How many papers should I be reviewing as a referee? Like many academics with an active research program, I am asked to review many papers. Borrowing an idea from peer-to-peer file sharing companies, I try to keep a rough sense of my recent "ratio" of reviews I have done on other's papers over reviews my papers have received. I try to make sure I have a ratio that is consistently above 1:1. Since many of my papers (and presumably the papers I review) are co-authored, this seems very generous to me.

How many reviews should I be doing? How many is normal? Is a ratio an effective way to keep track of one's reviews? Is a minimum 1:1 ratio appropriate and defensible?

I have wondered about the same question.  One thing that I've noticed is that there is an incredible amount of variation in the amount of reviewing done.  I have two good friends who are strong, active mathematicians.  The last time I spoke to them they were each at least six years past their PhD and had never reviewed a single paper.  This seems bad, but it's not their fault: they are not being asked.

I suspect that the lack of coordination among journals in the same field causes the same small number of people to be asked to referee papers over and over again.  I am not a journal editor, but I have begun to wonder how editors choose referees: I am someone who is getting (what I think is!) a large number of referee requests.  I submit maybe 2-4 papers per year.  Not so long ago I used to get that number of referee requests per year, and they were all from people who knew me directly and pertained to topics related to my thesis work or to the areas in which I have written multiple papers.  Now I get at least a dozen referee requests a year, and in addition to the above I get some very strange-looking ones.  Not so long ago I got asked to referee a paper in (what I think is!) control theory.  This was so baffling that I assumed it was some kind of email crossed wires situation and asked the editor about it.  It turned out that the paper on real analytic solutions to Bezout equations had been sent to me because of a question on math.SE that I answered, in which I explained why the ring of analytic functions on the complex plane is a Bezout domain.  This is distressing: I can see why google would make a connection like this, but in the realm of academic experts, is it not obvious that we are on different sides of mathematics?  Experiences like this make me wonder who is refereeing papers.

I'm not sure that counting papers is the right way to gauge whether you are pulling your weight referee-wise.  As I mentioned in a comment to another answer, many -- I think most -- papers are refereed by more than one person, either simultaneously for the same journal or sequentially, as many (most?) papers are submitted to more than one journal before they are accepted.  Here are some things that I have thought about:

1) It cannot be appropriate for everyone to referee the same number of papers.  More experienced people should referee more papers, but also should referee more important / difficult papers.  People who have permanent / senior positions in academia (especially: tenure) should have more obligations than those who are struggling to stay in the profession.

2) Not all papers take the same amount of time to referee: not even close, actually.  I try to make a point of quickly processing especially short and simple papers: I probably do 3-5 of those each year, and I often process them in a week or even a day.  But it would be silly to equate this kind of referee work with the long, difficult papers that you spend weeks or months working on, perhaps having to do considerable outside reading in order to adequately evaluate.  Doing 2-3 substantial papers a year is what really keeps me busy as a referee.  I suppose I try to keep my eye on the total amount of time I've spent refereeing rather than on the number of papers, although I admit that I don't do this in any formalized way.

3) Unless a paper is clearly of the "one day" variety as above, I try not to let my queue exceed 2 papers.  This is also out of respect to the authors: if I have to read two papers before I get to yours, then you'll be waiting for at least six months, probably more.  If at any given time every sufficiently experienced/qualified academic had either 0 or 1 papers to referee and made a point of processing papers faster than they submit them, then things would work relatively smoothly, I suppose.


Supercomputers and undergraduates? Is it common for an undergraduate to run its thesis (evolutionary genomics) in a supercomputer? In my country, few supercomputers exist, but I'm not sure how it is for bachelors in the US or Europe. I am writing my application to graduate school abroad and I want to know if it is a remarkable point I can use as hook to begin my statement.

If by "supercomputer" you mean a "computer cluster," there are lots of people with such experience in the US and Europe, and many universities even have their own. (My university, for instance, operates its own 25,000-core cluster.) If you mean "supercomputer" a machine like one on the Top 500, that may be worth mentioning. However, indicating that you have experience running calculations in high-performance computing environments is certainly worthwhile to mention if it's relevant for your graduate program.


How difficult is it to switch majors going from a BA to MA/Phd? A few years ago, I received a BA in English. While I was studying my focus on English, however, shifted when I took a class on literary theory in the latter half of my 3rd year, which inspired in me a deep passion for critical theory. I continued to read and study in this area, often filling my electives up with classes that related to it, but I never switched majors over to something more akin to my new found interests like philosophy or sociology because I felt it was too late to switch majors.

At this point, I would like to pursue an MA/Phd on this subject in one of the aforementioned majors, but I am concerned that it may be difficult for me to enter into a program with a degree from a different field of study. I'm also worried about the fact that I've been out of school for about 4 years now because I've been told that being out of school for an extended period of time can be a real obstacle to getting into a program. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

In the US there is normally little problem in chaining fields after a BA/BS degree. It is very common. This is partly due to the general nature of the baccalaureate in the US. For example, a math or science major also has quite a few courses in the other as well as in the social sciences and humanities. And someone majoring in the humanities has an even broader view of that and the social sciences.

However, note that you may be missing a few things when you begin graduate study. This is normally covered by the advanced courses that you take starting out in either a masters or doctoral program. I think a change such as you desire wouldn't be a block at all.

But you will need to measure up on all of the other things such as GPA and letters of recommendation. Doing well in related courses will probably be considered.

But the only way to know for sure is to apply to a few programs and see what feedback you get.

Having been out of school for a while isn't necessarily a block, but if you have gotten rusty in your field, then you will have a harder time getting back into the groove. And letters may be harder to obtain, so try to reestablish contacts with professors before you apply. They can also give you advice.

Your statement of purpose in returning to study will probably be important.


Should I disclose to the editor that I am reviewing a similar paper by different authors for a different journal? About a year ago I received a request to review a paper from author X in journal A. The paper uses a hype tool T to solve a common problem, which is good, but due to some shortcomings in the implementation I recommended to revise the manuscript. The editor followed my recommendation.

About a month ago I was contacted by an editor in journal B asking me to review a manuscript from unrelated authors Y. They use the same hype tool T to solve the same problem. I accepted to review it, and mentioned that I had reviewed a similar paper for a different journal (without naming it). It is now due in a couple of days.

Now to my surprise I just received a request to review a revised manuscript of author X from journal A (I thought X had given up on it since more than a year passed). I would like to accept but won't be able to deliver the review before 3-4 weeks.

This is a "winner gets it all" kind of situation. The paper that gets  published first wins, and I think would be ground to drop and reject the second paper as not really novel any longer. (No plagiarism here, and nothing unethical done by the authors; just an obvious answer to an old question with hype tool T. I had myself thought of it before hearing from A, and discarded it only due to lack of time.) How should I deal with that?

Should I disclose to the respective editors that I am reviewing similar papers? I suspect that would be a breach of the confidentiality. Should I have refrained to mention to editor of journal B that I had reviewed a similar paper in the past?

Would it be a conflict of interest to review the revised manuscript from X? Should I decline the review?

Also, should I inform the editor of the other journal once the first paper gets published? If so, how can I politely ask to be informed when the manuscript gets published without giving away that there is a similar manuscript out there?

Simultaneous or independent discoveries happen often. If the paper A has a first submission date published, that should ensure paper A being fairly treated.

Apart from that, I do agree with the other responses that actually discussing the situation with the editors (without disclosing mutually the authors) may be a good idea here.

My purely personal view (others may disagree) would be that independent results which overlap temporally due to an unlucky accident both deserve publication. It was pure coincidence that in your case they ended up going via a single-person bottleneck.


Paid position at a US lab Can one get paid while conducting research at a US university lab, without being a staff, student, visiting student, or a postdoctoral fellow? What are possible titles that are acceptable by grants? Assuming the grant sources are NSF and IARPA.

According to wikipedia, visiting scholar is a high level recognition. Is there an alternative for a paid researcher who does not hold a PhD and is not initially affiliated, but whose research is valuable to the lab?

Given that most universities have different titles for different functionally similar positions, I wouldn't sweat it too much. The only places where things are different in my experience with NSF are for faculty and post docs. I know NSF has a rule about the total amount of time that a person can be funded (without explicit exception from the Program Officer) on an award (2 months), but these rules are generally only applied to faculty since they are expected to get 9 months of support from their institution. NSF also requires a Postdoctoral Researcher Mentoring Plan for any proposal that will fund post docs. This is there to ensure that post docs have their careers promoted appropriately and that they learn appropriate collaboration methods.

That being said, you don't even have to work at a university to be paid under an NSF award. There are frequent subcontracting relationships created to send funding to other institutions including private companies and contractors.


