More co-authored than solo papers in the Humanities I am halfway through a PhD in History in the UK, in a highly unusual subfield. As my competences are quite rare, I have already been asked to help out with, and be a co-author of, two different papers with postdocs/professors in other areas of the Humanities. The results are interdisciplinary articles that I am quite happy with. I am also writing an additional article with a fellow PhD student (I will be the first author there).
As I am only now finishing up my first solo paper, I am concerned that having more co-authored papers (3) than solo ones (1) will hurt my CV when I apply for postdocs/jobs. Will institutions look down on me for co-authoring more papers than the norm in the Humanities?

In the UK, up until last year, hiring for lectureships was all about the Research Excellence Framework (REF). Going forward, hiring will likely be all about the REF. We just made two hires in my department and the keys questions were what did the applicants look like for the last REF and what might they look like for the next REF.

Co-authorship in my field is the norm and for the last REF where on the authorship list you were did not matter. I am pretty sure this was true across all assessment units, but you should check with someone in your department. For REF 2014, the same paper could be returned multiple times if the authors were spread across multiple universities (and possibly even multiple units of assessment). For REF 2020, we do not know what the rules will be. Potentially, they will attempt to assign partial credit to publications or only allow a paper to be returned once, but this would be hugely messy.

If REF 2020 devalues co-authored papers in History, and by 2020 you won't have N (last time N was 4, but could be reduced for new lecturers) single authored publications, then the joint publications will be looked at unfavourably.


Phd defense jury in Belgium I have been invited to be an external jury member for a PhD defense at a Belgian university. Apart from reimbursement of my travel expenses, am I going to be paid for this work? In UK (where I am based), there will be payment for external examiners. It would be embarrassing for me to ask them directly:)

Thanks for any info!

On the continent, my understanding is that it’s considered part of “service duties” and thus while travel is (often) compensated for, your time is not.


Who has the right to bestow a professor title? (government or university) In my country (Vietnam), the professor title is bestowed by a national council. In Korean or USA, it is bestowed by the university. What about other countries (e.g. Japan, France, Germany, Australia, England, Russia)? And if the title is bestow by the university, is it still recognized when the person who hold the title move to other university?

In the United States, personal titles are almost never legally protected or regulated by the government.  This is a strong cultural tradition going back through the origin of the nation, and is in fact encoded in the US Constitution, in the "Titles of Nobility" clause:

  No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States: and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state.

In the US, then, in general anybody can call themselves any title they feel like, including Professor, Doctor, President, and Emperor.  The title, per se, is only a matter of social convention and will be respected or disrespected based on whether other people believe a person deserves it.
The law typically only gets involved from a perspective of fraud, false advertising, public endangerment, etc. if a person uses such a title to give a false impression of your skills and certifications.  To illustrate the distinction: Dr. Dre is perfectly within his rights to use that name, but if he tried to give somebody a prescription, he could be arrested for practicing medicine without a license.

Thus, the US government does not name people professor (except incidentally, if it happens to be running the university, e.g. NWC).  Typically universities name people "professor" as a job title, but in fact, anybody can call themselves a professor or set up their own fake university to be a professor at.


Are there risks of manuscript rejection if manuscript is the edited version of a thesis report available online? I have completed a thesis project report that is currently uploaded in ResearchGate with a DOI identifier. Out of that report, I created a manuscript for publication in IEEE and recently submitted my manuscript.

My question is this: how would IEEE determine that I am not plagiarizing and that the manuscript that I recently submitted is just from my own thesis project report that I uploaded in ResearchGate. Are there any risks?

From this policy statement we have the following quote:

Technical Reports, Dissertations, and Lectures: Internal
reports and memos distributed within an institution, lecture
notes, tutorials, seminars, and academic theses or dissertations
are not considered prepublication even if available online

and according to MIT's resources page (see subsection on IEEE):

Submission of new article by author that first appeared as part of author’s thesis
Theses not specifically addressed, but permitted subject to editorial discretion. Individual journals may have their own policies

From these two quotes, it seems that if the publication is allowed at all, then you won't have any problem with having put it online previously because IEEE doesn't consider that prepublishing. However, individual journals may not accept theses for publication.
The answer to "how would IEEE determine that I am not plagiarizing" specifically is simply "both have your name on them."


Is there any systematic approach to select/find a research topic? I was offered an opportunity to prepare a 2-page research proposal for a postgraduate research program in computer science.

I am searching for a systematic and step by step technique to select/find a workable research topic.

Is there any systematic procedure/strategy/approach/method that researchers generally use to select/find and narrow down a research topic from an ocean of topics that pops in one's mind?

Is this technique an standard in the academia?

I don't know whether it is standard. there may be some standards, but probably not worldwide. I personally had to write a 2-page research proposal on a topic I didn't choose.

IMHO, it's a great opportunity to choose a topic that you can like, if the topic was imposed (or changed after a few years by your supervisor) you would probably hate that, since you have this opportunity, I'd try to make the best use of it.

Systematic approach to select/find a research topic (by trylks):

Make a list of the  areas that interest you
Make a systematic literature review (so the approach is systematic) for those areas
Find research problems in the literature review and at least one that:

has not been researched yet (it's "open")
should be done next. It's in the frontier of the state of the art

a) Without many previous requirements or they will become your thesis

b) it's interesting from a research perspective
not too many people are working on it (best is zero, but that could be for some reason...). The problem if there are too many people (and you are not a part of their team(s)) is that the frontier of the state of the art may keep moving before you are able to reach it.
you have the necessary knowledge and skills to advance the state of the art in that problem
you have the necessary resources to advance the state of the art in that problem (e.g. don't choose something that requires access to the data from LHC if you won't have access to that data)
There is some economic interest in the problem and the results of your thesis (you don't need this for the thesis, but it will make everything much easier, specially after the thesis)

WRT the frontier of the state of the art, it usually looks like:

a) Some limitation in current systems/techniques that has not been addressed (specially in engineering)

b) Some question that remains open (specially in science)

c) Some question that has not been addressed (in some particular way) (specially in philosophy)

But well, research in those areas is more than that and it will be done in different ways depending on the topic. Computer science is sometimes considered an engineering (software engineering), sometimes a science (and can be empirical with benchmarks or formal with proofs) and it can be as well philosophical (specially in AI, IMHO). The kind of problem should arise from the review of the literature.

BTW: don't try to rush, this is systematic, but it will definitively take very long.


Are overlapping dissertations ethically acceptable? Would it be ethical for students working on the same team to include in their Ph.D. theses results arising from joint publications, ending up in different dissertations containing almost identical chapters?

Of course, the students should at least mention that the common chapters are excerpted from a joint publication. However, wouldn't a significant overlap at least indicate that the students have been unable to come up with enough strong and coherent results to make their own independent dissertations?

I think for a PhD thesis it is important the writer has enough original and new contributions to earn the PhD degree. When two PhD's work closely together, and write joint publications this can only work if it is clear that both PhD's have made new and significant contributions.

For example, in a publication which has both lab experiments and numerical modeling it is easy to see that both the lab-PhD and the numerical-PhD have done different things, which are put together jointly into a publication. In this case I would think it ethical that both PhD's get their degree based on the same publications. If, however, the overlap is not countered by the fact that the PhD's each have their distinct niche, I would not find it ethical to let two people get their degree based on the same work.

In the PhD theses the publications could be used as such by both PhD, but they need to have a different introduction and synthesis chapter as they worked on different aspects of the joint papers. In addition, I would explain the situation and how the collaboration worked in the preface of both theses.


transition from academia to industry I am currently doing a post-doc in pure Math [teaching and research] in the US. The academic year 2014-2015 will be my last postdoc year and I am currently considering my next employment possibilities.

For several reasons, I am considering a job outside academia in Europe [I am an E.U. citizen], for my next employment. As I know about nothing else except for my research in Pure Math and teaching of Math, I could use as much advice as possible regarding this potential transition from academia to a non-academia job. I have read through the many related questions and answers. But I still could not find answers to the following questions.

(1) How early in advance do you have to apply for a job outside academia? Let me provide a bit more details: I really need employment as soon as my current one ends, b/c I need the money to support my living expenses. So I cannot really afford to spend more than one or two months without employment. I am asking this, b/c for academia jobs one typically applies one year ahead of time, things are standard and clear. But not so clear to me are applications outside academia.

(2) Given that I know nothing about programming right now, what would my chances of getting a programming job be? In other words, would I get some sort of PAID training in programming?

(3) Any sort of comments/advice regarding working for a publishing house? [such as: salary?]

Thank you.

1) You should start applying for jobs about 9 months before your current job ends.  Most employers will want you to start immediately, or within a few months, and might favor candidates who can do so.  Starting 9 months ahead is basically allowing time for the job search process, application processes, the interviewing processes, and employer decision-making processes.  All of those can take much longer than you'd expect (and much longer than is necessary).  You might be very efficient in your processes, but employers can be very slow in communicating with you, starting the interview process, and (worst of all) making hiring decision.

