When did "Publish or Perish" first become a thing? Related: What does "Publish or perish" really mean?

The issue of "Publish or Perish" is pretty much an accepted reality in Academia nowadays. When I look at history, however, I see that the Medieval university was far from this - that the average, say, 13th century academic was more invested in passing degree examinations, applying logic against the classics, and mastering pedagogical techniques (how to teach your own students) than in finding something truly new about the world and racing his rivals colleagues to publication.

At what point in history did "Publish or Perish" become a reality for the majority of academics? In no way am I challenging the concepts, only asking about the timeframe. Could an "average" academic in 1800 build a career by gaining advanced subject matter knowledge (e.g. being really really good at integrating by parts, balancing chemical equations, or identifying known species of birds by looking only at their feet), being good at debate, passing a lot of exams, etc., without discovering much (if anything) that was new in his field? What about 1850? 1900? When was the changeover?

My hypothesis would be that there was some sort of watershed event, perhaps similar to (or identical to) the radical change in admission requirements for US undergraduates that happened when large numbers of returning World War 2 veterans all wanted to (and could afford to) "go to college" at the same time.

Jon Custer made a good point about PhD awards exploding in the 1990's. The PhD degree itself might also be related. Since the PhD is inherently a research degree that requires a substantial original discovery (as opposed to other degrees that may be focused more on subject matter knowledge, professional practice, or pedagogy), an answer might consist in discovering when it became rare for someone to gain a professorial appointment without a PhD. This could be an example of Creeping Credentialism - that when everyone and their dog has a PhD, suddenly a PhD is required for all sorts of teaching (or even research) jobs that used to only require an MA or even a BA or below. The question would be, when was that? Could you become an English professor at Harvard in 1765 by walking in off the street with no degree, passing an advanced professor-level literacy test, and completing a six-week accelerated course in Ye Olde Modern 18th Century Best Practices in Contemporary Literature Pedagogy?

From a pop cultural/literary perspective, I was recently reading some of H. P. Lovecraft's fiction from the 1920's and 1930's and was shocked at the frequency at which his academic-background characters intentionally "lose" their research (oops) or at least don't seem to mind that they have lost years of potentially groundbreaking research. At some level I feel that he is intending to imply extreme gravity to the situation - that unleashing the knowledge of eldritch abominations upon journal readers is simply so unthinkable that it's worth shooting one's own career in the foot to prevent it, or whether his characters reflect a different era, one in which research was more of a fun diversion for academics bored of teaching (and thus not truly necessary to gain or keep a faculty post).

Note that I am not asking when regular journal publications or the practice of peer review first developed, I am asking when they became the sine qua non of Academia, that is, when one could no longer reasonably expect to achieve tenure if the only real publication one had was a degree thesis or dissertation.

In mathematics, in the U.S., until the 1950s it was almost entirely the case that math departments were service departments to engineering and chem and physics. Teaching loads were high, and there was no expectation of "research" at all. Some people with M.S.'s were faculty, and some people with PhD's had "done no research" except their thesis.

In the early-to-mid 1950's, coinciding with the post-sputnik, post-Hiroshima era, apparently many math depts argued that individuals' teaching loads should be greatly reduced... so they could conduct research that would help "beat the commies" or whatever other enemies... and, concommitantly, they'd need lots more faculty lines.

Of course there was a boom time, perhaps of a decade or two, but then the pretense caught up with us all. E.g., Michael Spivak's multi-volume book(s) on differential geometry were published by "Publish or Perish" press.

Nevertheless, at a relatively high end of things, even into the 1980's, in math, in the U.S., it seemed and does still seem to me that people were judged more by their scholarship, reputation, insight, etc., than by paper-count. Yes, part of this was the considerable difficulty of creating a readable document pre-PDF, pre-TeX, pre-most-things. And, yes, pre-internet. Presentations at conferences, even without associated preprints, could make a person's reputation.

Many breakthrough results were first made public at conferences (in the lack of arXiv or internet generally), and, again, such stuff was what reputations were made of. "Publications" were mostly after-the-fact.


What happens if a department runs out of space? I'm curious what happens if a department runs out of space - e.g. they are expanding, but they don't have enough rooms for their faculty, postdocs, visitors, etc. It's presumably possible to squeeze a bit, put many PhD students into the same room for example, but this would be a short-term solution.

The obvious thing to do seems like to petition the dean to allocate more space to the department, but this seems very nontrivial. For example say three departments currently occupy 3 floors each in a 9-floor building. If one department needs more room, the clearest way to do it is to give them another floor, but that would force the other two departments to contract and/or shift some of their personnel to a different building, which might negatively impact their performance.

Similar things must surely have happened multiple times in the past. What usually happens?

There is no "usually". There isn't a worldwide academic rulebook that states what happens when a department runs out of space. This is extremely dependent on the university, the department, who runs each, the current power balance between the different departments and the university, the university's budget, the culture of the research field and the country... Academia isn't different from the rest of the world, how would you even start to answer a question as vague as "what happens when a company's department runs out of space"?!


Is auditing graduate physics courses (officially or unoffically) a viable way to eventually get into a PhD program? I am considering a possibly risky route into graduate school. Namely, auditing classes at the university I would like to attend and then reapplying after a semester or two. This way I can demonstrate my abilities directly.

I cannot speak for Physics, but I can speak generally. Generally, auditing courses is unlikely to get you noticed in any way and is unlikely to generate the sort of information that the admissions committee will value. I cannot assume that you will be able to develop the connections that you desire because I doubt such opportunities will be available via auditing classes.

In my field (though perhaps not Physics I warn) a way forward with a poor undergraduate result but a desire to do a US-based PhD is to do a one-year master's in the UK or Europe, and to do extremely well in that programme. Via this route you show that you are able to complete very high level coursework and, further, are able to produce actual research (in the form of a master's dissertation). These are much better indicators of PhD success than audited classes or GRE scores. Also, if you have, say, a UK distinction in your master's, in your PhD statement of purpose you can address your poor undergraduate performance head on: say you were dealing with personal circumstances but your demonstrable success in the higher degree programme evidences your abilities to succeed at real research.

In other words, you are giving them real evidence of your commitment and abilities, while auditing doesn't do that.


Should each chapter in an extensive paper start with an overview of the chapter's contents? I'm working on a extensive paper for my study. It's about some computational stuff, has 5 chapters and will be - all in all - roughly 60 pages long. Reading some papers and theses I noticed, that often people start each chapter with some kind of an overview, describing what's going to happen next. Though on the one hand, I find this helpful sometimes, on the other hand it pulls me out off the flow of the actual work. In some papers, it seems even that certain things, which are going to come up are announced repeatedly and I feel a bit over-informed of the papers structure.

Therefore I'd like to know: Should each chapter start with such an overview and - if yes -, when and to what extent?

The last time I wrote a long paper with a multistep argument, I endowed each section (there were 15 or 16 of those and the total article length was 87 pages in the 12pt font) with the "objective statement" (In this section we show that there exists a partition of the set $E$ into "cells" with the following properties ..., etc.). Moreover, I italicized these objectives. The reasons I did it were

a) some of the sections were devoted to things that are known to experts but hardly to the "general audience", so which sections to read and which to skip would heavily depend on the reader's general background

b) If you read the italic font alone, you can see the general flow of the proof without computations or technical details. You may then concentrate on "most suspicious" or "least known" places first.

I had mixed feelings about doing so too, but it looks like the readers have liked it so far. In general, the main question you should ask yourself is whether what you do will facilitate the reading. Everything else (paper economy, stylistic beauty, etc.) is secondary. If you expect 20-50 people to read what you wrote and if you can spare each of them mere 20 minutes (the minimal time needed to verify the ubiquitous phrase "direct computations yield"), you advance the general human progress by 7-14 hours already.

Note that what I did was different from the "Chapter" approach because I put only one complete logical step into each section. Also it was not about the Lemma/Sublemma/... division, which more often than not reflects the technical convenience rather than the logical structure. Some sections contained several lemmata needed to carry out the corresponding logical step and some lemmas were done in two steps.

The last thing I want to say is that, when reading, most people, including myself, prefer a repetition to an omission, and being over-informed to being under-informed, so few people, if any, will criticize you for being too clear or too slow.


Best practices when refering to above section I'm wondering about how to refer to sections right above or below the piece of text referring. I know that I'm supposed to use section numbers almost all the time, but personally feel that this might be an exception.
I know that this question might be subjective, but that's what I want to find out: if it's subjective I can choose and write whatever I think is best. However, I want to check that what I think is right isn't 'not-done'.
Concider the following piece of pseudo-document:

Section 1: point-by-point problem description
Section 2.1: point-by-point solution description
Section 2.2: mapping problem points to solution and explain benefit
Referring text here

Right now, the referring text says something like "This section explains how the point-by-point problem description in section 1 maps to the point-by-point solution description above." Is this right? Because the alternative "This section explains how the point-by-point problem description in section 1 maps to the point-by-point solution description in section 2.1." seems wrong, since it is right under the thing it is referring to.
Thanks!

This section explains how the point-by-point problem description in section 1 maps to the point-by-point solution description above, in section 2.1.

