Is it ever appropriate to cold-email post-docs that have graduate from your program? For context there is a graduate student who has graduate from my program (at my school) working in my subfield (high energy theoretical physics) but he graduated before I joined the program so I never got to introduce myself.

He's now a post-doc at a highly respected university and is probably extremely busy.

However, I would really like to reach out to him and ask him for some advice for a beginner in the field, (I'm just starting my second year of the PhD program). Do you think it is appropriate to cold-email him and ask for some advice or the opportunity to speak with him over skype or on the phone or some form of communication?

I feel a little bad because I never introduced myself and I'm really scared of being flat out rejected by him but I also feel that he might have some really good advice for me.

Mostly, I'm worried about how to write the email and how I might sound (desperate?) to them.

Yes, it's fine. High energy theory is a casual, non-hierarchical, small field of ~2,000 people. If you lived in a town of 2,000 people, you shouldn't be afraid of talking to anyone in it, even the mayor. Here that goes doubly so, as they're only a few years older than you and went to the same school.

As an undergraduate I cold emailed plenty of full professors; some of my friends preferred directly knocking on their doors. The best physicist I know started doing this in high school. I never got any negative feedback, besides occasional admonishment to call them by their first name rather than by their title. In the long run, excessive deference to perceived status will hurt you more than any email ever could.


Should the PhD proposal be discussed and adjusted by supervisor and student before formal application? Many social science departments in EU/UK recommend getting in touch with potential supervisors first before submitting a formal application which involves a proposal. Should the applicant approach them with a proposal already (very) specifically written? Or just broadly stating research interests and the intended project scope for the next few years?

Is the PhD proposal supposed to be well-prepared before initial contact with potential supervisors, or agreed and finalized after consultation and discussion to fit both parties' interests?

I understand that academics get many emails from potential students, so I wouldn't imagine they'd like to read through everyone's proposals. This question is informed by other posts like this, this, and this - but most relevant discussions I see here on SE are either quite specific to the science/engineering community or North American system, and I'd like to hear about what is the expected pre-application communication in UK and EU, and/or in other disciplines, especially in social science.

You will probably join an existing work group, and work on the projects of the advisors. You will get some job that (somewhat) aligns with your interests (and competence), as asking for stuff you don't like and aren't competent in is just wasting a (valuable) position. Other than that, your thesis will be directed by their pressing interests, not yours. Laying out a detailed proposal as first contact is just a waste of everybody's time. You will work it out with them, eventually.


What does it actually mean by the sentence "tuition is paid by the supervisor"? What does it actually mean by the sentence "tuition is paid for by the supervisor" ?

Why would the supervisor pay the tuition fee for a PhD student?

Different schools, departments and supervisors approach tuition payment differently. As far as I'm aware, most universities demand that tuition get paid somehow. Some universities might not collect tuition, but given what you've posted, I surmise that your university does. Where the tuition funds come from is how it will vary.

I've seen these different approaches:

The department / school pays tuition automatically for all of its admitted students. This is rare, but it does happen sometimes. It guarantees that the student won't have to pay tuition and can focus on research that the supervisor and student decide on, without having to pursue other external funding sources for the tuition. In this case it generally wouldn't matter who your supervisor is.
The department / school pays tuition pays tuition only for the students that hold a job within the department (e.g., teacher assistant, research assistant, researcher, lecturer, etc.).
The department does not offer to pay tuition, but the supervisor already has guaranteed funding (e.g., through external grants or donations), so the supervisor has guaranteed to pay your tuition with that money. In this case, whether or not your supervisor pays your tuition depends on which supervisor you have.
Neither the department nor the supervisor offer to pay your tuition. You are expected to pay for it yourself (e.g., via student loans) or apply for external funding (e.g., grants and scholarships) yourself to be able to pay for tuition.

The sentence "tuition is paid for by the supervisor" makes me think that it is up to the supervisor's discretion whether or not they will pay your tuition (e.g., make it contingent upon whether you are making progress and / or pursuing a topic that the supervisor approves of).

In addition to tuition payments, you should also consider where your income / stipend will come from. Sometimes your stipend comes from similar money buckets like those listed above for tuition.


Depth and difficulty of mandatory courses that could be elective Background
Some universities around the world still don't adopt the common system of elective classes. To broaden the scope of this question, one could also consider the applicability of answers in high school or any other technical degree.
Problem
Consider the following scenario: every available class is mandatory. How should a course be given knowing that is not a strong requisite for your students but you still want to give them the opportunity to go deep in to the subject?
Concrete example to discuss
In a computer engineering department, there is a course on Web Programming. Strictly speaking, Computer Engineers are not expected to be proficient in web programming, but it is a valuable skill nowadays and is of interest of many of them.
For all engineering students, there is a two-semester course on linear algebra. The second semester is focused on complex spaces and cover topics like Jordan Canonical Form. The course is highly theoretical and focused on theorem demonstrations instead of applications and engineering concepts.
Approaches
What methodology would be a best practice? If the answer may vary according to situation, what factors should influence the choice of one over another?

In-depth lectures, broad coverage but low complexity exams/assignments
In-depth lectures, basic concepts but higher complexity exams/assignments
Basic coverage overall, with in-depth extra material provided.
< Open to suggestions >

One idea I'm particularly fond of is extra credits in assignments and exams that cover the deeper knowledge available.

In such an inflexible curriculum, this may not be possible, but one thing that I frequently encountered in my undergraduate and graduate education was courses with an option "add-on" component.  The lectures were the same, but the students who opted into the add-on were expected to do extra work outside of class.  In different classes, this can take on different forms, such as extra assignments, or a final project, or a stronger version of the same project everybody else was doing, or something else entirely.  In exchange, the students a) get a deeper education in the material, and b) receive additional units for their transcript.  The latter can be a significant incentive, particularly since students usually don't opt for extra units unless it's a subject they are likely to receive a good grade in.


I have been accused of copying two lab reports from the previous year even though I had done everything by myself Today I got accused by my professor of cheating and copying two reports I submitted. I had a formal meeting with the professor where he tried to push me into admitting I cheated by showing me the surprising similarities. Even though I continuously denied it, he went forward to go to a formal hearing in the university where a panel will judge the outcome. I am currently freaking out. I know I did not cheat from anybody and I feel like the similarity could be due to a similar thought process (which sounds ridiculous). Should I just say that I did not cheat and stick with it? Or should I ask if I can redo the reports (though it sounds suspicious)? The reports were 68 percent similar and I feel like the odds are against me even though I did not do anything.

Edit: the software used was turnitin and I do not hav access to the original files to get time stamps. I literally can only deny the allegations. The only reasonable explanation is that the professor taught us in a similar manner and our report writing manner was similar due to the fact we have taken the same courses a year apart and had the same professors who molded our report writing skills.

In this kind of hearing, evidence will be paramount. "I know I did not cheat" isn't sufficient - that's just a denial. You need more, e.g.:

Can you show that you could not possibly have known about these 2 reports?
Do you have drafts of the report, preferably with time stamps, as you were writing it?
Did you work with anyone else? If so, can they vouch for you?

Offering to redo the reports won't work unfortunately - at this point, it's about academic integrity, not about the grade you get. It's likely advisable to get advice from someone familiar with your department and the academic integrity process, e.g. a faculty member you trust, or student counselors if available.

You might be interested in related questions such as this and this.


How to complain about an abusive editor? It is well known in my field that a particular good journal has an editor-in-chief that frequently asks authors to cite a particular (largely unrelated) paper whenever he has the chance.

Looking at google scholars citations of this particular paper, you can notice that it has a large amount of citations from this particular journal. Reading the papers you can almost see the struggle of the authors trying to cite an unrelated paper.

This has been going on for years.

What can I do to try to stop this? I frequently avoid submitting to this journal due to this issue.

If you want it to stop, the best way to address the issue is to address it with the editor himself. That's not a guarantee that it will be addressed, it could very well be the case that the editor is aware of how his requests are perceived by the most people in the field, and is choosing to run the journal this way anyways.

You mentioned that you avoid submitting to this journal. If you want to lower the prestige of the journal, you could publicize the unprofessional practices of the editor, and encourage your colleagues to submit to better, more professional journals instead. As MxNx mentioned in the comments, there are many good journals they could submit to instead. If many people in your field stop submitting to this journal, chances are it will fall in prestige and possibly fail eventually, unless the practices change.


Which is the more competitive path to grad school for mathematics? I am an undergraduate student studying mathematics at a well regarded university in the United States and am wondering which of these two (for the sake of simplicity, I recognize it's not so simple in reality) strategies is better for getting into grad school, in the US or abroad.

Option 1: Play it relatively safe, but staying dedicated, taking a few more classes than required for the major (a grad course or two), mastering the material, getting straight A's, maybe some light "research" or directed reading, and solid letters of recommendation. Have plenty of time to study for the GRE and do very well on it.

Option 2: Dive into more challenging work, loading on an extra class here and there (taking 2 or 3 graduate level courses, and an additional one or two challenging undergrad courses compared to the first option), earning a low A/high B average on the challenging/additional work. Also trying to get as much research type experience as possible. Probably will not have much time to study for the GRE.

