Is there a database of publications for nearly all major disciplines? Google scholar is an excellent service for looking at basic metadata about publications (e.g. authors, title, abstract, and papers it cites). But they do not offer an official API (free or otherwise).
Is there also a non-commercial database of such publications? I'm wondering because this is something that perhaps libraries in universities would require to organize information about publications across disciplines.
Since there are non-profit systems like doi.org and cross-ref which let publications get an identification numbers, I'm wondering if all disciplines use them. Or is it the case that universities get this metadata from a variety of publishers (like Springer, Elsevier, etc) and there is no single central index?
To avoid bikeshedding on what a "major discipline" is, we could limit ourselves to what's already found on google scholar, or perhaps to what top 100 (or choose your number) university libraries in the world might index.

LENS.org offers a free API comprising data from ca. 224 million scholarly work (according to that page about the API).
In comparison, CrossRef has ca. 120 million records (source), also with an API.
But note that the metadata from both LENS and CrossRef are limited. For instance, they do not track self-cites, they do not analyse author collaboration networks, they do not generate author profiles through algorithms (though LENS seems to plan doing so with the help of ORCiD). For such advanced purposes, commercial databases such as Web of Science, Scopus, or Dimensions are the go-to platforms.


Can student second author go to conference? I am an undergraduate in computer science. I worked on a professor's project, and he submitted it to a conference with me being the second author (he and I are the only authors). If it is accepted, I would really love to attend the conference (I have never done so before), both for knowing what other people are doing and establishing some relation with other professors. However, I am not sure whether it is even appropriate to ask my professor. We are keeping a very friendly relationship, and I don't want asking him for this thing to make him perceive me as "conceited" (or something else).

For my contribution to the research, he came up with the theory, and I did most of experiment and data analysis and visualization to empirically support it. It amounts to about 25%-30% of the total length of the paper.

I am completely unclear about funding issue. Do conference organizer provides some compensation? Or should I ask for university for support (I guess they will be at best reluctant since I am not the first author)? Or should I ask for my professor to use his funding? Or do I need to pay my travel expense myself?

As others have already stated, it is perfectly acceptable to show up at a conference when you are not the first author of your paper, or even if you have no paper at all at the conference.

Depending on your research group and how well-funded it is, funding your trip may or may not be a problem. Your first partner in such attempts should certainly be your co-author, and there is nothing wrong about asking him whether you can go and to what extend his grants or the university can support you. The prof. will also know about other funding sources you may apply to. For instance, you could apply as a student volunteer for the conference (usually levies the conference fee), or you could ask for a travel stipend from the conference organizers (although these are often indeed reserved for first authors, at least in my field).

As a sidenote, most professors around me are actually really happy about undergrads that want to go to conferences, as it shows that the undergrad really cares about research and wants to see how it is being done. People love that, because both, in my Swiss current and Austrian previous university, getting good undergrads to stay for a PhD was a perpetual concern and worth quite some money in up-front investment to professors that had some travel money to spare.

(PhD admission works different to the US around here. Most of our PhD students come from our own pool of undergrads, and it's definitely a students market (i.e., few good students, lots of professors looking for them). Good undergrads are basically wooed by professors to do a PhD with them.)


Is it okay to have 2 strong and 1 good recommendation letters for an MS in Computer Science in the US? 1 good reco here would mean that it is not a strong one but might talk about my abilities and skills based on a short internship. Is it necessary to have all 3 strong LORs? I might have asked one of my professors for one but I chose to go with my internship advisor (though it may not be a very strong LOR) because it would help the admissions committee understand my acumen outside classroom setting.

You need to send in the letters that give the best impression of you, based on what is important to the admissions committee.

For example if you are applying to a thesis based program at a top school and your proposed research area is theoretical and your three strong letters are from well respected academics, I would use those.

If on the other hand you are applying for a non-thesis based more applied program or are applying for an assistantship; your work ethic will be of interest to the committee.  I would use the internship supervisor letter.


Measure quality of new born major How should I go about determining the quality of an undergraduate program that is just starting given that the field in general is relatively young?

To be more specific, I am considering a new cyber security program at the University of Tampa. It starts Fall 2015. There aren't many other programs i can compare to, or accreditations to look for.

How can I measure the quality of a program that hasn't even started?

My best advice would be to look at the faculty who are signed up to teach the program.  A program is likely to be good if:

The faculty are of scientific high quality in their field, and
The faculty are also generally well-regarded in their student evaluations

The first years of any new educational venture are likely to have a lot of glitches, but also have some compensating advantages: it is also the time when a program is likely to be most flexible and when the faculty are likely to be investing especially hard in their students as they try to get the program off the ground.


How could publishers, in particular disreputable ones, prove that you “signed” a copyright agreement? With almost every question from people having dealing with predatory publishers, the question comes up whether they have already signed a copyright agreement. This always makes me ask myself this question:

When it comes to that point, how could a publisher actually prove, that you “signed” a specific copyright transfer agreement? Any copyright transfer agreement I have encountered so far (only reputable publishers) I agreed to by clicking on a button in some submission system. Now there are two cases to distinguish:

The submission system is hosted by a third party. In this case, the publisher has a source other than itself that could confirm that you¹ clicked on agree and what exactly you agreed to. I do not deny that there may be some evidence here.
The system is hosted by the publisher itself. Some reputable publishers do this (at least so it seems to me) and I also would guess that this is what most disreputable publishers do. How can the publisher produce any evidence that you¹ clicked the button and what copyright agreement was shown to you? They can show that the accepted_copyright_agreement-flag in their database is set to true for your submission, but given that it’s their database, they can manipulate it at will and this does not constitute any proof.

I have not come across any other case where such kind of unilateral agreements are made online. For example, if I buy something online, the actual contract of sale is established by me transferring money (or similar) and the other party transferring a product (and I have full return rights for some weeks, at least in my country, legal disputes on whether the buy button was actually clicked are unlikely).

Note that I am not so much asking about whether some evidence would actually convince a court but rather about anything that could be even considered as evidence by any reasonable person or court.

¹ or more precisely: the person who submitted the manuscript

First, I would like to clear up a little misconception. A signature is never proof of anything. There is very little difference among a hand written signature, pressing the I agree button, and writing an 'X' on the signature line. They all carry the exact same legal weight provided they were done in a proper fashion. The only time a signature is ever really sufficient proof is when it has been notarized (which is much more than just the notary's signature). So, signing a paper and faxing it over, for instance, doesn't have much more value then pressing your "I agree" button. Without being notarized, signatures in any form are simply evidence.

Third parties, in this case, can effectively act as notaries to a certain extent. There tend to be very strict guidelines when dealing with electronic signatures. Depending on the field and the government involved, how the signatures are stored is often very important. Other than the legal requirements, the person or court would need to ask the question "Why would the third party forge the signature" and "Was the signer who they say they were". Usually these are emailed and involve a unique token, so identity is based on the security of email and the token is stored and hopefully not accessed. Periodic backups (using non-re-writable media) that are stored securely can often be used to ensure data hadn't been added or modified.

It is nearly impossible for a party of the deal to serve as the sole witness to the authenticity of any signature as they generally have reason to lie. Instead, they need to show that you agreed to transfer copyright as evidence that the signature is authentic. If they don't have you agreeing to the publication somewhere, then they are just waving around a piece of paper with an 'X' on it.


Is it a negative that my PhD research has been in several unrelated areas? I'm a PhD student in Computer Science. Long story short: I do not have a good relationship with my advisor. I don't trust his guidance or his ethical integrity. Therefore, I am seeking external advice for my situation.

During my PhD I got one paper accepted in a first tier conference, two papers accepted in a second tier conferences, and other papers published in workshops and minor conferences. I have one journal paper accepted.

However, not all the work is on the same topic but it is scattered among three, mostly unrelated, subjects. Now my PhD is ending.

Is it negative that my work has been on three unrelated subjects?

(I cannot find a topic that allows me to merge all my results in my PhD thesis, I have to leave out at least half of my work.)

To the degree that you do have a PhD thesis and some other work (that, more over, has been published), I would say it is a positive thing, not a negative one. It is a good combination of "breadth and depth" as one comment has put it. The general advice I have heard many times for long-term planning, is "the ideal is to try to distinguish yourself in two fields inside a discipline. One -everybody tries that. Three -and your image starts getting blurry". Or something like that (and with the caveat that "fields inside a discipline" may not mean the same thing for different disciplines).


Do I need to reason why I use a particular technology in my research proposal? I have started doing a research related to NoSQL databases for the master's degree and I have submitted the research proposal.
Proposal evaluation results have been released and the examiner has added some comments.
My question is about one of his comment.
In my research I have mentioned that I am going to use Yahoo! Cloud Serving Benchmark (YCSB) for the evaluation process of the research. The examiner asks me to justify the appropriateness of use of YCSB for the performance assessment.
What does this mean? Does that mean I need to reason all the tools or technologies I have chosen to assist the research process?
The real reason for choosing YCSB is because it has been used in many recent past researches related to NoSQL databases and also there seems to have limited standard available bench marks in the field.

