Is it normal for professors to hold their graduate students "hostage?" I'm currently scheduled to start graduate school next semester. I've been going to the lab that I'll be working in for the past few months now. I had a question regarding graduation after talking with some of my seniors from the lab.

Just for some background info, I'm currently attending school in South Korea. I'll be pursuing an MS/PhD integrated degree in computer science. The lab that I'm working in is a lab that does research on machine learning and deep learning methods.

My initial plan was to go to the US after finishing my undergrad, but I figured that with my specs I'm not going to get funded and probably won't be able to get into a top program. Also fortunately enough the aforementioned lab's research coincided with mine and I would be getting funding so it seemed like the wiser choice.

I wanted to complete the requirements for a master's and then apply for PhD programs abroad. My supervisor advised that it'd probably be better to just get my PhD here and apply for post-doc positions in the US (or anywhere else) but he said he's also open to the idea of me quitting halfway.

The reason why I'm posting this question is because in Korea (I can't speak for other Asian countries but I heard Japan is also very similar) the professor who runs the lab is basically a "king" in that lab. Pretty much everything is according to his/her will and they also get to determine if they want to "let their students graduate." It's one reason why many people are reluctant to pursue graduate studies here if they had the choice.

Fortunately, my professor seems to be nice and at least considers his graduate students to some extent alongside his own personal interests.

I'm curious though, is this kind of thing also normal (or at least prevalent) in other countries in the Western world? The impression that I get for those countries is that graduate students are pretty much independent researchers/students and their supervisors are just that - supervisors. Does one's graduation also depend on their signature?

Pretty much everything is according to his/her will and they also get to determine if they want to "let their students graduate."

This is how it works in the U.S. also.  However, the proper behavior is for the supervisor to have a collaborative working relationship with PhD students.  I think Germany is similar.

In Australia, and I think Canada, the award of the PhD is decided by an external committee.  Members of the committee all work at other universities.  This substantially reduces the power of the supervisor.

Practices vary by region, and even among universities.  For example, some U.S. universities require a committee to approve the PhD thesis, with one member being from a different department.  At other U.S. universities the committee does not have this external member as a check.  Generally the committee does what the supervisor recommends.


Should I block my facebook account? I am applying to a course in Quantitative Finance in a prestigious university in Europe.

I am wondering if it may be the case to block my facebook account; I don't want the commission to look at my profile or to gather information on me that I am not willing to give them directly.

I know that there are probably rules so that you can't discriminate based on age, sex, religion and stuff, but facebook accounts contain far more than that.

So I guess my questions are: Is it common for university to look at candidate's profile before accepting them? If it is, how much does this influence the decision?
Can my reluctance to give away some (personal) information be perceived negatively?

I don't think it really matters for admissions purposes whether you block your account.  If you have anything on your social media accounts that would be unusually damaging in a professional context, then it's probably a good idea to adjust your privacy settings (and/or posting habits) now rather than waiting for it to become a problem in the future, but ordinary Facebook usage is not likely to be an issue.  In my admissions committee experience, I've never heard anyone refer to an applicant's Facebook profile and I've never looked at one myself.  I've occasionally searched for information about an applicant online, for example to find a research paper that wasn't included in the application or to get more information about an award that was mentioned but not explained.  If I run across something else that seems academically substantive (such as a math blog or mathoverflow account) I'll look into it, but I wouldn't bother to look at Facebook since I don't expect it would include anything relevant.

  Can my reluctance to give away some (personal) information be perceived negatively?

Under ordinary circumstances, I don't think anyone cares at all.  For all the admissions committee knows, you never post to Facebook, and they wouldn't be interested in any case.  It would come across as suspicious if it looks like you are actively hiding something scandalous (for example, if there are rumors going around about terribly offensive things you've said on Twitter, and now your account is private), but that's presumably not the case here.


Importance of GRE for computer science PhD applicant I am currently a prospective computer science Ph.D. applicant with a 3.75/4.00 GPA at an R1 CS school ranked in the top 30. I am considering applying to 15 schools roughly in the top 50. I have an extremely strong research background with one first author ML pub in a reputable IEEE conference and a second author applied ML/psychology journal article under review. My letters of rec will all likely be very strong and from well-known professors that I have worked under or with for at least 6 months. That said, I have a few questions about the application process:

I am not the best standardized test taker, and I currently am looking at quantitative GRE scores of around 75th-80th percentile with verbal scores in the same range. Will my subpar GRE scores likely prevent the comparatively stronger portion of my application from being reviewed at many schools? With this in mind, should I retake the GRE until I'm closer to the averages of the schools?
I am going to complete my undergraduate in 2.5 years and am hoping to enter a Ph.D. program directly after graduation. Will the reduced length of my undergraduate career reduce my chances of acceptance, or is this viewed somewhat favorably?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Admissions committee in strong CS PhD programs are primarily looking for concrete evidence of research potential.  Neither GRE scores nor the ability to take lots of undergraduate classes provide that compelling evidence.  Fortunately for you, a first-author CVPR paper and strong recommendation letters would!
Given your research record and the likely strength of your recommendation letters, no admissions committee is going to care about your GRE scores (even if the ongoing pandemic allows you to take the GRE in the first place).  At least in the top 10-20 CS PhD programs, GRE scores only matter if they are really bad, or if your case is otherwise truly borderline.  My department hasn't required GRE scores for graduate applicants for over a decade.
Similarly, I don't think finishing early will have much effect on your chances.  A few people will be impressed, a few people will be concerned about possible burnout, but most people won't care, especially given your research record and the likely strength of your recommendation letters.  Unless you have financial reasons to finish early, you might be better off in the long run staying where you are and expanding your research portfolio.  (If you eventually apply for academic jobs, hiring committees won't care how quickly you finish your PhD; they'll care primarily about the strength of your research record.)
This is a great issue to discuss with your letter-writers.  See also Mor Harchol-Balter's detailed advice for CS PhD applicants, based on her experience at Berkeley, MIT, and CMU.  (Her description also matches my experience at Illinois, and other departments like Washington explicitly recommend her advice.)


How formal should the dedication section in a master thesis be? I want to make a little practical joke in the dedication of my master thesis. It's nothing extraordinary, and it's harmless, but it is all but formal.

I searched around and found this answer that states, as I already thought, that the acknowledgements section is not so formal and I can write it the way I want, but in terms of the dedication, it doesn't state anything.

Will the academia receive it well if I make this little practical joke in the dedication page, or should I write something a little more formal?

You could wander to your department library and check the dedication page of several master's theses to see what other students have done.

In my case the department keeps a copy of every MSc and PhD thesis ever produced by students in the department, and they are available in the department library. I looked at a couple dozen. Most of them had some happy little thing like a line of poetry or something. A student who finished during my course work put the following on his dedication page.

One and One make Three

That's because he and his wife had a child during his grad work. On my PhD thesis dedication page I first gave a gushy thanks to my supervisor. Then I included a quote from Yoda, and a quote from a song by the music group Queen.

I think as long as it's generally not nasty it will be OK.

You can also get some general ideas about format, writing style, citations, etc.  Maybe the people who did the binding will have left little notes in the cover so you can find out where to get that done.

And, hey, the content might even be interesting.


Is it advisable to put entire source of my thesis up on GitHub? I've been using git for a while and now GitHub. I'm starting to write a master's thesis. Would it be a good idea to upload all the files to online public repositories? Does anyone have any experience with this?

EDIT: Thanks for all the answers. I consulted with my adviser about this, and he said that latex sources were ok, as the document will be open access anyway. My source code however was not, primarily because the collaboration already has a protected wiki for such things.

I'm told for your field that the answer might be yes, because you're slightly less threatened in terms of being scooped than most, with physics (apparently) going largely by who submits first.

I would be extremely cautious publishing the source of my thesis in its entirety on a public repository. I'm all for repeatable science and open access, but the public should only have access to your code when this condition is met:

You have no further use of the exclusive access to your code. All the questions you've programmed have been answered, the papers and presentations that emerge from them are in press, and at this point, it is a question of reproducible research.

Once that's true, sure. Until that point? You're running the profound risk of your research being stolen.


How to reduce a paper's size for a page limited conference? This is a usual problem of mine, I have a page limited conference (usually 8) and my paper is 15 pages long, or in a less dramatic case 10.

How do you go about taking stuff off the paper. Do you have any rule
of thumb?
How do you know what is "irrelevant" enough for you to take it out
of the paper?

Before you go about the longer process of deciding "what to delete," have you first tried to remove the "dead weight?" Academic writing is often quite leaden in style, and can be trimmed quite substantially. Following Strunk's commandment to "omit needless words" can often cut down a page or two out of your manuscript without sacrificing "actual" content.

If, having pruned your text, you find you still need to reduce things, ask yourself the following question:

  What information do I want my readers to retain?

Then ask yourself:

  What sections of the paper do not provide information necessary for the reader?

Those should be a fairly good guide about what to delete.


