What is an "evidence based" teaching statement? (I'm a PhD student in mathematics, for context.)
What do people mean when they say that claims in a teaching statement should be "evidence based?"
For background, I have been watching my wife go through drafts of teaching statements and she has been getting pretty relentless criticism that it's not enough to say, "I design my courses to achieve X, Y, Z," she somehow needs to provide "evidence" that the course achieves these things.  I used to think this meant I should really keep very exhaustive data of how my students were doing (i.e. spreadsheets with test scores), but I'm not sure that's realistic as a PhD in math (as opposed to a PhD student in education).
What can I do now, as an instructor, to facilitate writing an "evidence based" teaching statement in the future?

I think the verbage "evidence-based" is often a little misleading to a STEM researcher. When we hear "evidence", we think of proofs or scientific experiments with significant sample sizes and controlling of confounders. Clearly, such hard data is not usually available in your teaching statement. However, it's also not really what people are asking for when the want to see "evidence" - normally, plausible anecdotal data is entirely sufficient.
More generally, what people often mean when they ask for evidence is that the current text is simply not sufficiently convincing, often because it "tells" rather than "demonstrates". It's not so different to how we tell PhD applicants to write their Letters of Motivation - everybody can write that they love teaching (by itself this is a meaningless, empty statement), it's better to explain what you do that shows that you love teaching.
I can give an example from my own teaching statement for promotion to Associate Professor a while back. The initial version had a paragraph that read something like this:

I redesigned course XYZ and improved student success as well as student evaluations.

I received the fair criticism that I should be providing more evidence, because the current statement isn't particularly convincing. So my final version instead read something like this:

I redesigned course XYZ [explain changes]. After implementing these changes in 2017, the percentage of failing students dropped from an average of 20% to 13%, despite a technically more challenging exam design. Additionally, the course evaluation improved from an average of 3.2 to 4.4. This leads me to believe that my changes were effective, both in terms of student learning and student motivation.

This is clearly not hard proof that my course is now indeed better - maybe my exam wasn't actually harder, or maybe I just got a smarter class this year. But it's a whole lot more convincing than simply writing "I did well".


I'm not sure what is meaning of no response during post-doc contact. I'm looking for post-doc position, and applied to a position. Here's brief flow of email converstaion.

Possible PI: Well, it looks like your research interest and experience matches well with mine, let's have a interview.

Me: Thank you. When can we have a discussion?

Possible PI: (No response)

3 days later

Me: Hello? Do we have interview?

Possible PI: (No response)

more 3 days later

Me: Hello? Can I have interview with you?

Possible PI: (No response)

I don't know what is going on his side, but I never wrote something rude or stupid. Can I regard this sign as refusal? Or do I need to email him again? Or can I call to his office phone number?

I don't think his reaction - no response - is polite at all, at least...

If they originally had interest in interviewing you, after the second reminder, there is a good chance it has evaporated. The mail frequency was too high, and there were too many repeats (unless you know the person really well).

A PI would be probably reluctant to hire someone who appears to be insistively dependant on them or even "pushy". A person who wasn't "pushy" may not get a reply for various reasons (like the PI is trying to make it possible, but the whole idea fizzles out, or gets postponed by months and he doesn't want to give a straight no in case it ends up working, and then forgets about it). On the other hand, if an opportunity presents, they may reconsider and come back to you later.

However, they are less likely to do that with a person that comes across as too aggressively pursuing their purposes, because they will infer that's how they will also behave during regular interaction.

Instead: What you should have done is to respond to the interview suggestion as: "Shall we agree on a date?" and then wait for a few weeks (two weeks, as suggested in the comments above, is a good number) and then try again. If it does not work out, it's effectively a no (although it may not be even a final no, see above comments).

Yes, a "no response" can be considered a bit "rude", but do understand that people are simply overworked, and whatever the most current pressure is, it pushes itself in front of the queue. Don't be the one adding to their pressure by overmailing, because then the rudeness has appeared on your side before it has had a chance presenting itself on theirs.


Getting a letter of recommendation when the referee gave no indication about the strength of the letter Usually when I ask for a letters of recommendation, the professor give me an indication about how strong it is going to be. I asked a professor whom I am taking a course with, and while he doesn't know me very well, I did well in his course project which made me think that he might write a good letter. So I went and asked him (Before project submission) and he said that to put his name as a referee and gave me no indication about how strong it is going to be. He also said that he is looking forward to read my project report. (I told him it is a chance to get to know my work).

The next day I submitted project report and a few hours later I received an email from him telling me that he didn't receive letter submission link yet. I went and asked him what did he thought about the report and he said that he didn't read it yet. I hesitated because I already have 3 letters and his would be the fourth one which is really an extra.

A few days later, I ran into him and again he mentioned he didn't receive submission link and again I asked if he read the report and got the same response. This situation is a little confusing for me because I would rather not having his recommendation if it is not a strong one. On the other hand, he asked me three times to put his name as a referee which made me think that he is going to make a good letter.

Since I already have all the letters I need, should I take the risk of having his letter ? (I am applying to a long shot school anyway and he is well connected in that school, so his letter weights a lot, whether it is positive or negative)

Two things.

First, he is demonstrating strong willingness to write a letter for you. Although you can't know for sure without asking directly, this is a good indication that his letter will be strong.

Second, ASK! In this situation, don't be afraid to ask him bluntly, as ff524 recommended.

Finally, in future, you can avoid some of this uncertainty by phrasing your request this way: "Are you willing to write a strong letter of recommendation for X application?" In this way you are asking not just for a letter, but for a strong letter, and their response will be more indicative of the strength of their letter.

And for this one, all indications point toward it being a risk worth taking. Best of luck on your application!


Letter of recommendation from employer for MS in U.S. universities Is a letter of recommendation from an employer required to be on the official letter head of the company?

Also is it okay if I give the recommender's personal email?

Nothing in particular is required for a company letter of recommendation.  Pretty much any established company will have some sort of letterhead, though, and your recommender using it will feel more "professional."  Likewise with corporate vs. personal email addresses.


Things to focus on in a model lesson A model lesson is a usual element in interviews for the faculty level positions. Normally this is not a full lesson but a 15-minute version which is performed in absence of actual students for just a few professors from a hiring committee. It is supposed to demonstrate "your teaching style", but by design this is clearly a different enterprise: you should "act normal" doing "the same" things

in a different time-frame,
for a different audience,
with completely different motivation and
under exorbitant cost of failure.

Having said this, I also acknowledge the model lesson as indeed a much needed element of the interview, which helps to assess a candidate's set of relevant skills.

The question is how one can ideally prepare to give such a model lesson. Putting aside obvious things like "structure of the talk," "clear slides," "projection of the voice," and "body language", which normally should be already trained by experience, are there specific things that should be taken into account for the model lesson only? What about techniques like jokes, questions to the audience (e.g. how many of you are familiar with the definition of the derivative), work in pairs, which you probably use in a real classroom — is it a good idea to demonstrate them in a room full of senior professors? I am a little confused.

Having done this, I'd advise:

Take it really seriously. In places where candidates are judged equally on teaching and research, the model lesson could really make the difference. Strong researchers may neglect it, relying on their publication/citation record.
Make sure you prepare for the expected audience (in my case, 1st year students), not the actual audience (academics).
Feel free to use techniques you would use in a classroom, but then use "time jumps" to indicate that the activity has taken place. The problem with this is that if you have follow up questions, there may be no answers and the lecture may fall flat.
Don't forget "learning objectives" and "lecture structure" up front, and other guidelines for students throughout (though you probably can only show one such thing).
Practice more than you would practice for an actual lecture.
No corny jokes. If you cannot tell whether a joke is corny, then assume it is. In fact, beware of jokes. Relying on natural humour is probably better.


How should I email professors regarding online research during covid-19? So I've been accepted into a masters program and there is this professor that I really want to get involved with hopefully as a research assistant. And since many if not most researches are being conducted online, I was wondering if its a good idea to email the professor to see if there is any way I can get exposure to his research by either working as his assistant or intern. I'd appreciate any comments!!

Sure you can.
Sending an email is the best way to find out if a particular professor/researcher is available. You can reach out to them via Email introducing yourself and your research area and what you intend to look into/research keeping in view the professor's research output.
If they dont reply then you can send a follow-up email after a week or so.
Hope this helps.


Propose modifications to a travel arrangement to visit graduate school I have been accepted to a Ph.D. program in St. Louis, MO and will be visiting the school in late March. I will be reimbursed for flight tickets. The scheduled Open House runs from Thursday to Saturday, and I have been told to book my flights with arrival on Thursday and departure on Saturday. The flight ticket per those specifications is at least $510, while if I arrive on Thursday and depart on Sunday, it would be $50 less. Since I will be committing 5 years of my life to studying there, I would like to know that I like the place, in addition to liking the Department (which I do). So is it okay to ask the secretary if I can book my departure on Sunday and save them $50 (lodging that extra night will be on me)?

Additionally, the secretary said they will book my hotel stay themselves. I would like to know St. Louis a little better, so I would like to stay at an airbnb place (which is more than 50% less expensive). Would proposing to stay at the airbnb place instead of the hotel they provide considered a strange request?

