Is "BAC+n" understood in Finland? I am from France and want to find an internship in Finland.

Can I use "BAC+n" on my resume? Will it be understood or should I use something else? Maybe the terms License and Master are enough since it is supposedly known in all Europe but this is relatively recent so I think it would hurt to add BAC+5.

The ECTS was created precisely for this kind of issue. If you think there is any doubt, just say how many ECTS your degrees are worth. In any case, the Bologna process started about 20 years ago. I think by now everyone knows the lingo. Be aware that the first degree is usually called "bachelor", though. Bac+5 is master's degree, so if you do have a master's degree, just say so.

In any case I would be very surprised if "bac+n" was understood in Finland. You should realize that "bac" refers to "baccalauréat", the French high school diploma. Even assuming that someone understand that "bac+n" means "n years after the bac", they are very likely to think that "bac" is "bachelor", the French "licence"... And "bac+n" is hardly a useful metric anyway, the content of the degree matters much more.


What do camera ready figures mean nowadays? A journal I am submitting to requires camera-ready figures. What does this term mean nowadays? Does it imply high resolution? My figures are in png format and have 96 dpi. Enlarging it can produce some jagged edges. Should I update them to eps or pdf format?

There isn't any real, single standard as to what "camera-ready figures" means. Different journals/publishers may use different publishing processes and workflows, which can result in different requirements for file formats, resolution etc. (Or even color spaces.) However, 96 dpi is indeed quite low. 300 dpi is a more reasonable minimum guideline for raster images - but obviously vector graphics should be preferred whenever possible.

In lieu of a standard, we can look at typical recommendations. A review by J.H. Lee in Science Editing titled Handling digital images for publication states that

  The most commonly recommended resolution for printing on paper depends on the nature of the images: 1) 300 dpi for color pictures, 2) 300 to 600 dpi for black and white pictures, 3) 600 to 900 dpi for combination art (photo and text), and 4) 900 to 1,200 dpi for line art.

Note that this is the printed dpi, which isn't necessarily the same dpi as seen in the submitted manuscript. The same author also suggests a universal guide to avoid issues with publishers rescaling figures etc.:

  It is the opinion of this author that a universal recommendation could help authors prepare their images. The standard figure size of most academic journals is about 86 mm (single column). The standard pixels per inch for line art is 900 to 1,200 ppi. Therefore, an image file of 900 ppi and 4 inches is of sufficient quality for most publications; this means 3,600 pixels in a horizontal line. It is recommended that authors use this number as a universal guide.


Do graduate schools pay attention to joining Phi Kappa Phi or other honor societies? Recently I received an invitation for Phi Kappa Phi honor society. I do not know too much about those organizations and I was wandering what are the benefits (or possible disadvantages) of joining?

I was searching online and people keep mentioning that it is good for your resume, networking etc. However, it seems to me that I just need to pay for membership and they will put me on the list, how could it be beneficial for me?

Could you please tell me if worth considering? And is it really beneficial to have those things on my resume? Do graduate schools or employers pay attention for those?

Do graduate schools pay attention to joining Phi Kappa Phi or other honor societies?

As I understand it, eligibility for membership in Phi Kappa Phi is entirely determined by grades and class rank.  If so, it won't help with grad school applications, since the admissions committee already has access to far more information about grades than they would learn from knowing the applicant is a member.

Some fields may have honor societies for which membership conveys more information, but I do not think there is any widely known, field-independent example in the U.S.

In my experience on graduate admissions committees in mathematics, I've never heard anyone discuss honor societies at all.

I joined an honor society as an undergraduate, not because I saw personal benefits to it but because my parents would have been disappointed if I had declined membership.  The only consequence for me has been that they occasionally send me a newsletter, but I'm told some people do find membership to be useful or meaningful.


How to deal with a postdoc supervisor who blocks all attempts to do reasonable research? I have a number of problems with my postdoc supervisor.

First of all, I do not have any funds for my research. According to local university rules, I can't submit any grant proposals myself; this is the supervisor's responsibility. When I request this, he always answers that he doesn't care and I must do research using existing resources. However, I am the first person here who started doing research in my area, and there are no facilities, equipment or even consumables available.
At the same time he requires me to publish research papers, and his suggestion is just to write low-quality papers using research methods from the early sixties.
When I manage to find a collaborator in another university, he replies that he is not going to work with anyone because other researchers will steal his (but actually my) results.
After seven months of my study I accidentally figured out that I could request funds from one of his projects, but when I suggested to do this, he simply rejected my idea.
When I ask about other possibilities to do research in this university, he replies that I must "search in Google" or "walk around and find them yourself", and he is not going to provide any information.
Despite this I have managed to finish one piece of research, and he included three persons as authors whom I have never even seen and their background is not relevant at all, explaining that they are a part of his team. Additionally, it is a common thing for him to come and start explaining to me that I am not able to do anything. These are just words, and I am confident in my qualifications, but still it is annoying.

Before I started working here, I had five years of experience as a principal investigator, and I am able to do research without any supervision. However, his behavior totally blocks any possibility.

Question: Is there any legal procedure to request external check of my working conditions or his qualification as a supervisor? I will appreciate any other recommendations as well.

I'm not sure how did you get to work with him, and if you can simply leave whenever you have a better offer. But, if you are to continue with him, he will bury your career. He wants from you to publish low quality papers, he doesn't provide you the minimal resources and cuts your ties with collaborators. Going like that, it should not surprise you that in two more years you're not employable anymore as a postdoc. So, the first advise is to run as soon as you can.

Where I live there are quite a few of this kind of "supervisors". They only need to publish a little every year to meet the requirements of the institution. They are also very good at isolating their students and postdocs from the rest of the community. That way they make sure they have enough people to supervise (needed to keep their research team leader status). People working with them slowly lose trust in their ability as scientists and cannot leave anymore to other labs. Worse even, many of these people are on temporary positions, so the supervisor uses this for their own gain.

It is unlikely that this person will change. If you cannot leave the university, it would be a good idea to try moving to a different supervisor at the same place. That will most likely make your current supervisor your enemy, but you aren't much better off with him as your friend. One of my colleagues did this because her supervisor would not assign her any work. The supervisor hates her now, but, at this moment, she's doing good research, so it seems to have been a good decision. In any case, it would be a bad idea to let your supervisor know of your intentions before having a new position.


Does using complex mathematical notation detract the reader from a paper? I'm currently writing a paper on analysing miRNA targeting in animals. It's principally a statistical analysis involving many graphs.

However, to explain the creation of one of the graphs, I've resorted to using set theory notation, as this, to me, seemed the most efficient way of explaining how the graph was produced.

However, this may potentially have some issues:

1) Will the use of terminology that is outside the theme of papers in this field detract from the description? Such that few people who read this paper will understand set theory and therefore many will not understand the mathematical notation? The description, I hasten to add, will be a tenth of the length when using set theory notation.

2) Evidently, concepts should always be written as clearly as possible, but where is the line formed between explaining concepts in words, as opposed to mathematical notation? Why would one choose one way over another?

3) Should you make assumption of the mathematical understanding of a person reading the paper?

An author should always be careful when using mathematical notation that is "outside the theme of papers in this field," especially if the papers typically have little math notation. I have personally found that running into a cryptic (at first glance) equation makes me put the brakes on and engage some deeper thought to decipher what's trying to be said. Oftentimes, the notation is required, or at least useful, but when I end up thinking, "Couldn't they have just said 'such-and-such' in plain English'", I get a bit cranky.

Sometimes, though, you do need the space savings to stay within page limits, so if you really will shave off 90% of the space, and you need that space to fit in something else that is key to the paper, AND in your best judgement that the audience won't be derailed by the notation, you might be OK. Otherwise, because you have stated that you can describe it clearly in words, you should consider perhaps rewriting that description to be more concise and precise, rather than potentially obfuscating the details of your graph production.


Will research experience in chemical engineering count when applying to grad school for biomedical engineering? I am a sophomore international student currently majoring in chemical engineering and hoping to get into graduate school for biomedical engineering sometime in the future. My university is very small and is more focused on defense rather than biomedical engineering research so the chemical engineering department is the only engineering department on campus that conducts biomedical engineering research.

Because of this and a lack of understanding of the major, I decided to major in chemical engineering. However, as I get deeper and deeper into my major, I realize I'm not very happy with it. I don't enjoy the process engineering industrial aspect of my major and realized that I want to get involved in imaging research. But none of the faculty in the engineering college at my university do this kind of research. I’m also being told that I needed to have done something like electrical engineering or mechanical engineering to get involved in imaging.

I’m afraid that if I switch majors now, the research with biomaterials that I am currently doing with a faculty member in the chemical engineering department won’t be counted as research experience for graduate school. I am also afraid of burning bridges with this faculty member in question by just switching to another engineering major. Long story short, I still want to get into a biomedical engineering PhD program, but I’m just concerned that the field that I’m currently in won’t get me into the specific field of biomedical engineering that I’m interested in in the future.

Will the research I’m doing now count as relevant experience for graduate school and positively add to my graduate school admissions?

Your research experience counts!