You have two (related) questions:

What does this mean?

This means you should explain why you suggest using YCSB (You already know the reasoning, given your last sentence.)

Does that mean I need to reason all the tools or technologies I have chosen to assist the research process?

No. If that were the case, the examiner would have asked you to. In general, researchers use direct/concise language. Do not assume that they actually/secretly want you to answer another question than the one they have asked you.


How to interview a faculty candidate? When interviewing a faculty candidate, how should I structure the interview?  What questions should I ask?  How should I make the best use of the limited time available?  Assume this is for a full-time faculty position at a R1 (research-focused) university.

If you have a 30-45 minute slot (which is typical for such things), you have to make some decisions:

Are you a 'buyer' or a seller' ? Are you evaluating the candidate, or also trying to convince them that your institution is a good place to work ? In general, you want to do both, but which you're thinking of emphasizing more will affect how you conduct the interview.
Is the meeting before or after the candidate's talk ? If after, you can do some probing based on the talk. If before, you might choose to ask them about material not in their talk, but in their CV.
Is there concern about their area and how it fits with what you're looking for ?
Have you heard anything from your colleagues during other interviews that might prompt you to take a particular line of questioning ?

In general, since you can't really get a big read on a candidate in a short session, your best bet is to focus one one aspect (such as one of the above), and explore that in detail. One thing I've also found useful is to ask questions "out of left field" that test the assumptions the candidate's work rests on: if done right, this allows you to explore the candidate's larger views about their field and the direction of the research.


Choosing the professors to ask for recommendation letters I'm applying to a Ph.D. program which asks for 3 to 5 recommendation letters. I have four professors strongly in mind who I'm sure will give me great recommendations, however I'm struggling to pick a fifth one. I can find people who can attest to my abilities (I graduated in top 1% and was my department's honoree), but they will either have to be from other departments or an internship supervisor.

Some of the questions I have are:

Do I need a fifth reference if the requirement is 3 to 5? Will not having it lower my chances?
I am applying for a Ph.D. program in film, however all my recommenders have either an M.F.A. or M.A. None of them have a Ph.D. themselves. Will that be an issue? M.F.A. is a terminal degree and most professors of film have it. In fact, I've never personally studied under a film professor with a Ph.D. I should also add that the program I'm applying for is a hybrid program which combines theory and production.
Before transferring to a 4-year university, I attended a community college. Should I ask my CC professors for a reference or would that somehow look bad for my application? I personally love my CC, but am aware of the stigma.

Thank you so much for responding!

If 3 to 5 are acceptable then stay with the 4 you have : quality over quantity...


Is it appropriate to ask professors at which schools their recommendation letters have more power? Usually in United States, three letters of recommendation are required by graduate schools but some applicants might ask more than more than three professors (say five) for letters. In this situation, there might be an issue of choosing whose-letter-to-which-school.

I wonder whether it is appropriate to ask each referee at which schools or departments they are relatively more well-known (having connections or interactions with professors in there) so that their letters are more powerful in there.

If it is not appropriate to do so, are there any efficient ways for students to determine to which schools should they send a certain professor's letter?

I am a little awkward with my grammar in this question (including the title). Please feel free to edit my question if you are a native speaker of English. Thank you very much!

I would ask your references for "coaching help" with your letters and being strategic with who writes your letters to which schools. As part of the coaching, there are two questions I would ask:

"Do you (the letter writer) any connections to or experience with the programs I am applying to?". For example, did they attend a program? Do they collaborate with faculty in that program? Does your program regularly send students to a program?
"What are you thoughts about the programs?" This allows you to make sure your reference is on good terms with the programs you are applying to. For example, if the graduate admission chair is feuding with you letter writer, this might be (unfairly) held against you.


Are there any language requirements for citizen applicants with low English skills? I see from a university website that "if you are not a citizen of one of the following countries..." [a list of countries], "you will need to take the TOEFL before enrolling."  (USA is not on the list, but I presume that's irrelevant).  My friend is a US citizen originally from a different country, and her conversational English is passable, but she absolutely would not pass the TOEFL.

In most schools, could she walk in without the test, because she's (lately) obtained her US citizenship?

Usually, universities set the requirements by native language and/or educational experience in English. If you have a bachelor's or PhD from a US university, they usually waive your language testing requirement because (1) you probably have already passed one many years ago and (2) if you're not good enough at English you probably would not have received your degree.

But if you're just an American citizen, no. They don't usually waive TOEFL just because of your passport. There are many Americans out there who don't even speak English. Of course, if you're an American citizen whose native language is English, you would most certainly not be expected to tale the TOEFL.


Allegation of Academic Offence I received an email from the university saying that the similarity report for my work identified that one of my answers shows a similarity to the answer within the script of a fellow student. They are asking to write a statement and explain what happened. Basically myself and my partner...we are studying the same thing and he copied one of my answers as he came from a night shift and he was very tired and he couldn’t think. Could you please advise what to answer.
He received the same email and he has to write a statement as well. What should he write?
Thank you for your answers and advice.

Well, you let him copy. What else can you say?
Bear in mind that lecturers hate hunting down plagiarism/collusion. In one course, hunting the offences and collecting proof cost me more time than marking all submissions (and these were a lot).
You just created a bunch of pointless extra work for them. Don't increase it, you have already been caught. This is not a court lawyer cat and mouse game. You are not going to get out of it free by technical tricks and it's insulting to your lecturer's intelligence to try, trust me on that.
Put the cards on the table and promise with contriteness never to do it again (and, of course, adhere to this). That's your best bet.


Course gamification: rewards that aren't bonus marks? I am experimenting with a game mechanism in my course in which students can progress through 4 core competencies, A, B, C, and D.  Each competency has 3 levels, 1, 2, and 3.  The game component is optional.  The idea is that each level of each competency will be linked to a few homework activities that, once completed, achieves the level.  When all levels are achieved for a given competency, the competency itself is achieved.

In my department, homework assignments are not graded (projects and so forth are, but I can't assign a few questions for grading).  As a result, I want to ensure that my students are actually going to do the homework I've assigned.  I can give bonus marks.

I'd like to give rewards for completing these competencies, but I don't want the course so overloaded with bonus marks that students can too easily get 100% without doing well on the final/midterm/projects.  So far, the ideas I have are:

Complete level 1 for any competency - earn 1 grace day for handing in an assignment late without penalty
Complete level 1 for all competencies - earn 5 grace days, in addition to the 1 you gain for doing the above
Complete all levels for any competency - bonus quizzes now worth 7% (originally they were worth 5%)
Complete all competencies - 2% course bonus

I'm not a big fan of all of this bonus, but other than bonus marks and late days I'm not sure what other options I have.  Any ideas?

One idea is to include some problems/tasks in the final exam related to those competencies. This might not be possible.

A student who achieved the highest level in that competency automatically gets full grade on that question, and doesn't have to solve it (thus getting extra time for the rest of the exam).

For levels 1 and 2 you can award free part marks, and the student gets either the free marks or his grade on the problem (whichever which is larger).

Added

Depending on how long/short it needs to be, something like below might work (or could be terrible):

Exam:

Part A (short questions testing the competency parts)

Question 1 (competency A): bla bla bla

Question 2 (competency B): bla bla bla

Question 3 (competency C): bla bla bla

Question 4 (competency D): bla bla bla

Part B Actual exam, Questions 5- ...


What points should I consider when applying for/accepting a position at another department? I specialize in Computability Theory which is part of Mathematical Logic at the intersection of Theoretical Computer Science and Mathematics. Therefore I could potentially apply for jobs (e.g. a lecturer) to philosophy (because of logic and foundations of mathematics), computer science and mathematics departments.

However, my research is of very mathematical nature. Hence, if I am going to collaborate with some other researchers, they are almost certainly going to be mathematicians. If I am going to have a PhD student, I would prefer if he/she took mathematical graduate courses since these are going to be more related to my research and the research I can supervise. Similarly, I would prefer to supervise the final year students writing their thesis more related to my research.

I am afraid this may pose a conflict, if I for example am not interested in the research of my employing department and do not collaborate with the colleagues there or do not attend their seminars. On the other hand I can imagine that the interdisciplinary collaboration with colleagues from other departments may be welcomed.

The reason why I ask this is because getting a job in academia is competetive and one cannot always get the preferred position. Therefore: what points should I consider when applying for/accepting a position at another department outside my nominal specialization?

You already have two questions there:

What should you consider when applying for a position at a different department?
What should you consider when accepting a position at a different department?

I'll concentrate on the first question here, and maybe you want to repost your second question separately, because it really deserves separate treatment.

You already hit the nail on the head in your question. The hiring department will wonder just why you apply there from a different specialization, and what you would bring to the table here. (And if they google your name, find this post and read something about "not attending their seminars", this might influence them further...) Being desperate for a job and having done something vaguely related will not be sufficient.

Therefore you need to convince the department you are hiring that you are a good answer to their needs.

