How can I get the most out of conferences? I recently attended a very large conference in my field (SfN, ~30,000 attendees), and after I got back I was thinking about what I had gained from the trip, and I realized not that much. I listened to a few different talks, and I saw a whole bunch of relevant posters, but on reflection I don't think anything I did progressed my knowledge/career that much. What should I do in the future to ensure that I make the most out of conferences?

Read this and this.

My professor put forth 3 simple rules for networking:

Talk to the guy beside you
Talk to top 3 (sort by relevance or whatever you prefer) presenters
Mail them 5 days after the conference with some follow up content (questions/comments/invites for talks etc.)

Just to make this post "dead-link" proof, I present a gist of the content in the above links.

Start Early. You should begin preparing before the conference starts. Start reading on who will be there, emailing people you want to meet, and determining which events you will attend. You may want to contact the speakers whose talks you will be attending before the conference; try to set up a meeting, or if they are too busy, at least meet them and give them your business card.
Bring Business Cards. Make sure they're up-to-date and details your preferred mode of communication.
Research people and get involved in their networks. If a certain professor is giving a talk; read his previous research papers, frame interesting questions and get an excuse to meet him. If you do meet him, exploit the opportunity to interact with his peers and try to enter their network. Sometimes, this is the only way of getting to network with someone. I know of professors who refuse to take students for PhD or internships or Postdocs without a recommendation from someone in his network. A good impression might just get you that recommendation.
Note people with similar interests to yours. These people will be attending all the same presentations as you, talking to the same people, discussing similar topics. They are the potential spots for networking.
Prepare the elevator speech. A common question will be "So, what is your research about?" Make sure you have an answer for every audience. For e.g. If you are in Computational Science, the answer may vary depending on who you are talking with. Plus, make it interesting and digestible.
Organize an event of your own. This is especially useful is forming "lower" networks i.e. networks of people who lag in terms of age or experience such as graduate students. If not more, they could notify you of openings or interesting papers or whatever. They could be useful. (Plus it helps us :P )
Read "Never Eat Alone".
Follow Up. Prepare for this even before you leave for the conference. Have different modes of follow up ready. Will you have anything to say that is worth writing an email for? If not, think of something which will. If nothing works, make sure you click a photo of yourself with him and send it to him a few days after the conference.


What is an academic and formal way to define variables? I'm currently writing my IB Extended Essay in physics. I wonder how I can define variables in a formal way. I originally used a triple bar (e.g. "F≡buoyant force"). However, I'm not sure if this is formal or even correct. What is an academic and formal way to define variables?

The academic way to define variables is to simply describe them in the text. For instance,

  F = ma,
  where F is the force acting on the point mass m and a is the acceleration.

In fact, we want scientific texts to be readable, and not overburdened with unnecessary and obscure notations. Symbols have their role, but don't overuse them. Even more, a symbol like the triple bar has different technical meanings in different disciplines and using it in that way may just generate confusion.


Postdoctoral job search: freedom As I'm currently pursuing an academic job search (in parallel to the industry one), which includes potential postdoctoral positions, I would appreciate some clarifications on the following aspect.

Freedom. I assume that there are two major options for postdoctoral positions in regard to academic (research) freedom: 1) postdoctoral researcher joins a group, lab or project and contributes to one or more of their research projects under PI's guidance; 2) postdoctoral researcher joins a group, lab or department and contributes to one of those entities' research portfolio by conceptualizing and performing her/his own research (still under PI's guidance), based on previously negotiated agenda, which fits and supports larger groups' research themes.

Question: are my my assumptions correct; does a postdoctoral title reflect the type of freedom (or lack of) of the position?

Note: My field is Information Systems, a discipline, which can be considered as a sub-domain of Management Science, which, in turn, is a social sciences discipline.

The answer is a resounding Yes.

That is, it's not "either-or", but "both". On the one hand, as a postdoc, you will be expected to start coming up with your own research ideas and projects and take an active role in pitching your ideas to funding bodies, possibly even become PI on smaller grants yourself. Your supervisor will of course still play a major role.

On the other hand, your research should still tie in to your supervisor's area of expertise. Otherwise, why do you work with him and not someone else? And how should he help you with advice and contacts?

In the end, there will be a mixture between the two options you describe. When you join a group, you may respond to a job opening for a specific project, but even then, you will need to develop your own ideas in relation to this project and pursue your own interesting questions related to the project. Or you may have your own idea, possibly even your own funding, and more-or-less cold-call a potential supervisor, but even then, for the supervisor to accept you as a postdoc, you will need to explain to him how your idea ties in with his own work.


How to list proposals I assisted in writing on CV In the case a Post-doc is not allowed to be a Co-PI on proposals submitted to NSF etc. i.e., some schools require PIs to add a "mentoring plan" for post-docs (for budgeting purposes). In the event the post-doc developed the idea and helped in writing the proposal, how does the post-doc list this in his academic CV?

1) A great tip is to look at other successful people who have the same experience and see how or whether they listed that on their CV. If you know any postdocs in recent history with the same experience, look at their website or ask to see their CV as a template.

2) If your only contribution to the grant is that you developed your own Postdoc mentoring program, I'm not sure that I'd consider that grant writing experience. But, I don't really know- that's just my gut feeling.

3) Later in your career you would probably not list grant activity that you are not the PI or Co-PI for. For a postdoc or grad student you want to make it clear that you worked on grant writing but you're not an investigator.

You could have a section that looks something like:

Grant Activity - neither PI or Co-PI

Summary of contributions. (NSF Grant Number). Grant Title. $Award Amount. Date.

For example:

Grant Activity - neither PI or Co-PI

Editor, figure designer, and wrote mentoring plan. (NSF 123456789). Investigating Greatness by Posting on Stack Exchange. Awarded $300,000. 2017


How to reuse algorithms from previous paper In the past, I wrote a paper which included 2 algorithms A and B. Both of them were presented and fully explained. Moreover, B was built based on A, in other words, reader must know about A in order to understand B.

At the moment, I'm writing another paper which further expands B. However, it requires A to be presented (and explained) so that reader can understand. So, I wonder how to present an algorithm A in my new paper. So far, I have 3 solution:

Present and fully explain A in a new paper
Present A and say that its explanation is included in an old paper
State that an algorithm in a new paper in based on algorithm A in an old one, without presenting or explaining it.

You can create a Preliminaries section, and include Algorithm A and its explanation there clearly citing it. That way, it is clear to the reader that the second contains necessary background information, and not new contributions.

As far as how much to include, that really depends on how crucial it is for understanding of expansion of B, how much space you have available, whether the algorithm is published. Any other approaches you suggest are viable.


Supervisor/advisor ignores me regarding my paper I did an honours degree last year (4 year undergrad study with a research  thesis). My supervisor shafted me towards the end of that year when I was coming up to submit my thesis by being absent with his own life issues and barely communicative, and gave me back drafts literally days before it was due. End result was I fell barely short of the requirements to get a PhD scholarship. So I discussed with my supervisor and he said I could write a paper with his assistance about my work, to bolster a future PhD application.

So we agreed on a date to catch up, the time came and I sent him an email. He has not responded at all, it's been 10 days at this point. Normally he would reply back quickly. I'm getting the strong feeling he's got yet another excuse, but I really need to do this for my professional development/future PhD application. What should I do next? Would it be possible to write the paper myself without assistance (I have all the data).

There are many reasons why people can miss an email; a likely possibility for busy people is that your email simply got buried under many others. So, don't assume he's trying to ignore you, and you should first bug him again (politely) about that.

It is also a good idea to start writing the paper on your own: your supervisor will be much more willing to help you improve a first outline or even a draft than to start from a blank page.


Long term research plan I have been on a junior professor position for three years and I start thinking about my future. Is there any suggestion for young faculty on how to come up with a long term research agenda? I feel that being under publication pressure for several years has somehow restricted my vision and turned my research towards incremental work. Of course there is always an idea to get another paper done, but is this the right mindset over the long run?

First, get tenure. If your current path works for that then you have time for the longer run. Get that done.

But one of the ways to build a long term research program is to do it in collaboration with others. If you have a few people (three is enough) in your department that share research ideas in general, you can form a weekly seminar that meets for an hour and discusses "things". Those things can be recent papers or wild ideas that might develop over time into something significant. It may be a help if some of the members have been around for a while. Even quite intractable problems can be discussed on occasion as long as it doesn't get bogged down.

It is also useful to include students (at any level) in such seminars. You don't need elaborate procedures for academic credit for such things. Just an informal meeting. Students presenting papers to the group is possibly worth doing.

Of course you should work out authorship questions early when you start to work seriously on something that will lead to publication. Fighting with colleagues over the order to list authors is a good way to destroy such a seminar.


