How do I deal with my family which doesn't respect science and math while I am doing a double science and math major? How do I deal with two parents who don't see the utility of science and mathematics while pursuing an education in science and math (while depending on their income to fund my tuition?). They come from a blue-collar background and don't think learning arcane symbols has anything to do with innovation or make big bucks in today's world.

My parents wish for me to go off to the industry ASAP or do some freelance or make an app that get them rich quick. I want to pursuit further education beyond that of a bachelor degree.

In the summertime I am preparing for some course work for next semester, but they keep on telling me that I should sign up for some fitness class or make money. I appreciate their viewpoint, but I can't bring myself to balance between studying and concentrating on course work while doing things that are a waste of time.

What should I do?

There is one thing you should actually do: listen to them, even if just a bit.

Your parents are funding your education and are not entirely happy with what you do. They are also proposing to you to get a job during your breaks.
Try to do just that. To elaborate: I think there is a high chance that your parents will not be willing to help you later on (i.e. at M.Sc. level), thus you will need money.

Also, speaking from experience, the sports part is not to be underestimated. You do not have to be a pro-whatever, but going to the gym and keeping fit is certainly not going to hurt your brain.

Beyond this it is up to you to educate them. Look for statistics etc. which
show that having higher education is beneficial for a job and then make it understandable for your parents (basically it should be easy to imagine for them). The latter part is actually the hard part. It seems to me that your parents may have a warped understanding of how difficult it is to actually "get rich quick".

Do not think that trying to educate your parents will be a waste of your time. You might lose some study-time now, but if you are successful you stand to gain much more in the long run (i.e. tuition for masters) – do not underestimate this.


Academic value of patents versus published papers What is the general viewpoint held in academia regarding patents, as opposed to published papers? Are patents regarded as similar in credibility to papers?

As a software engineer returning to graduate study after a long professional career, I have collaborated with colleagues on a number of patents. But I do not have any published papers. Since I want to resume my academic pursuit, how important is publishing?

Patents and papers are not adversary in general. One can patent and then publish. And kill two birds with one stone. Both get public after independent examination. Each settles some ground, and both can be cited. Working on a useful patent is generally harder than on a useless paper. Both papers and patents can serve very different purposes.

I have been working in industrial research for 15 years. I have about the same number of patents and papers (altogether is compared to academia).

I have observed a shift in academia. It used to consider patents were useles. It now regards patents with a gentler look. The (bibliometric) value of a single patent can be estimated, on average, between half or twice the value of a single journal paper.

Whether your patent has generated money, been cited in other patents or papers, or proved a collaboration, those are figures you can claim as an innovative value.

Having no paper at all might be an issue though. It suggests that you have not passed peer review. For some, 7 patent + 1 paper is better than 8 patents.

If you can  convert part of your patents into papers, at least once, that could be a plus.


Do I cite the article or the article's sources? I am writing an article that is analysing an existing article, that only uses secondary research (research that wasn't conducted by myself - and that I'd obtained from this article). When citing this information in my essay do I cite the same article over and over again when talking about each piece of information? Or cite the article's bibliography? I am only obtaining information from this one article.

Cite the article(s) you use. If you need to talk about that article in terms of earlier ones, cite those.

An example. Suppose the article you are analyzing is "Smith". Then you cite Smith. But if you have to say somewhere that, for example "Smith was led to this conclusion from ... 'Jones'", where "Jones is in Smith's bibliography, then also cite Jones.

Otherwise you are sort of led to citing a chain of publications back to the foundations of the field. Very few papers require that sort of thing and they are very specialized.


Literature review and authorship Let's say a research assistant has provided help on conducting a literature review and that some of the references are eventually used in a published paper. Would the research assistant normally get some kind of acknowledgment or authorship if they did not contribute any written material?

I think you should definitely mention the research assistant in your acknowledgements, but not as an author. For such questions, I generally refer to the Vancouver Protocol, a widely used standard to determine appropriate authorship (search "Vancouver authorship" on the Web and you'll see that it is fairly well known):

  The ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria:

  Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
  Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
  Final approval of the version to be published; AND
  Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Furthermore,

  Contributors who meet fewer than all 4 of the above criteria for authorship should not be listed as authors, but they should be acknowledged.

So, according to these principles, the research assistant is not a coauthor, but ought to be acknowledged.

Also, please note that coauthorship is often considered an ethical issue (that is, it is considered unethical to include someone who does not merit authorship, or to exclude someone who does), whereas it is more of a professional courtesy to acknowledge someone's contributions (that is, it is nice and collegial to acknowledge someone, but it is not considered unethical not to do so).


Textbook that is a combination of other textbooks? A, B, C are three good textbooks from the market. An author/professor translates them, taking chapter 1 from A, 2 from B, 3 from C and combining them into another textbook. The content of the new textbook is literally taken from other sources, with simple editing (cut irrelevant part that they don't teach in their class even it's in the taken chapter).

My questions are:

What is the name of this kind of textbook?
If the author of the new book is the one who makes translation and edition, then is it ethical/legal? What is the name of this action?
If the reason given is "lacking of good resources" in the country, and A, B, C are cited as references, then is this action really bad? Is there any alternative way to do?

A publication that compiles parts of several other publications is sometimes called an anthology, at least when it is approved by the copyright holders of the publications that were used. If this is done without the copyright holders' approval, it could be called an illegal (or unsanctioned, or pirated) anthology.
No, it is not legal or ethical unless the "compiler" has obtained the permission of the copyright holders for the works that he/she has translated and compiled.
I can't evaluate how bad it is exactly from your description, but it is illegal, and as such, at least somewhat bad. Some alternatives are to use open-access teaching materials (as Daniel Collins suggested), to use a local library, to purchase cheap used editions of textbooks A, B, and C, and to contact the copyright holders and ask for their approval for this project on a charitable basis and for limited distribution to the professor's students.

Perhaps the first step I would suggest to this professor is to stop making rationalizations for why it is okay to violate copyright law. After this step, I suspect that several perfectly reasonable alternatives will naturally suggest themselves.


Is it ethical to accept masters admission from two different countries? I have obtained admission from a well reputed university X from lets say Country A, and I also accepted their offer. Now I have also applied to another university Y, from country B, but which still did not publish their admission decision. Now after a while I got an offer for admission from University Y and for some reason I want to switch from university X to university Y.

Do I need to tell university X that I am not interested in their decision? Is it even possible?

It does not matter whether the universities are in different countries, continents, cities, states, provinces or buildings. In accepting an offer of admission from one university, you have promised them something in return for that offer -- that you will go there and pursue a course of study. Since it is not possible for you to accept a second offer while still satisfying your promise to the first university, you are ethically bound to the first university, regardless of there being a second university that is also interested in you.

Consider the situation had the tables been turned -- a university seems to want you, and offers you admission and financial aid, which you accept. Then the university finds another candidate which it wants even more, and withdraws its promise. Would that be ethical? I have a hard time imagining that anyone would say that it is.

This does not mean that you have to silently accept the consequences of your decision to accept. You can very honestly inform them that you have a better competing offer which you would prefer, but you recognize that you have accepted the earlier offer which creates an obligation for you to perform. Still, you hope that the university / department would be willing to release you from the obligation, though you will make good on your promise if they will not do so.

EDIT: The below-mentioned CGS resolution is potentially relevant, in that the first university may have made an offer accompanied by such an "escape clause" (assuming it was an American university). But I assume that you have no knowledge of there being such a condition extended by the offering university, otherwise you would have mentioned it. The fundamental moral question that you need to resolve is whether you believe that your promise becomes null and void if you discover that the university had an limitation on the normal understanding on "acceptance". Unless at least one of the involved universities is a CGS institution, this resolution wouldn't really affect my ethical point.


Is getting admission as a foreigner to a PhD program through a position within a research project of a principal investigator mostly hopeless? There are generally two kinds of ways to get admitted to a PhD program in Europe or some other places—one is through a calling for PhD applications by a research institute, a university department or a research division therein consisting of researchers involved with closely related research topics, and another is through an opening of a position—which can be called PhD position, PhD scholarship, research assistant, or research associate as far as I have seen—within a research project of a principal investigator. The first usually administers once every a fixed short period, like a year, half a year or four months, usually has multiple positions and is flexible in research topics for PhD studies while the second only administers when an principal investigator gets the funding, usually only has one position each opening though it can occasionally have two, and the PhD research topic is confined to that project.

I have long heard that if one wants to pursue a PhD in Holland, they have to first look for a related job vacancy. I guess this means Holland mainly admits PhD students by the second way mentioned above. However, I also heard from activities regarding Studying in Holland in my country that it's almost impossible for a foreigner to win a PhD position through a job vacancy in Holland unless they have a network with related principal investigators in Holland, like they have pursued their MSc in Holland. I wonder whether this also applies to other countries, particularly in Europe, where a PhD position opening within a research project like a job vacancy, that is my aforementioned second way of admission, seems very common as a whole. I heard the reason that Holland rarely awards job-like PhD positions to networkless foreigners is that they don't have many vacancies of that sort and therefore they prioritize their compatriots. I wonder whether this is the same situation for other countries.

