Is research a viable business model? I have had the suspicion that it may be for a while and apparently not all is a product of my mind. Let me quote from an answer:

  In my experience, in UK and other European countries, the research
  funding comes from successful proposals to the relevant funding
  bodies. There are research centres that were established and keep
  going only because the staff there constantly submits project
  proposals (somebody told me that the success rate is 1 out of 5 or
  maybe even lower).

There are two questions here.

Can a company feasibly focus on obtaining funds in publicly funded research (as a business model) successfully enough to "survive"?
Can such a company be started (nearly) from scratch?

In short, the company would be exactly like a research institute (or institution) except that it would be private.

Reasons why question 1 may not be feasible:

I don't see any company doing this kind of thing, i.e. there may be some, but there are not many, which means that it may be hard. It's a bad sign.
Public funds seem to be assigned to public entities, while companies can benefit from the collaboration and synergy, but they are expected to get their funding from their work as companies (searching for customers, etc.) In this case the customers would be the partners in the projects and the society itself, but again, this seems to be an "innovative" (maybe naïve, or even plain stupid) idea.
Research is a means for something, not an end on itself, that's why the business model should be on something else (point two) and that's why such a company would raise eyebrows on the mere idea of its existence. It may even be against some kind of tacit rule or even written laws.

Reasons why question 2 may not be feasible:

No previous history of success of the company, or products or anything means zero (or negative) trustworthiness and no projects assigned to the company.
No partners would like to associate with the company in a project for the reasons in point 1.
The most similar case I can think of are spin-off companies that are created from successful research labs, not from scratch.
OMG so much communism! Go to kickstarter you hippie!

As an example, a possible scenario that could be close to this: Someone writes a paper about a software system that does something not very novel in the state of the art but in a way that is very different from an architectural point of view, leading to good results in practical terms. In short: in theory nothing is new, in practice what was just a dream is now a reality. What is done remains the same in theory, but how it is done is completely different in practice (and now it works). Unfortunately only a proof of concept (PoC) can reasonably be implemented.

Would it be feasible to request funds to continue the development of this PoC (still very far from a commercial product) as a start-up or that simply doesn't make sense?

In Europe, companies exist that primarily live from FP7 or, now, H2020 funding. They rarely contribute much to projects in terms of research, but often handle tangential issues, such as project management, dissemination, marketing, or association with standardization bodies. Their model works because (1) they do things that none of the research partners actually wants to do, and (2) because they are often SMEs, which is generally politically helpful to get your funding proposals accepted. Further, as writing grant proposals is their core business, they usually also have grant writing experts that have the time to actually keep up with the various changes that the european commission is constantly applying to its programmes and rules (something that many researchers struggle to find the time for).

Formally, these companies often camouflage as either consultancies or technology spinoffs. That is, you will not find it on their web page that their core business model is actually to milk grant programmes, as this is strictly against official funding rules (as a company, you can only apply for funding if you plan to commercialise the results, and you are not supposed to make a profit from the project itself). In practice, the project officers seem to tolerate these businesses - for now.

  Can such a company be started (nearly) from scratch?

You will need a reasonable amount of seed money, as the H2020 rules require proof that an organization applying for grants has enough financial stability to likely survive over the typically 3-year project duration. I know from one startup that wanted to participate in a project (for actual technology reasons) which was in fact struggling to cross this hurdle. However, if you have the required seed funding, I see no reason why you would not be able to start such a business. Whether it is a smart business idea is a different question, given that you are basically living off of a loophole in the current funding practices, and you can never tell how long this loophole will stay open.

Edit:

I just saw that I missed this question:

  Would it be feasible to request funds to continue the development of this PoC (still very far from a commercial product) as a start-up or that simply doesn't make sense?

Yes, at least in Europe there are funding sources for exactly this kind of case. You should inform yourself about the concept of Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs, slide 4), and the different kinds of funding available for each TRL. If you look at this presentation and go to slide 32, there is an overview over different funding instruments in H2020 depending on the maturity of the idea.


Would a (temporary) industry position before starting a tenure-track position have a negative effect on academic career? I have obtained a tenure-track offer (computer science) starting in 1 year that I'm planning to accept. I'm currently a postdoc in theoretical computer science and I'm facing the situation where I could either extend my current postdoc for another year or, somewhat by coincidence, I have also the option of going into industry with the knowledge that my appointment there would have a fixed ending date (when my tenure track position starts). The potential industry employer does not have any knowledge of my tenure track offer, so in a sense I would be "abusing" my position there as an industry postdoc. (Considering that the company is a big player in the financial world, I'm sure they wouldn't be too heartbroken over me leaving after a year...)

I feel somewhat more inclined to go for the industry position just for the sake of "trying something different" before going the full academic route.

  Would taking up a temporary appointment in industry be perceived as lack of commitment to research once my tenure clock is up and/or could there be other negative repercussions for my future (academic) career?

Edit: to add more detail, I'm planning to continue to work on research problems during my industry appointment as time permits. I'm reasonably well connected to avoid suffering from the fact that I'm not going to be physically located at a research institution (considering it's a short term absence).

Note:  I'm not addressing the ethics of taking the industry job in bad faith.  That's addressed above.

Regarding future negative impact on tenure:

No, it shouldn't have negative impact.  At least, not at a reasonable school.  But I don't know if the school you will be working at is reasonable.  I wouldn't expect this to be a negative at Georgia Tech.

The only reason it could possibly hurt is if you had zero publications during that time, and even then that shouldn't matter if it's a non-research industry job.  But even then, if you are getting interesting experience you can talk about later, that might help your research or make connections for future collaboration or funding, it's still good.

Remember, when you come up for tenure, you write your research and teaching statements, do you can contextualize this year any way you want!

Regardless, I would hope it's viewed positively. When you come up for mid-tenure review and tenure review, the committee should look at your impact (in all ways), your publications, teaching evaluations, and so on.  Generally, they want to look at the trajectory of your work since you started as a professor at this job.  Will you appear to be someone who will continue to be successful?

What you do during this gap year shouldn't impact that.  So, I would expect it wouldn't hurt in any way.

That said, I would ask the opinion of a few senior faculty at the school, and I would explain to them that you think the experience would be a good one (perhaps for informing your future work, and teaching).  That will both give you a chance to find out how senior faculty feel about this (they are the ones judging your tenure case later on) and put into their minds a positive reason for you doing this.  Looking deliberate and thoughtful about your career choices is a good thing.


I grade exams together with a colleague but disagree with their grading. What should I do? Recently, I have graded exams (50 pcs.) together with a colleague from another department. I felt like my colleague was awarding too many points for wrong/incomplete answers. For example, awarding points for just writing information of the question (value and units of parameters) on the answer sheet; or awarding points for copying one of the formulas on the formula sheet to the answer sheet while not specifically described in the grading template

During the grading of the exams I have discussed this with my colleague and decided to mostly follow his 'point awarding system' so that it does not create an unfair grading between sub-groups of the total population. Afterwards, I have discussed this again, but I feel like my colleague is not keen to change his grading style.

What are the next steps that I could take? Is it necessary that the whole university should have the same grading style?

ps: The course is given by their department and I have helped since this year because it overlaps with my expertise. It has a pass rate of ~50%.

ps2: It's not that his point awarding system is so loose that students with a 3/10 will suddenly be awarded a 6/10 but it will certainly change the outcome of passing the course for some students.

Have each person grade different questions, not different students.

Consistency in grading is important, and it is unfair to the students if their grades depend substantially on the allocation of their work to a grader.  For this reason, if you must split grading duties with another colleague for a particular assessment item, it is best to split the grading duties for the questions rather than splitting the grading of the students.  So, for example, one person grades Q1-3 on all papers and the other person grades Q4-6 on all papers.  That way each student is graded by the same person for the same question.  (Logistically, each of you should grade your questions on half the papers, then swap.)

It sounds like this ship has already sailed, and you have made the rookie mistake of splitting grading for the students, with different people marking different students.  It also sounds like you have tried to discuss this with your colleague, but you have exhausted attempts to change his grading.  In that case, even if your own grading style is superior to your colleague, adapting to his grading level for this assessment is probably a reasonable second-best option, simply to maintain consistency of the level of grades awarded.  In future, try to avoid the problem all together by splitting grading over questions instead of over students.


How can a graduate student most efficiently become an expert at his research topic? Taught courses typically do not reach research level, so there is a significant gap in knowledge that has to be bridged by a graduate student in order to make meaningful contributions to their field. What is the most efficient way to bridge this gap? I could come up with the following possibilities:

Find advanced textbooks, prove all the theorems [if maths] and do all the exercises yourself.
Organize seminars with other graduate students with related interests
Go to conferences or talks given by staff about their research

Is this list exhaustive or is there anything I missed? Which methods of learning are recommended in which situations?