Do you need published papers to apply for a postdoc? A friend of mine has a conundrum: He finished his PhD and wants to stay in academia (in Physics). Problem is, his supervisor is very unsupportive in everything. I think he switched research interests and left my friend hanging. He's extremely slow in working on a draft they want to submit to a high-tier journal, and my friend believes that without this work published it doesn't make sense to even start applying for postdocs.

Problem is that this has been going on for years now and thus his career has stagnated.

I feel that this can't be quite right, but since I never bothered to look into postdocs I might be wrong.

In my opinion, my friend should just apply for postdocs anyway, with or without all of the PhD work published. I have a hard time imagining that a successful application lives and dies with one particular paper. That would mean that anyone whose supervisor stops working for one reason or another would be forever stranded in limbo.

Tips and advice on how my friend could move forward would be appreciated.

All you need to apply for a post-doc is a the ability to write an application - getting an offer is another matter.  Most post-docs will have their PhD and will have published (or at least submitted) one or more papers in the course of that program.  If your friend has not yet published or submitted any papers then he will indeed be at a disadvantage in an application for this kind of position.  Having said that, you've got to be in it to win it!  If he does not mind taking the time to write up an application, it can't hurt to apply.  In the meantime he should keep working on his paper and pushing for further progress with his co-author.  If he can succeed in publishing this paper in a high-tier journal then that will substantially improve his applications.


Phd computer science I m glad to be here.
I m planning to start a phd in computer science, but i cant find a computer science field to fit my needs.
I am working on web applications and app applications over 7 years. I know php mysql jquery java javascript and asp. Furthermore i am working on setting up servers.
My supervisor want some proposals as regard my phd subject.
I need a field that i can search new things and offer my services to the science.
Can you help me?

These are a possible recommendation based on your experience. Again, such questions are considered shopping question here in academia.SE. Caution: This is not an optimal set of topics you might be interested in.

Information retrieval (text, multimedia)
Search Engine Optimisation
Database ontology
Information security over the web
Data mining (This is a vast area, converge to something relevant)

Hope, this helps!


Is it a valid concern that a PhD student runs out of research ideas? A PhD student "Alex" has a few years to impress their research lab advisor and then their dissertation committee.  During these years, I imagine that Alex will come up with some great ideas that can be modeled, simulated, and perhaps validated with physical experiments, etc.  It might feel that all of Alex's work "belongs" to the lab, and namely, to their lab director / advisor.  Then after several years of working at such a high-energy pace, does Alex have to worry about running out of ideas, and that they gave all their ideas away to their advisor?  Or does Alex have so much more to gain from sharing all of their best ideas and then receiving crucial feedback in return, and that the benefits far outweigh the 'costs'?

Research ideas tend to grow exponentially.

At the beginning, Alex is a student who doesn't know what's already been done -- no ideas (though maybe some interests)
As an undergraduate, Alex will start to have ideas based on what he reads and his experiences. Many of these will be off-topic, already done, or impossible.
Then Alex will spend time doing research "at the cutting edge" -- usually on someone else ideas (i.e., his advisor's). He'll now start to understand where the gaps are and what ideas could be developed, adapted, or applied to plug these gaps. Some of these ideas could be valuable.
As Alex continues to read the journals and perform his own research, he'll identify more and more ideas. The limiting factor is time: having ideas may be fast, but taking an idea from conception to publication always takes a long time, so Alex normally has a long list of ideas in the back of his mind.

So yes, Alex will gain by discussing his ideas with his advisor. In most cases though, students start by work on their advisor's ideas, which they gradually make their own and begin to supplement with their own ideas as they mature.


I am applying to many universities, how should I ask my professors to re-write recommendation letters? I applied for PhD  but  I have not been accepted, and now I want to apply for another university and I want to request  recommendation-letter from the same professors,  what should I write in  my email to the professors to request recommendation again!

Asking for more than one recommendation is perfectly normal. Unless you've given them specific details about a particular position, once a reference is written it isn't too hard to send it out again. However, it is polite to keep the effort required from your referees to a minimum. It is quicker for them to send out 5 references at once, than to do one a week for 5 weeks.

Exactly what you ask for from your referees will depend on how references are requested - are they actively sent with the application, or will the place applied to write to referees? Even with the latter, one of my referees said they needed explicit instructions to respond to each.


How to earn a Bachelor or Master without attendance? This might sound like a strange question, but I was wondering, if you can skip the whole studying part at university and jump right in to the finals and the thesis?

I know, that you have to have a certain amount of credits, but can you get them once and "use" them to get multiple bachelors?

Let's say for example, I want to get Bacherlors Degree in Completely unrelated fields like in Engineering, Orchestration, Computer Science, Aviation and Medicine.

Can I (for example), just study Medicine and use the credits I earnd there to also earn the other ones (so I just have to write the thesis)?
Because a lot of courses don't have minimum attendance.

I don't want to discuss whether something like that (getting degrees without studiing at the university) makes sense or not. (Because it doesn't).

The Idea is more like, go and study something for your self and then go to get the degree without having to attend the full number of years, it would take to study.

Do you get what I'm trying to say?

It is already possible to do that to some extent in many US universities, these are called majors and minors, in your case it would be having multiple majors. Yes you can use the same credits for different degrees but there are only a limited amount of overlapping credits in our related fields. Additionally, I think it will be more complicated to have majors across colleges. Bottom line is that you can only "reuse" a limited amount of credits, so you will still have to take many exams to get the additional credits, regardless of whether attendance is required or not, because you also have distance learning that doesn't require attendance.


Changing affiliations and conference registration Say the deadline to register for a conference is now, but the conference doesn't actually run until 3 months from now.  During that time, I will have changed institutions.  When I register, should I use my current or future affiliation?

There have been several questions here about how to deal with changing affiliations on papers, but I think the nature of my question is different, since there isn't a paper or publication at stake, per se.

There are no hard and fast rules here, and the conference organizers almost certainly do not care.

For most circumstances, the only thing that matters is this: which one do you want people to think of you as being from at the conference?

Most of the time, this will be your new institution.  If you know you're going to be there when you register, why not just give that affiliation?
Otherwise, you may end up doing what I've often seen people with recent changes do, taking a pen and modifying their affiliation on the spot.


How to phrase potential contributions in thesis proposal? I am pursuing PhD in Computer Science. I am working on writing my PhD dissertation proposal.

My main contribution in my work is going to be about data classification and prediction model.

How should I phrase my potential contributions / tasks in which technical contribution is about clustering/classification and prediction?

I am also planning to propose potential performance improvement in clustering / classification techniques that currently exist in my domain. What all should I plan to achieve? How can I go about phrasing it in the proposal?

I know most answers cannot be specific to my question but any pointer towards direction that I should take...where to look for answer etc. regarding this is much appreciated...

"If the proposed research is successful, there will be three main
  contributions.  First,....  Second, ... Third,..."

What you need to fill in is the specific nature of your contributions.  It's not enough to say that your algorithms will be "better" or "interesting" or even "useful".  You might use these questions to form a list of specific contributions:

Will you be discovering something new about the problem of data
classification and prediction that no one knew before, or only
understood poorly?
Will you be combining two or more methods that had never been combined before?
Will you be simplifying the problem in some non-trivial way?  Or expanding it? Generalizing it?  Making it more specific or concrete?
Will you be formalizing the analysis in ways that have not before?  What will your formal analysis be proving?
Are you applying an algorithm or formalism from another domain, that has never been done before in this one?
Are you demonstrating through experiments or other empirical research the viability of theoretical methods that have little empirical support?

Finally, imagine that you have completed your dissertation, and maybe you have published articles based on it.  Now imagine what other researchers might need to use your work and build on it, and therefore to cite it.  Why would future researchers need to use your work or build on it?


US graduate school: expected proficiency and competency in the area of specialization at the beginning of the program I am interested in applying to graduate schools in the US in a certain sub-area of computer sciences. However, most of my educational background is in engineering (BS+MS in systems engineering from a good university in Europe). While I have some research experience in the specific research sub-area that I am interested in pursuing, I feel that I may lack some of the more general knowledge that would normally be expected from a computer science graduate.
AFAIK, in the US, any Ph.D. student is expected to read courses for the first 1-2 years. This structure seems ideal for me, as it will allow me to convert my slightly inconsistent self-gained knowledge into something coherent. However, I have two questions:

Is it socially acceptable to be spending a significant amount of time during the first 1-2 years of the Ph.D. doing courses and, generally, exploring the subject widely (e.g. in Europe the perception is usually very negative: not dedicating all of one's time to research is often seen as a waste of resources and can result in negative consequences for one's career)?. If I am to also act as a TA + doing graduate courses, I doubt that I will be able to dedicate a significant amount of time to research.
Should I make it reasonably apparent in my applications (in the personal statement) that "I am interested in studying such and such subjects in-depth and I am pleased that the department XYZ provides a unique opportunity to do so". The reasoning behind it is that I do not wish to be perceived more competent than I am in the broad area of computer science. Thus, if I get accepted, I should not be expected to become a publication-production-device from day 1 of the program (not to say that I do not intend to publish, and I have published before).

