How important is the TOEFL speaking score? I am a student from China, and I want to apply for (pure) math PhD this fall, in the USA. Now I have a TOEFL score which has 102 points in total but only 20 points in speaking section. I am hesitating to take another TOEFL test.

What I want to know is, how important the TOEFL speaking section score is. Does a 20 speaking score will make me rejected? Also, I want to know how the professors view applicants' TOEFL scores. Some universities, such as the UCSD, said that "Our department also looks critically at the speaking scores of the TOEFL and IELTS. It is strongly recommended to have at least a 23 speaking score on the TOEFL and a 7 speaking score on the IELTS.". Does this means I have no chance to be admitted? Should I try to get a 23 score in TOEFL? I think it is not very easy to me, and a TOEFL test is somewhat expensive...

Another question that I really want to know is, even if the university said that they only require a minimum score in total score of TOEFL, will a low speaking score undermine my possibility of being admitted?

Anyway, I will appreciate anyone who can help me. Any advice is welcome.

The level of the TOEFL or IELTS speaking score is important as a hard criteria for admission to graduate schools in the US because it is an effective first step for the university, the department, and the advisor to police against allowing specific situations to go wrong.

You may be supported by the department as a teaching assistant. In this case, you will have to interact with undergraduate students in labs, in recitations, or as they visit you to discuss their homework assignment or grade. Your ability to speak coherently and clearly is critical in all of these cases, but especially in the first two. Otherwise, the students will evaluate you as being unable to carry out your duties as a teaching assistant because you are unable to speak English.

You may be supported by a faculty member as a research assistant. In this case, you will be required to provide your advisor with verbal reports on your research progress and likely also to give oral presentations about your work. Here again, you ability to communicate coherently and clearly is critical. Otherwise, your advisor may evaluate the situation and decide not to continue to support you because the extra effort he or she requires to communicate effectively with you in English will delay achievements on the project beyond reason.

As a graduate student doing research in the US, you will be expected if not required to be able to communicate the results of your work to the community of researchers in the US in English. This means you will be asked if not required to give oral presentations at local, regional, or national conferences. Your ability to speak coherently and clearly will reflect positively on you. The inverse case is often more dire. When you cannot speak well in English, the net result will reflect poorly on you but can also be taken to reflect badly on your work or the quality of your project.

Graduate programs in the US also require students to take courses. The teaching approach in US graduate courses often if not always demands that graduate students interact verbally with the instructor and with their peers. Your ability to communicate effectively in English can and often absolutely will determine your level of success to complete homework, do project assignments, and pass quizzes or exams.

In summary, you must meet the required verbal score because not doing so is a sign that you can and likely will fail at one or another of your required duties to communicate effectively in English as a graduate student in a US degree program. Universities, departments, and faculty are not interested to support such cases of potential failure. They have enough applications that meet or exceed the speaking requirements that they do not need to waste their time on those that do not.

One possible exception to the above must be acknowledged. In some cases, the admission criteria to the university could state that verbal scores below the cutoff may be admitted but that, in such a case, the applicant (you) will be required in the first year to pass courses offered at the university in English as a second language. In such cases, university policy may disallow you to be supported as a teaching assistant until you pass the courses. Alternatively, faculty may not wish to support you on their research funding until you have passed the courses. The English language courses may run for a full academic year.

In conclusion, as one who has reviewed many applications to graduate programs in science and engineering, I offer you little to no hope to continue your application process until you bring your TOEFL or IELTS verbal score to the levels that are demanded in the admission requirements of the universities where you intend to apply. The best alternative is to have a faculty member in the department who will make the case to the department and the university to support you as an exception to the rules.


How to deal with mistakenly reporting old GRE percentile scores While filling my applications for PhD in computer science I used the percentile scores that I have on the paper score report I received from ETS by mail 3 years ago. However I just logged in to my GRE account to order a copy of the scores to be sent to a university, and I was surprised to see that the percentages have changed:

Verbal increased by 1%
Quantitative decreased by 2%
Analytical writing increased by 4%

Will my application get flagged for reporting wrong percentiles? Should I contact all the universities that I have applied to and inform them about the change in percentiles?

Here is a quote from one of the academic forums about the changing GRE scores, over time.

You may find it useful:

  The ETS website maintains that the reported score represents the same
  level of academic ability from year to year ..., e.g., a 720 Quant in
  1999 represents the same level of math ability as a 720 Quant today
  ... though the percentile may change, due to variations in the makeup
  of the test-taking population.

  That said, an 11% change DOES seem like a lot, given that almost
  500,000 people take the GRE every year. On the other hand, it seems
  almost universally accepted that the AW is the least important part of
  anyone's score ... unless it's very low (3.0 or less) combined with
  great pre-prepared writing samples, in which case it suggests the
  applicant may have hired somebody to write the writing sample.


How do professors usually discover "new" research interests? Usually, a person starts out with a single primary research interest as a PhD student (closely related to that of their adviser). But then as they move on through the assistant professor stage, they discover new research interests. Do they usually discover new research interests through collaborations/discussions with professors at their university or through conferences? Or do they discover new research interests through what can earn them funding (through the NSF and other agencies?) Especially since any topic could theoretically be interesting to them? (even though they might find some topics more interesting than other topics).

Is it more often that they do what they're most interested in, or that they do what they obtain funding for (and find what they get funding for interesting enough)? And can they sometimes even discover new interests through their PhD students?

Here are a couple ways that have resulted in new research directions for me:

Reading a paper/book. Reading a paper/book can inspire new ideas. You may find that a paper is missing something, or you think of a way of doing it better, or perhaps you can combine the ideas in the paper with something you already know.
Obtaining funding. Often funding is obtained in groups, generally to inspire collaboration and cross-fertilization of ideas. As a result, one is forced to venture into new territory.
Talking to a colleague (generally from other institute). Simply chatting with someone at a conference or when visiting another institute can inspire new research directions. They may have a problem; you may have the tools to solve it.
Changing job. This brings you in contact with new people who have new problems. Collaborations my result from conversations in the coffee room, or by going to research discussions within the new department.
Following up on something a student has done. You may set a masters student, for example, to look at something you find interesting, but have not yet had time to explore in depth. The student may come up with something useful, but then leaves.


How do I choose an appropriate scope for a master's thesis in mathematics? I am a new Master's seeking student in Mathematics, and I'm trying to get a jump on my research focus/concentration for eventually writing my Master's Thesis. My interest is primarily prime, perfect, and Mersenne numbers. When I try to formulate a plan though, my ideas are always too broad and vague, or are way too specific. Does anybody have advice on how to decide on a topic? How long is the average such thesis? Perhaps what I thought was too vague and expansive would be a perfect length and I was just second-guessing myself too much.

To expand on scaaahu's very valid comment, consider the following:

what specific topic(s) interest you the most.
which of these do you have some level of confidence in pursuing at a Master's level.
Who has the expertise to be able to advise you, are the willing to do so (they may be overloaded).
Are their enough resources available to start research in the chosen field.
Finally, what is the 'end-game', where do you hope to go with this qualification?


Should I mention PhD in the header of my industrial résumé to catch the recruiters' attention? I've recently left academia and am looking for a job in industry, mostly in R&D, in the areas of machine learning, computer vision, data science etc. Should I mention in the header "John Doe, PhD" instead of just "John Doe" to catch immediate attention of recruiters?

I guess I'm the ideal person to answer, as I made exactly this transition a few years ago and now help review resumes for job candidates in ML R&D.

Typically the top of a resume has the person's name, often in enormous font. I would recommend putting "Science Man", not "Science Man, PhD" here. Of course, it is a small difference, but the latter would raise a few question for me:

Does this person realize who we are? We may be "in industry", but for a research position, many/most of our competitive applicants have PhDs. Indeed, it's much easier for us to find new PhDs than people with 10+ years experience, PhD or no.
Does this person have realistic expectations? Of course industry salaries are higher than academia, but we've had incidents where recent graduates expect us to be so impressed by their PhD that they are unprepared for the interview or have massively unrealistic salary expectations

Of course, you should absolutely mention your PhD near the top of your resume, not disagreeing with that.  Even a bone-headed recruiter won't miss your PhD if it's near the top of the first page. I would recommend either:

A "summary" right below your name where you have ~2 sentences including the word "PhD" (e.g., "Recent PhD/Former Professor/Experienced Researcher in [blah] seeking research opportunities in machine learning"); or,
Putting "skills" right below your name where you have bullets of buzzwords (tensorflow, kafka, system integration, electronic design, etc.), and then listing your PhD in the "Education" section directly below that.


Can I use a Google map in my PhD thesis? I want to use a map downloaded from Google maps in my PhD thesis. Does Google allow me to do this? Do I need permission from Google?

Google provides you the right to employ a Google Maps map on your thesis. See Permission Guidelines for Google Maps and Google Earth (first two points of The basics and Using maps in print).

However, they ask you to provide correct attribution for those pictures. It will be something like “Map data ©20xx Google, Sanborn”. As they write, you have to find the correct copyright statement on the map you would like to reproduce in your thesis.

Alternatively, it may be possible for you to use  OpenStreetMap which is Open Data material and has more permissive licensing.