It's perfectly acceptable to ask such thing, it does not make any difference to the department if you can show that the ticket price is the same or even less in your case. I suggest you try to stay longer if you can. When I was invited for an interview I was given a budget and I routed my flights the way I wanted.


Is it necessary to submit papers to IEEE conference which are PDF Express Plus approved? I submitted one of my papers to an IEEE conference: NGCT 2015 which is supposed to be happening soon (the final paper submission deadline is gone) and I had submitted my paper in PDF format, written in latex, without getting it approved using PDF express plus.

Is it necessary that I should have submitted the PDF express plus paper? If yes, do I still have an option of changing the submitted paper?

I tried contacting the conference organizers but they were unreachable for quite sometime now.

PDF Express is basically an automated means of making sure that you didn't mess up your document preparation in a way that will later become a headache for you, the conference organizers, or the IEEE.  For example, you might have things misconfigured such that you ended up with A4 instead of US Letter paper, or have some bad fonts in there.  If you're using the standard IEEE LaTeX templates and not doing anything particularly creative with your formatting this shouldn't happen, but even then sometimes it does.

The IEEE camera-ready sites will typically tell you that you are required to check beforehand, but de facto allow you to submit.  This is sometimes very important, because sometimes PDF Express isn't working (we had an issue of this type with a conference earlier this summer).  Checking with PDF Express is a good practice to follow, however, because it's a few seconds of insurance against the possibility of a whole bunch of headache for yourself and others down the line.


Applied Math or Computer Science for graduate school I am a 4th-year student about to finish my math and computer science programs (double major). I have taken both pure math courses and computer science courses and I find myself more interested in math. However, many have told me that computer science may be a better option if I want to find a job in non-academic area.
1. Should I go to graduate for applied math or computer science?
2. Does it matter which path I choose if my ultimate goal is to find a job in the industry, considering I will have a computer science bachelor's degree?
3. Am I going to be ok in graduate school if all the math courses I have taken are pure math

Thinking about "the industry" you want to end up in should play some role in your decision. For some careers applied math would be better than more cs, for some the opposite.

I suggest you find a program in an area you find particularly interesting. Enjoy your graduate studies, then think about jobs.

Your undergraduate studies suggest you'll be OK in grad school.


what steps to take when research result is patentable I'm working on a nearly completed paper in CS. It deals with a memory module design, which, apart from being a novel idea, turned out to be of potentially commercial value. Now I was thinking of patenting it, of course, I doubt I will be able to make its commercial development a priority of mine until at least I finish my PhD (relatively soon) and find some "solid ground" in academia (I have some job offers, but can't specify any amount of time). However, I am under the impression that this should not prevent me from protecting my work.
As I am quite inexperienced with it, I must also ask if I'm having the right conception and approach to patenting here?
What is the procedure of patenting an idea that is to be published in a journal? Are there any consequences?

If what you have is potentially patentable do not publish any critical element before filing the patent application or you risk losing eligibility due to existence of prior art (even if it is yours!).

Be aware that your university may claim ownership of the IP since it concerns ideas that you got in the context of a project while they were paying you (my university would claim partial ownership). This need not be a problem, as this also means they get to pay the piper. This is not necessarily an issue since, if your name is on the patent, you are entitled to a slice of the cake.

You should really talk to patent experts. Your university probably has them. Most universities have a dedicated tech transfer office (TTO) which handles patents, spin-offs and industrial collaboration. They have the expertise to guide you in such endeavours.


Can I use 'Fortunately' in an academic paper When using "Fortunately" in a technical paper, the appending statement can appear subjective; and hence shouldn't be used in an academic context (?). When used to highlight, for instance, the solution to a potential problem:

"Thing X must be able to do difficult task Y. Fortunately, many existing solutions are available that can do task Y"

It seems to me than the subjectivity of 'fortunately' actually depends on context. If task Y is something controversial, such as drone strikes against military hospitals (to take a very extreme example), then the statement following 'Fortunately' can seem perverse to many: It comes across as if the author is in moral agreement of performing task Y.

Now imagine if task Y is something harmless, such as "the envisioned calculator must be able to store user preferences between power cycles.". In this case, 'Fortunately' is a very applicable adverb to use: "Fortunately, many cheap forms of solid state storage are commercially available in the target form factor."

Can I/Is it safe to use 'Fortunately' in an academic paper?

If you, yourself, question the usage, then you should probably avoid it.

I think that in the present case, if you need a bridging word, then "However" works just as well.

In general it is probably a bad idea to ban any given word, not knowing all possible contexts in which it might be used.

That said, I find no problem with using "Fortunately" in this context. It is, indeed, fortunate that the times and the work of others have come together to provide us with ways to a solution of the problem at hand. In other times it might not have been possible, for example.


Whether to publish a paper as both a university working paper and on ArXiV? I've recently written a paper about my bachelors thesis. This paper was rejected by a journal. It seems to be the usual case that my supervisors are listed as co-authors. I would like to publish it on http://arxiv.org/, but one of my co-authors (who doesn't know arxiv) wants me to publish it at "KIT Scientific Working Papers" (KIT is my university).

When I submit my paper to KIT Scientific Working Papers, it gets licensed with a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. It also gets an ISSN.

However, I still think it might be harder to access. Does it make sense to publish it on both, KIT Scientific Working Papers and Arxive? Are there any drawbacks?

ArXiv and KIT scientific working papers are meant to make scientific research (in selected areas) more accessible. They are not traditional scientific publication venues, but rather a mirror of publications that might be otherwise less accessible (ArXix) or fast outlets for ongoing research (KIT).

It is less common to directly cite ArXiv or KIT working papers, when there are equivalent journal or conference versions of the article, which you might consider when you are deciding how to make your work available to the public.

It is perfectly fine, though, to publish in the traditional journals and conferences, and on ArXiv or KIT, provided that there is no conflict of copyright (typically, there is not when you put an author created preprint version on ArXiv or KIT).

Nonetheless, you should not feel obliged to follow the traditional scientific paths (i.e., publish on ArXiv or KIT only). Just keep in mind that it might impact the citations you get from other researchers.


Supervised a PhD to 90% of completion; take credit for 100%; what could go wrong? Let's say you had a doctoral student who you were main supervisor for {~advisor) throughout their data collection and most of their write-up, but just before they finished they changed to another main supervisor and you became deputy supervisor (you moved to a new institution in another country and they wanted someone close at hand). Let's say you then counted this student on your CV as supervised to completion as main supervisor because this is 90% true and because these CV points are important for things like promotion. The plan if anyone ever called you out on this would be to just explain the situation as it is and say that 90% of the work felt like it justified the claim. The student is in Sweden (where the regulations say students have the right to supervisor change without even having to make a case) and the supervisor is a Lecturer (~associate prof) at a UK university who wants to make Reader (~full prof) some day. Is this a bad idea? What is likely to go wrong?

On a generic CV, I would simply make a section of "Graduate students supervised and co-supervised", and include this student.  In this context it wouldn't be necessary to go into detail about whether the supervision was "to completion".

But for something like a promotion dossier, where you're asked to tick boxes, I would go to whoever is responsible for overseeing the evaluation process (department head, promotion committee chair, etc), explain the situation, and ask what you should do.  If at all possible, get an answer in writing. Then, when you fill out the form, attach a note saying something like:

  One student was supervised by me for about 90% of their thesis work (stages X, Y, Z), and then changed supervisors for the last 10%; I am officially listed as their deputy supervisor.  I spoke with Department Head Smith on October 24, 2018, and she advised that it was appropriate to include this student as "supervised to completion".

If Smith says "no, don't count it", then you attach a similar note saying "Smith said not to include this student, but I believe that this is a similar accomplishment to supervising a student to completion".

Since academic achievement is generally self-reported and "honor system", this means that any attempt to "cheat" is seen as a serious ethical offense.  If someone on the evaluation committee is hostile to you, they could use something like this as ammunition to wreck your entire promotion case.  ("Candidate says supervised to completion, but student's dissertation shows someone else as supervisor.  Clear-cut fraud.")  So that's what could go wrong.  But if you disclose the situation, and get someone else to pre-approve the way you're filling the form, you eliminate the possibility; maybe it won't be counted in your favor, but at least you can't be accused of fraud.


Can he/she get admission for Phd in U.S/European university? If someone have done Post -Graduation from not reputed institution (India) and have   not done  any project /Thesis in Msc  and Msc percentage/mark also low  ?

Can he/she get admission  for Phd  in U.S/European university ?

Notes : Department  is Mathematics

It is impossible to say with only the information given. It would probably be difficult, however, but more for low marks that the other facts.

The candidate needs to show, in application materials, a high probability of success. Nothing you state makes that success obvious. But letters of recommendation are also important and there can be reasons for low grades that aren't so much related to ability in mathematics. Even extreme focus on a research topic could cause poor performance elsewhere.

A committee would need to consider the entire package. The competition is also fierce and many in the pool won't have the same negative aspects.

