Different Statement of Purpose to the same advisor in two programs? First I have to make it clear that I understand the SOP is not just written for my potential advisor to view; it will certainly be presented to the admission committee first. However, my potential advisor will be the only person who reads both of my SOPs. Below is the complete question with background information:

I am currently applying for psychometrics in both Department of Educational Psychology and Psychology (Quantitative psychology) in the same university. My potential advisor is a faculty member in both departments, doing research on XXX. When I wrote my SOP for psychometrics in Educational Psychology, I only talked about my research interests in XXX.

Now I am adapting my SOP to application for Quantitative Psychology which allows students to do research in collaboration with other fields in psychology in addition to their own research interests. I am interested in doing research in the Social Psychology and am considering if I should include this in my SOP, given I only mentioned that I am interested in XXX in my SOP to Educational Psychology? In addition, XXX is really different from social psychology in general..in other words, my two research interests are not relevant.

As my potential advisor will be reading both SOPs, I am afraid that having talked about additional research interests in my application for Quantitative psychology would make me appear not firm about my research interests in XXX (am I overthinking about this?) Or is it even necessary for me to mention my research interests in social psych in my SOP, as I will be given opportunities to work on research in other fields of psychology, including social psych, anyways?

Additional information: my potential advisor knows that I am interested in social psychology as I mentioned this to him. Nonetheless, we never had a talk about my research interests in social psych.

In short, 1) do I need to talk about my research interests in social psych in the SOP to Quantitative psychology? 2) if I do, what's the best approach to avoid my advisor feeling confused about my research interests? (for example, just vaguely mention that I would be excited about doing research in social psych etc. ?)

Yes, it's totally fine. Its absolutely normal to apply for multiple positions and obviously promise them that you will do things that are unique to them if you are accepted. This shows that you have twice the interests and also ideas on how to fit in aside from determination.

1) Do I need to talk about my research interests in social psych in the SOP to Quantitative psychology?  Yes, as much as you want to mention possible cross-disciplinary researches but not too much. This should be 10-20% of your SOP. The rest should be really aligned with requirements of each program and the possible dissertation committee members from each group. Think of your dissertation topic and board members in each scenario and write for them as audience and signer of your dissertation.

2) if I do, what's the best approach to avoid my adviser feeling confused about my research interests? SOP is not a marriage proposal. It shows that you have interests in both fields and work and degrees. And you really want to be in that school. He will not feel betrayed or anything. If anything he should see how much you are interested in the whole field. Don't deny that you have skills in both fields though. There should be some 10-20% overlap. but you are proposing a whole new direction and possibility of your dissertation work.

Big assumption: universities don't really want you to be firm on your research interest when you are not even accepted yet. And even after that there might be no funding to some topics, so you might have to do other stuff. Research is just another industry that is limited to its resources and can not be idealistic about constraints. Meanwhile, they love to see applicants with muti-dimensional skills sets and openness to cross-disciplinary research. But beware of not looking focused on each of these SOPs.


Supervisor submitted without consent of co-author postdoc. Postdoc also submitted to another venue with consent of supervisor. Plagiarism problem? My previous postdoc supervisor submitted our work to a conference venue in December last year. He was the first author in this submission while I was the second author. It got accepted in March 2020. He did not inform me about this submission. The conference will be held next month; however, they already put this accepted paper online in IEEE Xplore last week. I get to know about this submission when I was searching for some of my papers online in the IEEE Xplore last week.
Now the problem is we have also submitted the same work in April 2020 to another conference (me as the first author, and he as a second author). He was fully aware of that submission, however, at that time, he did not inform me that the work is already accepted in another conference venue in March. Now I know that my work is accepted in one conference while it is in the review at another conference. So there is a clear plagiarism problem.
In this situation, when I informed him, after some argument, he now suggests withdrawing the paper in review with some excuse, and go with the accepted one.
Kindly suggest what should be done? Should I inform everything to both the venues and withdraw from both the places. Other options are to withdraw the accepted paper citing that it was submitted without my consent, or should I go with my supervisor's suggestions? I do not want to face any plagiarism related trouble.

I cannot really judge any behaviour, but a couple of things popped out for me:

Your advisor submitted an article without letting you know
He put his name as first author
He is now suggesting to keep the one with his name as first author and withdraw the one with your name as first author

I personally would write a letter informing the first conference that the submission was without your consent and ask for their policy. I would then write a second letter to the second conference informing them that the same article was submitted without your consent to another conference and attach the first letter. I would also write a third letter to your advisor with a copy of the first two letters.
Note, this is a "nuclear option" that will likely destroy any relationship with your advisor. But, if your supervisor truly stole your work as you describe, I assume this relationship is already ruined.


Can a PhD student write a letter of recommendation for coauthor/collaborator? My good friend and I coauthored a paper that was accepted at a major research conference.  He works in industry and has now decided to apply for PhD programs.  He asked that I write him a letter of recommendation because I am most familiar with his academic strengths and research work.  I've been working on research level problems with him for the past 3 years.

Question: Can I write him a letter of recommendation even though I am only a PhD student?

Can you write it?

Yes.

Will it be worth much?

No.

An ideal letter of recommendation (for schools in the USA) will talk about the candidate's ability to do doctoral-level research from the vantage point of someone who has supervised students through the various stages of their career. While your letter will be better than one from their priest or their coach, it still won't count tremendously in their favor.

Unless this person's only other option is his priest or coach, I'd suggest that you decline.


Falsely accused of providing project code to others in a class I am an undergraduate student studying computer science. A student that I know told me tonight that in a class she is taking this semester, she was reported by the autograder that code she and her partner submitted was very similar to the code our group submitted when we took the course last semester. The professor has forwarded her case to the organization in the school for investigation, and he also passed the information to our professor who taught the course when we took it. So my teammates and I are expecting to hear from our professor, and I suspect we will also be reported for investigation into the case.

I am in total shock right now because I never gave our code to her and I never posted the code online, neither did my teammates (we talked after learning about this). So it is very confusing to me why our code would be so similar that would be flagged by the autograder. Even though I know we are innocent, I think it would be a very difficult situation for my teammates and I because: 1) it is already hard to believe the similarity is pure coincidence; 2) what is worse, all of us knows this person who is accused of copying our code, which makes it look even more suspicious; 3) if we are indeed reported and under investigation, apart from saying that we did not provide the code, we do not have any ways to show that we are innocent (in fact now I think the procedure is very unfair to people like us).

The student accused of copying our code told us that she was provided with both our codes for comparison, and she think they look similar in logic, and some shorter functions are almost the same. I do not want to think that she somehow managed to "steal" our code. I do feel that a possible reason could be that the course is quite difficult and every group would seek help from TA so in the end most groups have similar approach to the design of the code.

I still find the whole thing very bizarre. I am very aware of the college policy on academic integrity, and I have been always very careful not to let anyone see my code in a course (I have been asked by classmates to show my code before, but I never did that). I cannot understand why this could happen to me. This would the first time I have been falsely accused of anything. I imagine it would be very hard to believe for anyone else too. Could you help by offering some advice on how to deal with the situation? Thank you very much!

There are a couple of things to realize. Many departments run assignments through plagiarism detection software. The software typically reports a "similarity index" which needs to be interpreted by a human. The exact process varies from department to department (and sometimes even between professors/TAs). It could very well be that any assignment with a similarity greater than X is automatically forwarded on to the academic misconduct committee. It could be the professor looks at the assignment and decides the similarity is great enough for further investigation.

The key is that investigations are not accusations of misconducted. The accusation happens after the investigation and at that point you can appeal. Every department I know of has an appeals process and none allow an appeal prior to the investigation.

Back to your case, the investigation will have two parts, that will likely be carried out together. The first is to determine if the current student cheated. The second will be to determine if you violated any polices in terms of helping the student.

  apart from saying that we did not provide the code, we do not have any ways to show that we are innocent (in fact now I think the procedure is very unfair to people like us)

While technically correct, there is the question of if the student obtained a copy of your code, how did they do it. My academic misconduct polices I am aware of require you to knowingly share past assignments with the intent of allowing the other student to cheat. Generally showing someone your past assignment, or looking at someone elses past assignment, is not cheating. Saying "here are my past assignments you can copy them if you want" is cheating. Saying "here are my past assignments make sure you only use them to learn and that you do not copy them" is not cheating.

If the student had access to your computer, or GIT hub account, or email, or notes, or ... but you didn't tell them they could look at your notes, you are probably in the clear. Knowing this would help the investigation. Maybe the current student is friends with the past TA. The key is to tell the investigation everything you know. You will also want to make sure the student tells the investigation how they got your past assignment.


Should a CV have footnotes containing links to proof of achievements? I'm writing my resume for an internship and I was wondering if footnotes that cite proof of my achievements are necessary? For instance, I was a finalist in a programming competition last year and the results are posted online. Should I post a footnotes linking it to the site? Or will the review not care enough to read it?