Am I allowed to use published research in building an industry project? I am a graduate student of Computer Science and am currently building an advanced project based on a paper that was released earlier this year at a major conference. I originally undertook this project as part of a course I am taking, but based on some initial testing results it looks like it has potential to make an impact in industry. That being said, I would like to continue working on this project and possibly market it in industry.

My questions are:

Am I legally permitted to build and market this project without notifying the paper authors, or am I legally obligated to include them in this process?
Assuming I have no legal responsibility to notify and include the authors in my endeavor, would it be unethical to omit them from the process, or is applying research in industry par for the course (i.e. the original researchers need not be and often are not involved)?
Business ventures aside, should I reach out to the authors and let them know that I am working on this project, even if it's just in an academic setting? I have no need of their technical insights or expertise, but I would like to know if it is common practice to notify a researcher that their research is being applied and practiced (I know if it were my research, I would appreciate being told just to know that it was making a difference).

In general, research that has been published openly in the scientific literature is freely available for anybody to use and build upon.  As such, there is no requirement, either legal or ethical, to involve or notify the authors of the use to which you are putting their work.

The exceptions to this are:

If there have been patents filed (which should be stated in a conflict of interest statement in a journal paper, but may not appear in a conference paper) you may be constrained by patent licensing if the patent actually gets granted (though that typically takes a number of years).
If you publish a paper yourself, then you are ethically required to cite their work.
If you think the users of the system would find it interesting/useful to know about its origins, you can include it in appropriate parts of the documentation.

Beyond this, of course, most people would be happy to learn that their work is being put to good use: if you decide to contact the authors at some point and tell them what you're doing, they'll probably be glad to hear it.


Maintain scientific output after having a baby I could have written this question in some other stack places, but prefer to do here because the affinity with the audience. I am the head of a research group, 38 years old, engaged in a lot of things and working on average 12 hours per day on research and all related stuff. My son (first one) was born last week and we really enjoy it. My only concern is: how will I be able to cope with my workload and scientific output after my paternity leave (in two weeks)? I really never thought about this and wonder whether other academics could give advice.

Can you produce as much, or even more, with less time available? Yes.

Is it easy? No.

What generic advice can be given? Little, especially in such short space. Numerous entire books have been written on the topic of time management. Read the advice of others, decide whether it can apply to you, try it out.

Now, the above isn't very helpful. Not in the short term, at least. Below are a few tips from my own experience, maybe you will find them helpful:

First, decide what your priorities are, what you are willing to compromise, what you aren't. When I read “engaged in a lot of things”, it sounds like a warning to me. Honestly, the first two years of a baby's life are hard on the parents. Social life is hard to maintain, work output too, etc. Decide which you want to keep most, and focus there. Don't set your expectations too high across the board.
Second, learn to say no. People at your department probably ask you to participate in all sorts of research-related work (committees, etc.). If you have been playing ball ’til then, probably they can understand if you say “I'm sorry, right now is not a time I can take some extra work, I need to focus on my family”. Don't use that as an excuse to get out of every commitment, or avoid anything that is thrown your way, but strategically get a bit more time that way. Most people are quite understanding of the hardship of having a newborn baby. (Or my colleagues and bosses are extraordinary people; knowing them, it's also quite possible!)
Delegate stuff. You lead a team, so you have some responsibility in sharing the load. You can try to offload yourself a bit, by getting others to step in.
Work whenever you can (read: when the baby sleeps). Adjust your work style. I'll give only one example: when the baby gets to cry real bad in evenings or at night, I noticed I could get her to sleep if I had her in a sling against my chest and rocked from one foot to the other:

(the sling was as in the picture, except I needed to be standing and rocking). Well, I put my laptop on top of a high table (bar table), and quickly adapted to type and rock the baby. That way, I had time to work at night, while her mother could rest. I wrote quite a few grant proposals and articles that way.


Do I need to follow traditional cover letter style for applying for an academic position? I am applying for a research assistantship at a university, and I am required to upload a cover letter for submitting my application. I am not familiar with cover letter, since I'd only applied to student positions before, where I was required to upload an SOP and a CV, instead of a cover letter and a resume. This application still requires a CV, and not a resume, but instead of SOP, it requires a cover letter.

I looked for cover letter templates online, and it has the form of a letter (starting with "Dear..."), and "sender" and "recipient" addresses on top of the page, which sounds weird to me since it is not 1918 ad I am not posting it to them, I am uploading it to their application portal, and my address is also on top of my CV and I separately enter my address when I fill in the application form (and they know what their address is, so I'd say they probably don't need me to write it for them on top of my cover letter!).

Is it just an outdated thing, or a convention that I need to follow?

Also, given the position is academic, do you think is it ok if my letter is some sort of a hybrid of cover letter and SOP?!

Here is my opinion based on my rather limited experience:

In the English-speaking world (and probably elsewhere except, perhaps northern Europe) sticking to a traditional letter format is probably a good idea (as if it was being posted). Also it is good to have your contact info on all correspondence materials, especially your email address.

Keep the letter short - one page max.
Start the letter with a Re: (the position applying for) line.
Find out who the search committee chairperson is (phone or email the department secretary) and address your letter to that person with appropriate title (usually Dr. rather than Professor, but in Germany both, if applicable).

Tell them why you want the position, why you want to work at that university (do some homework) and why you are qualified - be enthusiastic.

If it is a research-oriented position (rather than just teaching) emphasise your research interests and how they connect with the faculty there. If just teaching a short paragraph would do.

Let them know that you are available for interview (with blackout dates if necessary) including a phone interview to start with, if desired.


How far back should one go in citing classic works? I once jokingly included in a thesis:

  The equations of motion [1] for a rigid body can be reformulated as…

  [1] I. Newton, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, 1687.

While citing Newton's work for his equations of motion might be over the top, there is a valid underlying question: what criteria can one use to know when a work is “such a classic” that it doesn't warrant citation anymore.

I'll give example in my field:

Ewald summation is a neat trick, and very widely used by people who perform molecular simulation of charged species. It was initially published by Paul Ewald in 1921.
Density functional theory in the Kohn-Sham formalism, published in 1964 (Hohenberg & Kohn) and 1965 (Kohn & Sham).
Nosé–Hoover thermostat, 1984

The ultimate question is what would the average well-informed bachelor's or master's degree-holder in your field be expected to know.

Something that comes up in an undergraduate textbook, or is a commonly known and easily demonstrated fact (for example, the definition of the error function), probably doesn't need to be cited, because everyone in your field would be expected to know it. On the other hand, if you're publishing in a "general interest" journal, then you might want to assume a lower "base" of knowledge, and cite a commonly available source.

However, if it's something that's a very specific tool or fact (or a derivation, etc.), then it probably merits a citation in any case.


PhD Advisor is lying about funding and doesn't write their own grants I am currently enrolled in a science research PhD study in Canada. I am co-supervised by 2 people in different fields. The problem is that I started my PhD ~1.5 years ago and was told that there was funding but there wasn’t; something didn’t work according to plan, I am not sure what happened. Since 2017, I have written every grant and submitted it under my primary supervisor’s name to get my PhD funded. The issue is that my primary supervisor told my co-supervisor that they had funding and told the department they had funding when they didn’t. However, I am not sure how the primary supervisor is funding the situation, but at times I have to incur expenses and am told I will be reimbursed. Is that normal? I also heard that grad students are not required to write the whole grant applications but can assist in sections if required? Should I speak up about having added stress of writing grant applications, which isn’t even my job? Furthermore, at one point, I would have to constantly ask for my monthly stipend. I have repeatedly asked them about the funding situation and the primary supervisor seems to be quite nonchalant about the whole issue and does not have any urgency regarding the matter. I am not sure if I should speak up to anyone about these issues, but I also don’t want to go over my primary supervisor’s head, betray them, and besmirch their words.

Summary questions:
1. should I tell anyone that all our grants are rejected and there isn’t any funding?
2. Should I be having to incur expenses for my own research? (edit: costs related to research expenses, not conference or food. Even in the past the conference expenses were not covered and I had to pay out of pocket)
3. Should I speak to my advisor about how I shouldn’t have to write the grant applications?

Normal? Regrettably I would consider this semi-normal.

A good situation? Absolutely not.

Is the situation likely to get any better? From your description, definitely not.

As you say that you only started 1.5 years ago, and you are in a bad situation, change groups, and if that isn't possible leave or change university.


Academic writing software General-purpose word-processing programs are OK for academic writing. But I feel the experience can be much improved with some specialized software that takes better care of the special needs of academic writers, such as version control, collaboration, reference generation, in-text citation etc.

Is there any such software (either web-based or desktop-based) created specifically for academic writers?

First of all, academic writing is all about the mind putting words on paper, you are really looking for tools to help you with the technical side of putting together the material. Looking at your list of examples, I do not see much that is not already implemented in Word (probably being the most common writing tool in academia). A second that contains everything except a solid version control (revision tool) is (La)TeX (which is also free). But, if version control is required you can use GitHub, as I know many LaTeX authors do.