It might be marginally easier to do this in the US than in EU as the doctoral education process can be longer and have more room to make up deficits.

But it isn't promising as stated.


Is undergraduate research typically funded? Should it be? Are undergraduate research positions typically funded? If yes, why so - given that undergraduates do not have a lot to offer in terms of research outcomes? Also, which type of research positions are funded?
I ask this because, one wouldn't expect mathematics research opportunities (other than REUs, I guess) for undergraduates to be funded, right? Undergrads do not put a lot on the table, and more than adding any substantial value to the field via research, it is about gaining useful experience and making connections with professors in order to secure future LoRs. Do I have the right idea here, or am I missing something?
If we think specifically about pure mathematics, then quite a bit of the initial process before even trying to do any research is essentially directed reading. I wouldn't expect being paid for that either, just doesn't make sense. For computer science, though, (eg. machine learning), one can ask undergrads to do coding jobs and perhaps pay them for that.
To summarize:
Which undergraduate research positions are typically funded? How about pure math, applied math, and computer science (theoretical or applied) fields in particular?
Why (and also which) should undergraduate research positions be funded in the first place, if at all?
Thanks for your valuable insights, in advance!
Clarification: By funded, I meant that the student researcher receives a monthly salary or stipend of some sort. Apologies if that wasn't the right term to use, but I hope that it's clearer now.

All undergraduate research positions should be funded. Most currently aren't.
The children of families who can afford to have their kids not work aren't smarter than the children of families who can't. Spending $60 billion a year on government supported research in the US and nickel and dimeing the next generation of scientists so 75% of them have to give up science is a real stupid way to invest in the future.
As for mechanisms, the NSF and NIH already have them and they work. I write NIH student supplements every year.


If there is academic dishonesty, can I temporarily withdraw from a paper until the dishonesty is removed? I am a PhD student collaborating with a professor (not my advisor). I did the work while the professor came up with the idea and funded the project. The research project centered on an experiment.

Initial experimental results were consistent with Theory A, but they could (with some stretch of the imagination) be consistent with Theory B. Theory B, if proven, would result in a much higher scientific impact.

The professor then decided to conduct a followup experiment. His intention was to provide more support for Theory B. The professor was very excited about the followup experiment, but all the results of the followup turned out to be inconsistent with Theory B. When I updated the manuscript with the the new results, the professor's reply was very brief: "I won't be including results from the followup experiment because I don't have time to look at them". However, he took the time to make further edits to the previous version of the manuscript (with only the original experiment inside) to present the results in a manner such that the original experiment appeared to support Theory B.

The professor then sent the manuscript to me and asked me if I had any comments before he submitted it to a journal. I protested, but the professor told me that he is the owner of the project as he came up with the idea and funded the experiment. I was told that I can either have the name on the paper, or withdraw completely and irrevocably.

I do not think this is fair. Is it reasonable of me to say that I do not want my name on the paper now, but I might want my name on the paper in future if the results are (in my opinion) honestly presented?

It is difficult to play hardball when you are a student. I never recommend playing it against your advisor, but this is a bit different as you say. If the person has no effective control over your future then you might consider it, despite the possible blowback.

What is being demanded of you is unethical. No one can publish your work without your permission. If they publish it without you it is plagiarism. Even publishing it without you as an author but acknowledging your contribution is unethical if you don't agree to having your name used. You have a lot of power here, actually.

The actions open to you are an ethics complaint to the department or the university. You can also offer to inform any journal to which they submit it without you that they have plagiarized your work. Hardball indeed.

But a better way is to ask (actually require) them to split the paper. Write a paper that everyone is happy with and make no contentious claims. Have those that are interested write a second paper in which they try to support further claims. The second paper should cite the first, obviously. This isn't the same as "temporarily withdrawing".

Of course, you can also write another followup paper explaining why the further claims are unsupported by the evidence.

But before you take irrevocable action, make sure your own advisor is in agreement and will back you up in the likely ensuing shoving (and kicking) match. Don't let it come between you and your degree.


Am I being overambitious with PhD applications I recently applied to a fairly prestigious PhD programme in the UK and a very short time after receiving a confirmation email I was rejected. The requirements were listed as a 2.1 in an undergraduate degree, which I do not have (I got a 2.2) however I am currently studying for a relevant postgraduate masters and expect to get a good grade. I also have a large amount of research experience through internships and work experience.

I know programmes of this sort are very competitive and there could simply have been more qualified applicants but the length of time between my application being received and rejected makes me think that they didn't really look at it, just made a decision based on my undergraduate grade.

My question is, am I being far too ambitious with PhD applications and will my masters degree and relevant experience be overshadowed by my poor undergraduate grade?

The requirements were listed as a 2.1 in an undergraduate degree, which I do not have (I got a 2.2)

You'll receive "desk rejects" from institutes that insist on this requirement. However, since

  I am currently studying for a relevant postgraduate masters and expect to get a good grade.

Your undergraduate degree might be ignored by some institutes, in favour of your postgraduate degree.

Also, rather than approaching an institute, try approaching potential supervisors. They'll know how to navigate their institution's rules.

You should also consider whether a PhD is for you. You don't have the required grades. Perhaps something went wrong during your undergraduate degree; perhaps you'll achieve better grades during your postgraduate degree. This is perhaps something you've already thought about.


Not enjoying post doc work environment I think this is more of an interpersonal/workplace question rather than an academic but still related I think.

I'm in the first year of a three year post doc in the UK. I enjoy the work I do with my advisor for the most part and I enjoy working with my advisor. Its unfortunately, everything else about the position I dont like.

The building doesnt feel 'academic', rather more of a generic office building. While this is likely minor for most, one of the reasons I chose academia over industry was the dislike of 'office culture' ie semi-forced social events, rumours, cliques, almost timed coffee breaks, offices with many people leading to volume issues or temperature disagreements etc. While some of this may be UK culture (American), I still find it hard to want to come into work. Some interpersonal issues as well in regards to politics (centrist with regards to American politics, which is apparently far far right in the UK).

This has led to me working from home or working odd hours (~6am to 2-4 pm) so that I attempt to remain productive while not having to deal with these issues. This led to rumours about me being depressed and 'raised eyebrows' about how I leave much earlier than others. Outside of work, I enjoy my hobbies and the area and I am mostly content, but having to come into work 5 days a week just drains me and stresses me out and is wreaking havoc on my emotional state and to an extent my productivity.

I have brought this up to my advisor, and we may try and change my location in the building, but there's likely not a free 1 person office so all the previous issues are still there.. just different desk location? Im not as productive at home and Im unsure how 'okay' the department is with regards to me working from home even if my boss is okay with it.

I'm unsure I can manage 2 more years at this rate. Advice?

TL;DR I like the work I do and my boss, I just dont like going to work or being at work. What should I do.

Sadly, I am an American postdoc in an American lab, and I am experiencing the same issues. The details are different, but the sentiment is the same--the laboratory is not conducive to work. At all. It is a noisy, distracting place with coworkers of all varieties doing any number of distracting activities. And right now, I have to write, and i have to write a lot. My PI/boss likes to be able to also come into lab and look over our shoulders, to make suggestions and check progress. This is entirely unnerving to me. it's compromised my ability to be productive and keep those standard hours in the lab. So, I employ strategies- noise-cancelling headphones. Working from home. Telling everyone I'm writing and getting the biggest headphones and possibly sporting a slight scowl in general. It's not fun and i'd love an office. But for me, the bottom line is what I have to show for this experience when it's over. And I'm willing to do whatever it takes, because this is a great opportunity to advance my career. And i need it and i want it badly enough. But, that said. ...it is difficult and the environment works against me, daily. It might be something you encounter in an ideal setting.

And what i've found...is doing 'whatever you must' to be productive, might get some odd looks. People might talk or be judging. Someone might not like you working from home or keeping odd hours.

But you will have those first author papers. And that matters. That matters to your boss, the department, and for your career--far more than whatever situational annoyances arise in the process. You've got to get yours.


What is the actual process by which academic ethics change? Some of the answers to my question Are academic ethics global or local? indicate the possibility that academic ethics themselves (rather than just laws and policies affecting academics) may change over time.

What is the actual process by which academic ethics may be altered? More specifically, is the process:

Top-down, in which regulatory agencies, funding sources, legislatures, etc. push down new rules onto academics, who are expected to internalize them as normative? (e.g. "Please take note that fooing the bar is now against our Code of Ethics. If you do not cease all bar fooing activity by the end of the fiscal year, your grant will not be renewed.")
Bottom-up, in which written codes of ethics, laws, funding guidelines, etc. are modified as time goes on to match popular consensus? (e.g. "According to our recent surveys, 95% of academics and 82% of the general public Agree with the statement 'It should be considered unethical when academics foo the bar.'. For the 2020 fiscal year, we should make not fooing the bar a requirement for funding.")

The question can alternately be phrased as asking about the nature of academic ethics themselves - whether the "true state" of what is ethical and what is not is part of written rules of academia (and thus reflected in applicable policies, laws, procedures, etc.), or part of the unwritten rules.

I'm sure both processes happen.