How to manage very weak students presenting problem solutions? In some of my more advanced classes, I have students present solutions to problems on a rotating basis.  Not all solutions are perfect, but for almost all students this goes okay.  However, sometimes there is a student X who seems incapable of solving all but the most trivial problems (and cannot always do those correctly).  I am unsure whether X is even aware of the difference between themself and the rest of the class (my impression is they are not), but the X's presentations are not pleasant for the rest of the class, and probably not for X either.  They typically involve me or other students making several corrections, taking 2-3x as long as needed (and the problems X has gotten so far have pretty easy already), then me eventually cutting of X and saying "Okay, all you do is [...].  Next."

  I was contemplating only giving this student trivial problems to present.
  Is this a good idea? Are there better ideas?

My concern about doing this is that it will probably be obvious to the rest of the class if X is routinely getting significantly easier problems to present.  It may also be obvious to X, though that is less clear--if so, I can imagine it might be embarrassing.  (And if X cannot successfully solve those, it would be more embarrassing.)  Not letting X present would probably be the most embarrassing.  Right now, my inclination is to let X's problems naturally vary between trivial and normal, based on the rotation, but make an attempt to keep hard problems away from X.

Another option is to say something to X, but I am not sure what, apart from suggesting X check their solutions with another student before presenting.  One thing I definitely want to avoid is teaching X individually outside of class.  Based on previous interactions, this could quickly become a time sink, and I am too busy already.

There are at least two+ different issues: (1a) your suffering (1b) suffering of the other students, (2) the obliviousness or incompetence or low-energy of the individual student. The easiest argument that there's something needing repair is that the other students shouldn't have to suffer, in any case.

My anecdotal evidence indicates that whether it's obliviousness or incompetence or some sort of lethargy, any one of these can be an essentially fatal obstacle, and is not within anyone else's power to change in the short term. Maybe long-term. Giving easier problems will not be understood as such, and can have the effect of passively "confirming" the inadequate strategies of that individual.

So: time limits on presentations, at least. Perhaps "failure limitations", too, meaning that a certain smaller window is allowed to persuade the audience that things are going in the right direction. This criterion gives a device to get failing performances off the stage and not waste other peoples' time.

Similarly, in my experience, it is possible to spend unlimited amounts of time on some students "with problems", thinking to "lift them out of failure", but have essentially no impact on them. Don't do it. Allocate the reasonable amount of time, and then stop. This is absolutely not an argument against spending time and energy on students (a.k.a. "teaching"), but is an argument against pretending that one has infinite personal resources, and against pretending that bad allocation doesn't harm other parts of the enterprise.

Possibly time to mention the Dunning-Krueger syndrome again, too? That is, that sometimes the most problemmatic scenarios are those in which someone lacks the meta-cognition to understand that they "even have problems". If someone has already passed/failed that filter, the chances are slim that you can call on their meta-cognitive faculties to help them... Sadly.

So, you cannot deny weak students resources, but don't misallocate so as to harm others. And the cost to you yourself should be limited. One does not have unlimited responsibility (in time or energy) to students. Definite responsibility, yes, but definitely limited.


What is the difference between falsifying data and just being wrong? I had to take a standard ethics seminar at my research lab (everyone in my lab must take the seminar).  As one would expect, I learned that the charges associated with falsifying data are serious.

Whether you falsify data or make a stupid mistake, the end result is that the published work is wrong.  But the charges of falsifying data are much more serious than the charges associated with human error.

My motivation for making this post is as follows.  Researchers must be allowed some leniency on accuracy, otherwise one would not progress at a reasonable pace.  Nobody is right 100% of the time. Some of the best papers and discoveries have inaccuracies (some are in fact 100% wrong).  However, if your data is innacurate, and the allegation is that you falsified the data, your career takes a major hit.

Question

What are the specific differences between falsifying results and making a human error?  How does one decipher  between erroneous results (due to human error, or negligence, or incompetence, or an early career mistake, etc) and falsified/fabricated results?  How does one prove results are falsified?  Conversely, how would a researcher prove his/her innocence?

The clear difference is intent.

Human error occurs when people make mistakes accidentally. For instance, in my first paper, I submitted a graph that was physically implausible because of an error in a code I had written, without realizing it at the time.

However, if I knew the work was wrong or, worse still, if I intentionally made up results, we would cross the boundary from human error to fraud.

Unfortunately, it can be very difficult to detect intentional fraud without some assistance from the perpetrators themselves. A major example of this was the Jan-Hendrik Schön scandal of the early 2000's. Schön's fraud was discovered because he was reusing the same figures to different ends in papers in various journals.


In a master's thesis, should relevant theory be part of the literature survey? Does literature survey/review include relevant theory (from textbooks/old references) or should it only include recent publications? Should I place the theory as a separate chapter?

The age of theory really does not matter.  If there is a relevant contribution from the 17th century that still matters today, then it is includable.  It doesn't mean you should include it, but there is no reason at all to exclude it.  Because of the pressure of "publish or perish," many current articles are of poor quality.  Indeed, I just wrote to authors of an article because I felt they missed a very obvious explanation.

Conversely, there were fewer scholars the further you go back in time and they were often the pinnacle of the profession.  While there was less knowledge to work with, there tended to be greater rigor.  There are two important reasons to quote older works.  The first is when the older work implies a broader range of options than the profession has taken or unintentionally foreclosed a path of research.  The second is when an important element of prior theory is wrong.  A quotation from a prior author can illustrate how incorrect thinking developed.  For prior theory to be wrong, it has to make perfect sense as to how it is correct.  The error has to be subtle.

Your literature review should include prior theory.  The scope of that review should be deep enough and broad enough to cover the discussion of your research project.  You should be aware of controversies that could impact you, the timing of that discussion is irrelevant.  There is no virtue to an article written in 2017 and no reason to not quote older works, even including the ancient Greek mathematical writings.  There are good reasons to quote Euclid's Elements.

If it is in print, ever, it can be used.  Relevance is up to you and your advisor.  As to whether it should be in a separate chapter, we can't really help you.  You are writing a book.  It needs to make sense.  How can you best make sense.


A Last Minute Meeting Request at the End of the Year The class and year has ended.   I wanted to meet with  a professor who served as a great mentor with me during this year. I wanted to thank her in person and discuss pedagogy. I unexplainably dissed her by leaving at the end of the last class without thanking her or saying goodbye.

Feeling great guilt and disappointment, I emailed her to set up a last chance meeting. She responded with a long winded email about how busy she was [possibly a polite-go-away], but suggested possible times a week later.
I responded, in a clearly selfish and urgent manner, that I was available after the dates she suggested.

She responded with a "ok Ethel... i will write to you when I'm finished this week."

Upon further consideration, I feel that I might have come off as entitled to her time.
I'm considering taking back the meeting request and just writing a heartfelt email instead, possibly before she has a chance to attempt to set up a meeting.

Does anyone have advice?

This might be a very busy time - grading, exam board meetings etc.

As she is prepared to set up a meeting, then meet and thank her in person - it’s always nice to receive feedback / thanks / recognition...


How to teach to an adult person that is not used to study? I'm trying to teach some basic things to my mother, such history, basic math and basic physics so she can attend a test.

But because of my mothers personality this has become pretty hard , since she has been influenced from the childhood by sayings  like "I can't study and can't learn", and trash like that.

This is so obnoxious , because to learn a small thing (v.gr.: add fractions) she takes a lot of time (2 or 3 hours) and the next day when trying to recall it, she don't solve the same problems of the day before and she fall in despair and trow out what already learn and stop to study.

I don't think the problem is some kind of disability, I'd rather say she can recall perfect it, but I have seen too that she doubts almost of all the things she knows, and don't write a thing because before she write down something, she believes its wrong!!!

I think too she has a hard time trying to focus on the themes explained.
I have exhausted each idea about trying to explain things: cardboards, games, using the videos of youtube, reading along the books, talking about the themes instead of a serious lecture.

Of course I'm aware I'm not a teacher, but whats does really matter is that she learn a bit of things, that's all.

This is more of pedagogy, but since there is no stack for that I have come here to ask.
Thanks in advance.

Life is dependent many times on being motivated to succeed. There is not a magical formula for having no motivation and yet having success. If your mother cannot find the motivation to learn, it is rather hard to force learning down her throat. If you can make learning matter to her, she will want to learn.

Perhaps you should look into hiring a professional tutor if your mother needs to learn this material for her employment (or the like). Removing the family element could allow for her to feel more motivation. In certain countries, there are programs for adult learning. One can obtain an equivalent to basic high school education from these programs.


A+ in transcript and GPA In the past (historically), A+ was a bonus in transcript and had an effect on the cumulative GPA too, but it is no common these days (at least I do not see around). If some universities/colleges use A+ in the transcript, but it is equally considered as an A in calculating the GPA.

Is A+ obsolete in the US universities/colleges? or because they use it for rare occasions, we do not normally see it?

In other words, are there still universities using A+, and equaling it to 4.3 in calculating the GPA?

How an A+ is treated varies from school to school. In the traditional American grading system, an "A" contributes a 4.0 to one's GPA, an "A-" contributes a 3.7, a "B+" contributes a 3.3, a "B" contributes 3.0, etc. In many universities, 4.0 represents the maximum possible GPA, and so an A+, although it may appear on the transcript next to a course, also only contributes 4.0 to one's GPA. At other universities (such as e.g. Columbia), an A+ contributes 4.3 to one's GPA.

