Is it self-plagiarism if I am up-front about similarities? I am writing a paper which expounds on a portion of a previous paper that I got published.

If I did not even mention the previous paper in my new one, I'm fairly certain this would be seen as trying to pass off old work as new (unethical).

However, in the introduction of the new paper, the beginning of the relevant section, and throughout the relevant section, I am very up-front about the similarities to the old paper, with many citations. Also, there is no copy/paste from the old paper.  Some phrasing may be similar in places, but only because I happened to write both papers.

Am I safe submitting the new paper to a journal?

As long as the new paper extends the prior one, presents new data or analysis, and you cite properly, you are fine. It is best to pretend you did not write the prior work and cite accordingly, because you assume no special status even though you authored it. This would only become problematic if you attempt to pass off the same work (even if edited) as a distinct novel work.


Can a professor I didn't mention in my application accept me as his M.Sc. student? A professor that I contacted earlier as a prospective student replied to me (and asking for interview) late when I already have submitted my application. I didn't mention him in my application, since I thought he might not be interested and deadline was near and I mentioned other professors who replied to me. If the interview is successful, can he still review my application and admit me under his supervision?

Note: I can't edit my list of Professors on my application, but I can still edit my SOP (maybe mention him only in SOP?).

The simple answer is: yes.

At many schools it is often the case that professors discuss the applicants outside of the official application system. Other professors may have recommended your application to the professor in question, which is why they are asking for an interview with you now. I suggest you concentrate on doing as well as you can for the interview.

Don't worry about the details of their internal process - you don't have any control over that. If the professor wants to work with you, there is usually a way to make it happen.


Using MHRA, do I need to cite a translator when referencing an online text? My apologies in advance if this question is misplaced here. Using a reference like this (for online resourses)

  Heraclitus, 'Fragments Of Heraclitus - Wikisource, The Free Online Library', En.wikisource.org, 2014 http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Fragments_of_Heraclitus#Fragment_1 [accessed 24 October 2014]

do I need to include somewhere that the translator is John Burnet? I assume so, but I cannot find anything in the style guide to indicate where I would put the translator (maybe just, "Heraclitus, translated by John Burnet, ..." ?).

One of the several reasons for citation is to give credit where credit is due.  Thus, you must cite the translator.  How to do so?  Just like you would an editor.


What is a “sandwich thesis”? On the Internet, I have found that some people have graduated with a PhD by means of a “sandwich thesis”. Could anyone explain what it is?

I believe that a sandwich thesis (sometimes called an integrated thesis / stapler thesis) consists of a collection of published or in-press articles (some schools also allow submitted articles). These articles are included in the thesis verbatim.  The publications are usually preceded by an elaborate introduction that sets the context for the thesis.

EDIT:

As Willie Wong pointed out,  there is also usually a final discussion / conclusion after the integrated papers.


Post-doc priorities: "Laundry list" vs. "Research trumps all" I am a post-doc in the physical sciences and I am finding that people have very different expectations of what a post-doc's priorities should be. Typically people are somewhere between two camps. I call these two extreme views "Laundry list" vs. "Research trumps all".

The "Laundry list" view is that everything matters, and that next to research skills developing soft skills is also very important. Examples of such advice philosophy are the Times Higher Education guide (see here) and the The New Scientist guide (here). Apart from research, there is great emphasis on teaching and mentoring students, practising talks, going to many seminars and networking.

The "Research trumps all" view is that at the post-doc stage, the importance of papers far outweighs everything else. For example,  this interesting guest post on The Professor Is In advises to be very cautious about getting involved in mid-author papers and optional teaching commitments. In the Scientific American blog post "The Awesomest 7-Year Postdoc " (here), the author directly attacks laundry list advice of the above kind and emphasises selectivity in activities, putting research and teaching first. Cal Newport's canon of advice (e.g. this and this post) is generally all about selective focus on research projects and minimizing dissipation (e.g. little email communication, drop bad projects).

I am most interested in career advice for post-docs in the physics, mathematics, computer science, life sciences on a path towards a research oriented academic career. I think it would be very interesting to see what you think and where you place your post-doc priorities on the continuum between "Laundry list" and "Research trumps all".

I think this is an interesting and multi-faceted question. As a postdoc, I was very much on the laundry list side of things. I did a lot of teaching, organized events, went to plenty of conferences, helped with department service, collaborated in projects that I probably should have gotten out of months ago, started a lot of long-reaching initiatives which would not lead to any papers in the short term, wrote grant proposals, and so forth. My publication track record was good, but not nearly as good as the track record of some of my colleagues who tried harder to fend off non-publishing activities.

I think ultimately this made job searching harder, as hiring committees in virtually all research-oriented institutions put an overwhelming emphasis on published papers. However, I also feel very strongly that I am a better and more well-rounded academic now than what I would be if I had locked myself in and wrote one paper after the other. I especially feel like I am pretty well set-up to achieve my tenure requirements (which, at least in my institution, are much more well-rounded than just looking at papers alone), and the change from a postdoc to a faculty position has been rather smooth - I did not get the "shock" that some others seem to have when they suddenly need to do teaching, department service, etc.

All in all, I think a good way to see it is that the "publications-over-everything" strategy maximizes your chance to get as good a tenure-track position as possible, while the laundry list strategy trains you better for a long, well-rounded career.


How to evaluate student team members who did minimal work on a team assignment? I have this class where at the beginning of the term the lecturer pretty much randomly creates groups of 5 people (who usually do not know each other at all) and assigns them a project.

At the end of the term we do a presentation and a written exam. A friend of mine who took this class before told me that the lecturer will ask me to evaluate the other members.

Three people in our team were just terrible. They did not care at all, they did not even respond to emails, never arranged any workshops, and only came once or twice to other workshops we suggested, with the only one person remaining in the team besides me; so two of us pretty much did the project.

However, I really do not want to tell in the paper that they did not do anything. I do not care that they did not do anything, and I do not feel comfortable talking behind their backs. It should be the lecturer's responsibility to figure out who did what by asking the right questions in the exam and in the presentation, I believe.

So do I just leave those parts blank in the exam, or explain how I feel?

Evaluating your fellow students should be a supervised exercise of constructive criticism, e.g., after a presentation given by them. I hope this is what the lecturer will do.

Anyway, if you are assigned this you need to do it. I would give the bare facts for the students that didn't really involve themselves. I.e., I would state exactly what each team member contributed to the project. And if they only suggested a color for a button then I would state that. I would then proceed with providing an honest evaluation of the student that did all the work with you and for the others just say that they could have involved themselves more in the project.

I know that this feels a bit like being a tattletale, but it is actually them that behaved unethically by not working with you on the assignment. The only thing you should have done differently is having a frank discussion regarding their involvement (with them and with the lecturer) at an early stage. Resolving issues like this during team work is actually something you need to learn during your studies. And it appears like you haven't. Thus, you should add this as self-criticism to the evaluation and ask the lecturer to teach you methods of handling such issues.


How to aproach when thesis supervisor just "disappear"? My thesis supervisor is not reviewing my thesis. I wanted to discuss for my three years degree the development of my 3D engine (Computer science thesis). I mailed to the professor about my intention, he wanted to see me for a brief meeting (June) where I explained him what's different in my work and a short roadmap of work that had to be done and what I was already developing.

I completed my thesis PDF in last days of August. I mailed about that to the professor and he replied he was busy so I had to skip the graduation session of October, he just asked to hold on. Then I mailed him again, I got no reply until it was too late for session of December.

In last email he just took a quick look at my thesis saying stuff "it is not a typical thesis, however for a 3 years degree it should do even if it has ingenuities I will contact you before Christmas, I should have enough time to follow you until Genuary the 10th, however I remember you it was your initiative".

Shouldn't be a thesis anyway my initiative?

However now we are After Christmas and still got no reply. What I should do? it has been almost 6 months without having been followed. I do not want to skip also the March session. What should think someone hiring me? I completed all exams in time and with good rating.

Now Employeers will just see someone "graduated in 4 years instead of 3" just because a teacher did not review my thesis when I did a enourmous amount of work in research, study and development.

Why simply the professor didn't told me "I have no time to follow you, search someone else"?

I had one of those issues when I was doing a PH.D.  You should contact your supervisor first and cc the department head. That way you have more people in the loop. In that email, make an appointment.  If the supervisor doesn't get back to you, that's a red flag. You will be able to then speak to the department head about it and he/she will have some context when you see him/her. In that meeting with the head, speak about your issue. They will solve the problem.

If your supervisor does get back to you, which I assume he/she will since the department head is now in the loop, don't be confrontational. Just have a normal discussion about how you couldn't get a response and that you need more help.

That's how I'd approach it.


Aren't YouTube captions good enough not to violate the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990? I read on Berkeley will begin removing more than 20,000 video and audio lectures from public view as a result of a Justice Department accessibility order  (mirror)  (published on  2017-03-06)

  The Justice Department, following an investigation, in August determined that the university was violating the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990. The department reached that conclusion after receiving complaints from two employees of Gallaudet University, saying Berkeley’s free online educational content was inaccessible to blind and deaf people because of a lack of captions, screen reader compatibility and other issues.