On a more personal side, the difficulty in writing science is not about getting the technical aspects right, it may be tedious and boring but is easily done. What matters is the text and how to be precise and concise and no software will help you there. Version control is sometimes a good tool but really, is it necessary to see everything one has written and deleted? Isn't the present text what really matters and what one has to consider for improvements? It is easy to get bogged down with the wrong details so getting tools to sort those out is never wrong but I do not necessarily see how a special purpose academic writing tool will help much more than with the technicalities than existing tools do.


In which regions of the world do graduate programs typically require a GRE score? I know that in most U.S. universities, most programs for graduate studies require a GRE score.

1- Are there any graduate programs in the U.S. which does not require this?

2- Is it required for graduate programs in Europe, Australia or other parts of the world?

Besides the United States, I have not heard of any country and any topic requiring it.


VG Wort – why would I agree to share with the publisher? Background

When I reported my publications from 2017 to the VG Wort today, I could decide whether I wanted the publisher to get a share of my returns from the VG Wort (‘Verlagsbeteiligung”).
The pertaining information provided by them only elaborates technical details.
Unless I missed something, I plainly decide whether a portion of my returns shall be given to the publisher or myself.
Moreover, given that the decisions for analogous retroactive redistributions were anonymous, I assume that this applies here as well, i.e., the publisher will not know how I decided but just see how much they got in total.

Question

I feel like I am missing something: Is there any reason why I would choose to let them have a part of my share? To forego the inevitable discussion, assume that I do not consider the publishers of my papers worth or in need of additional financial support.

Note that this is about newly reported publications, not about the redistribution of returns between 2012 and 2016 after their distribution was ruled to be unlawful.
Here I can understand that one might argue that publishers could not account for this in their calculations.
However, this does not apply to publications from 2017 as publishers had the chance to adapt.

For the search engines: Warum sollte ich einer Verlagsbeteiligung bei der VG Wort zustimmen?

You would do this if you authored a publication with a small, independent publisher whom you want to protect from bankruptcy.

The decision of the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) that publishers have to return the share of VG Wort royalties they received between 2012 and 2015 to their authors has cost publishers 20--200 percent of a yearly proceed (according to a science publishing association).

Most publishers can handle this, but some small publishers seem to struggle, and these are often houses that publish financially risky work beyond the mainstream, i.e. they may be run by patrons of the arts rather than business people. Some authors have a close and mutual relationship with those publishers and would relinquish what's now legally their share of royalties in favor of keeping their publishers in business.

See, for example, this excerpt from an open letter by a dozen authors who published with Verbrecher Verlag, Maroverlag and other independent houses:

  Nun wollen wir von dem für unsere Verlage schmerzhaften bis ruinösen
  Ausgang [des BGH-Urteils] auch nicht profitieren. Wir haben gewiss nichts zu
  verschenken, aber wir wollen uns auch nicht gegeneinander ausspielen
  lassen. Es sind die unabhängigen Verlage, die unsere eigensinnigen
  Bücher in einem nicht einfachen Umfeld durchgesetzt haben.

  Wir werden deshalb das Formular der VG Wort „Verzicht auf
  Rückabwicklung zugunsten von Verlagen“ vor dem 28.2.2017
  unterschreiben und bitten Euch, das ebenfalls zu erwägen.

Rough translation:

  We don't want to profit from the Court judgement, which is painful or
  even ruinous for our publishers. We certainly have nothing to donate, but we don't want to
  be played off against each other. It's the independent publishers that
  have made our idiosyncratic books possible in a difficult environment.

  Therefore we will sign the [pertinent VG Wort form] and thereby
  relinquish our royalties, and we also ask you to consider this option
  for yourself.

While this letter is about the redistribution of returns between 2012 and 2016, it illustrates the reasoning behind the decision of some (few) authors to share their VG Wort proceeds with the publisher also in the future.

The initiative "fair book market" lists further considerations for and against sharing. Those in favor are either based on notions of fairness, or on the strategical calculation that disgruntled publishers might leave the VG Wort in the long run to form a new entity in which author's interests are represented less well.

In sum, this is unlikely to be relevant for most authors of scientific literature, but it might be a consideration for authors of literary or philosophical works at the fringes, who want to support their indie label.
Strictly based on your assumption: there is no (strong) point in sharing your returns.


Switching from PhD to MRes, taking a Leave of Absence, or dropping out of PhD due to mental health If a similar question has been asked before, then I'm sorry; it's just that so far I haven't found much here or elsewhere related to the specifics of my situation. Maybe I'm not using the right key words. Also, I'm posting anonymously because I don't want my university to know (yet) that I'm considering these options.

I'm a first year MPhD student at an English university and I'm considering either switching to the Master's degree or taking a Leave of Absence, all due to my mental health, if not dropping out entirely.

I've had First Episode Psychosis for a couple of years but it's under the control of risperidone, a drug that might be making me feel sleepy. It's either that or I've developed depression, since for the last six months I've felt fatigue, having lie-ins until midday and hours of naps in the afternoon most days, so I'm ridiculously behind on my studies. I've been referred to a psychiatrist (again) and I've been getting therapy via the university.

I absolutely adore Mathematics and I've wanted to do a PhD in it now for over a decade. Thus it's strange that it's gotten like this. I came in strong, having prepared for such a long time, but around January of 2018 my mental health started to decline.

I'm fully funded by a scholarship that was awarded competitively by dint of my academic background (but it's not ESPRC). This makes me feel extra guilty that I'm not doing enough.

My supervisor said recently that I should be doing at least five hours a day but I rarely do over an hour.

  What should I do?

I know my health should be my number one concern.

I don't know whether I'm able to take a Leave of Absence with my funding situation.

Switching to the Master's degree is an option that might take the pressure off, meaning I'd get an MRes and graduate in 2019 instead. To be honest I kind of want to do that, since then I could apply for a PhD elsewhere; it's not that I don't enjoy the research project - because I do - it's that the topic was a compromise to start with: I wanted to do algebraic X but ended up doing combinatorial X.

I've had better PhD offers in the past, really, like from The University of St. Andrews, but I missed out on them because I'd had a panic attack during my very last exam, meaning I had to resit it the next year and they were ESPRC funded - they couldn't defer. I might get a stronger offer the next time round.

Then again, I might not get any . . .

I'm scared for my future. If I switch course or drop out, it might result in a bad reference and, in turn, an inability to get onto another PhD programme.

  Could I reuse my 2016 MMath degree references in the event of a bad reference from my current university?

I don't think I can stick to the full PhD programme. I doubt I could make the confirmation from MPhD status to PhD status following my next supervisory panel meeting, even, especially if things continue with my sense of fatigue.

Please help.

My goal is to become an academic.

Update: I have taken a Leave of Absence.

There's a very clear difference between the three options that you've listed- depending on your long-term goals, the right option should be easy to determine.

If you still want to ultimately complete the Ph.D. program but know that because of your health you simply can't be successful as a student now, then you should try to take a leave of absence for however long it takes you to recover your health. It's a bad idea to try to work through your current problems- you might do so poorly in your studies that you'll be asked to leave the program.

If you've changed your goal and decided that you'd like towards a master's degree, and if you think that you can be successful in the master's program without taking a leave of absence, then you should ask to switch to the master's program.  If you don't think you can be successful as a master's student right now, then you might ask for a leave of absence first.

If you've come to the conclusion that completing a graduate degree isn't one of your long-term goals, then simply withdrawing from your graduate program is probably the appropriate path.

Of course you may not be sure what your long-term goals are.  Figuring this out while dealing with a serious mental health issue is very difficult.  Requesting a leave of absence might provide you with the time you need to figure that out.

You should certainly find out what the consequences of a leave of absence would be for your scholarship.  You'll need to discuss that with the scholarship sponsor.


What is the actual difference between Graduate and Undergraduate texts? Whenever I open a graduate text (on pretty much everything), I'm instantly overwhelmed as most topics are not well motivated, book reads like an encyclopedia and extremely high level topics maybe mixed in with an introduction to a specific topic. Oh, the text also tends to be printed in a horrendous font that does not at all induce eagerness of reading!

Think of Springer series on mathematics if you want to know exactly what I'm referring to.

Why are graduate texts written that way? Why isn't there a plethora of classic texts at the graduate level?

Just out of curiosity.

The differences between undergraduate and graduate texts seem to me to be no more dramatic than those between high school and undergraduate texts, and I don't consider it especially problematic.  But there are some differences:

  Why are graduate texts written that way? Why isn't there a plethora of classic texts at the graduate level?

There certainly is, but there are also plenty of mediocre books.  There's nothing special about graduate texts in this respect. Classic examples of anything will always be rare and noteworthy, more or less by definition.

You should keep in mind that graduate texts cover an enormous breadth of material (far beyond the undergraduate curriculum), and the upper limits of their depth can be impressive.  Some books are written for very advanced courses aimed at senior graduate students specializing in a certain area.  Of course they won't be easily accessible, since the research community barely understands this material.  With luck, fifty years from now we'll have clearer expositions.  In the meantime, we should be grateful that the author at least managed to distill the research literature into a coherent textbook, even if it is not yet easy to read.