Most PhDs in the bio-molecular subjects in the UK are awarded through the "job-like" route (although that is changing in some places). For most of these the position will only be open to those that count as "Home" students. Until we leave the EU in October, that includes people from the UK or the EU (after that it will just be people from the EU).

The reason for this has nothing to do with already being part of a network etc, but simply because these positions might look like jobs, but they are not. They are usually government funded PhD scholarships (where the PI has been selected to stand proxy for the government in selecting the student). For better or worst (worst in my opinion) the government has decided that its job is to educate native students (and is forced to include European students by the EU).

However, such studentships will almost always state in the advert "Home/EU applicants only".


Can graphics created with Wolfram Mathematica be freely used and distributed? This is just a simple question. I would like to know if one can use graphics generated by Mathematica (for example, plots) in one's paper and then upload that paper anywhere on the internet.

I would also like to know if one can freely use and upload the graphics alone (for example, in PDF or JPG format) anywhere on the internet.

There is nothing wrong with making public an image created with Mathematica; that's the whole point of the software. The license restricts your rights regarding what you can do with the software package itself (no copying, reverse-engineering, selling, etc), but not the content you produce using the software. If that was the case, no one could use the software to do anything.

You may, however, be restricted by the journal to which you submitted your article. The publication holds all rights to your article, including the figures. You may retain some rights to using the images in your own work (e.g., presentations); you'd have to check with your specific journal.


"Dividing Points" among cheating students My AP Computer Science teacher has somewhat of a creative way to deal with students submitting apparently identical code. Instead of handing out lots of zeros, he divides the points by the number of cheaters, phrasing his system as "if you have the same answer, you deserve to split the credit." For example, a 5-person cheating ring on a 10-point project would yield 2 points per person (it rounds down to the best precision on odd splits).

Do you think this is ethical? Is this a wise way to deal with cheating?

On one hand, it is a lot softer than most policies. On the other, it is somewhat logical, and seems maybe fairer than the standard penalty system.

To add to the existing arguments:

The punishment for cheating should always be higher than the direct advantage gained from it. For example, if somebody cheats at one task in an exam, the penalty should not only be failing that task but at least the whole exam, if not much higher. The reason for this is simply that you cannot possibly detect all attempts at cheating and thus the punishment should aim at being sufficciently high to make the average outcome of cheating negative if the detection rate is taken into account.

Of course, it is quite difficult to even estimate the detection rates for cheating and thus to adjust the punishment accordingly, but the punishment you are describing is certainly too low.

This aspect is not only important for discouraging cheating, but also from an ethical point of view, as cheating should not yield an advantage over the honest student.


Practical aspects -- how to change subfields between PhD and postdoc? For the context of the question, I'm interested in switching between different areas of a field -- e.g. I did my PhD in biological physics mainly involving simulations on a specific biological system, and I am now interested in pursuing more theoretical work (e.g. applied mathematics) still in biological physics but potentially on a different system.

So theoretically I know there should be no problem and my PhD should have prepared me for any new learning I need to do to catch up, but practically I'm wondering if there are 'better' ways of addressing some issues:

Background knowledge: I have some theoretical background, but not the familiarity of having done theoretical work daily in the past years. I would also have some catching up to do (probably several books to get through before I would be comfortable). When would be the best time to do this catching up? If I do it after beginning a postdoc, my postdoc work will be delayed during this (probably months) of catch-up time. Should I take time off between my PhD and postdoc? However then I have to explain an awkward unemployed period on my CV, and additionally not having an institution affiliation would take away my access to journals/libraries.
Competitiveness as a candidate: If I were a PI, I would favour candidates who had demonstrated a capability in the field already. How can I demonstrate an ability to do theoretical work if it was not a large component of my PhD? One thought I had was to look within my own institution for a postdoc advisor since it might be easier to convince them, but I'm also aware that staying in the same institution for my postdoc could be a red flag later in my career.

Also welcome tips on how to prepare for such an anticipated switch, if I still have a few years left of my PhD.

When would be the best time to do this catching up? If I do it after beginning a postdoc, my postdoc work will be delayed during this (probably months) of catch-up time.

A piece of post-doc advice that has worked for me is to have your fingers in several pies. Build up some new expertise while working on some low-hanging fruits from your existing background that will lead to immediate results.

  If I were a PI, I would favour candidates who had demonstrated a capability in the field already. How can I demonstrate an ability to do theoretical work if it was not a large component of my PhD?

The qualities that advisors are looking for may vary significantly. If they are looking specifically for a candidate with a strong theoretical background, there's only so much you can do. Others will prioritize broader research skills, like

a strong ability to finish projects (which you can show by building an appropriate track record; so be sure to have your pending papers out before you apply), and
a strong ability to tell a good story (which you can show by being outstanding in your application materials and communication to them; basically, explain how you will help their team succeed based on your expertise).


Should I focus on GPA or publishing (undergraduate)? I have high GPA. However, I'm now in my last undergraduate year and I feel attracted to research and publishing research outputs. Should I go ahead with publishing my research? This may negatively affect my GPA a little bit and it takes from my time a lot.
Is it worth sacrificing a little GPA to publish as an undergraduate?

There is, unfortunately, no single answer to this question. In most fields undergraduate publication is uncommon enough that any publications look good. However, the amount of value added by publications compared to GPA will depend on a range of factors, including the following:

Area of study: Some disciplines may place a higher importance on social or community projects rather than publications, while others may prize GPA. You will need to determine how your discipline prioritizes these academic goals. Within my discipline (psychology) undergraduate publications can be helpful if applying to graduate school, but are not expected of incoming graduate students.

Intended career: Similarly, if you are entering an applied field once you graduate, they may be far more interested in other, more concrete forms of experience. Again, for someone pursuing a clinical career in psychology, publications (especially those that are clinically relevant) might be nice, but employers are more likely to be interested in clinical experience. If you are entering industry they may pay little attention to your GPA, assuming it hits a basic threshold. If you are intending to pursue an advanced degree publications may be more useful, but again this will depend on your discipline.

Amount your GPA will drop: If you have an excellent GPA and will be risking only a small drop (so that you would still consider your final GPA to be competitive), then it may be worth pursuing publication. Many graduate programs in the USA look for a basic cut off in GPA when considering admissions; that is, so long as it is "good enough" it is ok. However, what is considered "good enough" will vary by discipline and program. If you are risking a substantial drop in GPA, it may not be worth it. Be sure you have a sense of how low your grades could be while still maintaining what you consider to be an acceptable GPA. Then determine if you feel the burden of publishing will put you at risk of missing that mark.

Quality/timing/authorship of publications: The overall impact of your publications will influence how much "extra value" they add to your career or academic pursuits. Obviously, higher impact journals will look better than lower-tier. Beyond just having the publication on your CV, the quality of the work and your role in the work will also matter. Being involved with the development or conceptualization of the project will be more valuable in terms of experience than if you assist with data entry. That type of conceptual involvement will better enable you to discuss the project and its implications in job or graduate school interviews. Additionally, in some fields the order of authorship on papers is important and holding a valued authorship position (first, second, last, etc. depending on field) may be beneficial. In disciplines that do not assign weights to the order of authorship (e.g., mathematics), this is a non-issue.

Impact on your personal life: Finally, you will have to determine whether pursuing publications is worth the significant amount of time you believe it will take. Think about this carefully. If you begin to make some trade-offs with your GPA to pursue publishing, and then decide the work load is too much of a burden in other aspects of your life, it may be difficult to refocus on your grades.

If you are having difficulty evaluating these different factors, seek advice from a mentor, professor, or someone who is pursuing the career you are interested in. You may also be able to gather some information about how your field and possible career paths value these factors by looking at graduate program entrance requirements, job postings, and the publicly available resumes or CVs of people in your field.


Can RUI grants be transferred to research universities? Suppose a NSF RUI (research at undergraduate institute) proposal is funded. Can the funding be transferred to a research university if the PI move to that university?

Sometimes the funding can be moved. Specifically, both university need to approve the transfer.  The official program details note:

  (i) Policy. When a PI/PD plans to leave an organization during the course of a grant, the organization has the prerogative to nominate a substitute PI/PD or request that the grant be terminated and closed out. In those cases where the PI/PD's original and new organizations agree, NSF will facilitate a transfer of the grant and the assignment of remaining unobligated funds to the PI/PD's new organization. This should normally be done with a tripartite agreement (involving NSF, the PI/PD’s original organization and new organization), or by a subaward arrangement between the PI/PD's original and new organizations, subject to NSF's consent. (See Chapter VII.B.3)

There are other details on the NSF webpage as well. I would encourage you to read that page if you have an RUI grant and this situation applies to you.


Colleague gaining majority credit for largely my figures/analyses in their scientific poster A colleague in my lab, let's call him Jim, has recently presented a poster at two different conferences containing largely my figures and analyses. I had generated 4/5 of the figures, which had taken months of analyses and work. I was fully credited on the work and listed as second author, I was not asked if the figures could be used however. Moreover, it is difficult to see Jim's substantial original contribution in the experimental design or analysis of the presented work. Jim also went on to win a non-trivial monetary prize for the poster, which I also had no knowledge of until recently. Most of our lab's work is formed from a collaborative effort, which I fully accept. I do however think that when presenting a poster of a project, you should have a substantial hand in the experimental design or analysis (excepting of course if you are presenting on behalf of someone who couldn't make the conference).