If it is relevant, I am not aiming very high from the perspective of the rankings, while having a very good GPA in BS/MS, a very good quant GRE, some research experience, some semi-relevant work experience and at least one reasonably relevant first-author publication (possibly and hopefully two). Nonetheless, I was not very successful professionally, as I could never leave the "obscure start-up environment" with periods of unemployment.

I know that there is quite a number of similar questions on the website, but I could not find any questions identical to the ones that I am asking. Please do note that the question is not about the admission chances and hardly about the admission process. I am interested in what are the general expectations from the Ph.D. students with regard to the ratio of the time spent doing coursework/teaching/research during the first 1-2 years of a Ph.D. program in the US.

This will vary widely from program to program (so much so that this question is borderline "off topic" in this forum), so your best bet would be to discuss this with members of the department where you are thinking of applying (even/especially students). Still, some thoughts...

I feel that I may lack some of the more general knowledge that would normally be expected from a computer science graduate

My biggest concern is your skills in analytical math (i.e., writing proofs). If you are starting from zero and expected to take difficult classes in theoretical computer science, this could be difficult. If your gaps are elsewhere (or such courses are not required by your program), it may be easier to fill these gaps through self-study.

Is it socially acceptable to be spending a significant amount of time during the first 1-2 years of the Ph.D. doing courses and, generally, exploring the subject widely?

In my experience, these classes are very difficult, so it is socially acceptable to spend every waking moment trying desperately to pass. Research is for later years. Of course, this will vary school to school.

Should I make it reasonably apparent in my applications (in the personal statement) that "I am interested in studying such and such subjects in-depth and I am pleased that the department XYZ provides a unique opportunity to do so".

Well, your application to a CS PhD program makes it reasonably apparent that you want to study the subjects in detail, and your application to department XYZ makes it clear that you approve of XYZ's program. So, I'm not sure what this sentence buys you. It's also unclear what you find to be "unique" (i.e., one-of-a-kind) about this particular program; offering courses in CS does not make a CS department unique.

The reasoning behind it is that I do not wish to be perceived more competent than I am in the broad area of computer science.

I didn't get this at all from your quote. If this is what you want to communicate, I would phrase it as: "I do not wish to be perceived more competent than I am in the broad area of computer science."
Snarking about the language aside, I would suggest that you omit this from your application. Attempting to give a balanced picture of your strengths and weaknesses is perhaps a good idea, but recall that your goal during the application is to sell the program on you. If you yourself have doubts about your ability to be successful in the program, it is better to resolve these outside of the application process (i.e., either before applying, or after being admitted).

I am interested in what are the general expectations from the Ph.D. students with regard to the ratio of the time spent doing coursework/teaching/research

Again, this will vary from program to program, but as a general guideline, I would say 80% courses, 20% teaching, 0% research for the first year, leading to 100% research by the end.


Would this be considered a case of plagiarism? I finished writing a report for a course (in my undergrad) and I submitted it to Turnitin for a similarity check (8%) and in one part I noticed it highlighted fragments of one sentence.
The flagged sentence has about 8 words in a row in a 26-word sentence that matches another report but the sentence itself is different than the one Turnitin says it is similar to.
I did paraphrase this sentence from a completely different source with appropriate in-text citation and bibliography and ensured I wasn't using any direct quotes from that source. That being said, I am concerned that because the technical wording is so similar to what Turnitin picked up (those 8 words in a row that are the same) it might be cause for concern.
Sorry, I don't know if I'm being paranoid or if I should legitimately be worried.

For coursework, some professors have a stricter definition of plagiarism than is strictly necessary. But, from what you say, you have cited the original and if it is clear enough that your citation implies that the source of the ideas is elsewhere, then it isn't technically plagiarism.
Note that whether you quote or paraphrase is irrelevant, assuming you quote properly (quote marks or a set aside of some sort). Plagiarism is about the idea itself, rather than the specific words.
Automatic plagiarism checkers do a poor job, actually, giving both false positives and false negatives. But if you cite (what the checker said overlapped) properly, it isn't plagiarism.
Another issue, frequently forgotten, is that for some sorts of things, especially in, say, math, there is effectively only one way to say something and some things are also common knowledge. So, for these things, neither plagiarism nor copyright actually apply. This probably doesn't apply in this specific case, but keep it in mind, generally.


How to address a doctoral candidate who is ABD (All but Dissertation)? Is "Dr" appropriate? How does one address a doctoral candidate who completed all his/here requirements except the dissertation? Would they be referred to as Doctor? Or is there another title?

In the past, I believe I've seen "ABD" added as a postnominal in a signature. For example, "John Doe, ABD". But I don't believe I recall reading how to address such an individual.

Related discussions (thanks Nate (or is it Doctor?)):

When can you call yourself doctor?
Proper way to address yourself

Address them the same way you would address any other person without a doctorate: e.g. in many English-speaking cultures, "Mr. Smith", "Ms. Jones", "Mx. Brown",  or if you are on friendly terms, by their first name.
If they have successfully defended their dissertation but not actually received the degree, this is a bit of a gray area (see When can you call yourself doctor?) but I think "Dr. Brown" is reasonable.


The correct & acceptable phrase to indicate that some papers are very likely to be accepted I have several papers that are resubmitted to journals with minor revisions.

I feel they are very much likely to be accepted by the time my actual Ph.D. viva takes place in one month.

But I need to submit my PhD thesis now. I do not want to list those papers as simply "under review". I want to indicate they are very likely to be accepted, as they are resubmitted only with minor revisions.

What is the correct and polite phrase to say the state of these papers?

If you are an examiner, would you be unhappy to see that I indicate some papers are likely to be accepted?

Stating the status of manuscripts in a thesis should not be an issue. The best way is to phrase their status as expressed by the journal. We see this all the time from "submitted to", "under review in" to "revised with major/minor revision". You cannot state that they are likely to be accepted since that is not your decision and stranger things have happened.

What has to be remembered is that even a paper that has been published can be discussed and criticised so the above information just means to an examiner that someone else, impartial, has possibly commented on the manuscript or that a journal has found it worthy of review.

I would guess most examiners would see a status as additional "evidence" for a basic acceptable quality of the work but would not necessarily affect their judgement, which is personal anyway.


How to cite a TED Talk with Youtube URL in MLA 8? How do I do it? I've already googled the heck out of it but all the answers were incomplete.

The URL is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2tOp7OxyQ8

Write the name or username of the compiler. If the user indicates his or her real name, use it. Otherwise, use the compiler's username or screenname. If citing from YouTube's official channel, specify the username as "YouTube." Follow with a period.

Doe, John.
Sephora.
YouTube.

Name the video. Put the title in quotation marks and follow it with a period. Capitalize the first letter of all major word (that is, anything that isn't an article, conjunction, preposition, or "to").

  YouTube. "Top Searches on YouTube: August - November 2012."

Specify the format of the citation. Indicate that you are citing an "Online video clip." Follow with a period.

  YouTube. "Top Searches on YouTube: August - November 2012." Online
  video clip.

Indicate that the video came from YouTube. Even if the video was pulled from the official YouTube account, you still need to indicate that the video was pulled from YouTube. Italicize the website's name, and follow with a comma.

  YouTube. "Top Searches on YouTube: August - November 2012." Online video clip. YouTube,

List the posting date. Type out the date in day-month-year format. Conclude with a period.

  YouTube. "Top Searches on YouTube: August - November 2012." Online
  video clip. YouTube, 21 December 2012.

State that the video came from the Web. This may seem redundant, but MLA format requires you to specify whether each source is electronic or print. Write "Web" and follow it with a period.

  YouTube. "Top Searches on YouTube: August - November 2012." Online
  video clip. YouTube. 21 December 2012. Web.

Indicate the date you retrieved the video. Write this date out in day-month-year format. End with a final period.

  YouTube. "Top Searches on YouTube: August - November 2012." Online
  video clip. YouTube, 21 December 2012. Web. 31 December 2012.

P.S: Source: WikiHow.


How to cite from a book with more authors? Some books start each chapter with a short inspirational quote from some famous person e.g.

  Chapter 1.

  "I think, therefore I am"

  -René Descartes

I would like to do the same and I found the perfect quote, but the book it is from has three authors. What should I write on the bottom of the quote?

Remember the guiding principle of maximum ease in following a reference. If you don't know which author, cite primarily to the book.

  From "Book title", by x,y, and z

In fact, even if there is only one author, it is good to cite the book.


Is academia right approach in order to implement an idea presented in my MSc Thesis? On my Master's I had an idea and made the following thesis proposing an new idea in order to offer a more user-friendly Privacy Enchanhing Technology, https://is.gd/YUUFLE .

