Undergrad research supervisors want me to write conference paper I have no interest in I have been doing undergrad research advised by a comp sci professor and a civil-engineering professor. I am a comp sci major.

To perform this research, we needed to do a tricky modification to a dataset provided by the civil-eng prof. This modification was not the point of the research, but because we needed it, I have spent the last month or so dedicated to this. To be sure- I was not interested in this modification or its application outside of our original research goal. I did this work as a means to an end, so we could finally work on the part I was interested in.

Now that this algo is written and working however, my advisors (even the comp sci one) really want me to apply this in a different way than originally planned and write a conference paper on the results of that. This application is not related to comp sci, so they essentially want me to write a civil engineering paper on my own.

When they asked me to do this, it sounded like a quick thing to do, so I said sure. Not only is it not quick, however, it's so boring. I can't focus on this work, and the thought of writing about this sounds like torture.

What should I do about this? I would like to just refocus, but I'm not sure if this is a normal thing within research ("by-the-way" papers).

Note: this answer assumes that you might be considering pursuing research after your undergrad, by applying to PhD programs.

You have to balance two things here:

The value of an academic publication.
Pursuing your own research interests and career goals.

Firstly, it is important not to underestimate (1). Publications are academic gold. It doesn't usually matter so much that the area of the publication is the same as your interests. If you apply to computer science programs you would be able to list that you have this publication; you might be surprised that even though it is not in computer science it is still likely to look extremely good. Roughly speaking, I would guess that it is at least 50% to 75% as good as a publication in your area of interest.

Why does a publication look so good? It tells admissions committees: This candidate knows how to do research, and is successful at it. They have already worked with a professor in a research group. They are able to see a project through to completion, and they know how to write. Notice that the area of the publication is irrelevant for all of these factors.

However, you cannot ignore (2) either. Research flourishes only when you are passionate about it. In the long run, you need to pursue research that matches your interests and particularly that is true when you are interested in computer science, not civil engineering.

With that in mind, I would suggest you make a compromise. It is highly in your interest to see this published with your name on it, but you also want to minimize the time that you spend on it. So you can reach out to your collaborators (professors) and say that you had underestimated the amount of work this would involve, and you don't have enough time or experience in this area to write the entire paper, when you are more interested in pursuing computer science research. However, you would be happy to work on it a certain amount. For example, it would be wise to set aside a week or two to work on it, particularly if there is no one else who an write it. But set a limit up front; if this is going to require a month or two of your time, then it is no longer worth it.

If you do end up writing the whole paper, you should make it clear that you are not interested in any follow-up work. You just want to follow this idea through to publication, and then you can move on to your own interests.


How to motivate an undergrad class to do research when its not a course requirement? How can I motivate my undergrad students to do research?

Since these students are at an undergrad level, I don't expect any extraordinary results.  However, I would like if they get something published (even in low impact publications).

Undergrads almost never do research in our country. It's not even a requirement of the course.  But, I want to motivate them for research. If they get something published, it would encourage them in the future.

In our country, research at the undergraduate level is almost non-existent. I want to introduce this concept at the undergrad level, but I don't want to force anything upon them.  I just want to show them the benefits of research.

I would say, as a teacher, you can allot a project as a mandatory part of course. This project should count towards the final evaluation of the course. You need to do a bit of design and planning about the project and research idea that you want to implement. Then you may divide the work among students based on their strengths and weaknesses. You may assign one group to the whole project and assign individual modules to the students or you may create many groups and each group an individual module. Once this phase of project is over, you will be able to assess the students by their research caliber and motivate the good students for further work, which may be another project with more intensity. In addition to this, you can motivate them to go to better universities and industries for project work. This will really broaden their outlook. They will start looking beyond getting some CGPA and grabbing a job. I hope I could give you some idea :P


Can my supervisor adjust and publish my bachelor's thesis without mentioning me as a co-author? I have wrote a bachelor's thesis, and the research department is very enthusiastic about it. Now they want to make a publication of it. My PI asked my supervisor to make this review. Now they are going to make a whole new review, based on my review. They are using the method I used, and probably the data I have found. It actually comes down to that they are redoing my bachelor's thesis so that it will be publishable. Can they do this without mentioning me as a co-author? I put in a lot of work on this bachelor's thesis and I already told my supervisor that I wanted to collaborate if we went to publish the thesis.

Your question is: Can they do this without mentioning me as a co-author?

The answer is unambiguously: No.


Can I include other students' master thesis in the literature review of my master thesis? Can I include other students' master thesis in the literature review of my master thesis? These master thesis that I found are published in Google Scholar and other online libraries/archives.

Actually, it might be essential to do so. Especially if you draw on or extend their work. You need to cite anything you use, of course.
Moreover, a literature review, if it is to be complete may need to draw on things that are "visible" even if not formally published. You may, however, need to make it clear that some such things haven't been peer reviewed so the reader needs to take some caution in accepting their results.


Skimming through a math paper with a group I am an M.Sc. student in mathematics. I was recently invited by some Ph.D. students and Post-Docs (a group of 5 people, including myself) to join their study group. We are reading a specific text, which should get us ready to read some more advanced work. This work is relevant to the research of some of the other people in the group, but my main goal is to experience this learning methodology with the added advantage of getting to know a few aesthetic results in mathematics.
We met around 6 times, and it is not what I'm used to from courses in the sense that we don't completely understand all the details. Nevertheless, we go on reading.
For example:

We encounter a definition and we can't find out its exact meaning. In this case we usually know of an example of a mathematical object satisfying this definition (because it's mentioned in the text) and we just try to see how the propositions in the text apply to the specific example.

A proof is given with very few details - we manage to fill in some of the gaps, but not all of them, so we just take an example again and simply accept the statement of the theorem so we can use it later.

An excercise is given in the text and we only solve part of it.

We allow ourselves to skip some details because this text is only meant to get us ready for some more advanced, but more specific, material. My question is how we can find out whether or not we are gaining anything, and how we can gain more given the fact that we are all busy and don't want to invest much more time in this specific reading (we have a 3 hours meeting every week).
I have a feeling that I'm "getting used" to some ideas and facts while reading this text (in contrast with "completely understanding"), but I'm not sure if I'm really gaining anything or whether it's just an illusion and I'm not sure how to test my gain of knowledge. The exercises in the text allow us to test our understanding of the details, but not of the general ideas.
EDIT: I will clarify what the question is, in response to aeismail's comment:
As Charles and Nunoxic say, the question of whether shallow-reading is useful is separate from the fact that we are studying in a group. So, the 2 separate questions are:

When reading without understanding all the details, how can I find out whether or not I'm gaining anything?

How can we make the process of studying in a group for 3 hours a week most efficient?

These 2 may have better been asked as 2 separate questions, but I did not  notice that (in my mind they were related because the group study was the first time I encountered shallow-reading).
To summarize the answers I got so far:

It is possible, for some people, to gain knowledge from shallow-reading and one way to test it is to see if you understand why each topic is being developed and why the text is structured the way it is.

When studying in a group, one should test his ability to work out the details himself after the group sessions.

I think the answer I got for (1) is excellent and the answer for (2) is somewhat lacking so far.

My answer may not be completely relevant but I still thought it was worth putting in. I have had a few such sessions and I realized a few things. Not all of them could be true in general and I might have been a bit extreme with what I treat as knowledge. Here goes:

Your level of understanding is directly proportional to a few things:

Your ability to frame and ask grammatically correct sentences as an individual. This also encompasses communication of ideas/questions to experts of the field. For instance, suppose you are learning Linear Algebra in a group. You have a few gaps which are filled by others in the group. However, unless you can form sentences using Linear Algebra "handles", its unlikely you'll get far in research. Literature is way to dense in keywords. Unless you can talk in terms of Column Space, Rank and Eigenvectors (Rather than Linear Combo of all column or the vector which only scales) you are far from knowledgeable.
Your ability to participate in discussions. Its not difficult to lag and be left behind in a group of impatient, overachieving academics. Further, it can be a bit demotivating at times when the senior students who read the same content (owing to their heightened intuition) seem to grasp more. As junior students, it is often necessary to substitute the lack of intuition by more work.
Your ability to appreciate the nuances of the field. I cannot stress this enough from my experience. If you cannot appreciate the subtleties yourself, you didn't learn much. It doesn't take much to learn Elementary Fluid Mechanics per se. But, IMO, you actually "learn" when you go OMG when you see the transport equation and play with it till you are satisfied. An extension of this is motivation. When some concept is developed by an author, he doesn't write in random order. One of the most important aspects is to be able to understand why something is being developed. For instance, most Aerodynamics books start off with Euler Angles and then move on to Quaternions. Its simple to understand what Quaternions do and how to solve equations based on them. However, unless you know that they are used to prevent gimbal locks, there is no point of knowing about them.
The usual: Your ability to write alternate proofs, write codes (if possible), interpret the results of these codes and the usual other-than-textbook stuff.

One ending comment : Your level of knowledge is a function of how good you are in the group and how good you are without them. If you are able to develop proofs in those 3 hours together but aren't able to get started on your own later, you need to investigate whats wrong.

