Is it ok to ask for H1-B visa during postdoc interview? How? I will have a couple of interviews for postdoc positions in the US (at big universities). I have read that it might be very convenient to get an H1-B visa (I'm from a non-US & non-EU country).

Shall I talk about this and/or try to negotiate it during the initial interview? Or maybe only after getting an offer? Or isn't it just 'not' under discussion?

Generally in an interview before you've received an offer, your overriding priority is making yourself look like an appealing candidate, and so bringing up points that will present a difficulty for your employer may not be so wise.  Trying to negotiate a point like this will at best put your interviewer in an uncomfortable spot (since they are almost certainly in no position to commit on a point like this) and at worse come off as arrogant.  I think it would be reasonable to ask if they can put you in touch with a staff person who can explain how visas are usually dealt with (it is probably not wise to try to look this person up beforehand separately).

After you have an offer, then you are in a better position to make requests, though honestly, most postdoc positions are pretty much "take-it-or-leave-it."  Visas (as opposed to salary or research funds) are even trickier since they are not usually handled by the department, and have legal constraints that most of the parties involved understand poorly.  You can try, but I wouldn't have a lot of optimism you will get them to do things differently than they would have.


Is re-taking a course seen negatively in PhD applications? I am re-taking a course I was registered to during a somewhat rocky exchange semester. I was too far behind on the assignments to get a good grade, and chose to wait and re-register now, two years later, after having graduated.
The subject is quite central to my field, and it is one of the hardest and most useful courses I have taken during my studies.
Assuming that I get the good grade I am aiming for this time, will this delay in passing the course be seen negatively in a PhD application, since the committee will think I have had much longer to learn the material, and presumably failed to get a good grade the first time?

I doubt that it would be seen negatively by most reviewers, but who can speak for everyone. It shows some evidence of seriousness.
But it might not be necessary, in fact, especially if this is for application to a US institution where the acceptance is based on an overall assessment of the likelihood of success without individual small things having much effect. If you have letters of recommendation predicting your success then it probably isn't necessary to retake the course.
But the "hardest and most useful" comment suggests that it might be worth it.
But if you are ready to make application now and the course would delay that, then there is no reason you can't do both. Send off a few applications and also register for the course.

Caveat: In France things might be different, especially if you have a masters and not just a bachelors. But in the US you would likely have an opportunity to learn the required material as part of early doctoral studies.


Introduction slide of myself on first slide (after title page) in faculty job seminar I have a faculty job seminar coming up in a few weeks. Since this seminar will be attended by most faculty members in the department, I am wondering if it would be good to start the first slide (after the title slide) with an introduction of myself. That is it would be a brief bio of myself, where I got my Bachelor's, Master's, Ph.D., postdoc experience. It is highly likely that the department members already know or have this information. Would it be a good way to start the talk with such an introduction of myself (on one slide)?

I've always found that successful applicants to positions (myself included) are able to work their biography in to their discussion of their research. Rather than have a potted CV slide, casually mention the important aspects of your CV as you present relevant parts of your research and your research plans. When this is done well it is very effective.


Writing a letter of recommendation for a promising but very new student As part of my PhD I am required to teach some bachelor level micro and macro economics classes. One of my new students (we only had 3 classes together) approached me with a request for a letter of recommendation for summer research internship.
The student looks like good student, they are active in class and pay attention and asked few good questions. However, I only talked to the student 3 times in my life during the online classes.
This creates a conundrum for me because the student so far made a good impression on me but I know nothing about the students and first impressions can be deceiving. In addition, one should of course never lie on the letter of recommendation so the best I can say about the student is that I recommend them because they are active in the class and ask good questions.
Also, the student said that they need to submit application by end of next week so I will see the student only once more in class and by that time the students won't even submit their first assignment for the class. So waiting here and seeing how the student will do is not an option.
Consequently, my questions are:

Would there be any possible repercussions for me if I write truthful letter of recommendation, but the student turns out to be very bad at their internship? In another words would that cost me my creditability, are recommendations for candidates in academia taken very seriously?
Would writing such recommendation help the student at all or would it actually potentially hurt student's chances?

I know this is a topic that was already discussed at academia, for example here but that does not answer my question because the question is about mediocre student whereas this student looks promising.

As suggested by @academic in a comment, I think this is a case where you should decline to write the recommendation (and do so as quickly as possible so that they can find someone else) and suggest they ask someone with whom they've had more interaction.
I think it may end up normal for students during the pandemic to rely on recommendations from instructors they have had less interaction with due to the obstacles of online learning, but here you're talking about someone for whom you can't even refer to their performance on a single assignment.
If you wrote a letter that was honest, really the best you can do is to write what you've said here: this student meets expectations for an attentive student in the limited interactions before the first course assignment is due. I can't imagine that letter filling any positive role besides checking a box towards "x/N letters submitted". If acceptance for the internship is competitive then the letters written for this student will be compared to letters written for other students, and a non-robust letter like yours will probably compare unfavorably.
Additionally, as a PhD student you might also suggest to the person asking you for a recommendation that they get letters from professors rather than graduate students. It's possible that the distinction isn't as important for this internship, but generally references from professors are preferred. When I was a graduate TA I would occasionally co-write a letter with a professor in charge of the course I was teaching: the letter would come from the professor, but I'd add my own paragraph that the professor would incorporate into their letter. I don't suggest you use that for this situation (and it doesn't make sense if you are the instructor of record rather than a TA), but something to keep in mind for future requests.


Statement of Purpose-How specific it should be? I have a doubt regarding the Statement of Purpose for grad school.

Toward the end of the essay, should I specify the list of professors who I am interested to work with? For example:

"...Since research in this field is very active in Dr. A's, Dr. B’s, Dr. C’s groups at XXX University, I would like to apply to your program..."

My concern is: though doing so may indicate that I have read about the professors and their works (which is a plus I suppose), it is risky at the same time. What if Dr.[A-C] are not able to accept more people to their labs? Will the admission committee automatically disqualify my application in this case?

Hence, I would love to hear more advices from you of how to play it safe: whether such specifications are needed, and how to phrase them properly.

Thanks!

Disclaimer: I am still a graduate student and my experience is limited to my own application process and as a student member of my department's graduate admissions committee.

I have seen that specific reasons are almost always better than general reasons. When I was going through the application process, my SOP always mentioned current specific projects that my POI's were doing and how I could be an optimal choice for those projects in the near future with my background and current research. This approach seems to have worked well enough for me.

During multiple interviews in the application process, my SOP was often alluded to, especially in context with these specific projects and my fit with them.


Redrawing a schematic diagram/image/schematic circuits to avoid Copyright infringement in publication From other discussion in Academia SE and other source, I got an impression that redrawing is to avoid Copyright infringement. link1 link2 link3 not from SE link4 link5

I cannot comment there to ask doubt because lack of reputation.

My post here is about redrawing schematic diagram/schematic circuit/3D visualization, not (re-)plotting data.

My question:

Do I still need permission from the original paper/author if I redraw schematic diagram/schematic circuit/3D visualization?
Why rotating 3D graph is considered OK ? link4.  I am not sure about "OK" here, is OK=no need for permission?
The author in link1 found a better drawing than his/her own that describes same idea. in the comment section, he/she was planning to use his own drawing if the author could not get permission or did not want to pay licence. From here, I got an impression that redrawing is a work around if we do not want to deal with permission/licence. But, is it legit?
How about citation? Do I need to cite after redrawing?

assume:

"fair use" does not apply here.
asking legal permission from publisher is not free.

I am writing a technical report for a research project, a project before master thesis.

Question 1
Since you have asked us to assume that fair use does not apply (a big assumption!), your question hinges on "copyrightability." In the United States, one requirement for copyright protection is that the material have "at least a modicum of creativity." (That comes from Feist, a Supreme Court case about the uncopyrightability of the white pages of a phone book.) The standard line is that facts aren't copyrightable, only expression. Relatedly, the scènes à faire doctrine eliminates copyright protection for tropes and conventions, and the merger doctrine eliminates copyright for very simple expressions of facts. A selection or arrangement of uncopyrightable components is copyrightable, so long as there is creativity in that selection or arrangement.

Here's an example from the Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices (2017):

  The Office may register a work comprised of rocks that are selected, coordinated, arranged, and fixed in such a way as to result in a sculptural work. Likewise, the Office may register a photograph of a rock, a drawing of a hand-tool, or a written expression of an idea. However, the Office cannot register a mere “compilation of ideas,” a mere “selection and arrangement of hand-tools,” or a mere “compilation of rocks,” because ideas, handtools, and rocks do not constitute copyrightable subject matter under Section 102(a) of the Copyright Act.

If you use only uncopyrightable components of the original and do not copy a creative arrangement of those components, then you do not need permission (nor do you need to rely on fair use). This is simply something copyright permits, without permission from the rightsholder in the original work.

I've based my answer on U.S. law, which is my expertise, but this concept of copyrightability has equivalents in every copyright regime. The details, including the threshold of copyrightability, do vary significantly. For a slightly more international perspective, you might want to check out Copyright for Librarians, Module 3: The Scope of Copyright Law.

