What agreement will allow the publication of research based on (anonymized) private data? An associate has publishable research that is derived from (anonymized) school system data. What language should be used (in a memorandum of understanding with the school system) to assure that all are protected?

This is a tricky question. There are established approaches for biomedical sciences, and they include specific consent forms. However, if you are talking about schools you might have minors involved, and this would much complicate any matter.

In the absence of a specific agreement between participating individuals and researchers, you need to obtain, in my opinion, the approval or waiver from an established institutional review board.

In addition, you need to be able to accurately deidentify your data, in order to make impossible to recognize the school or the subject. This is easier said than done, as just by looking at case mix, number of pupils, and type of subjects taught a very smart researcher could recognize one or more schools.

The safest way to address this would be to report only aggregate data, with effect weighs, such as done by the US National Inpatient Sample project.


How to deal with inconsistencies in my last name spelling on official documents? In my native language, my last name contains a letter, which can be transliterated into English in three different ways. Namely: ja, ya and ia. When I tried to transliterate my last name to English for the first time, I checked the results of several online translators, and they all transliterated  my last name to English with ya. I kinda liked that option as well and decided to stick with it.
After some time, I was issued my first passport, and it contained the other variant. I didn't want to drop my initial choice, because I liked it more and didn't want to rename all my Internet accounts either.
Yesterday, I had gone to a translator agency to translate my transcripts for the Master's program application and the translator asked me to write my last name exactly as in my foreign passport. I have realized that I have a lot of documents with the initial variant variant, which can't be reissued. For instance, all my award certificates and TOEFL results. Now I'm going to change everything I have to make consistency with my foreign passport, as it might cause problems with visa issuing.
I have two questions:

How I should cope with documents with the old last name option, which can't be reissued?

I think one way would be to add a footnote in my CV (which contains links to all certificates) which will notify the referees that I have written my last name previously in a different way.

Do you think that referees of Master's program admission might invalidate my TOEFL results because of this inconsistency?

I think this problem is widespread enough that it shouldn't be a problem, provided that you make people aware of it. You suggest a note in your CV and that should be fine. It could appear elsewhere also.
If you are questioned on it or someone makes a mistake in thinking you are acting improperly, just inform them of the issues. I think people will, in general, try to be reasonable, though I can't predict for everyone.
I know one person who immigrated to the US from China. His brother did also a bit later. They have "different" family names when written in Roman letters because of this issue. Most English speakers even pronounce the names a bit differently now. My own family name is spelled in at least three different ways in the US because my ancestors coming from Ireland were illiterate on arrival and people wrote down a spelling for them when they arrived based on pronunciation.


After revision: the paper is not anonymized - what does it mean? I finally got the revision of my paper, but one of the reviewers complained that the paper is not anonymized. Since I'm not the native english speaker, it's quite strange to me.

Does it mean that I should remove authors names from the paper? If so - what for, and why should I do this?

To add to @Brian's answer, in double blind review besides submitting your manuscript without author names, you should eliminate any information about datasets, affiliation or previous works that may betray your identity. E.g. for an Elsevier journal here instructions for double blind review to authors say:

  Besides the obvious need to remove names and affiliations under the
  title within the manuscript, there are other steps that need to be
  taken to ensure the manuscript is correctly prepared for double-blind
  peer review.  To assist with this process the key items that need to
  be observed are as follows:

  Use the third person to refer to work the Authors have previously undertaken, e.g. replace any phrases like “as we have shown before”
  with “… has been shown before [Anonymous, 2007]”.
  Make sure figures do not contain any affiliation related identifier
  Do not eliminate essential self-references or other references but limit self-references only to papers that are relevant for those
  reviewing the submitted paper.
  Cite papers published by the Author in the text as follows:  ‘[Anonymous, 2007]’.  For blinding in the reference list:  ‘[Anonymous
  2007] Details omitted for double-blind reviewing.’
  Remove references to funding sources
  Do not include acknowledgments
  Name your files with care and ensure document properties are also anonymized.

Of course, this hiding of information is limited only during the review rounds and after your work gets accepted, the camera ready copy of the publication should include all the relevant information , that was hidden / anonymized during the review rounds.


Can I submit an abstract to present already published work? I recently finished a project that has accepted for publication in a preventive medicine journal.
I was hoping to submit the abstract to some conferences to improve my presentation skills, and my supervisor informed me that I should make sure my paper is not published before the abstract is presented.
The journal has given us a 12-week ETA on publication, and both conferences I was hoping to present at are much later than that (16-24 weeks). As a result, I was wondering what my possible options are? So far, I have four questions:

If my paper is accepted for an oral presentation instead of a poster presentation, could I still present them if the paper has been published?

Could I ask the journal to put a hold on production so I can present at these conferences?

Does it matter if one of the planned conferences is not international / if they do not publish abstracts?

Should I contact the managing editor to ask if I may present the abstract at the planned conferences?

I think generally speaking you're thinking about your advisor's point the wrong way round. The point isn't that the journal now owns your work and presentations thereof (re: point 2), it owns the copyright, and the right to distribute their presentation of your work.
Rather the point is that conferences are expected to be new work, ahead of the literature. People don't go to conferences to hear a paper read aloud, they go to hear about new things they can't read in the literature. It's a venue for feedback (which can't be applied to a published article).
I'm not in preventative medicine (but at one time was in a medicine-adjacent field), but have heard this before. Generally, an oral presentation might be the better avenue for work that was just published, but you should ask your advisor about point 1.
To point 3 - no.
To point 4 - no, the managing editor is not the one imposing the "restriction," if you wanted to ask someone besides your advisor, you would ask a conference organizer or someone else familiar with the conference to learn what level of novelty is expected there.


How bad is it to decline the NSF graduate fellowship? Though NSF results aren't out yet for this year, this question's been wracking my brain since I'm heavily considering taking a gap year before grad school. I also haven't been able to find this particular question asked/answered anywhere online and I feel like there are surely others that might find themselves in this same situation, so I'm asking here.

Basically, I completed my NSF application in the fall with confidence, and then around a month later found out that my subject GRE scores were abysmal. Coupled with a fairly "low" GPA, I ended up not getting into any grad schools except my least-ranked backup school and a waitlist to another backup. I've talked over with my advisor and we agreed that taking a year off to reapply would be good for me. For one, I can retake the exam and possibly get into a wider range of schools, which means more opportunities to choose from. A second consideration is that part of the reason I didn't do well in school, which I only realized recently, is that I had been ignoring my mental health for years (I didn't believe "mental health" was a real thing, oops) and taking a gap year would help me put a year's worth of space between being thrown into grad classes while I heal. I've also already got plans for the year in place--I would be doing full-time research work for both my advisor and as part of a program I was accepted to. I feel like this is the healthiest, best route for me and is the one I'm most comfortable with.

However, there's still a chance I could win the NSF (which is exceedingly rare and a crapshoot for anyone, I know, but anyone who doesn't withdraw is technically still in the running!), which means I would have to go to grad school next year to accept the award. They removed the option to defer years ago unless you're active in the military or have a medical issue (I assume this means hospitalization, not going through something like CBT). Because it's such a competitive fellowship, I always had the notion that it would be just plain "stupid" to turn it down (unless, of course, you got some sort of better award). However, because of the reasons I stated in the paragraph above, I'm definitely less comfortable with this path.

In this scenario, which should take priority? Accepting a competitive fellowship at a backup school I'm unsure about, or taking a year off to reapply and have more options (especially at top choice, selective institutions), albeit without the NSF or possibly any sort of external fellowship? Has anyone gone through either route and regretted it? Also, how does listing a declined award (NOT in the context of winning other awards and having to choose only one) look on a CV? For context, I'm interested in attempting a career as tenured faculty in academia (which is also exceedingly unlikely, I know).

There are no consequences to you if you decline the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.  You did waste the reviewers' time.

If you get the fellowship and do not get into your first choice PhD program, then I suggest contacting your first choice and asking them if they will reconsider.  Many places are happy to have a PhD student they are paid by NSF to take, when the usual situation is they have to pay to get a PhD student.


Helping TA's creativity when writing exercise sheets Teaching assistants (TAs) often have the task to compile exercise sheets for the students and need to come up with new problems for such sheets.

Let's assume that in the lecture, two methods for a certain use case were presented, and a TA is supposed to write a problem that should make the students use the second method. The first one should be cumbersome to use, so that the students can figure out themselves that the second method is the one to use in this case. Also, the problem should be somewhat motivated by an arbitrary problem from practice, so that solving the exercise sheet problem also teaches the students that the second method has its use in practice.

Now some TAs will be naturally good at such tasks, and others do not know where to start, despite knowing all of the relevant scientific results. How to teach TAs the creative skills to performing such tasks?

Note: This is a follow-up question to an earlier question on a related topic, which went without answer ideas. This new question may be of more universal interest, and I suspect that if good answers can be given, they are the same in both cases anyway.

I'm not sure why you find this to be a special problem. We basically know how to teach people things. Just do it in the ordinary way.