Does timing of emails matter? I wonder: everyone in academia handles a lot of email, on all aspects of their work. I mean, emails about conferences, emails about journals and papers, emails about research, teaching, supervized students, and so on. So if you have a big announcement to send to many people (eg seminar or conference) does it matter WHEN you send it? I mean, is it better to send it on Wednesday afternoon (middle of the week) rather than Saturday evening (middle of week end)? I imagine if people receive the email at time they are busy they possibly will overlook it.

First, I don't think it makes much difference. Researchers deal with information, and a lot of that information is communicated through emails nowadays. So, most researchers I know are very careful about their emails and read them thoroughly. Especially if you write to people who know you, your name should be enough for them to read your email through anyway.

But, I can understand if you have an important announcement to make to a large list of people (who don't all know you personally), you may want to “micro-optimize” this. I have done it in the past: having a call-for-papers email ready on Saturday, and waiting ’til Monday afternoon (US time) to send it, thinking people who read it with a fresh mind, and not alongside the batch of “week-end email” that they might triage on Monday morning. (Some people stay connected during week-ends, of course, and for those it makes no matter.)


A short paper on arXiv I have a short paper that I wish to upload to arXiv.
It is about two pages, on mathematical application of previous construction (a math paper).

Actually, I intend to add to it another segment in the future.

Is there is a real possibility that it will be rejected because of its length?

Thanks.

Is there is a real possibility that it will be rejected because of its length?

No: Length is irrelevant, quality counts. A two page paper could be better than a twenty-two page paper.


What do I do if my supervisor insists that the classical CLT is false and wants me to write that in my paper? We are in a physics department. My supervisor, upon reading a Physical Review Letters (PRL) paper, concludes (and claims that the paper also concludes) that the classical central limit theorem (CLT) is false under the (usual) assumptions stated. He insists on this result and wants me to say/imply that in my manuscript because he finds fault with me making use of the classical CLT in a few statistical tests that I have utilized in the paper.

Question:
(1) Would you say that my supervisor is scientifically incompetent?
(2) How should I handle such a situation?

The paper is single-authored by me but he says that the university requires him to vet journal submissions (for quality) even though he is not a co-author which I accept.

(EDIT) More info regarding the context:

Just to clarify further, copied from my comment below: In my paper, I was simply stating the assumptions of classical CLT so that I could make use of the resulting normal distributions for some statistical tests. It was not a particular usage/application of classical CLT but simply a statement of the assumptions that would need to be held to recover normal distributions for the application of statistical tests I was using.

(1) Would you say that my supervisor is scientifically incompetent?

If he says the CLT as stated and proved in textbooks is false, he is obviously wrong. "Scientifically incompetent" sounds like a very sweeping statement that I would avoid endorsing given the information currently available. He could simply be misunderstanding something in the language of the paper, or his knowledge of rigorous math could have an embarrassing gap (wouldn't be the first time), or it could be a failure of communication between you where you have a subtle misunderstanding of his position.

In any case, textbook CLT is correct, no question about it.

  (2) How should I handle such a situation?

An honest intellectual dialogue with him to clarify the issue would be ideal, if he is the kind of person who can have such a dialogue when he is in the wrong and not back himself into an emotional corner and become upset and unable to reason. If you think that's risky, try to find another professor you trust and can consult about the issue, and if they agree with you, ask them to participate in a discussion with the advisor to make him understand your point. And try approaching any discussions with an open mind, in case it's you who are in error about what his position is exactly.

Finally, it's possible that your advisor really is scientifically incompetent, so if you are unable to make him come around to your view and conclude that he is intellectually unsuited to be your advisor, you should probably switch advisors. In any case, under no circumstance should you concede to his demand to deny the truth of a standard formulation of CLT in your paper. Good luck!


Is my advisor being unreasonable by not approving classes in a different field than his? I started my PhD in CS last fall in a lab doing one particular field (neurological-based deep learning) since that's what I was interested in when I was in undergrad applying and for about the first year of grad school. Since then, I stumbled into NLP and I find it fascinating I've been reading a lot of papers and  I think I'd like to pursue it for my academic career – I've even started attending lab meetings with another lab in my department doing NLP. I'd really like to take a formal course in NLP, especially one taught by the PI of this other lab, but my advisor needs to approve any course I take, and he won't sign off on any course that isn't in his field. He says there's no point in me taking a course that won't benefit my work in his lab. Is he being reasonable here, or should I be able to take courses in tangential fields?

It all boils down to your advisor’s estimate of your capacity to complete your PhD in time. Perhaps your advisor sees your newfound love for NLP as a distraction from what should be your main focus: successfully defending your thesis within the span of X years. If you are well on the road to graduation and are exploring a side project then the restriction may be unfounded, though not unjustified (perhaps further establishing yourself in your field would improve your career prospects).

Of course, no one can stop you from independent study or taking a Coursera class, but your advisor’s reluctance likely stems from the concerns I mentioned above. This should also be something you shouldn’t take lightly: there’s often good reason to listen to one’s advisor.

Good luck!


How to cite a technical report for a double blind review process? Some conferences follow the double-blind review process. As such, you cannot reveal your identity to the reviewers. Further, these conferences restrict the number of pages, say to at most 8 pages.

I am facing the following problem: I would like to submit a paper to some of these conferences but I have a paper that is 10-pages long; containing 2 pages of appendices (proofs). I am thinking to write a technical report and put these appendices in it. So now I have the paper to submit (8 pages) which of course cites the technical report (10 pages). How can I cite the technical report to not violate the double-blind review process?

I hate to suggest it here, but in some ways your best option is to work to rewrite the paper within the page limits. It can be a difficult task to use fewer words without losing meaning, but it is part of the history of good writing to work at that. George Bernard Shaw famously said "I'm sorry this letter is so long, I didn't have time to make it shorter."

Mathematical proofs, if that is what it is, can often be shortened, especially if the techniques are standard and the audience is sophisticated.

But the prose in the other ten pages may be more amenable to reworking.

If you can do it the reviewers will be happier as will the rest of your audience.


Using ORCID to obtain bibliographic data for coauthor network analysis I'm trying to use ORCID to generate a full list of publications for a set of approximately 500 individuals, along with whatever associated metadata is available in that database. I'm trying to use ORCID because of difficulties with entity resolution when using other databases (some individuals are referred to with multiple different names, and some individuals share the same name).
I currently have a list of the faculty, along with their ORCID numbers.
I'm hoping to put together a csv or xls spreadsheet, with records/works as rows, and the associated metadata for each work. The most important metadata are the author names (ideally separated or easily separated into different cells), the journal names, and publication dates. The broader aim is to put together a network map of these researchers for further analysis.
Browsing the ORCID website however, there doesn't seem to be a way to aggregate information from multiple authors. Even on a single author's webpage, the only export feature seems to be a basic html-format list of works, and definitely does not list co-authors. Looking through the API documentation does not seem to provide a solution either. Even if I were to manually access each DOI and look at which authors are listed, the names of coauthors in each publisher are not really standardized, and do not seem to be matched to their ORCID profile, so I'd face the same entity resolution problem. Also it's a massive undertaking with possibly several tens of thousands of publications.
Hoping someone can give advice!

Unfortunately, you cannot directly obtain co-author data via ORCID's API alone.
But there is a workaround. You can make use of other Persistent Identifiers (PIDs) that you read out of ORCID's data (keyword "linked open data"). That is, using ORCID, you can first fetch the DOIs of an author's publications, and then, in a second step, use CrossRef's API (as in https://api.crossref.org/works/{doi}, here is an example) to save the names and ORCIDs of the co-authors of their publications.


Academic Hiring Process and Practices for Junior Professors in Germany I am being considered for a job in Germany (W1 junior-professorship) and I was hoping to get some insights regarding the process as I come from the US system and am unfamiliar with how things work in Germany.

I notice that the application packages do not require inclusion of recommendation letters. In the US, the typical requirement is that the application package includes at least 3 letters. Will the schools require recommendation letters once selected for an interview or the job? Do letters or references play any significant role at all?
Selection: I know this should vary by case, but how many people do they tend to put on their short list?
Interviews: I get a feeling that the interview process is brief and a lot less tiring than the American system (for a R1: Typically a 3-day campus visit, job talk, endless meetings with professors, deans, grad students, teaching demonstration, etc, etc). What do they focus on in Germany? (I am asking this as I was invited for an interview, but I was not even asked to do a job talk or teaching demonstration) Are there typically multiple rounds of interviews?
Selection committee: That some European departments practically have a one-person decision making body came as a surprise when I first came to Europe. How is the case in Germany? How many people in the department are typically involved in the decision making process?
Final decision: How fast do they move with their final decisions? For example, the job I am considering only has about a four month gap between application deadline and position start date. This is significantly shorter than a typical US-Search where many schools begin examining applications a year before the position start date, and tells me that they should be moving fairly fast with the decision. Any inputs?