So, the answer to question 1 is, "it depends." Sometimes yes, sometimes no. (A lawyer's answer, I know. Sorry!)

Question 2
As for question 2, rotating a 3D graph, I disagree with the assessment that that's "OK," but perhaps I'm misunderstanding. Certainly reproducing a 2D graph with a 90 degree transformation would implicate the reproduction right. Perhaps what is meant with the 3D graph is such a rotation as to require creation of new material (e.g., showing only the side that wasn't visible).

Question 3
Certainly it is "legit" if it doesn't involve copying copyrightable material.

Question 4
Whether to cite the original depends on what your version looks like, as well as the norms within your discipline. In the U.S., citation is not a matter of copyright law. In countries with stronger moral rights regimes (virtually all other countries), attribution can be a matter of copyright law, but if your new figure only uses uncopyrightable components, that still shouldn't be an issue.

Expertise: I am a U.S. lawyer who works in an academic library teaching faculty, staff, and students about copyright law.


How to deal with sources whose authors I don't have good relationship with? I used to have a good relationship with an author, but now it's broken. However, my work is heavily based on the work of that author, and I'm not sure if citing it without informing them is OK here. Would there be any potential trouble from this? What if they explicitly tell me to not cite theirs? I just don't want to make the relationship worse, because they may not want to have any affiliation with me. But this is just my thought, I really don't know what they really think.

If you feel that the work is relevant, you must cite it - not citing would be unethical.

Also, most people are happy if they are cited - regardless of their relationship to the person who cites them. Citing someone does not mean liking someone - even when criticizing someone's work, you have to cite.

And if you can think of no particular reason why they should not want to be cited by you, there probably is no such reason.


Academics in China - promoted via connections My friend has told me his own story. He's a researcher and he's trying to publish his paper. His supervisor is a Chinese researcher, but they're working in the states. My friend has written all the code and contributed to everything for the project (including writing the paper). However, his supervisor is insisting to add three professors to the authors' contribution. In the contribution, it's clear my friend is merely a software developer while the other authors contribute the ideas, paper and case studies.

My friend isn't very happy because merely implementing an algorithm would not be a good career path for him. More importantly, those three professors did absolutely nothing, but they did indirectly provide funding for the project.

My friend is a fresh PHD graduate. His supervisor is an average post-doc, he's building his own career path as well. The supervisor told my friend it's normal to add unrelated names, something he'd been doing quite lot in China. In fact, he said everything about research in China is about connection. The more high-ranked names you add, the more likely those professors will "pay back" and find someway to promote you or land you a job/project later. He claims that's exactly why nobody cared Tu Yoyyou, before she won the Nobel prize. She was always a brilliant researcher but she didn't know how to use connections to make a better career path for herself.

My friend was further told that he would have a brilliant research career if he allowed himself be a software developer for this project. The professors wouldn't be happy if their names weren't on it. He was told it wouldn't be wise for him to being "blacklisted": it's not what you can do to make you a good researcher, it's about whom you know that distinguish yourself from other researchers.

His supervisor has written the authors' contributors for the three professors and is about to send the paper to a journal.

Question:

Is this normal in the Western world and what should he do?

I am a postdoc in China, and have been here since almost 2 years. I am looking forwards to leaving mainly because I cannot cope with their cultural ways at work, e.g. how the local academia works. The supervisor mentioned in this question does speak the truth about gift authorships in Chinese science, thus firstly let me acknowledge his sincere contribution and advice. As another answer states clearly, ultimately such decision lies in the hands of the true first author and his/her advisor. However there is the conflict of standards over international ethics and clan-specific ethics.
Typically what happens is exactly this: a young researcher gets stuck in a moral dilemma with collaborators and is advised to either abide or walk out. The problem is, too often morally questionable standards are not announced before a project starts and abusers rely on the lateness of the dilemma to push for a win-win situation. Adding to the problem, Mainland Chinese people are culturally prone to speak through contextualised subtle insinuations, leaving a lot of margin for belated misunderstanding when dealing with other cultures.

Surely by this point a decision was already taken on this specific conflict, but I will leave here the main advice to others in potentially similar situation. Gift authorship from my experience seems widespread in Chinese academia. Engaging in scientific collaboration with Mainland China academics is therefore prone to lead to conflicts over ICMJE and similar guidelines on authorships and other aspects. This is not to say gift authorship doesn't take place elsewhere as well, however the local approach tends to be more straightforward and intense than elsewhere (i.e. absolute zero intellectual contribution; numerous added names; openly offended if denied).
As I believe supporting parasitic academics rapidly leads to bad quality science and somewhat kills the original meaning in the career for most people involved, I refrain from providing gift authorships as best as possible while always reciting the international guidelines. I hereby recommend other serious colleagues to do and preach the same, even if some conflict ensues.


What to do about top students making other students lose confidence? About once a year, I end up with a section with a student who is well ahead of others in the course. Often, these are students auditing the course, but sometimes are senior students attending 100-level courses or students majoring in the subject attending a course for non-majors in a made-simpler-for-non-majors course.

Such students are often eager to learn, quick to volunteer to come to the board or volunteer their work for peers to check (e.g. in a writing course), active in discussions, and they tend to take charge of group work. This does not seem like behavior I should discourage. Yet, in such sections, I notice significantly reduced confidence, participation, and engagement among other students, who seem uncomfortable with having a strong student constantly outdo them. Other sections tend to have active lessons, with many students eager to volunteer or join in a discussion, but in these sections, the class atmosphere is quiet and I'm reduced to calling on names and getting unwilling participants to carry the course along.

What can I do to turn this situation around?

When I was a TA, I always found these types of students the most difficult to handle.  You don't want to crush their enthusiasm, but you also don't want to let them dominate and make it harder for other students to learn. It's also important to remember that just being way out ahead of other students doesn't cause this phenomenon: you're dealing with somebody who is both ahead and feels a need either to show off or to receive affirmation from you the instructor.

Some tactics that I found effective were:

Establishing clear ground rules that people had to raise their hands to be acknowledged, rather than just shouting out.  Then you need to become comfortable waiting long enough for other students to raise their hands too.
Saying things like "Everybody needs a chance to learn, so I'm going to make sure that we get some folks up to the board who haven't been there very often."
Rather than asking for volunteers, actively calling on students who have been silent.  It's embarrassing for them, but if you do it kindly and make it into a guided learning experience at the board rather than a test of their abilities, it can be a very good thing.
Privately discussing with the enthusiastic student, something like: "I'm very pleased at how well you're mastering the material, and I need to make sure other students have a chance to have the same learning opportunities, so I'm going to call on you less often."
Giving "extra credit" work that the enthusiastic student can be working on to occupy themselves.

In all cases, what you want to emphasize is the importance of active learning by participation, and how it's important for all students to have those opportunities.

Addendum: I was talking about this with my wife and she told me about a tactic that she uses that I think is another excellent addition to the toolkit:

Divide the class up into rough geographic zones and call on zones round robin, e.g. "Left side answered the last question.  Let's get an answer from the middle now."


PhD viva reference list mistake I recently submitted my thesis for viva and have since noticed that by transferring from one computer to another endnote has changed my references. The end result of this is that there are 3 extra references at the beginning of the list (which throws out all the other references by 3). Is there anything I can do about this? Are my supervisors allowed to contact the examiners and make them aware? Or do I need to suck it up and face it head on at viva.

Don't worry, it's a very minor issue. In the worst case it will be part of some minor corrections you'll have to do after the viva.

It's important that you don't contact the examiners yourself, as this might be against the rules. Instead talk to your supervisor, they will know what can be done in compliance with the institution rules; and even if they don't they will know who to ask at least.

As far as I know it's usually fine for the supervisor to contact the examiners, but rules may differ by institution, and since the PhD viva is an official examination it's crucial to do things by the book.


Should I add references to conference presentations? I am preparing a CS conference presentation and wondering how can I handle the references. I am thinking about three different possibilities:

Ignore them!
Just list them at the end of the presentation
List them and cite them within the presentation.

I chose the first option since anyone interested can go and check the whole set of references in the actual paper.

Does this mean not crediting the others for their work? How this is usually handled in CS conferences?

If the slides you're using are going to have "independent life,"—in other words, if you're going to make them available separately from the conference paper (on your website, for instance), then the citations should be included as part of the presentation. I would follow posdef's example and place the citations on the same slide as where it's needed; this will save the reader from having to flip back and forth between different parts of the presentation or between the presentation and the paper.

Not including the citations is a bad idea, because it means you are potentially failing to give people the credit they deserve for ideas that were originally theirs. Even though it's "just" a conference presentation doesn't mean that the rules of crediting people for their work should be ignored. (Citing the work of others is also the right thing to do from the perspective of "playing nice with others." Taking credit for other people's work can make them leerier of working with you.)


What is a strategy to do theoretical research? Thanks to some great SE answers on a previous question I posted, I realized that even though I don't have an RA at the moment (I am a first year PhD student), I must start my research ASAP. I am convinced that this is great advice and want to follow it.