Other graduate texts are intended for introductory grad courses.  Certainly there are some bad books out there, but in my experience there are plenty of beautiful introductions that are accessible to students with a strong undergraduate background.  It may still take more effort to read them than a typical undergraduate textbook, the same way an advanced undergraduate book may be tougher than one aimed at first-year students, but that's not a bad thing.  The increased difficulty comes with corresponding rewards.

You can also find especially accessible textbooks.  For example, some graduate texts are written specifically to ease the transition to graduate school for students with weaker backgrounds.  They aren't necessarily advertised that way (to avoid putting off readers), but some books are pretty widely known to be less demanding than others.  They can be a great way to fill in any missing background or just get used to graduate texts.

And it's worth having many different texts available for the same material.  Undergraduate courses can sometimes be fairly regimented, with clear expectations regarding exactly what students should already know and what they need to learn now.  Graduate school is much more diverse.  One book may be entirely appropriate for someone with certain preparation, but utterly inappropriate for others.

If there's a subject you'd like to learn about, the best approach is often to ask for reading advice from someone who knows your background and tastes.  If you can't get personalized advice, you can always take a look at lists like this.  Once you have some candidate books in mind, it's worth going to the library and gathering copies of them as well as any similar books that catch your eye on the shelf.  Then you can spend an hour or two comparing them to see which might best serve your needs.  It's going to take you far longer to actually master the contents, so a couple of hours is nothing if it helps you find the right book for you.


How to handle unprofessionalism in academia? This question is in part related to this question and this one. In my case, I’m part of a double-degree Master’s programme¹, and am having a lot of difficulties at my German exit university. There are two coordinators/supervisors:

one that handles more of the organizational aspects of studies (recommends courses, seminars, internships, thesis topics, etc.);
one that takes care of all matters concerning thesis work.

Both have been incredibly unprofessional; because of the first, I was the only student who:

was not paid for his contributions while working on the thesis, the others enrolled at the same university and company (we have to develop our thesis project in an “outside” company)
due to some bogus reason, which was not made entirely clear, had to retake a seminar while working on the thesis even though it has been passed. The main issue was that I had to commute from the company to the university in order to participate in it.

Other aspects include:

I have to deal with inconveniences such as being called to the coordinator’s office for meetings scheduled by him, that he would not show up at (this can become incredibly infuriating after a while). When contacted, he mentioned that he was on a trip for two weeks.
Extreme favoritism towards other students. There were students who did not finish their thesis, but “graduated” nevertheless.
Very, very high unresponsiveness to e-mail messages (I always keep them short and to the point – usually between 5 and 10 sentences).
Toxic attitude; when confronted with the situation, the coordinator mentioned that he doesn’t care. I stated that, because of him and his thesis recommendation I had lost little over 23000$ (the amount that the other students earned during the more than one year period of study/thesis work at the company) and a few months of my time. He again mentioned that he doesn’t care.

What would be the most preferable course of action to take?

¹ The first year of my Master’s studies is spent at one university while the second at another. The second university is the one at which I’m working on my thesis. The double degree means that I will get a degree from both universities, when I graduate at my current university.

In my limited experience this is the BS many have to deal with in academia, which is the main reason why doing a PhD made me change my mind about working in academia.

Universities are a place where bureaucracy thrives, however this can be to your advantage, when it comes to complaints procedures, which are taken very seriously (usually).

Find out the university's official complaint procedure (usually two stages, first stage is dealt by the school and if issues continue you may raise it to university level, at which point the supervisor, if at fault, will be dealt with in a biblical format ;).)

Make an official complaint, provide all of the evidence required (including emails unanswered), and it should be dealt with withing a couple of months.


Should I tell other interviewers where else I've interviewed? I am currently travelling for faculty interviews. Some professors and other interviewers have asked me where else I have interviewed. Should I tell interviewers where else I've interviewed?

Intuitively I would like to give them less information, but I also don't want to appear guarded and defensive as a person, either.

Some professors and other interviewers have asked me where else I have interviewed. Should I tell interviewers where else I've interviewed?

Yes, it is very likely in your best interests.  If you have other interviews at comparable schools, then you will benefit from saying so.  If you don't, then it's not so clear.  However, departments will assume your job search is not going well if you are reluctant to address the issue and they haven't heard impressive rumors about your interviews, so avoiding discussing interviews won't really help.  Instead of saying something awkward like "I'd rather not talk about that", it's better to be up front and optimistic.  "This is my first interview" is better than "This is my only interview so far".

Here are a few reasons why telling about other interviews can help your case:

As a general rule, people want something more if they know other people also want it.  Valuing a second opinion is rational behavior.
Even when it doesn't change the outcome, competition can speed things up.  If a search committee member is trying to make an offer and still needs some final committee or administrative approval, it's helpful to be able to say "Let's move fast, since she is also interviewing at X, Y, and Z, and we'd like to make a good impression by coming up with the first offer."  If it's too late for that, they can say "She already has an offer from X, so we need to act before she decides."

In principle, you could hurt your chances if you list a lot of schools typically considered much more desirable (which could make the school you are currently interviewing at feel they would just be wasting their time trying to compete).  However, in this case you are probably already in trouble, since the rumors of your busy interview schedule may already worry the search committee.  Instead of trying to cover things up, it's better to acknowledge that you have these other interviews.  If you are worried about this risk, you can address it by making your interest clear throughout the interview.


What are good resources on how to carry oneself on a PhD course? I just started a PhD and I was looking for some guidance on what I could expect in the following years, more specifically, what is the recommended way to progress, how should I allocate my research hours and other responsibilities, and , finally, when and how should I start writing my PhD thesis.

Is there any book written on how to conduct yourself during the course of a PhD? What would be your overall recommendations?

Have a look at this excellent memoir by a recent CS PhD: The Grind by Philip Guo

Although written from a CS perspective, many of his experiences transcend disciplines.


Computer Science Publications: conference vs journal on application form I'm a UK post-doc working in Computer Science -- specifically, Computer Vision and Robotics. For the next stage in my career, I'm aiming to apply for some very competitive post-doctoral research fellowships. Reading through the application guidelines, they list the metrics which are used to judge each candidate's ability.

Now, two of these metrics are related to publications. The first of these, is called "Number of peer-reviewed papers (not including conference papers)". The second of these is called "Number of papers presented at conferences". My understanding of the reason for this, is that in most academic fields, conferences papers are often not peer-reviewed, sometimes exist only as an abstract in written form, and are generally considered to be inferior to journal papers.

However, in my field of Computer Vision and Robotics, conference papers are in fact the dominant medium for publication. Typically, a conference publication consists of an 8-page paper, which is thoroughly peer reviewed by a number of reviewers, together with a rebuttal stage. The acceptance rates for these papers range from around 20% to around 40%. My peers and I always publish our work as a conference paper first, and then sometimes combine a couple of conferences papers into a journal paper. However, these journal papers are almost always just an extension of a conference paper, and usually act as an archive rather than the release of your latest research.

Therefore, in my field, conference papers are far more common than journal papers, and often have lower acceptance rates than journals. For example, I only have one journal paper, but I have eight first-authored conference papers, and this would be considered a good CV.

So, my question is, how should I fill out the application form for this fellowship? If I abide by the strict wording, then it will appear as if I only have one "serious" publication. However, if I put all my publications in the first section (number of peer-reviewed papers), then this will technically be incorrect, because most of them are conference papers. The fellowship I am applying for covers all areas of engineering, and I do not want my application to appear weaker than it actually is.

Thanks!

Discuss this with the contact person for the fellowship.

Pretty much every job posting and funding call has a contact person listed, who you can call or email to actually discuss what they are looking for. This is an underutilised resource.

If you talk to this person you can find out the best way to fill out the form, and it is also a great way to alert them to this issue, put you on the map as a candidate, and find out anything else about what they are looking for in this fellowship.


How to maximize the chances to get a good PhD position in algorithms I have a master in CS from a not too well ranked French university. I have excellent grade in algorithms and did a good master thesis (although I haven't tried publishing the results in it). my overall grades are good as well. What can I do to further maximize my chances of getting a good PhD position in algorithms? I am confident in my skills but do not have much to prove that.

I am guessing that trying to do some publishable research with my former master adviser is a good thing, but since his area of research is really not my cup of tea, is it reasonable to try to publish something alone?

How can I find problems to work on that are feasible and publishable?

Any other advices are welcome.

I have few suggestions for you:

When you are applying for PhD there are few documents which needs to be submitted along with your application like Your transcripts, Research statement/proposal, Resume, Recommendation letters etc.

Now what you can do is: Prepare a very good research proposal, since you believe in your skills make sure that you highlight them with some examples like previous projects, your contributions etc. Remember, your research proposal is read very properly, so if you are bale to justify yourself well that would work for you

Also in your recommendation, you can ask your supervisor to mention your skills, appreciate your strong point enough.

Also there is no harm in mentioning the reason of not having published papers in your cover letter.

I hope this answer gives you some insight to get into a good PhD position.


Doing high level thing great but forgetting simple things I'm a mathematics PhD student and I have a question.
I am writing my thesis, and I'm looking for a postdoc too. I would like to do research long-term, but I am not sure that I will be successful as a researcher because of the following problem.