Being unambiguous and adding redundant information is good, because you might very well make a mistake when writing one of the references (but it is unlikely to make the same same mistake with all of them), and the reader might make a mistake when reading the references (but this is less likely when there are several things all pointing to the same direction).

If your sections have names in addition to numbers, you may refer to them using both, if this is a good stylictic choice, or only the name or only the number. Do not, however, alternate between using only the section number and only the section name, as this will only confuse the reader, who might not realize that the name and the number point to the same thing.


How much does rigor and time commitment of a math PhD correlate to prestige of the program? My question is the extent to which the prestige and rank of a PhD in mathematics correspond to the rigor of the program. I'm absolutely not worried about working hard, but I'm recently married and I want to factor in time with my wife when deciding where to attend.
To expand, what are the levels of rigor corresponding to schools with
a) a big name and a well ranked math program (like Penn and Princeton),
b) a big name with a not-as-highly ranked math program (like Carnegie Mellon or Dartmouth),
c) a smaller name but a well ranked math program (like CU Boulder),
d) a smaller name with a less highly ranked math program?

I think a more productive way to factor your considerations for your spouse and your family life into your choice of program would be by considering things like:

your spouse's preferred climate (temperatures, rain, snow, etc.)
how isolated vs. how easily connected your spouse would be with others -- there are two aspects here -- both people of your spouse's nationality, if your spouse is originally from a different country than the country where you hope to study, and also people not of your spouse's nationality (in the U.S., international trailing spouses sometimes find it rewarding to form friendships with other non-U.S. citizens, who are not necessarily of the same nationality)
how easy and quick it would be for you to pop home for dinner before getting back to school for some evening work, or for your spouse to stop by your department to spend some time with you in a study break
possible employment opportunities if that is something your spouse is interested in


Is it weird to display ads on an academic website? I have never seen (or realized) an example of an academic website which displays ads.
I am thinking of a website not hosted by the institute, but as a personal website, paid by the faculty member.
Does it look weird/unethical/unacceptable if a person uses a service similar to AdSense for their website?

Such a website is itself an ad: for the lab, the lab's research, and for the personnel running/working at the lab.
In many ways, a lab website is like a resume. While it's not unusual for newsletters published by some local org (say, a school, church, youth group, etc) to have local ads to cover publishing costs from the neighborhood dental clinic, grocer, etc, but you wouldn't expect to find these on a resume.
Probably most people are conditioned enough to online ads that they wouldn't even notice them, but if they did it might seem a bit weird, and if they were at all intrusive it would be downright ugly looking and reflect badly on the lab. If I were working in a lab where the PI had a website with ads, I'd be embarrassed by it even though it wasn't my own responsibility. If I was visiting such a site, I might wonder if I've stumbled on some illegitimate content farm site by mistake.
I doubt a typical academic's website gets anywhere near enough traffic to make ads make much sense financially. The cost of potentially putting off a precious visitor doesn't seem worth it to me to pocket a few pennies.
If the site is hosted by the university or with any grant funds for research it is likely illegal or against some terms to make any personal profit off such a site; even if the funds are just used to pay back the site costs it's a gray area that is still probably not allowed. A university could certainly even have a policy on this even if their funds are not directly involved if anything about the website affiliates it with the university, including being an official or pseudo-official website for a lab operating out of that institution.
It's just not worth the potential conflicts from any angle I can see.


How to encourage students to answers questions from other students posted in Q&A online places dedicated to the classroom (e.g. Piazza) How can an instructor or teaching assistant encourage students to answers questions from other students posted in private Q&A online platforms dedicated to the classroom (e.g. Piazza), put aside from adding some percentage of the final grade based on such activities?

I used Piazza in my undergraduate business and society course last year. Students were required to participate, but I found that if I myself commented on some of their posts and then brought up some of their arguments in class that this encouraged more active posts. In particular I made a point of highlighting debates between students during subsequent class periods.


What is the average tenure-track duration in the USA? I am a postdoc and will be up in the tenure-track job market in the near future. Just want to know what the average duration one has to work on tenure-track. Is this duration negotiable or there is a strict rule for this duration?
Thanks!
--Dave

There's quite a spread: where I am it's seven years (sometimes extended to eight when someone has a kid), but I've heard of other places where it's as short as four. Six is probably the median. It's not unheard of for people to go up for tenure early if they think they're likely to get it and their department chair (or other relevant people) agree.


Can a graduate student friend of mine help me get into a different grad program at the same school? I have a friend who'll be attending a graduate program in Physics, at a school I would be interested in for when I am applying to grad schools. However, I'm a CS major, so I'd be applying for that.

My question is what can he do that would help at all in making my admission more likely? I know the research he'll be doing is interdisciplinary (Physics and CS) so he'll have some interaction with CS. As a first-year grad student, he won't have much weight, but I'm still curious.

It is highly unlikely that they would have any ability to directly influence your admission to any graduate program. It is plausible that they could help you indirectly, however.  They could be helpful for the following:

Scouting Professors/Labs: Finding out more about the interests and goals of the professors and labs that you would want to work with. This would help you tailor your application so that certain professors might be more likely to advocate for you, if they see a good fit for you in their lab.
Gathering Comparisons: Talking to recent grad students admitted to the program and seeing if they wouldn't mind sharing their application packets, so you could see what a successful candidate looks like (and what factors seem to be valued).
Informal Reference: If a professor who is reviewing your application packet has worked with your friend, they might ask them for some details about you. This is highly unlikely in your case, due to them being a new student and in a different department. I provided this kind of background once when my lab was evaluating an acquaintance of mine from my undergraduate program. It is fairly uncommon and would not sway the decision greatly.

Some of these things would have been more effective if they were performed earlier (e.g, gathering comparison CV's), since it gives you more time to beef up any weak spots that you have or to build on your strengths.


How to find response time for a given journal in engineering? I would like to find journals response times? A google search does not give any good results. May be I am using wrong key words.

I am open to find particular subset of journal response times too. Any pointers about this is welcome. this answer gives a list of backlog for mathematical journals. Are there any such other list? How can I find them?

Thanks for comment.
Actually I would like to learn "From submission until a decision". I know "Total time from submission to publication" can take a lot of time.

Some journals insert the submission date and acceptance date in a footnote on the first page of the article.  For those, it would be easy to look through the latest issue and see what is typical.


How to ask my advisor from another department for research assistantship? I'm a first-year Machine Learning PhD student supported by a TAship offered by my host (non-ML) department that does not have much funding. I have heard that RA is uncommon in my host department. A professor from the CS department (renowned for its ample funding) has recently committed to be my thesis advisor, and I was wondering if he would be able to give me research assistantship in the future if my research becomes successful. To be honest, I am not 100% sure whether a professor can give a RAship to a student from other department. If it is possible, could you describe how to ask, so that I can follow the advice once my research becomes successful? Is there any general understanding about from what year it is reasonable to have RA in CS and what the reasonable RA duties in CS are? Is RA something to be offered rather than to ask for?

Just ask.  Generalities from the Internet are not going to be so helpful here.

  Would you be willing to consider me for a research assistantship at some point?

  What would you expect me to accomplish to get to that point?

  If I had an assistantship, what would you expect me to work on?  Would it be part of my dissertation research?  If not, how should I plan to balance the two?

  Given that I'm enrolled in another department, are there any bureaucratic obstacles to this, and is there anything I can do to help with them?


Master's and Bachelor's theses on the same topic? I am a student of a M.Sc. in Economics.
For reasons that are really beyond my control, a week ago I was asked to write a one-page draft of my Master's thesis topic, so that I can be assigned to a supervisor. The draft must be handed in by July 31st. This notification came out of the blue for me (and my classmates), so we don't really have anything in mind so far.
Of course, I have thought about the potential topic of my Master's thesis before. However, I haven't been able to come up with a subject that is "satisfying" yet. So far, I have mostly encountered topics in which I don't feel like I could give a significant contribution.
On the other hand, I am still quite excited about the topic of my Bachelor's thesis (which I wrote about a year ago). I remember being kind of "proud" of this thesis, mostly because it stemmed from my original idea. I used a methodology that I found "creative" to investigate some classical questions related to International Economics. I recently read my thesis again and found that there is much room for improvement. With the experience I have gained in the last year of studies, I feel like I could research this topic in much more depth.
Do you think I could choose this topic (or a strictly related one) also for my Master's thesis? I fear this could be regarded as a "lazy" choice by someone who would review my academic curriculum in the future. Is it possible to write both your Bachelor's and your Master's thesis on similar topics?
Thank you in advance for your help.

I don't see any problem studying the same subject. You could consider it an extension of your Bachelor's thesis. As a reviewer I would welcome such a proposal, as long as the one-pager is well written and has clear statements of the problems you want to solve.
I even suggest you think about what you could have done differently in your Bachelor thesis and include it in your proposal.
Remember that you are submitting a project proposal and, during the course of your masters research, you might change your mind and decide to pursue another direction.


Mental Illness as a cause of academic disruptions I'm an undergraduate mathematics major and I also struggle with PTSD and depression. A lot of the trauma is triggered by being in a close-spaced classroom environment which makes attending classes very difficult. Basically I sit in the classroom understanding nothing because my anxious I am unable to concentrate.