But the concept of 'doing research' is still not perfectly clear to me. I am interested in convex optimization, that's what I intend to do my PhD in. So as of now, for my thesis, I have this vague idea in my mind that I'd solve a problem by maybe coming up with a cool algorithm and give some nice proofs using convex analysis.

But exactly how to start is a mystery. Here's what I think I should do: read a paper that looks interesting to me (this could be because of the abstract, or maybe it's a paper that has suddenly got very popular, or it could simply be based on the author's reputation, etc), thoroughly understand their results by working out proofs of all their statements, and then try to see what happens in slightly different cases than what they mention. Maybe relax some assumptions they make; or go the other direction, add a constraint and see if the algorithm can be improved because of this constraint, etc.

Is this how it's done? I feel so lost right now. When I try doing this, I have so far (in six months) not been able to really think of anything new. Even the existing proofs that I get are so complex, I can't think of any way to come up with something new. Can someone please give me some tips on how one gets started in theoretical research - how to come up with a problem, and how to proceed from there?

EDIT_ Adding more information: I don't have an adviser yet, and this is the post I am referring to in the first paragraph.

In mathematics, a paper with 20 pages of proofs does not have twenty pages of original ideas. It might have a page worth, maybe. The rest are combinations of 2-6 previously known ideas, often with little or no acknowledgements of their first appearance [footnote 1].

To beginning graduate students, I strongly suggest to read much older papers. They are usually much shorter, much simpler, and actually allow to learn ideas in their simplest. In my branch of mathematics, that means papers that are at least 30 years old. General useful mathematical background papers go at least 60-100 years.

A good way of doing research is just to be curious --- after all this is what got you into the position you are now, right? Whenever you are curious about something, try figuring it out, look for some way of doing it, search references, read whatever looks interesting, swear at whatever does not. Keep journal with your questions, observations, dead-ends, ideas and swearing. Occasionally, when there is something particularly nice, add those 5, 10 or 15 pages of formal expository and technical scaffolding that is needed to convey your message to others [footnote 2] and share with the world. That is research.

[1] Many find it embarrassing, awkward and out-of-place to write ".... by Cauchy-Schwarz inequality. (This way of applying Cauchy-Schwarz inequality I learned from [ref] which is completely unrelated to the current topic). Next we can bound (5) by..."

[2] After spending much time thinking about X, you will find that you need to spend much time to explain the basics of X to anyone who has not spent the same time thinking about X. That is why you need all that scaffolding.


How much theory should be given in article? I have created a software and the assisting methodology for its application to some kinetic studies. I used a lot of theory. E.g., I used kinetic model, reactor model, data analysis (about 7 methods to analyse the results totally). Now I have prepared an article where I report this methodology and demonstrate the results of its application.

How much theory should I include into the article? Can I only refer to other publications/books for the models/methods proposed earlier?

I have seen many publications where a part of theory is taken out from the main text to appendices (example with 5 appendices). In some journals appendices are not included into the article (supplementary, accessible online-only). Is it a good solution to include some theory in appendices? If yes, how many appendices would be OK (i.e., would the reader like the article with 7 appendices? As for me, I do not have anything against many appendices).

Besides the already given hints I offer another guideline:

Give as many background as you yourself would have needed to get the idea and method before you have developed it.

In other words:

Write the paper to your former self (before you knew about what you've found out).

If you would have been happy with a paper that described the idea and references a lot to standard, readily available books for the background, then go for that style. If you had found it awkward to work through a paper that has a lot of references to papers/books that are hard to find, then don't do that. Note that different principles can apply at different places in the same paper.

These hint is in some way a simplified form of the general hint

Know your audience!

Oh, and also discuss this with your advisor.


How to suggest textbook improvement to author? There's a popular math textbook I enjoyed a lot when I was a grad student. Recently I noticed an extension to one of the many interesting exercises provided by the textbook. I'd like to communicate this idea with the textbook author (single author).

The exercise is to calculate and show an amazing coincidence, and the way it is phrased in the textbook suggests that the author didn't think there could be an explanation. I think I found an interpretation, and I think it might make this exercise richer if the author adds a couple of subquestions guiding readers to discover this viewpoint for on this coincidence.

My Question Is This:

  Is it considered inappropriate to email the author and suggest this as a possible improvement?
  The interpretation to that exercise is somewhat technically intensive and hard to explain in a few words. Should I try to make it brief or should I make it solid that undoubtedly my interpretation is correct?

I'm worried that my suggestion might appear either rude (as if the author doesn't know this already) or annoying (just too lengthy), or it might seem like a clumsy attempt to advertise myself (like a lot of layman claiming to have made a breakthrough).

I think it's 50/50 whether or not the author might have known this interpretation all along but simply didn't include it in the exercise for various reasons. Even under this circumstances, this coincidence is so intriguing that I still think a few words from the author encouraging readers to explore it would completely change the tone of this exercise.

Any thoughts would be appreciated, thank you. This question might be mostly opinion based thus not suited for this site, and I'll be fine with that.

P.S.

I'm on a 6-year-long hiatus from the academia, going on to the 7th year, I currently don't affiliate to any institution. I've been keeping a certain level of capability to do this subfield in math, and I'm about 95% confident that my result is correct. Currently I have no plans to return to the academia within the next 2 to 3 years, but things might change.

Is it considered inappropriate to email the author and suggest this as a possible improvement?

It is very appropriate and would probably be very welcome. As the author of a textbook myself, I am always happy to receive any sort of feedback about my book (if nothing else, it proves to me that someone is reading it ;-)), and have received several emails of the exact kind you describe, and other suggestions for improvement, several of which I ended up using. Just be mindful that the author may not think your contribution is as important or worthwhile as you find it, or may be too busy to think about it, so set your expectations low and be respectful of the author's ultimate authority about what to do with your suggestion, including possibly ignoring it.

More generally, I would say it is appropriate to contact anyone who makes their email publicly available, regarding any issue that has a reasonable chance of being of interest to the recipient and is not driven by spammy or nefarious intent. Your example very clearly falls within this range.

  The interpretation to that exercise is somewhat technically intensive and hard to explain in a few words. Should I try to make it brief or should I make it solid that undoubtedly my interpretation is correct?

A detailed and well-exposed technical description of your idea would be most helpful, but I would attach it as a PDF write-up and make the email itself short with only a general description of the idea and referring to the attachment for more details. This minimizes the burden and possibility of annoyance to the author. It would also be a good idea to offer to send the author the LaTeX source in case that might be helpful (but better not include it in the initial email), and may increase the chances that the author will incorporate your idea into the book.


Publishing paper as a PhD student without advisor's name I'm a Computer Science PhD student in a US university. Recently, I worked on a problem and wrote a paper. When I asked my advisor to submit the paper to a good journal (such as IEEE Trans. on Computers), he became upset with me and forced me to submit the paper in a very poor quality open access journal. I need good publications to get a faculty position after PhD. Now I'm thinking to work on some other areas on computer science simultaneously with my PhD dissertation so that I can publish my work in a good journal without including my advisor's name. Can I publish my own work (not my dissertation work) as a PhD student without including my advisor's name?

I think there are actually two questions here. Firstly, the question you explicitly asked:

  Can I publish my own work(not my dissertation work) as a PhD student without including my advisor's name ?

Yes, of course you can. Assuming it will be of high quality, it will be accepted. That being said, it is somewhat unlikely that you will be able to generate first-class research completely on your own, without a professor or at least a more senior student or postdoc to help you get started. A problem might be that if you decide to submit to a conference, your advisor may refuse to pay for your conference trip. However, from your previous posts I understand that you work in a field where publications happen mainly through journals, so presumably that is not a big issue.

However, I think you also have a second question that you did not explicitly ask:

Will publishing alone, behind the back of my advisor, help me get a faculty position? (this is assuming that you are indeed able to get some good publications accepted without help)

Not at all. You will need a glowing reference letter from your advisor to have a shot at any reasonable tenure track. Communicating explicitly or implicitly that you decided that your advisor was an "idiot" and hence took matters into your own hands will not in any way reflect positively on you in a hiring process. Hiring committees, by and large, tend to be risk-averse, and your story has a big flashing warning light all over it. What you will need to do to get out of this is transfer, to a different professor or to a different programme.


Will leaving a PhD after one year or having a full PhD be better or worse for job in industry? I am a UK student, 23 years old, and started a PhD in theoretical physics last October 2018 at a top 15-20 university (my undergrad Maths degree was at a top 5 uni where I got a First Class Honours 1:1), I have since come to realise that I do not want to pursue a career in academia but want to go into industry.

Considering that a PhD in these disciplines cannot replace work experience and to mitigate that at best, you could train programming skills and general knowledge in the area which you are going to apply to (although you would have nothing to show for it, and which would be learnt on the job anyway). Then would a full PhD in theoretical physics/pure maths (~4 years) be considered a downside in the eyes of an employer compared to a graduate with 1 year of PhD, when applying for a data science/analyst/consultant/actuary job?

Any advise, especially from STEM PhDs and PhD dropouts who later went into industry, would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much!

You do not want to pursue a career in academia. It is good that you have worked this out early enough to do something about it.