For definiteness, by 'expert' I mean the level necessary to understand current research articles and (in principle) independently reproduce the calculations/proofs.

For most disciplines, advanced textbooks still provide, albeit necessary, foundations. Conferences allows you to hear what is new and is as such a good way to know where fields are going. I am not sure what you mean by seminars but discussing new papers and topics is always a good way to advance knowledge. But, the major point is to read up on published papers and to focus on the topic of your thesis. The point of research is to advance knowledge and this means you will, or at least have a chance to, be an expert on the field you are researching. So in my view none of the activities 1-3, or combinations, make you an expert, only your own sweat over publications and own work will do so.


Is it okay to get partial funding for a conference from two institutions? Is it possible (and legal) to get funding from both the host university and the university the student is from, for overseas conferences?

To elaborate, let's say I (a student) am going for an overseas conference. My home university is able to fund me (but only partially). The host university is also providing funding (but limited funds, so I am assuming it is also partial funding). Is it possible to apply for both these fundings?

I would say you could apply, yes, but you should mention that you also applied for the other funding. To make sure that you don't run into problems, I would first discuss it with the responsible people at both institutes, as the rules might differ from conference to conference, institute to institute, depending on country, etc.
Then, I would write down a short statement of cost. For example:

Flight:  500
Hotel stay: 350
Conference fee: 100
Meals (if not included in hotel cost): 50

Total: 1000.

For this cost, student ... received partial funding from institute A: XXX and from institute B: YYY.

Make sure that $XXX + YYY \leq 1000$ and then have both institutes sign it. This should put you on the safe side, as you can use it to prove that both institutes knew about the other partial funding and that you weren't "overfunded". Of course it would be best to have an estimate of the costs beforehand and to discuss these things also before you receive money, so once again: Go talk to the people responsible.

And I hope that it's clear that you should, under no circumstances, get overfunded here. Don't risk it for a few bucks, this might strongly backfire once someone finds out.


Submitting an improved/extended version of a journal article under review Ten months ago, we submitted an article to a journal, which is still under review. In the meantime, we have made a few extensions/improvements to the submitted article.
Can we submit the extended version to another journal? How can we cite the work presented in the article under review?
Do we need to inform the editors of both journals regarding the submission of the extended version?

The main issue here is whether the so-called extensions or improvements are substantial enough to classify the revised version as a separate paper. In general, I think not. In addition, that you've "improved" a paper means that the older version is "deficient" in some way (or else, why "improve" it?). If so, then you are doing the original journal a disservice by having them review a deficient paper.

I am part of the editorial team of a number of journals. In none of them would we appreciate you submitting essentially the same paper to another journal. In fact, if we found out, then we would contact the new journal and discuss the case in tandem. In addition, if we received a submission, we expect you to assert that the manuscript was not being reviewed elsewhere. It i likely that you would not be able to make this assertion to us, knowing that an earlier version of the paper was being reviewed elsewhere.

Perhaps you're thinking, "why not submit the revised paper to the same journal because it has improved on the original manuscript?" Even this is pretty frustrating from an editor's point of view. It is likely that, as editor, I'm waiting for reviews of your original paper to arrive. If you were to submit a revision to me during this process, it would be rather disruptive and I would ask why you submitted a half-baked manuscript to us in the first place.

What can I advise you? I suggest that you contact the Journal and ask for the deputy editor who's handling your manuscript. I would discuss your situation citing these two significant issues: (1) 10 months is a long time to wait and (2) during that time, we've made improvements to the manuscript. Then I would ask them what to do.

Deputy editors are human, too. If they understand your situation, then they can advise you accordingly.

Good luck!


Should I expect to be invited to visit the grad schools I was admitted to? I applied to grad schools this year. I haven’t heard from some of them but the one I was admitted to I was invited to come and visit. My understanding is that this is relatively common, but I would like a better sense of how common.

I want to visit the school I choose before I make a decision on where to go. My question is: should I expect to be invited eventually for a visit day for the schools I am admitted to? If not then I guess I should plan a trip myself.

To add to the context I will say that I believe I had a relatively strong application.

In the US context, for most graduate programs in science or engineering fields, at relatively wealthy and prestigious institutions, it's quite normal for departments to pay travel expenses for prospective students to visit the department before making a final decision to accept an admission and assistantship offer.  In some departments, prospective students are invited to visit before admissions decisions are made, which is more like an interview.

For programs outside of science and engineering, or for programs at less wealthy and prestigious institutions, such visits are much less common.

I would ask the department about the status of your application, and if you've been admitted whether they are sponsoring recruitment visits.


Can a person from arts background with masters in Computational Linguistics do Masters in Applied Mathematics? I have a bachelor in Linguistics and masters in Computational Linguistics with cgpa 3. After using Machine Learning for my thesis work, I am realizing my interest in Applied Mathematics. I do not know, how to begin. But I plan to take Math sub-gre and also to do a small project in Applied Mathematics with a scientist I know. Given these details, will I be eligible to do a Masters in Applied Mathematics from US/Canada?

You should start by writing to the graduate program directors of the departments where you are considering pursuing an MS in applied math. Explain you background and ask whether you can be considered for admission to their MS programs.

Typically,  master's level courses have one or more undergraduate courses in the same discipline as prerequisites. If you don't have these prerequisites, I am guessing that many universities in the US/Canada would be reluctant to admit you into their graduate programs. However, some departments may have an option where a student without an undergraduate degree in specific field or related fields takes a few essential courses at the undergraduate level (in that specific field) and obtains a minimum specified GPA. The student is then offered admission to the graduate program.


Audit or B in class when applying to grad school (mathematics) Does a B in a class look worse for graduate school admissions than an audit, given I'm not expected to have the class in the first place?

More specifically, I'm studying abroad and taking five math classes. When I go back to my home institution, by the time I graduate I'll have exhausted all the math courses there, so the maximum math courses I'm "expected" to have is those plus four (four classes being a typical semester).

I have the opportunity to change a class to audit, even after I know my grades, so my question is, if there is a class I might get a B in (functional analysis, if you care), do you think having a B would look less impressive than not taking the course (or does audit risk the same sort of judgement)?

Does my question make sense? Does a B look "weak" when applying to grad school (even in comparison to nothing)?

It's better to have documentable (whether in transcript or by letters of recommendation) exposure to more substantial mathematics. Especially in the U.S., the default undergrad curriculum in mathematics is far too thin for grad school. Without taking initiative, which necessitates not-the-routine channels, you'd not be ready for grad school. Naturally, the irregularities in the not-routine channels generate grades whose meaning is unclear, and so on. (And, no, summer "research experiences for undergrads" do not typically add much to one's scholarly preparation, although they may fire one's enthusiasm.)

So, for me, when I see "functional analysis" on a transcript, I don't really care what the grade is, nor whether it's "audit" or not. Just the  initiative to engage with it.


Are there particular areas of mathematical research that attract universities to consider someone over another? I thought of my question when considering if I wanted to be a math professor.
Background: Currently I’m an undergraduate studying math with a concentration in computer science, and I am interested in subjects like algebraic geometry, specifically derived geometry and stuff like combinatorial algebraic geometry, algebraic number theory, and complex algebraic geometry, more specifically with complex manifolds.
I’m an undergraduate so I have a way to go, and I definitely want to earn my PhD and do research. Of course that does include the possibility of a job in academia.
But then I wondered when postdocs/ post phds apply to assistant professorships, especially major research universities:-
Question: does an applicant with a specific area of research give them an edge over others?
For example, would someone who does research in Ergodic Analysis have preference than those who do research in General Topology?

There is some effect, certainly, but it is probably a poor strategy to depend too much on it. If you look at what the American Mathematical Society, for example, has published in the past three or so years you will get a sense of where the current action is. It won't include my old specialty, hard classical analysis, as the number of open problems there as decreased relative to those available in newer fields.
However, a given university will usually have a specific need when they put out an announcement. It might be a hot area or maybe not, since there is value in having a broad range of specialties on a faculty if it is possible. So, if I were 35 years younger, I might have a few openings available.
But there are two negatives that I can think of. First, things change. You are unlikely to be a serious contender for a faculty position for more than five years (I'm assuming you are asking about the US, actually). A lot can happen in a field in that time if those "essential to answer" questions actually get answered. The currently hot field may cool appreciably, to be replaced by the next big thing.
The other, and this is even more serious. It is hard to say where your mathematical insights will come. Mathematical insight is specific to a field (or even a small subfield), not general. You can have (as I did) tremendous insight into real analysis and almost none in abstract algebra (especially Ring Theory). I could solve the necessary problems in a course, but lacked the insight to push against the frontiers in algebra. You can seek insight and it may come, but it is an elusive thing. So, if you pick a hot field, a priori, just because it is flaming at the moment you may find the necessary insight impossible to attain while that area cools.
Rather, I suggest at your current level of development, that you seek a broad understanding of many mathematical areas and choose later, based on your insights and the then current evidence about the academic market, what you want to do. And the market is now very tight.
Finally, there is an old saying: You don't choose mathematics. Mathematics Chooses you.
But, I think the same can be said, almost as validly, for the various subfields within mathematics. I was "chosen" by classical real analysis.