What this has done is cause me or forced me to drop two classes and receive a W grade. Even though two isn't bad, I was looking forward to transferring to a better school, Stony Brook but now I'm afraid that the second W is going to look bad especially because I only have 19 credits.

Also I want to go to a good mathematics school and the dream is to be able to get a Phd. one day. Academically I have been doing great in the classes I have stuck out in, all 3 A's and two A-s. I love mathematics and usually enjoy doing it in solitude. I am able to do some proofs(although the easier ones) which my peers seem to be uninterested in. Applying to a grad school or even undergrad, is it advisable to disclose a mental illness? Usually if you do this at a job interview they will look for some other excuse not to hire you. Do universities see this as a red flag that student is unreliable so shouldn't be accpeted as readily? Hopefully, going forward these will be my only two Ws.

You don't say where you're located, but assuming that it's in the US, the real question isn't "should you disclose these issues to a graduate school", but rather, "Have you disclosed these issues to your current school and asked for the accommodations to which you are entitled?"

If you're legitimately having problems with anxiety and PTSD and have a diagnosis, the school must make accommodations to help you succeed, per Section  504  of  the  Rehabilitation  Act  of  1973, since you're an adult student, you have to self advocate. That means going to the school, telling them that you have these problems and working out a plan together.


Terrible undergraduate transcripts. Everything else is good. Is it still worth applying to a Ph.D program in economics in a top 30 U.S. university? I am an international student who is thinking of applying to a Ph.D program in economics at some top 30 economics departments in the U.S. I have a bachelor's and a master's degree in economics. My GRE, both verbal and quant, puts me well above the 90th percentile. My TOEFL is very high. I have three outstanding recommendations, probably placing me at the top of my master's class and comparing me favorably with former coleagues that were accepted to top universities. My master's disertation will make for a very good writing sample (the paper that grew out of it is serious research, publishable in the best theory journals) and I have two years' work experience at a prestigious job at the public sector. My master's transcripts are almost impeccable, even though I completed a LOT more coursework than what was required to graduate. I have plenty of maths coursework under my belt.

The only "small" wrinkle is: I was the archetype of a wayward student as an undergrad. My undergraduate transcripts are a disaster, as in I flunked 12 of the 70 courses that I enrolled in, simply because I had the terrible habit of abandoning classes when there was something more interesting going on. What I want to know is if this problem destroys my chances of acceptance.

Broadly speaking, your more recent work will matter far more than your past work.  You'll see this as a common theme in the many answers already on Academia SE that relate to this subject.

However, as someone who has been through the economics PhD application process, and knows quite a bit about it, I think you need to temper your "top 30" program cutoff.  To get into top-30 programs you'll often be competing against students who did as well as you in later work, got perfect scores on the GRE quant, AND didn't have problems in past work.

If your math, at a bare minimum covers differential calculus and real analysis, then given the other things you've said I think you might stand a chance at top-30 programs, especially if your private sector job involved any research with your name on it, even if its just an acknowledgment.  So yes, it's worth applying, but I wouldn't suggest setting your expectations on that range.


How can I get my papers published formally? I have posted majority of my academic work from MA program on Academia.edu. This past week I had the time to look into the  Analytics section and I have tons of followers, readers, downloads, student citing my work etc. Enough readers that I think I should try to get my work published.

How do I get my work published formally? Who should I try to reach out to? My informally published work is getting a lot of traffic.

Any suggestions on how to do that?

Choose a target journal. A good first step is to see where the papers you cite are published.Some other suggestions are here and here. If you don't have a budget for publishing, look for one that has no author fees. Avoid predatory and low-quality journals; see how to judge the quality of a journal.
Visit the target journal's website, and read about the scope of the journal and their instructions for authors. Read some papers in the latest issue of their journal. Make sure your paper is on topic, and is comparable to other recent papers in the journal in scope, writing quality, and rigor. If it's not a good fit, go back to step 1.
Edit your paper to follow the instructions for authors from step 2 (formatting, length, anonymizing if the journal does double-blind review.)
Submit the paper to the journal for review, following the instructions on the journal's website.
Watch your paper go through the journal workflow.


google scholar has not listed me as coauthor After finally getting an article listed on google scholar via preprints, Google Scholar has not listed me as an author on my paper on either preprint it has indexed. I was the one who uploaded them to the preprint sites and I am the second author but they have only listed the first and third author and have not listed me.  How do I change or have this edited. And how does something like this even happen in the first place

It is a bit difficult to speak on behalf of Google here. The best idea is probably to contact them directly [1].

Before you do that, however, I would encourage you to double check if the details on the websites where your paper is published are correct. Much of what Google Scholar does is just indexing those websites and taking their data from there. Google explicitly recommends to ask for corrections there and not on Google Scholar. They also say state that an update to any details might take quite a bit of time, in the order of months [2]. So any recent correction to details on the publisher's side might not be updated yet.

[1] https://support.google.com/scholar/contact/general

[2] https://scholar.google.com/intl/de/scholar/help.html#corrections


Subreview papers, to what extent? I am about to defend my PhD thesis in computer science and so far I have being asked to subreview 5 or 6 papers of different conferences.
At the beginning, it was exiting because it was a new experience in my career. However, at this moment I am a little bit snowed under work and I have being assigned with 2 subreviews from the same conference.

I do not want to turn down the opportunity of expanding my knowledge and experience, nevertheless, this situation has brought to me serious doubts about the usefulness of subreviewing.

Apart from the acquisition of knowledge and experience,

Which are (or could be in a future) the benefits of subreviewing?
Is there a moment in your career that it is not worth it anymore?

Thank you.

(a) Benefits: You mentioned the biggest one, i.e. knowledge, exposure and an updated idea of trends in the field. Besides this, the major factor is generating/maintaining goodwill with the person who sent it to you for subreview. This is an intangible benefit which could multiply in ways that are hard to predict.

(b) When is it not worth it: Probably once you have defended your PhD. You may prefer to review directly. Definitely once you're in a faculty position, unless you do it as a favour to someone.


Is it normal as a researcher publishing a new theory or model to keep having uncertainties and self doubt? Even if your theory or model has been proven by experimentation and accepted for publication... is it normal to still doubt oneself and have uncertainty in their proposed theory/model?

Or does this mean there's really something wrong in the theory?

EDIT: And what happens if one day you discover that your theory can be broken.. but, after you had already published it?

This means that you are proud about your work, and know that it is really a breakthrough.

I too had these uncertainties when I was publishing a new model. This was the first time I felt that way even though this was my fifth paper. What I realised is that the previous work I published was not revolutionary in a way that would attract negative discussions and critics. I was simply confirming the theories of others. These were "safe" publications, the kind that would easily be accepted and cited, and could not affect my career. I believe science was build by "bold" contributions, and that the "safe" ones will eventually be forgotten.

Any theory will be broken, sooner or later. Do not worry about that. Insist on logic and rigour when writing your manuscript.


How to decide between sending paper to a specialized journal or to a journal with broader audience? I work in mathematical physics. Typically, papers in my field are either published either in general math journals (Annals of Math, Transactions of AMS, Proceedings of AMS) or in specialized math physics journals (Communications in Math Physics, Reviews in Mathematical Physics, Annales Henri Poincaré, etc.) Personally, I have had papers published in both types of journals. Yet I don't have a good sense whether a particular preprint should go to a general journal or a specialized journal, so I usually just pick at random.

What are the factors one thinks about when making a decision between submitting to a specialized journal and a general journal of similar quality?

I tend to think that in most cases, the specialized/broad dichotomy is not very relevant. The most important point is to send it to an interested editor; if the most relevant editor for a paper happens to be at a general journal, you will often be better of sending your paper there.

I would consider two exceptions to this principle. First, top specialized journals are usually less reputed than top generalist journals, so if you get a truly impressive result, you may want to get the best of it by sending it to a top generalized journal. Second, some generalist journals will turn back papers that seems much more specialized than the average math paper (e.g. when the basic objects you study are unheard of by most mathematicians).


Can you do a post graduate in Math(or some other hard sciences) if you major in a soft science? It seems possible to go from soft sciences to hard sciences. For example one professor in my philosophy department initially did math as an undergraduate. So I am wondering can you go the opposite way, for example from psychology to maths (maybe because Maths seem to be more fun).

(Sorry if I'm asking a repeat question)

I think what you know and how strong your recommendation letters are the most important factors during the application process. Usually people need to take several foundamental courses to have a solid background before conducting research in math. And you also need to have some undergraduate research experience. So a degree in math is the most efficient way to get this. But it can also be achieved even though you don't have a degree in math. My undergraduate degree is business administration but I have taken around 20 math courses including 10 analysis courses and several algebra and geometry courses during my undergraduate study. Currently I am going to start a research master program in pde and applied analysis and I hope I can do research in math in the future.

So yes, you can. But you need to make extra effort to fill up the gaps.


Does it seems that my supervisor was reluctant to let me go for conference? I have already finished the first draft of my thesis and now I'm reviewing chapter by chapter. A few days ago I submitted my abstract to a conference and was accepted. I emailed my supervisor and asked for permission to go for conference, but she didn't answer. From my experiences of working with her, she didn't answer means she didn't want to answer and she didn't agree.