Was "the next step in the career" the only reason for doing your PhD? Or is it a genuine delight to you to be learning and to be looking forward to making a contribution to knowledge?

If there is no delight then if I were you I'd drop it at once. But I am not you, and that is not advice.
If there is delight then if I were you I would pursue that wholeheartedly. There is little enough delight in the world as it is and we shouldn't throw away what we have. But I am not you, and that is not advice.
If you are half way between the two - it is always possible to start a doctorate at 60. A friend of mine did. So bear that in mind.

But here at last is some genuine advice. It comes in two stages.

Take a total and irrevocable decision to abandon all your academic pretensions and go straight for business. No second thoughts, no looking back, that is what you are going to do.

Live with that decision for a week. But do it seriously. Remember that you are not trying to decide, you have decided. That is the key.

Take a total and irrevocable decision to complete your PhD and only go into business after that. As before: no second thoughts, no looking back.

Live with that decision for a week.

The reason why this exercise in self-deception works so well is that it frees all the important parts of your psyche to engage with a definite and unambiguous future and not some sort of vague undecided limbo. And they are able to tell you what you feel.

At the end of those two weeks, look back on how you felt. When did you have regrets over what you had decided, and what were they? When did the choice feel righter? In which week were you most looking forward to life?


Postdoc without PhD? I have never been to grad school, but I have several publications, in good journals, as well as planned future projects. Some very prominent experts know me and think well of my work. In this case, should I apply for postdoc or just go to grad school?

If it matters, I am working in a subfield of mathematics.

At this point in time, a Ph.D. is generally a non-negotiable requirement for a postdoc position.  If you are already carrying out independent research, however, then it might be possible for you to obtain a Ph.D. in graduate school in a significantly shorter period of time than normal.


Email Asking for Appointment Letter of Reccomendation I am planning to ask professors that I haven't seen in two years since graduation for letters of recommendation.

I want to ask in person so they can see and remember me, but I want to set an appointment ahead of time for this meeting. I really don't want to drop in on the during office hours randomly.

I am having trouble thinking of how this email should me worded.

If I don't allude to the letter of the recommendation and say something like:

*Dear Professor,
I was in your class two years ago. I would like to meet with you to discuss something.
Sincerely,
Student
*

Then they have no idea what I am meeting about. But if I say:

Dear professor
I was in your class two years ago. I got an A+. I would like to meet with you to discuss you writing me a letter of recommendation.
Thanks for your time.

...Then it's like I am just asking over email, which I don't want to do because I haven't seen them in multiple years.

Can anyone think of a better wording for this email?

Thanks!

You could do sort of a hybrid between an ominous email and a surprise appointment by asking for a letter over email and also asking to meet with them. It could be written something along the lines of:

Dear Dr. Professor

First sentence is a simple introduction stating your first and last name, the class you had with the professor, and the semester/year you had it with them (if the class was a big lecture it could be helpful to also include your grade, but it may not be necessary). This sentence lays out your academic career path (applying to graduate school program in field). This next sentence explains how this professor/class has influenced your academic career path choice. The following sentence asks if the professor would be willing/be comfortable writing you a letter of recommendation. Next, if they are willing/able/comfortable writing you a letter, you would like to arrange a meeting at their convenience to discuss/answer questions. This last sentence thanks them regardless of their reply.

It doesn’t need to be lengthy, but this basic structure allows you to jog the professor’s memory without being too overbearing. It also allows them to have an easy out to decline writing a letter for you (which is beneficial if they do not feel comfortable writing you a strong letter). Remember, it is possible that the professor may not remember you even if you meet in person, or they might completely remember you just by hearing your name again.

If asking over email is really not your thing, you could make an appointment to discuss graduate school so that the email hasn’t asked for the letter yet, but it’s much less ominous.


Fastest way to browse journal papers (from Web of Science)? The search engine which I typically use to browse journal papers is WebofScience. It allows me to sort by times cited, and check out who cited what.

The problem is that to get to the actual article once I have found one I am interested in takes many clicks and loading time: 1. Click FindIt button, 2. Click a link from my library access, 3. Click view full text. 4. Maybe save the article too, and import it into my reference manager.

i.e.

Step 1)

Step 2)

Step 3)

Other options...

Previously, my fastest process was to import the a list of selected references from WebofScience that I want to check out into EndNote by clicking the 'send to EndNote button', and then clicking find full text in EndNote to batch find the texts (works about 90% of the time, otherwise I had to manually click view PDF, save to my PC and then import).

Now I have discovered that Zotero can download a reference and the PDF with a single click from my browser, but only when I am searching on Elsevier or Scitation websites directly (but cannot select multiple articles for import at once, and means that I will usually have WebofScience open in a separate window to do the searching and then ctrl-c/v the article names across).

Is there an even faster way?

Use Google scholar instead

Advantages over Web of Science:

Less clicks to access full text, or to save a citation
More literature (including books) is available

Advanced search options (e.g. filter by Journal) can be accessed by clicking the arrow at the right hand side of the search box


Is there such a thing in the academic world as "common knowledge"? This is a question about plagiarism and about when citations are necessary.

If one works in a particular academic field there may be statements that everybody in that field accepts, that have been around for a long time, and that it would be a matter of tedious historical research to track back to a published source that can cited: for example, "the number of prime numbers is not finite".

In that specific case I happen to know that I could cite Euclid as a source for that statement, but he did not publish in a peer-reviewed journal, and if I am not focussing on the history of proofs of that proposition, surely it is not plagiarism for me to state that fact without attribution.

That is but one example of a well-known fact.

My question is how does an academic writer decide whether something is so well known that a citation would be ridiculous or whether it would be plagiarism to state it without citing somebody?

Some people will agree with, and some will oppose, the idea that some things are so obvious they don't need to be cited. Here're two essays on Wikipedia about whether one should cite that the sky is blue.

Wikipedia:You don't need to cite that the sky is blue

It's pedantic.
There is no need to verify statements that are patently obvious.
It leads to over-referencing where sentence flow is interrupted by excessive citations.
"The purpose of a citation is to guide the reader to external sources where the reader can verify the idea presented, not to prove to other editors the strength of the idea."

Opposing argument: Wikipedia:You do need to cite that the sky is blue

Apparently simple facts may be disputed, e.g. the sky isn't always blue, it's black at night.
It's reassuring to readers, even if it's obvious.
Not everyone has the same "common knowledge". For example it may be common knowledge to Americans how many states there are in the US, but not to the rest of the world.

Suffice to say, there's no consensus on this. General guidelines then would be:

If the material is likely to be challenged, cite it.
If in doubt, cite it.


Are postdoc salaries in the USA adjusted for cost of living? I'm a life sciences Ph.D. student preparing over the next few months to begin applying for a postdoctoral fellowship. Several of my potential advisors are on the coasts--California, Boston, Seattle--where the cost of living is quite high. Others are in the Midwest where the cost of living is much lower. I've lived a lot of places myself, so for the sake of argument we can assume I'd be equally happy moving to any of these places.

Although I don't want money to be a factor in this decision, I do have a wife and children and (insert salary here: $45,000 for example) allows a much different standard of living in the Midwest than Boston or Long Island. For those of you who received multiple postdoc offers--is this something that they take into account when setting your salary, or can I expect more or less flat offers across the nation?

There is a wide variety in the range of post-doc salaries. In the biomedical sciences, the NIH's salary guidelines hold sway, as the NIH is the largest source of funding for such positions. So there's relatively little cost-of-living adjustments.

However, I think many institutes set their own scale according to "what the market will bear." Popular schools like MIT could pay somewhat less and still be competitive because of the "prestige factor."


Referencing literature review in discussion If I refer back to a cited source in the literature review while writing the discussion section, (undergrad dissertation) should I cite the author again or am I free to use the information that has already been cited?

Just cite the author again. It should be clear what your source is every time you use a source.


Does FERPA require parental notification of disability assessment? There are significant barriers asking and negotiating disability supports and accommodation at a college/higher education level. There is also a lack of awareness and education of the rules and expectations on both the learner and the educator.

A recent question seemed to describe a disruptive student who did not want to accept supports due to parental disapproval. There was some confusion whether FERPA rules covered disability notification and whether parents are routinely contacted when disability accommodations are requested.

There might also be barriers if students require new assessment documentations as their childhood assessments may not be recent enough. Access to healthcare may mean that parents are notified by health providers. Students may also need to request accommodations when they are not fully aware of their limitations and available supports.

I guess I am keen to clarify the rules around FERPA and parental notification: to what degree is notification required?

Students who are over 18 or attending college (often times 17 year olds) have control of their educational records under FERPA.  The individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is consistent with FERPA so that the student controls access to this information too.

Students can waive their FERPA rights and often do so.  Since parents are typically paying some or all of the cost of college, they can effectively force the student to waive their FERPA rights.  Many parents do this so that they can monitor their child's grades.

Another issue is that in order to get disability accomodations a student will normally need a medical diagnosis.  Students who have reached the age of majority (18 in most states) can see a provider and get a diagnosis without parental consent or notification. By default, this is confidential under the HIPAA (the federal law on privacy of medical records.)