None of this matters very much of course.


Precarious employment in academia: Why is there no labor union in academia? Many positions in academia are precarious, when it comes to employment common behavior in academia would never be acceptable in industry. This applies equally to PhD students as well as to junior academics:

PhD students are not guaranteed employment at university
after working there for 5 years.
PhD students are paid little considering their degree: In
Germany e.g. it is common practice for professors to only pay
    half-time posts.
It's common practice for young academics to work well beyond 40 hours even for PhD students that are
only paid half-time posts. Work regulations regarding maximum worked hours and weekends are often ignored.
Junior academics are unlikely to land an unlimited full-time job at a
university. Directly after graduation this is impossible and even after years of more precarious work as a postdoc only a fraction get unlimited employment.
With exception of CS and engineering very little universities care about providing an exit strategy for junior academics and PhD students after academia. (While change in industry is possible in quite a few fields, proper (additional!) training would be much needed.)

These issues are well known. Fundamentally academia is producing too many PhD students and too little full-time positions (not just professorships) for their respective fields which causes much of the mentioned problems.

I feel like the passion almost all young academics and PhD students have for their subject brings a lot of naivety when it comes to employment conditions, which is exploited.

Why is there no movement inside academia trying to change these working conditions or a push to establish labor unions?

Why is there no labor union in academia?

Some universities have unions, others do not.  The scope of the unions varies.

  Why is there no movement inside academia trying to change this?

Many people support changing academia, so the premise of this question is wrong.  The reality is that change is hard, especially when the old system obtains lots of cheap labor.

  how successful have they been in the past?

Unionization usually results in an increase in pay and job security, but the change is small.

For problems 1-5, the solution is simple:  Don't get a PhD.  As long as many people try to get PhDs, economic forces will encourage these problems to persist.


Whether to use numbers or abbreviated names as a citation style? Many papers use numbered references (e.g.: [1], [2]). Is this considered a good style or even a rule or would it be acceptable to use abbreviated names of the authors and year of publication (e.g. [Smith09] for J. Smith, 2009)? I find the abbreviated name reference style a lot more informative as after a while of reading papers on a given topic it’s usually easy to identify the cited publication without the need to look at the full bibliography.  I have seen this style used in books and some editorials but it is not common.

The two systems are equally good but used in different communities/journals etc. You therefore need to check what is normally used in your field and when submitting manuscripts, of course, check what the specific journal uses. The fact that you say "most journals use" indicates you are in a field that uses numbered or Vancouver style (author-number) references. The author-date, or Harvard-system, is used by most journals in my field.


Mention of open problems in statement of purpose I graduated with a first class honors in dual degrees (bachelor of electrical engineering and mathematics) from Australia and would like to study for a PhD in the USA.
One of my dreams is to work on a specific open problem in control theory for my PhD. I got a WAM (weighted average mark) of 95 (out of 100) for my dual degree.
Is it unrealistic to state in my statement of purpose that I like to work on a specific open problem in control theory? and would it have any negative effect on my admission?

It is a GREAT idea to list some specific problem.  I got a national scholarship and one reason was I wrote about a specific problem I wanted to work on (even with a couple citations to literature).

A little real meat on the bone content helps differentiate from hordes of people who just say how great they are.

I would maybe just give yourself a little flexibility to say that you will look at other topics of interest when accepted into school and choosing a lab group.


What should I do if professor grades unfairly? Background:

I take the required course through another university in order to graduate earlier, and that is how my nightmare starts.

From the first few weeks, everything was going fine; however, after the mid-term, the professor approached me and said she needed to talk to me.
When I went to see her, the first thing she asked me to do was read aloud of the instruction of the exam (which I felt being insulating because English is not my native language). The instruction is basically said this exam contains the answer key, do not take them with you or take any pics and hand in back as same as it is.

After I read it, she asked me "where is the answer key"? I immediately realized that she thought I took her answer key. I told her that I did not take your answer key, because when I reviewed the exam, I thought the scantron was the answer key. She said it's fine and she would take me out of the report (What report!!??) Per my understanding now, everyone should have an answer key, instruction guild, and scantron on the exam when she hands back for us to review. However, what the hell would I know it as we just had a few mins to review our exam back at that time?

BTW, I remembered when she handed in the exam, I saw my classmates do not even have instruction paper being stapped on the exam, meaning that it may be a simple mistake that she forgot to staple the answer key on my exam.

After this incident happened, she kept giving me lower grades. I compared my papers with my classmates. Most of them got full points without following her instructions or writing properly. She makes comments saying I did not answer questions, but I did answer all the questions in my paper. My friends reviewed my papers and all agree with me, so the professor may not even finish my paper.

I am so upset and I really need to pass this class. What should I do? Go to talk with deen or persons with higher positions? I just felt like because I am not coming from the school she works, so she treats me differently. However, ironically this course is ethics. She was not supposed to accuse me of things I have never done and based on her bias to treat me differently compared with others. I really don't know what to do...

Two steps:

Ask her for a meeting in her office where you can talk in peace and
phrase your concerns in a friendly but clear way. First say that
your feeling is that there is a problem but you are not exactly sure
what it is and why it is there. Then ask what you can do to improve
the situation. Don't make any accusations ("You grade my papers
worse!!") and dont get personal  ("You don't like me!") that will just make her defensive. Rather say
things like "I feel that something in our communication is not quite
optimal and I am here today to ask what I could do to improve the
situation.".
If this meeting does not improve the situtation then you will need
to go higher up in the food chain and talk to whoever this is.


TA talks to others about students, what to do? I am an undergraduate student at a university in the US.

Unfortunately, I have a concern regarding one TA of a class I took this past year. This individual insults other students in the university during his TA session, and I also found out from other people that this TA has been talking to other people (not just the professor and TAs for the class) about people's grades in the class.

My question is, is it within my power to lodge a formal yet anonymous complaint that will be taken seriously about this?

I am concerned about my identity becoming known because this TA is a strong student, and seems to have a lot of power in the department (and is close with the professor teaching the class).

When you have a complaint about a teaching assistant for a course, you should generally address it to the instructor of record first. Even if you believe the professor will dismiss your complaint, going straight over the professor's head will make you look bad.

Here are some suggestions for making a well-received complaint:

Make your complaint in writing (email).
Do not include any subjective judgment of the TA's behavior, only objective observations of what you have seen and experienced.
Give specific evidence to support your claims.
Phrase it as if you believe the professor is not aware of this behavior, whether you truly believe this or not.
Don't offer suggestions on what actions to take ("I think you should prevent this TA from working in future courses"), just describe what you have seen.
You can specify what steps you would like the professor to take to keep your identity a secret from the TA when discussing the complaint with him. (Only you or someone close to your situation can know how identifiable such a complaint will make you, and what details need to be omitted to anonymize you effectively.)

If the professor does not seem to take the matter seriously, you can escalate your complaint:

To the department head
To a student ombudsperson at your institution


Master Degree or Job? I am recent graduate from a UK university in computer science. As I am not sure what to study for my master degree, I went for a Web-Developer graduate job, and got accepted. As I will probably go for a master in 1-2 years, I was wondering if my undergraduate degree will be consider useless. And my master degree will possibly have nothing to do with the job I am currently accepted for. For example if I choose to do a master degree in computer graphics. Will that be a problem? (I have modules related to computer graphics in my degree, so my question is that will they be still valuable after 1-2 years as computer technology changes everyday) help? thanks!

(this may not be the best forum in stack exchange to ask these, but it is the closest)

Generally, the latest/greatest degree you have is considered the most important.

Technology does change quickly, but principles change less rapidly. So if you have a good degree, it won't matter so much that technology changes. If you know the principles, then you can learn new technologies and more advanced concepts. If you only know how to use some specific set of tool, then you might have trouble as technology evolves.

In general, a masters degree may help you get a better initial job, especially if you want to do something specialised, such as computer graphics, security or data mining, but once you have a job your experience will matter most, not your grades or degree.


Are these responses from top journals just boiler plate? or anything atleast miniscule to salvage from them? thanks for submitting your paper to XXXXX Journal. It is an explicit
and interesting analysis of a natural problem. However, in my
opinion, it does not reach the level of XXXXX Journal. I therefore
have decided not to pursue the evaluation process in order not to
delay the publication of your paper elsewhere.
Please don’t take it too bad, XXXXX Journal receive a lot of very very
strong submissions in every aspect of mathematics and we publish only
700 pages per year, so we have to make some hard choices.
Best regards, XXXXX (Editor-in-chief)

Dear Professor XXXXX,
The XXXXX Journal of XXXXX recently received a very large number of
submissions.  We are also attempting to reduce our publication
backlog. Consequently, the editors are unable to consider every
manuscript for further review.  So we regret to inform you that we
will not be able to publish your manuscript.
We hope that you will submit your paper to a more specialized journal
where your work may be more fully appreciated.
Sincerely,
The Editors XXXXX Journal of XXXXX

Are both of these are just boiler plate or anything to salvage from them. I must say both are really top journals in mathematics.