What option, generally speaking, would make a math student more competitive for top Math PhD programs?

Please let me know if I should make my question more clear.

Thank you all for your time.

Edit: I think this question benefits anyone considering going to math grad school. Why are people putting this on hold? There is a popular question about romance and opinions, and yet this question is the one that's flagged by these people? There is already a wonderful answer by a mathematics professor that many people will find valuable.

Let me start by saying that while I have never been involved in graduate admissions (my college does not offer a graduate program in mathematics), I'm an assistant professor of mathematics at a well regarded liberal arts college whose graduates regularly go on to attend top graduate programs.

As you acknowledge in your question, the reality of the situation isn't nearly as black and white as your dichotomy seems to make it out to be. In my experience, the most important aspects of your graduate school applications will be (in no particular order):

The classes you took and your grades in them. Since you say your goal is to attend a top PhD program, you should be taking challenging courses and doing well in them. But of course you knew this already. There is a certain balancing act that one has to pull off in selecting what courses to take. Essentially, this boils down to breadth versus depth. On the one hand, you can take lots and lots of fun elective courses in all sorts of cool areas of math. On the other hand, you can choose a smaller number of areas and go really in depth with them, taking the introductory graduate sequences in them if possible. When I was an undergraduate I took the former route and took 24 math courses (I just counted) during my four years of college. These courses (some graduate, some undergraduate) were on topics like mathematical logic, algebraic geometry, primality testing, etc. I don't advise my students to do this, but I'm glad that I did and to this day find it useful in my research to know little bits about a wide variety of fields. Assuming you are interested in pure math, I'd advise you to go the second route and focus on algebra, analysis and topology. You'll likely have to pass qualifying exams in these areas in grad school before you can advance to candidacy, start working on research with an advisor, etc., so the stronger your undergraduate background in them the better. Your application is going to have to convince PhD admission committees that you'll be able to succeed in their programs, and having already done well in graduate courses in core areas (i.e., algebra, analysis and topology) is going to make this much easier.
Your letters of recommendation. It goes without saying that to get into a top PhD program you'll need strong letters of recommendation from professors that know you well. Ideally these will be from people that have taught you in multiple courses (ideally advanced courses or independent reading courses), mentored you in an honors project, or mentored you on a research project. Something that is crucial is that the professor know you well enough to be able to write a strong, detailed letter that says more than just "This student got an A in my class." I find it extremely frustrating when a strong student asks me for a letter of recommendation for graduate school when I've only had them in one course and they never really attended my office hours regularly or do anything else that in that course that let me get to know them at all. In cases like this it's hard for me to write anything but a generic letter that might not do all that much good. Something else to keep in mind as you try to game the graduate admissions system is that good letters are going to compare you to other undergraduates that the letter writer has interacted with. As an example, when I write a letter for a student applying to top programs I'll say something like "Of the roughly X students that I have interacted with during my time at Oberlin, this student is most similar to Students A and B, who are now graduate students at Stanford and the University of Michigan," or "This student is one of the 3 or 4 strongest in their (very strong) class." This kind of thing lets the letter writer make it clear whether you are a very strong student, an exceptionally strong student that is at the very top of their class, or the type of student that only comes along once every few years. If you are going to be graduating from a university that regularly sends students to top programs, having letter writers that can make these sort of comparisons could be especially important.
Your score on the GRE (math subject exam). I don't have much to say about this one. The fact that programs receive many more applications than they have spots to fill in their incoming classes means that scores on exams like this are a very convenient way of comparing people and/or developing cut-off scores. That isn't to say that you won't be able to attend grad school if you don't do extremely well on the exam. It is, after all, a single exam, and one that is primarily (exclusively?) taken by people wishing to go to graduate school in math or a related discipline. I've found that students scoring around the 60th percentile with otherwise strong applications haven't had problems being admitted to good graduate programs. If you're coming from a well known university with letters of recommendation from letter writers whom graduate admissions committees will have heard of, then places might be a bit more forgiving than if you have a low GRE score and are coming from a lesser known place with letters from people that admissions committee members will be unlikely to have heard of.

Returning to your two options, I don't think either of them is optimal. If your goal is to attend a top PhD program then I think that you'll want to find some sort of a compromise between these options. Here's one thing to consider about your Option 1 though. Let's say that you get stellar grades in all of the required math courses at your university, and perhaps take an extra class or two, but nothing else. I'm far from convinced that this will lead to the types of letters of recommendations that will get you into a top PhD program. The issue is simply that I find it unlikely that doing this will lead many of your letter writers to write things about your being at the very top of your department's graduating class, doing well in the most challenging courses your department offers, etc. At the end of the day many of the students that will be admitted to top PhD programs will have done very well in a lot of very challenging courses. Taking a spot from a student that has done this when you've decided that you're only going to do one of the two (get really good grades or take really challenging courses) doesn't seem all that likely.


Does using one offer to "pressure" another school actually work? I am applying from Europe to the U.S. for tenure-track positions. One of the advice that I heard from my colleagues is that once one offer is received, one should contact the other universities that one has a preference for, and tell them about the offer. However, I do not understand how this act of telling another university about an offer could actually put any pressure. What does one say in such a communication? And what is one expecting from it? (For example, if all the interviews are already scheduled, one can hardly expect the university to "hurry along" and pick a candidate...) I am interested in hearing the answer for American institutions, but as long as the region is specified, I should like to hear the European versions as well.

Simply say that you are writing to let them know that you have received an offer from institution X. If there is a deadline for you to answer the offer, tell them what it is. This may be helpful for the department chair to use in pressuring their administration or other involved parties to make a decision sooner than they would have otherwise - yes, people can often "hurry along" when the circumstances warrant it. It may also have a psychological effect of making you look more attractive and desirable, especially if institution X is a prestigious one. But let them be impressed by the news itself; keep the tone of the email neutral and informative and avoid coming across as smug or entitled-sounding.

As for what to expect, that seems beside the point. Just like you would update the places you've applied to if you had a paper accepted to Nature since that would make you a more attractive candidate, you want to let them know about a job offer from another institution. It may or may not have any positive effect, but it sure can't hurt.

If it matters (I don't think it does, but you asked), I'm in the US. Good luck!


LoR from postdoc or PI? I am applying to PhD programs in astronomy this fall, and I will need letters of recommendation. I have been working with a research group for about a year, have done a poster session at a major conference based on work I have done with this group and have written a piece of software that will be used in a collaboration with another group at a different university. In these examples I worked most closely with a post doc in the group, but the PI was aware of what we were doing. The PI is well respected and widely known in the field, and the post doc recently received a prestigious and well known fellowship.

I am unsure whether to ask the post doc (who knows me better) or the professor (who knows me but is also more established in the field) for a letter of recommendation. I am in the fortunate position that I have more potential letter writers than I need, so I would prefer to have only one from this research position to show the breadth of my other research experience. Would I be better suited by asking the PI or the post doc? Is it common to have jointly written letters?

Ask your PI to write the letter, and consider suggesting that the postdoc consult with the PI or even help write the letter. That way, you get the best of both worlds: the reputation of the advisor, and the specifics from the postdoc (who could be named within the letter).


What fraction of STEM PhD graduates end up in jobs that require a PhD? Only a small fraction of PhD graduates in STEM end up as (tenured) professors.  For example, see this question and plenty of other material on the internet.

Many PhD graduates end up wokring in government or industry.  Some of those are research positions where a PhD is valued if not required (perhaps the specialisation is less important), but I also know STEM PhD graduates who work as programmers (quite common), as a miner, in the military, or as a reindeer herder (yes).

Within STEM, what fraction of PhD graduates end up in jobs for which a PhD is a requirement?  And what fraction in jobs for which it is considered valuable, even if not required?

In order not to muddy the waters with graduates doing postdocs still hoping for an academic career before giving up, let's consider the first long-term (5 years+) position or whatever they're doing 10 years after completing the PhD.

STEM is a big place.

For  physics, APS reports that 47% of new PhDs go into a Post-doc, 38% take a potentially-permanent position (usually in industry), and only 4% are unemployed. This suggests that at least 86% of physics PhDs are using their PhD. Some of these post-docs won't convert to academic positions, but they are unlikely to end up unemployed.

It's true that some of these industry jobs don't require a PhD, but they are generally preferred, plus they usually count as being worth 5-10 years of experience. So I think it's fair to count the industry jobs as "using" the PhD.

In other sciences, things are different. In chemistry, ACS reports that 14% of new PhDs are unemployed. On the other hand, 94% report that their job is related to their PhD (so, something does not add up).

In psychology, only 63% are "working full time" (it does not specify on what), but that does not count the 24% who are "working on post-doctorates" (?). Further, 54.4% of the employed PhDs claim that "doctorate in psychology [was] important" to finding their job, with another 24% saying it was helpful.

See also this  article.