However, there's also the issue of how the student could pay for this medical diagnosis.  Since there's a potential conflict of interest for the college to provide the diagnosis (because of the costs of accommodation they might want to avoid diagnosing a disability) or just because it costs money, colleges often won't provide this service to students through their clinics.  The student would have to see an outside provider. The parents' insurance might pay for this, but then the parents would know that the child was getting medical care (but not the specific medical information which still is protected under HIPAA.)


What are the masters options available for getting into computer vision and image processing research from an electronics background? Having done bachelors in electronics and instrumentation and a research experience in the field of image processing and computer vision and some publications in the same, what are the possible MS options where I can study computer vision and image processing? Can I opt for MS in robotics, computer science, signal processing?

My confusion is regarding the fact that I was a bachelors student in a different field. Would it be difficult for me to change to a masters program in this other field?

There are Masters of Science programs in Computer Visions and even Computer Science that you can definitely look into. I'm not sure if your preference is to attend school online or on campus. I'm not sure of your location or budget either, so this answer will sound quite generic. However, I have included Georiga Tech's program. The Georgia Tech link is just a course in Computer Visions that's part of their Master of Science in Computer Science program. I believe their program is $7,000 (if it hadn't increased) and it's fully online. I've included their online Masters site link.

Georgia Tech
Georiga Tech Online Masters


Correct formatting of step-by-step equation demonstrations in papers Working on some journal paper, it has pseudocode-ish/equation-ish demonstrations of the way some equations play out, along with actual reference values in the example proper; along the lines of:

i = i + 1

i = 2

Note: please assume the actual demonstrations are much more complex than this and actually require the reference values.

What is the correct formatting here? I have had it suggested to me the first line should be underlined, whereas I find putting the reference value in brackets more obvious - like so:

i = i + 1 (i = 2)

with the bracketed content right-aligned.
Suggestions?

I don't believe there is a correct way to do this, because you shouldn't put them together.

Writing i = i + 1 fully contains everything the reader should need to know about the statement.  If you really want to lay out both a theoretical pseudocode notation and walk through an iteration, I would do them separately.  One way might be something like:

for i in range(0, 10):
    i = i + 1
    print i

  In this step we print to the screen the numbers 1 through 10.  For example, in the first iteration i takes on the value 0 from the first line, then has 1 added to itself.  The third line then prints 1 to the screen.

This way your pseudocode is treated like a mathematical equation in a paper, indented or otherwise separate from regular text, then examples as you go are just included in the text.  Depending on your audience and the complexity of the statements, you might also trust your audience to be able to parse your pseudocode without the need for filling in sample values.  Feeling like you need to walk through an example with numbers might be a sign that your pseudocode needs improving.

In short, trying to mash them together as you're suggesting just seems confusing to me.

The huge, important caveat to what I suggest: look through the literature specific to your field and see how this is done elsewhere.  If you can't find any examples of someone doing what you're asking about (which I assume to be the case since you're asking here rather than just emulating that), then don't do it.  Conversely, if you do find examples of it being done, copy that method.


Using color in figures for economics journals Is it common for economics journals to publish figures in color online and black and white in print? If so, would it be best to submit the color version? And, in the color version, should I differentiate lines in ways other than color (making the color differentiation helpful but redundant) so that the differentiation is still clear if the reviewer prints the article in black and white?

Read the author guidelines for the journal you intend to submit to.  Within any field there is variety.

But always assume the paper will be read in B&W, and make it fall back gracefully.  This may be by the reviewer, or it may be by a reader who prefers to work on paper and has easier access to B&W printing.  This also goes quite a long way towards making it accessible for colour-blind readers.

"Helpful but redundant" is a good description of what the colours should be.  Note that if there is a print version with monochrome figures, the journal will probably require that it's useful n that format; I've never come across journals that will accept two versions of the same figure (but I'm in a different field)


Is Mx. the default title for Male non-phd holders? A journal drop-down menu for selecting a person's title has four options but none of them are Mr.

(I definitely scrolled down enough.)
As a male, non-PhD holder should I select Mx., or is this a mistake by the journal?

Mx is a gender-neutral honorific.  It's probably not a typo.

Dr would typically be used if you have a doctoral degree, and Prof if you are employed in a professor-like capacity (it means different things in different countries, but generally any semi-permanent faculty job is reasonably included).  Otherwise, you can decide which of Ms and Mx fits you better.

If you feel that there isn't an option that's appropriate for you, you can take it up with the journal.


Proposing a research project when contacting potential supervisors before master’s admission? Is it okay to propose a project, with a brief introduction to what you want to do as your master’s thesis project when contacting potential supervisors?

Specifically, I am interested in the work someone has done, and I have a similar project that I’d want to work on. Can I propose that in the introductory e-mail? Or should I say something like: “I have a project in mind related to the work you have done and I’d like to get your opinion and hopefully conduct my research under your supervision.”

What if, for whatever reason (except that my proposed project is silly), the professor rejects me and/or doesn’t even reply given the time constraints faculty members are bound to?

I mean, I wouldn’t blame them if they later read it and found that the project was cool enough and contacted me. And since I’d have already enrolled or taken admission in any other university, or maybe I got a job or whatever the situation would be then, they might wanna start working on it themselves, which is fair, since I did plant the idea in their head.

What would you do?

Location: Canada

Type: International Student

Program: Electrical and Computer Engineering (M.A.Sc.)

Note: I am aware my project might be a long-shot bound-to-fail thing, but I am assuming here that the project the student wants to pitch is feasible.

Your assessment of the situation is accurate: Faculty members usually have very little time to spend on your e-mail and likely do not like to wade through a project proposal just to assess your introductory email. However, your proposed project could be a decisive asset – be it only by showing your commitment.

With that in mind, you can write a short email declaring your interest and mentioning your project in one sentence, like you suggested. However, add something along the lines of:

  If you wish to know more, please find a sketch of the project appended.

(… and append your project). This way, the addressee can read what is essential in a minute, and if they decide that they wish to know more about your proposal, the information is already at hand.


Is it ethical if I do paid tutoring in a subject taught by my department? I was asked by a student to help him/her with a subject (probably for money). I previously taught a similar subject at a different university (that is where the student got my contact info from) but now I am at the exact department whose subject the student is attending, though I am not teaching or in any ways affiliated with that subject.

Does this situation constitute an ethical problem?

Given that you are not involved in the delivery of the course (and thus have no incentive to teach it badly in the hope that people will approach you for private tuition), and you are not party to privileged information (e.g.: examination questions), there is no ethical issue here.

That said, if you work for the university full-time, you may want to check your employment contract, in case it had some sort of exclusivity clause prohibiting you from taking on any freelance or consultancy work (that said, employers do not generally enforce such a clause unless your freelancing/consultancy interferes with your capacity to carry-out your duties to the employer).


Preparing for a CS PhD in Undergraduate I just finished my first year as an undergraduate student majoring in computer science at a state school not known for computer science. Due to AP credits and such, I have the opportunity to graduate in two more semesters (which will make four in all). To facilitate this, I am taking a class at a different institution this summer. Near the end of last semester, I went through a month or so of anxiety with regards to what to do after graduation. Eventually, I decided that I want to go into academia. Based on what I’ve read on the internet,

There are considerably more CS PhD’s than open faculty positions
Because of (1), it is important that I get a PhD at a prestigious university
PhD applications are highly dependent on research experience and letters of recommendation

I currently have a 4.0 GPA, but my undergraduate college will not help me on applications. Further, I have no research experience. I intend to find a research opportunity when I return to school this Fall, although I don’t know that any of the CS professors at my school are known at the top CS graduate programs.

I am also aiming to talk to some professors at the university I am taking a summer class at about any small possibility of me assisting them in their research over the summer, as this university has a more highly ranked CS program than the one I attend.

My primary interest in in computer security.

Basically, deciding that I want to undertake a PhD kind of puts my schedule on overdrive. I will be taking the GRE and applying to programs in the Fall, so anything I have on my application kind of has to get done over summer.

Have I made any glaringly incorrect conclusions? And

Is there anything else I can do to improve my chances of being accepted into a top PhD program?

The following constitutes my $0.02 with regards to your inquiries. First of all, some fragments of your statement caught my attention. I list them below:

"Eventually, I decided that I want to go into academia. Based on what I’ve read on the internet" - I would suggest you try and get some input aside from information you've gathered from the internet. Your current CS professors might be a good choice. Ask them about what PhD programs, about their experiences, about their opinions, etc.

"[...]but my undergraduate college will not help me on applications." - This fragment leads me to believe you attend a college (undergrad-based) and not a Research-1 university. Is this the case?

To answer one of your questions (the last one), see if (Summer next year) you could join a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. Those are usually big resumé boosters when it comes to Ph.D. program applications.


Easy going advisor versus expert advisor and research experience I am fortunate to have a very nice, easy-going advisor (the last because I have seen some horrible PhD advisors). He respects me and my work (I did my master degree under his guidance). Then, I went to another university and returned to him again last year. I am a first year PhD student now. However, I have some issues regarding my research.

First, my advisor does not know much about my area even though he's encouraging me to pursue on it. To make it clear, I can't consult him in my specific area (I do consult him on other things though).