Hence, in order to implement it, I decided to use it as a basis for a PhD in Japan via a MEXT scholarship. (I also do Japaneese language lessons as well to mitigate any language barrier as well.) But still I have this question:

Is good idea to use the academia and academic environment as a "tool" in order to implement the idea?

In other words instead of making a company that is a financially risky approach, in order to implement the idea of my master thesis, I thought an academic environment is more free-to-express to do so. Also I will consider the project sucessfull if I manage to make the average Joe to use it instead for making a profit of it (but I need some wage as well).

So having said that how do I approach an future supervisor and how I can make my supervisor also a "colaborator" in the project as well? Would just by saying that I have an idea would make any future supervisor unwilling to acept me for a PhD?

I think the very first thing you have to do is outline what time, skills, personnel and money is necessary to realize your idea. What is the technology readiness level you have achieved so far? At which point would you need industry help to develop the product? High-technology product development can easily take 5-10 years from lab idea to a certified product. A university/PhD is not a money source for a undefined part of a bigger project in its self-understanding.

For a PhD you have to publish and technical optimizations are not the scope of most journals. Could you publish single development steps? This is something you have to ask and plan with a possible supervisor.

Sometimes this is a good idea, especially as there are many funding sources for academia to develop and realize ideas together with industry and industry often has not the time/skills to write proposals. But also then, the PhD students often have to submit a project plan of their future PhD work, they get paid for working on working packages of the industry project and have to find and outline work separated (best case related to reduce work load) from these working packages to write a PhD thesis with scientific results rather than technical optimizations.

I just got funded such a project based on results of my master and PhD work and a following idea, identified possible university and industry partners, wrote proposal etc, got funded (overall 6-12 months minimum till money is available/project start)


Is it possible to do a cheap or free online or distance Ph.D. program? Is it possible do to an online or distance Ph.D. program at all?

If so, are there ones that are cheap or free?

To a first approximation, it's not possible.  There are few online or distance Ph.D. programs, and they usually have bad reputations.  A Ph.D. from a university with a bad reputation will actually be worse for your career than having no Ph.D. at all, so you should be very careful.  Plus these programs are as far as I know never free.  You can get financial support for Ph.D. work in several ways (competitive fellowships, a faculty member's research grant, teaching classes for the department), so depending on the field you may not need to pay anything yourself and may even earn a modest stipend, but that's not because the program itself is cheap or free.  Ph.D. supervision is intrinsically time-consuming and expensive.

I'm skeptical of how serious your question is.  Hoping for a free online Ph.D. isn't really reasonable; furthermore, if you have no time to attend a university, then you probably have no time to complete the years of full-time research required to write a Ph.D. dissertation.

However, I felt it was worth answering to warn you about scams from unaccredited universities.  There are plenty of diploma mills that will offer you a relatively cheap and easy Ph.D. online.  Such degrees are completely worthless, so they'd basically be stealing the fees from you.


How can I collect information about the study plan of a graduate program? I am an international student who has been admitted to a graduate program in US. I am collecting information about the study plan. For example, what courses can be taken? How many courses can I take outside the department? Any typical study route for reference? Can I work with more than 1 professor on research?

There is a study plan in our college.

I Googled around, but I can only find very rough information about the general policy on the website, which I went through several months ago. What I need is detail.

Question:
What is the equivalent of the study plan in America? How can I collect information about the study plan of a graduate program?

The best option is to e-mail the school you are going, and ask for a copy of degree audit checklist or degree requirement checklist, which usually list the required and elective courses you'll need to complete for a certain degree.

You may also ask for a course schedule and an academic calendar of the recent academic year and get an idea on which semester/trimester and time slots were those courses made available. And in the calendar you can get a gist of when is the start and end of the semesters/trimesters, last date for adding/dropping courses, etc.

Lastly, some schools may include the degree requirement information in their student handbook. It wouldn't hurt to ask or search for a PDF copy of the handbook as well. You should also find details on cross registration to other institutes. Also be careful that universities tend to have a handbook for the whole study body, and then the smaller departments within them may also have their own smaller handbooks. Make sure to get all the copies that are related to your degree.

These terms should give you a good start. But do bear in mind that by the time you start to study, some of the information may be updated in the new academic year. So, you may plan, but be ready to be flexible.

As for if you can work with one or more professor on research. The answer would depend on many things: some students got assistantship to help the professors, some work as if the professors hire them, some work for academic credit (as a directed study.) There are too many variations that I doubt you will find a single document telling you everything. This question is probably best asked on the orientation day once you arrived there.

As for digging into their site, try to use some suffix in Google to enhance your results. For instance, try to search for degree requirement checklist site:MyInstitute.edu to confine the results from the domain of www.MyInstitue.edu. You can also modify it into degree requirement checklist site:MyInstitute.edu filetype:pdf to search for only PDF documents.

Good luck with the planning.


Is it acceptable for a student to connect with a professor on LinkedIn? Earlier in the semester, I was informed by both an advisor/academic counselor and a professor at my university that it is a good idea to connect with professors on LinkedIn if they have interests in the same area as me.

I sent a connect request to one of the professors I had last semester (along with some other profs, most of whom accepted) and he just wrote back to me saying it is extremely unprofessional to be trying to connect on LinkedIn for a student/prof relationship. I am confused - how is this unprofessional and how can this be handled better in the future?

It sounds to me that this is just the reaction of that particular professor, and so there's not much you can do about it. Perhaps the professor only likes to use LinkedIn to connect with other researchers and professors, but personally I don't believe that it's unprofessional or inappropriate for university students to connect with professors. You are both adults and the site is intended for networking in the professional context. I myself added many of my lecturers on LinkedIn while I was an undergraduate, with no problems.

If you'd added him on Facebook, that might have been a different matter, as many people want to keep their work and personal lives separate and would regard such a friend request as overstepping that boundary. However, all you can do now is move on. In the future, perhaps only add professors that you have got to know quite well, as then they will recognise you if you request to connect, which in turn will hopefully mean they are less likely to refuse.


What are the good indicators of fake conferences? Here is the story:

After working on a project for a couple of months, I put the results in a scientific paper format in case I would submit it to a conference or yet this is a good practice for my writing. The paper is about a specific software engineering topic for which you could not find many scientific events to submit. However, I sometimes check www.wikicfp.com to not miss any deadline if there is one. Finally I found one, read the details about the conference and submit the paper.

This week I got the results. It was positive, I think this is great because I am warming up for academia. However, when I received the review (only one), I felt that this conference could be fake or bogus. They sent me a text file that has the following review (with the name and some strange gmail address as the reviewer email):

  paper quality is good different models are explained but this is not a
  result oriented paper no comparison results for different models with
  graphical point of view

Thank God I had a paper rejected before. I had submitted it to a workshop on a different topic and the reviews were detailed, well explained without reviewer strange email addresses.

Besides the acceptance email has details more about the registration details, bank accounts, fees etc., than preparing final draft or other scientific related issues.

So right now I am a bit confused about what to do next or how to react. But my question is the following:
What are the good indicators of fake/bogus conferences?

In your description, there are three telltale signs that the conference might not be very good:

The reviewer email is revealed: a conference that doesn't protect reviewer anonymity (blind review at least) is probably not very good.
The review itself is, frankly, not high quality. It may make sense for a standard conference scientific committee to appoint another reviewer if the first one didn't do his job properly.
Financial details appear very important to the organizer…

To make your final decision, see answers to this question: check out the organizers and invited speakers.


Postdoc project: Bait and switch Earlier this year, I interviewed and received offers for two postdoc positions from competing universities, with one- and three-year contracts, respectively. The first is more related to my PhD, while the second is a bit distant but still in the general area of my discipline. I eventually accepted the second one for different reasons:

It's in a multidisciplinary research centre, and the description was that I will be part of a large team working on a massive project, which I found really exciting and non-traditional.
Huge amount of money is being poured into this centre by the government, so there's a good potential to grow.
The project itself is interesting and I will gain different skills by pursuing it. The intended work was of industry-like nature
The PI was extremely keen to have me onboard, which made me feel valued.

On the flip side, the university is large, but I will be working at a small campus. Most of the team are from one discipline and only a couple of members are actually from my discipline (say, for example, most of them are mechanical engineers, but I'm an electronic engineer). The PI is not from my discipline.

The disadvantages did not mean much to me when I received their offer as I considered myself joining an industry R&D department, which I also confirmed during the interview, and from the position description.

Once I accepted the offer and joined the research centre, I was shocked that I was assigned a very boring project that I will work on alone and doesn't fit my background. It's academic in nature, but with almost zero supervision. The potential to publish in reputable venues is small. I also found out that they hired another postdoc to fill the advertised position. This was a dead-end for me. I felt like I was put under a glass ceiling not to join the other university (a competitor). I deeply regretted accepting this offer, but at the same time, I cannot resign as I have just moved to a new city with a spouse and kids.

