What are the advantages and disadvantages of having multiple advisers? Could multiple advisers mean that it might be easier for you to get funding? (since you're not just limited to one person?) Could it also mean that you get more overall input in your project (the input of 3 different people), and that maybe your project will be geared in a way that it's "interesting" to more people, and consequently might also get more citations that way?

They might pull your project in different directions, but how much is this really a concern?

And what about the special case where they explicitly expressed the desire to interact with each other more through the student? (this was actually the case in my situation).

The answer (as in case of most answers in academia.SE) is it depends, often widely from case-to-case. Unless presented with an exceptional example, I would generally view having more than two advisers as a major hindrance - the perceived benefit of having another source of ideas is negated heavily by the communications overhead between them, and the scope for misunderstandings about their role, which might cause the student to be either overloaded in multiple (possibly conflicting) areas, or languishing without any significant guidance. The rest of my answer is based on the assumption that the number of advisers is 2.

What is the defined role of the said advisers - are they equally responsible for guiding the student towards completion of their graduate studies (as I've been told is the case in some European schools/research schools), or is one of them the principal guide and the other a co-guide? The amount of time/effort invested by each would depend on their perception of how much they are actually responsible for the student's growth as a researcher.
As with most social interactions, it would help greatly if there is a good (or at least professional) working relationship between the 2 guides, as well as a healthy overlap of research areas - a new student might not be able to handle multiple research problems in completely different areas at the same time (without affecting the time to graduate, or the quality of results).
Assuming the student publishes with both of them independently, it would look good on her CV that she can produce publishable research with multiple established researchers. This could also have the side-effect of enhancing the student's research network - as a lot of papers (in CS at least) have more than 2 authors, and often collaborating on an paper could lead to more papers/research done with the same set of persons in future.


Is it advisable to put your CV, research statement, teaching statement on your website? I'm a postdoc in computer science applying for tenure-track faculty positions.
I look at the websites of people who are in similar positions to mine  and about half of them include a link to the person's CV, research statement, and teaching statement.
I'm wondering whether I should put these documents on my website.

What are the pros and cons of publicly posting your CV and research/teaching statements on your website?

I see little upside or downside to this. Would this help me on the job market at all? Would there be a potential downside? It feels a little like sharing too much information with the world.

TLDR: It may help slightly, but really doesn't make too much difference.

As with many things in academia, and other fields, different people will have different opinions on this.  I, like you, was never one to want my CV or research/teaching statements out there for the whole world to read, and I never did it, though I had the "most important" information from my CV on my webpage already (e.g., publication list, where I did my PhD).

From the hiring side, I occasionally look at applicants' webpages (though usually don't) but I look at things like CVs and research statements from our online application system (in math, we use a central site called mathjobs), so it would make no difference for me reviewing your application.  Part of the reason for this is convenience---it's easier to look at everything in one place, and one of the things I most want to look at are your letters of recommendation, for which I have to go through the application system.

That said, I think there can be a slight advantage for putting your CV and your research statement online, and it is this.  If someone is already looking at your webpage (either because they saw you applied, or for random other reasons), and they want to find out more about you, it's easier for them to look at your CV/research statement directly from your webpage, i.e., there's a higher probability they will look at these things.  So there's a greater chance they will get interested in you as a job candidate.  Potentially, this could result in solicitations for you to apply to positions you aren't aware of/didn't apply to, but I don't know how common this is in CS---in math in the US, most types of positions tend to be well advertised and easy to apply to with mathjobs.

But, I don't think this will affect your odds so greatly that you should feel you have to do these things.  (Also, I don't see any disadvantage to posting them, though probably there's no need to post a teaching statement.)  This is especially true if you have the info you want to advertise to most people on your webpage already (e.g., publications, academic history, maybe a short research blurb, ...).


Can one pursue multiple degrees via distance education mode in India? Can one pursue multiple degrees ie two or more at the same time via distance education mode in India? Some sources say it is allowed since 2013, but some forum state that it is illegal.

The Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Development, Government of India says,

It is up to the concerned academic institution/university to recognize the qualification including certificate diploma, degree, etc. for the purpose of academic pursuit, i.e. continuing education for acquiring another academic qualification, with it. As regards recognition of academic qualifications for the purpose of employment, it is the prerogative of the concerned employer to take a view on the recognition of the degree, diploma, etc
(Last Updated by admin on Tuesday, 19 April 2016 - 12:27pm)

My interpretation of this is that it is up to individual institution/employer to recognize the multiple degrees.
According to Times of India Feb 2, 2013

According to the decision of the DEC communicated to UPRTOU. vice-chancellor Prof AK Bakshi, while a student cannot pursue two degree programmes simultaneously, he can do the same through distance or combination of distance and regular modes from the same or different university institution in various combinations.

So, I think the answer is, yes you can.
However, please double check this with the government in India so you can get an official answer. Please do not trust the strangers on Internet. Instead, trust your government.


How do I deal with an advisor who's biased and doesn't give you time? My primary advisor is on a sabbatical and is currently working in the industry; he doesn't return till before I graduate.

He passed me onto another advisor who's roughly in the same research area. My new advisor however is extremely biased and doesn't give me much time. Multiple times, I've emailed him asking for an appointment to discuss my work with him, but he's ignored those mails. When I turn up his office during his office hours, he confesses about seeing my emails but says that he forgot about replying. He also makes me wait for about an hour in his office and then reschedules the meeting. Even during those rescheduled meetings, he either isn't in his office or ends the meeting right away saying that I need to find the answers to my problems myself. He has a couple of favorite students with whom he spends all his time, ignoring the other two students (me and one other). How do I deal with this whole situation? I am very serious about my research, and plan to go for higher studies in future.

As Patricia comments, you should discuss this with your primary advisor.  However, you should try to do this in a diplomatic, non-accusatory way.  It this case, there are a couple of concrete points you can make

You have trouble arranging meetings with your pro tem advisor.
He does not give (or rarely gives?) you satisfactory answers to your questions.

And if there is anything useful he is doing, give him credit for that.

Incidentally, what is he supposed to be doing?  Directing you in some reading?  Giving you advice on your research?  Were there clear expectations laid out in advance?


List of publications for funding applications What does a "List of publications" mean? I'm applying for a scholarship and it says I have to add that file, so I need to know what this file should contain and if it's necessary.

I would assume they mean the list of your published work as in journal articles, conference proceedings, book chapters etc.


Using Microsoft Publisher to draw high quality flowcharts? Plenty of journals and magazines require high quality images when you get to submit a paper.

I`m trying to get a simple flow chart of mine into a higher quality version.

Is MS Publisher enough to do so ? I do not have any other "Corel Draw like" software .

What you think ?

You can use any software and later improve the quality of your chart with a vector software like Inkscape (or actually, you can draw the flowchart directly there). I could recommend you using Draw.io (https://www.draw.io/). It performs quite well, you can save your flowcharts directly to the cloud, and you can export your flowcharts in SVG format.


What if I get assigned to teach topic I know nothing about? Do I have any discretion in what I teach? I'm a tenured professor at a national public university.  I was just on a two-year leave of absence (to do a startup) and I'm now returning to the university.  I was just informed I'm going to have to teach a class on X.  I protested that I don't even know what X is, but my chair said "sorry, we have no one else to teach it."

I am tempted to just refuse to teach the class, both for my own sake and the sake of the students.  I've scoured the faculty handbook, but it says nothing about teaching assignments.

I'm sure this varies by institution, but what's your perception?  Does a faculty member have any discretion in what he/she teaches?

Does a faculty member have any discretion in what he/she teaches?

Informally/unofficially: yes, they should have some say in it -- it would be weird for them not to be at least asked about their preferences. Formally/officially: how could they?  If five or ten or thirty or one hundred faculty members each insist that they must teach Y and/or cannot teach X then with very high probability there will be no way to make everyone happy.  Scheduling classes for a university department is a huge pain in the butt no matter what.  (I have never done it myself and would never do it...because it's a huge pain in the butt.  However, my current job of Graduate Coordinator is laterally adjacent to this position and close enough for me to see how difficult it is.)  If you don't give department figures at least some amount of authority over the faculty members on matters pertaining to the department as a whole, then there is an ever present threat of devolving into anarchy.

More crisply: be careful.  Outright refusing to do one of their core job responsibilities is the best way for a tenured faculty member to get in serious trouble, up to and including getting fired.  Based on my own practical experience, it would be a bit over the top for someone to get fired after having pulled this once, but the point is that you'd be standing on shaky ground.  Moreover, outright refusal is not a very helpful position:

  both for my own sake and the sake of the students.

I just said that doing this is probably not in your own best interest.  Moreover, how is it in the interest of the students?  If you really just refuse, then what happens?  I guess the chair books you to teach the class anyway and you don't show up...this is not helping anyone.