Being told a conflict of interest is acceptable for paper review I was recently asked to review a paper. I feel like there is a conflict of interest as (i) I frequently collaborate with one of the authors, (ii) I discussed the paper with the authors while they were working on it, and (iii) I am currently doing follow-up work (i.e. extending the work of the paper in question).

I told the program committee member who asked me to review the paper all of this. I was surprised when she responded saying that this is not an issue. Specifically, she responded that this is unavoidable as there is a small community of experts who all work together and that this just means I'm the most qualified expert to review the paper.

What should I do? Should I accept the PC member's assertion that this is OK? (I have been honest with her.) Or should I insist that I am not able to give a fair review?

From an outsider's perspective, both choices are now ethically just. You've declared the potential conflict of interest and been assured that the authority in question doesn't see one ( hopefully you did this through a means which let you keep a record).

So now it pretty much comes down to whether giving the paper a fair review makes you feel uncomfortable. If it does, then get back to the committee as soon as possible, and tell them as clearly as possible that you can't do the review. Otherwise, review the paper, making full use of your deep understanding of the context of the work.

If you're wondering whether the committee member's statement is ethical, then consider whether you, as an obviously knowledgeable person in the field, could think of three other possible reviewers. Of course, if you can, then maybe one answer is to say no, but pass on those names instead.


Should I use lighter or heavier paper for my printed dissertation? My university requires one to submit a printed copy of the dissertation. The paper has to be 100% cotton, white, and 20- to 24 lb weight.

Since I have a choice in the weight of the paper, my question is if there are any advantages to one weight over the other.

I don't think the weight of the paper is as important as the material from which it is made. So long as the paper is "archival quality," meaning no acids or other components which will allow it to degrade more easily over time, the choice is somewhat arbitrary. Willie Wong raises some valid points in his answer, though—the slightly thicker paper will help future readers more than the thinner paper, and the relative change in weight is probably not so large as to make the thesis cumbersome as a printed volume.


What to do when you have more things to say in a published paper? I have published a paper covering a topic, now I see that there is a lot more to say about the published work, mainly in the theoretical framework and in the results/conclusion sections. However, I don't see how these information can merit their own paper.

How can I publish these additional information since the main core the work has been already published?

The best I came up with is to talk about these additional information in a conference paper, is that possible? Can I maintain the same results from the original paper ? what do you suggest?

Writing a paper that extends another is pretty common practice. It could be published anywhere that will accept it.

But if the results in the new paper are insufficiently novel then it might be hard to find a venue that accepts it. If the conclusions of the new paper are obvious to readers of the old one, reviewers will probably notice it and editors won't be very inclined to want to publish it.

The theoretical underpinnings may be a different matter. They may stand on their own as a separate paper. Or not. But reviewers and editors will judge that also.


Why is Brill selling chapters of my book for $30? I just found that PDFs of chapters of my book (Semitic Noun Patterns, Harvard Semitic Studies 52, 2003) are  being sold for $30 each by Brill, a giant academic publisher, who did not publish the book.

The whole thing can be bought on paper for $32 (e.g. at Amazon), or, blessedly, downloaded for free from Library Genesis.

What is going on? The Eisenbrauns family business that originally published the book was bought out by Penn State University Press -- not Brill -- while the President and Fellows of Harvard University own the copyright -- so how can Brill pull off this scam?

If you know about the presumed deal allowing Brill to do this, I would appreciate learning about it.

Brill Announces Collaboration with the Harvard Semitic Museum on Three Book Series
(September 29, 2017).

This is most likely a press release from Brill, so I wouldn't give it 100% credibility just because it looks official. That said, I don't see why your priors are so much against it either. Recently, the Mathematical Association of America handed its journals (including its de-facto flagship, the American Mathematical Monthly) over to Taylor&Francis. If nothing else, it likely has taken a load off their backs, since they now no longer have to keep track of subscriptions and access.

EDIT: See the "Buy now at Brill" link at the HSS website? That should confirm it.

EDIT2: None of this should be read as a defense of giants swallowing academic (university- or society-based) micropublishers. It's just something that works in the current environment, for reasons that themselves would probably make a good question. I wouldn't be surprised if money is moving around under the table here, but at the same time I expect at least some of it being due to the increasing difficulties of handling subscriptions, payments and access controls when writing for a worldwide audience (GDPR and US export controls are but two things that come to my mind). I think we're going to end up with a bipolar publishing scene, with commercial giants on one side and OA on the other.


Student accused of Plagarism A former student of mine asked for advise. This student has been accused of cheating on an assignment.  By their account, approximately 8% of their project is nearly identical to a partial solution posted by a student who took the same course in the past.  My former student claims that they never consulted GitHub, rather they just built the project using the description in the handout.

The former student also claims that the remainder of the project, much more complicated, bears no resemblance to the GitHub posting, per the accusing professor.

The matter is further complicated in that the student has been unable to see the GitHub posting as it was removed prior to the student being accused of plagiarism. I was contacted because I have talked about academic dishonesty in my classes, and given examples to students. The student asks how to proceed.

From my end, I suggested that the student email the professor, and ask for the specifics so that they can be examined.  The professor indicated that the case can go to the academic review board, and points out that it will be likely upheld there. I reminded the student that apparently 90+% of the project appears to be original, and the student denies using anyone else's code. The student wondered if they should admit, as the professor is suggesting.

My advise was to only admit to what you have done.  Ask for the code allegedly used in the project, and in writing justify how the submitted project was developed, explaining the commonality with the GitHub code, if possible.  And before that can be done, the professor should supply the alleged copied code which is relied upon for the assertion of academic dishonesty.

Is there anything else which I should consider or suggest?

Rather than arguing it with the prof, who seems disinclined to do so, let it go to the review board and argue it there. The student doesn't actually need to do the analysis them self before they have a review scheduled, but then, you can both insist that you have full information in which to defend yourself. Serve as the student's advocate if you are so inclined.

If the student uses well designed code as they were taught to do, there may be, in essence, only one way to properly express the solution if it is small and well defined. That won't be true for a large program, of course.

But also insist that the student should get the benefit of any doubt as the overall impact on the system is small, but that on the student is large.

I agree with the advice you have so far given in this, by the way.


How far can I go when requesting presentational changes in a review? First time reviewer for a mathematical journal here.

I'm encountering a lot of little presentational flaws, such as typos and grammatical errors, but also LaTeX problems. It doesn't stop there, I also encounter (what I see as) problems in the structure of the text, for example, a rather important definition is "hidden away" in the text and referenced later, but it could be improved to be a standalone definition.

I don't know how far I should go in my review. Of course I'll point out all typos and grammar issues and require those to be fixed before publication. But can I ask people to improve their LaTeX typesetting? Can I ask them to restructure their text? Can I ask them to change the title in order to match the content better?

A lot of journals "retype" the submitted works and the formatting of the version of the paper that appears in the journal will be different from what the authors submitted initially. I would not point out LaTeX problems in the peer review unless they severely limit the clarity/correctness of the paper.

You probably need to justify the text restructure - if it's going to majorly improve the flow of the paper and highlight certain important features. However, you should balance between "I think it is just better to write it this way" (use this judgment for your own papers) and "Providing the definition of A is important to avoid ambiguity in B" (certainly include in your review).

Since you explicitly added the question about the title change, I would advise applying an even harsher standard on personal taste vs. necessary changes judgment for the title.

Anyway, especially in your first review, I would focus more on the major questions:

Novelty of the scientific contribution
Correctness of the proofs
Proper coverage of the previous work
Justification by numerical results and visualization (if applicable)

Pointing out typos and grammar mistakes is also important, but that should probably constitute the minor part of your review.


Found an error in a paper that I already presented at a student engineering conference; what should I do now? I completed my undergraduate (in engineering) earlier this year and I am working in a company now.

My senior design project involved me developing a different and cost-effective method for something. So I decided to document everything in a research paper.

I ended up submitting the paper to a national level student engineering conference. The paper was accepted. I presented it. And in fact ended up getting the award for the 2nd best paper.

However I was going over my paper the other day and I found out a mistake in my algorithm. My concept (discussed in the paper) and actual code are both correct. But since I didn't put the code in the paper and just the algorithm I made an error in converting my code to the algorithm for the paper.

The error can be easily corrected however the algorithm in its current state will cause the device to not work properly. The paper also discusses 2 other algorithms for 2 other tasks; both of them are correct but everything is interdependent.

The paper hasn't been published (and can't be found online) but it is printed in the conference proceedings. I am also ashamed to have won the 2nd prize with an error in my paper.