If you want to know how good these group sessions are, find out how good you are getting at that field as an individual


Are there PhD programs that do not require letters of recommendation? I am applying for PhD in Mathematics. I am wondering if there are any schools or programs that do not require letters of recommendation. Do all graduate programs require these?

I've never seen a program not require a letter or recommendation when it comes to the US and I cannot speak for all other countries which can be found out by looked at other countries application process.

If there are legitimate reasons in which you would be unable to obtain a letter of recommendation or would receive one that would not help or even hurt your chances of acceptance I would talk to an adviser who is very familiar with the application processes because sometimes they don't always spell out alternatives to certain areas of the application process when it comes to rare circumstances.


Meeting with professors in other universities I am a second year PhD student. I am still in the process of finding a research topic. I have a couple research ideas at early stages with two different professors.

I will be in another country for two weeks, for personal reasons. I want to meet with several professors when I am there. First, I believe it is a good opportunity to network. Second, there are a couple professors with very interesting research areas and I can see myself working on one of these areas.

Since I do not have a concrete research area, is it still a good idea to meet with them? How can I make sure that they will not feel like I wasted their time?

I think face to face meetings to discuss overlapping research interests with a professor from another university is a great way to network and potentially develop a future collaborator, mentor, postdoc advisor, etc.  I think as long as you are clear and upfront in your email requesting a meeting with the person/professor and you also clearly state the topics and research you would like to discuss, then there is little fear that you would be wasting anyones time.  Because the professor would just decline the meeting, if he or she was not interested in the research topic or discussion you wish to have.  I have met with numerous visiting students over the years and many have turned into future postdocs or collaborators.  Hope this helps!! And good luck.


Do graduate schools consider courses that are exclusive for one country? In Norway, it is mandatory to do a course in philosophy named Examen Philosophicum. I got a B in this subject, and as such, it hurts my GPA. Do graduate schools (in mathematics) care the least bit about such subjects?

This depends on the nature of the subject and the program to which you are applying. Anything that's "on-topic" for your field would of course be considered—so if you're doing a graduate program in something like philosophy, theology, history, or something in that part of the "spectrum," such a course probably would be considered. However, if you're studying something in, for instance, the sciences or engineering, or something in the humanities far removed from this—such as music—such a course would probably receive much less consideration.

Moreover, a grade of B in such a course is almost certainly not going to make a significant enough difference in your GPA that you would have been admitted if you had gotten an "A," but will be rejected because you got a "B."


How to handle a co-author who doesn't reply any more? This question is a follow up to my earlier question asked here FIVE months before. How to politely ask a co-author to remove his/her name from my manuscript?

Now I have decided to remove this co-author's name from this manuscript, put in acknowledgement and submit it to some journal. Because the co-author has stopped replying my emails. Unfortunately the health condition of my supervisor is also very bad and not in position to talk.

So I am wondering if I simply remove this co-author, put in acknowledgement and submit to a journal, then whether will it initiate any future problem? Can it be overcome at that time? Any advice on it is highly appreciated.

if I simply remove this co-author, put in acknowledgement and submit to a journal, will it initiate any future problem?

What did this person contribute?

You indicated before that many of your "authors" contributed only English help. If this is the case, then (I would argue that) they should never have been given authorship at all. If that is the case here, then I anticipate no problems with what you propose.
If this person made substantial academic contributions to your article (as defined in your field), then you must give them the chance to be listed as an author -- an acknowledgement isn't good enough. My view (and others disagreed in the previous thread) is that after 10+ years of no progress, you have a responsibility to get a "yes, list me" or "no, don't" before proceeding -- you're not in regular contact, so sending an "opt out or else" message isn't good enough.

  Can it be overcome at that time?

The only problem I can foresee is that many journals don't allow you to add authors after acceptance. (And of course, if this is mostly his ideas/work and you publish without giving him authorship, that could be considered fraud -- but I sort of doubt that is the case here.)


European fellowships for neuroscience or anatomy? I'm not sure this kind of question is appropriate here, but if not here, probably nowhere else.

I'm interested to know if there is a) any mailing list for jobs in neuroscience or anatomy (apart from the computer vision and machine learning mailing lists), specially of computational nature. Also, b) is there any agency in Europe/US that supports and grants postdoctoral fellowships in these areas? (like Marie Curie actions or Humboldt Fellowships). I'm a mathematician who is willing to switch to these areas, and with a research team, I'm planning to apply fr this kind of fellowships.

One example I found is European Respiratory Society offering some Marie Curie postdoc fellowships, just to give you an idea what I'm talking about in b).

http://www.ersnet.org/ers-funding/fellowships/post-doc/eu-co-funded-respire-2.html

Thanks in advance!

A primary mailing list for computational neuroscience, which includes jobs all around the world (many in Europe) is

http://www.neuroinf.org/mailman/listinfo/comp-neuro

That would also be a better place to ask your more specific question about fellowships, etc. There are many such opportunities in Europe, but your question is not specific enough right now. If you ask on the comp-neuro mailing list, you should say more about your current position, location, and experience. Have you published anything? What research topics have you been studying? At what institution? This will help people focus their answers to help you more. You can also start by looking up the major European institutions that are strong in comp neuro (of which there are many, and there are lists all over the internet) and see if they sponsor any programs directly.

On a related note, as a mathematical neuroscientist myself, I think you will find the neuroscience area much more intellectually stimulating than anatomy. Computational anatomy is, in many ways, a more limited set of topics. A lot of it involves image processing and 3D reconstruction, which are already included as possible sub-areas within neuroscience. So you could always get into that sub-area of anatomy later anyway.


Changing thesis supervisor to avoid bad letter of recommendation from current supervisor? I entered current school as a Master-Ph.D. integrated course in high energy physics, however, decided to graduate as a master in this year and will apply abroad in the next year since my research interest is different from that of current supervisor. The defense is upcoming, indeed is on this Friday.

I'm considering changing MS thesis advisor because I'm uncertain but I guess my current supervisor may write a bad letter of recommendation.
I had several troubles with him mainly because his research field and style is different from mine. He implicitly mentioned that I took other student's chance of being his student because my interest was different from the beginning. I asked him explicitly if he can write a letter for me, and although he said he will write the paper, many of what he said after this implied bad contents. For example, I asked him if I regularly report what I'm doing in next year, whether he can re-evaluate me or not. He politely rejected this saying once I graduate from his lab, I and his life should be independent and he shall not care about mine. He also mentioned that evaluation should arise naturally, not in such an artificial way.

My defense is on December first, so it's within this week. But I have been seriously considering to changing supervisor and to postpone graduation to the next semester. I already got approval from a faculty to whom I want to transfer. He also explained the project I will take on if I change the supervisor to him.

However, I am very worried that it would be very rude and inappropriate behavior to change supervisor due to the worries about a bad letter and within such a short interval before the defense. I'm also worried that doing this will make current advisor as an enemy. But I am confused because he had suggested me to change the supervisor at the end of March this year.

If I graduate this semester and get a bad recommendation letter next year, even though I got strong ones from other faculties and researchers, will it be a significant weakness in the Ph.D. application?

Can any advice or opinion?
Thanks.

P.S. In a comment I left, I mentioned that my advisor rejected advising me. To be specific, he told me that he is very busy so he will not advise me in person but instead he will ask two PDs in the lab for my thesis. He seemed very busy, but I was first student of his the only two students, and I know that he is regularly advising and being in discussion with an undergraduate student for his graduation thesis.
Also, he explicitly mentioned that since he doesn't trust my ability, he can't allow extending my work beyond the elementary scope when I asked him for adding contents beyond the Standard Model on my thesis.

P.S.2. I am quite certain that I can get a good reference from the faculty to whom I want to transfer. Even though I graduate this semester, I'm planning to work with him next year. In this case, if I have a bad reference from the past supervisor while also have a strong one from another faculty with whom I will work next year, will it seriously affect my application?

Delaying your graduation by a semester would be a huge cost to bear due to the mere suspicion of getting a bad recommendation letter.  Right now it's only a suspicion.

Yes, it's clear that your reputation with your supervisor isn't the greatest.  But still, writing a bad recommendation letter is an exceptional step--especially after being asked and agreeing to write a letter.  Most professors in this situation will write a positive (though perhaps not particularly strong) letter.

Being asked to write a recommendation letter, agreeing without stating any concerns about the content, and then going on to write a bad letter is pretty unprofessional.  If you don't feel you can write a positive letter, the normal response is to not agree to write one, or to agree with a warning that you don't think you can give a good recommendation.  That isn't to say it never happens, but it is pretty unusual.

The examples that show your concern, to me don't indicate that he is planning to write a bad letter.

The negative general comments are unfortunate but hardly prove he will write a bad letter.
Your idea to report back regularly after you leave his supervision and hope that improves the recommendation was quite odd, and was rightly rejected by him. The recommendation is supposed to be based on the period he worked with you.

Unless there is something more concrete that makes you think you won't get a good letter, I would not do something drastic like delaying your graduation.


Boxplot whiskers for a journal publication using APA style guide I want to submit a manuscript with a journal recommending the APA style guide for formatting.