I am confused at the moment why it happened like this. She always spoke highly of my work and told me that one of my results chapter can already been made into a journal article. So I'm wondering if I should ask her before submitting my abstract?

Do I have to ask my supervisor first and submit the abstract? Do I include my supervisor's name in the abstract? I'm working in the field of humanities, and I collected and analysed the data, but she involved in the research design in my early stage and now she is giving me feedback on my writing.

So I really want to know if it's just she didn't want me to go for conference or my unethical behaviour offend her? Shall I ask her in the supervisory meeting again for this issue to figure out what's the problem?

she didn't answer means she didn't want to answer and she didn't agree.

She may not have answered for many reasons.

  So I'm wondering if I should ask her before submitting my abstract?
  Do I have to ask my supervisor first and submit the abstract?

If you want her to fund your attendance, then yes.

  Do I include my supervisor's name in the abstract? I'm working in the field of humanities, and I collected and analysed the data, but she involved in the research design in my early stage and now she is giving me feedback on my writing.

It sounds like she's a co-author, so yes.

  So I really want to know if it's just she didn't want me to go for conference or my unethical behaviour offend her?

Again, she may not have answered for many reasons, but you require her permission to list her as a co-author and you may require her funds to attend, so you should have probably asked her first.

  Shall I ask her in the supervisory meeting again for this issue to
  figure out what's the problem?

Yes.


Is it appropriate to give your supervisor an early thesis draft that has informal self-addressed notes? I will have to show my supervisor a thesis draft soon. It is an early draft, just to see where I am standing. It obviously misses full chapters and some areas contain personal self-addressed notes like, "make a fancy diagram about process A". Should I go through the work of removing these notes, written in an obvious informal style, before handing in the draft?

On one hand, I would like my supervisor to know that I will include a diagram there, but should I at least formalize the notes like in, "process A diagram will be added"?

Edit: I will give a few more examples so that my question is clearer:

My question is more about having an informal approach to the notes than their existence. For example is it fine if I have notes like: "I should spiff this diagram, too ugly", or if I use as a placeholder for the subtitle "Fancy subtitle" instead of "< Subtitle placeholder >", or if instead of a figure that I know I am about to add, I have a placeholder image that says "here comes the really nice and cool image that shows the A-B relation" instead of saying "A-B relation figure placeholder"?

I also feel the need to mention that I would never use such informal writing style in the actual text, nevertheless in a final version.

I would suggest that yes, you should feel comfortable doing that, particularly if this is an early draft. My rationale is simply that, with large documents like this one, the more feedback you can get, the better. The notes show that you've given thought to what should be where and recognize that it's not complete, and will demonstrate that you're thinking that sort of thing through. To that extent point, your own recommendation is spot on; add as many "diagram X should be here" notes as you can, simply to save him from having to add that comment himself.

That said, if your advisor is a very finicky person who wants the drafts to be picture-perfect (yes, those people definitely exist), then don't do this, as you'll just make him annoyed.

Post-edit addition: I would suggest this is entirely dependent on the temperament of your advisor. Personally, I love humor, so as long as you mentioned in your email that the comments are tongue-in-cheek, I would find that entertaining. If he's a stick-in-the-mud, he won't like it. Its really just dependent on his sense of humor.


Why are some computer science conferences not included in the CORE ranking? So CORE is the de facto standard benchmark to check the quality of a computer science conference.
However, there are some premier events that are not covered by this ranking.
For instance, I'm quite puzzled with the IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution and Reengineering (SANER). It will be the 28th edition of this conference in 2021, and yet SANER has not been included in CORE! What is more, it is a well-established venue, recognized in the software engineering community for the quality of the accepted research papers.
Any thoughts why SANER is not ranked A, or as a matter of fact not ranked at all?

I guess it is because SANER was called WCRE before (present for example in core 2018, ranked B which seems right to me) and changed name. From experience, CORE people do not change things by themselves, it is better to send them update requests


Will Potential Publishers View an MA Dissertation as Plagiarized? I recently completed my MA, and I was hoping to upload my dissertation to Academia.edu, and then perhaps submit it to some publishers later on. Although I made some changes to my paper after graduating, it is about 95% identical to the dissertation I had initially submitted to my university. So I was wondering if this would be a problem for me? For instance, say a publisher saw my paper on Academia.edu, or a site similar to it, and then ran it through Turnitin and found that it matched another paper (my original dissertation) almost completely; would this be an issue? Would they think that it is plagiarized? Should I indicate somewhere in the paper that it is a slightly edited version of my MA dissertation?

Thanks in advance for any help. As you can tell, I’m a novice when it comes to getting something published.

It depends on what you're trying to publish. If you're publishing your MA dissertation as your MA dissertation, then there's no problem. This implies your MA dissertation has never been published before, and the fact that it's available already is unimportant. Preprints are a thing, but publishers happily publish the papers that follow preprints.

However if you are publishing chunks of your MA dissertation as part of some future work - for example, if you took a chapter from your MA dissertation because it works great as an introduction to the next thing you did, and you are trying to publish this next thing - then you are self-plagiarizing. This would be taking something that's already been published and publishing it again, and would not be acceptable.


How and what do I present at my PhD coursework I am a PhD Student & started my research few months ago. My research involves creating a predictive model for protein-drug interaction using soft computing techniques .The topic was given to me by my supervisor and was not my choice.

The problem is, I am a computer science student and have no idea about drugs or proteins or their interaction. My knowledge about the topic is completely zero. While I have read literature, I find the concept very difficult to understand. I find it difficult to search for technical papers of my interest. I would also like to mention that I have absolutely NO help from my supervisor, who also has no idea about the topic, despite being the one who told me to work on the topic.

Now I need to start with my coursework and it includes topics like drug-protein interaction and soft computing techniques. And, I have seriously no clue to how to go about my coursework. I don't know what topics should be included in the course work. My supervisor has just left me with the names of the coursework that's it. I do not know from where to start, exactly what to start and how to start. The days are just passing by and I have time constraints to present the same at the institute level. I am just going crazy thinking about it day by day and don't know where will I land up at the end. I don't want to leave PhD to whatever happens. My sincere request to you is to suggest something and help me out with it or anybody please suggest to me how to proceed.

I'm going to be a bit more harsh than the current answers, and ask whether you knew what you were getting yourself into when you signed up for a multidisciplinary graduate program. What you describe is very common in such programs; you enter with significant knowledge in one field (e.g., comp sci), almost no knowledge in another (e.g., biology), and your task is to familiarize yourself with both to the extent that you can perform academic-level research that straddles both fields. Anecdotally, I went through a biomedical engineering PhD program, and every single student who went through the program experienced some degree of what you are describing. Without knowing specifics, your advisor is likely not responding because they take it for granted that you will learn to cope the same way that all his other students do.

The solution is simply to start at the beginning and take it from there. Clearly, you won't find help from your advisor, but there are many other resources. Find other students in a similar situation and create a study group. Talk to the TA. Use online materials and forums. If the course is simply too advanced, drop it for now and take (audit?) a lower-level (undergraduate?) course first. I know many students who did this. They ended up fine.

You will likely encounter a similar situation many times, where you need to familiarize yourself with a brand-new field, and this is a fine time to figure out how to do it.


Convert UK Bachelor Degree Grades to German Grade Scale I have a Bachelor of Business Administration in Information Systems (3rd Class Honors) form a UK University. My Transcript states as follows.

Course Name    Marks    Cats
BUS            40       12

How do I convert these to the German Grading System?

German Grading

Understanding German Grades

I have gone through the above but can't figure out how to calculate the UK (40 Marks and 12 Cats) to the German Grades (scale of 1 to 5) and also how to figure out the ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System).

There is no universal system available for converting grades between national systems. For instance, in Germany, each university and even each faculty within a university may have its own system for "translating" grades from one system to another, and grades obtained between courses are not necessarily directly translatable. For instance, 70% of the points on an exam in one subject might constitute a 1,3 in one subject but (for instance) a 2,3 in another subject.

The only reliable rules are:

A 4,0 (4.0) is the minimum passing grade in any subject in a German university.
In classes where written exams are administered, the scale above 4,0 should be as uniform as possible. (In other words, the difference between the minimum points for a 1,0 or a 1,3 should be the same as between a 2,0 and a 2,3.)

But, as you can see, this still allows for a lot of latitude between different subjects.


Can I take recommendation from someone I met at a conference? I met a faculty (from a university in the UK) at a conference. She liked and praised my work and we are in touch after conference. She has an impressive profile and her research work is similar to mine. Is it okay to take a recommendation letter from her to seek postdoctoral position overseas? Will it help?

There's nothing stopping you asking for one. However, you need to consider what would be written in such a letter.

In short, you can ask for a letter, but be careful how you use it. What could the person say on your behalf if a potential employer contacts them to get more information about their assessment of you?

For instance, it doesn't seem that you have a professional relationship - you haven't co-authored papers, nor have you worked together in the same institution, nor have you served on the same committees, etc. Any of these things is not necessary, of course, but these are the sort of things a referee would cite as evidence that they are in a position to recommend you or your work.