My personal experience as a PhD in industry who is involved in hiring is that there is a huge shortage for US citizens with a STEM PhD and useful skills. By the way, "useful" skills might not mean what you think it means -- even abstract math, statistics, thermodynamics, game theory, etc. can be highly useful if you're willing to apply it to real-world technology.


Useful strategies for answering "dumb" questions in a talk? It has often been said that there is no such thing as a dumb question. And yet - perhaps due only to inattention, lack of sleep, or hunger - otherwise brilliant people sometimes manage to ask some pretty inane questions during talks. ("Yes, but how does the rover manage to drive around on the moon in the first place - shouldn't it just fall back down to Earth?") Or worse: make false or bizarre assertions. ("I don't see how your thrusters can possibly provide enough lift, given that the moon is made out of cheese!")

Question: How do you answer these kinds of questions in a way that makes everyone feel good about the interaction?

There are sort of three parties to consider here: yourself, the person asking the question, and the rest of the audience. You could, for instance, amuse and satiate the rest of the audience by poking fun at the person ("True, but why would you want to leave a paradise made of cheese?"). Humor might win over the audience, but the person who asked the question will spend the rest of the time ignoring the talk and thinking about how little he likes you. In contrast, you don't want to pander ("Ah, interesting point - I didn't realize the moon was made of cheese. Is it Gruyère or some kind of Stilton?") because, although the person asking the question now feels respected, the rest of the audience thinks you're a schmuck.

Perhaps the question could be re-phrased as:

Question: how do you convince someone they're mistaken without making them feel stupid? (And what if they're stubborn?)

This situation is especially delicate if the question-asker is an established and respected member of your field (since their questions and opinions will automatically carry some weight and authority) - or worse, a person interviewing you for a job! I'm interested in both external tactics (i.e. what do you say?) as well as internal strategies (i.e. how do you put yourself in a mindset where you're unlikely to react with rude or snarky answers in the first place)?

If somebody asks a dumb question, they're not going to feel good about the interaction whatever happens. If possible, get them back on the right track but avoid saying anything that could be interpreted as sarcasm and move on as quickly as possible.

The most likely thing is either that the questioner has missed something obvious or misunderstood something you said. So, in your first example, just point out that the rover is held there by the moon's gravity and move on. They're going to be embarrassed to have missed something so simple so it's important that you don't make them feel any worse about it; at least they'll probably understand the rest of your talk, now. In the far less common case of somebody making an assertion based on something that just isn't true, point out that the thing isn't true ("Well, the moon isn't made of cheese.") and move on. If they want to debate the point, offer to discuss it after the talk but don't let them derail you: everyone else in the room, you included, came for a talk about your thruster design, not an argument about whether the moon is a dairy product.


Mentioning possible PhD principal investigators in graduate application w/o being asked to do so? My title is pretty self-explanatory, but I was wondering how it looks to mention specific researchers to work with in graduate school via my personal statement/s. I'm applying to PhD programs in neurobiology (neurological disease/therapeutics research).

I know the general consensus is "yes, mention researchers you would want to work with," but I'm worried that this may pigeonhole my application or limit it in certain ways. For example, if a new PI is not listed on the page but does research I like, and I don't list him, I lose that opportunity. Similarly, I'm worried that if I list, say 4 PIs to work with, and none of them care to have me work in their labs, I may get denied all together from the school's program (when I could have gotten accepted if I listed other PIs that may have wanted me).

Also to note, at each graduate school I'm applying to, I have made sure that there are at least 4 labs I would want to work in throughout completing my PhD thesis.

This is a minor nuance in my application's personal statements, but I would appreciate any insight. Thank you very much!

I believe in this situation you have to decide on a proper ordinal scale for schools, faculty and the program. Since you mention that you have done the legwork and identified 4 labs, it would make sense at this point to possibly write to them and ask if they might have openings in your projects of interest.

Additionally, I don't believe faculty will disregard you for listing their colleagues, unless they have a personal feud. Younger faculty especially, will consider students who might have listed more senior faculty, if they themselves have not made it clear that they are looking for students. i.e, if a new assistant professor has not set up a group website, but sees a student has applied to a senior colleague in the same field, he will most definitely consider you favorably.

The point to remember is that you are looking out to do research you find interesting and in a field where you feel you will be able to make a meaningful difference. It is not a good idea to be vague in hopes of acceptance if you are not sure of working with the PI in question anyway.


Addressing a faculty member I interviewed I know there are other questions about how to address faculty members, but this situation is a bit unusual, so hear me out:

I'm in my last year at an undergraduate institution. My department head is very conscientious about using titles, but has for some time now used his first name and the first names of other faculty members when speaking and corresponding with me (not something he usually does). He recently asked me to conduct interviews with candidates for a new position in our department, and introduced all the candidates to me using first names. We've now hired one of these candidates, and I need to get in touch with this person via email for the first time.

How should I address the new hire? Using "Dr X" feels artificial given our prior interactions (plus, I need to mention this person's spouse, who's also Dr. X), but I don't want to assume a level of familiarity with which the new hire is not comfortable. Of course I can ask about it in the email, but I've got to get past the initial salutation and welcome-interlude first!

If the emails are for some kind of 'official' purpose, then there is no harm in mentioning "Dr.". The person, if he feels uncomfortable, then he would reply back with a note asking not to be formal. This has happened with me quite a few times.

If the email is not for official purpose but for starting a conversation in a written manner, then go with "Hey X" or something similar.

Anyway, I would not overthink on these aspects. I would always go with the safe path by mentioning "Dr.".


What to do with what I've learned when writing my research proposal? During the time to prepare for my application to applying to grad school, I have learned a lot of new knowledge. They are from various sources: scientific papers from insiders in the field, blog posts from them or other individuals, articles explaining the ideas for popular audience, Wikipedia, YouTube, etc. While they help me a lot to understand what the field is so that I can write a good research proposal, after having one I have basically nothing to do with them, except to answer my friends' question: "So, what do you do?", which I can only provide a small fraction of what I really know and want to say.

I think the knowledge has a better potential to help me go further in my career, so I am thinking to turn it into a real article/paper. There will be an international conference in my country in which my field is one topic of it and my furthest goal is to write the article good enough so that I can submit a poster in there. The deadline to submit is before I starting grad school so I guess that I will have to write it by myself. Although I always want to put my best effort to every product I make, I don't want to spend more than one month on writing this in order to move on to my next project. Popular readers will be my audience of course.

Q: The first and foremost question is: is this worth? Are there other alternative ways to do with what I've learned? If making it as an article is indeed worth to do, I still don't know how to maximize the benefit that it will bring to me. I have some more things to consider:

Language: What language should I use? If I write it in English, I can reach more readers and hope that I will find grant easier. However if I write in my native language, I would be the first one to write detailly about this and therefore having an advantage of being the first one, though I admit I don't know what to do next with this advantage in this stage of my career.
Place to publish: Where should I publish this article? Of course I can always post it in my blog, but can it be published elsewhere? If I should write in English, can you suggest some journals/magazines that will accept my work? If it's in my native language, I have two options of where to submit and I don't know which one is better. The first one is an old reputable magazine among researchers in my country. It's a kind of dicussion board where topic can range from introducing new discovery or science news to critics about government policy in science. The other one is a new young but promising science journal that available in both languages, founded by a young researcher. Its focus is narrower, only introduction of actual research of my country researchers in hard science/technology.

Thank you so much for your time to reading this far.

Having learnt something new does not mean that you can publish a research article. You need some new research to publish. So my answer to the question in the title is:

Use your new knowledge to do research.

If you still hold on to the idea of publishing something, you need to think hard about 1. a venue to publish and 2. what is it that makes your text publishable. If you can write a really good overview for some audience and can find a venue that may fit, you may try (but in fact, it is pretty hard and next to impossible to write a good overview when you just entered a field, this is something for more senior people).


Fantasy book examples in PhD Thesis I have a question regarding the use of fantasy books in a PhD thesis. Imagine for example that I'm writing an example motivating the use of databases. Can I design e.g. a database composed of Game of Thrones characters and put it into the thesis? I noticed that some people put some fake examples or examples from Greek mythology so I'm wandering if it is legal to put examples from different books.

I agree with Wrzlprmft that, assuming the names are trademarked, mere use of the names as hypothetical entries in a database would not constitute trademark infringement.
And names cannot be copyrighted.  See Circular 33, US Copyright Office, "Works not protected by copyright" which states on p. 3 that "The name of a character" cannot be copyrighted. Online at https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ33.pdf
But suppose that somehow, somehow the GoT people found your thesis and sued. Your thesis would instantly become internationally known. You can't buy publicity like that. ;-)


What is a novelty in a computer science PhD' I'm now on my final year of my PhD in Computer Science (CS).

Unfortunately, I'm still confused with what is considered as a novelty in CS.

Some people say I have to develop a new algorithm and not applying an existing algorithm.

Some people say it is still novelty even if I apply the existing algorithms to solve some problems in my area.

Some people say if someone else method from another area can work in my area, and that particular method haven't been explored in my area, it is still considered as a novelty.