The good news is that I did a really great PhD on a hot topic, and was approached by 3 universities abroad to co-supervise PhD students distantly.

I communicated with my supervisor in this regards and expressed my feeling of being alienated and my preference to be integrated with the large team and be given a role as discussed during the interview. He agreed and gave me a task to do, but never replied to any email I sent later. He ignored me big time. Under the fear of being kicked out and putting myself and family in a financial hardship, 6 weeks later, I agreed to work on the project he assigned me earlier while working distantly with the other universities to keep my passion and academic career going. Ever since, our communication improved but still I feel isolated and doing worthless work.

What's your advice for me? Finding another job is a top priority for me but that is going to be hard due to job market trends and the limitation of moving with my family to  a new city/country for another time (kids, school, etc). I have been in this position for 4 months - long enough to hate it.

You have been scammed. I recently went through a rather similar situation, see the thread below:

Persistent issues with salary pay as a postdoc in China: What can I do?

Apparently there are several cheaters fishing for foreign postdocs into such schemes. Tracing the parallel of my situation onto yours, I was hired by a Chinese university on a false salary expectation under their pretence that all my project ideas sounded interesting. They were keen in that I would convince my wife to move as well to another department, and kept encouraging us into joining the university later as professors.
As soon as I landed and lodged, salary was "unexpectedly" irregular and much lower, and they started pushing to work 12/6 on other undiscussed projects. Their strategy of manipulation was exactly as you describe: no email communication unless where I complied with their demands.

I played their game until the end of the contract. I am sure they hoped I'd give up. I was actually benefitting from investing time on personal projects, saving money, and learning a foreign culture while they shunned me. I kept wondering whether they'd eventually kick me out, which they never did. But I do not recommend this line of action: I do not like playing games, and everyday I felt angry. Furthermore it is a waste of time, in the end.

My advice to you is that you focus 100% on networking and finding another job asap. Apply for an industry position within the same region. Of course the PI will feel you're up to something but try to keep this person isolating you. (A trick is to look miserable whenever you're seen.) They expect you to just settle, and they probably will not fire you unless given a good reason. So don't fall for any provocation, play victim, and invest heavy on getting a new position. How is your LinkedIn profile? Ever heard of The Cheeky Scientists Association? Aware of any networking fairs around your location? There is a lot to be done.

You will win: just bite the bullet and cheat these cheaters. Good luck.


Is it approriate to point out errors in the literature review in a thesis? In a couple of either books or articles that I have read as part of my research there have been some minor errors (when taken in context of the whole work) when they relate to the area I am researching. My general research area is History.

For example one is, Area A operated as a B. Wherein fact it should have said Area A operated as a C.

The reasoning I was thinking of referring to them is to highlight while there is good literature on the topic I'm researching, sometimes errors can occur in more general histories which (hopefully) my thesis can address.

Is it appropriate to refer to such errors in that context?

If such errors in published literature are relevant to the question of your thesis, then yes, it is not only appropriate, but even necessary that you address them.

Otherwise, if the question of your thesis is not affected by these errors, and they are not major problems, I don't think they are important enough to mention in the literature review.


What simple events can a graduate student club organise to network with former students, companies, etc.? I'm a graduate student in Engineering. This semester we're going to form a graduate student club. We're thinking about creating some networking events with former students, companies, etc.

Do you  have any related ideas that are not hard to implement and not too expensive?

Simple ideas:

Seminar where a professor gives a talk on his/her current research. Provide beer.
Invite an alum from one of the companies you're talking about to give a talk on something new from the company. Provide beer.
Simple cook-out, which includes beer (even better if this is a recurring event, monthly, once a semester, etc.).

More involved ideas:

Mini-poster conference, where a quorum of students have posters about their current research. Alum can act as judges, if you want to award prizes. Provide beer.
Invite a famous alumus to give a talk. This always involves more work than you're expecting, but can have big pay-offs. Might necessitate actual cocktails (and possibly pay for the speaker, but if you play it right you should find an alumnus willing to do it for free).
Field-trip to a local engineering firm that may have something interesting to look at (or a tour). Drinks at a local bar afterward.


How to stop hopping the learning chain and actually begin somewhere? Here is what I feel whenever I find something interesting and feel like pursuing it :

Oh so I like X (Computer Graphics), let me read up papers/books about it.
Ok let me begin with reading up Y (OpenGL)
But Y needs W (Linear Algebra)
Well reading up Z (Probability) first makes more sense.
Umm, you shouldn't jump to Z without learning U (Permutation/Combination).
And how come I forget about reading V (Number theory)
And what not..

I always end up searching and reading up "Best books to begin A/B/C/D.." instead of actually making myself begin somewhere. This consumes all my energy and I never really start.

Q. Have others faced this ? Q. How do you handle this and actually begin somewhere ?

Any help would be really appreciated.

Background : I am a working professional, with Masters in Computer Science (fascinated with Computer Graphics etc). Its been two years since my masters but I still kind of miss academia, my thesis work and other interesting stuff I did there. My current work is also pretty interesting and partially overlaps with my interest areas. However, other than work, I would really want to continue doing things related to my masters side by side (and MAY BE take up a Phd somewhere down the line). But the never ending feeling of not knowing anything takes over.

Its not that I am being forced to study any of this. Its purely for my personal interests that I want to pursue it.

Update 1 :

Thank you so much everyone for such overwhelming response. I really like several answers and points raised but haven't marked any yet because I am in the process of trying some and would update if something actually works for me. Meanwhile, I also found this talk really helpful :

https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_urban_inside_the_mind_of_a_master_procrastinator

Dan's answer is very good, and I want to add one more point:

Accept that on the first pass you will not be able to fully understand the topic. Appreciate that there are decades and sometimes centuries (for the math, at least) of research supporting the topic you're learning. Thinking you can "get to the bottom" of it in a few months, let alone a week or two, is not realistic. Choose a topic and try to understand that as much as possible. Keep notes on other interesting topics along the way, but don't get distracted by them; just accept them as assumptions as this point and move on. You can get back to them later.


Voting by faculty after a Search Committee recommends a candidate for a TT hire How are candidates for tenure-track positions/hires voted on after interviews and the search committee recommendation? (I am especially interested in R1 procedures.)

I'm sure it varies from one place to another. In my experience, our search committee (TT position at an R1) had to come to an agreed upon decision in terms of the order in which we were going to recommend candidates (#1, #2, #3). From there, our recommendation had to be approved by the dean of our college, and from there the offer was made.

If you're asking about what criteria a committee uses for recommending candidates, a lot of aspects are weighed: how the campus visit went - particularly the research presentation, publication record/plans, does this candidate's research align with and complement what the department already offers or is there too much overlap with other faculty, can we see this person fitting in our department, can they teach what we need them to teach, etc. Ultimately, however, the big question is always: who is most likely to stick around and manage to get tenure according to our standards? In other words, who's the safest investment?


Should I stay an extra semester to complete a second minor? I am currently an undergraduate physics student in the fall semester of my junior year. Until recently, I thought I would have to stay an extra semester to complete my undergraduate physics degree, but after looking over my scheduling possibilities for the next three semesters, I've realized I will be able to graduate on time (spring semester of my senior year).

My dilemma arises from the fact that I am also trying to meet the requirements for two minors (one in computer science and one in math). The two possibilities I see are as follows:

If I choose to graduate on time, my curriculum for the next three semesters will consist of 9 physics courses, 2 computer science courses, and 1 general education. I would finish with my bachelor's in physics and a minor in computer science.
If I choose to stay an extra semester, I will be able to complete the requirements for both a computer science minor and a math minor, and I will be able to spread out my physics classes a little more. Additionally, I may be able to take one or two extra elective classes in either math or physics.

My plan is to go to graduate school after my bachelor's , so given my circumstance, is it worth it to stay that extra semester just for the minor in math? Will the additional time to graduate or the extra credential make any difference when it comes to physics graduate school admissions?

Basically, a second minor doesn't really convey any additional benefits to you in terms of admission. It just means you've done enough courses in a specific area to be recognized by your specific school as having completed a "minor." Some schools in the US (and most foreign schools) do not offer minors, so it won't make a big difference.

Also to consider—if you are planning to do graduate school after your bachelor's degree, taking an extra semester in the US likely means that you will have to wait a full year before starting graduate school. This can have significant impacts, as you will then need to find something to do in what would have been your spring semester. There is also the possibility that, because you will be out of school for a while, you may need to start repayment on any student loans you have. (Usually you're allowed a six-month grace period before repayment starts.)


What to do when haven't heard back from potential supervisor who is moving? I had contacted a potential supervisor and got a positive response from him. He said that he is interested but he said we should do a skype interview first. He also stated that he is moving to another university in 4 weeks and explained a few conditions and asked if I am still interested. I had no issue with the place or university since I am interested to work with him so I replied and sent my skype id for interview. Its been a week and I haven't heard back from him. I think he might be busy as he said that he will be moving to some other university.