If a University uploads a video of a course to YouTube, aren't YouTube captions good enough not to  violate the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990?

Related: How much does it cost to make a MOOC universally accessible, as defined by the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990?

No, auto generated captions are gibberish. Try watching a complicated lecture on a scientific topic but turn down the volume and only look at the automatically generated captions. Not only is there a high error rate but there is no punctuation.

Note: the DOJ findings letter is online  (mirror) and you can see the legal rationale behind  the findings of law.

It should be noted that other universities followed the law when they implemented their MOOC programs and captioned their videos from their videos from the start. UC Berkeley was warned by its own academic accommodations committee in 2012 that the way they were implementing their MOOC was not only a violation of their own policies but would probably result in a violation of the ADA, especially given their status as a public university.

Furthermore, contrary to media reports Berkeley was not "forced" to take down the videos. The complainants from the very beginning (circa 2014) wanted to engage in an interactive process that would ensure access, even if over time. Berkeley declined to engage which resulted in the complaint being escalated to the DOJ. However, even the DOJ letter did not request a takedown. This was entirely the decision of UC Berkeley's senior administration


Could I insert a figure in related work section? In computer science conference papers, can figures appear in related work sections?

Yes: Figures can generally appear anywhere (except the abstract), unless explicitly forbidden by a particular venue.


What are the most important criteria to consider when hiring postdocs for a research group? One of the most important challenges that academics will face is group management. Although this takes many forms for graduate students, undergraduate assistants, and so on, I believe postdocs are a fairly "universal"—a professor hires a postdoc specifically for his group.

However, it's not necessarily clear what qualities to look for in a postdoc.

Does it make a difference if it's your group's first or second postdoc, versus the n'th postdoc?
How much weight should one give to letters of recommendation?
How do you analyze a publication record, especially when towards the end of the PhD, many papers are often still unpublished and therefore "embargoed?"
Are there any criteria that applies specifically to postdocs that might not be considered in, say, hiring for industry or business?

My answer, item by item:

I think that there is a difference if this is yet another postdoc or your only postdoc. But most important, we should pay attention to the ratio postdoc/permanent researchers. If the ratio is low (few postdoc, lot of permanent researchers), you can choose to work with "junior" postdoc (=someone not completely capable for working alone), while if the ratio is high, you need postdoc that are in fact already at the level of an assistant prof.
But at some point I think we must ask ourselves if we always need one more postdoc. I guess this will depend on the field. In theoretical fields, when we hire a postdoc, this is to work with him. In some more practical fields, we tend to hire postdoc to make them working for us. The two cases are different : in the first case we need someone that will have ultimately an academic position, in the latter we need someone for coding, experimenting, etc.
Personally, I am not interested in the letters. I ask for references and I take my phone to know more about the candidate. Letters are always telling that the candidate is great, even if this is not completely true.
I ask the candidate his/her papers, even those unpublished, and I read them. Then I contact some of the other authors to know more about who done what.
Clearly yes. A postdoc is a researcher, I think that the way of working is very different : you can spend a lot of time without being "productive" when you are a postdoc, which is not the case in industry. This can be depressing, so we have to make sure that a postdoc (which has less guidance than a PhD student) can handle that.


Lecturer with anxiety. How to survive in academia? I've been a long time member of academia.SE but I created this alt account because the question is a bit embarrassing. I finished my PhD 4 years ago and after a 2 year postdoc at a different university secured a contractual lecturership. During my PhD I never realised I had fear of public speaking, because I always felt secure presenting in front of my supervisor. Even at conferences, his presence in the audience was enough to keep me relaxed.

Fast forward to my postdoc, I was mostly working and publishing by myself. So, even if I had to present something it was to my coauthors, with which I am okay. But as a lecturer doing research part of my time, I am involved in projects and seminars where I am expected to present my latest work. Being on my own has brought out my inner anxiety, so much so that I choked during a presentation, had to drink water to calm my nerves and apologise for my breathlessness and slurred speech. That was the most embarrasing thing in my life. Please note that the anxiety is not the result of me not publishing or doing research. I have published more than most in my department. Knowing that hasn't helped with the anxiety though. I am constantly making excuses to get out of project presentations and seminar talks. Fortunately, the anxiety is less intense in teaching and I am able to manage.

How do I survive as an academic? Now even conference presentations seem daunting. I can publish exclusively in journals, but how do I get out of giving project and departmental presentations? How can I politely refuse to present without revealing my situation? Or better yet, how do I fix the whole thing? That one bad presentation has really messed me up.

Years ago, I gave up on the idea of a career in music when I developed severe performance anxiety. After I gave a terrible performance in front of a large crowd, I decided the thing I was going to do was 'face my fear' by signing up for something even scarier and going through with it. Result: an even more terrible performance in front of an even larger crowd, which I had nightmares about for ages, and I never performed again. So I know the feeling and can tell you that - based on my experience, anyway - throwing yourself off the deep end might be counterproductive. Suggestions instead:

Talk to colleagues about the issue, especially those you're close to and/or those who are openly supportive of mental-health stuff. I get the feeling that this is more common than most academics generally let on. I once watched an absolute legend of a faculty member in my subfield admit to considerable nerves in front of an unfamiliar crowd, which astounded me but shouldn't have.

Professional assistance: As 101010111100 says in a comment, it might be worthwhile to see if you can find a therapist who'll be on your side and work with you to find a way through or around this.

Toastmasters? I watched a former student of mine with major social anxiety gradually work through it with the help of a local group. The student went to a meeting and said nothing, and then went to another meeting and said nothing, and then introduced themself, and then gave a 10-second speech, and little by little practiced low-stakes public speaking until the idea of doing it felt a whole lot less terrifying.

Remind yourself about the 'spotlight effect': Not that I want to sound as if I'm trying to trivialize your feelings, but odds are that your audience paid a whole lot less attention than you did to your embarrassment. In general no one will notice a verbal slip-up or two, and even if you do come across as nervous or choke on water partway through, the audience is likely to be thinking much more about the content of your presentation rather than your delivery and state of mind. I saw a fascinating talk at a conference last spring and at lunchtime congratulated the undergraduate who gave it. The student blushed and admitted to an immense amount of embarrassment over having been so nervous. I said that while I could see some nerves in the presentation, I was thinking so hard about what was being talked about that I didn't care (beyond hoping the presenter remembered to breathe).


What are the criteria for associate professor habilitation in Italy in mathematics? What are the official criteria that one needs to meet to achieve the national "associate professor" habilitation in Italy in mathematics?

First of all, information about the Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale procedure is available on https://abilitazione.miur.it/ , although in Italian only. There is an English version of that site, but it is a (sad) joke: it only contains outdated information from 2013. Unfortunately it seems impossible to find up-to-date information that is not in Italian. Anyway, here is an overview.

First thing, you need to figure out which 'branch' of academia (settore) you are applying for, because the requirements change depending on it. The branches for mathematics are:

01/A1 mathematical logic
01/A1-MAT/04 teaching/history of math
01/A2 geometry and algebra
01/A3 analysis
01/A3-MAT/06 probability and statistics
01/A4 mathematical physics
01/A5 numerical analysis
01/A6 optimization and operations research

A complete list of branches for each discipline, with their descriptions, is in the attachments at the end of http://attiministeriali.miur.it/anno-2015/ottobre/dm-30102015.aspx . Attachment D is a list in English.

For each branch, a committee (commissione) of five scholars (who where drawn at random among all eligible professors) evaluates all the applicants. The names of the members of this committee for each branch are published on https://abilitazione.miur.it/public/commissariSorteggiati_2018.php .

Then, the requirements are:

Passing certain thresholds (soglie) on 2 out of 3 of these indices: number of publications in the last 5 years, number of (Scopus or WoS) citations in the last 10 years, (Scopus or WoS) H-index restricted to the last 10 years. The thresholds for each branch and for the current version of the procedure are available on http://abilitazione.miur.it/public/documenti/2018/Tabelle_Valori_Soglia_ALLEGATI_DM_589_2018.pdf (in Italian; the right pane "II classe" is for habilitation to the associate professor role; the left pane "I classe" is for habilitation to full professor, where these intervals of 5 and 10 years are replaced by 10 and 15, respectively).
Having 3 out of 10 "titles" (titoli), which are the following fuzzily defined items:

Organization or participation as a speaker at scientific conferences in Italy or abroad
Direction or participation in the activities of a research group characterized by collaborations at national or international level
Responsibility for studies and scientific research entrusted by qualified public or private institutions
Scientific responsibility for international and national research projects, admitted to funding on the basis of competitive calls for peer review
Direction or participation in editorial committees of magazines, editorial series, encyclopedias and treaties of recognized prestige
Participation in the steering board and / or teaching assignments in  Phd programs [in Italy only] accredited by the Ministry
Teaching or research assignments (fellowships) at qualified universities or foreign or supranational research institutes
Prizes and awards for scientific activity, including affiliation to academies of recognized prestige in the sector
Results obtained in technology transfer in terms of participation in the creation of new businesses (spin-offs), development, use and marketing of patents
Specific professional experiences characterized by research activities related to the branch

These are not binary, i.e., it is not sufficient to have n>=1 conference talks to qualify for the first one, for instance. It is specified further what these criteria means in the context of each branch: this information is available on https://abilitazione.miur.it/public/pubblicacriteri_18.php . Even after reading these clarifications, it will not be immediately clear whether you qualify for one or not; it is up to the committee to decide if the documentation you have submitted is sufficient qualification to get one. To get an idea of how restrictively they are evaluated, it may help to check the past results and evaluations available on https://abilitazione.miur.it/public/pubblicarisultati_2018.php (and compare them to the submitted applications available on https://abilitazione.miur.it/public/pubblicacandidati_18.php).
Having your application evaluated positively by said committee: they get a chance to say no even if you have all the numbers and requirements.