So,  now I am confused at my stage. What does it mean as a novelty in Computer Science PhD research? What it is considered as a novelty to pass the PhD?

I am also advised to present four contributions in my PhD to graduate. And, for each contribution, I put it as one chapter in my thesis. Each contribution is a new thing and published in a journal/conference. It is true? Why I can see some PhD works do not have these four chapters?

In computer science, perception of novelty varies greatly by subfield. In theory, they would consider a new algorithm a novel contribution. In other subfields like bioinformatics or compilers, a new application of an algorithm to a problem would be considered a novel contribution. In Human-computer interaction, improving our knowledge on how people interact with certain types of user interfaces would be a novel contribution. People doing research in architecture, graphics, networking, systems, etc. each have their own notion of what novelty means.

Your adviser is the best person to ask what constitutes a novel contribution in your subfield.

Standards for how much novel work you need to earn the PhD degree vary by University and by adviser. I've seen 100 page dissertations and 500 page dissertations. I've seen dissertations that don't seem to add much more than a single journal paper would, and I've seen dissertations that completely crack open a whole new field of research.

Of course, you will have to meet whatever standards are set by your University and thesis committee. If you think their requirements are unreasonable or unfair, feel free to ask another question.


Is there a standard order for the preliminary pages of PhD theses? I am a PhD student in a UK university. As I was putting my thesis together, I did not know how I should order the preliminary pages, which are as follows:

Abstract.
Dedication.
Acknowledgment.
Declaration.
An empty page with a quote at the top.

I have found that different people ordered them differently. Is not there a "standard" order for them?

There is no formal order that applies 'worldwide' no. Though you should consider getting in touch with the service responsible for thesis publication at the university (usually the library I'd expect), there may be a format that you need to meet regarding the front page, back page and potentially abstract page.


CV for PhD application with little relevant professional experience? I'm currently applying for a PhD at my institution. Part of the application requires an academic CV, however I have no professional experience that is not retail work (I have volunteered as student support at my university but don't think that's very relevant), and as I only recently graduated from my undergraduate degree and started my masters, I do not yet have any publications and have not spoken at or attended any conferences apart from attending a postgraduate conference at my university last year.

Are there any ways of getting around this? I received a very good grade for my undergraduate dissertation and have a good idea of what my masters dissertation will be, and I am trying to use those to my advantage.

It's called a "CV", but it's really the same as a resume at this stage. Moreover, how you format it, and what you put on it, is completely up to you.

Try to be as creative as possible, and really sell yourself -- don't be afraid to brag. What are your strengths? Things that may seem irrelevant could still impress the admissions committee.

Also, without research publications, the best substitute is good performance in advance classes and (more importantly) a good recommendation letter, or two, that can vouch for your research potential.

  "I received a very good grade for my undergraduate dissertation"

That will look great -- put it on. Find or make an appropriate section. Then say "received highest possible grade on dissertation" or whatever; cite statistics on dissertation scores if you can find them and they make you look more impressive.

  I do not yet have any publications and have not spoken at or attended any conferences apart from attending a postgraduate conference at my university last year.

You can put on that you attended the conference. Publications are not necessary in most fields -- if you have them, that's a huge leg up, but most candidates will not have them (at least, at all but the very top-tier universities, and in most fields).


How to find collaborators for just writing and formatting manuscripts In our research group we do many things, but have little time for writing papers. Sometimes things like formatting the manuscript for some specific journal or just writing the intro and methods sections can be very easy things if what you do is almost always the same, or you just need to rewrite some parts from one paper to other. This is always (from my opinion) straightforward but needs lots of time. Therefore I started to wonder how could I find people for just writing and formatting manuscript 100% of the time. How would you do this?

P.S. I remember some years ago there were some websites where programmers could interchange between them "services" for free, for instance one would write some C# code if the other one could do a website for the other. Do something like this exist for academics where the services are "writing papers", "formatting grants", "getting bibliography", etc.

Writing the manuscript is a significant scientific contribution. Is your research so trivial that anybody can interpret the data that you give them and write to a high scientific caliber on them, with no further inputs from you? Most likely, you'd need to also provide them with a rigorous analysis of that data, probably in writing form, since they might no share an office with you, and also for record keeping. That explanation becomes the crux of a paper that you could write yourself in the first place. The time spent explaining the data to someone not involved in an experiment will be greater than just writing the thing yourself. You'd be only saving time on tiny matters of sentence formulation, if you'd even save time at all.

Formatting a paper in my experience doesn't take that much time, so I'm not sure where you're coming from in on that point. Most journals provide you with a template that you can literally copy paste into. If something is straightforward as you say, it shouldn't take that much time at all. If by "getting bibliography", you mean compiling the bibliography, that will also be something that only you, being familiar with the experiment, can provide. A bibliography should be something that arises naturally from the need to reference previous methods/works for your analysis, not a chunk that you copy paste between papers without thoughts.

If you mean that they also do the data analysis, then they just become a regular scientific collaborator, with full authorship rights.


Is it okay for a potential post doc to send an email to professor on the weekend? I am talking with a professor to apply to a postdoc program. I sent a cold email earlier this week and we have exchanged a few emails.
In his last email he sent me some papers to read.
The thing is, I might end up sending my answer on Saturday, after I read the papers. Is this a problem? Should I just send it and wait until Monday for his answer? Maybe send it but include an apology for writing during the weekend? Or should I just wait until Monday to send it?
I usually text everyone during the weekend including my advisor, but I'm not sure if it might be considered rude, and as I do not know the person yet I want to be as careful as possible with etiquette.
Thank you.

Email is a form of asynchronous communication: it doesn't matter when mail is sent, it can be read whenever pleases the recipient.

High-ranking professionals should not sacrifice their operational efficiency to avoid the possibility of lower-ranking professionals feeling stressed, overwhelmed, etc. by out-of-hours emails. High-ranking professionals should make lower-ranking professionals aware of work-life balance. Managers and subordinates should discuss expectations.

Technology can help. Email should never raise notifications. (They're too numerous and interfere with flows.)  Messaging apps can be segregated: Some for work, others for home. (Signal at work, WhatsApp at home, for instance.) Work apps should only raise notifications during set hours.

Only individuals can establish their own, "best" work-life balance.


Preparing lecture notes and references? I am a new teacher/lecturer in science, and I am preparing lecture notes for my module. I am putting together a lot of material coming from textbooks as well as borrowing material from other lecture notes I come across online. In the bibliography, I have included the main textbooks, as students are encouraged to read them and try some of the exercises in those books. However, I am not sure how, or if I should, include references to the material I am taking from other lecture notes. First, if I include too many references, it will be useless for the students. Second, the material in those lecture notes is not original either. What are some general rules and guidelines for citing material in your lecture notes?

There are three different sorts of bibliographic entries in your situation, I think: suggestions for further reading (for the students), acknowledgement of your sources, and historical references. One should acknowledge one's sources, whether or not it "helps the students". I think it will help them in the larger sense of perhaps slightly better appreciating how human knowledge is advanced and organized. Including historical references helps people understand the timescale on which things happen.

Even with "well-known" relatively elementary results whose origins have faded into obscurity, you can note that you learned these things from various textbooks yourself... not that you came up with it all yourself, for example. You could tell the textbooks you studied from.

Even if that information is not "tested-on", I think it sets a good model for the students.


When referring to study at Oxford why is the word "read" used? When reading about people who have studied at Oxford the word "read" is used instead of study. Example:

"He read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford"

Why when discussing study at Oxford (and maybe other universities) is the word "read" used?

This is just a peculiarity of British English that read can have this particular meaning. The New Oxford American Dictionary says:

  read
  3. chiefly Brit. study (an academic subject) at a university: I'm reading English at Cambridge
    [ no obj. ]: he went to Manchester to read for a BA in Economics.

So, it's more about language itself than the official title of the diploma or an academic custom.

— Hey, wait, but where does this idea come up to associate “read” with “learn, understand”? Surely there is a reason? And why is it English only?

Well, as it turns out, the meaning of “learn, understand, think, explain” is actually the original meaning of the Old English word from which we inherited read! The Old English word is rædan (“explain”, amongst its meanings), from Proto-Germanic raedanan, from Proto-Indo-European root re(i)- (“to reason, count”).

Now, in many languages, the words derived from this root kept their original meaning. In German, raten means “to advise, counsel”; in Icelandic, ráða means “advise, decide, solve”.

Now, at some point something in Old English went sideways. Wiktionary states very clearly:

  The development from “advise, interpret” to “interpret letters, read” is unique to English

Etymonline is more specific:

  Transference to “understand the meaning of written symbols” is unique to Old English and (perhaps under English influence) Old Norse raða. Most languages use a word rooted in the idea of "gather up" as their word for "read" (cf. French lire, from Latin legere).

Now, the original meaning of the word read is retained in some contexts in British English, but was lost in other forms of the English language, such as American English.

As a summary, the hard question is not really “why can read mean study”, but instead: why did read come to mean “read”?