My question is, how do I approach this?

For a paper published in a journal you would go for errata if the mistake is minor and does not invalidate the conclusions of the paper, or for retraction if the mistake invalidates the conclusions. In your case I would contact the organizers of the conference and ask what you should do.

You may feel ashamed about making a mistake that goes into publication (I talk from experience) but acknowledging it and trying to fix it is laudable (not everyone does it), is the ethical alternative and it will give you some peace of mind afterwards.


Effect of "D" grade in PhD-level course on job prospects I am a PhD student and have a D in one of my exams due to some family issues. I also have a B in 3 subjects and A in one. I am worried about my future. will the D have an impact on my job prospects even if I maintain my GPA above 3.3?

Its not the grade that you get that determines gets you the job.  It's your ability to apply what you have learned to new and challenging fields that ultimately determines your qualification for a job.  This is best measured not by grades, but by the quality (and possibly quantity) of publications.   In rare circumstances, as @aeismail suggests, employers look closely at your GPA.  I do not believe this is the norm though.  Most institutions that employ the highly educated look more highly upon strong letters of recommendation and publication history.  As long as you have that, you should not have any problems with this grade on your record.

The ultimate impact of your "D" really depends on the policy of your school.  As @BenNorris indicates, some graduate programs have a minimum performance requirement such that a low grade in a class may impact your retention in your program.  It is best to speak with your advisor, the graduate chair, and possibly even your department chair to discuss the circumstances surrounding your performance, how it will impact your retention, and if there is anything you can do about it.  Immediate dismissal is extremely rare.  Most institutions place the student on probation (and may make you repeat the course in question).


What types of questions should I ask in a cold-email to a professor? I'm applying to a PhD program in computer science. My friends and advisors all recommend that I cold-email the professors I'm most interested in working with and have a conversation with them about their research. However, I feel like just asking something like "What type of research do you do?" would just come off as lazy since most professors already have information on their website.

So that leads me to wonder, what are some productive questions that I could actually ask professors in the context of a cold-email or scheduled phone call?

However, I feel like just asking something like "What type of research do you do?" would just come off as lazy since most professors already have information on their website.

Yes, don't ask anything you could reasonably learn from their web site, their publications, textbooks in this area, web searches, or Q&A sites.  It's incredibly annoying when people write to ask me to put work into explaining something to them, when they show no sign of having put any work into this themselves first.  (The worst question of all is "how can I apply to your department?", since that one can be answered in a few minutes by anyone with internet access.)

Also, don't volunteer your services for the professor's projects or propose a collaboration in a cold e-mail.  This might be appropriate later, after you have established a serious research connection, but until that point it's awkward.  Nobody is going to say yes based on very limited information, and the choice of no vs. maybe puts people in a difficult position: if they say no based on very limited information, it may come across as insulting, while if they say maybe it can come across as overly encouraging.

  So that leads me to wonder, what are some productive questions that I could actually ask professors in the context of a cold-email or scheduled phone call?

From my perspective, the only really productive approach is to engage seriously with the professor's research area.  If you can propose new ideas or questions and start a conversation with genuine intellectual content, then that's great.  It will be a worthwhile discussion for both of you, regardless of whether it helps you get admitted, and you may end up impressing the professor.  But this is a high bar, and you shouldn't expect to be able to send substantive messages to many people.  If you can't think of anything genuinely interesting to say, then it's better not to say anything at this stage (you can think a little more about this area before e-mailing the professor).

The focus should be on the subject matter.  When random strangers write to me, I'm not particularly interested in telling them about myself (to the extent I want to tell the world about myself, it's far more efficient to do so publicly, rather than telling one person at a time).  I'm even less interested in hearing an infinite series of random people tell me about themselves.  Most of them want to be admitted to grad school in my department but aren't going to be, and it's just not a good use of time to read a lot of e-mails in which applicants tell me more or less the same things they are going to say in their actual applications.  On the other hand, I'm always pleased when I get an e-mail that starts a genuinely interesting research discussion.


Will I be held responsible for working with a supervisor accused of sexual misconduct? I am a first-year Ph.D. student. In the last year of my undergrad I began a research project with my then-advisor, who planned to hand me off to his former postdoc (let's call him John) who is tenured at my current institution. I believe that John is the only researcher working in this subfield at my current institution. However, I have recently learned John was actually on administrative leave for the spring and fall semesters of 2020, because he was accused of having an inappropriate sexual relationship with a female graduate student. He is back now and I do not know if the university's investigation found him at fault. I am trying to determine the appropriate path forward for myself. Currently I am tempted to quickly finish this project, with the help of my undergraduate advisor rather than John as much as possible, and then get out of that subfield; after all, I'm just a first-year, and should be able to switch without too much trouble.
I have two questions about how I may proceed. The second is more important, the first being more of an IPS.SE question than anything.
Is it appropriate to ask the department chair or another authority figure if John was found "guilty"? Though I am a man, I am uncomfortable working with John if the allegations turned out to be true. I have to weight my discomfort against the fact that I really enjoyed the project, and would strongly prefer to finish it this year. On the other hand, he's back, and teaching calculus no less, so maybe the truth turned out to not be as severe as the allegations. In any case, my decision would be a lot easier to make with this information (in fact it seems that the department may have tried to hide the reason John was on administrative leave from the first-years, though the other graduate students all knew). However, I fear that because I have not established much of a personal connection with the authority figures here (thanks mainly due to COVID) that if I ask I will just come off as a gossip.
Will having worked with John, knowing what he was accused of, tarnish my own academic reputation? I certainly don't endorse John's actions (and, again, don't know what he was actually accused of, or whether he was found guilty) and don't intend for him to be my thesis adviser -- I just want to get this one project done, and following the suggestions of this Academia.SE post it seems like I should just go ahead with the project, but I'm not sure if the reputation hit will be worth it. So suppose that I work with John, even though I know he was credibly accused of misconduct. I write a paper, coauthored with John. I recognize that my actions may come off as callous towards the victim of the misconduct, and while I don't know her identity, I strongly suspect that her research interests are similar to mine. Should I expect my reputation to suffer?

The matter is best left to the official circles. Do not pry, do not gossip. As for being tainted, you are just a student and dependant, and if you neither enabled nor profited from the prof's (alleged, we don't know) misconduct, you should be fine. But if you start poking your nose into matters yourself, you'll get into a lot of trouble, from being seen as a nuisance to the officials, to getting the prof upset, to violating privacy laws, to unwittingly becoming a witness.
A career-limiting move.


Error in transcript of records? I'm studying in Polish language. One of my courses was named "Metody otrzymywania nanomateriałów". Which roughly translates into "Methods for obtaining nanomaterials". However in my official transcript of record, this course is named "methods of receiving nanomaterials".

Is receiving equal to obtaining?
And if no, how would recruiting stuff on the foreign university react to such error?

While the translation is clearly suspect, the only time this is likely to come up is if you are trying to meet a prerequisite at another institution. In that case, what is of interest is whether you've already passed studies of the same material. If you have the related degree, that should be clear. If it comes down to a course-by-course analysis of your record, the title of a course anyway doesn't suffice to answer this question: the two syllabi are compared by some rubric.

You needn't do anything unless you are asked to demonstate a course equivalency.


Acceptance in PhD Program With Unfortunate Background So here is my situation: I am applying for a PhD for Fall 2022. Not too long I found ago that my ex boyfriend had used my name online to post all kinds of crap. This includes revenge porn, as well as racist and anti-semitic comments. I have filed police reports, but all of this is still attached to my name (which is a very rare name btw) and available online, and probably will never go away. I am so scared of not being admitted because of this. Is there anything I can do?

The pictures and the posts are rather different issues. Whether there are nude pictures of an applicant available on the internet is no business of an admissions committee, regardless of how they got there. This aspect is covered well in another question:
Can leaked nude pictures damage one's academic career?
For the racist comments however, the fact that you did not write them is essential. If you had written them, it would be very legitimate to hold it against you. If these show up on the first page of Google results for your name, you may want to include a statement with your applications that horrific comments with your name attached to them exist on the internet, and that you neither wrote them nor agreed with them.


Should I send professor an email clearly asking if he is going to take me in his group? I have communicated with a professor about joining his group as a Ph.D. student. He had shown his interest and told me to apply to that school after a Skype interview, although the deadline for starting the application process for that semester had already crossed then. I had applied to that school and completed my application. However, after that, he has become reluctant about me and is not telling anything clearly even after 1.5 months since I completed my application. I went to a conference last week and send him an email asking if he was also attending the same conference and invited him to come during my talk. He replied to me two days later and said that he had another schedule at the same time, but he can meet me another time to go through my slides. We met and he told me he would contact me 1 week or two weeks later. It has been 1 week passed and I have also finished my MSc. defense and now it is very urgent for me to take a decision about what am I going to do next. In this situation, I am wondering what I should do. Should I send him an email clearly asking if he is going to take me in his group?