I know these might be a lot of questions. As someone unfamiliar with the system, I am hoping to gain as much insight as possible.

As xLeitix mentioned in his answer, I do indeed hold such a position, and have also sat in on a search committee (as a non-voting "interested bystander").

  1) I notice that the application packages do not require inclusion of recommendation letters. In the US, the typical requirement is that the application package includes at least 3 letters. Will the schools require recommendation letters once selected for an interview or the job? Do letters or references play any significant role at all?

It could go either way, depending on the preferences of the chair of the committee. In my process, my references were asked for recommendations; for the committee I observed, they asked "neutral parties" who could comment on all of the finalists.

However, one thing is absolutely certain: your PhD advisor (or Doktorvater in German parlance) will never be asked to submit a letter of reference on your behalf.

  2) Selection: I know this should vary by case, but how many people do they tend to put on their short list?

Typically four to six people are put on the list of interviews, while two or three usually make the final "ranked" list to be asked if they are interested in the position.

  3) Interviews: I get a feeling that the interview process is brief and a lot less tiring than the American system (for a R1: Typically a 3-day campus visit, job talk, endless meetings with professors, deans, grad students, teaching demonstration, etc, etc). What do they focus on in Germany? (I am asking this as I was invited for an interview, but I was not even asked to do a job talk or teaching demonstration) Are there typically multiple rounds of interviews?

Typically, there is only a single interview, and it is indeed far briefer than a US-based job or faculty search interview. None of the interviews I've had have been longer than two hours in duration, including any teaching presentations.

The focus in such junior positions is almost always on research, with very limited emphasis on teaching. You should plan to talk about what you've already done, and what proposed work you'd want to start. You'd also want to give some thought as to how you would recruit students (always a challenge for junior faculty in Germany).

  4) Selection committee: That some European departments practically have a one-person decision making body came as a surprise when I first came to Europe. How is the case in Germany? How many people in the department are typically involved in the decision making process?

It's not a one-person decision making process, but it's also not a very large group, either. Typically, there will be between five to nine voting members of the selection committee, including the chair, other professors, and possibly students and equal opportunity staff from the university (who can refuse to give permission for the hiring process to go forward if viable underrepresented candidates were not given due consideration).

  5) Final decision: How fast do they move with their final decisions? For example, the job I am considering only has about a four-month gap between application deadline and position start date. This is significantly shorter than a typical US-Search where many schools begin examining applications a year before the position start date, and tells me that they should be moving fairly fast with the decision. Any inputs?

It took about six months after my interview to receive an "offer" from the university, which I found rather slow, but having had more experience with German academic bureaucracy, I no longer find that surprising. (I find the four-month timetable frankly overly aggressive, and would expect that the actual start date would be substantially later than their target date.) However, every university and faculty within a university has its own way of doing things, so what might take six months in one faculty might take two months in another.


Publisher (online, refereed journal) is not publishing the volume containing my paper - what are my options? In 2010, I had a paper accepted for online publication by a refereed journal.  I was given a URL for my article, and told which volume would contain the article.

The journal has never published that volume. Repeated inquiries (via emails) with the journal editor have produced nothing that indicates the journal ever intends to publish that volume (containing my paper).

The Journal is IJAMT (International Journal of Applied Management and Technology). It is published by Walden University. When you go to look at the listing of volumes, Volumes 8, 10, and 12 are published. There is no mention at all for the volumes Volumes 9 and 11.

At this point, I am considering submitting to another journal - however, am I 'bound' to IJAMT, seeing as they have not actually published the article?

What are my options here?  Can I 'undo' this, and be free to submit to another journal?

Update: Thanks for the comments, All...  I am not employed at Walden - my submission was 'external'...  There was no signed agreement.  I think I'll take the advice to send them an email... it has been a few years now, so I'm of the opinion that sufficient time has occurred.  Thanks again!  Pete

Can you find a telephone number to ring them? If not, you write an email and state that, if there is no response until [some reasonable time frame], you assume that they are not intending to publish the work, and having invested considerable time in the development of the paper, you will consider yourself fully entitled to publish the paper elsewhere.

Note that I do not know what the legal situation is (this is not the place for legal questions).

However, as per Dirk's suggestion, I add that universities have a legal department that might offer legal advice on such topics, as long as OP is employed at one.


Is there a max number of authors for a paper of math? I never saw a paper published in a journal of (pure) math with more than six authors. Is it a rule?
(see this one)

No: Authorship is governed by the number of contributing mathematicians, rather than some arbitrary limit.


Is using uncited references in master thesis a good idea? Do you think uncited references can add extra value to a master thesis?

If yes, what is the best way to include it in the master thesis? Maybe it can be mixed with the main references or can be listed in the appendix.

I would suggest avoiding adding references to your list of cited works if you do not cite those works. It may be appropriate to have a "Further Reading" section but this section may not be helpful in a master's thesis. Your thesis should ideally have a single, primary focus and therefore any additional content essentially serves as a distraction.

If you must include the references, cite them briefly.


In what engineering field can i study renewable energies in the USA? I am applying for a scholarship at the USA in order to  study  renewable energies.
For that I have to ask if it is considered as a subfield of electrical engineering or not in the US, because I can't find a major in energy engineering in the application form and the closest in my mind to renewable energy engineering is electrical engineering.

Renewable energy is an application of engineering, and requires expertise from various disciplines. For example, wind energy requires civil, mechanical and electrical engineering.

I don't know how things work in the US, but in the UK my advice would be to identify which discipline interests you the most and pursue that in a department that includes renewables on the syllabus. Then either look for a job in renewables, or do a masters to learn more about that industry. However, I don't know how applicable that advice is to your situation.


Withdraw manuscript from peer review after finding a major error I just received a major revision decision (1st round) for a manuscript I submitted to a reputable journal.  After looking into one of the reviewer's comments I found a major error in my analysis.  The conclusions of my research are almost completely different as a result.  I also don't think the reviewer realized the severity of the error.

I would like to withdraw my manuscript from the journal because of the major error.  However, I don't know how to approach my co-authors or the journal about this issue.  I've always been able to complete major revisions for other papers I've written, and so I've never had to deal with this type of problem before.  I also realize that the editors and referees have already put a lot of time into reviewing my paper.

I would like to ask this forum for any suggestions about withdrawing a paper once it's in review.  I don't know how common it is to do this, and how it is generally perceived in academia.

There are two parts to your question:

  How to broach the matter with your colleagues.
  How to withdraw your paper from review.

The trickier issue is how to broach the subject with your colleagues. If you feel there is absolutely no way for you to finish the revisions on schedule, then you owe it to your co-authors to tell them of the problem. However, this should be a dialogue, not a unilateral decision. They may see the issue as being less onerous timewise, and that it may be possible to finish the work within a reasonable period of time. Or they may agree with you that withdrawal is the best option. In either case, it should be a team decision, and once that's made, you can proceed with notifying the journal.

Notifying the journal is the simpler issue to handle. Most journals usually set a timeline for submitting major revisions. Just send the journal a note stating exactly what you wrote above. There is nothing wrong with independently withdrawing a paper because of significant errors. (Better that you do so now than need to retract it because of errors later on!)


Receiving Degree Late due to late payment of tuition I finished my LLM program at NYU in 2006. I haven't yet received my diploma because I am still paying my tuition debt to school. When I finish paying, NYU will give me the degree, but will it show as I received my degree in 2006 or the year I actually finished paying and received it?

I am currently applying for green card lottery where I need to state my level of education as of the date of application. Is it correct to say I have a masters degree or should I say some university level course?

I have graduated academically, I just owe money and I will have it paid by the time green card lottery results are known.

I would put the date shown on your physical (paper) diploma or on your official transcript. If there’s any question about your eligibility or truthfulness, they are what you would show to immigration services.

That said, most universities won’t give you your final transcript or diploma until after all bills are paid. So in your case, the diploma might show 2006 when it arrives but they won’t actually give you the diploma or transcript to prove it until you pay the bill off.


Papers from different authors with similar results submitted to the same conference Me and my coauthors have recently submitted a paper to conference X. By talking to colleagues I discovered that another set of authors have had a very similar result, and submitted their paper to conference X.

Basically, the result is a theorem that solves an open problem stated in a paper which appeared at conference X in the previous year. The new theorem is essentially the same in both papers, but the proofs are very different.

What happens in this case?

This sounds like a straight-forward case of multiple discovery.

In the case that both papers are well-written and have correct proofs, the typical and appropriate thing would be for both of them to be accepted.  If one or both are not sufficient for the standards of the conference in their presentation or technical approach, however, then it would be reasonable for one or both to be rejected, however, even if they have identical results.

Given that there is often a great degree of variability in reviewing, however, it would likely be a good thing to get in contact with the conference organizers and let them know about the situation, so that they can ensure fair treatment of the two papers (e.g., via meta-review or by assigning the same reviewers to both).


