions and they give offer only based on application material. Do I have false information?

Assuming that you're a mathematician (seeing as how your question migrated from math.SE), I believe that you get interview if you applied for:

European institutions
tenure-track level positions at liberal arts colleges
lower-level research universities who want to gauge the applicant's interest (was the applicant applying to this position as a safety, or is he/she genuinely interested?)
(only sometimes true) positions where research and teaching are equally valued, or where teaching is valued more highly
(only sometimes true) if a particular researcher is hiring postdocs out of his/her own grant


How to list online publications (e.g. blog posting, etc.)? I am updating my CV. As for my own publications, I have the usual sections:

Journal articles
Book chapters
Conference proceedings

I would also like to include the articles I have posted on different blogs.

The question is: which heading would you use for such electronic articles? They are not really conventional, peer-reviewed articles, so frankly I don't see fair to include them under the "Journal articles" section.

I saw some people use "Other publications", but I would like to be more specific.

Just keep it under a relevant label to make it sure that you don't pretend to have more peer-reviewed publications.

E.g. "Blog posts", or as I do: "Popular science and education-related articles (selected)".

If there are many, be sure to select only the most important/relevant ones.


Adding new results during review process I submitted a paper to an applied mathematics journal. I have since found a way to generalize one of the results.

Is it acceptable to update the paper during the first review step even if I have not been requested to improve on this particular aspect?

I understand that this would create extra work for the reviewers since they would have to check that part again. However, writing a brand new paper with the additional result would probably cause even more extra work for the review community. I also understand that a dissemination strategy that incorporates some salami slicing might be better for my career, but somehow I am opposed to doing that kind of thing.

Yes, yes it is. Just make it clear when you do so the reviewers can review the new additions.

That said, if you think the result merit a new paper, make a new paper, and reference the one under review.

However, while I am an early stage researcher my suggestion is: have a high ethos when publishing. It is way better to have 1 very good paper than 3 weak-related ones. Your objective is to show the world new research, do not fall in the paper-mill trap. Your worth is in the quality, not in the quantity.


Coming up with an activity to replace a quiz I will be teaching my first Calculus I class this fall (USA) and 5 percent of the grading is discretionary. Other sections are doing three quizzes over the course of the semester, with each taking about 10 minutes. The quizzes are on limits, derivatives, and integrals, one for each topic.

I don't want to have quizzes or extra homework or make the 5 percent depend on participation or attendance. I was considering making a quiz-style activity that would be less stressful than taking an actual quiz, but I'm having trouble seeing what this would be like. By "quiz-like," I mean that it would be part of the 5 percent for the grade, which is worth more than a homework assignment.

Ideally I'm imagining a situation where two students work together, maybe even at the board, to solve the problems that otherwise would be presented as a quiz. But then there are issues with grading (two students share the grade?), or possibly cheating (looking over to the board of the neighbor group). It would still need to be around 10 minutes.

I'm open to new ideas about what this could be like. I'm not entirely against quizzes, it's just that the workload is heavy in this class and a quiz would be something else that students could obsess over.

How about a “reverse quiz”?

Say to the students that they each have to write 5 questions spread through the material. They provide the q and a and submit them 2/3 the way through the class.

The last 1/3 of the class you diplay the questions and discuss phrasing, ambiguity etc If the class is large then you pick at random, but I always did this anonymously - the number of students who would shout out “that’s mine” was high :) they liked this activity...

I did this with a simple grading structure : 80% for submission of 5 q and 90 or 100% for 5 perfect q ie no errors: grammar, spelling etc You can carve the marking scheme as you wish...

I found they spent more time working with the material for this than they would do for a standard quiz. It was also good as part of revision work.


How safe is it to provide my credit card information to an admissions office? Recently, I got admission to a PhD program in the United States. And they have prepared my I-20 and the other documents to send me by mail.

They have offered me to provide them my credit card number and expiration date so they can send the documents by express service. They also offered a free regular service too.

How safe is it to provide my card information to an admission team? I know, probably, they will not misuse it, but do they protect it afterward too?
Do they have any obligations for the protection of the information.

Is it a common offer in all the USA?

I wouldn't send any personal information like that through an email, even if I were sure the email was sent from a secure and trusted location. Whether this be for an admissions office or anywhere else.

My advice would be, if you wanted it, to call the admissions office directly and provide the information over the phone to get the express service. There is an added fail-safe of you looking up the number and calling it yourself to ensure it is legitimate.

Otherwise, just take the free postage if you are that concerned about having your details stolen.


Can images with a "noncommercial use only" licence be used in teaching and academic presentations? Can I use images with a "noncommercial use only" license (such as CC-BY-NC) in my slides, both for teaching and conference talks?

I'd bet it's probably fine, but there's no way to get a definitive answer without asking the copyright holder (this is one of the weaknesses with the noncommercial Creative Commons licenses).  The Creative Commons definition of commercial use is use that is "primarily intended for or directed towards commercial advantage or monetary compensation".  Most teaching and conference talks seem pretty clearly noncommercial to me by this standard.  But what if someone argues that you're only doing that teaching to earn money?  Does the mere fact that you are using this material to help you do your paid job transform it into commercial use, or can you argue that in fact your use was not motivated primarily by earning money? What if you're getting paid an honorarium to give a talk - does that make it even more of a commercial activity?  You could end up in all sorts of debates about what the "primary intentions" are, with many borderline cases, and there's no objective way to resolve the disagreement.

The Creative Commons organization does not attempt to settle these issues, but does note that "not all educational uses are necessarily NonCommercial uses, so your use of an NC license may preclude use of your work in some educational contexts".  There seems to be no official guidance as to what this is intended to cover.  Maybe it is limited to cases such as selling teaching materials, or maybe it is much broader.

In practice, I imagine most people using a noncommercial license would not object to these uses.  There is a study of what users have in mind when choosing such a license, which doesn't directly address your issues but may shed light on them.  However, it's worth noting that people have in fact had nontrivial disputes over what constitutes noncommercial use, with at least one court decision that disagrees with what I would have predicted.

I can't really imagine anyone would sue you over ordinary teaching or conference talks.  The worst plausible scenario is probably offending the copyright holder (and being asked to remove the image), not getting sued.  That could be a risk worth taking if you believe that these uses should be considered noncommercial.

Of course I'm not a lawyer or an expert in Creative Commons licenses, and I don't know the real risks, so you should take this whole answer with a grain of salt.


Masters Student in Math: Picking an Advisor I'm a masters student looking to graduate next school year. I've picked a masters adviser already, who's doing some things in number theory but more on the analytic side (not quite my cup of tea, but close enough). I found out recently that there is someone doing algebraic geometry in my department (which is what I ultimately want to do when I pursue my PhD). Would it be in bad taste to switch advisers? Nothing with the original adviser is set in stone, just a verbal agreement and he gave me a paper to start reading.

