Whom to discuss research papers with? When I read research papers I often come across many things that I'm unclear about and would like to talk over with someone. My advisor is not available to do this with me as she does not have time. I'm not sure with whom should I discuss these research papers with, in order to help me understand the papers better. I am the only student who is currently being advised by my advisor.  How should I go about finding people to talk through these things with, so I can better understand the research papers I'm reading?

Your advisor is not the only person to go to, to get answers to the questions that research papers are raising for you. Talk to other researchers, in your department, or online with peers at other universities.

But it does sound like you are getting insufficient advisory support. Do you really just have the one advisor? Time to build up your supervisory team.

Talk to your advisor about what's expected of you, and what's expected of them. It sounds like you've got a mismatch between your need and their resource, and it's important to get that fixed as soon as possible.

You'll also find a lot of good, relevant advice on these questions: skimming a paper and running a reading group.


Which survey software to use? I want to create a fairly long survey for my doctoral research. The target audience is teachers in the area. I have the option of using the software my institution provides (Qualtrics), Google Forms, SurveyMonkey, or perhaps something different. I'm leaning toward my university's software because the URL has my university's domain and might seem more trustworthy or legit than SurveyMonkey. Google Forms is pretty slick, though, too.

My one requirement is that I need to be able to branch based on answers.

What are some pros/cons of using one software over the other for academic work? Is it okay to do a survey with software not provided by my institution?

(PS--This is actually on behalf of my wife. :-) )

I would go with Qualtrics, for the reasons you cite.

However, make sure that when you pull the data out you export the questions all the possible ways, especially the .qsf version. Otherwise, when you leave the institution, you'll have lost the survey (because you can't log in to get it). This is especially important if you, or anyone else, wants to use the survey again.

Since my institution uses surveymonkey, and I find the idea of asking people to go to a monkey site abhorrent, I will probably install Limesurvey, but my proclivity to do things myself the hardest way possible is a personal problem.


How common is it for people to apply for a PhD from industry? I have been working as a Senior Engineer in Industry for about 13 years since I graduated. However, I am seriously considering applying for a PhD program, because I am feeling acutely unchallenged in my job and I am very interested in getting involved with cutting-edge research.

So, I am wondering how common it is for people to do a PhD after first doing a stint in Industry? Roughly what percentage of PhD applicants are coming from industry?

My impression is that a large proportion would be applying to do a PhD course straight after their undergrad degree, but I would like to know if that is true.

I am about to go into a PhD (Computer Science) after a year in industry. During my campus visits at one large public and one small private University, I was the only prospective student that wasn't straight out of undergraduate. I did meet one graduate student who had been in industry for a year or two. So my experience confirms your impression.


Reality check on advice for statement of purpose I'm about to write a statement of purpose for graduate admission and my advisor passed along to me the following pieces of advice to keep in mind while writing  (based on his style and experience in admission commitees).

I completely agree with every point he has made. However, I'd like to have further insight and suggestions and yet another reality check on the soundness of these pieces of advice.

  Advice from my advisor:

  Don't try to sell me my own research area by explaining to me how fascinating it is. Do show your interest by showcasing your previous
  experience working on (or studying) related topics (not necessarily
  very closely related).
  Don't tell me how amazing, prestigious, perfect my institution or research group is. I know more than you do about that. Also, chances
  are that you are applying to a lot of schools and don't have
  inflexible interests yet, which is fine. Just tell me that you may be
  willing to work with a certain research group that seems more or less
  in line with your previous experience or future directions.
  Don't tell me a cute story about how you fell in love with my field when you were a kid (or high school senior or college freshmen). I
  just don't care. I want to hire a soon-to-be professional to join my
  research group, not a little boy with a cute story. I only need to
  know factual information that show your commitment to the field (for
  example, courses/conferences attended, projects undertaken).
  Ban ill-crafted, pseudo-literary, flowery, cheesy narrations. Just  write facts. Straightforwardly. Succintly. Accurately. I'll draw conclusions for myself.
  Ban any buzzwords, meaningless adjectives and adverbs. If they don't add concrete information, but are there just an ill-advised attempt
  to impress, cut them!

All good advice.  In addition, may I suggest that a statement of purpose should answer the question, what will you do if they admit you?  It should be
future-oriented.  What are your goals and what are your plans for getting there?


How to choose a recommender during graduate school applications? I am applying for a Ph.D. in Mathematics in U.S. universities from India. The application process requires me to register people who can comment on my capability for research and recommend me for the graduate school. I have heard that since most applicants for (pure) mathematics Ph.D.s generally do not have publications to show, the recommendations are crucial in the selection process. Hence, I have three questions about selecting my recommenders wisely.

1) Do you feel that recommendations coming from a Professor carries more weightage than the ones coming from an Assistant Professor? My question is that, does the seniority of my recommender add any extra weight or credibility to the recommendation?

2) If a senior Professor gives me 'above average'(or 'good') recommendation while another Assistant Professor ( just two years on the job, not very famous but a very active and well cited researcher) gives me 'excellent' recommendation - which one do you think will support my application better?

3) Which recommendation should I prefer - from a person with whom I worked on a project for around a month, or , from someone who has taught me two courses over two semesters?

Choosing recommenders doesn't exactly have clear-cut rules, so it's going to be impossible to give specific advice without detailed knowledge of your exact situation. That said, some guidelines that I found helpful:

Try to cover all your bases. I'd recommend having at least one professor with whom you worked with closely on a research project or something similar, and at least one professor who knows you well from class(es) in which you excelled. Remember that you generally have three recommendations to work with, so make sure all of them are useful.
In general, you want the best letters possible, regardless of rank or prestige. As long as they're faculty and actively do (or even did) research, go for your best letters. Again, this is where you can cover your bases a little with multiple letters, hopefully not all of your potential recommenders are brand-new faculty.
Don't be afraid to simply schedule a meeting or send an email and ask them for their thoughts. In my experience, most faculty are excited to see their students aspire to graduate school and are very willing to talk about it. You should at least be able to ask your potential recommenders if they can write a good recommendation.
If a recommendation letter doesn't add information to your application, then it probably isn't helpful. If a professor who taught you can pretty much just say the grade you got in the class, then it doesn't add anything over your transcript. Lots of applicants make this mistake, assuming that an A in one or two classes is enough to get a good letter. You can get great letters from professors who only taught you, but make sure that you actually gave them something to talk about in those classes.

I should also say that most people shouldn't have to worry too much about these considerations. It usually comes down to picking the best third letter writer or something. But if you find yourself trying to parse through many decisions in selecting letter writers, then you're probably overthinking it or reaching down too far. Ultimately, developing good potential recommenders is the hard part, and hopefully that has already happened.


I proved a theorem I heard from another researcher. Can I publish my results? Some time ago I heard a talk in which the speaker mentioned some theorem. I needed this theorem for another paper I wrote. I looked for this theorem in the relevant literature (which I know quite well), but did not find it. I emailed a question to the speaker, he confirmed that the theorem is correct, but did not supply a proof. I also looked at the speaker's working papers, but it was not there. So, I proved the theorem myself.

Now, I think this theorem is interesting and would like to publish it as a stand-alone short paper (maybe in a 'letters' journal). The problem is, I believe the speaker has some proof of this theorem unpublished, so I might be "stealing" his result.

Obviously, the optimal solution is to contact the speaker, but he does not seem to reply. What can I do?

If the proof is yours then of course you can publish it. And it is your duty to do it, because the literature is incomplete without it.

Basically you say (but in more formal language):

at the Holcombe Colloquium (August 2015), R.J. Blenkinsop asserted the following, without giving a proof: insert theorem here.
no proof was given at Holcombe and there appears to be none in the literature.
this theorem is interesting and useful, for instance in the context of… insert description of & reference to your paper
here is a proof

You have thus acknowledged Blenkinsop as the source of the idea and asserted the originality of your own contribution. Both halves of this action are true and ethically sound.

Of course a referee may contact Blenkinsop who, now that fame and glory are involved, may take the trouble to look up his own proof. But unless it's already published ("see my Simple Sums for Simple Minds, page 2"), you still have priority.


Can mathematical ideas applied to CS problems count as "undergraduate research"? I ran across this thread, in which the accepted answer mentions to "[..] Start on a research project (independently or otherwise) if you have not already ASAP. "

I'm an undergraduate studying mathematics and physics. I have an Associate's degree in Computer Science, and am very comfortable with programming. I'm currently taking a course in numerical analysis, and this has really motivated me to apply things we're learning to problems I come across while programming.

As an undergrad, with a lack of proper training/education to perform real mathematical research, would it look good (to future graduate schools to which I will apply) if I, for example, write a paper or two based on things I do applying mathematics to Computer Science and programming, e.g.- solving optimization issues in GPU processing of large data sets, etc?

Even if the papers aren't so interesting, would it at the very least look good on my "resume", so to speak?

For the record, I'm hoping to go to graduate school to study mathematics, not computer science, which is why I can't quite answer this question myself.

Undergraduate research is whatever research that you do as an undergrad, period. So if you do something that ends up being publishable, or feeds into another research project in a real way, it's undergraduate research.