Specifically, you are getting experience in the process of "doing research": finding a question, reading the literature, forming hypotheses and figuring out how to test them, etc. These are important skills, even moreso than (say) knowing your way around a specific instrument's console. Admission committees also know that your local options, especially as an undergrad, are limited. I did linguistics and computer science research as an undergrad, and then applied (successfully) to neuroscience programs.

If you can do well with your current work, I think you'll be good shape for grad school. You probably do want to address this change in your personal statement by briefly mentioning how/why your motivations changed and the skills you will bring to your new program. I talked a little about I saw machine learning techniques crash and burn on language/vision tasks, and wanted to understand how people/animals did so well with such lousy "hardware". I also mentioned that my existing training would let me analyze and model large datasets, like the ones I hoped to collect.

Finally, don't forget that some of your skills are "reusable" in biomedical engineering. The development of tracers for PET/SPECT involves a lot of chemistry, ditto for flourophores for microscopy. Process experience can help when building or using high-throughput screening systems. There's also a lot of interest in developing substrates that nerves, blood vessels, etc can grow on or are compatible with certain techniques.

This is all conditioned on you remaining somewhat interested in chemical engineering and doing well in your research+coursework. If your heart isn't in it and you're likely to do badly, I would certainly switch; I just don't think it's essential.

Good luck!


I am an English Grad presenting at a NASA conference; what's the best way to prepare? While answers might be too heavily opinion based, I'm just looking for a little reassurance as to what to expect. I've done undergrad conferences for English before and that's no sweat, but I sent off an abstract under guidance from my boss (who is a geographer but mostly a mental health advocate) to the Ames NASA Research Centre Lunar Grad Conference and it got accepted.

Now, my idea was more of a thought experiment than a study, so I don't really have data or much in the way of hard facts to go along with what I'm saying, and I'm nervous as hell that I'll scoffed at by the other scientists there. The organizers did say that it's supposed to be a low pressure environment, but still, I'm wondering what to expect in general at a conference and if an Arts major presenting at a Science conference is totally unheard of or not.

Different fields have different standards of what to expect in a presentation, from how it is organized, to how the 'powerpoint' is used (or not used). Even what constitutes notions of powerpoint agony for the audience will have some minor/major differences. (Science audience will want you to be simple, please). Presentations in an english department and a physics department will be a different in style and standard organization.

I would strongly suggest going to someone in one of the science or engineering departments in your university (perhaps someone who is charge of senior project courses who regularly has to work with training the undergraduates in how to give 15 minute presentation in the normal style of the field) and ask them for advice and copies of the usual documents they pass out to their students on how to give a scientific technical presentation. (Maybe have that faculty member in the audience for your practice talks)

And, assuming that the school year will start before you need to give your presentation, go to a few of the colloquium  (or student presentations) in that department just to get a sense of the style expected.

My experience (I am in physics/applied physics/materials) in attending seminars occasionally in the humanities either for fun or because I was serving as the university representative on a PhD defense, is that it is mostly stylistic expectations that are different. Good scholarship is good scholarship, and once I figured out my shortcomings in what different cues I needed to watch for in the humanties presentations, I could follow their work and be impressed or not.


Is it ethical to submit a research proposal to multiple funding agencies? I reached the point in my PhD where, besides focusing on performing and analyzing the last experiments and starting to write the thesis, I should also start thinking about the next step - what to do once I finish it?

Since I would like to have some more research time to publish as many papers as I can from my PhD work, I think the obvious next step would be a post-doc position.

I am an international student in the US and I could apply for fundings both from my native country and from US agencies.

The big question here is: is there anything unethical in submitting the same research proposal to two (or even more) agencies? Will I be committing some kind of academic crime if by any chance one same reviewer is called to judge the same proposal submitted to different funding agencies and realizes it?

I should highlight here that I would never accept both fundings. The goal would be purely to maximize the odds of getting research funded. In the unlikely event I would have the proposal granted by both agencies, I would choose the most beneficial or convenient to me and my advisor.

Two reasons I can think of NOT to do this would be:

a) wasting time of a larger number of reviewers (who could be reviewing someone else's proposal);
b) preventing more people from getting funded.

But is this cheating or just part of the business?

I appreciate any input - specially criticism.

Ask your program manager(s). NSF for example specifically asks you to list any simultaneous submission on the cover page.


Postdoc vs Assistant Prof - which is better for a career academic? All questions are hypothetical as of now.

I work in the health / biomedical sciences. I have been a postdoc for about 2.5 years and had to leave the postdoc after the lab closed. I have been interviewing for both junior faculty and postdoc positions for the last 3 months but none have worked out (pay cut, rejection etc)

I have an upcoming postdoc fellowship interview with X lab in University A, which I applied for towards the end of the application deadline 1st week Feb. The independent academic committee has determined I am fully qualified for the position and no rebuttals were needed (unusual I know; this is a Scandinavian university). This is a position that will take me out of my comfort zone and give the opportunity to develop new quantitative skills - if the mentors are good (YKWIM). This project is supervised by 2 mentors and both have very impressive h-indices, and one very experienced researcher and another younger researcher but very impressive credentials. I will have teaching responsibilities.

However I applied for an asst prof position in Y lab/dept in the same uni A, which has a much later application deadline. I believe I have a good chance of getting this gig because I have run many projects in this exact area of research and have all the training and certifications needed. I guess I won't be developing any more technical skills and moving on to project management / teaching / administration. This is unique as the position already comes with a project and a longer term of employment, and is still supervised by 1 prof. The yearly salary is not much different from the postdoc and the potential impact of the research is lower.

The academic's goal is to get a faculty position but it seems the asst prof position would be of little value since this is not my grant. It is also not clear if this is a tenure track position.

Hoping I could get some advice from more experienced researchers because my focus  is on building a career, although I do hope to make great scientific achievements in the process.

Cheers and I'll be hanging around if anyone has questions.

In the US, I think it would be clear that the assistant professorship is preferable to a post doc in nearly every case. The exception would be the opportunity to work with a superstar as a post doc.

Again, in the US, assistant professorships are (almost) invariably tenure track, though there are a very few colleges that don't offer tenure at all. But that isn't likely to be a factor.

For most, a post doc is really just considered to be a stepping stone to a real position and a way to continue to advance if the job market is poor at the time.

But ask the institution itself about tenure and also about the likelihood of actually earning it.


Contacting Potential Advisor After Being Waitlisted for PhD Admissions I applied to a few PhD programs in the US (engineering, fall 2017), but didn't contact any potential advisers before (huge mistake, I know, but somehow I got accepted into a few of them anyways).

However, I was waitlisted for the program I wanted the most.

So, I would like to know if it would be wise to get in touch with my potential adviser now, and tell him about my research background and ask if he would be willing to advise me. I'm a little afraid that this might be seen as rude or unpleasant..

This may be a bit personal, but I'm sure there are a lot of experienced people in this group who might have been through this same situation before... Any hint would be extremely helpful right now...

Thank you!

You could but it's likely too late. The order of waitlist rolldowns is usually determined at the admissions meeting, sent to the graduate school, and is now beyond the professor's (and occasionally the department's) control.

Departments and universities do vary in practice. There's nothing to be lost in emailing the professor but don't assume a response. No news would be bad news.


Semi-academic job: techniques to apply I am soon to complete a PhD and am quite interested in teaching roles. I have been doing some ad hoc teaching as a lecturer in my university, and quite enjoyed it. I apparently have done a pretty decent job.

I don't think it is likely that I'll be able to obtain a full-time academic position (as assistant professor/professor) as just having a PhD is unlikely to be sufficient qualification for such a role. I'm not even 100% sure this is the career that I permanently want to pursue.

In the meantime I would like a meatier teaching role (perhaps something with an actual contract). I have heard of the position of 'teaching fellow' and of someone who was apparently hired to such a position, but I've never seen any advertisements for these roles.

The area of my PhD is Computer Science, but I would also be very interested in teaching outside of this field (for instance in Business in the field of Information Management). This makes the task of finding such teaching positions very difficult.

The ad-hoc positions that I've obtained have come from personal contacts, and while a good resource, it's one that I've pretty much exhausted. People who already have had ad-hoc positions are looked at with suspicion by administration, as you can obtain workers' rights if you are kept in ad-hoc positions long enough (at least in my country). This makes people who don't personally know you less likely to want to run the gauntlet of administration to have you hired. Finally, people in the discipline of Humanities or Business are probably going to be somewhat hostile to someone from Computer Science muscling in on their territory. That my skill-set would be suited to positions in both these disciplines would only exacerbate this.

How might it be possible to overcome this significant hurdle? How can I get academics, who have never heard of me and have nothing vested in my employment, and for whom I may cause a bit of hassle, actually consider me for a teaching position?

First a remark: you don't seem to even consider postdoc positions, is this a choice? These are research positions of course, but this is by far the most common way for a recent PhD graduate to start an academic career, possibly applying for assistant professor positions later on if this is something that you consider doing.

As far as I know, what you are looking for is called (full-time) lecturer position in the British Isles academic system (I'm in Ireland myself). These positions are not very common but I've seen a few being advertised from time to time, that could depend on the institution. They are probably a bit competitive (though less than assistant professor jobs), so you might need to strengthen your teaching record first. For that the best way is to contact every department you know asking them if they have any short-term teaching needs paid by the hour that you could fill. In my experience it's quite common for CS departments to be under-staffed so there's a decent chance you'll find something.