Also, more importantly, is the closeness of a masters project to what you eventually want to be studying all that important in terms of applications to PhD programs? That is, if I do a project in something I'm not going to pursue further in PhD, would that look weird to PhD programs I'm applying to? The reason I ask is that the professor doing algebraic geometry at my school is not a very friendly guy. Thus I may not be able to get a good rec letter from him, let alone have an easy time working with him.

[Just for some perspective, a masters project at my school mainly consists of reading a paper by someone else, studying it thoroughly, and then presenting it.]

If nothing is set in stone yet, it would be reasonably to explore the possibility of switching advisor.

However, I don't think it's necessary. You are not expected to be doing exactly the same thing for a masters as a doctorate. Or indeed, even anything massively close. Within the UK at least, many doctoral students will come through the MMath rather than a stand-alone masters, and in theory may not have done any sizeable project. My project was completely unrelated to my thesis topic.

Indeed, personally I would suggest not switching topic. The way you are describing things, the topics are close enough that having the additional breadth will actually help your doctorate. You should develop an understanding of material around your thesis topic, not just the exact question you study.

But also do start talking to the potential doctoral adviser, and start to get a feel for whether the two of you are happy to work closely together.


Awaiting EIC Decision I submitted an article 10 days ago. First at the dashboard, they put under review. After one week, the dashboard put Awaiting EIC Decision. Is that bad?

The answer is that we can’t know. The status of the manuscript is exactly what it says on the tin - that it’s awaiting the decision of the EIC.

Trying to divine why is a bad idea. It’s possible that the original review notice was internal, not external. It’s possible the reviewers turned things around super quickly (my personal record is a single day). You can spin up a number of “just so” stories about the status.


Letter of Recommendation: Reputation vs personal relation I want to apply for a graduate program in Computer Science and need a Letter of Recommendation to complete my application.

While thinking about who I could ask to write the letter I came up with two people: One is a full professor and has a lot of reputation but knows me only from some oral exams (where we had some good talks even beside the exam topics) and crowded lectures where he couldn't really take notice of me.

The other one holds a Ph.D. in CS but is no longer involved in research. However, he holds advanced lectures in the field I'm interested (and am applying for). Usually we are about ten persons in his lectures and he knows me very well from asking questions during the lecture and so on. When he's asking a question to the audience and I raise my hand, he usually says that he knows I know it and wants others to answer it.

I'm unsure if I should aks the full professor with a lot of reputation or the lecturer who knows me much better but has much less reputation, to write a letter for me.

The more a person knows of you, the more positive things they will have at their disposal to write about. As you explain it, your second option knows about your skills and probably could redact a great recommendation letter.

That being said, I do not think that it hurts to ask both. If both agree, you can submit both letters


Best certification for requesting disability accommodations for GRE? I am planning to take the GRE Subject Test in Math. I have ADHD and would like to request accommodations.

I live in a first world country now but used to be based in a third world country. In this third world country I was seeing a resident psychiatrist.

I am about to have a new psychiatrist who is not a resident.

This psychiatrist has met me for only an hour while my old psychiatrist , the resident, met with me for over 12 hours already.

What certification should I submit to ETS?

new doctor only? Old doctor though resident only? Both?

Follow the instructions given by ETS. They are very specific about what kind of documentation they need.

Give your current psychiatrist the link and ask if he/she can provide everything on it, and if not, what he/she recommends you do to collect the necessary documentation.


Poor grades in courses related to my PhD thesis. Is that an indication to my research and future academic career potential? My PhD research will be in numerical modeling of Selective laser melting (SLM) process. I will be using finite element method, Fortran and python programming and a bit of machine learning in my research. My research is going to be completely computational based. I will be using Abaqus finite element analysis software for my research.

I took three courses (Finite Element Analysis, Mechanical behavior of materials and Numerical methods in scientific research) as part of my grad school requirements. I have a background in metallurgical engineering.

Now, I have got B-, A-, B+ grades in the three courses respectively. And I had worked hard for these courses, probably should have worked harder. My advisor says the grades and courses are a formality and I should focus on my research as I will learn more by doing than through any coursework.

It's true that I won't be developing any finite element code for my research and I will learn programming and fundamentals of material behavior as I go about my research, I am concerned that the abysmal grades in the courses is an indication to my research and future academic career inability. Is it? Any advice?

My advisor says the grades and courses are a formality and I should focus on my research as I will learn more by doing than through any coursework.

Your advisor is right.  Listen to him.  Class in an engineering Ph. D. program mean very little.  Research is more important by an order of magnitude.


Industry value of Doctoral degree when compared To a PhD in Computer Science I'm planning to do a Doctoral program in computer science. However, there are Two degrees:

Doctor of computer science (DCS Doctoral degree)
Doctor of philosophy in (PhD) computer science

I am a working professional and I'm planning to do one of these degrees mainly for career advancement. I'll be continuing in industries and not interested in the teaching profession. It is common to see industries specifying PhD as a mandatory requirement for some jobs; however, I have not seen the same thing for DCS degree.

Therefore, I would like to know which one of them is widely accepted by industries?

Thanks,
Raj

[a] DCS is not considered equivalent to a Ph.D

So, a job posting seeking a candidate with a PhD in computer science is only seeking (2), candidates with only (1) should not apply.

  will the company treat both the doctoral programs equally or does one have edge over the other?

PhD has the edge over DCS.


How can I transfer to a different Ph.D. program after experience with a bad advisor? I just started my Ph.D. in fall 2015 in a very good, high-ranking school in the United States. However, my advisor and I were not able to work together and I did not like her way of advising, since she uses negative reinforcement. She was harsh, annoying, and trying to get into my personal life. I do not have a co-supervisor.

I started to think about changing school because of her and I applied to different schools but for some reasons I think she got in the middle, because the schools I applied to have raised many questions about why am I transferring! On one occasion, before I applied, I found an advisor and I told him my situation and he agreed to take me (not in writing, though), but then suddenly I received a rejection letter from the school.

I am not sure what to do, I like studying and I like working in research, but my advisor make me sick. She destroy my positive side and now she is in the middle between me and other schools. Hence, I told her that I am not working for her anymore. What should I do in this situation.

To be perfectly honest, if a student came to me wanting to transfer, with the complaints you have stated above, I would want to hear the other side of the story.

Yes, there are bad advisors out there, and sometimes personality clashes just happen.  This can be a reason for switching to a different advisor.  However, there are several things that would cause me to be concerned here.

You are giving up on the program very quickly.
You seem to be immediately going to the option of changing institutions, rather than the more common approach of changing advisors within the institution.  Why is this?  Does it mean people closer to the situation don't agree with your take on it?
You have lots of very bad things to say about your advisor, yet few specific complaints. What are the actual inappropriate things that your advisor did?