Multi- or interdisciplinarity is good these days - but it's better to be interdisciplinary "looking out" from a department than "looking in". So:

In your cover letter, emphasize any work you have been doing that fits into the target department.
Get recommendations from the discipline of your target department, not your original one.
For these two points to work, you will need to actually immerse yourself in the target discipline and its culture. It's fine to come to philosophy from a mathematical point of origin, but be sure to have publications in journals of mathematical philosophy, not only in mathematical journals with a philosophical bent.
You will likely be required to teach introductory courses in your target department. Make sure the hiring committee can infer from your application that you can and will do so. It would be good if you could point to experience having done just that. Perhaps you could try teaching such a course before starting your applications?
Familiarize yourself with the research being done at your target department, and explain how you could collaborate with your departmental colleagues in your research plan. (You should be doing this regardless of what department you apply to, it's just even more important in your case.)

And don't write anything about "not being interested in your colleagues' research" in an openly accessible forum under your real name, even if your question at this point is purely hypothetical.

When accepting a position in a different discipline, things like different conventions in negotiations may come to mind, but as I wrote above, I'd say this is really a better topic for a separate question.


What is the "right" rate at which my papers should get accepted (to computer science conferences)? In general, when submitting to first tier conferences there is a smaller chance of acceptance but also a better reward.

At one extreme, one may only submit his work to third tier conferences and get nearly all of them accepted at the first shot. Alas, especially for younger researchers, the visibility of these will be very limited and the author might not get recognition for the work at all.

On the other hand, submitting only to first-tier conferences bares a higher risk, especially for PhD candidate looking for a post-doc/position, as it may take several iterations till the paper is accepted and published.

So where should one aim to be in general? Obviously, better papers belong in higher tier conferences, but there may be a goal rate in which your papers should get accepted. If the average number of submissions before accepted is 2/paper (but not all of them are first-tier venues), should one aim higher? If it takes 3-4 submissions but papers end up in first tier venues, should we attempt less competitive venues and publish quicker?

Context: I'm a CS PhD student. My supervisor usually insist on sticking to top-tier conferences even if a paper was rejected 2-3 times. I wonder if it is better to lower the bar after a rejection or two to get my results published faster. From another student here I've heard that they usually get papers accepted in the first attempt, but most of her publications are not in a top ranked conference. What is the right balance here?

To a first approximation, promotion depends on top-tier publications and nothing else. If career concerns are important (and they always are) keep submitting to top-tier venues (as long as you believe the work is good), even if it takes several iterations to get in.

There's so much variability in what gets accepted that it's best not to take the outcome of any single set of reviews too seriously.  If you start to see a consensus among reviewers as to why they recommend rejection, then of course you will need to address that.  But otherwise, don't lose hope and keep submitting.

Context: I'm a social scientist.


What to do when my introductory sentence is taken from another author's paper? I am about ready to sumbit a paper in mathematics, but I have one worry.  While researching, I came across a sentence in the introduction of an old paper that I really want to use (with a very minor modification) in my abstract.  It has been in all of my drafts for a long while now, and I can't see getting rid of it!!!

Is this a serious issue?  Even though I'm stealing the sentence, I am not actually stealing any mathematics, so it kind of seems (??) okay to me. The old paper is cited elsewhere in my paper, by the way.  I just don't know how I can give credit for a phrase when it appears in the abstract... it would seem overkill to put the whole citation in the abstract.

In times like these I wish I hadn't ditched all my English major friends.

EDIT: THANKS for all of the replies. You convinced me to change to wording, and I believe I ended up with something almost as good.  I am a nervous wreck as it is, so I definitely don't need this plagiarism thing weighing on my conscience!!

I think some of the early advice on this question was really bad. It's easy to give casual attribution for a quote if you do it like this:

  Abstract : This paper is devoted to the study of K-algebras. It has
  long been known that 'All regular K-algebras are equivalent, but every
  irregular K-algebra is irregular in its own way.' (Tolstoy). We
  classify a new family of irregular K-algebras. This result has
  implications in algebra theory.

Then you can cite the paper properly in the body of your paper. Writing the abstract like this makes it very clear who the quote came from and you can deal with the where later.


Strategy for using a Virtual Learning Environment (aka Blackboad/WebCT/Moodle) My university is switching its Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). Specifically, we are moving from WebCT to Moodle, but I don't think this matters. This means I need to spend some time learning how to use the new software, but it also presents me the opportunity to think about how I use a VLE to supplement my traditional teaching. Are there any references of how to best leverage the use of VLEs?

Moodle
I recommend you to try a demo site of Moodle. It would be specially helpful to try one that has content. Here you can find one. You can choose which role to use, so you will be able to see what students see and to see some settings for each activity.
Moodle's documentation is the bible for using Moodle. You just have to make sure to review the documentation of the current version of your site. For instance, the capabilities of versions 1.9 or lower are much more limited than those of versions 2.0 or higher. However, if you are beginner I suggest you to visit first the demo site. Moodle's documentation could be more difficult to grasp if you do not know how a site works.
Contents
I am not sure if you are going to use Moodle as a support for classes ("blended learning") or if you are going to teach an e-learning class. However, regardless of the kind of use, here you can find interesting ideas and concepts about distance education using Moodle. These ideas will be useful even if you are teaching a blended learning class. This document explains some principles for distance education (e.g., the course interface should be simple and intuitive).
Tips

The module called "Lesson" is very flexible to show and assess content. Some creative users have used it to simulate a situation where students have to make choices. Depending on those choices the module shows them different contents or questions.
The "Workshop" module allows you to implement a peer review system in a class.
The "Assignment" module can be used as an "electronic mail box". Students can submit their project reports online.
In the newer versions of Moodle there is an option to create a "Rubric". So you can quickly evaluate projects clicking on the rubric.
You can set up a "Wiki" in the course's page. For instance, you can ask students to use the Wiki to document their progress on a project, so you can directly comment in there.
You can create groups of students in the course's page. One of the advantages of this is that you can implement forums for each group, so students can exchange messages within their groups.
If you are teaching a class that uses a lot of math, you can write in Moodle using Latex syntaxis.


How to acknowledge unhelpful conversations In an acknowledgments section to a mathematical paper, one conventionally says the paper has benefited from "helpful conversations" with so-and-so that clarified matters in some way, started one's wheels in motion toward an idea, and so on.

It happens fairly frequently, though, that I email or otherwise approach a colleague I suspect may have some insight, only to have an unhelpful conversation. By this I mean that although the exchange is well-informed and pleasant, through no fault of the other party I am unable to gain anything from it mathematically and it has no bearing on what I ultimately publish.

In these situations, my correspondents have made the generous donation of their time, so I feel they ought to be thanked, but on the other hand the paper has not actually benefited. How should I acknowledge their contribution?

I agree with Anonymous Mathematician: There are lots of non-obvious ways to contribute to a paper, and it never hurts to be generous.  But if they really did not contribute to the paper, then there is nothing to acknowledge in the paper.

If you really feel you owe them thanks for something that isn't a contribution to the paper, just call and thank them.


When writing a "response article" what's the appropriate way to refer to plots from the original paper? There's a paper I want to respond to by writing an article examining its findings. There are 4-6 of key plots in that paper.
I have the code and data from the original authors, so technically I can reproduce their plots myself and include their plots in my paper for easy comparison to other (original) plots I want to show. But is that appropriate, or is that too close to "stealing" their work and would it be better for me just to put in some text citation as reference to their plot and let my readers go look up the original paper to compare my plots versus the original authors'?

First, use citation to avoid any charge of plagiarism/stealing. This is true for plots as well as for quoted words.
Second, it would depend on how much of the work you would be including. If you want to include all or most of the plots in the original you would be on shaky ground just as if you over-quoted the article even with citation.
Third, there might be a question of how "essential" the plots are to the original paper. If they are in some sense the "heart" of the original, you are better off pointing to them (citation) rather than copying. But that can be a judgement call.
Fourth, if a plot stands alone in some way without the rest of the paper, it might be considered a "complete work" on its own. Then you need permission to copy it just as you would to copy any complete work, no matter how small.
You could also ask the original authors for guidance, of course.


Reuse of published data in PhD thesis if it is the same data, but you put it in another style for your PhD thesis and created a new figure - does it still counts like "figure from publication "***" ?

There might be two parts to this question here, so I will answer them separately.

Is it plagiarism if I do not cite my own published results?

Answer: Yes, that's called self-plagiarism. It does not matter if the results you want to cite where published by yourself or another person. It must be cited. Even if you have the same data and plot it differently, it is essentially not a new source. Since you usually have more data accessible from your own publications, you might come into temptation to use an altered figure from a previous publication. These must also be cited as part of the published paper. Better safe than sorry, just cite it if it can be attributed to a previous piece of research.

Do I have the right to reprint figures from a publication in my thesis?

Answer: Well, that depends on which licensing agreement your published paper falls under. For example, the very popular open access CC-BY license allows you to retain the rights to your images and to reprint them. However, attribution (i.e. via citation) must still be specified.