When looking at my boxplots, a colleague of mine wondered why the whiskers do not represent the 95% confidence interval. So I learned that the default setting for matplotlib is 1.5 IQR, which I did not questioned until that point.

According to the very good Wikipedia article on boxplots there are different possibilities for whiskers representation:

the minimum and maximum of all of the data
the lowest datum still within 1.5 IQR of the lower quartile, and the highest datum still within 1.5 IQR of the upper quartile (often called the Tukey boxplot)
one standard deviation above and below the mean of the data
the 9th percentile and the 91st percentile
the 2nd percentile and the 98th percentile

Does anybody know what is the most common whisker boundary and if there is a recommendation in the APA style?

Major statistical software such as Stata, SPSS, SAS, and R all use John Tukey's definition (hyperlinks are to the related technical documents), with various degrees of customizability. Some of them also cite William Cleveland's scheme, which is the same as Tukey's.

  one standard deviation above and below the mean of the data

This does not make sense as box plot is largely a device to display the central tendency of data using the more robust percentile statistics and I have a hard time pairing it with standard deviations (and its related statistics standard error and 95% CI), which based on the actual value of the data rather than their rank. If showing mean and SD (or SE) is the motive, there are error bar plots for this purpose.

  the minimum and maximum of all of the data

While min and max also indicate spread, they are also sensitive to extreme values, and hence a less robust indicator of dispersion. So also not making much sense.

  the 9th percentile and the 91st percentile & the 2nd percentile and
  the 98th percentile

I have less opposition against these schemes, the only reason I'd opt for not using them is just we don't need any more schemes.

So, my bet is on Tukey's. And if you're uncertain if readers may be confused, by all means in the footnote state that the scheme is based on Tukey's box plot.


Finding a number theory reader I'm a physics graduate but have written a number theory paper as a hobby. A couple of professors have read it briefly though it is not their field they gave positive feedback and suggested I send it to  professors working in this area.
I sent it to 8 professors and none has replied to me. I asked the original professor what's going on and he said probably the following:
The nature of the paper (Fermat's last theorem) and being an amateur mathematician it will invoke memories of all the failed attempts on this problem over the centuries. Even if it is correct that doesn't matter they will throw it in the bin without reading it.
He suggested I may have to pay a qualified reader to evaluate it  so I'm wondering how do I find a qualified number theory reader. There are no listings for maths readers and I don't  want to email everyone on the number theory web until I find one.

Thank you for any advice.

Well, I am a professional number theorist, so let me give you some feedback that you don't seem to have received yet:

Your paper containing an elementary proof of Fermat's Last Theorem is wrong.

This is what I think, and I am confident that this is what more than 99 out of 100 professional number theorists would think.  Here by "wrong" I mean as a real person would use the term: i.e., probably wrong.  I obviously don't know that it is wrong, and I couldn't without reading it, but in real life there is almost nothing that one knows is right or wrong: we have to go based on probability.   Let me try an analogy: suppose I am an amateur aerospace engineer. I claim that I can walk into anyone's home and, using only the materials that are already there, build a ship that can safely carry me to the moon and back.  Wouldn't you say that I'm wrong?  Wouldn't you say that, if anything, the fact that we have been to the moon and back gives us a better sense of the resources necessary for that, and that gives you more confidence that my estimation is wildly off? That while it's of course possible that I'm right, if I were I would have to be in possession of such vastly superior knowledge and expertise that I could easily provide evidence of it on a smaller scale? That's pretty much how we number theorists feel.

Let me make one point about amateur mathematicians: it is exceedingly rare for an amateur mathematician to solve a problem that has been worked on unsuccessfully by the mathematical mainstream, but it has happened sometimes (more or less depending upon what you mean by an amateur mathematician, but if for instance you count brilliant young people without a college degree: sure, it has happened several times).  However I know of no examples in which an amateur mathematician has solved a significant mathematical problem without having done other substantial mathematical work already.  So...is this your first math paper, or the first substantial piece of mathematics you think you've done?  If so, I really think it's wrong: that's just not how success in any field works.  Nobody picks up a tennis racket for the first time and discovers they can play at the professional level.  On the other hand, if you do already have published papers, then certainly mention that in your correspondence: it will make a big difference.

Anyway, if you want to find out why your proof is wrong, then yes: I agree with the other answers who say that you should pay to enlist the services of a tutor.  If you go to any math department with number theorists and say that you have reading and thinking about FLT and have some ideas you'd like to clarify and are willing to pay, say, $30 an hour to get one-on-one tutoring, I think you're very likely to find some takers.

Let me say finally that my goal in writing this answer is not at all to crush your dreams.  Rather, I hope that you actually like mathematics enough to move past your thought that you have proven FLT and engage with the subject matter more deeply.  Mathematics is a lot deeper and richer than I think you know...in some wonderful ways.  Good luck.


Correction in Published Paper One of my papers were published in a good journal. But Recently I have identified a  major flaw in my methodology. I want to correct it. Is there a way to correct it within the same published paper? Or, do I need to publish the corrected one in another journal?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Normally, you can't just change an already published version. However, this does not mean that you should just publish the correction in another journal. The best way to deal with it would be to contact the editor of the original journal and discuss things with him, as this error also concerns him, not only you. He will then be able to tell you how to publish the correction.
In case that you aren't the only author (e.g. you have an advisor, colleagues, etc.), they should also be informed before taking action.


Can the peer-review process be "emulated" in class? For graduate students such as Masters by coursework students who may not really pass through the rigour of research, is it possible to have them review the write-ups (e.g articles for assignment) of their peers? Of course, it would be highly sought that the review is of good quality and anonymous. A single round of review may also be acceptable.

Edit: Based on Nate Eldredge's comment which affirms the possibility of peer-review using learning management systems. I would like to know how the quality of the review could be improved. For instance, in conventional peer-review systems, the editor tends to trust the level of expertise of the reviewer. This may bring some challenges in this case. How can this be properly dealt with. Also, do we have free learning management tools to implement this system?

As Nate Eldredge says in the comments, peer feedback is an accepted teaching practice, and "simulating" peer review is one way to implement it.

This method is very effective in facilitating deep learning, developing critical thinking skills, encouraging clear writing, and promoting teamwork. It is less effective when the goal is to give some broad overview of a topic.

Some of the difficulties lie in assigning grades (for the outcome? for the review? what if they are not written?) and in overseeing the process.

Moreover, the process may at first seem efficient as it takes some load off the teacher, but this depends on the degree of oversight and steering. It is also quite time-consuming for the students.


deferral of a Ph.D. position in Europe I had an interview at a European university. After half an hour in the interview, they told me, we are positive to give you this position. The position starts in February however, the earliest time I can be there is in March.

I would like to ask, is it possible to defer a Ph.D. position for a month or two in Europe?

In the description of this position, the start, and the end of the position along with monthly salary is clearly stated and the fund comes from a national energy utility.

Whether it is possible or not can depend on all sorts of things. The only people that can answer that truly are the people that offered you the position. You should ask them.

This is not an unreasonable thing to ask, and I can't imagine starting a month or so later would be much of a problem for a PhD (but again the only people that can tell you that are...). Negotiation of the starting date is a normal part of the hiring process.


Applying for three PhD programs at the same school I found three phd programs in one school. The programs and areas of research are close to each other and also close to my interests and I am interested in studying  in any of the programs. I contacted some faculty members and they encouraged me to apply.These programs have shared faculty members. In addition, applying for more than one program does not have additional fees.

I applied for programs a and b. I am wondering to apply for c phd program or not. Does applying for three programs have a negative effect on my admission chances? Applying for three programs means writing three SOPs to be read by a small group of professors.

This answer is coming very late, but may be useful to people who land up on this thread.

If all the three departments have faculty and research which are aligned with your research goals, there is no harm in applying to all 3 programs. The graduate committee is made of professors who are very well aware of the fact that almost all phd applicants apply to multiple phd programmes, the difference here is that they know where 2 other applications of yours went. They may ask you to set a priority, that's all. Showing interest is different from receiving an offer, professors may be interested in multiple candidates, but due to constraints give out offers to a smaller pool. They should not hold anything against you. If they do, you are better off not joining that programme.

I applied to 3 phd programmes in the same university, and got selected in my second choice. All 3 departments knew that I had applied to the other 2 as well. They had no issues with it.


Does APA Style prescribe BC and AD or BCE and CE? Does APA Style prescribe BC and AD or BCE and CE? (I couldn't seem to find information about this in their style guides/manuals.)

Unless this was changed after 2016 (e.g. in the 7th edition style manual), APA does not prescribe either version. The choice of format does not seem to be addressed in the 6th edition style manual, which should typically be interpreted as leaving the writer or journal the freedom to choose their preference. In this case there is also direct confirmation (shown below) from the APA Style official Twitter account that either version is fine as far as the style is concerned.


Can a PI take someone's idea Lets say a member of a lab has an entirely theoretical idea like "wouldn't it be nice if we wrote software that does X?"  The member did give a talk showing how such code would work if implemented.  Due to general skepticism about the idea, nothing ever comes of it.