I think you should treat them as honest statements. They may be boilerplate, of course, since journals often get more submissions than are possible to publish on any reasonable time scale. They therefor have such "boilerplate" ready to ease the editor's work.
The first implies something lacking in the paper itself wrt the standards of that journal, though the paper may have merit otherwise. The second doesn't necessarily imply the same.
But, an exceptional paper, by their standards, would probably be put into the process.
As they suggest, move on with the paper and try for a different venue. Alternatively, improve it dramatically and try again.


How do I cite a webpage with no author but a possible corporate author? In Harvard style, for links such as: http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/wwe-corporate-world-wrestling-federation-entertainment-drops-the-f, since there's no clear author, I am usually citing it as (title of the webpage year) and then in the reference list as (title of the webpage year, available from URL, viewed...).

However, in this particular case, there is a corporate author which is, simply, the WWE. How do I cite the above link and, in general, almost all websites have corporate authors, how do I distinguish between a corporate author and between a simple page which I can cite as above?

In Harvard style the Author is a Key to the bibliography, just as the index number (like [1] is a key in Chicago style). One has to disconnect this from the concept of a name. In particular, when citing a web page with no clear author name one has to find a similar keyword to use. The corporate name makes a good keyword. It better to remember it is only a keyword and not start to use full sentences. The full details of the reference will be shown in the bibliography. So the Title of web pages should almost never be used. Thus for your example I would cite like this: (WWE, 2002). The bibliographic entry would be:

  WWE (2002), "World Wrestling Federation Entertainment Drops the ‘F’", World Wresting Federation Corporate News, 6 May 2002.  [Online] Available at: http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2002/wwe-corporate-world-wrestling-federation-entertainment-drops-the-f [Accessed: 12 Apr 2016]


What would be the possible consequence of concealing an incomplete degree? I attended a 2y MSc mixed mode (Coursework+Thesis) program which is incomplete as of today. I have completed two semesters and still 2 more semesters to go.

I have dropped 3rd semester and never attended the 4th one. Coz,

I ran out of money.
I didn't like the program as it contained too much coursework. A whole load of coursework unrelated to my area of research interest was hindering my effort towards getting into research. Suppose, I am interested in Machine Learning. But, I have to study Economics and so on.

Now, I found that I, actually, can apply to Ph.D. programs without completing an MSc program (there are a lot of universities which accept Ph.D. students without MSc). I have good GRE score, so the chance of getting into a Ph.D. program is very high. But, I am worried that my previous incomplete MSc program will discredit my CV and statement of purpose as the dropped semester would be considered as failed courses.

Would it be a crime to not to disclose the incomplete MSc program? What would be the possible consequence of concealing an incomplete degree?

I wrote about this here.

Short answer: yes, it is considered dishonest, and the possible consequences are severe.  You could be dismissed from your new program, or, if it's discovered after you finish, have your degree revoked.  The likelihood of this actually happening is hard to evaluate, but those sorts of sanctions will certainly be "on the books" and available if the school decides to enforce them.

You'll be much better off if you submit the transcript and explain in your application why you decided to drop.


Should I contact a potential PhD supervisor who strongly encouraged me to apply after not having heard from my application? I have applied to an interdisciplinary program in a very top US university. My undergrad is in one of the fields involved. Back in November, I contacted a potential PhD supervisor (sending him my CV). We had a chat over Zoom, and he told me that I "will get offers". He told me has spoken about me to a Prof at my current institution who knows me, and based on my background, we started discussion potential projects and co-supervisors. He encouraged me to chat with one of his current grad students, whose undergrad is on the same field as mine. When I chatted with the PhD student, he was really trying to "sell" me the university. He told me that it was very likely that I will get invited for an interview and get offers. It's now February and:

I haven't heard anything from the program
In gradcafe, at least 2 students mentioned that they were invited for interviews in December
I asked the PhD student if he knows anything, he said he doesn't.

Should I contact the potential supervisor, in case my application was overlooked and he can still do something? (He is not on the main committee of the program, though.) On the other hand, I am afraid of looking impatient or unpolite, and ruining my remaining chances of getting in.
(Note: I am an international student, studying outside the US. Is there any chance that international applications are processed later, or don't get interviews because of timezones?)

From my experiences in an engineering program at a public university, I've heard that domestic applicants are processed first. I don't think it would hurt to follow up with the potential supervisor. I agree with astronat above about sending a  polite email to follow up with the potential Ph.D. supervisor. You could also ask this professor when you can expect to hear back from the university.


Optimizing a thesis writing workflow for Bachelor and Master theses We are at the moment designing a document which we can hand out to Bachelor and Master students to give them a general idea on how to efficiently write a thesis. We also do this to make correcting easier for us. We are working in the field of cell biology. A thesis in our field is usually structured like this:

Abstract
Introduction
Materals and Methods
Results
Discussion
Acknowledgements

What we've come up so far is the following list of best practices. This is based on our experiences with previous students and our own theses.

You can already start writing your materials and methods (M&M) section during your regular lab schedule. This will save you time later on.
You will have discussions with your supervisors on your results, in which you will decide on what to include in your thesis.
Start by making the figures for your results and a corresponding caption.
Lay out bullet points of your results. Afterwards, start writing the text around these bullet points. After finishing, send this part to your supervisor for proofreading.
Proceed with the discussion. Again, lay out bullet points, but this time, before writing, clarify each point with your supervisor. This will prevent you from having to rewrite large parts.
Continue with the introduction and, if you haven’t written it yet, M&M.
The introduction should contain everything the reader has to know in order to understand why you did what you did and what the results mean. Be brief and clear.
Finalize by writing an abstract (“Zusammenfassung”). This has to be written and edited very carefully because it will be the part most people read. Your thesis also needs to include an english abstract which is an exact translation of the german one.
Don’t forget the acknowledgements (“Danksagung”). This is the second part everyone will read, and it’s extremely unpolite if you don’t have one. It doesn’t have to be formal and can be personal.

My question: Is there something important missing and would you recommend things differently? Maybe you could elaborate how you handle this in your lab.

It is a very good set of advice. There are two very practical areas that seem unaddressed and that are, in my experience, somewhat… problematic with some students:

Proof-reading. Find someone, other than yourself, who will do a final proofreading of the thesis for language and clarity. Not necessarily someone from your field, but checking typos, missing figures, acronyms that are never defined, that sort of stuff… That person should not be you, because when you've spent so much time writing the thesis, you won't even see these details any more when you read it.
Also, check with your supervisor what are his expectations regarding proofreading/corrections. It depends on your university and the supervisor himself, but in many cases they will want to read it themselves, and possibly offer some remarks and corrections.

Scheduling. You are aware of the submission deadline, but mind that the final stuff takes time. In particular, if your supervisor has to read it, make sure to give him enough time to do so. So, start with a clear set of intermediate deadlines, and if you start to miss them, take action! Nothing's as bad as procrastinating ’til the last day thinking “I can still write that in 24 hours if I get to it”.


What is the difference between an academic CV in the US and an academic CV in France? I am currently applying for graduate school in France. How (if at all) would I modify my existing CV in the standard US format to conform to French academic standards?

I have searched online, but most results are comparing a standard US resume to a European CV.

Off the top of my head: The European CVs I've seen typically include a photograph of the person; that is more the exception than the rule in US-style CVs.


General considerations about sharing referee reports I have occasionally noticed that an author chooses to share publicly referee reports from a journal, usually because they are feeling aggrieved about a rejection. I also know that now and then people do share reports with (a few) close colleagues or friends.

What is generally considered good/bad conduct regarding sharing reports? I would hesitate to share my reports widely, mainly because I associate that behavior with cranks (as it seems to be cranks who publish them) and  would worry that it might come across as sour grapes and unprofessional.

Are there any clearer guidelines or reasons why we should keep the reports private? Is it considered a breach of confidence of the anonymous referee? Speaking generally, the reports are obviously a vital part of our scientific process, so it is strange that they so rarely see the light of day. Are there arguments within e.g. the open science movement to make all reviews publicly available?

It is not common in my field as well to publish the referee reports. I don't think it is a breach of confidence of the anonymous referee; (s)he remains anonymous anyhow. My guess is that scientists are human too, and when they receive criticism of their work they want to get it over with as quick as possible and then forget about it...

There are arguments for publishing all referee reports: An article does not become "scientific" because it is written by someone with a PhD or someone employed by a university, but because we give enough information that anyone can reconstruct how we reached our conclusions. Referee reports are part of the process, so being open about them would fit.

However, I would consider it unprofessional to selectively share referee reports. That decreases the openness of the process, as now the reader starts to wonder why this report is shared and the others are kept secret.

I have refereed once for a journal (BMC Medical Research Methodology) that had a policy of publishing the non-anonymous review reports with the article. I actually liked that process: there was interaction with the authors to make the article better. What is important for this question, is that that interaction is public so the reader can see the development of the article.