However, it sounds like your contact does know of your work. However, are they a world-leader in your field? Do they have the respect of your community? When they say good things about you or anyone else, do others pay attention?

How will a reader interpret a reference letter that is based only on a familiarity of your published work, and a single meeting at a conference?


Can authors email you for free PDFs of their textbook sold for profit I'm asking just about textbooks that are sold for profit, not free ones. I know journal authors can email their papers or articles free, but textbook? Is Reddit comment wrong?

I ask all subjects like finance, economics, law, not just science.

  Science textbooks. When a scientist gets published, he/she doesn't get any profit if the schools use it. Every textbook I've had hasn't been free, so I just email the publisher and find out one of the names (of whom was published) to email them. Since they get no money, they'll be glad to email you back the entire book, to which you can print off yourself. It's a life hack people should know instead of having to pay thousands for college textbooks. Edit: I did this with my Calculus/Geometry professor in ISU (Indiana State University) and he said that he only got one overall pay for being published with other professors, and that he would be glad to give it to me, as he would all of his students. I'm not lying.

I am the author of a textbook. The book retails for $50. I get 50cents for every copy sold.

I do not own the copyright on the book and it would be illegal for me to sent you a copy, even if I had a copy to send (I mean, I have the original word documents, but the final PDF looks nothing like that).

The book has been scanned, and when it was not so old I know that copies of it did float around Pirate Bay. I wasn't particularly upset.


Non-tenured to tenured track? Our faculty voted last year to allow any teaching faculty member to request going from being non-tenured to tenured.  Our dean has now denied this request.  Are there other universities offering this option? what are the pros and cons? and should we attempt to fight this?

Why were faculty allowed to vote on deciding their own tenure? Presumably the dean didn't sanction the vote, which is why they are denying requests. I don't understand why any university would invite faculty to award themselves tenure. Tenure is a form of promotion, granted by universities, not by faculty.


Should I ask permission of my co-authors when republishing an article? In the university that I am working, which is more technically than research oriented, they want me to publish one of my past articles in a faculty magazine that they are planning to print. I have chosen one from the IEEE, and I have read that they have that possibility. I would like to know if I should mention that to my other co-authors or is it not necessary?

Thanks for your help

Yes.

As a courtesy, one should always inform co-authors of such things. One doesn't necessarily expect replies (since no action is required...), but one is taking action on "property" that is partially "owned" by other people, so some notification, or even request for permission (which would presumably be unhesitatingly granted), is entirely reasonable.


NSF GRFP Application for a Rising Undergraduate Senior Prefacing this, I am currently a rising undergraduate senior who plans to attend graduate school after I finish this last year. I want to work toward a PhD in neuroscience. Over the past year, I have been writing a grant proposal to submit the the NSF GRFP (https://www.nsfgrfp.org/). Throughout this time, I have been working with professors/past graduate students who have had their work supported by NSF GRFP/etc. and my work is based on Alzheimer's disease (aim 1 discusses a pathological mechanism that needs to be better understood and aim 2 addresses understanding a linkage between two mechanisms, 1 of which was discussed in aim 1, while also providing details on future treatment options in regard to antagonist drugs). Throughout my time writing, nobody told me the NSF GRFP does not want disease research...unfortunately.

After reading the NSF GRFP guidelines for this year, I was disappointed to see that they specifically stated that "disease research" is something they do not support. I find this extremely ridiculous, especially for undergraduate seniors rising into graduate school. Do you know if this is strictly enforced, or know if there is an easy work-around (e.g. taking out the word "Alzheimer's Disease" and subbing in more basic terms, such as memory deficit/etc.). Thank you!

Also, if you know of an NIH one that I can apply to instead for disease research, I'd be happy to hear. After I searched, the NIH didn't seem to have a good one for someone who is "white" and is still an undergraduate (soon to be in grad school).

In the US in neuroscience, most people apply for grad school without their own funding.

Funding for your research is provided by your research advisor; in your area of interest this will likely come from the NIH and possibly other private organizations specific for AD. You may also be funded for between a semester and a year to rotate with different potential advisors, such as via a T32 training grant from NIH (training programs apply to these grants, not students; students are funded by applying to graduate programs that possess such a grant).

NSF grants for students in neuroscience are very rare (looks like about 60 GRFPs were awarded this year in neuroscience; only 4 don't have an institution listed so I presume applied before being admitted); it's a good goal to shoot for, but not something to rely on. The requirements for the specific fellowship you are looking at specifically exclude disease research because such research is already substantially funded via other means; NSF is trying to fill the other underfunded gaps in very basic work. I would not suggest trying to bypass this by tweaking the language of your application.

NRSA grants (the NIH equivalent) are also somewhat rare, but more achievable. You apply after you are already part of a PhD program, sometime before the end of your second year most often.


Should I consider getting an extra degree if I plan to go to graduate school in that field? I plan to apply to graduate programs in a field unrelated to my current undergraduate studies. Other questions indicate that this is relatively common, but my question is: is there any value in obtaining a degree in my desired field over only taking relevant courses?

I think that having a relevant degree could only be beneficial, but talking with advisors and professors gives me the impression that there is no need to have a relevant degree. Surprisingly to me, there is even some agreement that this could be harmful, since I would require an extra semester to graduate. I'm in no hurry to graduate (currently planning for four years) so I don't quite understand their concerns. Am I missing something entirely?

Do I even need to consider getting the extra degree or is it really unnecessary?

I have my undergraduate degree in political science and my masters in computer science. Besides having to take all of the required pre-req courses, which added about a year in a half, I never had any issues. The undergraduate for computer science also included a lot of requirements that were useless for my purposes, so it wouldn't have made sense for me to get that degree, then get the Masters. That would have been way more time and money.


Canadian External Examiner for UK PhD Viva advice I have a PhD viva next week and have (very) recently that my examiner has no knowledge of the UK viva system

My first question is what is the PhD defense failure rate in Canada? (I'm not sure if I really want to know this).

How much weight is put on the defence in Canada?

Is there anything that examiners usually look for in PhD defence in Canada?

I have four Journal Publications from my PhD work. I know my work very well.

Many academics and other subjects experts from all corners of the globe are invited to be external examiners for PhD degrees. It is not uncommon, and the process is designed for this situation. In the UK it is also common that a viva panel is governed by a neutral chair who ensure that all the examiners are familiar with the procedures and regulation for conducting the examination and that the questions and conduct are fair for all parties concerned.

Those panels that do not use a separate chair, then it is often the internal examiner that ensures the external understands the scope and process of the examination.

It is important for the (world-wide) standard of PhD's that the foremost experts at any particular field can be called on to participate in the PhD examination process. You should feel it a compliment to your work that the university reached out to find a suitable specialist to read and comment on your work. The fact that they are willing to cover the not inconsiderable expenses to bring this examiner to your viva demonstrates the regard they have for your work. It is a positive thing for you.


Lengths of review process of mathematical journals Do you have any file containing the information of peer-review process lengths of mathematical journals?If yes, It will be very helpful for me.
Thanks for your helps.

The AMS maintains a list of the backlogs of research journals, which should give you some indication.

The most recent one (I think) can be found here: http://www.ams.org/notices/201310/rnoti-p1390.pdf


Should I ask the expected level of technicality in the research statement while appyling to a potdoc position? I am currently in process of applying to open postdoc positions.
As a global regulation, universities require for me to provide research statements as well as cover letters.
Many articles in the web advise to avoid technical language. This is understandable, because the person who is reading the statement might not be competent in the field I have worked so far.
I have also read this excellen answer from JeffE, which attempts to draw a clear line between a technical wording, and a very technical wording in the statement.
I am applying to a position in the field of theoretical computer science/computational geometry. Because of the nature of the position I am applying, I must use some technical language to demonstrate my knowledge on the topic.
However, I am really doubtful about writing a statement which contains not enough technical language, misleading the hiring committee of thinking that I do not have deep enough expertise.
As a result,
I now have two different research statements. One is technical, one focuses on the everyday applications of my research.
I don't have a strong publication record. Thus, the only strength I can highlight is the significance of my publications. I cannot decide which one to submit.
The only solution comes to my mind is to contact with the corresponding faculty members whom I will potentially work under, asking the acceptable level of technicality in my research statement.
I wonder if this seems unprofessional.
Should I send a mail asking about the level of technical detail?

Don't confuse an application for admission to a graduate program with an application for a postdoc. In most cases the application will be read by people well versed in your field, if you have matched your skills to the listed requirements.
I think you can be much more technical in such a situation and it will probably serve you well. The only caveat is language that implies that you have no flexibility in what you intend to pursue in the position if it is awarded.
You aren't writing for a general audience, but for people looking for expertise. Being to "soft" will work against you.
And tailor each such application to the specifics of the listed position. Don't try to depend on a general letter that "might" work for a lot of similar ones. Speak to the audience.
So, I don't think it will serve you well to ask them how to write the application.


Is it possible to get a research assistantship between undergraduate and masters degree, while not enrolled as a student? I finished my undergrad in Electrical Engineering at the end of 2014, and since 2013 then I've been working on a startup that is soon going to fail.