However, for practical purposes, you want to get some faculty involved in your research project. It will help with funding for travel (you do want to submit to conferences rather than journals in CS), it will make the work better, and you will end up with a good letter writer afterwards. And if you think your project won't be interesting to faculty in your current school, what makes you think it will later on swoon an admission committee?

  would it look good (to future graduate schools to which I will apply) if I, for example, write a paper or two based on things I do applying mathematics to Computer Science and programming, e.g.- solving optimization issues in GPU processing of large data sets, etc?

Sure - if the paper is good. Solving optimization issues does not sound bad at all to me on first glance, but of course it is impossible to tell without seeing the paper or knowing in much more detail what you would want to do.

  Even if the papers aren't so interesting, would it at the very least look good on my "resume", so to speak?

I guess that depends on what you mean with "so interesting". It does not have to be A* / Transactions level quality, but the paper certainly needs to be published in a reasonable, peer-reviewed, non-spam venue. Papers in pay-to-publish OA journals don't help at all.

This seems to me to be an unfortunate side effect of the "prior research experience required" mantra that many admission committees nowadays seem to have - many students seem think that sending crap papers to pseudo-venues will help them get accepted. They don't. A paper that is substantially below the level that a prof. would want to submit himself won't help you.

  For the record, I'm hoping to go to graduate school to study mathematics, not computer science, which is why I can't quite answer this question myself.

If you want to continue in maths, a maths paper will help more than a CS paper. Still, a good CS paper will be much better than no paper at all, I suppose.


Looking for a postdoc 2 years after PhD completion - no advice from adviser I completed my PhD in 2016, kept working on my last paper until a month ago (Aug 2017) and now that it's all done my advisers have stopped responding to my e-mails. I am currently looking for a postdoc, after taking some time off academia, but my advisers have not provided any information or advice on how to identify opportunities and approach potential advisers. I have been sending e-mails to people I am interested in working with but almost none have responded. Do you have any advice of what i could do to continue forward in my scientific career?

P.S. I got along fine with my advisers and published regularly and overall did well in my PhD. So I am very confused of why it has been so difficult to move forward.

Faculty, particularly ones at big schools, triage their e-mail. It is not unusual (but it is horrible) to have to wait to hear back from people. I do consider it unethical when they fail to respond, but that doesn't mean I can force them to change their behavior.

My advice is two part: 1. decide what you really want from them; 2. do not let their non-response sabotage your career goals.

In some departments there is a staff person who helps with job placement and references (academic advisor or job coordinator position), there may also be a career services department through the Office of Graduate Studies or Dean of Students Office. Try e-mailing any of those offices to get advice.

If you need references, contact each professor directly and give people short specific directions on where to submit their reference on your behalf (e-mail link, and deadline). If what you want is advice, ask for a meeting or even lookup and attend someone's office hours. But come with specific questions and requests, not for a chat.

If after all of that you still cannot get a conversation going, write-it off and look for direction and information elsewhere. If you are struggling to find post-doc or job opportunities try joining professional organizations, reaching out to former student-colleagues, or even enrolling for a class at a different college to re-establish your professional network. Try presenting a paper or poster at a conference or teaching a class at a college or community college. You need to be actively collaborating with people with similar goals to find opportunities. You need to be actively creating new things to keep people's attention (note your faculty responded to you while you were working on a publishable paper...)

This might sound strange, but instead of looking for a post-doc, have you considered applying for faculty positions? Alternately, if you are currently employed in a corporate setting, try for an adjunct position at a local college and then working your way back into a department, if that is your ultimate goal.

And this final advice is a little discipline-specific, but in some cases you could try applying for a grant and "building your own post-doc." If you e-mail a faculty member at another institution saying you are half way through applying for a grant you are likely to be awarded and would they consider "sharing" the money with you in return for it being structured as a post-doc, they'll fall all over themselves to help. (Warning: this is a lot of work) An e-mail like "NSF Grant Collaborator Needed for XYZ research from Dr.ABC" get's attention, but it's gotta be real and meaningful.


How to conduct an effective literature survey in mathematics? Due to Covid, I am unable to go to my University and access the University server. As a result I am unable to use MathSciNet. Is there any other way to do a good and effective literature survey on a topic in Mathematics?
If someone could help me,  I would be  grateful. I am also interested to know how researchers working at Universities that don't have a MathSciNet license conduct research?

Simple answer: There are actually two good and well-known (at least, I had thought so) bibliographic databases for mathematical literature:

MathSciNet

zbMATH

The latter is freely available online as of 2021.
(Of course there are a few differences between them - for instance, the quality of the bibtex entries is a bit better in MathSciNet, in my experience. But anyway, for most purposes both databases do their job quite well.)
Historical Note: While MathSciNet is essentially based on Mathematical Reviews, zbMATH is based on the Zentralblatt für Mathematik - and both the Zentralblatt and Mathematical Reviews were founded by the same person, Otto Neugebauer. I would have called this a fun fact, but unfortunately the historically background (which is described in the previous link) is not particularly funny.


How much editing can one ethically accept from one's advisor on a fellowship proposal (e.g. NSF/NDSEG/etc.) I'm applying for graduate fellowships right now (I am a first-year graduate student in a STEM field), and am preparing to submit the application. My advisor has been helping me out with it for a while, and at one point, he took my draft of my research proposal and made some somewhat significant edits to it. He added several paragraphs, deleted some of my wording, added some sources, and so on. Altogether, at least half of the text in the proposal—a lot of it is figures—has been written or edited by him, while half the text is still mine (and I made the figures and the general outline of the proposal).

For obvious reasons, I'm uncomfortable asking him whether or not his contributions are too substantial (I don't want to say "I think you did too much of it, so I'm going to change it back" or to do so behind his back), but at the same time, I'm cautious about whether or not it's unethical to receive that kind of help on the proposal for my fellowship application, because I'm not sure how these things typically work.

So, is this something that typically happens with these kinds of applications, and is it unethical/immoral on my part to use such a proposal (i.e. something that gives me any kind of unfair advantage)? Or, am I thinking of this too much like a competition that requires solely my efforts for my submission?

Edit I just want to stress that when I say about half the text was written by my advisor, I mean that I initially wrote the paragraphs in question, but they were substantially edited to get the idea across in a better way.

On that note, would it be appropriate for me to further edit his edits? At that point, though, I feel as though I'd be editing it just to avoid acting unethically, not to improve the proposal. Basically, what action would I take in order to ensure I'm not acting unethically here?

You apply for money and your adviser will profit from getting you granted the money, too. He will get some research he is interested. Why shouldn't every adviser support his student in that way?

You should also learn how to write proposals. Not just by writing it, but also to give it the finishing touches and fixing the issues you could not yet identify yourself. That's why its good to get the feedback and support you received from your adviser.

I don't see it unethical at all. It would be problematic if you could not perform the research you describe in your proposal or know it will not work or know someone already did it.


Standard Word templates, fonts, etcetera. for non/semi-technical Springer journals? Is there a standard typeface and/or word template that people use when submitting to non/semi-technical Springer journals? Previously I have always used Latex, which typically meant a conference or similar template was used. I have obviously searched but could not find anything, so I am wondering what the unofficial, if one exists, standard is?

I ask because I think it does give a better impression if the standard formatting that reviewers are used to is used.

Springer offers the SVJour3 Latex class (with a manual) for preparing manuscripts for Springer journals.

I use Latex for its referencing and figure-handling capabilities, but I submit most of my work to social-science journals, not all of which have Latex templates. In general, managing editors at these journals are expecting submissions to be in Word. However, the typesetting at large publishers such as Springer is typically done by central teams that can handle a wide range of formats. As such, there is no technical problem in submitting Latex files but you have to overcome the editor's unfamiliarity with this format.

To do that, the following has always worked for me.

Submit the article as a PDF, with the Latex file, Bib file and any figures in a Zip archive as supplementary material. Crucially, include an extremely polite cover note to the editor:

explaining that the manuscript has been prepared in Latex so there is no Word version,
reassuring them that the publisher's production department will be familiar with handling Latex files,
suggesting that they contact their production editor if they aren't sure if they can accept this format.

Expect the managing editor to reject the article out-of-hand because your manuscript is a PDF and they haven't read your cover note.
Reply to the rejection by emailing the managing editor, again (very politely) asking them to contact their production department to check if they can accept Latex. You may also want to explain (briefly) why you've written the manuscript in Latex (maybe because Word can't handle special characters or equations very well).

Step 3 generally produces a 'well you learn something every day' reply from the managing editor. If they still won't accept it, you may have to copy your manuscript over to Word (overview of options for doing that). Think carefully, though, since converting to Word may require lots of manual formatting/checking that you will then have to repeat if you make any changes during the peer-review process.

One reason you might not want to do submit in Latex is that the above procedure slightly increases the workload of journal editors, who are typically working for free. On the other hand, you may feel that it's worth it because you're helping future authors who may want to submit manuscripts prepared in Latex for various reasons.