If no framework for understanding how to do a task exists then you need to develop one. If you know how to do it, but are unique, then you need to capture what you do in some way that can be transmitted.

Then you "teach" it by presenting the framework and giving some exercises so that it can be practiced and giving some feedback on how people do.

It is a standard teaching problem.

If no one knows how to do it, then you need to do something like research to discover how it can be done and then operationalize that research. Again, a standard problem, with a standard solution.

But, one thing I would suggest is that you use some sort of team learning so that those who do it naturally can pass skills to those who struggle with it. Pairing is a good approach and one I often recommend for such tasks.

Beyond that, it will likely take the examination of good and bad examples, using discussion (by the TAs) of why some things work and others don't.

But it is practice and feedback that are the key to learning almost anything, hence key to teaching it.

Don't take the word "framework" too literally.

Also, the task itself is ill defined here. Expect that no one will be perfect at it and that the "examples" created will sometimes fail. But there are ways, such as pre-testing or other evaluative methods, to deal with that as well.


Can I not ask my advisor for recommendation letter if I'm applying for an industry job? I'm currently in my fifth year of my PhD in a molecular biology lab, and I have since last year decided to transition to computational biology field.

My advisor is very much into molecular biology and wasn't happy about my transition. We have fundamental differences in research approaches and he would always force his idea on me. He constantly threatened me not to sign my thesis or to refuse to write a recommendation letter if I don't do exactly as he says. And at this point, I'm just trying to survive grad school, but I'm wondering about the possibility of not having him in my reference list as I don't expect his letter to be very helpful.

My advisor is not very well-known in our field, let alone in any field related to computational biology. Currently I'm trying to improve my programming skills and at the same time fulfill my phd task. I'm thinking that perhaps I can try asking for references from our lab collaborators, my committee or other professors in our department who are much more aquainted in bioinformatics field.

Any suggestions?

It also sounds like you are considering giving up your doctoral studies. Let me suggest something different.

It seems to me that you want to try to maximize your future options and realize your potential. I recommend that, for now, you just follow your advisor's direction and get the degree finished and then move on to whatever it is you want to do. You should have plenty of time for a transition to another field after completion and holding the degree will leave you positioned for either an academic or industrial career.

It may be galling to have to submit, but the advisor has a certain amount of power. Think of him as a door that you need to get through to be a success.

At that point your immediate problem may go away and he might write you an appropriate letter.

On the other hand, not having his letter now would probably seem unusual to most employers, so you'd better have a good and honest explanation for why you don't have it. Disagreeing with and advisor isn't an especially valuable trait in the minds of many employers and they may not really understand the situation.


Is it better to present a bad paper at a conference or cancel? I'm a PhD student who recently had an abstract accepted for a conference. It was based on a survey that was scheduled to take place before the conference, but external issues caused the survey to be delayed. I don't have the data I thought I would. I've tried to rework a paper that is more theory-based and introduces some descriptive data from another data set, but it's not a strong paper. Should I cancel late notice or just suck it up? It would be my first conference.

You don't mention your exact field, but it is very common in the humanities for conferences papers to be, in effect, works (of larger scale) in progress.

One of the really nice things about that is that when you present it, you will have a number of people with expertise in your topic listening and often times will provide very constructive comments or ask questions that ultimately help you deepen or extend or improve the paper.

So as you mention, moving it to be more theory based isn't a bad thing.  You can focus on the design of your survey, and mention the intended use, and you will undoubtedly get some solid feedback (it's also totally fine to be upfront and explain why your paper doesn't match the submitted abstract/title).

The end result will be an even better survey that, once you've done it and analyzed it, will lead to a more easily published article (perhaps with another conference paper along the way).  You may also get people to come up to you afterwards who are doing similar work, and that could result in collaborations down the road.


How to steer a research fellowship back to the main initial focus rather than the supervisor's programming needs? Currently, I work as a part time (0.2 FTE) fixed-term (1 year) Research Fellow in the field of public health - this is not my primary area of research or expertise, but the project looked interesting and had some mutual research interests - primarily the data analytics aspects.

However, as time has gone by (half way), all I have done is programming the primary tool for data collection (Android based), and now the supervisor is started to strongly go on about loosely-relevant web design for another one of her projects.

I have declined to do the web design, as I am not proficient in it and simply not interested - also reminding her that web design was not part of the original plan, nor do I possess the qualifications or experience.

She has mentioned that she has collected data for the main project and in her words 'to save me time', has had a grad student analyse it.  When I politely reminded her that this data analytics was what I was employed to do and are qualified in, she ignores the email and goes on about the web design (and about superficial improvements to the Android program).

How can I steer a research fellowship back to the main initial focus (data analytics) rather than the supervisor's programming needs?

This fits in the standard mold, I think, of "How do I assert myself with my advisor?"

You wrote one assertive email.  At this point you can choose between a more strongly worded (but still polite, of course) email, and asserting yourself in person (preferably in a special appointment).

Personally I would choose the latter in most cases.

Asserting oneself works best in a stair-step escalation.  Each step up must be discernably stronger than the previous, but it's best to avoid going from zero to 60, to save face.

Keep the conversation as neutral in tone and as brief as possible.


Why are degrees in Business Administration (and similar) considered Science? Why do people studying e.g. Business Administration (or similar) receive BSc or MSc degrees? Those guys don't rely on the scientific method even if they may use some mathematical or scientific tools from social sciences sometimes.

Is this just an institutional artifact?

Somee University's have found that they actually had no policy to differentiate why some degrees were only offered as a BA or as BS and decided to create (or at least formally define) a difference, like this story:

  BA/BS, Difference Between Degrees

  Background: in 1984, the Academic Senate Curriculum Committee was
  asked to prepare a policy statement which would differentiate between
  Bachelor of Science degrees and Bachelor of Arts degrees at California
  Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. The need for this arose
  when some departments at Cal Poly proposed to change their B.A.
  degrees to B.S. degrees. The requests were refused by the Chancellor's
  Office in part because Cal Poly, SLO, had no campus policy which
  specified the differences between the two degrees.

This one University created this type of distinction:

  Bachelor of Arts Degree:

  is usually less specialized than a Bachelor of Science degree.
  requires a minimum of 180 quarter units for the degree; 36 units are
  required in the major, of which at least 18 units are at the 300-400
  level.
  is normally awarded in such majors as the languages,
  literature, other humanities, and history.

  Bachelor of Science Degree:

  typically involves technical fields.
  requires a minimum of 180 quarter
  units for the degree; 54 units are required in the major, of which at
  least 27 quarter units are at the of 300-400 level.
  is normally
  awarded in such majors as the physical and biological sciences,
  engineering, and agriculture

Here's a different take on the same issue:

  The BA is a liberal arts degree intended to develop skills and talents
  essential to succeeding in a global society. It combines study of the
  arts, humanities, historical perspectives, and the natural and social
  sciences with advanced critical inquiry and an in-depth knowledge in
  an academic discipline (major). The program develops cultural, social,
  and political literacy, including the abilities to communicate
  effectively and clearly in writing and in speech, and to understand on
  a basic level a world language other than one’s own.* In so doing, it
  fosters the ability to understand and actively participate in
  discourses both within and beyond the field of your major (such as a
  minor or second major), and it promotes engagement with cultural,
  social, and political difference.

  The BS is a liberal arts degree intended to develop skills and talents
  essential to professional work. It combines study of the arts,
  humanities, historical perspectives, and the natural and social
  sciences with advanced critical inquiry and an in-depth knowledge in a
  specific academic discipline (major). The program develops an
  understanding of empirical analysis, scientific methodology and
  protocols, and mathematics and quantitative techniques. In so doing,
  it equips you for continued engagement in professional research within
  your chosen field.

What's the actual difference in terms of coursework, other than the choice of major itself? The BA requires a foreign language (2 semesters) and a few extra humanities classes, while the BS has no requirement for foreign language but adds an extra natural science lab and extra math class. It's mostly a nonsense differentiation that means nothing, but it sounds fancy and gives the illusion of choice if you don't know why you want to go to college - so it's an effective part of the marketing to some audiences.

But in all of these note that no mention is made of the scientific method, math, or any classically recognized type of 'art' (such as painting, literature, etc). The words art and science are not well defined in this way across academia, and so in the end they are used in whatever way the school decides they want to use them.

There are some other classifications in use as well, such as bachelors of: music (BM), applied science (BAS), fine art (BFA), and even a Bachelor Of Business Administration (BBA).

One final note is the classification sometimes ends up purely as a result of what 'school' or 'college' within the University grants the degree. Some schools define themselves as liberal arts/humanities schools and only offer a BA, some define themselves as technical/technology schools and only grant a BS, business schools are more likely to offer something branded as a BBA/MBA, schools of "letters and science" often offer both, etc. In such schools the difference is who is in charge of that particular degree, more than it reflects a genuine difference in what the classification means to students or other community members.

And all of this is just in the US system!