Second, he's not aiming high (top conferences) on publications. He mainly publishes on mid/ lower mid conferences and happy with that.

On the other hand, I have met a professor who is a big name, expert in my area, affiliated with a top university and my work is highly influenced by his research. He also seems to have a very nice personality (I have chatted with his students). I met him several time on different occasions. and he showed an interest to work together for a joint paper.

Most importantly, I believe changing university will result in a  better research experience for me. In particular, I will join a lab with different enthusiastic grad students with critical guidance unlike my current situation where it is only me and my advisor.

About funding, I have external funding and will continue regardless where I am.
I am really wondering which path to take. I am addicted to what I am doing but need the guidance and research experience which I am greatly lacking with my current supervisor.

Update:

The question is: How to approach this professor for acceptance ? specially without saying anything bad about my current advisor.

How you approach the professor for acceptance would be very similar to how you speak to your current advisor (should you choose to*) about your decision:

Be objective, there is no need to mention anything about either academic in a personal way, this decision is purely one for an academic reason - you want to be 'closer' to where current active research is happening and amongst those actively involved in research in your field.
Related, be polite and direct to the point.

The fact that the professor has expressed interest in writing a paper with you is a strong indication - perhaps accept this offer and at that stage mention that you wish to pursue your research under his guidance and to work within his labs.

Once it is definite that you'd get in and although you are not obligated to explain to your current advisor, it is advisable to explain clearly and positively about the opportunity to work directly with one of the top researchers in the field - I am sure your advisor would understand.


Does obtaining citizenship somewhere help in applying for a faculty position there? Would obtain the citizenship of a country help to be a more successful applicant for an academic job?

More specifically, for example consider that an international scholar, who currently holds a postdoctoral position, obtains a permanent resident or the citizenship of a country. Would this help to be a more successful applicant for a tenure-track faculty job at universities, such as in US, Europe, China, Japan, Australia, etc? Comparing to those who don’t have the resident permit/citizenship, with a similar background and academic contributions.

In general, employers in the US are allowed to discriminate between applicants who are already eligible to work in the US (by virtue of citizenship, permanent residency or some special immigration status) and applicants who are not currently eligible to work in the US (who would have to be sponsored for an employment based visa.)  It is not permissible to discriminate between applicants who are US citizens and those that are simply permanent residents or otherwise have work authorization.

Sponsoring an applicant for an H-1B or other visa can be very time consuming and costly.  Furthermore, approval of such a visa application (and even more so for a green-card application) requires the employer to argue that no qualified citizen or permanent resident applicants were available.  There are potentially substantial penalties for not following these rules.

If you're already eligible to work in the US, and you are otherwise well qualified for the position, then you probably will be more likely to get an interview than someone equally well qualified who does not have this status.

From my experience of running search committees for a math department, I can tell you that (1) The widely used AMS application form includes a check box for applicants to indicate their status and (2) interviewing qualified applicants who are eligible to work in the US is an important consideration and (3) the vast majority (95+%) of our applicants would require visa sponsorship.


How to respond to a professor who was insulted by an email detailing mistakes in the exercise? I am an undergraduate student. Preparing the solution to an exercise regarding computer assembly language programming I discovered an error in the program skeleton that was given to us to base our solution on (one of the instructions was illegal, because its immediate operand was outside the permitted range).

I sent an email to the professor's address for "questions and clarifications" regarding the exercise, explaining in detail (about 5 paragraphs) and citing a textbook, why the skeleton program would not compile (assemble) and finally commenting that it seems surprising that this error would make it to the question text, since simply running the assembler on the skeleton program would reveal it.

I got the reply that indeed there was an error in the program skeleton but it was put there on purpose and one of the objectives of the exercise was to see if we (students) would spot it and correct it.

There was no mention of this in the question text. The exact wording of the question text was "complete the program below so that it performs the desired function".

Now the professor wants me to apologize because my comment implied that there was carelessness on their part. I am not convinced about their answer, and worse, even if I were convinced, I believe deliberately misleading the student to be worse than simply being careless. I cannot give an honest apology. What should I reply, if anything?

To me, this is such a non-issue that it doesn't warrant much of a response. So let me add a response :)

  I didn't mean to imply carelessness, and I am sorry if that's how my email came across. I was a bit overzealous in my email. I will address the errors in the skeleton program in my solution, as you have indicated. Thank you for your detailed response!

I think you should take this (very minor) “incident” as a learning experience about how people might perceive your communications. Professors are people; they sometimes make mistakes, they sometimes make pedagogical choices that students don't agree with, and they all take criticism differently.


Any place for people with fear of writing? This isn't the best moment to ask the question, since I should be writing an overdue document and presentation.

However, is there any place where a person with fear of writing can work? I am studying for a PhD in Europe in a STEM field. I was always quite good at school and university. I was on schedule with my studies, but the preparation of my master thesis was quite painful and I have the impression than I should have completed it in 60% of the time it took me. After a short experience in the industry in a field close to my own (but for which I didn't have all the skills), I took the opportunity of a PhD in my field. Of course before that I had been making interviews for jobs in my field, but never got anything. Being extremely introvert doesn't help. I already feel embarrassed writing my CV, and adding details as hobbies or strength points (actually I ended up skipping those parts).

Now it's been more than one year that I'm in this PhD and each writing task is really making me desperate. Initial proposal, internal reports, and presentations torment me for weeks. From this emotional distress, I am often impaired both in my writing and research work. I have ended up crying at home at night in front of a white page (once even at morning at work, but I managed to hide in the bathroom in time).

I'm lucky that my advisor doesn't put too much pressure on me, but I feel so bad not being able to hand in what I am required, sometimes even after a deadline. The problem is that even if a deadline is reasonable, sometimes I cannot make it because it takes me 2 days to write 1 paragraph (no kidding). Guess how many papers submitted?

Still, I enjoy much more my time here than in the industry. I enjoy academic reading, I have thirst for knowledge and so on, but I see that communication is an essential part for a PhD student. So far I am willing to continue with the PhD program, but I am starting to doubt that I will ever be confident in writing and that this will cripple my academic future.

Any suggestion on how to turn the career path? Also a suggestion on how to overcome fear of writing would be good, but I am afraid I've already read all the good advice here on SE and in many blogs about procrastination, perfectionism, impostor syndrome...

If can be of interest, writing this question took me more or less 40 min.

I do resonate with your experience because I was scared to write (English is not my mother tongue) and I am also an introvert. I have been reading much about writing and networking and here are some tried and working methods (by me) that I wish will also help you. In the case of real fear, I agree that talking to some professional will also be advisable.

Don't "write," instead, draft then edit

My biggest "A-ha--!" moment was learning that most writers don't really write a perfect sentence at the first go, instead, they draft and edit. And for me, my mind has eased up so much once I have learned this distinction and decided to split my writing tasks into drafting and editing. In drafting, I just freely interpret the data and plug in some discussion here and there, occasionally with some anecdotes, etc. I never edit them. Then, after a couple days, I return to edit the piece. On a good day, I got to keep about 40-60% of them; on a bad day, I may have to slash 80-90%, but also often have a good laugh at what I wrote.

This finding really liberated me. I'd suggest you give this a try as well.

Write to think instead of think to write

Instead of writing to tell people what you think, I found it easier to write it as if I am having a discussion with myself. I wrote the research question, and then gave some answers, and then went back to question the answers more. I was often surprised that many times I read the scribble and figured out "Oh, this is what it is!"

I would advise against crafting out a perfect sentence and then put it on paper. This is futile because mind works a lot faster and non-linear than typing/writing process. By the time a "perfect" sentence is written, a lot of useful thoughts might have been suppressed or forgotten.

Dedicate times to write

Silvia in How to Write a Lot introduces a method that involves making a time and a space to write. I adopted the method this way: I block out time a few weeks ahead as writing/analysis time, then I guard that time. I cleared up the wall and the desk I face when I work on the computer so that I can only see the computer (and other books/articles I use) when I write. There is no picture, stationery, picture frame, etc. 120 degrees in front of my eyes. I also close down e-mail, silent my phone, and close the door.

Boice in Professors as Writers: A Self-Help Guide to Productive Writing even goes so far to suggest coupling important and crucial daily ritual (such as shower) with writing hour. No writing? No shower. I found this kind of stressful, but perhaps may work for people with a different personality.

Document time as well as words

Productivity aside, it's more fulfilling to document my writing effort in both time and output. High output is, of course, great. But I have also come to realize that reminding myself I have been dedicating a fixed time regularly to write, albeit slow and low, makes me feel more confident.

Free writing

Goodson in Becoming an Academic Writer explains some pretty nice workshops to foster a healthy writing habit. The starting one is to "free write." Free writing is not new, and some people use this to warm up or tune into the internal writer channel. It's really simple, just sit down, open an blank document, minimize the visible area so that you cannot see what you type, set a time limit, and pour out all sorts of thought that goes inside your mind. Anything, just type.

Usually, after the time limit (I started with 5, now 10,) you'll have a pretty clutter-free mind and clearer idea on what that day's writing is gonna be.