(source for the above: my memory, which is backed by the most excellent Etymonline)


What employment can someone obtain if they were not given the PhD after studying and publishing? Suppose, after six years of study toward a PhD, my advisor refuses to give me PhD because he is not happy with my work.  (I am in India, currently in my third year of the PhD, studying computational biology, dealing with the computational aspects of host pathogen interactions, after doing my bachelors and masters degree in computer science.) After 6 years of work (assuming after 3 years if this situation remains same), if I have not gotten the degree, although I will have my publication record, with all first authorship.

My question is , with 6 years of research experience and papers that I have worked on, with all first authorship, what types of jobs would I be able to apply for, without a PhD degree?

My question is not about what is legal or illegal in PhD. My question is what is in bold...

A little info regarding my university: A student's fate depends on her advisor, higher authority cannot do anything...

Edit (from comment):

I am in my 3rd year of phd.

Congratulations on the publications you have achieved thus far.

  If I change my advisor now, my present advisor will become vindictive. [...] A students fate depends on her advisor; higher authority cannot do anything.

It sounds like your best bet, if you want to stay where you are, would be to avoid conflict with your advisor.

  I am in my 3rd year of phd.

I don't know anyone who completed a PhD in two or even three years.


Why wouldn't a professor allow a student to record audio of his lecture? I am a master’s student in a public university in the state of New York. I do not consider myself to be disabled in any form but I do find it difficult to concentrate in class. I lose focus too often and have difficulty recalling concepts taught during class. So I find resources such as recorded lectures to be very quite beneficial as whenever I lose focus while watching them, I can simply rewind back.

I am currently enrolled in a course where lectures are not recorded. I like this subject and I want to do well. So I want to ask the Professor permission to audio-record his lecture (by just keeping my phone on my desk and not using any distracting piece of equipment). I don't know the professor well but he definitely isn't one of those overtly friendly ones who (you'd think) will surely give you permission.

What I want to know is if he were to deny me, what could be his reasons?

I think I have just one shot at this. So I want to go there prepared.

A vaguely similar (but not the same) question has been asked before.

Update: I asked the Professor if I could record and he simply smiled and said yes.

This is a subjective question, but common reasons I have heard (and reasons I would have) include:

Fear of students editing records to manipulate what you said
Fear of having a mistake you made taken out of context and spread widely
Concern that it encourages students to not pay as close of attention
Concern that students will not feel they need to attend class if they have acceess to the lecture outside of class.
Concern that students in the class will not feel as comfortable asking questions or contributing to discussion, since they are also being recorded
Institutional concern about a course's lectures being widely distributed online, when in fact these lectures are for (paying) enrolled students--a type of "intellectual property" concern

Edit: Also, you might want to be aware when bringing up problems getting easily distracted in the class, a professor could take that somewhat personally. Many committed teachers go out of their way to try to make their class as interesting and engaging as possible. If a student asked to record lectures because they are getting distracted or zoning out during class, one may not hear: "I am trying to do this to improve my learning;" but rather: "I am trying to compensate for your short-comings as a teacher". Not all instructors will feel this way, but that's just something to keep in mind as you broach that conversation.

Edit2: There's a lot of discussion in comments that my last comment about socially navigating the question: it is very true that many teachers may not care. However, trying to frame the request more explicitly as "this is a thing I am doing to improve my learning" could be beneficial in making your instructor agree.


Move Mendeley's Database to Another Computer How can I transfer a mendeley database (including attached PDF files) from a computer to an another one which does not has access to the internet?

Thnaks

Edit:

This software requires log-in via your internet-based account in its first run, and as i found, it uses sqllite for database handling, and requires some tricks when moving the database from one computer to another. But, as you have logged-in, for next times there is no need to enter username & password.

Your best bet would probably be an external storage device such as these on Best Buy (not an endorsement of BestBuy, I just clicked the first online retailer link). However, you should be careful when doing this. If the computer in question isn't attached to the internet for security reasons, it might not be acceptable to plug an external storage device into it without special permission.

Edit: In response to your edit, if the software absolutely requires an internet connection, then it seems impossible. If there is a loophole, you should use the loophole. However, I don't know any loopholes in that particular program (as I have never heard of it before today), and I suspect asking for such a thing would be off-topic here.


Is it rude to ask for accommodations due to a learning disability? I have a learning disability where I can only learn through seeing (not seeing and hearing). As a result, I need to have headphones in class to block all sound. Should I just tell the professor this?

It would not consider the request rude, as long as you have a reasonable justification for needing to wear headphones during class (which you do). How you might approach your professor and whether he'll accommodate your request may depend on where you're located and whether your jurisdiction provides protections for individuals with disabilities.

In the United States, for example, individuals with disabilities are protected though the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which require colleges and universities (amongst other organizations) to provide reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities—in your case, needing to wear headphones in class would be considered a reasonable accommodation (although this might depend on the subject of the course—in a woodworking course where headphones would pose a threat to safety, for example, it would likely not be a reasonable accommodation).

There are also proper channels a student needs to go through to request medical accommodations—initial requests should not go directly to the professor. Universities and colleges will have a centralized student disabilities office that handles requests for disability accommodations and it is this office that will require documentation of a disability and determine what accommodations a professor will be required to provide. They will then send a form to your professors indicating what accommodations they need to give you. Because of ADA and health privacy laws, the disability office will not tell your professor what your disability is and your professor is not allowed to ask you what your disability is.

Although this answer is very much local to the United States, similar protections may exist in other countries as well. Rather than approaching your professors directly, consider asking your university's student advising office, student life office or health clinic whether professors will provide accommodations for disability (you shouldn't need to tell them what your disability is). They will then be able to point you to resources that will work with you to find solutions.


How can I annotate a web article? More generally, what "workflow" do people suggest when dealing with web articles in research?

I used to always save useful articles as PDFs to my Documents folder, and maybe copy and paste useful information I found to a word processor document. I have realized this is inefficient for a number of reasons, and found simply bookmarking useful articles and organizing those bookmarks in a nested file system (in Safari) to be a more elegant, clean work process.
Is there any similar minimalist process for annotating those web articles? I know Evernote and others have a web annotator, but I'm hesitant to deal with external software... a feature integrated into Safari would be ideal.

Can anyone recommend how they deal with web articles when researching?

You may want to try Microsoft OneNote. When you copy content from a website and paste it into a notebook, OneNote automatically appends the website URL. You can thus collect all relevant snippets without losing track of where they came from, and add your thoughts there.


Procedure for having multiple advisors for a PhD thesis Assume that one has begun a PhD program at a university which allows a student to choose an advisor after his/her first year in the program and the student has narrowed down to a couple of potential advisors and that he/she wishes to do his thesis under multiple advisors.

What is the procedure for suggesting multiple advisors? Whom do you speak to first? What if the advisors don't go so well together?

Unfortunately, I think the answer is going to be - "it depends"! I have advised several graduate students, including 2 who are currently "co-advised" with other faculty. In one case, the student approached me first, but I already had a working relationship (co-teaching, serving on supervisory committees together etc.) with the other faculty member. In the other case, I was approached 2nd, and again, I had previously worked with the other faculty and knew them well. When talking with potential students, if it is clear that a different faculty member would have better or equally relevant expertise, I always suggest talking to them. However, that's my opinion. I also have colleagues who would flat out refuse to consider co-advising a student.

I think the key "test" is to imagine your dissertation work as a 3 way collaboration - what does each faculty member bring to the table? What are they going to get out of it? How you approach them is completely dependent on the individual personalities involved. You should also find out if there are any policies on co-advising at your institution or department - there are none at mine, but that might not be universal.


Citing one paper in consecutive paragraphs in a thesis I dedicated one subsection of my thesis to a very new topic from a 2020 paper so I had only one reference. I wrote the subsection in this way:

paragraph 1: Introduction to the concept of X and the framework
containing five dimensions
paragraph 2: dimension 1
paragraph 3: dimension 2
paragraph 4: dimension 3
paragraph 5: dimension 4
paragraph 6: dimension 5
paragraph 7: Wrap up and conclusion

Everything has been summarised (not copied) from one 2020 paper. My question is: what is the best way to cite that paper? Does it make sense to add one sentence to paragraph 1 and say that contents of this subsection is a summary of [reference]?
P.S. this new topic is not the core topic of my thesis

Just open with:

This section summarises research by A et al. [1].


How can a student suggest changes in grading policies I am taking a graduate course online in education. Though I have taken many online courses, my professor is clearly inexperienced. Like all education professors, mine writes about rubrics and standards. However, his grading contradicts the things he teaches us to do.

I am not concerned about my previous grades, but I would like him to make improvements for future grades this course. I don't want to wait for the end-of-term evaluations.

Should I politely and constructively suggest that he make some changes in his grading policies? What would be the most effective arguments to give?

Once published, I don't see any easy way to change the grading scheme for a course "in progress."

However, if you mean to suggest how he can more appropriately grade assignments and examinations, that's a different matter. The best way to do this would be to start the conversation with a polite inquiry into why certain decisions were made.