The latest Common Rule for human subjects is a great top-down example.  https://nexus.od.nih.gov/all/2019/01/07/nih-implementation-of-the-final-rule-on-the-federal-policy-for-the-protection-of-human-subjects-common-rule/

This process reinvestigated human  subject ethics in the context of modern-day genetics.  It almost required specific informed consent for the collection of deidentified tissue, with periodic renewals of consent and the ability to yank consent.  Picture what that would do to say, developed perpetual cell lines used for research!  MANY universities were waiting anxiously to see what would come out of that process and there were very large discussions on how such requirements would be met.  We even modified our CLINICAL operations to accommodate anticipated changes that never happened!!

I say this is a great top-down example because the ethics are, and still remain, hard to figure out.  Stakeholders had to get together and form consensus.  Nobody knew what the outcome would be when the process started.

As an example of bottom up, there is the example of neurosurgeons that now require sham surgeries before adopting a new procedure. This fell out of human fetal tissue transplant attempts. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1733639  There is no relevant reg, but I'm sure this is now incorporated into RSRB discussion.


How much teaching is expected on a CV for a graduating PhD student (mathematics)? In previous comments/discussion (which I cannot find at this moment) a few people from this site noted that PhD students (in math/CS) should make sure they acquire a good amount of teaching experience before they graduate, and that this is something people look for in postdoc applications. In your experience, how much teaching experience is necessary, and what's a good amount?

I ask because after obtaining fellowships I have not been able to obtain TA positions because there are a limited number and they are given first to students in need of support (perfectly reasonable). Thus I have TA'd a total of 3 quarters: three upper division courses where I had to put together quizzes, grade homeworks, and lecture twice a week. It is likely that I may graduate before receiving another teaching positions. Is this okay, or should I really be looking more teaching assignments?

Note I am trying to supplement this lack of teaching by teaching workshops on things like programming in Julia, big data analysis, and machine learning which are run as part of an on-campus interdisciplinary center.

It is what it is.  Some schools give you less opportunity for teaching than others (e.g., schools in the UK).

If you are looking for a research postdoc, then having a lot of teaching experience is not too important.  For instance, at my institution, we want to make sure you're competent and not going to cause problems, but you don't need to have won five teaching awards.  This is evidenced primarily by your teaching letter.  If you think you can get a decent teaching letter now, then I wouldn't worry about it.  (Note: if you're TAing now and probably won't be again before you apply, consider having someone who will write you a letter observe your class.)

If you're looking for a "teaching postdoc," e.g. a temporary position at a liberal arts school, they typically want more evidence that you're a good teacher, so you might try to actively look for more teaching opportunities.

Note: presumably many other students at your institution have the same issue.  Try finding out how much TAing recent graduates did and what kind of jobs they got after graduating.


Peer review process in a math journal I am a resident of a 3rd world country in a south Asian country. I have completed my Msc in math from a place which is not well known for math. While an Msc student, I wrote a solo author paper on combinatorial group theory ( without any once's guide, completely myself).I submitted the paper to Journal of Combinatorial Theory series A. After referee's review it has been suggested to revise and submit the paper in an algebra journal. Then I submitted the paper to some algebra journal ( without revision) and it got desk rejection. I am not a native speaker in English and also have no experience of writing a research paper.Also there is no known professor of mine who works in this area. Now I have some questions...

Is it possible that my paper is considered as a crackpot ? I know that my writing is not up-to the professional level.
I am not belonging from a well known place and I am also unknown in research. Does this creat any negative impression ?
I am expecting to apply in graduate math program. Will admission committee take my paper seriously if I can not publish it by that time ?

My pet peeve as a reviewer is authors that ignore reviewer comments. If you were asked to revise the paper and did not listen, that's a desk-reject in my book. Part of the scientific method is the ability to improve one's work based on peer review. If you cannot do it for whatever reason, then expect a series of rejection.

Is it possible that my paper is considered as a crackpot ? I know that my writing is not up-to the professional level.

Yes, it's possible. Nowadays, proper academic English is the medium of communication in most academic papers (if you had lived 500-600 years ago you'd have needed to write in Latin); you need to conform to this standard before your paper has any chance of being published in a respectable venue.

I am not belonging from a well known place and I am also unknown in research. Does this create any negative impression?

I would like to tell you that only the content of your writing matters, and not your institution/rank etc., but that's unfortunately not true. While this varies between reviewers, I do believe that papers originating from well-known academic institutions are held in better regard. Of course, if you submit your paper to a respectable venue then it would be judged primarily based on its contents. However, the combination of improper English and unknown institution does not help.

I am expecting to apply in graduate math program. Will the admission committee take my paper seriously if I cannot publish it by that time?

That depends. There are plenty of places where you can upload a copy of your work for the public to see (ArXiv is one notable example). You can also try and publish it in a workshop on combinatorial game theory, so that you get a chance to solicit feedback and present your work. This will help get some visibility for your work, and perhaps signal to potential advisors that you are serious. If you send your manuscript to specific advisors you'd like to work with, and are in a position to judge the content of your work, they may look past the stylistic issues and see whether there's any potential to your work.


Let's party !: ways to interact with the students similar to "Science Meets Speed Dating" My institution would like to organize an event where the students of our university would meet the researchers of our lab(s) and where we could expose what our daily work look like, what are our subjects of interest, what is like being a Researcher, etc....

We're looking for ideas about how to interact with the students. One of our ideas is to do something similar to "Science Meets Speed Dating" http://www.wsj.com/articles/science-meets-speed-dating-1434569915

  Last week, the American Museum of Natural History and the blogging and
  social networking platform Tumblr decided to adapt the speed-dating
  concept to science.

  Instead of getting five minutes with a prospective mate, the allotted
  time would be spent with one of the museum’s scientists. There were 24
  of them, traveling among 12 tables. And instead of sharing your taste
  in food and music and attitudes toward organized religion (or whatever
  people discuss on speed dates), you’d get to pepper paleontologists
  about whether Tyrannosaurus rex had feathers or chat with
  astrophysicists about the possibility of a multiverse and whether
  black holes might serve as portals, sort of like the
  Bleecker-Lafayette subway station, facilitating travel between one
  universe and another.

do you know any similar (funny/original) way(s) to interact with the public ?

Great idea, given that many students have no idea what scientists actually do (and some confuse scientists with full-time teachers; not sure what your students think -- that would be interesting to know in advance to address these misconceptions and to reinforce what is true). And even better to go beyond a simple poster session or the like.

But what exactly should the students take away from the event/this experience? For example,

that science is a weird mixture of great fun (doing something new) to excruciating agony (getting papers/proposals rejected, non-significant results)? Then I'd second a science slam. If you have good speakers who are willing to be open about their success and failures. Personally, I'd go by something "behind the scenes" like. A couple of placed cameras with a fast forward montage of a typical day might be interesting (explaining what you do in the video). And plan some time for questions.
to show specifically what your institution researches? How about something hands-on? Something that shows the progress, not the end result that ends up in papers or text books?

Just, whatever you do, I doubt that anything involving speed would get the message across. Perhaps it's my aversion to speed dating speaking here, but in the end it's all a blur and I wonder whether that fits your goals. I think identifying the misconceptions and specifically replacing them with what you actually do is the way to go, rather than just short and diverse contact that likely will remain superficial.


When is a proper time to consider quitting a phd? I am considering the possibility to quit from the phd program I am involved in ( to be completely honest it is not me BiA considering that, but another person that wants to remain anonymous )

The group I am working in has several criticalities:

the advisor is not good in managing his time, and he continuously postpones meetings. He already told me several times that I should be more insistent and try to go randomly to his office, so that we could have at least one meeting a week. I tried several ways to fix appointments with him but it does not work.
the advisor changes goals for my work every time I met him. This is very confusing.
I feel that what is asked for getting the phd is essentially cheating. The advisor wants more than 3 publication in 3 years, and after joining the group I discovered that this takes normally more than 4 and 1/2 years.
a lot of people have left the group in the last year, more or less 50% of the people that I knew when I first came to this group. The reason are several but all related with the advisor
the people in the group are very friendly but they do not work as a team, also because helping other people in the group is not considered a good practice. Moreover in a while the entire group will be formed of just phd students in their first year.

Since I am still in my first year I am thinking of exit this ugly situation. But sometimes I think it could be too early. On the other side I don't see possible improvements in the near future. And I don't want to stay stuck in a bad situation for 3+ more years.

My primary question is, should one quit a PhD within the first year if the working environment seems to be a poor fit?

As a follow up, what would be good way to describe this situation to a possible future employer without saying "my previous job was really bad"? No one wants you to blame the old boss...

There are a few subproblems I want to respond to, then an overall answer.

If an advisor is not invested enough in a project to spend time on it, the student is going to have to struggle with avoidable problems, i.e. issues which the adviser could have quickly addressed. It's still not impossible, and some students might even flourish without micromanagement, but it's not ideal. So then, is it that this advisor doesn't care to spend time on the project, or that they have many other commitments and are just doing a poor job allocating their time? If they earnestly want to meet but are being pulled away by teaching and committee work, then the student might be able to help out by tracking down the advisor when they are available.