So what should you do?  Talk further to the chair and other faculty.  The chair is trying to solve an administrative problem: find someone to teach X.  As with most academic administrators, he is doing it under severe constraints: apparently no one else has an open teaching slot.  So he has found the best "local solution" to the problem: assign Professor Fixee to do it.  You should have at least one in-person conversation with the chair and go over the following two points:

1) Help him understand why his proposed solution is a bad one.

He doesn't seem to be looking at the fact that you have no knowledge of subject X whatsoever.  Maybe he thinks you're exaggerating to get out of an undesirable teaching assignment.  You have to let him know the truth and explore some of the implications of this with him.  (By the way, could it be that you are not actually uniquely unqualified to teach subject X -- maybe nobody else knows any more than you?  Maybe their one expert in subject X left suddenly?  It's possible...)

2) Help him "widen the problem-solving window" to include other solutions, and take on some of the effort in solving the problem yourself.

Let's assume you are literally the worst person in the department to teach subject X.  So who is actually more qualified to teach it?  (You do the work in figuring that out.)  Okay, so why are these people not teaching it -- presumably they are already loaded up with teaching assignments or other professional obligations.  Can you arrange a swap with one of these faculty members?  If so, do it and present that to the chair as a solution.

TL;DR: If you go to an administrative figure and say "Sorry, what you've asked me to do just won't work; please fix it," their answer is much more likely to be negative than if you say, "What you've asked me to do has some serious drawbacks; I'd like to propose that we do this instead."  In my experience when two faculty members come to the relevant faculty administrator and say "We'd like to swap classes X and Y" the answer is usually yes.  Why not?  It creates no new problems for them to solve.


Is there any provision to provide reference to the paper which is in process to get published in journal at the time of graduate applications? I will be presenting my paper to a conference this month. The papers presented in the conference will usually take 3-6 months to get published and indexed in the journal.
While applying for admissions in next 2 months, I will not have any online reference to submit to the admission committee, because the paper might not have published until then.
So, is there any provision or any way using which I will be able to share the paper/publication with the admission committee?

In general, the answer would be no since different conferences have different procedures. For the one of interest to you they may have something such as pre-publishing to aRxiv or similar. This is appropriate for your CV: ... "to appear".
But you can also just say that your paper has been accepted to the conference that will be held on date future. You can also send them a copy of the paper if you like and they will accept it. And you can offer to send it in any case.


Is it a good idea to include participation in summer schools in my CV? Is it a good idea to include participation in summer schools to my CV?

I assume you're talking about summer schools aimed at teaching graduate students or postdocs about recent developments.  At an early career stage, it's certainly worth listing participation on your CV.  If you're a beginning graduate student, then you probably don't have a lot of other things to list, and attending a summer school means something (namely that you are energetic and eager to learn, and that your application was strong enough to be accepted).  It's not a big deal, but listing it in your CV can't hurt and might help a little.

As you progress in your career, it becomes less and less relevant.  Eventually you'll probably delete it, on the grounds that when you're coming up for tenure, nobody cares at all whether you once attended a summer school for grad students.  But it doesn't really matter exactly when you delete it.  You can safely wait until you start to wonder why you are bothering to include it when you have so much more impressive things elsewhere on the CV.


How much is the relevance of a synthetic benchmark? Often researchers verify their proposed algorithm or techniques using standard benchmarks. My question is related to performance of a benchmark application.

If a researcher propose a new performance optimization or analysis technique optimizing based on a particular factor, is it enough to only use a synthetic benchmark for verification. If instead a standard benchmark application is used its performance may be subjected to multiple factors. It will be difficult to argue that improvement is only due to the particular factor, the researcher optimized for.

Let me give an example. Often a synthetic benchmark is used in synchronization lock related research. Psuedocode of benchmark:

In every thread

For N times // where N is in millions
       //do something in the non-critical section part
       acquire a lock
          // do something in the critical section
       release a lock

Such a benchmark has been used in some notable paper's of the field. But now most of the research use some applications that uses the lock.

The problem is, it is difficult to individually identify and quantify each factor that affect a benchmark lock-sensitive application performance. Despite the application being lock-sensitive there are a host of other factor that affect the application performance. It would be easier to do for a synthetic benchmark, where a researcher can limit the code.

How convincing an argument in a research paper is if it is solely based on analysis on synthetic benchmarks?

Having just a synthetic benchmark is generally weaker than having a realistic benchmark, but better than nothing.

There some more considerations to be taken into account.

First, quality considerations: Is the design rationale of the benchmark clearly communicated? Was there any effort made to reflect realistic cases? Was the benchmark designed with input from multiple, independent experts (ideally different authors than the author of the paper, due to researcher bias)? Have independent experts been consulted to validate the benchmark? Is the benchmark publicly available and well-documented?

Second, historical considerations: Has the benchmark recently been used in other research? The more widely a benchmark is used, the better, since it will allow an easy comparison between different works.


Second PhD in Austria? When one already has a PhD from a university outside of Europe, could he apply for a second PhD in Austria?

I know that second PhD is not possible for example in UK. Is it the same for Austria? Is there anything against it?

Assuming that "apply for a PhD" means that you want to persue a second PhD in Austria; yes that's fine. You can get as many PhDs as you want, but you cannot use the same research for more than one PhD and you cannot do the same program (same university, field and title) twice as far as I know.

If you are asking if you can use your research which was used for getting the PhD in a different country to get one in Austria the no, that's not allowed.


What should be the order of references in a research text? In many research articles numerical values are used for citing references in the text. I have seen the numbering of such references in pretty weird orders.
In some texts, the references are sequenced as they are cited in the article. For example,

Case 1:

  Statement X[1], says that the technique ABC[2] solves the problem by utilizing the Y method[3]

While in a few, they seem to follow random ordering like

Case 2:

  Technique X[95,46,38] has been long used for solving the problem
  discussed in [12]

In some others

Case 3:

  Technique X[56] has been used in [23] to solve Y.

Are there any standard conventions or best practice for ordering the references ?

(My field is computer science)

The order is determined by the standard applied by each journal to their publication. In some cases, references are listed alphabetically in the reference list. In this case, the order of appearance of the numbers in the text may seem random (this is equivalent to your cases 2 and 3). In some cases, references are listed in the order they appear in the text. This yields the first example you provide.

So there is no right or wrong, there are different standards and which you need to follow is given by the journal in which you aim to publish.If you are concerned with which system to use in a report or your thesis, you should simply check with your department or organization to see which they follow. If there are no guidelines, I would suggest the system you find most commonly used in journals that lie close to your subject but you could essentially select whichever one you want as long as it is consistent and logical.


Accepted to PhD program but declined, but now want to return 3 years later I got accepted to a PhD program at a university 3 years ago, sent an offer and everything but declined. Now I have secided I want to return. Is there any possibility of being admitted again without reapplying if I went and spoke with members of the department and graduate division?

Has anyone done this before? 3 years is a long time for sure but im curious if anyone was readdmitted without a defferal of admissions after 1 year.

Going back through old correspondance the faculty in the department were fond of me and hoped I would attend.

Any thoughts or insight appreciated thanks!

I did something similar (2 years).  I just went ahead and reapplied.  5 of the 6 schools that accepted me previously did so over again.

Didn't even think about not doing the applications.  What's the big deal.  You should know how.  Let them run their process.

I recommend to apply to several schools.  Always good advice but in this case to hedge your bets in case "A" doesn't like how they were cold shouldered earlier.

I would try to put a positive spin on things but not dwell on the previous decline (no mea culpa).  'Have had 3 productive years doing X, but now see more than ever that my skills would better fit in a Ph.D. level position.'  Hopefully they still want you.  Of course for any schools that you didn't decline earlier, you don't need to mention it as much.  Just say you worked a while and decided you belong in Ph.D.


Applying for post-doctoral fellowships whilst writing PhD thesis Is it acceptable to apply for post-doctoral fellowships in the UK whilst writing my PhD thesis?

I would like to start applying for post-doctoral fellowship but I am still writing my thesis, is that acceptable?

Yes, assuming you can plausibly start on time. Starting a bit late is also largely acceptable.


Is it easier to get funding for a master's degree in North America or in Europe? I'm getting my Bachelor's degree in Physics in a year and a half, I have a good GPA (~3.6/4.0) and I can score ~7.0 or higher in IELTS exam.

Which offers better chances for a scholarship for a Master's degree, North american or European countries? Is there a difference in accepting foreign (in this case middle eastern) students? Because I can't take both TOEFL and IELTS exams, I have to choose.

And when looking for scholarships, when should I start emailing professors and start sending applications?