Many of the complaints seem to be about style: "negative reinforcement", "harsh".  It can be quite hard to work with someone whose style doesn't match yours.  However, in all but the most extreme situations, this is something you should learn to work around, rather grounds for refusing to work with the person.
Many of the complaints are attacks, without any substance: "[she] makes me sick", "[she] destroyed my positive side".
The one concrete complaint you have, that the advisor is "trying to get into my personal life", is potentially a serious breach of professionalism.  But again, without specifics, the merit of your complaint is hard to judge.  Has she crossed a line, or are you misreading an attempt to be friendly (e.g. chatting about non-work subjects)?

Your initial stance is to 100% blame her for the situation, but after further discussion in the comments you admitted that you were not fully prepared for the program.

I'm not saying that you are wrong.  Maybe you are right and the advisor is just terrible.  Terrible advisors do exist--but people who wrongly blame others for their situation also do exist.  Someone who doesn't know you is not just going to take your side of the story at face value.  They will also want to find out more about the situation.

The new institution contacting your current institution and current advisor would almost certainly be part of any transfer during a PhD program. This doesn't imply that your advisor wrongly inserted herself in the middle of the situation.  It is normal.  If there was a sudden switch from verbally agreeing to accept you, to your application being declined, this may well explain it.


Report ancient harassment to the university? During the pursuit of my degree, which I received in '92, I took a class where motifs in folksongs were routinely discussed.

I don't remember the exact wording now but I noticed a few songs with wording about a couple going to bed and the man putting the woman "toward the wall". I couldn't figure out what this motif might mean, so I asked about it in class. My male professor looked me dead in the eye, and answered "for leverage". The delivery was not lighthearted, and it was not followed by anything to lighten the mood. I read it as a kind of attack in the form of sexual innuendo. Why? Partly because of the aggressiveness of his eye contact, and partly because of the flatness of his tone of voice.

My reaction was no doubt colored by the fact that a friend had previously told me she approached this professor during office hours for a different class and he'd asked her out for coffee. She declined, and he retaliated in class.

My interaction with him quelled my in-class participation and made sure I never approached him after class unless there were plenty of other people there. Nonetheless, I got a good grade in the class and it had no lasting impact on me. I dismissed it from my mind and didn't think about it again until the rise of #metoo.

At the age of 20, he seemed... old to me, and it never occurred to me  that he would still be professionally active - until I heard him on the radio yesterday talking about a new book. As it turns out he is still at that same university, and I'm concerned that he's still "teaching" young women.

It has been nearly 30 years and the "harassment" seems nebulous at best. Should I report this, and if so, how? I started drafting an email to the department chair, but while the incident certainly had an impact on me at the time, it seems so... thin? weak? questionable when I write it out (even here).

So... now what?

For the record, this is not about me. I pretty much got over this a long time ago. My concern is for young women in his classes today.

Honestly, I think this is way over the top. I am not even sure if there is anything that could be reported at all.

Let me just sum it up:

This way 30 years ago, nobody except you might remember your case anymore
Its unclear whether you have experienced harassment at all, it's even harder to tell after 30 years. Hurt feelings do not automatically mean that you were harassed.
You did not take immediate actions back then, as you said, you "got over this"
A friend has told you that he retaliated that she did not want to go on a coffee with him. I have heard way too many stories about (female) students who interpreted way too much into their professors'/teachers' behavior. I would be very cautious with stories heard second-hand. If your friend is really sure that something went wrong, she has to address this issue.

If your report this professor: Which reactions do you expect by the university? Is there anything that they could do now? On the other hand: Are you aware that you could bring him into serious trouble, perhaps just due to a misunderstanding 30 years ago?

  For the record, this is not about me. I pretty much got over this a
  long time ago. My concern is for young women in his classes today.

I think today's women are confident enough to oppose against harassment on their own. Our society is way more sensitive now.


How detailed should I describe my actions regarding code? I am writing a thesis about a data analysis I'm implementing and am currently describing my data preparation where I talk about what needed to be done prior to the analysis (formatting the data, removing noisy data).
Now, I was wondering if I should also include steps that only helped me to work more comfortably like creating multiple different sets of data with different variables?

This has no direct impact on the analysis but I'm not sure if it still needs to be included.

In general it is good to be complete, if you can do so without being overly pedantic. But the example you give (multiple data sets) seems like an especially important one to include. This is especially true as a single data set is seldom definitive (if the analysis relies on statistical data - sampling). Multiple, similar data sets gives general confirmation.

If you say too little, you leave yourself open to questions about what you considered and didn't or whether your results are too sensitive to extraneous factors.

Give enough information so that someone else is able to independently confirm your conclusion.


Are researchers permitted to mislead subjects about the purpose of a trial? I think much research would not be very successful if the subjects knew the purpose of the research. When researchers gather human subjects for a trial, can they provide the subjects with misleading information about the purpose of the trial?

Standard 8: Research and Publication of the "Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct" of the American Psychological Association pertains. Specifically:

  8.07 Deception in Research

  (a) Psychologists do not conduct a study involving deception unless they have determined that the use of
  deceptive techniques is justified by the study's significant
  prospective scientific, educational or applied value and that
  effective nondeceptive alternative procedures are not feasible.

  (b) Psychologists do not deceive prospective participants about
  research that is reasonably expected to cause physical pain or severe
  emotional distress.

  (c) Psychologists explain any deception that is an integral feature of
  the design and conduct of an experiment to participants as early as is
  feasible, preferably at the conclusion of their participation, but no
  later than at the conclusion of the data collection, and permit
  participants to withdraw their data. (See also Standard 8.08,
  Debriefing.)

Whether or not a planned study satisfies these requirements is for the Institutional Review Board to decide, which must review every proposed study before it starts.


Is there any job security for tenured academics in Denmark? There recently was some bad press regarding job security for tenured academics in Denmark. A critical article in a newspaper edited by University of Copenhagen employees mentions the firing of two professors, one of them (Thomas Højrup) due to a "cost-cutting measure".

To get a balanced picture of the matter, I looked into official information as provided by universities, and found the following explanation by the Copenhagen Business School:

  A position as associate professor or full professor at a Danish university is a permanent position. The employment and working conditions of academic staff employed at Danish Universities are primarily regulated by collective agreements between the Danish Government and the trade unions. According to the collective agreement [...] Danish Universities, however, can dismiss a member of the academic staff, employed in a permanent position, but only in special circumstances, due to either disciplinary offenses or as a result of considerable budgetary restrictions or other unexpected institutions circumstances.

This sounds to me like a university could easily get rid of any tenured employee they don't like anymore (for whatever reason) by declaring a new "strategic orientation", which results in an unavailability of funding for said employee.