The member never actually writes any of the software while in the lab.

After leaving the lab, the member uses publicly available data and implements the software, as well as developing the mathematical theory.

Is the member required to acknowledge his former lab in authorship? Is this a breach of ethics?

What if the former lab member had previously agreed to letting the PI use his idea in a grant proposal, but the PI then forced him out of the lab and thus out of the grant proposal.

1. Can the former lab member write up his work for publication? 2. Does he have to make the PI a co-author if he does?

Extra Information:

The idea was documented as a presentation to the lab.  A small simulation with fake data was used to argue this could work.  There was some discussion of how it would work when the grant was written, completely the member just saying to others how this idea worked and so the idea was written up in the grant.  The PI does not have any training in this area.  However, there are plenty of emails where the PI refers to this as the former lab members idea etc.  I feel certain everybody in the lab would acknowledge this was the former lab member's idea.

The former lab member didn't actually write any of the grant as the PI claimed to want to collaborate with someone with greater mathematical expertise. So the collaborator wrote the grant, with occasional emails to ask the former lab member questions.

As far as I can see "member" has developed everything from idea to finished product. There is very little sign of anyone else being involved other than possibly as a discussion partner at the lab. To allow someone to use the idea still does not take away the intellectual property held by the member unless there has been important feedback from someone. So I would not hesitate to try to move forward towards publication with the idea. I simply cannot see any ethical issues based on the details you have given.

Having given the green light, there will always be the issue of personalities. You allude to some level of conflict in terms of the move by the member. It is not inconceivable that the PI may have a different view and this view may not even be anchored in reality. So even if you do everything by the book and have all rights, that does not preclude the PI from doing all the things you express, it really depends on the PI's personality.

In the end member should think through if anyone has contributed to the work to the degree that merits co-authorship. Member can, for example, use the the post What are the minimum contributions required for co-authorship to set the authorship in perspective.


Ethical factors to consider in case of a non-contributing co-author I am a Ph.D. student. Currently, we are writing a paper. We can group the participants in the following way:

Me and my collaborators who have done the majority of the work.
My principal supervisor who helped me to access the lab.
The person, let's call him Glideroy :-) , who is the subject of this question.

Glideroy has not made any substantial contribution. To be precise, he wrote one piece of code, which eventually was not used in the paper. Later we asked him for further investigation, which he didn't do.
One of our co-authors expressed his reluctance to include the non-contributing co-author's name in the paper. According to him, the decision is in the hand of the authors who have made a substantial contribution. My principal advisor is not aware of this yet, but he has a good relationship with Gilderoy.
Now I am in a tricky position, I agree with the non-contributing part. However, I feel a bit hesitant to burn the bridge and remove the author altogether. So, my questions are the following:

What are the criteria one should fulfill to be a co-author?
Should I talk to my principal supervisor?
Is there any way we can justify the inclusion of Glideroy's name?

Any advice would be helpful.

The criteria to be a co-author depend on the field of research and on the journal, but usually at least some intellectual contribution to the paper is expected. Most journals have a list of requirements on their website.
Yes, you should talk to your supervisor: this will probably solve the problem.
No, unless the code he wrote gave you important insights (even if the code was not used afterwards). But also see the answer to (1).

There are three possible outcomes:

Your supervisor agrees to remove the co-author.

Your supervisor convinces you that the contribution of the co-author was enough to earn authorship.

Your supervisor wants to include the co-author for "political" reasons. This is wrong, but it happens quite a lot unfortunately. In this case it would probably be best to include the co-author anyway. It is wrong ethically, but if you and your co-authors did your best to prevent it that is on your supervisor and not on you: if you discussed it with him there is not much more you can do unless you want to risk the relationship with your advisor.


How important are classifications (ACM, AMS, PACS...)? For paper submission, I have recently spent some time struggling to find appropriate classification. The main question is: who needs this information and why?

At first I thought that they could be used by the editor to find an appropriate editor or referees, but I have had two experiences contradicting this hypothesis. In the first one, I was only asked to provide classification AFTER the review process. In the second, I was requested to point myself to appropriate editors and referees.

In my experience, I do not look at those numbers, and that is true for other colleagues. The only exception is when I am trying to find appropriate classification and look at other related papers for inspiration. In such occasion, I sometimes found classifications which did not seem to match the content of the paper. Apparently people do not care much for this. Another aspect of the question is: how bad is it to have a bad classification?

From the ACM page "How to use the Computing Classification System":

  An important aspect of preparing your paper for publication by ACM
  Press is to provide the proper indexing and retrieval information from
  the ACM Computing Classification System (CCS). This is beneficial to
  you because accurate categorization provides the reader with quick
  content reference, facilitating the search for related literature, as
  well as searches for your work in ACM’s Digital Library and on other
  online resources. It also ensures correct placement when a review
  appears in Computing Reviews.

There's similar verbiage for the AMS MSC.

In other words, the institution needs it for their own databases and search mechanisms. The AMS probably needs it for something similar. So your use for the classification system depends on how much you expect people to search for your work using the classification structure provided by the institution. For math, I'd expect it to be used a lot: for CS, not so much.


Who are the people reviewing far more papers than they're submitting for review? I've submitted more papers for review than I've reviewed myself.  I try to review as much as I can, but it's limited by incoming requests.  Publons says I'm somewhat above the median (of 0.3 reviews : 1 publication), although this data is incomplete.

It seems there must be people out there who are reviewing far more papers than they're submitting for review.  But who?

Question: Who are the people reviewing far more papers than they're submitting for review?

I'm just after some mental picture of who is receiving, accepting, and completing large numbers of review requests.  I can't imagine it's high-level professors, who seem constantly busy.  Nor do I expect it's early-career researchers, because they're unestablished and unlikely to be thought of when editors email reviewers.

I can't imagine it's high-level professors, who seem constantly busy.

If you want something done, ask someone who's constantly busy.

  Nor do I expect it's early-career researchers, because they're unestablished and unlikely to be thought of when editors email reviewers.

I can't point to specific posts, but I've seen enough references on this site to the scenario that I believe it's not uncommon for the editor to ask the high-level professor and the professor to delegate to an early-career researcher in their department.


Is it possible to have a PhD advisor from another university? I am a graduate student, 2nd year, in a STEM field at a US university. I have passed my quals.

Is it possible to ask from a Professor who is not at your university to be your advisor?  Did anybody hear of a similar situation?

I am very interested in the research of a professor who is at a nearby university, I really want to work with him but I don't know if this is even possible. (Maybe I should also note that his university is not necessarily better than the one I am now.)

Any suggestions?

Extrapolating from the very few cases that I've seen, I think you'll need an official adviser at the school where you're actually enrolled.  If it's OK with that adviser, then you could also have a "real" adviser elsewhere, on an unofficial basis.  Your school may have some paperwork to be completed if your real adviser is to serve as a member of your official thesis committee.


I left college in the last semester (did not finish), but the college "transferred military experience to credits" and gave me a diploma. Normal? When I was in community college (2016), I wasn't on good terms with the school. I was harassed occasionally and complained about it very forcefully to representatives of the administration. I passed my classes, but didn't do homework and had an average GPA. In my last semester, I decided to stop going due to continuing issues with the faculty.

After a few months, I got a diploma in the mail. I called them and asked about it and they said it was all on the up and up, and that the VA representative had taken it upon himself to transfer some of my military experience into credits (my remaining requirements were very basic, like P.E.), which is what pushed me over the edge.

I still have a hard time believing that I could graduate without knowing it. The VA rep was new and had recently replaced the old one, and I'm stoked he took it upon himself to transfer those credits over, but I am curious if this is a normal thing? Has this ever happened to anyone else? Am I worrying too much? I don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I also am afraid there could have been some mistake.

The reason I'm worried about it now is that I want to go back to school for a CS degree in the near future now that I've matured a little and have a better idea of what I enjoy learning. If there's any chance I need to be worried about my previous degree I want to know about it.

I still have a hard time believing that I could graduate without knowing it.

Me too. I would request a transcript and perhaps investigate to see whether "transferring military experience to credits" is something that routinely happens. It would be nice to document your concerns and get a written response from the college saying that everything is on the up-and-up. When documenting everything, I suggest not going into detail about your issues with the teachers; that is a separate issue.

  I am curious if this is a normal thing? Am I worrying too much?

I can say that it is entirely abnormal for well-ranked, 4-year colleges in the US. However, community colleges are a different beast. While I can't say anything for sure, I can speculate:

They may have wanted to boost their graduation rates, and looked for "almost-done" students that they could convert to "done"
Perhaps your VA rep is just an awesome guy who helped you out.
Maybe there were legal issues with the harassment case.
Or, it's possible that something improper was done, and it will eventually cause problems for you.

Short answer: I suspect all is OK, but I would still try to document what happened and get the college to state in writing that your degree was not awarded in error.

Edit: I do agree with the other answers that you should proceed with your application to 4-year schools; don't let this slow you down. I just think it's worth protecting yourself...for example, the diploma-generation system could be different than the degree-verification system, and they might disagree about whether you finished...best to have the whole thing documented in case something comes up.