  I'm a little bit confused about how this assignment was graded. You told us we should do X, but you did Y instead. Is Y something we should be doing instead of or in addition to X?

This initiates a conversation, rather than looking like an attack or direct criticism. It's usually a more effective strategy for achieving results, particularly when face-to-face conversation isn't possible.


How to nail a Ph.D. interview? I have been asked for an selection interview by a Professor in Australia for Ph.D. position (cancer research group). This position is really important for me so I want to give my best. Can anyone suggest some tips or share his experience of success or failure so that I can get an idea how to prepare myself.
Thanks a lot.

Let me pretend I'm the professor. Things I will want to know:

What drives you? What is important in your professional life?
What is it about cancer research that appeals to you? The raw science? Helping humanity? Glory?
How big is your curiosity?
Why do you want to do this degree at this university?
Can you work hard? Where is the evidence?
What have you done in your previous situation that will help/hinder  you in this one?
Can you write? Evidence?
Do you follow the evidence wherever it leads?
Do you work well with others? How comfortable am I making you part of my group? Note that you may get to meet some of the others as part of this.
Have you any experience with this sort of research? If not, how fast can I predict you will catch on?
Do you have ideas for research for a dissertation? (Not a deal breaker if no, but possibly useful if you do.)
What sort of questions did you ask me in the interview? What do they say about you?
Other things I can't think of now but that may come up in the interview.

Take a pen and notebook so you can take quick notes if needed. Nothing elaborate or electronic. I suggest a pencil and a few index cards actually.

Note that some of these are hard to express and hard to evaluate. Some are impossible to just ask and answer. It is even counterproductive to try to directly express some of them. Showing is better than telling. Some are more important than others, but the next person has a different ranking.

I may have read your CV before the interview, but I'm pretty busy. I may want to talk to a former professor afterwards (unlikely).

But more important than all of that is to be yourself and just be comfortable with it. Don't try to force it.

Contrary to stereotypes, "Do you like beer?" probably won't be a consideration. Tea is acceptable.


Changing colleges for international graduate student I joined a university in US for master's program two months ago as a GRA and it turns out my adviser had a lot of expectations from me, which are beyond my reach. He wants me out, though he hasn't explicitly made such a comment and I am also finding myself a liability for a program I don't deserve. I will run out of funding for next semester (or sooner) and it won't be possible for me to continue studies here because tuition fee are awfully high. I am planning to join another less competitive university without transferring credits from here? Do universities accept students who have already started in another university and want to change?

Yes, it is possible to transfer to another graduate program but often not very easy.  It's typical for graduate programs to limit the number of credits that they'll transfer (no more than 12 at my institution), and you may end up having to retake courses that you've already taken.

A much bigger issue can be getting admitted to another program.  If you have not done well in your courses (say a GPA of at least 3.5 or so), then you could find it very hard to be admitted to another graduate program.    It is also very important to have at least one positive letter of recommendation from a faculty member at the institution you're currently attending.


progressing from high school teaching into academia I have been a high school teacher for coming on 14 years, in 8 schools, in 2 countries. While teaching still is enjoyable, I feel with the near completion of my PhD (in physics), that I am ready for a new challenge in academia.

I have no illusions though, it will be challenging to even get into academia.  I know I also have to be published (have 3 peer reviewed papers published).

How should the skills developed in high school teaching be touted to be relevant for academic postions?

If you are near completing your PhD, then I assume you also have some papers coming out soon. If not, then your dissertation will probably be worth 3 papers, so I wouldn't worry too much about that part.

Conveying information to an audience with varied skills and backgrounds is always a valuable thing in academia. Whether in written manuscripts or conference presentations, this is usually the problem to be solved. My advisor was fond of constructing lectures, no matter the audience, as if they were to be given to college freshmen. I'd say a lot of freshmen are not too different from high school students.

A successful PhD defense signifies that you have the ability to do novel work in your field, but your teaching skills will enable you to tell others about it.


Is there any evidence that double blind peer review systems are beneficial? Every so often, I stumble upon a question concerning "double blind peer review", i.e., the authors don't know the reviewers (as usual) but also the reviewers don't know the identity of the authors.

It's always struck me as a rather odd system, with no discernible benefits (because I am under the impression that it's often rather easy to determine who the authors of a paper are anyway), and the creation of dozens of problems with people always being worried of somehow "breaking" the double blindness. (It is not helped by the fact that this would be impossible to implement in my field, math, where everyone posts their preprints on arXiv and people don't hesitate to give talks about unpublished papers).

Is there any actual, scientific, serious research into evaluating the benefits of this system? Or is it all just inertia/tradition/good intentions? I'm not talking about armchair justifications for it with no data to support it.

Yes, there is scientific research on this topic.

Using data from ACM WSDM'17, A. Tomkins et al. showed that double blind reviewers are less likely than single blind reviewers to accept papers from famous authors, top universities, and top companies.

See: http://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/114/48/12708.full.pdf

Update: As mentioned by @thomas-supports-monica in the comments, there is some evidence that the article linked above may have some issues. See https://papers.nips.cc/paper/8770-on-testing-for-biases-in-peer-review.pdf .


How to demonstrate mastery of courses not taken during undergraduation In this answer, Anonymous Mathematician says, "You need to demonstrate that you have mastered the undergraduate material that is less relevant for computer science. For example, mathematical analysis along the lines of Rudin's Principles of Mathematical Analysis"

How can I demonstrate I have mastered materials from Rudin's Principles of Mathematical Analysis or Artin's Algebra for admission in grad school?

I find this a hard question because I regularly have to deal with applicants claiming they have certain skills and because these cases are difficult to deal with. For example, recently an applicant got a bad grade for one module and wrote they really were much better. I decided the applicant's examiners are in a much better position than I to judge the applicant's capabilities.

In your case you want to prove you have knowledge you didn't formally study in your undergraduate school. If so it's impossible to prove your skills unless (1) somebody from your undergraduate school is willing to write a letter of recommendation, or (2) the grad school are willing to ``examine'' you.

In the case of (1) this may work. Unfortunately, (2) means the graduate school have to do more work and I think this is unlikely.

Finally, if the graduate school require the skills, it seems to me they think it is reasonable. In that case, applicants should have taken modules that demonstrate these skills. If they haven't, it seems to me they're not the ideal candidates in the opinion of the graduate school.


Applying for PhD programs before finishing your honours, when admission requires a first or high second honours? I want to apply to a bunch of PhD programs, particularly ones in Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong. All of these list a "High honours degree" for admission into their programs.

I will be finishing my honours in November, and will almost certainly be getting first class. The problem is that I'd like to apply to these programs before finishing in order to be eligible for certain scholarships.

Is it normal for applicants to apply for a PhD program while still finishing their honours year, even when a high honours is specifically stated in the admission requirements?

If it matters, my transcript is all A's or A+ for every year except my first year, and all A+ for my 5 honours courses I've taken, with 3 left to go this semester.

Yes.  Typically applicants apply for a PhD program before completing the prerequisites.


Where can I find research papers to read? (not currently in academia) I have graduated from university and am no longer enrolled. Even while there, I didn't really have any experience finding and reading research papers written by others.

Is there an online database where people post their papers so that others can download to read?

Looking for a list of these databases/websites. Paid is okay too.

Update After reading the comments and answers below, I'd like to add that I am looking for research papers in the Computer Science / Computer Engineering / Electrical Engineering fields, and that I have graduated a few years ago from an undergraduate Computer Science program. I have not attended graduate school nor pursued a PhD.

This is going to depend a lot on your discipline. Some disciplines are very good at keeping papers and preprints publically available. For example, most math and physics papers get papers put up on the arXiv but this is rarer in other fields. Some other fields put papers up on SSRN, but some fields don't up up almost any preprints.

It isn't clear from your question if you've completed just your undergraduate or did some graduate work. Given your statement about not having looked at papers before, I'm guessing this mean that you have either finished just an undergrad or finished a master's but nothing beyond that. If that's the case, I'm also not sure that finding papers will in general be useful for you. It might help to clarify why you want to find papers and what your goals are.


How to stay calm for a 7 minute scientific research talk? As I wrote few days ago, maybe someone remembers, I am waiting for a date to be set up and to present my scientific research on the Congress.
I have never done this before, they give me 7mins to show my introduction, aim, material and methods, results, discussion, conclusion and literature.
The research is huge but my main problem is being nervous and too emotional. Does any of you have any tips how to make myself more relaxed and somehow bring myself to state "its gonna be ok"?
My main problem is my devotion to the subject since there is some molestation and neglecting recorded and law violation. It is very hard for me to stay "normal".
I would appreciate any advice
Thank you, all.

(For context: I am a mathematician in the U.S.) For many reasons, I make my research students "rehearse" their presentations many, many times. It is of course all the more challenging to have a ridiculously short time in which to say anything. So, yes, crazy choices must be made. A more experienced person could coach/advise you on what to leave out.

Crazily-enough one of my students has won some presentation prizes for super-short talks by ... as she and I said to each other... "leaving out all the math". Definitely as opposed to trying to cram toooo much in.