We are working on the same project, Jim has generated the data and I have analysed it and the PI has lead the direction. Jim is an experimentalist and I work in informatics. Jim is working on more experiments using some of the insights that came from the analysis, which is all well and good. These experiments only have preliminary results, which is why I think he went with my figures, as I had generated a fair few in my analyses and sent them on to Jim and the PI. In terms of driving and shaping the analyses, they have largely been led by the PI and myself. Jim has assisted, however contribution to forming conclusions about the analyses, or guiding which figures to generate, his contribution was minimal. For the record we are equal way through our PhDs.

Once Jim's experiments start to gel I'm sure our contributions will start to diverge, however it bothers me I wasn't consulted about use of the figures. We are both final year students, and I don't see lack of results as an excuse at this point. Use of 1-2 figures I would have been indifferent about, but 4/5? The poster prize definitely didn't help the situation. I am worried about my figures being used in Jim's thesis without consent or comprising the majority of future posters, for which he'll get majority credit.

Any advice on best way to handle this? Talk with Jim directly? Go the PI? Go my advisory head (who is external to the lab)? Or is this just the nature of highly collaborative labs?

If this would have been a paper, Jim's doing would certainly have been unacceptable. As we are talking about a poster, I could imagine that Jim had no bad intentions. Given that you come from two different disciplines, you are probably not directly competing in terms of scientific merits, and you could both greatly profit from collaborating further in the future.

In the past I always tried to resolve these kinds of conflicts on the lowest level possible before escalating it to the professor / PI. This helps to keep the work environment poison-free and often resulted in surprising insights on both sides. More often than not people do not have bad intentions. Maybe he considers these figures as a team effort by the two of you. Maybe you are overreacting. In these cases a discussion from face to face often helps to sort things out.

I would probably talk with Jim and ask him why he did not ask for your permission to use your figures. Maybe also ask him how much, in his opinion, were your and his original contributions to the poster. If he considers your input as important, you could also argue that your contribution helped him to receive the price. I would certainly try to discuss the terms of your future collaboration.

Only if that discussion is not fruitful I would go to the PI and explain the situation.


Why is it that when I tell people outside my university that I'm a PhD student, I am sometimes told that I'm arrogant/privileged/ignorant? This did not occur before I started my PhD. It does not occur when I simply say I’m a graduate student. I only say this when people ask what I do as a living (I do not namedrop this).

This tends to occur when I vocalize a strong opinion or disagree with another person’s viewpoint. They might say "not everyone has a PhD like you".

Ever since I started my PhD some people keep pinning certain behaviors on me because I'm a PhD student, and therefore I must somehow be arrogant/entitled etc.

To be clear, this has only happened a very small number of times, so I suspect it is not because of my behavior.

This did not occur before I started my PhD. It does not occur when I simply say I’m a graduate student. I only say this when people ask what I do as a living (I do not namedrop this).

As others have commented already, it may just be that one meets nasty people every once in a while. However, it could also be a sign that people perceive you as giving yourself airs - e.g. because you [even unconsciously] put an emphasis on the PhD student rather than on your profession.

Side note: Personally, when people ask me what I do for my living, I say "I'm a chemist" (not PhD, nor postdoc - nor did I answer "PhD student"). People around me answer either by "I'm a PhD student at university/institute/in field" or by "profession" or by "profession and currently working on my PhD thesis", and what they answer is quite context dependent: meeting people outside academia, it tends to be "profession".

Assume you meet a carpenter who is journeyman (= holds a qualification to work in that profession).
Consider them answering "I'm journeyman" vs. "I'm carpenter" or even "I'm pursuing my master [craftsman]". At least to me the journeyman answer would sound decidedly weird, and while "I'm working at my master's" sounds less weird in English than in my mother tongue (because we have different words for the crafts master and the academic master) the expected answer would certainly be "carpenter" unless you are in a context where most people are carpenters. You could also say that the expected type of answer is the one that carries most information.

I think the appropriate answer is quite culture-dependent (and culture being even within vs. outside academia).

  This tends to occur when I vocalize a strong opinion or disagree with another person’s viewpoint. They might say "not everyone has a PhD like you".

Others have commented already that this may be an ad hominem attack (who you are rather than what your argument is worth) which tells more about the other than about you.
OTOH, it could also be that the others perceive you as trying to gain [unfairly] by putting weight on your being a PhD student and respond to this. (That would be the equivalent error from your side: again who you are rather than what arguments are worth).


Good idea to start PhD with a potentially obstructive medical condition? [EDIT] I have a medical condition, diagnosed after I received and accepted my PhD offer. I am wondering if i should defer or have the surgery in the middle of my program. [/EDIT]

The condition makes it difficult  for me to stand for long periods of time (due to vertebra slippage). I'm still able to function on my desk job. Taking classes should not be an issue. However, working in the lab (somewhat unavoidable in my field) might be challenging.

There is surgery to fix this issue, by fixing the vertebra. But that is not the first line of treatment and is used only if the problem gets worse.

I'm unsure if I should start the program and then take a quarter off for the surgery or wait for the surgery and then start my program. Your comments/ideas/advice on evaluating my situation are welcome.

P.S. It might be relevant, I am an international student accepted at a US university.

Part way through my PhD I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, requiring major surgery followed by chemotherapy. I went to one course unit for a quarter, so that I kept my connection to the department and parking pass, but was not expected to do much work.

I don't know whether the school where you will be doing your PhD will allow that sort of option.

I agree with the advice in comments to discuss with whichever professor is responsible for first quarter students.


Searching a pdf journal paper for mathematical symbols When skimming through a long mathematical paper (in pdf format), I often find a mathematical symbol (often in greek and with subscripts/superscripts) that was defined previously somewhere else within the paper.  Of course, it's not always easy to find where the parameter was defined, so I resort to using the FIND tool.  However, simply copy and pasting the symbol to the FIND tool doesn't seem to work well, since the symbol cannot be copied exactly.

Is there a better way to perform an automated search a PDF document for a particular mathematical symbol if I don't have the original latex file?  Especially ones with subscripts and superscripts?

This can be a tricky one, and you can sometimes have similar issues with accented and greek letters. If you cannot find words that have been hyphenated to break a line, in my experience this is reader-dependent and Adobe Reader has never given me problems.

Some PDFs just were not generated with the proper character mappings, so they will never be searchable with the affected characters. With regards to the format of superscripts and subscripts, the PDF will be searchable with them in the same format that they appear when you copy-paste out of the document. With other special characters, if you cannot copy-paste them, you cannot search for them.

If you urge everyone using LaTeX to do \usepackage{cmap}\usepackage[T1]{fontenc},  those packages should solve most problems. Notably, cmap makes math characters (such as the integral sign) searchable.

Unfortunately, as far as I know there is no way to "repair" a PDF that is not properly searchable, unless you re-create a fixed version from the source.


Can the authors grant the permission to reuse figures copyrighted by the publisher? I'm preparing a article for possible publication on the journal “Progress in Aerospace Sciences” (published by Elsevier).

I plan to reuse some figures cited from articles published and copyrighted by AIAA.

I tried the Copyright Clearance Center, but to be honest, I may not accept the price.

Thus, I'm trying to contact directly with the authors
(the lead author if no correspondence author is noted).

Can the authors grant me the permission?

No.

If the copyright in the articles lies with AIAA, then it is they who must license it, or parts of it.

You may be able to recreate a similar diagram, acknowledging the original one.

(I am not a lawyer.)


Which are the funding options for a Postdoc in Denmark? I am willing to apply for a position in Denmark at Copenhagen university. However, the putative PI told me that has no money to fund a postdoc position and recommended some fellowship options to apply. (Curie and Lundbeck). I come from Argentina and European calls are out of my range.

I would like to know if there are other options to obtain funding to do a postdoc in Denmark.

At DTU there are two postdoc programmes, Eurotech and H.C. Ørsted:

https://www.dtu.dk/english/research/research-at-dtu/postdoc-programmes/eurotech-cofund-postdoc
https://www.dtu.dk/english/research/research-at-dtu/postdoc-programmes/h-c-oersted-cofund-postdoc

More generally you might want to search for postdoc programmes specific to the university you would like to go to. Also ask your contact at the university for guidelines.

Last year the funding opportunities from Danish institute for independent research were mostly targeted at more established researchers, but maybe still worth checking out: https://dff.dk/en/application/overview-of-instruments

I do not recall Denmark having plenty of general postdoc funding opportunities. Life sciences might be more generous than other fields. You will not know if the European ones are out of your league without trying.