I say "about 9 months" because this is a very rough estimate.  You might do well to start a year ahead and you might succeed by starting 6 months ahead.  But don't start 3 or less months ahead.  There are many factors you can't control and you are not in a position to go many months without income.

If you get lucky and get an interview 9 months before you are available, someone might ask why you are interviewing "now".  Just tell them your job search plan and your priorities.  If they can't hold the position open for 8 months, then move on.

2) I'd say that your chances of getting a programming job are about zero if you have no previous experience or training in programming.  There are just too many other people who have it.

Your best chance is to apply for jobs that require PhD in Math and where you'd work in groups with programmers.  For example, you might find work in the field of cryptography as a mathematician and then get training and experience in programming along the way.  Same goes for jobs in Econo-physics (quant finance & trading).

If you have one year before you change jobs, I'd recommend taking one or two introductory programming courses -- Python and R are good choices.

You should also build social network relations with as many academic-to-industry mathematicians as you can, so you can learn who is hiring and how that maps back to your particular knowledge and skills.

3) I'm not familiar enough with (technical) publishing to know salaries.  I was recently a technical editor on a book, but that was a contract position and the pay was low for the hours I put in.


What are some implications of taking a break before a PhD in the US or Europe? I am a final year physics Master's student. I want to do a PhD after completing my masters. But instead of applying directly after completing masters, I wish to take a break from academics for a year and do a good research project with some professor unofficially, since doing good research is a big factor for PhD applications.

I have also got some comments that a PhD applicant with a break is given less importance, unless he has a high impact research done in the break.

Now I can't take a risk regarding high impact research. Hence I am confused regarding my future plans. What are the suggestions. How should I carry forward?

My perspective is primarily European, since I did my Master's in Sweden and my PhD in Germany. That said, I did take a break before starting on my PhD. It wasn't entirely voluntarily -- I did not get any PhD studentships when I wanted them, and had to wait for the next round of applications.

During my break, I moved from Sweden to Germany, and took a job doing industrial software design for a consultancy firm. It gave me good experiences, the knowledge that I could make a career in industry, and also a very strong drive to make it in academia. Furthermore, the PhD position I eventually was admitted to, I got in part because I had, at that point, both Open Source and industry experience with packaging, shipping and distributing software -- something my advisor wanted to learn more about.

For me, this all worked out well. I left my industry job after 10 months to start a PhD, I graduated with a decent enough thesis, and now -- several years later -- I am about to start the first research project with my name on the grant application.

One fundamentally important thing to note with my anecdote is that there is a huge difference in how PhDs are admitted in large parts of Europe vs. in the US. For my PhD, I applied for a job with a particular professor, which happened to include “opportunity to study for a PhD” as part of the job description. This is how it mostly is done in Germany, and also in Sweden. In this setting, it is important that you come to the PhD with a set of credentials that will be valuable to your advisor, specifically. I managed to do just this with my break -- but that was luck as much as anything else.

In the US, there seems to be a LOT more politics involved in the process, and the applying to a school aspect of the US process biases the experience more towards grooming your CV for academia in general.

Your mileage will vary.


How is the quality of a paper evaluated for application purposes? Suppose a situation when two students trying to apply for a PhD position in pure mathematics and they both have same GPA, same Rec.Letters, etc except for their published papers. Let both applicants have one paper published each, but applicant A has a "much better" research done compared to applicant B.

What makes applicant A's paper "much better"?

If it is the number of people cited his/her paper in their references it is absurd because time is the main factor of growth of its credit.

If it is the reputation of journal the paper is published it is also not a good judgement because the very same journal can contain both proof to FLT and a PhD paper.

I don't think the length of paper matters... I don't think the time that a researcher has spent matters since no one asks that...

This is a question of comparing two research paper which neither contains a solution to a famous unsolved problem; it's about papers that normally publish by students (or even professors).

The quality of a mathematical paper isn't an absolute. It may not even be apparent for years. Quality is judged by individuals and two judges may come to opposite conclusions on the value.

Number of citations is no more than an indication. A person working in an especially arcane sub-field with few other researchers will naturally have fewer citations than someone working in a popular field. Who cites your work may mean more, actually.

The quality of the journal in which you find something is an indication, but partly that is a matter of coincidence. Perhaps the paper in the "lesser" journal is, again, in too arcane a field for the editors to have included it. It isn't that this means nothing, it is just that it isn't an absolute indication.

If the purpose of the question is anything beyond a hypothetical, related to who is more likely to advance, then that really depends on other factors. Certainly one paper isn't a great indicator. As a comment by Prof. Santa Claus notes, a future advisor is more likely to want to work with the student who has more to contribute to the actual work of the subfield of that advisor. Something in either paper may help that person to make a decision, but other factors will also come in to play.

This doesn't, of course, address the issue that some problems in mathematics are considered important. You mention famous unsolved questions of course. Giving a first correct proof of a problem already considered important is, of course, quality work.


Ok to read my script in a 3-min presentation for a conference? I have a 3-min presentation for a conference. I am an early researcher who has never done any presentation, so this will be my first.

Presentation is my weakness, and it is a challenge for me to give a smooth talk. I am feeling nervous.

Q: How common is to write out a script for a 3-min talk and just follow the papers?

If you literally read a script, word-for-word, and do not have a teleprompter, you are going to be looking down too much and not looking at your audience enough.

Even if you write a script, it would be better to have notes that help you keep the main points in order, and practice until you can give the complete talk in the required time just glancing occasionally at your notes.


Re-applying to Math PhD programs while in first semester of current program. How viable? I've looked at many of the answers on this site to questions similar to mine, and I've seen a huge variety of answers. My situation is a bit more specific, so I decided to finally make a post and ask about it.
I applied to Pure Math PhD programs this year (for Fall 2021). I was accepted into two, neither of which were my top choices (they were on the safer side). My partner applied to PhD programs in a different field (not math) but we were not accepted anywhere together. We want to reapply to eachothers institutions this fall in order to be closer. In particular there is one school (call it Y) who is strong in my research area and is close to my partner.
Furthermore, the university whose offer I accepted (call it X) is not strong in my research area - there is at most 1 person who I could maybe work with, but even they are not really super in line with my research interests.
To summarize, I have accepted an offer at University X, and am entering the Phd program there this fall. I really want to reapply to school Y both in order to be close to my partner and because the research there is more in line with what I want to study. I also want to apply to some other top programs in my field, since, if I don't get accepted to Y, I would want to at least be somewhere with strong research in my field. My application for this fall will be notably stronger than my application last cycle due to more research and graduate coursework at my undergrad institution. Is re-applying this fall acceptable, or will it be viewed poorly (although I believe I have solid reasons)?
I am seeking advice on how viable this is since there are mixed responses for other questions. Any input is appreciated, but especially if you've experience this yourself or are perhaps a professor somewhere. Thank you!
EDIT: It's worth also nothing that X is "strong enough" in my area and I love the location, so I could be happy there. Just not ideal, really. In particular I came more into my professional interests a bit later in my undergrad, so at the time of applying I wasn't firmly in one area of research (hence, I'm realizing a bit late that it's a little bit of an awkward fit at X).

There is really no answer to the "viability" question. The only thing to do is to apply and make your best effort to be accepted.
But, as you probably already know, getting accepted to a single institution, considering no others, has a pretty low probability of success generally, due to the competition.
But there is really no reason that you should't apply. If you are turned down you are no worse off than now. Most people will, I hope, understand your reasons.
But there may be another path open, if your partner is in a place with several universities in reasonable distance. You might apply to several universities within, say a 50 mile radius. In some places that is a pretty large set of universities. Not everywhere, obviously.
Your partner can take similar action. Maybe you'll get lucky.


The phd advisor copied my thesis to another's I have a fairly unique situation going on that I'm not quite sure how to handle. A colleague of mine completed her PhD two years ago on the topic of arts and the local community. Since she was computer illiterate, she hand-wrote her entire thesis. Her advisor delayed in reviewing her work, asking for money from the student before beginning to review but she refused to pay (according to her). After a while, the advisor told my colleague that he would take care of having the thesis typed up himself, and did so. She paid the typing and printing cost. (Also, for context, it's fairly common not to know how to operate a computer in my region.)

At that point, this advisor asked for my PhD thesis, which I had recently completed. I handed him a soft copy.

Recently, my colleague and I were reviewing our theses, we noticed blatant plagiarism between the two versions. My colleague then remembered that her advisor has mentioned that he "edited" her thesis to "make it more informative". She immediately informed the university about the plagiarism and has put in a request to rescind the degree, as the no longer feels she deserves it. Unfortunately, the press found out about this story, and it's now in the public eye.

My question is, what can I do to protect my reputation at this point? I've since done some research and believe I have found other examples of this advisor both demanding money from students before graduating them and plagiarizing work on PhD papers. I've presented this to the Vice Chancellor, and he seems to believe the evidence, as we're not the first ones to complain about this type of behavior from this advisor. Still, with all that said, is there anything I can do to clear my name and expose the advisor?

Your colleague handed her hand-written thesis to her PhD advisor.  She couldn't graduate without bribing him.  He should have had it typed out as-is, but instead he took the liberty to edit it, and added plagiarism from your thesis, then published it.

