How common is it to get one very positive and one very negative review? In the past year I have, on three separate projects submitted to three different venues (both conferences and journals), received incredibly mixed reviews. In each case there have been two reviewers, one with a very positive review and one with a very negative review, and the editor has decided to reject the paper without soliciting a third reviewer. They all follow this general pattern:

One reviewer: This is useful, interesting work.

"well-written, informative, to the point...quite helpful"

The other reviewer: I don't see the point of this work.

"To be quite honest, I am not sure what the purpose of such an article is."

I have two questions.

How common is this? It this just me or does this happen a lot? If the former, what can I do to help avoid it? All of these papers have included a discussion of the impacts/applications of my results and tied them to the existing literature. If this is pretty common, though, and it's just the luck of the draw then I'll keep plugging away and submitting.
How should I incorporate this feedback? While any rejection is frustrating, usually it comes with the silver lining of suggestions to improve the project. But what on earth do I do when the feedback is simultaneously "this is a good/interesting project that I find helpful" and "this project is useless"? I don't want to just throw out these projects, especially since I think at least some other scholars find them helpful/interesting.

At this point I'm confused and disheartened and would really welcome feedback, especially from other scholars with the same experience.

Thanks!

From my experience this is the norm, not the exception. I may sound a bit negative here, but I think many areas of academic research are getting more cross-functional and collaborative; especially in science, and especially in my field (genomics and computational biology).

Can any one person really comprehend every detail of the work? No! Are reviewers magical people that know everything and recognize novel work at first glance? No! Good reviewers will do their homework, check for related works, or ask their colleagues. But reviewers are also human, and it's intellectually easier to say "this is not interesting/important" as opposed to making an effort to understand the context and impact. Reviewers are human, busy people, uncompensated, and not necessarily up to speed on the latest topics. The peer reviewer may have been a poor choice by the journal or head editor. Peer review is, in my opinion, an outdated idea in an era when the scientific enterprise is becoming increasingly complex.

But that said it is not always true. If the negative reviewer did leave some constructive feedback, do address it or take it to heart.


Writing first email to prospective professors about MS application I am applying to a particular university in US for MS this year. At this particular university there are three professors who are conducting research in the area I am interested in. I have two questions:

I saw two questions here in this site about people writing emails to professors while seeking out a PhD admission. Should I do the same? Or will it look like I am being over-enthusiastic? See I am applying to MS with thesis option so I wish to have one of the three professors as my thesis adviser if offered an admission. Also I wish to follow my MS with a PhD later on. So if I do get a chance to continue in the same university, I would like to work under the professor who advised my MS thesis.
I am not able to pick a single professor who I wish to have as my thesis adviser because I find the works of all the three professors interesting. Their work kind of falls under the same category to someone who has just finished as an undergrad. Also, it could be that the professor I am interested in is very busy this year, so I don't want to choose just a single professor. If these three professors ever get together and talk will it look superficial since I have sent emails to the three of them. Not that I will be sending identical mails to the three, it will be personal and I will talk about their research.

I'd go ahead and ask, even all three. Ask for further details on their current work and potential thesis ideas. As an outsider you can't really select one of them today, without working your way into the subject.

If they are closely related subjects, as you state, chances are that they work together and perhaps even supervise students as a team. Best of all worlds, sort of...


Should Ph.D. students interested with research remain as research assistant until they find a research position or just find any job? As faculty or postdoc positions at top schools are getting hard to land, should Ph.D. students interested with research continue to work as research assistants and publish more, or try to get a teaching position or work in industry and then try to move to a research position?

There is a delicate balance here: in certain situations, it may make sense to be strategic about your graduation date, especially in order to align yourself better with hiring cycles.  If you start stretching out your thesis work significantly, however, it will likely be noticeable and not to your benefit.

More to the point, any such delaying tactic will almost certainly require the consent and participation of your advisor in order to be effective: otherwise, you are likely to be pissing them off and making your chances worse rather than better.  Have a discussion with your advisor to see what their assessment of the tactical situation is, and their recommendation.