Any easy STEM research articles/papers that high school students can understand? I'm helping to hold a workshop sort of thing to help students learn how to read/write research papers, but as I am a sophomore and haven't read too many papers myself, I can't find anything that is easily comprehensible for the students. Anything that is not too long and does not have too much jargon will probably work well. I already looked at this paper on mathematically modelling spaghetti curling, which I think is doable, so anything like that, or written simply would be good!
Please help out, I am sort of on a deadline and we need to finalize the papers very soon.
Thank you in advance!!

Most recent papers are fairly hard to understand. After all, if they are published, it is because they present something that is not obvious.
You could however use older articles that describe phenomena that have gone on the high school curriculum since. For instance, here is a paper from 1800 generally viewed as the discovery of infrared radiation, which somewhat follows today's standard presentation of methods/results/analyses.


Getting a PhD after two masters? So I am an undergraduate in university right now studying applied physics with applications in aeronautical/aerospace engineering. I have a 5th year M.S option to get my masters in physics with applications in a certain field. After that 5th year M.S I want to go and get my masters in aeronautical/aerospace engineering but always wanted to do research at the PhD level, so is it possible for me to get a PhD in physics or aerospace/aeronautical engineering after two MS's in physics and aeronautical engineering respectively?

If you can afford to do all that graduate study without a TA-ship or RA-ship, more power to you!  Perhaps you could get the two masters concurrently... or at least get some of the coursework for the aeronautical/aerospace engineering masters out of the way.  Maybe there will be some nice overlap that will speed things up a bit for you.

You could also take those a/a courses in the early stages of a PhD program in either field.


Contact authors about a related finding My colleagues and I recently published a resource paper with a finding that could suggest a mechanism for a disease-to-gene correlation from a 2014 study. I'd like to inform the authors. But, the contact email given with the 2014 paper is dead, and I can't find a better one. Is it too creepy to track these folks down on Google? Should I give up? Is there a better way to get in touch?

If "tracking them down on Google" means looking up their names, and finding a clearly posted contact address - perhaps on their personal website, or their new university's website - then absolutely go for it. Contact details like e-mail addresses unfortunately change every now and then when people move institutions, so this is just standard procedure. I wouldn't consider that creepy at all, and would be happy to learn about your paper. Now, if you go much further than that in your efforts, well, yeah you'll risk getting close to creepy territory. I wouldn't cross check their names and calling them on their work phone at their new industry job, for example, nor show up unannounced at their home...

Another way to get in touch that might work depending on the circumstances, is running into one of these authors at a conference.


Is it ok to send an email informing about your new paper? Several times in the past, after publishing a paper, I have sent email to several people which I thought might be interested in the results obtained in the paper. Usually I have emailed some of the people whose result I was citing in my paper and to people who were working on related problems.

I such a practice ok, or do people consider emails like this too intrusive?

When I did this in the past, some of the people answered to me with a brief email (along the lines of "thanks for letting me know"). In a one or two cases the answer indicated that this person is interested in similar emails in the future, if I have some updates on that particular topic. And in one case I was even asked about possibility of collaboration on some problems.

So from these answers it seems that it was ok. But if there were some people who did not like receiving such emails, they probably did not bother to answer.

I think there are two important factors to keep in mind when writing unsolicited email, which could be taken as spam by the person who receives it:

Whether you believe, in good faith, that the receiver will find the information useful.  That test is not as easy as it may seem, because what seems obvious to you (“this guy in field Y will be happy that we're developing somewhat related concepts in field X that may generate a new vision of his field”) may not be to him (“why is this X specialist writing to me to promote his recent work I don't care about?”). Messages need to be tailored, so that people can immediately see how your paper can be of interest to them.
The frequency of such messages: if you write 5 papers a year on a given topic, and send a nice informative email each time, that is a lot of mail! Consider doing this only once in a while, maybe for high-profile articles or reviews.

Now, regarding whether it's accepted practice (and common practice): I receive a dozen such emails of this nature per year, from colleagues in my field, and every time I am actually interested in their paper. I have not yet received spam of that sort, i.e. notification of new papers I couldn't care less about (I receive lots of spam job applications, on the other hand).

I also do it myself, once or twice a year: sit back, think about my recent papers, and ask myself “what colleagues do I have that may be interested in this and that?”. Usually, I then write a few different emails, depending on the specific interests of the colleagues in question, so that the email is personalized. I also use that occasion to ask questions to them , if I have any of relevance, asking their opinion on recent developments (by them, me or other groups) in our field.


Breaking into research oriented tenure-track positions from teaching track I received a PhD in Mechanical Engineering in 2013 in the USA and then had a brief stint as a "teaching assistant professor" for one year at my alma mater.  I moved then to a post-doc position in Europe which was highly dissatisfying and "unsuccessful" (unsuccessful=zero publications) for a year.  I returned to the USA and now I am in a non-tenure track position (teaching track as "Lecturer") in a mechanical engineering department. A non-tenure track position at my university is a two year rolling contract which may be renewed based on performance in TEACHING, service and some project management activities.

I enjoy teaching and find that my students do like me as a teacher and this is evidenced by favorable "instructor evaluations" from the students.  Instructor evaluations are one of the main factors in "re-employment".

I find very often that there are burning research questions that I would like to work on but since I am on a 4-4 teaching load (4 courses/preparations per semester), I actually do not find too much time to start investing my personal time in research.  My personal time goes into "mandatory service activities" (a lot of it is 'busy work') for my department.  These service activities are skirted by tenure track faculty and falls squarely on the shoulders of "Lecturers" (NTT).

I would like to get into a tenure track position as that seems to be inviting.  I say this because, it would seem that on average, in the USA, for mechanical engineering/applied mechanics departments, tenure track (Asst Professor) has a 2-1 or even a 1-1 teaching load.  The other portion of their time is mentoring graduate students and writing grants.

The topic for my PhD was niche (hydrothermal space applications) and did not produce tomes of publications (2 Journals, 10 conference), none of them cited significantly (twice at most for journal papers).

How do I break out from my non-tenure track position and move into a tenure track position?  I realize the breadth/scope of my question is perhaps too subjective so I decided to form strategies.  I am wondering if people on this forum who are into hiring committees could shed more light on whether these strategies are useful or if not, provide other perspectives

Strategies:

Strategy 1:

Continue in non-tenure track for a few years.  Eventually I won't be spending too much time on new course preparation and that may afford me time to spend on research. However, then I will have significant backlog of scientific work to catch up on!

Strategy 2.:

Start applying for tenure track positions fully knowing that although I do have an aptitude for the research I want to do, I am lacking in publications.  I have exhausted my PhD work into two publications (such was the nature of my PhD) and there is no "new data" or "new angle on old data" that I can publish right now.  In this strategy of "job applications", I will have to focus on projecting my strengths (teaching, mentoring) and extend it or relate it to future proficiency in research

Strategy 3:

Quit my job and spend time trying to do research sans a pay-check (risky?) in the hope that this would allow me time for research.

Strategy 4:

Collaborate with tenure track faculty in my current university.  The trouble is ("challenge" is a better word...) striking a working relationship with someone when I know that I am exhausting over 10 hours a day (on avg.) on teaching activities with little zing left in me at the end of the day!

Strategy x.:

Anything I might be missing as a strategy.  This is where perhaps I could gain from someone's experience in this forum.

Apply, apply, and apply. If you are willing to work in another country, then opportunities are available. Earlier today, I saw an advertisement for a research university in Chile that was looking for faculty. Also, I have seen these advertisements for Chinese, and Korean universities as well. Here, you will get teaching in, but also have great graduate students and the ability to build up a strong profile. Maybe after you get to the Associate professor level you can apply again to the USA. If you really feel like you want to stay in the US, the go on a massive application spree, and also apply to schools with MET programs. It may be difficult, but not impossible, to get a teaching-research tenure track position that you hope for. Keep in mind, many foreign countries do not give tenure.


What is Summa cum Laude and how do you get it? (USA) What is Summa cum Laude and how do you get it (USA)? Is this equivalent to First Class Honors in Australia? What is the equivalent of an Australian University medal in the USA?

Each university can define summa cum laude and magna cum laude as it choses.  Honours/honors/medals cannot be considered directly comparable between American and Australian universities.  Keep in mind that American universities do not have to adhere to national regulations or standards.  They are much more variable than Australian universities and also far more numerous.


My supervisor is making me work on something that is not my PhD project. What should I do? My PhD project is a very little part of a big study that my supervisor is currently running. I am already four months into my PhD and I just have a 3 years position to finish my thesis. So far I haven’t worked in my PhD topic because I’m helping her with other aspects of this big study. She says doing that is working on my project, however she asks me to write and do research in things that are not really going to be on my thesis. And during all our meetings so far, we haven’t really discussed my topic, the chapters of my thesis, my research questions, the literature I should be looking at, or the instruments I need for answering my research questions What should I do??