I had applied to that school and completed my application. However, after that, he has become reluctant about me and is not telling anything clearly even after 1.5 months since I completed my application.

In cases like this, it is not incumbent on academic staff to pre-empt administrative decisions that are made as part of the normal admission processes of the university.  You have made a formal application for admission, so there is already a process in motion that will lead to an outcome.  Presumably this professor will need to make a decision in that process, and either you will be accepted or rejected for that application.  Sending him an email asking for an answer is essentially just asking him to pre-empt the administrative decision in that process, and he probably will not be inclined to do this.

If you decide to email this professor, a better approach would be to let him know your circumstances and ask him if he has any concerns about your application that you might be able to address with further work.  If there is some reason for urgency in your application, let him know what those circumstances are, and stress that you are happy to work on any deficiencies in your application.  Be careful with the level of persistence that you show here, since your professor is certainly not required to pre-empt the normal mechanism for decisions on admissions, or give any assurances outside of the formal admissions processes.

If you are concerned that this application process is taking too long, and there is some reason for urgency on your side, another option would be to email the relevant administrators at the university that deal with this process and make a preliminary inquiry asking how long it usually takes to receive an outcome for a PhD application.  (You say that you have been waiting 1.5 months, which is about 6-7 weeks.  That is not particularly long for an admissions process for a PhD candidate.)  If the process is taking too long, you can make further inquiries with the administrators, and they will horse-whip the professor into making a decision.  It is better to have this pressure coming from them than from you.


APA format - hyperlinking the citation rather than providing a separate URL I'm at my page length maximum for my APA-style references section. Beyond using Bitly to shorten URLs, can I simply hyperlink my entire citation rather than wasting space with a following URL?
Example:
Terrell, Tracy. (1977). A Natural Approach to Second Language Acquisition and Learning. The Modern Language Journal. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1540-4781.1977.tb05147.x
Becomes:
Terrell, Tracy. (1977). A Natural Approach to Second Language Acquisition and Learning. The Modern Language Journal.
If so, which part of the reference can I hyperlink?

In a strict reading of the relevant passage in the APA Manual, hyperlinking the reference without providing the DOI/URL as a readable string seems not possible. (At least using a URL shortener is okay to APA.)
If your paper is intended for a journal or conference, you should ask the editors whether they grant you a little excess in word count.
If your paper for a university course, simply do as you wish and tell your professor about your approach and why you did that.
In such a case, I would prefer to hyperlink only the title of the cited publication (again, there are no official guidelines, so perhaps one can deviate according to one's own taste).
However, just for the record, an Elsevier journal (not APA style) actually hyperlinks the whole reference:

By the way, note that if your cited reference has a DOI, you should link to the DOI and not to the URL. In your example, the DOI Is http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.1977.tb05147.x - - see the APA Manual (linked above):

Include a DOI for all works that have a DOI, regardless of whether you used the online version or the print version.
If a print work does not have a DOI, do not include any DOI or URL in the reference.
If an online work has both a DOI and a URL, include only the DOI.


One of my profs did his PhD at the University I want to apply for my math PhD. Should I get a recommendation from him? The prof is quite famous (lots of publications and even a Wiki page). His doctoral advisor is also quite famous (still is part of the faculty of the university that I want to apply to). Would a recommendation letter  have a significant impact on my application?
Alternatively I can get a letter from another prof which will be probably a little  stronger. Which option would be the best for me? Basically would the other prof's letter carry more weight since he got his PhD from the university I am applying to.
I am applying to a top 3 institution, (if that makes any difference).
Thank you all in advance.

As a tiebreaker, it might be nice to have a strong letter from someone who went to the target university, especially if it has a highly specialized or unconventional program.
However, yours is not such a marginal case. You stand to benefit more by getting a letter from a professor who knows you closely and can say positive things about your research ability.


Potential referee for a journal submission I have a paper to be submitted and most of the journals in my field would like to have a "potential reviewer" list (3-4 potential reviewer) by the author. Of course, the last decision to send to paper to these reviewers is up to the editor.

I wonder if it is ethical to propose a researcher (who is expert of the topic of the paper) from your institution as a potential referee? Does it cause any conflict or unethical situation?

You shouldn't propose referees that have conflicts of interest. Any employee of your institute is conflicted. NSF adopt a similar stance for panelists: a panelist employed by the same institute as an applicant is conflicted. (Source: https://www.nsf.gov/attachments/108234/public/coi_1230P.doc.)

Conflicts may be real or perceived. For instance, an employee of your institute might be perceived as having a conflict, yet there might be no real conflict. Nonetheless, all conflicts should be avoided, because no one wants to be accused of malice.

That said, you are ultimately bound by the journal's definition of conflict and you should follow their guidance. Unfortunately, many journals are rather vague about conflicts, so you might need to establish your own position.


How far in advance of applying to grad school can I ask for a reference letter? I'm currently finishing the last year of my undergrad degree, and plan on applying to grad school in about 7 years. I'm taking a year off to work, then completing a 1 year graduate certificate followed by a 2 year diploma program and 3 more years of work experience before applying for a masters program, which requires 2 reference letters from relevant profs. I know I can ask instructors from the grad certificate and diploma programs instead of relying on professors from my undergrad courses, but that's still a 3 year gap between my last course and application. Do I need to wait until I apply for my masters to ask for references? Or can I ask in advance before graduating my grad/diploma programs, after explaining my plan to apply for a masters in 3 years? My concern is my profs might not remember me...

I think if you're seven years out, the reference letters won't be as relevant. I would check with the master's program, but sometimes if you've worked for a certain amount of time you can provide one academic reference and one work related reference. I would try to keep a relationship with at least one professor - keep them updated, visit for coffee, etc. but wouldn't use a letter from seven years ago to apply for a Masters program. Maybe through your diplomas which will be more recent, you will find a more recent reference.


How to deal with students who are among the more ignorant but think the know everything because they worked hard and got straight "A"s in high school How should instructors deal with the fact that the students who know the least are precisely the ones who think they know everything?

NOTE: This question is not and never was intended to be primarily about mathematics instruction, but was intended to be equally applicable to all subjects to which it can be applied (which probably means all subjects).  It has been edited by seemingly many people.  I hope I've now expunged the most offensive edits from it.  The examples below are about mathematics for the obvious reason. END OF SPECIAL NOTE

Someone takes high-school math courses in which all that is required of them is that they learn algorithms for solving assigned problems, and they think that learning those is what learning math consists of (in other words, they learned no math) and since they always worked hard and got straight "A+"s, they think they're really good at math. Then they say they're entitled to take a course requiring only learning technical skills and algorithms and not requiring them to understand anything, and they think it's outrageous that an instructor would think there's something more that should be required of them. You can't get more ignorant of mathematics than to think that learning procedures to follow mechanically in solving assigned problems is what learning mathematics consists of (or at least you probably can't get more ignorant than that and still get admitted to a university), nor more arrogant than to think that an instructor needs instruction from people who think that.

High-school courses in which students effectively learn (without being told so) that learning mathematics consists of learning procedures to apply mechanically to solve assigned problems are the result of official decrees that everybody must learn mathematics. So ignorance of mathematics results from decrees intended to have the opposite effect.

In one case a student wrote on a test something like "Are you kidding? u-substitution? We shouldn't see that until next semester!" An entirely inexperienced person would have laughed out loud at a student mistakenly thinking under the circumstances that they were being asked to use the technique informally called "u-substitution", and moreover the class had been told in advance that that particular problem would be there. And sometimes they're not angry (as in the example in my previous comment) but they neglect a topic of which they are completely ignorant because they think they already know everything about it.

I think this is an important issue, and wrestling with it has informed a lot of what I do as a community college lecturer in mathematics. Helping students make the transition from the BS they get in many K-12 programs, and getting to share real math with them for the first time, is a great challenge and responsibility.

What gets me a surprising amount of traction is to address this explicitly, as the first thing on my syllabus. Top goal: "Read and write math properly with variables." I verbally quiz them on this on day two. I touch back on it almost every day. I explicate how I'll be grading for this on tests, and show grading examples from old tests. Why? The professional writing (a) provides a shared language, (b) allows them to read any math book, (c) serves as an explanation to other students and colleagues, and (d) makes it easy to find and fix errors and disputes.

Example interaction from yesterday (day 9 of the fall semester): One student has garbled the writing of a polynomial multiplication; I point this out, and she does the "But I got the right answer" bit. I ask, "But what's the number one goal for the course?". She says, "I don't know" (which even she can tell is not a good response), and almost all the rest of the class calls out, "Reading and writing math properly".

So this makes the expectation very clear, and by talking about it as item #1, I get the majority of the class on my side, and the community standard (peer pressure) works greatly in my favor. There aren't many silver bullets in teaching, but I'm delighted at how effectively this one works for me.