Is it necessary to write "United States of America" in bibliographies when describing the place of publication? I'm from the UK, and currently writing my dissertation. I'm citing several sources from publishers in the USA, and am unsure what the best practice is for writing the place of publication. The publisher is based in Hoboken, New Jersey. I could write it in any number of ways:

Duanmu, S. (2011) ‘Chinese Syllable Structure’, In: van Oostendorp, M. and others (eds.) The Blackwell Companion to Phonology. Hoboken, New Jersey, United States of America: 1-24
Duanmu, S. (2011) ‘Chinese Syllable Structure’, In: van Oostendorp, M. and others (eds.) The Blackwell Companion to Phonology. Hoboken, New Jersey, United States: 1-24
Duanmu, S. (2011) ‘Chinese Syllable Structure’, In: van Oostendorp, M. and others (eds.) The Blackwell Companion to Phonology. Hoboken, New Jersey: 1-24
Duanmu, S. (2011) ‘Chinese Syllable Structure’, In: van Oostendorp, M. and others (eds.) The Blackwell Companion to Phonology. Hoboken, NJ, USA: 1-24

I don't think I can simply write New Jersey or NJ, as I've cited another publisher from Norwood NJ. I'm not sure whether it's necessary to write "United States of America" in any form, as to me, New Jersey is unambiguously a US state (just as I wouldn't need to clarify that London or Oxford was in England). But given that I'm not in the US, is it better to do so? And if so, which form is it best to write it in?
I can't refer to my reference guide for help, as we use the unhelpfully inconsistent MHRA Author-Date system, which varies between just about every resource.

It's a good idea to take a step back here, and think about what the purpose of the bibliography is. Ultimately, it is supposed to allow a reader to unambiguously determine what publication is being cited, and further to help them get a copy of the publication.

In order to achieve this goal, I'd argue that specifying the location of a publisher is in most cases an anachronism. Given there is only a single 'Blackwell Companion to Phonology', which I can find in seconds with a web search, I don't really need to know that the publisher is located in New Jersey. We only still do it out of tradition. Incidentally, a far better way of unambiguously referencing a book is to state its ISBN.

However, bibliography styles may require that we include a location. In your case, you are unable to find a single 'correct' way of stating location for your bibliography style. So I would say, do whatever you want. Frankly, even if one of these is 'correct' under your bibliography style, I doubt anyone would notice, and if they did notice, I doubt that they would care. My personal preference would be towards brevity (e.g. Hoboken, NJ, USA).


Bullying at a previous affiliation, but now moved on. What to do? This question is a personal one. I feel like going in circles inside my mind, so I might as well formulate it here for my peace of mind. Apologies if it is not in the right format, or if it does create discussion rather than precise answers.
Academia is rife with bullying, and there is little doubt about that. I have been to counseling to deal with the effects of the lowest self esteem that I found myself in, during my previous job. I couldn't be promoted, I was actively avoided by the colleagues in my research group and my (many) requests for collaboration shunted. Counselling helped a lot, and it made me stronger and more resilient. I found a better job, including the promotion I was after, and now I am well respected and have a group that I can call 'home'.
I was recently called on a duty by a former colleague (nothing fancy, just reviewing some papers for them), and I was tempted to spill all the beans, an aggressive reply and Close the door to the past. I slept on it, and the morning after I accepted the duty. Now I finally realised that the grand scheme of things was for this same colleague to boot everybody else, and become head of the group there, with only lower ranking colleagues around.
So people, what to do... a bloody (well, relatively speaking) revenge that lasts a second but cleanses my soul, or a forgive&forget attitude, swearing not to become the same despicable bully myself?

Regardless of what labels are applied to the situation, it sounds like you left to get away from these people. Continuing to engage with them seems like it will undermine that plan and keep you involved (at least mentally) in a situation that's not doing you any good. I think I'd suggest at least contemplating the idea of cutting the cord.
There's no need to choose between taking revenge or forgiving and forgetting. The better option is to just accept that you no longer work with them, and that they're no longer a part of your life, and get back to living for youself. Trying to decide between revenge and forgiveness is (a) just your brain trying to keep you psychologically involved in a situation that ought to no longer concern you, and (b) a waste of valuable time in your new life.
TL;DR: In the kindest possible way, try not to let your brain get in the way of your new happiness, and move on.
p.s. To be specific, if they ask you to do any further reviews, a polite 'sorry, I don't have time right now' is more than enough.


Statement of Purpose (MS/MA vs PhD) Is there any fundamental difference between a statement of purpose for a masters and a PhD?

In particular, I am talking about North American graduate schools and in the fields like mathematics and science where there is a high degree of technical knowledge. This means that there may be quite a significant difference in the level of maturity when comparing a potential master's student and a potential PhD student

For instance, it may be more understandable for a student applying for a master's to have a less extensive research experience than someone who is applying for a PhD. But on the other hand, it also seems to make sense that the committee for graduate applications would be the same and it may be difficult to actually distinguish the difference.

My question stems from the fact that I don't seem to see any examples of statement of purposes that explicitly mentions that they are applying for a masters.

I would be thankful for any insights.

Actually your Statement of Purpose should talk about your purpose in seeking the degree. Often the purpose of seeking a Master's is different from that of a potential doctoral application. Sometimes one seeking an MS doesn't intend to go further and apply the knowledge in industry. Sometimes the real purpose is just a stepping stone to a PhD.

State your purpose honestly. What are your real goals. It isn't normal in North America to have a lot of research experience at the end of a BS. Whether it is at the end of an MS depends on the field and the university. A terminal MS may not include a lot of research either, as the purpose is different. But one leading to later doctoral study will probably get you started in doing research.

Also, in North America, in many (most?) fields, you can apply directly to a doctoral program with a BS/BA. The term of study will be longer than if you already have an MS, but you can be accepted. The MS may come along more or less automatically as you progress, perhaps with a required MS Thesis.

But in any case, the SOP should state what your goals are no matter the degree you seek. It is even acceptable at that stage to be somewhat tentative about your goals, provided that your background and work ethic is good. You don't have to decide for the rest of your life when you are only about twenty years old.

It isn't the degree that determines what is appropriate. It is your own goals as you see them and want to work towards them.


Can a paper be rejected for only detailing an algorithm mathematically and not programmatically (via pseudocode)? Imagine you are a peer reviewer presented with a paper that states an algorithm was implemented in python to test an analytical process on large datasets. The details of how the algorithmic process are detailed extensively via mathematical denotation and formulas, but no actual pseudocode or programming examples are shown. Would you consider the paper to be incomplete, or would the mathematical examples suffice (provided they are robust enough and don't withhold any information whatsoever)?

In theoretical computer science (I cannot speak for other fields) it is very common not to give pseudocode, but only a high-level description of the algorithm. Your paper should always explain your ideas as clearly as possible, and as an author it is your job to select the most suitable presentation. This does not necessarily need to be pseudocode. Painstakingly presenting every little implementation detail may not add much to the paper and instead distract the reader. If you think foregoing pseudocode results in a better paper, by all means do so (unless the journal you are submitting to specifically requires it).
If your paper presents an implementation in Python, I would expect the source code to be publicly available somewhere and referenced in the paper.


Who do I ask for a letter of recommendation if my advisor and I do not get along? My relationship with my advisor did not end the best. He took months and months to get me my thesis edits (I am currently finishing my 5th year as a Master's student because of this), and I ended up having to involve the department chair and dean to get a response. I was also made the leader of our project after other students graduated or left with little to no guidance, so there were many mistakes on my part because I didn't know what I was doing and he wouldn't help me, but got upset when I asked other faculty for help.

Last time I asked him for a letter of recommendation he took so long to respond to me (despite me asking/reminding him about it daily) that the job closed and a person was hired before he even got to it. I don't feel that I can ask other faculty members because he would find out and get mad at me for not asking him, whether he would write me a letter or not.

I am looking at potentially getting a Ph.D., but they typically want 2-3 letters of recommendation. I am not sure who to ask at this point. I know I could have done better, and I have good relationships with other professors, but I feel that I can't ask anyone at this point and I am struggling to get a job that isn't seasonal/temporary.

Does anyone have any advise or suggestions that could potentially help me?

[deleted my first response as I entirely missed the point of your question]

I think other professors with whom you have worked are the right place to go.  As for hurting the feelings of your previous professor, based on your story of the delayed last letter, I would read that to be that he is unhelpful and wants to put distance between you two.  I doubt very much that he will ever know if you have another professor write you a letter, let alone feel bad about you asking another professor and not him.


How shall I report my education and calculate my GPA? I studied in program A, and received a master degree in A, and at the same time received a master degree in another program B by taking a certain number of courses and doing a thesis. Then I continued to study for a PhD degree in program B, but without finishing it.

In my resume for either graduate school application or job hunting,

How shall I report my education?

First master study in the two programs, and then PhD study in program B, or
master study in program A, and graduate study in program B receiving my master in B but not finishing PhD study in B.

I was wondering how to report my GPAs for my studies in program A and B?
In particular,

for my master studies, can I calculate my GPA for program A using all courses I took, and my GPA for program B using only the courses that I used to meet the master degree in B?
for my PhD study in program B, shall I calculate my GPA by including those courses that I took to meet the master degree in B or not?

How much flexibility do I have to calculate my GPAs? My university doesn't calculate GPAs for graduate students.

Since your university does not calculate your GPA, you should also not calculate a GPA unless you are told to. Most people do not care about your GPA from graduate level programs. As for reporting the PhD work, it really depends on what you did. Assuming you passed all the university requirements to be actually a PhD student, some universities require you to pass qualifying exams before you are actually a PhD student, you can list the PhD if you want. If you always intended to take the Masters and quit, you don't have to list the PhD if you do not want to.