In many European countries you won't be able to get a scholarship for a master's degree directly from a university. Also local students don't usually get that. The research funding is mostly aimed at PhD students, because master's degree students aren't expected to do research at the level these funds are targeting. Also, the general perception is that if you're a master's degree student, the university is providing a service to you, not vice versa, so why should they pay for that in addition?

Depending on national / local regulations, you may have to pay a tuition fee or not. If there is a tuition fee, there may be programs to waive or reduce these. There may be opportunities to work as a salaried student assistant at the university, but you'd first have to start a study program before even being considered for that.

What you're looking for are usually national funding organizations or foundations that support students coming from abroad to do a master's degree in that country. These are very rare and come with specific conditions. One such example is the King Abdullah Scholarship Programme of the German Academic Exchange Service.

For these countries, it'll be a waste of time writing to individual professors about scholarships for a master's degree. Instead it might be helpful to contact the offices for international exchange at your target universities to ask whether they know any scholarship programs for their place that apply to you. Or maybe you have such an office at your home university that has a list of programs for their students who are interested in international exchange.


How to cite raw data shared by a client? My capstone student project is a consultation report. How do I cite a raw data sample (extracted from Google AdWords) shared directly by my client? No preference between APA and MLA, it's my only source for the report.

In a similar situation (supercomputer benchmarks that never appeared in a complete form in print), I cited the guy who was so kind to share them to me as:

  Yon Tihiy, in a private communication. 2018

Obviously, you guess that above was not his real name.


When I was 16 I took 30 credits a quarter and my math GPA suffered will this effect my ability to go to grad school? I took all my college level math courses when I was 16 in running start while taking 30 credits a quarter(don't ask me what was going through my head at the time). As you can imagine I got an average of about a 2.8, in most of these courses....However, when I went to a 4 year they restarted my GPA and I currently have a 3.67 and it has only been climbing the last few quarters. I am about to graduate and I would like to go to Grad school. I am an Information Systems Major e.g. business. Is it plausible to at least get into a decent business Phd program ?

I see that most schools seem to look at these grades in particular.

If you were officially a high school student at the time, then you may not need to submit those grades to the universities to which you apply for graduate admissions at all. In general, anything that is done before undergraduate is ignored in graduate admissions.

On the other hand, if the grades appear on your undergraduate transcript (because you applied to have the credits accepted towards graduation), then you will need to explain the situation, as keshlam suggests. Again, though, the fact that you were so young is a reasonable justification for your performance, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.


Mentioning Subject GPA on SOP I'm a Korean student applying to math graduate schools this year. I'm mainly applying to American universities but I will also be applying to some schools in UK and Europe.

I wanted to know if it would be worth mentioning my subject GPA in the statement of purpose. My overall GPA is 3.7/4.3, but my math GPA is 4.14/4.3, so there is a significant discrepancy here. I heard before that admission team would look at my math courses separately, but tabulating grades from math courses out of a 4-year transcript seems like quite a chore for the admission team. Thus I thought it may be better to summarize it for them somewhere (lest they focus on my lower overall GPA instead).

Would it seem quite unnatural to bring up such scores in a SOP?

Thank you in advance.

I think your SOP should focus on that, not your past record. The committee will have access to your grades and will focus most on the subject grades in any case. There is no need to waste words on things that can better support your candidacy. Yes, you are proud of your past work, but your CV already shows that.

Write about what you want to do in the future, how your interests and skills align with that purpose. If necessary, talk about how you fit well into the program you hope to join.

Make your SOP work to complement your CV, not to repeat it.


Emphasis on new terminology in technical paper: title, abstract and body I have two new terms that I introduce in my paper: resource security and CerberOS (the second is the name of the system). I use these terms in the title, abstract and body. How and where is emphasis best placed?

For the title, I use title case:

  CerberOS: Resource Security and Sharing for IoT Devices

For the abstract, at the moment, I’m italicizing but not capitalizing resource security at first usage, i.e.:

  bla bla bla ... resource security.

I am italicizing CerberOS on first usage, i.e.:

  We made CerberOS.

I was thinking of doing the same for the body.

Is this too aggressive with the emphasis for the abstract? I was also thinking of capitalizing, but that is even more emphasis. Perhaps only capitalize resource security in the body?

I would do the following:

Always capitalise CerberOS, but never italicise it¹. Capitalisation (and some other things like OS) clearly indicate that this is a proper name. It does not need emphasis to indicate that it’s a new technical term referring to some concept (or similar), because that’s simply not what it is: It is neither referring to a concept nor to a technical term.

An exception is using italics to indicate that you are talking about the term itself, e.g.:

  We chose the name CerberOS because we are based in the Albanian city of Cerber – there is no connection to the mythical beast.

Italicise resource security on the first usage in a sentence¹, even if that’s in the abstract. If you give a more detailed introduction in the body of the paper, it may be reasonable to italicise it on its first usage in a sentence there as well¹. Do not italicise it in paper or section titles¹. Never capitalise it¹.

The rationale for this is that one would expect the names of new concepts or similar to appear in titles and titles are not for explaining, but giving structure and a quick impression about the contents of a paper or section. The abstract and the body of the paper on the other hand are intended to be understood and here marking new terms is extremely helpful, as it lets the reader know that the term is new and nothing that they are not supposed to already know it.

I see no argument for capitalising it that would not apply to many other technical terms as well and lead to papers in which every second word is capitalised.

¹ Except for situation where you would italicise/capitalise almost every word, such as the beginning of sentences or entire paragraphs in italics.


When do you expect to hear back from NSF (DMS)? It's nearing a six-month mark since I've submitted my proposal, and I haven't heard anything from them. Does this mean that I'm probably not getting the grant? When do people expect to hear back? There seems to be almost no resources online in this, which I find to be surprising.

The time to hear back on an NSF application is highly variable, both by grant vehicle and for individual applications.  Since most NSF grants are peer reviewed by a panel of academics who also have to meet in person, there's a significant length of time naturally built into the system.

Another part of the delay is that for most programs there are very few applications funded.  As such, even though there may be many clear rejections with relatively fast responses, program managers may end up having a long fight to find sufficient money to accept a project that is right on the boundary of getting accepted.

Still, if you're looking for a number, I have personally never heard of a NSF grant response taking less than 3 months or more than 12 months.


How are travel expenses paid by conferences? Is there a standard way they are paid?

We'll concern ourselves only with cases where it's stated that the conference will pay travel (up to a specific amount). However, does the speaker pay and then get compensated for receipts? Does the conference pay the tickets? Does it pay them in advance?...

If you need a concrete case - Black Hat https://www.blackhat.com/us-18/call-for-papers.html .

In my experience, most times the person being compensated pays for their travel in advance, and then the conference recompenses them (save your receipts!).

Occasionally, however, the conference will arrange (and pay for) the dominant expenses (typically airfare and/or lodging).

The first is often actually preferable for speakers who can afford delayed recompense and trust the organization, since it gives more flexibility in making one's plans.  Usually, however, you don't get a choice.


Viva voce question about another student "validating" my results My PhD supervisor wanted me to talk about how my research was "validated" by another student in my Viva Voce, despite my results speaking for themselves. This part of my findings had not even been questioned by my examiners.

The student in question had never worked with me in any way. Nor have they published in a work I could cite - conference paper, article or even blog post. Or even private correspondence.

He claims it is common to "have worked with people in this way".

I don't understand why he would ask me to do this.

Ideas?

Post-script:

I am asking this question from the perspective of the exam administration.
Isn't it cause for concern to bring up a person who wasn't cited or acknowledged in the thesis during the Viva?

I suspect your supervisor was thinking about how that student confirmed your results. A classic way this could happen is, if you solved a problem with one method and then the other student solved the same problem with a different method, and your results agree, then the other student has "validated" your results. Naturally, you don't need to have worked with each other to do this - in fact it's arguably preferable that you don't work with each other, to ensure independence of results. Neither do you need to be able to cite their work (you can just say "unpublished").

It's always good to have someone validate your results, because it increases the chances that your results are robust and not due to, e.g. statistical noise. If someone has validated your results, it's definitely something to mention.


Will my "the finalist certificate of the best paper award" be underrated if I co-chair a session at the same conference? A paper of mine did recently reach the final competition for the best paper award of a prestigious conference in my field. Although mine didn't end up with the best paper award, yet I'd like to note that in the "honors and awards'' section of my CV because the conference is arguably one of the bests in my field, and even getting through the roster of its finalists means a lot.

On the other hand, I was also the co-chair of one of the sessions of the conference. I had neither any impact on the selection of the finalist nominations nor any vote on the overall award process whatsoever. Since I'm a rookie Ph.D. student, I'd also like to quote this role in the "academic experiences'' section of my CV (next to my reviewing roles, TAships, etc).