I would like to apply for a Masters in 2017, and to strengthen my research profile in my resume, as well as earn letters of recommendation (which I sorely lack), I'm considering working under a professor/ at a lab for a year or so (in a research area similar to that I worked on at my startup).

However all research assistant/research associate positions seem to be advertised only towards students currently already studying in a graduate (masters/PhD) program.

Is it common/normal/acceptable for people to work in a university lab between their undergraduate and masters, like I wish to? If so, what are these positions usually called in the US/Europe, if not Research Assistantship?

To clarify, in addition to gaining experience, my main motivation would be to have a well known professor/someone at a well known lab recommend me, since I have a only one professor from my undergrad who would be willing to give me a strong letter of recommendation. I cannot expect anything from my present colleagues. Most applications seem to require 3 such letters.

Sure, it is normal to work for a university lab with only a bachelors or masters. However, none of the people I knew did this as a transition between undergrad and grad, rather they did it to transition out of research.

The job titles range widely though, especially across fields. I have seen job titles of "Research Programmer", "Research Engineer", "Software Engineer", "Systems Researcher", etc. This is in Computer Science so other fields may have something along the lines of "Lab Technician" or other domain specific titles.

If you want to do research, then apply to graduate programs that are relevant to you and attempt to contact potential advisors.


Is teaching calculus important for getting a job as a university professor in mathematics? I am a master's student currently deciding between two different Ph. D. programs in mathematics.  The two programs have very different teaching opportunities as a grad student.  One of the two programs I'm applying to allows (and encourages) students to teach a first-year calculus course, and the other one does not.  However, I would be able to teach a college algebra or precalculus course at the other school.  Would it reflect badly on me as a job applicant if I have no experience teaching calculus?

I would be truly shocked if any hiring committee cared at all about whether you taught calculus versus pre-calculus.  Doing well at either would show that you can adequately handle teaching service classes.


Add unpublished but widely cited paper to CV? I wrote an expository term paper in graduate school and posted it on my website, never trying to get it into a journal. Google Scholar says it now has 19 citations from various countries ("widely" is of course relative; what I mean is that this is more citations than my other publications have).

Since the article apparently resonated with an audience, should it now appear on my CV? If so, should I describe it with the name of the professor or course for which I wrote it, or just a title with no venue?

One strategy is to do a deep-dive to check up on the quality of those 19 citations.

If you end up impressed: submit your paper to a journal. (The peer review will add some quality or quality control; the paper is less likely to disappear; and the author gets recognition.)
If not: maybe just leave it as is and don't include on CV.

(I had a similar experience as you describe. Sometimes some less-serious researchers just want to cite something with the right words in the title... not saying that's the case with your citations but it's worth checking.)


Post-doc and family considerations I’m doing my PhD in Europe but I’m researching my opportunities for doing a postdoc in the US. There is a reasonable amount of job postings in my field, so I hope I’d have a decent chance of obtaining one. My concern, however, is purely financial. I have a wife and two children and am wondering whether such an endeavor is realistic or if it would put us on the brink of economic collapse.

I am for this reason interested in the experiences of others who pursued postdoc positions by relocating with a family.

Despite the position being temporary, is it more common that partners find jobs, too? I imagine that because of hiring processes, it wouldn’t be strange if the partner started working mid-way through, at which point one may already know that another relocation is coming up in 1-2 years. For what it’s worth, my wife has a MSc in the same field as I’m in and there’s typically a large demand for people like us, so securing a job shouldn’t be too hard (barring the paperwork, which would probably be a major issue in itself).
How do people do this, like really? At times I feel this is insurmountable, because AFAIK the typical postdoc salary is not enough to support an entire family. Yet, I’m far from the first PhD student with a family.

I moved from France to the US to do a 1 year-post-doc in Computer Science, with my wife and our two children (3mo and 2yo at the time), so I guess my situation is very close to yours.

I was paid ~$50.000 / year, didn't pay taxes the first year (because of the tax treaty between France and the US), didn't have a car, and lived in a reasonably cheap community (cost of living index ~ 105, for instance, the rent was $800 / month for a very small flat, furnished and including internet, water, some other utilities. It didn't had a washing machine, for instance, so it was a bit rough with two children).
We were not rich, but it was completely doable. It was a bit risky, but we managed to live entirely on my salary, something we couldn't have done in France, so I would think that our situation was rather correct.

Here's what we learned:

Don't expect your partner to bring an income. Day care is rare and costly (it really varies, but $500 / child / month seems to be a minimum for a "full day" care), and your partner probably won't have the right to work before a couple of months anyway. Getting a work permit while on a J2 requires to fill a I-765, pay ~$500, be patient (up to 3 months), and it comes with restrictions (you can't leave the country while your record is examined, if I remember correctly).
Moving is super expensive. Plane ticket + buying basic housewares + rent deposit, etc. is really costly, especially if the dollar is high when you move. The exchange rate can vary greatly, so that's difficult to assess. Of course, you'll be paid at the end of your first month of employment, so you'll have to have some provisions on top of that. Also, you won't be able to bring everything in three suitcase, so there will be some buying to do, and clothes, if the weather isn't the same as where you currently live.
People can be really supportive. We were moving as a family, and everyone, from the PI to my future colleagues (that I never met) to our landlords and even neighbours, brought something, gave us basic silverware, etc. You have to be lucky, but Americans often are willing to help, and have a couple of extra stuff that they'd be willing to share with you.
Check your health care. Your children might be sick due to the travel, the time change, etc. In fact, you should plan that they will be sick, and check how well you're covered before being employed / during the first month of employment. Our health care took a month to kick in, we had to pay for a basic care for our son, bim, $1.000 (yes, health is expensive here).
Papers everywhere. Be organized, a new start requires a lot of papers. Moving in an another country is pretty much starting from scratch: you'll have to open a bank account, get a Social Security Number, get a phone, subscribe to Internet, fill in tons of paperwork for the embassy, your new employer, etc. It is doable, but can be really complex (since your situation will be more complex that the average American), so you have to be super organized.

Of course, it makes more sense to start such an adventure for a 2 years (or more) post-doc.

But moving with kids (in young age) is fun: they'll grasp the new culture super easily, they'll make friends, they'll help you to make friends, they'll make people chatty, and they will break any sense of isolation you could have by moving to a foreign country.

Actual experience may vary: the USA is a vast country, and the salary range, as well as the cost of living, vary greatly. I'm not a super hero, but with the support of your family, you can make it. Tons of people did it in the past ;-)


Can one of your letters of recommendation come from a professor in a department unrelated to your field of study? I took a research writing course at my university (which is required of most students) and did extremely well in the course, winning a writing award for the work I did in that class and having it published in the school's textbook for their introductory English courses. I went on to be a TA for that professor for two semesters afterward and did extremely well, and I think his recommendation would be nothing but glowing.

However, I am an Electrical Engineering major applying for an MS in Computer Science, and while his recommendation shows my ability to write and teach, the work I did was entirely non-technical. Would it still be worthwhile to ask for a recommendation from him, or should I focus on getting more letters from my EE/CS professors instead? I currently have one excellent letter from my employer (a small company that I worked for a little over a year during school, was able to lead development on a few projects and teach some people, mostly industry), but sadly don't have a good enough relationship with enough of my other professors beyond "got an A / did well on some projects".

I can't think of how an excellent letter of recommendation from a professor in an unrelated field of study could hurt you. Perhaps if it was the only (excellent) letter of recommendation, maybe then. But you mentioned you have an excellent letter from your employer and can (I assume) get at least one more good letter from someone else, so I think you are in a good position.

You are right, his letter of recommendation would not be about your technical skills related to EE, but it would mention your characteristics, work ethics, teamwork ability in a very good light. Research writing course is also not that far away from EE. It shows you are more diverse than the stereotypical programmer or engineer. You worked with this specific professor for 2 semesters, he could give you an outstanding letter of recommendation. I think his letter will give you more than any single average/solid letter from other professors.


Is an undergraduate physics degree the same everywhere in terms of coursework? Is a degree in physics the same everywhere in terms of what is being taught or are there differences from one institution to the other ?

There are not only differences between institutions, but also within institutions. For example, at MIT "The Physics Department offers two different programs leading to a Bachelor of Science in Physics, giving students the opportunity to tailor their study of physics to their individual career goals. The focused option is an ideal preparation for those students who plan to go on to graduate school in physics or a related field, while the flexible option provides a strong background in physics for those whose career paths may not include graduate work in the discipline." while at UPenn there are 6 tracks.


Is it advisable to take trivial classes to better focus on independent study? I am considering taking what should be considered a remedial math class, though is actually credit bearing at my university, so I can spend more time solving monthly problems/ studying graduate level theory on my own. Would subverting the curriculum, and reducing the problem of acquiring credit hours to a problem solved in or before middle school, be looked down upon by graduate schools? I have always heard that graduate schools only care about your math grades, only care about how much math you have studied.

I assume that you are talking about applying to graduate programs in mathematics, rather than in other disciplines.