Should we compete for tenure positions at top universities or be happy at second tier universities? I am PostDoc at one of leading Universities. It was not that hard to get there for a PostDoc, yet it seems  really hard to stay for permanent position, I see the competition is big.

I also see that the working conditions are not competitive (both in terms of salaries, costs of living and rent in a small university town, and motivation bonuses on top of your salary).

On the other hand, having renowned Uni in my CV, working as a PostDoc for ERC grant (I am not PI), I have mailbox full of tenure offers at ... say, second tier universities (ca. 100-300 positions at Uni rankings).
They offer me freedom, fixed position, competitive salary, lower costs of living.

On top of that, top Universities do not really care if you win regular grant, or top competitive (e.g. ERC), your salary is the same. While bringing back ERC or comparable grant to second tier University - you are the man. They praise you, you are respected and you have high chances to getting bonus that may even double your base salary (forget about it in top tier Universities).

So in my case, where my field just needs bunch of laptops and computation cloud and not costly lab. Is there really a point in competing for tenure at top tier University? Anyhow I already have a name to be accepted for renowned conferences and  Q1 journals from the field.

Honestly, I do not see the point, I already collected Hoodies with some nice Uni logos on this, I do not really care about brands anymore.

So what are actual and maybe overlooked by me pros and cons of choosing on one hand: a permanent position at lower ranked university, and on other keep on pursuing highly competitive and uncertain positions at high ranked university.

As I am sure you expected, this is a highly personal decision that nobody can make for you. Since you seem to be based in Europe (you are talking about ERC), I will frame my answer in the context of applying in Europe:

Your point that "you are the man" at a lower-ranked university when you bring in a high-reputation grant may be accurate, but you also need to ask yourself the question why people don't routinely bring in such grants in these institutions. Do they not support applying for grants in the same way? Do you not get enough time to develop an excellent research program? Do you not have access to sufficiently qualified students? Are the grant agencies biased in their evaluation? As a rule of thumb, it's typically harder to develop an internationally excellent research program at a lower-ranked university than at a top one, for a combination of different reasons.
Especially, ensure that the lower-ranked university that you are looking at actually values the same things you do. Many lower-tier universities "officially" want to compete for top grants and improve their research profile, but not at the expense of what they already do. In practice, this may mean that you have to compete for top-level grants while doing more teaching or service for your institution.
The "label" of working at a top university can help you in various ways, including easier access to valuable companies and excellent students.
There are challenges with being a "big fish in a small pond" - the small fish around you may not be thrilled, there may be little to no chances to collaborate or get inspired, and it's much easier to have large impact if you are not just one faculty standing alone.

With all that said, there are certainly advantages to being at a lower-tier university:

It can be easier to have a reasonable work-life balance at a lower-tier university. However, again, do be mindful of teaching and service responsibility - I have certainly seen people at smaller teaching universities that are considerably more busy than I am, because they have to teach an awful lot more than me.
As you say, it's easier to get a job at a lower-tier university, and a faculty job now may be better than getting, maybe, a faculty job at a top university in 3 years (or not).
Salary-wise, there will initially be little difference between excellent and lesser universities. I doubt that top universities pay less than weaker ones. However, you are right that if you actually end up as the big fish in your small pond, you have a good basis for negotiation - but that feels like something that you should not rely on in your career planning.


Should I worry that my advisor will get sick of being a professor and move to industry? My advisor is a first year professor (in CS) and he seems really busy and stressed all the time.  Before becoming a professor, he was in industry, where he probably had to do a lot less work and could spend more time with his family.  Should I worry that he'll move back to industry in a year or two because he's decided being a professor is not for him?

Should I worry that he'll move back to industry in a year or two because he's decided being a professor is not for him?

This is probably not worth worrying about, although it could happen.  Computer scientists who leave industry for academia generally really want to be in academia and don't often return to industry quickly.

If you're concerned, one way to get a feeling for his perspective is to ask him about his experience with industrial and academic jobs.  This is a very natural question, since he knows both sides well and this information is relevant to your own future plans.  You could follow up by asking him how he chose academia over industry if he leaves that vague.  If he sounds unhappy with his decision, you could ask whether he thinks he might return to industry someday.  I bet this conversation will reassure you that he wants to be in academia, and at least you'll find out if your fears are justified.

Incidentally, I'm skeptical that computer scientists in industry have a lot less work and spend more time with their families.  The ones I've met spend their time a little differently than academics do but seem rather busy as well.


Is it acceptable to cite people without putting the appropriate diacritics in their names? I've begun preparing my thesis and several key papers in my field are written by people with foreign accents in their names. While I have found a way to include this in my thesis with BibTeX. However it has come to my attention that many citations exported from online journals (as .rif, .enl, or .bib) or my previous EndNote library may not include accents in non-English names.

While I would like to attribute these appropriately it is clearly a laborious task to check for the sheer number of references included in a thesis unless strictly necessary. Therefore I have two related questions:

Is it acceptable academic conduct to cite authors without correct accents when citing them in an English language thesis (or publication)?
Is it common practice for reference managers or online export tools to support accents or author names (i.e., can I take it for granted that my existing library has included these characters correctly or will be necessary to check references previously imported by online databases)?

To clarify, this query concerns accents such as those found in names originating in French, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian, German, Scandinavian and Te Reo Māori languages. Such as the symbols:

ó, ò, ő, õ, ø, ö, and ō

I'm not sure how far ethics comes into this, but omitting accents is, effectively, a misspelling of the name. If you need to cite something by Schön, and you instead write "Schon", I'd regard that as analogous to writing "Schöm" or "Schöh": pretty close, but certainly a typo. If I'm reviewing a paper, I will request correction of missing accents as I would for other misspellings, but I wouldn't regard it as an ethical breach.

In practice, there's a bit more leeway for missing accents than for other misspellings, partly due to former limitations in computer typesetting, and partly due the dominance of English as a scientific language and the frequent belief among native English speakers that accents are always optional. As Burak Ulgut says, some authors won't mind missing accents, while others will care a lot -- but since you can't know which is the case for any particular author, you should keep the accents. In some cases, missing an accent may have unfortunate consequences in the author's native language: if you cite a Swedish Dr Hörberg as "Horberg", you've just turned them into "whore mountain".

For citation purposes, the correct spelling is (almost always) the one on the publication itself: if, say, Miloš Blažek chooses to publish as Milos Blazek then that's how you cite him, no matter what it says on his birth certificate.

On the technical side: unfortunately you cannot take it for granted that exported bibliographic records will handle non-ASCII characters correctly, or for that matter that they will handle anything correctly. Bibliography record formats are a mess of partially supported, poorly defined standards interconverted by buggy code, and you should always eyeball the record after importing it to catch any errors (not only accents).

As you say, it's clearly a laborious task, but so are many aspects of writing a thesis :).


Funding opportunities for Computer Scientist Faculty in Canada I have been offered a faculty position at a computer science department of a small Canadian University.

Is there a funding agency in Canada that is commonly targeted by Computer Scientists similar to the NSF in the US?
Are there any funding opportunities tailored to early career researchers?

The organization you're looking for is called NSERC, and has many opportunities available. I don't know all of them (I'm a PhD student, not a professor), but here are some highlights:

Discovery Grants for researchers
Post-doctoral fellowships
Doctoral Scholarships
The Vanier Doctoral award
Master's Scholarships


Translate academic titles (lecturer, assistant and associate professor, tenure track, instructor) in French I am puzzled how can one translate the following in French?

  Lecturer, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Tenure Track, Instructors

Does Maître de Conférences translate the first three altogether? So, how can we distinguish between the various ranks? Maîtresse de Conférences for a woman is considered a "barbarisme" or not?

Can we use Conférencier(ère), professeur(e) assistant(e), professeur(e) associé(e) for the first three, respectively? If not, why?

Google Translate gives Professeur agrégé for associate professor but this is partly faulty, for

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professeur_agr%C3%A9g%C3%A9

  En France: Professeur agrégé de l'enseignement du second degré Titulaire d'une agrégation de l'enseignement supérieur : agrégation de droit, de science politique, d'économie, de médecine, de pharmacie.

Nevertheless,

  Au Canada: Titre universitaire atteint généralement après avoir été professeur adjoint, avant de devenir professeur titulaire

Further, can we use professeur(e) adjoint(e) for assistant professor?

Ibid. for the couple Instructor and instructeur/instructrice.

Lastly, can we use Tenure Track in French?

For example professeur(e) assistant(e) «tenure track» is comprehensible in general?

Should we use instead something like professeur(e) assistant(e) avec titularisation conditionnelle?

To be honest, the first three title (Lecturer, Assistant/Associate Professor) were always quite nebulous to me. What you must understand is that the two systems are completely different.

Basically, if your job is permanent and your activities are split between teaching and research, you have the rank of a maître de conférences (MdC) or professeur des universités (PU). Note that the answer on the "related" question mentions the habilitation à diriger des recherches (HDR), which is more of a degree than a rank. You need to have a HDR to apply to full professorship positions, but you are still a maître de conférences in the meantime. Finally, there are several tiers within both positions (MdC and PU) based on seniority.