When I look at someone's CV, I don't plan to verify the details. Often, I have a printout and am not close to a computer anyway. I just want to see the information. And the typical vita does not include links or other documentation, it just lists the information.

So, adding footnotes to verify things would make your vita seem unusual, and I suspect it would make the document more cluttered as well. It could also have the unfortunate effect of making a reader wonder why you are trying so hard to give proof - perhaps you are compensating for something else?

If the person reading the vita wants documentation, they will ask for it. Until then, don't worry about it.


Should I send a follow up mail to my potential supervisor Last friday I received an email from my potential supervisor that my application was positively reviewed and that they will further progress with my application if I'm still interested. I replied that I'm happy to hear that and that I'm still interested. However, up until now, I didn't hear from them anymore. Is this normal? I though they would invite me for an interview as soon as possible. I know I might be panicking, but I'm afraid they forgot me. Can I send a second email to ask what the next steps are? Or should I just be patient...

You are panicking indeed. Give it some more time.
This was last Friday, and I assume your response was also on Friday. However, that was only two working days ago, and this supervisor is probably now in the progress of furthering the application. This probably means filling in some form, possibly requesting availability from potential relevant others that should be involved in the process, HR/administrative tasks, there's lots of reasons why they didn't respond yet.
The fact that they reviewed you application positively should give you enough ease to just wait it out a few more days (weeks maybe even). If you haven't heard anything back in a weeks time you could consider following up and indeed asking what the next steps are. But for now, be patient and be happy that they want to continue with you.


What's this mean: "The search for Assistant Professor, Mathematics has been suspended. Please visit the X University website for future openings." What's this mean: “The search for Assistant Professor, Mathematics has been suspended. Please visit the X University website for future openings.”

I got an email from HR saying the search has been suspended.  I am not sure what they mean by that.  Did I fail the initial screening, or did they just lost funding for the position?, or else??

This means that the entire search has been placed "on hold" or even cancelled.  This does not indicate any judgment on your abilities or suitability for the position, but instead reflects internal problems (for instance, funding challenges or a change in direction). It may also indicate that there were no suitable candidates found, or not enough applications were received.


Submitting parts of my thesis to a journal, overlapping text fragments: self-plagiarism? I am currently working on my thesis and I am submitting a part of my thesis as a paper to a journal (same text no rephrasing in some parts). I believe the journal review takes about four to six months before it is published and my thesis will be published on my university website before that. When they check for plagiarism and they find a match between my paper and my thesis, will they reject it?

It is only (self-)plagiarism when you do not indicate that some text is being reused.

So there is a simple remedy: Add to your thesis some text that indicates which parts have been submitted where. This could be formulated for example as:

  This chapter has been submitted to journal as authors, title


Editor invited after minor revision submitted According to editor guideline on springer website "Accept with minor revisions is actually a commitment to ultimately publish the paper, provided the authors answer the remaining concerns (which should be relatively minor) in a timely and proper way."
However, one of my article which was accepted with minor revision is now  under "Editor Invited" status after the submission of revised version. I sent an email to editor, who was handling my article, he said he can not see revised version on system.
Is it possible that an article might be handed over to another editor at final stages by journal office without notifying the handling editor?
How it can affect the overall review process? Should I expect more delay and more chances of rejection even the decision was Accept with minor revisions?

I had a similar story recently. It was with the handling editor who will go through the comments and replies and also reviewers new comments. The final outcome was "accept".
So if authors have responded all the reviewers' comments appropriately, then most probably it will be accepted.


Citing a verbatim copy of a table? I found a table that exactly fits my needs but the technical nature of its contents makes paraphrasing very difficult, and in most cases impossible.

How does one create a one-to-one copy of a table, column titles and all, without committing plagiarism? Is a citation in the title enough?
Placing quotation marks around the contents of every cell doesn't seem to be the proper course of action.

The closest question/answer I can find is here.
Does that answer still apply here if:

we're talking about protocols, standardization bodies, port numbers etc.
Not two related studies using same pool of participants by the same author. Distinct authors, distinct applications, other author did great work in creating the summary table.

There are two separate issues here, which must be dealt with individually:

From a perspective of copyright law, you must make sure that you can obtain the right to reproduce the table at all.
From a perspective of scientific ethics, quoting a table is exactly like quoting a passage of text or quoting a figure. You simply need to make absolutely certain that it is clear that the table is being reproduced from somebody else's publication, and why it is more useful to the reader to reproduce the table rather than to provide a shorter summary of its contents (e.g., if you will be discussing elements of the table in detail).

I would recommend stating that the table is a reproduction in two different places:

In the caption of the table itself (e.g., "Classes of frobozinator, reproduced from [Cite]")
In the text where you first refer to the table (e.g., "Let us now turn to a more detailed discussion of frobozinators, as guided by the taxonomy developed in [cite].  For ease of reference, the table of classes from [cite] is reproduced in Table 5.")


PhD in Comparative Literature: how much does the University's pedigree matter compared to opportunties for collaboration? I received an unconditional offer from two universities: one in UK, the other in a little country of Northern Europe. As I am uncertain about where to go, I would like to ask your opinion.

On the one hand, I noticed that students of small departments, after graduation, have a hard time securing themselves a suitable post-doc position elsewhere. (Specifically, I also read on the University's database that most of its past graduates remained there for their post-doc, teaching assistantships, etc). On the other, in the UK PhD students tend to work mostly on their dissertation and teaching duties, leaving aside the publication of their researches.

Another factor is the collaboration with the supervisor. While in the UK professors do not normally co-author articles with their students, many professors in Northern European universities usually not only do publish articles with students but also share projects with them.

I do know that, either case, the path will not be easy. I am just scared of making the wrong choice. My biggest fear is, in fact, not being able to move to other Universities, say, in the US, Germany or UK for a post-doc.

Thank you for your time.

Since it looks like this question was voted for reopen, I'll move my comment to an answer.

Partial quote of comment from OP:

  ...I read on the University's database that most of [the small European country university department's] graduates remained there for their post-doc, teaching assistantships, etc. And this scared me considerably. I was just wondering if that should be considered a general rule for such small departments... Many of the former PhD students had papers published in good journals but, somehow, did not move from the city (none of them).

That sounds to me like a pretty big red flag - if the department isn't creating graduates that have success elsewhere, and you want to eventually find success elsewhere in your career, then they aren't providing you any evidence that their program is going to help you reach your goals. Further, it might be evidence that the department is fairly insular, and doesn't interact as much with scholars from countries like the US, UK, and Germany, which would limit opportunities to form the relationships that lead to future positions.

Of course it is possible that you could be the student to break their tradition, and it's also possible that those previous students are doing exactly what they wanted to do by staying (and it may also depend on a small sample size). Unfortunately you just don't have any evidence that graduates of that program can get positions like the ones you hope to compete for.

I think that's all the advice I can really give, besides that it's your decision and depends on how you personally weigh the various pros and cons. Eventual faculty positions and even post-docs can be quite competitive, so even at a top-ranked institution there are no career guarantees.

Best of luck to you.


Disappointed about Academia I was a first-year PhD student but was forced to quit although hard-working day and night! I am disappointed, I am now 27 and did not create family, left my home country. Problems from the past in my family hugely affect my mental health. I have OCD and some other health issues.

Everyone admires my personality in presenting my work, however I am now shocked as I dreamt of doing good research to really help people and imprint a memory before leaving this earth. But I found it does not look like that. When I was a little girl, I used to tell my late mother: "I do not want to be an ordinary person, I want to add this world, to become an important person".

However, while writing now I would burst in tears and feel deeply alone. I suffered from complaining, so I would forget to speak and grew used to keeping every thing inside. I am afraid for my family as I feel responsible and I would like to make their lives better. Maybe the problem was that I did not do as well as the others? I thought I could do something new and meaningful, but I ended up being kicked out.

I would be grateful if someone tell me how can I overcome this harsh period?

What you state here is something that many do indeed feel coming into academia. The image of research as being something greatly impactful on an individual level is a bit of an illusion. We only hear of the famous researchers, and not of any of the hundreds of thousands overshadowed in every field. Further, the process of research can actually alienate you from the fruits of your labor. Even if you do impactful work, you likely won't feel it or see it in a favorable amount of time. Those that seem to fare well in academia are those that are content with the reality of the dynamics involved, and enjoy what they really do.

I will say that from what you describe, however, your mentality towards work and life in general seem to be quite unhealthy. Indeed you have tragic circumstances that led to this, but its something you should work on with a therapist. The will and need to change the world for the better is definitely a common motivation, but not one that should be above all other reasons for a persuit, because its a goal that is almost by definition impossible to achieve to one's degree of personal satisfaction.

I doubly recommend therapy to help with loneliness, and making steps towards reaching out to friends and forming support groups, because the work load involved in grad school can be isolating. As a second year PhD student, I really recommend going out of your way to find people.


What should I do if I am asked to review a paper that should have been reviewed by an ethics committee, but was not? What should I do if I am asked to review a paper that should have been reviewed by an ethics committee, but was not?  Assuming the paper is missing the statement that it was reviewed, and the paper clearly states that data was collected from human subjects.