Now I'm wondering if I take both ideas above into account, one may think that my co-chair responsibility would have influenced on my finalist achievement. How would academicians interpret this case? Do I have to pick one to avoid such a misinterpretation?

I would propose to put both points into your CV.

The interpretation you're afraid of is a bit far-fetched, and while some persons may indeed come to such a conclusion, I think most will not. Even for those who would think there has been an influence, I would argue that putting both is better than putting only one of them.
This is because they are in different CV categories, and thus people who evaluate your CV will in their mental checklist tick off both "won a paper award" and "chaired a conference session".


A free tool that is capable of selecting questions from a pool and shuffle them randomly? I will be conducting exams, and I need a tool that can let me shuffle and select random , small questions from a pre-defined question pool. My questions are typically matched and complete.

It would be ideal if I can export to word after that. Any idea or suggestion is appreciated.

I would recommend to use ClassMarker, which is a great tool for creating a quiz with random questions.

You can choose questions you select and randomize the order of the selected questions, randomize answer options or add randomly selected questions, so each time the quiz is taken, different questions will be pulled from your question pool.

Also, the option of exporting the tests to word is available.


Is it pointless to bring up poor supervision during PhD viva? I should defend my PhD in the UK near the end of the year.

Unfortunately I fell into the class of horribly supervised PhD students - with an ill-defined research project and an absent supervisor who steered me into so many different topics of my field that I'm convinced my results chapters lack depth and analysis.

For that specific reason I seriously doubt the originality and the importance of my research work, which will be thoroughly assessed during the viva.

Can the internal and external reviewers be receptive about objective arguments related to poor supervision during the 3-4 years of research? Or are they bound to discuss only the contents of the thesis?

PS - This is not an opinion-based or a stress-induced question where I expect "don't worry" answers. I'm well aware a PhD is a self journey and one should cope with difficult supervision. The question pertains to the viva only.

I'd suggest that the viva is possibly the worst time to do this. Almost anything you say could be interpreted as whining and trying to deflect responsibility for any shortcomings. Many things you might say would be countered in the minds of the reviewers whether expressed by them or not.

Whether you bring it up yourself or just reply to questions or comments with complaints about your advisor or others would seem, to me at least, as unprofessional.

If you have issues about the performance of your advisor, make it a separate issue in an appropriate venue after the degree is in hand.


What do I need to ensure my presentation will go smoothly? From a technical stand point, what do I need to show up to a conference with (in general) to ensure that my presentation will go smoothly?

Two things I can think of:

Presentation remote
Equipment to connect my laptop to the projector

The remote is simple enough, it just needs to work with my computer and be reliable. Connecting my computer to the projector is not trivial since a lot of laptops don't come with DVI or VGA output any more (mine doesn't!). What kind of output do I usually need, DVI or VGA? Do I need something like this which supports all output methods (seems like over kill but might be a good investment)?

Is there anything else to make sure I am prepared to deal with the technical aspects of a presentation?

From less esoteric to more (I've seen all these things happen):

Make sure you know how to "send the image to a projector". Not all laptops do this automatically, and I'm surprised at how many people don't know how to do it. I've also seen people be confused by the mirroring feature on Macs.
Verify that there's a power outlet or some place to plug in your laptop. Driving a projector eats power, and you don't want to drain your battery during the presentation
Turn off screen savers. at the very least it's annoying, and sometimes the screen saver does wonky things to the projector display.
Turn off your notifications (mail, facebook, twitter, skype...). It's amusing for an audience (but not for you) if during a job talk they all get to see a subject header of the form "Interview at University X" where X is not where you're at :)
Make sure you have the right display converters. Usually something that converts your laptop to a VGA is standard. Macs are particularly difficult in this regard.
Watch out for resolution issues. Most laptops are smart enough to drop resolution to deal with a projector, but sometimes they're not.
Keep a backup copy of the slides in a portable format (PDF or PPT) on a usb stick. In the worst-case you can always borrow a laptop (from the previous speaker even) and load up the slides. Dropbox/a web page is ok but not great because it requires an internet connection.

And above all, as David M. R. says, check the setup beforehand if you can. Even that doesn't guarantee a smooth presentation, but it eliminates a lot of the potential problems listed above.


Co-authors are not responding due to their very very busy schedule, How should I handle it? I prepared a manuscript along with two co-authors and submitted the manuscript to a journal in January 2016. However, the manuscript was rejected in April 2016 and given another chance to resubmit after addressing the reviewers' comments.

I did all the revisions and submitted to my co-authors since August 2016 to check the revision. But none of the co-authors have responded to my emails, even after seven or eight gentle reminders at regular intervals. As both of them are top-level professors at very reputable institutes and heads of their department, so I understand their very busy schedule.

How should I handle this situation?

I found another question similar to mine: How to handle Co-author who is not listening the suggestions to improve the paper quality, but I did not find my answer there.

In general, you are the lead author. If you are keen to progress a paper, then you need take the lead. This may mean that you wont get as much feedback from your co-authors as you might want. But this is generally better than delaying a publication for months and months. I also find there is a real cost in having to get back in the zone on a paper that I'm leading when it is put on hold because of such issues.

I would typically give co-authors a specific timeframe to make a contribution. For example, I might say that I am going to submit the paper in four weeks, and thus, any feedback they can provide in the next two weeks would be most welcome. I'd also try to get feedback from them about when they might have time to have a look at it, and I'd try to arrange my own schedule for working on the paper so that I'm able to send something through for when they might be free.

Of course, this is something to be negotiated. Sometimes, co-authors may want or expect to have greater involvement. Or you may think that their input is worth waiting for.

The case where a student is the lead author is also another variant. In that case, the supervisor would have more influence over timelines. In this case, the student may also be relying on the supervisor more to make sure that the manuscript is ready for submission.

What about co-author consent?  Nate Eldredge raised the following issue in comments:

  Don't you need the consent of all co-authors in order to submit a paper? So if they don't respond by your deadline, I don't see how you can ethically go ahead and submit anyway.

I agree that co-authors need to consent to having their name listed on a paper. That is very important. And you can imagine situations where consent would be an issue.

However, from my experience, in many situations the consent is implied. First, co-authors have usually already agreed to be involved in a publication at the start of the project. And in the above case, the co-authors have already submitted a paper and now they are revising it to submit it again. It's common for one author to take the lead on these kinds of revisions.

Then in the usual case, the lead author will send  emails to co-authors outlining a publication plan with a timeline as well as follow-up emails as it gets closer to submission. The lead author would also send emails about when a submission occurs and when the status of the manuscript changes. At every stage, co-authors are free to negotiate the timeline, their input, and whether they wish to remain a co-author.

In most cases, co-authors respond to emails. Busy co-authors may not have time to actually make a contribution to the paper at that time, but any reasonable co-author will reply to emails in a reasonable time at least indicating their intentions about the paper (or they should have an auto-reply to say they are on leave). Furthermore, a submission is not the final word on authorship. For example, if a co-author didn't respond to emails for four weeks and then finds out their name was put on a submission that they did not approve of, there will still usually be plenty of time to withdraw their name, or make sufficient changes at the revisions stage.

So, I think if the lead author engages in reasonable correspondence about the publication plan and the submission process, then the issue can be navigated.


References check for a tenure position? I understand most parts of the hiring process for an academic job, except for the reference check. How do they check it, who checks it, and when do they check it? Do they check what we write in the cover letter, cv, teaching/research statement, etc.? Do they run a background check, credit score check on you?

At my institution in the United States, reference checks are done by members of the search committee for the position, who call those people the candidate has listed as references.  We use a structured list of questions, ending with, "is there anything we should know that I haven't asked you?"

We verify academic credentials by requiring official transcripts, including those from undergraduate institutions.

The institution separately does a criminal record background check, handled by the university police department.  The candidate must explicitly authorize this, in writing.  But, of course, we cannot consider candidates who will not agree to the background check.  As far as I know, there is no credit check for faculty jobs.  There probably is a credit check for anyone who handles money.

Finally, the institution does a driving record check every year.  This is because we are covered by the university's insurance when driving university vehicles or driving our personal vehicles on university business.

What I've written (except the bit about the driving record) applies to people being hired into a tenure-track position.  Applications for promotion or tenure for those already on the faculty are much different.


Minor typos found directly after submission of a revised manuscript to a geochemistry-focused journal I am a PhD candidate working in fields related to environmental sciences and climatology, and have recently finished the revisions/corrections for my first peer-reviewed manuscript.

Unfortunately, I did not get to be the corresponding author for this first submission, for which I collected all data and wrote the paper. Therefore, my first supervisor submitted the revisions instead. However, this was done without informing me and, more importantly, before I could carry out final checks on the manuscript to make sure all the figure references and citations were correct...