Do years in parentheses need to be chronological? Is there a norm that states years of publications should be chronological when cited parenthetically in a text? For example, is the following incorrect?:

"... to that of Mircea Eliade (1964, 1951), for whom the shaman is ..."

I'm revising another author's paper and this is the first time I've ever seen the years out of order. But I can't confirm in any guidelines that it's necessarily incorrect.

The constraints for references are defined by the citation style you're using. If the citation style guidelines do not mention anything about this issue, then it's OK.

Deliberately not using the chronological order seems fully reasonable as it might serve a purpose: In the example, I would assume that the 1964 publication is more informative/relevant in given the context and, therefore, should be named first.


How can I properly attribute unpublished data gathered by someone else when using it in my masters thesis? I am currently writing my master's thesis. The project is a cooperation of the lab of my university supervisor, where I am writing the thesis, and a research institute, where I am employed part-time as a research assistant.
My thesis work involves analyzing measurements that were taken from someone else who is affiliated with the research institute. The measurements are not part of a public dataset and, as far as I know, will not be published. The data is not being reused from previous work, but was measured for this project.
I want to explicitly state in my thesis that taking these measurements are not part of my thesis, but I am unsure how to do this properly. Throughout the majority of my work, the data is used, so I would like to avoid mentioning its origin each time. It would of course make sense for me to acknowledge the contribution of the person who conducted the measurements, but I do not think this is sufficient.
The reason I am asking about this is that in order to submit my thesis, I am required to sign a form stating 'I am the sole author of this document and did everything myself, unless stated otherwise', which I believe is quite common. For other documents, a citation would be appropriate. However, I believe this case is different because there is no formal document accompanying the dataset.

How can I sufficiently state that the data used throughout my thesis was not measured by me, and at which point in the thesis should I do so?
Is it sufficient to mention the origin of data once, such as in the introduction?
Should I write a section (perhaps in the appendix) where the measurements are described in detail, including who conducted them?

Related Questions:

How to write the data section when data is reused from a previous work? (different, because it is about re-using data from a previous paper of the same author)
How to use data from a colleague who retired in my thesis without commiting fraud or plagiarism (The person who gathered the data is suggested as a co-author, which is not allowed for my master thesis)

In my opinion, stating in the introduction "the data were taken in the such and such experiment prepared and run by A.Becede" would be enough. It's not unusual to analyse data from someone else's experiments, especially at MSc level.
Just as a tip, in my field when we cite something unpublished, we cite it as:
"A.Becede - private communication"
or
"courtesy of A.Becede".


PhD Germany with British conversion MSc IT I would like to relocate to Germany and obtain a PhD from a German University. I have a BSc(Hons) in Psychology, which is obtained from Edinburgh Napier University, and MSc in Information Technology from Aberdeen University. I really enjoy IT and I would like to stay in the field and combine it with academia and research. Specifically, I am interested in web development and human-computer interaction. My questions are:

where can I check if my qualifications meet German PhD admissions criteria?
are the PhD studies being paid in Germany? (I am married so I cannot afford lack of any salary)

To obtain a doctorate in Germany, you must have a qualifying degree from an accredited institution. Nowadays this is always a Master's degree with a thesis (Master's degrees without a thesis are effectively worthless if you intend to pursue a PhD). It should be in the field you are intending to obtain your doctorate in. If your degree is from an applied institution such as Napier, expect to have considerable difficulty finding a PhD program that will take you. (Though it is not impossible and things are changing.)

Don't expect the German system to be much like the British, as they are culturally and technically different. In Germany, you do not apply to a PhD program; you establish a relationship with a professor who is willing to supervise you, and the admission as a doctoral student follows from that. That is very difficult to do if you are coming in cold from outside the country. There are some EU-sponsored programs which explicitly solicit applications from other EU countries, but they are the exception.

How is your German? Anybody suggesting that you can get by in Germany without a decent command of German is not being totally honest with you. Even though PhD candidates here are often foreigners and the international language of many disciplines is English, you will be working in institutions in which the administrative language is German, and not being able to speak it will put you at some disadvantage. If nothing else, the competition will be much harder if you can only speak English as your second language, particularly if you are expected to teach.

Your best chance might be to apply to another academic M.Sc. program at a research university in Germany and get your foot in the door that way; this will expose you to professors and give you a chance to establish a relationship that could lead to a PhD.

The Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg long had a good reputation for computer science. There is also the Karlsruhe Institute für Technologie or the Leibniz-Universität Hannover. Freiburg is also an option. Note however, that these are the better institutions and the competition is strong. You may not be in a position to be too selective. Cast your net wide and look at all institutions with a computer science department.
PhD candidates are generally hired on as "WiMi" - Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter - on time-limited contract. Pay varies but 1500 €/month is typical. How far that takes you depends on where you are living. In Munich, it will barely cover your rent if you have a family. In some east German cities (Dresden, Leipzig, Halle, Magdeburg, Jena) you might yet support your family and live decently. The situation in Berlin is changing rapidly and while it is currently just affordable, it won't stay that way.


Re-examinations: how common are they and what are they good for? In my country, re-examinations are a common thing. Basically, if you miss your exam for whatever reason (or, if you do not pass), then you get an extra chance, under the same circumstances, and if you miss that one as well, you get one last chance.

My question is, is such a protocol normal? Are other countries also doing this? What are the benefits/drawbacks of such a policy?

My personal experience is that I can abuse this policy really easily. If I think I am going to do really badly on an exam, I may as well fail it on purpose (basically you hand in an empty piece of paper) and try to do better on my next attempt. Or, you can take the exam just to get a taste of how it's going to be like, what kind of questions you are going to be asked, and so on, and then you can fail it, and retake it this time being well-prepared. So is it really as 'bad' of a policy as I feel it is, and if so, what are the alternatives?

Are other countries also doing this?

Yes, sure. In my country, Italy, Bachelor's and Master's exams are usually structured in that way: in theory, you can retake the exam for an unlimited number of times. I had once a student who set a kind of record in this sense, by failing one of my exams 21 times, along 4-5 years. As a student, I failed several exams 2-3 times. In practice, however, there might be other time limitations or local policies that can prevent a student to retake an exam an unlimited number of times.

  If I think I am going to do really badly on an exam, I may as well fail it on purpose

For what purpose, exactly? And where's the abuse of the policy? What do you think you're going to achieve by coming unprepared? Do you want to rely on the tunnel effect to pass the exam? It's mostly your time and knowledge that you're going to waste.

  Or, you can take the exam just to get a taste of how it's going to be like, what kind of questions you are going to be asked,

Maybe in your country is different, but most professors in my country, and I'm among them, distribute to the students all, or most of, the past exam papers: if you want to get the taste of an exam, you can get it already, without the need of going to an actual exam.

  So is it really as 'bad' of a policy as I feel it is

No, it's not. Such a policy, like others (e.g. the level of fees), is usually deeply rooted in the attitude that a country has toward education.


Practical implications of noting "equally contributing authors" I was recently reading a paper on which the author list had an interesting twist: both the first and second author had an asterisk next to their name, with the footnote "these authors contributed equally."

I'm curious about the practical implications of such a scenario. Obviously, one is listed first and one is listed second (in this case, alphabetical, by last name), and that's how it'll be displayed in citations. However, can the second listed author—who is supposed to be given equal weight to first author regarding credit—list their name first on their CV, even though its listed differently in the journal? Are there any other implications I'm not considering?

I would see such a step as a clear indication of authors contributions for the record, so as to make sure this gets accepted as truthful also in the future during promotions, job applications, etc. Technically speaking, in a CV one can write stuff even dishonestly disregarding co-authors (e.g., arbitrarily indicating the percentage of own contribution). This  kind of public indication of the contribution tackles the problem once and forever. In some fields the alphabetical order is a standard (mathematicians I know have that as almost a strict rule) and then you need a tool to make your contribution visible. Especially if your name is at your disadvantage in this game. E.g., when you are called Zhang and co-author paper often with some Adams or so. Also, if alphabetic order is desired for whatever reason and the more senior co-author happens to precede the student who did the actual work, such an indication might be desirable.

Another point is, some journals require such an explicit indication. E.g., Nature does that, although the statement of individual contribution comes as a paragraph at the end of the paper.

Finally, some national schemes for evaluation of research output require such an indication made in a publication archive system. Having it included in the paper also indicates that authors try to avoid any future disputes regarding individual contributions.


Life as a master student vs PhD student There's something I am not able to understand. I'm a CS master student in Germany. Now I'm doing my master thesis. Before starting my thesis I had an image about PhD students which turned out to be wrong. Always thought that PhD student work much much harder than us and have too much stress. Or that they wake up at 5 am and keep working all day and night! But then when I started working on my thesis, my supervisor was so nice that he gave me a place in his office. Since then I always see the PhD student coming to their offices at 9 or 10 am and leave at 5 pm. I also see them waste a lot of time by hanging around or going for smoking every 45 minutes or so. They even spend almost one complete hour having lunch and then having coffee and desert!!!

Is this the normal life for PhDs or is there something wrong here?!!

There's no single "correct" answer in the life of a graduate student—the culture varies from university to university, department to department, and even group to group. It's also a function of the PhD student as well.