I think it's quite a leap to jump from the fact that there is no such statement to the conclusion that it has not been reviewed. You should ask for clarification on that point in your review, rather than outright rejecting it.

Also, there are different rules in different countries, and the notion of an IRB might not exist, or the procedure may go by a different name. In our department, for instance, a formal process of ethical approval was only implemented a couple of years ago.

So, short answer: ask what ethical procedure was followed, and how that relates to the obligations in the country and/or university the researchers and the participants are based.


Do online recommendation systems ask specific questions about the PhD candidate? I am applying to fall 2014 PhD programs in computer science. I have heard that the online recommendation system in place at most universities asks the recommender to answer a series of questions about the student in addition to a place where the letter can be typed. What kind of questions are asked?

Take a look at this:

They pretty much ask the same sort of questions (mostly in a Likert scale).


If I publish my Master's Thesis in a journal can I still write a book my topic about later? I've recently completed my Master's Thesis (and I'm a little proud of it). I'm interested in publishing my findings in a journal, but I'd also like to expand on my ideas and write a book for a wider audience. Is this an acceptable thing to do? I don't want to shoot myself in the foot.
For context, I haven't initiated the process of publishing the book version or of being published in a journal, yet. I simply would like to figure out what to do before I make any major decisons.

Publishing a book that incorporates and expands on previously published work in a journal is common in academia. You will have to cite the previous publication properly.
If you want to directly quote the previous publication or include it as chapter you may need permission to reproduce.


How to avoid copyright infringement when using figures in which original authors can't be identified? I am almost ready to publish my research project. In my project, I used different clipart and created a couple of figures for my participants to view. For example, I created an image of a person walking in a park. In this image, the park consisted of trees, the sun, and grass. These are all separate images I downloaded online. As you can see, I put multiple images together and created my stimuli photos.

Now the biggest challenge for me is that I can't publish these figures in academic journals because I can't receive permission to do so. First, I can't find the original authors of the clipart. Second, most clipart has a "personal use only license". I don't want to violate any copyright. However, I desperately need to publish them with my work because it will provide good visual representation to the reviewers and the audience.

A prof suggested me to ask someone to redraw the figures I created. And put notes like the "this is reproduced version of the original image, the content of the original image is copyright protected". I'm wondering whether this makes sense? I think I do have the copyright of the figures I created, but I don't have the copyright of the images that were used to create the figure.

As you can see, this is a very complicated situation. I really need advice. If you have any other ideas, please let me know. I would really appreciate it. I realized I should have thought more about this when I first created them. I will never do this again.

Thank you in advance.

You can buy commercial images reasonably cheaply. These images are intended to be used in any kind of publication and licensed for such use. For example for £29 I can download 5 images, with a license to print up to 500,000 copies, and license to combine these images.

Of course these images are under copyright, but practically everything is. Important is that you have a license.


F1 Visa Internship Question Can I do an internship during my first semester of college in a state other than the one where my university is located?

My understanding is that you generally cannot. F-1 visas holders are allowed to hold part-time (up to 20 hours/week) on-campus jobs during all semesters enrolled (though I'm told that some positions don't count as on-campus, despite physically taking place on-campus). Authorization for off-campus work can only be granted after the first academic year.

As scaaahu suggests, you should ask the international office at your university about your specific situation. They should be able to advise you also about potential exceptions to what I wrote above, e.g. unpaid internships.


Is it possible that an incremental work may get selected by a top conference? I am a PhD student in computer science, working in theory. I was recently reading a research paper, which was submitted to a tier-3 conference last year.
It gave me some idea (which may not work), which is a kind of incremental, but yields a significant improvement of the run time.

The only problem I am facing right now is where I should submit this research paper. Although idea is not big as per me, my colleagues are saying it is significant and I do not realise as I have been working on this for three months. This is not related to my PhD project. I asked my supervisor and he said it seems okay to him.

Question: Is it possible that an incremental work on research paper may get selected for a top conference? I have hard time deciding to which conference I should submit. I have little experience as I have already published two research papers but that does not seem to help much.

It's possible, in the sense that there's a non-zero chance of acceptance. A couple of factors strongly contribute to this chance: How well can you explain the significance of the problem? How big is the novelty delta, for example, are there some entirely new concepts? How big is the runtime improvement? How rigorous is the evaluation?

In essence, you need to write a very strong paper, which is naturally easier for some contributions  than for others.


Are there known issues with Black / glass dry erase boards? I'm considering using a black erase board in my lab/classroom, primarily for aesthetic reasons.

Are there any issues with using a black erase board in teaching situations?

One issue is likely to be the need for carefully chosen dry-erase markers.

As most dry-erase boards are white, most of the dry-erase markers you'll find will be black, blue, red, etc. That is, dark colors. That's great for contrast on a whiteboard, but there's going to be very little contrast between a regular dark dry-erase marker and your black dry-erase board. As such, you'll have to purchase special (likely more expensive) markers for use on the black dry-erase board.

If using for instruction, you'll definitely want to test the markers you've chosen, to make sure that they're contrasting enough such that they stand out for the students in the back of the room. If you ever teach someone with visual impairments, you might need to adjust which markers you use to accommodate for them. (That's not really specific to black dry-erase boards, though. You can get issues with marker choices on whiteboards too. But if your marker choices are marginally visible to begin with, it can exacerbate the issue.)

Also, as your department's supply cupboard/the campus bookstore is unlikely to keep such markers in-stock, you'll probably want to make sure you have a reserve of these markers. So when the ones you are using inevitably dry up or wander off, you're not stuck with nothing to write with. (Also keep in mind that the need for special markers likely rules out sneaking in next door and grabbing one of theirs.)


On choosing a license for software in academia In my university, professors in Computer Science decide by themselves the licenses for the code of their research group. This happens without consulting the university legal team (or the university, more generally). As an undergrad researcher, this strikes me as incredibly odd.
I have the following questions:

Is this common practice?
Is this good practice?
How should a situation like this be handled?

Is it reasonable to expect the software only to be published only if the contributors that did most of the work agree on it?
The software may or may not have economic value. Is it reasonable to expect the professor to consult if he is allowed to distribute it under open-source licenses?

For more specific context, I have checked the percentages of ownership on patents. It turns out research Groups get <10% of the ownership. My university doesn't have any special rules for software.
I have no interest in my possible ownership of this software. However, it worries me that my group director is able to make this decision on his own.

The software developed by most academics has no commercial value. It is a research product, similar to a paper, and is usually shared with other researchers by hosting it on the researcher’s web page (as I do) or on GitHub or other repositories. There is usually no need for any sort of license, but some people will include a license to make clear what use by others of their code they see as acceptable.
There is also no need for the university to be involved in any of these decisions, just like the university doesn’t tell researchers what “license” to use for the papers they publish. I think your main source of confusion is related to thinking of research code as some kind of valuable property that needs to be protected. In 99% of cases that’s not the reality.


Is there a reference managing software that shows/extracts content of highlights? I'm mostly using Mendeley, but after reading lots of ebooks with the Kindle app, I've noticed that I really like the feature that shows me the content of all highlights and the ability to jump to the relevant section.
Is there any software for reference/paper organization, reading and note taking like Mendeley which has this feature?

As an example, for those who don't know this feature from e.g. Kindle, if the text above was part of a paper and the bold part was my highlight, I want to have a list that shows:

I really like the feature that shows me the content of all highlights
the ability to jump to the relevant section

and clicking on one of them should bring me to the respective section of the paper.

Any pointer much appreciated!

Citavi has the mentioned functionality.

There are (at least?) four types of highlighting: Direct quotation (what you are describing - in blue), indirect quotation (pink), summary (green) and comment (not shown, same as in standard PDF viewers). All of them can navigate to their original location when clicking on the link-icon:

I downloaded one of the apparently most popular papers of 2017 and marked three random parts. The titles copy (part of) your marked text per default, but you can change it if you want.

I think it's free for up to 100 references. But if your school has some sort of partnership program, you might be able to get a full license.

I switched from Mendeley to Citavi a few years ago. It was a little confusing at the beginning as I was expecting it to be "like Mendeley, but better", so I even used both parallel for some time. There are still a lot of functions I have no idea about, but documentation seems very thorough. At my school, there are even courses on how to use it.


Is an original refinement of a theorem eligible to be published on some journal? I am an undergraduate student majoring in math and economics and I managed to prove a theorem (10 page long theorem) that was only stated for functions in the real line with valures in the real line, and I generalized the whole (pretty convoluted structure) to a general topological space. The proof is pretty the same, but what I am showing is that all the passages can be done and my original contribution is to justify all the passages that in the real line were for free, while in a general topological space they needed at least 2 or 3 intermediate lemmas that actually account for 3/4 pages of original proofs. Working it all with the nitty gritty details, the whole paper becomes 30/40 pages long (with intro and related literature, proof, lemmas and conclusion).
My question is the following: My field is mathematical economics. How can I be sure my generalization can be submitted to some academic journal? I am sure no one has ever done it before but I do not know how important my contribution can be. Probably it is not worth to be published in Econometrica or Journal of Economic Theory (two of the best econ journals), but I am asking here:

How can I understand if my generalization deserves at least a try to some medium/low-rank journal?
How can I understand which journal best fits my work?