Shall I write him again and if yes how do I start the conversation again or shall I wait for his response?.

I cannot agree with Neo: one month is awful long time in any conversation, and I would take that long wait only if explicitly said to contact months later. Long time is a problem because 1) he forgets what was it about, 2) it can give the impression that OP is maybe not that enthusiastic about the opportunity, 3) in a month a lot of things can happen with an open position....

People can forget mails, or not answer even if they not forget them, especially if he is busy and not you are his first priority. Just send him a polite follow up email: remind him in the first sentence or two about your discussion and he was positive about you. Then ask about the Skype interview, how you can roll this etc.

If you are afraid that he is busy and you are too pushy, you can just state that you know he is busy so if he wants to postpone this conversation / scheduling the interview after his move, you are totally fine (are you? do you have any deadlines to care for?). If this latter happens, still ask that you will follow him up a month etc. later, if it is good for him. Busy people dont like to be pushed in a schedule, but if no one sets expectations for a schedule (any schedule that convenient for him), nothing will be done and also kind of unprofessional.

(I assume this story is about US. Different countries call for different level pushiness.)


Monolithic Reference Collection, vs Per Paper Reference Collection, or Both? When managing References,
seem to me to be two-ish, options:

Either for each Project, I maintain a database of the relevant resources (In say a bibtex file),
and for each new piece of work I start a new one.

Or I maintain a single "Monolithic" collection of resources (still in a bibtex file),  for everything I do, and I carry that around with me for years.

There are some in-betweens, such as having a Monolithic Collection, which I copy references from at the start of a project into a Project Collection, which I then use (and update) during the project, then copy either all or some of it back into the main collection.

What are the Pros and Cons of each approach?
Am I thinking about this in the wrong way?

I usually go with a single database, arranged in folders and/or tags. So the references are present one time, and then I just move them around according to what I need to do.

If you have separate databases, you risk to duplicate records, and save the same reference many times.

This also depends on the type of system you use: Zotero and Mendeley (the tools I mostly use) go with the single-db solution arranged in folders and tags, whereas EndNote allows to create separate libraries.


Does a student who graduated from a lower-ranking school in a developing country be admitted to a graduate school in a western country? Most colleges in developing countries are sub-par by western academic standards. In one developing country, for example, professors are not obliged by law or by their institutions to pursue a doctoral degree. Even worse, this country’s state colleges lack decent science and computer laboratories, affecting in turn the quality of learning experience. No doubt, higher institutions in improvised countries have much to invest in their facilities, research, and faculty.

Having said this, does a student who graduated from a lower-ranking university in a developing country have a chance to be admitted to a graduate school in a western country? Based on your experience, do graduate schools give much weight to the reputation of your undergraduate school?  If your school is accredited in your country, will this help?

There is a chance, but it is not easy, unfortunately.  We get a good number of such applications at my department, and the problem is that we have no context to evaulate what the transcript means or what standards are used in the recommendation letters.  (In fact, often the letter writers do not seem to know how to write useful letters.)

As a result, you will probably need to do something else to (i) make sure you are prepared for serious graduate studies, and (ii) show that you are prepared for serious graduate studies.  For instance, study some serious books and write notes on topics online, or get actively involved in an SE site in your discipline.  If you can arrange to do something like an independent study with someone, or study abroad, at a reputable institution, that's even better as you can get a meaningful reference.

When you do apply for grad schools, say if you want to get a PhD from a good school it is probably easier to try to do a masters' degree at decent but not top school first, then try move onto a PhD program at a better institution.

See also the related question: How handicapped am I in graduate admissions if I graduated from a lower tier university?

PS I doubt if the admissions committee will have any idea whether a random school from your country is accredited or not, but if it's not, there's even less of a chance it will have prepared you for grad school.


Impact Factor vs 5-year Impact Factor In ISI Web of Knowledge Journal Citation Report, we can find any journal Impact Factor (IF) and 5-Years Impact Factor (IF5), which is, as far as I get it, the Impact Factor over the last 5 years (well, the name is quite self-descriptive...).

What interests me is the difference between both indexes. I was wondering how to analyse this difference. If IF > IF5, does it means the journal IF is globally increasing?

And which one is more accurate while evaluating a journal?

The impact factor is calculated over the two previous years (the 2013 number is based on referencing for 2011 and 2012). A high IF indicates that many papers are referenced very quickly (within 2 years of publication). This indicates high turnover rates for the journal. If the longer term value is lower, it could mean what you describe but can also mean that work published has very limited life span. In many fields where publications are slow to produce, in my case they may involve field and longer term experimental work, it is hard to gain many references very quickly and hence the longer term indicator becomes more important and higher. This is also true for small fields where the number of publications is too small for a regular IF to make sense. In field that I am familiar with the five year factor is higher than the ordinary IF bit it will likely vary depending mostly on the nature of the field; if publications have a long or short time span.

There is another factor called the Cited half-life (The median age of the articles that were cited in a year) which in my field often exceeds 10 years indicating the longevity of publications.

For further reading look at Journal Citation Reports


Are there any particular grants or fellowships in the sciences specifically for non-traditional students? After obtaining my masters degree, I spent four years doing other things before returning to pursue my PhD.  My advisor has a Dept. of Energy grant which has funded me, but the grant will not be able to fund me for my entire PhD program.  I'll probably need another two years worth of funding to finish my degree.  I may not be able to get a Teaching Assistantship, as they are limited at my institution.  I've also noticed that I don't qualify for some fellowships (like NSF GRFP) because I am not a "traditional" student.  What are some other options for students in the latter part of their PhD program (i.e. dissertation)?  Particularly, for the field of computational science?

In general, you're in a very tough situation. Most of the "big name" fellowships are moving away from funding older students, on the relatively flimsy rationale that they're making a bigger impact by funding less experienced students from the start of their program.

There are a few programs that do support late-term graduate students; these are typically known as dissertation fellowships. Examples include the Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowships, but these also have other restrictions associated with them (for instance, a commitment to a teaching career). Similarly, the Fisher Doctoral Fellowship primarily supports environmental and energy-related research, while the Merck Fellowship Program is for African-American students in biomedical-related fields.

So there are resources available, but they are certainly very limited in scope, and you'll need to make sure you meet all of the qualification criteria. The other problem for you is that these fellowships are typically only one year in duration, so if, as you say, you are two years away from finishing, you will need to find some means to finance one year of study, either through TA's or other sources of funding. In the meanwhile, you should talk with your advisor if there are other resources within the group to help you—at least partially.


Is it legal to use images from social networks for research? I would like to use images from social media (e.g. imgur, Facebook, Flickr etc) for research (ie not for profit or any industrial use).

Would it be legal to use images (for analysis, etc), if I do not store them locally?
Would it be legal to create a dataset of such images, that I will later publish with my future paper?
If it is not legal, how can there be these existing computer vision datasets of thousands (and even hundreds of thousands) of images taken from Google search or social networks? Surely the authors didn't ask every owner for permission.

In order to copy or redistribute images that you don't own, you have to comply with the terms of the license under which the owners have released the images.

Some images are released under licenses (such as Creative Commons licenses) that allow copying and redistribution under various conditions (e.g. attribution, non-commercial use only, etc.  - depending on the specific license.)

For example, the People In Photo Albums dataset was "collected from Flickr photos
with creative commons licenses", according to the paper. Similarly, Yahoo! Labs compiled a dataset of One Hundred Million Creative Commons Flickr Images. And Google released an Open Images Dataset dataset of images that are listed as having Creative Commons licenses.

If there is no license accompanying the image or no blanket license applying to all images on the site, you have to assume that it is All Rights Reserved - in this case, you would not be able to redistribute these images.


What could be the negative factors in getting a PhD position in theoretical computer science? I have been searching and applying for funded PhD positions in Europe specially in Germany for a long time to no avail. I think, what pushes my applications back the most is the lack of proven prior research experience and also academic references. Each time I spend a good time researching the position and reading relevant publications and meticulously preparing my application.

A brief background on me: got a course-based master's degree in CS (3 years ago) with a fairly good GPA (not top of the class, from a competitive university in my home country), familiar with major theoretical subjects (e.g approximation, CG, randomization etc.), 30 years old and +3 years work experience in industry.

I had no master's thesis but instead took more courses than a research-based program. Despite being confident that I can manage a research job well, still couldn't convince a single professor to choose me over other candidates.
I love algorithms and their analysis and I want to grow my knowledge deeper and contribute with my best hard work. But it seems to me that high motivation and a good background and potentials is not worthy and maybe a hard proof of prior research is necessary. Although I had few research activities, but they were no close to a full research which ends up with publications.