Pressure to publish is almost universal in academia and if we want to be successful we have to embrace this as a delicious carrot rather than a heavy stick. However, for many PhD students there is a gap between what the program tells the students to do and what the median student who receives a PhD actually does. If you want to pursue a faculty position, you need to aim substantially higher than the median--in terms of publication counts, everyone should aim higher than the median in terms of personal achievement--but if that's not your path then it's less critical.

Now, those issues aside, I generally feel that if a student is bothered enough by a working environment to make a list of the reasons they think the environment is awful, then regardless of how common any individual factor might be, it isn't working out. Don't torture yourself. If you love the work you do, then look for transfer opportunities. You should quit a PhD as soon as you know it's not working, regardless of how much time has actually passed.


What is considered appropriate men's attire for a PhD interview at a Max Planck institute? During this winter, will it be alright to wear a shirt-jeans and a jacket for the PhD interview at Max Plack Institute?

(Physicist here, experience with PhD admissions at British and German universities, including one Max Planck institute). In my field, I have never come across an actual dress code for PhD interviews. Nonetheless, if you dress too casually, especially older faculty members might get the impression that you are not taking it seriously enough. On the other hand, with suit & tie some people might perceive you as overdressed and maybe a bit stuffy. So being somewhere in the middle, e.g. jeans, shirt & jacket as you suggest, is a good approach.

I strongly assume that it is similar for other STEM fields (which account for most of the Max Planck institutes), but it can be completely different in other fields that tend to value formal attire (e.g. law).


What do researchers mean by the "priority" of an idea? I have heard the term "priority" used in regards to research ideas. For example, How does one determine priority, prominence, and impact with regard to books, rather than articles? asks about priority (and other things) in regards to books.

From the usage I have seen in this community, priority appears to be established when you submit a manuscript (e.g., to a publisher or arXiv). This seems very weird to me, so I am worried that I am missing something. The time at which an idea is submitted for publication can be years after the idea was had, so it seems priority is not giving credit to the first individual who had the idea. Since the review process is confidential and it can take years for an idea to get published, priority is not being given to the person who first disseminated the idea either.

What exactly is priority and why does it matter?

The way I use this term, "priority" means "who had this idea first". Of course, everyone can come up and say "hey, I totally had this idea to determine graph isomorphism in quasipolynomial time in 1990", so it is difficult to validate a priority claim unless there is some written material to back it up. But intellectual priority is the former concept; publication dates are just an imperfect way to measure it.

In fields where research is routinely disseminated before formal publication (using arXiv, preprints, or conferences), such as mathematics, there are (in my opinion) fewer possibilities for issues such as "X had the idea one year before Y, but Y's paper was published earlier" or "Y was a peer reviewer and scooped X's idea".


How do internal fellowships work? Most graduate students in the USA work as lab assistants or teaching assistants. But some people have fellowships from the school just to study. I know you probably need a very good GPA and GRE to get a fellowship. What else does a department look for to decide about who gets a fellowship? Does it help if you have a masters degree?

At the university where I work, we have two types of internal fellowships for graduate students.

The first type are funded by donations to the university foundation with instruction that the funds are to be used to support graduate students studying in a specific department (and sometimes, studying a specific subfield, etc). These fellowships are typically small awards that are used to provide extra funds to outstanding students that are otherwise funded by research or teaching assistantships.

The second type are similar to the first in that they are again small awards used to provide extra funds to outstanding students. However, they are funded and administered at the university level. Each department can nominate some students annually for these awards, typically in proportion to the number of doctoral students working in the department. Award decisions are typically finalized by a university-wide director of graduate programs.

Other schools also sometimes have a third type, again funded and administered at the university level. Large donors can fund full fellowships for graduate students that cover all tuition and also provide a stipend; these fellowships replace a teaching or research assistantship entirely, and allow the student and advisor to conduct research on a topic of their choice. Typically very few such fellowships are available, but again individual departments nominate students.

In each of these cases, fellowships are typically awarded to applicants to doctoral programs at the time of admissions and are designed to attract the very best students to the university. Therefore, all dimensions of an outstanding graduate application are likely to help you win a fellowship when available!


Working from distance as a postdoc for a Company Almost 5 months ago I got an offer for a postdoc in USA. As we knew due to my nationality it will take some time to get the visa, I started working on the project from distance. Even though, my postdoc will be in USA but the project I was working on, was for a company in Canada which has some collaboration with my future postdoc supervisor. Yesterday, I have received an email from supervisor that the company would like to pay me some salary in a consultant basis. I am totally unfamiliar with USA and Canada system and have no idea what does this mean. What should be my expectation for this payment? Will it be the same as my future postdoc salary? Or it may be much lower? I have been working fully on the project and personally expect full salary. Any experiences and advises? Thanks

Only the company can know how much they're prepared to pay, so we can't answer that. It could be more than the postdoc salary, it could be less. It could be higher, but for fewer hours. A consultant position might come with much fewer benefits. You really need to negotiate this with them.

For the future, you'd ideally negotiate this with them before you begin to work. If the company is unscrupulous, or if they didn't give the green light to start the project, you might never get paid at all for the months you've worked. If there is an actual written contract it's much harder to pull stuff like that.


Double blind review allowing arXiv submissions I am submitting an article on a conference that follows a double-blind review system. However, the following is mentioned on its dual submission policy:

  Papers that have appeared on non-peered reviewed websites (like arXiv) or that have been presented at workshops (i.e., venues that do not have a publication proceedings) do not violate the policy.

So, if the above is true, I might as well have submitted a paper that has also appeared in arXiv, where the identities of the authors are visible. Wouldn't that effectively constitute a violation of the double-blind review policy?

Wouldn't that effectively constitute a violation of the double-blind
  review policy?

Clearly not, as they state that it doesn't violate the policy.

Does it break double-blinding? Yes. But the intent is clearly to allow those who submit preprints, are in fields where conference proceedings are a thing, etc. to still be able to submit. It's essentially a compromise position of "Double Blind where possible, but we're not going to kick you out if you've broken it through the standard course of research."


Referencing forum comments and translating citations using the Harvard citation style I'm using the Harvard citation style for a paper for the first time in my life, and I can't figure out how to cite specific comments on a web forum. Can I simply treat in like any other web resource, and do something like this:

  On the forum "Name of forum", user "John" says that "Quoting something John wrote on Name of forum". (Name of forum 2013)

I also wonder: When using direct quotes, is it okay to translate these from one language to another or must a direct quote always appear in the language it was written in?

This University of Birmingham document has a comprehensive guide as to cite references from different sources, specifically pages 5-6 have how to cite a forum post.

With regards to your second question, I would translate the quote to the language you are writing in and in the intext reference state "(translated from author, year)".


Parent's education levels in US graduate applications Why do some US universities request parent's educational level in graduate admissions application?

Many institutions have an interest or incentive in serving first-generation college students, i.e. students whose parents do not have college degrees.  This can be seen as a way to reduce educational or economic inequality.

It's possible that in some cases there may be some sort of preference given to such students.  More likely, it's for statistical purposes only, to see how well they are doing at reaching first-generation students.


What is the socio-economic argument or historical basis for university tuition fees? One of the major differences between Europe (here I am mainly referring to Scandinavia) and Northern America, from an academic viewpoint, is the perspective towards higher education. In Scandinavia there it is generally accepted that anyone despite their financial status should be able to pursue higher education. Elsewhere in Europe I know of systems were the state subsidises a majority of the cost and only a minor portion of education costs are reflected on to the students.

The quality of education and research, and all the top X ratings aside, I personally never really understood the "American" way of looking at education, namely that it is a practically a business. I have noticed this other question on reasons for increasing tuition fees but little to no information behind why they exist.

I came across this comic recently, which seems to be gaining some popularity on the web, where the artist takes up some of the aspects and consequences of the north american perspective towards higher education; subjects that are mentioned are student loan debt, tuition fees and federal spending on education vs military or prisons.

Please note that I the language s/he chooses might be offensive to some and it is not at all my intention to insult anyone or incite a subjective discussion. Based on the culture and traditions in Scandinavia, many find it really hard to understand why it would be useful to have tuition fees, and thus put practically everyone who studies in serious debt by the time they are done with education. Thus, I would like to know:

Is there any reasonable ground (thorough studies on cost to society, overall well-being of people etc) or any indisputable historical origins behind why tuition fees were introduced for higher education?

PS: I realise that the question is on the gray zone on being on-topic or not here on Ac.SE but given good, constructive and factual answers, it would be a good resource to people outside North American system.

What do you mean, "introduced"?

Someone has to pay for the teaching in any case. Students paying for their education has been the default option since at least Bologna in 1088, when the studies happened because enough people wanted to pay for such an education. It has continued to be the case throughout history, except for some prestigious universities that got sponsored by wealthy rulers or religious studies that got sponsored by the church estates. It must be noted that this sponsorship shouldn't be considered "public education" but is rather analogous to various current stipends/grants/etc, since these were meant for a very small number of individuals, not as education for masses.