Consequently, I wonder is if there is any job security at all for tenured academics in Denmark. Specifically, are there usually any "safeguards" that prohibit a university from firing a person they don't like by reallocating their funding?

I have recently been employed at University of Copenhagen in a temporary position. The current situation is definitely problematic.

Denmark has the general problem (shared with many other countries), that basic funding for universities has been cut over many years, and transferred to project specific funding for research centers or individual grants - more often than not provided by private companies and foundations, rather than the state.

This means that the extraordinary circumstances have become rather ordinary, and the case of prof. Thybo mentioned in the article, is not the only known case. Adding to this that many younger people are now being hired in assistant professor positions without tenure, although being at the age and reputation where they should really get tenure track positions or tenured positions, it certainly seems that University of Copenhagen is phasing out the concept of tenure.

To summarize: I think the conclusion that there is no job security at all in Denmark is rather harsh, but definitely not without reason. I would recommend anyone aiming for faculty positions in Denmark in general, and University of Copenhagen in particular, to do solid research into the financial situation of the department they are considering joining first.


My adviser wants to be the first author I am working on a paper after finishing my Masters. I did all the lab research and writing of the manuscript. My professor was only involved to guide me throughout the research and read my writing and give his comments.

Can I argue with him and tell him I am not letting the article to be published if he insists on being the first author?

It isn't a good career move to counter your advisor in things like this. You need him to sign your thesis (already done) and to write you a good letter of recommendation - maybe still to come. If you anger him, whether rightly or wrongly, it will be you that pays the price.

As I said in a comment, this kind of "authorship" is common, accepted, and perfectly natural in some fields, even if it is a bit stupid.

Having joint authorship with a professor can actually be a help to your career, even if he takes first authorship. Some people will just assume that he did all of the work (no matter the order of authorship), carrying you along. Others will just assume that you did all the work and he is first author by courtesy.

This is something you can't control.

But a publication with your name on it anywhere is a plus for your career.

If you want to fight a system that you think is stupid, wait until you have some power and standing in academia to back you up. Otherwise you get squashed before you have a chance to fly.

Work with him and get a good letter.

I realize this isn't the answer you wanted to read. But think long term, not the short.


Is it possible a post-doc position for a specialist in medicine without PhD? I graduated from Medical Faculty ten years ago. I got my degree as a Microbiology Specialist in 2015. I have been working as a Clinical Microbiologist in a hospital since then. I completed all my education and working in Turkey.

Last month, I attended a conference. I met a professor from King's College London. After discussing some issues about bacterial interactions this professor offered me a postdoc position in his department. I want to accept this position but I don't have a Ph.D. degree. The professor also doesn't sure and he advised me to search this issue.

Does anyone know if it is possible or can you address me an organization to ask this question?

The organization to ask is the organization that wants to employ you. The name postdoc suggest that a postdoc starts after you became a doctor, but there is often some leeway in interpreting those rules. However, how much leeway depends a lot on the specific country and institution. Even within institutions departments can differ quite a lot in the extend to which they are willing to make use of the leeway offered by the rules set at the higher levels. So the only advise we can give you is to talk to HR department of the university that wants to hire you.


Statement of Purpose, is it conventional to add a small title to each section? The statement of purpose is for graduate school application. However, from several online samples, I see that the author added "small title" on top of each section. I personally like doing this because I assume the committee won't have enough time to read through 2 pages (1000 words) SoP. I am asking whether this is a conventional pratice?

This is the sample I was talking about.

I haven't seen it often in the many, many application essays I've read, so I'd hesitate to call it "conventional practice," but I'm certainly not opposed to it. As you say, it can help make the essay more scannable, such that readers garner a quick but useful impression of who you are and what you chose to highlight about yourself. It may also help you organize your thoughts as you write.

Two pages honestly isn't much to read -- almost anyone who's reading applications to graduate school reads far more than that on a regular basis! -- but at least some of us will be impressed by the courtesy of your design, and others by its professionalism.

On balance, then, I'd say that if it makes sense to you to do this, go right ahead.


Emailing a potential PI about applying to a Master's program at their school Is it okay to email professors/PI's to show interest working in their lab when you're applying to the school's Master's program? I saw on another question that unless it is explicitly said, you shouldn't contact the professor directly and should email the admission staff instead. There is a section on PI's webpage with his contact information, but in the Positions section, there are none available currently. Should I not try contacting this person at all?

In terms of the content of the message, I wanted to discuss my interest in a specific field and how working in his lab would help in achieving my goal. Furthermore I wanted to ask for any type of advice which may help when entering graduate school in the field.

Yes, you should contact them.

In terms of the content, you have it half right. Do briefly discuss your interests and why you think you would be a good fit for this lab.  Then simply ask, are you taking graduate students for the next term?

However, I would say do not ask for advice in general.  That is a bit much and these PIs are busy and won't want to spend the time providing advice for a student they do not know. Keep your email as concise and clear as possible to ensure a response.

Finally, if a professor is a good match for your interests, you should email them even they do not have any openings currently listed on their website. Again, they are busy, they may not have updated their website recently. Or, they may have just received notice that they got a new grant. etc, and so on.  If they are a good match for your interests, it is worth emailing them.

Good luck.


Fiscal data of university budgets When comparing different universities, various factors are common to be reported such as number of students (undergraduate, graduate), student-to-staff ratio, number of staff, physical spaces, etc.

However, when it comes to financial data, the amount of endowment is reported (e.g. in Wikipedia).

Is there any reference for comparing financial data of universities (mainly in the United States)? Total budget, tuition fee, funds spent on education, research, campus life, etc!

I mean a comparative database, not attempting to find such diverse data from each university website.

So there is Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, the from the National Center for Education Statistics. One of the many variables you can ran institutions on is in fact percent of budget spent on research expenses. That was just the first one I looked for. I don't know how deeply this will go into anything about campus life beyond how much money is spent on housing and student services. But this seems to be the place to go for raw data.


Transition from Electrical Engineering to Physics My name is Luka and I am currently third year of electrical engineering, specifically Power and Control Systems. I have very high GPA, and I am certain I will be applying for MSc in two years (I have to finish this year, and specialize next year in order to get Bachelor). I am 100% sure that I will pursue PhD after MSc and hope to continue working in academia. But there is one problem in this. During these years I have confirmed that my passion for physics(especially high energy physics)is much greater than one for engineering. In fact, I do not think I would be able to do any research in engineering. Because of this, I want to switch fields and to get into MSc program for High Energy Physics. My question is: Is there anyone with similar experience that has made a successful transition? And if it is possible, is it possible to follow the material? Any advice or information would be very helpful. Thank you

I have seen some people do this and I myself am have done something similar; it is certainly possible.