Finally, with your advisor's consent there is another option worth considering: a "transitional postdoc" in your current location.  In many institutions and/or fields (especially private institutions or expensive lab fields), the cost of a postdoc is not significantly different than a graduate student, since the higher salary is offset by the lack of tuition or made less significant by laboratory materials costs.  For a transitional postdoc, you graduate but you stay briefly as a postdoc (no more than a year or so) while you continuing working in your more independent role to increase your profile and position yourself for an external postdoc or long-term hire elsewhere.


NSF grant proposals after earning PhD I am a fresh mathematics Ph.D who has begun a three year postdoc at University X. I applied for an NSF postdoctoral grant last year with University Y (with Y not equal to X) and did not get it. This year I want to re-apply. I like where I am and so I am planning to apply for the NSF with a mentor at University X. I have two questions.

Are there examples of a postdoc at an institution being awarded an NSF grant to stay at that institution (before their postdoc runs out)?
Are there any particular pitfalls I could find in applying at an institution that is already planning on paying me for three years? That is, if the NSF funds me then the job market "lost" a job in the sense that my postdoc position won't be replaced by my institution.

Are there examples of a postdoc at an institution being awarded an NSF grant to stay at that institution (before their postdoc runs out)?

Yes, it does happen.

  Are there any particular pitfalls I could find in applying at an institution that is already planning on paying me for three years? That is, if the NSF funds me then the job market "lost" a job in the sense that my postdoc position won't be replaced by my institution.

Assuming you are talking about the MSPRF program, it can be combined with your postdoc at University X.  One common pattern is to use the NSF postdoc half-time for the remaining two years of your current postdoc (to reduce teaching) and then full-time for one more year after that.  This is called the Research Instructorship option in the MSPRF instructions.

Combining NSF postdocs with university postdocs is very common in mathematics, so you shouldn't worry that it will be viewed as strange or problematic.  The only case I'm aware of in which the job market clearly "loses a job" is that if you are offered an NSF postdoc and do not accept it, then the position disappears for that year (there is no waiting list of backup candidates).  So if you decide it's not what you want before the awards are made, you should withdraw your application.


Is my plan for sticking with my incompetent advisor reasonable? There have been previous questions related to mine; for instance, this one:

Losing faith in my PhD advisor?

I believe this new question is worth asking because of my specific proposal for action.

I am a PhD student in mathematics in the US in my final year. My advisor is not a competent mathematician, and does not really understand even the basics of the field he is supposedly working in. Please understand that I have come to this conclusion slowly and reluctantly; I am well aware that, for instance, people can say "dumb" things in the moment.

Anyway, I've been on my own as far as learning this field and producing some research. I feel like I've just gotten to the point where I know what I need to understand to work in this field, and if I had another year to actually learn it, I could start really doing research. Essentially, I feel like this is where I should have been a few months after working under my advisor, but it's been 2.5 years.

Unfortunately, I feel like it is probably too late to switch advisors or schools. Staying an extra year with this advisor may be an option, but would be difficult financially.

I think I will be able to produce a dissertation and graduate this year. My dissertation will not be a work I am proud of. My idea is that I could get a postdoc and make up for lost time there, really learning my field and establishing a decent research track record.

While this plan is very distasteful to me (of course I am not happy about producing work that embarrasses me), I want to ask about the practical aspects. What are the chances I could actually get a postdoc? My advisor seems to think this is very possible; but other people lead me to believe that as someone with no significant research results and no one with prestige to recommend me, it is unlikely. (I no longer trust my advisor's advice on anything.) Assuming I obtain a postdoc, is it likely I could establish a decent track record of research, given that I will be in some sense two years behind schedule as far as learning this field and establishing myself?

What are the chances I could actually get a postdoc?

Of course there's no way to give a definitive answer without far more information, but here are some factors to consider.