Immediately after submission of the revisions by my supervisor, I have checked the manuscript and found the following errors:

One full reference is missing, but cited in-text (out of a total of 80 references).
One Figure reference early on in the manuscript was deleted by my supervisor, which now means the figures are presented in the wrong order...
Another Figure reference has a minor typo ("Fig. 4a" instead of "Fig. 4").

My supervisor has refused to re-submit the corrected version of the manuscript, even though the corrections were only submitted yesterday evening. I am asking for expert advice and opinions on what my best course of action is. Can the above errors be the decisive factor in rejecting my paper for publication, even if the reviewers comments were otherwise addressed objectively well? My fear is that the paper will be rejected as "sloppy" (i.e. the revised paper should be perfect in terms of referencing and citations).

These errors should not lead to rejection. Even if the paper will be accepted now (i.e. no additional round of revision) there will be a chance to correct those errors during proof-reading. The missing reference will probably be detected by the journal and corrected automatically.

Take notes of the errors, so you can be quick once you get to proof-reading stage, since often, publishers give you as little as 24 hours to check and correct a manuscript.

I just remember that there are fields where the authors take care of formatting and editing of the final version - there things might be a bit different. My  answer is based on journals that do the editing for you, after acceptance of the manuscript.

The fact that your supervisor (or any corresponding author) submitted a (revised) manuscript without asking co-authors and making sure, they approve the manuscript, is a different matter and should not have been done. Look for posts regarding "submitted without consent/approval" to find out more (basically, the corresponding author has to make sure that all co-authors have seen and approved a manuscript before submission, at every stage).


How should a postdoc address senior research staff and faculty members in the USA? What is the etiquette for addressing senior research staff and faculty members in an academic setting in the USA? A postdoc is no longer a student but at the same time he or she is (in general) not at the level of senior research engineers/scientists and professors. How should he or she address them ("FirstName" or "Dr. LastName") so that proper respect as well as confidence in one's "above-the-students" position is maintained?

Does it depend on the University, Lab group or the level of experience one has acquired before joining the present postdoc position?

When I was a grad student, my initial preference was to call faculty "Doctor" or "Professor".  At some point (about halfway through, I think) one professor said to me: "If you want them to see you as a peer, you should call the professors the same way that they call each other."  At my university, all the professors called each other by their first names (it didn't matter if they were assistant, associate, or full).  Since I planned to make a career in academia, I really did want to be viewed as a peer.  So I started calling them by their first name (and no one ever told me to do otherwise).


Mental Heath for long-term success in Academia I was hoping for some advice on long-term mental health in academia. First off, I am a 3rd year PhD economics PhD in a high-ranking school in the US. Before anything else, my experience has been great. I have done extremely well and I am well on my way to publishing several high-level papers. The department has been supportive every step along the way, from my thesis advisers and co-authors to the more senior members who have helped me grow as a person.

On the other side, I am also the youngest person in my PhD class. Often times, I set almost unrealistic expectations for myself. My goal is to make assistant professor at a research school before the age of 30. I've told this to many professors in the department, and they all told me it was possible. The problem is that I often get upset with myself when I cannot perform at 100% of my best, and even when I do I cannot get myself to take a break. For example, today I sent out my work by 11am, ideally this would mean I would get a free day until tomorrow. But I decided to pick up a side project and now am taking a break to write this. I have discussed about burnout with my advisors. They all just say take a break. Might sound strange, but I do not know how to do that.

The question, in sum, is then: if you have been very successful in this field, have you ever had the feeling that the only person your work is not good enough for is yourself, and that you will always want to push the extra mile, no matter what?  I feel this way because my family, and the entire department, especially my PhD advisor, have always gone the extra mile for me. These include: extra study sessions with professors, helping me design my own field, and making sure I would be in the best position to succeed as a researcher. I feel if I do not put in my absolute best on a daily basis, that would be disrespectful towards them and myself.

Thank you for listening, I needed to get this off my chest

I suggest that you take up some stress reducing activity that you can perform for an hour or more several times a week. It shouldn't be a completely mindless activity or you may wind up just working when you should be giving your mind/brain a rest.

Burnout is a terrible thing.

On the other hand, periods of intellectual "rest" can actually enhance your work since the mind works on its own when you aren't constantly pushing the 'starter button'.

There are a lot of possibilities for this. When in grad school I used to ride a bike with a group of mostly faculty members. We would ride at a fast pace for 35-50 miles a few times a week. The physical activity helped and we didn't talk math on the ride. The grad students I studied with had a weekly softball game for themselves and spouses. Nothing like a little competition. Something like Chess is fine for the mind part, but a bit of physical activity will keep you healthier.

Currently I use Tai Chi for stress and general fitness (but not aerobics). The fact that it is a mind-body activity, not just body, helps give the brain a rest from whatever it is doing.

Many people notice that they wake up with new ideas in the morning or after a quick nap. That is the effect of giving the brain a break.

Stress can kill you. Find a way to do something (a) enjoyable and (b) not work related. Taking a walk now and then probably won't be as effective as an activity that does engage the brain but in a different way from the rigors of your field.


Presenting a paper at a conference/seminar that is currently under review by a journal Do you think it is against the academic code of conduct to present a paper at a conference or a departmental seminar that has already been submitted to a journal for publication?

There are two aspects to your question:

“Duplicating” a publication by having both a conference paper and a journal paper about it.

This has been discussed here before, and a short summary is that this usually not a problem: apart from Computer Science, where conference papers have a rather different status that in other fields, “publishing a paper does not normally prevent you from presenting your work at a conference”.
Presenting as-yet-unpublished results in a conference/seminar.

There's nothing wrong about that at all, and I think more people will actually enjoy you discussing recent results rather than old stuff. Customs, here again, depend on your field: I've seen more people discuss unpublished results in physics, and fewer in chemistry… but even in fields where it is less common, it is not forbidden.

One thing to note: if the paper is not yet published, it is probably polite to inform your co-authors (or ask for their permission, depending on your relationship) that you are going to present it at a conference. At least, that's what I do (and expect my co-authors to do).


Citing supplementary material as a reference? I am about to submit a paper to https://www.siam.org/Conferences/CM/Main/sdm19 (deadline is today) and I have supplementary material contains further evidence, proofs, examples and the like.

I want to reference my supplementary material, like this:

  ... however, we found that the runtime is polynomial [24] and that ...

and then in the references:

  [24] A. Uther, This One Paper - Supplementary material. www.github.com/asdf/wer

I found no guideline regarding this. Can I simply put my reference material on a website (e.g. github), put the link into the References section and cite the reference in the text? I have not seen this in any other paper, but I want to cite the supplementary material several times and using a footnote might be confusing: If I put the footnote at the first page I need to cite (e.g. page 3) and I need to cite it at page 9 the last time, people will be confused where to find this footnote.

Note: The conference is NOT double-blind, but only single-blind. (I don't know their names, but they know my name.)

Usually (with journals that make supplementary material available via the article web page), I'd say "see supplement[ary material]" or refer to figures as "Fig. S23" or the like.
As you comment that the journal will not make the supplementary material available, I'd suggest to publish in a repository like arXiv or Zenodo and then refer to that location. Still making clear that this is supplementary material to your paper, e.g. "see supplementary material [24]".
Or state at the beginning of the paper that supplementary material is available externally, give the location there (as opposed to in the references) and then refer to it as supplementary material like you'd do for "normal" supplements.


How do I find out when grad schools host their open house? I'm looking to tour a few grad schools in the near future, but I can't find any dates for tours for any of the schools I'm interested in.

The school I attend has tours for potential grad students, but I'm not sure this is a thing all schools do.

Do grad schools typically have days where they hold tours?
Should I contact the schools I'm interested in? If so, who should I contact?

(I have not yet applied, I'm about a year away from that.)

If you are in the middle of the graduate school application process, they will generally tell you (upon acceptance) when their open house is. If you are thinking ahead (e.g., to next year), I would send an email to the office of graduate admissions, or perhaps to the chair of graduate admissions for the department you're interested in. They may not have organized large-scale tours for prospective graduate students who have not been admitted, but I imagine they might be willing to work with you to get you on a campus tour, set up a meeting with professors whose work you are interested in, etc.


Colleague claiming first co-autorhip of my work Some time ago I started my Ph.D. and my project was to attempt again to investigate a problem that a colleague (a senior Ph.D.) had failed to investigate because he lacked numerical/coding skills to attack the problem. Essentially our advisor put me to work on a line of research that senior phd had abandoned, and I started from his (few) old results, spent 9 months writing code and running the simulations, and finally obtained some interesting results. Senior PhD, though he mostly contributed with discussions and one plot, casually claimed co-first-authorhip by asking to our advisor when I was not there, but the request was refused.