If you do not own the rights to reprint the pictures as they are, you can always redraw a figure (as suggested by Oleg Lobachev in the comments) and correctly cite the source as "Redrawn from Author et al. [54]" or similar.

TL;DR Yes, if you rearrange data from an old publication in a new form you still have to cite the old publication.


Reviewer wants me to do massive amount of work, the result would be a different article. Should I tell that to the editor? I received a major revision decision. But it is a strange one:

Reviewer 1 loved my article, called it excellent and recommended publication with very, very minor comments against it.
Reviewer 2 believes that my article's scope is too narrow and wants me to take on much more research, which would yield a different article with the same structure but longer. R2 has no other major problems with the idea or content of the article, in fact I believe that R2 liked the idea and that what R2 wants me to do is enlarging the article to provide additional support for what it countenances.

To take on all the additional research and writing for a much longer article would take time away from my current PhD research. Should I tell the editor that my article's scope is what it is and that I think it does a good job whitin that scope?

I've been R2 a few times: I consider the paper's quality clearly below the standards of the journal (because of lack of detail, for instance, to the point where I can't fully understand the paper's methodology; or lack of sufficient evaluation), so that in principle I should just reject the paper outright. On the other hand, there is something about the underlying idea that has promise, and I don't want the authors to get so discouraged that they bury it by resubmitting the paper to some third-tier venue.

So I use Major Revisions as a kind of contract with the authors, laying out exactly the changes the authors would need to make in order for the paper to become acceptable, even if these changes are very extensive. The ball is now in their court: they can either take the time to make the required changes, with a high chance that the paper is then accepted, or, if they really don't want to spend the time, they can resubmit to a lower-tier conference or journal.

And of course, Major Revisions is also an easier recommendation for the editor to ignore than Reject, in case my views are not aligned with those of the other reviewers. In your case, it sounds like you only have two reviewers, who drastically disagree. You could submit only minor revisions, and hope that the editor agrees with R1 that the paper is acceptable without a lot of extra work. Or R1 might look at the revisions, and R2's review, and say to themselves, "oh, R2 is raising a lot of good points. They're right, this paper does need more detail to be understandable/reproducible!" The only way to know for sure is to submit a revision and see what happens, though one potentially useful piece of information: if the editor really did agree with R1 much more strongly than R2, they would have required minor instead of major revisions.

(PS: Writing up your research to a sufficient level of quality that it passes peer review does not "take away from your PhD research." It is your PhD research.)


Is there generally a high amount of variability in the number of hours grad students put to work each week? As in, it's certainly not a standard 8-5 job of 40-50 hours per week. Is it common (and expected) for them to sometimes put in 80 hours a week, and to occasionally put in 10 hours? (say, during times of personal crisis or of particularly intense coursework?)

I believe that most of the students are event-driven. That is, if they have an important deadline, meeting, exam, TA section (agghh...), then they spend more time to prepare and be ready for that event. Whereas after an important deadline, (or finals week, etc.) they allow themselves to be more relaxed and spend less time "working".

However it is quite strange to define how much time one spends on "research". Many people get very nice ideas just before the go to sleep, or while taking a shower... The mind is running 24/7..  Even though those people are not "in office" they do work on their research.

I agree also with the answer of Lars that it really depends on the student's personality and preferences. I've known students who really need their schedule to be well defined. They showed up to office daily at 9:00 and left at a fixed time (I guess that being married with kids kind of forces you to have a fixed schedule). So there are no fixed rules.


Is it plagiarism to submit the same work in a course after withdrawing from the course on a previous occasion? I took a course a couple years ago and was doing well until I could not attend any longer and abruptly had to stop. I am currently retaking the course and wanted to hand in the work I submitted years ago since I worked hard on it and did well. Is this plagiarism or against some academic code?

Whether or not this is a problem probably depends more on the goal of the assignment for the purpose of this course rather than plagiarism as a general academic concept, because in both cases the work is your own sole work for a course assignment (the same course even), and is not owned by anyone else, published, etc.

The only thing you can do is to ask your instructor for guidance. Depending on their goals for the assignment, they may be okay with a re-submission of the previous work or they may want you to complete a new assignment; they may even want you to pick a new topic if the assignment allows for a broader interpretation.


I feel like my mathematical competence is fading Background:
I studied Physics and Mathematics (double major) in my Bachelor, and now I'm working in the field of (theoretical) biophysics (I'm a Master's student). I have had a fair amount of research experience so far which gave me a lot of ideas about how research is being done. Most of my contributions to such a project involved wiring a bunch of code, improving an experiment, improving the data collection process etc. but nothing mathematical.
Problem:
I have no problem reading papers, especially theoretical ones; I would describe myself as familiar with a lot of fundamental ideas employed in research. If I want to dig deep into theoretical a paper, I don't have a problem. But the issue is that I feel like my mathematical competence is eroding, both high-level and low-level. I do a lot of errors in algebraic calculations, forget how to integrate certain functions, etc. and I am internally scared from finding out I am bad at mathematics, given that I used to love mathematics.
But unfortunately, right now there is nothing that challenges and pushes my limits. Because, to my experience, physics students only use certain mathematical methods, so once you learn how to do those (all of which can be done via Mathematica), there is nothing that can push your limits, unless you are doing very mathematical research.
So, now whenever I need to calculate something, I go and put it into Mathematica because I have done the same type of calculations over and over again many times, and I don't want to do it again.
I'm afraid that if I start working on a theoretical project which requires mathematical competence, I'll fail because I haven't been practising the art of doing mathematics in a true sense for a while.
Question:
Given all these, how to keep up my game? How to push my mathematical skills even when I am not working on a theoretical project?

First there’s no magical “being good at mathematics,” so it’s not something you can suddenly lose.  If you want to get better you can practice more and get better, and if you practice less you’ll get rustier, but neither state is permanent.  Your anxiety around your math skills may be due to this kind of black-and-white thinking about math skill.
In terms of practical advice, one thing that really helps keep you sharp on the basics is teaching.  Maybe try signing up to do a little tutoring, or do something with the undergrad math club.


Another way to say probability In a paper I want to state that a certain course of action increases the "chances of success" - with success defined earlier in the work.

In my field, words like "probability", "odds", and "likelihood" (and the associated variants) have certain connotations, and are likely to elicit semantic arguments, so I'd like to avoid those words.

The word "chances" seems colloquial.

Are there any other phrases that connote the idea that a certain course of action is more likely to lead to optimal outcomes, while avoiding any words that have mathematical or statistical connotations?

My guess is that "optimal outcomes" may have the same problem as "likelihood" etc.

One possibility would be to restructure the sentence a bit, for example

  Such-and-so procedures promote ... (perhaps "success").

It's much easier to help with a question like this if you give us some of the actual language you're going to use.


Why do people publish on arXiv instead of other places? I work in engineering and I was warned by a colleague years ago that I should not cite materials on arXiv because they are not peer reviewed. Although it was never clear to me what peer reviewed meant because the papers on there seemed to be well maintained and the ones I have came across has been theoretically sound. Academia stackexchange certainly didn't help in relieving some of those anxieties with people asking if they are "ruined" for posting on arXiv.

One can understand my point of view better by considering that in engineering there are well established conferences and list of papers published through those conferences (although not all high quality). Browsing through a list of citations published by engineers, there is a definitive lack of "arXiv" related papers. This is exacerbated by the fact that arXiv papers seem to be less applied and more theoretical, "mathy", so they are largely hidden from view for the typical engineer.

But from my recent experiences, it seems that a few fairly notable researchers in my field have extensive track record of publishing materials on arXiv. People such as Steven Strogatz who works in nonlinear dynamical systems and John Baez. I have hypothesized in the past that very well established researchers are submitting papers on arXiv instead of science journals because they would like a wider audience, and undergraduate researchers are submitting on arXiv because there is no other venue for them. But of course I am not sure if that is indeed the case.

Now I am currently reading some material published on arXiv by someone who I am not very familiar with. I am still not 100% confident on the "quality" of the paper i.e. scientific accuracy of theoretical and experimental results. But I believe that I would be more open to using materials on arXiv in the future if I can understand the motivation behind submitting to arXiv i.e. whether if they are just low quality papers without any other place that accepts them.

Can someone please offer a break down of some the reasons why one would publish to arXiv?

The major use case of arXiv is for disseminating manuscripts that you also publish in a journal or conference. By posting a preprint on arXiv, people can find your research, build on it, cite it, and give you feedback on it immediately, while at the same time the same work goes through the (sometimes slow) peer review process. Some of these papers will fall out of the peer review pipeline at some point, and only appear on arXiv, but that doesn't necessarily mean that  they are less useful, important, or sound.

To give a specific example, in the last year or so I have been working in an area so new that most of the relevant research is still only available on arXiv.  I expect these papers will eventually appear in journals too, but the slow peer review process means that the latest journal issues do not represent the state of the art for this particular topic. Conferences have a quicker peer review cycle and are more current, but most only publish relatively short papers.

arXiv is also useful for work that is in a format not suited for a conference or journal (e.g. a thesis), or for extended versions of papers that are published somewhere else.