If your job is not permanent but still have to teach and do research, you are most probably an Attaché Temporaire d'Enseignement et Recherche (or ATER).

If your job is permanent and only have teaching duties, you are most probably a professeur agrégé (or PRAG).

And finally, if your job is not permanent and only have teaching duties, well, you are not really in the academic system and I don't think there is a rank or title for that.

So to answer your questions:

No, I believe maître de conférences is the equivalent of a tenured professor (in terms of service/duties but not necessarily experience).
I have seen some people using maîtresse de conférences, so I guess it is accepted.
All your translations are not valid since they aren't associated with anything in the French system.
Since there is no tenure track in France, it doesn't really make sense to try and translate it.
Extra item: If you are searching for translations because you are writing your CV, I also recommend what has already been said in the comments: just use the official title and don't mind too much about translating it one way or the other.


Finding undergraduate research mentor? Etiquette for responding to email from potential mentor Me and another student at my university are interested in applying for an undergraduate research grant that is offered by the university. It is 'collaborative' and requires the assistance of an academic member of staff i.e a 'mentor'. My friend and I wrote an email to the head of our department, who is an expert in the field we are interested in researching, asking whether he could advise on potential mentors for the project, and he responded saying that there are a number of people in the department who could help to mentor the research. He said that he is interested in the issues we want to research himself, definitely implying that he would mentor us. I just don't know how to respond to this, given that he did not directly say 'i would be interested in mentoring you?

Note: we are at a UK university, if that makes any difference etiquette-wise.

I believe a simple follow-up email would do.

Make sure you:

Thank them for their time responding to you.
Acknowledge their interest in the project.
Ask if they have a convenient time you could come and chat to them in person.

Others may have more ideas, but that would be the way I would respond in this circumstance.


Is it reasonable to mention being shortlisted for a prize in CV? The Open Mind Prize, and presumably many other prizes in mathematics and different fields, makes the list of a few (in this case: three) nominees public before the prize is awarded. Suppose that a person was among the shortlist of nominees but was not awarded the prize. Is it reasonable to mention this on their CV? On one hand, being on the shortlist is presumably a form of recognition. On the other hand, being nominated but not winning may be seen as negative.

It is fine to list your presence on the shortlist, since that list was published by the awarding group. I would say otherwise if there was no clearly public record and the finalists were merely privately notified.

But the group itself has seen to honor a few candidates separately from all nominees and you can make a note of that.

Not essential, but reinforcing, is the fact that the three "finalists" are asked to present a special lecture at the conference. Congratulations.


Graduate course taken during undergrad: counting them for the course load in Phd I'm an undergraduate student in Turkey, and am planning to do my Phd in US/Canada/Europe.

I've taken various graduate courses from my departments - Physics and Mathematics - in following status:

I enrolled to course, but it status was NI (not included), which means I didn't take any credit from the course, and it's grade didn't affected my GPA.

In this case, when I start to my Phd, is it possible to count these graduate courses toward the course load that I need to take during my Phd ?

As a side question, if I had enrolled those course in the normal way, i.e took credit from the course, and it's grade affected my GPA, could I still make them count for the course load that needs to be taken during my Phd ?

I'm a bit confused about terminology here. In the US, "course load" typically means the courses that you are currently taking, not those you have taken in the past that might support an application. I think you may mean something different.

However, graduate courses taken in the past will almost certainly support an application. But they may not reduce the number of courses that you need to take within the program you are accepted into. Some programs (not all) have actual credit hour requirements. If you have taken certain courses, you won't be required to repeat those (most likely) but would substitute other, more advanced courses or seminars. Sometimes, however, it is appropriate to re-take a course you've already had if there is some assurance that it is at a higher level than the one you previously attended. Some programs can be quite flexible and others not. Some programs, in fact, only require that you pass certain exams and write an acceptable thesis, with no course requirements at all.

So, the correct answer to your query is "it depends". But most likely the decisions won't be made in some fine-grained way. Acceptance into a doctoral program depends on an overall analysis and a decision that you are a good candidate with high probability of success in the program.


In-text citation for research paper. How to look for a "source" when a reference is an article on a website? I am an I.T. student and currently working on my capstone project it is equivalent to research paper or thesis for some college courses. I usually do an in-text citation using APA style. For example:

  According to Jones (1998), "Students often had difficulty using APA
  style, especially when it was their first time" (p. 199).

As you can see at the last part (p. 199) that is the "source". At least, that is what I understand from my professor's explanation.

Since almost of my reference are taken from websites particularly an article which have no pages on it. My question is, how should I put a source in my research paper if a website have no pages?

I already do my research about this problem, but it is still very vague to me.

when you are citing a particular document or piece of information from a website, include both a reference list entry and an in-text citation.

The key to creating the reference list entry is to determine the type of content on the web page. Basically, provide the following four pieces of information:
Author, A. (date). Title of document [Format description]. Retrieved from http://xxxxxxxxx

The in-text citation includes the author and date (Author, date), as with any other APA Style citation.

You can read more about this from the APA style guide website at: http://www.apastyle.org/learn/quick-guide-on-references.aspx

Check out the "More Information" section for further clarification on what to do if there is no author, year or page numbers.

I hope this is what you were asking.  Andy ;-)


Is it appropriate to include a talk one has given into an application to show familiarity with a certain topic? Is it appropriate to include a talk one has given into an application to show familiarity with a certain topic?

For example, if a possible future employer demands some knowledge about a certain topic, would it be appropriate to include a seminar talk I once  gave about that topic into the application? Or would that be considered inappropriate or unnecessary?

Assume that I don't have published any papers about that topic yet or taken any graded courses.

I think that it is perfectly fine to include something like "Prepared and presented a lecture/talk regarding {subject}" in either your motivation letter or your cv or in both.


When someone cites one of your papers, is it a good idea to send an email to the authors to show appreciation? For an early career researcher in physics or science in general, is it a good idea to send a "thank you" email to other authors who cited one of the researcher's papers? Will this be perceived in a positive way and even start a possible collaboration, or it will be cheesy?

Notice that in physics, where people post online versions of papers before publications (on the arXiv), it is very common (sometimes annoying) to receive or send letter to request citations to your own paper when one finds a similar/related but yet unpublished work.

This question obviously applies only to early career researchers who receive few citations per week.

Straight answer: NO it's not a good idea

Citing someone is (and should) be neither a favor nor a gesture of politeness. So there's no point to send a thank you email. Thanking someone for a citation seems a way to beg for something. If you want to collaborate send an email explaining why you want to collaborate, or mention that you have read their paper when you meet the author/s. Take pride that someone more senior or expert has cited your work and move on.


'Outstanding publication commitments' meaning? I'm applying for research funds and, while filling in the application and all the expenses, I came upon a field called 'Outstanding publication commitments (Please list, continuing on a separate sheet if necessary)'.

Does this mean that I should write my engagement in publishing academic papers? And before you answer, just a little info: I'm asking because I just finished my Bachelor degree and I don't have much experience in publishing (I only published one paper that is in print). However, I have experience with organizing conferences (as part of the organizing team) and I also gave two presentations on scientific conferences. Should I list this?

I believe "outstanding" here means "not yet completed".  However, I'm not sure whose commitment it's talking about, yours or the publisher's.  One interpretation is that it's asking whether you have committed to publishing anything that you haven't published yet (such as results from previous grants); another is that it's asking you to list papers that have been accepted for publication but are not yet in print.  I'd guess that it's the former, because it seems like a somewhat obscure way to ask for the latter, but I doubt anyone could say with any certainty without knowing more details.

Either way, this is probably not the right place to list your publications or related achievements such as conference organization or presentations.


How Much Weight does a Conference Paper carry compared to a Journal Publication? I am working on some stuff for a paper.  I have recently seen an advert for a conference calling for papers and I feel like I currently have enough stuff that I could submit it to this conference and get it published.

However, it looks as if the paper would be published in the 'conference proceedings' as part of a series by Springer.  Does this mean that the publication would only be classed as a 'conference paper' and do conference papers really carry the same weight as journal publications?   (It's worth mentioning that the paper would be peer-reviwed if I sent it for the proceedings of this conference). If not, my idea would be to wait until I have added more to what I am working on and then send it to a journal.

Edit: I am aware that there are other questions asking if a conference paper should be compared to a journal article.  I am asking if in this case the publication can be listed as a journal article as it will be peer-reviewed by experts and published in Communications in Computer and Information Science, so I am wondering if this allows a work-around for me to class it as one of my journal articles.  The link below provides more information: I would like to know if I can list it as a peer-reviewed journal paper or if I will have to call it a conference paper, as these are not the same to me.

https://www.springer.com/series/7899

Second edit: To make it clear the paper would be a physics paper on the subject of quantum mechanics and would only be published in CCIS as it represents a surprising application of a particular piece of computer software.  My issue is that I don't want to see the paper as a novelty item when I have been thinking about and working on the physics going into it for years.  The use of software in it is really just a matter of convenience as there is a bit where it it easier to use software to generate a numerical example illustrating the general theory I have been talking about in a concrete case.