One thing to note is that, as a CS student, you're working in a field where it is very easy for students to do their work in environments outside of the laboratory. (Compare that to, say, experimental biology or chemistry, and the freedom in work environment is pretty stark.) Consequently, you don't really have a good feel for how many hours the students are working in aggregate—they may be spending a lot of time working from home, or in the evenings or on weekends.

At the other end of the scale, I have known advisors who expected their students to put in a minimum of 70 to 80 hours per week in the laboratory. (Of course, since this is lab work, there's no way to do much of it "from home"—other than reading and writing.) And in my own experience, there are weeks where I barely worked 40 hours, and others where I put in close to 90 (usually right before conferences and when I was racing to finish my thesis).

In the long run, there are very few absolutes when it comes to the career of a graduate student, and you really do need to find your own "path."


What does "restricted admission" mean in German universities? While browsing the web-sites of various German universities I have come across the term "restricted admission". What does it mean?

Do German universities discriminate students on the basis of their age?

Is there anything called "unrestricted admission"? If so, what does that mean?

In Germany, access to universities is regulated by the Numerus Clausus system, which basically says that the number of students admitted to any given programme at a university can be either unrestricted or restricted to a fixed number of students.

For an unrestricted programme, students just need to fulfill the basic formal criteria (they need a german Abitur, or an equivalent). For most restricted programmes on bachelor level, prospective students need to apply and are then ranked based solely on their Abitur grades (plus a few exceptions for corner cases, foreign students with no german Abitur, etc.). For restricted master level programmes, many universities (including, apparently, TU Kaiserslautern, as linked by the original poster above) have adopted a more US-style admission system, which is based not only on previous grades but also on letters of recommendation, statements of interest, interviews, etc. TU Kaiserslautern also has its selection procedure online. This will vary per university, though.

Edit: to answer your subquestion (which I happened to have missed the first time around):

  Do German universities discriminate students on the basis of their age?

No, not in general, and certainly not officially.


What to do when university has not yet reimbursed travel costs for a job interview? A few months ago, I visited a university for a tenure-track interview in computer science. Before my visit, I received an interview policy sheet from HR stating all the usual things (economy flight fare, etc). After the interview, I was told by HR that I need to mail them my original receipts, which I did instantly upon my return home.

After a few weeks, I inquired regarding the reimbursement and was told that my receipts hadn't been received yet. However, the tracking service (I had used registered mail) did indicate that they had been delivered and, after a second inquiry, HR confirmed that they should have been received at their university but aren't to be found anywhere and reiterated that they need the original receipts to reimburse me.

This was 3 weeks ago and my subsequent enquiries have been met with silence. I did receive a job offer but, also having received another offer, accepted a position elsewhere and informed the university about my decision.

  Is there anything I can/should do about this?

To be frank, the university is overseas and taking the probably very expensive legal route is not an option for me. That said, the interview expenses are in the range of 1.2k USD and thus non-negligible for me.

In general, don't attribute inaction to malice or fraud when it almost certainly is just due to laziness, disorganization, or incompetence. University bureaucracies, especially in some countries, can be unbelievably slow. Sadly, three weeks is often not a particularly long period to go unreimbursed. Be patient and persistent and this will almost certainly work out eventually.


What to do if a peer-reviewed journal took so much time to review your paper? This happened many times, and following are some cases:

You submit an article to a good journal with high impact factor. Then after 6 months or sometimes more you dont receive their comments. We tried once to contact them to see the updates they replied ( it is currently under review we will reply once finished).
Many times they reply after a long period with (out of scope).

What is the best action to do in such cases?

Generally Editor takes decision on a Manuscript based on minimum two reviewers comments. So one possible reason is the required reviews are not completed yet. Followings are few points which are responsible for it.

Editor has contacted many suitable and potential reviewers, but at least two of them has not agreed to act as a reviewer of your manuscript.
Minimum two reviewers have agreed, but one or both of them are delaying to submit their comments
Sometimes, editor does not satisfy with the one or both reviewers comments, so again he/she send your manuscript to another reviewers.

So there are many things are in behind. But most of the journals generally takes 2-4 months for the first decision and some journal takes more than 6 months and some even more than 1 year depending on above situations..  So if you are in hurry to get this publication and can't wait more, then you may request to the Editor for a final decision at the earliest possible, otherwise you are going to withdraw your manuscript. Since there are number of suitable journal available, so you will definitely find another one.


Is it rude to call a professor by their last name with no prefix in a non-academic setting? I always address my professors as "Professor [Last Name]" in an academic setting. However, in an non-academic setting such as running into them out and about, would it be considered rude to say "Hi [Last Name]!" to greet them?

Would it be better to address them by their first name even if you have never used it before, or always prefix their last name with Professor?

I wouldn’t find it rude, but I would find it weird.  I can’t think of any situation where you wouldn’t be better off using a first name instead of a last name without a title.  If you’re going to be formal do it right, and if you’re going to be informal use first name.  We’re not on a football team or in the military.

(It’s of course totally fine and normal students talking to each other without the professor present, to just use last name and no title.)


Planning a PhD project in mathematics I am obliged to hand in an an exposé outlining my PhD project in mathematics, including some kind of working plan. Since it is answered here and since it can be easily found on the internet, I have some understanding about what such a working plan should look like.
However, when it comes to fleshing this out, I have large difficulties. But I am sure that I am not the first would-be mathematician writing a working plan in the world, so how do others do it?
What I struggle with. For instance, I have no idea of what I want to achieve within the (expected) three years of my studies, and apparently, since we fixed a very broad working title for my thesis, neither has my supervisor.  My Master's was in a different field with only minor connections to the one I am about to start my PhD in.
Therefore, I expect that I spend the first weeks or months getting used to the field, reading literature, working on small problems of which hopefully one turns out to be interesting and fruitful enough to build a theses on.
But I have no idea how to foresee when I will be done with spending most of my time on literature, when I will have solved which problem and finished the proof for what theorem, when I will start compiling my results into a thesis, when to write which chapter of it or when I will hand in a paper with what title to which journal.
How I've solved the problem in the past. To my shame, I have to admit that when writing my Master's thesis, I had not made any plan either. I just worked into the day and in the end, there was a thesis. I am aware that this is a very inefficient working style, but apparently, expectations towards my thesis were low enough such that it worked out. I expect that for a PhD, working in such an unstructured fashion does not work out any more; therefore, I am actually motivated to give my work more structure.

If you don’t have at least one research problem, you can’t write a plan.
That’s the core of your difficulty (based on your comment in which you explained that you don’t have a research problem). A plan is the articulation of what your objectives are and how you think you might achieve them. But you don’t actually have any concrete objectives. So the idea of writing a plan is unattainable - you’re not even in a position to get started doing this. It is a classic case of putting the cart before the horse.
Now, let’s talk about what a research problem actually is in pure mathematics. You mention proving a conjecture, that’s certainly a type of research problem and the most concrete and well-defined one. If someone asks you to come up with a research problem, stating that you want to prove someone’s conjecture is the easiest type of problem to come up with, but on the other hand it’s probably the hardest to actually solve since presumably other people are also trying and have not yet succeeded. So for a PhD project it’s perfectly acceptable (and usually advisable) to be a bit less ambitious and have slightly less concrete goals. Such goals can be along the lines of:

Improve a known result from the literature, by weakening the hypotheses and/or strengthening the conclusion.
(E.g., if Jones proved that all infinitely differentiable frombloids are magnabulous and you manage to prove that it’s enough to assume only seven times differentiability, you’ve improved on Jones’ result.)

Prove an analogue of a known result
(E.g., “all p-adic frombloids are semi-magnabulous in the Smith topology”, when you are the first to study p-adic frombloids but are guided by Jones’s ideas in the differentiable case.)

Prove a variant of a known result with stronger hypotheses and stronger conclusions, or weaker hypotheses and weaker conclusions, or hypotheses that are neither strictly stronger nor strictly weaker than the original.

Sharpen a numerical constant in a known result
(E.g., “the fractal dimension of a magnabulous frombloid is bounded by 17.781”, when Jones proved the bound 27.13)

Prove (or disprove) a converse to a known result

Etc etc.

Now, the point here is that research problems exist on a spectrum of vagueness-concreteness. It’s okay to not have a completely accurate idea of what it is that you want to prove when you get started (as someone said, that’s what makes it research). Very experienced researchers even sometimes start thinking about a research area with a completely vague goal of the type “I want to understand [research area/class of objects/etc] better” (I know that I sometimes do this myself). But there’s a strong caveat here: you are a PhD student. A goal that is suitable for an experienced (not to mention tenured) researcher is not necessarily suitable as one that a PhD student should be given to try and solve with the expectation that there will be a reasonably high likelihood of success. And specifically, for a PhD student I think it’s pretty essential that the goal should be fairly concrete. Just “I want to understand X better” is not a recipe for success at your stage, and in fact even for experienced researchers it often leads nowhere.
So what should you do? Talk to your advisor. Explain to them that you think the project should be fleshed out some more before you begin writing your exposé and that you need some actual, specific problems. It is their responsibility to help you find problems that are suitable to work on; ideally you should have not just one but at least three or four fairly concrete goals, of a more or less realistic level of difficulty for your level of training when you start out. If your advisor isn’t able to help you come up with some ideas like that and bring you to a point where you can start putting a plan on paper, sadly they are probably not a very good advisor, and you might have more serious things to worry about for the future of your project than just the current difficulties with writing the plan. Anyway, hope this helps and good luck!