And during all our meetings so far, we haven’t really discussed my topic, the chapters of my thesis, my research questions, the literature I should be looking at, or the instruments I need for answering my research questions

So, that seems to suggest a natural course of action.  Let her know that at your next meeting, you want to focus on making concrete plans about your thesis.  Then do it.  Come with a list of questions and make notes.  Be sure to bring up the topic of how the big study will tie in to your thesis work, and how she expects you to balance the time spent on both of them.

It sounds like maybe you've been pretty passive so far in your interactions with her.  Clearly it's not working, so time to try being more assertive.

If she won't have that discussion, or won't stay on topic, then you probably ought to start looking for a new supervisor.


Patent Agreement in Order to Graduate I am about to finish my masters in stats and in order to graduate I was told that I need to sign a document stating that any patents that I filed while enrolled at the university, belonged to the university. My first question is, is this normal? My second question is, I did file a patent during my enrollment, however, it was with my employer and had nothing to do with my school work, will this cause some sort of conflict of interest?

EDIT: I am in the US. Also, the patent was filed by my employer with me as the inventor.

Yes, it is normal. Universities often require this - especially of faculty, but also, often enough of students.

You have an issue that  you can probably work out with the university. If the patent wasn't related to your work in the educational program, then the university probably has no real claim. But the lawyers for your employer and for your university should probably both be informed of the situation and have a chance to discuss it.

But given your statement that it has nothing to do with the university, I would expect you to get a waiver. Or perhaps just a modified document exempting that one project or (better) making it clearer that it only applies to patents that were, in some way, supported by the university.

But I wouldn't make assumptions and I wouldn't sign the document without advice of a lawyer.


Can I get admitted to Master in mathematics program if I only have a medical degree? I will complete my medical school (in Indonesia) very shortly.
I'm planning to pursue a master degree in mathematics at a university in the USA or UK.  I do not have a mathematics bachelor's degree. During my years as a med school student I studied math independently from textbooks and sites such as Coursera and MIT OCW.

Can a student with only a medical degree get admitted to a graduate program in Mathematics?

The question is whether you have enough background to be likely to pass the first-semester courses in such a program.  For instance, if you have never studied real analysis, complex analysis or differential equations at the level of a senior undergraduate course, you may find yourself completely lost in graduate courses.  I think it will be very difficult to convince an admissions committee that you would survive the first semester.


Is there a correlation between where I finish my PhD and where can I secure a Postdoc position I am currently pursuing my PhD in computer science at a mid-rank US institution (ranked 50 in US-news graduate computer science ranking). Assuming I have a decent publication record and good references. Would I have better chances of securing a postdoc position if I applied to openings in the US or would I have better chances if I applied to openings in other countries such as Canada, UK, Australia?

In short: your chances of securing a position is higher with people that know you (or someone you have worked with).

Whether that is people that are physically around you, or people that are working on the other side of the globe (whom you met in a professional setting e.g. at a conference). This is in line with what @la femme consmique, mentions in the comments, networking is important.

That aside, I have noticed a general skepticism in the U.S. towards Europe. I mean if you are applying for postdoc positions in the US from a European university, you might have to deal with a certain skepticism that does not exist amongst European institutions. It's almost as if you need to convince them that the university actually exists and you haven't made it up on your own (yes, I am exaggerating a bit).

[I would like to make this very clear that this is a subjective statement from personal experience, not a fact.]


Adding references for glossaries I am writing my thesis and I have decided to add a list of glossaries to explain certain terms. I decided to copy most definitions for these terms from here because I believe they are best explained there. This site, SEVOCAB provides definitions by the IEEE for international standards in Software and systems engineering.

My questions:

1) Am I correct in copying directly the definitions from here? I thought it would be best to do so because you are using approved definitions to explain concepts that may frequently be interpreted differently by different authors

2) Of course I understand that I need to cite the website and that the definitions come from there. I thought of adding a sort of disclaimer or reference either at the beginning of the glossaries or somewhere in the thesis itself. For example, I have a section called clarification of terms whereby I make a distinction between Software Engineering and Software Development. How should I go about this?

1) If the definition is well-known and everyone uses it in the same way, you don't need a definition. If you use it in a certain way that might differ from others and thus needs to be defined, you should do so in the thesis itself, when the term first appears. Otherwise a reader might come to the wrong conclusions and only later realize that you meant something different by this term. Jumping back and forth to the definitions every time is also not that nice...
So I would suggest that you define the terms where you need them, where they appear in the work, and then add an index of symbols, only stating at which page each term gets defined (and maybe a one-line "name" of it) and no further definition in the index.

2) As you define the terms yourself, just like you need them, it won't be necessary anymore to use the homepage.
However, if you want to take definitions from there, you should say so. If you copy many definitions, you might want to say so at the beginning of the thesis or at the beginning of the chapter where the definitions appear.


Why is the UK such a brain magnet? It's not hard to find sources that say that the UK punches (punched?) above its weight in the research, and there're lots of people who want to go to the UK for work or study. We can see this in StackExchange questions as well - people often explicitly ask about doing PhDs in the UK.

Why is the UK so attractive to researchers & students? Presumably the availability of funding is a big deal, but as long as the UK is part of the EU, funding levels shouldn't be too different from the rest of Europe. It's possible the UK has high quality of life, but it's not like other EU countries do much worse in this area, in fact several outperform the UK. It's also possible that the UK simply has many more prestigious universities than the rest of the EU, and prestige attracts people; however I find it hard to believe that this is a major factor, especially at postgraduate level and beyond. The only other thing I can think of is that the country uses English as its primary language, but that should be less of a factor in academia since most academics can speak English (it is the language of academic communication after all).

From what I have heard from students and academics in the UK there are a few key factors:

I think you may be undervaluing the effect of language. English is by far the most widely studied language and is the primary language of communication in academia. Students want to improve their English while they study. While universities in non-English speaking countries may teach in English and it is most likely possible to do research in English, day-to-day life can be isolating without knowing the local language, for example see here. It's also much less daunting to live in a country if you are already competent in the local language. Similarly for faculty, its much easier to work in a country where you're already fluent in the language rather than starting from scratch in a new language.

The UK is widely seen as welcoming and accepting of different nationalities and cultures. You could debate the extent that this is actually true, and it may be changing. It is certainly true at least of university cities such as Oxford and Cambridge as well as major cities such as London.

The UK is home to some of the best universities in the world in Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College are all in the top 10 (the rest being in the US - which also suggests a language effect). These universities are also widely known worldwide. Oxbridge in particular offers a certain prestige which attracts many people, mainly due to its history.

I don't think the UK is necessarily attractive to top academics, especially in STEM subjects. The cost of living is high, especially in cities such as London, Oxford, Cambridge and academics (especially junior academics) struggle to live in these cities. There has been a large push by Oxford and Cambridge to provide subsidised housing for staff in order to attract/retain staff. I know many top academics who have left the UK for the US.

I also don't think the UK is particularly extraordinary in terms of research funding.

In conclusion, I believe language, culture, and brand recognition are the main factors for making the UK attractive to students and academics. Although this is threatened by the cost of living and rising xenophobia. The outlook for research funding is also uncertain due to Brexit.


In an English work, can a non-English source be cited even if there exists an English translation? I'm not a native English speaker. I would like to cite a book originally written in German for a writing sample to be sent for admission purposes to a graduate school in the UK (MA programme).

There are at least two translations of said work: Romanian and English. I have read the Romanian translation, not the English one, because it was far more convenient to do so. Naturally I translated the Romanian passages to English and cited them appropriately, but the citations are based on the Romanian translation (e. g. I have cited a passage to be found on page 52 of the Romanian translation).

Is it a problem that instead of citing the English version of the book, I have cited and translated the Romanian version? I'm afraid so, because the reviewers probably don't speak Romanian, therefore they can't check whether the cited passage is REALLY there in the Romanian translation or I just made up the whole thing. Plus they might think I'm lazy.

If this is indeed a problem, I have to find all of these passages - which I have originally read in Romanian - in the English translation and rewrite all footnotes, bibliography etc. (e.g. the passage which is located on page 52 in the Romanian translation might be located in a different place, say page 63 in the English translation).

There are two things to address here. First, relax. The exact sources you are citing in a writing sample for an MA program are NOT what the admissions decision will be based on. It is unlikely anyone is going to check up on your citations and even if they do, they are not going to care.

The second thing is, it is generally best to use the original, untranslated source. When the original source is not in a language you are proficient in, using a translation is reasonable. If you are writing in English and need to use a translation, then using the English translation is best, unless there is a compelling reason not to. In the future, you may want to work with English translations, but again for a writing sample, no one is going to care.


Which is a better combination for PhD recommendation letters? My field is language-related and I have been conducting research in it with two professors in the past couple of years. Is it better for me to request recommendation letters from these two professors for my PhD application or should I rely on a more diverse approach? For instance, combining letters from one of these professors with those coming from professors who taught me during the MA years (which, by the way, I graduated from several years ago) or maybe even my MA thesis advisor. I should also mention that it is not very likely for me to apply to universities in the US.