TLDR; The difference in a BA/BS and how "business administration" will be classified (as BA, BS, BBA, etc) means something only within the context of a given school, varies widely between schools, and sometimes means nothing. Each institution generally chooses for itself what, if any, difference there is, so you'll need to refer to each school for reasoning on why they do things they way they do - and sometimes the answer will just be tradition. 'Art' and 'science' in academic degrees don't necessarily mean the same thing as they do in the vernacular.


MBA recommendation letter from the board member of another business school? I know someone very well who is a board member of a business school at one of the world’s top ranked university. This university has a great business school for undergraduates but the MBA program is not at all held in high regard.

I have my eyes on a highly ranked MBA program at another university.

My question:

  Will a recommendation from a board member of a
  business school improve my application or harm it when applying for an MBA program
  at another university?

I can see it harming my application because if I am such a good applicant for an MBA then why would the board member endorse my application for another university? Why wouldn’t he try and make me attend the MBA at his business school?

On the other hand I can see it improving my application. For someone in his position to endorse my application to attend another business school shows I must be a very good fit for where I want to go.

  Do I ask this board member for a recommendation letter or find someone
  else? What are some of the pros and cons of asking this board member?

I can see it harming my application because if I am such a good applicant for an MBA then why would the board member endorse my application for another university? Why wouldn’t he try and make me attend the MBA at his business school?

Because, like you said, the other program is much better. If he knows and wishes you well, he won't try to prevent you from benefiting from a better program. Also, he cannot force you to attend his business school and you may have very good non-academic reasons to prefer another place. Perhaps your partner lives there, perhaps the job opportunities are better or the school has better career services, perhaps you just want to change your environment.

  Do I ask this board member for a recommendation letter or find someone else? What are some of the pros and cons of asking this board member?

First of all, it doesn't hurt to think of a back-up plan in advance, in case the board member declines to write a strong letter.

Generally speaking, a recommendation letter from a board member of a good university should not harm your application. However, whether it will improve it depends on the capacity in which he knows you. Was he your professor in some classes where you performed exceptionally well and can commend on your analytical abilities? Does he have first have experience of working with you in the industry and can talk about your leadership potential, etc? Does he know you from some outstanding community service that you have performed? Look at how business schools describe their ideal candidates (they usually have a section like this). You want your recommendation letters to speak directly to those qualities based on their first-hand experience and giving specific examples as evidence.

In other words, his status of as a board member can amplify an otherwise strong application letter. However, if it is going to be something superficial, then it's better to look for someone else. And, of course, you don't want to be related to that person.


How to cite or refer to programming codes in a non Computer Science Master's Thesis? I am writing my Thesis in finance field and I am using Machine learning methods. Therefore, I wrote many Python and R scripts for collecting data, cleaning it and applying some statstics.

should I reference my own code that I wrote? if yes can you please tell me how?
should I reference all the libraries that I've used during my work?

Thanks

The standard way is to upload the code in a public repository so that everyone can use your code. In the thesis, you can refer to your repository in the footnote/endnote.

What you really need to cite is the papers/books which introduce the used methods first. The need to cite a library is when it has a specific configuration and it is likely that it outputs different result, such as the method which requires a probabilistic sampling. Here, the output will be different based on the used method.

Back to your case and responding to your questions:

You can publish all the materials of your work in a public repository and refer to it by citing the link (preferably in the footnote). It is unprofessional to add the code in the appendix (unless it is short and in pseudo-code).
You don't need to cite the libraries but the papers of the methods that are implemented in these libraries. If the library has a specific configuration, you can mention it in the text or cite the library (very rare cases).


What background is necessary to do research in computational linguistics? I'm getting ready to enter graduate school, and I would like to do PhD-level research in computational linguistics and natural language processing. I know that these two fields are very interdisciplinary and draw on various subfields of linguistics, computer science, math, and statistics. I also know that research in comp ling and NLP is done in different departments at different schools, with some schools having it in the CS department, and some in the linguistics department.

Ideally, what background knowledge should someone have in order to do research in computational linguistics or natural language processing? Which areas of linguistics, computer science, math, and statistics are necessary or helpful in studying comp ling and NLP, and is there one field among those four which is overall more necessary than the others?

(Note: per this question from Linguistics.SE, the distinction between comp ling and NLP is pretty blurry, which is why I mention both in my question.)

Linguistics Ph.D. admissions is unusual in that no particular background is necessarily required.  The reason is that many institutions do not offer a linguistics major, so the pool of linguistics majors is small.  In addition, linguistics is highly interdisciplinary.

To answer your question more specifically, if you want to enter computational linguistics, some programming ability is essential.  A bachelor's degree in any of the disciplines you mention may be sufficient.  I would also add psychology, anthropology, and foreign language backgrounds as potential entry points for a linguistics Ph.D.  You must also be prepared to learn statistics.


What are some amusing paper titles? I acknowledge that this is by no means a productive question, and I ask it for purposes of humor. Still, if anyone is aware of amusing / clever paper titles, it could be nice to make such a list.

-- Edit -- It may in fact be off-topic, as suggested by some comments. I am open to suggestions for more appropriate venues for this question.

Despacito: the slow evolutionary changes in plant microRNAs.

(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29448158)


Is it bad to copy and paste from your SoP to other questions on a grad school app? There was one school that asked to explain any breaks in university enrollment. Well I took a year off and was really active in research so I talk about that in my SoP. The question asked to explain any breaks, which I did thoroughly in my SoP. I just copied and pasted the part from my SoP where I talk about it and add a line or two of context before it. I didn't even think about it. Looking back I should have thought about it.

Did I do a bad thing? Will this come off as lazy? The passage stands on its own, IMO.

Well, eventually this is an opinion poll but I would predict the odds is at your good side. I've been reading many application packages in a graduate school and situations like yours do not bother me for the following reasons:

The statement of purpose is supposed to be the best thought out piece of your application. For that reason I think it's sensible to reuse the materials.
You have slightly revised the passage by adding some contents to the beginning to make the whole answer stand alone fine. That shows thoughtfulness.
Some committee members may even advocate for you for being able to include some crucial information in the statement of purpose without being asked.

So, I don't think it's a deal breaker. If you want to tackle this kind of situations more confidently, provide a shorter synopsis in the short answer, and note that a detailed description of the leave is included in the statement of purpose. This would improve the coherence between the application components.

Good luck.


Getting PhD from average institution (gain experience) before applying for a PhD in top institution? What do you think about an idea of getting a PhD in an "better then average institution" to get tons of experience to get a second PhD (in the same field) from top institution?

I'm now getting a MSc degree in applied math from one of the top Russia institutions, but I still feel like I don't have enough experience, and publications, and general "coolness" for applying to places like MIT or Stanford or other top universities - but I would really want to work with people there! Moreover the problem I've came up with for my thesis is somewhat "non-mainstream" (that's why I don't really have a thesis adviser and I'm guiding myself through it, so it turned out to be slower process than I expected).

I've been thinking of getting a first PhD in some good place in Europe, getting few publications, gaining more experience there and only after that applying into top institutions. From your own experience, does that seem to be a good idea? (I mean, having a completed PhD in some other institution seems like a great advantage from the lab's perspective - right?)

Terrible idea, at least as far as a life goal is concerned. You will spend 5 years of your life doing something you consider only preparatory, without any guarantee that you will actually be admitted by the MITs and Stanfords of your aspiration. In fact, if we had someone applying to our graduate program who already has a PhD, we'd seriously be asking ourselves why this person wants to get another PhD? So it may not actually be any easier to get into the good institutions if you already have a PhD. Finally, even if you do, you will be 5 years older than everyone else when you graduate, and this will count against you (statistically speaking) when you look for jobs beyond that.

The thing you have come to realize is that everyone wants to go to MIT and Stanford, but only few actually manage to. Make your peace with this -- shoot for the best place you can to get a PhD and then make your career from there. You'll find that with a PhD from a good place in Europe, you will have sufficiently many options.


How to type a foreign language author name with special characters? How do you cite (in APA) the authors last name when it is a foreign language with special unknown characters that can't be identified by most word processors.

Try shapecatcher.com and detexify.kirelabs.org to identify the characters.  Then proceed from there by inserting a Unicode char in a Unicode font or a latex command (depending on whether you are using MSWord or some form of LaTeX).  Once you have identified the character, also try an online search engine to find out spellings easier for you, e.g., the romanized ones.

If everything else fails, ask the sources where you got the name from. The contact person can be an editor, a publisher, a coauthor, or the author himself/herself. Some authors maintain homepages with a correct spelling of their name; if it is the case for the author in question, take a look at their HTML code.


Can a Professor move a class an hour earlier? My professor moved class from 1:30 to 12:30 and I missed class and a big research presentation i was supposed to give.  Is he allowed to move class like that?

It depends on your University's policies. At my University, professors are not allowed (see [1]:34-83). Your University might have some stipulations regarding this (e.g. was it done with due notice? what happens to students who were absent the day it was decided?).

Your best choice would be to check the policies and see if you have the right to give your presentation during office hours or at another time.