One applies on the platform Loginmiur. You need an account there, which you get by sending information and a copy of your ID by e-mail to a certain address (instructions on that page). The application process is in Italian: there is an English version of the form, but in practice almost all text appears in Italian even if you select it.

The next deadline (and last published deadline) to apply is May 14, 2020. After that, new committees will be elected, possibly there will be adjustments to this system, and probably all the above links will be replaced by new ones. If you wish to go for the May deadline, I would recommend you to start your application immediately, because it may take some time to go through the bureaucracy (such as applying for this account). Also, you may have to submit corrections to Scopus, if needed, so that all your articles and citations are counted properly; the Scopus staff also take some time to process them.

Good luck! I understand that the procedure may look daunting for someone who does not speak Italian.

Everything I wrote above applies also to all other branches outside mathematics, with the exception of some branches, mostly liberal-art ones, that use a different method for requirement 1 (settori non bibliometrici).

One important note: habilitation does not guarantee you a job. It only grants you the right to apply for associate/full professor positions when a university has an opening for that role.
For an early-career researcher, the most common way to get a permanent job is via another kind of position, the tenure-track ricercatore di tipo B (RTD-B). You do not need a habilitation to apply for those; however, if you get a RTD-B position you will need to obtain habilitation within three years before your tenure evaluation. For this reason, often candidates who already have a habilitation are preferred. So it is a good idea to apply for habilitation as soon as you pass the thresholds in my point 1, if you plan to have a career in academia in Italy.


Is it advisable to report a 56 percentile in GRE maths subject test if i am applying for Phd in neuroscience? I am an undergrad from biology background. I want to pursue a Phd in neuroscience and would be applying by the end of 2017. I read in FAQs of many graduate programs that they recommend taking a subject test but it's not compulsory. I prepared for two months and took the GRE maths subject test. I was able to solve all the calculus problems but couldn't do other topics like group theory and abstract algebra. I ended up with a score of 680 and 56 percentile. I have a good research background in this field and i am hopeful of a publication by next year. I don't want my 'non-math' background to hinder my application from getting selected for computational labs. Should I report this score?

I am in your field, and I think the answer Peter L. Clark gave in the linked post is a good answer. My sense is that most Neuroscience programs don't take the subject exams too seriously. If you have a great score, then send it. But, if not,

  A missing subject GRE score just means that we don't take this part of the application into account.

Personally, I would not send it.  That said, with a publication forthcoming and a strong research background, you will still be a competitive applicant, even if you do not send in subject scores. For reference, I had a strong research background and did not even take the subject matter exams. I do not think this hindered me in the application process at all. I applied to 10 schools and got interviews (and subsequent offers) from 5. I'm a second year Ph.D. student now.

Hope this helps.


Publishing papers seem natural to many, while I find it really hard to think novel stuff to pursue till publication. How to cope up with this? I am a final year PhD student in materials science. My colleagues publish papers at a rate of 2-3 papers a year. By the end of their PhD, they would have around 8-10 papers (first authors) in their name. While I on the other hand, am struggling.... struggling hard.

How do people produce so many work in such a short time? I take around 3 months trying out some hypothesis and if it does work then I require at least 2 months to produce enough data. So, in all, it takes around 7 months to complete a work for a paper. Then it will get submitted and so on.

While my colleagues start a work and publish it within 7 months. Which means they conceptualize, run simulations, gather data and write a manuscript in 3 months! I am not able to comprehend this.

What am I doing wrong? How can one be so productive? I feel so inadequate and am thinking of quitting academia after my PhD. Probably, I am not fit for academic life. I love doing research, but I have realized late that, just loving research is not enough.

My advisor says my progress is good. But, having looked at my advisor's PhD thesis, she had 5 submitted papers towards the end of her PhD.

For better or worse, number of publications is increasingly seen as a metric for productivity and competence in some fields and countries. Depending on where you are (geographically and discipline-wise) it is more about producing and publishing papers than about having something novel and relevant to show, unfortunately.

As an early career scholar, it is important to find out if you are in one of those places where you should be producing papers instead of producing knowledge. If that is the case, try to learn what are the tricks used by people around you and emulate them. As much as I’d like to tell you to not do that, it may be the only way to stay in the game in the long run. How can you produce good and relevant research if you have been forced out of academia by the “publish or perish” system?

If it is the case that you are in one of those environments/disciplines where publication counts are inflated, you need to play along if you want to stay in the game. You need to strike a balance between doing the really interesting high quality stuff and doing the cookie-cutter low-hanging-fruit run-of-the-mill papers that increase your publication count.

Some people who publish a lot are truly doing cutting-edge research and publishing a lot due to that. Not everyone is that lucky or that good. If you look closely, many of those publishing a lot are compromising in terms of quality and impact. They may have their own tricks, perhaps involving dubious practices like fishing for significance, for example, or perhaps they are just really good at slicing the sausage really thin and turning one good study into a dozen papers. If your discipline in your country is one of those that only care for quantity (some places reward mediocrity in large numbers over geniality), you will only harm your career prospects by going against that system. Learn from how your peers do it, at least for the moment, so that you can get tenure. Once your place within academia is secured, then you can worry about the rest.

Lastly, once you have your research group and your collaboration networks, then you can further inflate your publication counts by co-authoring with your colleagues, PhD students, and post-docs, but that is something further down the road for you.


Is it worth the risk to apply to REUs? How likely am I to be accepted? I am applying to biology REUs(Research Experience for Undergraduates) this summer. Would a white female junior from a small R2 university, 3.9 gpa, and one summer of research experience be likely enough to get into one these programs? I've heard that it's a long shot if you're not a minority, the issue is while female counts as minority for other REUs I don't know if it counts much for bio these days...
I'm asking because there's a very very good study abroad program (a very good university to study at for bio) I want to apply to that goes until June (which overlaps with 99% of REUs and other internships). So I either pick the top study abroad program and simply do research at my university over the summer or get a job, or I pick my second choice study abroad program in order to apply to REUs (as well as other internships such as NOAA), but risk not getting into any of them anyway and going right to my backup plans for the summer.

I don't know where you are getting the idea that it is a longshot specifically for non-minorities. In general, REUs do have low acceptance rates for everyone. There are a lot of students who want to do them and not that many REUs.

Now, to answer your question: yes, being female will likely help somewhat, but it likely won't make a big difference. What will matter more is the GPA which will help out a fair bit. The previous research experience may hurt or help; at least in math some REUs try to admit undergrads without experience to spread them around, but that's not all of them  by any means, and for the most part it would be helpful. I suspect the situation in biology is similar.

Since you are a junior, you should already have some connections within the biology department, either your adviser or faculty whose classes you have taken. They can likely give you more personal advice since they know you better. But at least from what you've said to us, I suspect you have a higher chance of getting admitted to an REU than the average candidate.


Number of slides for 45 minute defense presentation I have 100 slides but most are light weight with pictures. I am afraid it is too much because I can't get it under 1 hour in my rehearsal. I have noted that some slides take me more time to explain. Any suggestions other than reduce number of slides? Maybe use some kind of timer.

Why are you fixated on the number of slides? What matters is the story you tell, the important messages that people who listen to you will be able to take home after the presentation. Sure, you'd like to say more, but that's not how it works. Don't plan to talk faster, to run through your talk at lighting speed. If the content doesn't fit the time frame, drop some things. You may not want to hear it, but you have to.

Another hint, maybe too late for you, but which I find useful: there are two things which are very interesting to know about yourself as a speaker:

How fast do I usually go? I.e., for a typical presentation, how many slides per minute do I do? This allows you to get a rough idea of timing, for future presentations, even before rehearsing (or allow you to skip rehearsing at all, once you become good at it!).
In real circumstances, am I faster or slower than during rehearsal? This depends somewhat on circumstances (being tired, being excited, etc.) but it is still interesting info. For example, I know that I tend to digress more during real talks than rehearsals, which means when I time myself I know I have to leave some margin. On the other hand, some people talk faster on the stage.

When my students preparer for their first conference talk, I usually ask them to think of the above, and write down their timing. It is useful to prepare later talks, and also their PhD defense!