For the last 6 months we worked on a natural continuation of the previous research. Senior phd insisted to collaborate intensely at the beginning and for the first month we surely did, but later he was caught by other things (writing 2 other papers, writing the PhD dissertation..) and I continued my work alone with a PostDoc. SeniorPhd always attended discussions.

It is now time to start writing the paper, and he said he would write it, as he has alredy written part of those results in his dissertation and because he writes faster than me (so we can publish before other groups) . I politely refused during the meeting, so he offered to co-write the results with me.

Our advisor ignored the issues and pushed to move onto other topics.

After that meeting, senior Ph.D. started to ask me to explain a few things that he still did not get about the method, and I explained him. He then proceeded to make a few very quick simulations to produce the first 2 figures of the paper and presented those to the PostDoc a few hours after I was done explaining him.

I felt as if he is trying to force himself as first author/coauthor by simply starting to write a research in which he did not do the majority of the work.

All the data is in a shared drive, so in principle, he could write everything up.

How can I confront the issue without looking like an asshole who refuses to be helped by a very kind collegue?

First, I know the struggle is real. One of my three wishes would certainly be for us to somehow separate career and prestige from the collective pursuit of knowledge.

There's an expression I recall from redneck NASCAR culture that seems relevant here: "Rubbing is racing." There will always be some pushing and shoving concerning who did what, particularly as scholars are trying to jump from fledgling academics to something tenured. If it's a little irritating, I'd just keep pursuing knowledge.

If it's more than a little and you feel as though you are not being treated fairly, then I encourage you to not care about how others perceive your bringing it up. The higher we climb, the less accurately we seem to predict how supervisors will respond. So why worry about that? If he's getting undue credit, speak up; if he kind of deserves some credit, why split hairs?


University does not explicitly request either a motivational letter or recommendation letters I am applying to University of Helsinki for Master degree, just filed the application. But the weird thing about it - they do not explicitly ask neither for letter of motivation nor recommendation letters. They only mention motivational letter very briefly on just one page, but after I filed online application their system said that I just need to provide my transcript of records and degree certificate, that's it.

The other thing that confused me - in the online application they asked me to write brief message why I am applying to their university (under 2000 symbols). They didn't call it "motivational letter", but can it be that they take this short 2000 symbols online input form for motivational letter? I highly doubt it, but then I don't see the point of writing it, when they will have the same thing(even more detailed) provided to them in separate letter.

As for recommendation letters - I think they don't mention it at all, at least on the main pages concerning applications for Master degree.
This is not common for Finnish university, many other universities explicitly demand recommendation and motivational letters.

My question is - can I be sure that the admission board will read my motivational and recommendation letters? I always thought that the main thing admission board looks at are these two type of documents, am I wrong?

Finnish students are typically granted a permission to study the Bachelor's and Master's degrees both with a single application after completing upper secondary school. Therefore, there is practically no culture of writing recommendation letters before the PhD level, and even then it is kind of a rare thing.
The situation is only slightly different for foreign students, since the universities want to make sure they are recruiting good students, given that there are no tuition or other fees except the compulsory 100€ per year for almost all-inclusive dental and other health care.
In the specific page you link to, it is stated that

Admission will be based on the grade, applicability of the previous degree, the motivation letter, and the possible preliminary assignment which is used to assess the applicability of the applicant’s previous competence.
The applicant must enclose with his or her application a copy of the diploma, an official transcript of completed studies and a motivation letter describing the applicant’s personal goals and reasons for applying.

Therefore, it would appear on a first look that no recommendation letters are sought, which is what I would expect.
The comments asked for additional clarification. For example, the Faculty of Social Sciences of University Helsinki writes

Please, submit only documents required. Any additional documents like articles written by an applicant, recommendation letters etc. will not be included for evaluation of an application. If a research plan (including references) is longer than 5 pages, the extra pages will be cut out.

in their PhD application guidelines. In most cases, the system here is just very different.
Anyway: better safe than sorry. Ask them what to do.


Sharing articles with your department colleagues Our group of researchers (~15 people) came to an agreement that it would be a good idea to have a database of journal articles that are worth sharing. Our department is becoming more and more focused on one direction, so it would save a lot of time for us to simply check what others have already read and suggested. In addition, the plan would also be to write a short summary (by the person who has read it) why this paper has been read and what does it offer (sometimes abstract is not enough). The questions I have are:

Is there available tool that would allow us to do so easily?
All of us have access to most of the non-open access journals, but is it okay if the papers are shared (in *.pdf) between our group, especially if the database is in the cloud?
Do you have a similar system in your research group? If no, how do you share 'worth reading' articles?

So far, we were thinking to use Dropbox, OneDrive or other service to store this information and provide access to each of us, but we are not sure if it is safe and how to make it efficient.

Please let me know your opinions about this idea and what do you use yourselves.

I'm all for collaboration and sharing, but please be aware that you might be breaching specific laws in your country and you may be inadvertently dragging the lab (unit, group, Department) into a complicated situation.

I've found this site helpful: http://www.howcanishareit.com/. It provides advice about sharing permissions and options based on DOI.

To answer your question, my group uses EndNote Web for this, mainly because the university has a corporate subscription to the software. One of the post-grads curates the database and undergraduate students are assigned to summarising the paper, with comments provided by one PhD, one post-doc or one academic staff member. We circulate a condensed summary every week. It took a while to set up, but it now works rather smoothly.

Good luck.

PS. I just remembered that one of the post-docs presented Mendeley as an alternative, too. If we hadn't already had access to EndNote through the institutional subscription, we thought that it was a great system.


Why do we put names first in bibliographies? While adding references to a .bib file the other day I found myself putting the title field first as it provided more information about the citations than the author names. After some thought, I wondered why most bibliography formats don't do that to begin with; if the primary goal of references is to provide support for the topic at hand while also giving proper attribution to existing works and to provide avenues for further research by readers, would it not make more sense to put the titles of papers/articles/etc. first and then the author names? It seems to me that the important thing (in terms of the work being written) is not who wrote the cited works but the works themselves, and if citing multiple papers by the same person putting the name first provides somewhat of a distraction from the actual content of the citations. Particularly in the case of collaborative efforts, where a work may have been written by a multitude of people, the title of the work can get pushed aside by the multitude of names (at least when using a format that doesn't just collapse the names to "et al"). What are the underlying reasons for this, or is it just a social thing that happened because researchers like having a significant effect in their fields/their careers depend on it?

This Question makes sense in practical terms, but includes a misconception in the area of academic culture, when you say, 'if the primary goal of references is to provide support for the topic at hand [...]'.  That is not quite right.

Also, disciplined academic writing tends to take the form of a dialogue (or in simple cases a dialectic), where differing perspectives are chucked into an arena and required to fight it out.  None of them necessarily has to 'win':  finding them all to be wrong is a positive result.

It is very often useful to label a view primarily as emerging historically from the body of some identifiable person's work, rather than hovering it vaguely in conceptual space.

Referencing has two primary goals.

The first is to help interested readers to identify and follow-up the material that you have recruited for your argument, so that they can, if they wish, follow your evidence in detail and, perhaps, find the stuff that you left out.  The idea is (partly) that you have openly saved a reader time in either embracing or challenging your position.  Under present archival conventions, the tracking-down of sources for this purpose (or any other) is almost always most efficiently done by starting with author name.  Scrambling for titles on the web, although I now do it every day, does not (yet) count as an archival convention.

Second, referencing is part of the process of locating yourself in the critical discourse of whatever discipline you are working in.  Your writing is in some sense an act of positioning your view in relation to others', even (or perhaps especially) if some other person's view has shifted over time.

For example...  In film studies it would seem rather ignorant to talk about 'the male gaze' as a convention of camerawork and editing without (a) attributing the expression to Laura Mulvey and (b) noting that she changed her view over time (see Wikipedia, for shorthand).

Merely referring to ideas from published articles, blog posts or even comments by anyone is fine in its place (e.g. my doctoral thesis, here and there).  For the most part, however, it usually works best to say something like, 'Aristotle proposes [an impressive idea].  Hitler disagrees [here, because of this].
Colonel Sanders inadvertently resolves that conceptual conflict by suggesting [that surprising thing].

That is also why we use the present tense:  'Roland Barthes says [something].  Michel Foucault (while never identifying Barthes) responds by saying [something that works far better in the real world].'  You are taking part in a present debate, with points of view that are most efficiently located by identifying their authors.


How do I / Should I, console a former classmate and stressed out PHD/MD applicant? I have a former classmate of mine who wasn't successful in his/her application to top-tier PhD/MD programs this past application cycle.

Over the phone and through email, I've been sympathetic when I learned about his/her disappointment and offered words of encouragement, reminding him/her of their worth ethic (working 2-3 jobs at the same time and maintaining a stellar GPA) and personal aspirations (the kind of aspiration where you think that he/she would be a major force in research, selflessly serving the needs of others, and accomplishing a great deal in their career) during our undergraduate years.