I am very good in the research that I am doing. Everyone confirms that I am very good in what I am working on. But, I have a big problem that I can not solve simple questions. Let me explain in further details, some month ago, I wanted to use the fact that supremum attains for every upper semicontinuous function on compact space. My supervisor asked me to prove it in front of him, but I couldn't do it. These happens a lot to me. My supervisor said he did not know how to possible someone do high-level research, but he couldn't prove simple things either. I am suffering because I think everyone can prove simple things, but they can not do high-level research. Does someone have any ideas or advice for me? I want to improve this issue, because I have a final exam for my PhD. I am so scared that they maybe ask some basic questions that I do not know.

Sounds completely normal for PhD level work.

Many people doing PhD:s are like this. Some people who are envious or feel threatened of your high level abilities may try to shame you or make you unconfident with your lack of low level skills. There really is only one advice to give for this...

Trust in yourself and don't let it discourage you.


Faculty interview: how to develop yourself into a national or international research leader I was recently interviewed for a TT position, and was asked a question "how to develop yourself into a national or international research leader". It looks quite a big question. I stumbled on it, and so want to seek some ideas or inspiring thoughts to answer this questions effectively.

Both my wife and I (in different very fields) have both bumbled around doing our best to achieve this, as well as been guilty in posing the question during recruiting.

The question operates on 2 levels.

First, how do you actually do it. This involves multiple elements:

Tailoring your research area(s)/question(s) to have national/international interest. There are many ways to do this, and the goal is not to trade off your research independence for reputational accolades. However, you do need to be focused in the right areas at the right time, and adjust the messaging of your research (at least) for what are topics of live interest. You can cynically call this "fads in academia", but it is real.
Actively collaborating. Too many junior academics treat others as either immediate-term team members/collaborators, or otherwise as competitors. You need to form a looser circle of collaborative relationships with others who work in your and related fields, where you can spark ideas, not just co-write papers. These then become the people who invite you to give talks, to write chapters for their edited books, refer students to you, etc., and thus your national/international research reputation follows.
Publish and present tactically. Too many of us choose where to submit papers based only on prestige/impact factor (or likelihood of acceptance, hassle factor, and peer review delays...) and attractiveness of the conference location. While these are important, as you mature as an academic, you need to begin to have a portfolio of publications/presentations, which cover top-level research prestige, broader dissemination, outreach to related fields, and (in some fields) public engagement. There are many ways of doing this, but don't just stumble through one paper at a time.
Get grants. Enough said -- though worth mentioning that while the process to apply is often byzantine, random, and can be demoralizing, getting funding liberates your time to be able to do more of the above, and is a good litmus test/forcing device to keep on top of the above -- as enabler -- too. In particular, any time I've reframed my research (item 1 above), it's generally been under the pressure of having to submit a grant proposal!

Second, during recruiting, the posing of this question to you is a bit of a signal and litmus test. It's a signal that we the hiring committee want applicants who will do more than publish x papers per year and fulfill departmental teaching and service requirements. And it's a test not as much of are you there yet -- your CV and letters will indicate that -- but have you started thinking about these issues in a way in line or ahead of your academic cohort.

Therefore, when faced with the question, a good answer would include:

a) A positioning of your research within your field, nationally and globally. Can you articulate how this relates to topics of interest by others? (viz 1)

b) Some evidence of having a research plan for the future. What would you like to do and why? Why is it exciting to other people than just you?

c) Especially if you're too academically young to "have a lab" or equivalent, can you show how networked you are with national and international leaders in your field? Can you show any evidence of developing a followership of juniors (and/or peers)?

And, of course, artfully point to badges of excellence in your research, and of awards/achievements/leading publications you have scored. Not as boasting of your accomplishments, but as demonstrating that you have the platform/runway on which to build -- if you're hired.

Good luck!


Parenthesis in paper title? I am writing an academic paper with some co-authors and we are thinking of including a word in parentheses in the title. So the title would look something like

  XXXX (YYYY?) XXXX

I have two questions:

Is there any style issue/argument against this? The fact that I need to ask this question in the first place leads me to believe that there is. But I thought I would ask since this may just be a rare occurrence and may not violate any writing/style rules.
In case it is okay, would it be okay for the title to start with the parentheses?

There are many papers out there with parentheses in my title. In particular, there are at least three articles (from different publishers) starting with a parenthesis:

(Patho)physiological Significance of the Serum- and Glucocorticoid-Inducible Kinase Isoforms
(Patho)physiological implications of chronic dietary sodium restriction during pregnancy; a longitudinal prospective randomized study
(Patho)physiological implications of the novel epithelial Ca2+ channels TRPV5 and TRPV6

Thus, there is at least some publishers who do not object to this.

On the other hand, this probably does not hold for all publishers, and there very likely is at least one out there, who objects against parentheses in titles.

Unless there is a clear rule in the publisher’s guidelines, it will be impossible to predict its opinion on this matter. Thus, I would suggest to just use the parentheses and let the publisher or the copy editor, respectively, worry about this.


Why some faculty have teaching reduction in the last semester or two before being tenured? It is understandable that new faculty members have reduced teaching load, but why some others have reduced teaching load just before filling for tenure? Isn't that late to do any progress?

As I understand it, the point of such reduced teaching loads is to allow for more time for writing papers and research proposals, as well as preparing any "package" required as part of the tenure application. Ideally, such a reduction would be done a little bit preceding the last semester before submitting the tenure application, so that the papers and proposals can be reviewed and published (or accepted, as the case may be) before submitting the application.


Master's Thesis - using wikipedia contents in application I'm writing a mobile application which will be part of my master's thesis. In my application I'm using contents from the wikipedia (small fragments of articles and pictures) to present my solution on the specific data.

Must I add links to articles, images and to them licenses?

If so, where: README.txt / about section / directly in the written part? Thx in advance for help

In a thesis you must reference any material/code that you did not solely created.

So in your case, I would suggest in the the background chapter, explain, the used data gathering techniques (e.g., using an API), and then add all the required references into it. So in later chapters, the reader knows what are these data and where they came from.


Advice with letters of recommendation etiquette I'm applying to graduate school and require two letters of recommendation. However, I'm not sure what the best process is for asking for these letters. I plan on asking two or more of my superiors (there's about 5-6 total), and believe that while all of them will be positive, some may have better writing skills.

Should I ask based on my order of preference? Or simply ask all of them to write one, if they're willing and have the time? Or should I send out an e-mail stating my situation and requests? I'd like some advice on how to handle the situation.

Thanks.

The usual process is that you actively approach those that you think will write you the best letter. In practice, you will want to engage the advisors that are the best trade-off between the following, sometimes conflicting, criteria:

Prefer people that know you, your work, and your skills in detail over people that you don't know that well. Specifically prefer people that know you from research projects or other "outside the classroom" activities. Letters that only say "ASimonis01 had an A in my class" are not worth much.
Prefer people that are willing to write you a very strong letter over people that may write a more lukewarm recommendation. This should be obvious, but keep in mind that everybody does that, so the overall level of enthusiasm in letters is very high. Even a well-reasoned positive-ish letter with some negative aspects may already be a kiss of death for your application.
Prefer people that are in a position to write a plausible recommendation. In practice, this usually means that more senior and/or more well-known recommenders are better than less experienced ones, simply because a statement like "among the best student I have had" means much more if the writer is a senior professor than an assistant prof. in his first year.
Prefer people who know how to write a recommendation letter. Especially if you are currently located in a different cultural region, it is well possible that your letter writers are not overly familiar with how a recommendation letter is supposed to be written. The end result may be a letter that is meant to be positive, but which is perceived as lukewarm or unprofessional. In the same context, avoid like the plague people that you suspect may just submit a stock letter.
Prefer academics over pretty much anybody else. That is, don't get recommendations from your boss in industry, your coworkers, or your childhood friend. The reason is the same as above - you want letters from people that are able to judge whether you will be a good grad student. Your boss in industry can't do that. Researchers in industry research labs may qualify, but I would still prefer a professor in almost all cases.

Also note that at least in the US one generally does not get to see the written letters, they are uploaded by the recommender directly. This means that you need to be very careful in your selection, as you cannot pivot after receiving a suboptimal letter from one of your references.


What to keep and what to say in a 5 minutes power point presentation? I have a power point presentation in front of our Head regarding my research and achievements. Time limit is 4 minutes presentation and 1 minute discussion. I am wondering what to keep in the PPT?

I have now prepared with 5 slides:- an Title slide, Introduction, Ongoing Research, Achievements.

Should I keep a  Title slide? If I keep it, then how much seconds should I take and what to say in the Title slide.

What to say and how to finish up the ongoing research in 1-2 slides in a couple of minutes?

Can you please suggest?

Watch 3mt(three minute thesis) competition on youtube it will give you a very nice idea. If you want to add the title you can use it hanging behind you while you introduce yourself.