Should I not ask my students about their hometown? Recently, I taught a class of five students. I asked for their native place and all  told that their hometown is X, but I didn't tell my reason for asking.
I asked them because of the reason that I can communicate easily with them if they are from Y, since I can speak the language of my hometown Y well.
Although I can communicate in our common language, I cannot communicate as well as I can in Y's language.
My doubt here is whether this would constitute discrimination based on place or is it perfectly fine to ask them?  Is it similar to asking about race, religion, caste, etc., which is generally not recommended?

I thought it would be good to edit my answer to start with a link to an article written from the perspectives of people who have had the question "where are you from?" asked repeatedly and who can explain some of the issues with it much better than I can: https://hbr.org/2020/10/whats-wrong-with-asking-where-are-you-from

No, don't do this the way you describe.
I suspect you're talking about local languages in a nation state where there are many many languages, and yet there is a common national language like Hindi or Mandarin. I don't have any personal experience with this situation, being an English speaker in a primarily English country, but I think there are some more general ideas that I'd recommend you think about.
Three recommendations: first, if you must do so, why not merely relay where you are from? If a student recognizes this location and can infer you can speak an additional language with them, they can make this connection on their own. Avoid asking questions of others that they might be uncomfortable with or that might lead to stereotyping.
Second, avoid playing favorites (or even appearing to) as an instructor. I think it is natural to associate with someone who shares something with you (fans of the same music? same hobby? same language/hometown?) and to treat them differently, as well as to view someone from someplace less common as "different" or "other". I'd avoid asking questions that categorize people. A safer alternative sometimes used as a mnemonic by instructors is to ask about a more generic "something special", where students can choose exactly what piece of information to share (that said, not all students really like these get-to-know-you games, myself included).
Third, although I think there are a lot of good reasons to promote and cultivate languages and prevent their loss, I'm not sure the university classroom is the best place. Students who learn concepts from you in a common local language to both of you may have difficulties when they advance and are in other courses (or the "real world") needing to use the same concepts in a more typical language. Practicing using the language of the course may be better for both of you.


What is this "mixed" citation style that includes both numbered references and author-date formats? Once or twice I had encountered papers which used quite convenient citation styles, which combined numbered and parenthetical references. The list of references at the end of the paper is sorted alphabetically, as in Harvard referencing, but also all references are numbered, so it looks like this:

[1] AuthorA (2015) ...

[2] AuthorB (2000) ...

[3] AuthorC (2010) ...

In the text, one might use numbers to save space ("as shown in [2],..."), or parenthetical reference: "as shown by AuthorB (2000),...". And it's really convenient, since depending on the situation you might choose how to cite. I failed to find the name of such citation style -  is it at all standardized, or is it just the invention of those papers that I had encountered (as far as I remember, they were preprints from arXiv)?

Speaking about major citation styles that I've seen, I think that it could be the IEEE Citation Style, as your example matches the IEEE Style for electronic references (for non-electronic references, the in-text citation is the same, with the only difference, being related to reference list, is that the year is located at the end of the reference entry).

Alternatively, if it is not the IEEE Style, it might be either a publication-specific style, adopted by a particular journal or other publication outlet, or a hybrid style, manually developed by some authors.

Naturally, speaking about using LaTeX for biblographies, there are a couple of aspects that I'd like to mention. Firstly, according to Mori (2009), the citation style that you are curious about resembles the default reference formatting style for LaTeX. Secondly, if you use (or plan to use) LaTeX for producing your publications, the following sources, in addition to the paper by Mori, might be quite helpful for customizing bibliographic features to required or desired style: this guide by Patrick Daly (note that it describes a quite old version of natbib package - try to find a more up-to-date version or a similar detailed guide), this brief guide by Ki-Joo Kim and this excellent answer by Alan Munn.

References

Mori, L. F. (2009). Managing bibliographies with LaTeX. TUGboat, 30(1). Retrieved from https://www.tug.org/TUGboat/tb30-1/tb94mori.pdf


I sent an email asking for a letter of request almost a week ago and have not received a response, thoughts on how to proceed during COVID? I asked my two of my current Med school faculty for a LOR almost a week ago and I have got no response yet from either. It is making me pretty nervous and I am not sure what I should do now. I wouldn't regularly make this request over email, but our school is currently shut down because of COVID-19. For reference: I asked via email a week ago and the application is due May 1, so about 5 weeks ahead, both are doctors at our affiliated hospital, but in specialties not typically associated w handling the COVID crisis. My application will be much weaker without at least one of these two letters and there is no way the school will re-open before the due date. Any suggestions on how to proceed, or should I start preparing emails to other faculty as well?
Thanks

With due respect: these people don’t work for you, and you have 5 weeks before deadline.
If they promised letters, one must presume they will write the letters at a time convenient to them.

If you have not heard with 10 days to go before deadline then ask again.


If a professor is not offering funding to a PhD applicant, does it mean that he doesn't really want to be his advisor? In some countries, it is required for students to contact a professor and find an advisor before they start their application for that university. I have heard from some of my friends who are studying PhD that if a professor is eager to advise a student who has contacted him (because of his outstanding vita, publication, etc.), he will help that student to find a good scholarship or even offers some scholarships from funding providers he knows (maybe from industry, research institutes, etc.).

I am asking this because after I heard this comment, I feel that if a professor does not show support for scholarships, or if he says in emails

  I will be happy to advise you on your PhD, please go to admissions webpage, also visit scholarships webpage and apply for one you are eligible for receiving.

it means that this professor is not strongly interested in advising me.

I mean, if the professor really wanted to have me in his research group as a PhD student, he would try to help me finding scholarships. If he is not helping and is not talking about it, he is not really interested in having me as a PhD student. He believes that I am not a strong student and I will not find any scholarships. So, this is a way to politely and automatically reject a PhD student. Is this really true?

It could be, as is usually the case in the UK, that the Professor has no direct influence on the awarding of scholarship money. It would, therefore, be irresponsible of him to mislead you about your chances of obtaining funding. I certainly wouldn't take it as a sign that he doesn't wish to supervise you.


Is there a difference between a Research Report and a Report? In my reading about undergraduate student assignments at my university, I have run across the word report quite a bit but the writer is not clearly talking about a research report (but the author might be, without me understanding that).

I'm used to thinking of student assignments as being either a research report (where the student must collect primary and secondary data) or an essay (where the student writes based on understanding without any actual data (though in an essay the student would often cite theories and the opinions of others).

Is there another meaning of the word report in the context of a university student assignment? Can students write reports only based on secondary data (is this a task commonly assigned)? Can someone write a report without data?

I'm wondering if a journalist's investigative report would count as a report using only secondary data (or perhaps not using data at all).

Any clarification would be of great help.

As JeffE said, there are differences everywhere about which report is which - potentially confusing the issue.

Having said that, this resource from Purdue University "Purposes and Types of Reports which has further links to examples and guidelines.  But, they do state:

  •There is no universally agreed-upon format.

  •You should follow the format for your course or your company.


Non-salary fellowships and US income taxes In general, are fellowships which are granted to individual researchers, but do not constitute salary and are not held in a personal bank account, considered taxable for US passport holders?

For example, if a US national has a postdoctoral contract which gives them an income, and they are awarded with a supplementary fellowship for travel and research expenses, does the researcher need to declare only their salary when they file income taxes, or do they need to declare salary + the fellowship?

I understand that fellowships can now be considered taxable under some conditions:

  Taxable

  You must include in gross income:

  Amounts used for incidental expenses, such as room and board, travel,
  and optional equipment. Amounts received as payments for teaching,
  research, or other services required as a condition for receiving the
  scholarship or fellowship grant. However, you don't need to include in
  gross income any amounts you receive for services that are required by
  the National Health Service Corps Scholarship Program or the Armed
  Forces Health Professions Scholarship and Financial Assistance
  Program.

However, it is not clear how it would apply in this case.

I'm also confused as to the specific circumstances of a US national who is working outside of the US in this situation (postdoc salary and fellowship are both of non-American origin). I know that they must file their taxes in any case, but that their tax payment is usually 0 due to the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion. If this researcher's salary is ~$50k/yr and the fellowship is ~$50k/yr, this puts the researcher near the exclusion limit if the fellowship is also taxable.

It would seem that if the fellowship is awarded to somebody for purposes other than obtaining a degree, the fellowship is indeed taxable. However this seems like a very undue burden for a researcher, where getting fellowships and grant funding is considered vital for their success. Am I missing something?

Fellowship funds used for personal expenses including room and board, food, etc, are taxable, just like it says in the passage you quoted.

If social security taxes, medicare, etc, is not withheld, you don't need to pay those, since it is taxable income but not taxable wages. In that way, a fellowship is treated like any other academic scholarship that includes money for living expenses, rather than like an hourly/salaried position.

See also How much are taxes for a postdoc in the United States? though that question is not specific for fellowship-based income.

Fellowships awarded to individuals that include other expenses, like research expenses, are typically granted to the institution not to the individual, so those other expenses would not be part of your personal income even if it is an individual expenses. If they were paid to an individual, you would likely be able to deduct them as business expenses, but you would be best off working with an attorney or tax professional in that unusual situation.