He is behaving wrongly on many levels:

He should not ask a bribe.
He should not edit her thesis text.
He should not have sent in her edited thesis as her authorship.
He should not plagiarise your thesis.

The people involved:

The advisor is engaging in severe misconduct and should be fired and criminally prosecuted.
Your colleague has been uncareful to not have complete documentation.  She must retract her PhD thesis, because she did not approve the final text and should not bear responsibility for its contents.  She is a victim of the advisor but she is at a large risk of being accused of plagiarism and bribery herself, which makes her situation tricky.
Your PhD thesis still stands.  For you, it should be easy to provide evidence of plagiarism and evidence that you were the original author, for your PhD thesis was already published a year earlier.  The damage to your reputation is much less than to the other people involved, as you are exclusively a victim.

What to do:

Make sure you keep written copies of everything you do.
She has apparently already spoken to the Vice Chancellor, who believes her.  That is good.  Go there together, along with anyone else who has been wrongly treated by the advisor, and ask what formal steps you can take to make him face consequences.
If the vice chancellor is unwilling to proceed, you might threaten with publicity, but I would not do so before.
She needs to retract her PhD thesis because the text is not her responsibility and she did not approve the final version.

P.S. The advice above may be naive.  I am from a society where corruption is not considered normal (when it does happen, it is considered a scandal) and where a situation such as you describe would be unheard of in a university.  I hope the advice is still useful and perhaps the follow-up to these incidents can help improve academic culture overall.

P.P.S. If you know anyone else who hand-writes their thesis, strongly recommend them to contact a computer-literate friend to scan each page soon after it is written and keep this backed up in a safe place.


Which US universities publish cohort ranking - position in class? For example when you take the GRE you get the percentile score, is there such statistics and how is it called? Do US publish such data or does it have to be asked specifically?

For example you are in a committee and have to evaluate how applicants performed compared to their peers during their bachelor or master's degree. For example in the UK first honors is around top 9% of the cohort.

The US has no organized system of class rank comparisons. Some individual universities (or departments within a university) may track this, but at the university level the educational approaches are so diverse, even for different options within a single department, that direct rank comparison would make little sense in any case. It is for this reason that a number of high ranked universities (MIT being one example) explicitly refuse to create such ranking comparisons.


During review, I found a superior solution. What now? I received a journal paper for a review. The paper suggests a solution to an important problem, but the solution is very complicated and has mediocre performance. While reading the paper, I thought of a different solution, which is much simpler and has better performance (to give some scale: their solution is 1 page to write and 5 pages to prove; my solution is 5 lines to write and half a page to prove).

What should I do now?

A. Write my solution in the review, hoping the authors will remember to "thank the anonymous reviewer"?

B. Recommend that the paper published as is, then write a paper of my own with my improved solution?

C. Something else?

EDIT: Before I found the superior solution, I thought of recommending "resubmit with major revision", with the reasons that I mentioned above: your solution is too complicated and its performance is too weak.

However, now I am not sure it is the good course of action. A major revision may take a long time. The authors might even decide to delay or stop working on the paper without telling the editor (or me). Meanwhile, I will have to postpone the publishing of the superior solution for an indefinite amount of time. What do you think?

I didn't get a clear impression of your opinion of the authors' work.  "Solving an important problem" ought to make for an excellent paper, but the rest of your description seems to partially negate that.  (In particular, I don't quite know what a "nonstandard input parameter" is, but it sounds a bit like they are cheating or that the legitimacy of their solution could be a matter of debate.)

Either way, it seems to follow from what you say that you feel that you have solved an important problem, indeed in a better way than the authors.  Unless you are such a known superstar in your field that this is a commonplace occurrence for you, I would think that you deserve to get more out of this than an anonymous thanks.  To me the options seem to be:

1) If the authors' paper is strong enough to be published, say so.  You should not hide your opinions about their shortcomings, but you don't have to include your new ideas in your referee report.  Then:

1a) If just by responding to your criticism (if they care to) the authors replicate your better solution, then it seems that you did not add critical value, and I would just recommend accepting their modified version and letting the matter end there.

But

1b) If your conscientious refereeing produces a version that is worth publishing but does not replicate your superior solution, then you should prepare your solution for publication.  The timing of this is something that you should ask for other opinions about.  It would be ideal if the authors had circulated their results in preprint form.  If not, you may need to delay submission until their paper actually appears.

2) If you think the paper is not publishable in its current form in the journal to which it was submitted but that it inspired you to solve the problem in a better way, this may be a case for you to ask permission to contact the authors and add your work to theirs.

3) If the work is really not valuable and your solution has little or nothing to do with theirs, then you could just recommend the paper for rejection and then submit your own solution elsewhere.  Examine your conscience carefully before doing this though: imagine that the authors found out exactly what you did.  Would they see it your way?


What to do if bullied by students? I've recently been the subject of bullying by a group of students. I taught a difficult module alongside another module, which was taught by somebody else. The other module was much easier and offered huge amounts of support. Students described having their hands held in this module. One student told me that this module felt like students were being treated as newbies, whereas my module felt like they were being treated as second year students at a Russell Group university. The university where I work is more teaching focused.

Having heard feedback from students, I think that the tasks I set them were quite challenging, and I don't think they were used to it. I'm still adjusting to the level that the students are operating at in this university, and were I to I teach in the module again, I would adjust the level.

However, the main issue is that students posted rude, personal and abusive feedback in the module evaluations and also posted nasty comments on the module forum. I also got nasty emails from some students, and although I passed this up to management, nothing was done and I was left to deal with this alone.

It has affected my self esteem and my confidence as a lecturer. I've always had plenty of good feedback before and I've always felt competent in my role. I don't know if I have any rights in terms of being bullied by students, but one student has just told me that there is a Facebook group where I was being slated and there were really personal comments. The student I spoke to today described it as a bit of a hate group, directed at me. One student even copied an email that I had sent her (a photograph of it) and posted it on a Facebook group. I'm not sure if this contravenes any confidentiality regulations.

Anyway, I just wondered if anyone else had experienced this and if anyone had any advice. I've been teaching for 10 years and I was on the verge of quitting my job, and I don't feel like I can easily face teaching these students again. On a personal level, I see it as an opportunity to develop greater resilience, but I can't help the fact that it really feels undermining and threatening to be in this situation.

Any advice or support would be appreciated.

In short, the behaviour of your students is not acceptable - no matter how good or bad your teaching was.

If something like this were to happen at my university, I as vice dean for teaching would invite the whole group for a face-to-face meeting and explain to them how adults should solve problems.

In fact, this is something you should aim for, since the problem will persist and affect others as well, since the students' behaviour will not change.

We had good success with early feedback opportunities (not just the end term evaluation), micro-evaluations (anonymous feedback which can be a one-liner) which are discussed with the whole group, an honest open door policy, and with involving student organizations and representatives early on. Some course formats have to be explained to students over and over again... This might be helpful in the future, but won't help for now.

If you are still teaching this course, I'd suggest an intervention (if possible with the help of another neutral professor) where you address the problem in front of the class. If possible, summon an extra meeting which does not take place in your usual teaching room.
For such a setting, I would suggest just asking the students about feedback regarding your lecture, but ask them to follow commonly accepted feedback rules. Afterwards, tell them what you took as the take home message from the feedback.

Afterwards, you should tell them that you prefer direct communication about any issues.

In the best case, they should be ashamed afterwards...


Does submitting TeX sources to arXiv increase risk of plagiarism? It is mandatory that manuscripts that are TeX/LaTeX-based must be submitted along with all source files, which includes the tex document, images and supplementary files (like CSV files) required to generate the PDF.

According to arXiv's TeX FAQ, this sort of submission does not increase the risk of plagiarizing content. They claim that anyone with little knowledge can extract the necessary files from basic PDF files and that verbatim from TeX document can be easily detected.

Now, taking this from the practical viewpoint, is it really true that this does not make plagiarizing data easier than the simple PDF submission? According to my knowledge there are many potential plagiarizers who find it hard to take vector graphics from PDF files. Eventhough it is technically possible it does deter many to an extent.

So, does submitting (La)TeX source files to arXiv increase the risk of getting the plagiarized?

is it really true that this does not make plagiarizing data easier than the simple PDF submission?

The Arxiv doesn’t claim this. All they claim is that plagiarism is pretty easy anyway. The respective Arxiv text reads:

  There is no file format or other technological device that can protect you from [plagiarism]. At the very least, unscrupulous re-typers would always remain a threat. Postscript does not provide a barrier in any event: it is quite simple for someone with a little knowledge to extract any text from a Postscript file. Moreover a plagiarist who cuts-and-pastes directly from your TeX source is all the more easily detected, since the source is easily identified. We archive all versions of papers so that we can assist in any priority or plagiarism disputes.

  So, how safe is it to submit (La)TeX source files to arXiv?

For all practical purposes I would say it is as safe as any other type of Arxiv submission. I concur with the Arxiv that making a technical copy of your article is pretty easy anyway. Even re-typing the entire article and using screenshots of your graphics is a comparably easy task. Yes, the quality may suck, but that wouldn’t bother the plagiarist.