Share copyrighted stimulus material with collaborator We've been showing a number of copyrighted movies in a psychology experiment. I would like to share the movies with a collaborator at the other side of the world, who wants to run an alternative analysis. As our behavioural data is event timing-related and as we've shown the movie in separate clips with some additional overlays it would be best if we just shared the stimulus files directly. We've got a lot of videos with relatively large (GB) individual size.

What are my options? I've got no experience with file sharing, so am not sure what can go wrong here. I don't want to get into legal trouble for uploading them somewhere.

Non-profit research is one of the typical "fair use" exceptions to copyright law, so if it's OK for you to be using them for research, it's probably OK for you to share them with your collaborator as well.

Every country has its own particular regulations around copyright, so it's definitely worth confirming with them. If you're just using short excerpts as user stimulus and not publicly distributing, though, that should be pretty well protected in most jurisdictions.

That bit about "not publicly distributing", however, is quite important. As such, if you want to share with your collaborator, make sure you do it with some sort of access-controlled sharing system like Google Drive, DropBox, BitBucket, or even your own FTP server rather than just posting it openly on a webpage somewhere.


Shall I explain to grad school admissions that 'the first year didn't count' (UK)? I am considering applying for US PhD Program. In the UK, at many unis the first year does not count towards degree classification. Is this known in the US? Will they be wondering why I stated I have X %, but they calculate Y % ? Shall I explain to grad school admissions that 'the first year didn't count' towards my degree classification?

For the benefit of non UK members, the first year marks of a degree at a UK university is not used for calculating a student's final grade. The only requirement to continue on the degree is achieve at least 40%. It is therefore not uncommon for students to achieve marks in their first year which do not reflect their full abilities, and while it does not affect their grades it can affect how future employer or post graduate admissions view their application!

If this is the case you should address this in your personal statement. Tell them how you gained a new perspective and work ethic after your first year at university and demonstrate this with your improved results in your subsequent years along with appropriate participation in university clubs and societies.

If however your first year marks are consistent with your subsequent years, there is no need to mention it. Your application is about you as a potential student, not about explaining the intricacies of UK grade calculations.

Edit: The reasoning behind only requiring a mark of 40% for the first year is to allow students some adjustment to a more independent study style and also to give young adults entering university the freedom to have new life experiences outside of academia. The prevalent philosophy at UK institutions is that academic achievement is not the only goal of attending university (though it is obviously still important!)

Since the progression of students enrolled on a degree is decided on a department by department basis its impossible to find a single decree stating this how all UK universities operate it is by far how the majority work. Provided below are links to progression guidance from 2 UK universities, stating that only pass marks (40%) are required and that this mark will not be used to calculate degree classifications.
University of York Progression, University of Durham Progression


How to respond to the teacher who puts the feet up while talking to student? A friend of mine who is from Japan told me that his professor in USA puts the feet up while talking to him. He was saying that he felt very bad with that. Is this acceptable culture in USA academia?

I've done my PhD in Japan, and have had much contact with professors in America and Japan.

The academic relationship and work culture in both countries are very different. In America it is generally not regarded as bad when someone puts their feet on the table while talking to you.

I had bosses and advisors in the US who did this. However, in Japan, the advisor-student relationship is more respectful and professional.

I would like to tell you that you should ask the professor to refrain from putting their feet on the table, but if they do it in their office, it is pretty much up to them. Since the office is the professor's space, I do not think it is your friend's business to ask them not to do it.


Graduate early with average GPA, or later with better GPA? I've seen similar questions here, and I wish there was a narrower tag than the broad soft-question and career-development.

I am currently a freshman/sophomore-to-be at a top ten math program in US. My major GPA is around 3.5-3.6, and so is my overall GPA. Due to fast progress in my courses (skipped all lower divs) I will be ready to graduate in a year or year and a half. The question is whether I should do that.

I do not see myself outside of academia, and dead-set on pursuing PhD in math. With my GPA far from being stellar, I was going to take more grad courses to improve the situation. The college is quite pricey, with me being an out-of-state, and so I am not really sure whether I should just graduate and take those courses back home (or apply for masters).

Recap: is it better to graduate early, with an average GPA and no hooks (e.g., research, high Putnam grade, no grad courses), apply for Masters program and save money, or graduate later and improve my record as an undergrad?

Your answer will depend partly on what you want to do in academia.  If you want to teach, but don't really want to emphasize research much, you might do fine to graduate now.  However, if your goal is to become a professor at a research intensive school, then you really should go to the strongest grad school you can get into.  (Based on your description, I strongly suspect that if you bust your butt for another year or two, in particular working to earn one or two strong letters of rec, you could get into a better grad school than you can currently.)

Yes, I know there are considerations about who you will work with, perhaps geography, potential two-body problems, etc.  So, why's it so important to go to the best school you can?  Again and again I see that in academia (as everywhere) networking is crucial.  Generalizing and stereotyping a bit: the best schools have the best researchers, who know the other best researchers, who have the biggest grants, which fund the nicest postdocs, etc.  If you want to thrive as a researcher, you will do well to get into that network.  (To a large extent, it's a rich get richer system.)  As an undergrad or early grad student, one way you can get into that network is to work with a professor who is a central part of it, and is willing to weave you in.  And your chances of working with said professor typically go up with the reputation of the school.

Now a personal digression.  Through high school and undergrad I was in a hurry to get to the next level as soon as possible.  I skipped 7th grade, finished undergrad in 3 years, and started grad school at the age of 20.  I even turned down a year abroad in the Budapest Semester in Math, because I was worried I'd miss out if I waited too long to get to grad school.  The sad truth is that I wasn't ready.  Maybe you would be; I've never met you, so I can't say.

Eventually (after 8 years), I finished a PhD, and am fairly happy with where my career is headed.  However, I don't regret that time in grad school at all.  I learned a lot of useful stuff.  In fact, I think it's because I took my time in grad school that my career has gone as well as it has.  One interesting feature of academia is that you're typically judged by your productivity relative to the time since you earned your PhD (rather than your age).  As a result, I encourage you to take your time and learn as much as you can.  You'll never again have as much free time as you do now.


Worth applying to PhD Programs with a very bad Math Subject GRE I just took and received a very bad math subject gre score of 600, or 37th percentile.
Would it still be worth it to apply to any school that requires the subject test? I've been working at several tech startups for a few years so some of the material wasn't as fresh as it maybe would have been.

A bit of my background, I'm finishing up my masters in math at a top 10 university, I don't have any publications yet but I'm working on a thesis under a very well known professor. My grades are good and I'm a TA and grader at the university.

I guess the question is whether or not admissions committees would use the poor score as enough of a reason to reject a candidate. Or would it make more sense to wait until I can retake the exam in April and put academia/PhD aside for a year.

Thanks

This is very variable.  Some admissions committees think that the subject GRE score is important, and some do not.  Even at the same department, it may vary from year to year depending on who is on the committee.


Is pursuing a second PhD in the same or related field a viable means of returning to academia after a decade in industry? I have a PhD from a reasonably good program in pure math, but I had no support from my department or adviser and so went into industry afterward. I'm unhappy with the situation, and I'd love to return to academia. The situation is a bit tricky, though, and I was wondering if a second doctorate (whether again in math or in another related area like mathematical physics) would help at all. Further complicating the issue is the fact that I've been in industry for the last decade, so my CV has hardly gotten any better than it was when I applied, or even left, grad school the first time. (The situation may be different in other areas, but there's very little you can do in industry that looks appealing to an admissions committee in pure math.) So, would applying to PhD #2 be a waste of time, or is this a weird but possible means of clawing my way back into academia?

In order to return to academia, you will need to satisfy certain requirements.

Most academic jobs require holding a Ph.D. in the relevant field. You already have one. A second Ph.D. won't help you here.
Teaching jobs require demonstrated teaching experience. A second Ph.D. won't help you here. You could certainly try to build a track record of successful teaching by getting in touch with a local community college and offering to teach a few courses - possibly even while holding your industry day job. If you are serious about returning to academia, this would be an investment, not a source of income, so you could offer to teach for little or no remuneration.
Research (and teaching) jobs require publications. A second Ph.D. won't help you here. Instead, get up to speed on current research, find a good open problem, work on it and publish some papers.
Finally, contacts will be invaluable. A second Ph.D. won't help you here. Instead, attend conferences, give presentations, get to know people, leave a good impression and hint that you would like to return to academia.

Note the common thread going through all these points: a second Ph.D. in the same field won't help you. Instead, invest your time in building the kind of portfolio (teaching, publications, contacts) that you do need.

This will likely be an uphill battle, but if you are motivated enough, then go for it. Good luck!


My PhD defense is next week. I feel that I have not done enough work to justify my time spent on the thesis. What can I do about this? I spent 5 years on my mechanical engineering PhD. I think that my thesis work could have been done in 2 years by a serious student. I have wasted my time on futile work.

I don't know how to justify the time spent aon my PhD and my low research output to my committee.