(P.S.: While the above is math-specific, I think the basic idea of setting a reading/writing/justifying "top goal" can work in many classes. E.g., in my C++ programming course I start with a quote from Bjarne Stroustrup, "Design and programming are human activities; forget that and all is lost", and then likewise emphasize making one's code readable to other programmers via a common style. As Ken Bain writes in What the Best College Teachers Do, "Finally, the best educators often teach students how to read the materials..." [Ch. 4]).


How to get the data to reproduce a published result? I'm studying published journal articles on my topic, and I'd like to reproduce their analysis.  How can I get a copy of their dataset and enough specifications to reproduce their numerical results?

In my specific case, I'm studying this work: Stecklov et al. (2005), published in Demography, and they're using PROGRESA datasets which are publicly available, but when I try to reproduce their results, all the base statistics are off by a bit, and the regressions come out a bit different.  Probably I'm just including or excluding a few different cases, but what can I do to identify the difference?

Email the author nominated for communications, and ask them for a copy of their dataset and enough specifications to reproduce their numeric results. As a backstop, ask for the specific criteria they used to exclude cases. Consider offering co-authorship on any papers that will result from your analysis, as incentive. Give them enough context about you & your own work, so that they know your enquiry is serious, and that you're looking to constructively build on their work, (and not to stitch them up!)


What licensing concerns are there for using content from Stack Exchange in an academic paper? All content under Stack Exchange is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. Does this mean that any academic paper that uses content from Stack Exchange must also be licensed under said Creative Commons?

If not, what is the actual rule on this part?

Making a reference to CC Attribution-ShareAlike content is always okay. In fact, referring to any work is okay, regardless of the copyright status. Only content is copyrighted, not bibliographic elements (including author names and title). For example, the U.S. Copyright Office says:

  Copyright does not protect names, titles, slogans, or short phrases.

Quoting is a more complex matter. It depends on copyright laws, and thus your country. In most cases, if the material is quoted raw and the quote is kept short, most academic use should fall under the doctrine of fair use. By contrast, read also the article on derivative work to get an idea of these two extreme cases.

This is mostly a theoretical question, however: the scope of fair use is grey are in US Copyright Law, and provided you do it for academic purposes and in a good faith, you won't get into trouble.

Finally: if you really want to quote in a bulletproof way, either (a) consult with a lawyer or (b) ask the copyright holder for a waiver to relicense his content to you.


How to (gently) pressure a collaborator? During my PhD I had an awesome collaborator that taught me a lot in an area that my main advisor had no experience at all.
I have a paper draft with him that's getting more than 3 years to get published. He is extremely perfectionist and always wanted to add one more little detail here and there. With that, I don't mean from a writing standpoint. He actually asks for new calculations and analysis which usually takes months to finish. I read papers in this area which presented much fewer results and details than my paper. It's frustrating because I'm applying for faculty positions and I need this paper to show as a record of a very important part of my research plan. I explained it to him, many times. I also like him very much and would like to have him as a collaborator. So, I don't want to make pressure in a bad way. In short, he doesn't need this paper, he doesn't need the collaboration. He is a very accomplished researcher. Also, he didn't have any formal responsibility for my graduate studies. But still, I need the paper. We are in different countries, so I cannot have a one-to-one conversation with him. My former advisor cannot do much as well. My question is simply: what should I do?

Edit.

I talked with my collaborator and everything went pretty well. I submitted my paper this morning!!! Thanks for the feedback. I think just the act of writing here, in addition to the feedback I got help me a lot to leverage. (I also followed some Carnegie's rules)

You mentioned that you explained your situation to your collaborator many times, but you didn't mention the most important part: after you explain your situation, you ask for something specific and actionable, with a specific deadline, and you listen to what they have to say.

Outside pressure requires leverage; internal pressure requires agreement. The situation is asymmetric, as you describe - you need the publication, they don't. Nothing you can do really changes the difference in your needs. However, they hopefully have their own interests: they might be interested in helping you in your quest at this crucial time in your early career, and they might look forward to continuing your collaboration (hopefully they've enjoyed working with you).

The question is: what are you asking for, and are they willing to agree to the plan or not? There needs to be a clear answer here, an unambiguous commitment, and you also need to start considering a plan B if they are simply unwilling to agree or follow-through.

I would suggest an in-person meeting if at all possible, or at least video-chat. You can explain, but most importantly you have to make it clear that there is a real deadline you can't put off. For instance: "we would need to submit this by Date X, as I have to change my focus to application deadlines, and won't be able to work further on this. I think we've done great work, and it would greatly add to my own chances of getting a permanent position, so I really don't want to just let this just die, and I'd like to work with you on more things in the future after I get a position, but personally I either have to push towards publication by the deadline or just give up on it."

You should ask how they view the situation. Is this just something that's been put off to continue to improve because there was no reason to rush, or do they have some more fundamental concern about publication? Acknowledge their concerns, and try to find common ground. I doubt they want to lose you as a collaborator entirely, and if they can just keep polishing and putting things off they could very well do so indefinitely.

Most importantly, you need to come to a crystal-clear mutual agreement on a plan. If they just aren't willing to, so be it - at least you know and you can switch focus to Plan B. But if they can, then follow up in writing with the plan you both agreed to and thanking them for working with you on this, etc. They might still fall through - not all collaborations end up as productive ones - so you should still consider that Plan B anyway (especially as rejection is still the most likely initial result, but obviously "submitted" or "under review" is better than "in preparation").


Applied for PhD, professor asked me to disclose offers from other universities, why? I have applied for PhD student positions at different graduate schools.
During most interviews I was asked whether I have applied to other programs, which I affirmed.
One professor also asked me to inform him if I receive offers from other universities.
It seems like a sensible request to me and I confirmed that I would do so.
However I can't help but wonder:
Why did he ask me to disclose other offers?

Will it make me seem sought after and strong, if I receive multiple offers from other universities?
Or will the professor look for applicants that have not found a place elsewhere and disregard me, because an applicant who has received other offers would be more likely to decline an offer?

I don't have a definitive answer, but I can offer some interpretion: with such a question a potential employer, not matter whether academic or not, is probing how likely you are to accept an offer if you were to receive one.

What I suggest in this circumstances is to tell you have other offers, if you did receive them - it will make you look attractive - but not specify them. After that, hint to the fact that your other offers are not your first choice, unlike the present one - that will make you look committed.

Of course all of the above stands if you did receive other offers. Honesty first. But no need to be honest about what is your favorite choice, as it's probably impossible to be honest about it, at least until you know what the offers are anyway!


COVID-19 Pass/Fail Option I am currently an undergraduate student, and looking to apply to grad schools in the future. In response to COVID-19, my school is offering the ability between choosing the letter grade earned to appear on the transcript, or a pass if you earned over a C, for each individual class.

I'm wondering if choosing the pass option for one of my classes would reflect poorly on grad school applications. The class in question is a not a major or graduation requirement, and it is 4 credits, so taking a B or lower would hurt my GPA.

Thank you!

The class in question is a not a major or graduation requirement

Assuming you want to go to graduate school in a topic closely related to your major, taking one unrelated course pass/fail will not matter under normal circumstances.  It will matter even less because everybody knows students are being encouraged to take classes pass/fail during the pandemic.


Is Excel-generated chart acceptable for publication? I have always wondered, why it seems I have never seen people using excel-generated charts for publishing. Is excel considered less professional/not serious?  Say I have a time-series like this. What could have other chart making platforms do better (that excel cannot) to improve it? The dimension (boundary) of the chart?

Excel can produce high quality charts, but it takes a lot of work. The biggest difference between Excel and other systems is the quality of the defaults. I suspect some people are using excel charts, but they have gone to a lot of effort to tidy them up.

In the example chart, you will, for example, definitely need to deal with the x-axis labels overlapping the y-grid lines. In fact the y grid lines are too strong - in fact I'd put some more consideration into the gird lines in general - why y lines, but no x lines - there might be a good reason, but you should think about it?

Limit the y-axis to make 0 the minimum (I'm assuming a negative flux makes no sense).

I would personally also add a y axis and x-axis border line. You are almost certainly going to want tick marks on the axes. And markers on the lines/larger markers if they are already there but too small.

Your axis titles need to have the same font size (the y looks bigger than the x to me at the moment) and the difference in font size between the labels and the titles is probably too big. I probably take out half of the x-axis labels and make the remaining ones bigger.

One thing that Excel is bad with, and isn't easily fixable is consistency. Getting two plots looking exactly the same, with exactly the same size plot, same size text, with all the elements in the same place is really difficult because it relies so much on the mouse and manually moving/sizing things.


How to efficiently find citations for quotations after writing? I wrote a long document about mathematics with a lot of quotations.
I must provide a citation for every quotation, but did not do this so far.
Now I’m stuck because I can’t efficiently find the origins of these quotations, given the plethora of available references.