Third edit: Turns out the publication could only be classed as a conference paper so I will add to what I have got and send it to a journal, as I don't regard a conference paper as being equivalent to a journal publication (or at least, not in physics).

The weight given to conference and journal publications is completely determined by field. In a few fields, such as CS, they have essentially equal weight and the vetting process is similar. This is partly due to the fact that the field itself is less mature and fast changing and many breakthroughs in subfields are first introduced at conferences.

In other fields this is quite different and journal publications may have much more weight than conferences - even if the conference paper is published in a proceedings.

So, it depends on your audience. You may need advice on this from someone in the field who represents that audience. For doctoral students the advisor is usually a good guide for such things.

And, of course, there are low-quality conferences just as there are low-quality journals. Beware.


Timely answers to academic e-mails and internet addiction After lots of struggles with the internet, almost overcoming an addiction to Facebook and a compulsive obsession to check my e-mail, I have finally reached an equilibrium that allows me to concentrate and be productive. My strategy is simple: I check and answer e-mails only three times a day: when I get to the lab in the morning, after lunch, and before leaving at night.

During the rest of the day, I use the computer just for work (I’m a bioinformatician) and keep my e-mail locked with an app. At home, I fully disconnect from my computer. Also, I don’t have a smartphone. I know this strategy seems a bit extreme these days when most people is connected 24/7, but it’s the only way I found to control myself and get my things done. I have the impression that everybody (especially in bioinformatics and including my PI) assumes I’m catching up with my e-mail almost instantly (for real, it isn’t rare to get answers from coworkers in matter of seconds).

For instance, one day my PI came kind of angry to my desk asking why I hadn’t gone to his office (or cancelled) if he had sent me and e-mail asking me to. Of course, the message had been sent but I hadn’t checked the e-mail.  The follow up message “Could you please answer my previous e-mail?” isn’t uncommon in my inbox. So I’m starting to get worried that some people may get upset at me for being a late responder, especially people outside my lab, but at the same time I have to level out my internet usage to keep my addiction tamed.

In that context, I would like to known what is considered a timely response to an academic e-mail? If I can’t use my e-mail all the time, what strategies to use so I don’t miss crucial information? Should I let my PI and coworkers know about my previous problems with the internet?

What's considered a timely response depends on context.  A response could be expected within hours, days, or weeks, depending on the email.  What I think is important is that both parties are clear on expectations.

For normal academic activities, I would say checking emails twice a day is generally sufficient.  Academics are often busy with classes and meetings throughout the day, so it's generally understood (at least between faculty, though not always by students) that you might not read or respond to an email within an hour.

However, it sounds like your PI expects you to check email more frequently than you do, so it's probably worthwhile mentioning that you only check email a few times a day (if asked why, just say so it doesn't distract you too much from your work).  Then you can see if your PI is happy with calling you or seeing you in person if it's something urgent.  If not, and PI really wants you to check email constantly, maybe you can set up something where you will only see emails from your PI (e.g., forward them to another email that you use for nothing else).

Similarly, if there are other people that seem to be expecting immediate responses from you, just maybe add a "PS" in your reply about how often you check email.  I don't think most people will be upset if they know your habits.


Is it unprofessional to include a humorous quote in a PG thesis? I'm writing my final research report for a Postgraduate Diploma in Astronomy, investigating the structure of the Milky Way Galaxy. I'd love to include the quote "My God! It's full of stars! -- Cmdr Dave Bowman, 2001, A Space Odyssey" somewhere in my paper. Would that be considered inappropriate for paper at this level?

Unless your advisor and committee are strictly against it, there should be no problem with including a quote like this somewhere.  Formats for theses vary, and sometimes a preface or the introductory material can be presented in a fairly conversational way.  That would be a perfectly appropriate place for such a quote, as would the acknowledgements.  However, I have also seen humorous or literary quotes inserted at topical points into the body of a thesis, sometimes with several of them sprinkled through the body text.  In what can often be a very dry read, they may help to liven up the document.

However, as I noted in my first sentence, while this is generally fine, you don't want to do it if it will run afoul of the people responsible for grading and accepting your thesis.  Sometimes readers can be unnecessarily stodgy about these sorts of things, so it would always be a good idea to check how your readers feel first.


How to ask professor to explain something again? I had a class last week and I was 10 minutes late. I missed part of the class, and I want to write an email to my professor to arrange a time to meet.
I prepared this email:

Dear .....
I’ve missed part of the previous session and this part is not clear for me.  Could I meet up with you this week so you can explain it to me?
Thank you

Is it appropriate?

I would like to take a different perspective than Buffy:

You were late (maybe even disrupted the course when entering the room) and missed something. Now you want additional time from your teacher to catch up something which happened in the first 10 minutes - which will take ~5-15 minutes of the working time of your teacher. Multiply this by 100 students and 5 courses per week, and you will spot the problem ;-).

Therefore, I would suggest to try everything you can do to catch up on your own. Ask other students. Use books. If you invested >3h without success, you can still write this e-mail explaining what you already understood, where you struggled and at which point you need specific help.

This will show your professor you are really engaged and makes it easy to answer your question within seconds. Maybe (s)he will ask you "just to talk a few minutes after the next lecture" which is also very time effective.

The behavior also depends a bit on your local student-teacher-relationship. In my course, I would not mind if you just approach me after class, you will receive a little (friendly but sarcastic) remark about being late, and get an answer (and I'm happy that someone is trying to learn something).


"Official" grade conversion is skewed at my disadvantage, how to proceed? I am a Master's student in Italy, and I'm applying for a thesis internship in a lab in the US. To this end, I'm required to send my Master's transcript as well as my Bachelor's; however, in the case of the latter i have a problem with grade conversion.

My institute offers a supplement that is meant to convert grades to their ECTS equivalent (A to E scale, similar to the American one with one additional step); however, they do so by grading on a curve even when the original courses weren't. As I followed a program with an unusual concentration of high-achievers, my (not distinguished, but acceptable) grades average is strongly shifted downwards according to this system (think a hard C instead of B+), yet in Italian grades it's higher than the institute-wise average for Bachelor's degrees (26.0/30 vs 24.3/30).

The absurdity of this system is evidenced by the fact that, for the same exact course and exam , the ECTS grade calculated with this system widely varies according to the different program overall averages, resulting in Italian grades lower than mine translating for other programs in ECTS grades higher than mine.

Regarding my application, I believe this leaves me with a few options:

Not doing anything, and expecting the person in charge of scrutinizing the transcripts to understand that a system translating a 30/30 score as a B is far from perfect
Attaching a note to the transcript explaining what i explained here
Supplying my own transcript with only Italian grades and letting them figure that out; maybe also attach a reasonable suggestion for conversion, like the ones evidenced in the answers to this question

Does anyone have suggestions on the best course of action?

As someone who spent several years working in university admissions in the UK, I would suggest that you supply just your Italian transcript to the US university and let them figure out the grade conversions on their own. The US institution should have access to international grade conversion guidelines so it's likely that they'll convert your grades more reasonably than your own university has.

You might want to consider attaching an official English translation from a professional translation company so they can read the course titles etc. in English. Where I worked, we always asked for official translations in English but never for ECTS equivalents.

You can supply them with the supplement (and an explanation) later if they ask specifically for that.


Potential consequences for a PhD student using a cracked software A friend of mine, along with ~10 of their colleagues, recently received an email from the IT department saying the department is investigating those students for using two pieces of cracked software.  Apparently, the vendor contacted the university about this.

My friend was asked NOT to remove the software from his computer. Moreover, IT staff checked his computer without him being around (privacy breach?). They were emailed and asked several questions as well like: "Do you have the license?, do you have the software?, and is there an IT staff member overseeing your computer?"

They are now waiting to hear back.

My questions are:

How serious is this based on the above information?

What are the potential consequences?

Is it possible to get a fine for this?

Would there be any academic consequences?

Note: While using cracked software is obviously wrong, their research demanded using such software. The advisor knew this and allowed it to happen. So part of the responsibility should fall on the supervisor as well (my opinion).

Addition: This is a large North American university.

Usual disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice.

Several things to consider here:

It is the university's responsibility to maintain their computers, including their contents. So if your friends have been using a computer provided by the university with cracked software on them, the vendor of the software will go after the university first. They just want to get paid what they're owed, so it's better to go after a large university than some broke students.
Normally, the university should have only provided students with user accounts, which do not allow the installation of software, which in turn is to be done by IT personnel with admin accounts. If they don't do this, shame on them, this is poor practice that warrants some fines here and there (and the cost saved with IT employees probably makes them insist on the poor practice).
If students had admin accounts to these machines, they have probably signed a contract/memo/agreement claiming they'd be responsible in such situation. Bad for them, but the vendor will prefer to go after the university first.
Part of grant money and department budgets are precisely meant to pay for tools required by research activities, which nowadays always include computers and software. There is no excuse for using cracked software over the long run.
To be clear, this is a matter of money, not of academic merit. As long as your friends behave during the process, they should expect to be fined, but not expelled. The university will come after them if they receive a fine from the vendor.
"Normal practice" (which I'm not endorsing here) when using pirated software for your academic work is to use it only in your personal machine and only if the department owns licenses for said software. In some large universities, they might even have "campus licenses" for software, making this ideia completely useless. The point is that you have the right to use the software, as your department paid for it, but instead of using it during office hours, you might prefer doing it from midnight to 6 am in the comfort of your bedroom.
If nobody has the license for the software, you might be in trouble to publish results obtained from it. But then again, you can first obtain results, then the license, then attempt a publication. You might even just ask for a trial license.
If these computers were owned by the university, there is no breach of privacy here. If they were owned by the students, IT should not have nosed around these machines without the students permission. And by the way, never grant someone the right to audit a machine of yours, specially if unsupervised. Everybody has secrets/nudes/browser history/work worth keeping private, all of which should only be kept/done in private computers.