Generally, doctoral programs are designed to produce researchers and academics in a given field. Given this, I suggest that you request letters of recommendation from the faculty members who can best speak to your ability to produce high-quality research. It sounds like you've been working with two professors who might be able to do that.
There are some caveats, though. You want the best possible letters of recommendation you can get. If these two professors with whom you have conducted research are willing to provide excellent LORs, then I'd suggest that you ask them for LORs. But if your relationship with them is strained or if you under-performed while working with them, then perhaps you'll have to look elsewhere.
I'm uncertain why a more "diverse approach" would be advantageous to you. Your LORs should speak to your ability to excel in a PhD program, your capacities for research and original thinking, the likelihood that you'll contribute to the department, and other qualifications.


How to allow students to work off-line, while still using an LMS to collect work? Due to Covid-19, I am having to switch to a "hybrid" format, where I see students less often each week, in smaller groups, and more assignments are pushed on-line. The school is in an extremely rural reservation, where those students who live off-campus are unlikely to have running water, electricity, and internet access. Students are issued Windows laptops.

The current solution is to create assignments in Word, have students download them on campus, work on them at home, then upload the assignments when they are next on campus. I am trying to find a more sophisticated solution for "syncing" their work though, as this step makes it much more time-consuming to grade work. With an LMS, I can post multiple-choice quizzes and other types of interactive assignments, e.g. videos they watch and respond to. Is there some technology that allows for students to save specific LMS pages locally, work on it off-line at home, then when they return to school, they can easily submit? I know students could just leave the browser window open and put the computer to sleep, but that seems risky and students could lose their work.

I suggest that you use git to synchronize documents.

If assignments are provided as simple text documents, they are easily readable on all sorts of devices, and when printed can easily be understood, they can be edited with very low levels of computer hardware and do not require many resources. They can easily be edited with something even as simple as an alpha smart or electronic typewriter! Word Documetns will work with this scheme but it makes the storage requirements (on your side) larger and harder to manage

When at school, a student uses git to "clone" the asignment repository.

When they go home they then work in their own sandbox, and are free to save ("commit")  intermediate versions, locally, on their computer, as many times as you want. They can start from scratch if they wish multiple times without affecting the integrity of the assignment and their other attempts.

When they return to school, the student "pushes" the assignment project to their personal repository. You can review their work and can even examine intermediate versions that show their work and thinking,

The commits have timestamps so you can verify assignment, test, and quiz submission times! (This can be "hacked" but it requires cheating behavior and intentional circumvention)

This is very reminiscent of what we I used for CS courses in University, all of our coding assignments were submitted through a UNIX shell

There are many services that provide Git for free or low cost, Github from microsoft, atllasian bitbucket, and gitlab are common examples.

They can also be deployed , for free, by your school IT on any available server infrastructure.

In a pinch, the students can even synchronize directly to your laptop or other computer, that is, not requiring ANY LMS infrastructure...

Students can even synchronize to/from another student, i.e. you can submit assignments for others and distribute assignments as well, so students who cannot make it physically to school can still get the assignments from their peers. While retaining integrity of the assignments and solutions

There is a significant training challenge, but the tradeoffs are worth it, and the solution is Free, free as in no cost, and free as in freedom (see free software)


Can too many credits force you to graduate early? I'm about to enroll at a local university as a mathematics major, with a view to later transferring and studying engineering.

I can receive enough credits through AP, CLEP, and credit by exam to cover 1-2 years of study.
However, I'm unsure of how many years I would like to study at university.  Likely 3-4.  Could receiving enough credit for 2 years hurt my chances of being able to transfer and spend 4 years total at university?

I'm relying on federal grants and state and university scholarships to fund my study; could those be withdrawn if I have enough credits to graduate but choose not to?

Yes, this is a potential concern, particularly with regard to financial aid.

US financial aid sources are commonly restricted to be used only for education that is leading toward a particular degree.  You can't take random courses indefinitely and expect the government to keep paying for it.

My institution's financial policy has the following clause:

  Only course work that is required for my degree will count towards my enrollment status. Once I complete the requirements for a single degree, even if I haven't applied for graduation, I am no longer eligible for aid for that program. The fact that I might be getting a dual degree and haven’t completed the requirements for the second degree doesn't change this.

Sometimes this can be "gamed" by completing the actual degree requirements very slowly while taking lots of other courses in the meantime; but there are likely to be limits in place.

You should discuss your plan of study carefully with both an academic advisor and a financial aid officer at the university you plan to attend.  (The academic advisor might not be an expert on financial aid details, and vice versa, so it is important to consult both.)


Why is citing to old publications seemingly the norm even in fields where much research becomes obsolete as technology progresses? While doing literature review towards my Master's dissertation I noticed that many recent papers in my field (robotics/computer vision) frequently cite publications produced a decade or even more ago.

Now, that would not surprise me so much if those were, say, about fundamental algorithm which we still use (even if in modified and updated form). However, often the papers in question are of high-level systems designed to tackle a problem using technology available at the time. If the same problem were to be tackled in the present day, with current technology, the solution offered in such citation would make little sense.

It seems to me that referring to such work in a publication introduces very little (if any) value to the paper and mostly serves as a show-off-y way to generate more words and populate the reference list. And yet, it seems like nobody minds that, because the vast majority of the publications I've been reading have a number of obsolete / pointless references in them.

Is there something I'm missing there? What value, if any, is there in citing a clearly obsolete work? If it is really as pointless as it seems to me, what is the reason for the practice being commonplace in contemporary academic writing?

Coming from the same field as you, I know what you mean. I also wondered the same thing at first. Note that in other fields, citing papers that are 100 years old is the norm so saying a paper is old because it is a decade old might not resonate for them :).

There is much to take from an old paper. Even if the problem was solved with "obsolete" technology for an obsolete problem, the method employed, the problem tackled, the method used to test the results, ..., all this might still be relevant to your problem.
You might also use related works to show that a research direction was taken as to explain why you don't have to do it yourself. But at least you will show that you know it has been searched and your reader will also know.
The last reason you might want to cite those paper is to put your own work in contrast to those present there. You say the works are obsolete and old ? Perfect, explain how your research tackles a problem they have not resolved. This is something especially important in robotics where everything is new and shiny and cool and changes so fast. Make yourself unique by citing close related work but showing how you differ from them. And those similar work might be those older highly specialized work:

  This method solve very specific problem 1. However, it cannot solve novel situation while the method we present in our work can.

There is more to a paper than meets the eye.


How to select the principal investigator in a group? If a group of researchers collaborating on a grant proposal, how the principal investigator can be selected? The researcher with the idea, the one who invited other researchers, the most well-known researcher in the group, the researcher with highest academic rank (e.g., full professor), etc? Should the group decide? What if the first researcher would like to be the PI?

I'm not sure why you are asking. But if it is because there are disputes within the group it might be best, overall, to find a different group. Clashes at that level don't portend success, but rather a lot of frustration.

But all of your suggestions are valid (as is that of user Massimo Ortolano). If it is obvious that one of you would give the work an advantage for publication, do that. If one of your junior members needs a boost in reputation, do that (sorry Massimo). Anything can work as long as there is buy in from the group. If someone has a strong inclination to do it and no one else objects, he or she would be a good choice as they will likely commit to getting things done and organized. If someone has a history of successful grant writing, another good choice, unless the granting institution has rules limiting repeat grants.

But the most important quality is agreement.


What journals that may consider "new proof of old results"? Are there journals that may consider articles of the type "new proof of old results" but the paper is exceedingly short(1-3 pages)?

The answer is certainly "yes", but to identify the best fit for your paper you'll have to decide how different your proof is from previous proofs.  It often happens that two proofs look completely different when viewed line-by-line, but still the main intermediate steps in the proofs are essentially the same -- in other words, proofs can use the same strategy but different tactics. If your main contribution is in finding an efficient or elegant way to present some of the same ideas that were used in previous proofs, then you might consider Expositiones Mathematicae or the American Mathematical Monthly.  On the other hand, if your proofs use entirely new ideas, then you have done original research and you should submit your paper to a standard journal.  In between these two extremes is L'Enseignement Mathématique, which often publishes papers which combine new research with improved exposition of known results.


What is the chance of making a successful appeal to dismissal decision from a PhD program after failing the qualifying exam in the 2nd attempt? I’m about to get dismissed from a PhD program because I failed in the 2nd attempt of the qualifying exam.

Currently, I'm thinking of the option to appeal the dismissal decision due to a long history of mental health problems (anxiety & depression) and have the diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) just before my 2nd attempt in the exam by 10 days as determined by the school psychological counselor & confirmed by my physician assessment. I’m not sure of this could be used as a ground for my appeal because I can present evidences for this ground and not able to use other grounds such as potential bias from my adviser as he was not willing to have communication & advisement after failing the 1st exam attempt. He actually told me “just do it and best of luck!!”.