The main challenge to successfully plagiarise is to use the plagiarised article and remain undetected – not making a technical copy.


Can I use the same PhD application for consecutive years without paying extra fees? I am applying this year for a PhD program in US schools.

My chances to get accepted will be higher next year, but I don't want to miss the chance of getting accepted this year. should I wait for the next year, or should I apply this year and ask the university to reconsider my application for next year? The problem is with the application fees, it would be very hard to apply for 2 years, the application will cost me around $200 (including the scores of GRE, GRE Physics and TOEFL), and I am intending to apply for 10 universities.

This is tricky, because in the US there really is no standard/universal handling for this sort of situation. It's probably going to be different at every department you are thinking of applying to.

With that said, there are a few common outcomes, to wit:

Some programs will simply say no - you must pay in full at the time of both the original application, and re-application.
Some programs offer fee waivers with a variety of requirements. Some programs will waive fee for US citizens with demonstrated need, some programs waive fees for people who participated in certain programs (often which target helping certain groups get to and succeed in college).
Some offer waivers/reductions to countries where the relatively reasonable fee to US citizens is just an absurd expense (especially ones where $75 is 2-4+ weeks of average salary). This does not apply to every country, however.
I suppose it's technically possible that a program will allow you to pay the fee once and reapply the next year at no additional cost...but I've really never heard of that and I'd be pleasantly surprised if any program you were looking at would offer you that option.

I'd suggest you contact a few of your target programs right away and ask their graduate coordinator what your options specific to the fees are. That's really the only way I can think of to get a real answer that's certain enough to help you decide on what to do.

But barring answers from your target programs, I would absolutely suggest that you do not simply rely on them being willing to let you reapply at no extra cost or automatically not pay the fee - or even to waive the fee more than once. They are not required to do this by any external rules or laws, and being a foreign citizen or having limited finances are not protected/privileged groups under most US laws.

Get direct answers from schools you care about, and then decide for yourself if you absolutely cannot afford to apply two years in a row if it comes to that.


“Areas” vs. “Themes” in the classification of a university’s topics I am applying for a university, and on their website they have divided topics in “Areas” and “Themes”. For example, Areas contains Information Systems and Computer Science and Themes contains Big Data and Cybersecurity.

As the heading says, what is the difference between areas and themes in this context? In my opinion, there is a great many that overlaps making the margins fuzzy between the terms.

Many departments will organize themselves internally in multiple various different ways, base on how they've organized their program.  For example, where I went the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department was organized in at least the following (partially independent) ways:

Three different degree tracks (EE, CS, and EECS): which one you chose dictated your graduation requirements.
Seven focus areas (devices, signal processing, electrodynamics, AI, algorithms, systems, biomedical): these were used in organizing graduation requirements.
Several major "laboratories" comprising up to 100 faculty or more, which were primarily EECS but also overlapped with other departments: these were the primary organizations of research and graduate life (beyond one's own supervisor, of course)
A number of "themes" within the focus areas, that were used for determining aspects of Ph.D. qualification.

Other departments are likely to have similar degrees of intricacy, as the result of the evolution of complex negotiations between different people and organizations over many decades.  Moreover, they are likely to use the same words differently, because there are only so many ways to say things like "area" and "theme" and lots of different odd organizational specifics that one might be mapping them to.

In your own case, it sounds like the "areas" are more durable aspects of study, where the "themes" are current hot topics.  The only way to know for certain what they mean to that organization, however, is to read the university's documentation online (if they are well organized) or to contact the people there directly.


In PhD admission is research internship or a job in a research lab better? If I hope to enroll in a Computer Science PhD program in a top tier university (Stanford/CMU) and I currently hold a master's degree (without publication). Is a year-long Research Software development job at a reputable R&D Lab (Microsoft research lab at my country for example) or a short-term research internship at a good lab that may get my name on a paper in a good journal?
Of course you may assume I cannot do both.

To expand a bit on my comments:

  In PhD admission is research internship or a job [at a research lab] better?

Whatever you think gives you a better research profile at the end.

If you get a job at a strong research lab like Microsoft Research (MSR), you will typically also write strong papers, collaborate tightly with academics, and go to conferences. Hence, many of the advantages you would hope for from a research internship you would also get with a job at a good research lab. That being said, you may also get swamped with tasks more focused on "transfer" or productisation tasks, which are likely still valuable for PhD admissions, but arguably less so than actual research papers.

That being said, I am wondering whether you are (without a PhD) actually competitive for a job at a good research lab. As far as I know, these labs typically hire primarily at postdoc level and beyond.


What happens if an author acknowledges a potential anonymous referee in the paper? Let's say that you thank Professor X in your paper that you will submit to a Journal Y for providing you some insightful comments. It is never possible to know but let's assume that Professor X is the anonymous referee for your paper. This is possible since you make a list of potential referees (this is quite common for some journals).

What would be the reaction of an editor?

As an editor in both computer science and biology, I would generally consider a person listed in the acknowledgements to be involved enough to have a conflict of interest, and therefore would not invite them to be a reviewer. This is a heuristic, not an absolute rule.

It is also worth noting that I usually solicit a review from precisely one of the recommended reviewers, since recommended reviewers are often "close" in the network of the authors, and I want to have more independent perspectives as well.  It's still worth listing multiple recommended reviewers, since some may be unavailable, but it's not useful (for editors like me) to make a very extensive list.


Research grants for international PhD candidates I recently came across a friend who is applying for a PhD in my lab. He happens to be from Brazil, on an F-1 visa. He was told by my advisor that his citizenship status affects the sources of funding available to support his work. I was always under an impression that the principal investigator applies for research grants and funding does not depend on visa status (if any) of the students under his guidance. Was I wrong in making this assumption?

It absolutely depends on the source of funding. Each organization has their own rules. By and large, the NSF (since you mentioned F-1 visas I assume this is US-centric) allows foreign students to receive funding from grants, but this intent has to be disclosed at the time of submitting the grant request.

DARPA has slightly tighter rules although I'm reasonably sure foreign nationals can be funded. But if you're from a "country of interest" like Iran, there can be other complications.

Finally, while these are not PI-requested grants, the NSF-Hertz graduate fellowships are exclusively for US citizens.

p.s This even applies to PIs. There's a large DARPA program that you're not eligible to apply for unless you have a SECRET clearance, for which a necessary but not sufficient condition is that you're a US citizen.


Posthumous authorship or acknowledgement Suppose I am working on a book that is a broad expansion of a survey article I wrote with a collaborator, Dr. Y, who passed away recently.
I sent Y extremely early drafts of some chapters and invited Y to be a coauthor.
Y gave a lot suggestions in the structure, content, and style of the book, yet Y remained vague about coauthorship (probably because he had doubts if he will live long enough). Y never said yes or no.
Y never participated in the actual writing.
But Y's suggestions became the high level blueprint that guided the development of the book.
This draft is only about 60% done, but I'm wondering: in this case, should Y be a coauthor?

There may be laws that govern this, though laws vary from place to place. Normally he would have to give permission and that "right" may legally have passed to his heirs. You would do well to contact someone responsible for his estate and take up the question with them.
But since he never gave permission, you don't have permission, yet, to include him. You have an obligation to acknowledge his contribution and probably cite some of the specifics as well, even though they haven't been published.
Dedicating the book to his memory would be a nice touch also.


What can I do if my professor says he won't let me publish my biology research? My professor firstly approved everything I've written, and now he is telling me the paper is unworthy and even contains plagiarism. His words also were 'I don't want to be a part of your failure so I won't approve it'. I don't know what could possibly go wrong and why he acts like this. Can you tell me what should I do?

It is true that sometimes people may just search for pretext and will give all shorts of excuses. However, before jumping to that conclusion you should ask yourself are you sure you are right? Most of the times professors will actually give proper advice within the limits of their own personality and human nature.

So to answer your question try to examine and verify that your work is up to the expectations of your supervisor.


Motivation letter for tenure track position A tenure track position I'm applying to (Netherlands) asks for a "motivation letter" in addition to the research statement.  It doesn't give any details about what it should contain.  Therefore my question is in general, what kind of information should one include in a motivation letter (for a tenure track professor position), and what kind of page length should one aim for?

One thing I can think of is to talk about my current employment and why this job would be better for me.  Perhaps the purpose is to convince them that, if I was actually offered the position, that I would indeed accept it?

The purpose is rather to convince them why you would accecpt it and that you are the right candidate for exactly this position offered (research, teaching) and that you have the right mindset for tenure, a professorship with its possibilities and duties and that you will become a successful and happy professor at that place in the netherlands (especially if you were not born in the netherlands and are no native speaker).