What kind of workflow can I use to handle this task efficiently?

Presumably you have an idea of which references you made the most use of, and can skim through them again. If you really have no idea, the most efficient way to find the source I can think of is Google (or your search engine of preference). Simply copy and paste (a text part of) a quotation, put quotation marks around it, and search for it. Then correlate the findings with your set of sources. Alternatively, if you have say PDFs of all/most of your sources, you can use advanced search features to search for a quotation in multiple files at the same time. Sometimes PDFs are scanned and non-searchable, so googling can be more capable.

Now, since you mention mathematics, let me also say that these techniques obviously don't work as well for equations. For those you can try searching for related terms/names, but it can be difficult to find the exact source that way. It's probably more efficient to skim through your sources for this, which works well except for in-text equations. The latter tend to require careful reading.

Overall though, consider this a lesson to cite as you write. Do this even for notes only you will see - if it's a useful source, you'll want to remember it later!


Academic CV/grant proposal: Should you include students who have abandoned? I am wondering whether I should include students I have supervised but have quit in my CV, especially for grant proposals where supervision history is assessed. I have a couple of students who could not finish their programme, either because they didn't meet the academic requirements of our university or because of lack of funds. Do you think it would look bad on my CV to include them? If I do include them, should I explain why they quit?

For grant proposals in particular, this information can be used to assess conflict of interest. In fact, the National Science Foundation (NSF) moved that section off the biosketch to a separate document to make the intent of this section more clear. There, you could also indicate the last time you interacted, which may make the lack of relationship clear.

With grants, it is always essential to ascertain the purpose of the information to understand what information to present and how it should be presented. If you are unsure, you can always email the sponsor's help desk. They are typically fantastic in helping you understand the documents you need to assemble. Do not worry that they will assess your questions with your application.  PIs frequently worry about that, but that isn't happening.  They want good applications that are easy to review, so ask away!


I have 6 weeks to hand in my Thesis. Should I quit? I'm a PhD student with 6 weeks to go until I need to resubmit. I had my first viva last year and got an MPhil or major corrections with another viva. I decided to carry on to try to get a PhD but I think I was bit depressed about it and basically had very little motivation to do the corrections. I limped on with it until about a month ago when it hit me that I would need to do a second viva and my stress levels went through the roof. I couldn't sleep, was panicking and crying all the time. I ended up going to the doctors and they gave me beta blockers. I told my supervisor this morning and he thinks it's not worth my health and that I should just submit and take an MPhil. However, I just wonder if I should just hang on for the next 6 weeks for a chance at the PhD even though the thought of it is really stressful. I'm honestly not sure my thesis will be good enough and I get so nervous in situations like vivas and feel like my performance in the first viva played a role in not getting awarded a PhD and I'm not sure it will be different this time.

I don't have a job lined up, but I don't want to go into academia and am hoping to go into R&D in industry.

Any advice?

If your supervisor is looking at you and your work and says your health is more important, you should at least give that statement serious consideration. They are probably the only person who knows enough about both you and your work to be able to make a reasonable judgement (it really sounds like you are not in a good frame of mind to judge for yourself).

An alternative approach, at least for a couple of hours, would be to find out whether you can get an extension, given the impact this has had on your health.


If a reference is applying for the same position, are they obligated to inform you? If a reference applies for the same position do they have a professional obligation to inform you that they are applying for that same job?

I am interpreting the question as: does someone who writes you a recommendation letter for academic position X and is themselves applying for academic position X have an obligation to inform you of this?

They certainly do not have a professional obligation.  By that I mean that there is no rule that requires it.  On the contrary a general principle of academic job processes is that when possible they should be kept confidential, so the information that someone is applying for academic jobs and if so what jobs need not be disclosed by them to anyone (except the institutions they apply to, obviously).

As usual, the question of ethical obligation is a bit more interesting.  In my opinion the answer is still generally no: in most circumstances there is no ethical obligation to disclose this information.

I should clarify that in my part of academia both job applications and reference letters are done in "carpet bombing" style: many people who are applying to one academic job are applying to twenty or more, more commonly fifty or more, and not so rarely one hundred or more.  Many of the letters are common to all 20, 50, or 100 jobs.  Thus if the writer happens to be applying for a position at one of the same institutions -- and let me say that whether someone is applying for "the same position" is sometimes well-defined and sometimes a bit nebulous; people of very differing levels of seniority can be treated very differently by hiring committees, and it is not uncommon that in that situation if one really does want to hire both people then one tries to do so and sometimes succeeds -- it is not necessarily a direct conflict of interest.  More specifically, I have occasionally seen an application by a letter writer for "the same position" that the letter writee has applied for, and the letter writer's application did not undercut their letter.

In my circle most letters of recommendation are general evaluations of the candidate that would be suitable across an entire range of institutions: they do not make a specific argument as to why Institution A should hire the candidate.  In fact, in my field (mathematics) we have an extremely convenient automated job applications site (called, reasonably enough, MathJobs), so when someone asks me for a recommendation I don't even know the full list of places in which that recommendation is being used.

I have written dozens of recommendation letters for academic jobs.  Exactly one was specifically targeted to one institution, the one job to which that person was applying.  If I had also been applying for the same job: yes, that would have been awkward and ethically problematic.

As above, I would say that the ethical problem occurs when you are writing a letter which is targeted to a specific institution and you know at the time of writing that you plan to apply for the same job.  Such a situation is the ne plus ultra of conflicts of interest, and the ethical thing to do would be to decline to write the recommendation for that institution.  It is not necessary to disclose why, but if one is willing to write other strong recommendation letters it would be good to say so.

Finally, let me say that one can largely avoid this issue by making sure that your recommenders are much more senior than you.  Thus, if you are applying for a postdoc position, have all your letter writers be on the tenure track.  If you are applying for an assistant professor position, have all your letter writers be tenured.  This turns out to be good advice anyway: senior people have more pull and, other things being equal or nearly equal, are the ones you want writing for you.


Can I apply for a post-doc in global studies in North America? I am doing my doctorate in global studies in Germany, and would like to apply for a post-doc position in North America, especially in Canada. The topic I work on has considerable policy relevance, and I see that some North American professors are working in those areas. I am a non-EU citizen. Is there any chance that I will be accepted?

I can only speak for the US.

Yes!  US universities routinely hire postdocs from all over the world.  A few positions may be reserved for US citizens, due to funding requirements, but those will be indicated in the postings.

As one way to check, go to the web site of a department that interests you, find the web pages of some of the postdocs, and read their CVs.


Should / How do I include my school's GPA Scale in my CV / Application I'm preparing my grad school applications (CV, letter of intent, etc) and in these I need to include my GPA. My school uses the 4.3 scale and I feel as though not including this information is misleading since my GPA will look better when compared to someone who is actually marked out of a 4.0.

But I have not seen this in any online example nor have I seen it in any of the outlines that schools give for their expected applications.

Should I include the GPA scale and if so how do I do this? Would 3.9 / 4.3 be reasonable?

Update / Solution

By the general look of the comments it is best to avoid ambiguity by stating the scale up front. So, I think the general consensus is GPA/grades should be reported along side their scales.

I had the experience of sitting on a graduate admissions committee during my years in graduate school.  (This was at a "top-10" school in my field, though not a "top-5".)  In my experience, the raw GPA number was mainly used to make a "first cut" to weed out the fraction of applications that were almost certainly sub-par.  (Things like super-low GRE scores were also used at this stage as well.)    Once the applications got beyond this initial screening, committee members would read carefully through them;  and at this point, the raw GPA was put aside in favor of the more detailed grade information on the transcript.  Almost every transcript, especially those from US colleges or universities, had an explanation on the back about the system used to assign grades and calculate the GPA.  There's enough variety in the systems used by different institutions (even within the US—foreign institutions had even more variety) that I always had to read through this information to contextualize what I saw on the transcript.

Which is to say:  it's probably best to be honest about your GPA in the CV.  But if you don't mention it specifically, the committee members will almost certainly still be able to figure out that your school had a 4.3 scale;  and they almost certainly won't hold it against you for not mentioning it once they've figured it out.


How knowledgable do I have to be when I start a phd? Say I wish to pursue a phd in some CS related field. How knowledgable do I have to be in the field I am pursuing? I'm asking because some things happened recently that led me to doubt myself:

I have been doing some machine learning research for the past year and I'm working towards a first author conference submission (as an undergrad). As I was drafting my paper, my professor asked some questions about the project I'd done - such as why I chose certain methods over others, or why I choose a particular parameter for my experiments and more. And I realised that I couldn't answer them. See, in my project, I didn't create anything new. I simply took existing methods and applied them to a relatively unexplored research area, which means that I was just following what other people did. To take something and apply it somewhere else doesn't really require that much knowledge in my opinion. I've been reading papers, trying to explain why some methods outperform others and often times I do not fully understand them. The high level logic maybe I understand, but certainly not the in-depth algorithms or implementations.