With hindsight most PhD theses could have been done a lot quicker, but we typically don't start with hindsight. Moreover, you are supposed to learn while doing your PhD thesis. So again, someone with the experience learned from doing a PhD might have avoided some of the futile work (but see my first point), but that is not a fair comparison. So the first thing you need to ask yourself is: are you fair towards yourself.


Citation to well-known results and reference to user manuals There are some very well-known results and equations, e.g., Shanon Capacity formula, Erlang Distribution and Poisson Distribution, etc. Do we have to provide a reference for these results as well?

Also at times we seek help from a user manual while writing a simulation program or conducting a practical experiment. Do we have to provide reference for user manuals as well?

My first comment will be that it is better to add one reference too many than one too few. Reviewers or editors might suggest to remove references during the review process if they seem superfluous.

In some cases, it might be more useful to add references to quite basic concepts. One such instance is when papers are directed at least partially to people outside the field. In such cases it may be sufficient to point at a basic book in the field, as an example to point to a good book on statistics regarding the Poisson distribution (the book has to provide some good information on the topic of course). This can help people who may have a different background to get deeper into the topic.

In general there is of course a fine line where references are or are not needed and with time one learns to identify this line better. What you can do is to simply look at other papers that you have read and see where they place the line and try to follow their example. That will likely form a very good basis for finding the right level of referencing. But, be aware that the line is different depending on the audience of the publication where the paper is published and you should briefly check to see what is applicable in each journal where you publish.


What should I do if a student has already done all the work for my course elsewhere? Some background info: I'm a graduating Masters Students teaching a Web Development Class. This is my first teaching gig and this is a required course for CS students.

I have one star student who is already VERY good at web development. He overhauled three of the university's sites, making them more accessible, beautiful, and more performant. He is also pretty known among the faculty because of this. Let's just say that he knows the whole scope of what is being taught in my class, probably more.

What I want to know is if there is something that I can do to help this student? What I'm teaching him is probably just tickling his capability, and he is also very driven enough to create sites for our university. Can I talk about my department (CS Department) to let him skip my class/have him create sites for the uni instead? This student is very smart and I really feel he is much more engaged with doing real world sites (our sites) that I want to give him my time to support this instead of simple workload.

I have also talked to him about this and he really does think that developing real sites is fun.

So would it be unusual if I approach my department about this request? If not, how should I phrase this?

*Also, he closely works with me and a few other faculty for the site creation.

Talk to the person in your department who is responsible for overseeing the undergraduate education program (the title is usually a variant on "undergraduate advisor" or "director of undergraduate studies"). Such individuals usually have the authority to waive and approve courses that are not part of the "official" study plan when exceptional circumstances arise. This individual should be able to tell you what is necessary to obtain a waiver, and what could be used to substitute for it within the program.


Masters in Europe, PhD in US I have seen various questions regarding PhDs in the EU vs US, but none I've seen address this. The subject area is Maths/Physics.

From what I've seen, in the EU you do a Masters (I'm soon to be finishing) and then PhD. In general this might take 4-6 years total for both. In the US you apply for a PhD after finishing undergrad studies and it takes 5-6 years total. There are classes in the first two years or so which make it roughly comparable overall to Europe.

My question: Is it possible to do a PhD in the US after completing a MSc in Europe, without have to go through the class component in the US? In other words, can one go straight to research?

No, you will have to take the classes.  There will always be exceptions but one reason for this is that most Math/Physics PhD programs have a qualifying exam.  If you are not familiar with this, it is an exam that everyone takes after the first (sometimes second) year when everyone has finished the required classes.  It is used to measure whether or not the student has the theoretical foundation to then move onto research.  Failing the qualifier may mean being forced out, though you can usually at least get a MS if this happens.


Should unreadability or sloppiness of students' work be reflected in their evaluation? When evaluating and grading students' work in technical fields (like computer science or mathematics), I often face ones that are really messy, sometimes even unreadable (I mean structure, not - handwriting). It's not clear at all what part belongs to what or what is the final result. Instead of spending a lot of time trying to figure out if there is a good result buried somewhere in the mess, I'm tempted to just fail such a work as unreadable.

While these (I'd say) formal aspect don't reflect the ability of the student to solve the problem, it strongly reflects his/her ability to present the solution. And in their future professions, it won't be much good that they can solve problems, if they're not able to present the solution to someone else. Or for example grant agencies simply reject proposals that fail even slightly given formal criteria.

My questions are:

Should the evaluation include evaluation of readability, proper structure etc. for example in a textual form (without impacting the final grade perhaps), something like "The solution is completely unreadable." or for a larger work "The solution lacks a proper structure - there is no introduction or conclusion of what have been accomplished." etc.?
Should such deficiencies be also reflected in the grade? If so, how much? Would it be acceptable to even fail a work just because it's completely unreadable?

I think the most important part of your post is in your comment

  Or for example grant agencies simply reject proposals that fail even slightly given formal criteria.

If a student isn't corrected for sloppy work while in school, when will he or she improve? The question really boils down to

  How best can we as instructors give guidance to students so that they will succeed in the future?

Evaluations in an educational setting can serve many purposes, but fundamentally they should be used as a tool to help students succeed.  Obviously, you have to be careful because a poor grade on a transcript can have long-term ramifications, but ignoring sloppy or unreadable work by trying to see through it is doing a disservice to the student on a particularly key issue: communication of an idea is as important as the idea itself.

To answer your questions:

  1. Should the evaluation include evaluation of readability, proper structure etc...?

Absolutely.  To ignore this would be bad pedagogy.  Determining how to relate this to the student without causing a misunderstanding about the idea itself is the difficult part.  Encouragement or direction to seek out writing help is a good idea, as is having students re-write or re-submit work that is sloppy.  Hopefully the work improves throughout the course; being picky at the beginning of a course can set a good standard for the rest of the course.

  2. Should such deficiencies be also reflected in the grade? If so, how much? Would it be acceptable to even fail a work just because it's completely unreadable?

The answer to this ties directly back into the first question.  I would suggest letting students re-write or submit material without penalty (or with minimal penalty) early on in a course, with the understanding that they must improve by the end.  If your only assessment is a final project, consider allowing a re-write with an incomplete grade.  But, if that is your policy, I'd strongly suggest providing a time for draft review well before the final project is due in order to minimize the need for this route.  As always, I would also spell out in a syllabus your policy and the fact that presentation is a part of the course, and I would also discuss this on the first day of class (with examples of past work that is sloppy!).

You've posed a hard question, but an extremely important one.  I probably suggest rejecting 30% of the papers I review for conferences simply because they are unreadable.  Most of the time I don't even get to the idea behind the work before I realize that it doesn't matter what the idea is because it is too poorly written (and this ends up in the review).  I want more papers that are well presented, because I'm certain some of the papers I give poor reviews to because of this problem have great ideas behind them!  Teachers that encourage students to improve their writing and presentation are necessary for this to occur.


Is a computational scientist/engineer a viable professional goal? One one hand, there were attempts to give some meaning to the term on Wikipedia; there is a page on SIAM's website and a Master's program at Stanford.

On the other hand, there are very few jobs which use the term. However, there are positions with "Computational" and "Engineer" like "Computational Imaging Engineer", "Computational Biology Engineer" and so on.

I assume that skills and knowledge, which are necessary for doing a job with "Computational" in the name are, roughly, the same. Consequently, if a person has a core set of skills and knowledge, it should be easy to apply them in different fields.

Am I right in my assumption, and "computational scientist" is a possible career goal? Or it is too broad a term (e.g., a synonym for "applied mathematician") and should not be considered as a specific goal.

Computational science is more of a mode of work than an actual career path—using modeling and mathematical techniques to solve problems in engineering, medicine, finance, and other disciplines. Almost all computational scientists have an area of emphasis within that field (as you mentioned, computational imaging engineer or computational biologist). You can move within areas relatively closely related, but making larger leaps may be more difficult: a computational fluid mechanics expert cannot quickly be substituted for someone working in bioinformatics, and vice versa.


While contacting professors should we mention if we have contacted some other faculty in same department? If a student is contacting faculty member and finds that there are two professors that are of his interest. So, he decides to contact both of them.

While contacting should the student mention that he has also contacted another professor in the same department?

I'm assuming this is regarding admission to graduate school. I don't see any harm in mentioning this as a courtesy. The odds are high that if the two professors work in related areas they will discover this themselves. If you haven't mentioned this to them, it will seem as if you're flooding the department with applications.

It also helps personalize the letter, which is the number one thing you have to do if you expect to get any kind of response.


Explain award on CV? I recently received an award. It's relatively prestigious (even internationally), but it's not well-known outside of my discipline, and its name is not very explicit (nor is it in English). Should I explain it on my CV? I was thinking of copying the one-sentence blurb on the award's website, something like "rewards people who have achieved this and this in this discipline". I don't see how it can hurt, but I have not seen anyone else do it...

(For context, I'm not applying for jobs as I have one, but I do apply for grants... All the time...)