References:
[1] http://senate.psu.edu/policies-and-rules-for-undergraduate-students/34-00-course-scheduling/#34-83


Is it acceptable to include a paper in the reference list but not cite it in text? A paper (quite) related to some work my coauthors and I have recently appeared as a preprint. This paper cites ours; however, it does not do so in the body of the paper (intro, proofs, etc.), but only in the references: with the LaTeX command \nocite, I assume.

Doing so seems strange to me, as it does not discuss relevance, nor compare, nor even state what the cited paper does. It's a citation without context.

  Am I overreacting? More importantly, am I wrong: are there situations where this type of citation makes sense, and, if so, which ones?

Edit: by "makes sense," I mean "is justified for academic-related/citation etiquette reasons."

There are lots of situations where this type of citation naturally emerges:

You want to cite a paper that you have gotten inspiration from, but you cannot pinpoint any specific objective relation between that paper and yours. For example, some equalities appearing in that paper look similar to some equalities in yours (even though they involve completely different objects), and you have built some parallels in your mind without ever making them rigorous. You may try to be open and mention these parallels in your paper, but they will be so vague and subjective that readers will tap their foreheads and referees will ask you to remove the sentences.
You have cited a paper whose results you used in one of your proofs, but then you find a better/simpler proof and no longer had any use for the citation. But you never bothered to remove the citation, since you might well need it again for something different. It's much easier to keep it in and only remove it at the very end of the process, when the paper is about to get published.
You have written a long paper and then split it into two. Each of them still has the full bibliography of the original paper, because removing references is thankless and boring work and you may need them again (see the previous point).
You have pre-emptively added the citation to the bibliography since you know you will want to cite it in a forthcoming section of your paper. That section never gets written.


Is referencing a technical report in an improper format plagiarism? Suppose someone uses a report such as technical report in an article or school work, but in the references at the end of document they just reference it like:

  Author A, Author B, title, year

I.e., they write what google scholar provides and forget to put the institution and mentioning that it is technical report.

Is this plagiarism?
The point is that student already submitted the paper and changing it entails lots of emails and an official process, just want to ensure it is not educational misconduct.

No.  It's just poor citation writing.

[Assuming this is the only issue.  If I open the report and your paper and see bulk copying of prose, that is plagiarism.  But it still would be even if your endnote was properly written.]


How to come up with an effective undergraduate research topic - for scholarship? Winter semesters ends on April 13th. Summer research/classes - May 15th

I am a second-year civil engineering student. Juggling between options, I planned on cold emailing many people for job internships/taking summer classes/requesting a professor for a research option.

SUCCESS - I got a research offer! This happened all so quickly before I could think properly.

I emailed the professor two days back and she responded the same day! However, I was not sure about any topic yet and she was not free until next week to meet and talk about my interest.

Now, she forwarded me an email the next day (April 8th) for a research scholarship fund application (ICAN-WISE) for female researchers and advised me to apply. The deadline is -THE SAME DAY (April 8th!!)

The application asks for the applicants research topic. And how it applies to the student's future studies and the welfare of the community. The better/better chances of getting the fund.

The problem - I am not sure what to say.

The professor I contacted works in Water Resource department. I registered with ReaearchGate and read through some of her collaborated works. Some of them really interested me and I put these in my email when I contacted her. But I am really unsure of how to come up with a topic. This is new to me. Is there any specific way I could approach this?

Should I email the professor for her idea/feedback on what will suit me?

Generally speaking, developing a research topic is something that happens over weeks, months, even years - it's not really something that naturally comes about in a single day. So reasonably speaking, you really need an alternate question: how to come up with something reasonable to put in a scholarship form in a few hours. The usual process is to talk with lots of professors and potential advisers, read over their research, look carefully at all topics that come up in class, read a variety of books and keep your mind open and working on what you are really interested in...and that is going to take a lot more time than you have.

So frankly, you are going to need to "wing it" - to "fire from the hip" and hope for the best in terms of this particular scholarship application if it indeed has the hard deadline of 'today'. For this I would suggest you review the general ideas in this helpful professor's published works, as you mentioned you have already done, and point your finger towards whatever topic sounds kind of doable to you and is generally an area you might like to work more on in the future - or at least you think you might like to. And something vaguely in that realm could be your proposed topic. Just write it up and get it out.

Once you have gotten past the emergency of the deadline, you should certainly talk with the professor more about potential topics. But there is no replacement for having your own ideas and interests, and what is a great topic for one person is torture to someone else. By all means, keep working on it and developing your interests and awareness of what you might like to work on in the future - but for now, get that scholarship app done while you still can!


What do people with bachelor's degrees in humanities actually end up doing? If someone majors in political science or international relations or history, what do they end up actually doing as a career?

I've found numerous sites that give the obvious answers what they can do, but to date no site that says what they actual do.

It's all fine and dandy thinking that an International Studies degree will prepare you for a career as a diplomat, but if 95% of graduates end up selling life insurance, or filling out form 2773A-11 for some bureaucracy, I may want to make a different set of choices.

The reason certain courses (engineering, law, medicine) are referred to as 'professional courses' is that they prepare one  for a particular profession, and that is the primary goal of the course.
In any other course, it is a good idea to assume that you are being taught various skills, but not necessarily being prepared for a career. To expect a career out of a humanities degree may therefore be misguided.  Best to look at it as a stepping stone that could lead you in a multitude of directions.


Can a PhD student accused of plagiarism revise/resubmit the thesis? I don't know how to ask this so please forgive my ignorance and lack of vocabulary. Consider a case as below. I just would like to know.. :

Can a PhD student who just defended their thesis, but is accused of plagiarism the day after that by his own advisor, be denied the right to correct/revise/resubmit/etc. the PhD thesis?

I think it's unfair that the student is denied the opportunity to correct/revise/resubmit/etc. with the reason being "there's no time". Long story short, the part covered by the accusation is only related to the explanation of some previous research (with difficulty in English) and the result of the defense was Successful. At least the advisor (and we generally as people in academic world) should help - at least give him/her a chance/right of resubmission/etc., not denying the student's hard work, worth and right. Many other people got the chance to at least resubmit/redefend/etc.

Any advice on what can be done also is very much appreciated.

[ADDITIONAL QUESTION]:

On this page, it's said that the Materials and Methods part is often given a high similarity score in plagiarism checker software. What I understand from the link is, a situation like this is acceptable; not considered as plagiarism. I wonder if this is also true for other/most universities/institutions?

I think it's relevant what kind of plagiarism this is.

If it's serious plagiarism, such as quoting large blocks of text without proper attribution, then that can be a serious academic offense. Asking why you can't just change it and re-submit is like asking why you can't just re-take an exam if you're caught cheating or why you can't just give the item back and forget everything if you're caught stealing.

Depending on your institutions procedures you might be allowed to resubmit if it's found that the plagiarism was minor, accidental or not actually plagiarism but I suspect you're missing the point.

Plagiarism in a submitted thesis isn't like a simple technical error to be corrected, it's potential wrong-doing or dishonesty to be investigated.


Is it appropriate to speak to the reader in scientific paper (but without using "you")? This is similar to the question here, but my question is different because I'm not asking about ever using "you" in my writing.
I quite like using the turn of phrase "Note that...". For example, I'm discussing some feature of data that reflects a physical property. But then I want so say that my data looks a little different because of such-and-such reasons. So, I would like to write something along the lines of: "Note that all experimental data in this manuscript shows just half of the typical shape because we performed only half of the typical sweep."
When I write "Note...", I'm actually speaking to the reader directly. It's kind of like saying, "Hey you! Pay attention here!" Everywhere else in the manuscript the focus is on the experiment and not on the reader. So, would this be frowned upon?

It is not frowned upon and is mostly seen as a stylistic choice. It might be annoying if the same phrase is repeated many times ("Note, note, note, note"). If you prefer an alternative, here are some.
"The reader should note..."
"Readers familiar with XXXX will realise..."
"For those unfamiliar with... an explanation is provided in footnote/ appendix/ section"
"Notably,..."
"It must be stressed that..."
"We emphasise/highlight/note that..."
"It is important to note..."
"Let us note that" - from @user151413
Or simply do not refer to the reader but to the fact.


Co-author does not want biography+photo in paper submission Some journals such as the IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems (randomly picked) require a biography and sometimes also a photo of the paper authors.

Currently I have the case that a co-author working in the industry does not want this. He says (and I can totally understand this) that he does not want that possible future companies will find a photo of him when using a search engine. He also does not like the biography part but would accept this, if there is no other solution.

Question: Is it uncommon to ask the Editor-in-chief whether the biography and/or photos may be omitted? The journal would be a perfect match so that I do not want to pick another one just because of this.

Rather than trying to determine whether it is common or not to get the EiC involved in this matter, I would like to suggest that you ask a more "productive" question: are there established ways of handling the case when a co-author does not want to include a bio and a photo? The answer to this question, as far as the IEEE is concerned, is "yes."

Next to the author's name, simply state:

  Randy D. Fuddles, photograph and biography not available at the time of publication.


Coauthorship outside my PhD work I am currently a PhD student and I was invited to co-author a review paper on my field. Would it be ok to co-author a paper outside my PhD work without my supervisor as a co-author? My supervisor is supportive of all my work and networking I'm just worried about this kind of move now.