I feel as if I know nothing about this field (and I probably really don't know much). Yet, my professor offered me a phd position. I feel like he was placing too much confidence in me. Have I managed to fluff my way through this project, or is this something that happens to other people too? Especially those who completed their bachelors and went for a direct phd.

It is very appreciated for your honesty. In my knowledge, I have seen many students they join PhD courses having very little knowledge in their field. Also, many join in new fields without having any proper/concrete ideas. However, their interest to learn, hard work and self confidence all together help them to achieve a PhD and a great career ahead. It is also worth to mention that each PhD student must face lots of ups and downs. However, their self confidence and interest to do something new helps to overcome all the down situations.

So first of all, you should never loose your self confidence at the very beginning. It is very well said that "it is never too late to start". You will get enough time in PhD to learn many new things including your objectives. Moreover, it seems you have got a very good and inspirational professor. So there is no doubt whatever knowledge you have now, it is very much enough to pursue a PhD in your area of interest. Good Luck!!


What is a good amount of time to wait to check up on a recommender after the initial request? So, about a month ago, I sent three requests for letters of recommendation. Since then, two of them have finished their letters and one (I imagine) is quite busy and told me he probably won't be able to get to the letter for another two weeks [about a week prior to the application deadline], and the application is due on January 1 [which is a bit less than a month from now].

Would it be wise to send a reminder e-mail to him, and if so, how long should I wait?

[Please feel free to edit the title; I realize it's not very clear.]

I would definitely not contact him until the week before the week he said he could get to the recommendation letter. Anything earlier could just lead to the same answer as before. I wouldn't stress it too much, however. My recommenders this year submitted their letters within the last two weeks of the deadline. One of them submitted it two days before the Thanksgiving break (at the end of which, some applications were already due).


Is it appropriate to ask a former professor to order a book for me through an inter-library loan? I am not a member of an academic institution right now, but am working on a paper for publication, partly to improve my prospects for admission to PhD programs after a long gap in my education. Two absolutely necessary books for my research are only available in academic libraries (one is also for sale on AbeBooks for about $450).

So my question is, would it be appropriate to email a former professor and ask him to get these books through an inter-library loan (ILL) for me so that I could skim them for several hours, take necessary notes, and return them on the same day?

This professor has taught me in the same field, and was personally supportive. Aside from former professors, I don't know anyone else in an academic institution, and am not in a position to fly across the country to visit libraries where these items are held.

I don't see an issue with this. In fact, you can probably do it yourself. Many libraries will offer library privileges to people for research. I live in a small town with a nice library. My local librarian has, on occasion, gotten such resources for me through contacts with a university library.

Libraries generally are there to help. They need some assurance that you will treat such privileges properly, of course, but you might just go ask to see what is available to you.

But, the professor might be willing to do it and will certainly serve as the trusted intermediary that might be needed.


Is it possible for an applicant to be disadvantaged by negative comments sent via emails without his/her consent? I saw some reports about how corrupt teaching staff in some colleges in some countries forces their students to comply with their unreasonable demands (e.g. to conceal a huge flaw in the teacher's research, or to stop speaking their own native language) by threatening to write negative emails and letters to disadvantaged their students' job or academic application.

Of course, such teaching staff will, hopefully, eventually get punished. (Note that we cannot always find evidence of their unethical behaviour, so some get away with it.) But even if they are punished, there is probably no means to stop them from making negative comments directly to the admission office or even one or two professors/employers who make the final decision.

What should students do to protect their own rights? Is it likely that some real damage will be caused by such malicious emails?

Some may complain that I should not ask this because it is not happening on myself - but the situation I describe is NOT hypothetical, and it might happen on anyone, so it is helpful to know how to tackle the situation.

This is a supper difficult problem and is responsible for much of what is wrong with academia.

Its definitely not unheard of for a recruiting academic to call contacts at institutions a candidate has been associated with and ask.

If you are in Europe, and you are turned down for a job you were sure you were the best candidate for, you can issue a GDPR demand to the universities in question, and they must turn over any materials that contain information about you. This should include both formal and informal references. Obviously if the bad-mouthing happened over the phone, there will be no record of it, which is exactly why people often use the phone for this sort of thing.

You could then try claiming that the university treated you unfairly in the hiring process. You'd have to be careful because the university could try saying "We didn't select this candidate for other reasons, nothing to do with the reference. Here is the documentation that lists the criteria we used and the candidate's scores".

You could also try suing the phantom referee for libel/defamation if you were really into long drawn out legal battles.


What is the difference between Ph.D, D.Sc, D.Litt, etc.? Is there any difference between Ph.D, D.Sc, D.Litt and the similar degrees?

The meaning of these degrees vary by country. In some countries (especially in Europe), PhD is the "basic" degree. It's the one you get out of graduate school. D. Litt (aka. Doctor of Letters) and D.Sc (Doctor of Science) are the highest conferred degrees. You need sustained achievement at the top before these are awarded. Here's a quote from the Wikipedia article on D. Litt:

  The Litt.D. degree is awarded to candidates whose record of published work and research shows conspicuous ability and originality and constitutes a distinguished and sustained achievement. University committee and board approval is required, and candidates must provide documented mastery of a particular area or field. The degree may also be awarded honoris causa to such individuals as the university or the learned body in question deems worthy of this highest academic award.

D.Sc is similar, except it's for the sciences as opposed to social sciences. Again, see the Wikipedia article, except there're many non-European countries who take D.Sc to be effectively equivalent to PhD.


Is it ethical to publish homework? Sometimes when doing course work for university, I'd like to write about it on my website, or publish it in its entirety, because I think that other people might be interested in it.

My goal is not to reach other students, but depending on the work, I think it's likely that they would easily find it when searching for it, and most courses reuse homework questions and paper topics over multiple years.

So my question is if it would be ethical for me to do so, and under which circumstances.

Does it depend on the task? Eg I would assume that it's not ok if it's a very specific task that only other students would be interested in, but ok if it's a general problem?
Does it depend on length? What about simple homework questions vs page-long papers vs presentation slides vs thesis paper vs code?
Should I do something to conceal it? Eg change the paper title, remove any mention of the course and university name, not publish the homework question itself?

I'm mainly asking about the ethics of it, but if you know if it is generally legal or forbidden by universities, I would be interested in that as well.

In case it affects your answer: I'm studying computer science in Germany.

Sometimes when doing course work for university, I'd like to write
  about it on my website, or publish it in its entirety, because I think
  that other people might be interested in it.

This re-enforces your learning BUT will current students have access to it.

Once, a student from my University did this, and someone else copied from her. There was a big mess about this. Fortunately the student got a passing grade for the class.

  and most courses reuse homework questions and paper topics over
  multiple years.

and

  So my question is if it would be ethical for me to do so, and under
  which circumstances.

Instead of using exact question answer, can you create similar question and give solution. This way you are tutoring other people and making them think (and making yourself think), rather than giving the answers to students who just want to pass the class and forget what they "learned".


Mentioning future work, that is now complete I am presenting a paper at a computer science conference.

The paper I submitted to the conference mentioned future work that would significantly enhance the utility of the method.

This work was work that was always planned to be part of the same "project" as the work in the paper, indeed the conference paper is presented as a part way step towards doing X, and the future work is what takes it all the way.

The extension was quite involved (and not quite complete when I submitted the paper for review). They day before I left for the conference that work was "completed", in that a journal article about it was submitted for review.

Now when I present at the conference, in the conclusion I want to mention the future work – at least to the extent that it was described in the conference paper.
Should I go into more detail?
Should I even mention that "This work is now complete, and is under review for publication"?

The material is highly relevant to your presentation so you don't need to ask people on the internet whether it should be included.

You can and should mention it. Your talk should be based on the current best understanding of the subject, whether that comes from your conference paper or from a subsequent journal submission. It would be silly to give a talk about how, for example, your experiments show that gravity causes apples fall from trees and you're planning future experiments about its effect on other fruit, if you'd already done those experiments and, in fact, submitted a journal paper about how gravity causes all massive objects to be attracted to one another. Indeed, I've often been to conference talks where people have presented stronger results than they'd originally submitted. That's just a natural consequence of the submission deadline being some time in advance of the conference.

In a comment, you mentioned that you were worried because the originally submitted material has been peer-reviewed but the more recent material hasn't. That's a legitimate concern but not, I think, a serious one. Conference reviewing is very much "PeerReview lite™" and reviews are more at the level of "There's nothing obviously wrong with this and I think it's interesting enough to be in the conference." Journal reviewing aims more towards "As far as I can see, this is correct."  Since your original submission was of an appropriate standard, it's very likely that the additional material is of a similar and acceptable standard. Given that you were confident enough to submit that material to a journal, you should be confident enough in its correctness to tell people at the conference about it.