Please, do not answer referring me to some professors in my department, since I would rather not risk to go to their office and feel ashamed to have proposed a work that actually is not worth publishing (I mean, I do not want to be "that one" with too much self-esteem). Thanks in advance!

Generally, an extension of a theorem is valuable. But whether it is publishable is up to a publisher. The way they make a decision is to have submissions reviewed by experts. But you can, in most cases, also seek expert help in evaluating the work you do. As suggested in the comments, local professors might be good for that.
But you can just write it up and submit it. To find an appropriate journal, you need to find a few candidates and, at least, look at the index to see what sorts of things they publish.
However, it may be that your work would be considered a trivial extension rather than something with value. That would hinge on one or both of two things. First, the theorem statement itself might provide insights into understanding topological spaces. But, and probably more important, the form of the proof you provide might provide insight into the solution of other problems. Often the proof is more important than the theorem itself. Your suggestion that you needed additional lemmas to extend an old proof might be your key to success.
If/when you submit you will get feedback on the work and possibly suggestions to improve it. But it takes reading of the paper to decide on its value.


Is there a way to ethically hire somebody to write "rough drafts"/"extended outlines" for your PhD dissertation? My girlfriend (let's call her Rose), who is a graduate student, got approached by a person of influence in Rose's industry (call her Elizabeth) who is currently working towards her PhD. Elizabeth asked Rose to "help" her write her literature review and she will receive monetary compensation. Rose, wanting to make a good acquaintance with Elizabeth, agreed to "help." Elizabeth asked Rose to write 30(!) pages of literature review -- a "rough draft" -- which Elizabeth will use to write her literature review.

I already told Rose this is unethical behavior. However, Rose doesn't want to burn this bridge. Is there a way for Rose to ethically help Elizabeth? Possibly, in a way that Rose's credentials also grow?

Elizabeth asked Rose to write 30(!) pages of literature review -- a "rough draft" -- which Elizabeth will use to write her literature review.

Let us all acknowledge the elephant in the room. No, there is no ethical way to handle this, as Elizabeth does not want to handle this ethically. It seems painfully obvious to me that Elizabeth is outsourcing the writing of her dissertation, or at least parts of it, under a thin veil of "help" and "drafting". Given that Elizabeth is giving Rose clear length instructions and everything, I would be surprised if "draft" in this context is anything else than an euphemism for "please write this for me, and I will do some cosmetic changes and hand it in".

Any of the proposed solutions (publishing the material beforehand, claiming authorship of this chapter, ...) will not be accepted by Elizabeth, as it will not accomplish the goal she is rather evidently going for, which is getting her literature review without having to actually write it. Besides, it seems extremely dubious to me that any serious thesis committee will allow some of the proposed solutions (e.g., explicitly having a different author for chapters of a thesis - the reaction of any committee in any university I attended would be between bewilderment and anger if you proposed that).

As such, there are only two ways forward for Rose:

Tell Elizabeth friendly but in no uncertain terms that she cannot do this. She can get a little creative with the reason if she does not want to tell Elizabeth that she finds the proposal unethical, if she must.
Go forward with writing the literature review, but be aware that she is actively involved in a case of academic misconduct, and that there really isn't a way to rationalize this differently.


What courses should be included as "Course Highlight" in Resume for Master's application? I am writing my resume to apply for master's in computer science. My question is, what courses should I include as "Course Highlights" at the bottom of my bachelor's degree?

A) Are the courses which I got great grades the candidates? But I have a lot of them fortunately!

B) Or should I include only the courses which are elective and important to my research interest?

C) Should I include a course, which is mandatory for my bachelor's degree as I guess, that I had a great grade, and is really important for the field? I mean Algorithms Design if anyone is familiar with computer science.

Thanks in advance

I am in physics, not computer science, and things may vary by field. But in my experience, it's very unusual to see "course[work] highlights" in an undergraduate resume, unless you have taken courses that are (a) relevant to your application, and (b) not the typical required courses that every applicant has taken. In particular, this section is not about grades. If your grades are excellent, you should list your GPA (or "GPA in major") in the same section where you list your school, degree type, etc.


Is solving all of the exercises in a textbook a good idea? Is solving all of the exercises in a textbook a good idea? I'm particularly concerned with textbooks on mathematics. I have this obsession that I should solve all of the problems that a textbook has. It takes a lot of time and energy but usually I'm satisfied with the end result being me having a better understanding of that particular subject.

Any similar experience of this sort? How's this going to work in the long-run?

It depends enormously on your personal objectives, apart from your personal predilections. For example, if a significant goal is to advance your understanding of mathematics, then obsessing over exercises (many of which are contrived busywork in undergrad textbooks, and sometimes in grad-level textbooks in the U.S.) is a dubious investment of your personal resources.

For one thing, apart from the articiality of some of the exercises, many of them will be semi-incomprehensible if you've just read the chapter they appear after... but obvious after you've read further! A significant reason for this is that mathematics has developed with various goals in mind, so that the most important enduring concepts and facts refer to important phenomena... not just to some artificial choice of linear logical development as is the common style in textbooks.

On another hand, if you do not aim to be a professional mathematician, or if somehow you have a lot of spare time, sure, why not do whatever you want? Indeed, another common trap of studying mathematics is being too obedient about following some syllabus or textbook, as opposed to following one's own curiosity and interests. It is subtler to parse the situation that your impulse is to do all the exercises... :)

Another practical point is that, at some point, probably soon, unless you severely restrict what books you look at, there's no way you'll have time to do all the exercises in detail, even if you are a whiz-kid. There are too many, and sometimes they are prankish. For example, the "exercises" in Atiyah-MacDonald's "Commutative Algebra" (a misleadingly slim volume) are mostly "theorems" one would find in other books on the same topic.

And, then, there's the point that novices' "solutions" to difficult exercises are often severely suboptimal, even if "successful". Sure, it's good to think about issues, but, at the same time, you'll be able to approach those questions far more wisely later (if you still care, and the things haven't become completely obvious anyway!).

But certainly no one is "required" to do all the exercises, despite some propaganda on the internet. For that matter, it is probably not optimal for most peoples' circumstances and goals. Still, taking an extreme stance, maybe the world will end tomorrow, and if you want to spend the evening doing exercises that you find enchanting, I'd be the last one to try to discourage you. :)


How to negotiate a tenure-track assistant professor job offer in a very short time window? I was just offered a tenure-track (60% teaching, 40% research) assistant professor job offer at a R1 University in the Southern U.S., but asked to make a decision in only three days. And he also mentioned there is no much room for negotiation.

This is a very special situation. The search process for this position has been dragged for quite a long time due to the COVID-19. They interviewed two other candidates 5 months ago, but did not pursue their candidacy. My interview with the university is for another position in the same department. I am not picked for what I was interviewed for, but instead selected for the earlier position that has not been filled yet. Very interesting and very lucky!

I want to seek any advice on the negotiation (e.g., start-up package, salary, starting date) if possible, given such a short time. I am not sure if I should do this or not since I was told no much room for negotiation.

While the decision to accept a tenure-track position is a big commitment, unless you have complicated requirements that were not discussed with the search committee/dean beforehand, it should be possible to make a decision on an offer within a few days.

  I want to seek any advice on the negotiation (e.g., start-up package,
  salary, starting date) if possible, given such a short time.

Think about your red lines and try to prioritize them: how much startup do you need, your preferred salary and starting date, teaching load, etc. and if the current offer doesn't meet these – you mention that there is not a lot of space for negotiation – you may prepare a counter-proposal asking for what you want but focus on the those points that are most important. If you cannot arrive at an offer that meets these requirements, politely decline the offer.

Of course, if you surprise your negotiating partner (dean, head of dept., etc.) with a request that they weren't aware of, such as the need to renovate/construct lab space or a two-body situation where you're looking to secure a position for your partner as well, it might be impossible to have an answer from the prospective employer's side within a few days (some requests might need to be escalated to senior management or discussed with other departments/faculties). Your employer will tell you this, and if they really want you, they'll give themselves and you more time to complete the negotiation.

Don't expect to be able to re-open a negotiation after you have signed an offer. If you do have second thoughts, your only alternative might be to walk away. If you accepted the offer but then, on reflection, decided it was not for you and decided not to actually start the job, you wouldn't be the first (or the last) person to do this. Unless there are penalties in a contract (read the fine print), there's not much a future employer can do to you if you decide to re-neg on the contract. Be aware though that in some circles walking away from an accepted offer could damage your reputation – your future colleagues will know you did it – so I do not really recommend this course of action.