My bet for the outcome (and please update your post in the future to inform us):

Students get away with a warning.
Advisor gets a warning and needs to spare budget to acquire the license, if the license is affordable. Otherwise, activities using this software will need to be dropped.
Story gets muffled, people will go around saying "It is yet to see what happens" until everyone forgets about the case. Then people will simply stop talking about it. This is to avoid having precedence of cracked software usage and preventing it from becoming common place.

EDIT
Just as an extreme example, there are software licenses that costs millions of dollars. Paying a fine over the value of license would warrant firing the professor who allowed its pirated use, as long as the university indeed pays the fine (unlikely) and had good policies to avoid it in the first place (further unlikely).

There is also software whose commercialization is restricted due to national security risks. Missile simulation tools come to mind. Here there is more than a "money problem", there is illegal usage of a controlled piece of software. But I'd hardly expect this to be the case.


Personal contribution in N-author articles vs single author articles In a given field there are essentially two types of articles, N-author articles and single author articles. Related to this fact, I wonder how a committee when evaluating someone for a tenure promotion establishes the personal contribution of an N-authors article? Just to give an example, suppose that we have two candidates which one has in total 20  articles, all co-authored, and another candidate which has in total 15 articles, with only two co-authored articles, and the rest are single authored. Assume also that both candidates have published their work in the best journals in their working field.

Based on your experience and on my example above, how is in reality determined the PERSONAL contribution of an N-authors article? Would this contribution just be 1/N? Which of the candidates in the example which described above would be more likely to be selected for a promotion? How in reality are seen single author articles published in the best journals in a given working field?

An observation: Usually people who work with several co-authors tend to have more publications than someone who works alone. Also in many fields, in an N-authors article, the author names are put in alphabetic order.

EDIT NR.1: My question is mostly related to theoretical fields, such as mathematics, theoretical physics and computer science. In these fields usually the number of co-authors is N<10.

There isn’t a precise rule about such things, but to the extent that one can formulate a general principle, I’d say that the credit for an N-author article would almost always be greater - often significantly greater - than a 1/N fraction of the total credit. That is why collaboration is generally a profitable activity - it allows two or more people to leverage their skills and abilities and together create something that is worth more than the sum of its parts: the very definition of synergy.

Another synergistic effect in collaborations is that your coauthors will be going around giving talks and telling people about your joint paper. If effect, you get double (or five, or ten times) the “marketing” or “buzz” about your paper for the same effort on your part: the credit you get is higher simply by virtue of more people getting to hear about your paper. Moreover, when your coauthors give talks about your paper they can say flattering things about you that you probably wouldn’t dare to say about yourself, or that if you did say about yourself people wouldn’t be as impressed by (and it works both ways, you say nice things about your coauthors’ contributions when you give talks about the joint papers of course).

I estimate that close to half of my papers are solely authored, and the others are joint. I enjoy both styles of work, although I think these days I most enjoy the freedom that comes with writing papers by myself. I often reflect about the (small) injustice that comes with the fact that those papers usually take longer to make a splash than my jointly authored ones, for the reasons I mentioned above. Oh well. Not every decision we make is driven by some ultra-rational cost-benefit analysis. Do what makes you happy, and what you feel you are good at. Some people excel at collaborating, others are solitary thinkers.

My experience is with pure mathematics, and applies mostly to papers with 1-4 authors. In math, for papers where the number of authors is, say, 6-10 (which are quite a rarity), the credit might start getting seriously diluted, to the point that I’m not sure how much of what I wrote above is accurate - probably it would depend quite a lot on the specific details of who the authors are and what their paper is about.


Refering to the data of another study as a source of data for you work? I was wondering if it's OK to use the data presented in the form of Tables in other publications and cite them as the source of data? Like doing new analyses on these data? Should we ask for permission from the authors or just citing them would be OK?

It is absolutely okay to use data from another publication for your own analyses.  Indeed, this is one of the main reasons why often raw data must be made public (unless there are specific contractual or ethical reasons not to). Once the data is published it is in the public domain that there is no requirement to ask permission and the original authors have no right to object to you using it - if they wanted other not to use it, they shouldn't have published it. You do need to cite them however.


Dealing with the psychological stress of faculty applications I am applying for faculty jobs. As you all know, it is a stressful and frustrating experience. Many institutions explicitly state that they will not contact candidates who were not selected for an interview. It is like feeling my way around in the dark: I do not know if I was already rejected, I can only suspect it. If I was rejected, I can never be certain about why this happened, and whether it is because of a reason that I have any control over. Is my application simply weak, and if yes, can it be improved at all? Did they have a particular profile in mind even if they did not state it? Did they already have a preferred candidate? Am I too old, in real or academic years (it matters, regardless of what they say)? Am I being disadvantaged by not having networked enough (which does not come to me naturally)?
I have not yet managed to secure any interviews. I am losing hope that I will ever succeed. I have no doubt that this is what I want to do, and I think that I am capable of doing it, but I find it more and more difficult to believe that it will work out for me. This causes a psychological block that makes it difficult to keep going, to keep rewriting applications, to keep working over weekends to get papers out in time to include in applications, etc. Don't get me wrong, I am not consciously giving up, but again and again I find myself having spent a day in front of the computer trying to work but not making much progress. This should not happen, it's been a while since I was a student. Yet writer's block and unintentional procrastination are worse than ever. By the end of the day I loathe my documents and find it hard to trust that they are any good, and just can't make yet another revision. What makes the application experience stressful is that I do not have a very solid basis to judge how realistic my chances are. My supervisor is generally encouraging, but that is not sufficient at this point.
To make this question concrete: I am certain that my problem is far from unique. How have you dealt with this, and how did you manage to keep positive and keep pushing forward? How do you decide in a non-emotional way when it's time to stop and give up?
I sometimes wonder if the fact that I am affected so badly by the situation, up to some psychosomatic symptoms, is a sign that I am simply not suited for a career in academia. One must have better resilience to stress and a better fighting spirit. A professor is responsible not only for themselves, but also for their students, and must support their students and postdocs through similar crises. If I cannot manage myself, how could I support others? This thought does not help at all.

I'm in a field where some positions get close to 1000 applications.  Here are the two pieces of advice I have for everyone on the job market.

Probability does work.  If you're a slightly above average applicant, the odds of getting any job from your point of view (in other words, not having any insider information) are at most 5%.  For most jobs, it's considerably lower.  However, if you send out 100 applications, all those 2-3% chances, plus all those 0.5% chances, actually do add up to something approximating a pretty good chance for a job.  (In particular, they are actually pretty close to probabilistically independent.)  This means you really should not think about any particular job; your chances of that job are tiny.  It's the mass of applications that gives you a chance.

Before the whole process even starts, you should have some idea what you will do if you don't get an academic job.  Having a plan is more reassuring than having no plan.  Also, having a plan gives you some baseline to compare any prospective job against, so that you don't end up in an unsuitable job.

As a professor at a university with a low-ranked PhD program, I make sure students understand how bad the job market is before agreeing to advise them.  I will only agree to advise a student after I've made sure they understand they most likely will not find an academic job after their PhD.


How to calculate GPA? I am applying for the Masters in the US for the Spring 2019 session. I don't understand the concept of GPA.
I have done my masters in Physics.  My doubts are as follows:
1. For my three-year undergrad degree in Physics do I need to calculate the score of the last year or all the three years (as in my country what you scored in the final year matters for admission)
2. My Master's is calculated on a 7 point scale. Like my GPA is 4.33/7. How to convert this on 4 point scale?
3. I come from a lower middle-class family and applying to the US universities will come costly to me. So I wish to email shortlisted university for my profile evaluation. Will they help out? How do I approach them?

Don't convert it. Most places I applied to only required that you submit your grades based on how your institution provided you. For your case, that would be 4.33/7. Do not manually convert the scale unless being explicitly told to do so by the university you're applying to.


What are the advantages of writing a thesis with rMarkdown? I think the question is self-explanatory but to add a bit of a background, I'll be starting my M.Sc. research quite soon and I want to create and maintain a workflow that allows me to devote my time to doing exploratory and inferential analysis, devoting my time to pondering on results, and assuring reproducibility.

With word processing tools like Microsoft Word, I fear I'd spend a great share of time focusing on editing and layout.

With that said, I'd like to know about your experience - bad or good - using rMarkdown to write your thesis? What were the advantages you felt by this choice, and what were the things that slowed you down?