Importance of domain selection for undergrad applying to a PhD program (USA CS) Background: CS undergrad applying to CS PhD programs in the USA right after graduation.
As an undergrad, I research on (and will be till applications are submitted) broadly on 3 applications of a single "Technique/Algorithm".
Reasons for the domain of choice: 2 of the 3 really interest me a lot and the third I took up because the lab is well renowned in the country and I learn a lot in the process.
While this has helped me develop good skills on a technical basis, I really haven't dived deep into a particular "problem" with a fixed domain. Which is the construct of a PhD (right?).
Question 1: Will this look bad on my profile? Will it show that I'm confused?
All 3 domains, I have good research work done. I invested additional time and made sure I am not at a superficial level for any of the domains.
I actually am not confused. There is one broad problem I have in mind which I want to solve during my PhD and that involves the whole "specialisation" aspect and deep diving into a single domain. I will be mentioning this in my SOP.
I am not able to proceed with that now as I won't be able to produce anything great by my own and it demands computational resources and proper guidance which I tried but failed to obtain.
(If the answer to question 1 is yes) Question 2: Will mentioning my plan to specialise benefit me in any way in the eyes of the admission committee?

Note: If it adds any value to the question. All 3 my letter writers will be backing me for the 3 different applications I work on. 1 letter each for 1 separate broad problem that I work on. (The 3 different problems are done at 3 different labs headed by 3 different profs).

Actually, in the US, any research experience at entrance with a bachelors is a plus, possibly a big plus. Having an idea of where you want to go in research is a big plus, even if not entirely settled. So, yes, it is good to mention the specific areas that most interest you and any experience you have with those.
But acceptance depends on many things, from GPA to letters of recommendation.
I'd suggest that, other things being equal, having an idea of what you want to do in grad school will be an advantage and will help you choose more precisely when it comes time to do so.
But doctoral studies in the US normally start with a lot of advanced coursework leading up to the comprehensive exams so that candidates have a fairly broad exposure to mathematical concepts even before they specialize (and specialize...) on a dissertation topic.
It might be a mistake, however, to refuse to consider other options. Keep an open mind. You will have plenty of time to develop a formal plan.

My own experience was that, at entry, I would have been pretty happy with anything in analysis or topology, but nothing specific beyond that. And pretty unhappy with algebra. My only "research" experience was in the philosophy of math and it was pretty embarrassing. Long time ago, however.


I used a solution that I happened to already have on my laptop on an exam. Did I cheat? In a programming in-class test, one of the problems was to write up a certain famous program in Maple. However, I had already written up this program prior to the test just as a hobby, and it was in a folder on my desktop [we were using our own laptops, no internet access]. I just copied that code into a new file, cleaned it up, and uploaded this file to the course website. I left an hour before anybody else [the exam lasted 2 hours, and I sat around pretending to be busy for 45 minutes before I left the class and went to the canteen].

Question: Is this cheating? Self-plagiarism? Have I done anything wrong here?
Should I admit this to my TA?

I would say no, unless this was explicitly prohibited beforehand. Look, what's the purpose of a test?  To gauge the extent to which one has comprehended the material. The fact that you did the work indicates you do. Hell, the fact you did it on your own for fun deserves recognition.

What's the point of re-doing the work while sitting in class during a test?  Worse yet, suppose you did and made a mistake due to nerves/time pressure.  You still did and comprehended the material, thus you pass.

Others will disagree, but in my mind, I just want to know if you do or do not understand the material.


Do you find a computer-assisted qualitative data analysis tool useful? I do a lot of qualitative coding and assessment as part of my research activities. Usually my colleagues and I simply use generic tools for this process like text editors and spreadsheets, but I know that there's a lot of software out there (NVivo, Atlas.ti, etc.) that is designed for making qualitative data analysis "better".

If these pieces of software were inexpensive, I'd probably buy a package and try it out, but they're very costly (about $600 per seat) and appear rather intimidating.

Can anyone with experience in qualitative data analysis comment on whether these tools are useful (or not useful) and are worth the high price? (And you get a cookie if you can describe a use case that really highlights why the tool is powerful!)

My answer might not be as useful to you because it only deals with my personal experience. I often deal with mixed methods work and qualitative data analysis is something I do about ~25% of my time.

I have used Atlas.ti because it is provided free on my school server. However, realistically, I used Excel to code themes, categories etc. following a grounded theory approach (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). I don't find much use for it but I know significant numbers of professors and graduate students who swear by it. It seems to be the SPSS of the qualitative world.

One powerful use of Atlas.ti that I can attest to is organization, search and visualization of categories, codes, themes and performing some simple reliability measures (Cronbach, Krippendorf) etc.

However, the same can also be done in Excel with some elbow grease. :)


Are mentally ill people allowed to perform research? Is it acceptable for a person to be a researcher if she/he has a mental disorders or illnesses?
Are there laws that either prohibit or not prohibit mentally ill to perform research? Caveats?

Let's turn this around and ask the converse.  How could you tell if a researcher has a mental illness or similar disorder?
Modern understanding of mental illness has moved towards a recognition that humans have an extremely wide range of functional cognitive and behavioral patterns. This means that most mental illness exists on a spectrum, where the boundary to illness is quite fuzzy, is only considered an illness if there is a persistent impact on a person's ability to function.
So if a researcher is producing work that is passing peer review in reasonable publication venues, then they are clearly functioning at a level sufficient to conduct scientific research, and that research is being found to be acceptable. That's it. There is no other scientific bar.
Some levels of mental illness will, of course, make it difficult or impossible for a researcher to produce acceptable research. For example, a person suffering from severe dementia would likely have a difficult time accomplishing any task in their life, including research. This isn't about saying it's not acceptable for any given person to conduct research, however, but rather that some illnesses will inhibit a person from actually accomplishing the task.
In certain niche cases requiring certification, significant impact from a mental illness on a person's trustworthiness may also preemptively bar a person from conducting research on subjects requiring that certification. For example, a person with schizophrenia not responding to treatment might not be able to work in a medical field requiring the handling of confidential patient information or at an organization that requires a security clearance.
In history, unfortunately, we find a very different situation. Until surprisingly recently, for example, homosexuality was considered a mental disorder, and many people were denied work on the basis of their sexual preferences.  I believe this remains the case in some repressive nations today.
Bottom line: in any modern liberal society, mental illness is no bar to research in and of itself, though it may become a barrier if it affects ones' ability to function as a researcher.


Teaching timetable conflict My wife and I teach at different universities. This is the first year that we have run into a timetabling conflict that makes dropping our son off at school difficult. The conflict involves wife's 200+ person lecture that is centrally timetabled in a lecture hall that is in near constant use and my 30 person lab in a relatively unused computer lab. It is unlikely that any type of changes could be made to my wife's class that would help with the conflict. I teach one of 8 sections of the lab. While all the sections occur on the same day they happen in a number of computer labs which have some unused time on that day. I would like to see if I can reschedule, or adjust the schedule, of my teaching. The lab is scheduled to start at 9:00. My son's school starts at 9:00 and I could start teaching at 9:30. Who do I approach and what do I ask for?

I feel like I could try and swap sections with someone else (mine is the only section that starts at 9:00) or I could also ask the organizer for the lab if I can move my section. Is there another option? What is the best way to approach this?

I don't think you can ask to move the start of your lab section. As in the other related question about class times, those times are fixed by the university and not really movable without lots of notice. Your best bet is to get together (physically or virtually) with the other section teachers and find someone willing to switch with you. Then you can propose it to the lab organizer.

Outside your university, you might see if there's a friend or neighbor you trust who can drop your kid at school or a way to arrange with the school to drop your child half an hour early. It can't hurt to ask them.


Etiquette with regard to email read reciepts Context: I am an assistant professor working at a small liberal arts college in the United States.

Like many institutions, mine uses Microsoft Outlook.  On occasion, I will receive emails requesting read receipts.  Usually these emails are internal (from staff, administration, faculty, etc.) but in this case the email is from a student's parent.

Am I obligated to accept this parent's request to send a read receipt for their email?  Would it be considered rude to decline it?  I certainly won't ignore their email, but I'd rather not have them know exactly when I read it until I know what it says.

Furthermore, is there a certain expectation around read receipts for internal email?  This is probably institution-dependent, but I figured I'd ask anyway.

Am I obligated to accept this parent's request to send a read receipt for their email? Would it be considered rude to decline it?

No, there is no obligation on anyone's part to send a read receipt for emails.