Meeting with Professor for letter of recommendation I am applying for PhD positions. I emailed one of my professors asking them to write a strong letter of recommendation for me. I took two courses with this professor and I got an A- in both of them. The professor replied and asked me to meet with him.

What should I expect from this meeting? What kind of things will he ask me?

[I think I am asking something stupid but I really want to prepare myself before going in front of this professor as he's always very rude and angry]

You can expect questions about your plans, your interests, strengths you want the letter writer to focus on, any weaknesses in your application you may want to assuage, etc.

In other words, this sort of meeting is designed to allow the recommender to write you a better letter. This is a very good approach by the recommender - a professor who knew you more closely might not need such a meeting, but all this professor has to go by is your participation in his course, which may not be all that memorable. He may come across as "rude and angry" but in this context it seems he has your best interests in mind, so you should be very thankful. An alternative would be to write a curt, impersonal recommendation ("Of all the students I had in my Important Studies 301 course, my records show Luqman Saleem was one of them.") that will do you little good.

It may be helpful to bring along your CV as well for the professor to keep, if he has not asked for one already. Be ready to answer questions about why you want a PhD, your research interests, etc, and have a good reason for why you bothered to ask this particular professor - what skills or abilities are they best positioned to write about that will be important for the programs you are applying to?


How much public funding do private universities in the United States receive, directly or indirectly? I am trying to assess how much public funding private universities in the United States receive.

I found a study that partially answers the question:

Taxpayer Subsidies for Most Colleges and Universities Average Between $8,000 to More than $100,000 for Each Bachelor’s Degree, New Study Finds
 (published in 2011):

  Washington, D.C. – Taxpayer subsidies that cover the operating costs
  of most colleges and universities ranges from around $8,000 to more
  than $100,000 for each bachelor’s degree awarded, with most public
  institutions averaging more than $60,000 per degree, according to an
  analysis by the American Institutes for Research (AIR) and Nexus
  Research and Policy Center (Nexus).

  Among elite private universities, like Harvard and Yale, the average
  taxpayer subsidy is $13,000 per student per year, while the annual
  subsidy at the most selective public universities, like the University
  of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the University of California, Los
  Angeles is more than $23,000 per student annually.

  The financial figures reflect the amount of money colleges and
  universities receive in direct government support and tax breaks. They
  do not include loans and grants provided by state and federal
  governments to help students meet tuition costs.

However, this leaves out how much public funding go into loans and grants provided by state and federal governments to help students meet tuition costs in the United States.

I got interested in that question reading U.S. to Forgive at Least $108 Billion in Student Debt in Coming Years (published on November 30, 2016).

Estimating indirect subsidies is a much more subtle question than it sounds like.  There's no way to answer it without some economic modeling, and even if you do that, you'll get a debatable answer.

For example, consider tax deductions for charitable donations.  To what extent should they be counted as a subsidy?  (For scale, current-use giving and endowment distributions amounted to 40% of Harvard's budget last year, so how you account for this really matters.)

Imagine a well-off donor, with a marginal tax rate of 33%.  If they donate $1000 and deduct this money from their taxable income, then the government loses $330 in tax revenue.  Should we count the $330 as a government contribution?

One argument says yes.  Imagine that the donor has chosen $1000 because that's how much they feel they can spare.  If they had been charged the $330 tax, then they would have been able to spare only $670 if they wanted to end up keeping the same amount.  This means the tax-deductible donation is really equivalent to a $670 donation from the donor plus a $330 subsidy from the government.  Under this theory, a substantial fraction of charitable giving is really a government subsidy in disguise.

Another argument says no.  Many donors, especially small-to-medium donors, don't make carefully optimized financial decisions based on the tax consequences.  They probably chose $1000 because it sounded like a reasonable number, and would have made the same donation regardless of the tax situation.  In that case, the $330 in reduced taxes ends up as a reward to the donor for being charitable, and it has nothing to do with the university's finances.  To the extent a change in tax policy wouldn't change the donation rate, it's unfair to count the tax deduction as a subsidy.

Of course these aren't the only arguments one could make on this topic, but let's focus on these two.  Now the question is which argument better describes charitable giving practices.  The truth is undoubtedly somewhere in between: donors are in fact influenced by tax deductions, but don't make all their decisions on this basis.  To give a principled number for how great the effective subsidy is, you'll have to model this effect, and the answer may even vary between universities based on differences in their donor pools.

What makes this whole issue even more subject to debate is that politics comes into the picture.  If you view the $330 as tax money that by default belongs to the government, then the whole $330 should obviously be counted as a subsidy.  If you believe the government has no business taxing charities or donations to them, then none of it is a subsidy because the government never had any right to this money in the first place.  Many people lie somewhere between these views, but some pile up at the extremes.

The net effect is that if you really want to figure out how much of an indirect governmental subsidy private universities get in the U.S., you'll first have to articulate your political position, and then do some economic modeling if politics hasn't settled everything yet.  Whatever you decide, someone will tell you you're doing it all wrong.  There is no answer all reasonable people must agree with.


Why don't typical US colleges offer more online courses? Why don't typical US colleges offer more online courses so that all of the classes could be taken online?

Online courses are cheaper, more profitable and more efficient to produce quantity of student(which translate into more people can be educated); students don't have to spend time traveling to classes. Students could simply hand in homework online and colleges can just open up a lot of computer labs for the students to take exams in exchange and lay off some lower quality professors. Also, students can have more time to themselves to interact privately on the computer and all formal discussions can take place within the class online.

Also, the government would be able to pay less financial aid and students would have the convenience of learning the class material on a cell phone.

The most importantly,students can join a reputable college outside of thier home city and able to save the charge of dormitory

Also, isn't that it is better to eliminate the high cost private college by competition and let more low cost public university survive by let our government became richer from giving away less financial aid?

I think there are multiple reasons, I'll touch on some:

Currently online courses tend to fill a gap for students who otherwise would not be able to complete many courses.      This allows non-traditional students to have a chance at academically being competitive, although traditional students sometimes utilize them as well. They aren't designed to replace traditional courses, but to augment them.
It's harder to verify who is actually doing the coursework.
      This seems like  a fairly important issue, after all, you want potential employers to be confident that the degree a university bestowed means something - namely that you earned it. As a university, you want to be sure that your students aren't cheating.
Market saturation.      In-line with the previous bullet point, if classes were very cheap for many students, universities wouldn't be able to charge as much in general per student. This essentially translates to a lower value "per degree". This effectively tackles you point about joining "reputable" universities - the general train of thought is "If everyone can get in... is it necessarily reputable?" (Definitely a con from the university's point-of-view as they can potentially inflate their importance by limiting degrees conferred.)
Points of failure.      An online class, depending on the format, could potentially require a large amount of bandwidth. This means the university would be footing the bill to effectively run these courses, and the facilities to run quality web-based courses may not be cheap. While it's true the lectures could just be recorded or utilize some sort of learning software, decreased student interaction tends to lead to lower grades overall (Source: multi-year TA)
Decreased profit.     Arguably, I believe colleges make a fair amount of money by physically having the students on campus. "Butts-in-seats" mean that they charge more longterm for dormitories and food. Increased physically facility usage allows colleges to approach benefactors for more money, citing student use and need of expansion. Benefactors want a dorm with their name on it, not a server rack.
Collaboration.     Not the bad kind, mind you. Like @WetLabStudent mentioned, physically being at a college or university exposes you to ideals, people, and methodologies you might have never come in contact with. The ability to interact with a large spectrum of people is an important skill for the vast majority of students to develop.

This isn't an exhaustive list, but I hope it raises some of the issues. If I missed a few more major relevant points, feel free to comment.


Are foreign language requirements beneficial for Physics, Math and Chemistry PhD students in North America? Senior readers will recall that in North America (USA/Canada) it was required to show a reading knowledge of another language besides English in order to complete the academic requirements for a PhD in basic sciences. It is no longer necessary now in physics and chemistry but other top notch universities like Harvard still have this requirement for a PhD in mathematics. For chemists studying electrochemistry, Russian was recommended, but for organic chemistry German was beneficial. Undoubtedly, German had the largest compendium of handbooks, factual information etc in pure sciences. Gmelin and Beilstein Handbuch were one of the largest databases in chemistry and they still are in the form of Reaxys (A database in Elsevier) since the mid 1700s.

I was writing an educational article encouraging students to explore foreign language publications in chemistry with the help of online tools. A reviewer asked if there is any knowledge difference between those who knew foreign languages and those who did not. This is a very subjective idea.

Do those that have to learn a foreign language for their PhD, especially in sciences, really benefit from being able to read foreign language paper/book/ database/patents?

(I am especially interested in German, French or Russian language literature for research in math, physics or chemistry.)

Readers, who learned foreign languages for their PhD, do you remember
  any case where you benefitted from reading a foreign language
  paper/book/...