Do not think in terms of giving a lecture for students. The only sane way to give such a short presentation is to think in terms of addressing people who already know enough so that the new parts of your work can stand on their own. It is obviously impossible to explain almost anything at all. No "background" on basic grad-level material. No time!

So, absolutely, find a more senior person to "rehearse" with. Your own peers may not have a clear-enough idea of what should be included to really help you. "Experts know what experts know."

(And, to be clear, rehearse the talk over and over and over and over... with your coach/advisor/critic... until you can do it in your sleep, etc.)


How to effectively evaluate your instructor? I am a graduate student and going to assess my instructor in a month, with whom I was not very much satisfied. I had been writing the teachers' evaluation in past but didn't see a scintilla of improvement even after years in any attribute of instructor or course-material. Maybe other students were quite satisfied and I was just a statistical outlier. Apart from my disbelieve, what is the most effective way to communicate with your instructor via evaluation-sheet?

Thanks for any suggestions.

What is the most effective way to communicate with your instructor via evaluation-sheet?

In a word, constructively.

If you are overly negative, there's a good chance you will be viewed as a malcontent with an axe to grind. If you'd like to maximize the chance for real improvement, avoid blanket negative statements. For example, instead of:

  This instructor was never available for consultation.

try:

  This class would be better if the instructor was more available to students.

(You send the same message, but with a more constructive – and therefore more credible – slant.)

Also, you should be realistic in what kinds of improvements you may expect to see. In my experience, some faculty take student evaluations very seriously, some don't. Some probably don't even read them; the forms are only completed because department policy demands it.

There's another important factor, too: the inmates shouldn't run the asylum. Some faculty regard student evaluations with disdain, and there may be legitimate reasons why. Sometimes professors who are easy graders get better evaluations from students, while more demanding professors get poor evaluations from students who are either lazy or else come to class with a sense of entitlement.

Truth is, there are a lot of dynamics that go into this. Just from reading your question, there's no way to tell if you're a good student who unfortunately had a bad professor, or if you're a bad student who got their feathers ruffled by a very good (yet challenging) professor.

A single evaluation won't have a huge effect either way, but, as I said at the beginning of this answer, I think your best chances for a positive impact comes by writing an evaluation with a more positive and constructive slant. In other words, try using the form to suggest improvements, rather than to harshly criticize. Such forms will be harder to dismiss outright.


Invitation to visit a colleague's university, who usually provides support for this? In the past year, colleagues or collaborators have informally extended an invitation to visit their University, maybe to meet potential collaborators and give a talk. In general, is it normal for the "host" institution to provide any support? Does one's "home" institution normally provide support to do so?

Note: I'm currently a graduate student and am primarily asking for potential opportunities.

If you have been invited to visit, the default assumption in my realm is that the inviter will cover expenses unless they tell you up front that they don't/may not have money to fund all or any of your visit.

Usually the thing to do when you want to take an advantage of an open, informal invitation is contact the person, reminding them of your conversation, and ask about or suggest times to visit.  If their reply does not make it clear if they intend to fund your visit, just ask them.


Turning down an accepted tenure track for a better one? Nota: This question specifically scopes the issue in an academic context.

Context
I am currently on the job market for a tenure track. I assert I should get a position in a bottom-of-the-first-tier institution.
Consider I accepted such a position, and that I then get an offer for a top-3 institution. (Obviously, I won't be their first choice, so I should receive their offer after I had to answer to previous lower-range offers.)

Issue
As far as I am aware of the job etiquette in the US, you are not liable to your future company as long as you've signed no contract. So you can eventually change your mind, even if you already shook hands. Of course, you discredit yourself with the given company... but there are plenty of fishes in the sea in the case of industry. This is not the case in the academia, where you will rub shoulders with the colleagues you dumped for a few decades.

Questions

How bad would it be for my reputation/career to turn down a medium-position I accepted for an all-star one, in the case I verbally (phone call or email only, no contract signed) accepted the former ?
Idem, yet with a contract signed (as long as it is permitted in the contract to resign)?

Because of the way the academic schedule works, if you accept a job you are expected to go to that job for an entire academic year.  This is different from other kinds of jobs where hiring happens all year round.  As a part of this, you are expected to withdraw your other applications when you accept a position.  Anything else will usually be seen as unethical behavior by most people.  This can get complicated in some corner cases (eg you take a temporary job but then get offered a permanent job, where the usual ethical move is to delay the start of the permanent job for a year, but often there’s no hard feelings if you just drop the temporary one, especially if you’re nice about it), but it’s the standard ethical rule.


Can I quote a sentence from another paper? I am writing a paper and I have found in another paper a definition for a quantity which I am working with that is very clear and is written much better than I will ever be able to do. I tried paraphrasing it, but the result is not so clear: can I quote it in my paper?

You can quote it as long as you reference it properly.

If you do not provide the source then that is plagiarism.


Credit load for Grad courses vs Undergraduate courses for professors As a professor I was wondering what others have experienced at the College/University regarding credit hours/compensation for teaching MA level vs BA level courses.  This is for a Psychology department...For example, a 3-credit BA course counts towards 3 credit hours of instruction. A 3-credit MA course may count at 3 credit hours or double (6-credit hours) depending on enrollment.  This policy is changing and I am wondering what policies may be in pace elsewhere for comparison.  In relation to this - how are professors compensated for mentoring MA thesis students?

Thanks in advance for any feedback that would be helpful while drafting our policy.

AFAIK my faculty requires, over one academic year, two undergrad-level half courses, and one graduate-level half course ("half course" = one term, academic year has three terms). BUT, if one of the undergrad half courses is dual-listed as a graduate level half course, this counts for BOTH one of the undergrad-level half courses and the graduate-level half course. So, in theory, a professor could teach only two half courses and have it count for the three required.


Which date should I include in personal statement? I have just finished writing personal statement and as far as formal etiquette concerns, there should be a date at the beginning. Is this a date I started writing the statement or the date I am sending it?

And is this the right format of the date: February 24, 2014?

If this is for an application for university, then you do not need to date your personal statement. That is because your application as a whole is dated and signed by you at the very end.

Otherwise, you can initialize and date it at the end of the document, e.g.:

KN
2014.06.30


How can I pay for medical school in the US? So I have a bachelor's degree and am planning on applying to medical school this year (in the US). I've previously used federal student aid to cover the cost of my undergraduate degree.

My question is, what types of sources of funding are available to cover the cost of medical school?  From what I'm reading, it seems like you can no longer get federal student aid after you have already attained a degree.

Note: I am not asking ("shopping") for specific sources, I am just wondering what types of sources (e.g., loans, stipends, savings) medical students in the US typically use to fund their studies.

By far, for professional medical education in the US, it is most common to pay for education with loans (or personal funds, if available). Even low-cost schools are expensive relative to undergraduate education. The median educational debt for graduating students is >$190k in the USA. Debts are worse if you consider earning potential in other fields.

It is simply uncommon for medical study in the US to be paid for government or other funds - these funds are limited to programs for underprivileged minorities and for those pursuing joint degrees in the sciences (and even then, loans predominate).

Being a medical doctor in the USA is lucrative, but becoming one entails major risk. Further discussion is probably beyond this stack but these discussions are constant in academic journals.


Should I mention mental condition? I graduated on time and on the top back then, but after that I had some problem with major depression and anxiety, hence I have some gap on my CV and for a while, I either couldn't work or worked below my qualification. My world literally fell apart but now I am trying to get back to my old dream. Next year, if everything goes well, I want to go get a master degree.

How should I explain myself? Do I need to mention my history with depression? I am from a country where mental health is still really badly stigmatised, but I'd like to apply abroad. I am not sure what's appropriate to say and what's not.
Thank you.

I am responding to this question as a senior academic from Australia, where discrimination on the grounds of a disability (https://www.humanrights.gov.au/employers/good-practice-good-business-factsheets/quick-guide-australian-discrimination-laws) is illegal.  Other countries will have different rules and protections.

I see no reason for you to list this in your CV. If a gap is uncovered by an assessor or interviewer, then they will put this to you and seek clarification. It is reasonable for them to ask and it is equally reasonable for you to simply state that the gap was due to personal reasons not material to the decision. Where I work, this would be an acceptable response and no more need be said about it. If they press (and I wouldn't), you may state that the gap was due to personal health issues.

If they find out -- say, one of your referees inadvertently mentions it -- then the knowledge of your disability cannot be used as grounds for any decision that they will make.

If you get a spot as a Master's student, then part of the orientation program is a discussion of opportunities for people with disabilities. This is usually handled by another office independent of the academic department of which you are a student. In Australia, the nature of your disability and its management is protected by privacy legislation.

Good luck!


Missing Information In Thesis My question is about my master thesis. In the term of my master career (about 1 year ago), i prepared conference papers and presentations which were not published but presented. And added those papers to my thesis and published it.