To take remedial courses so that you can focus on "graduate level theory" on your own seems like a spectacularly bad idea. Why would a grad school take someone whose transcript shows remedial courses instead of accomplishments in upper-level undergraduate and graduate coursework? It also weakens your overall transcript in the process, since the remedial course will stick out like a sore thumb. Moreover, without some mechanism for documenting the work that you've done on your own, you won't easily be able to convince an admissions committee that you've actually done the work!

If you want to do graduate-level work, just take the graduate-level courses corresponding to what you want to do.


My advisor has literally no idea what my research is about and I am freaking out (phd student) I am a PhD student. This is my first month in the program. I met my advisor a while ago. Very nice guy, but as the title says, he does not know what I am writing about. I don't mean it figuratively. He literally does not know what I am writing about.
I was taken aback when I realized he is not specialized in my area of research. But not knowing what my research is about is just plainly freaking me out! (He thought that I was writing about a different subject, and he doesn't have any other PhD students besides myself)
There is only one professor who is specialized in my area of research in the school, and she is not taking students.
I thought about it, and decided that transferring to another school is on the table. The thing is that the closest school is ranked higher than mine. (Mine in the top 50, the other school in the top 15), and I am not sure if they are going to accept me.
Should I go to the other school and talk to the admission office? To the dean perhaps? For my major, it is not common for students to contact prospective supervisors. (I don't know anyone in there who I am interested in working with because I did not see this coming).
What should I do?
*This a comment that I posted below, but just because it came up many times, I'll put it here:
"Just to clarify, and this is something I clarified above, it is not a common practice in my field that we -students- contact supervisors before getting into the program. We apply and then the school itself assigns students to supervisors. Actually, some departments ask explicitly that you DON'T contact any faculty member. I did not choose my supervisor. I was not given his name until I get into the program and started"
Someone has pointed out another question about a similar case, the lonk has been useful. But, my situation is different as I have no other alternatives. (Advisors)

But not knowing what my research is about is just plainly freaking me out!

So it seems like there are two issues here. One is the classic "my advisor works in field X while I want to work in field Y" problem (you will find lots of discussion of this problem if you search this site). The other is that your advisor is hands-off to the point of you being completely on your own. Given both of these factors, your decision to seek a new advisor seems reasonable. And yes, if you are unwilling or unable to work with anyone locally, then it follows logically that you will have to transfer.

The thing is that the closest school is ranked higher than mine. (Mine in the top 50, the other school in the top 15)

You may need to consider schools other than the closest one. I assume you were not able to be admitted to a top-15 school when you applied last time. Unless you've done something impressive in the last year, your odds of getting admitted are probably lower than they were last year, not higher.

Should I go to the other school and talk to the admission office? To the dean perhaps? (For my major, It is not common for students to contact prospective supervisors.

You say you are in the US, so I am surprised by the question. Graduate admissions are usually done by the department, not by the admissions office; the admissions office is usually for undergraduate admissions. The dean is also not usually involved in such things.
The only way to "short circuit" the usual admissions process is to find a professor who wants to work with you, and have them help you from the inside. But if you don't have such a person in your network already, this is a long-shot; most professors will just say "please apply to the program and we can talk if you get in."
Bottom line: You should pursue all the options in your desired subfield, not just the closest one. But if your subfield is small and all of the programs are highly-ranked, you may need to consider other subfields, "like it or not."

I don't know how I ended up here. I just found myself here!

I suggest that you reflect on this. You did not "find yourself here"; rather, you applied for admission in this department and then agreed to attend. There is no real harm in making a mistake; we have all made many. But it's important to recognize what went wrong so that you can avoid having it happen again.
Update: OP has since clarified that their field is Law. I cannot speak to whether this answer makes sense for law, not my area.


What to do on immediate rejection from journal citing "Similarity Score" that is too high, but specific instances are just boilerplate text? I have received an immediate reject notice from the journal ACM CSUR mentioning that my written survey had 13% similar materials with respect to the online available sources. Passing through the instances one by one, it sounds to me that the majority are just the text of the references to the citations, e.g., "Authors et al. [first_author et al. Year]", some standard terms such as "performance", "tuning", and many standard ACM sections such as the ACM Copyright section, etc.

P.S:

1- To be noted that I am aware of plagiarism policy and I strongly support it. However, the fact that we are dealing with a survey journal instead of a regular computer science experimental research paper made me confused on the outcome of the similarity check and the immediate rejection.

2- The application that does this check is called "iThenticate".

Had anyone experienced the same issue ? Normally what do we do to proceed in this status? Does ACM have a fixed threshold on this similarity score?

I cannot find anything about the use of the ithenticate in the ACM CSUR instructions for authors. The ACM magazine Inroads says:

  Please note that ACM Inroads as well as all ACM publications expect new, unpublished material, unless specifically reprinting an item from another publication with attribution. In support of this goal, ACM Inroads uses iThenticate to develop a similarity index for all submissions. As a first step after an initial submission, iThenticate compares the text to published material (at least 43 billion web pages and over 130 million content items). It provides editors with a set of similarity indices and helps them identify original material, including prior publications of authors.

This suggests that there is not a hard cut off, but rather a set of metrics and comparisons that the editors use in making a decision. While it is possible that the ACM system is poorly tuned, this seems unlikely. In my experience, a 13% similarity is quite high and is often indicative of issues.

While it is not cheap, you can purchase a single paper use of iThenticate. It appears that iThenticate is owned by TurnItIn which many universities have access to. It is not clear what the different systems do, but it may help you identify what is being flagged up.


How to deal with a disorganized professor? Our class seems very disorganized. I am a graduate student in four courses this quarter. At our school this is week 3. In 3 of my courses, we received the syllabus on day 1. In one of my classes, we haven't received a syllabus yet and I am worried it will become a problem for us. We don't know what subjects we will be covering this quarter, when our midterm will be or what form it will take (our courses are remote), what we will be graded on other than the homeworks which have been assigned, or really any of the other small things which a syllabus would contain.
Every lecture we ask our professor when he will give us a syllabus. And every lecture he gives us a vague "in a couple of days" answer. Well, today we found out we will have a midterm in about 2 weeks, but he wouldn't commit to a date. I am worried that this will interfere with my other classes which are already taking up a good deal of my time, and I have no idea how to prioritize this or deal with it. I have worked in the private sector for several years and never dealt with this kind of disorganization or chaos.
I personally wrote him an email indirectly asking for a syllabus before. That didn't work. We ask him directly in every class when he will write a syllabus. That doesn't work. Several students have asked on our class discussion forum (which he is supposed to respond to). Those questions have gone unanswered.
This is tough because 1) I believe I will have at least one other class with this professor so I want to be very careful and 2) I feel like we have exhausted all of our polite options. I am considering going up the hierarchy, but I don't want to burn any bridges. What should I do?
For the record, I am attending an accredited university. Our program is listed as one of the better ones in the country for my degree, and it's not cheap either. I have high expectations, and suffice it to say, they are not being met.

Talk to academic advising, or someone higher up in the department.
I applaud your efforts at being understanding, but keep in mind that teaching this class is his job.  Students not knowing what material will be covered, or how they will be evaluated on it, is him not doing his job.
It's certainly possible this professor has other things going on in his life that are preventing him from getting these things done, but they're very fundamental pieces of the job itself, and you're already three weeks in.  If he's incapable of doing this basic part, then the department should be involved, at a minimum to provide the professor with the support he needs.  And unlike in the spring, when the COVID crisis and at-home learning was suddenly thrust upon us all, we have had many months to prepare for it this time.  The same things that might have been excusable in April, such as scrambling to figure out how a class will work in week 3, are not excusable now.


Graduate school admission without college degree Can you apply and be admitted to a graduate school without having an undergraduate degree?

I see no particular reason why a graduate committee may not admit someone without an undergraduate degree. But you'd have to have outstanding -- and well documented -- talents for a committee to take a chance on such a candidate.


The name of academic journals that ask for money to review or publish papers? In academic life you need to publish papers. Some journals publish papers merely based on peer review; they don't ask for money. For some other journals, you have to pay certain amount of money for your paper to be reviewed and published.

What are this second kind of journals called? I have heard "money journals". Is that the name used for these journals?

This model is typically called "Gold open access".

Some of them are good and well-reputed (e.g., the PLOS family of journals), and some are predatory scams designed to bilk authors out of publications fees.

In most fields, journals will never ask for money to allow peer review: in those fields, that is definitely a red flag for a scam. Note, however, that in a few fields, such as economics, it is standard practice to ask for submission fees.


Should I go for a Campus or University I'm currently looking at higher studies options, taking a degree in Computer Science. So far, I have two options:

Get a degree locally, from a campus that partners with a foreign University and you get the same degree as the partner University students.
Go abroad and get a degree directly.

What would be better? Would the first option be OK?

My university has three campuses. Two are very close together, in the same town in fact (about a 10 minute walk apart). Most of the main university buildings are on the larger of the two, with the smaller one containing a few department buildings (e.g. Law and Business) and another library. The third campus is halfway round the world in the Southern Hemisphere.

To the best of my knowledge, you can study for a degree on any of the three campuses and your degree will only state the name of the university, not the campus you studied on (which is only of administrative importance and not relevant to what you studied). You even state this yourself in your question:

  "...you get the same degree as the partner University students."