In my experience it is usual (and useful) to explain awards in the CV, even for well known awards (well, maybe not the Nobel prize; but otherwise not assuming that everyone knows your award and not assume that they should just google it seems quite polite.)

Do not use the self-description ("outstanding achievements bla bla") but the set of eligible candidates and the frequency and number of awards (e.g.: "One prize each year awarded by the Belgian Academy of Sciences to a biologist working in Belgium.")

As Roland commented: If the name of the award does not imply it, or if the award is not in some obvious way for "the overall best among the eligible candidates", then add what the award is for.

So I would write

The golden srcub (for the cleanest laboratory, one prize each year awarded by the Belgian Academy of Sciences to a biologist working in Belgium.)

But just

Prize of the Belgian Society of Biology (awarded biannually to a Belgian biologist under the age of 30.)

In that case I personally would not say "to the best Belgian biologist under the age.."; it seems clear that this is implicitly the aim of the prize, and claiming to be "best" sounds pompous.

Btw, I just saw that the question seems to be answered here already.


Journals similar to Journal of Chemical Education in style What are the journals similar to Journal of Chemical Education which are helpful from middle school through graduate school? I mean the journals which publish articles which are good resources for learning the basics (complementary to books).

[Note: The journals need not be necessarily in the field of Chemistry]

While I am a regular reader of J. Chem. Ed., I wouldn't really say it's a good journal to read for learning the basics. It is more a journal of educators in the field of chemistry, and while I think some articles may be useful to chemistry students (including lab experiments and activities), overall its goal is to be a forum to discuss how we teach chemistry, rather than a place to learn chemistry.

For other journals about chemical education, you can find a very short list on Wikipedia. Also, as stated there, most such journals (especially for junior or high school chemical education) are localized, i.e. limited to a specific country (because of differences in curricula). Among the international ones, I would recommend Education in Chemistry, which is more readable than its sister journal Chemistry Education Research and Practice


How can undergraduate TA's better lead tutorial sessions? I'm senior year undergraduate, and I have to say I love to teach. I have assumed the role of a TA for multiple courses uptil now, including courses in economics, physics and mathematics. I have had the fortune of leading tutorial sessions for almost all the courses I have TA-ed thus far.

I have the following concern:

  I feel as if that students are reluctant to express their concerns to me. I try and keep things as formal as possible. This is not to say that I peg the students down to their chairs (after all, they're my peers!); rather, I try and conduct everything as formally as possible. Prior to every session, I send timely, formally phrased emails reminding the class of the schedule of the sessions; I'll typeset the tutorials on LaTeX and distribute copies in the session. I feel as if the students are at times intimidated of the lengths I'll go to make the experience of attending the sessions both worhwhile and learning intensive. Hence, I feel as if they're at times reluctant to express their concerns (about the pace of the sessions, about my ability to explain a particular concept etc.), even though I repeatedly ask them to let me know if the pace is too fast for them etc.

What can I do to encourage/facilitate more communication between an undergraduate TA and a class of undergraduate students? I'd like the students to be ideally express their concerns to me as if I'm a mentor or a helper, rather than a TA who'll probably downgrade them on the next assignment in case they bad mouth me to my face, for instance (I don't know if this is a valid concern among students in general, but let's consider this hypothetical for one).

Tl;dr: Keep it specific, personal and short.

One way to get feedback, that I found useful is the following:

e.g. as you said, they might think, that you are going too fast.

First, find a very specific set of questions on three levels, like "Who would like to see more examples?, Who sees enough examples?, Who would be happy with less examples?"

And then at the end of the lesson you say: "Before we finish I quickly need some feedback. Please raise your hand, if you think I show too few, enough or too many examples?" Then you ask the above questions and count the number of hands.

If you are still concerned, that their answers might be influenced by the presence of their peers ("I don't want to look dumb/like I need more examples"), make an "anonymous survey", where they all rest their head on their table, close their eyes and then you ask the questions. They'll look at you confused, the first time you ask them to do it, but they get used to it quickly.

Another example: If you feel like the way you explained a concept was unhelpful, you may ask "Who made a step forward with that explanation?" or "Who just got confused?".

Another option

Ask a student in person directly after class / or before class about the last lesson, if your class is preparation to solve an exercise sheet. Ask them when their peers are around them, e.g. while packing their things. Again, I suggest asking a very specific question, like "I showed you this example, was that any good?", this might also give you an opportunity to ask a follow-up question and with this I made the experience, that often the peers offer their opinion. You may do the same about your LaTeX notes, something along the line of "Is that any good to you?".

I'm aware that this kind of feedback does not give you an overview of the general opinion, but at least it gives you something to think about and improve.

For a more general feedback, at the end of the semester I handed my students a small slip of paper (so that they don't feel the need to write a ton of things) with two categories: "That's what I liked best:" and "That could be improved:".


Will quitting a PhD to try an industry job severely reduce my chances of being accepted to another PhD program later? I know there are already a lot of "should I quit my PhD" questions on this site. But I have a specific dilemma  and I'd like to get some external thoughts.

After my Bachelor in mathematics, I didn't hesitate and started a PhD in pure math. After 7 months in the program, I'm having second thoughts. Research is not as enjoyable as I thought it would be. And I'm afraid that I might be missing out on other potential careers that would fit me better than academia.

So I'm thinking of quitting my PhD, get a Master in applied math and try to get a job in the industry. I'm 20 years old, so I feel that this is the last moment to try another line of work without too many consequences.

However, if I do that but don't like working in industry, what are my chances of being accepted in another PhD program? I'm afraid that quitting a PhD once will severely reduce my chances. Are the graduate admission comitees likely to understand the "if you love it, let it go" flavor of my experience? Or will they dismiss my application thinking that they can't trust someone who has already quit once?

It may seem weird that I'm already thinking of coming back to academia while talking about quitting my PhD. The thing is that I have very little motivation to continue, and I feel like if I hang on, I will end up with a bad PhD after 5 miserable years. That's why I think of quitting. If after working in the industry I want to go back in academia, I think I will have a lot more motivation, knowing that there are no alternatives.

Congratulations!

Thinking of quitting or moving elsewhere is one of the important milestones in graduate studies.

We can't answer your question, as it depends on lots of personal and local particularities that we can't possibly know about. But one thing I can tell you: Don't take the decision lightly. Studies, particularly graduate studies, tend to stress you out, decisions taken under stress are very often regretted later. Wait until you have had some time to really relax (i.e., near ending term break, after taking holidays). Treat it as you would any other project evaluation (you had a class on that somewhere, right?): Set up your evaluation criteria, how to measure them (be it estimated time to graduation in years or personal satisfaction in a scale from 1 to 5), and define some weight for each. Then write down your value for each, and compare.

Never underestimate discussing this with your significant other, family, friends (on and off school), or even your advisor or other faculty.


How to search for articles citing a certain combination of papers? It is often the case that the proposal of a specific idea or approach to a problem (or whole field of research)  triggers a sequel of papers discussing and extending this idea. In this sequel there are papers (probably two or three) that are established as "basic", as points of reference. Each one of them may be usefull in more than one directions of research. However  the  whole set of "basic" papers is characteristic of the discussion.

In this perspective the most efficient way to follow an approach or school of research is to search for articles that cite these (two or three) "basic" papers.

However, according to this question this option is not available, but one has to write some Python code.

That was a year ago.

Is there any new  user-friendly alternative?

Do a search in proper websites, like Science direct. Also, have a look at the ranking of the journal the article was published in.


Why not asking about updates of search process I have a campus visit two weeks ago. The search committee chair told me that if I got a positive feedback, they will contact me, otherwise they will contact me after three weeks and half ( I assumed that I may be the second choice). I read many answers that suggest not contacting the search committee about their decision, but I still don’t know why most answers recommend not contacting the committee. Actually, I will defend my thesis sooner and I am worried and over thinking too much so I want to know a decision. So, I want to email the search committee chair about decision or any updates, just to stop thinking, is it ok to do so or it will hurt my application?

I think there are only two cases where you should follow-up with the search committee:

The time by which they said they would get back to you has passed.
You have another opportunity that requires a time-sensitive response.

A while ago I read some good advice (somewhere on this site) about how to deal with the waiting period after a tenure-track interview:

  As soon as you're done with the interview & visit, thank everyone who you've met, and then immediately move on with your life under the assumption that you did not get the job, i.e., search for the next opportunities, etc.


What is the academic argument against Sci-Hub? I know that some consider certain activities of Sci-hub to violate the law in some jurisdictions. Many of the previous questions and opinions related to Sci-hub have focused on these legal aspects (and they are certainly important to consider).

However, I am wondering what are the main harms or downsides associated with the existence of Sci-hub and similar services from the perspective of academics, researchers, and students. I am asking because this topic is relatively new to me, and I would like to better understand the main cons of Sci-hub as perceived by fellow academics (as opposed to publishers or lawyers).

What is the academic argument against Sci-Hub?