How to approach PhD admissions after leaving previous PhD because my advisor tried to force me to manipulate data I started my PhD in one of the very well renowned institutes in Germany.
Unfortunately, in the middle I was forced very much to manipulate the data. I was extremely upset and did not know what to do. My supervisor has enormous amount of grants and he was very ambitious to prove all his hypotheses correct and he had to show the data to the grant givers as well. He starts forcing the PhD students in the middle of their PhD so that they can't leave. And he also doesnot allow somebody to simply graduate without publishing the manipuated data. So even for degree one has to publish that and afterwards if that person gets caught then the phd degree is gone and then the people would say that he/she should have reported the case when he/she was forced. It is a circular process , once you enter it is hard to get out.

I went to the University Higher Authority and told them indirectly(not very bluntly but slightly) about this problem. They gave me the feelings that they were helping me but it was actually leaked to my supervisor. He made my life even more difficult and finally I had to leave my Phd at the end of third year. I had three path: 1) to continue with dishonesty 2) To give him a full fight 3) To simply leave him. I chose the last option.

Afterwards, I started applying again to different places and everywhere I was asked that why I left my position. Initially , I told to the places I was called for an interview that I was not motivated in the project (without talking anything negative about my prveious lab) but this answer was not very well- accepted. Then, in one of the places I tried to tell about the real problem what I faced and I was given the feeling of committing a' grave crime of 7 murder cases' by one of the members of the Graduate School Selection Committee. I seriously felt like that after talking to them that leaving a PhD in between is a CRIME.

I am still applying to different places , it is almost going to be a year and now I am in real conflict that what is wrong and right? I left my Phd  for not compromising with ethics of science and after leaving it people are giving me the feeling that not finishing my Phd is wrong.

1)I would like to ask you that what should I do and in what way I should approach other supervisors at this situation for a Phd position? Or I have to simple leave academics? Although I do not want to leave it because I have not done anything wrong or violated science ethics. Kindly help me and provide your suggestions.

P.S. My previous supervisor is not also giving any good recommendation so that is another big problem.

You can tell the committee that you and the PI were not a good fit. That you tried to make it work for a while, but, as you reached a stage where you were ready for more research independence, it became increasingly clear that your two research styles were incompatible. For example, you had differences in opinion on which data were trustworthy enough to merit a publication. After a number of attempts to reach a common ground, you concluded that the best course of action is to start another PhD elsewhere. You are sad that you have lost some time, but overall, you were doing research and that's what matters, and you don't mind putting in a few extra years if that means you can do what you love.


A MD-PhD in Oncology I am about to finish my Bachelor Degree in Computer Engineering and Computational Biology, and planning to apply for a MD-PhD with focus on oncology. After talking to my academic advisers, I had very bad impressions about MD-PhD Program ("such a waste of time", "please just focus on one thing at the time"). However, it seems that such critiques are targeting the general approach of MD-PhD programs, and I still think that for the case of cancer research, it would benefit me a lot to gain the experiences in both.

To that extent, I have one question with two sides: Does earning an MD help improve my research as a PhD (for example, identify more significant and meaningful problems), and does earning a PhD side help me become a more skilled practicing oncologist?

Since you indicated that you are focusing on oncology, it seems likely that a PhD will enhance your oncology practice. This thread on The Student Doctor Network explores the pros and cons of an MD-PhD in Radiation Oncology. The general consensus is that it is worthwhile if you plan to be active in research as an MD, otherwise it may be a waste of time, money, and energy.

As Shion mentioned in a comment, most MD-PhD's become medical research professors, while it sounds as though you will be in active medical practice. There is a possibility that having a PhD may exclude you from consideration by the hiring boards at non-research-focused institutions. At research-intensive insitutions, the PhD will probably help your case, and certainly can't hurt. It appears that many practicing physicians at top US cancer centers are MD-PhD's. See here, here, and here.


Length of a Dissertation Summary for a Postdoc job For a job application I am currently putting together, they request a document of Dissertation Summary and Other Recent Scholarly Endeavors where I need to, of course, "Summarize your dissertation and other recent scholarly endeavors."

The application page says this is to be a maximum length of 3 pages (excluding references). However, much of what I am finding online says that dissertation summaries should be pretty brief.

What is the typical length of a dissertation summary?

Why does typical matter? You have three pages. You may need it or not.

Don't say more than you need to, but give an explanation that the readers can relate to.

My dissertation, which was very involved and quite long could be described (to an expert) in a couple of paragraphs - and they would have been impressed. But other topics would take more explanation than mine did in mathematics.

But, as they imply you may have more to say about other recent scholarly matters - work in progress, for example.


How to Estimate Times for Projects in a Programming Workshop? I am going to be teaching a workshop on Julia for data science and scientific computing soon. I came up with a plan that has a lot more than we will be able to do (just in case), but was wondering about how to come up with a good estimate for how far along we will get. I find this hard to estimate since for most of the assignments I could do them really quickly, but that's because I am experience in the language and the biggest hurdle will be learning the documentation, syntax, and all the special issues of a new language.

That said, do you have any good heuristics for how long projects will take in a workshop? It's hard to know the exact number of students right now, but I think it will be anywhere from 10~30, and I'd assume more students would make it go slower. I thought of doing something like "this takes me 5 minutes, so plan 20 minutes", but the number 20 has no basis in reality because I have never done this.

Test drive

Grab a couple of local students of comparable level and have them do the assignments.

Your own speed is not indicative - something that takes you five minutes may take ten minutes or may be incomplete after an hour; only practical experience can show how it will turn out.

In addition, usually setting up a working development environment can be a major time sink - if people use their own hardware and various operating systems, then some of them can waste a lot of time until they are able to run a 'hello world' program; you should have a clear plan on how you will handle it.


Advisor delaying response, proposing changes every now and then in last week, how to deal? I have read various posts on SO related to my question, so the parts I got answer I am not putting here.

My advisor has asked me to write a paper and when I sent the draft it's with him until the last week of deadline for journal. Then he called me for meeting and I could clearly see the nice and crispy pages just printed without a single dot, and also he roughly turned pages and then told me do this and that. And these changes would take a lot of time. Then he again did the same and proposed such changes that are close to a whole revision and most of the times I ended up having to revert the changes. If to be honest, I want to tell him that please at least for one time read the whole paper, propose changes and let me do it then, it will save our months of time instead of keeping it with you for more then a month without reading. Same thing happened when I was writing my first annual report which had to be submitted before the 9th month of starting PhD, I submitted in my 7th month and ended up passing first year in 16th month after starting date.

I can't change advisor due to my study leave rules and my tenure of leave as well as the scholarship he gave I can't even talk to him as he is very reserved, not open for discussions or arguments.

Should I just do as it is or do I need to ask someone from management for help?

It is your PhD, not his!

While it is true that writing papers is hard work you really need to take some initiative here. You need to arrange the meetings and make sure things are done by the deadlines.

In all honesty he probably has more important things on his mind than your deadlines.


What should a PhD in physics put in a CV? The countdown to ending my studies has begun, with less than a year left to finish my PhD. I'm currently very confused about whether or not going for a post-doc, considering that I have recently found out that physicists can do something outside academia. I might therefore look for a job in the private sector.

I work in a mathematical physics sub-field called quantum chaos. I have been programing in Python and Mathematica for the past 3 or 4 years. Although my research does not include data analysis, I do have some small experience in neural networks using Keras, which I believe would not be too hard to fine tune. At the end of my PhD I will have published no more than two papers, both possibly in Physical Review A (impact factor 3), but maybe one will be accepted in Physical Review Letters (impact factor 9). I will also have participated in two or three international conferences. I do speak some four or five languages.

So what? I understand that if I apply for a post-doc my achievements can be seen as standard, and I already have a CV aimed at presenting my research work. The problem is: what should I put in a CV aimed at triggering the private sector's attention? I see my work as immensely irrelevant. I understand that physicists are quick to find patterns and solve problems, but they must be employed to get a chance to show it. Are they really going to care if I add that I have experience dealing with harmonic analysis in cotangent bundles or that I have shown that a certain coherent state propagator is not actually an element of a Bargmann-Segal space? I have absolutely no experience working in any sort of industry, and the only assets I can offer are a reasonable knowledge of Python and Keras and the languages I speak. Any imaginable CV I write will probably make an employer laugh at me. Do I even have a chance here?

This is why it's a good idea to think about these things during, or preferably before, your PhD. You're picking up skills, but how useful those skills are and how you're going to use them is a big question. Fortunately, you're not out of options, and you've probably learned more than you think. Some thoughts:

You should absolutely list Keras. With the amount of hype machine learning has been getting having experience with neural networks is a big deal. I'd go much more than that: list everything you know about data analysis. It doesn't matter if it's something as simple as linear regression. List it all, give details.
You should absolutely list Python as well. In fact, list all the programming languages you know. You don't have to be an expert in all of them because you can learn the others quickly. Are you able to read C/C++ code? Java? R? You can also list Mathematica.
You should absolutely list all the languages you can speak. These skills aren't easy to pick up. If you can speak Japanese for example, that might make you the only viable candidate for a company that's looking to send a consultant to a Japanese client.
What else did you learn in your research? Did you learn any algorithms that might have wider applications? For example, did you learn how to parallelize code? Did you learn how to use a Linux terminal? Git and Github?
Did you engage in science communication and / or teaching? If so definitely list this as well, since it indicates you can mentor others.