Therefore I would outline and epxlain:

why you apply for exactly this position (goals (though this should be described in detail in the research statement), chances and perspectives, interdisciplinary local collaborations with colleagues and industry you see, link to your previous work)
what is your philosophy of teaching, research, team work (international corpus of students at the local university, furthering female researchers,...)
do you plan to engage in administrative work at the university, improving the strategy of the university
what do you like about this place, local culture
(what is your marital-status (not mandatory), language skill)

The last point should be covered in your CV. But based on your CV no one can judge your motivation for exactly this position! So don't underestimate the importance of the motivation letter. The lenght of this letter depends a bit on the number of applicants and you should know this number roughly and what the attention span for the letters will be. Of course it should be longer than a recommendation letter.

A cover letter is obligatory and always added for applicaton to academic positions from PhD up to tenure. A motivation letter must show and deliver arguments why apart from other candidates with similar publication record, grades, qualification you are the best match for this position.


How does a 'quasi-tenured' hire work in practice? I'm posting to help out a friend. The operational parameters are US + research university + computer science, so I'm looking for information primarily in that context, though the question is not computer science-specific.

He's tenured at one university and applying to another place. The latter has a funny kind of tenure option. In addition to regular tenured hires, they can make a rapid hiring decision based on just a small number of letters (say 3-4) into a quasi-tenured position. When this happens, after the person joins they go through a proper tenure review. So in principle, you could be hired to a "tenured" position but then later find you don't have tenure after all.

It seems to be neither the traditional "enter with tenure" model nor "enter with abbreviated tenure clock" model, but some new thing entirely. Someone I spoke to said this is increasingly common, and he'd heard of other departments that did this too. I have never heard of it before and find it rather strange.

Do you know of departments that do this? How does it work in practice?

I don't see how this is really different from hiring somebody with a very short (i.e. one year) tenure clock.  The difference probably has more to do with the hiring institution's internal rules than anything else.

We had a senior hire with a one year clock a while back.  It wasn't labeled as "quasi-tenure," but that was basically how it worked.  You don't give somebody a one year clock unless you are overwhelmingly sure that the person is going to get tenure.  And that seems to be what this position is offering; the hire will start without tenure, but the expectation is that they will be fully tenured in short order.


Using paper figure for public talk I’m giving a public talk (to laypeople in a sci-com event) and wanted to showcase some figures from research papers that weren’t mine. I wanted to know:

If putting citations (Author, Year) followed by a final slide of references was acceptable, or;
Do I need to have “Copyright [journal name]”, or;
Do I need to get permission from author/publisher, or;
ls such a thing even allowed outside of academic conferences

Do the answers to the above questions change if the journal is open access or behind a paywall?

Thanks.

You can use all this information in a public talk. You should tell your audience where it comes from, but the details don't need to be part of the ongoing presentation. Consider a handout so that they can go look for themselves if they are curious.

The fact that some of the information is behind a paywall does not prevent you from referring to it, as long as you obtained it legally and do not quote large parts of it.

You do not need any permissions. It might be nice to write the authors to tell them that you used their work in your talk.

+1 for sci-com.


Physics PhD switching fields after short career break? I was hoping to get some advice from anyone here on a situation I find myself in. I am currently about 8 months into studying for a PhD in particle theory at a top UK university. The department is good, my advisor seems like a sound guy (though we haven’t had much contact, entirely my fault), and the culture of academia is still something I really thrive on. However, I have really not fallen in love with my field. I really expected to enjoy HEP, as I had dreamed of doing exactly this since I was in VIth Form, but the reality of the field is really not sitting right with me - I have found it’s too abstract for me to really enjoy.

I have just been offered a fairly well paid graduate role, however it is basically an IT support job. I’m really unenthused by it, in fact I couldn’t care less, however I intend to accept it and use it to save money for later in life (I have a wedding to pay for). There is of course scope for me to develop skills there such as C++/Python skills, so it would not be wasted time.

I have always had a big interest in the climate, meteorology, and atmospheric physics, and I have found myself reading more and more about it rather than studying my actual work. My current goal is to stay in this job until September 2020 and start up again in one of these fields, however I don’t know how:

a) Leaving this PhD will affect my application,

and

b) Whether the unrelated job will cast a shadow on my application.

I intend to study whilst working, both by reading textbooks and literature on climate physics, and also by developing my coding skills. Is there anything that anyone would suggest I do I addition? How should I explain this situation to potential advisors in the future?

Thanks in advance!

I spent my whole life studying to be a professor of History. I did my AA, BA, MA, and part of my PhD in various sub-fields of History. I was enthusiastic about the career for the majority of that time, but while in graduate school I began to get the sinking feeling that I was not as interested in the field as I'd thought. I also kept getting the unshakable feeling that I was wasting my life. My other friends were out in the workforce, getting married, buying homes, and I was still hobbling around a library writing papers in the wee hours that would ultimately never be read by...anyone.

I left my PhD after realizing that while I probably had the ability to finish it, I did not want to pay the expense of 3-4 additional years of virtually unpaid labor. The likelihood of landing a professorship was low anyway because of the state of my field and of academia in general.

Three years later, I am now a junior software engineer. My job is challenging, rewarding, and a source of pride. It pays me a livable wage. And it's a tremendously good investment for my future. I shudder to think of what might have happened to me had I stayed in academia: cobbling together a living in "adjunct hell" or moving to some Nebraskan cornfield for a tenure-track position at a community college. No thanks.

To be sure, Physics PhDs have more career options - but not as many as you'd think. You'd have to slide your way into a hard-skill position somewhere and lean on your math skill set heavily, in the event that you could not land a professorship or a research position in aerospace (or wherever your interests lie).

However, learning to code is a great idea regardless of whether you stay in Physics, because it is a highly employable hard-skill, even among scientists. I'd look into Python specifically for its role in data science and its usefulness in science research careers. You literally cannot waste your time (as it relates to money or career goals) by learning to code.

Leaving the PhD might not harm your future applications to PhD programs, but it certainly does not do you any favors and you'll need to explicitly address/justify this choice in your new application. The first question they're going to ask is, "Should we invest in this applicant, knowing s/he already left one program?" There are even a few folks in academia who snobbishly refer to leaving the program as "washing out." These people are urchins, but some of them hold clout and occupy positions of power in your target school/program.

You also need to consider how exactly to explain your decision to leave the program. The wording is critical. If you make any indication whatsoever that your decision was informed by whimsy, they might ball up your application and practice half-court shots with it into the trash can. Your decision to leave the program needs to be part of a thoroughly strategic plot to further your career goal: "As I proceeded through my program, I found myself gravitating more and more towards climate science [specific reasons/examples etc etc]." You decided to return to the private sector, brush up on your ancillary skill sets, and then move into a program that better suited your interests. And you loved your former program, advisor, and colleagues. You need to appear that you've got a plan and you've got yourself and your goals all buttoned up.

The "unrelated" job doesn't have to be unrelated if you can weave it into the larger tapestry of your career goal. If coding is relevant whatsoever to jobs in climate science (hint: it is), then you can swing that experience like a truncheon in your application. Plus, having any "real-life" professional-level work experience is a great thing on any PhD application because it indicates that you can work on a team, follow orders, and complete complex tasks. My university (in the US) would rarely accept PhD applicants from recent bachelor's grads because they had not yet had any professional work experience and basically had never "adulted."

One last thing to consider is the fact that you are being offered a job that will allow you to develop a critical skill: coding. That in itself can turn into an incredibly rewarding and lucrative career, if you cultivate it properly. You'll be making money immediately and your job options will open up over time. If you return to academia, you will spend years making very little money, with no real guarantee of a lucrative career afterwards (this point is controversial but the debate over whether PhDs have a good return on investment is something you should absolutely read about).

I mention this last bit only because I think a new career has presented itself to you and you might not have realized it yet.


Freedom in acknowledgments section of dissertation - writing in native language I am currently finishing writing my MSc thesis. I am considering separating the acknowledgments section in two:

Personal acknowledgments (sorted as advisor(s)/family/SO/friends)
Acknowledging financial support

Point 2 is straight forward. My issue is with point 1.

What kind of freedom do I have here?
My thesis is in English (not my nor the university's native language) so, am I allowed to, for example, write some paragraphs on my native language when I am acknowledging non-native English speakers?

Slightly different topic but do I have the freedom to write "inside references" that likely only the person who I am writing to will understand, when addressing friends or SO?

Essentially, what will be frowned upon by the referees in the acknowledgments section?

There are a couple directions to look to see how your school handles this sort of thing:

Your supervisor probably has an idea of what's been done in the past.
Theses in your school or department's library - school's keep past theses that have been accepted on record - have a look at what people in your school, department, and program have done in the past.

In general - a quick survey of what my colleagues have used in the acknowledgements section of their master's theses has determined:

Inside jokes are ok.
Multilingual messages are ok (we are in Canada though, so French and English is pretty common)
None of us believe the any of the referees bothered to read the personal acknowledgements.


Are there any guidelines for labeling axes in plots/graphs? What are best practices (if any exist) for labeling axes in plots/graphs for academic documents, such as theses, publications, or presentations?

Possible options are to use the variable, spell out the variable, or a combination of both. For example, to label a time axis, we could write: t (s) or Time (s) or Time, t (s).

Are there any objective reasons to prefer one style over another, assuming the publisher does not specify which to use? Or sources suggesting a particular format?