Finally, you mention that you are being offered a position that is not the one you applied for, so if you have a complicated ask (see above), one negotiating strategy could be to ask to be re-considered for the other position (if it has a longer timeline). Above all, be polite and positive, and keep the door open for future opportunities if you think this one is not going to work out and you like the employer.


Should I report students that hand in similar reports (up to small permutations) in an assignment? I am currently correcting assignments (pass/fail) for a Bachelor's course in which I am a TA. Students write some code and then discuss their results and approach in a report (in groups of two). My task is to "review a report and provide feedback for students how to improve their report" then they do a supplementation and pass.

The task/content is the same for all students so I will naturally encounter similar results.

While writing feedback I've noticed that I was pointing out exactly the same mistakes in two reports (including the same typos in equations). Upon closer inspection I realized both groups provide the same results and (more importantly) fail to provide results in the same area, i.e. the program should be run with different parameters, both groups only run one (and the same) set of parameters.

Both reports follow the same structure with small permutations, e.g. renaming sections or rephrasing of sentences and make the same "meta" mistakes like discussing their results in the conclusion.

However, looking at the code it looks like two different implementations (i.e. they seem to be using their respective code).

My initial response was to escalate this to the professor in charge and let him deal with it, but then I realized that I might be too pedantic, which I sometimes am. (My impression is that any of the other TAs would just shrug it off as "odd", but not do anything further.)

One of the groups has already caused trouble for another reason, so I don't want to "accidentally" escalate the overall situation.

I guess my question is how to apply the ethical guidelines of "propper scientific conduct" in this gray(ish) area, given that it is some "unimportant" assignment (of many) for a Bachelor's degree course. Should the needle tip towards "turn a blind eye" or towards "no exceptions".

Yes, report it to the professor.  It is better to err on the side of keeping him informed.

If he considers that it's too minor to pursue further, then he can tell you so, and then you'll know not to report any similar incidents in the future.  But this is ultimately his decision, not yours.


I am wasting my time post PhD due to delay in immigration documents processing. What to do? Please advise Graduated early this year. Was to start my postdoc position in March. Official appointment delayed due to delay in immigration documents processing. Have been losing motivation to work for past two months (just 14 hours/week). Am wasting my time with hobbies and Netflix, what should I do? Please advise.

Get off the couch and go workout.
If you are not 100% proficient in English, study it to complete fluency.
Get in the lab (or whatever) and do some papers.  Use the Pomerado to motivate yourself.  Impossible to goof when that tomato is running.
Remember, you shouldn't need your advisor to push you.  Especially as a post-doc.  You are supposed to be a budding PI. But, since you are struggling, at least show up and talk to her (or Zoom or whatever).

As for your visa problems, this is irrelevant. You have your Ph.D. Getting an immigration document will not or not should not change your competence, work ethic, maturity, etc.


Lost Interest in Electrical Engineering. Still have a Math degree to complete. What to do? I just finished my 5th semester of a compact, dual degree (MS in mathematics and BE in electrical and electronics engineering) course from BITS Pilani, India. It's hitting me really hard now that I just don't want to be an engineer at all. I was really enthusiastic about this programme when I joined it, but with 5 more semesters to go, I'm near clueless about what to do once I'm out of here.

I still like mathematics though and my grades in those courses have been fairly decent, but the university grades me for the entire course and so I'd barely make it a 2.7 or something like that on a scale of 4 at the end of it. If I keep going like I am, more or less.

I like statistics, probability and operations research but even though I can tolerate the mathematics degree which is a lot of pure mathematics, that part of it isn't something I want to pursue.

I have, however, recently developed interest in financial analysis. I have taken introductory courses in economics and management, to fill up the elective credits I had to and so I have a little bit of an idea about how this stuff works, and I'm really enjoying learning more of it. But I have no clue where to go, or what to do.

I want to be certain that I can make it to a decent program, preferably MSF or MBA Finance, in the US, UK or Germany (or any other place where financial markets are really intense and interesting) with those sort of grades and maybe a few projects (which I intend to take up in the next few semesters) related to financial analysis, but mostly math.

I would really appreciate if you could help me find a path to accomplish what I am setting out to, point me to alternative programs I can get in that can get me where I want to be or advise me on what the focus should be on right now, working on a few more projects, or improving my grade; or something else.

Statistics/probability/data analysis is also a reasonable path to consider, and is a good bit more general than financial math, which you might also decide you don't like down the road.

Paul Graham (of Lisp fame) says that you should try to stay "upstream" with regard to your choices. To put it more concretely, you should not specialise too quickly, and try to keep your options open.

Statistics/probability/data analysis is a very marketable choice these days, and will still leave the door open to financial math if you still want to pursue it a bit later.

However, aside from ISI there aren't really any good places in India to learn statistics. And I don't think India has much of a statistics research community. You'll have to go somewhere else.

An autobiographical snippet: I got a PhD from a Statistics Dept in applied probability. The degree was supposed to be in financial math, as it happens. I was trying to study it, but didn't really make any headway. So my degree wound up being about something that was originally supposed to assist with the financial math. As you can see, things don't always go the way one had planned. So, bear in mind, you might like the subject now, but whether it will like you and things will work out, that is a separate question. It's a question of commitment.


Is it acceptable to modify the format when republishing an article? My faculty has asked for permission to republish one of my articles. This is planned to appear in an upcoming magazine within the school I am currently working in. I have already asked the permission for republishing. It is an IEEE article, but I have some issues about the new printing.

The person in charge of the magazine has told me that they need the change the format of the article, so that it is according the magazine standard. Anyway they plan to change the following things:

- size of the font
- convert from two columns to one column
- referencing of the tables and graphs in APA style (I think IEEE uses another format)

But the content would be left unchanged. I have seen that in the Certification of Clearance sent to me by IEEE states the following:

  All uses not specifically authorized in this license and specified in
  the options for reusing IEEE Licensed Material available through the
  RightsLink service are prohibited, including (i) altering or modifying
  the Licensed Material in any manner

and in other part it says:

  If the Licensed Material is altered or modified in any manner, it must
  be within the scope of the license granted and it must not alter the
  meaning of the Licensed Material or in any way reflect negatively on
  the IEEE or any writer of the Licensed Material

So according to this, can they change the format?
Thanks

There are many types of rights related to intellectual property, and it is important to understand them correctly. The one you're dealing with here is copyright, which covers the text, graphics illustrations, and other possible graphic media (video, if your paper include any).

However, the copyright which you transferred to them does only cover these elements. Once they give you permission to reproduce the text and graphics, you can reproduce them in any way you want, following the license. But the presentation (fonts, page layout, etc.) is not part of the copyrighted material.


How do I cite a paper that is not yet submitted for publication? I am revising a paper which is due to be submitted today. In it, I would like to cite another paper of mine which is not yet submitted as it is still reviewed by my coauthors. How do I cite this latter paper in the former? Is it ok to say '(submitted)' when it is actually not, although it may have been when the former paper is published? Or can I say '(to submit)', although I am not sure if such is formally recognised?

You can call it a "preprint" if it is ready to circulate, or say that it is "in preparation" if you are working on it but it's not done yet.  (The difference is whether you would be willing to give interested people a copy now, or whether you would ask them to wait until it's done.)

Don't call it "submitted" if that's not actually true, even if you think it will be submitted by the time anyone sees the reference.  Getting caught in even a minor lie can hurt your reputation for honesty, and there are any number of ways something could go wrong in the process of finishing and submitting the paper.


Are racist/xenophobic opinions sufficient to revoke tenure? Think of a tenured (in the US!) professor who asserts something like "Jews are nepotistic" or "Shoot all Muslims and let Allah sort them out" (the latter statement is a real example although better described as xenophobic rather than racist). Assuming that such a professor grades fairly and shows no behaviour in line with those assertions (e.g. attacking Jews or Muslims on the street), are these statements grounds enough for revoking tenure? And does it make a difference if he expresses these opinions

in scholarly literature
in class
on his own social media account
in a magazine
on the social media account of someone else, perhaps even a /one of his own students.

My understanding is that such opinions are covered by the free speech laws in the US and only in cases where these statements can be reasonably construed as targeted harassment (and happen repeatedly) tenure can be revoked.

I ask because I had an argument with someone that got out of hand because I think that opinions that can be reasonably construed as racist are no grounds for termination.

There are four common reasons for tenured professors to be fired:

Incompetence. Used here in the more general sense of the word, it means that if the tenured professor is no longer able to carry out his or her duties - for example if he or she becomes vegetative after an accident - then they can be fired.
Negligence. If the professor is able to do the work, but does not do it, then it could qualify as negligence. For example if the professor decides to go on vacation during semester, thereby leaving the students without instruction, he/she could be fired.
Immoral conduct. If the professor sexually harasses a student, commits a (serious) crime like robbery, or violates academic norms (e.g. plagiarism), he/she could be fired.
Financial exigency. If the university runs out of money for whatever reason, it can fire professors.

Holding unpopular opinions don't come under any of these four reasons. The most one could argue is that it's immoral, but that would be hard to defend since not everyone agrees that racist/xenophobic behavior is wrong. After all it was pretty common to have racist/xenophobic behavior in the past or even today.