I would caution against rules like "I should not cite materials on arXiv because they are not peer reviewed." Peer review does not guarantee sound, high quality research, nor is the inverse true.  You should critically evaluate each paper, peer reviewed or not, on its individual merits. (Also see this related question on Math Overflow.)


current PhD applicant applying to another university if a current PhD student applying to another university within the same country, is it required to expose the fact that he/she is currently enrolled in another university?
is it a right for the grad studies office to know my current status?  if yes; why? what is the difference?

Specially in case if the student does not want to transfer the credits he/she has taken in the previous university.

Yes.  If you are a student, you should say so in your application.  Otherwise, your CV will have an unexplained gap for the time you've been at your current department.  Unexplained gaps raise red flags with admissions committees.

In your statement, you also need to explain why you are applying to the new department instead of completing your PhD at your current department.  Moreover, you must do so without disparaging your current department, even if you have legitimate cause to do so; nobody likes a whiner.  Good reasons to move include a change in your own research interests, your advisor moving or retiring, following a spouse.

Above all, do everything above board.  If possible, you should also request at a recommendation letter from your current advisor; if not your advisor, some other faculty member in your department.  If you apply secretly, you risk burning all bridges with faculty in your current department.

Credit transfer is a completely orthogonal issue.


How does one assess one's chances of getting accepted into a PhD program in philosophy? I'm about to complete my B.A. in philosophy, and I want to pursue a PhD in philosophy. I'm aware that it's a long, difficult, lonely process and that doesn't scare me off. But I can't help compare myself to the grad students who TA in my school's philosophy department. In particular, I lack the clarity of argument (especially verbal) and originality of thought that they regularly exhibit. I know these skills are developed, but I wonder if any part of them is innate. That is to say, it seems to me unlikely that everyone who desires to get a PhD and go into teaching is capable of doing so, just like not everyone's capable of being a professional basketball player, regardless of desire or training. Obviously you should go for your dreams, but it's important to be pragmatic and recognize your limitations.

My question is this: what would it look like if someone wasn't cut out for a PhD program, and how would they know? I ask because I want to be sure (as much as is reasonable) that I'm capable of being accepted to and eventually completing a program before I invest a lot of time and money into the application process.

As everybody in the comments are saying, this is a very individualized thing. However, to get a good grasp of your standing relative to other students, I would check out thegradcafe.com.

Yeah, thegradcafe is an especially anxious and paranoid subset of grad school applicants, but you can see what kinds of applicants got accepted or rejected by checking the app board or skimming the forums. There's a dedicated Philosophy forum.


What does "Contribution to Knowledge" mean? We've been having this discussion about what actually formulates 'contribution to knowledge' when doing a masters or a PhD in a particular field.

For an example from my field (Computer Science), say an MS student finds a particularly good algorithm that has not been used to solve a problem in disaster management. He then goes ahead and builds a solution that uses this algorithm to find position of a cell phone in a disaster situation.

However, while the student has solved a problem of high interest to many people, he has not contributed to the field of Computer Science, per se. Or has he? Some say that since he didn't contribute to Computer Science as a field, he should not get a Masters degree in CS.

Contribution to knowledge means creating new knowledge based on the previous available knowledge by doing extensive and innovative research.

Look up this related illustrative post by Matt Might on what is a PhD.

And for the said MS student, he should get his degree without any problem, because he showed a new & original application of the CS algorithm in a new field. Hence, new knowledge generated.


Master's degree in a different field while in a PhD program? I am finishing up my BS degree in Computer Science, and I have been accepted to a PhD program in Computing and Information Sciences. I was wondering if it would be possible (and how feasible it would be) to get a Master's degree in Mathematics during my PhD by doing math research with a professor and publishing something?

Would I have to apply and be accepted to the Master's program at my university? How likely do you think this is? I have quite quite a bit of math completed from my BS in CS; I would estimate about 18-30 credits left not including the [required] electives if I was pursuing a BS in Applied Math.

The question you should really ask yourself is: What is the purpose of having an extra degree? Is it to enlighten yourself and learn something new or related? Is it to improve your CV and future job prospects?

IMO, looking at your situation, it seem a bit of a waste of time and a lot of extra effort to also pursue your math master. You can study math  on your own accord at any time with the best universities and lectures using the edX free and open university.

Q: Would I have to apply and be accepted to the Master's program at my university?

A: Probably not.

Q: How likely do you think this is?

A: Most universities allow for completing multiple degrees concurrently as long as your academic records are in good standing and you pay the additional costs.


How to respond to potential power abuse from project supervisor? Over the space of a now concluding 20 week long project, my appointed supervisor has made a number of questionable decisions that appear to have negatively affected my work and solidified her grip over any avenues of complaint i can make.

One of the more recent incidents included her refusal to complete a strictly compulsory progress report, unless i removed a statement about her absence for a three week period that affected my ability to receive feedback. Stating during the incident, that if anything reported made her look bad, then it would be reflected on my final grade(As she is one of two, who marks the project).

Her general lack of support throughout the entire process has been difficult and while i appreciate that some supervisors and some students prefer the more independent approach, it doesn't work for me and I've made this clear many times. She has also enforced a number of design decisions that convert the project to a very similar format to one she had previously partook in. Additionally insisting on heavy reference to her previous work.

I'm at a loss of how to proceed and the advent of the global pandemic has only narrowed my ability to discretely contact any support staff.

UK, final year undergraduate student

Let me make two suggestions, though I can only really recommend the first.

You could just go along and get along, but mostly as a strategic move that helps you get away without damage to your future. For a single course a nice grade would be good and you will have learned a lot from the project no matter what the write-up looks like. If it is to be published, especially as a joint publication, then you need to take care that what you say is actually valid, of course. I recommend this course since the professor has power over you and has threatened to use it against you. Strategic retreat is often the best course of action.

The second, burn the bridges strategy, is to send the entire correspondence stream to the department head and ask for advice. This may be what you really want to do, and it might have some positive outcome for others in the future, but it is also the one most likely to damage you and your career. If you embark on this course, copy the head on all correspondence.

There are options in between but most of them might have the flavor of one or the other of these. I recommend something closer to the first option.

For doctoral research, however, the situation is a lot more dire and might require drastic (escape) action such as changing supervisors or even institutions. But your undergraduate program will ultimately be judged on a lot of things, not just this project.


How to evaluate the research level of a paper before any publication? There are three differents cases when the research level of a paper must be evaluated before any publication:

for author: to choose the most appropriate journal,
for referee: to recommend acceptance or rejection for a given journal,
for editor: to take the final decision.

If we compare this process to justice, a referee is like a lawyer, and an editor is like a judge.

Question: How an author, a referee and an editor can (respectively) evaluate the research level of a paper?

We here ask about the purely research level of a paper, so we assume that the paper is original, correct and well-written. We also assume that the paper is  not too specialized if it is a general-audience journal, and is on-topic if it is a specialized journal (idem for any other specificity).  Finally, if specific, I am mainly interested in mathematical papers.

An utilitarianism way could be to estimate how many papers should cite this paper in the next five years (self-citations excepted). Then the author can choose a journal having this number as Article Influence score (after renormalization), and the referee can check if it matches with the chosen journal. But then it would be necessary to know how to make such an estimate...

Of course, an author/referee/editor can evaluate the paper subjectively, but subjectivity varies with emotions, it can be manipulated and the process can become political. I wonder whether there is an objective way to proceed, or at least, if we can add a bit of rationality in this process. Consider the process of justice, it contains undeniably a part of subjectivity, but also rationality, called the law.

While I think your "justice" metaphor is wrong, the answer in all cases is experience. You need experience in the field as a reviewer. You need to know what has been done and what is important yet to do. As an editor you need either that field experience or experience with your reviewers - who is trustworthy and who is not. As an author in the early career you don't have any experience other than some within the field, but it will grow.

For everyone here, the way you get experience is to make best effort attempts at whatever job you have and evaluate the response. As they say in engineering and computer science, "Good design comes from experience. Experience comes from bad design."

If you are looking for an algorithm, then I would say it doesn't exist. It might be possible in theory to construct one with an AI looking at tens of thousands of interactions, but it might show bias, as many such things have been shown to do.

But the system as a whole just depends on (nearly) everyone trying to do their best with what they have in front of them in world of imperfect information.

In theory, theory is the same as practice. But not in practice. - Fnord Bjørnberger


Is it unethical to poorly translate an exam from Dutch to English and then present it to the English speaking students? There are two tracks for my field of study. One is taught in Dutch and the other in English. This is in the Netherlands.  A while ago we had to take a multiple choice exam in English, which looked a bit odd. The sentence construction of the questions makes little sense at first glance, and it took a while to even grasp the content. Furthermore, it seemed quite obvious that the exam was only roughly translated (possibly by a machine) as the exam just sounded as if someone used a thesaurus to make it. In addition some of the answer options were still in Dutch, which made it extremely difficult to understand the content. Moreover, some questions had literally the same answer option twice.