I have browsed many journal requirements, but haven't found any that specifically address this.

The recommended way, according to the International System of Units (SI), is to write t/s (SI brochure, §5.3; see also this guide, §7.1). And the SI is the only system of units that should be used to report experimental results.
The rationale behind this notation is the following: a quantity is the product of a numerical value and a unit, so that the ratio of a quantity (e.g. time) and the corresponding unit (e.g second) is a numerical value (a pure number), which can be used to label axes, tables, etc.
In any case, don't use brackets around the unit, like in "t [s]". The reason is that in quantity calculus brackets represent an operator which means "unit of" (not "dimension of") and should only be used around quantities, not around units. So, for instance, you can write:
[t] = s
but not [s]. For completeness, I also mention that braces are also used to denote the numerical value of a quantity. So, in L = 5 m, we have [L] = m and {L} = 5.

References
For those interested in learning more about quantities, units, their typographical conventions, and quantity calculus, here is a list of references with a few notes:

J C Maxwell, "A treatise on electricity and magnetism", vol. I, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1873. Online. Note: Here Maxwell introduces the concept of quantity and the bracket notation.
International Vocabulary of Metrology - Basic and general concepts and associated terms VIM, 3rd edition, JCGM 200:2008. Online. Note: This is the official dictionary of metrological terms where it is possible to find definition for terms like quantity, system of quantities, system of units, etc. On p. 13 there is note which explains the bracket/braces notation.
I M Mills, "The language of science", Metrologia 34, pp. 101-109, 1997.
B W Petley, The fundamental physical constants and the frontier of measurement, Adam Hilger, Bristol, 1988.
I M Mills, "Physical quantities and units" in Recent advances in metrology and fundamental constants, Proceedings of the International School of Physics E. Fermi, Varenna, 2000. Online.
J de Boer, "On the history of quantity calculus and the International System", Metrologia 31, pp. 405-429, 1995.
M J ten Hoor, "Quantity calculus for chemists", Chemistry in action n. 57, 1999. Online
M L McGlashan, "Physicochemical quantities and units: The grammar and spelling of physical chemistry", Royal Institute of Chemistry, London, 1971.
E R Cohen et al., "Quantities, Units and Symbols in Physical Chemistry", IUPAC Green Book, 3rd Edition, 2nd Printing, IUPAC & RSC Publishing, Cambridge, 2008 Online
Nayuki, Handling physical quantities in math formulas. This article is a lively little gem on quantity calculus with lots of practical examples.


How important are independent undergrad projects in grad school applications for CS? This may be a particularly specific question, but I am at a point where I can choose to take additional mathematics courses in the final year of my degree to strengthen my transcript for grad school applications to Computer Science, but I am also able to choose to do an 8 month supervised research/project course (essentially an undergrad capstone/thesis equivalent).

Of course it depends on the schools, but in terms of general grad school admissions, would a personal project that requires a large amount of independent work show more strength than a few additional (but still important, some schools I've looked into list these as preferred prerequisites) math classes?

The short answer, at least in my opinion, is definitely to do the independent project if you're considering graduate school. But an important consideration is making sure it contributes to a strong application package.

If you chose to take the additional classes, their grades would be reflected on your transcript and in your GPA, and so there would be an objective measure of how you had mastered their content and in so doing had become a better candidate for admission.

If you do the independent project, you want to consider carefully how its results will be communicated so as to strengthen your application package. You might at some point discuss this with the project supervisor. If publishable output is a possibility, that's great, but I'm assuming that's unlikely. But if things go well (AFTER it's established that things are going well), you should approach your supervisor about providing a reference letter that you can include with your applications. You don't want to just have that project listed in your application alongside all your other classes; you want to be able to demonstrate how doing independent research as an undergrad made you more likely to succeed as a graduate student (thereby making it easier for the admissions committees to justify offering you a place in their incoming class).


Terms agreed upon for PhD offer are being unilaterally rescinded—what to do? At my old university:

I was a visiting researcher at a university, working with my current advisor. My advisor got an offer to go to another university. He also offered me to join him at his new university.

I got an offer letter by the Admissions department of the new university for their PhD track. As the offer was lacking in multiple regards -- type of housing, healthcare, stipend rate, academic responsibilities, opportunities for internships -- I spoke to my advisor, Admissions and the dean of my department at the new university.

My advisor and the dean effectively agreed to fixing my concerns. These agreements were partly put on record. During that time, my advisor had not yet accepted his new position. (Maybe the dean just agreed to my concerns in order to land that hire.) I was invited for a short stay as a visiting researcher.

At my new university:

During that stay many of my concerns materialized. I voiced my concerns with my advisor, the respective administrative departments, and Admissions. My advisor  reluctantly tried to change things, but mostly referred me to speak with other people.

This effectively led to a one-sided invalidation of my offer letter.

I spoke multiple times with my advisor and the dean. They still are of the opinion that they are bound by our agreement. However, they are now telling me that they are in no role to give orders to the Admissions department. The only two people who have this authority is one of the Vice Presidents and the President himself. The dean knows that this Vice President will side with Admissions. The President is shortly before his retirement and will not be present anymore.

Both my advisor and the dean made the impression that they can take care of my admission and fix my concerns. Now they are saying that even though these things were agree upon, they cannot do anything to fulfill their promises.

Current options:

My advisor offered me to work from another country as a remote contract worker with lower effective pay. That will of course not lead to earning a PhD.

Legal options are not available, as the university is located in a country with no court system.

How would one go forward with this situation?

It may have been mistakes and over-optimism, not deliberate misleading, on the part of your advisor and the dean. If so, they should be feeling embarrassed at making promises they could not keep.

The contractor plan does not help with your goal of "Doing research and earning a PhD.". At most, it is a temporary stopgap, but accepting it may weaken your negotiating position when trying to get what you really need. You need to move to a university, possibly your old one, as a PhD student, not a contractor.

I suggest asking your advisor and the dean for help finding a PhD student position, including writing letters of recommendation and calling associates. That is the best way of compensating you for their unfulfilled promises. Give them something to do that is within their power, unlike keeping their original promises, but that will help you to your real objective, unlike the contractor offer.

Here is a way to get that discussion going:

  Thanks for the offer of a contractor position. Unfortunately, that
  does not let me achieve my objective of research leading to a PhD. It
  does not seem that I will be able to do that here. Could you help me
  with finding a PhD position elsewhere? Do you know other researchers
  in [your area]? Could you make some phone calls to find out who
  can take me?

Before doing this, you also need to compare your situation if you continue as a PhD student with your current advisor to not having a PhD student position.

You might also review your advisor's and the dean's known contacts, such as their co-authors, advisors, former students, and people who had the same advisor at about the same time. If you can, identify professors on that list who you would like as advisor. That way you can specifically ask them to contact Professors X, Y, and Z about you.

If they do start helping you with your position search, remember to thank them, even if you feel they owe it to you. Always give positive reinforcement to behavior that benefits you. That will encourage them to go further down that line.


Is it better to write "Related Work" at the start or in the end? As per title, which one is a better way to go:

to write the Related Work part right after Introduction and before System Architecture

OR

to write the System Architecture right after Introduction and dump Related Work in the end just before the Conclusion?

In my field, I have read both ways. I personally find Related Work a bit unnecessary and I usually skip them while reading a paper. It is reasonable in the sense that a researcher would have already read nearly all the related work within his or her field. So he or she may not bother to read those sections of the similar papers.

In this sense, I prefer to adopt the latter that dumps this part at the end. However, I see most of the papers that I have read adopted the former.

What are the pros and cons of these two approaches? How do I choose wisely?

I am in EECS field, but any generic advice is also very much welcomed

The main advantage of putting related work near the beginning is that it allows you to very clearly define what is new in your approach.  I like to do that when I'm attacking a very well-defined problem and my contribution is closely related to what has gone before; e.g., if I've modified algorithm X so that it runs twice as fast, then I must review prior work on algorithm X.  I try to work the review into the flow of an expository structure -- i.e., introduce prior work as you move naturally through the introductory and motivational concepts.

The disadvantage of putting related work near the beginning is that the reader must wade through it before getting to the important part of the paper -- your contribution.  It also may interrupt the flow of exposition.  So I put the related work nearer the end when possible; for instance, if I'm solving a problem nobody has considered before, or exploring some newly discovered phenomenon.


Citing in two connected sentences I read the answers to this, however I'm searching for an elaborated answer on how two (or more) sencentes are oubviously from one source, and hence can be cited with one citation at the end of all sentences:

For example to reduce a really long sentences: The thing varies in dimension A, because of <long explanation with many commas>. Consequently, it is categorised as 1,2 or 3 [Mr. Twit, 2013].

Are linking words like consequently, therefore and so on enough to signal that is originates from one source? Can I swap the dot (.) and the citation [Mr. Twit, 2013] to indicate that the citation does not only belong to the last sentence?

Bonus question: If I write a whole paragraph and add one citation at the end, does this imply that the whole paragraph is quoted?

In gerneal I'm trying to reduce he-said-she-said structures, as they are akward and hinder the information flow.