There are none.  The arguments against sci-hub are legal or economic.  Copyright is a legal right, not a moral or intellectual right.

You could argue that repositories like ArXiv or open access journals are better than sci-hub because they are more reliable.  But that is not an argument against sci-hub.


Increasing the chance of being accepted by keeping a Ph.D. Co-Author As a final year student (B.Sc.) I wrote a paper, but didn't keep my supervisor as co-author since he hadn't contributed at all (in research and paper-writing). I am about to submit my paper to a journal(single-blind peer review).

Does the chance of being accepted a paper to a journal increase if one of the Co-Author is Ph.D./Professor ?

Should one keep his thesis supervisor as co-author for above?

I mean, is there a chance that the reviewer will consider my paper a bit differently/lightly/neglectfully ?

Does the chance of being accepted a paper to a journal increase if one of the Co-Author is Ph.D./Professor ?

No, not under normal circumstances. Some reviewers may like a paper just because one of the authors is a great guy, or the paper is coming from a great institute - and a reviewer might suggest to accept a paper even if he doesn't understand it - but this should not be the rule.

  Should one keep his thesis supervisor as co-author for above?

No, one should only keep authors that deserve authorship. There are likely reasons why you should have your supervisor as co-author on the paper. He might have helped you in other ways, and this way, made a significant contribution to your work (discussions for example). However, you should not add someone as author to please them, to make a better impression, or anything else.

  I mean, is there a chance that the reviewer will consider my paper a bit differently/lightly/neglectfully ?

No (except in cases described under the first question). However, it is not unlikely that you - as bachelor student - don't have the experience and overview of the field, the methods, and the art of paper-writing, to create a publishable paper on your own. If you do - congrats.

I would suggest you

think carefully about if your supervisor didn't contribute after all, and
discuss the matter with your supervisor.

He might not even want to be on your paper (because he didn't contribute, or because he thinks it's not good enough). If he does want to be on your paper, but you don't agree with his arguments, you might want to come back here and check other, related questions, for example this one: Should you include your main supervisor as a co-author?


Is mentioning submission rejections in SOP wise? I kind of want to mention in my SOP that I have been through rejections many times so as to hint the reader that I have a more mature mentality to persevere when I am a professional researcher. But, a question that naturally follows is: Would this act instead backfire?

I doubt the signal you will convey is that you persevere through your mature mentality but rather that you may lack the skills to perform science or write acceptable manuscripts of sufficient quality. This said without intending anything personal since only you know the reasons for the rejections.

Given that rejection rates in journals are generally high, 50% is not uncommon and higher rates exist, everyone has papers rejected for one or another reason. That said, however, repeated rejections signals something is wrong, in the most positive light it could mean your research is novel and have difficulties being accepted by the community (the problem is then the community or how you try to communicate) but as stated first, the most common reason is that there is some deficiency in either the research or the reporting (most often) of the research and this is most likely what people will pick up upon.

As a final note, rejections can be something positive if you learn from them to improve later manuscripts. To use them as a learning experience is therefore the best way to use them.


Is there anything I can do about shockingly poor quality course materials? I'm currently 2/3 of the way through a degree program, and am continually shocked and dismayed for what my school is passing off as higher learning.

The books, which are almost all made in house, are full of typos and basic factual errors.
Professors are late to chats and routinely do not respond to emails, requiring calls to advising and involving people in the chain above them to get basic information such as new class times, or asking that a paper I turned in on time be graded.
Poor IT infrastructure leading to bad grades (submitted assignments disappearing after the cut-off time, making it appear as if I never submitted anything, leading to me getting a zero grade), recorded lectures having no audio, and e-readers returning license errors
An automated testing system which is full of factual errors and ambiguous language leading to it being impossible to answer some questions by anything other than luck. Gods help you trying to determine the exact wording they want in the fill-in-the-blank answers. Humans are not involved in this system, it's all automated string matching.
Generally nonchallenging and inappropriate for level material, including a 202-level math course covering grade school word problems, and a computer security engineering course covering basic computer literacy.

I've reported all of these issues as far up the chain as I know how to do, yet nothing is getting done. Given the quantity of money I'm paying these clowns, I'd imagine that I have some kind of rights.

Is there anything I can do other than grin, deal with it, and come out with a degree I'm not going to be proud to have? At this point, I just want my money back and the opportunity to go to a school where I'm actually learning things, rather than repeating pre-HS.

You mentioned that the college is accredited.  You might want to contact the accrediting body (it's usually regional, like SACS and NEACS) and alert them to what's going on here.  I'm very sorry to hear you're having such a poor experience with this distance learning program.  It's possible that it's vastly inferior to the school's on-site program, although given the overall bad impression I'm getting of the institution from your question, maybe not.  But yes, it's time to complain to an outside agency.

As for how to salvage your education, I don't think transferring credits is a bad idea.  Yes, your learning suffered, but I'm guessing you're not made of money and you want to be able to get through this degree without mortgaging a child to do it.  You need to transfer into a legitimate program as soon as you can, without waiting for the complaint process to resolve.  But I would still get in touch with the accrediting body.  This is the sort of thing they need to know about.


Photoshopping label onto graph For a project, I noticed really around an hour or so before my deadline was due that some of my graphs lacked units when I labeled the axes. In the interest of time, I decided to add units to the plots manually using photoshop. The deadline has now passed, and I’m worried if this is considered academic misconduct or something. The data I used complies with the labels I gave the graphs manually, and I haven’t done anything to change my data in any way with the image editing program other than to simply add the units of some of the labels. The only thing I’ve done is to write the axes labels myself instead of telling Python to.

I can’t find any policy on this on my university website. Should I be worried? Could this be considered falsification of data or some other form of academic misconduct), even if the units I’m adding are literally the appropriate units?

My interpretation of the question is:

  I was told it is unethical to photoshop my data.  Is it ethical to use Photoshop software to make a graph?

The choice of software used is completely irrelevant to the ethics of any scientific image.  You can use python, Photoshop, or crayon.  If the image is drawn correctly, it is okay.

If the contents of the image is false, that is never okay.  It is much worse if it is deliberately false.  When people say it is unethical to photoshop, they mean that it is unethical to lie.  They do not mean you cannot make truthful images using the Photoshop brand software.


In what countries/programs is a graduate student bonus common? I just learned from this question My professor skipped me on Christmas bonus payment that in some cultures/degree-programs, PhD students get bonuses.
I had never heard of this. However, I'm most familiar only with natural science PhD programs in the US.
What countries/cultures and programs are bonuses common?
How big do these bonuses tend to be compared to salary? (if there's a rule of thumb, or commonly the result of a collective bargaining agreement as stated in one of the comments to the above question)

I do not know how common it is but I remember Germany Ph.D students get Christmas bonus. See this link.
When I was doing my doctorate in USA, I remember my colleague from Germany asking my research advisor for a Christmas bonus. He laughed, then figured out it was customary in Germany and then gave him a tie.


What circumstances could justify getting an extension on graduate admission offer deadline? A large number of US schools I applied to have put me on their waitlist, and since I also applied to a few programs in other Europe that release their decisions later, I still need more time to make my decision. (Especially because I've been put on the waitlist for the best graduate school in the world (or at least US) in my field, so it would be painful to accept a different offer, and then receive an offer from them that I cannot accept!)

I started receiving offers just this week, which is only a few days to the April 15th deadline, and I have at most 2 weeks to decide. That being said, I understand that there are other people on the waitlist, and I think the grad schools may say it's not possible to get an extension. But another problem I have for making the decision, is that I'm in a super-stressful situation for my finals now, and with all grad school stuff, the psychological pressure is high and I really believe I might make a bad decision in this situation.

Is that (the stress and pressure) a good reason to ask for at least a few days more time for making the decision (so I'll be done with my exams and have a couple of days to make decision in a more relaxed condition), or is that too personal to explain to grad school and not acceptable?

Most of your colleagues are going through stressful scenarios right now as well, finishing up exams, projects, term papers, and the other parts of their undergraduate careers as well. So it’s unlikely that you’d get an extension just because of deadlines.

If you had extreme extenuating circumstances—personal illness, family issues, or other events—you could make a request that is more likely to be accepted. But in general, there’s not much you can do.


What counts as an academic affiliation for arXiv? Is it just being enrolled at a university with a recognized school email address?

arXiv states (step 2 of registration):

  Claimed affiliation should be current in the conventional sense: e.g., physical presence, funding, email address, mention on institutional web pages, etc.

arXiv's notion of conventional sense seems peculiar. They omit perhaps the most common conventional notion of affiliation: employee. Other common notions -- e.g., those involving some written agreement -- are also omitted. (Perhaps arXiv want ties beyond employment or perhaps this was an oversight.)


How to cite a chapter from a report with different authors? I have to cite a multi-chapter report. Every chapter has different authors. Should I cite with the name of the main author and then the specific chapter? Or should I use the first author of the chapter I am citing?