So in summary, the students in the English track took the botched translation version, while the students in the Dutch track took the Dutch version.

Is it unethical to give English speaking students a poorly translated version of the same exam that the Dutch students receive?

There are two different questions in here that are mixed up: one about whether the Dutch and English exams should be identical and one about exam quality.

Regarding the first question: I fail to see why this should be unethical. On the contrary: It seems very good that the standards on what you are supposed to know are the same. After all, you get the same degree.

Regarding the second question: Also here, the answer is obvious: Of course, exams need to be of good quality. If that is not the case, sure, this is a problem to be addressed. But that has nothing to do with the question of whether they are a translation or not.


Should I mention an informal research intern in my CV? I was doing an informal research intern in a research institution more than a year ago, and it's probably the only experience related to the scientific research during my undergraduate time. Basically it's on a specific topic on AI, and I read papers and did the experiments under the instructions of graduate students of the institution. We submitted a paper where I was one of the co-author to a journal, but it was not accepted.
The word informal means:

I didn't sign an agreement with the institution and thus I didn't get the certificate from the instutution
I was doing the work with graduate students instead of the faculties of the institution. I even didn't see the professor (the supervisor of the graduate students who guided me). And it's almost impossible to get a letter of recommendation from the professor of the institution)

If I don't mention it in the CV, I will be the applicant with bare research experience.
If I mention it, without a letter of recommendation from a professor related, I will probably lose the credibility of the research experience.
PS: I am applying for a Master Program of Computer Science. I have other interns in tech companies but they are not for scientific research.
What should I do?

You have scientific research experience relevant to the position you're applying for, so explain that experience in your application.
You can mention that you worked with graduate students and you could even ask one of them for a letter of recommendation. You cannot mention working with a professor, because you didn't, nonetheless, they may be willing to write a letter of recommendation that mentions that you worked with their graduate students and they could perhaps quote one of them for the details.


What should I do when a predatory conference will not listen to us and the journal might retract our paper? I was in my first semester that a professor asked me for a collaboration with someone else. We have started the project but because of Mr. C bad behavior and lack of contribution our professor fired him from the project.
Consequently, we had published a paper 2 years ago based on that project. After a few months, we have accidentally found out that the initial draft of the paper in another language has been published at a conference with Mr.C name and his wife on the conference proceeding. It is worth mentioning that we kept our data and updates of drafts in a shared Dropbox account that Mr. C had access to. We emailed to the conference and told them to remove the conference proceeding because it had been uploaded without our permission, so they removed it from the conference proceedings. Few days after that the journal that has published our paper sent us an email saying that someone (that we know its Mr. C) told them that our paper has published before and it is a case of a redundant publication and plagiarism.
Then we have told everything to the journal about the situation.
Unfortunately, because Mr. C have powerful connections in government he was able to make the conference proceeding available once again! now the conference won't listens to us and they don't answer us.
The conference proceeding is in another language but the context is about 80% the same as the journal paper that is in English!
We don't know what to do.
We did not hear about this case from the journal for 3 months now.

Is it possible for the journal to retract our paper at this point because of the duplication and redundancy or plagiarism? What should we do?

UPDATE: The conference website is down known and not available anywhere at the moment but the conference has sent the proceedings to an indexing website which is only available in our native language. Also in that website proceedings can be bought only with the X currency and it is not an international indexing website.

Still, I am scared that there might be a possibility for the journal to retract our paper due to duplication! Is it possible?

The key statement in the above may be "Mr. C have powerful connections in government". That is an issue that may be impossible to overcome. If there is an ethics process in your profession generally, you can bring things to their attention. You can bring it to the attention of the conference committees and journal editors. Unfortunately you may be fighting powers that you can't overcome.

Given sufficient power and influence, yes, they can do whatever they want - ethical or not. If you can shine enough light on it you might get some satisfaction and it may come back to haunt Mr. C in the future, but making powerful enemies in some places isn't necessarily wise (or even healthy). Proceed cautiously. If you can build allies, it may help.


Are there other evaluation processes besides traditional to evaluate disabled person at university based on their understanding of the subject matter? Say there is a disabled person who wants to have B.Sc degree in Computer Science.

He knows he has the option of college and other manual jobs.

I want to know are there any other easier evaluation processes for that student who understands the subject matter but cannot answer the traditional questions on the paper like other ten students because these questions require creativity and he doesn't have that talent?

If there are other evaluation processes why aren't they implemented in real life? And if they are implemented which university allows such implementations in Canada and USA?

Are there other evaluation processes besides traditional to evaluate disabled person at university based on their understanding of the subject matter?

Yes, they are called accommodations.

  I want to know are there any other easier evaluation processes

If the student is assessed using accommodations, the assessment will be different.  It will not necessarily be easier.  Typically, the student is required to demonstrate the same course-specific skills as the other students.  Example:  a test is checking to see if a student knows about widgets.  Most students will answer writing by hand.  A student receiving accommodations might answer verbally.  The accommodation would be easier with respect to writing, but the same with respect to knowledge of widgets, because that is what the assessment is about.

  If there are other evaluation processes why aren't they implemented in real life?

They very often are.

  And if they are implemented which university allows such implementations in Canada and USA?

In the USA, universities are required by law to provide accommodations to students with disabilities.  I am not familiar with Canada, but I am sure there is something similar.


I realized I made a mistake after my paper was accepted for publication I am in the field of epidemiology and my paper has recently been accepted for publication (after 2 rounds of revisions). However, I recently noticed some numerical typos affected several figures and tables. These errors do not affect the conclusions, calculations or results. I simply typed in certain values into the tables and figures incorrectly. I have contacted the journal, although in the past they have taken a long time to reply.
Does anyone have experience with this? Is there a chance this paper will be rescinded or would this be an easy fix where I can just resubmit the affected tables / figures ?
The paper has not been published yet. It was accepted for publication about 2 weeks ago.

This kind of error won't affect acceptance. Chances are you'll simply get to fix it during copyediting/typesetting. An eagle-eyed production editor might notice you are changing nontrivial aspects of the paper and confirm with the editorial board that the change is OK, but if the error is as simple as you describe, there's nothing to worry about.
If you had noticed this after the publication process is completed, then you'll probably have to issue an erratum/corrigendum.


Ask clarification to reviewer of paper I got a review that I cannot understand. It has a number of English grammatical and spelling errors. Also, technically it does not make any sense to me. How should I proceed? Can I somehow ask for clarification?

If English is not your own first language, then you might first want to ask someone you know with "native" English skills to help interpret the review.

Then ask the editor for clarification of the review, but be detailed about what parts of it you don't understand. Most editors will be willing to work with you, but I can't guarantee that all will. But if you don't ask you won't learn anything.

And, it may take some time to resolve this. If the editor has doubts about the reviewer or the review they may ask for another, which adds to the time.


Job Market Cover Letter - Mention undergrad experiences? I am on the academic job market in America in the social sciences. I am applying to R1/R2s, with a few liberal arts colleges sprinkled in.

I've heard from a few people that mentioning undergrad experiences are a big no-no in both the CV and application cover letter. Specifically, I've heard that mentioning undergrad experiences makes it look like you have not done enough in grad school and need to pad your resume/cover letter AND that search committees don't actually care about what happened to you in undergrad.

My undergrad degree was from a top school in my field (higher ranked than my graduate school) and I wanted to briefly mention what inspired me to enter this field. Is this a waste of space? Or worse, will I look amateurish?

Don't do this. It will appear as though you're padding, as you said, or it will appear as though you're defensive about where you went to grad school. (Also, your undergrad institution is higher ranked in what sense? While e.g. Yale is a very highly ranked school, many state schools have a better reputation for particular subjects at the postgraduate level.) The search committee can see where you attended undergraduate by looking at your CV.

How does what inspired you to enter the field relate to your ability to excel in the jobs you are applying for? Why is this information in your cover letter?

The only reason to mention your undergraduate experience in your cover letter is to address possible issues of "fit" or institutional culture. For example, if you have a PhD from an R1 but are applying to a SLAC, it can be advantageous to point out that your undergraduate institution was a similar SLAC and you therefore have an understanding of the institutional norms and mission of such schools. (Be sure that your school's really are equivalent though before you make such a comparison!) In other cases, I don't see much reason to mention your undergraduate institution in a cover letter.


Career in Mathematics as an Electrical Engineer I am a university freshman with major in Electrical Engineering. My passion is pure math(topology, group theory etc). During my first semester I noticed that our math classes are not rigorous at all, focusing on approximations and practical purposes. My goal is to work on theoretical math research or mathematical Physics. Should I stay in engineering (and follow it with a math post-graduate) or switch to math major? In other words, is it possible to be applicable for research with a masters degree in Electrical Engineering?