But: it has happened in the past. Professor Edward Ross of Stanford University was effectively fired by Jane Stanford, one of Stanford's founders, back in 1900. Ross expressed some violently racist opinions of Asians. His firing was controversial, and he was defended by many academics who viewed the dismissal as arising from political reasons and therefore a violation of academic freedom. You can read more about it in articles like this one. I would venture that if Ross lived today he'd be less likely to be forced out, but it'd be within the realm of possibility, and regardless of whether he's fired or not it would still be controversial.


Do Nature journals wrongly claim copyright in their published pdfs? I just noticed this and I'm slightly confused by a small detail.

The Nature Publishing Group states in its Publishing Licences page that the copyright on articles remains with the author:

  NPG does not require authors of original (primary) research papers to assign copyright of their published contributions. Authors grant NPG an exclusive licence to publish, in return for which they can reuse their papers in their future printed work without first requiring permission from the publisher of the journal.

Moreover, this is supported by the Licence to Publish agreement, which explicitly states that

  [...] the Authors grant to NPG [...], subject to clause 2 below, the
  exclusive licence (a) to publish, reproduce, distribute, display and store the Contribution in all forms [...].

and

  Ownership of copyright remains with the Authors, and provided that, when reproducing the Contribution or extracts from it, the Authors acknowledge first and reference publication in the Journal, the Authors retain the following nonexclusive rights: [...].

However, the published articles have a clear Macmillan copyright marker. Taking this paper as an example:

Is NPG wrongly asserting copyright to the entire article? It is my understanding that they could still be claiming copyright over the copy-editing and formatting, but since they have explicitly opted for a licence to publish instead of a copyright transfer, it seems to me that they should be crediting the authors with the copyright, e.g. along the lines of

  © 2015 Qian Wang, Edward T. F. Rogers, Behrad Gholipour, Chih-Ming Wang, Guanghui Yuan, Jinghua Teng and Nikolay I. Zheludev. All rights reserved.

for the above-quoted example, with whatever legalese they felt necessary to indicate that they own the exclusive publishing licence.

Is there some interesting detail about copyrights that I'm missing here? Or is this simply a fudge?

I understand that this is not a big question and that it is on the edges of this site's purview, but I still think it is interesting. If the community decides that this is too much on the legal-question-answerable-only-by-a-lawyer, would migration to Law Stack Exchange be appropriate?

Given its position on the page, and in light of the details you posted, I suppose (as is speculated above) that the copyright applies to the document presentation, not its content. Of course, IANAL, and you might very well learn more at the law.SE.


Some specifics about research and teaching statements Thanks to Internet and this site, in particular, I have a pretty good overall idea about contents and style, expected from research and teaching statements. As a potential postdoc or junior faculty member, who has recently defended dissertation, currently I'm updating my research and teaching statements to clarify my approach to teaching (so far I have teaching experience only in a form of informal tutoring (various disciplines) and corporate learning) as well as my research agenda.

With that in mind, I'm curious about what people on the Academia site think about advantages and disadvantages of the inclusion into the documents a small number of the following components (I've seen a number of examples of doing that):

(research statement) visual elements (hopefully, tasteful - light matching colors and LaTeX), such as a lightweight framework or simply a diagram, depicting current and future research areas of interest, their potential interaction as well as types of expected research outcomes;
(research statement) references to the appropriate literature (very brief review);
(teaching statement) appropriate quotes from general and scientific literature.

I can tell you about what's normal in math.

It's uncommon to depict your research areas in the form of a diagram.  However, if you are studying interconnections between different kinds of objects, say, a diagram may be appropriate.  Of course figures/tables/graphs can be very useful in illustrating your research.  If you include a diagram, it should be worth more than filling the same amount of space with text.
References to the literature are standard, and makes your research statement look more professional.  I don't think people actually go look up these references, but if they know the area, they may check to see what papers you refer to.
One or two quotes is fine, if they truly express a key point better than you can yourself, but more is not a good idea.  The more quotes you have means the less you personally have to say, and this is supposed to be a personal statement on teaching.  (Quotes from student evaluations etc are a different matter.)

In any case, it's a good idea to have colleagues/mentors that you trust take a look over your application material for feedback.  This way they can let you know if you've done something crazy, or if things are just unclear.


Approaching faculty members I don't know well to solicit career advice While researching career opportunities, I have stumbled upon an alumnus of the school I am currently at, who is a relatively new faculty member there. In a sense, this person's career is what I want my career to be like. It seems like they could offer me very valuable advice.

However, I do not know this person and do not know anyone they know. I thought I might write a polite email to them asking for advice, but I'm not sure what the prudent way to phrase it would be. And on that note, whether prudence would preclude even doing such a thing.

What's the polite way to ask a professor how to get a job like theirs (specifically, at an institution such as theirs)?

Send this person a brief e-mail, explaining the followings:

How you found out about him/her, and give a 2-sentence introduction of yourself.
That his/her career path and/or research interests overlaps with or inspires yours very much.
Ask if you can have a phone conversation for 15 minutes to answer some questions. You can also ask for a meeting if he/she is nearby.
List the brief questions that you plan to cover. Don't be too broad. Think if these 15 minutes are really the only time that he/she will be willing to talk to you, what would you like to get out from this?
Provide 4-5 dates/times for him/her to pick, and invite them to suggest some dates if none of them works.

Avoid asking for reference letter, inside contacts, or any kind of favor beyond just formal career advices. He/she may not feel vested enough to do that, and if you push, he/she may close up. Also, don't attach any CV/resume; that would look like you're looking for a position.

And also don't ask "How did you get a job at an institution like this one?" Zoom out and ask for the job search process he/she went through. Ask him/her to elaborate on the thought process and how the pros and cons were weighed. Once the topic gets going, you can probe a bit further, but the focus should be on the faculty member, not the institution.

On the date, be on time, and honor the 15 minutes (or whatever you both agree upon) limit. At the end of the meeting, ask if you may ask for his/her opinion very occasionally through e-mail in future, and then establish the mentoring relationship from there.

When you got home, follow up with a thank you e-mail.

The tricks are:

Don't ask them to write back. Replying e-mail on this kind of issues takes a lot of time and thought, plus he/she may not know you well enough to know if the recommendations are suitable for you.
Make it low stake. At most they'll lose are 15 minutes.
Make it thoughtful by listing highly relevant questions. This shows that you really did look at their work and know something about it.


What should one do with his/her manuscript after some sort of academic misconduct This happened in my group. One of the master students in our group had a manuscript derived from her thesis, and the manuscript was planned to publish with she and her advisor (who is the PI of our group) to be the authors. However, she put the manuscript on the internet some time ago without the advisor's consent (I learned that she put it on research-gate publicly). The PI got furious about this and said that what the student did was disrespectful to him as a co-author, and he would no longer co-author this work (this happened in our group meeting from which I heard of the event).
Here are some facts about this event that comments request me to tell to make things clear.

The manuscript is almost finished but still under some revision by the time she put it on the internet.
The student exposed the PI as the co-author in the unfinished the manuscript on the internet, and she did it without the PI's consent.
Consensus on co-authorship was reached before this event happened, so I assume the PI deserves the authorship.
The PI said to the student that he would from then on have no relation with the work, but he hoped she could revise the work as best as she can.
The paper fortunately was read by no one on research-gate.

Although I know making a manuscript accessible to the public without consent from all co-authors is illegal , but the action my PI choose to deal with it, i.e., no longer co-author the work is still surprising to me. What's his point of doing so? Is this so serious an issue that he has to do so? Why he don't even give the student a chance to right her wrongs? I newly learned that the paper was withdrawn, but attitude of the PI remains unchanged. Is the student still unforgivable even after she withdrew the manuscript?
I also have further questions:
What should the student do with the almost finished work? Simply bury it in history or try to publish herself? At least in my point of view, neither is a good solution. Since our PI was soooo angry, I don't even dare ask the PI why he took such an extreme action. So I am asking here.

I think that the action was a serious breach of trust, but I think there are better ways for the PI to deal with it. If the student didn’t mean malice but published because of inexperience, there should be a way to correct the action and move on.
Concerning a student, I think the best choice is for the student to contact another member of the faculty committee and obtain guidance in how to deal with the PI. I’m suggesting this because the question, while superficially only addressing a paper, cuts much deeper: If your PI advisor is so angry with you as to not coauthor a paper, the relationship may be fractured to the point that efficient mentor ship and guidance has become impossible and the student might be best advised to consider changing advisors.
The answer to the question about the continued membership in the lab will then determine the best path forward for the manuscript as well.


Is there a deadline for journal submission? I wonder if there is a deadline for submission to a journal? So far, I only know that submission to conferences has a deadline, but I'm not sure about journals.