Ask your supervisor.

This will basically come down to your supervisor's wishes. However, it is usually OK. The majority of my papers during PhD were with other coauthors and not my advisor and he was very supportive of this. Personally, I would consider it very poor form for a supervisor to be so possessive of their students' time.

If your supervisor says it's OK, then go for it. If your supervisor objects, then you have to decide what to do. Personally, I would consider finding a better supervisor if my current one won't let me broaden my collaboration network, but it depends on your situation.


When journals falsely assume I already have my PhD, do I need to correct them? I have published several papers and have done a number of peer-reviews (on request by the journals) as well. In the communication with these journals, I frequently get addressed as "Dr. Lastname", although I have not finished my PhD yet.
I don't mind when this happens in predatory requests from shady journals and conferences (science spam), because I don't expect them to do their due diligence in finding out correct personal info on all the people they send these requests to.
But coming from more serious sources it feels weird.
In the beginning, I made the effort to correct them, but as it started to happen more and more, I stopped, but always wonder if this is not misrepresenting myself. Maybe the requests for e.g. peer-review would not have been sent to me if they knew that I didn't have my doctorate yet, as several journals I know only invite PhD-holders to review.
So should I always clarify my status, or is this a pretty common thing happening to many researchers, and no one really cares?

Include your proper title and position in your email signature.
I'd say not to explicitly correct them in the email, but to include a signature to the email that says something like "Mr/Ms Sursula, PhD Candidate at Faculty of ABC, XYZ University". Ideally  you'd want to use your university's official email footer format to do so.
That way, you can inform them of how you're properly meant to be addressed, without openly chastising them for getting it wrong.


How can I fund my PhD after the first year? I'm in the process of applying for admission to a PhD program this Fall after several years in industry. Due to the late timing of the application I'm looking at self-funding my first year, but after that I would rather not be doing so. What would my options be for funding after the first year beyond just TA and RA-ships?

In the US, various funding agencies (NSF, NIH, DOE, ...) have fellowships you can apply to for predoctoral students. They tend to be very competitive compared to internal sources (Teaching Assistantships, Research Assistantships, Graduate Assistantships), but they may offer a higher stipend.

Depending on your field, professional societies also offer fellowships: American heart association, Whitaker foundation, Gates foundation.

Industry also offers some in association with various schools: Siemens, Raytheon, Johnson & Johnson.


Using pictures of 16th–18th century paintings in PhD dissertation? Can someone please help me get an insight into the use of images, specifically paintings from the 16th to 18th century that reside in churches, museums, etc., and how can one use them in a PhD dissertation without falling into copyright issues?

I am aware there are different options. For instance it is legal under German law to use a picture of a painting if it was taken by you and in a place that allowed it. However, I’m not sure about the following in German law:

Is it legal if I use an image from a book or catalogue?
Can one claim a “quotation” of a work?
Can one claim “fair use”, like in the US, since it is part of a critical/review/academic/research type of purpose?

I begin with a ton of quotes from the German copyright law (Urheberrecht, original, English translation):

  § 15 Allgemeines

  (1) Der Urheber hat das ausschließliche Recht, sein Werk in körperlicher Form zu verwerten; das Recht umfaßt insbesondere

  das Vervielfältigungsrecht (§ 16),
  das Verbreitungsrecht (§ 17),
  das Ausstellungsrecht (§ 18).

  (2) Der Urheber hat ferner das ausschließliche Recht, sein Werk in unkörperlicher Form öffentlich wiederzugeben (Recht der öffentlichen Wiedergabe). […]

  Article 15 – General

  (1) The author has the exclusive right to exploit his work in material form; this right shall in particular include

  the right of reproduction (Article 16),
  the right of distribution (Article 17),
  the right of exhibition (Article 18).

  (2) The author further has the exclusive right to communicate his work to the public in non-material form (right of communication to the public). […]

  § 51 Zitate

  Zulässig ist die Vervielfältigung, Verbreitung und öffentliche Wiedergabe eines veröffentlichten Werkes zum Zweck des Zitats, sofern die Nutzung in ihrem Umfang durch den besonderen Zweck gerechtfertigt ist. Zulässig ist dies insbesondere, wenn

  einzelne Werke nach der Veröffentlichung in ein selbständiges wissenschaftliches Werk zur Erläuterung des Inhalts aufgenommen werden,

  […]

  Article 51 – Quotations

  It shall be permissible to reproduce, distribute and communicate to the public a published work for the purpose of quotation so far as such exploitation is justified to that extent by the particular purpose. This shall be permissible in particular where

  subsequent to publication individual works are included in an independent scientific work for the purpose of explaining the contents,

  […]

  § 64 Allgemeines

  Das Urheberrecht erlischt siebzig Jahre nach dem Tode des Urhebers.

  Article 64 – General

  Copyright expires 70 years after the author’s death.

The questions relevant to your situation are:

Do you have to publish your thesis? If yes, copyright applies (§ 15) as you are reproducing and distributing the images or photographs thereof. If not, more lenient laws for private copies apply (§ 53).
Did the creators of the images die more than seventy years ago? If the images are from the 18th century or earlier, this should apply.
Did you take the photo of the image yourself? This is the most tricky question, as the photo may be a copyrightable work on its own.

Last year, a court rejected a lawsuit against Wikimedia Germany which was about using a photo of a public-domain image. The court argued that this would be an invalid prolongation of copyright that surpasses the public domain and also mentioned that a purely technical reproduction is generally not considered to be copyrightable. You can read about this here and here.

However, these links also mention lawsuits with other decisions and there is no general law about this situation.
Does § 51 (quotations) apply? – For the images, this is something that only you can decide. However, if the photograph is considered a work on its own, one may argue that you do not explain the photograph in the sense of § 51.

So, to summarise, there are several laws in your favour if you made the photographs yourself. Otherwise, you run a small risk of a copyright lawsuit, which I would consider rather low.

In general, I suggest asking the owners for their permission to be sure. Also, they may have high-quality photographs, which they can provide for you. After all, museums and similar places generally like if their exhibits are the subject of scientific works.


How to quote a draft in my thesis? For my bachelor thesis I needed a certain source. As it wasn't accessible neither on the net, nor in my library, I decided to ask the author directly. She was kind enough to send me a draft of the text in question, explicitly allowing me to use it for private academic purpose.

Now I'm in the middle of my thesis. How do I cite a draft that doesn't even have a date? If I had the published version, I'd simply cross-reference, but I don't, and adding the page number of a word document that my supervisor doesn't have seems utterly useless. Do I simply leave out the page number (it's a very short paper), or do I add the paper as an attachment?

I know this is something I'd normally ask my supervisor. Unfortunately, communication with her is not something I'm interested in, for personal reasons. I'm therefore looking for a reasonable advice that has nothing to do with her preferences.

If it has been published, ask the author for a pdf of the published version (from your question I got the feeling that the paper has been published). This would also be easier to share with your supervisor later on. It makes no sense to cite or quote a draft version if the paper has been published. At least ask if the draft has identical content as the published version. If so, you could maybe get away with using the draft but citing the published version in your reference list (not ideal though).

Otherwise, cite it as a working paper/draft, by including author, title, and the date when you recieved the paper, see e.g. Chicago manual of style online or MLA style guide.


Who hires a visiting professor? When a professor stays in another university as a visiting professor during his sabbatical leave, his salary is partially paid by his home university. Then, he is not a regular employee of host university, but how is the official processing?

For example, he needs lots of employment stuff such as ID, parking, etc. Thus, he should have a profile with the human resource.

Is he hired by the university (HR) or directly by a department?
Does he need to provide regular documents such as academic credentials (diploma, transcript) or an employment status from the home university is enough?
Following these questions, when he teaches a course or supervises a student, what is his employment reference in official records? I mean can a guest professor teach/supervise without official records in the university HR?

EXAMPLE: A full professor goes to another university on sabbatical leave whether for teaching or research. He needs ID card, and normally HR or similar central unit issues the ID card, not individual departments. Shouldn't he have a record in the HR files as the reference for the ID card issued?

My question is: When the HR is creating a file for a visiting professor/scholar/researcher, what documents should be supplied?

Let me clarify some terms:

Despite the language,  Visiting Faculty are not usually faculty who are gainfully employed at one university who are just staying at another university during their research leave.
Most visiting faculty are "Visiting Assistant Professors" who are (usually recently graduated) scholars who do not yet have full-time employment and are hired as one-year (or two-year) replacements for professors who have gone on sabbaticals. This is different from an adjunct as the recipient university is hiring you full-time (not per course) for a term of one or two years.
Visiting (Full or Associate) Professors: Only rarely would a tenured, senior faculty use their sabbatical year to go to another university solely to teach. Exceptions would be: 1) they aren't being paid during their sabbatical year and need the money; 2) the recipient university has resources that they would like access to (archives, etc.); 3) they  want to live in the recipient city for a year, etc. This last one is the most common -- especially with American faculty visiting European capitals (sigh... Paris...).  Some faculty are contractually forbidden to use their paid sabbaticals in outside teaching -- at my university, a sabbatical is a leave from teaching responsibilities but it is ultimately a time when I am supposed to be doing research.
There is also the category of Visiting Researcher - this is the category which most visiting full faculty would use on sabbatical at another institution if they had no teaching responsibilities. It would not normally come with pay or any benefits except library/archive/gallery access, e-mail, and an office.