You should also visit your university's career center. They'll have experts who can help you.

EDIT: One more thing, take a look at the advertisements you're responding to before sending in a CV. Do you know any of the things they request? For example looking at one such advertisement, there's this:

  Ability to query a SQL and/or NoSQL database efficiently

If you know how to do this, you should absolutely list it on your CV as well.


Should I answer students' questions immediately or teach them to ask better questions? I'm teaching an online lab (to accompany an in-person course) to undergrads in their 3rd or 4th year of an engineering curriculum this semester. The aim of the lab is not to teach them any particular technical skills. It's only meant to supplement the content of the course by exposing them to some more advanced concepts in a hands-on way. The lab itself is the means, not the goal.

So beyond a single "orientation" lab, they don't get a whole lot of training in debugging things that go wrong in the lab, and I don't expect them to become advanced users of the lab infrastructure. They're encouraged to post questions on a course forum if they have trouble running a lab exercise, and I answer their questions there.

Having said that, some students post questions that would be closed immediately on a Stack Exchange site for lack of detail, and for good reason. Questions like:

  I can't log in to the website, please help.

or

  When I run the experiment, it gives me an error. Can somebody help me???

or

  I can't see the results of the experiment.

with no further details. These are perfectly reasonable things to ask about, but the student hasn't even attempted to give me any details as to what went wrong. In the "real world," people that ask questions like this won't usually get help.

Since I operate the computing infrastructure for the lab, I can actually find out the specifics of what happened by checking the student's username against the server logs. So I can give them an answer even if they ask a really incomplete question (e.g., I can check the server logs and see that their experiment failed because they mistyped a command).

But I'm not sure if I should answer their questions (because I can, and I want to encourage them to ask questions if they have trouble), or if I should try to train them to ask better questions.

On the one hand: it seems like I am doing them a disservice by not teaching them how to ask for help properly.
On the other hand: students are (legitimately) frustrated when they're using infrastructure they haven't been extensively trained in, and they can't get it to work. If I try to get them to ask better questions, they'll feel like I'm being deliberately unhelpful and making them jump through hoops to get an answer to their question. (I know this because that's been their reaction the few times I tried this.) They may stop asking questions and just give up on the lab exercises.

Should I risk the actual course goal (delivering content to the students) in favor of a general educational goal (teaching them how to ask questions)?

Is there a way to train students to ask better questions without making them feel like I'm not helping them?

Just to clarify: I already provide answers to commonly asked questions, and a lot of material to help students formulate better questions before they ask. Some students ignore that material and ask very non-specific questions anyways. My question is how to address this once they've asked the question: should I walk them through the process of reformulating it before I answer? Is there a way to do so without frustrating them further?

Being a student myself I know how frustrating it can be to work with technics or facilities you don't know enough about. Sometimes this means asking fully detailed questions can be tricky.

But there is a difference between a student that tries to ask a question to get help with their problem, and one that just declares that they have a problem and thinks it is another persons business to deal with it. What you posted above is the latter.
They have encountered a problem and instead of trying to get help to solve it they try to make you solve it. That might even be clever, because as long as you DO solve the problem, they get maximum effect with a minimum of effort. And as soon as students realise that, even the good students won't bother to read your FAQs anymore, because it is a waste of time, when you obviously can identify and solve a problem as soon as they write "Help, I have a problem."

Additionally you have to keep in mind, that as a student you often take from the experience that people don't respond to your question of, "can anyone help me" as indicating that this person is just checking, whether someone responds. It is not meant to be a question, but a phrase to start a communication about the problem. That is something adapted from face to face communication. In the real world you don't go to people and start with a 5 minute monologue to your problem, you ask "Hey would you help me?" Wait for a "Sure what is it." And than give your monologue.

So what I read above is not a question it is the reflex of a student to a problem. Before even thinking they are posting (in my generation a common reflex in every situation - we are the tldr - too long didn't read generation). If I were you I would respond with a reflex. Just answer with a standard answer that explains, that you need more detail to help. Students who get frustrated by this are already frustrated and beyond your reach.
If on the other hand a student tried to ask a proper question and just failed, you should provide the answer and give a hint on how his question could have been better.

How frustrated your student will be is less a question of what you respond, than of how you
respond. "I could solve your problem, but I wont because of your stupid question" is of course frustrating. But even in a standard answer you can demonstrate that you care, that you take the other person and his time serious, that you would like to help and that you need more information in order to do so. I would try to phrase it, but as you undoubtedly realised I'm not a native English speaker, so I leave that to you. Just don't advertise the fact that you are trying to teach them something.


Should I put in a job application email that I am interested in doing a PhD? I will be finishing my master's degree soon and am sending out emails to companies in my field. I have been recommended by many of my peers (co-workers, supervisors and academic acquaintances) to (at least eventually) also apply for a PhD, because I apparently strike them as someone, whom a PhD would suit. I do enjoy the relative autonomy of research and I am curious and interested in expanding the knowledge of my field. My field is highly technical (geomatics) and from what understand almost all PhDs are done in tight cooperation with a company. So yes, I would like to do a PhD, but it does not necessarily need to happen immediately.

So I am wondering if I should put in my job application emails that I am interested in doing a PhD. On the one hand, I want to show my interest in performing research and producing publications on behalf of the company, but on the other, I am worried that they may not be so interested in the academic merit of their work and may interpret it as a desire to jump ship entirely to pursue a PhD.

Either way, I do need to either find work or get registered in a PhD program because I am a foreign student who has to find something to do within 18 months of graduation.

I am interested in hearing other people's experiences in working while simultaneously pursuing a PhD, since I do not know much about it yet. is there a better way to approach potential employers with this intent?

I am currently living in Germany, if that matters.

Research each company and tailor your applications to each. See what their websites say about training opportunities, and/or reach out on LinkedIn or similar to see if you can informally ask a few questions of friends-of-friends who have worked there.

Situations where it's valuable to mention your eventual Ph.D. goals:

"almost all PhDs are done in tight cooperation with a company" -- talk to PhDs or look at dissertations, and you see that this company has helped with PhDs in this way.
They rely heavily on people with Ph.D.s and it would be hard for you to move up in the company without a Ph.D.

E.g. my old employer mostly recruited undergrads & PhDs, assuming the undergrads would stay 2-5 years before moving on. They were glad they could fit into a trajectory that helps people into grad school (and some return to the company later with that advanced degree).

Other companies might help fund your doctoral study if you prove to be a worthwhile employee, especially if you can pursue it part time. Or they might give you a loan which they forgive if you go back to work with them afterward. (This is unlikely to happen for you unless the company has a track record of doing this. And if they do, they'll probably mention it proudly.)

Situations where it may be counterproductive to mention your Ph.D. goals:

Few people at the company have a Ph.D. in this field, and most of your coworkers (and bosses) have a Masters degree.
They expect people to stay for a "career", and many people at the company have been there for 10 or 20 years.
It's a fairly small company, so they're unlikely to be able to support your PhD trajectory in the same way a larger company might.

In general, when you apply you want to maximize the ways that you will fit with the company and not make them worry that there is a mismatch. A company that expects you to choose a different company may be less likely to offer you a job in the first place. But you want to have as many options as possible and make a choice between them.


What is (if there is one) the equivalent of the tenure-track phase in Europe? In the US, tenure-track (TT) positions seem a common and natural step in the progression towards an academic career and quite "stable" state-wise in terms of what one might expect from them, in that if nothing goes too wrongly, after the fixed X years in a TT position one can reasonably expect to get tenure (I've heard of  horror stories of denied tenure from certain R1 universities, but I'm more concerned about the generic case here).

Now, I'm in the early stages of my academic career (I'm soon to start my first postdoc) and, more relevantly for the purposes of this question, I'm based in Europe and, unless I have absolutely no other options, I intend to remain in Europe in the future. My understanding of what the "natural" steps to take after the postdoc phase in Europe is, admittedly, pretty muddy and quite scattered.

My question(s) is (are):

    Is there an equivalent (step-wise in the progression towards an academic career) in Europe of the tenure-track positions in the US? If so, is this equivalent step "stable" country-wise, or does it change considerably depending on the country? More generally, what is the "natural" progression in Europe after the postdoc phase?

Sorry for the many questions, but most of the advice I usually find is very US-centric.

EDIT: To make the question a bit more specific, I'm particularly interested in France, UK, Italy, and Germany. Also, I'm trying to pursue an academic career in mathematics, so I'm also interested in those aspects specific to the discipline, if there are any such.