I've looked at several journals of Elsevier, IEEE, and Springer, and I cannot find any information about the deadlines. I did some search on Google and understand the process as follows:

One journal may publish multiple issues per year. If at the moment I submit a paper to a journal and miss the deadline of the current issues (which I do not know of), my paper will be reviewed for the next one.
Although there is no "fixed" deadline, but if I submit a paper and it is to be revised, I will then have some amount of time to finish the revision - so that's some sort of deadline, but it's relative to each paper.

Another question is that, as a Ph.D. student in machine learning/artificial intelligence, should I focus more on conferences or journals? It's been 6 months since I started my Ph.D. and I haven't published anything. In France, a Ph.D. lasts for only 3 years and my doctorate school demands at least 4 papers published from a "successful" Ph.D. student. Should I start worrying now?

Thank you very much!

Generally speaking journals have multiple issues on some schedule from weekly to annually. A paper can be submitted at any time. The review process will then proceed and the paper may be revised on recommendation of reviewers. When the paper it ready for publication, an editor (managing editor) will schedule it for some future issue.

So, there is no real deadline for normal journal submission. However, there is no guarantee that a paper submitted right now will be published soon. The review process takes time and there can be delays. But earlier submission (of a well written paper) is preferred. Submitting a sloppy paper early and hoping for early publication is probably a bad idea. The review will take longer and rejection is possible.

However, some journals publish special issues, perhaps on a topic or to honor some person. For those, there is a deadline, but it is made clear when the "call" for papers goes out.

For the question which is better - journals or conferences -, it depends on the field. In CS, for example, conferences are the preferred venue for new work. In other fields conferences are much less important. Your advisor will know which is best for you and also whether you should have any concerns about your progress.


Should I explain that I cannot finish my current master due to religious discrimination when applying for another graduate program? I am currently enrolled in a master’s program in the Middle East, which does not seem to be possible to finish / worth finishing for various reasons. The main problem is the lack of research facilities that would allow me to generate data for my thesis. The facilities that do exist seem to prioritise students from the religious majority. As a Christian, you do not get that many opportunities in the Middle East, and there is no protection against discrimination.

So I applied to a master’s programme in Europe. Shortly afterwards, I received a personal message from one of the professors asking for my motivation to restart the master's and not run for a PhD.

My question is: How open I should be about the reasons why I will not finish the master’s I’m enrolled in already? I am not sure if I should mention the religious reasons – I do not want to look whiney, but this is the reality of being a Christian in a predominantly Islamic country. Can mentioning religious discrimination negatively (and significantly) affect the professor’s decision in accepting me, despite how real it is?

My advice is to state facts not conclusions.

For example, you should not say:

  It's impossible to finish my degree here because they discriminate against Christians.

Instead, you could say:

  I finished all my coursework, but I have been unable to get a spot in a lab -- there are only 10 lab spots for 40 students. Further, two different professors told me they would give priority to Muslim students (I am not Muslim). Given this, my best option seems to be to restart at a different university.

By the way, I also wanted to comment on this line:

  asking for my motivation to restart the Master's and not run for a PhD

In some fields and some countries, it is common to go straight from undergraduate to the PhD without getting a master's. This professor may be asking specifically why you want to try again to get a master's, as opposed to enrolling directly in a PhD program.

Edit: inspired by @arp's answer, I'll expand my script to address the possible confusion about master's vs. PhD

  I applied for a master's degree because I will be leaving [current univ] without a master's. I finished all my coursework, but I have been unable to get a spot in a lab -- there are only 10 lab spots for 40 students. Further, two different professors told me they would give priority to Muslim students (I am not Muslim). Given this, my best option seems to be to restart at a different university. I would certainly be open to pursuing a PhD at [new univ] if that is an option, but my understanding is that I will need to complete my master's first.


References in a research article conclusion Can I put some references in the research article conclusion to clarify my future work?

The two main functions of a reference are:

Make sure that you don't take credit for someone else's work.
As an "external appendix", e.g. "you can read more about this in ..."

If your conclusion contains parts where function 1 applies you have to include the appropriate citations. If your conclusion contains a part where function 2 applies you can do so, but as a matter of style I would be reluctant to do so. A conclusion is there to emphasize the main points of your article. Adding a link to an "external appendix" is not helping.


Bachelor thesis with same topic I've successfully defended my bachelor thesis.

After some months I've been curious to see if there are any other thesis with the same topic that I've chosen. I found some that are similar to mine (from previous years at universities from other countries). The topic was about, to test a set of algorithms againts specific input.

Is it bad that my thesis is really similar to these other theses ? Basically the only difference is that, in my thesis I tested the algorithms with different inputs / input sizes, also most of the algorithms that I've chosen matches the algorithms in the other theses, with the exception of 2.

For a doctoral thesis this would be bad, but not so much for a bachelor's thesis. Assuming that you worked independently of the other work (i.e. no plagiarism) then your work has value to you for personal development.

You don't have anything publishable, of course, but you did learn something about research process. But, for later work, you will be expected to spend considerable effort in a literature search to know what has already been done with your topic. This is harder at your level due to lack of time (fixed deadlines) and the fact that not such work is available (i.e. unpublished).

If your faculty and university are happy with your work then you should be also.  But as you move on, the standards get higher.

One major difference is that a bachelor's thesis is expected to be done in a fixed amount of time. A doctoral thesis has no such constraint and some take a long time to complete. So the very nature of the problems that can be undertaken at your level is very constrained.

But let your advisor and/or faculty guide you here. The fact that you had a successful defense is a positive point in your favor. Relax and congratulations.


Using substantial parts of a paper you authored in your thesis IEEE is very slow to answer and I need some clarification rather soon. If I am writing a dissertation and want to use extensive parts (but not the full paper!) of one of my own papers that was previously published in an IEEE conference's proceedings, what do I need to state in the dissertation to satisfy the IEEE copyright regulations?

IEEE states that for thesis or dissertation reuse the following rules apply:

  Thesis / Dissertation Reuse

  The IEEE does not require individuals
  working on a thesis to obtain a formal reuse license, however, you may
  print out this statement to be used as a permission grant:

  Requirements to be followed when using any portion (e.g., figure,
  graph, table, or textual material) of an IEEE copyrighted paper in a
  thesis:

  1) In the case of textual material (e.g., using short quotes
  or referring to the work within these papers) users must give full
  credit to the original source (author, paper, publication) followed by
  the IEEE copyright line © 2017 IEEE.

  2) In the case of illustrations
  or tabular material, we require that the copyright line © [Year of
  original publication] IEEE appear prominently with each reprinted
  figure and/or table.

  3) If a substantial portion of the original paper
  is to be used, and if you are not the senior author, also obtain the
  senior author's approval.

  entire IEEE copyrighted paper in a thesis:

  1) The following IEEE
  copyright/ credit notice should be placed prominently in the
  references: © [year of original publication] IEEE. Reprinted, with
  permission, from [author names, paper title, IEEE publication title,
  and month/year of publication]

  2) Only the accepted version of an IEEE
  copyrighted paper can be used when posting the paper or your thesis
  on-line.

  3) In placing the thesis on the author's university website,
  please display the following message in a prominent place on the
  website: In reference to IEEE copyrighted material which is used with
  permission in this thesis, the IEEE does not endorse any of
  [university/educational entity's name goes here]'s products or
  services. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. If
  interested in reprinting/republishing IEEE copyrighted material for
  advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective
  works for resale or redistribution, please go to
  http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/rights_link.html
  to learn how to obtain a License from RightsLink.

  If applicable,
  University Microfilms and/or ProQuest Library, or the Archives of Canada may supply single copies of the dissertation.

Am I correct in the assumption that for my case only the first case (marked bold) is relevant and I hence only need to a) cite the source and b) put a mark "(c) 2017 IEEE"?

Does anyone have any hands-on experience with such a case?

The statement seems pretty clear and I'd suggest you are correct that the first paragraph applies. However, I'd also suggest adding the permissions paragraph (your bold) to the thesis itself as a foot/end note just to be clear to readers. Self-plagiarism is actually a thing these days.

I don't have actual experience with this, but can suggest a strategy. It seems conservative enough to satisfy IEEE given the above.

Include your work as you like. However, don't just incorporate it, but actually quote the relevant parts of your papers, listing yourself (and others as appropriate) as author(s). This avoids the "self plagiarism" issue. You are treating your work just as you would that of another.

You are also listing IEEE as the "publisher" of record by referencing it, so their interest in your work is preserved.

See if there is some way to send a late draft of your dissertation to IEEE along with pointers to the referenced material, asking them, again, whether they have any objections. They may reply or not. If they do, you will have clear guidelines. I doubt that you would need to do extensive revisions even in the worst case.


Seeing as symbolic math tools are very common nowadays, how acceptable is it to skip calculations in manuscripts? Many studies are mainly revolved around solving optimization problems; formulating a cost function and getting the gradient w.r.t some elements. This part can be somewhat challenging mathematically and is required to solve the problem in practice. Or at least, it used to be. I note that I'm not talking about the research of optimization but rather using optimization as a tool.