My university didn't have much flexibility for taking electives or minors either. Your best bet would be to convince your current university (or any local university) to take you on maybe as a non-degree seeking student after graduation (maybe even audit) to fill in the gaps in your general physics knowledge, with a view to eventually transition into the MS program. Doing so would help convince the professors at the institution to admit you into the program by subduing their doubts regarding your background in addition to forming some connections (I volunteered as an RA at a lab in the physics dept. in an area overlapping with my previous engineering background, which helped my get into the physics program at my current institution). Depending on the university, they may even let you into the MS program directly, with the caveat that you have to take some remedial undergraduate courses.

While you probably won't be doing high energy physics right off the bat, you will probably have the opportunity to do graduate level coursework in physics and that will set you up well for a future PhD in HEP or further graduate research in your field of interest.

You might find this link interesting
https://physicsafterengineering.blogspot.com/2018/06/my-journey-into-physics-after.html


Is it necessary to add email address to paper? Short and simple question. Am I allowed to not include my email at a publication?

On a related note, what should I  do if I don't have an e-mail address, or have an e-mail address at my university which will expire when I leave the university?

You should put your email on your paper.  Not doing so means people who want to contact you can't, and it's obnoxious, non-collegial, and extremely unusual in science.

As for what address to use, I see two main paths: "permanent" and "traceable":

For the "permanent" path: many universities have a permanent alumni email address, which you can set up while still there and which is an excellent choice for long-term usage.  If you don't have access to such, you can get a free address (Gmail is a good "professional" choice, but others can be as well; don't use AOL, Hotmail, or others with a poor reputation).  The advantage of this approach is that your address need never change; the disadvantage is that you may not be using an email associated with your primary affiliation.

For the "traceable" path: it is worth recognizing that even when you have a "permanent" position, such as a tenured faculty post, that it may not be permanent.  People relocate away from long-term jobs for all sorts of reasons, and an email address thought to be forever is not.  Everybody who wants to contact you will understand this.  Thus, rather than use Gmail, you might instead just make sure you always maintain an easily identifiable web presence that includes information about your former affiliations and papers.  Thus, when somebody searches for you, they can easily link you and your paper, even if your email has changed.


Can a university suspend a student even when he has left university? If a student is supposed to be punished with something like suspension, but he has finished academic requirement and left the campus(not officially graduated yet). Can the university still do anything to him?

Yes. The university can revoke the degree. Example, which was about a PhD degree being revoked because the student later went on to commit academic fraud.

If the student hasn't graduated then the university can also withhold graduation, which as far as I know is quite common. For example if the student has outstanding library loans, the university can withhold graduation until the loans are settled.


Group-building for project, how to handle non-response? I recently switched to a new university and our professor asked us to make groups for a big project next semester. Since I was new I sent an e-mail to everybody available if they are free.

I got a response and answered with the topics I wished to pursue. I haven't heard from him since 4 days.

In the meantime somebody else contacted me with matching interests in topics.

What is a professional way to get an answer from the first student? Should I just set a deadline?

How can I handle the second student the best way?

First stop would be to get a phone number of the student - you might be able to get it from the university if you can't from a friend or classmate. Explain the situation to the student and I'm sure they'll understand - it's a common enough thing to happen.

If you can't get a phone number or feel it would be inappropriate (I honestly don't think it is in a time critical scenario), then send another email with a deadline. If you wanted you could put a read receipt on it so you'll know if they've opened it - some people dislike this though as it feels a bit intrusive.

In terms of the second student, explain the situation fully and say you've got a deadline - ask if they'd mind waiting till them, but you can't expect them to wait if they get a better/more suitable offer.


Earning a Phd at an older age I have a masters degree in Physics and I have worked in Italian high school for 15 years. Now I'm 47 and I wish to have a bachelor or masters degree in Math, because I'd like to change job. How difficult might be for me to have a Phd after the degrees, considered my advanced age (even if I don't feel it)?

I'll give an answer which is specific for the PhD in Italy. In other countries, things can be/are different.

  Now i'm 47 and i wish to have a bachelor or masters degree in Math

If you want to apply for a PhD in Italy, you should have a Master's degree. Since you have already an MSc in Physics, you can probably stop to a BSc in Math, but I suspect that this would strongly limit your chances of being accepted for a PhD in Math.

  How difficult might be for me to have a Phd after the degrees, considered my advanced age?

In principle, no more difficult than if you were 20. In practice, it depends on several factors.

I want to highlight one practical factor: Do you plan to drop your current (or another) job during the PhD or do you plan to pursue the PhD while employed? In the first case, you would have to cope with the fact that you should get a scholarship and that PhD's scholarships in Italy are around EUR 1000/month [*], which is probably difficult to accept when one is about 50 years old with 15-20 years of work experience. In the second case, it might be difficult to find an advisor willing to accept you as his student, considering that you would not be able to work full time on your PhD. Moreover, it would be difficult for you to follow the mandatory courses which are requested by some universities.

[*] Currently, they can vary (free of taxes) from about 1100 €/month to about 1500 €/month (rare).


I have somehow completed my PhD without having the required theoretical understanding of my field. Can I have an academic career? I have an undergrad in mechanical engineering. My Masters, PhD was in Mechanical too. However, I have never been academically strong (grades were majorly C and B+). I had to retake advanced mathematics, continuum mechanics and Finite element analysis course during my undergrad as I had flunked the courses.

However, I always enjoyed the field of computational mechanics, how materials behave is something I enjoy thinking about. I pursued the field in my Masters and PhD, inspite of not taking any grad level course during the programmes. My committee never instructed me to take the courses, I thought self study would suffice.

I have a PhD in application of computational mechanics, I have 3 first authored papers in materials science journals, not mathematics intensive journals. I am worried about my future in the field.
I am continuing with a postdoc under my PhD advisor for a year and am searching for other positions.

I shouldn't have pursued higher studies, atleast not in a field I have theoretical deficiency. I still love my field, but I am still afraid of the theoretical papers in my field. My work (application focused) is not mathematically intensive and is pretty straightforward. I can argue that given a direction, one doesn't need a masters or PhD to do what I do.

I know, there won't be anyone who had experiences similar to mine. It is always expected that people go for highers studies in subjects they are good in. I did the other way round. What should be my course of action now to have a potential academic career? I think I am up for a dissappointing career outcome, but still I want to give it a try.

This is a pretty solid case of Imposter Syndrome, I think. Yes, lots of other people have experienced it. Part of it is the letdown after completing a degree, perhaps. Part of it is the realization that your field is very wide and no one can really grok all of it.

But you seem to be able to function pretty well in your field. Thesis? Check. Papers? Check. Specialization? Well, yes, of course. Doctorates are like that.

The test of it, is whether you can get a suitable position. If you don't fall in to depression and sabotage your own applications then I doubt that there are any real barriers. The research you love is valued by academia. Do that.

If you are still connected to the university, they probably have a counseling office where there is someone familiar with these sorts of feelings and can give you some professional advice.