I quit a software development job in Germany only for the purpose of finding a PhD position. I find pure development soul sucking and short of the challenges like in CS and too mundane. I know at this point of life it's late (if not too late) to think of these stuff but you should know things are not normal in my country and I had a difficult life during my education, otherwise for sure I could have had a more appealing CV.

Here is the question. Could it be more than a lack of research experience? maybe my age and not looking fresh compared to recent graduates? could it be my works in industry?
For some reasons I feel there is something that depicts me not DESERVING the positions or tagging me as a tech enthusiast with little respect for theory.

I read other similar answers but they didn't quite match. This has become very frustrating and thinking of going back to basic coding jobs would be like throwing away all I strove for. There might be folks reading this with similar experience or those involved with candidate selection. Any help will be very much appreciated.

I have been in your situation, my first instinct tells me that you need to look into some developing jobs that pays and are challenging. So here are my couple of points:

How Well Is Your Personal Life?: I did obtained PhD in Computer Science and worked both as a lecturer and developer; and let me tell you that the "soul sucking" thing, needs to be deal with as a personal life solution and not professional. I did seen both academics and developers to be out of touch in personal wellness, and lived a very dark and sad life; that is nothing to do with what they are doing professionally.

Age/Industry Isn't the Issue: While I was doing my PhD, a friend of mine who was 70 years old, built 2 software companies and sold them all, retired; and start doing PhD because feels like it. So, neither age or industry isn't a problem.

What sort of developer? Ok, this might look funny but actually it is important to know what sort of software developer job you are doing? Were you dealing with old legacy software that you needed to maintained so it made you frustrated; or you were doing Web front-end stuff, which is a combination of taste and coding and not too much "science". If you are into logic related stuff, have you ever tried back-end development jobs? This is something you need to think about.

Challenges As a Developer: You mentioned the developing jobs is not challenging. I was shocked! There are so many challenges today in industry, that people are trying to figure out. Look into cluster/distributed computing, containers, operating systems, wearable technologies and all their overall networking paradigms, and so on. You can also try to get some jobs which are challenging; so you could feel to void you are feeling, instead of spending the next year betting on being a lecturer. This brings me to the next point.

Lectureships: You might think, well I study couple of years as a PhD student and then Boom! I'm a lecturer in Germany or Europe. This is not true. Right now the trend in Europe is close to madness, to become a lecturer you should do some serious research, or coming from a huge research-based company (e.g., Google, etc.). Moreover, compare to industry, the payment is not very well; and the hours you have to put up with students, meetings, etc. are too much.


Are extra classes and extra research worth it? I am currently a senior finishing up my bachelor's degree in Psychology through online classes offered at Washington State University.  I intend to apply to grad schools (2 PhD programs and 1 MS as a plan B) thereafter. I will be engaging in Independent Study during the Fall, 2018 and Spring 2019 semesters (a literature review project). I will then be eligible to graduate in May, 2019.  However, I am wondering if an independent study literature review project is considered to be strong enough "research experience" for grad school apps. Recently, I have been considering staying-on for an extra semester to participate in more research.  I have the opportunity to engage in a Hypothesis Testing option where I can run my own experiment (with mentoring, of course!).

I'm just wondering whether staying an extra semester to do research is worth it (the trade-off is I will have less time to study for GREs and write applications because I will start school again in August, versus totally being done and having a few extra months to prepare). Can anyone provide input on this?  Basically, my choices are: 1) graduate in May, 2019 with 1 Independent Study project under my belt and have time to study/take GREs and write applications; or 2) graduate in December, 2019 with 2 research projects under my belt, but less time for GRE prep and applications.

I have also read on some of these posts that grad schools may not like applicants who took classes online, so any input here is welcome as well. How do grad schools view courses taken online through major universities? Although my junior and senior year classes have been solely online, I have been able to gain TA experience and I have a good relationship with our program director, so I will be able to get good letters of recommendation.  I also have a 4.0 GPA, so I'm hoping that helps my case a bit.

Any input is much appreciated - I'm really torn on this decision.  Thanks!

A better GRE score is worth more than a 2nd online independent study project especially if you expect good letters of recommendation.

Think of it this way:  online 4.0GPA + bad GRE score = looks fishy  =  you might not be as good as claimed and maybe you cheated your way through the online education system ("outsourcing" online classes is not uncommon these days).  then it won't matter how many independent study projects you did.


Should I give up on pursuing a PhD in Europe if I performed poorly in my master? I'm currently a master student in an Erasmus Mundus program. Unfortunately for me, I have been doing badly. My overall grade on the first 3 semesters is a C. So far only my master thesis remains but I don't think even an A will make me go from a C to a B. Is it worth trying to apply for PhD positions or should I just give up and go to the industry.

Anecdotal answer: I did pretty horribly in my first higher-level, bachelors mathematics courses, partly for health reasons and partly because I had never been challenged like that before.  I also performed horribly the first year of graduate school (equivalent to first year of masters in Europe).  I had to learn (not re-learn, but learn for the first time) basic proof techniques in analysis.  Not only did I eventually get a PhD, but also subsequent postdocs, and I have a growing number of publications.  Some of us just start off a bit behind and have to work harder to catch up.

At the same time, academia isn't the only place to do research.  There are many research-like positions in industry.  If research is your goal, do research.  You don't need a PhD to do research (but it can help in some cases).


Should I paraphrase or quotes definitions? In the literature review when I have many definitions from the literature can I paraphrase them or do I have to put them in quotes as they are?

If you use another source's definitions verbatim, then they must be placed in quotes; otherwise that's plagiarism. However, it should be pointed out that general facts and definitions—one that would be reasonably obvious to anyone who has, for instance, an undergraduate background in your field—need not be cited, so long as you are not literally quoting someone else. For instance, saying "Newton's second law states F = m × a" does not require a citation; saying

  The second law states that the net force on an object is equal to the rate of change (that is, the derivative) of its linear momentum p in an inertial reference frame [Wikipedia].

requires a citation to Wikipedia.


In my letter of intent for an MSc, should I mention my commute? I have a respectable cGPA of 3.5 and annual GPA of 3.7. I am hoping to graduate with at least a cGPA of 3.5 which would award me with "high honours". I am not trying to find an "excuse" for a low GPA (since mine is rather high), but rather emphasize that I was able to achieve those marks while volunteering / commuting. I am hoping this demonstrates my hard work. Anyways, I volunteer on research 3 hours a week (not a huge time commitment). However, I also commute 5 hours total to and from school (so about 25 hours a week simply commuting). I am wondering if this would be worthwhile to mention in my letter or if I should leave it out? I am definitely mentioning my volunteering since it relates to the program.

I'd advise against bringing up anything that might seem like an excuse, so I'd forego mentioning the commute.  That said, this is an EXCELLENT thing to have mentioned in a letter of recommendation that reinforces your dedication.  Try to get a recommender to bring it up.


Should I get post-bacc in Mathematics or go straight to Computer Science Research? I have just been hired to work in the IT Division at a top 10 University in the U.S., and they said that I can take classes at the college.

Currently, I have a B.S. in computer science and a minor in mathematics.  I'd like to do research in machine learning, and its application to computer security in graduate school.  I have a very cool idea for a research topic, which appears that no one else has written papers on.

There are two caveats to this.  One is I only have a 3.0 GPA, which is required for acceptance into graduate school.  Second, the mathematics required for machine learning seems to go beyond what I learned for my math minor.  Advanced statistical concepts, such as Hidden Markov Chains, which I've noticed is a topic covered in graduate level mathematics courses.

Should I go for a post-bacc in applied mathematics?  Should I teach myself the advanced math topics, and try to raise my GPA by taking some higher level undergrad classes in Computer Science?

Any guidance or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Tough question, mostly because it seems it would have a lot to do with you and your overarching goals.  Is the goal to advance your career or is your goal to get the Master's degree and write that paper and publish?

It's tempting because you have the free course option right in front of you but you can take classes in machine learning from Coursera (for instance), for not much more. So if your goal is simply to move your career ahead school is likely not required at all.

But if you want to teach and publish and get that piece of paper then absolutely you'll need more school. Take undergraduate courses and get that GPA up and then apply to grad school.


Do international students need to take the SAT and TOEFL to study in the US? I am from Colombia and would like to do grad school in the United States.

It seems in order to study I need to take the SAT and TOEFL exams? Is this correct or does it depend on the university?

No, you don't need to take the SAT.  The SAT is for students going into undergrad.  Instead, you'll probably need to take the GRE, which is a similar exam for students going into grad school.

Yes, you'll probably need to do the TOEFL, I'd guess.  That seems like a common requirement for international students.

Both of these requirements vary from institution to institution, so you'll probably want to check with the specific institutions that you want to apply to.  Depending on the program you want to go into, you may even have to take a GRE subject test.


Potential consequences of providing voluntary work for a team I've been forced to leave I have been forced to leave my previous institute by my former principal investigator.