In the US it is possible to switch after undergraduate, but I'll note that the focus of an engineering degree is very different from mathematics. I'd suggest that you switch as early as possible.

One reason that first year math isn't as rigorous as it might be, and not as rigorous as it will be later, is that those courses are intended for a general audience, including engineers, who have less need for a theoretical basis in math. The same will be true of early physics courses.

Outside the US it may be harder to change after an bachelors degree.

I'd suggest staying where you are only if you want a career in EE or at the junction of EE and CS. But your interests seem to be elsewhere.


How to avoid being falsely accused of harassment by a student? I am a junior faculty member and as part of my work I have to supervise students. I am required by the University to have one-on-one meetings with them every week to check their progress and give feedback. I usually have these meetings in my office like all the other staff.

One piece of advice I have received from senior colleagues and online fora is to always keep my door open during the meetings to minimise the risk of being falsely accused of misconduct (in particular harassment). This could happen for instance with a student trying to hurt me or the university for failing a course.

I understand that the probability of this happening (being falsely accused by a student) is very small. Yet, the advice of keeping the door open during meetings is standard in academia, which means a probability must exist (albeit very small) - or, the universities think so.

Question: Is there any other advice, common practice, or university policies for precautions to be taken - along the lines mentioned above (open door) - to minimise the risk of being falsely accused of misconduct by a student (with the focus on false harassment accusations) during private meetings?

I reject in advance any answers that might discriminate or bias against any group of students based on their gender, origin, or background history. Also, I would prefer to avoid solutions that include audio-visual recording, as this is not usual in my university.

For context, I am a male professor having meetings with students of all sexes. My main concern though are meetings with female students (due to past experience of a friend being falsely accused by one of his female students, with severe effects to his professional and personal life).

Note: My original question was misinterpreted leading to debates concerning what I actually asked. You can retrieve the original question in the edit history for context on some of the answers.

I am not sure if my experiences are common, but as a faculty member in a psychology department I have had a number of unique and uncomfortable experiences with female students. I have described the two most egregious cases here and here. As for an answer, I want to start with an excerpt from this answer since I think it is so good

  1) Never sexually harass your students. Don't even come close -- have a clear-eyed view of what the boundary of acceptable behavior would be and make sure that you stay two stops on the side of that boundary. Especially, maintain a very strong sense of what is acceptable physical contact with a student. (Handshaking: okay. Tapping someone on their clothed arm or shoulder to get their attention: probably okay, but monitor while you do it to make sure that it is being received that way. Almost anything else: as a rule, don't do it.)

In addition, it is important to think about your behavior. I advise always keeping your door open, and remaining on opposite sides of the desk/table when appropriate. You need to be mindful of physical contact with students (cf. What physical contact, if any, is acceptable between a supervisor and a student?) and what you say to them.

Apart from actually not harassing your students, I advise you to document any awkward interactions you have with students. If you accidently (remember rule 1) inappropriately interact with a student (e.g., physical contact or an odd turn of phrase), regardless of if was you or the student that did/said it, you need to tell someone. Similarly, if a student gets unusually upset about a grade, or anything else, you want to document it. I suggest email so there is a written record. I always told my department chair, but the director of teaching or a faculty mentor could also work. I would advise always telling the same person, so they have some context.

In cases where you know the situation could be difficult or where students have been difficult in the past, you my want to have another faculty member join your meeting. You obviously cannot do this for all meetings (e.g., having a faculty member sit in on all your office hours would not work), it would be fine scheduled meetings with problematic students and difficult situations (e.g., failing a student or academic misconduct).

It is also worth noting that sometimes students want privacy (maybe you are discussing grades or a medical condition). If a student wants to shut my door for privacy, I am fine with it, barring a past history or an obvious difficult situation. If anything uncomfortable happens after the door was shut, or if you are feeling the slightest bit concerned/paranoid, you should document what happened.

  Dear Department Chair,

  I met today with Jane Doe to discuss her medical condition. She requested and shut my door while meeting. At one point she briefly came around my desk and showed me the rash on her arm. It was a little odd and in the future I will make sure students know to respect our personal space. I don't foresee any issues, but wanted to keep you in the loop.


Publish a paper with a coauthor not affiliated to a university I am supervising a last year high-school student (a very advanced one) who is doing some kind of a research project. He does some numerical simulations on problems that I suggest. If everything goes well the results of these simulations should be rather interesting and could be submitted to a reasonable journal.

I have an affiliation with a renowned university but the student obviously does not yet have any. Next year he plans to enter university X (and probably he can do that).

The question: can I submit a paper with him as a coauthor, stating that he is affiliated to the university X? May it create some problems for the student if he choses to enter another university Y later?

I published a paper with two high school student co-authors.  I listed their high school as their affiliation.  They were not paid by the university.  It worked fine.


Translated letter of recommendation from employer I live and work full time in the United States. I will be applying to graduate school in France through CampusFrance. All documents, apparently including letters of recommendation, are to be translated into French (by a certified translator). This seems to preclude the possibility of my not having seen the letter of recommendation before it is sent, which I understand to be important for the documents. One possibility would be to send the documents to a translator without opening them, and blindly sending the translated version along to the institution, which seems risky. What is the best course of action in this case?

Ask the professor to send the letter to the translator with instructions to return it back to the professor. Make separate arrangements to pay the translator. Then the prof can directly send the translation. And the prof can even verify it a bit if needed.

You don't need to be in the document loop at all.


avoid auto-plagiarism in publishing results from PhD thesis I'm currently writting my thesis, where are exposed unpublished results that I would like to publish (may be after my PhD defense). Can I directly re-use text from my thesis ?

It would be better to cite your thesis as you would another work. You can list it in the bibliography as you would any other work, but mark it (unpublished). This is similar to citing the unpublished work of other people, and marking it as (private communication) just to make it clear.

Of course, if your thesis is in (will be in) some publicly visible repository, then clearly you should cite it there.

On the other hand, if you don't intend to publish your thesis, then the work you derive from it are original/first works and  you could, in theory, treat the thesis as a draft, in which case citation isn't really needed. But it could give the wrong impression if someone finds the thesis somewhere, such as a library repository.

Note that the reason for avoiding self plagiarism is to let a future reader visit the complete context of a work. Simply reusing, rather than citing, your own words short circuits this.


Good idea to name the keynote speaker of a local conference at which my paper was accepted to be presented? I am applying to doctoral programs in the US, and I am wondering:

Is it advisable to name the keynote speaker of the local conference where I presented a paper recently?

The keynote speaker is a well-respected expert in my field, and I thought of mentioning his participation in order to highlight the merit of this conference in my statement of purpose.
It seems to me that only a conference with a certain level of importance would be able to get such a reputable expert as a keynote speaker.

If the conference is well-known enough, then it isn't necessary to name the keynote speaker, because the conference will be recognized regardless. If the conference isn't well-known in the field, name-dropping is going to come across crass and not very helpful.

So in either case, I don't see any advantage to name-dropping.


Seemingly minor revision under review for two weeks. Is this common? This is a follow-up question on "Why call it a "major" revision if the suggested changes are seemingly minor?"

I have submitted the revision two weeks ago and it's still showing as "under review." The paper has been under review for 1 year and 9 months. In general, if such scenario happens when should one expect a decision?

2 weeks of review time is really not very long, even for a minor revision (which, strictly speaking, yours apparently isn't, at least not to the editor). There is no way for us to know how long it will still take, but the unfortunate truth is that I see little reason to believe it's gonna be much faster than any previous (major) revision.

In reality, reviewing time often depends little on the actual amount of change. Instead, reviewers often get allotted a fixed amount of time (e.g. 4 to 6 weeks in computer science), and will get around to actually doing the review when this time is almost over. That your paper has been under review for long already is not something that reviewers will be aware of, or care very much about.


Read latest journal articles on your phone? I'm not sure if this is the right stackexchange.

But i was wondering if there is a way to select a number of journals in your field, and have the latest articles of those journals on your phone, so that you can open the latest articles of specific journals with the tap of a finger.

Given how addictive smartphone apps can be, it seems like its better to be addicted to reading journal articles than to facebook.

Take an analogy with newspapers: A newspaper is an aggregation of relevant new information. When you read the newspaper you're not beforehand specifying that you want to know something about a war in the middle east. Its just that something happened in the middle east that you didn't know about and couldn't have searched for. Essentially I'm looking for a (metaphorical) "newspaper of journal articles on my phone"

RSS (Rich Site Summary) is an open standard that many journals use to deliver their latest tables of content and abstracts.

Quoting Wikipedia:

  RSS is a type of web feed which allows users to access updates to online content in a standardized, computer-readable format.

Simply download any feed reader app to subscribe to the RSS feeds of your favorite journals. If you find an abstract of interest, click on the title to be redirected to the respective repository where you can usually read or download the article in pdf or html format with your preferred browser or reader. Or you may want to save the paper from there with a reference management app such as Zotero or Mendeley.

Unfortunately, more and more journals seem to be discontinuing their RSS feeds in favor of e-mail alerts, which I find less useful.