Read what you have written, and check. Altering the order of punctuation and citation might seem a logical way to do it, but many style guides actually impose the respective order of those elements, and not logic.

In the end, I'm afraid you have to choice of either:

accepting ambiguity of your example
using the author's name to make things clear: “Twit et al. demonstrated that […]. As a consequence, it is categorised as X, Y or Z [Mr. Twit, 2013]”


How can I cite Intel developer manual? I'm trying to cite Intel Developer Manual. I'm a bit confused how should I cite it? Should I cite the Whole website with the link and access date? Or Should I cite a particular chapter that I used? What is the correct approach with BibTeX?

In the bibliography, you can cite a manual as a publication, e.g.,
Intel (2016) Intel 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer's Manual: Instruction Set Reference, A-Z, Volume 2 (2A, 2B, 2C & 2D).
In the main body, cite the relevant chapters, e.g., \cite[Chapter~3]{IntelManual}. Use the @manual tag in your BibTex file.


Can a Letter of Recommendation be effective without much coursework I'm applying to grad schools this coming fall and have 2/3 letter writers lined up, and am just trying to make a decision about the third. I took two classes with this third letter writer about two years ago, one survey course and one directed reading. We spent a lot of time in her office hours chatting and she got to know me as a student, and I achieved A+ in both courses.
However, both of those courses were two years ago, and we haven't had much interaction in the interim as I've been completing credits for my other major. I was planning to take a seminar with her this fall so as to get a third course in with her, and also one which is more recent so that I'll be fresh in her memory. But, the course conflicts with pretty much everything else I was hoping to take this academic year, including some courses much more directly related to my research interests.
Was hoping to solicit some thoughts on whether a LOR can be effective a) without much coursework and b) with not-so-recent coursework, providing that the coursework which was done was completed with great marks and lots of professor-student interaction. In other words, even with glowing comments, will a committee always look negatively on letters based on out of date courses (completed in 2nd year, for instance) and not that many of them, to boot?
Thanks

I think that a recommendation letter will be impactful even if the professor/lecturer writing it has taught the course or interacted with the student a decent time ago.
There are more important things pertaining to the strength or value of a recommendation letter (which is not praise from the person (since that must already be present anyway)) but things like:

The relevancy of the professor’s field to the field of your future work for which the recommendation letter is written for.
The amount of interaction with the person.
The current state of interaction with the person.
Any achievements that are recognized highly by this person and are mentioned in the letter (relevant to your area of study/work).

In general, the reason why it is not recommended to get letters from the faculty in your first or second year of undergraduate study is because they may be professors teaching general classes, which might not be relevant anymore or not specific enough to your current interests.
If however you believe that the work you did with a professor 2-3 years ago is still highly relevant to your application, then don’t hesitate to get a recommendation letter from them.


Should I omit a citation if the authors ask me to? "Program MARK: A gentle introduction" by Evan Cooch and Gary White

is a guide to using a particular piece of statistical software. It is available in print form as well as in a free, online version.

The foreword to the book contains the following paragraph:

  We’re occasionally asked how to properly cite this book. Easy answer –
  please don’t. This book is not a ‘technical reference’, but a
  ‘software manual’. The various ‘technical’ bits in the book (i.e.,
  suggestions on how to approach some sorts of analysis, guides to
  interpreting results...) are drawn from the primary literature, which
  should be cited in all cases.

Now, I don't have any problem with the last sentence - the authors are quite right to recommend citing the primary literature. But I don't understand why they recommend NOT citing their own work. If I have found it useful (I have) then the usual arguments for citation seem to apply:

Citing the guide may be helpful in pointing others towards this useful resource
The guide has performed an important function in my work, even if that function is "just" pointing me towards the primary literature, and that function should be acknowledged. It is in a small way dishonest if I imply that I researched the primary literature without any help.
While any mistakes in my use of the software are of course my own, knowing the source of advice that I've used might help others to spot or trace those mistakes.

Against this is the fact that the authors have politely asked me NOT to cite the work. I have no wish to be disrespectful to the authors who have created a valuable resource. But is it reasonable for them to ask me to break from academic good practice?

Should I respect the authors' wishes and omit a citation?

No.

If you use a source, you must cite it.  The authors deserve credit for their work, even if they don't believe they deserve credit for their work.

Of course, you should also take the authors' advice and also cite the appropriate primary sources (after reading them, obviously).


Format of the manuscript at the revision stage I recently submitted a paper to an Elsevier Journal (Biomedical Signal Processing and Control). I wrote the paper using the Elsevier article class (elsarticle.cls) with the option "review" which is one column format (text width = 12.5 cm) the final print copy as can be seen in published papers is two-column format (text width = 18.5 cm), when I was waiting a response from the editor I reread the paper carefully trying to correct possible errors and prepared it in a two-column format so that it matches as possible the final published layout.

Now I received an email for minor revisions but I found some comments about this topic, most of them say "to send the revised manuscript in single-column format and let the journal worry about which of the formats they use in the end", now if I worked by the last advice and since the preprint layout uses a larger line width, I did not face problem with displayed the long equations but in two-column format the long equation will overlap.

Is the Latex expert (person specifically employed to do the layout of the journals) Takes upon himself the formation of the paper in two-column format (for example : break the equations in the appropriate points)?

Another chose, if I put a figure of 10 cm of width it looks fine in one column format but in two-column format if I put it as one column (\begin{figure}) it will overlap, and if I put it as two-column (\begin{figure*}) maybe it looks much smaller and if the Latex expert they use Latex instructions to reduce or enlarge the figure maybe it loose its nice shape.

Finally,as I said before I have two-column format it Much like the final published layout, should I sent the two-column format or one column format?

Reviewers are concerned with the technical content of your paper, not the formatting.

Even if you're using a LaTeX-based style sheet, it's not necessary to worry about making sure everything fits within the margins. If the paper is accepted, the journal will probably work on your paper to make sure it follows their style guidelines when published.

So just worry that the content is correct, and submit a single-column paper for the reviewers to read. It'll make their lives easier, which will thus make your life easier. (And you won't waste time fiddling with LaTeX!)


How to reference a PDF document found on a website I want to use this website in my report but I do not see the produced year of the following pdf https://www.astm.org/BOOKSTORE/DS68/pg41.pdf

How can I do the reference of that pdf ?

Is this correct : ASTM international, "Ultrasonic Testing," ASTM international,. [Online]. Available: https://www.astm.org/BOOKSTORE/DS68/pg41.pdf. [Accessed September 2016].

Since this is a book, you will probably be asked to give the book citation instead of the link. In this case you reference the book as indicated by the journal and refer to the page inline.

e.g. We used the water attenuation as a function of frequency from Book_Author, year (Table 2.7, p. 41).

In the references use the journal's style, or for your report, use the style you reference papers. Then use the publisher of the book instead of the journal name (e.g. Cambridge University press)

This is usually done because a link might be broken after some years and then the reader won't be able to find the reference. In science, links are usually used when referring to some online extra material (e.g. videos, tables, codes, datasets) that the authors uploads to their own webpages, besides the online material provided to the journal. This is usually done because they want the data to be publicly available and the online material on the journal webpage might not be.

Even if your question is about a report and not a scientific journal, the best way to approach this is to learn to proper way to do it and stick to it. This will make your texts more professional and when it comes to papers you will be less likely to have cited, captioned etc something in the wrong way. The latter will help you have shorter referee report with less corrections.


Should first introductory paragraph explicitly state the subject of the paper? I am trying to write an introduction for a scientific paper. I am not sure, when I am announcing my subject, should I write that this is the subject, or just mention it without announcing it outright?

This is very confusing so here's an example.

a. Man was always interested by aliens. This paper discusses the possibility of alien life.

b.Man was always interested by aliens. Currently, scientific discoveries are shedding light on whether it exists.

Which phrasing is better? Is the first one too blunt?

The purpose of the introduction is to focus in on the specific, and likely more narrow, topic of your research from a larger perspective. the "larger perspective" is the larger scientific problem to which your study is tied. Therefore you can start the introduction by briefly explaining the larger perspective followed by identifying the existing gaps in knowledge and gradually work towards your own question.

Many books on scientific writing compare the introduction to a funnel where the wider question is focused to the appropriate width of your research question. the main point is to set your study in a wider perspective so that you can tie your results into the gaps of the larger perspective. This helps readers to get a good perspective of your research and evaluate the results vis-à-vis existing knowledge.

Hence, your scenarios a and b look like a way to describe the writing strategy where in reality the two or three sentences usually requires one or a few paragraphs of text.


How can I communicate that the word limit prevents you from elaborating something in an essay? Let's posit:

You're a university student. I don't posit degree level; you can be undergraduate or postgraduate.
You must not overstep the essay's word limit, whatever it is. You lose marks if you overstep.
Your word limit is too short to elaborate an argument or idea.

How do academics write that the word limit precludes elaboration? Is this common or professional? Something like

The word limit prevents me elaborating this idea.

I cannot elaborate this argument here given the word limit.

Or is this stupid? Will the professor already know the word limit precluded you from elaboration?