I'm a (pure) mathematician in the US, and I've literally benefited hundreds of times from being able to read mathematical French. Not only are there great papers in my area that are being published in French today, but a huge proportion of my field's seminal papers were written in French during the twentieth century. (I know that for people working in other areas of pure math, German plays a similar role.) In fact, I find it very hard to believe that someone would be able to have a successful research career in various areas of pure math without being able to read papers in a language other than English. Certainly such a person would be at a huge disadvantage.


Should I add Guest Lecturer experience in my CV? As a PhD student I have been invited to give a guest lecture in an MSc in my university in another department.

Should I add this to my CV if I intend to apply for academic jobs? If so, what should this look like in my CV? In which section would it go?

I've seen a lot of CVs include guest lecturer. You would include it in the Teaching section of your CV.  A quick google for "guest lecturer cv" will show you some examples.

Do note, this is generally different than an invited speaker though. A Guest Lecturer comes and teaches a class where as an Invited Speaker comes to give a talk or seminar or colloquium. If this is an invited talk then you'd still list it on your CV, but in the Invited Talks section.


Writing On the Board vs. Showing Slides There is a new trend on some Universities (in engineering and science majors), that professors show lecture slides over a video projector on the screen instead of writing on the chalkboard. They enter the hall, stay two hours totally passive before the students and read the slides aloud without explaining it. I even have had a mathematics course, in which the professor read the slides like a textbook without explaining them on the board or working examples.

Are you also affected? Which method do you think is more effective? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? (I myself believe the chalkboard is much more effective.)

What you describe is not teaching with slides, it is teaching very badly with slides.  A teacher can teach very badly with the board too: as an undergraduate, I had one mathematics professor who only mumbled inaudibly while either facing at an oblique angle to the class or else while writing small unintelligible letters on the chalkboard in a descending arc.

Slides can be an excellent teaching tool, in that they allow a professor to show images, data, illustrations, and other things that cannot be readily drawn by hand.  I find that their main disadvantage is that they are fixed before the class, and thus cannot be readily adjusted or corrected to track the interaction with students on the fly.  Conversely, working on the board can be more interactive, but must remain much simpler, which can be either a good or a bad thing, depending on content.


How does being a postdoc work? I've been recently completing what I want to do after I obtain a Ph. D. since my Ph. D will be in math there will be choices for me to go into industry. However, I'm wondering it there's a timeline to go into being a postdoc and conducting further research. Can one postdoc at multiple places?  Especially if they have been in industry for a while (my end goal is to go into academia).

There are a wide variety of postdocs available, which makes summarization challenging.  Typically, the goal of a postdoctoral fellowship is to broaden your research experience and better prepare you for a career in academia immediately after your graduation with a PhD.  Postdocs are extremely common in the sciences.  (Perhaps they are a bit too common.)  As mentioned by Andreas Blass in the comments, many positions are advertised seeking recent (i.e., within 2-4 years) PhD grads.

It is possible to do multiple postdocs sequentially, though anything beyond two is a bit of a red flag for being hired in academia.  It's probably best to think of your PhD graduation as starting a clock for academic positions.  If you haven't gotten an academic position within five years, then the application process becomes quite different.  If you are planning on waiting this long, you would likely be better off working in industry or at a research lab and attempting to make the transition back to academia without doing a postdoc.  (I'm not familiar with this process, so I won't comment on it.)

If you're interested in more information about postdocs, I can recommend the following sources:

The National Postdoctoral Association has terrible web design, but there's lots of good information there if you can dig for it.
Georgia Tech's Office of Postdoctoral Services has a lot of great information, albeit targeted towards GT Postdocs.  You should also look to see if the places you're applying have a similar organization.
Peter Feibelman's A PhD is Not Enough!: A Guide to Survival in Science is a relatively short book on how to succeed as a postdoc.  It was recently updated, and is probably the best generic introduction to life as a postdoc available.
The CRA's Postdoc Best Practices Guide is intended for postdocs in computing, but I don't see why it wouldn't be valuable to a broader audience.  It's much shorter than Feibelman's book, and covers some of the same ground.


How important is it to show students an application of the topics seen in an undergraduate course? I am currently designing a proof-based Math course for my University. I already designed and ordered all of the theoretical content in the course and included some ad hoc exercises for practicing each of the particular topics in the course. However, I have also designed a long final assignment that introduces a problem covering roughly all of the topics in the course.

My question is on how helpful is it for the student to work on these kind of general assignments. Assuming he already understood each of the topics individually, will it be beneficial spending some weeks analyzing an application involving almost all of the topics seen? Is there any research on the educational benefits of these type of exercises?

EDIT: I would be grateful if someone could cite a research paper that talks about the benefits of showing these kind of general applications involving many topics in undergraduate courses.

I can't point to any specific research, but it is a common observation that (i) students have difficulty putting individual topics learned in class into a context that would allow them to see where they are used, (ii) students who don't understand why a topic is relevant tend to forget it rather quickly. This is as true in mathematics as in many other areas, and I think it is widely thought that this limits the ability of students to apply what they learned to new situations.

Consequently, at least to me, it is of great importance to provide students with the context in which each topic I cover in my classes lives. Why do we care about a particular statement? What implications does a particular theorem have on areas they are already familiar? I know that this approach is not universally shared in mathematics (or at least others may define the context and the applications to be rather narrowly as "related areas of mathematics"), but at least in my view, it is important to show students what the material they learn can be used for. Otherwise, mathematics is no more than an idle game of moving symbols from one side of an equation to another.


What should we say to affected students about Trump's travel ban? I am an American working overseas.  I work with several students from Iran who have never been to America.  What should I say to students who have been banned from entering my home country?

Put it in its historical context.

The United States can be a wonderful place to visit or even live, but it does have a long term history of periods of political unreasonableness. During those periods, it becomes so afraid of some group of "others" that the fear overrides human rights, treaties, justice, common sense, and the US constitution. Keeping the US safe from the feared group is the overriding concern, and nothing else matters compared to that. Often, the feared group includes a few people who really are dangerous, but the danger gets grossly exaggerated and makes the US deeply afraid of an easily identified larger group.

There was a mild one during Nixon's presidency, when the feared group was people protesting the Vietnam War. The most recent really severe one, in the 1950's, was McCarthyism, when the feared group was communists. In WWII the feared group was people of Japanese origin or descent. Now, the feared group is Muslims, and people stereotyped, based on e.g. national origin, as being Muslims.

The good news is that, after a period of fear-based unreasonableness, the US always sorts itself out and gets back to sanity.

Any students from one of the affected countries, and perhaps Muslims in general, who need to make immediate decisions about e.g. a postdoc should consider going somewhere other than the US. If you are planning an international conference, it may be better to pick a country whose visa policies make it more likely that all interested academics can attend.

In the longer term, the current fear of Muslims will go the way of fear of Irish Catholics, fear of Chinese immigrants, Japanese-American internment, and the McCarthy era.


Whether to italicise the name of government program in APA style? I am writing a paper in APA about a government funded program. Do I italicize the name of the program?

APA requires the use of italics for:

Titles of books, journals and periodicals, films, and videos
Introduction of new key technical term or label
Anchors of scale
Words, phrases, or letters presented as linguistic examples
General/scientific names, species, and varieties
Letters in statistical symbols or algebraic variables
When a reader might not see the intended emphasis or misinterpret the use of a word in a sentence.

The name of a government funded program does not belong into any of these categories. So the answer to your question is no.

For sake of completenes, here is when APA forbids the use of italics:

Emphasis
Foreign phrases common in English
Greek letters
Nonstatistical subscripts to statistical symbols
Chemical terms

By the way, I found this information simply by googling for "APA italics".


Should a Ph.D. be done with a low h-indexed professor I live in a 3rd world country and at one of top universities in my country a professor offered me a PhD position. I will pursue a part time PhD while working full time. I have to decide on whether or not to accept his offer.

My PhD chances in U.S. or other western countries where an established academic community exists is infinitesimal. This is due to my undergraduate degree is from another nationally lower ranked school than the nationally top ranked university I mentioned. Professors at my undergraduate school have no connection with western researchers and no cares about them, my undergradute professors also do not care about the international academic community.

Though the institution I was offered to pursue a PhD is nationally reputed and having a PhD degree from there carries a nationwise reputation, I believe that my postdoc chances from decent to good schools in western countries are very low. My professor has a title as Professor, but his h-index is extremely low (< 10), while his western colleagues usually have an index of greater than 30, and usually renowed ones have an index of gretaer than 50. Also his students do not seem to secure good postdocs.

I have started to dislike my professor too. I may work with him a few years and apply for a PhD after obtaining some publications, but still I will need his connections.

This might be my only chance for a PhD and I am not sure what to do. What are my chances in western academic system after this PhD ? Should a PhD done with a professor whose work does not receive much citations and who publishes rarely ?

Picking a PhD supervisor based on his h-index is like picking a car based on his horse-power; you ignore a huge number of factors that are probably equally important if not more. It is drivable (can you work with this person?), is it expensive to run (do the guy needs to pampered and treated like royalty?), are other owners happy with their purchase (are his other PhD students happy with his supervision?), etc. etc. Getting a really fast car only to crash it cause you can't drive it does mean much and getting a supervisor who after a year's time makes you want to quit your PhD doesn't mean much either. Most probably in both cases people are going to think less of you.