Why do some conferences not include the review scores in their notifications? In my field, conference submissions are usually scored by all reviewers during the review process (for example using the following scores: 2 = accept, 1 = weak accept, -1 = weak reject, -2 = reject). Many conferences includes the review scores in their notification mails, which makes a lot of sense, as the scores add a relevant piece of information to reviews. They communicate the actual assessment of the paper, even if the review's tone sounds more positive or negative than the reviewer desired (which might have all kinds of reasons, be it culture- or personality-specific). They also make the decision on a paper more comprehensible to its authors.

However, some conferences do not include the review scores in the notification. What are reasons for not including them?

Conferences do not have a uniform system for how they select papers. Giving papers a score is a very odd concept in my field, and I am not aware of its ever having been done in any of the conferences at which I have presented or for which I have submitted proposals. Alternatively, it may be that scores were given but kept confidential.


So what happened to Episciences? The Episciences project was all the rage a few years ago, back in the days of the now-defunct math2.0 forum and the Cost of Knowledge boycott (ca. 2013). Its goal is to build "epijournals", which are journals trimmed down to the one essential ingredient of publishing -- peer review (as everything else, such as archival, dissemination, to some extent also formatting, is handled just as good if not better by repositories such as arXiv and HAL). Of course, this reduction of editorial (and other) overhead takes the wind out of the sails of the "who is going to pay for it" argument.

The project was supposed to be launched shortly, which I understood to mean in a matter of months. Fast forward to April 2015, there is only one epijournal running. What has happened? What type of difficulties came up? Not enough universities lending authority to the fledgling epijournals? Disagreements on the way forward? Political sabotage? Obsoletion in favor of a newer, better project? Or is it just moving on, slowly and steadily, and what is needed is just more patience? Any answers would be of interest, as other open-content initiatives might face similar problems.

EDIT: Andrew Stacey has resurrected the math2.0 archives, so I can link to the old discussion of the episciences delay there. Most relevant is the reply by Benoit Kloeckner (Mar 20th 2014):

  About the lack of communication about épisciences: I understand your frustration, but since the technical team is small the development has taken some time, and I feel that keeping communicating without having much new to propose could have been counterproductive. People know it has been proposed, and communicating largely once it is up and accepting submission might be more effective.

  When we launch, there should be a couple of starting titles as well as a standard way to process applications for creating new epijournal. Basically, an epicommittee (which has been gathered already long ago) will be in charge of examining the applicant titles. If you feel that a new journal is needed, or that a journal you are participating in should join, you can start gathering a editorial board or discussing the question in the journal and with us (contact@episciences.org).

  Finally, I prefer not give a tentative opening date as the previous ones had to be delayed. Things are moving forward, please keep the project in mind but be patient.

EDIT2: The journals page has grown! There is now a Hardy-Ramanujan journal (the link on the Episciences page has typos, whence I'm linking to it here) and DMTCS (which, IIRC, has been something like an epijournal since before the episciences project). It looks like more is coming up...

Traditional, subscription-based publishing, with self-archival of pre-prints, works well.

That is probably the major reason why other models stay confidential, or are plagued with dishonest behavior (like author-pay, "gold" OA).

The other aspect is that such initiatives are typically pet projects driven by a few enthusiastic individuals. Sometimes their institution tells them to do what they are actually paid for. And when they leave their institution, stop their academic career for a reason or another, or retire, there is no real incentive to find someone to take over.

Side note:

  Of course, this reduction of editorial (and other) overhead takes the
  wind out of the sails of the "who is going to pay for it" argument.

Not really. In the "green" OA model, somebody is obviously paying for archival. It might be invisible to most authors, but institutions have to decide to allocate a portion of their budget to maintain these databases. As for formatting, it's payed via the salary of researchers who spend time on such a task instead of on research and teaching. Highly educated scientists having to worry about font size, picture format, placement of floating objects and 'overfull hboxes'... The cost of knowledge, indeed.


How well does "Applied Mathematics" cover "pure math?" Ill be going into my first year of college fairly soon, with a prominent interest in studying and researching (as a career) pure/theoretical mathematics (especially number theory). However, the college I'll be entering only offers an "Applied Mathematics" major, which I understand may be more suitable for engineers, economists, physicists, etc (but my perception on that point may be incorrect). Given this conflict, I have been considering transferring to another university.

My question is: Is an Applied Mathematics major still satisfactory for my interests in pure math, or should I transfer to pursue a major more closely connected with these interests?

Thank you kindly!

For undergraduate math, programs tend to be really similar. You do calculus, then multivariable calculus, then linear algebra and differential equations, and you move on to an elementary analysis course and abstract algebra. These are usually what a student does through their freshman year for any math degree (and many for sophomore year depending on how prepared you were).

After you go through these, there will be upper division courses in PDEs, dynamical systems, manifolds/geometry, complex analysis, numerical analysis, etc. I assume that the main difference would be that an undergraduate program with only applied math would have less algebra courses (more courses in ring theory, Galois theory, etc.), one or maybe no upper division number theory course (except maybe a cryptography course in a CS department), and more courses based in modeling, numerics, and differential equations (numerical linear algebra, finite element methods, etc.).

But there's really one way to know for sure: look at the courses they offer. It's always online. Don't look at just one year since the upper division courses tend to be every other year, so look at maybe the last 3 or 4 years. Look at what they offer and ask "are there 3-4 courses a quarter here that interest me?". Look at some syllabuses, crack open some books, look through Wikipedia. Then do the same for places you are wishing to transfer to.


What does one call a group of similar courses where only one can be taken for credit? Is there a word to describe the case when a student can only receive credit for one of a group of courses because they are versions of a single course?

For example, "Accelerated Elementary Statistics" and "Elementary Statistics" - these have different course numbers but I would only want a student to be able to take one of these courses for credit.

Context: I'm designing course scheduling software and want to be able to describe/refer to this situation concisely to inform students and communicate with administrators who are designing course catalogues and requirements.

A couple of universities that I've worked and/or studied that described the courses as having equivalent content.  So, the prerequisites for an upper-level course might be listed as "MATH 344 or equivalent content."

The reverse descriptor also came up sometimes.  For example, the degree requirements for a given major might include:  "Four additional courses at the 500 level, of essentially different content."  Another school used inequivalent content for the same thing.


Is there any guide or organisation solution for increasing utilization of laboratory and lab equipment? We obtained a report for the last academic year. A shocking revelation was that the capacity utilization* of lab equipment, laboratories, instruments and machines is only 37%. Everyone seems to be happy with this result, most of the comments are that science can't be lucrative and researchers cannot be forced to work with already existing equipment. If they want to expand research and buy a new machine (even if we have 3 already) that should be allowed. "Your grant your rules".

Is there any organization method to overcome this "abeyance" of overall facilities at faculty?

*Utilization was calculated by time and resources being used, versus number of publications and number of employees (students, professors, researchers).

Unfortunately, the 37% capacity utilization number is essentially meaningless on its own, because it does not directly relate to the actual metric that one might wish to optimize.

When attempting to improve efficiency, it's important to have a precise understanding of what the ultimate metric is that it being maximized.  In a university research setting, the metric being maximized is not utilization of equipment, but rather something regarding research being accomplished and effective use of grant money.  To maximize such metrics, it's actually important that some equipment be idle some fraction of the time.

The problem is, research projects typically have highly uneven and unpredictable resource utilization profiles.  For example, my collaborators will often have 1-2 day bursts of flow cytometer use, in which they use a $200K machine for an hour or so every few hours, followed by a weeks-long gap while they prepare the next experiment.  It's very difficult to interleave usage during such bursts without distorting somebody's experimental plans, and an experiment may need to be started several days before the flow cytometer is first run.  Counterintuitively, this means that overall experimental efficiency demands that flow cytometers stand idle most of the time.

An even more extreme example is common tools like pipettes or screwdrivers: if anyone ever needs to spend more than a few seconds looking for such a tool, then operations are clearly inefficient.  As a professor of mine once told me: "If you can't just reach out and pick up the screwdriver you need, you don't have enough screwdrivers."  This means that such common tools must have exceedingly low capacity utilization in order to used efficiently as part of the larger workflow.

That same professor, on the other hand, now runs an operation in which an automated high-throughput mass spectrometer is carefully scheduled to run 24 hours a day, since it is the key high-value bottleneck of an entire pipeline.  In that case, efficiency means 100% utilization (but also that when they have grown enough, they will probably add another mass spectrometer).

Bottom line: if you want to improve efficiency, knowing the utilization of equipment is a useful starting point, but it can only be properly interpreted in terms of the larger workflow in which that equipment is used.


How do the advantages of a flipped classroom overcome timing issues? This may be an issue of me not understanding the university/college teaching approaches in other countries. It was prompted by this question about student complaints - How to adopt flipped classroom strategies without student complaints?

In Australia and UK, every mathematics, physics, statistics etc course I have ever seen or taken has two types of classroom activities - generally referred to as lectures and tutorials. Typically there are 2 hours of lectures per week with an academic presenting the theory and doing some examples. The weekly 1 hour of tutorial has a tutor (usually a graduate student) going through the homework questions and is done after the students have attempted the questions. In addition, students can ask questions during the lectures and the tutorials.

I don't understand the advantage of a flipped classroom.