In the UK there are four levels of permanent academic employment: lecturer, senior lecturer, reader, professor. These four positions between them are roughly equivalent to the three US positions of assistant professor, associate professor, professor. These days lecturer is often a probationary position for the first few years, but higher positions are permanent. Promotion to senior lecturer does not follow automatically upon being confirmed as a permanent member of staff. Apart from this practice of probationary appointment there is no formal tenure system. In my experience (which is limited to mathematics departments) it is quite unusual for probationary appointments to not become permanent.

In my understanding, not very long ago senior lecturer and reader were seen as roughly equivalent, but senior lecturer was seen as more heavily emphasising teaching and administration whereas reader was seen as a position which more strongly emphasised research. However, there is a developing tendency to see the two positions as having essentially the same nature, with reader simply being more senior.

Some British universities are in the process of adopting the three-tiered U.S. nomenclature, but such universities remain a minority at present.


Where to put declaration in phd thesis? I am doing my PhD in an europe university and they have almost no requirements about the thesis formatting. I choosed the following outline:

Titlepage
Acknowledgment
Content
Chapter 1 - Chapter 3
Summary
Bibliography
Declaration

Now I wonder, is there a commen position for the declaration page (such as the first page after the title page or so?).

My declaration pages states that I did the work by myself and have not handed in the dissertation elsewhere.

I am a bit surprised, because in all so far viewed phd thesis I didn't find a declaration at all. Is this often taken out befor the thesis is published online?

Not every university demands such a declaration (e.g., stating that it is your own work, and all external sources have been properly cited, referenced, and acknowledged). I had one in my master thesis, but not in my PhD thesis (performed at a different university). Just follow the university rules. If they demand a declaration, then typically there is a verbatim text that you have to put in.

If your university does not prescribe where it should come, but does demand that you have a declaration, then you are free to put it anywhere. It is, however, wise to follow the convention of your university, and put it where others have put it. As @scaaahu indicated, you can go to the library and look what others did.

(Btw, I have seen it typically somewhere at the beginning.)


What does it mean to have a low quantitative but very high verbal/writing GRE for stats PhD application? I am applying to statistics and biostatistics PhD programs for next year, and I just got my GRE scores back, and they weren't at all what I expected.

I ended up with a 159V/156Q/6.0AW, which corresponds to 83rd/61st/99th percentile in the verbal/quantitative/analytical writing sections, respectively. So, I have a combined score of 315 with a 6.0 writing.

I understand that most statistics programs place a premium on the quantitative score, and so I am a little worried about my low quantitative score, but I am wondering if the relatively high verbal/writing can offset the weakness there.

For some idea of what kind of student I am, I have about a 3.5 GPA with an applied math major, with a full course in real analysis, mathematical statistics and some graduate level regression theory, and potentially an honors thesis (pending). Since my scores are so atypical compared to other applicants (who typically have much stronger quantitative and lower verbal/writing), I am unsure of what my score means for my application as a whole.

I suppose the question of "do stats programs care?" can be generalized to "do quantitative programs care?". While I see there are some threads on low quantitative scores, there aren't too many about a low quant score combined with a high(er) verbal/writing score.

Most programs have a minimum threshold for GRE scores, and I'd be very surprised if you pass that threshold. I'm applying to engineering programs and most Top 25 programs require atleast 165-166 on Quant. For someone who's applying to statistics, I would aim for at least 90% percentile (166). It's very easily doable, just do a few practice exams and practice problems and I'm sure you can pull it off.


Interviewing for an academic position after abusive department chair in previous academic position In my faculty job, I was bullied for a long time by a chair of the department (at a US state university on the West Coast). This included:

Giving me bad schedules and classrooms
His secretary telling students to avoid my classes
Denying me operational information
Excluding me from department committees
Falsifying university documents
Stealing my course materials and giving it to his supporters
Filing bogus charges against me that I never saw in writing

I understand it's hard to judge who was in the wrong, but I really had neither motive nor means to fight with the department chair. Worse, he eventually got many of the other department members on his side.

After being bullied and harassed and my working environment sabotaged  for very long time I resigned. Now I am looking for a teaching position at a different university in the USA. I know the number one rule in an interview is “Do not say anything bad about your former employer”. But, under the circumstances, I'm not sure how to answer the question “Why did you leave the position where you achieved a high rank?” What would be a a good way to answer this question?

You can honestly say that the former position was "a bad fit" personally and professionally and that you seek a "more compatible" environment. I've been in enough strange situations that I suspect people are aware that they exist. There are enough similar questions here to indicate that academia isn't utopia.

You needn't speak ill of the former head. But if the "environment has become less conducive to personal and professional growth" it is likely a fair assessment.

Also, just having been promoted is an excellent time to "look for other, more challenging, opportunities."


How to build relationships with professors in such a way that results in good letters of recommendation? I know a lot of questions are asked about letters of recommendation, but I was unable to find anything on this site or the internet in general that spoke to the particular issue of how to build the sort of relationship with a professor that results in good letters of recommendation. I get that you should of course do pretty well in the class and participate and go to office hours and be generally easy to work with and stuff (and ideally do research with the professor), but apart from that, is there nothing more you can do?

I know some might be eager to answer that you shouldn't be so mercenary about it (i.e. you should just organically be interested in the material and the professor and the good letter of recommendation will follow), so allow me to provide an example where this did not work out. I got a letter of recommendation from my favorite professor in college, which for some reason I was able to see (it was about a decade ago, so I forget how; I had waived my right to see it). Even though I thought he liked me (I went to office hours multiple times; I had two classes with him, both of which I did well in; he encouraged me to go for a fellowship; he even went out of his way to see a play I was in), the letter was the most basic "this student was in my class" sort of letter you could possibly imagine. It was such an incredible slap in the face.

Maybe he was just a jerk and that's that. Maybe I should have asked for a "strong" letter of recommendation (which I didn't know at the time was what you were supposed to ask). But regardless, given the vagaries of human relationships on top of the limitations of your own abilities, how is it even possible to get a strong letter of recommendation?

Strong recommendation letters come from professional relationships, rather than personal relationships.  Of course, the two are often related, but if a professor hasn't seen much more than getting an A in a class from a professional perspective, then they can't say that they have.  A wise and helpful faculty member will warn you of this fact in advance, but faculty are human and many may not be wise enough or  helpful enough to give an appropriate warning.

The canonical answer, of course, for getting a good recommendation to grad school is to work with a professor on an actual research project.  What you actually need, however, is for a professor to be able to speak to your potential to become a good researcher.  Even working on a research project will not necessarily demonstrate that, if your role is as a cog in somebody's machine (a friend once worked on a research project as an undergraduate where her job was literally to grind rocks into powder with a mortar and pestle: the project was awesome, the job they wanted done was not).

What does research potential really consist of?  In my experience, research potential means:

Creativity in approaching difficult or ill-defined problems
Initiative enough to accomplish hard work work independently
Skill enough to solve complex problems effectively
Intelligence and background enough to acquire new skills when needed
Social skills enough to do all of these things as part of a team (semi-optional)

There is another excellent way besides actual research projects to demonstrate all of these as an undergraduate: project-centric classes.  Many graduate or upper-level undergraduate classes have an large optional or required capstone project.  When you take on such a project, it gives you a chance to do something really cool, above and beyond the base minimum.  With a good project, you can demonstrate all of these qualities to your professor and provide both the evidence and the motivation to write a really good letter.


Deferring Admission to reapply for some PhD programs next year This question is related to one of my previous questions:

Changing University in First year of Phd

I just completed my senior year. I have been accepted to a grad school (say University X).

I want to reapply for some PhD programs next year (fall). But, at the same time, I don't want to lose the only PhD seat I've got.

So, I was thinking about deferring the admission to University X in order to apply to few other universities for next fall.

I have 2 questions regarding this:

Should I mention about my deferred admission to Uni X in the Phd applications for next fall ? If I don't, Would it be treated as academic cheating ?
How much deferring should be enough ? (Next Spring, Next Summer or Next Fall)

Deferring admission is not an automatic privilege at most universities at the doctoral level. You will typically need to justify why you want the deferral, and explain what you would do with the time. For instance, a Fulbright fellowship or a "service payback" on a fellowship might be valid justifications to a deferral; applying to other grad schools most certainly is not. If you are found to be deferring at one school to apply to another, you may lose out on admission to both, as the first school may retract their offer, and the second would likely not want to accept someone who might try and hold out on them.


One tenured job to another tenured one? I have recently been promoted to associate professor with tenure. But I want to relocate to another institution of similar rating. Is it possible to get an offer with tenure from another institution in the US? How common/uncommon is it in the US? Advices on the procedure with respect to the US academia will be highly appreciated.
The central part of my question is about the possibility for retaining the 'tenured' status at the mid-career move (e.g., how common it is and how to negotiate).

It is possible.  It is done all the time.  But you should not expect getting any tenured or tenure-track job to be easy.  Advice:  Don't resign your current job until you get the new one.
added
My experience:
Perhaps the usual would be hiring an associate professor with a one-year probationary period, after which tenure would be determined.  Our university was reluctant to grant tenure immediately, so if we wanted it our chairman would have to make a special plea to the dean or even the provost.  On the other hand, I never saw the tenure denied after the one-year period.