If you are talking about receiving a foreign $50k fellowship in addition to a foreign $50k salary abroad, then yes indeed you are approaching limits for exclusion of foreign income but it is unlikely you will be taxed twice on the same income due to foreign tax credits for US taxes, but that is really now an issue of tax law for expats and not really related to academia specifically; that situation seems like it would be quite unusual in academia for a post doc, and although it may place a burden on a researcher, an income of $100k+ would place you in a fairly high percentile of individuals where the US government expects that there is a burden on your income to pay for the costs of society - this is true in many other countries as well.


How to tell a Prof you are no longer applying to a PhD program at his university? I am about to apply to Computer Science PhD programs to start Fall 2018. In the process of researching programs I have met with many Profs in fields I was interested in to (a) learn more about their research/fields (b) see if they were likely to be taking PhD students in the Fall. Having done this I now have a better idea of what I am interested in. As such, I've decided not to apply to one of the universities of one of the Professors I met, as I don't think it's the research area I'm most interested in (even though he is very distinguished in his field and at a prestigious university).

Even still, the area the Professor works in has some overlap with the area I plan to do my PhD in. So even though I don't want to apply to work under him, I will likely run into him again. And if an appropriate topic came up, it would be interesting to collaborate with him at some point on the future.

So I'm wondering what is a sensible, professionally-appropriate way of sending him an email to say that I'm not applying to the program at that university because I've decided it's not the research area I'm most interested in, but I would like to stay in contact? Partly, I feel like it would be kind of awkward to run into him one day and have him think, "Oh yes... you're the guy who said he was interested in applying to work with us and then we never heard from again."

It can be hard to get a PhD position, as there are often only few positions but many candidates. Therefore, it is not uncommon to apply to more than one and the professor should be familiar with people finding a position elsewhere.
Telling him as soon as you made up your mind is the right choice, as this gives him the chance to look for other candidates. Thus, I would be honest with him and tell him what you wrote in your question.
As long as you are friendly and honest, there should be no problem. The only thing to remember is that professors are mostly busy people, so don't steal his time (e.g. by changing your mind in 2 weeks and wanting to work under him again...).


What are the inputs and weights for US News grad program ranking? The US News website states that their process for ranking graduate programs "involves factors ranging from the personal to the objective. [...] U.S. News is able to present the most current figures on enrollment, job placement, faculty and other critical quality indicators." And they survey "experts who teach and direct programs in these fields to evaluate their peer programs."
Source: https://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/articles/rankings-faq#1a
From this we know their scoring function includes weighted inputs of: enrollment, job placement, faculty metrics (citations, publications, impact?), and "expert" assessments.
Does anyone know more about the score formula? What are the specific inputs? How are they weighted?

The US News ranking algorithm is proprietary. They don't say what it is.
A few years ago some Reed College students attempted to reverse engineer the undergraduate program rankings.
See
https://www.reed.edu/reed-magazine/articles/2019/usnews-discrepancy.html
https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2019/07/29/reed-students-challenge-us-news-formula


Assistant Professor vs Assistant Teaching Professor Is there any difference between an "Assistant Professor" position and "Assistant Teaching Professor"?

"Assistant Teaching Professor" isn't a very common title, and the meaning of the title could vary from one institution to another.  However, I would assume that an "assistant teaching professor" was a position for someone whose responsibilities included only teaching and perhaps some service but no research.  In that case, it would most likely not be a tenure track position.

The two important factors here are whether the position has both teaching and research responsibilities and whether or not it's a tenure track position.


Is it true that many people study psychology in university level originally for self-help reasons? Is it true that many people study psychology in university level originally for self-help reasons? I have heard about this and I wanted to ask what are people's opinion about it. Someone told me that it's very common that psychologist's first motives for the field started from self-help and later shifted towards helping others, research, etc.

Even psychologists joke that we study what worries us. (I am one).

And that doesn't pass as we go through the ranks.  Our interest might move on though.

What does happen is that we are firmly told that speculating about 'cases', ours or anyone elses, is not what psychology is about.

Psychology is the -ology (study of) psyche (Greek word).  Psychologists are rigorously trained in research methods.  We are expected to be able to frame inquiries, conduct inquiries and evaluate inquiries.

As we go into the profession, we will learn other skills as well but we never leave that insistence on thinking methodically about the question we are asking and sticking to evidence.

Hope that helps!


Professor rushing MS thesis I'm in the 2nd year of a 2-year MS program. The thesis is usually done through the duration of the 2nd year. I have been working on my thesis project, but my PI wants to produce the paper for it ASAP for fear of our competition producing the same paper before we do. So she essentially wants me to finish it by November of this Fall Semester (I finish in Spring). Because of this, she has actually had others in my lab work on it. Now it seems that if one of them solves it, my thesis will essentially be stolen from me.

Is this appropriate that my PI did this? I'm not sure how to react to the situation/ what I should do.

If it is that much of a "hot topic" then it isn't unusual to throw more person-hours at it. If it is that hot you might derive considerable advantage from getting your work in under deadline, if that is all possible, because you would go into your Masters defense with a good publication already acquired. And perhaps two, since you'll have four months to write another one. So that's a carrot.

In all cases everyone who materially contributes to the solution can legitimately expect to be a co-author on the paper. You might feel that this is a bit of a stick.

However, in all cases your Masters thesis will contain the work that you did, they can't take that way from you. But you can't claim others' work as your own, so if the pertinence of your own work lies in its contribution to a joint paper, you must explain that very carefully in the thesis. For example, you can claim in the thesis that you established effect X, which is a contribution because when combined with effect Y it demonstrates mechanism Z. It is then up to your thesis committee to decide whether this is enough of a contribution.

You will have a lot to gain in sharing your concerns with your advisor and getting some ground rules laid out. For example, if there is a joint paper, am I first author? Will I be excluded from publication if I don't get all of the necessary results by November? What part of this work can you include in your Masters thesis? Don't be afraid to state your worst fears, you need to know the answers and if your advisor is willing to provide assurances it is important to get them.

Finally, if this discussion is oral rather than through e-mail, don't forget to send a follow-up e-mail documenting your understanding of your agreement. If your advisor agrees to your summary, great; if she doesn't respond then your version stands; if she repudiates it then your discussion isn't finished.


What is the difference between CS and Informatics degrees? I am interested in pursuing a degree in Computer Science. Universities I've reviewed have "Major In Computer Science" , but give "Bachelor's in Informatics or Computing". There is no "Bachelors In CS", I simply couldn't find it. So are Informatics and Computing the same as CS ? or IT?

When I was looking for programming jobs, degree requirements were mostly CS. If I go to the university I mentioned above (Major in CS, but Bachelor's in Informatics), will I be able to write in my CV that I have CS knowledge?

This greatly depends on the country the university is in, and the language spoken there. For example:

In Croatia, informatics and IT are really roughly a same thing.
What you want to study, in the strongest technical uni in the country, would correspond to something maybe best translated as computer studies (with a possible specialization in computer science).

A computer scientist from Croatia speaking with another Croatian might get slightly offended if somebody called him an informatician.
In France, the only term they have to describe computer science is informatique, and the person doing that for a living would be informaticien.

Many French people will be talking about "informatics" when speaking in English.
When I personally speak in English, I would never mix the terms computer science, and informatics. If I wanted to refer to somebody who might not be doing research (any more) I might switch to computing, or be more specific with the field.

I might be biased since I'm Croatian and come from that culture, and I'm not fully sure what the difference between IT and informatics is, but there's a definitive difference between informatics and CS in my mind.

The bottom line would be: don't look at the Universities title when choosing, look at their program instead. Look for classes whose descriptions match your interests and skills you want to obtain. If the program matches with your interests, that that is most probably the right university for you (without talking about the Uni's quality right now).


How to refer to a methodology that consists of jumping from reference to reference? I got a paper accepted for a data science conference. It has a more "philosophical" tone and does not talk about any concrete method from data science, but more about how data science should be conducted.

One reviewer criticized the lack of methodology in my paper. What I actually did was going to Google Scholar, look for a recent review paper about the topic, and then swinging from reference to reference until I had a good argument. The argument itself was commended by the reviewer.

How can I address the reviewer's criticism?

The "method" you describe is probably not rigorous enough to be called a method in the scientific sense. There is a lack of rigor apparent in your admission that you swung "from reference to reference until I had a good argument." The quote suggests some bias in the procedure and in your selection of information, and your search strategy doesn't seem to be reproducible.

There is a method called "systematic review" that ist different from what you describe by its (relative) objectivity and reproducibility.

But more than a method, what you applied is a common practice that most researchers apply, without thinking much about it, to find literature to include in a review section or in a review-type article. If swinging from "reference to reference" involves going through the references of each paper you dug up, and looking at their references etc., you could call it "a snowball procedure".

However, fancy words won't impress a reviewer. As far as the review is concerned, I would not suggest to claim that you applied a rigorous method if you didn't. Rather, I would reframe the purpose of your paper: Call it a state of the art review, or an exploration of some topic.