Symbolic toolboxes (such as Theano, TensorFlow, etc., mainly used when designing neural networks) are abundant and widely used. Using these, we can skip the manual calculation of gradients - we write only the cost function, and the derivation is done for us. Usually even the optimization is performed automatically.

While in the computer vision field it is very common to find studies that skip the math almost entirely, in other fields it is still very common to write the cost function, and at least provide the final equations needed for reproducing the results (more elaborate calculations are usually found in the appendix or supplementary material).

I'm wondering - if I choose to use these symbolic toolboxes in another field, in which it's common to write the entire derivation (or at least the gist of it), will it be frowned upon, even if I specify which software I use and even provide code? I somehow feel as if some fields consider themselves to be more 'mathematical' in substance and will therefore want to see I can calculate myself rather than let a computer do that for me...

Thanks.

It's always been normal not to write out long but straightforward calculations in a scientific paper. If there are certain intermediate steps in the calculation that are of interest for their own sake, show them.

  will it be frowned upon, even if I specify which software I use and even provide code?

If the calculation is something that can be straightforwardly (but tediously) verified by anyone with knowledge of the field, then I don't see any point in saying what software you used or supplying source code. The reason to give this type of information would be if there was something in the software that could be nontrivial, controversial, etc., so that other people with knowledge of the state of the art might not get the same answer you did.


Etiquette for attribution when applying concepts in industry I work as a software developer in industry, but I like to read various academic papers to get exposure to ideas that may benefit my work.  I may not apply exactly the technique described in a single paper, but my work is certainly influenced by the ideas I've encountered.  My question, though, is what is the proper way to provide attribution for the papers that have influenced my work?

If the product of my work were an academic paper, the rules would be quite clear, but here I'm making a product that is ultimately my employer's IP, for which the implementation details may even be considered trade secrets.  I'm struggling to find the proper ethical reconciliation between my professional obligations and the spirit of academia that favors free dissemination of knowledge in the hope that it encourages more of the same in return.  I don't want to steal anyone's work, but neither do I want to shut myself off from valuable lines of thought.

You don't need to do anything. Academic journals are published for the betterment of mankind. If you acquired said articles legally, then you are entitled to use their contents within your corporation as you see fit as long as you do not directly copy and distribute text or software code that is under copyright without a license. If you reimplement an algorithm described in a paper, you are fine. The only problem may come if you try to implement something covered under a patent (like the RSA patent), but these kinds of things are not typically published in journals these days.

There are more reasons that academic publish than encouraging more published work. When I publish, I hope that my ideas are used by any and all to fulfill their own goals. When I want specific kinds of returns on my work, I will choose other avenues of dissemination than publishing in conferences and journals.

There's no ethical issue here, in my opinion.


Are personality clashes with other faculty a valid reason to deny tenure Assume the tenure track faculty members has produced worthwhile and well published research, has shown potential to attract outside funding and has above average reviews for classroom instruction.

Is the mere fact that this person treats other faculty members (not students) with varying levels of hostility, is generally uncooperative and largely disliked by department faculty enough to deny tenure?

The positives are pretty strong and I would normally assume they would be sufficient but I am concerned that other department faculty could strongly disagree and some may even choose to seek employment elsewhere if he is granted tenure.

In practice, "collegiality" is often a consideration in tenure decisions, whether or not it is a factor identified in the university policy on tenure and promotion.

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has come out with a statement against the use of collegiality as a an explicit factor in tenure decisions:

http://www.aaup.org/report/collegiality-criterion-faculty-evaluation/

However, this report also makes it clear that a faculty member who is hostile to the other faculty in his/her department would typically not be doing an adequate job in service and teaching, because working with colleagues in these areas is a necessary part of the job.

Thus "We're not granting tenure to John because no one likes him" wouldn't be a good reason, while "We're not granting tenure to John because he doesn't work productively in departmental committees" would be a reason to deny tenure.

As a practical matter, if the tenured faculty in the department don't like you and don't want you to get tenure, they'll probably find an excuse to deny you tenure.  Any tenure track faculty member would be well advised to get along with the other faculty in the department.


reliable english editor online? I am encountering some problems for making my research in English, due that this is not my native language. Even though my ideas are crystal clear in my language I find it extremely hard to express them in English.

For checking issues related to grammar and syntax I have been using Proofread Bot, it is an online grammar and syntax reviewer, but their results are not so accurate. I have been checking some persons that make this task, but their fees are pretty high (almost 200 USD for a 3 pages articles); and I would not like to be paying this amount every time that I want to submit something.

Does anybody knows another software reliable english editor tools online?

Whatever spelling or grammar checkers you use, you may rely only on their ability to detect a problem, not on their suggested solutions. Alas, if your paper is not completely trivial, this applies to most human professional editors as well no matter how much they charge or how many years of experience they claim. So, in the end, it'll all come back to you no matter what. I have been writing and speaking in broken English for 20 years and the only people who complained were the undergraduate students who, as far as I can judge, would hate me even if I had spoken with perfect Cambridge pronunciation and Oxford grammar. Just write in short simple sentences and you'll be fine. It will not be an exaggeration to say that, no matter what field you are in and what subject you are writing upon, the probability that an attempt of expressing your thought in an overly flamboyant manner, including all nuances and sideline remarks into a single sentence, and alluding to the arguments described in several previous passages at once (especially when the the latter are structured similarly to the phrase under consideration and the references to them can hardly be called unambiguous), will not throw the reader off for good somewhere in the middle of an elaborate construction you have built with utmost patience and verified against all spelling and grammar tools at your disposal is nearing that of the event that a layman be able to recite a sophisticated ten page legal contract with all details including each and every involved party and covenant therein in a single outpour flowing as effortlessly and graciously as a wide river in a deep valley after a quick look at it, i.e., zero. Just make sure that your thought is clear. Then yor massage wll cam thru evn if wrds r misspld and wrng grmmar.


Should teachers announce the grade breakdown during first class? I noticed that some teachers announce the grade breakdown in the first class or in the syllabus, while some don't. What's the best practice? If giving the grade breakdown at the beginning is preferable, is it better to use an absolute or relative breakdown?

Example of grade breakdown announced in the syllabus (absolute breakdown):

  Letter grades are determined at the end of the semester. The default
  cutoffs are: a final average of 90 and above is an A, 80 and above is
  a B, 70 and above is a C. These boundaries may be adjusted downwards
  if necessary because of the difficulty of the assignments or quizzes,
  but the boundaries will never be adjusted upwards, so a final average
  of 90 is guaranteed to be an A. The boundary adjustment is done
  heuristically, and there are no grade quotas, no grade targets, and no
  centering of the class on a particular grade boundary.

Example of grade breakdown announced during the first class (relative breakdown):

  The first half get A, the second half get B (except in case of failure to try to do the homework or show up at the exams).

I am especially interested in computer science education in the US.

I think it depends on the situation (assuming there is no official department or university policy on the matter).

For example, I am a young (math) teacher teaching a single course that has 25 students in it, at a college that I have never taught at before. I figured it was unlikely that I would be able to write exams that effectively separated the A's from the (A-)'s (say) based on some numerical scale that I set ahead of time. So I chose to not put a grade breakdown on the syllabus.

After each exam, I look at the performance of the students, and I give them an individual grade update containing what I call "a good estimate" of their letter grade thus far in the course. This prevents them from just remaining in the dark all term long with regards to their grade.

I have taught sections of courses at bigger schools where the grade scale is set ahead of time and is the same for all 800 or so students enrolled in the course. This makes sense, as the content of the courses is the same year after year, the exams are similar every year, and in general everything involving the course is somehow standardized.

I would say that, in general, it's fine to not announce a grade scale ahead of time if you don't have to. Just be prepared to have something to say about grades, because students will likely want to know. Sometimes I give myself some wiggle room on the syllabus by saying "your grade will not be lower than the following...", so they know that a 90 (or whatever) will guarantee them an A, but they might also earn an A with a score of less than a 90.


What is systematic literature review? I know what a literature review is and was wondering what makes such a review systematic? What extra steps do people usually go through when they do a systematic literature review? how is it different from regular literature review? The field is software engineering if it matters.

The quintessence of the systematic review is that it's, well, systematic. That is to say, you have a system by which you do the review: a detailed protocol that you work by, just like when you run experiments. The protocol sets out how you will define your search terms, where you will search, what your criteria are for inclusion are, what your criteria for exclusion are, and so on.

The idea is that, just as with an experiment's protocol, it would allow someone else to reproduce your work: in this case, your trawl through the literature. It gives you and your reviewers and readers a basis for assessing how comprehensive your review is. It may include a detailed protocol for quantitative meta-analysis or qualitative synthesis.

Systematic reviews can be hugely varied in form and scope: I've got 3 books that each provide part of the answer to this question. Check your library (possibly in the medical / epidemiological section) - they should have at least one of these.

Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review - Andrew Booth et al - encyclopaedic
Doing a Systematic Review: A Student's Guide  - Angela Boland et al
An Introduction to Systematic Reviews by David Gough et al