It may be considered rude to the email sender if they, upon encountering those who choose not to comply with the read receipt request, assume that the lack of compliance is a giant "middle finger": it certainly is possible that some portion of email senders fall into this category (but/and there are those who think it is rude, annoying, etc. to inundate email recipients with this additional hurdle, so it works both ways).

  is there a certain expectation around read receipts for internal email?

Expectations are not always set in stone. In this case I suggest that, if you do not typically comply with read receipt requests, that you get into the habit early on of not doing that. Over time, people will know that "Oh, yeah, AegisCruiser never bothers with that when I send emails to them!"; some will respect that, and others will get annoyed. Having said that, if you come across some, for instance, powerful administrator at your institution, and you know that they want you to utilize the read receipt, then it's probably better to comply, or, if you cannot tolerate that, stand your ground and see what happens, possibly having in mind some other opportunities should the need arise.

Since you mentioned that you are working in the US:

As a side comment, I suggest that you do not contact the parent of your student directly, since this may violate FERPA rules: it is my understanding that, if a student has FERPA-ed their details, then we instructors are not allowed to confirm with anyone that an individual is a student in our course/enrolled at our institution. In this case, I suggest discussing with your department head how best to proceed.


What does it mean when a STEM researcher has a lot of "solo" publications? This is related to advisor selection for North American universities, STEM majors.

I noticed some profs tend to have a lot of "solo" publications, meaning that he or she is the sole author of a journal/paper for over the span of quite a few years. This tends to be from earlier on during his or her career as a researcher.

Is this common in academia? What would cause this to happen (not saying that it is a bad thing) and does it hint at anything about the particular researcher?

The normal number of co-authors, if any, is very specific to the different (sub-(sub-))disciplines. In my specific sub-discipline it is normal to have a number of solo publications and a number of publications with one, maybe two, co-authors. But in the same department we have people who do primarily qualitative research and they tell me that it is very unusual to have co-authors and they cannot imagine how that would work. From the outside we would both be sociologist, but even within disciplines there are big differences. In other disciplines it is normal to have 5 or more co-authors. So the number of co-authors per se does not say much without also considering the sub-sub-sub-sub-discipline that that person works in.


Rejected article submitted to other journal? Once an article submitted for publication is rejected can I send it to another journal? If so, what are good criteria and tips for doing that?

Yes, one you've been rejected, you can submit elsewhere.

The best way to proceed is to take the feedback you got in the rejection letter seriously, which will usually lead to one of two actions:

If you got an editorial rejection without review due to problems in scope or significance, then pick a better suited journal (usually more narrowly focused on your area).
If you got a rejection with review, then improve the article to address the objections of the reviewers.

Good luck, and know that even good research can sometimes spend years in the cycle before it finally is sufficiently well improved and targeted that it can find a good home.


Can I show my co-author the final version of an accepted publication I reviewed? I was reviewing a journal paper recently that is closely related to work a colleague and I are doing. We are currently in the process of writing up our paper, and I plan to cite the paper I reviewed in ours. The paper I reviewed has been accepted after two rounds, but has not appeared in print yet. The author does not have a preprint on their website (or other preprint services). We don't build on the reviewed paper I want to cite directly, but our work is closely related. In the future we will probably start building on the reviewed paper, so I want my co-author to be aware of it as soon as possible.

Can I send the last version of the reviewed paper (that I saw) to my colleague? Can I cite the paper as "(in press)" if I submit our paper before the reviewed paper finally appears in print?

No, you cannot. Until the paper is publicly available you cannot show it to anyone nor even acknowledge its existence. The only slight exception I would make is that if a colleague was going to pursue similar/identical research, I would tell them they might want to contact the author. I would assume that this would result in my identity as a reviewer being revealed.

Your options are:

Submit your manuscript as is, but add the citation as soon as it become public.
Reveal your identity as a reviewer and ask the author for a preprint.

Option 1 is reasonable since you believe the existence of the paper is not critical to your paper. Option 2 is okay, but remember the reviewers of you manuscript will not have easy access to the cited material.


Publication with missing lead author I was a junior academic that was ousted by a HoD to take over my PhD students and collaboration projects.  Previously when I was still in the department, I offered him to co-supervise one of my PhD students, but he declined, citing that his expertise is outside the domain of this work.  He couldn't even pronounce a terminology in the project.
After I left this place, a paper was published in a top journal recently, without including my co-authorship. I was not told about this paper before, but I had discovered it myself on the online domain recently.  This HoD was put as the first corresponding author.  I was informed that he had "tricked" the student into picking him as his supervisor, citing that it was at the recommendation of the Graduate School after discussions with the Head.  This student is paper prolific, so it is no surprise that he published so quickly after I left. I had previously guided this student to target the work at this top journal, but after I left, I had not heard from him for a few months, and he did not send to me the draft of this paper.
The student had published work using a software for which the licensing agreement had expired after I left.  I was the one who introduced the use of this software and purchased the licence several years ago, and guided the student (we had few publications - lower IF - on this topic previously.)  The school did not renew the software licence after I left because it was too expensive for it.  It is quite common, however, to use pirated softwares in this part of the world.
Any suggestions to resolve this?

OK, I'll attempt an answer here. The question, as I interpret it, is how to resolve the situation where your colleague published research that you had advised, without including your as coauthor.
I am in a similar situation myself: a much senior colleague has commandeered my student's work and is attempting to publish it without me. Like you, I am livid.
But, I've put a lot of thought into this recently and my opinion is that you should take the "high road", i.e. where you can claim moral superiority. If you do anything that can be viewed as vindictive (e.g. reporting them for software piracy) then it will likely do more damage to you than to him.
So what can you do? Well, unfortunately I don't think there is much. The academic system can be grossly unfair, and there are people that take advantage of that. All we can really do is either quit (a strong temptation of mine) or learn from the experience and move on.


What is the typical time period after which an incoming grad student is expected to start publishing? An incoming graduate student is typically required to help out as a TA, take courses both related to their research and required by the program, as well as to start reading up on the research topics in his field. Unless he has worked in the same research area prior to joining grad school, it is unlikely he would get any publishable results very soon after joining grad school.

To avoid being depressed by this apparent lack of results in the first few semesters, it would be helpful to know what the adviser/admissions committee expects out of him in that time, and by when he would be expected to start having publishable results?

I'm interested in the answers related to Theoretical CS, but as always, I believe it would be applicable to any grad  student as well - so it should not be specific to this field.

This wil vary significantly according to advisor, but I'd say a typical plan is:

Years 1-2: coursework, begin research
Summer of year 2: Small research publications (in my field, 2-4 page conference proceedings, small steps)
Year 3: Get some real research done, more small papers
Year 4+: ~1/2 paper a year, ish

However, the variance may be too great for this to be meaningful. I have a friend who published 17 papers during his 6 year graduate student tenure, and I have a number of friends who published zero peer-reviewed papers during my grad school tenure. Take the numbers with a grain of salt.


Is a PhD really required to teach? Do teachers really need a PhD to teach? I guess the origin of this requirement was that people with PhD's were probably the only source of knowledge (unless someone is willing to go to a library, get professional help, and pour through volumes of books). However, knowledge is freely available nowadays along with organized and structured content on several topics.

On the other hand, most Professors with PhDs are trained well in doing research, but they have minimal to no training in teaching. The incentive structures for tenure processes also focuses a lot more on academic publications and grants, and no so much on professional development in teaching.

So, I ask again, wouldn't the students be better off having a teacher with only a MS degree but with training in pedagogical techniques, as opposed to someone with a PhD with neither training nor interest in pedagogy?

You're asking a question to which you already know the answer (no, a PhD is not the real measure of someone's qualification as a college teacher) but to which you offer no alternative.

Many other professions have the same kind of requirement: Lawyers need to pass the bar exam. Doctors need to go through residency and pass exams. Engineers need to be licensed. None of these formal qualifications are good matches for all aspects of a professional's job profile, but they are sort of the best anyone can come up with to ensure some kind of measurable qualification.

In the case of professors: For better or worse, professors need to both do research and teach. It may be true that a PhD primarily measures quality in the former, but teaching well also has a component of actually knowing the material and having a PhD is a reasonable assurance that someone actually understands the stuff they teach. Of course, it would be good if professors had more pedagogical training, but the same would apply there as well: How would you ensure that a candidate for a job has that training? By asking that they have taken a course and can produce a corresponding certificate? One might in that case point out that there, too, are many ways to accumulate pedagogical knowledge and that asking for a certificate is erecting an unreasonable bar in the same way as you suggest with the PhD.


What is difference between PhD and Postdoc? I am a PhD student in Mathematics. I wanted to know what exactly is the difference between PhD and Postdoc. Is it just the research that one does after PhD(kind of second PhD?)?

In mathematics, a "postdoc" is a special kind of faculty job you get just after your Ph.D.  It may have a fixed term (not tenure track).  It may have reduced teaching, so that you can concentrate on your research.  You may have a "mentor" assigned to advise you on doing research.

But (unlike some other fields like experimental physics) you are probably not working in someone else's "lab" on someone else's research program that someone else got the funding for.