Having the students watch a lecture offline would mean they have to ask questions about that lecture without context and they would not have the answer to the question before watching the rest of the lecture. I would expect this to lead to lower understanding.

Similarly, having the students work through the homework problems in the presence of the lecturer/tutor would substantially reduce the number and/or length and/or difficulty of the homework questions simply due to available time. A typical homework question set would take several hours to work through and usually have a couple of relatively simple questions that lead up to questions requiring deeper understanding. I would be concerned that running a flipped classroom would mean those deeper understanding questions would never be attempted and/or discussed.

Could someone please explain the advantage of flipped classrooms, particularly how the problems I have described are avoided. And whether the advantages are only in comparison to some specific teaching method that differs from my experience.

First, I should note that the details of how people implement things that get called a "flipped classroom" seem to vary wildly, so my answers will be based on the version I've taught, and to a lesser extend the ones I seen my colleagues teach or heard them describe.

  Having the students watch a lecture offline would mean they have to ask questions about that lecture without context and they would not have the answer to the question before watching the rest of the lecture. I would expect this to lead to lower understanding.

In my opinion, the inability to ask questions on the spot is indeed a drawback.  But there are substantial benefits that mitigate this.  Most importantly, many students don't ask questions in lectures when they should.  One of the major reasons is that they can't produce questions fast enough to keep up with the lecture; by the time they realize they're confused and formulate a question, the topic has moved on.  In that sense, for many students a video is no different from a live lecture in this respect.

And with a video, students can watch at their own pace, which can include pausing the video to formulate a question (and possibly even get it answered) before continuing, or rewatching the video after the question has been answered.

Overall, moving lectures out of face time is one of the main benefits of a flipped classroom: most lectures aren't all that interactive---few questions get asked, and only by a few students, so the value added by the interaction is low.  It's not zero, so the goal of a flipped classroom had better be to replace the lectures with a more valuable use of that time.

  Similarly, having the students work through the homework problems in the presence of the lecturer/tutor would substantially reduce the number and/or length and/or difficulty of the homework questions simply due to available time. A typical homework question set would take several hours to work through and usually have a couple of relatively simple questions that lead up to questions requiring deeper understanding. I would be concerned that running a flipped classroom would mean those deeper understanding questions would never be attempted and/or discussed.

Every flipped classroom version I've seen also has out of class homework.  They have the simpler questions take place out of class, and have at least some of the deeper ones take place in class.  Furthermore, most of them try to make the deeper questions more deep than the ones that would have been asked in the corresponding lecture class, or if not, they at least demand that students engage more with the deep questions.

Indeed, this point is one of the main goals of flipped classrooms: with the instructor (and possibly TAs present), it becomes reasonable to demand more (and different) things of students because there's help available on the spot.

In my lecture classes, for instance, I usually find that there's very poor engagement on the deeper homework questions.  A non-trivial fraction of students skip them (since they're generally not that big a fraction of the homework grade), and a large number of students don't take them seriously---they either scribble nonsense for partial credit, or it's clear that they've worked in groups and essentially copied an answer they don't understand from the one person in the group who got it.

In a flipped classroom, there was much less of this: the students sat there and worked through the hard problems, thought about them, and struggled with them the way they needed to, because I was there to make sure they did.


What is required of a mathematics referee? To review a paper that was submitted to a good journal, what am I required to do?  Must I understand everything presented in the paper? Must I check the details and verify each argument/proof? Or is it sufficient to check that the paper is generally well-written, contains no obvious mistakes, and is interesting?

My experience as a both reviewer and author in pure math suggests the following:

there is no universal standard for refereeing (some referees check papers thoroughly, some are much more cavalier)
editors may have different expectations/desires of reviewers, depending on the situation and on the editor
the typical expectation is that you assess a paper from several aspects: importance of the paper (this includes factors such as usefulness of the results/methods and novelty), correctness, and presentation/clarity.
refereeing is a process, not a "yes/no" assessment
refereeing well takes a fair amount of time, and results in little personal recognition, but is important for the community

Based on your specific questions, here are my suggestions for how you might go about refereeing a paper:

First assess the results claimed in their general context.  If they do not seem interesting enough for the journal in question, or are clearly wrong, you can simply say that (preferably with more details) and recommend rejection.
Understand the general argument of the paper.  Read the introduction in detail, and then try to understand the main points of the paper.  (You might not read the rest of the paper in order, particularly for long papers.)  Assess the novelty and feasibility of this approach.
If all seems good so far, convince yourself of the correctness of the paper.  This might entail checking all details, or you might be convinced after only checking certain details.  While you should definitely assess the correctness of the result, ultimately the burden of correctness lies with the authors.  Of course it's great if you can check the paper completely, but in my experience most referees don't.  How much effort you put into this may also depend on the situation (e.g., for a completely novel approach with an amazing result, you probably want to put more effort into checking details).
Very often in this process, there will be things you don't understand.  There could be a couple of reasons for this: (i) you aren't an expert in the methods being used, (ii) the authors' explanations are lacking.  In both cases, you can simply ask the authors for more explanations or explicit citations of the results they are using.  It's not necessary to understand everything for a first report, but hopefully you will mostly understand the paper after a successful refereeing process, which may include several revisions.  However, if (i) is a very serious issue, you might consult with the editor.  E.g., if you can read though the details in Parts I and III but Part II is a complete mystery to you, the editor may find someone else to referee Part II.  (Possibly this is a conversation you could have when agreeing to referee the paper.)
In the above process, you'll likely come up with a list of questions/suggestions, both about the mathematics and the writing.  While you should of course include these, these are typically of secondary importance in the referee report (though sometimes if you have some really good suggestions, it can dramatically improve the paper).


Recommendation Letter Submission I am PhD applicant in mathematics.
One of my recommender refuses to make an account on webpage for recommendation submission and he wants me to find a way to submit it via email.
Is this okay and possible? I know some schools require recommender to fill out the survey when submitting the letter. Will this hurt my application? Whom should I email to? a graduate program assistant or graduate program director? How can I politely ask about email submission? I know they are receiving many emails from applicant so I don't want to be another burden but want to make the process simple so that my recommender don't get frustrated again.
P.S.: also some school explicitly said on their webpage that they do not receive rec letters submitted by email. In this specific case, what should I do? I don't have alternative recommender and the deadline is approaching.

To ask such a question, just ask. Don't worry too much about "polite". Just be direct. Let them know that your potential letter writer won't create an account for this and prefers email. Ask if it is possible.
Some institutions will agree and find a way. Others will not. Then you have to consider other options. Try harder to find letter writers or find institutions that have a more compatible/reasonable application process. You have little control over either the rules of the institution or the reservations of your letter writers.


How to search for a Career Counselor / Specialist for Life Sciences? Does anyone know how I could go about finding a career counselor that can help an "ex-academic" in some way to find a job in "real world"? Essentially, I am looking for type of counseling service that is similar to K Kelsky's "Professor Is In," but with expertise in and inside knowledge of biotech/life science. I know this forum cannot recommend individuals directly, but maybe you can tell me where/how to look. I would love to hear other people stories: if anyone used a career coach/help in "Life Sciences", how did you find that person and how did you know that you are getting sensible guidance?
I am a former "life scientist" (molecular biologist). I am aware of "Cheeky Scientist's Association", but I would never-ever approach an company that employs such a predatory marketing strategy.
I would like to provide an excerpt from someone else's blog post to explain my problem:

I was desperate to find jobs in industry and somehow got hold of the
CEO of a mid-sized pharmaceutical firm for an interview. I didn’t get
the job because he couldn’t see where to fit me in his organization.
Take for example, as he ran through the choices:

I can’t put you in sales or marketing because you’ve never sold a product
I can’t give you a manufacturing or production role since they require different expertise such as GMP, GLP, etc unrelated to yours
I can’t assign you a role in quality control/regulatory since you’re
not aware of the compliance and regulatory issues related to the
pharmaceutical industry
We like so many pharma companies are into
generics and there is no R&D arm; so I’m not sure where to have you
within us”

None of this was done in a condescending way. It’s the reality. And
then I understood this: Really world values different set of skills
(life skills) over academic smartness.

Unfortunately, this was precisely my experience as well during a really intense job search a few years ago.
As far as pharma/biotech is concerned, they look for either people with 10 to 15 years of industry experience, knowledge of industry-specific regulations, credentials etc. Alternatively, they need B.Sc. or, at most, M.Sc. to work as technicians in control or on a production line.
I feel that I have exhausted my creativity and completely lost now. I had extremely damaging experience in "academia" (from a bad Ph.D to a horrible postdoc). I do not believe that I have any competitive edge, to be honest. I feel like I do need an external council, but with a professional who knows the field.
P.S. To make it  really clear: I have no chances for successful "academic" career and I do not want to waste time and effort chasing it. I desperately need a non-academic career. However, I cannot find anywhere the guidance/career coaching that I need.
P.P.S. I was a "wet-lab" scientist. People refuse to understand that there is a HUGE difference in employ-ability between bio-statisticians, bioinformaticians and people of this ilk and "Wet-lab scientists".
It took me ~ 12 months to find a job of a project manager on "soft money" at a small University. I have applied like crazy all across Canada. Now things start to collapse due to politics and ever-absent/super-busy PI of the project. I simply do not have administrative power to hold people to account and make things work.
I am out of ideas now. Seriously. I am sick and tired of academic BS.
I have no imagination left. No ideas. Zero. I do not do drugs. I am out of any ideas. I need a career coach, a creative writer, a fairy-tale writer, I do not know whom to get some fresh ideas. I cannot live like this anymore.