Rejected an offer and then became interested (a bad decision I made) Three months ago, a professor has offered to me a research position at his university with high salary, and I rejected it because I wanted to join a master's program. Unfortunately, I made a bad decision and now I changed my mind and became very interested to the exciting position he offered to me.

Do you think is it a good idea that I send him an email and ask if the offer is still available? So even that I rejected the offer 3 months ago, is it possible that I ask the professor about that offer again?

Yes, it is a good idea to ask. But explain that you now think you made a mistake in rejecting the offer. You might also want to mention your longer term goals, which I assume include further education. He can help you with that if he has a good sense of your needs. If your work for him is good enough, he might also have some incentive to help you along. One hopes for such an outcome, anyway.

But yes, ask. Silence gains you nothing, nor him, either.


Has there ever been a pure mathematics thesis longer than 909 pages? When I heard that a friend of mine finished his PhD thesis with 909 pages, I wondered if there has ever been a longer thesis in (pure) mathematics?

I am not sure that this is a good question, because the length of a thesis is obviously highly dependent on factors such as line spacing.

Having said that, it is possible to give a definitive answer to the question as written, even in the restrictive form asking about pure mathematics:

  Yes.

From MathSciNet:

  Lan, Kai-Wen Arithmetic compactifications of PEL-type Shimura varieties. Thesis (Ph.D.)–Harvard University. 2008. 1077 pp.

Here it is.


Any experience in working with aged emeritus supervisors? Recently, a graduate position, supervised by an emeritus faculty member has been offered to me. The aforementioned professor is one of the most famous contributors of his field on the planet for over 3 decades, but his age is over 75...

Some people just advise that the old faculty members would not capable of the active research and support of the graduate students and one better tries to inhibit cooperation with them.

The others asserts that the worthy and coherent experience and cumulative knowledge of such people shall be grabbed by graduate students by working with them!!!

I just struggled to contact with his current and former students to know his code of ethics, specifically, but they refrain from answering me.

Does someone have any experience to pass graduate studies under supervision of such aged emeritus faculty members?

Quick Answer: The downside might be his age, but the upside is plenty!

It is obvious that the age might be a factor, however you are not dealing with a dance instructor or a body builder here. Look at Prof. Stephen Hawking, beside his age, there are other limitations; but everyone listens to him and want to learn from him. Put his name on a conference, and people will line up. The following points popped up in my head:

Experience: Being dominant in a field for any amount of period, let alone 3 decades, is not easy. What you will get is a world of experience and vision (my second point here).

Vision: It is not all about hard work to be on the top, the individual needs to have a vision of the field as well. You will have the privilege to lean how he come up and deal with research issues. Believe me, I had supervisors that did not have the 'vision' part, and working with them was not pleasant.

Less Politics: He already 'done it all', and therefore not looking forward that much to the next promotion or something of that sort; what you get is a person that everyone knows that he is the leader in a field; so all the help you get you from him; you get it through no or much less jealousy and/or office politics.

Decision On Your Overall Career: If you get a position to work with a young supervisor, you can't truly answer the big question: What I will do after my PhD?. However if you work with an experience academic, you can see yourself after 20/30/40 years. You can see how hard you need to work to get there and is it something you want to do or not.

Conclusion: Take the position, there might be a little downside because of his age, but the positive points are plenty.


How to write in the SOP that I need funding? I am applying into a taught postgraduate program in UK. The professor suits me very well and he also says that he is interested in me. The problem is my research area is theoretical and he has no funding to provide me. He also provides some other alternative professors, but they have no funding too.

Since I really want to work in this area, I want to emphasize how much I need a funding in my SOP. Below is my draft, and I'm not sure if this is the optimal way to write this.

  [Briefly summary who is the professor and his work] My desire is to be able to work with him, and it is my main motivation to apply to University X. I have contacted him and he is very interesting to work with me. However, since only applied science gets funding these days, he cannot get funding for my PhD. Therefore, having a full scholarship is essential for me to study in X.

Some details: my field of research is theoretical ecology. I'm an Asian, and I intend to apply to Queen's University Belfast and Queen Mary University of London.

Disclaimer: Your post lacks some important details (field, university, and your nationality) so I am going to make a few assumptions. In the past, I also applied to PhDs in the UK, so I will give you an answer based strictly on my experience and what I was told by my prospective supervisor at that time.

I am going to assume that you do not have British or European nationality, since most British and EEA PhDs are funded by the relevant funding bodies (ESPRC, STFC, and others depending on field). Your options as a person without UK or EEA nationality are unfortunately very limited where funding is concerned. You are restricted mostly to funding from the supervisor directly (which you mentioned that yours do not have), a scholarship from the university (e.g. Rhodes), or incredibly competitive country-based scholarships (e.g. Wellcome Trust, Fullbright and so on). Unfortunately, international students (PhD and undergrad alike) are considered a giant source of income for universities, and there are very few scholarships available for people in this situation.

Do you know how much your tuition will cost? Are you looking for funding for this plus a living stipend during the course of your PhD, or are you able to support your own living expenses?

From my experience, and what I was told by my prospective supervisors at the time, the SOP is not supposed to mention funding. I personally would not include this in my application at all. However I would bring it up with the supervisor and with the relevant department. If your supervisor specifically advised you to mention funding in your SOP, then don't listen to what I'm telling you. When I went through the PhD application process in the UK, every university had a question about my nationality and how I'd be paying my tuition. Most had a radio button to indicate that you would need a scholarship or bursary. It is my personal suspicion that many universities use this query to rule out those of us not rich enough to fund our own PhDs or who can't take out loans for them.

If you wish to know more about the funding which is available to students of other nationalities, I can tell you what I know. It just isn't your specific question, so I won't type that all out straight away. I also answered this extensively in another question (which you can see here).

As far as what you have written, I agree with the commentor on your main question; your sentence comes across as resentful or even antagonistic depending on how it is read. I also agree with the second comment to your original question posted by Nate Eldrege; what you are alleging in the sentence is also factually incorrect (and maybe it is correct in your field, but it is subjective and unnecessary here), which will come across poorly. If you truly do want to mention your situation in your SOP, I would do so as neutrally and factually as possible. Something more like:

  [Briefly summary who is the professor and his work] My desire is to be able to work with him, and it is my main motivation to apply to University X. I have contacted him and he is very interesting to work with me. However, Professor X, while interested in taking me on as a student, is unable to fund me at this time. Because of this, I will be applying in tandem for any funding available to students in my situation.

This lets them know that a) you have researched your options and your obligations as far as tuition/living expenses go, b) you have made good contact with Professor X, and c) you are exhibiting independence with respect to funding your work.

I can say that point c is very important, because being funded as a foreign person in the UK is very rare and you have to do a LOT of work and compete with many, many people to receive it.

All of this being said, the university may well offer you a place to study your PhD (it happened to me) but without funding. If you can't self-fund, you just have to decline the acceptance. It is a lot easier for an international student to get an offer of a PhD place in the UK than it is to get funded for it.


writing letter of support for H1-B visa applicant I can't find a suitable tag for my question. I hope I'm posting to the right place. I apologize if not.

I'm a prof in CS in US. I have been asked to write a letter of support for a graduate (BSc), call him X, who is applying for H1-B visa. The graduate is non-US and hence need the visa.

I myself have gone through the process several times many years ago. In all my experience, the hiring company has a manager who documents my performance and the letter is written by the manager with the support of the CTO, etc. As a software engineer (in a previous life), I of course totally understand the importance of CS education. But I also know that CS education alone without work experience is insufficient. That's why in all immigration lawyer websites I have seen, they always mention the letter of support should address the applicant's ability to actually perform their tasks. In all my H1-B visa application, my PhD advisor was never asked to write letters to support my H1-B visa application, whether it was for post-doc research, teaching or software engineering.

X has included in his email a webpage that say something to the effect that "Task A can best be done by someone with a CS degree" and wants me to use that too. As an educator, I cannot possibly vouch for whether X can perform his job or not. I believe I can only say something about his grades. Furthermore for all my students in the past 10 years, none of the surveys I have filled in ever ask "Can applicant do his job?". The questions are mostly about his skill level in comparison to others such as "Rank applicant 1-5 in terms of his programming skills." This is the same for all phone calls for reference checks. Also, X has not taken many classes with me.

Can anyone comment on this? This is a supporting letter for H1-B visa application, not for a job application. Thanks in advance.

If you can only talk about his grades from a few classes, have you considered telling the person that you might not be the best choice for a letter of support?

Even just a class can be enough to see a student's skill, for example if a project is a big component in the class or if the instructor closely examines sufficiently detailed assignments and exams. This is really the useful kind of component: "X is skilled at task Y, as evidenced by his work doing Z..." If you just say someone is skilled without much evidence, it won't be afforded much weight anyhow.

If there has been no actual work, you can at most comment on:

Their grasp of technical knowledge taught in the course
Their intellectual ability (how quickly they were able to learn)
Their discipline and professionalism (e.g. in showing up to class, studying and submitting assignments on time)
Their talent for that for this area of work based on their performance in the course

It sounds like not much, so as I said, perhaps you might not be the best person to write this.

If you really want to write the letter, I would advise asking fellow faculty if they have experience in such a situation and whether they can help you.