How to communicate that word limit prevents you from elaborate something in essay?

You don’t. You take the time and put in the effort to make your argument in the available space. If you do that, more likely than not the resulting essay will be a better piece of writing that does a better job of putting your argument across than if it had been longer. Thus, you will have nothing to excuse or apologize for.
And don’t take it from me, many famous thinkers have expressed similar thoughts about the benefits of conciseness (and the difficulty of achieving those benefits). My favorite one of these quotes is Woodrow Wilson’s reply when he was asked how long he takes to write a speech:

“That depends on the length of the speech,” answered the President. “If it is a ten-minute speech it takes me all of two weeks to prepare it; if it is a half-hour speech it takes me a week; if I can talk as long as I want to it requires no preparation at all. I am ready now.”


Reference on how often "To the best of our knowledge" assertions turn out to be false Quite often authors make some claims with some "to the best of our knowledge" disclaimer.

Example:

  "To the best of our knowledge this is the first time this approach has been used to address this problem".

Is there any research/study/survey that tried to look at how often such claims are false? (e.g. some counterexample can be found)

I am mostly interested in the field of machine learning / data mining in English-speaking venues, however any reference on occurrence of such false assertions would be of value.

To the best of my knowledge, it is unlikely anyone has done the gruelling work of trawling through the literature, looking for such statements, and then doing the detailed work of finding out if the claim was true.
On the other hand, if I state such, you'd have to prove I did have prior knowledge to refute my statement. In itself, that could come close to an accusation of plagiarism in the context you cite. Or at least of sloppy checking of previous work.


TA Funding Length in STEM Field in USA I understand that depending on the department and the school the duration of the TA funding for a Phd student can vary. However, I’m interested in learning whether it’s common for departments in STEM field to have less than two semesters of TA funding for the same student in US.

I doubt that you will find many restrictions. It is fairly typical in many fields for students to spend a few years studying and paying for it as a TA. It is, normally, a job-like position, not a grant.

There may be some places that put a limit on it, but I doubt you would find anywhere that it was as little as two semesters. As long as you do a good job, of course, and keep up with your studies.

On the other hand, admission to a doctoral program doesn't automatically imply that you have a TA position. I is a separate transaction. But once you have the position, and perform well, it can continue.


Tenure-track offer with other applications in progress I am an academic in computer science in Europe, just completed my Ph.D. and applied for tenure-track positions in Europe. I received a very early offer in the UK more than a month ago and the negotiation stretched until now. Given the overal small startup packages in the UK, I managed to negotiate for a decent startup budget. However, as the department has no presence nor material for the research I am doing, the deal is more average/minimal. Apart from the details in the offer, the thing that is holding me back is that my partner also has a good career here but in the UK, she would have a very hard time and probably have to go back to university to make her degree compatible. We discussed all of this and I would take the offer if all other applications do not work out. Now the university really wants me to make a decision this week.

I have a tenure-track application running at my home university where I did my studies, grew up, and I am still living. The place is quite decent and despite the down-sides of staying at the same place, I would be very happy with the position as I was able to do good work here in the past, and my partner would be able to continue her career as well. I have a good chance of receiving an offer here but the interview and results will be out in 3-4 weeks. I contacted the university but they cannot speed-up the process. The other thing is that the position at the university here is quite exceptional in that a similar position will not be available anytime soon. As there not many/no universities that have a presence in my field nearby, this is the one opportunity for my partner and I to live in our hometown.

So I need to make a decision this week on an offer in the UK which I would totally take if the outcome on the other application would be negative. The application at my home university, which would be my preferred choice, will still take 3 weeks. If I say NO to the offer in the UK, I could end up with no position. The safest thing would be to say YES this week. But potentially canceling the offer in 3 weeks, when the results at my home university are out, is probably not very ethical?

Just for completeness, I have another tenure-track application at a university nearby, this could be a backup, but is very uncertain as it is not specifically focusing on my area of research.

I would welcome any advise or hear about similar experiences.

I think what you are asking is if there is an ethical way to accept a position and then bail if you get a better position. Ethics are often very personal, but I think most people would conclude that this is unethical. That said, potentially the more important question, is can you get away with the behavior. From a legal standpoint, there is likely very little that can be done to punish you.

From a career standpoint accepting an offer and then turning it down tends to be a recipe for creating academic enemies. In your case, however, I think you can get away with it because of the Brexit and the fact you have a partner. If in the next month you get a better offer, you can tell the UK university that your partner has had a change of heart. Yes, I am advocating blaming it all on your partner to keep you from making enemies. Explain that your partner is concerned about moving to the UK because of Brexit and their treatment of foreigners. Yes, I am advocating telling a straight up lie. UK academics are generally up in arms about the Brexit. Having a change of heart because of the Brexit will be totally believable to them.


Two masters simultaneously? I am from Germany and about to finish my second bachelors degree (two different fields). And am now considering options for masters studies. Now i know that in Germany i can study two masters simultaneously and it generally does not matter too much if i need say three years to complete both instead of the two years advocated.

I would like to study at a good university in another country where tuition fees for EU citizens are rather small/zero.

Now is it possible to enroll in two master degrees simultaneously in France, Sweden, Norway, Denmark or other countries fullfilling the criteria?

I will answer with respect to Sweden; as far as I know it can be technically possible but in practice, not really...

Let's expand on this a bit; again, AFAIK, it is not possible to be enrolled to two different masters programs in the same faculty. At least it was not possible when I was in the uni. They might have programs that overlap between different programs and allow you to have a broader portfolio/CV if that is what you desire, but you still get a single degree.

You could try and apply to two different programs at different faculties of the same university. This may work, I am not sure if there is a national regulation on that. I would guess that it's handled by individual university administrations.

The last option is of course applying to two different programs at two different universities, so different legal entities. You could try to get into University of Gothenburg and Chalmers for two different programs for example. I cannot imagine why that would not be allowed.

That being said, if you choose to pursue this, you will very likely have crashes on your schedule such that you will not be able to follow the lectures, and potentially miss some compulsory moments of these degrees. Universities typically don't assume the students do more than 100% studies so you will almost certainly have serious incompatibilities on your schedule.

If you are seriously considering getting two masters degrees in one go (and I would advise against it), my suggestion would be to offset them with 1 year, so that you start one program and half way into that start another. The motivation behind this is that Masters programs often tend to have lecture-heavy courses first, and project or assignment based courses later.


Is there a polite way to rescind a request for recommendation letter? I am reconsidering whether I want a professor's (call him X) letter of recommendation for a PhD program. The basic facts are these:

I took Dr. X's class and did well. He encouraged me to apply to a PhD program in his field, and I took his advice. At that time, he offered to write me a strong letter of recommendation.
More recently, I requested via email a letter of recommendation from X. I'm certain that he expected this request, and we are on good terms.
He did not respond to my request. I managed to find him in person to ask; he said that he's already responded to my email and agreed to write it, and brushed me off in a somewhat impatient manner.

I found this interaction off putting and certainly unexpected.

This is my rationalization for what happened:

X is very busy and does not want to write me a letter. But he promised in the past and I remained in contact with him since.
Moreover, I already have stronger recommendation letters that I can use.

Here is my current plan:

I will see professor X at least one more time to give him materials for the recommendation. I plan to see his reaction then, and how to proceed.

Question: Is there a polite way for me to ask whether he wants to write the letter, and possibly "let him off the hook"? (I don't even know whether this is the right question to ask, because honestly I don't what the right thing to do is.)

The problem is that I don't want to second-guess him, but I don't want a negative letter either. Additionally, if he's already written a letter, I don't want to waste his time.

I am based in the US, if that matters.

The key thing here is that you say that you have stronger letters already. If you no longer need him to write a letter, just reply to your own email to him saying you don't need one anymore. Something like this should do:

  "Thank you so much for agreeing to the write the letter. Another professor just got back to me about writing a letter so I should be all set for letters in this round of applications. I really appreciate your offer and I will be in touch in the future if I need one though. Thanks again!"

Keep in mind that most people won't write a letter until they have a deadline in front of them. That said,  it is certainly more polite to let any potential letter writer know as soon as you know you won't need it just as it is polite to let them know well advance of when you will.

You frame this question as about "rescinding" a request and seem to be worried that the professor is going to be upset. You should understand that for professors, writing letters of recommendations is a thankless chore. Although this is generally the case, it is particularly the case for undergraduates that we only know through a single class.

Writing these letters takes hours on aggregate. Worst of all, because we also sit on the committees that read these applications, we are also all deeply aware that the letters will be read by a few people on a graduate admission committee if we are lucky.

Seriously though, he is not going to hold it against you. By agreeing to write a letter in the first place, he was offering to do you a favor. By letting him off the hook, you are doing him one.

Although it's not part of your question, I think you are spending too much time trying to unpack and interpret what really happened. Maybe he was busy or in a bad mood? Maybe he was emailing with somebody else and was confused? You say that you don't want to second guess him but that is exactly what you're doing. If he encouraged you to apply for a PhD program and said he will write a letter, it seems extremely unlikely that he's trying to sabotage you.