Use proxy of writing

There are many, many ways one can put down an idea without initially writing it out. Drawing a mind map, popularized by Buzan, can help forming a bird view of an article. Paper and colored pen are good enough, online tools such as VUE are abundant.

Doodling, such as Sketchnote recommended by Rohde, can also be a fun way to "play" with words and idea.

For scientific writing, a paper by O'Coonor and Holmquist in 2009 suggests a pretty interesting method: basing your writing on a key output, such as a graph of the results, or a table of an analysis, and then build from there. For most experienced researchers this may be nearly common sense, but for those who think a paper should be written from Abstract to Conclusion linearly, this paper would help re-orienting them. My former supervisor, knowing my hesitation for writing, actually used this very method when advising me.

Use a recorder to document your thoughts or use speech recognition software to dictate your spoken words into texts may also help you break away from the deep-rooted fear towards writing.

Harness creativity

When writing output falls, I feel tired. After some trials and errors, I figured out that I feel tried not because I lacked energy, but because of too much creative thoughts didn't get to be expressed. So, I play music, pick a challenging recipe and make a potentially horrible dish (and eat it, butter + pepper + red wine always save the day), play LEGO, knit and crochet, come to answer questions... etc. I actually picked up a lot of habits through my doctoral study.

Introvert vs. extrovert

Being an introvert is actually not bad! In most modern culture extroverts get a lot more praises and attentions, but if you cast a critical look at it, this world needs both types to run properly. Two books I read last year were quite inspiring: Zack's Networking for People Who Hate Networking provides advices on how to focus your energy and properly carry out quality networking; Laney's The Introvert Advantage provides a more holistic look at how extroverts and introverts work, and how to cope and thrive as an introvert.

Closing remark

Best of luck and, really, enjoy the ride even it's scary. After the PhD thesis, there will be more collaboration and you will not feel as lonely. When I am down and want some healing reading, I often flip through Lamott's Bird by Bird and Zinsser's On Writing Well. They are also a good choice before reading those more serious and pragmatic how-to guides on writing.

Whenever I feel cognitively/academically inferior/inappropriate, I would think about a remark of Florence Foster Jenkins, who slaughtered Mozart's Queen of the Night aria (Try listen to Edda Moser's version first, and then Jenkin's version): "People may say I can't sing, but no one can ever say I didn't sing." Before worrying doing it well, do it first, and you will improve.

The fact is I have never met one person in my life who genuinely embraces writing as if they "love" to write. Most successful writers, when interviewed, often just say things like "What tips? I just write," or "I draft, and then I write, rewrite, and then I rewrite again." Betty's Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain has made a lot of people realize they can draw; I wish there will be a book called Writing on the Right Side of the Brain that will make people realize that we all can write, but we probably have to wait until the neuroscientists get over their fear of writing.


Are there resources for learning how to write a scientific paper? I have very little formal training, but I believe I have some ideas to share. I have surveyed the terrain of ideas I need and have the complete picture in some haphazard form in my head. It is seeming quite impossible for me to write anything that looks good, complete and coherent. In attempting to do this I have read my previous draft and it seems hopeless... I am not sure what I can do, at this point. I'm not in a hurry, I can spend a month on the text to get the technique right. More specifically:

Is there a text that trains you on how to write a mathematical physics paper?
Is it possible to acquire such skills informally?

Some resources on writing mathematics, which I assume will be useful in mathematical physics, are:

Donald E. Knuth, Tracy L. Larrabee, and Paul M. Roberts, Mathematical Writing, (Washington, D.C.: Mathematical Association of America, 1989), ii+115pp. ISBN 0-88385-063-X. [You can download this (minus illustrations) from Knuth's website: http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/klr.html ]

P.R. Halmos, "How to write mathematics". Enseignement Math. (2) 16 1970 123–152. [There are copies of this floating around online; I'm not linking because I'm not sure of their copyright status.]

However, in my own experience, guides like these are useful because they point out (1) a lot of things to avoid, and (2) a relatively small number of useful tips and tricks. Developing a good writing style is best accomplished by reading as much good writing as you can (including both scientific and other scholarly writing), writing as best you can, and seeking as much good feedback on your work as you can.

See also Jean-Pierre Serre's lecture "How to write mathematics badly", which is informative, funny, and (since his examples are taken from experience) tragic. Look out for the instance he highlights of "without" being abbreviated to "with."


Would giving a talk in a colloquium aid my application? I'll probably give a review talk about current discoveries in applications of mathematics (not my autorship) on the colloquium series of my school soon (small school, accepts undergrads for giving talks). Would this help in any way my application for PhD programs in applied mathematics?

That depends on the graduate school, and the competition. So it is hard to say. However, giving talks is part of the day to day life in academia. So getting practice early won't hurt once you are in the graduate school.


Can I still participate in conferences, while I'm no longer an academic student? Can I still participate in conferences and use the university name, while I'm no longer an academic student at the university?

As I could not complete the study, but I'm still interested in my unfinished research and want to continue it somehow! is it possible to use my university name in the paper?

First part of the question:

unless specifically stated by conference organisers, nothing prevents anyone without specific higher education affiliation to contribute to conferences.

If organisers want to know more about your situation as they review paper submissions, they can always get in touch with you before they shortlist selected papers.

Second part of the question:

Your study circumstances are not relevant to assess the quality of your potential conference contribution.

Maybe it depends on your academic field, however there are many conferences where you can see individuals who contribute or a poster who are listed as 'independent' or 'independent researcher'. Just serves to show that quality research is not conditioned by any institutional affiliation.

Using the name of a university you are not affiliated with in any role is a deception. You should not feel compelled that you have to have your name coming with a university's name to increase the potential for your paper proposal to be accepted.


Should I change my Ph.D. department to better reflect the nature of my project? I am in the first year of my Ph.D. program and, if everything goes well, in the end I will get my Ph.D. in Civil Engineering.

The problem is that my project, beside finding application to building materials, is way more related to other disciplines, like Physics. In fact, my second supervisor is in the Physics department and physics is also my background. I think that obtaining a Ph.D. in Physics or Materials Science would tell more about the type of research I am doing.

So my question is, do you think it is possible to keep my project, working in the same departments with the same supervisors, but changing the field in which I will graduate? Or is it the type of research that counts at the end of the day?

While we cannot tell you the regulations of your institution on changing departments, I would like to suggest that it's likely to be not worth the bother.

Every department covers a complex network of subjects, and so having a degree that says "Physics" will not really be any more informative than one that says "Civil Engineering." It's also not at all unusual for a Ph.D. to be something that might be reasonably categorized under multiple departments---in fact, it is quite common for research to be interdisciplinary, and especially for the "home field" of a method to be different than the "home field" of an application area. Finally, departments and degree names are not particularly consistent in their names and interpretations from institution to institution.

As such, people will in general pay attention to the content of your research much more than the particulars of your department.

If you actually find some major impediment to continuing in your current department, that is a different matter, but it doesn't sound like that is currently the case---particularly so early in your time as a graduate student.

In short: don't worry about categorization, worry about executing your project.


How to publish in a think tank? I have written a blog post about an International event that I would like to publish in a think tank (I have three DC/London-based think tanks in mind), but none of them have submission section, and they haven't responded to my emails yet. Any advice? Or experience with think tanks? Thanks in advance!

Think tanks are not academic endeavors. There is no submission process. There is no peer review. The "editorial board" is not made of researchers. Think tanks are essentially lobbies, but for ideas rather than corporations/industries. They work like any other lobby: they pay a lot of money to recognized researchers/politicians/journalists/cultural figures/... so that they can write the conclusion that is asked of them, in order to lend credit to the idea in question. Sending them an article seems like a pointless exercise. They are not interested in your ideas, they are interested in their ideas, and how you can help promote them.


Can I intern at my own company? So I founded a company as a PhD student and I want to work on company products over the summer times. Do I take a leave of absence or can I take an internship at my own company during that time?
What's the right way to do this?

can I take an internship at my own company during that time?

As a matter of pure semantics, I think the answer is that you cannot logically intern at your own company, in the sense that being a founder, owner, and regular employee (let alone CEO or some other high-level function which presumably you have) of a company is a distinct status from that of an intern. So being an intern at your own company is simply a notion that doesn’t make sense.
However, this seems to be just a matter of how you phrased the question. What you really seem to be asking is a slightly different question, which is, if I’m understanding correctly:

will working over the summer months at your company satisfy your school’s requirement that students in the program you’re enrolled at do research or an internship over the summer?

The answer to that is:

Only your school can say for sure. You’ll have to ask them. But also,

I think it’s very likely that the answer will be yes, at least if your school is reasonable and your company can be convincingly shown to be doing interesting things that are related to the kind of research your program wants students to be doing.

What's the right way to do this?

Explain the situation to the people at your school and ask them whether they would approve for you to keep working at your company over the summer months in lieu of the usual internship/research requirement. Be prepared to explain what kind of work you’ll be doing and to provide evidence that the company is a real company working on real things. It might be helpful if you have other people who are involved and can attest to the nature of the venture, such as a co-founder or investors, since trying to convince people based on your word alone might come across as a bit sketchy, at least if the venture is new and still hasn’t produced anything substantial.
Good luck!