Additionally, during the exam, there was one committee member who did not attend in person (joined us via a conference video call). I was notified several times during the exam that this professor was not able to hear me especially while presenting or answering some questions (when standing next to the projector or the white board to demonstrate some answers). The academic evaluation by this professor could be biased based on the fact that could not catch up all of my answers. However, I can not use this as a ground for my appeal because simply I do not have the evidence nor the presence of non-committee member auditing person at the exam. The director of the PhD program attended all of my previous qualifying exams (the 1st part that I passed & the 2nd part that I initially failed), but not the last attempt for the 2nd part.

I’m not making an excuse of mental health issues or ADHD diagnosis, but really made great efforts to study and prepare for this exam, and I believe that I answered most of the questions with logic and scientific rationales. I did also seek a confirmation of addressing each question asked by each committee members whether they had sufficient answers or they need more elaboration from my side.

My question is: How I can a valid arguments supported by evidences from my counselor & physician on the ground of mental health issues and ADHD?
The other question: What is my chance of admission if I apply in the future for another PhD program?

I'm sorry for the tough situation you find yourself in.

First things first: no one outside your university and department can speak with any authority whatsoever as to what this particular group of faculty administrators will do.  At best they can speak in general terms and give general advice.  That is what I will try to do.  Let me also begin by indicating my own experience: I am a mathematics professor at the University of Georgia.  For the last three academic years I have been the Graduate Coordinator of the mathematics department.  Thus if you were in my department you would be appealing to me (more precisely, to the committee of which I am the chair).

It seems to me that you are getting overly caught up on the legalistic aspects of your "appeal."  You grasp at several things that might perhaps lead to bias on the part of committee members.  But let me be honest: in the kind of academic culture of which I am familiar, this is not a very good strategy.  Without evidence of clear and bias that changed the result of the exam, I think it is very unlikely that (say) the director of the PhD program will do more than inquire of the faculty members whether there were any serious problems or irregularities with your exam.  When they say "No," there is not really any other group that can spring into action at this point, again unless you have something much more serious to allege and more material reasons to allege it.

Here is the reality of the situation: the committee who administers a graduate qualifying exam has extremely broad latitude in deciding whether the student passes or fails.  There is probably not going to be a "rubric" that they did or did not follow or anything of the sort -- rather, they are empowered to use their best judgment.  To be honest about it, a student at this stage is probably not in a good intellectual position to question their decision: you don't have the experience to know whether their standard is a good one.

Rather than thinking of the appeal as an argument that you have to win, I suggest that you appeal to the sympathies of the most sympathetic faculty member in sight.  In particular, I do suggest that you mention your health issues of anxiety, depression and ADHD.  As a longtime faculty member and administrator, I can tell you that (i) many students have these problems, (ii) they can become significant impediments to otherwise very strong students and (iii) these issues are (happily!) not nearly as stigmatized as they used to be, to the extent that "zero sympathy" for such a student is not such a tenable position for e.g. a public university in the United States to take.  If you bring medical documentation of the problems, explain the serious steps you are taking to treat the problems and ask for another chance when your health issues are under better control, then I think you have at least a fair shot at getting another chance.

Good luck.


What types of higher than undergarduate degrees look exceptionally good relative to other equal level degrees? I've heard a few people get exceptional job offers (huge pay and great benefits) just by getting a masters in certain fields. This has happened more than once. They describe a wild job offer as though their grades and institution (inside the US) had little or no impact. Instead, it was more about the degree title alone. (If I recall correctly, one individual was not even interviewed. The employer saw they had a PhD in some field, and gave them an incredible offer.)

To be more specific, which masters or PhD level degree did you have observed graduates get exceptional (almost over the top) job offers? Also, why do you think that degree is viewed so highly?

Those stories exist, but not all of them are true. Be careful and look at the source of the story: Does it come from the institution itself (who is trying to "sell" its program), or from someone who is trying to make her or himself look important by telling about the wonderful job offer(s) they received? Also consider if this is it a selection of success stories or if this somewhat representative of the experience of all the students who finished that course.

Moreover, even if a field of study is now lucrative, that does not mean that it will still be lucrative when new students finish their education. Pork cycles are a big problem for many fields of study.


Should each substantive chapter of a PhD dissertation be of similar length? A professor told me once that the chapter sizes (measured in number of pages) in a PhD dissertation should be coherent. That is, the number of pages in each chapter should be somehow close to each other (to the average). Note: This does not include the Introduction and Conclusion chapters.

Is this really an important factor when writing a dissertation?

It's just a general guideline, don't worry about it too much. Aside from the fact that there are many ways to lay out a thesis, there are many reasons this would be violated.  I would venture that a better way to state this rule would be, "A chapter should be of medium length." If a given chapter is too short, it's likely an indicator that it can be combined with some other section. If a single chapter is too long, split it up into parts (experiment 1, exp 2, discussion, etc).

In any event, you should first check into how your advisor wants the thesis laid out. Consider asking your advisor to see some dissertations of other previous students to get a feel for how he likes to have things laid out; that'll be a good way to get a feel for how to lay out your own.


Following literature - What is a good configurable publication notifier? I would like to keep up to date with public literature in my research field. All relevant publications are of too big a volume to follow and so the problem invites some automatic mechanism of filtering and notification.

Do you know of any good mechanism (desktop\online application etc.) that could be configured to alert on new publications according to specific criteria?

Three criteria that I would think would be very useful in such a mechanism are :

Follow by researcher name - I would like to know of any new publication Prof. X was involved with.
Configurable  citation filter - I would like to know of any new publication which cites any of Prof. X papers or a specific one.
And\Or\Not keywords - I would like to know of any new publication that has both keywords A and (B or C).

Do you know of such existing app? Any recommendation to such (or similar) applied functionality would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Your institution (for example its Harman Science Library) and many others have the database product Web of Knowledge. Precisely the alert criteria that you described, and more, are available through that product.

The selection of journals covered in its flagship collection, Web of Science, is curated with the goal to cover all of, and more than, the core literature of all scholarly fields, naturally without attempting to cover all journals in existence. Alerts in Web of Knowledge can also simultaneously search up to a dozen other collections including Medline, depending on your institution's subscription. You can see the collections in the subscription that is available to you by choosing the "Select a Database" tab. You can browse and search the journal lists for the various collections.


Does more knowledge enhance your chance of doing better and 'original' research (in mathematics)? NOTE: I had asked this question in here, in my edit, but since it is irrelevant to that question, I moved it here as it is a separate question...

I chose to study bulky books instead of attending lectures or studying lecture notes, because I thought that studying every line of the books would enable me to have a rich access to the largest possible knowledge in my mind (not in the library) to have more creativity in time of doing research. By that, I mean I thought that the more techniques I would know, the more able I could be to test many 'keys' to open impenetrable problems. Unfortunately, due to never being in a university environment (as I am a high school student) I couldn't ask it whether I am wrong or not. I would truly appreciate it if someone would please guide me regarding that issue: Does more knowledge enhance chance of solving challenging problem in mathematics?

(Supposing that someone who has learned a lot of stuff will not forget it with the passage of time)

Added to express my question more clear - My personal opinion is that the more problems (few from each of many different types not many from each of limited diversity) you solve the more expert you become in maths. This can include 'slow'-extension (i.e. not a breakthrough); e.g. after learning definitions and some theorems regarding different types of spaces in General Topology finding their relationships with each other as exercise. This approach can be (IMHO) helpful for many different situations from IMO participants to graduate research students. But, Does it helpful or harmful for being sharp to do a breakthrough research in Mathematics (like works of Gödel or Perelman)?

Intuitively, of course the answer should be yes.  Surprisingly, however, in reality the answer is sometimes no.

A common saying, which to the best of my knowledge has no known attribution, goes something along the lines of: "The fools didn't know it was impossible, so they did it!"

To achieve a significant original scientific contribution, you need to know enough to have a sound basis to build upon.  You also need to avoid immersing yourself too deeply in conventional wisdom and groupthink, or else you are likely to have your originality bleed away from you.

Moreover, every hour spent reading the works of another is an hour not spent producing works of your own.  But of course, you can waste a huge amount of time if you end up reinventing another's idea or miss an important clue in somebody else's work.  So across a scientific life, you will end up wobbling back and forth on a balance between spending more time acquiring knowledge and spending more time generating it yourself.  Early in your career, you will spend most of your time acquiring knowledge, because you need to get to a point where you can understand what is unknown well enough to begin grappling with it meaningfully.  Later you may spend more time working on creating new knowledge, but must also keep up with your reading to keep from going stale.

Even in old and well established fields, however, it's surprisingly easy to get out to the edge of human knowledge and find yourself tangling with some of the interesting things we do not know.  Like, how do cats drink water? We only learned that a couple of years ago.  Heck, we're still figuring out how bicycles work!

If you don't have enough knowledge, you may not notice that there's a problem worth solving there, and you certainly won't have the tools to solve it.  If you're too saturated in the knowledge of others, you might not notice the problem either, because you might end up accepting their explanations instead.

In sum: you must know your fundamentals, know your field, and know how to go looking for specific pieces of additional knowledge.  But knowledge is not originality, and although knowledge often supports originality, it can also interfere with it.