Management after Software Engineering undergraduate degree or separate management masters degree? I am currently an undergraduate student studying BEng (Hons) Software Engineering at University of Greenwich. I want to do masters but I am not sure what to do. I am a very talented software architect and programmer. I have two years worth of industrial experience (1 year at IBM and 1 year at NHS).

I am interested in technical side of things in industry which is why I have been considering to do MEng Software Engineering. However, in future I want to move into management side of things while staying technical at the same time. My ambition is to become a CTO. What would you advise?

Would you advise me to do MEng Software Engineering and then MBA? Or shall I do MBA straight away after my software engineering undergraduate degree?

Thanks a bunch in advance.
Manthan Dave

IMO, MEng Software Engineering.

You need to stay on technical side. Do MBA after you have more years of industrial experience if you think you need to.

The CEO depends on CTO for technical decision. CTO needs to have a lot technical knowledge. For example, you need to be able to tell one software architecture is better than the other.


How much trust are you supposed to give a peer-reviewed article? When something is peer reviewed, how much trust are the reviewers saying you should give it?

I'm not talking about whether peer review works, I'm asking what peer review means ideally.

For example, I know you should trust a peer reviewed article more than, say, a blog post. At the same time, if an article passes peer-review, that doesn't mean the reviewers are saying that the article should be accepted as eternal truth and never questioned further.

So how much trust does peer review give?

Should one trust that citations are claiming what is in the articles they cite?
If there isn't anyone who has disagreed yet, should I assume it's true for the purpose of discussions, without further examination?
Should public policy be based on it, without further examination?
Should I trust data to have been collected correctly?
Should I trust data to have been processed correctly?

This probably varies by field (for example, I imagine pure mathematics and related fields, which already have high standards for rigour, are endowed with a ton of trust once peer reviewed).

Should one trust that citations are claiming what is in the articles they cite?

No. Too many people don't read their sources carefully enough (or even at all).
If there isn't anyone who has disagreed yet, should I assume it's true for the purpose of discussions, without further examination?

There is a wide range of possible levels of trust between something I read in a blog post and something on the level that "the square root of 2 is irrational". I'd put a random peer-reviewed article somewhere between the two extremes, depending on the discipline, the journal, the state of the art and so forth.

"Without further examination" should not be part of a scientist's vocabulary. Except maybe for the square root of 2.
Should public policy be based on it, without further examination?

No. In particularly not if the article reports on experimental findings in psychology, economics, sociology, medicine and so forth. Most published research findings are false. These disciplines always need replications and meta analyses, because they cannot perform experiments as tightly controlled as, say, in physics.
Should I trust data to have been collected correctly?

I do my best, but I wouldn't trust myself 100% to have collected my data correctly for published work. Stuff always happens.

In addition, peer review doesn't really enter into this question. Peer reviewers cannot easily assess your data collection - only your description of it. You could have made horrendous errors in good faith, and the reviewer wouldn't know.
Should I trust data to have been processed correctly?

See above. Would you trust software to be bug-free? You shouldn't. And again, reviewers don't review your data analysis as such - usually, your analysis scripts are not part of the bundle you submit.

Bottom line: peer review will increase my level of trust in an article, but not infinitely.

In addition, like a good Bayesian, I trust more surprising (which have a better chance of appearing in the more prestigious journals) findings less. Therefore, I usually expect articles in Nature and Science to be less easily replicable than less "sexy" findings published in other venues.


Why do top Indian Math grad school students leave for the US/UK? I am currently a senior year student at Hansraj College, University of Delhi. I have completed my 2-month summer internship at IISc Bangalore recently. During my stay, I got to interact with a lot of Pure Mathematics Ph.D. students. I have come to know lately that many BS and MS students leave even the topmost schools like IISc, IISER's, TIFR etc and go for Ph.D. in pure Mathematics abroad.

Although the standard of research in pure Maths is pretty good in India.
See this post here

I have the following questions and some associated assumptions/facts:

Question 1. So, why do these top students leave these exceptionally good schools that are almost at par with the elite US universities for a Ph.D. in Pure Maths?

Assumption 1. Since they were already a part of the school, it is unlikely that the small department size is a factor behind this. However, unlike US schools, TA's are not common in India.

Assumption 2. The recent pay increase should have improved the financial situation as well.

Question 2. What is something that Indian grad schools lack when it comes to theoretical Mathematics or in general that drives students out of India?

I am going for a Ph.D. soon, so I think this is something I should know.

Thank you.

Disclaimer: I'm European student at decent Math PhD program in the US.

Sorry, but it seems that I'm going to disillusion you...

  Question 1. So, why do these top students leave these exceptionally
  good schools that are at par with the elite US universities for a
  Ph.D. in Pure Maths?

Although I don't doubt that India have a couple of decent universities with relatively strong mathematics department, they are by no means "at par with the elite US universities". If they really were, I would expect crowds of applicants both from prospective grad students and faculty from Europe and North America to study/work there, but in fact there is quite opposite trend. You have mentioned "topmost schools like IISc, IISER's, TIFR", but without prior web searching I have absolutely no idea what all these abbreviations mean. The same true for overall level of Indian born mathematicians -- they are simply not on par with US, France, Russia and UK in math, just check recent and overall numbers of Fields medalists and ICM speakers. Please do not take it like something offensive, but realizing that is essentially an answer to your question.

  Question 2. What is something that Indian grad schools lack when it
  comes to theoretical Mathematics or in general that drives students
  out of India?

Just in my opinion, they lack

Transferable degree recognition and world renowned top notch researchers like I tried to elaborate above, that is crucial for graduate school, because grad school is essentially about research.
Job prospects after graduation. It goes without saying that Europe and especially North America region (US + Canada) have more attractive job market both in terms of available positions, research prospects and salary than India. In general relocating to grad school is easier than relocating to postdoc or faculty position, this is why Indian students willing to have a shot at American or European job market trying to get in local grad schools.


From a historical perspective, when did impact factors become so important? This is a question on the historicity of impact factors for journals. There are hundreds of questions and websites on the impact factor of journals, or journal rankings (and fake rankings and impact factors).

I was wondering:

When did rankings and impact factors become so prominent in academia?
Was there a general and widely shared decision by national governments or scientific societies that now, impact factors are the most important aspect for research and publications?
Was there a lack of clarity or even dissatisfaction with journals, publishers etc. among academic scholars that they pushed for certain (quantitative) standards?

Any research study or own experience is very welcome!

I'll speak to my experience in the social sciences, and others are free to add their experiences from other disciplines. I see your question as part of a bigger question: more than scientometrics, when did quantification become prominent? And within what context? A recent paper published in The American Sociologist (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12108-017-9348-y) gives some insight to the question. The move towards quantification was gradual in America, from the 1960s onwards, when governments and institutions (i.e. Ford) began pouring more funding into quantitative research and essentially allowed it to become a privileged method of knowledge production.

People started inspecting results, doing research, and even seeing reality in different ways, where everything was broken down into data. This was a big deal in the social sciences. We were beginning to measure what had been unmeasurable. New subdisciplines were springing up. But we needed a way to order and evaluate these rapidly growing disciplines. Impact factors entered into this picture down the line. They complemented these changes by providing an effective way of quantifying and measuring output, and, by extension, prestige.

By contrast, in places where this quantification didn't happen the same way (Europe), impact factors are not used or referred to widely. In Europe, prestige has traditionally been more known, than it is measured in a quantitative sense. Rather, impact factors surely still exist, but don't carry the same weight. Particular journals and publishers, for instance, carry old-school, sedimented prestige from having published notable scholars in the past, etc. Today, this picture is beginning to change, and for the same reasons it did in America in the past. "Big-data" and quantification has begun dominating more funding, attention, and research, so impact factors are also becoming a bigger deal.


Physics masters with undergraduate in computer science I am currently entering my third year of undergraduate. When I entered college I was torn between physics and computer science and ultimately chose computer science. I like cs, but I'd like to apply it towards physics applications. I've spent the past two summers working at software companies as an intern, so I have no research experience as of now. I need to start applying for research positions soon if I am to get into graduate school I've heard.

I am wondering if it is possible to get into a masters program for physics with my undergraduate in cs?  My school offers a minor program for physics which covers mechanics, E & M, light/waves/heat, and quantum which I am currently working towards as well. For the research, is it even worth applying to physics labs if my major is computer science or should I stick to applying to cs labs? In a physics lab maybe I could aid in preparing apparatus that involve programming or electronics?

I would say you would absolutely be able to get in to a physics masters program as long as you have taken the pre-requisites for the specific program.  Most programs have a list of courses that must be taken to be considered for admission.

I got my undergraduate degree in Geology and Geophysics, but I became more interested in engineering towards the later part of my undergraduate.  So I was sure to take all of the requisite engineering courses that I needed to get into an engineering masters program.  Now I'm actually working on a PhD in Civil Engineering.

Moral of the story... It is absolutely possible, but be sure to check out the program requirements for the physics programs you are interested in applying.