However in recent time, I've lost touch with this person for unknown reasons, as I stopped hearing back from them. Distance, time, busy with other stuff. I don't know.

The question I wanted to pose is, should I try to reach out again?

If they decided to reapply, what little would my words of encouragement offer beyond a smile and good wishes? (I doubt they would have an impact on the actual admissions board)

If they decided to not reapply, wouldn't my words just pour salt into an otherwise fresh bitter wound in their mind?

Mind you, I am going through the testing phase at the moment myself and am narrowing down my PhD study programs to a handful for application, so I can't claim that I am in similar waters.

Put yourself in this person's shoes, how would you react in either scenario?

If you decide to reach out again, I would try to reconnect over a different topic first. It sounds like it has been a while since the results were announced, and bringing up their past disappointment over and over again will probably not help them get over it. If all of your interactions are focused on this one topic they might start to wonder if you are either secretly judging them about it, or if you are just pumping them for advice on what mistakes to avoid in your own applications.

If subsequently they bring up the topic on their own, you can express sympathy at that point. But I would follow their lead in whether they want to dwell on it or not.


Consequences of quitting a graduate-level Research Assistant (RA) position mid-semester, with little notice? BACKGROUND

I am an engineering graduate student at a good American university, funded as a Research Assistant (RA).  The lab and professor rely heavily on my day-to-day work.

My PhD research is going nowhere and I am far less interested in obtaining a PhD compared to one year ago.  Most importantly, my wife wants me to leave and pursue an engineering job with a salary.  I have a colleague/friend who has a position lined up for me provided I begin to work ASAP.  Ultimately, this would mean quitting my funded research position mid summer (and mid-semester) with little notice.  Because of this, I am not expecting a "letter of recommendation" from my advisor/boss/professor, however I don't want to be blacklisted either.

QUESTIONS

How significant of an offense would it be to quit a graduate-level Research Assistantship in the middle of a semester?  Would it even be legal to do this at an American university?  What would be the consequences for simply turning in my resignation and leaving the program (again, in the middle of the semester with very little notice)?

Opinions from professors, PhD drop-outs, or people familiar with these situations would be great!

This will likely vary greatly from one department to another. It will also depend upon your relationship with your advisor, departmental needs, etc. As @tonysdg noted in the comments, it would be a good idea to talk to your advisor about this. Some departments are understanding of these situations.

In my (geography) department, a few years ago we had a student quit his masters degree and his teaching assistantship because he was a single dad and out of money. He dreaded going to his supervisor (who was not his academic advisor) to tell him this. But it ended up being no big deal. Everyone understood, and to my knowledge there were no harsh feelings in the department toward him. Other grad students and professors covered a few classes for him through the rest of the semester, and the department was able to fund a new student the next semester.

Like I said, these things are situational, so your conversation may be different. But I included this answer as a tangible example that it is possible to leave in the middle of the semester without causing bedlam. Also, there may be strict rules against leaving in the middle of the semester, but sometimes these rules can be bent under the right circumstances. Even if you find a rule against what you're thinking about doing, I would still talk to your advisor.


How to establish inter-rater reliability as a sole PhD researcher I'm doing a PhD in the social sciences and want to use an observational method to analyse audio recordings of social work conversations. I will be using an established behavioural coding manual (the Motivational Interviewing Skills Code 2.5) to assign behavioural codes to the interaction. The problem I have is that I need a way of demonstrating that my coding is reliable. Typically, on studies I have worked on in the past, there would be a small sample of recordings that would be re-coded by at least one other person to establish inter-rater reliability. As a sole researcher, I cannot do this.

Is there a way around this issue?

The measurement of an inter-rater reliability premises multiple raters.
I therefore see three possible solutions for you to thematize this issue:

First, aim to get another rater. The best approach for you would be to apply for and obtain funding in order to hire one. I say that this is the 'best' approach because it would demonstrate (a) your ability to get grants for research purposes and (b) your accuracy and honesty with regards to this methodical task. But if that does not work, there are other options; perhaps you can ask among your friends and colleagues to volunteer their time for you (this is what I once did, and my wife volunteered for a small rating task). Or perhaps your supervisor can arrange a student or research assistant for this task.

Second, you can disclose that you were unable to obtain a second rater (due to resource constraints). Your paper's discussion section would highlight this as a limitation of your research, and it would identify the measurement of your approach's reliability as a gap to be closed through 'future research'. This is not shameful; in every scientific publication there should be a discussion section that identifies limitations and further research paths anyway.

Third, you could split yourself into two 'raters' by assuming that you were rater number one at time t1 and rater number two at time t2. However, I have never seen this approach, and it is merely a bold speculation from my side; I am sure that this would be accompanied with grave methodical concerns. Thus, I should also add: Don't follow this advice, just to be sure.


Is there any particular date when math postdoc results are typically announced? The application for math postdoc at United States is the end  of every year. Want to know when it usually releases the results?
Has someone already got an offer or some shortlist notifications?

I believe that in math the first round of postdoc offers usually go out shortly after the NSF announces who will be receiving NSF postdocs. This usually happens in late January. After that, offers tend to go out when (or if) previous offers were declined.


My grade was penalized because of a technical problem. Who can I contact? Last year, I did an exchange semester at a foreign university as part of my master degree. I was lagging behind on homework in one of my exchange courses, and wouldn't have been able to get a good grade. Since this university allows students who fail courses to attempt them again in the next term, and I expect this grade to be important in a future application, I chose to not pass the course last year, and enrolled in its next round, which is now.

I cannot attend lectures since I am in my home country, so I depend entirely on the university's online course tracking system to follow the course and assignments. From the beginning of the term, I visited regularly the course's page, to make sure I could start working on assignments early. Since I didn't see this year's assignments appear, I assumed that they had not yet been given, and focused on my schoolwork at home.

I have discovered today that the system did not show me any of the assignments or announcements from this semester, even though I have registered correctly to this year's course round. I was only informed by a student I kept contact with on social media that there was in fact an assignment to be handed in, and that the deadline has passed a few days ago. This means that, whatever I do, I won't be able to get more than a passing grade. I still don't even have access to the course material, announcements, discussions or assignments published for this year's course round.

I contacted the teacher, who said that they could not account for technical problems, and would not grade me higher than a passing grade if I handed in this assignment now, as for the other students.

I feel that I am getting penalized for technical problems outside of my control. Since the teacher used the term "cannot", I assume that there is a rule outside of their control that prevents them from making an exception. I suppose that there is someone in the university who can make these exceptions, and would like to contact them and explain my problem.

The problem is that I don't know who this person might be, or if it would be wise to send them an email. The IT support can probably fix my problem with the tracking system, but has no control over grading. The international relations office usually directs this kind of inquiries to the course's professors. Contacting someone high-ranked such as the dean seems ridiculous to me, and I would expect no answer at best. There are various offices such as the "office of student affairs", and several contacts listed on the department's web page, but I don't know which one to choose.

At large universities, what office or person typically deals with this kind of complaints? Is it worth trying to contact them and get an exceptional deadline extension?

I fail to see how a teacher could give you what you want, while remaining fair with respect to all other students.

I taught a course where I made clear from the start to everyone that late submissions would not be graded and would not receive any points. Around one deadline, one student decided to take a holiday in Portugal, which is located one time zone to the west of most of Europe. They submitted their homework three minutes before midnight in the Portuguese time zone, which was 57 minutes late in our time zone.

If I now stretch up the rules for this student, why would any other student ever take my red lines seriously anymore? Moreover, other students who remained in the central European timezone may have missed the deadline by, say, ten minutes, and just decide not to submit given that I had been clear that late submissions would not be graded. If a professor writes down a hard, clear rule, they cannot make technical exceptions for that rule without un-leveling the playing field. It would be unfair to other students, to make an exception for you.

It would be different, if the university's online course tracking system to which you allude, has a formal role in the examination regulations. If there are university or department regulations that stipulates that the system administrates, then you might be in your rights. But barring that, the teacher sets the rules, and is responsible for upholding them in an objectively fair manner. Objectively fair would be to not grant you the technical exemption that other students would also not be granted.


What field should I choose if I want to do quantum information in future but there isn't a group in my university? I'm an undergraduate student. I have learned something about research. But in my university currently most professors are working on condensed matter physics, a few AMO. I think I really need someone to guide my career because I can't get myself interested in condensed matter experiments (especially those to develop new materials or having seldom to do with the "physics things") for now.

I am going to give you the same (very good) advice that I received when I asked a similar question a few months ago: don't ask us, ask them.