I think the most important thing is that you say that "I have started to dislike my professor too." that is a major problem and you should not pick a supervisor that you dislike. I do not mean that by being "homies" with supervisor; I mean about mutual respect and ability to work efficiently and with understanding about each other maybe "small quirks". (eg. My supervisor avoided setting up morning meeting with me because I am a night-person; it was fine, he even joked up about it at times "Next week I have X thing going on so we probably need to meet at 11.00. I know you'll just be out of bed but that is my only available time." That did not mean though I was not expected to be always punctuational for our meeting or having worked seriously on the projects at hand.

To recap: As you present things I would say "do not to work with this professor" but not because of his low h-index but because you say you do not like him and that his PhD students seem not to take good positions (low after-sales value :) ).

You mention that US institution are out of the equation effectively; "fine". Have you thought of PhD programmes in Europe? Some small, not too famous but reputable universities in EU can be stepping stones for a post-doc in US  (Given you do excellent work at your PhD obviously).


Importance of individual postdoctoral fellowship I have recently been awarded an individual postdoctoral fellowship (independent external funding for my own project) to join a research group at institution A. At the same time, I was applying for other postdoc positions, and finally I was offered a position by a professor at institution B. The group at B is more well-known and a slightly better fit for my research overall, but other than that the conditions (including salary and the institutions themselves) are similar. I cannot take the independent funding to institution B, so I have to choose between accepting the fellowship at A or a standard postdoc position at B.
Is having individual postdoctoral funding important enough to outweigh the disadvantage of being in a slightly worse group? I feel like having been awarded the fellowship is enough and I should choose the group that's a better fit for me, but people obsess over these named "prestigious" fellowships nowadays so I'm a bit worried that it'd be stupid to decline one and take a "regular" postdoc instead.

Opinion only, of course.
Since the finances are a wash, at
this stage of your career I would choose the job that I thought would best allow me to do the research that most interested me.
I would not let "prestige" weigh my decision.
Congratulations on having two good possibilities.


What is appropriate compensation for faculty mentors in an REU program? With colleagues, I'm applying for an NSF-funded mathematics REU site at my institute.  In putting together the budget, it's easy to see how much is an appropriate stipend for student participants, because student stipends are published on the recruiting sites for other REUs.  However, I wondered if other faculty on this site who have been involved in an REU could provide a ballpark as to what is a usual rate of compensation for faculty mentors (over the course of a 10-week program, pairs of faculty mentors in complementary disciplines would guide teams of 4 students).  I don't want to undercompensate faculty mentors, but at the same time, the main portion of the budget is meant to support student participants, so there must be some sweet spot in there.  Any input based on recent experience would be much appreciated!  Thank you!

The NSF's guidelines are that you can generally pay one faculty-month of salary.  In principle, you can propose to divide this money up however you like, but if you try to divide up the compensation among all the faculty members involved, it may not be enough money going to any single person to really be worthwhile.

As the PI of an REU site, I do not pay the other faculty supervisors anything.  However, my field is not mathematics but physics.  The faculty mentors, most of whom work in experiment but some of whom are theorists, would all be on campus doing research even if the REU students were not present.  Most of them are getting paid summer salary off other research grants.  The only direct faculty compensation goes to me, since I manage all the advertising, admissions, and logistics for the program, which really do amount to about a month of full time work.  Some other programs have a PI and co-PI who share the responsibilities and compensation basically equally, but I would suggest not dividing the money up too finely.


How aware are grad school application readers of differing standards internationally? Recently two friends of mine have come back to Australia after having done 2 semesters of 3rd and 4th year subjects (about half mathematics) at different branches of the University of California.
They said that the tests would only ask questions directly from or similar to material covered in lectures and example sheets. If questions deviated from the lectures or example sheets very much students would complain to the lecturer. Thus, if one studied the example sheets enough they got an A relatively easily. They returned with A or A+ in all of their maths subjects, but they average about 75-80 for their maths subjects here.
In Australia, about 70% of the exam is usually like that. The rest are questions that we learned enough theory to feasibly do, but we hadn't seen that type of question before so it requires some level of cleverness to get it within the time limits of the exam.
My questions are

Can anyone corroborate that the maths tests at american universities are actually like this?
If so, is this well known and accounted for by the people who look at grad school applications from international students?
How do they fairly evaluate the performance of international applications? How are Australian applicants generally viewed by them?

Edit: Chris's answer below seems to answer the first question by "not quite", which is what I expected I suppose. The other questions still stand.

Repeating a bit other remarks: in the U.S., exams in upper-division courses are usually designed by the individual instructor, and vary widely.

There is a tradition in top-tier places in the U.S. to "challenge" students on exams, and students seem to expect this, while, yes, in some local cultures students expect/demand exams that contain no surprises.

For that matter, it is not clear to me that "testing cleverness" is necessarily an important goal for timed exams. I am well aware that there is a huge tradition in which quickness and cleverness are construed as fundamental skills/talents. Certainly these are important for math contests, and occasionally useful in the practice of mathematics, but I don't think our classes teach these things, in any case. Thus, testing for quickness and cleverness is testing for something outside the course content. Thus, in many regards it is an irrelevant challenge to the students.

That is, substantial mathematics often has genuine complications and difficulties that exist despite examples and forthrightness, and it is sometimes (often?) counterproductive to create "challenging (surprise) problems" from material that should be straightforward.

But, yes, people on admissions committees are well aware of such traditions and their variations, don't worry.

For me, the letters of recommendation from math faculty are far more important than grades on the transcript, in any case. Similarly, the statement of purpose of the applicant tells much more than the transcript. And, one more time, the skill set relevant to surprise questions on timed exams becomes ever less relevant throughout grad school.


Is it unusual for a professor to submit recommendations to other universities more promptly than their own? I am applying to graduate programs at several universities, including the one that I am currently at.  My professors sent their letters of recommendations to the other universities promptly and quickly, but have not sent them to their own university yet, despite sending them at least over 5 automated requests.

I am highly worried because the deadline is coming up in two days.  Is this a common occurrence, and what I should do about it?

There's not enough information to say for sure, but one possibility is that they know the deadline isn't strict because they've seen what happens from the inside.  When submitting a letter to another university, it's hard to know how harmful a delay might be, but your recommenders may know that in your department nobody even plans to look at the letters until the end of next week.  (It's not uncommon to schedule a buffer period between the deadline and the beginning of organized review, precisely to give late letters a chance to arrive.)  Or they may trust that their colleagues on the admissions committee will forgive them for being late.


What kind of assistance from graduate institution can I expect in transferring parole? I am currently applying to graduate programs in physics across the US, though primarily in California. I am a New York State resident currently on parole for a violent crime committed in 2005. I have been on parole for over 3 years, and will be released in the Summer of 2016.

I am going to have to transfer my parole with only several months notice, which will be a hassle. My hope is that my academic accomplishments will result in my parole transfer being completed without resistance.

If anyone has any idea what I can expect from a graduate institution in terms of assistance in the process, please respond. I foresee the process being a rough transitions if the state to which I transfer is not welcoming.

To answer my question based on my experience:

I did not find that any institution was particularly wary about my past. Of the many institution to which I was granted admission, only SUNY Stony Brook asked me to go through a review process. Most institutions found my past inspiring. I cannot say how the institutions that rejected my application felt about my history. However, my rejections came primarily from top 10 universities, so it is likely competitiveness of those programs led to my rejection.

I have accepted admission into a Ph.D. program at a University of California institution. In the process of transferring parole, the department of my studies has been very helpful. The chair of the department has provided a letter to parole, and the staff has assisted me in obtaining housing.

My experience was much less troublesome than I had feared.

Most helpful to me was:

Creating connections at my undergraduate institution. I have been an active student regarding campus activities. I volunteered often to help the department. I wanted to create a track record of assimilating into the campus community.
Being honest in my applications and statements of purpose. Many may believe that my history should not be highlighted, but I have found that having a unique story sets me apart from other students. Everyone seems to enjoy a good comeback story. (It has also helped me win scholarships.)
Letters of recommendations from professors with whom I have worked. These letters did not mention my history. They show that I am more than a good student with an interesting story; I have the ability to function as a productive student researcher.


Is a joint science PhD/JD a bad idea if I end up pursuing academic science? Question. I'm going into my third year as a PhD student in oceanography, and due to my interest in law, I'm considering applying to the concurrent PhD/JD program at my university. I’m wondering whether this might damage my future prospects as an academic scientist.

My background. I have long been interested in both law and science, but I'm not sure whether I would end up pursuing law, science, or both after graduation. My scientific research (computer models of the global carbon cycle) has implications for law and policy, but is completely independent from law and policy in itself. I think my background places me at the very top in being able to understand the science, but that is only one of my interests in law. My interest in science has not waned at all, and my scientific career is going pretty well. It’s my interest in law that has grown.