What can I do, for I cannot read documents on screen for long times, but my required readings are too heavy? 1) My degree demands me to have around 50 lbs. of new books and reading each year. Second-hand books are not possible for my subject that changes every year.

2) The total cost of all this material is around $5000 USD.

3) I must have all this material with me while I travel repeatedly between North America and England during my degree, and I cannot afford exorbitant shipping or airline baggage fees each time.

I suffer from an eye condition that forbids reading on screen for long times. Thus buying the PDF versions for these books is not a possibility. What else can I do?

e-ink

As also suggested in comments, a quality e-ink reader as (for example) the better Kindle models will provide a paper-like experience for your eyes at a limited weight.

PDFs are not the optimal form for that (ebook formats allow re-flowing to have screen-sized full pages at a font size tha't best for your eyes), but it will certainly work; reading hundreds of pages on that is more like reading a book than a screen.


If I get a bachelors degree without a high school diploma, will I be able to study masters or PHD? I dropped out when I finished grade 11, and started my career as a software developer. I've had a very good experience and working now as a senior software developer.
So, I saw a program in one of the recognized universities in the UK that offers a possibility of admissions to Computer Science bachelor's degrees without high school diploma if there's relevant work experience. So I'm thinking about applying because I actually would like to study more and more and possibly work in a university as a teacher at some point!

So my question, if I got accepted and got my bachelor's degree, will I will be able to apply for a master's degree and then Ph.D., etc? or at some point universities will ask for the high school diploma certificate if I apply to a master's degree or a Ph.D.?

Also, what about getting a job as a teacher in a university after Ph.D.? will that high school thing be a blocker and I'll need to get a high school diploma certificate at some point?

The general philosophy of university and graduate admissions is that your most recent experience counts most heavily. Your secondary school experience is important to getting in to a Bachelors degree program, but, as you note, there are exceptions.

But if you successfully complete a BA/BS or equivalent you will be considered for graduate school along with any other candidate with the same degree. It would be very unlikely anyone would ask for earlier work. But even if they did, it would be inconsequential compared to your work on the Bachelors.

There should be absolutely no worries about this issue, provided you do well in the Bachelors work. Your performance there matters, of course.


All out of PhD extensions - what now? I've received several one-year extensions on my graduation deadline, granted by the PhD progress committee. I've used them all up and am running into the hard deadlines set by the university. I completed my courses and oral exam already, it's just the dissertation and user studies I have left.

Please don't write me off as lazy. The PhD progress committee, my thesis committee, and my adviser all agree me my work is extremely ambitious, and everyone is satisfied I am making good progress towards it. I encountered some setbacks, the most major being my adviser making the tough call that much of my previous work couldn't be used because its age. I work 80+ hour work weeks like any other PhD student and have been forgoing writing papers in the interest of time.

Bottom line, I'm doing everything I possibly can to hurry, but there's not enough time left. Giving up is not an option I'm willing to take, and the technology to clone myself doesn't exist (yet).

What are my options?

This type of question can only be answered by your advisor and thesis committee. They know what caused your delay, and they can likely advise you as to what should be your only—not your top, your only—priority at this point. Once you graduate, all your other projects can resume, but at this point you have one task, and that is to graduate. Only the gatekeepers to graduation (your thesis committee) can really tell you how to do that.


Usages of "sic" when citing old spelling I am citing a Dutch work from the late 19th century. Not surprisingly, the spelling differs from the contemporary spelling. In APA, how would I use [sic] in such cases of old spelling? In the guidelines it is advised to "insert the term sic in italics directly after the mistake". It seems dull to me, though, to insert [sic] after each word that is spelt differently.

Yet another possible way to handle your problem is by way of introduction. In other words, instead of merely saying:

  As Vanmulken wrote: "Though the fallen curry favor, the publick disregard it much."

you could say:

  As the Dutch philosopher Vanmulken wrote in 1871: "Though the fallen curry favor, the publick disregard it much."

With a casual mention of the author's nationality and the time period of the quoted material, most readers will be able to figure out the reason for the "olde" spelling, without drawing special attention to it.


Whether to mention contributions on Stack exchange in Statement of purpose (SOP) for MS/Phd application in US? Assume that a student has a continuous involvement in any community of Stack Exchange.(consider 1,000+ reputation).

Does It has a positive impact to mention this involvement in order to show you are passionate about that field? I am asking this because the Statement of purpose has a great impact on your MS/Phd application.

My rough answer would be that you need to convey to your reader:

What SE is.  Many people think of it as a place to cut and paste answers without thinking too hard, but the community side isn't as well known
How to indicate your interest/passion.  The reputation number is fairly meaningless to an outsider.  Possibly a statement like 'contributed daily for 5 years' has more weight.

Personally I'd view it as a plus but not a massive benefit.  It would be more remarkable at undergrad entry to show engagement in the subject, but at masters/PhD level I'd assume you're already engaged.  It does show interest in teaching which could be positive (eg if you're likely to be a TA at some point).

I'd weigh carefully what you convey by this statement against the space needed to convey it: it may be there's a more impactful way to use the space.

[Disclaimer: I come from a UK perspective.  Other countries may be different]


Pro's and Con's to adding DOI to theses ResearchGate offers to add a DOI on any file upload, if it doesn't already have one. I have in the past cited a few PhD-Theses that contain more information than potential papers, or were available before said papers made it out.

So I'm thinking assigning a DOI to a thesis that is published on the university repository can be helpful in making it more citeable.

Are there any downsides to this that I'm forgetting? Or further advantages?

From the ResearchGate website:

Advantages:

  Make your research citable. DOIs provide information on where your work can be found online. They are guaranteed to never change, making them a great way to provide a reliable link to any of your research.
  Showcase all of your research. DOIs provide the ability to find all publications associated with a single author, including research that hasn’t been published.
  Put a date on your discovery. DOIs include the publishing date of your research, to make sure you get the credit you deserve.

Disadvantage:

  Once a ResearchGate DOI has been generated, the research cannot be edited. Instead, you should remove the research completely, re-upload it with the edits and then generate a new DOI.

Also see:
Should I include a DOI/website URL for a publication in dissertation bibliography?


Google Scholar Public Access new feature and lost citations Google's new "Public Access" feature invites you to upload preprints of some of your papers. These preprints are stored in Google Drive.
Today I used this feature and uploaded two preprints. Then, I realized that my total citation count decreased exactly by an amount corresponding to the citations by those two papers.
If I add up all the citations individually I still can recover my old total citation count but the right panel has a lower citation count.
Is this a bug of the new feature? has anybody experienced this?

I did the same yesterday, with exactly the same effect.
The good news: One day later, the lost citations are back.


How is a PhD by publication valued in the US? A PhD by publication is more common in Europe. I am expecting a few first authored publication this year in decent journals, but I am not sure of the value of this. Thanks!

I think that you will find that such degrees are accepted at face value just as you would expect. They are different systems and different ways to guarantee quality, but don't represent any difference in quality as compared to the US model. In fact, having those publications reviewed by independent (journal) reviewers is an added guarantee of quality.

But if the faculty of a respected university has granted you a doctorate in Europe, you can expect it to be valued in US.


When has an unemployed post-doc refereed enough papers to decline another? I am a post-doc and I get regular requests to referee papers, largely because of a review paper I published as a grad student.

I am yet to turn down a review request--It is rewarding, an opportunity to immerse oneself in another topic, and it feels good to give back to the community.

Unfortunately, I am peri-employed, and the rational decision maker with non-infinite time resources is regrettably obliged to consider her CV.

At what point will listing another journal (or another instance of refereeing for a given journal) on your CV generate negligible returns for an early-career researcher?

At what point does the rational actor say no?

One simple criterion is that if you have refereed more papers than the number of referee reports you have received for your papers, perhaps even divided by the number of coauthors you have for each paper, then you are ahead of the game and shouldn't feel guilty about turning requests down.  Ultimately, if your career goes really well you should expect to do substantially more than your share of reviewing, but you aren't obligated to do this while still a postdoc.

Even if you haven't reached this point, it's reasonable to put your career development first for now.  Strategically, you should referee a paper if reading it will be valuable for your research, if you can impress an influential editor, or if it's for a particularly prestigious journal (so it will stand out on your CV in the list of journals you have reviewed for).  Beyond that, you can do what you reasonably have time for, but you should feel free to decline review requests when you are busy with other things.  If you feel guilty about this, you can make up for it by reviewing more papers than you would otherwise like someday when you have a stable job.

  At what point will listing another journal (or another instance of refereeing for a given journal) on your CV generate negligible returns for an early-career researcher?

I'd say the returns become negligible pretty quickly.  Adding a really fancy journal can look impressive, but even doubling the number of run of the mill journals will make only a small difference.  (People want to see that your reputation leads to review requests, but don't care much beyond that.)

To the extent refereeing helps your career, it's more likely to be because you impressed the editor than because a hiring committee liked the line on your CV.  However, writing papers and giving talks will reach a much broader audience than refereeing can, so extra refereeing is not an efficient career boost.