Which discrete math journal should I choose to publish my findings? I have some results, related to imposing group structures on subspaces of finite fields with a metric, and I would like to publish my work. My advisor asked me to choose a journal, but I have no idea how to decide.

I have some further results on a paper published in Linear Algebra and its Applications. I have resolved a few open question they pose in their paper.

Is it advisable that I publish my results in the same journal? What other options do I have? How do I know if it is a good journal?

One good place to start is the journals in which your most important references were published. (The authors of those references would be good candidates if the journal asks you to propose referees.)

Or: ask other people that work in the same field what journal they would suggest. (While you are at it, send them the manuscript and ask them for comments, nicely.) Have you presented your results at a conference? Do you recall anyone there working on a similar topic? Ideally someone who sat in on your presentation?

Your advisor should have at least a passing acquaintance with your field, so he should be able to suggest something. That he does not do so suggests to me that he is watching how you cope with this situation :-) How about other students of your advisor, does anyone work in this field?

It is not easy to judge whether a given journal is good. @EnergyNumbers' comment is helpful.


Professor reviews proposal as a favor, should I send a reminder I am applying for PhD, and in the application I am required to write a research proposal.

I asked my thesis supervisor to write a recommendation for me, and he agreed,but he told me that I need to work more on my writing and carefully write my research proposal. He told me to have people read for me before submitting it and suggested that I send it to him so he can review it for me as a favor.

I got his email with feedback on the proposal. In the email he wrote "Here is my first feedback." We discussed the review he made and I made changes and he asked me to send him the new proposal. After I sent the email, he told me that he will read it and give me another feedback that same night. That was about five days ago and now he is on a vacation.

Would it be appropriate to remind him ? I need his feedback because I am trying to submit the application. Should I just submit the application and just assume that he is too busy for me ? I don't want to be naggy and annoying. After all, he is doing me a favor.

Send an email suggesting you don't assume he will offer any more help, but leaving the door open in case he offers some:

  Thanks so much for your help with my proposal. I believe your suggestions have really improved it. Attached is my current version; I will submit it tomorrow evening. Let me know if you have any last-minute suggestions before then.


Should I talk about service in my job application? I am a mathematician on the job market this year and am wondering if I should talk at all about service and other aspects of who I am other than my teaching and research. So for example, committees I've been on, leadership roles, professional development, etc. And if so, where would I put this information? My teaching statement? Cover letter?

Let's assume that I'm applying to jobs that are more focused on teaching than research. Thanks!

Many (if not most) academic CVs have a section labeled "Service" that lists committee memberships, reviewing experience, outreach activities, and other university and community service.  You could also reasonably include a brief "service statement", as an addendum to your teaching (or research) statement, that explains those service activities (and future goals) in more detail.

But keep in mind that you're not describing who you are as a human being, but rather who you are as a potential colleague.  The service activities you describe should have direct bearing on your suitability for a teaching job in a university mathematics department.  So coaching your daughter's robotics team could reasonably be included, but coaching her baseball team probably shouldn't.

Also remember that your service activities are almost certainly less important than your record in teaching and research.  "Service" should be the last section of your CV, and any service statement should be significantly shorter than your teaching or research statements.


Summer plans for first year computer science grad student? I've worked at the same place for the past two summers doing software development, and very much enjoyed the work and practical experience.  I was recently asked if I would consider a 1-2 year contract position. If they would have asked a year ago, I probably would have said yes... but I began graduate school this year.  So instead they are offering me a summer position.

I'm waiting to hear back from an internship and my advisor, but neither seemed particularly hopeful last I checked.  I am currently doing research part-time in AI, so this job would not really be relevant to that at all.  But, it's a job, and I like the place.  So my question is, should I accept (conditionally, if the internship does not work out), or continue looking for something more relevant?  Is it "okay" to work in an unrelated area your first summer as a graduate student?

This will obviously vary by country and subject.

I'm not familiar with the idea of graduate students taking summer off from study. That's OK for undergraduates, but not for higher degrees. A multi-year higher degree is a full-on commitment, and doesn't leave time, space or energy for summer jobs.

But I'm going to take a leap here, and read a little more into your question than you've written. Now, this may apply to you, or it may not. It will apply to someone in the future who reads this question and might have asked the same thing themselves. It sounds like you're questioning whether you should be continuing this further degree, or getting out there into the workforce.

So, it's time for you to review, with your advisory / supervisory team, and with your trusted friends / family, whether to continue the degree, or to join this company as a full-time employee.

Only you know what your reasons were for starting a higher degree.

But if it was to help you land the sort of job you're now being offered, then perhaps it's already served its purpose - in which case, you're done with it.

If it was for much longer-term reasons, if it has to be done now rather than later in life, if it's the love of pure research, if you're considering a career in academia rather than industry - then your research degree is much bigger and more important than this job offer.


Correct Academic Title, Necessity of Adding All Emails, Necessity of Adding Authors Photo in IEEE Transaction Journal? I should provide a concise biography of myself for IEEE transactions journal. We received the paper proof and this biography goes at the end of our accepted paper. At one point in my biography I should add my current position. So, I’ve written the following sentence. “He is currently a lecturer in ABC University”
ABC University is a small university that I am teaching some academic courses there. I am working there with my Master degree and teach the student who are purchasing Bachelor degree in Electrical engineering. I am not an associated, assistant or full professor. I am a part time instructor that is qualified to teach these students. Also, I don't have any constant commitment to the university as well. I fill out a contract form for each semester and get paid based on the hours that I teach at the university. So I would like to ask:

what is my exact ranking title? A lecturer, instructor, adjunct
lecturer, adjunct instructor or what?
How much is it important to be precise for academic title in this
biography?

My professor which is the corresponding author of this paper didn't add my email at the foot note of paper and only added his own email there. He was concern about exceeding 8 page limit of IEEE transactions papers in first submission of the manuscript. In the other stages where we received the revision of the paper he said we will add it after the acceptance stage.... so, right now we received the IEEE proof PDF of the paper and we are only asked to prepare a  Biography.So I would like to ask:

Is it important to include all authors email in the paper? (I am the
first name on the paper and he is the second, but he is the
corresponding author)
considering the fact that, we only received the PDF of the paper, How
can we correct the foot note at this stage?

The IEEE editorial board didn't ask us about providing a photo beside our biography. Why is that? All publications of this kid of transactions have a photo beside authors biography. Also, in the 'authors guide' it is mentioned that a photo and biography is needed. on the other hand, my professor told me we only send them our short biography, because after their pedantic revision our paper became 13 pages and we should pay about 550$ fine. So, I would like to ask:

Is it important to add our photo beside biography?
Considering the fact that we didn't exceed 8 page limit of IEEE in the first
submission of our manuscript, and the other 5 pages has been added to
the paper based on the reviewers revision and editing of the editorial
board, Do we still need to pay that fine? Also, My professor and I are
Senior member and Student of IEEE organization, does that help us to
get rid of paying the fine?

Your help is much appreciated in advance.

what is my exact ranking title? A lecturer, instructor, adjunct
  lecturer, adjunct instructor or what?

  How much is it important to be precise for academic title in this
  biography?

If you are uncertain about your official title, talk to folks in your departmental office and/or the human resources (HR) people (or folks in the equivalent HR office at your institution). So long as you are making a good effort to state truthfully what your current title is, I wouldn't expect there to be any problems.

  Is it important to include all authors email in the paper? (I am the
  first name on the paper and he is the second, but he is the
  corresponding author)

  considering the fact that, we only received the PDF of the paper, How
  can we correct the foot note at this stage?

I have seen folks list email addresses for all authors, just the email address of the corresponding author, or somewhere in between. It's up to you: you have every right to have your email address shown on the first-page footnote if you want it there. To make any additions to the footnote (or your biography, or anything else as I mentioned in this answer), contact the senior editor assigned to your manuscript. If you don't know who the senior editor is, the corresponding author of your paper does: contact your corresponding author and ask them to supply you with this information.

  Is it important to add our photo beside biography? Considering the
  fact that we didn't exceed 8 page limit of IEEE in the first
  submission of our manuscript, and the other 5 pages has been added to
  the paper based on the reviewers revision and editing of the editorial
  board, Do we still need to pay that fine? Also, My professor and I are
  Senior member and Student of IEEE organization, does that help us to
  get rid of paying the fine?

Again, it's up to you: some authors have bios with pictures, some do not (some people choose not to even include a bio!). To me, the IEEE Transactions have very clear policies on the charges authors pay for going over a certain page limit: everyone pays these regardless of whether they are members of the IEEE or not.

Finally, don't let your corresponding author "bully" you into omitting your bio/photo just to save on publishing costs. As a corresponding author, even though I don't care if my bio has to be shortened to fit some page-count restriction, I always make sure to save room for co-author bios/photos and find other ways to trim the paper down without sacrificing the overall quality of the paper. The way I see it, if a co-author wants to include a bio/photo to, for example, advertise themselves to the journal's target audience, then they should be given the opportunity to do so.