In case you used an alternative "language" and are willing to share your reasons about your choice and how it went for you, please, go ahead.

RMarkdown allows you to put your code directly into you manuscript and is functionally an easier to use replacement for Sweave.

The same advantages and disadvantages listed in this previous answer hold for RMarkdown as well.

Last, Chester Ismay has created a thesisdown template, which would be a good starting place for you.


Are special issues of a journal more highly cited? In this question both answerers suggest that papers in special issues are likely to receive more attention and citations than those in "normal" issues. Wiley have also made the same claim. Can anyone provide a source that gives data supporting or refuting the claim?

It might be pertinent to consider that the journal editors will undoubtedly commission their special issues in subjects that they consider to be 'hot topics', with the aim of boosting overall citations and of establishing their journals in those areas. So there's an element of selection going on even before you consider whether a community might respond more favourably to a paper just because it's in a special issue.


Apply for assistant/associate professor at same institution as postdoc? This was a conversation I was having with a colleague earlier today. He was offered a postdoctoral position and doesn't want to move after that. It's a very highly regarded university so it's understandable that he doesn't want to leave, but it made me wonder how common this is. Do postdocs frequently advance in the ranks at the same university or is it still the norm to go to school A for PhD, school B for postdoc, and school C for professorship?

It's not common to stay at the same university after doing a postdoc.  When you do a postdoc somewhere, you can certainly apply for a faculty position there afterwards, the same as anyone else, and you might get it.  The fact that the department is familiar with you and your work could be a modest advantage, but there may be disadvantages as well.  For example, the university already has someone in your general area, namely your postdoctoral supervisor, so they may feel less need to hire you as well.

Without some special reason to think otherwise, the chances of being hired at this university are probably roughly the same as they would have been had you done a postdoc somewhere else.  That generally means they're low.  In most cases, you can't just pick a university to focus your attention on and hope to get a faculty job there.  Even if you're qualified, many other applicants will be as well, and some may be even more so.  Of course you may be exceptionally accomplished, or in a hot field in which recruiting is very difficult.  If that's the case, then you may be in a strong position to stay, but otherwise it will take a lot of luck.

Another way to look at it is by counting.  Most major research universities hire a lot more postdocs than faculty members.  (An average faculty member will supervise quite a few postdocs over the years, but the university isn't growing exponentially.)  Probably most of the postdocs would like to stay, but there just aren't enough faculty positions to hire them, even if nobody were hired from outside.  In other words, it's the same argument as for why most graduate students can't expect to find faculty positions at institutions comparable to the one they graduated from.


What is the likelihood of a PhD-holder from the USA remaining unemployed? In our country (Bangladesh), a PhD from the US is considered as a pinnacle of achievement in one's life. But, in some of my discussions in one of my previous questions I learnt that even a PhD from a US university is not enough to secure a job.

My question is: are there any statistics on the rate of employment amongst PhD graduates trained in the US?

What is the likelihood of a PhD-holder remaining unemployed?

  ... I learnt that even a PhD from a US university is not enough to secure a job.

The US National Science Foundation (NSF) provides a bunch of statistics on where doctoral graduates in STEM areas (Science/Technology/Engineering/Mathematics) end up working.

This spreadsheet refers to a sampled survey done in 2008, wherein the NSF provide statistics on the employment status of all PhD graduates from STEM areas trained in the U.S.

Across all of their fields, they count 752,000 relevant graduates, of which they estimate that 651,200 were employed at that time (578,700 full-time, 72,400 part-time), 11,400 were unemployed and seeking work, 75,900 were retired, and 13,500 were not seeking work.

An unemployment rate is calculated as:

UR = UE / LF

(UR is Unemployment Rate, UE is number of people UnEmployed, LF is the number of people in the Labour Force [working or seeking work].)

So for the 752,000 U.S. trained PhD graduates considered, the NSF estimated an unemployment rate of 1.7205% in 2008.

This is compared with a U.S. unemployment rate of ~6% in mid-2008.

So to return to your question ...

  What is the likelihood of a PhD-holder remaining unemployed?

More than three times lower than the general population (for US-trained STEM PhD holders).

Furthermore, a small percentage of unemployment is inevitable as some percentage of people will always be between jobs for a short time. (Someone more in tune with economics may be able to comment on whether or not 1.72% is close to "full employment", but being unemployed for >1.72% of your career while taking a break between jobs doesn't seem unreasonable.)

A more detailed break-down of the total size of the labour force and the unemployment rate per field follows, so if you're in a STEM area, you can pick whichever field is closest to yours.

#Field                                                    #LF      #UR

All fields                                                662,600  1.7205%

Science                                                   515,200  1.7275%

  Biological/agricultural/environmental life sciences     167,200  1.9139%
  - Agricultural/food sciences                             17,300  1.7341%
  - Biochemistry/biophysics                                25,700  2.3346%
  - Cell/molecular biology                                 19,700  1.0152%
  - Environmental life sciences                             6,500  1.5385%
  - Microbiology                                           12,300  2.4390%
  - Zoology                                                 9,800  3.0612%
  - Other biological sciences                              76,000  1.9737%

Computer/information sciences                              16,400  1.2195%

Mathematics/statistics                                     30,300  0.9901%

Physical sciences                                         118,200  2.3689%
  - Astronomy/astrophysics                                 >5,000  [Supp.]
  - Chemistry, except biochemistry                         59,600  3.0201%
  - Earth/atmospheric/ocean sciences/other phy. sci.       18,500  1.0811%
  - Physics                                                35,600  2.2472%

Psychology                                                100,500  1.2935%

Social sciences                                            82,700  1.3301%
Economics                                                  22,300  0.4484%
Political sciences                                         19,500  1.0256%
Sociology                                                  14,900  1.3423%
Other social sciences                                      26,000  2.3077%

Engineering                                               118,100  1.7782%
  - Aerospace/aeronautical/astronautical engineering       >5,200  [Supp.]
  - Chemical engineering                                   14,700  2.7211%
  - Civil engineering                                      10,500  0.9524%
  - Electrical/computer engineering                        33,800  1.1834%
  - Materials/metallurgical engineering                    12,300  2.4390%
  - Mechanical engineering                                 16,400  1.2195%
  - Other engineering                                      25,200  2.3810%

Health                                                     29,200  1.0274%

[Supp.] means suppressed: numbers are too low to preserve anonymity.

Caveats:

The context is 2008, US-trained STEM PhDs. Unemployment started increasing in 2008 with the onset of the subprime morgage crisis.
A PhD is just paperwork. What you do for your PhD is far more important than the degree itself.
Of course simply being employed is not necessarily the same as having the great job that you always wanted, and certainly we cannot infer from these data that doing a PhD is always the best path for everyone to follow their dreams.


Minimal supervision in Phd I started my PhD three months ago in the UK. I am a biologist, but my project lies more in the synthetic chemistry field and all the experiments I have to do are completely new for me.

My problem is that at the moment, I am alone in my group because everyone else have finished their PhD/Masters/Postdoc and left, and I have no one to ask when I am stuck with something. My supervisor tells me to do experiments that I have never heard of, gives me a very general and brief description and that's it! No protocols, no one to show me at least for the first time. In the labs where I have worked in the past it was completely different - PhD students have someone to assist them (a Postdoc or a technician) and they don't feel lost searching on the internet for the right protocol or method to follow.

I want to ask you if this is normal for a PhD student? Or is it how PhDs are in the UK?  I know that we have to work with minimal supervision, but is this normal? How am I supposed to start a new protocol involving sensitive instrument usage (like HPLC) with no one to show me?

Thank you in advance for your answers!

It is not normal in UK biology PhDs for a student to be completely abandoned with no help; particularly not at the beginning. As you become more confident you will be able to take on new areas and new techniques with minimal advice, but I would never expect a student to dive into complicated, expensive and potentially dangerous experiments without so much as a protocol.

I would do the following:

Ask your supervisor straight up if he knows where a protocol might be found for the experiment, or whether he sees designing the protocol as part of the thesis.
Find others in your institution, but outside your lab that might be able to help.
Find an online protocol or protcol in a text book and specifically ask your supervisor if he thinks it is a good protocol and if he knows of anyone who can go through it with you.
If all else fails, a UK institution will almost always assign you a second supervisor or advisor: go speak to them.


How can one start as a book reviewer? I just came across a question which related to the topic of book review.

I wish to know that how can I start as a reviewer and where can I find sample reviews of some non-technical books or novels?

In this case do I need to directly contact the publisher or there is any other means for doing that.

Thanks.

From the publisher's point of view the point of these reviews is to sell more copies of the book. Therefore you need to be one of these:

A well-known authority in the field. It's especially good if you're affiliated with a well-known university like MIT.
Some kind of well-known personality. For example if you have 100k Twitter followers, that would work. Or maybe you host TV shows like "The Planet", that would work too.

If you are one of these then feel free to write to the publisher offering to review books. If your review is complete early enough it's possible they will add your comments to the book cover; otherwise it'll mostly be in the promotional materials. One thing to note is that if your review is poor, it might simply end up unused.