'Corresponding author' (coauthor) is irresponsible regarding submitted paper. Should I step back from the collaboration? I, and my collaborator (coauthor) from a different university had finished a work last year. We had submitted the full research article to one of the journal published by Springer. My coauthor was the 'corresponding author' for the same. We both had contributed equally to this work over a span of 4-5 months.

The article was submitted on March, 2016. Just after few days of the submission, the paper status remained as "With Editor". Till today (now) the status has not changed at all (not even the date of the status).

I have been trying to convince my coauthor (who is also the corresponding author) to pull out the paper from such a badly managed venue and submit it somewhere else. However, he is reluctant and not interested to listen to me at all.

Moreover, I can't (shouldn't) directly write the e-mail for the withdrawal of the paper, as I am not the corr. author. Moreover, it may create conflict of interests.

I have been thinking to step back from this collaboration. Is it a good idea?

You're overreacting.  Good collaborators are hard to come by, so do not do away with a collaborator unless you have an issue with the academic side of collaborating with this person, not if you have an issue with a journal.

First, if you want to establish priority, send to arXiv or an equivalent site.  Next, simply tell your collaborator that unless he/she contacts the editor or the journal very soon you will do it yourself.  Your collaborator may be corresponding author, but it doesn't mean you cannot yourself ask for clarifications from the journal.  Lastly, you will achieve nothing by removing yourself as an author.

Now... you are in a frustrating situation and maybe you are just looking for an excuse to pull out or stop collaborating with this person, but that's another problem altogether.


use of of 'unlicensed' github code in research paper I have used github code for my research paper. But that code comes with no license. I have asked author to add license to code but he has not replied so far. Will this be a problem for me in future? I have not intentions for owning that code. I have just used that code without any changing and i would like to cite that repository link in my paper giving credit to original developer.
Please give your valuable suggestions

This topic is treated in this answer on Open Source Stack Exchange. I reproduce it here because it might also be relevant for Academia. The Open Source.SE answer points to GitHub's "No License" page:

If you find software that doesn’t have a license, that generally means you have no permission from the creators of the software to use, modify, or share the software. Although a code host such as GitHub may allow you to view and fork the code, this does not imply that you are permitted to use, modify, or share the software for any purpose.
Your options:

Ask the maintainers nicely to add a license. Unless the software includes strong indications to the contrary, lack of a license is probably an oversight. If the software is hosted on a site like GitHub, open an issue requesting a license and include a link to this site. If you’re bold and it’s fairly obvious what license is most appropriate, open a pull request to add a license – see “suggest this license” in the sidebar of the page for each license on this site (e.g., MIT).
Don’t use the software. Find or create an alternative that is under an open source license.
Negotiate a private license. Bring your lawyer.

Note in the second line that you do not even have permission to use the software. Unfortunately, this means that, in order to be safe, you should either wait for the developers to reply to you and add the license, or write your own code.


How to determine if an institution is a research or teaching university in the United States? I came across a faculty vacancy announcement at a US university where it is mentioned that the candidate will be expected to perform teaching, research and guidance duties in area(s) of expertise. In addition, the candidate will share responsibility for committee and department assignments including administrative, supervisory, and other functions. From this statement, can it be determined that it is a teaching university where I will be primarily involved into teaching and administrative duties? There is no point of contact mentioned in the announcement whom I could contact with in order to know the details.

I teach at a research university and we have pretty much the same language in our job ads.
How to tell if a school is a research university:

See if your university is listed as one of the original 59 Research I Universities defined by the Carnegie Institute (see the 1994 list here) or 108 Research University/Very High (RUVH) in the current classification.
a. Related to this - does the school offer doctorates in your field? Is it well known for producing high caliber scholars? Does it seem to be getting national grants? These are all part of the criteria for the R1 or RU/VH designation.

See if the course catalogue is online and look at how many courses a semester each professor teaches. Research universities will be 2:2, 1:1, 2:1, or 1:1:2 or even lower (1:0, 0:1:1, etc.).

Look at the CV of faculty and see if they are publishing actively in highest tier journals

Ask a faculty member who teaches there what the teaching:research ratio expectation is.

Beggars can't be choosers. Unless you have other options then you take the position if offered and then when outside opportunities beckon, you switch.

Discussion: While it's easy to figure out the overall research vs. teaching balance and emphasis at a Harvard University versus Sweet Briar College (a small liberal arts college); there is a considerable grey middle ground. At upper-tier SLACs and state universities, there may be more of an equal 50:50 research:teaching emphasis, or even an unexpected imbalance that an outsider would not be able to easily perceive. Usually, you can ascertain this over drinks at the post job-talk dinner.


Is a student with weak written examination skills also a weak candidate for PhD? A friend of mine is enrolled as a master's student in Computer Science and considering to convert to a PhD at the same university. My guide acknowledges that he has excellent interpretation, understanding and deduction skills. He is also very good in implementing ideas as code.

He has been able to score just around average grades in all the subjects primarily owing to class projects. The problem he attributes to is that he is not at all good at reproducing things during the examination. In fact, while studying, he tends to ignore all the information like names of techniques, methods etc and just focus on what and how things work. In fact, he doesn't like to write the exam at all and usually just focus on the most tempting or the most thought provoking questions in the paper. (and just writes something to other questions for the sake of writing).

Now, he is just falling short(by 0.2) of the CGPA criteria set at our university to convert to a PhD. So, not being able to properly write examinations and not being able to score good grades, makes him a weak potential candidate for a PhD or does it affects his chances of successfully completing a PhD ?

Let's map what you've written about your friend, onto the sort of things we might look for in a promising PhD candidate, to see why, although exams and PhD research are very different beasts, we might learn about one thing from another.

Meticulous? No.
Demonstrates good grasp of the substance and relevance of theory? No.
Can perform under pressure? No.
Can follow protocols? No.

As you can see, although you say the grade point average is only just below what is needed to convert to a PhD, there are a few warning signs that this student might not be appropriate PhD material; both the student and the decision-making body should pay heed.

I appreciate that this may not be easy for you to hear, as they are your friend. But really, PhDs aren't for everybody: there are lots of domain experts who are not PhD candidates; and there wil be lots of successful Computer Science PhDs who will never be such good programmers as your friend. A PhD is a measure of academic research skills, not of industrial skills or life skills.

Computer science and software engineering are two different disciplines, though they are related. Different institutions will teach them with varying degrees of overlap. But they are distinct. Maybe your friend is a talented software engineer who needs to specialise there, rather than in computer science.


Is it appropriate to include additional materials in an academic job application? I am applying to teaching jobs at small liberal arts colleges. They typically ask for the standard things: cover letter, CV, research statement and teaching statement. I feel as though a compilation of student comments and data taken from students in my classes (rating my enthusiasm and preparedness in particular) makes my application much stronger. After all, these are the types of things people look for when it comes to tenure review, so why not for a job application? My question is:

Is it inappropriate to include such additional materials in a teaching application?

Unless the call clearly states that nothing more must be included you should do so. As you correctly identified such information provides insights into you success in teaching. An option could be to simply include a summary in the CV or make it part of the teaching statement, as support that your teaching ideas produce good results. In short, add the material but make sure it is condensed and clearly structured. I have added such material to applications (for promotion in my case) and had someone sign off that the summary reflects the material on which it is based.


Is significant repetition across multiple journal papers (intro and model) an issue? Let's say I've developed a model for some process X. Using my model I can investigate (a) the effect of changing a underlying assumption used in other literature; and (b) the effect of a different equation for calculating some part of X. The assumption and different equation are not at all related but my model is fundamentally the same. Given all this when I come to write a paper for each of my investigations my introduction and model sections of the papers will be very similar - likely with a small difference in the last few lines of each specifying what is different from the baseline case.

So my question is: is this repetition across multiple journal papers acceptable? Is it considered bad practice? Should my second paper reference my first due to plagiarism?

It will depend on a bunch of things.

Basically these papers are not "stand alone." They are elements of a series. The way to answer such questions is to put yourself in the place of your readers. Imagine you were a researcher from a related discipline, and you were encountering these papers for the first time. What level of duplication would make your life easy?

For example, if these are 5 page papers, and you have three pages of repeated intro material, that's a problem. If these are 50 page papers, three pages of repeated intro is probably not a problem.

For example, if the papers are in the same journal every time, you should be more inclined to simply cite a previous article for material you are considering repeating. If it's a different journal, you may want to avoid forcing your reader to hunt up that other journal to figure out what is going o n.

Maybe there's a way you can get some kind of consideration from a journal. If you are going to have several papers on the same topic in rapid succession, maybe you can get them published back-to-back. Or at least in the same volume so a reader will get them all at once. That way you could simply say "see the first paper" or something like that. It is certainly not unknown, though it is also not all the common either.

Another possible strategy is to publish a "state of the union" paper in a review journal, then reference that. When I was in grad school I wore out several volumes of Physics Reports that had review articles about my research subject. So much so that I eventually had to buy my own copies. Is there a similar journal in your field of research? You could put all your intro material and notation and introductory calculations in there and just cite it. Publishing a review article on a subject you are "pioneering" in can also be a good boost for your CV. And it will tend to get cited by a lot of people who are just getting their toes wet in a subject.