As to your grades, they were apparently strong enough that people let you continue your education to the end. No one will care much anymore about them. They can be a poor, or at least imperfect, surrogate for measuring knowledge in any case.


How to give feedback on a course when no evaluation was offered? I just finished a course in organic chemistry this semester, where we had absolutely everything go wrong. Our TA had immigration problems, and only showed up to the first few days. Our stockroom was mostly always empty of chemicals, and most of us didn't have enough glassware. Our fume hoods stopped working, and the list goes on and on.

A lot of the students had been looking forward to the course evaluation, to express our frustration of having to teach ourselves organic chemistry, and lab techniques without any supervision.

However, on the final day, after we took our final exam, which was given by the supervising professor, we were not offered a course evaluation.

I'm wondering if there's some kind of protocol for giving feedback to the chemistry department, as I don't know who is even aware of what went on in our class. I also do not want to come off like a whiner.

Also, the professor seems to be giving a huge curve to try to stave off a revolution. For example, I scored a 99% in the class, and my lab partner got a 72%, and we both walked away with an "A", which is even more frustrating.

Typically, the dean of each department is the person who has the ability and the know-how of each professor to actually effect some change. That changes by school and by department, but you can't go wrong by finding your dean's office and dropping in or sending an email. I've done it before and action was taken very quickly, but I happened to be a part of a very well-structured department with passionate staff.


How do I tell professors I am no longer applying to graduate school? I can't tell if my email should be a be a casual heads up or a weighty explanation of how I fucked up.

I just graduated college and have been doing a number of side gigs, one of which was teaching English online, for money. I always knew I wanted to research this niche topic in educational media, so I have been preparing my applications since graduation and requested letters of recommendation from all these people.

Then out of the blue, I get a job offer from the company I've been teaching in English in to move to their office and work on producing educational media. The industry sector, the job, and the country they are in is practically perfect. So naturally I take the job.

Now I'm at a loss over how to tell my professors I'm putting a halt on my applications. I feel shitty for making them write letters that I won't use, and worse, I know I will be asking them again in a few years to apply again.

Is it common for people to give up on their applications like this?

Is there a polite way of emailing them not only do I not need the letters anymore, but to also hang onto them because I will need them again?

You have a number of choices at your disposal:

In person. I would recommend this as it offers the most rich (in terms of feedback) setting for you to explain your situation, offer your gratitude for their help thus far, and secure the notion that you would be revisiting your graduate applications down the road given your new job. However, given the fact that you may not be near your university, this option has its drawbacks.
Through a Phone Call. Second to an in-person conversation is a phone call. You can receive more feedback in terms of their reaction to the news through audio cues. At the same time generating a more organic flow to the conversation.

  Now I'm at a loss over how to tell my professors I'm putting a halt on my applications. I feel shitty for making them write letters that I won't use, and worse, I know I will be asking them again in a few years to apply again.

  Is there a polite way of emailing them not only do I not need the letters anymore, but to also hang onto them because I will need them again?

As for email, here is something to consider:

  Dear [Professor X],

  I wanted to thank you for the time and effort that you have put into
  writing a letter of recommendation for my graduate studies. I really
  appreciate the help and advice you have given me through the process.

  I recently received an offer to work at [insert company here].
  Although I had not considered it before, this position would allow me
  to [insert reason here]. I have discussed this with [potentially other
  professors, significant other] and I decided that this would be the
  best move for me in the next couple of years.

  This does not mean that I do not have any aspirations to attend
  graduate school however. I understand how you may be disappointed in
  my decision, but I am hoping that you would support me if I were to
  postpone my graduate studies and reapply down the road. I am wondering
  if you would still be inclined to help me.

  Please let me know of any comments or reservations you may have about
  this. Thank you.

  Respectfully Yours,

  [Your Name]

As for your questions:

  I can't tell if my email should be a be a casual heads up or a weighty explanation of how I fucked up.

Keep it simple and to the point. You did not fuck up, you are making the best (relatively speaking) decision for yourself at this point in time.

  Is it common for people to give up on their applications like this?

No hard data, but people quit programs for a multitude of reasons. You deciding to pursue a position is not the end of the world nor a unique situation.


Is an acknowledgement worth putting in a CV? Of course, the bread-and-butter of an academic CV are degrees and publications, and citation index is a primary means of judging the value of said publications, but it's also common for academics to give out acknowledgements to people who contributed to a paper, but not in a way deserving of a citation or authorship.

Is a history of being thanked in acknowledgements worth putting on one's CV or otherwise touting in the context of academic faculty appointments?

I can come up with arguments both ways. On the one hand, an acknowledgement without a citation or authorship implies that one's contribution was non-academic in nature or, if academic, was too minor to merit being cited or granted author status, but on the other hand, an acknowledgement could be seen as demonstrating so-called "soft skills". For example, one might claim,

  My biochemistry citation index speaks for itself, but also see that Dr. Jones acknowledged me for "faithful emotional support while [he] was undergoing cancer treatment while also teaching a heavy load", and Dr. Smith acknowledged me for "standing firm in support of the department's goals and [her] projects in particular as major funding cuts rocked through the university in 2018 and 2019". I have thus demonstrated excellent hard academic skills as well as organizational and interpersonal soft skills, and that is why I am the best candidate for department chair!

No. We don’t hire people to be our friends or to offer us emotional support, and I don’t even understand what “standing firm in support of the department’s goals” means. We hire them to teach, do research, and do other more or less well defined tasks, none of which are evidenced in any meaningful way by being mentioned in the acknowledgements to someone’s paper.

You can be the world’s most amazing, virtuous, supportive person, and that’s great, but no one will hire you for an academic job for those qualities. For your CV, focus on quantitative, measurable achievements that hiring institutions actually care about.


Deferring an NSF postdoc? I am wondering if I get an NSF math postdoc will I be able to defer for a year in order to spend a year in a one year position somewhere other than the host institution I applied with, and then go there after that?  What if I am willing to forfeit the first year of NSF funding to do so?

More specifically, the place I applied for NSF has offered me a postdoc and is open to me spending a year at IAS before going there, and I am wondering if should I get the NSF that will still be possible.

For planning purposes you'll want to carefully read the program announcement from the NSF to see if they state a policy on deferment. For instance, in Instructions for Preparing and Submitting
Mathematical Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (MSPRF):

  The postdoctoral appointment must start between June 1 and October 1
  of the year of the award.

The GRFP guidelines (for graduate students - not a post doc), just to show another example and outline the NSF's typical policies, has a similar provision:

  May I defer my Fellowship?

  No. There is no general Fellowship deferral - only approved Military
  or Medical Deferrals. Deferrals are different from Reserve years.
  While on deferral, a Fellow's clock stops, i.e., the remaining time
  available for Tenure or Reserve periods is not affected. Reserve years
  are counted in the 5-year period allowed for the Fellowship.