Alternatively, you could write to the editors of magazines that publish book reviews, such as Physics Today or Scientific American. It's possible they just need the text and are less concerned about who is writing it (you will still need some credentials though). Being neutral 3rd parties, they can publish negative reviews.


Is non-degree studies a viable path to a master's degree? I had a very rocky undergraduate math career that ended with me having around a B- average due to undiagnosed/untreated anxiety issues. This means my final GPA is around a 2.8.
Would non-degree studies be of benefit for admission to a master's degree program if I do comparatively better in my studies and develop a working relationship with professors whose work interests me? I am leaning towards an economics or a mathematics master's program at the moment.
Also, will my diagnosis hold me back during the admissions process should I decide to pursue an advanced degree after satisfactorily completing non-degree studies at the graduate level?

The things hindering you would be both your level of preparation in required subjects and the level of competition in any place that you apply to.
If you are missing certain courses then you can probably use non-degree status to make up and get a formal transcript. For repeating courses you have, it might work out as well, provided that you do much better. But if you have adequate knowledge even with low grades it might be better to take more advanced courses rather than repeat.
A medical diagnosis shouldn't impede you in any way in the US. There are laws protecting people with conditions, including privacy laws.
But, you can proceed in parallel, actually, signing up for a course or two as a non-degree student while also applying to a few masters programs to see how you fare. The more competitive the program, the lower the chance of admission, of course.
Another option is to just talk to an admissions counsellor at a place you'd like to attend and see what they recommend. They might have you correspond with a math prof. But, in general, the more information you get the better off you will be. Don't proceed down a particular path based on assumptions.


Correct way to cite paper that is published as part of a book I'm working on the last parts of my diploma in computer engineering. Right now i'm working over my bibliography. And i'm not quite sure what's the best way to include a citation.

Both refer to the same paper, the first one is a lot more detailed but it's not possible to view the whole paper online, since a few pages are being left out.
The second one only refers to the paper, not including any publisher etc.

@inproceedings{booth2009,
author = {Booth, Danielle and Jansen, Bernard J},
booktitle = {Handbook of Research on Web Log Analysis},
title = {A Review of Methodologies for Analyzing Websites},
year = {2009},
pages = {143-164},
publisher = {IGI Global},
doi = {10.4018/978-1-59904-974-8}
}

or

@article{booth2009,
title={A Review of Methodologies for Analyzing Websites},
author={Booth, Danielle and Jansen, Bernard J},
year={2009}
}

Which one should I use?

The references are there for your readers to be able to hunt down the reference, be it to check what you say or to follow a different thread of research. For their sake, do find out as complete bibliographic data as you can, and add them to the citation.


What is the difference between a Case Report and a Brief Report? What exactly is the difference between a Case Report and a Brief Report in the New England Journal of Medicine?

Short answer
In NEJM, case reports are called brief reports.

Background
A case report is in general a report on a single subject/patient. It is a broadly used term in many journals. From the wiki page:

  [A] case report is a detailed report of the symptoms, signs, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of an individual patient. Case reports may contain a demographic profile of the patient, but usually describe an unusual or novel occurrence.

The NEJM in specific does not feature an article layout for case reports in particular; instead, they have devised a common outline for those papers that either report on one case (case reports), or on a bunch of related cases, or of one specific family. From the Author's instructions of NEJM:

  CLINICAL CASES
  Brief Reports usually describe one to three patients or a single family.

Hence, in the NEJM, a 'case report' is one of the article outlines under the header 'brief report'.


Can I exclude my own thesis submission on Turnitin repository saved by mistake? I uploaded my thesis to a Turnitin ID which my friend got from some other university than where I am studying. Due to some reason, my thesis got uploaded to Turnitin repository and the university is very far away from my home. I made a blunder mistake.
Now I have to make my thesis submission this month but the plagiarism is showing 100 %. It is comparing my own thesis with the one I submitted earlier to the other university. I cannot contact the university turnitin administrator regarding deletion of my thesis.
In my thesis submission, can I exclude the student paper source of my own work?

No. As far as I am aware there isn't. The person reviewing your thesis after submission can exclude the earlier submission though. You should probably make whoever is checking this aware.
You should however, be aware that submitting your thesis to a user account provided by someone else at a different university may be breaking some rules, or at least expectations - either at your university, at your friends university or turnitin's rules (possibly all three). This is not a serious infraction, and I wouldn't expect any comeback other than disapproving tuts, but its still bad practice.
Students often want to submit their work to check the turnitin score to see if they have paraphrased things sufficiently not to trigger the plagiarism checks. This betrays a misunderstanding of what plagiarism is. Taking text from another source and paraphrasing it, even with attribution, is still on the "plagiarism spectrum".


School's Admissions office ignoring me after accepting admission offer So I'm in a bit of a weird situation right now.

I recently graduated from university with my BS, but was expecting to continue my education at the school as I was accepted into a BS/MS program at the end of my junior year. I put a tremendous amount of time and effort into my work and knocked out a significant portion of my MS during my senior year.

Since I graduated I had to do some transitioning into the MS program, which consisted of proving that I actually had my degree conferred, filling out some additional paper work -- you get the idea. I filled out every form that needed to be completed, met every deadline, and so on (and have tangible proof/records of me doing so).

And yet for some reason, I'm still not in the graduate program (The offer was never rescinded or anything like that). Even though I've done all of the work I've needed to do and was already accepted, I'm simply not considered to be in the program for some reason and can't register for classes, receive financial aid, etc.

I tried desperately to solve this matter with the graduate admissions office via e-mail, phone, and in-person meetings, and yet I've been continually left without help and without answers every single time. Class registration + Financial Aid deadlines are coming up and yet it looks like I'm posed to miss them due to the admission office's neglegence towards this matter (And mind you, this is not some kind of fake/phony/fraudulent school. This is a very well-known, reputable university in the US)

It's honestly gotten to the point where I'm preparing a letter to send to the president of the school, as I've run out of people to go to for help. It's been really frustrating to have done all of this work for so long and then be treated like this, and I don't know what do to.

I'm not really sure what to ask at this point, but absolutely any help/recommendations would be sincerely appreciated. Are there any actions/repurcussions I can possibly take against the school for this? Or are there any other courses of action I should take to help resolve this matter?

Thank you.

There should be faculty members in the department you are to be enrolled in who are responsible for graduate student admissions and advising. These people should be able to tell you what's going on with respect to your case because, unlike undergraduate admissions, graduate admissions decisions in the US are made with the consultation of faculty members and not simply by a "central" graduate admissions office, which usually just acts as a clearinghouse for the applications.


How do I appropriately use inline citations for multiple quoted paragraphs? I'm writing a paper where I have a number of sentences across a few paragraphs, all from the same source. How should I use inline citations in this situation? Should I put them after each listed fact in the sentence at the end of each paragraph, or at the end of all of the paragraphs? The paragraphs are all topically related, but each one is different enough to be a sub-topic. In case it's relevant, the topic being discussed is technology, the paragraphs detail how companies using that technology.

From what I've seen, the only situation in which you would use a single citation following multiple sentences is if it's obvious that you're quoting that source verbatim AND the quote is uninterrupted. If you're using your own terminology OR the quote is interrupted, you should cite each sentence separately.

This becomes obvious when considering the purpose of a citation. Citations are there to answer the question, "who said this?" If you're quoting someone verbatim, and it's obvious you're doing so, then you only need a single citation, as the reader will infer that it applies to the entire preceding quote.

On the other hand, if you have multiple claims throughout a paragraph, after each claim the reader will wonder, "what's his source for this?" In most cases, you will be using multiple sources, and you will have a mixture of references. However, even if you have a single source for lots of claims, the reader will still wonder after each claim what the source is. You should tell them the source of each and every claim separately.

The exception I've seen—and that my advisor requested I use in my writing—is in the instance of a single logical thought pattern being followed throughout a paragraph or set of paragraphs. If you're describing someone else's work, it can be justifiable to state, "the following is an overview of Bob (2007)", or something to that effect. From my experience, though, that usually only happens in review articles.


Etiquette for email asking graduate administrator to contact my reference regarding a deadline extension I've applied to the University of ....... for fall 2016 graduate admission. The deadline for my references to submit the recommendation letters is December 01.

One of my references is currently extremely busy and has asked me to request the graduate administrator to contact him regarding the reference letter deadline.

I'm trying to think of some way to communicate this to the graduate administrator. Is the following e-mail alright?

Dear .......,
I am a Physics graduate applicant to the University of ....... for fall 2016
entry. My Application Number is ...........

One of my referees, Professor .......... from the University of ..........,
is currently under extenuating circumstances and will not be able to
complete my reference letter in time. He's asked me to contact you regarding
this urgent matter.

I would be grateful if you could contact him at his e-mail address
......@.......... , and also to kindly confirm if you have received this
e-mail.

Yours sincerely,
........

Does the e-mail look proper and ready to be sent?

The letter looks fine. However, it seems strange that the professor would involve you to intercede on his behalf in asking for an extension. Surely he can't be that busy! (I disagree with phys_chem_prof on the amount of time needed to write a reference letter. I would estimate writing a convincing letter to take the better part of an afternoon.) Unless this letter is crucial and the grace period asked for is not more than a few days, you may be better off approaching some one else, even at this late date.