It's not that USA has "introduced tuition fees" - instead, some countries, like the Scandinavian countries mentioned, have comparably recently (historically speaking) introduced free higher education for everyone, but USA hasn't (yet?) introduced that.

Who are the actors here?

As for most questions about society, you can't really talk about "THE motivation for X" without being explicit about WHO has that motivation.

The core actor here is the people who actually decide on exact amounts of tuition, i.e., the people who manage the (often private) universities, not their students, faculty, parents or politicians. For them, there are at least four valid reasons for having tuition fees:

That's income that they can use for whatever needs, so tuition is better than no tuition in that sense; even if they have other funding as well, most education institutions would prefer a larger budget;
It filters out people based on their motivation - in any university setting, you don't want students who are "just visiting", as they disrupt the motivation and learning of others. Recent data from MOOCs with no barriers of entry show that this creates a large class of people who join just to try it out, since no real commitment of resources is required; that's okay for a MOOC, but disruptive in the 'classic' university environment, where you need to limit the number of students to whatever number you can afford do service properly.
It filters out people based on their ability to pay - that's generally considered an inappropriate/illegal/evil goal nowadays, but back when the system was implemented, maintaining the separation of classes was an intentional goal (e.g. Numerus Clausus policies even in 20th century), not just a random byproduct of policies; your school and degree would have a better reputation if low-class "undesirables" would be kept out of the classrooms. A currently relevant argument is that diplomas are in some sense a Veblen good, where being affordable means less demand as you're believed to be cheap, thus automagically worse.
They can't handle any sudden drops in income. Much of university expenses are fixed - building maintenance and tenured faculty won't become cheaper if you suddenly lose 20% of your income; so any cost reductions must be accompanied by a large influx of money (from whom?) or be a slow process of reducing volume - either teaching much less students, or doing much less to teach them.

[edit]

There's no market pressure to reduce tuition

In a reasonable market there are downward pressures on price and demand - customer ability to pay and customer price sensitivity.
Recent changes in USA and some other education markets have greatly reduced those pressures.

The wide availability of student loans has resulted in a situation where people are buying education that they can't really afford - paying large amount of money (that they're borrowing) for even those education programs that won't actually have a "return on investment", while not having the spare resources to pay for it as a "hobby expense" for improving themselves. The impact of this is yet into the future, as student loans are maturing and the related bankruptcy cases are (and will be) rising.

And, more relevant to this question, student loans remove the visible difference between cheap and expensive university programs. Universities don't compete on price, since people don't choose them based on price. Some people do, but the majority of students don't think in a manner "oh, I can't afford a $40k tuition in a better university, so I'll apply only to $20k ones" in the same way as they would when purchasing, say, cars for the same amount; since the loans mask the direct impact on their daily budget. This means that universities have little motivation to lower their prices, as being cheaper won't gain them much, and being expensive doesn't restrict them from getting the good students they want, since the good students will get loans/stipends anyway.


Do we have a citation ethics in science? Citations matter! Everybody knows this and Google Scholar (or Publish or Perish) shows it. Over the last years, I met people with different citation "ethics": Supervisors and professors require students to cite their own papers, even if they don't really relate or if there is a paper which would be more appropriate to cite. Journal reviewers nicely recommend accepting the paper for publication if only more two or three references (paper from the reviewer) are included. And even when an author cites a paper, there is often the question if the "idea" is cited or a specific "result" etc. E.g. there is a study showing that wrong citations are often inherited in papers that cite the misspelled citation, which indicates that the author didn't really read or access the paper and cites it only because of its general reputation. Similar to the IEEE Code of Ethics or ACM Code of Ethics, is there any Citation Code of Ethics?

Citations have only one practical purpose: indicating to your readers where they can find the published material on which you built the work that's described in your paper (methods you used, hypotheses that your work support or contradict, etc.).

Everything else is just more noise in an already too noisy signal.

Citations should not be used to show deference to senior researchers, to increase citation metrics of a person's supervisor, nor to "grease the palms" of reviewers or falsely infer relevance to a given journal. Please refrain from doing such things, they hurt science.


Consideration for MS if PhD rejected I am a undergraduate student interested in doing my higher studies in USA. I am tempted to apply for PhD program offered by the colleges but I am skeptical of my selection due to high competition. So, I was planning to first do MS from a reputed college and then later do a PhD. This will improve my chances of admit as well.
However, while going through the FAQs of some colleges I came to know that there is a possibility of applying for PhD in a college, and in case the application gets rejected they consider the application for MS as well.
So, I just wanted to know which is a wiser decision? To apply only for MS or to apply for PhD and hope that they select you at least for MS. Also, does the chances of being selected for MS reduce if the applicant follows the latter procedure?

It depends on the discipline and which country/institution you are coming from.  In my experience, most foreign PhD students in US physics programs have master's degrees from their home countries.  Therefore I think PhD admissions committees are expecting a master's degree.

MS programs in the US are usually not selective.  Most international students choose to get the MS in their home country because it is usually much cheaper.


Is it ok to ask ex-dissertation supervisor for any future funded phds Following a computer science degree I would love to follow a phd research.
The problem is that all funded phds that are advertised from the specific university do not meet my desired criteria, i.e. research projects that target the  improvement of the quality of life of vulnerable groups of people.

I know that my ex bachelor dissertation supervisor used do research and observe researches of my desired criteria.

Would it be ok asking him through email whether such oportunities exist? Or would that be just a waste of his time?

The short answer is Yes. Rather, the supervisor might be happy to take you in if she had such a project.

Since you have already worked under the supervisor during your earlier degree and showed some excellent outcomes with research maturity, the supervisor would be really happy to take you in as a research lab member.

If you had not shown any good outcomes during your dissertation, then she might not consider the request.

However, it is not a waste of time to write and ask. Since she knows you she may read your email. Many a time, professors do not read emails even, and that is frustrating.


Is it okay to change advisors in the same university between Masters and PhD? I have almost finished my master's in Computer Science the only reason that I don't want to directly continue with a PhD is my advisor and co-advisor. I was left out during almost all my master's projects and it has been a bad experience.
Is it okay to finish a master's and look for another advisor from the same university? How can I explain my decision to my advisor?

In general the answer to the question would be yes, and many people do so, both by staying at the same institution and by changing universities. But there are caveats. It probably isn't the norm, and there may be local traditions, say in Brazil, that suggest it is a poor idea. But you would probably already know if that were true.
There are many reasons to change advisors beyond a poor experience. One of the main ones is that the student wants to change sub-fields and another faculty member would be more appropriate. It might also be desirable to move to a more senior faculty member for a variety of reasons. An untenured advisor can be risky since their main focus will necessarily be on their own work.
I don't actually think there is a need to explain it. Certainly you don't need to say that you haven't been happy. If pressed, just say that you've decided that the other person would be more appropriate.
I also doubt that you need a "gap".
But find another person and get their agreement to take you on before you make any waves.


Do I have an obligation to pay publication fee to predatory journal? Accidentally submitted to predatory journal (very naive and stupid first time researcher here) accepted with no evidence of peer review. Could not pay submission fee so they reduced cost substantially so I submitted an updated manuscript. Then realised it was predatory and they also have already uploaded my article online! Have not paid fee and confronted journal on predatory status. Can I get away with not paying the fee? No copyright transfer signed.

I am not a lawyer but I would think this depends on the contractual laws that govern you where you live and where the journal is based. You may be able to ask them to take down the article but they may try to do so through a retraction rather than simply "deleting" it.

On the other hand, if you have not transferred copyright then they shouldn't technically be  able to publish the article, and you should still have had the right to withdraw the submission.

So this is a bit of a thorny situation and I would try to seek out help from your university (do they have a Legal department in the administration?) to guide you through this process.


As a double major if you do reasonably well in only the second major will it affect your chances of getting into a good grad school? I started out as an economics major after being pushed into it by my family. However, I never had much of an interest in this subject. I was going through a very rough time in the first two years and I never excelled much in economics and I did not care about what was happening to me. However, a math professor who is my current thesis supervisor encouraged me to look into the math department and that's when I thought about finally majoring in a subject I actually cared about and doing something for myself. Thus, I ended up double majoring in mathematics and I started finally feeling somewhat invested into my own future. I have done quite well in my second major (mathematics) and I hope to do a master's in either mathematics or statistics in France or Germany.
However, I am worried if I can even get into a good grad school as my grades in economics are not very good.

I have no idea how grad school admissions look into double majors. How will my case be considered if I want to do a master's in mathematics? Will my performance in economics adversely affect my chances of getting into a good grad school?
Is it recommended that I retake some economics courses I haven't done well in? I really don't want to. I would prefer to use that time to study more mathematics and preparing for grad school which is a cumbersome process in itself and retaking would also mean more finances behind a subject I don't care about. But if it comes down to that then I will have to give it a try.

If your second major (economics) is not related to the graduate program (pure? math), your performance in the second major will be viewed the same way as your performance in elective courses.  It is not that important but it will count towards any GPA cutoff.
If you were applying for a graduate program in economics with an intent to do quantitative research, bad math grades would be more important because math is used in some economics.
I would not recommend retaking a specialized course you do not plan to use for anything unless you would enjoy it.  It would be more efficient to take a course that is useful and also increases your GPA.