Regardless of published policy, "you can always ask", as there may be some special exception granted because of your particular situation and proposal. But the official policies will give you a reasonable expectation of what to expect - if they say you can, you can, but if they say you can't, you might not be able to (but it's not utterly impossible - just less likely).

If someone who has been in a similar situation and requested a deferral (even against stated policy) could share their experience that would be even better, but the official printed guidelines is always your best starting place.


Not getting along with Spanish professor. Professor is condescending, and picks favorites. I feel I have enough evidence to do something I am in a Spanish Translation class at a good public university.

Background: I am a white male and a Spanish/Chemistry double major. I plan to pursue a PhD in Chemistry or teach at the high school level, and Spanish is pure enjoyment. I am engaged in this class. I do every single reading, and try really hard to participate. I do not give her any "sass" (and if I did, that still doesn't justify taking points off in direct contradiction of her assigned readings). I have asked her already how to be more polite, and she tells me I am fine.

Early in the class, there were some strange vibes. Since then, there have been numerous instances, so for brevity I will only mention the ones that stick out most.

1: She marks me off two points for using the word "Filipina" in a journalism translation, claiming it's not an english word. I find it in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as well as in hundreds of New York Times (reliable english journalism source). She awards me only one of two points back for this, and when I question it she says it is "non-negotiable."

2: One day, she asks our opinion about a "translation tidbit". I said I liked it and thought it was poetic, and she proceeds to laugh out loud assuming I'm joking. She then says in an incredibly exaggerated and melodramatic way "I admire your courage for speaking up in class but that is incorrect." Some awkward silence passes and she says, again loudly to the whole class, "Are you embarrassed?" in an incredibly condescending manner.

3: On a quiz, I translated the phrase "Diagnosticar un niño es separar la familia" or something similar as "To diagnose a child is to separate the family." She marks me off two points, claiming she "wanted the gerund" and cited certain textbook pages. On these same pages, the book clearly reads "the infinitive in Spanish can be translated as the gerund or as the infinitive in english." I present her with this direct evidence and again she says "I wanted the gerund. Non-negotiable."

4: During our most recent quiz, our task is to translate an idiom. She writes an idiom on the board, relating to January 6th which is apparently a holiday in the Spanish-speaking world. I very politely ask her for the meaning of this holiday, and she says condescendingly to the class "I would expect an advanced to student to know what this cultural day is. I can't just give you the answer." Several other students raise their hands and admit to not knowing the cultural reference. She then tells us what it is, and angrily says "You're welcome for the answer. Have a good spring break."

5: While reassuring one of her favorites about a missed assignment, she talks about the "class participation" part of our grade (10%). She openly says "this is where I can give my favorite students a little bit of a boost." She makes direct eye contact with me during this. That's what spurred me to write this.

Beyond these instances, other students have commented to me that they also notice her favoritism and hostility toward me. She has a general air of condescension toward everyone, but it's worse with me. I don't know what to do. I am giving my all, and objectively earning A's according to her rubrics. I have an A in the class right now, but I can just sense that she's going to screw me with this "Participation grade", which is not valid because I participate more than almost everyone else in class.

Is there anything I can do? I feel like I have decent evidence and can bring in a fellow classmate to vouch for me if need be. I have no doubts they would take my side.

Update: She gave me no feedback on my final paper draft and then proceed to make 80 edits to my revision, and then gave me a lower grade on the revision. I decided this lack of feedback was sufficient enough to go over her head.

Others may disagree, but I think you should go over her head. When she's outright admitting that she plays favorites with the participation grade, her department should know. What they do with that information is hard to predict, but if such complaints become a pattern with this teacher, they (hopefully) have to do something about it. Plus, complaining now could put you on slightly firmer ground if she gives you a grade for the course that's low enough for you to want to challenge it.

If there's someone with a title like "Director of the Undergraduate Spanish Program," that's the person to complain to.


In which countries must college professors be cleared to work with minors? I knew some college students in the U.S. who were <18 years old.

In which countries must college professors be cleared (background-checked, certified, fingerprinted, etc., like U.S. K-12 teachers) to work with minors?

Any special requirements or background checks regarding working with minors are a matter of employer policy or local law, and there are no standard rules across different jurisdictions.  In particular, there's no way to give a definitive answer without knowing the exact circumstances.

As a general rule, though, these sorts of background checks are rarely applied to college faculty.  Even in locations with unusually strict laws, there are often exceptions for college professors, despite the fact that some students may be under 18.  For example, the University of Sydney policy explicitly says "Where University staff or affiliates have direct contact with University students under the age of 18, this is not regarded as child-related work under the Act."


Easier to obtain permanent position in Europe after being faculty in US? I am currently considering junior faculty positions in the US and Europe—my partner is European, and for a variety of reasons (family, etc.) we would like to end up there in the long term.  Being from the US, however, it is unclear to me which is a better strategy for obtaining a permanent position:

get tenure (or at least, "be successful") at a good North American department and use that leverage to negotiate a position in Europe, or
spend that same time / energy making personal connections in Europe.

The reason that the answer is not clear to me is that 1. the country in question has a relatively small number of permanent positions, and 2. my impression is that in many European systems, personal contacts still have a rather significant effect (even among candidates with excellent qualifications).

I am interested in both quantiative data (e.g., what percent of hires are domestic vs. foreign in various countries/systems) as well as personal experience.

Thanks!

Are you actually deciding between particular positions in Europe and in the US?  It's not clear to me what you are actually suggesting doing in option 2. There's no question that you should be making personal connections in Europe, particularly whatever country you're hoping to move to, but unless you have a job offer there, you should just try to find a position where you can be successful and reasonably happy, whichever continent it's on.

I think it is true that it's dangerous to take a position, thinking you'll move later.  A lot of people find it harder than they think; in a lot of cases this is more because they get settled and lose their motivation, rather than it actually being out of reach.

As for how serious a possibility it will be to move later if you're starting a position in the US, I think this is the wrong forum to ask.  You should find a senior person you can somewhat trust in your target country and ask them (if you don't have such a person, try to cultivate them).  It's going to vary a lot depending on the country, the field, and unfortunately with time (just because it seems hard now, the situation might change later), so I don't think general facts will help you much.


Do postdocs still take courses? I just saw an ad for a new Statistics course that will be offered this fall semester and it states:

  For postdoctoral, graduate, and advanced undergraduate students ...

I am surprised and a little bit shocked from seeing "postdoctoral" in the ad as a potential attendee of that course. Is it usual to have postdocs take courses?