Thus if Prof. Smith@UniX goes on sabbatical, then Visiting Asst. Professor Jones@Unemployed is hired by UniX to replace Professor Smith.

To answer your specific questions, UniX is entirely responsible for Prof. Jones' salary and benefits.

Hiring is usually done by the department who needs a replacement. Often a full search is not run and sometimes the hiring is done on the Chair's prerogative. While HR of course handles the details after the department makes their choice, it is rarely HR that runs the search from the very beginning.
Credentials may not be checked as thoroughly since it is a temporary hire.
Visiting Faculty have appointments in their recipient universities and can serve as the instructors on record for courses. Depending on their term (and the rules of the institution) they can also serve as readers for senior essays, but usually they do not serve on doctoral dissertation committees. They are also usually exempt from most service work.

Biographical note: After I received my PhD, I taught for a year as a visiting assistant professor, as a sabbatical replacement. This was before I received my first tenure-track job. [note: simplified version of a complex reality]


Capitalization conventions for departments, schools, etc (Disclaimer: I'm unsure if this is more appropriate here or on English SE instead; Please do migrate this if deemed more appropriate elsewhere)

Are there any general guidelines on when/how to capitalize departmental names which are "pseudo-proper" names, e.g. the department of applied stochastic basket-weaving science in the school of textile engineering at Dartmouth College? — at least in terms of "grammar" (term used loosely here), the the in the example above seems enough: In this usage, it's understood there's only one department of applied stochastic basket-weaving science in the school of textile engineering at Dartmouth College, and there's only one school of textile engineering at Dartmouth College. However, in isolation, such names are often seen in "title-ish" case:

  Department of Applied Stochastic Basket-Weaving Science

Likewise:

  School of Textile Engineering

However, would this style of case still be applicable when using these terms in running text?

  At the Department of Applied Stochastic Basket-Weaving Science (ASBWS) in the School of Textile Engineering at Dartmouth, methods have been developed for using the fibers from old baskets sitting on your grandmother's windowsill to create weapons for the battlefield of tomorrow.

This looks like A Lot of Unnecessary Capital Letters to me, but perhaps my judgement isn't correct.

Yes, the capital letters apply to the words in the department name, even in running text.

The reason is because the whole department/faculty name contains all of those words. The department names are examples of proper names.


How to decide whether a mistake is sufficiently relevant to publish about it? How do I know my results are significant enough to be published?

I am a physicist and I have found a very common mistake that appears in every paper in my area of interest. I thought it would be nice to let the people know it should be corrected. However, it is a very simple mistake, very basic math. I thought at first I could publish that as a short letter, but then I realized that I am unsure what actions the significance of the error(s) warrant.

How do I know whether an error is important enough to write a letter to the publication's journal?

You should talk to colleagues from that area of interest to check whether it actually is a mistake or maybe a common generalization that, although not perfectly correct, is still 'good' in the systems that were discussed in the papers. Also writing a mail to the authors of said papers is a better idea before writing to the journals without any cross-check.


Should I include all authors for in-text citation if I cite a source with three (or more) authors in a different chapter again? According to this site, when you're using the APA reference style, if a source has 3-5 authors, all authors should be mentioned in the first in-text citation, while only the first author need to be mentioned in the subsequent citation. Does "subsequent" applies to the whole work or just the current chapter or section?

I am writing a master thesis.

Though not explicitly stated in the original post, the question pertains to the use of "et al."

This is mostly a nonissue for APA 7th edition because three or more authors are now cited as "et al." from the first mention, whether parenthetical or not, except where it would create ambiguity.


Withdrawing from project I am helping in I have been assisting with a project that my friend had come up with. I am doing the entirety of the analysis for it as they have zero research experience and are not able to do anything beyond conception of the idea.

They are not letting me submit it to a conference to present a small part of the project at a very small "conference" (quotation marks because it's a one day event held at a university auditorium for medical trainees specifically), based on the fact that they would like to present first. I have been slightly annoyed by this, and am contemplating withdrawing from the project, which admittedly is a bit of a dirty move.

That being said, if I do withdraw from it, could/should I ask for any and all analysis done by me to be removed and not used?

Or should I just bite the bullet and let them just carry on.

Withdrawing is a loss-loss situation and I will not recommend it. You have done your work and they seem to have the motivation to release it some day. If you withdraw now, the work is gone, tension arises, friendship threatened. These are not worthy for a short moment of revenge-induced pleasure.

If you feel your input is so instrumental then take this as a lesson to bargain better; in future when similar collaboration comes along, make "have the right to present at xxx conference [year/month/day]," or similar terms as your condition. You should also raise the issue of authorship from the get-go.

Ascending one more level, if you're indeed that much more experienced than the team in terms of how the research realm works, why not help them further? Connect them with this very meeting that you plan to attend, and propel the work forward by letting more people know about it.


Is it possible to publish a simple result that refutes prior work in a leading journal? (without support from your advisor) In a certain field of science, it has been known that X leads to Y and assumed that if Y is observed it is caused by X. Using a relatively simple (mathematical) experiment, I have shown that also A, B, C, ... (class of certain objects), lead to Y, which means that observing Y does not guarantee X.

In my opinion, this is something that should have been checked years ago. In fact, this finding can be used to refute or at least considerably weaken the work done in a certain sub-field over more than 10 years. (though there's some prior critical work on this but the people do not seem to have cared)

Is it usually possible to publish such findings in leading journals?

Another problem that I have is that the work challenges a major part of my supervisor's work, which rests on the mentioned assumption. She seems quite upset, and tries to see the work just as some technical quirk, which it is not. I joined the lab quite recently, so I have no idea what to do. Anyway, I am very serios about this: I'll resign if it necessary to get thing published as soon as possible. It could even end my career altogether but if science is not about truth I don't see why I would like to stay in it.

I am very early in my career and the most technical (mathematical) person in the lab. What I have shown is kind of similar as finding a counter-example in math.

The answer is yes.

But you paper will have to meet the standards of the journals you're aiming at (that might include experimental data) and show a good understanding of the existing body of work. Especially if as you state your work contradicts a lot of the existing literature, the level of scrutiny will be high.

Now since you say you are quite early in your career it's possible that you are missing some aspects and that your work is not that controversial or that it is indeed just a technical quirk. In that case insisting in publishing it while ignoring your advisor's criticism will of course deteriorate your relationship and will probably mean you'all have to fined someone else to supervise you. But having it rejected will not affect your career negatively. Everyone gets paper rejected. Just make sure you don't make a habit of submitting work that claims to revolutionize the field but turn out to be wrong.

  I am [...] the most technical (mathematical) person in the lab

That might be true but it's very unlikely that everyone else in the field lacks the necessary mathematical skills to understand the issue.


Trauma affected my grades while in undergrad, how will it affect me getting into graduate school? I was traumatized by an abusive relationship. While in the relationship, my grades were affected. Out of the relationship, I chose to stay in school and struggle with my studies instead of medically withdrawing. I attended therapy and completed psychiatric care.

I'm back to being a straight A student, but what will graduate school say in reference to those 2 years on my transcript? Should I explain it to them? Will I be granted an interview even? My GRE scores are great, but my major is competitive. What can I do? Should I include a letter that certifies what occurred in those two years from a professional?

I'm going to make this an answer rather than a comment; I hope others will react to it, especially if I'm wrong.  (I'm a teacher, not an admissions officer.)

From what I understand, you had good grades at the start of your college career.  Your grades declined for external reasons.  Your life is back under control and your grades are back up.  You have a little more than a year to gather good grades on your transcript.

Go for it.  Apply to the schools you'd like to attend, but apply to a couple of Plan B schools as well.

Here's the part that may be controversial:  You might want to include in your cover letter something like "You may notice that there was a slump in my grades during my time as an undergraduate.  That was due to a difficult personal situation, now resolved."  (Thanks, Nate Eldridge, for the fine phrase.)

The other choice would be to mention the grade slump not at all.  In any case, don't make a big deal of it.


Dealing with low-quality legacy student-work My task is to summarize an MSc thesis some student finished months ago. The summary will go into a technical report. The report is going to be reviewed: one or two people will read it in a quick-and-dirty way at least once and make comments. The area is computer science. The thesis size is 100 pages, and it has to be compressed into around 20 pages.

The problem is that the student's work is very poorly written, both language-wise and research-wise. Reading and summarizing this lazy, full-of-plagiarism, incomprehensible low-quality paper is a challenge, but has to be done. How do you deal with this tedious, boring task?

The same way you deal with mind numbingly boring work in any area: one page at a time.