What to call paragraph in relevant work chapter that explains relation to own thesis/research? My second supervisor suggested that I add a final paragraph in my Relevant Work chapter which essentially explains why the discussed work is related to my own. I wrote the paragraph which explains this but also how my work differed from the discussed literature.

What should I call it? I stand at "Relation to my work" at the moment.

If more info is needed, please let me know.

Why do you think it needs a title? You can just leave it as another paragraph in the same section.


How I can respond to this major revision? Recently I have received major revision on manuscript submitted to springer journal. In the manuscript I have devise a methodology by which very decent results are derived and I called these results by name "X" in manuscript. The reviewers comments are as follow:

First reviewer: This reviewer praised my work but told me that my results should not be named as "X" because from properties of results I should better name the results as "Y" and he further suggested to correct some typos. Overall this reviewer is willing to accept my work.
Second reviewer: This reviewer asked me  that if  my results are of type "X", then I should prove certain properties that are required to call results as "X".  He further states that, if my results are not of type "X",  then the title, abstract, introduction of manuscript need to be reviewed.

Now actually my result are really not of type "X", they are of type "Y" as suspected by second reviewer and I mistakenly called them as "X". This name "X" is used in title, abstract and introduction. I guess changing name from "X" to "Y" would not effect the quality of my work.
But, if I do change the name of results from "X" to "Y" would the second reviewer likely to suspect the quality of my work or is it possible that he would reject my work ??
PS. Except naming, there is no other problem in my work.

I'm not really sure what the question is here. It seems like everyone agrees that the proper name is Y, so the only thing you can do is change it to Y and resubmit.

My guess is this will clear up the confusion of the second reviewer.  And if you don't change the name he will surely reject your paper, because after all it isn't about X.  But it's really irrelevant: you know what the right thing is to do, and you have to do it, even if the consequences turn out to be negative.

Yes, it's possible your paper will be rejected. That is always a possibility whenever you submit a paper for publication.  Get used to living with it.


Will an assistant professor take on new students at the end of their assistant professor “term” if they are unsure of whether they will get tenure? I’m wondering how well professors know whether they will get tenure or not, and if that will affect their decision to hire a new student? I figure that if a professor needs new students they wouldn’t just stop hiring students because they aren’t sure if they be able to continue at their institution, but then I’m not sure what would happen to the students should the professor be asked to leave the institution after their time as an assistant professor is up.

The simple answer to your direct question is yes and no. Some will and some will not.

But the problem is probably less than it seems for a variety of reasons, not all of which apply in any given case. Some universities tenure people only rarely so most assume that they will be moving on. Some universities tenure most of their candidates, being especially careful when first hiring. In the first case, a professor probably won't want to hire and in the second, probably will.

Moreover, if you are denied tenure, you still have a year before you leave. If the decision is made in the 7th year, you leave at the end of the 8th, not immediately.

In addition, in places that make more individualized decisions, it is likely that the candidate has had quite a lot of advance notice that their application is in trouble. And the reasons for that imply that such a person isn't likely to be the first choice of students looking for a supervisor. Either they have evidenced poor teaching or inadequate research. So a person headed for the door isn't the one you are interested in supervising you in the first place. The person likely to be tenured is also more likely to be the one you would consider as a supervisor.

But, there are exceptions. Some people fail to earn tenure for purely economic reasons when interest in a field wanes as it periodically does in some fields. The person will need to leave, but with good prospects elsewhere through letters explaining why. But even in this situation, there are fairly clear warning signs that the person is leaving as the trends take a while to develop.


Does citation count include cites from arxiv I was wondering, suppose I have an arxiv paper citing my paper, does Researchgate or google scholar count it as if my paper was cited?

What if there are two versions (arxiv and peer reviewed) and lets say the citations do not all match, what then? (e.g. I would think counting at most once everything that is in either version is best. But, what actually happens?)

Google scholar counts any citation from anything their algorithms identify as a technical document. These are not limited to "known" or approved publications. Thus these include citations from papers on arxiv.

I don't know about researchgate.


How can I get a list of citations for a DoI or PubMed ID? I'd like to be able to submit a DoI or PubMed ID and find all the papers that cited that paper.

In other words, I need a publicly-available citation graph database that covers papers in PubMed.

The bottom comment on this question refers to a publicly-available citation graph: How do I get a citation dataset with full text articles in PDF format? but does not give any details of where it can be found.

Does anyone know of any such citation databases?

UPDATE: To be clear, I really need a database - not a service like Google Scholar - because I want to do it programmatically for many hundreds of thousands of articles.

Quick and dirty version: Google Scholar

Type-in the DOI and read the citation count on the field "Cited by". Google Scholar does not filter for quality, so the citation count will include self-published papers, fake publications, etc. Expect some noise.

Better version: Web of Science

Ask your institution's librarian how you can access the Web of Science database and how to use it to retrieve the data that you need. That might require you to walk in daylight to the physical location of your library. Many survived that journey.


How should I highlight extensive changes in a revised manuscript? I revised and resubmitted my manuscript (rejected with the chance of resubmission) to the same journal. I listed all my answers to the reviewers' comments at the beginning of the document. Later, the editor asked me to highlight the changes in the text to make it easier to track them. Since I almost rewrote the entire paper (I mention it in the resubmission letter), about 85-90% of the text would be colored.

I have two questions:

Should I fulfill the editor's request even if almost the whole manuscript turns into let's say red? I'd prefer yes.
Should I place color tags in the Latex source file, or should I highlight changes directly in the pdf file? Which of these or even other choices are the most appropriate?

If the editor's already asked you to highlight the changes, then you should highlight the changes even if it's 85-90% of the text.

As for color tags, it's up to you. Both are equally good. I would highlight on the PDF since I find it easier to do, but if you prefer color tags that's just as good. Be sure to pick a color like red or blue - something that makes it easy to discern the changes from the rest of the text.


Submitting TeX to ScholarOne I'm trying to submit a latex document to a SAGE journal using ScholarOne.

I'm having a hard time.

The (poor) documentation says that it accepts tex files, but the pdf it produces says that it cannot turn my tex into a pdf.

  Note: The following files were submitted by the author for peer
  review, but cannot be converted to PDF. You must view these files (e.g. movies) online.

  response.tex

Is this just what it does with tex files? Should it compile them? I don't know. If it is not compiling, how do I get the error message?

Both the Royal Society of Chemistry journals and the American Chemical Society journals use ScholarOne Manuscripts™ as their web submission platform. In both cases, the system is able to compile LaTeX documents into a PDF file. There are, however, strict requirements about the type of LaTeX document you can use. These are spelt out in a specific help section entitled “Preparing and Submitting Manuscripts Using TeX/LaTeX”.

  ACS Authors have two distinct options for submitting work authored in TeX:

  FAST Submission: Submit your own PDF file—and provide the native TeX and figures in a .zip file—and your own PDF file will be used for the review process.

  STANDARD Submission: Submit a complete and properly styled TeX file, figures, and references using the achemso style package. The TeX files will be converted to PDF by ACS Paragon Plus and used for the review process.

The help further states:

  When you upload your TeX/LaTeX Manuscript File, the system will analyze the file, and identify additional resource files referenced within the file (such as image files and bibliographic files) that are necessary to complete the document.

and

  Manuscript files prepared in TeX/LaTeX (Version 2.02 and earlier) will be used in journal production provided you adhere to the following guidelines:

  Use only LaTeX2e. Use of plain TeX and RevTeX is discouraged.
  Use generic style files whenever possible. Minimal formatting is all that is required in the document.
  Include all sections of the article in a single file. Include the list of references within the LaTeX file. Captions must be created in the TeX/LaTeX document.
  References should be cited in text using \cite{}, and the list of references should be itemized using \bibitem{}.
  Use \frac to build fractions. Do not use \over or \stackrel to build fractions in displayed equations.
  Use \sum_{}^{} for summations and \prod_{}^{} for products.
  Use the array environment only to build true matrices, not for aligning multiline equations.
  Use characters/symbols in the generic LaTeX character set only. Symbols from other sets may not translate correctly.
  Avoid extensive use of \newcommand and `\def .
  Some style files (text and bibliographic) that are available in the public domain may be used for most ACS journals, e.g., jacs.sty and jacs.bst; jpc.sty and jpc.bst; achemso. The use of the achemso style package is strongly encouraged. Please note that the ACS does not provide support for using these files.

A further requirement, which is not actually listed, is that all figures should be in the same directory (you cannot upload a directory structure). And, as noted, if you use bibtex, you have to run it manually and include the content of the .bbl file into your .tex file before upload.

So, in conclusion: ScholarOne Manuscripts™ has the capability to support LaTeX compilation. Whether this is enable or not for your specific journal/publisher, I cannot know. In any case, check the documentation! (or ask the editorial office)


Ethics of writing another paper to be graded for use as a work sample A particular program I would like to apply to requires a recent (past year) graded work sample in either science, history, or the social sciences.