The program. I've come to learn my university has a pretty flexible joint program (7 years instead of 4-5), and they’ve stressed that the course load can be made flexible to accommodate thesis research in my home department. At this point I believe I could maintain a level of scientific productivity even when studying law half- or three quarter-time. Financially, I think it's likely I could do the program for free, but worst case I might no longer be eligible for my $25K/year stipend. This would not be a dealbreaker, and I would find out before having to commit

My concern. My concern is that I don’t know exactly how I would want to use the two degrees. I'm interested in many different types of law. I would never be unhappy that I took the time to study law, if only to quench my intellectual interest. I would only regret the decision if I decided to pursue an academic career in science and this damaged by chances. Specifically, I'm worried that:

It could suggest a lack of commitment, i.e. a kind of 'Carl Sagan effect', where a professional interest outside your area of research is counted as a lack of seriousness.
A JD would obviously reduce my scientific productivity for a few years while studying. While I believe I can maintain some productivity, the number of papers, citations, etc. would necessarily decline over that period.

Interesting question.  There are so many factors to consider, including time, cost, workload, etc.

It does seem though that having credentials in both disciplines can give you both a unique perspective and a means through which you can influence public policy. Forward-thinking academic departments may see that as a plus.  Of course, others could see it as a lack of commitment to pure science, but I'm speculating.

You should consider that the merging of science and law is not uncharted territory. A great example is Vanderbilt's law and neuroscience initiative, funded by the MacArthur Foundation. See
Vandy Law & Neuroscience for details.

However, Vandy does not have a 'law and neuroscience' department, and I doubt that the law school or school of psychology (housing neuroscience) would specifically look for a candidate with both a PhD and JD.  But, it would certainly fit. This may be true of other institutions as well.


In how much detail should one describe their past and projected future work for a junior scientist application to CNRS? The competitive application process for CNRS jobs has opened this week, and part of the required documents are a report on past work, as well as a project for future work (together with a list of CNRS labs where this work could be done). There is not much information about what these are expected to contain; the instructions only specify "Report on research completed" and "Proposed research program".

More specifically, for a "chargé de recherche" (junior scientist, a permanent research position with no teaching), how much detail should be given in these two documents? How long should they be? Is there a typical structure that one should follow for them?

It is my understanding that the national committee members may not (and in my case are not, I checked) experts in the specific domain of the applicants, there is e.g. a committee for all of sociology, another for "brain, cognition, behavior" and so on. If this makes any difference, I'm looking for answers that deal with an application in a STEM field, not social science.

CNRS is a national research agency, more-or-less the equivalent of the American NSF. With a budget of 3 billion euros, it employs 11,137 tenured researchers (equivalent to associate and full professors but with no teaching service), in addition to 13,415 engineers and technical staff, and 7,085 contractual staff (postdocs etc). It fully runs 32 "proper" research units, but most of the employees work in one of the 952 "mixed" research units that are half part of CNRS, half part of an university, which can be anywhere in the country and whose members are either employed by the CNRS or by the university.
There also exists 36 international mixed research units and 121 "private-public" research structures. Viewing it as a "single institute" is quite reductive.
(For more info, read the 2016 activity report, in French.)

The competitive application process sees several hundreds people all over the country applying each year, so my question is applicable to a broad audience. A national committee evaluates application in a given discipline, and the committee is rather stable year after year, so "codes" and expectations about the application are bound to have developed over the years. Thus my question is about what in particular is expected in the reports on past and projected works.

It may be dependent on the field and even on who is in the jury. In particular, the jury changes every few years and they decide by themselves what procedure they will follow to judge the applications.

Two of my colleagues who have been on the CNRS jury in different STEM sections in different years told me the following:

Your file will probably be assigned to one or two of the jury members who know most about the subject of your proposal. They will have an in-depth look at it and initially defend it on your behalf if they think it is worth it. These assigned jury members are the only ones that have to read your file. The others can choose to do so if they wish.

Besides this I can tell you the following from applying for a CR2 position myself (several years ago):

I described my past research, point-wise per university where I worked. This was 2 pages in total.
I described my research proposal in 11 pages. It included figures, preliminary data and references (much like a research paper). I described a short-term (5 years) research goal as well the many possibilities to expand the research later on.

This must have been reasonable because I was invited for an interview. Of course there are surely many other ways to do it that may be equally good or better, but all I can say is what I know, and wish you good luck (you will need it. It is well known in France that the jury often wants to fund around 20 equally good proposals out of ~200 applications, but they only have the money to fund a couple).


What are the differences between viXra.org and arXiv.org? What are the differences between viXra.org and arXiv.org?

From arXiv's website:

  Started in August 1991, arXiv.org (formerly xxx.lanl.gov) is a highly-automated electronic archive and distribution server for research articles. Covered areas include physics, mathematics, computer science, nonlinear sciences, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics, electrical engineering and systems science, and economics. arXiv is maintained and operated by the Cornell University Library with guidance from the arXiv Scientific Advisory Board and the arXiv Member Advisory Board, and with the help of numerous subject moderators.

arXiv has a form of moderation. Users must be "endorsed" by people who have themselves posted papers on the arXiv. (more info) Moreover, a team of moderators is able to reclassify or remove content from the arXiv, for a number of reasons: unrefereeable content, inappropriate format, inappropriate topic... (more info) It also implements some automatic checks for content overlap between papers.

In some fields (e.g. math) it is the standard way of releasing a new paper into the world. At the moment there are 1,369,674 papers on arXiv.

arXiv has a plan to ensure its sustainability and make sure that papers uploaded to arXiv will not disappear from the internet should anything bad happens. There also exists several mirror websites should it even go down.

From viXra's website (in the footer):

  ViXra.org is an e-print archive set up as an alternative to the popular arXiv.org service owned by Cornell University. It has been founded by scientists who find they are unable to submit their articles to arXiv.org because of Cornell University's policy of endorsements and moderation designed to filter out e-prints that they consider inappropriate.
  ViXra is an open repository for new scientific articles. It does not endorse e-prints accepted on its website, neither does it review them against criteria such as correctness or author's credentials.

It was founded by a disgruntled physicist named Philip Gibbs. It is unclear who funds the website today, and it is not even clear who actually runs it today if you just read the website. Compared to arXiv, there is little moderation (according to the FAQ, a paper can e.g. be removed if it's not science/math, if it's plagiarism, if it's obscene and so on, but not if it is obvious nonsense unless it is computer-generated nonsense) and people can submit papers anonymously or under fake names.

At the moment, there are 22,596 papers on viXra.

viXra has no sustainability plans. If whoever runs it decides to take it down tomorrow or their servers catch fire, I'm not sure what would happen.

Warranted or not, it has a reputation of being an alternative to arXiv for cranks and to host a lot of junk science, fake proofs or even outright nonsense. It is not recommended to submit something to viXra if you wish to be taken seriously, because the reputation of viXra would probably taint your paper's reputation by association. (Which is not the same thing as saying that arXiv "bestows credibility" on papers found there. It's rather viXra which bestows a bad reputation.)


World map with academic works graded by relevance? I remember of some article that was published in which the author showed a world map with circles that represented the number of articles published by country and their frequency in which a groundbreaking academic work was released in each country(One of them was represented by the size of the circle, the other by the color of the circle). But I can't find it now, could someone help me find it? I've googled some things but was unable to find it - my native languange is not english, so I ran out of permutations of words to find the article.

Perhaps you're thinking of the map below?  It's Figure 1 of the paper Global Multi-Level Analysis of the `Scientific Food Web'.

(source: nature.com)

The caption is "Figure 1: World map of knowledge production and consumption in 6 major geographic areas of the world (North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa)."  An additional note: "Circle size reflects the number of papers $P_i$ produced by the corresponding entities $i$. The inner circle is for 2000–2002, the outer one for 2007–2009. The size of the pies represents (A) the relative proportion of citations $C_i$ that the entities earned in the 6 geographic areas, (B) similar for references $R_i$ recorded in the Thomson Reuters Web of Science database. The number of papers and citations have increased over time in all geographic areas, but their shares of references and citations have changed. For example, Asia reaches higher shares recently, characterizing it as an emergent scientific power, which has become almost comparable to North America or Europe. Note that, in the three leading knowledge producing areas, the majority of references cites papers published in the same geographic area, i.e., proximity matters."


How should I handle reviewer comments when grammar makes the meaning unclear? I have received reviewer comments on a paper that I had sent to a journal. Now although the reviews look good, there are lot of grammar mistakes in it making it difficult to understand some of them.

How do I handle these kind of reviews? Is it okay to write to the editor’s office for clarifications? I guess that way, the process would take a long time.

First, work through the comments with someone else to parse their meaning as closely as possible. A native speaker might be able to explain what the reviewer was trying to say in his/her comments. If several people are not able to understand or do not agree, then you may contact the editor for clarification. But try not to reach this point--nothing in the snippet you have provided seems that problematic.

Next, revise and resubmit as directed by the journal editor. In your response to reviewer comments, I would create a numbered list of comments. Before stating how you addressed each comment, you should briefly restate your understanding of what the comment was conveying. If you have not adequately addressed the comment because you did not understand it, then this should at least prompt the reviewer to clarify their comment, rather than become annoyed at your response.