I've found the Pomodoro Technique very helpful. Set a timer for some short period of time like 25 minutes, and work without a break. Then take a short 3-5 minute break and repeat. It's like swimming. You go underwater for a period of time and then come up for air for a short break when you need to. (n.b. I have very little experience swimming)

If possible, try to have other things to do at work and work on each thing every day. This way you're not stuck doing the boring stuff 8-10 hours a day. If you do this, it's helpful to try and get as much of the crappy work done at the start of your day. This way you're not dreading and putting off the tedium all day.

Also accept the fact that some days will be more productive than others. If you set a goal to do X number of pages a day, you can easily get stuck in a spiral of unproductivity and procrastination that bleeds over into the next day. Do as much as you can, but take breaks and try to keep your spirits up.


How to work authorship of software developed with another University I am supervising a PhD student, enrolled at another University, where the co-supervisor is employed. We developed some useful software in her thesis and published 3 papers. In this development another member from the other university also participated. Now she will defend her thesis and leave, and it is not clear yet whether they will be interested in further development of this software.

I am really interested in this and I am the only one who knows how to use it in different contexts so I can foresee that I could get 30 publications with this tool in the next 5 years. I have the feeling (and I could obviously be wrong) that since the PhD student will leave, the colleagues from the other University will not work anymore on improving the software. But if I get new publications with the software, they have the right to be included as co-authors on all the papers even if they do not anything at all.

We are friends and we work together very well, but I think this is unfair. And I do not know how to present this situation to them. If I tell them exactly like this I feel they will get upset. So I am lost and I do not know what do here. Most optimal situation I can think is that on each new paper, tell them that I need to add some minor features to the paper (so that we work) and then I can feel they have the rights to be co authors of the paper. Are there better ways to handle this? I feel that we should have settled everything from the beginning, but it is now when I realize about this.

I don't see the problem here as one of co-authorship, but one of potential plagiarism. That is easy to avoid with proper citation. But it depends, also, on what you intend to do in the papers.

In a similar case, suppose you found the software and the original papers online or elsewhere and you do some derived work. The originals were done by people who are strangers to you. You cite the original and acknowledge the people who form the foundation. But you don't have to invite the strangers to be co-authors. I don't necessarily see a difference here.

If they don't participate in the new work they aren't co-authors of it.

But, it might be worth some effort to try to convince them to participate fully and, thus, become co-authors.

It would be a different case if you were re-writing the original papers.

As for the software, you have to be sure that you have an appropriate license to extend it. If you haven't ceded ownership to someone else, then you have joint ownership among the three(?) of you. Get their written permission to extend it, and list everyone as co-authors (co-creators) of the software. But the software and its use are separate things. If you find novel uses of the software without the help of the others, they aren't co-authors of the resulting papers.


Doing a PhD with significant external time obligations (e.g., marriage) Graduate school has a reputation for being a tremendous time-sink. I'm currently married with kids, and I have a fairly busy extracurricular schedule. Is it common for married people - or anyone, actually, with significant external time constraints - to not finish their graduate work, specifically due to conflicting obligations?

The people who I've seen with considerable external commitments who have still gotten through in a reasonable amount of time all boil down to one thing: They treat grad-school like a job. From 9 to 5 (or 10 to 6, 11 to 7, whatever works for their schedule) they're working. No, they're not available for the infinitely many distractions of life, any more than someone at an office is. They pack a tremendous amount of productivity into that time, and then when they need to be with their family, they're with their family.

Those at least are the people who got through it sane. I think the other major trait is to recognize that, because you have a life, this might take a little longer, and not burn yourself out trying to hammer things through to the point of exhaustion.


Advice for dinner with prospective Ph. D. advisor and grad students? I'm applying to doctoral programs right now and I'm having dinner tomorrow night with a professor and three of his grad students. I'm very hopeful to join this lab. I've spoken with the professor before and would like to focus my attention on the students. I've never done anything like this before.

Do you  have any suggestions for questions I should ask and how I should act? I wanted to offer to pay for dinner or at least drinks since they are going to this trouble, but would that seem like I'm trying to schmooze my way in? Would it be weird for me to write notes on what they say at dinner?

To add to the Massimo's comment on not taking notes, yeah I think that would seem weird. If the conversation is about science, and a particularly interesting point comes up or you want to take note of someone's name to look up a paper, make a note on your phone.

Offering to pay might be polite, though if the prof's paying through his department or a grant I wouldn't insist. I think it's safe to say that if the grad students don't pull out their wallets, neither should you.

Just act normally. Be yourself - it is not a formal occasion. The prof will have invited his students along for two reasons:

Because dinner with just the two of you could be exceedingly awkward
So that everyone can get an impression of how you'll fit
in with the group.

Just make the usual small talk with his grad students to (hopefully) find some common ground, talk a bit about their projects, and make sure to have a good yarn about non-work-related things too. Your scientific prowess will not be assessed at the dinner table!


Do I need to request permission to cite a "personal communication" in a publication? The title says it all I believe.

Do I need to request permission from a colleague to cite their information as a "personal communication"?

"Do I need to" may be a little restrictive, so I'll also ask, would you feel wronged or offended if your personal comm. were cited without your express permission?

I think we don't even need to consider permission in order to resolve this question.  The more fundamental question is this: how do you know that "personal communication" is the right citation and not a publication?

Your colleague may have been passing on information that they or somebody else had already published.  Even if it was not published when the colleague spoke to you, it may have been published (or at least submitted) as part of some manuscript since.  It may also have been communicated to you in confidence---you would hopefully remember if this was the case, but in some cases it may be easy to forget, e.g., if it was said during a UK meeting held under Chatham House Rule or at a Gordon Conference.

I would thus recommend contacting the colleague to ask what the appropriate citation for the information is.  At that point, the colleague can make an appropriate judgement and either point you to a standard citation, tell you to cite as personal communication, or request that you not publish the information.


What is the minimum number of research articles that must be cited to write a review article? I have extensively researched about a new area as part of my Doctoral research and want to write and publish a review article in some Science Citation Indexed (SCI) journal. But the problem is that there are only about 20 articles published till date  on this new area. I have seen many review papers on other areas published in SCI journals and found that normally the number of cited and referenced articles are quite high (sometimes even above 300 papers). And then there are non-SCI  journals where review papers are having very less number of cited and referenced articles (20-50 or more).

Your article needs to be interesting, the number of articles is secondary. If a field is very new than a review of a few articles could be interesting. However, if there are only 20 artcles it could also mean it is just too early to take stock, and your sub-sub-field is not ready for a review article yet. The purpose of a review article is to find partial answers on which there is some form of consensus, and identify open questions and new directions of research. Is your field sufficiently ripe for that?

Also look outside your discipline. It may be that there is a longstanding research tradition dealing with that issue in another discipline.


What license should be chosen on arXiv for a paper to be published in Communications in Algebra at Taylor&Francis? I have never been submitting the paper to arXiv so I have a question about
what kind of license or declaration I must choose to be able to submit the expanded version of the manuscript, which is soon to be accepted in Communications in Algebra at Taylor&Francis. My worry is about the Copyright agreement I will sign with Taylor&Francis.

The options on the arXiv are as follows:

arXiv.org perpetual, non-exclusive license to distribute this article (Minimal rights required by arXiv.org)
Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY 4.0)
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Creative Commons Public Domain Declaration (CC0 1.0)
None of the above licenses apply.

According to the publisher's rules, you can share your preprint "as much as you like". According to SHERPA/RoMEO, you can also share the post-refereed version. What you cannot share is the publisher's version, the one that will appear on the website (don't ask me why).

So the simplest and safest is probably the first option, grant arXiv a license to distribute your article. You can find more info here. Roughly speaking, with the CC licenses, you allow other people to take your article, redistribute it themselves, modify it and redistribute the modified version etc., possibly with some limitations (SA: they must use the same license when redistributing; NC: commercial use is prohibited). It appears possible that the CC licenses conflict with copyright transfers.

I've never tried, but if you check the last option ("none of the above licenses apply") then arXiv will probably refuse your preprint. The "public domain" option is also probably not possible for you, because that would mean you waive all your copyright-related rights, including transferring the copyright to the publisher – which they will probably require.


Lecture notes or books? What is the best approach to learn a new topic in postgraduate Mathematics with a solid basis?

I'm about to start my thesis in postgrad Theoretical Physics but looking to learn a few topics for interviews on the side e.g. Combinatorics / Advanced Probability etc.

I am unsure if the best method is through books; online notes or a combination by following a specific course.

As long as you are using quality materials the content of what you are studying is more important than the source.

How did you most effectively study at the undergraduate level? Use those same study methods to improve your knowledge in the areas you want to improve. There is no right or wrong answer here and some combination of sources would seem appropriate.


Tuition to transfer to massachusetts during a degree My husband is currently in the middle of his degree in chemistry (we are both independent adults without links or support to parents/family). I am the main wage earner for our household and we currently live in Colorado.

I want to move to Massachusetts for a new job and my husband wishes to come with me. He had good luck so far talking to a number of schools there about transfering.