Of course, I would like to present myself in the best light, however, the assignments I have been given fail to capture the rigor I would like to show. My course assignments have been rather standard and have not allowed me to express any special creativity or interest. I understand that the purpose of such a requirement is to assess how well I write and the topic should be immaterial, but I feel much more confident submitting a piece not in my coursework.

In an academic situation, is it considered unethical to write my own research paper on my own topic and submit it to my teacher for grading, with the intent of using it as a work sample? I would want the paper to be graded  as honestly as possible of course. I care less about the numerical grade and more about the content and style of writing.

I would appreciate your input. Of course, this would only work if my professor agreed.

Edit: Just to clarify, I do not wish to be deceitful in anyway, however, I could not find evidence of any convention governing this sort of situation. This would be a sample of my work and I am not sure how it would be any different from submitting an open ended assignment. The paper I am referring to would be related to the subject, and in the subject I am thinking of, it is a logical extension of my interests beyond the course. Again, since the requirement is a graded work sample, I wasn't sure if it had to be technical coursework.

I guess you sound like you are trying to game the system and that your "graded assignment" isn't really the sort of thing that is expected. If you are trying to deceive, then, of course it is unethical.

However, you might ask to submit a second writing sample along with the require one, stating that you think it represents your abilities better than your coursework.

It would probably also be a mistake to ask your professor to participate in a deceit. But, his comments on a second sample would be fine as long as you are clear about the situation.

Guard your honor.


Can I use decompiled source code for research? In my research field, software tools are considered a research outcome, and therefore it's normal that researchers build tools and make them publicly available. However, in many cases, the authors only make the executable for a tool available, without sharing the source code used to build the tool.

This makes things complicated for people who want to use or extend the tool: for example, they might be unable to run the tool, because it has a dependency to an outdated, flawed, or expensive commercial "baseline" tool. While they might have the programming skills to modify the tool so it can be run, this usually requires changes to the source code.

However, there is a kind of tool called decompiler which allows you to restore the original source code (or something similar) from the given executable. In some cases, you can work with the restored source code as good as if the authors had made the code available in the first place.

Assuming I want to use a particular tool for my research, and I have already unsuccessfully contacted the authors to obtain the source code in a consensual way.

Is it OK if I decompile the code to do my research? Yes
If yes, then how do I deal with the fact that I decompiled the tool in my paper? Would it be considered rude/sketchy to say that I did it?
Can I make the modified tool available to other researchers (and yes, as executables and/or source code)? No

Edit: Thanks everyone. For questions 1 and 3, the correct answers for my case are now clear to me (see above). I'm still not sure about question 2, though. Are there previous examples in literature where people did this? Would it be acceptable to not address the fact that I decompiled the source code, by treating it like an irrelevant detail? Reimplementing the complete tool is not an option in my case.

Using a decompiler, you can work with the restored source code as good as if the authors had made the code available in the first place.

Not even close. Try running the decompiler on a free software program (to avoid any ethical tangles) to see what it generates. The output of a decompiler, especially when run on an optimized binary, is horrendous.

  Is it OK if I decompile the code to do my research?

Legality depends on the jurisdiction you are in. Ethically, my view is that there is no difference between decompiling an executable to see how it works and taking apart a mechanical device to see how it works - both are perfectly legitimate means to learn about the state of the art.

  If yes, then how do I deal with the fact that I decompiled the tool in my paper? Would it be considered rude/sketchy to say that I did it?

I don't see how it could possibly be rude. Your paper should accurately outline your methodology, so I would say you ought to include this information.

  Can I make the modified tool available to other researchers (and yes, as executables and/or source code)?

No, as it would clearly be a derivative work. As you don't have any license to use the original work, I think this would be illegal in most, if not all, jurisdictions.


Justifying a two year gap after Master's degree in Statement of Purpose There is a two year gap after finishing my Master's degree and I am applying to graduate schools in the same field. This time has spent on immigration and then unemployment, tutoring physics, and a job not directly related to my field. But I have been following new research on the topics that I was interested in, without being supervised or any serious research.

My questions is, what should I mostly emphasize on in order to explain the gap most effectively: My teaching experience (indicating interest in teaching the field), Having a job and paying for my family expenses (indicating maturity), or that I was following the current research on topics of interest (indicating persistence)?

You can mention all three.  The trick is to make these parts of your CV look like "features," not "bugs." It sounds like you have an idea of what to do there. I don't think it would hurt to mention that this slight detour, while being slightly off the path to graduate school, has only convinced you that graduate school was the right place for you.

Of course, no one ever got into a good program by saying "I really want to be there!" I was in a similar situation when applying to PhD programs -- I was teaching high school, which was good, but my background was not directly inline with what some PhD programs were looking for. I emailed some faculty about what to do to bolster my application, and one suggestion was to go ahead and do some academic writing on my own and use that as part of my application.  I'm not sure if that's possible for you, but it's something to consider. If that work is high quality, shows that you are up-to-date on the state of your field, and actively thinking about workable research topics, that will surely impress admissions committees.


Is it possible to write publication with a BSc student co-author? I am an associate professor in a department, mostly focusing on progressive topics related to spatial applications of artificial intelligence.

Besides my research projects, I have innovative and novel ideas, with I just don't have time to deal. If students interested to work with me, I used to give them ideas like that.

They can present their results (under my consultation/supervision) i.e., in a Student Conference at the university. But according to our university licensing, consulting does not lead to any authorship for the mentor.

If I think in the long-term, there is a good chance they will leave the university after a BSc (or even MSc) thesis. In that case, my shared (sometimes novel) ideas get stuck. Since I won't publish their 'managed' contribution to the research, it's a moral thing for me.

So I was thinking, instead of (or beside) draining them to the Student Conference, I should motivate them to write journal or conference paper, where copyrights are better solved, I can be a senior, last co-author.

But I am afraid that journals/papers don't support BSc student authors that much. Am I right? Are there journals/papers where the acceptance rate doesn't depend that much on the authors' affiliation?
Do you have any hint, feedback on this idea?

But according to our university licensing, consulting does not lead to any  authorship for the mentor.

You may want to consider double-checking what exactly that means. It's highly likely that your university does not forbid you to be co-author of a paper written under your supervision if you contributed intellectually to the paper, which is the case if the student uses your ideas. The rule most likely states or is meant to state that supervision alone is not sufficient for authorship.

  But I am afraid that journals/papers don't support BSc student authors that much.

How would they know that the student is a BSc student? The only case I've ever seen where this is mentioned is in IEEE journals, where some authors may have ", Student Member" attached to their name if they pay the student rate of the IEEE membership - but even then, it could still be a PhD student.

If you want the paper to be published at a good venue, you will most likely take an active role in the writing process, and in the resulting paper, it should not be visible what status the individual authors had.


Rules or Laws to guide sectioning and sub-sectioning Regardless of the field or subject, is there a website or organization that has rules on how to section and sub-section a document? I have a document on which I have randomly chosen a layout.
project document outline:
1. Define Goals to stakeholders
2. Product/ Objective/ Expectations
3. Scope
4. Time Frame with phases and processes
5. Project Budget
6. Risk and Benefits
7. Team members and organizational chart w/ roles and responsibilities matrix
8. Rules of Communication
9. extra docs include:
    a. action and issue tracker
    b. project charter
    c. project organization
    d. project roles and responsibilities
    e. project plan
    f. project budget breakdown
    g. stakeholder matrix
    h. risk log
    i. project communication plan
    j. scope statement/requirement specification
    k. change request tracker
    l. design document
    m. possible obstacles & problems

10. Full visualization of organization and process.

This layout is completely a guess, and I am wondering if there is a guide to how to section and subsection, some law or rule to do sectioning or sub-sectioning the proper way that anyone from any field can follow

Certainly there are no laws on such things. In general the layout depends on the material and the audience.
But it looks like you are writing something as part of a proposal, maybe for a research grant. In that case, the recipient might have requirements for what to include in the application. You need to cover all of those things, of course. And it is often best to include them in your application in the order of the requirements listed. This makes it easier for the reader, who has some power to accept or reject, to quickly check that you have all of the needed elements.
But as a general outline, what you have seems to be reasonable.  As a "working document" is is fine. Tailor it to the requirements of the audience, however.


Why do some journals ask if there is someone who you do not wish to use as a referee? I have noticed that sometimes when you submit an article to a journal it will ask if there is someone in particular who you do not want to referee the paper.

I was wondering what the reason for this option was.  Is it simply to avoid a conflict of interest or if you really do not get on with the person to the point where you do not wish them to review something you have written?  If you put someone down as someone you do not want to be a referee, will the journal think you are scared of that person's critical appraisal of the document and actually send it to that person or will they genuinely avoid sending it to that person for review?

This happens when the author (or applicant in the case of a grant) believes that some likely referee might not act fairly for some personal reasons.  In my experience this is usually some history in these disputes. There might also be conflicts of interests.

Often there is guidance on who can be excluded, and the person must provide some measure (sometimes merger) of justification.