You're focusing on finding a career counselor. Most career counselors I've known are general purpose, trying to help people with the basics of cover letter and resume construction, the typical flow of the hiring process, etc. Never heard of one specializing in the life sciences or, for that matter, any sciences, but I suppose that might have changed over the years.
A recruiter is not a career counselor. A recruiter is a matchmaker. There are lots of recruiters for the IT fields, but don't imagine for a moment they play the role of career counselors for computer science grads. If a recruiter is telling you to leave off the PhD aspect of your training, he or she is doing it for practical reasons. Crappy and  unfair and humbling? Yep.
Nearly everyone I know professionally, at the higher levels outside of academia, got his or her job because of his or her network and knew how to present him or herself appropriately at interviews. It's a thing you learn.
Cattle calls through web sites?  They're not always what they seem. But you're playing the numbers.
One thing you don't speak of is what other career avenues you've explored outside of the life sciences. Widen the playing field,  develop your network. We write our own life stories, but sometimes need ideas on how to start. Rather than a career counselor, step back to assess the situation. A cognitive therapist can help there.


Why using ORCID iDs instead of DOIs to identify researchers? DOIs are used to identified papers, presentations, datasets, programs, figures, audio files, video files, amongst other things. ORCID iDs are used to identify researchers.

Why using ORCID iDs instead of DOIs to identify researchers?

Because I would rather be an Orc than an Object.  [/joke]

More seriously: from the horse's mouth

  Our members will be aware that CrossRef has been exploring the possibility of creating an “author DOI” or “contributor ID”  system. In doing so, it has become clear that the issues and use-cases involved in identifying researchers span a broad collection of stakeholders including libraries, institutions, funders, publishers and, of course researchers themselves. In short, this is not primarily “a publisher problem.” As such, we believe that the ORCID approach to creating an inclusive and open organization representing all the stakeholders in the scholarly communications process represents the best chance of creating a successful contributor identification system

The main problem with using DOI to identify authors is that the DOI model dishes out DOI identifiers through registration agencies, which usually charge some fee for the assignment. The use of registration agencies is fundamental to the design and operation of the DOI scheme. The main advantage of the ORCID scheme, as indicated above by CrossRef, one of the DOI registration agencies, is its openness and inclusiveness. Obtaining an ORCID is relatively simple.

As an aside: ORCID is a subset of the ISNI and is used for identification of researchers. For more general contributors to media, the ISNI is preferred.


Can lewd pictures and videos that non-consensually ended up on porn sites hurt my career in academia/industry? I was involved in some not-safe-for-work (NSFW) photoshoots and amateur videos with a photographer in my undergrad (in the US) when I was going through a rough time. The media include my face in them (yes, stupid decision), and since I signed a model release he owns the pictures and videos.

He then set up a Tumblr account and posted the pictures and videos there (which I knew of and didn't mind at the time). However I recently realized that people had been stealing them and posting them on porn sites, and they've been up there for around 3-4 years now. There's no identifying information in them other than my face, so you wouldn't be able to just find them if you searched my name; you have to put in somewhat obscure terms or just happen to come across them to find them, really. Nevertheless I was shocked to see myself there. I'm trying to take them down but the videos are just on so many random porn sites that it'll be impossible to remove all of them. On top of that I don't technically own the media so there's that.

Anyway, I'm wondering how much of an impact this might have on my career? I'm currently doing a PhD in the EU and will apply to both industry and academia jobs in a few years.

I've seen Can leaked nude pictures damage one's academic career?, but decided to post a separate question since the other poster was able to take down the pics and their media was not as widely proliferated as mine are (from what I could tell), plus mine are on porn sites.

I've managed to have the images/videos removed from (what I'd consider) one of the two major websites they were on; hopefully I can get them removed from the other one too and then it'll be even more unlikely that people will find them?

There are probably very large regional differences here. If you apply for jobs in very conservative areas, you might potentially face a larger back-reaction. That is, if it comes up.

I would say that I am from a quite liberal area of the world. I have been on several hiring committees, both in academia, and before that, in industry. I have never been on a hiring committee that searched through porn sites for pictures of a candidate. And frankly, I would be surprised if a member, who would have come across such pictures on their own time, would bring it to the attention of the committee.

And a personal perspective: Try not to worry too much about it. Everybody has a past. I can tell you that I also have naked pictures of myself online, not from porn, but from a reality-docu that aired on national television many years ago. Once I have had students mention it, and I simply said "yes, how did you like it?". And nothing more came of that.


How do professors from very small or unranked universities in the U.S. attract graduate students? US News and World only ranks about 100 graduate programs in computer science 300 research universities in the US. How do graduate programs of small and/or unranked universities attract graduate students?

Not everyone has the GPA / research experience to be accepted to those top 100 Universities.
Not everyone is confident enough to apply to those top universities and they feel more comfortable going somewhere closer to home.
Many students have constraints making relocation impossible (e.g., cultural obligations to their family where they cannot move more than 10 miles from their parents), so they go to graduate school in the closest program they can.


Do Chinese universities offer CS/CSE Masters programs taught in English? Do Chinese (PRC) universities offer CS/CSE Masters programs taught in English?

If yes, do these programs require mandatory HSK scores to enroll?

If you just search for the universities, you will see that each of them has specific guidelines regarding your proficiency in Chinese.

For Tsinghua university, here is what I find : http://www.tsinghua.edu.cn/publish/then/5975/index.html , but I can't find anything about HSK requirements. My guess is that if the courses are taught in English, you are more likely to be asked to provided your TOEFL scores instead.

Now you might want to look at other universities, you should get all the information you need on their websites.

So, yes, Chinese universites do have CS Masters programs in English, and it appears that they don't required HSK (but you should contact the International Office of each university to be sure of that).


I have an opportunity to do internship at the cost of a gap in my academic year. Should I accept it? I have just completed my B.Sc in Physics and I have a unique opportunity to do internship in my field of interest for more than 6 months. If I choose it, I may not be ble to start with my Masters' courses this year and this academic gap will be reflected on my CV.
I would like to know how will it affect me and my career. My aim is to become a good researcher.

You will have to weigh the pros/cons for yourself. There is no right answer to this and will vary for everyone.

Potential benefits:

More time to build your CV to apply to better universities
Real-world experience
Far higher income than graduate assistantships (at least in STEM in the US)
May provide you insights into your future research directions
Possibility of publications and patents if the organization does research
Networking that you may not normally be able to do (and letters of rec)

Potential downsides:

Delays grad school which probably delays graduation and getting a full-time position
If you have already been accepted to grad programs, they may not let you postpone them
Could potentially be a distraction from your long-term goals

Note, I did 5 internships during grad school so I obviously value internships. I do suggest to be strategical about internships to see if they are taking you closer to your goals. If so, go for it!


Are there statistical techniques specific to computer science research? I once read that, for example, there are statistical techniques that are applied in social sciences that also are applied for Computer Science and other fields, for example: sampling, hypothesis testing, and so on. I was wondering if there are some statistical specific techniques that are used in the field of Computer Science and related to topics like information systems, software engineering and so on.

I know that there is the field of Computational Statistics, but that is more related to the development of algorithms for statistics, so it is somewhat different.

Although statistical techniques are fundamentally the same, specific approaches to the use of statistics in experimental analysis of algorithms or more broadly in the analysis of computer systems performance (including aspects of hardware, networks, etc.) are an important topic.  A couple of references to look at include:

C. C. McGeoch.  A Guide To Experimental Algorithmics.  Cambridge University Press, 2012.

R. Jain.  The Art of Computer Systems Performance Analysis: Techniques for Experimental Design, Measurement, Simulation, and Modeling.  Wiley, 1991.


Should I acknowledge the source of a problem in a math assignment? For a math assignment that I am giving my students, I have included a problem from Spivak Calculus. I have the following two issues and I do not know what I should do:

If I do not acknowledge the source, it seems that I have committed plagiarism.
And if I acknowledge the source, then the students will go and perhaps find the solution manual and give the same solution as in the solution manual.

Can anyone please discuss what is the best thing to do in my case?

I often assign "challenge" problems for my Calculus class that are drawn from Apostol (similar in difficulty, etc., to Spivak).  For the reasons you describe above, I prefer not to reveal the source of the problem.  My solution has been to label the problem as a challenge problem, and say that it comes from a classic (read: hard) textbook on Calculus when I assign the problem. However, I don't specify which textbook that is on the assignment.  After the problem set is due, I give the students the full reference.  Of course, my hope is that some of them found the problem interesting and will go look up more problems to challenge themselves.

I think this compromise works since you are not taking credit for creation of the problem, and do give acknowledgement.  Of course, with all of these students can find the answers through diligent searching, but I think raising the barrier even a little is a good idea.