At the institute I have solved problems regarding the software, and I enjoyed giving help as much as I can to many users, even after resignation. I had a request from users to do a tutorial video.

I was thinking of that before resignation, but I am afraid that could be not favourable by the ex-PI. Although, a week ago I have received a message from him apologizing for what he did and wishing me good luck. Despite his behaviour, I forgive him.

I would really like to do that video voluntarily, but I am not belonging to the institute anymore and I would like to keep things good and not fabricating sensitivity. Should I ignore the request of those potential users or do those tutorials on my own?

Personally, I think you should focus that time and effort into getting another position, if you have not got one already.

If you have a new position already, well done, then focus that time and effort into where you are now. They, hopefully, will appreciate that effort and motivation.


Awards when applying for faculty jobs Is there any significance of having received multiple "best paper awards" (in the field of theoretical computer science) when applying for faculty positions after a postdoc? Do the hiring committees watch out for such awards or do they fall into the category of "nice to have but no one cares"?

Best Paper Awards — especially at top conferences — count for a lot in computer science and can certainly help you stand out on the job market. I've seen people introduced multiple times in computer science venues as having won "many best papers awards" or "multiple best paper awards." People notice and people care.

Lots of other things matter as well and will matter more. A best paper awards at a conference nobody has heard of is unlikely to help much. In that sense, I don't think that hiring committees are "watching out for" best paper awards in any systematic ways. But I think it's absolutely normal to note your award winning papers as such in your CV and I think you definitely should. Having your work recognized as among the best at a conference will only help so there's no reason not to mention it.


The Importance Of Final Year Results In US PhD admissions How important are final year ( more especially final semester ) results in PhD admissions?

I am on MEng course in the UK where final year results are usually released mid to late July, and I intend on applying to US universities, now when reading on the application procedures at many universities I noticed that the application deadline for a lot of US engineering PhD programs seems to be from late November to late January, with admission decisions usually being made around April.So I am curious to know how important final year/semester results are in a PhD application.

Admissions to US graduate programs are generally conditional on final-semester grades. That is, you are required to pass your classes, and in general maintain a reasonable GPA in them. Developing a case of "senioritis" and getting D's on everything could have an effect on your admissions offers. (Whether or not it will depends on the department and the school.)

However, the grades earned in the final semester do not influence the decision whether or not to accept you in the first place; that is determined by your grades up through the end of the first semester of your final year (or the last semester of your penultimate year, if the grades aren't available by mid-year).


Reporting attempt at cheating To help finance my studies, I have been offering tutoring services for other students throughout the past year. Business has been good and students have been grateful for the help I have given them.

Today, a student I tutored one year ago e-mailed me and asked me to write an online exam for them, saying that they would compensate me financially for this "service". I was quite frankly offended that they could think, that I would go along with such a scheme.

Obviously I will reject the offer, but how should I go about doing this and what additional steps should I take? Should I simply not respond, or should I follow my inclination to chastise the student for even making the suggestion? While they have yet to actually cheat, I am strongly considering contacting their professor to alert them to the situation; if I reject the offer, the student is likely to contact someone else with lower moral standards.

Below is the full e-mail I received with identifying information redacted:

"I don't know if you remember me, but you help me with [Course 1] during summer 2019. I am taking a [Course 2] deferral exam [on date] and due to the situation right now and the fact that I moved back home temporarily, I am not going to have enough time to study. The exam will be fully online and based on multiple-choice and short-answer questions. That said, I was wondering if you would ever consider taking the exam for me, I would never ask this if the exam will be in person, I am lacking time and I know is feasible because it is only.  You will only need to login into my [student portal] and perform the exam. I will compensate you of course and I am open to the price.  I left a copy of the textbook online and the final exam 2019 ( The professor said that it will be very similar). Please let me know if you decide to proceed with this or not."

Edit 1:
Believe it or not, I have just received yet another request from a different student independently of the first one.

Edit 2:
I gathered the evidence I had and reported both students to the university administration.

If your institution has an honor code or similar description of the requirements for academic conduct, it may prescribe what you must do.  The solicitation of a "ringer" to take the exam may itself be an offense.  If there's a prescribed action, follow it.

If not, consider that an accusation of cheating by the professor necessarily creates an adversarial situation.  If you do report this to the professor, please copy the department head, dean, chairman of the honor council.  Copy at least one other person who can support the professor.  Include a copy of the student's email with your report, and retain your own copy for a very long time.

Do not respond to the student.  Chastisement will not do any good, and while the student is awaiting your reply, he or she isn't looking for someone else to take the exam.


Can I ask my supervisor how long would it take to complete my PhD before beginning my PhD studies and post getting acceptance letter? Can I ask my supervisor how long would it take to complete my PhD before beginning my PhD studies and after getting my acceptance letter? If so, what would be the best way to do so?
Country: US/Canada
Duration: It is not open ended like Europe. Depends on Professor here.

This question doesn't really make sense, the supervisor has relatively little control over how long it takes for a student to produce a thesis.  Questions you could ask which do make sense:

How long is funding guaranteed, and in practice what happens when students run out of guaranteed funding?
Do you have any additional standards or requirements for a thesis, such as requiring it to include an accepted paper, or requiring it to consist solely of singly-authored material?
How long have your students typically taken to graduate, and what factors played a role in that time?
How does a students career choices effect your advising process?

(The reason the last point is relevant is that if you want a research job it's quite simple, if you have good enough research to get a postdoc and you've actually written pages then you'll graduate.  But for a student with teaching or industry career goals there's more flexibility in trying to get a student out more quickly with a more minimal thesis.  Some advisors may be more understanding about a student's prioritizing getting out quickly for career reasons rather than produce the most compelling thesis.)


How to tailor a CV for travel grant applications Can anyone advise on how to tailor a CV for travel grant applications?

I've seen a number of computer science conferences and workshops where the application for travel grants consists of simply sending your CV.

Is there anything that one can do specifically for this type of application?

In my experience, your CV is your CV, and it should list basically everything of scientific significance about you (unless you're so far along in your career that you can do an impressive "highlight" CV).  The main decision available to you is how you order and cluster these things.

Thus, if your CV is already ordered and grouped to put your best foot forward, scientifically, I don't think you need to do anything else in particular to tailor it for a travel grant application.  I certainly know that when I have been in the position of looking at student/early-career applications to decide on travel grants, the full package is generally small enough that it's easy to see the significant bits no matter how things are formatted.


Shooting For a Star Supervisor VS Mediocre Supervisor and Consequences For Your Academic Life Career I have asked this question before, but it seems easier said than done. I think this question is really important for prospective students for making a sound decision for their career life. Academia, in general, is very competitive. My question is: If your goal to be recognized in your research field, should you shoot a star researcher in your field and wait maybe a couple of years to join his/her lab, or working with a mediocre supervisor and in that case, I have to build a reputation on my own, however, I don't know whether it possible.

Definitely, we cannot make a sweeping generalization, but some stars in the field are really bully and this based on true starts( happened to me and others posts here) and they can write pretty bad letters.

Should a prospective student wait to shoot a star lab/supervisor or just manage to finish and then build his/her reputation by attending conferences, organizing workshops.

EDIT

I have been shortlisted as top candidates at a very prestigious institute in Europe, however, the junior supervisor selected me is really negative person based on a couple of discussions and ignoring multiple emails, I cannot imagine myself to be his student.

On the other hand, another supervisor is quite old, not so much involved in research, but he offered to deposit a grant for next year. He is really very nice person, his former student was able to finish, but he told me you will learn on your own.

I don't have many options cause I am running out financially and has no many options, maybe I am not a lucky person.

It feels to me that you are describing a false dichotomy. You will in fact need a supervisor who is both competent and with whom you are able to have at least a professional relationship. However, I don't really believe that your supervisor needs to be a "shooting star" - a regular, competent, research-active professor should do just fine.

Surely not all competent academics in your field are jerks / bullies? If they indeed are, I worry that your expectations are in some dimension unreasonable.


Reading Projects Listing in CV So I'm a Physics undergrad about to apply for my master's. I'm currently making my CV and I was listing out the reading projects that I've done and was confused if I should:
List out all the books I used for the project
OR
Link in a website which has the books + all the resources (i.e. lectures and notes) I made for the project
Which is preferable and why?
Clarifications

What is a reading project? A project in which I undertake guided reading under a faculty. After reading certain sections we discuss the contents after which I'll be asked to deliver a short talk about it. I may or may not make notes dependent on time constraints.
Where am I applying? I'm applying to universities in Germany for an MSc degree in Physics
What resources am I trying to list? I'm trying to list the books/papers I used to study it. At the max, it has 4 entries.

If I were looking at your CV in the US I would expect a line for each project, like

supervised study of quantum electrodynamics

or

reading project on quantum electrodynamics

I would not expect a list of sources any more than I would expect a list of texts for a course you took.