But nowadays, i realized that we didn't share the detailed informations about the model that i covered. I mean we shared the model as a pictures and informations but we didn't share in detail and without them, actually results and sentences are useless. On the other hand actually i think this is the most critical part; i realized that we didn't share how we handled the first step. We directly started from the next step and we presented results in thesis. And talked about them.

Actually question is; How did you get this graph = Missing for three graphs

The second one is what was the detailed properties of the model = Missing in thesis

On the other hand, if someone asks my detailed model i can of course share them and i can explain them in detail. But i revised some codes* that are used in my thesis and they have been changed and actually i may not produce the same graphs.
*we didn't share codes in my thesis also

So, if someone take action about me for not to present some details in thesis and for not to explaining one step in thesis in terms of methodology, is it seen as an academic problem or serious sitation? Thanks in advance

EXTRA INFORMATION to clarify: My one chapter is based on that information. Without that missing information you can not reproduce figures and graphs. So, it effect the reproducibilty of my master thesis.

If your thesis was accepted and you have your degree, there is no "action" that can be taken against you. You can, however, produce a new publication giving the "missing" background of your original study.

Even better would be to extend your work, and maybe your model and explain in a new paper the new work, encompassing the old.

Just be careful to cite the old work, especially since it has been "published" on the website. That will probably make it impossible to republish that, but makes it even more possible to derive new work from it.

But any "blame" for missing parts is not yours alone, being shared with your advisor and any committee that accepted the work. But, in fact, I don't think there is really any blame to share. Move on. Do even better work.


What is typically expected of a conference session chair? In this recent question, the OP there describes a situation where they were assigned to be a session chair without being asked to do so.

After reading the above question, and having never chaired a conference session before, I wonder if I would be adequately prepared to take on such a task. For sure, one would expect the conference organizers to fill in the details upon request, but it'd still be useful to have an idea of what to expect; this would all be taking place at well-attended (electrical) engineering conferences.

  What is typically expected of a conference session chair?

Perhaps things are different in electrical engineering, but in math, the chair:

introduces the speaker, sometimes just saying their name and the title of their talk, sometimes a lengthier introduction ("[speaker] is professor at XYZ University and works on blablabla");
says "thank you" out loud and starts clapping at the end;
asks if there are questions or comments from the audience;
[optional] if the questions are taking too much time, the chair will say something like "we can discuss this more during the break" and go onto the next step;
once the questions are over, says "let's thank [speaker] again" and starts clapping;
announces the time of the next talk ("in 10 minutes", "after the break at 10:30"...). Rinse and repeat.

Sometimes the chair will go as far as warning the speaker if the time limit approaches or has passed. An extra task that sometimes pops up is when the organizers want to make an announcement before/after the talk; then the chair will say "[organizer] has an important announcement, please listen". This is pretty much it.

A handy trick is to get the schedule with speakers' names and talks' titles ahead of time. Then you can practice pronouncing speakers' names, and there's no awkward silence while you say "The second speaker this afternoon is [speaker], who will talk about... uh... squints to read the title on the board [title]".

It's also more or less expected for the chair to prepare at least one question about the talk, even a very simple one. This way, if no other member of the audience has any question, then the chair can say "I actually have a question, [insert question]" after the pause that occurs after "any questions?", saving the speaker a bit of embarrassment.


How to know whether my PhD advisor knows the area of research? Ok here is the situation: My advisor gave me a paper about new model X. After reading and researching in X, I became very familiar with X and had many interesting ideas to extend its capabilities.

One thing I noticed with my advisor is the lack of deep analysis over my ideas. By this, I mean a roadmap on how to get these ideas published, what are the things I need to polish/sharp/add to get it (most likely) accepted in top conference/journal.

I handed him one draft of a paper, he didn't even doubt its findings; all his concern is to get it published somewhere in ranked C conferences; all he did was praising my writing (which is poor IMHO). What makes it even worse is the fact that I have seen some papers published in top conferences/journals with the same ideas I have (actually three ideas).

  This makes me wonder: Does he really know X?

if yes, then why he did not provide constructive ways to sharp the ideas to get it published in a top conference? or maybe I am asking for something that he can't offer!

I suppose it is rather hard to give a satisfying answer to this question with the amount of information available. I mean, it's hard to estimate all the unknowns in this particular case.

  if yes, then why he did not provide constructive ways to sharp the ideas to get it published in a top conference?

One could speculate in so many different ways; that he does not have the necessary grasp of the field to give meaningful critique is one speculation. Here's another plausible explanation; maybe he wants you to try flying on your own a bit, as a sink-or-swim approach. My supervisor did (and still does) this very often, I have almost too much freedom as to how I write, and what I write and to where I submit, then when the replies and reviews come in we sit down and improve on what I have done. Could be a similar approach

But to come back the question of how to know whether the supervisor is knowledgeable in a particular subject, here are some things that could be useful in the general case:

checking your supervisors publication record. Maybe the s/he has published articles on about this model before you even came to the group. Or maybe he was involved with an older but related model Y?
inquire you supervisor for his interest in the subject. If s/he gives you a paper about model X, all of a sudden then there is certainly a goal with that. To-the-point, effective communication might help you figure out his/her grasp of the field.

EDIT: In reply to the comment:

  if I have too much freedom as to how I write, and what I write and to where I submit, then whats the point of supervision!

My supervisor often says that his job is to teach me how to do research, not provide me with knowledge or make sure I become successful/famous/rich... Your supervisor has ZERO responsibility in providing you the means to publish in top venues, IMHO. He merely has a responsibility to make sure you get the tools you need to be able to do the research you want to carry out, later on in life.

As a side comment, I think your perspective to research might cause your frustration with your supervisor. Getting published in top venues is not a birth-right to all hard working grad students; and quite frankly, as a grad student where your articles get published have little to do with you or your work (at least in biomedical research).


How to deal with poorly written and formatted papers (as a reviewer)? From time to time I receive papers to peer review that, in my view, fail to attain an acceptable level of writing and text formatting. Examples of usual issues are: common erratum, poor use of English, bad formatted equations, inconsistent use of punctuation marks, spacings, citations, references and so on. Bonus track is when the submission has not been processed in LaTeX and it contains poorly written equations (for the record my field is Mathematics). I do not consider myself an expert in any of these points, but I think everybody know how to reach a decent level, of course if you are willing to invest some time on it.

While in certain situations there are interesting scientific contributions to present, it is certainly hard to focus on them with so many styling distractions around. What is worse, sometimes they are hard to decipher because of an inconsistent use of notation or because a misspelling introduces a key change in the meaning of a statement. In my opinion, these are issues that could have been solved by the authors with a careful revision of the manuscript prior to submission.

For the sake of argument, let's assume a paper as described before, with a legitimate scientific contribution and let's keep apart from the question the scientific part of the report. When I face the review of such a paper, I often have the next dilemma: should I point the authors to all the writing/styling/formatting issues? Or should I briefly mention that there are serious non-scientific issues and encourage the authors to fix them? The two opposite arguments supporting each approach are:

On one hand, I feel that is my responsibility as a reviewer to ensure that the paper is going to have the best scientific/presentation quality possible after the reviewing process. And that includes helping as much as I can in both points.
On the other hand, if the authors should have taken care of all the non-scientific issues, I wonder why should I invest so much time pointing towards their improvement. In some sense, I feel they are being a little disrespectful with the reviewers and readers to submit a non-polished manuscript. In addition, maybe this kind of work could be done by the people in charge of the article proofs (assuming that the journal has them and that they do a good job...)

My current approach is to ask for a major revision and reply with a very detailed list of all the non-scientific issues I found, but I wonder whether I am overdoing my referee's duties. In addition, this turns to be also quite time-consuming.

EDIT: I am looking for an answer that involves a discussion on what are the reviewer's duties and limits regarding writing/styling. This is only partially addressed in this question.

If you cannot understand the discussion, you may just point out that the manuscript is poorly readable and suggest "reject, invite to resubmit". Some journals allow that option. "Major revisions" will work essentially in the same way.
I would not do proof-reading for the authors, it is not the reviewer's job.


What exactly does it mean to say that a conference is "peer reviewed"? I think as a PhD student, you should publish only in high IF journals rather than conferences. But if it is conference, then it should be at least "peer reviewed" one!

Some conferences first ask for an abstract. After the selection based on only abstracts they ask for a limited page number paper (like 3-4 pages). After all, you receive no any comments from any Reviewers. At best case, some few typographical comments from the editor.

Is this called peer reviewed?

Things vary a bit, depending on the field you are in.
Some fields only review and publish abstracts (e.g., medicine), in some fields conferences are more important than journal publications (e.g., computer science).

But as a rule of thumb: a conference is only considered to be peer-reviewed when the full paper is reviewed, and not an (extended) abstract.

Personally, I think that there are great conferences out there, where only an extended abstract is reviewed (e.g., SPIE), but many working in academia do not consider them to be peer-reviewed.

Be aware! There are also scam (or near-scam) conferences that pretend to have a peer-review process, but actually hardly perform any review at all (and have accepted computer generated nonsense papers in the past). Try to avoid these! They only cost (a lot of) money, and will actually degrade your CV.