I would not worry about the value of the degree if studied for at a separate campus. The university itself should ensure that academic standards are maintained across all its campuses, including those abroad, as if they did not this would only devalue the degrees they offer.


Include author after revision in IEEE journal I submitted a paper to a  IEEE journal. During the submission, I acknowledged a person who helped me in experiments.  Now I am getting minor revision. Is it possible to include him now?

Yes, you can update the author list. Depending on the system, you might be able to update the authors in the submission system directly, or you may have to contact the editor to have them do it.

One caveat, there is the possibility that a new author changes the people conflicted with reviewing it.  For a minor revision, which probably only goes back to an associate editor, this may not matter much.  Plus, it's already essentially accepted.  If it were a major revision that would get reviewed again, it's possible someone who should reread it is now conflicted. (More likely if the new author is with another institution, but even if it were a student, a summer internship could have that effect.)


Term for a meta-analysis without a literature review I'm in the midst of revising a manuscript that compares the results of a sequence of experiments. These experiments, most of whose results have already been published elsewhere, have some components that were shared and some that were unique to each experiment. This manuscript focuses on the shared aspects, comparing across the different experiments in order to draw conclusions about precision, reproducibility, and sources of error.
Since we're performing a statistical analysis over the findings of multiple studies, we have described this as a "meta-analysis."  The handling editor, however, has requested that we change the title, because the use of that term is now dominated by systematic reviews:

Please consider amending the title to more accurately reflect the nature of the work. We note that 'meta-analysis' typically refers to an analysis following a systematic review and utilising a specific framework.

I'm having a hard time, however, figuring out any other word than "meta-analysis" to describe an analysis over multiple studies.
Is there any good word besides "meta-analysis" to describe a meta-analysis that doesn't incorporate a systematic literature review?

For a wide study that attempts to distill "truth" out of "evidence", meta-analysis would be the correct term.
But for a narrower study that compares a small number of studies and attempts to improve the evidence for an answer to the underlying question or at least improve the search for better evidence, I think "comparative analysis" would probably be better - especially if an editor is uncomfortable.
But you might also think about qualifying the term depending on your actual goal in the paper.


Why don't major research institutions systematically publish their subscription fees to scientific journals? I read on https://ropengov.github.io/r/2016/06/10/FOI/:

Finland becomes to our knowledge the first country where annual subscription fees for all individual publishers and all major research institutions have been made available.
[…]
Limited access to detailed pricing information and agreement details are likely to result in suboptimal contracts (Cockerill, 2006; Shieber, 2009). Improved access to subscription costs can hence be expected to lead to better deals and lower costs for the universities. It can also facilitate transition to the Open Access (OA) publishing model.

Why don't major research institutions systematically publish their subscription fees to scientific journals?

References:

Shieber, S M (2009). Equity for Open-Access Journal Publishing. PLOS Biology 7(8): e1000165.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1000165
Cockerill, M (2006). The Economics of Open Access Publishing. Information Services and Use 26(2): 151–157. Available at: http://content.iospress.com/articles/information-services-and-use/isu499 [Last accessed 28 October 2015].

Presumably an important reason is that publishers contractually forbid libraries from disclosing this information, see for example http://access.okfn.org/2014/04/24/the-cost-of-academic-publishing/:

  And then libraries are not allowed to tell anyone what these costs are. Libraries are placed under huge amounts of pressure not to release this data, and in the case of Elsevier, they are explicitly forbidden to by non-disclosure agreements in the contracts they have to sign.

This is a reference from 2014, so perhaps meanwhile things have changed (but I would guess not).


Is it permissible to request a new reviewing editor? I submitted a manuscript to an established ecology journal and received reasonable reviews. The reviewing editor requested a revision. However, the comments from the reviewing editor were abysmal. First, the literacy and analysis were, in my judgment, poor by high-school standards. Second, based on the comments, I seriously doubt the reviewing editor read the manuscript. I have published 10 papers (mostly in higher impact journals than this one) and this reviewing editor stands out. I think I would rather withdraw the paper than deal with this person. Is it possible to request a different editor? I have never heard of that, but I have no desire to work with this person.

EDIT: The email from the journal contains 3 sets of comments. They are labeled "Reviewer #1", "Reviewer #2", and "Associate Editor." I am referring to the comments from the Associate Editor, who is not named. The comments from the AE synthesize the comments from the reviewers, which is his/her job, of course. However, it reads like the AE was busy and let his 12 year old son write it for him.

EDIT 2: Thank you for the input. I asked this question because A) the comments from the AE were unusually bad and B) it will require more finesse to deal with a bad editor than a bad reviewer. However, I have decided to proceed as normal anyway. I have already invested the time to get reviews and I need to deal with reviewer comments regardless. Once you are halfway into the forest, forging ahead is the quickest way out. So I will play the journal-review roulette even though I think it will be more random and aggravating than usual.

As chief editor of a journal, I can say that I would see such a request as reasonable under certain circumstances (and it has happened). However, in the case you describe I do not see what it is that the editor has really done. The reviewers comments form the basis for your revisions and the editor should judge if any comments are more important than others and summarize what the editor sees as important revisions you should make. It is then up to you to do these as you see fit and if you disagree argue against those that need such action.

Change of editor requests come when an author feel a paper has been unfairly judged (usually rejected) and I know of one case where an editor rejected a paper after using a set of reviewers that were marked as "non-preferred" due to a conflict of interest. I also know of cases where a zealous copy-editor has modified the language to a degree that the science was almost completely lost. In your case, it is not clear what has happened to the manuscript, has it been rejected? have you written a rebuttal and argued against changes imposed?

I would suggest that you make the revisions you think are reasonable and provide a rebuttal on the suggested changes to your paper. If you encounter more unreasonable resistance from the editor, I think it is only fair to write to the Editor-in-Chief and state that you think you have been unfairly treated and wish to get a second opinion on the handling.


Publishing Unpublished undergraduate research after a decade I want to see whether I can publish my undergraduate work after a decade.
Context:
This is to support my academic career as I am planning to apply for a PhD program (Biophysics/Chemistry/Structural biology) in the US soon. I do have an MA from a highly ranked Public Ivy (mastered out from PhD due to health issues). I am targetting a few very competitive programs.
The last two years of my career are a bit productive. I got two coauthor papers this year (Angewandte Chemie, Analytical Chemistry). Most probably get two others (Science, Angewandte Chemie). Around 15 conference abstracts published (citable). But on papers, my name is in the middle as I am just a research tech (except conference abstracts where I am the first and presenting author for most).
Thus, I am not satisfied as I don't have any first-author papers. Then I realized that I can publish my undergraduate work.
In my undergraduate research, I synthesized a novel hydroxamic acid hexadentate ligand and then carried out a speciation study of its iron (ІІІ) complexes using UV-Vis spectroscopy. Only one type of ligand-iron (ІІІ) complexes was revealed in spectroscopic studies. Then I was supposed to verify my results by using MD simulation. I have not completed this part. However, I can complete this now.
I did this work a decade ago and only submitted my thesis to fulfill a degree requirement. However, I believed no one synthesized the compound after that.
I am interested to know how to go and determine

work is publishable in quality

If it is good enough, how should I proceed to finish up the work and publish it?

Also, whether I can file a patent for this compound (I can find some useful application for the compound)

Another objective for doing this is to learn the process of publishing a first author paper and process of filing a patent rather than going after any commercial interest.
I got my undergraduate degree in Sri Lanka, and my PI never bothered to publish the work or file for a patent as he does not have an active research group. Moreover, most professors in Sri Lanka are only interested in teaching.
I appreciate any advice on this matter.

Update #01
Thank you @buffy
My priority is to get a first author paper out before the 2021 application session starts ( At least submit it). The patent is secondary, but I would like to get it to strengthen my green card application.
The department I work for now helps with patent filing, and they have dedicated staff for that matter.
My biggest issue right now is to find someone that can assess the quality of the work. My current PI is busy and often delay answering to my questions related to current work. So I do not have high hope there.
Also, I am mostly doing biophysics/physical chemistry/analytical chemistry/Biochemistry related work now. Thus regarding this particular work, I am not sure how to judge the quality or which journal to target.
Would it be appropriate to email a few professors that do similar work for guidance?
Update 02
Thank you @kosmos
I have contacted my supervisor and previous collaborators. I am waiting for their response. I will see where people published similar work and go from there. I am not interested in paying someone to proofread; instead, I would like to get an idea about the quality of the work. My current research is on the modulation of G-Protein–Coupled Receptors (GPCRs) by soft membrane matter. Thus, I have minimal exposure to physical organic chemistry to answer that question myself.

You have a lot of questions to answer before you proceed.
If you intend to patent, you should start with that, or at least note that if you publish first, then in some places (US) a clock starts and you need to file a patent within a fixed time period or you work could become "prior art". You also need to know if the university is the proper party to file the patent. They may have rules about that, which you implicitly agreed to earlier. And patenting can be an expensive proposition, require advice from a patent attorney.
If you intend to publish, you need to determine whether others should be co-authors, and, if so, get them involved. Be careful of issues of plagiarism here if others contributed.
As to the required quality for publishing, the editor and reviewers of a journal will give you that information after you submit your work.