However we are struggling to find out if he will have to pay in or out of state tuition after we move as the difference in cost is very substantial. Does this depend on the school or just on the state? Unfortunately we have got mixed and ambiguous information from the schools in question so are extremely unsure on how this works.

Based on this document, I see a chance (slim, but not zero) that you could move to MA together, he would pay out-of-state tuition for a year, and then he could apply for reclassification.  (Please keep in mind I am NOT a lawyer, nor anyone in the college admission pipeline; I am hoping to provide you with a question you can ask of someone who is one of the two.)  Here's my reasoning:

From part 2, section 2

  Physical presence for this entire twelve-month or six-month period need not be required as long as the conduct of an individual, taken in total, manifests an intention to make Massachusetts his or her permanent dwelling place. However, residency is not acquired by mere physical presence in Massachusetts while the person is enrolled in an institution of higher education.

and from part 3, section 2

  The spouse of any person who is classified or is eligible for classification
  as a Massachusetts resident is likewise eligible for classification as a
  Massachusetts resident.

Your husband would be able to make the case to be reclassified after 12 months on the basis of "he followed you for your job."  I think that, even if he took classes full time, he could still apply for the reclassification, but that reclassification will not be retroactive to the year paid as out-of-state.  (section 4.4)

Here's the catch: If I am right, it's not a guarantee that he'd be reclassified; it's a thing he can apply for.  So, by continuing classes in that 12 month period, he is not only going to be paying full out-of-state tuition, but he runs the risk of being 'locked in' as an out-of-state student for the duration of his program.

The other option, which is much more of a certainty, is that he puts his education on hold for a year to let the residency sort itself out.

I strongly suggest that you just ask the folks at the college he is trying to transfer to.  Certainly the admission people have had to deal with this before.


Terms for an PhD grant that covers everything I am looking for the proper adjective that would carry the meaning that a grant for a PhD student covers everything (tuition fees, stipends, etc.). I believe one can use the expression "full grant", but I wonder whether there exists some more unambiguous adjective.

You can just say/write 'funded PhD' or 'fully funded PhD' to avoid any ambiguity that may cause for any resume reviewer abroad.


What is the difference between a lecture and a seminar? I understand the main difference is the amount of active engagement of the students (questions, interaction, etc.).
But is there more, to describe the difference?

In a lecture there will be questions and answers, and in a seminar there will be times when the teacher talks. So, how can we describe the difference in a more articulate way.

Both of them can cover a wide range of events, and there’s a big overlap in their usage.  So there’s no clear cut-and-dried line between the two.  The typical usage of them varies between fields, countries, and individual institutions or evengs; I’ve known things which were called a seminar at one place that would have been called lectures at another.  That said, trying to set down the differences in what they’re typically used to mean:

as you say, a lecture usually means less interaction — typically one person lecturing at the front of the room, perhaps taking questions from the audience.  A seminar can be like this, but can more often also involve more substantial interaction, up to general discussion.
a lecture typically has more difference in expertise between the lecturer and audience: a professor lecturing to students, a professional to a lay audience, or an expert on some topic to researchers who aren’t necessarily specialists in it.  A seminar is more likely to have its presenter as a “first among equals”.
some more specific senses: a coherent series of talks presenting a single topic is usually called a lecture course; a one-off general-audience talk is usually called a public lecture; a regular series of research-level talks is more likely to be called a seminar series, or a research seminar.

Again, these are all differences in typical usage; I’ve seen most of these tendencies broken sometimes, and I’m sure that beyond my experience (mathematics and computer science, in Western Europe and North America) their usage varies more widely still.  But these are a start.


Poor Grade in First Real Analysis Course I'm currently a sophomore majoring in pure math with the hopes of going to graduate school to study applied math, specifically numerical analysis, machine learning, statistics. I have A's in my courses such as Linear Algebra, Discrete Math, Calculus, etc. Real Analysis is the first course that is giving me lots of trouble, and I think it is because I was not well-versed in writing proofs coming into the course. I received a B-/C+ on the first exam, and expect to receive a similar grade in the overall course.

How heavily will my grade in this course affect my chances of getting into a good graduate school for applied math (numerical analysis) if I receive A's/A-'s in my all of my progamming (up to an Advanced Algorihms course) and applied classes (PDE, Numerical, Complex Variables)?

A poor grade in a single course (especially in your second year) is unlikely to have a lot of effect on your application most places. But it isn't an indicator of success. When you apply for grad school or a job you need to indicate in the application process that you are an excellent candidate for success going forward. Poor grades don't help you. If managing proofs is really your issue then it will be hard to be a success in mathematics no matter what the field.

On the other hand, insight into mathematical structures isn't uniform across disciplines. I was great in analysis and topology but marginal (at best) in abstract algebra. I could follow along OK, but had no real insight into the big ideas.

Analysis can be pretty important in statistics, of course, and probably also in numerical analysis. But much less so in most of CS.

But, there is tremendous competition for slots in doctoral studies. You will be competing with a lot of people with better grades. That doesn't necessarily make you worse overall, but you need to make the case that you are the one for whom they can easily predict success. Make it so.


Authorship;first,second,co I am finishing my first paper. I am unaware of how I should treat a certain situation, and have come  here for advice.

The paper is about 30 pages long. I have written 26 of those pages. On the pages I wrote, the other person helped with how thoughts are to be expressed, but all the theorems and proofs were done by me. The ideas of the paper are mine, and their execution.

How is the authorship to be divided in such an example? Should I be the first author or the corresponding author? Both? Should he be the second author, or the co-author?

I read this answer here, saying in math and computer science all authors are considered to have contributed equally. How should the ranking be notated than?

EDIT:

Question in partially answered in the linking answer (duplicate), at the comments bellow.

Simply, you should be the first author.

A corresponding author will be responsible for replying to the queries come from the research community and help them to a better understanding as well as gain more citations. There are other things can you find them in the link below.

Finally, If the other author can do this task, make him the corresponding author and you can help him when needs.

This post talk about The difference between Corresponding author and First author.


In my graduate application, should I briefly mention a family issue? Last summer I wasn't able to get much research done due to a complicated issue in my family which cost me a lot of time and emotional attention. Since it was not simply that I was sad and lazy for an entire summer, but that I was actively helping with an urgent issue in my family, I feel like it may help to briefly - in a sentence or two - explain what caused the setback and why I have grown from the experience. However, I don't know how harshly admissions committees will critique this "excuse".

Is it generally better to write about it, or to ignore it altogether? I'm asking this because I don't want to seem like I'm trying to hide a potential setback in my application, but I also don't want to shoot my own foot by rescuing what was never in danger in the first place.

I am applying for physics PhD programs in the US.

I don't think it is relevant to your applications.  It was a short period, and many students take advantage of the summer break for such things as travel, time with family, gainful employment, volunteer activities.

It would be different if you had had a break from your studies of a year or more.

Best of luck to your family.


Professor wants to submit paper, but no real results I am an undergraduate student who is working on some research projects applying machine learning to medical problems at a small, primarily-undergraduate college.

In one of these projects, a Master’s student suggested a feature extraction approach and wrote some code based on it. Unfortunately,  I couldn't reproduce the results. I tried to talk to him about it, but we couldn’t reach an agreement. I showed the professor leading the project that the results were not trustworthy, but she wants me to write a paper based on the method, where the other student and I would be listed jointly as first author.

In the meantime, I do not have any alternative results in hand. The problem we are working on is very difficult and has never been attempted before, and I am still developing the codebase for my own approach.

This conversation has been going on for a while, and my professor is getting impatient and wants to publish quickly. She says that some people within the department are pushing for her resignation (for reasons not pertinent to this question), and I think that may be the reason.

I am unsure of how to handle this situation because

I do not want to get the professor in deeper trouble
I want to remain a good member of our team
I want to do good work

I do not really have anyone who I can go to for advice without getting this professor in trouble, and I have no idea how to navigate this situation.

Why I couldn’t reproduce the results:

The model only performed well when trained and tested on all data, but under those circumstances, almost any model could, and many silly ideas can even outperform it. The technique didn’t really make sense within the domain, either, and I am not sure the student understands what it does.

Similar Questions

I have looked online for similar situations, like these ones, but I am still not sure what to do.

professor pushing me to get result when nothing is right!

Paper on project without any result - how to conclude

What to do with a result too small to be publishable, but interesting nonetheless?

How to proceed when the baseline (state-of-the-art) published results claim much better performance than I can reproduce?

Problem with undergraduate research supervisor, how to proceed?

Informing my supervisor of discrepancy in the results

My Professor is pushing me in a problem that isn't solvable for the deadline

Is it good to publish a research paper with many partially answered questions with sub-optimal results?

Is it morally correct to submit a paper to a conference with wrong results?

You have two options. First option: decline to be the author of the paper, second option: write and submit the paper as first author. In the second case, the paper will go under review and the reviewers and the editors will decide if it is a good publishable result. Personally I would choose the second option in a high-medium ranking journal. In this way, if the paper will be rejected, it will not be your fault and you will not enter in contrast with your professor.