Adding to the other answers to reply to the comment: sure, a postdoc would have the skills to learn the subject on their own. But do they have the time? It's (usually) faster to learn when you get a world expert to teach you, than trying to do it on your own in your office. You can ask questions to the expert, and depending on the format of the course and your questions, the expert can even adapt the course to the audience (a book can't do that). You also have a few other motivated people learning the same thing beside you, and you can ask questions to them. It also provides motivation: if you have an appointment every Monday at 10 to learn something, it's harder to blow off than "I'll read this book some day during the week... maybe...".

Finally, well, learning is fun. Maybe the course isn't strictly necessary for what the postdoc is working on right now. But it's always nice to take a couple of hours every week to learn about something new, open up new perspectives. And it's quite refreshing when you know you are doing this for yourself and not for some exam at the end of the semester. (Almost?) nobody has learned all there is to learn during their PhD. And who knows, maybe you will have a revolutionary idea by attending the course and thinking "wait a minute, I've seen this sort of phenomenon before...!"

Of course, as the others said, I don't think any postdoc would "take" the course to get credits or something like that. Postdocs aren't students.


What to do when untrusted claims are made in an extended abstract of which the full version hasn't appeared I've read a certain 'extended abstract', published in conference proceedings, that presents a useful mathematical analysis of a computational problem and uses that to provide a sketch for an algorithm to solve the problem. The sketch lists the general (well-known) techniques on which the algorithm is based, but doesn't explain the algorithm in detail and is in particular not detailed enough to see that the claimed complexity of the running time holds.

The extended abstract is quite old and there's no trace of a publication that completely describes the algorithm from the extended abstract.

I have attempted to 'reconstruct' the algorithm from the sketch, but I've been unable to achieve the claimed bound on the running time and I believe the author has been mistaken in his bound (and that therefore the sketched algorithm is rubbish). When I mentioned this to my advisor, he replied that since there is no 'follow-up' of the extended abstract, the algorithm is probably rubbish. (the author is still alive and in academia, so absence can't be the reason not to publish)

The mathematical analysis was actually quite useful to create another (significantly different) algorithm for the same problem, which unfortunately has a worse behaviour than the claimed bound from the extended abstract.

I might be able to publish something related to the problem, but I'm not certain my results will be good enough. Additionally, I might be able to prove a lower bound strictly higher than the upper bound claimed in the extended abstract, thereby contradicting* it.

So, concretely, I'd like to know the following:

Is there a place where the author could have published a retraction of his claim (of having an algorithm achieving the claimed bound) and how would I find such a claim? (Other than contacting the author, that one is obvious)
If I'm unable to publish anything related to this, could/should I do anything?
If I am able to publish something, how should I cover this issue? In particular, I'd like to be able to avoid comments such as "Haven't you read [extended abstract]? They've found a much better algorithm than yours!"

Also, the most of my doubts are related to the scientific status of the claim. Is it 'obvious' that it is poorly supported and possibly false, or does this require an extensive argument?

I suppose it isn't completely obvious, as the extended abstract is cited in a paper with the claimed bound (this paper doesn't actually use the bound, so there is no risk of 'error propagation' there), referring to a 'clever trick' that isn't explained in the extended abstract. (Perhaps the author of the citing paper had some private communication with the author of the extended abstract?) Of course, the citing author may knowingly be citing a vague claim, but let's apply Hanlon's razor here.

*: Technically, as this would be a conditional lower bound, it doesn't yield a formal contradiction. But such a bound would at least cast extreme skepticism on the claim from the extended abstract, comparable to when someone claims a resolution on P vs NP.

The obvious place to look for either a substantiation or a retraction of the extended abstract's claim wold be on the arXiv. Also, since the author is still active, you or your adviser could write to him and ask about the algorithm and its running time.  If you still can't get the information you need, then I think you can publish your work and include, in a "Related Work" section of your paper, a citation of the extended abstract and a statement to the effect that you have been unable to find the details in the literature or to reproduce them yourself.  Of course, if you manage to contradict the claim in the extended abstract (or to show that it would imply implausible things like P=NP), then you should say that.


How can a researcher improve his contribution to society? As an academic researcher in a theoretical field at a public institution, I am sensitive to the social value of my work (my own contribution to society). I do some teaching, whose contribution to society is easy to identify, but not much. Try to increase that aspect of my job, I have listed some things I can do (some of which I already do, some of which I don’t):

Engage in collaborations with industrial partners (favoring transfer of knowledge to practical applications).
Orientate one’s research goals to match an area of societal importance (green gas reduction, nuclear waste storage, you name it).
Communicate science to a wide public, whether it is my own research or the knowledge of my field in general (popular science). This includes writing articles in magazines, writing a blog, developing educational software, …
Get involved in education science: contribute to my national society of physics and chemistry teachers, for example. Offer some software for high-school and university teachers to demonstrate concepts.
Register as an expert with the nearest court of law.

What other suggestions do you have to improve one’s social value? (Or should I stop worrying and love the bomb?) I mean, in the short term. I know that I (and my colleagues) contribute to the advancement of mankind in the very long term, but sometimes it doesn't help feel useful.

On a different note from some of the other answers, try to take to heart that basic research is directly useful to society. Almost all modern pharmacology is based on decades of fundamental biochemistry and biology research. Materials science is based on years of basic chemistry and physics research. Basic math research fuels advances in all types of engineering, from signal processing to computational work to structural engineering. There are many other examples for other fields of research; please edit this answer or put them in the comments.

In short, don't underestimate your current value to society.


Does presenting results in conference and publishing in unreviewed proceedings prevent better publications? Recently I have been attending a couple of conferences/workshops, presenting my latest results in oral and poster sessions. I really enjoyed doing that and the following live discussions.

However the proceedings of these conferences are not reviewed and for many people they do not count as "real" publications. I wouldn't like to stop going to conferences, discussing with people and collecting the visibility that arises from this, but on the other hand I also wouldn't like to waste my precious results in publications that are not seen as serious enough.

What is the best practice in this case?

I spoke with people saying that they do not even bother about writing workshop proceedings, but I don't feel quite comfortable with this approach.

My field is accelerator physics, especially machine design and beam dynamics simulations.

While I do not know accelerator physics in particular, for most fields and most journals, a non-reviewed publication does not count as prior publication.  If this is the case for accelerator physics as well, then putting an extended abstract in a non-reviewed conference will not block you from publishing an improved full paper in a journal later.  The prior version should be explicitly acknowledged in the journal submission.

The other reason that you might end up with less publications is internal rather than external: once you've put it out and gotten your feedback, you might not feel as strong an urge to do a formal peer-reviewed publication.  If this is the case, then you need to ask yourself whether this is actually a problem for you or not.  I, for example, have a number of publications that have never gone beyond technical reports or white-papers, but am comfortable with that because I think most of them did not need to have a full publication, and I've got enough others.  If you are a person who has difficulty motivating yourself to writing up results for peer review, however, you may want to consider the spur to publication as valuable and therefore avoid the non-peer-reviewed pre-publications.