Find the names of some quantum information theorists.
Send a brief and polite email expressing interest in their research.
Ask them what kind of things you should specialise in, or what type
of courses you should take to help you reach your goal.
Don't be surprised if you don't get too many responses; academics are busy people.
Keep trying. If that's the area of research you really want to pursue, go for it. Read some journal articles. Find a good textbook and get stuck in.

Finally (and this is an important one), as Martin said in his answer to my question:

  "Quite a lot of people in senior levels in cosmology are interested in
  cosmology and are glad to find interest in cosmology in other people."

and this applies to quantum information too.


What is the difference between a taught and research MSc and a research MPhil degree? I'm in my senior year of Bsc Civil Engineering, in which I've started applying towards my grad studies in the  U.K.

In searching for the courses I've seen an MSc of Engineering Science by Research (2 years long) and MPhil of Engineering (1 year long). The first is a kind of taught and research degree while the second is only a research degree.

What are the differences between these kinds of degrees, academically? Which of them is a more prestigious degree?

Many take an Mres with no plans to go onwards to a Phd whilst an MPhil tends to be the precursor to a Phd programme (both tend to have some taught component, but sometimes both can be just pure research, there is no one size fits all as each programme is unique).

When joining a Phd programme you will always be put on an MPhil first whilst the same is not true for an Mres.  That is not to say though that you cannot extend your Mres project to a Phd if suitable funding and supervision is available.

As an engineer the only reason to do either of these research programmes is if you actually wish to do research.  If you just want an advanced accredited degree its better you look at Msc or MEng programmes.

Neither degree is more "prestigious".  They are both designed to teach you how to become a researcher.  If you want to do research in engineering though you will need to do a Phd or spend your career with an Mres working under the supervision of Phds.


Should I cite my undergraduate thesis in my paper? Before I finished my undergraduate thesis, my supervisor had asked me to write a smaller paper with the same content as my thesis and send it to a conference. Now, my thesis ended and my paper is going to be published. Should I cite my undergraduate thesis in my paper? Because undergraduate theses are not easily accepted as a references.

As suggested by @MartinČerný I'm turning my comment into an answer. I'd include the thesis in the bibliography and write in the paper (perhaps in a footnote) something like "This paper is an abridged version of the author's undergraduate thesis [reference here], written under the supervision of [adviser's name here]."


How do I publish the work of my elderly father, a "fringe" scientist? I am trying to figure out the best way to publish my elderly father's life work. He says he would be considered a "fringe" scientist or an independent researcher. Should we self-publish? The subject matter would be of great interest to those interested in earth-moon systems, and the Egyptian Pyramids. How should we proceed?

There are precedents for this.
J.S. Bach assumed that his music would be forgotten after he died. It would have been it if weren't for the efforts of Mendelsohn, Schuman and others. Nowadays Bach is considered by many to be the greatest composer whoever lived. His work is to be heard ubiquitously.

For about 50 years after Bach’s death, his music was neglected. This
was only natural; in the days of Haydn and Mozart, no one could be
expected to take much interest in a composer who had been considered
old-fashioned even in his lifetime.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Johann-Sebastian-Bach/Reputation-and-influence

With regard to publication by children of a parent's work, there is the case of Pierre Fermat.
Fermat was a great mathematician by any measure. However his widespread recognition by the general public was the result of his so-called Last Theorem. This came to light purely as a result of his son reproducing a note from Pierre's handwritten note in a margin.

Written in 1637, it wasn’t actually his last theorem, but nobody knew
about it until his son found it five years after Fermat died. Years
later, after all of Fermat’s other theorems had surrendered to
mathematical proof, this remarkable theorem resisted all assaults.
https://www.famousscientists.org/pierre-de-fermat/

Self-publishing is always an option even if it ends up being simply a treasured family keepsake.
Without knowing the details (Did he visit and excavate the pyramids? Did he decipher hieroglyphics that no-one else could?) it is difficult for us to answer.
I think you need to consult an expert in the field. Alternatively you need to get a publishing agent in the field of interest. They will negotiate the traps and tricks of the publishing industry for you (at a fee of course).


I will be graduating a semester early, what schools have spring & summer intake? I have enough credits to graduate a semester early, and will be soon. I know of the perquisites such as the GMAT, but when researching the school I wanted to go to (Fordham) I am worried now that most schools only have a fall intake. I noticed UMaryland has spring intake and Villanova has a summer intake. Will my pool of schools be limited if I want to start in the spring?

check the list below for spring intake colleges. dates may be different as the list is for 2015

http://www.hotcoursesabroad.com/india/prepare-to-apply/how-to-apply-to-a-university/usas-spring-2015-admissions/


Can I ask the Associate Editor of a journal for an update on a paper I refereed? I wrote a referee report for a paper and recommended a minor revision. This was in December 2019 and I have not heard from the associate editor regarding the fate of this paper.
Is it inappropriate for me to request an update on the status of the paper? Whether it was rejected outright or whether a revision is in the making?

Ask sure.
But you may not get a response at all or just get a “it’s in progress” or “it is completed and published or not”. He/she may decide to give detail if they wish.


Mathjobs.org cover letter: Address to "Hiring Committee Member" or to faculty member listed on job posting? On mathjobs.org, each posting often has at the bottom of the listing "further info." Sometimes the name and contact information for a faculty member is listed. Instead of addressing my cover letter, "Dear Hiring Committee Member," would it be better if I wrote, "Dear (name of faculty member)?"

No.  Although the person listed for further information might be on the search committee, they certainly won't be the only member of the committee.  Furthermore, the person listed for further information might not even be on the committee.


How do I protect my idea before presenting to a large company? First of all some background info:

I did a PhD in Electrical Engineering. Basically during my PhD I developed a concept that is now being trialled by two companies. One is very small, but one is a large multinational. The companies that were involved with my department were not interested in patenting the idea. I was forced to publish it. I don't really care about publish/patent, as it will still be great if my PhD gets used in real life.

The problem is now that at the end of the year I dont have a job. I dont publish many papers, whereas others here seem to be able to publish 5 or 6 a year. Yet, my PhD is the only original idea that is being trialled by industry (that I know of) from our group.

I now have another idea that I think is just as good and would probably be trialled by industry. The idea is very simple and requires basically just 1 op-amp. I want to present this to external companies. I am visiting a very large one in November who were interested in using my PhD.

My goal is to use this idea, combined with my PhD, to try to get external private funding, or a job that means I still have a job in this city. I don't really have any skills, all I did was a PhD, which was a really simple idea and made a few circuits to prove it in a lab. If I had experience in designing proper circuits for real products I would have probably been able to get a job elsewhere. My only skill is that I can show that I can analyse the current state-of-the-art, and generate improvements using very simple concepts (which are also novel).

My last resort is to publish it. Again I don't care if I publish it or not, but I already published 13 papers in 3 and a half years. Who cares if I publish 1 more when there are others with 25. I just want to maximise my chances of getting a new job since according to this group's standards I am 'unproductive'.

First, while there are cases of companies "stealing" an idea and giving nothing to the inventor it is uncommon (as far as I know). The reason for this is that ideas tend to be plentiful. It is the execution which is where the hard work comes in (and the risk of loss of investment).

Second, if you want to protect your idea, then you need to know what protections are appropriate for your idea. Some things are patentable and some are not. Some are patentable in some locations and some are not. So contacting an attorney in your area is a good idea (it won't be free but for a few hundred dollars you can get some advice which could make all the difference for your future. Besides patents, you might consider having everyone present in the meeting at the company sign an NDA. Keep in mind, some people refuse to sign NDAs for philosophical reasons (if you want an NDA you should bring this up well before your meeting, do not surprise anyone with it).

You might also consider checking out Law.SE but it sounds to me like you really need a one-on-one with an attorney.

Being able to find simple, innovative solutions is a great skill to have. It sounds like you do need to have the right team around you (to provide the skills you are missing) but do not sell yourself short.


What do "mention", "promotion", and "situation within your promotion" mean in this paragraph describing a CV? I am applying for an Eiffel scholarship, and my school required me to send a CV as follows:

  CV outlining the following information: mention, rank of classification, situation within your promotion, number of students in the promotion, diplomas with indication of specialty, date of graduation, mentions/honors and final marks certified by the institution.

I could not understand what do they actually mean or refer to. I have emailed the Coordinator, but have not received her reply.

Please help me correctly understand these terms! Thank you so much!

This sounds like a bad translation from French (and it's not unlikely that the coordinator has no clue how to explain what these terms mean).

The French "promotion" means "promotion", but also "class" or "cohort". "Mention très bien" is an exam passed with "distinction". "Situation" means "situation" but also "position". So what they probably want is:

  CV outlining the following information: exams passed with distinction, rank of classification, position within your class/year/cohort, number of students in the class/year/cohort, diplomas with indication of specialty, date of graduation, any special distinction/honors and final marks certified by the institution.