Should I cheat if the majority does it? I'm taking the last and hardest exams of my master degree. During the exams we aren't allowed to use anything else but our brain. Cheating is pretty easy though: one has the lecture notes and all the past exams with solutions on the phone and can easily consult them without being caught, therefore the majority of the students does it. I scored pretty good on the first exam but didn't get the best mark like some cheaters did. I feel at a disadvantage here with respect to the majority of my colleagues who will take better grades in these exams and I'll end up with the US equivalent of a C

My main problem here is my disadvantage towards everyone else, especially in PhD application where the transcript of records plays a role.

I also firmly believe that the cheaters will be be caught sooner or later by showing their own incompetence when they for example do research, but this isn't helpful since they may have been given the chance to do research instead of me.

So should I put morals aside and simply go there and cheat if I need to? Is there any justification for someone to do it?

I never did it so far but this time I've taken I've been very tempted.

I can't actually think of any way of justifying me cheating in the next exams. On the other hand I'm not having a fair competition at all here and even if I know some of them are better physicists than me and I'd finish behind them anyway I also know that some of them are worse than me.

I know I'm basically asking if cheating can be condoned, can it?

I don't want to report them, I probably don't have the guts to do it, especially because it's such a socially accepted practice.

Do I have any alternatives beside taking the exams while pretending other students don't exist, pass the exams and go on without looking back?

I don't want to report them, I probably don't have the guts to do it, especially because it's such a socially accepted practice.

A "Snitches get stitches" mentality will not solve your problem. Cheating is unethical. You know that you are "at a disadvantage" if you keep your ethical behavior and the others don't.

  Cheating is pretty easy though: one has the lecture notes and all the past exams with solutions on the phone and can easily consult them without being caught

You seem to know how people are able to cheat at the exam. I would suggest that you report how people cheat (not who) to the professor in charge of your exam. He will either be able to implement counter measures to prevent cheating or change the exam format. This way you can avoid denouncing specific individuals while still preventing them from cheating.


Is praising students' aptitude harmful? As a computer science professor, I have told some talented students one-on-one that they show a real aptitude for computer science and that they should seriously consider taking more classes in it.

I'm questioning the wisdom of this now that I'm reading Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck, which cites extensive research on the benefits of having a "growth mindset" (the belief that intelligence can be grown) over a "fixed mindset" (that intelligence is unchanging).

Additionally, two of the students I recently told this to performed way below their ability in the second CS class.  Of course, this is not statistically significant.

FWIW, I teach at a women's college with a large number of students who are the first in their families to attend college and/or from ethnic groups underrepresented in CS.  Thus, all of my students are at risk of stereotype threat for at least one category to which they belong.  It was my hope that pointing out their aptitude would help counter this and encourage them to pursue an area of strength.

Is there any research on whether it is a good idea to let students know a professor believes them to have aptitude, or is promoting the idea of innate aptitude likely to backfire?

Praise tangibles, not intangibles.

Tangibles
Say things like:

I was impressed with the way you were dedicated to completing programming assignments, even when they are difficult.  Other students gave up, or skipped requirements X, Y, and Z.
You did a great job thinking through the logic on the Data Structures assignment.  I'm assuming that you took the time to think it through on paper, or in pseudo-code first -- something that a lot of first year students never do.
Your algorithms are elegant and show that you studied the coursework and theory behind them.  In particular, on the travelling salesman problem, I could tell that you took the time to study the problem, and think through different solutions.  Well done.
You used parts of Java (or C#, C++, whatever) that I didn't teach.  That gets me really excited, because it is the mark of a great programmer that they are inquisitive about better ways to do things, and to learn their tools without waiting to be spoon-fed.

Then you can follow with encouragement related to those tangibles, such as, "based on the skills and work ethic you've demonstrated, along with your willingness to put in the effort to solve problems, I think that you could make a really talented programmer.  If it interests you, I hope to see you in more CS classes in the future."

Intangibles
Avoid generalities like:

You'd make a great programmer!  You should take more programming classes.
You've got a great mind for CS.  It's not for everyone, so it's fun to see talent in such a young student.
If you stick to programming, I know you'll go far.

Intangibles can set people up for failure because they don't help them identify and grow their strengths.  If a student earned an A in your class, it's because they worked hard, and were determined, and stuck to it.  But if you tell them that they are "good" or "talented", without telling them why, it gives them the impression that their success is not because of their hard work, but is because of some unnamed virtue inside of them.  This can lead to a variety of ills:

They may have only taken that class to fulfill a requirement, and may have worked extra-hard because they were nervous about passing it.  If you praise them by saying that they are a "great programmer", it risks pushing them to continue with a field that may not actually interest them.  Worse, it can make them coast in the future.
It can actually hamstring them, because they are afraid of letting you down, but don't know what it is about their work that pleased you.

Your intentions are good, and it's great that you want to encourage these young women to feel empowered to tackle a field traditionally dominated by men.  But when you encourage them, be sure to give them tangible feedback, not just generalities.

Hope that helped!


Is it bizarre that a professor asks every student for a 3 inch by 5 inch photograph? The professor asks this of every student. It's 2 points on an introductory assignment worth 10. Does anyone think this is bizarre? I'm against it to the point that I think it should not be allowed by the university.

addendum
It's an online class, by the way. A Senior Communications class is required that most have taken by now. Within that communications class it is required to upload a photo of yourself to the online university system which all classes can see, like in class rosters and private messaging. The professor also asked us to call him (it's explicitly advised at my university not to give your professor your phone number). What really annoyed me was when he then asked permission to share our email among the class. The class already has a messaging system and it can be tied into the university email. This instructor was too pathetic for me, so I dropped the course within a few days.

addendum 2
USA school. top 50 USNews. After seeing these comments I actually find them helpful, because the only reasons I see are to learn the students name, but in this case the professor already has photos of a strong majority of the students. What I'm getting at is the professor is really showing some incompetence and its annoying to a significant extent.

I would be interested to know why the professor wants these. I can suggest a completely innocent reason, even a reasonable one. But, I realize there are other possible interpretations. I wonder if you are brave enough to go and ask why.

But the innocent reason might be that the prof just needs a crutch to try to learn to match the names and faces of students to make interactions easier. A typical student only has a few professors so it is easy to remember names. But a professor might have tens or even hundreds of students. Some will try to remember the names and a picture can help.

To extend this, a professor might be thinking long term about students and might actually keep a file on each student, with notes about their accomplishments so that if the student asks for a LoR in the future there is something on record other than grades on which to base it. A picture in such a file could be a helpful reminder of who the student is, making such things easier.

I used to keep an index card for each of my students. No picture, though. But it served as a place to keep notes about that individual's needs and what I might need to do to serve them well. It also helped me keep track of who was asking and answering questions in class and who was more passive. Then, I could try to bring the passive ones more into the discussions.

Some professors, who teach large classes, assign specific seats to students and have a sheet of the names of the students, with pictures, in the same arrangement as the seats. Then if a hand goes up, the prof can address the student by name.

There are lots of possible positive reasons along with the ones you might be worried about. But you might want to ask. You could also, possibly, ask students who previously took classes from the prof. Or, you could go to the department office and express discomfort. You might learn the actual reason, and it might make the practice seem OK, or not.

The 2 points is immaterial (unless the max is 5). It is just a nudge. A bribe, perhaps.


Editor's comments differ from those of reviewers I have recently received reviews for a journal paper I submitted a few months back. The verdict is a major revision (three out of four reviewers requested this, the fourth said accept with minor revisions).

Many of the reviewers felt like we did not justify our approach sufficiently, to which we agree and can improve upon. The editor; however, in their comments to us, stated that we should take a different (much more complicated) approach altogether (even though none of the reviewers suggested changing the entire approach, only to justify why we chose the approach we did).

Question: How should we proceed when the editor's comments seem much stronger than those of the reviewers?

It is not feasible to accommodate the editor's requests by the deadline. I'm unsure if the reviewers made (stronger) private comments to the editor requesting larger changes or if the editor interpreted the reviewers comments much differently than we did. The paper will go back to the reviewers after we make the requested changes.

It's the editor's call, and since you have no right to get your manuscript published, you don't really have a basis to ignore the editor's request -- if that's what the editor wants, then that's what you likely have to give him/her.

That said, while the manuscript management systems most journals use typically give you a deadline by which you have to turn around revisions, these are not actually enforced. That's because if you need to, you can always let the deadline pass and submit your revision as a new paper -- if you mention in your cover letter that it is a resubmission of a prior manuscript, then it will go to the same editor and from that person likely to the same reviewers.

The better approach is to discuss the timeline issue with the editor. Email the editor back and state that you're looking forward to making the requested changes, but that you can't do it in the requested time. Ask whether you can get an extension, stating how much time you need. As an editor, I can't see a reason why that should not be granted.