If the main author is Smith but Jeff is the author of a chapter where Smith is not in the authors’ list, should I cite with “(Smith et. al 2000, Ch 6)” or “(Jeff et. al 2000)” and then add a citation for each chapter in the cited literature section?

If authors are identified for the chapters, then this document is best treated as an edited collection. In this case, the chapter authors are the author and the chapter title the title. The overall report title is then the collection title (filling a similar role to journal title) and the "main" authors the editors.

The exact details of how this is formatted depend on the style where you are submitting, but if any names are appearing in the main text, they are of the chapter authors.


Can I research and publish in my Masters field when my PhD is in an unrelated field? I have a PhD in Business with an emphasis in Political Marketing and a Masters in Linguistics.

Now due to some personal and life circumstances, I would like to start collaborating in research about Linguistics and second language acquisition.

My question is, can I initiate or collaborate on research and publish my work in a completely different field than my PhD?

If you can perform some research and write it up with the result that a journal wants to publish it, then it doesn't matter what qualifications you have, if any at all! Many journals do blind reviews which means their reviewers don't know the qualifications of any of the papers they review.


Central Publication Repository I was wondering if there is a  central or an updated repository of various university publications (like ieee, but a bit more updated). I am using a university network, and I should have access to most of them.

Thanks

Not Quite an Outsider has given the definitive answer in a comment. But answers belong as answers, not as comments, so I'll reproduce it here:

  "No, not really." Consult your librarian for details.

There is no single definitive store. There are several authoritative stores, and then a few that are broader but contain a lot of junk too, like Google Scholar. Part of being a post-graduate researcher is acquiring (if you haven't already), these skills & knowledge of the whens, wheres, whats, whys, and hows of search.

Work with your supervisors and fellow students to develop your own search skills.

And talk to your librarians. Seriously.


With regards to undergraduate theses, what level of knowledge should one assume the reader to have? This question is piggybacking on this old post because there doesn't seem to be a question for the undergraduate level.

Should the aim of the undergraduate thesis be different than the PhD thesis? Specifically, should it be more accessible to the average reader? At the end of the day, I share the same concerns as the PhD student from the other question:

  I don't want to look lazy by not including material, but at the same time I don't want to waffle on.

My rule of thumb -- whether for Bachelor, Master, or PhD theses -- is to assume precisely the level of knowledge the student had when starting to work on this topic. (I.e., "How would you like to have had this explained to you?")


Acknowleding referee suggestions after rejection I submitted a paper to a conference, it got rejected but I received valuable feedback. After implementing the suggested changes, I am submitting the manuscript to a different conference but I would like to thank the referees from the previous conference.

If I just write "We thank the reviewers for their invaluable suggestions" then it might be confusing for the referees of the current (second) conference.

What are you doing in such a situation?

How about:

  We would like to thank X and Y for their review of a previous version of this manuscript


What is the real benefit of tenured positions for universities? People are interested in tenured positions to have a secured job, as they do not need to worry about their contracts. Tenured position gives a professor security that s/he cannot get fired easily (e.g., simply not renewing his/her contract). But, what is the actual obligation for the professors? In return, what is the motivation for a university to offer tenured position, which is accompanied by less flexibility from HR point of view.

Apparently, tenure is just for the sake of academic freedom, and has no real benefit for the institution, except a one-way service to professors (probably satisfying more applicants). Am I right? Then, a university must prefer not to offer tenured positions at all, as HR has more freedom with non-tenured positions.

Institutions offer tenure, not (just) because of high-minded abstractions like "academic freedom", but because it makes good business sense.  The benefit of tenure to the institution follows from the benefit to the individual:

From the faculty member's perspective, tenure makes it possible to pursue high-risk/high-impact research ideas without having to worry about having to keep short-term bean-counters happy.
This makes institutions that offer tenure more attractive to strong researchers because those researchers want an environment that best supports their ability to pursue their research ideas.
Such researchers, in turn, are very often also the ones who bring in the big grants.  Their high visibility also enhances the reputation of the institution, which attracts more students and alumni donations, etc. etc.

For these reasons, given two otherwise-identical institutions where one offered tenure and the other didn't, the one without tenure would find itself at a significant competitive disadvantage.


How to prove that papers were presented when conference programs are not in English? In preparing my application to PhD programs I have the following question:

I have presented papers in two distinct large-scale local conferences. However, I am not sure how to list these on my CV in a verifiable way, since the conferences' websites and programs are not in English.

For journal papers I can simply provide the corresponding links, while for conference papers I have not come up with something helpful.

The difficulty thus lies in: How to convince the reader of my vita that these papers are conference papers?

Not everything on your CV needs to be verifiable via an Internet link.

I have many items on my CV that would require some interaction with a human to verify: degrees I've earned, summer research students I've mentored, seminar talks I've given, classes I've taught, etc.

As long as you can, on demand, provide contact information for someone who can confirm your presentation (e.g. conference organizer), I don't see why this is a concern.

If you want to provide a link to the non-English conference program, go ahead; someone who is sufficiently motivated can surely get it translated.

(I'm sure this goes without saying, but since I've seen a shocking number of CVs that say "Presented at Conference X" without further information I'll say it anyways: you must include the full details of each presentation, including its title, co-authors if there were any, full name of conference, date, and city.)


Should I take a tutor job or a research job in a company before going to grad school? I have about one free year before I go to grad school and I would like to go to work. I live with my family (I'm Asian by the way) and so gaining experience is my priority, not salary. What job will help me maximize the skills that I would need during my grad school? I have two options below, but I'm open for any advise.
Tutoring
You know, in Sinosphere countries, there is a pressure to get to university, so high school students need to study at night in "academies" beside the daytime they study at schools. I will help the teachers there help them solving homeworks. This center is founded by a famous mathematician in my country and seems to operate pretty well (but I suspect no foreigner know since he has switched to teaching a long time ago). I confident in my ability of explaining. Here are the advantages to choose this job:

know how being a TA is like.
have to spend only 6 to 10 hours a week so that I can have time to search for professors.
I have an idea about running a science channel in YouTube, like Vsauce or Veritasium. This is because our country is lack of good material for study. Small part of this motive is for building my reputation. With teaching, I can prepare for some materials and have first audience to get their feedback. It may be unlikely to help me to get admission, but if I succeed, I can have some reputation in media. May I will need it in the future?

Data researcher
The second one is being a data researcher in a technology company. I'm not sure about the working time but I think it will like any other company. I have sent them an email explaining that my major is not data (I study physics) and I'm not a PhD either, but then they reply that I need to send them my CV first (I haven't because I'm in a middle of medical treatment, but it will be over soon). Does this indicate that I'm suitable for them? Here are the advantages to choose this job:

working in an English environment, in one of the world leading companies in its niche. Very good for my CV.
Have a chance to expertise a programming language (Python). I'm not sure if Python is the second language beside English in academia or not, but I have seen a lot of science programs written in Python. I need to code in grad school anyway.
Know what the outside world looks like.

I know that this question is lengthy, and I appreciate for your reading. Thank you in advance.

Personally I would choose the company position:

Prior experience in the private sector (outside of teaching) is a big advantage if you decide to look for a non-academic job later.
Python is a popular programming tool to use. Might as well learn now.
Data analysis is a big part of doing a physics PhD.
You will form better contacts (probably). Never underestimate the value of good connections.
You will get plenty of opportunity to do teaching later if you wish; and I do not really see what it adds to your position now. However, I never really saw the appeal of teaching, so perhaps my view is coloured.

A CV is just a way to get yourself an interview. It doesn't get you a job. Definitely send your CV in.


Should a teaching statement always be included in faculty job applications, even if not required? Should one always write a teaching statement when applying for faculty positions, even when not explicitly asked for in the job post?

If it depends on the field and/or type of university, please specify. If it matters, I'm applying to Physics departments in universities which primarily emphasize research, which already require (at least) a CV, research statement, cover letter, and letters of recommendation.

I don't think you need to include a teaching statement if one is not explicitly requested.  However, you should be very clear in your application materials about what courses you want to teach and/or are willing to teach.  That is usually the information we are looking for when we ask for that document.

Including a teaching statement when one is not requested is probably not going to be a negative (most applications we get have just been sent out in bulk, and many places require one) unless someone on the committee is exceptionally nit-picky.  But if that is the case, do you really want that person as a colleague?


Legal responsibility of a university for international students (Europe) I am a non-EU student in a European university that has international master and doctoral programs for foreign students.
I have found the university does not offer important forms in English that would also benefit international students (e.g., tuition fee reimbursement application form that describes various contexts sufficing such application). I wonder if there is any legal document describing responsibilities or duties of universities having international students.

There seems to be no legal basis, yet something similar could be found, sort of Code of Conduct originating from the website of Die Österreichische Universitätenkonferenz https://uniko.ac.at/index.php?lang=DE.
My university would be the example of a university that follows the guideline poorly.
For the whole document, please search GUIDELINES for Academic Studies of International Students at Austrian Universities.