How to email a professor requesting to supervise a PhD thesis? I am interested in applying to PhD in Mathematics in University of Luxembourg. In the webpage it is written that "We recommend that you contact potential thesis supervisors by email to discuss your areas of general research interest and specific ideas for a thesis topic. You may consider sending a description of the research project and your CV. Once you have identified a supervisor, he/she will initiate the application process and complete the application for admission."
Therefore, I need to contact potential thesis supervisors by emails to discuss  areas of general research interest and specific ideas for a thesis topic. That is, first I need to convince a professor to supervise me or I am well prepared to work under the professor.
Therefore, I am thinking that I will send an email to a professor. But I am facing some troubles.
I want to apply to PhD in Mathematics on Algebraic Topology. One thing that I have understood is to be selected I need to show interest on that particular subject. I want to convince the professor that I am well prepared to work under him and eager to join his research group. But, the problem this how to show the interest?
I have planned something and I want to execute my plans. I am sharing with you. One of the ideas is to read some papers of the professor and do comment on that. But I think it's not so the good idea because it may be cause of a bad impression. But I may be wrong. Now I am writing here, what I am thinking.
I am thinking the followings.

Since, I am particularly interested in Algebraic Topology, I will attach in the email a detailed  learning roadmaps (mentioning the references) of Algebraic Topology in which way I learned the subject.
I am thinking that I will attach (or give a google drive link) solutions of the exercises of some books, the exercises of those books are not easy to solve (even for researchers). I am preparing the hand written  solutions on the IPad.
Also, I will attached a write-up for the ideas for future research on the particular topic, in which I would like to help from some papers of the professor and mention those in my write-up. That's mean I will read some papers of the professor and made a write-up where I will include my ideas as well as some parts (or results or may be some ideas) of the Professor's paper.

Please advise me. Am I thinking in a right way? Please help me. It will also be helpful for me if you add your opinions and advise in details.
Thanking in advanced.

I don't think you need to send a "learning roadmap" or solved exercises. A learning roadmap doesn't really convey whether you have learned the subject. The University of Luxembourg requires that you have a masters degree before you start your PhD. If you have a masters in math, then you've probably solved a few exercises in the process.
Having ideas for future research projects is a very good thing, especially if they are ideas relating to the work of a potential advisor. My advice is to keep the initial email short and to the point -- you can add more details once you get a response. Something like:
"Dear Prof. [So and So],
I am interested in applying for a PhD position at the University of Luxembourg. I obtained my Masters from [the Institute of Such and Such]. I would be interested in working on a project relating to your work on [informal group laws]. I have a few ideas for potential projects in this direction. Please let me know if you would be willing to discuss these.
Thank you in advance for your time,
user454229"
Of course, don't just copy this and insert the relevant details. You want to write the email in your own voice. This is just to give you an idea of how to keep it short and to the point. And good luck!


Does convoluted use of language negatively impact a work reviewed by a committee? This question is a reformulation of a previous one that I deleted. I'll try to be more specific.
I'm a student in the field of International Relations, a sub branch of the Political Sciences.
Reading works in the Social Sciences, I'm becoming progressively aware that convoluted language and pedantry are a significant problem in academic writing.
Sometimes the text is as hard as philosophy, whilst expressing common, everyday knowledge of the field.
Other times, language is okay, but the author is pedant.
Now, I wanted to know:
How often - if at all - professional academic reviewers face this issue?
If they do, will a thesis or paper ever face problems due to language usage?

Post Script:
Writers have personal tendencies. One may write in excess detail, repeat themselves, lose focus, etc.
That's not what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about affected, convoluted, artificial, forced and conceited use of language, as well as pedantry in its most evident forms.
As it turns out, I think I didn't make a good use of the "mannered" word. I edited the question to say "convoluted" instead.
I'm not a native speaker, so I think I failed to capture my intent here, anyways, a question was linked to this one that ultimately answers to much of my doubts.

How often - if at all - professional academic reviewers face this
issue?

All the time.
(as a side note - there are very few "professional" academic reviewers because in general academic reviewers are not paid).

If they do, will a thesis or paper ever face problems due to language
usage?

Very, very, rarely. For a start, what you see as pedantry, many will see as precision, and precision is the lifeblood of academia. Indeed, this need for preciseness often leads to what you might think of as "mannered" language in an author of average skill. And academics are selected for their skills in their chosen field, not their abilities as writers.
But there is nots of unnecessarily dense and uninterpretable language in academia that isn't tied to the need for precision. Generally a reviewer is asked to review the intellectual content of a work, not the way it is expressed. In general it is only acceptable to reject a scholarly work as a reviewer if the language is so poor that it literally cannot be understood. A reviewer might point out that there are many mistakes of spelling and grammar in a piece, and request that they be corrected before publication, but thats not quite what you are talking about here.


Citing antichronistic works -- worth commenting that the publication order is counter intuitive? In my related works section of the paper I am writing,
there are two papers by roughly the same group of authors.
Paper A (2015), and Paper B (2014).

Paper B (2014) is based on Paper A (2015), and cites it as a unpublished work.
But for some reason or another Paper B was published first.
(Possibly because Paper A was a more significant work, so was targetted at a better venue with a longer review time, whereas paper B was a relatively minor extension published as a relatively unknown workshop.)

I'm only briefly discussing them in my related literature section.
Do I need to call attention to the fact that Paper B is based on Paper A, even though the dates don't line up.

I currently have something like:

  Paper A (2015) prepared the dataset using methods Foo.
  This dataset was uses in the evaluation of the models of Paper A (2015) and Paper B (2014) which were based on the principle of Bar.
  Paper B (2014) extends Paper A (2015) by adding support for Buzz.

The relation between paper A and B seems like an unnecessary detail. As you imply they are both about the same project. Keep it concise.

White et al used Bar and Buzz in [A,B] to analyze a dataset using methods Foo.

[Then go on to say why this is important and relates to your own research]


Does completing research ethics / compliance training courses reduce the incidence of ethics or compliance breaches? Prior to initiating some research projects, researchers may be asked (e.g., by an Institutional Review Board) to complete research ethics / compliance training courses, such as CITI Program's Research Ethics and Compliance Training.

Does completing research ethics / compliance training courses reduce the incidence of ethics or compliance breaches?

I'm looking for studies/surveys, not guesses.

Most studies have focused on the effectiveness of training programmes in impacting surrogate outcomes such as the knowledge and attitudes of participants after compared to before attendance at the said programme. Study designs are generally weak, as is usually the case in education research in general, I suppose.

I am aware of a single study conducted in Nigeria that attempted to answer the question you posed, but only secondarily. In their amazing study, Okonta and Rossouw [1] managed to survey 133 Nigerian researchers, 91 (69%) of whom admitted to have ever committed scientific misconduct. When they cross-classified whether these respondents had "education in ethics" in the past, they found no statistical significant association. Furthermore, prior education in ethics was not associated with having had committed the following specific actions:

plagiarism
falsifying data
intentional protocol violation related to subject enrollment
intentional protocol violations related to procedures
selective dropping of data from 'outlier' cases
falsification of biosketch, resume, reference list
disagreements about authorship
Pressure from study sponsor to engage in unethical practices

Take from it what you will.

Reference:
[1] Okonta P, Rossouw T. Prevalence of scientific misconduct among a group of researchers in Nigeria. Dev World Bioeth. 2013 Dec;13(3):149-57. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-8847.2012.00339.x.


Is it necessary to customize letters of recommendation with recipient names? I am concerned to the fact that how a professor whom I am asking to write an LOR, will change the name of the person every time before sending? I am applying to like 100 different persons for the position of postdoc. Does it really matter that it should be addressed appropriately (name basis)?

I am working in the interdisciplinary field of materials chemistry, nanotechnology, environmental remediation, physical and theoretical chemistry.

I can hardly see the need of addressing the reader in a letter of recommendation, but if your professor wants to do it, they can use a process called mail merge.

Common word processors have mail merge functionalities (e.g. MS Word).


Social science/humanities PhD in UK: Take partially funded PhD, or work for a year and reapply for full funding? First, I am aware that there are already several posts about self-funding a PhD. I'm posting this question, however, for the following reasons:

Many threads are mostly about US schools, whereas the PhD I'm considering is in the UK.
Also it is sometimes unclear what exactly counts as 'self-funding' - if I can teach to earn some income, am I still self-funded? Again, I understand that in North America, normally an offer of admittance includes a TA contract in some form, while this is not the case in the UK. So an unfunded offer in the US might look quite different from in the UK. Also, I do have funding to pay the full tuition fees and teaching is available, so at least I won't go into debts.
Many questions are about PhDs in science and engineering, while my field is in social sciences/humanities.
A lot of questions were about how a self-funded PhD is perceived both by funded peers and after completion in the job market. This however is not my main concern.
I have to decide between a job offer and a PhD, rather than between two different PhDs one funded and another unfunded, for example.

I am not wealthy, but I can manage by combining teaching with family support for the next 3-4 years. The average income from teaching for TAs in the UK was about £400 per month in 2012, so while it might be slightly more than that now, it's certainly not great. It's just enough to survive on (combined with family help). The university I was accepted at is a non-Oxbridge Russell group university. My potential supervisor has been very happy to help me with scholarship applications and answer my questions. Also the fit in terms of research interests is great.

I also have a decent job offer in the public sector in the UK. I could take the offer and quit in October to start the PhD, but I'd rather not do that because it'd be somewhat unethical to take the offer knowing that I'll quit in a few months. The job itself is unrelated to my academic interests, nor is there any way I can come back to academia through this job. Of course, I could stay in this job and reapply for full-funding although there is no guarantee that I'll get any funding at all, even the tuition waiver I have, next time. In any case, if I accepted this job offer, it wouldn't be because I am enthusiastic about the job itself; it'd simply be so I can make a living until I can do a PhD. My career goals might change and new opportunities might arise, but for now I am set on staying, or at least trying to stay, in academia.

What advice would you give to someone in my situation? What I tell myself is that I'm relatively young (early 20s), so investing in my goals at this point in my life is not terribly foolish. I would have felt a bit differently if I was, say, 30. But I do feel a little foolish to turn down the job offer. After all, a year of work experience can't be that bad even though the work itself is not terribly interesting. Should I take it, turn down the funding offer, and reapply?

Edit: My question is: Assuming that my goal is to stay in academia, should I take the partial funding offer and do the PhD this year, or decline this funding, take the job offer, and reapply until I get full funding?

"self-funding" just means you're responsible for paying that part, whether it's fees or your day-to-day living costs. They don't care whether that's from part-time work or previously earned money, or from getting one of the other scholarships you're applying for.

I will add as a caveat they may ask for proof of your ability to self fund, but since you say you have savings / family support and the dept itself is offering teaching hours this shouldn't be an issue

PhD funding in the art/social sciences/humanities is difficult to obtain in the UK, getting full funding will be eye of the needle stuff from what I get told
I've never seen a CV where the phd funding source was asked for, I don't mention it (EPSRC) on mine
Can't make that choice for you. I can say I gave up a job for a phd (less money) and my circumstances sound similar - i.e. young and no family to support.

One question I have is what is the situation with tuition fees? At one point you mention having a tuition fee waiver - is that a full waiver or part? It makes a difference, if you had a full phd scholarship in the uk you'd expect your tuition fees paid and a 15K annual stipend. If you're say 50% funded, you'll get a 7.5k stipend which is tight (depending on where your university is, I did mine 20 years ago and the full stipend was then only 5K :-( ). Anyways, if the tuition fee waiver is only partial, they will expect you to pay half of it, that would be typically around half of 4K (2k). If that comes out of your half stipend, you're down to 5.5k - or what I was struggling on 20 years ago. Your 400 a month for teaching might buoy you up a bit, but bear in mind this will be term-time only. So this is the economic question. If you can afford that, then it's down to where you really feel you want to be - getting a phd or working. Don't overlook the fact social life is usually better at university - a big part of what made me go back.

Also re: the job, if your part-funded phd would start in october, well you'd be handing your notice in as soon as you arrived if it's a typical 3 month notice period. I'll hazard a guess though that they have a probationary period for new starters (most places do) so they could wash their hands of you at next to no notice at any time in the next 6 months or so. And guess what, you can do the same. My attitude is, if that's the case you might as well take the 3 months earnings.


Encouraging students to be more social with each other via course wall exchanges I find that students do not always use the course walls to talk to each other.  I want to help them be more social, but don't necessarily want to tie this to class participation grades.  I want them to create a sense of connection with each other, foster peer support, and decrease some of their dependence on me as the instructor.  What are some creative ways that others have succeeded at making the course walls a robust and vibrant social and learning space?

One idea that I have employed with adult learners, is to gently redirect them when the opportunity arises. For example, if a student asks me a question that I know is relevant to other students, and also doesn't require my decision making skills, then I will ask them to post that on the wall, and to address it to their colleagues. Then, to keep things moving, I might also encourage one of their peers to respond.I might pick another classmate that I know (or I might guess) has a certain POV on the question posted. To everyone else, this "crafted discussion" is inspiration, and shows a certain level of activity. Yes, it is contrived, but it can motivate others to enter into authentic discussion.

Also, a rating system that encourages good answerers to build reputation might help. ;-)


My adviser is chairing a conference, as a PhD student how can I benefit from that My adviser is chairing an upcoming conference and I am wondering as his PhD student how can I benefit from this opportunity?

Other than attending the conference itself and benefiting from that, I am interested in knowing if it is common for PhD students from the conference chair research group can:

review submitted papers
help with organizing the conference
help with anything else (I am not sure if there is anything else that PhD students can help with)

Help with organizing is a great start. Do what needs to be done and don't let any task be "too low". Top volunteering spots are registration help and IT support. You can build quite a bit of good rapport by being "so and so's friendly phd student who helped get my mac to connect to the projector". Makes your adviser look good as well. Happy adviser, happy phd life.

As someone who was in your position working with a faculty member who was an executive director of a conference, I did the following-

helped with registration
took photos
helped with general tech support issues
passed out drink tickets
whatever little thing needed to be done

In short, there is a TON to do behind the scenes at a conference to make things tick. Just be a can-do and helpful person. People notice that and it has the ability to do much more for your career than reviewing a few proposals. Those people you are helping get their mac to work on a projector might be on a search committee for a position you are applying for.


Are there any great researchers who are terrible teachers? I'm curious if there's been anyone who's really good at research but also really bad at teaching - for example traditionally, Nobel Prize winners are required to give a public lecture related to the topic that won them the prize. For the hypothetical winner, nobody would look forward to the lecture (or the requirement is even waived entirely).

I'm asking this because I've attended many lectures given by well-known researchers and somehow they're all surprisingly good. Some are better than others, of course, but nobody is so bad that people fall asleep during the lecture (which I've seen happen in high school). It makes sense that there is some level of self-selection, because universities would not hire really bad teachers, but presumably research output is also valuable, and one does not have to be at a university to perform research.

If you ask are there "any" then the answer is clearly yes. But, like anything else, skills are learned. I turned out to be a good teacher, beloved by my students (mostly - some exceptions). But I started out as a terrible teacher with really poor ideas about how people learn.

If you don't do something (a lot) you aren't going to get very good at it. Being a "natural" researcher doesn't just happen either. But if you are allowed to spend all of your time on research and no one ever requires that you do any effective teaching, then you probably won't get good at it.

Some brilliant people make too many assumptions about others. If I have deep insight into some topic, I might, falsely, assume that my students do too. In particular, I might forget how long and hard it was for me to develop that insight.

But if your students turn out to be "just like you" then you can probably reach them ok. If you learned easily thorough lecture and you can lecture with some logic and completeness, then people like you will probably do ok. But, not all students are the same.

Your experience of hearing "good" lectures in public settings is, a lot, due to the fact that your general educational experiences are probably a lot like those of the speaker. And if they are established and experienced, then they probably have a lot of experience getting through to  people like you. But maybe not so much in a class of beginning undergraduates.


Is Accepting others mistake wrong in acaemia? I am a PhD student after the mid stage. I come to know a very strange thing about academia that acceptance is a bad thing. Let me define acceptance, many time i hear the statement of other collegues including my supervisor, research fellows etc. What happens that I always tried to accept their arguments even if they are wrong. If they are wrong, Instead of being harsh, I try to accept their argument then explain my argument. The problem arises due to this is that many times these people try to manuplate me. Like in TA work I listen to the person who comes to me (student) no as I am listening to him he starts thinking that I have not understood his statement, which is  not always the case.

In short I accept others mistake, errors etc, but when it comes to me that if i am wrong other people show their very rude behaviour. I don't Is this common in academia? What kind of person I should become the one who point out others mistake and make them realise that they are wrong or the one who accept others wrong things in a positive way?

If they are wrong, Instead of being harsh, I try to accept their argument then explain my argument.

I think the problem may be this false dichotomy.

Imagine a student comes to you and says "I think the Earth is flat because I went to the top of a tower in the midwest and everything looks flat."

One option (what it sounds like you're doing) is saying okay, that makes sense, but there is evidence the Earth is round -- satellites, circum-navigation experiences, etc.
Another option (what it sounds like you're complaining about) is saying no, that's not a good argument, the Earth is large enough that apparent flatness on the scale of ~50 miles does not imply that the entire 26,000 mile Earth is flat.

Of these, the second has a clear advantage, in that it actually addresses the actual reason the student is confused. Just telling the student how to do it properly is no more helpful than telling him to read the textbook; explaining where the student's thinking is incorrect is where you can be really helpful.

Of course, same goes for colleagues rather than students -- when dealing with a disagreement, you need to both defend your ideas and refute their ideas. Otherwise you're both just restating your positions and not actually resolving anything.

Now the reason I called this a false dichotomy is because there is no need to be harsh when refuting others' ideas. The best way is to ask leading questions so that the they realizes their mistake all on their own. Usually, doing this requires an excellent understanding of the subject matter. When dealing with colleagues on research topics, one may not have a strong enough understanding to do this gracefully, resulting in what seems like harshness (or one may just be a jerk).