First, how bad do you think your thesis would really be?  It's possible to graduate with a thoroughly unimpressive thesis, good enough to qualify for a degree on the basis of hard work but not good enough to satisfy any employer who cares about research.  If that's your situation, then the chances of a worthwhile postdoctoral position are negligible.  On the other hand, perhaps your embarrassment is because you're writing a merely average or even good thesis rather than a truly noteworthy one.  If that's the case, then you might be fine.  Perhaps the truth is somewhere in between these extremes, but we can't know where based on your question.

Have you had any feedback from third parties?  For example, have you spoken to other mathematicians at conferences?  What about visitors to your university or collaborators of your advisor's?  If other mathematicians have heard of you and expressed seemingly genuine interest in your work, then that's a plus.  If you've never interacted with anyone but your advisor, then you're in a much worse position to look for a postdoc.

What about letters of recommendation?  You'll need several from people other than your advisor who can address your research accomplishments.  Do you have letter writers in mind?  If you can't think of anyone, then that's a major obstacle.  If you can, then have you sounded them out on whether graduating is a good idea?  If they are unenthusiastic about the idea, then you aren't likely to get compelling letters from them (and without such letters you won't get a decent job).  If they are as enthusiastic as your advisor, then you should feel reassured.

Does your advisor have a track record of helping students get jobs?  If so, then that's an excellent sign.  If he has a track record of failing to help students get jobs, then that's a terrible sign.  If he doesn't have a track record at all, then that's worrisome, and his views on the job market might not be well informed.

  Assuming I obtain a postdoc, is it likely I could establish a decent track record of research, given that I will be in some sense two years behind schedule as far as learning this field and establishing myself?

If you can get a three-year postdoc, you'll be able to accomplish a lot in that period.  You may not have time to achieve your full potential before going on the job market again, but you'll be in a much better position than you are now.  If you get this chance, then it's worth taking it.

Incidentally, I don't think it's fruitful to count how many years you are behind schedule.  There really aren't schedules or mileposts for research, and different people's research programs and abilities often develop in incomparable ways.  Some mathematicians do their best work much later than others, for reasons that are not always apparent.

  Staying an extra year with this advisor may be an option, but would be difficult financially.

Perhaps you could apply for jobs now but fall back on staying another year if your job search is unsuccessful.  That's not ideal, but it might be your best option.  If you really can't afford to stay another year, then your choices are far more constrained.  You either apply for jobs this year or choose another career.


Where to post a research request? I want to find someone who is already or willing to begin researching the answer to this variation of the linear assignment problem as it has practical utility.

Is there a systematic way to find such a person? Is this web site the best answer or are there other alternatives?

I don't think there is a systematic method that applies in all cases, but there are some things you can try.

You can use your own knowledge of what people are working on, or do a (more or less) systematic literature search to find out if someone already has worked on the problem, or at least a related problem. If the problem has a distinct name (or several), an hour or two with a search engine might be well spent. Once you find a relevant paper, explore its references, as well as the papers citing it, and so on.
If you don't find an obvious name, then you can still try contacting some of the relevant authors directly to see if they have a better idea on where to look.
Use your own network (including e.g. PhD advisor and other professors) to ask for more leads. (I use the word 'leads' because it really is detective work sometimes, but it does feel good when it pays off.) Be prepared for the "I don't know the answer, but you should talk to X" response, and then X saying "I don't know, but I think Y worked on this during the 70s", etc.

People you identify using these methods are more likely to be interested in the problem than a random person, or at least to have some ideas or insight. On the other hand, if you're not in the field it can be really hard to identify the right people, or even judge what problems are related. And, of course, this way doesn't find all those who are interested but haven't published on the topic before - like early-career researchers.

What else can you do?

It's indeed worth trying various websites (like StackExchange, Quora, various forums, ...). Particularly those geared towards professionals in a specific field (like MathOverflow) can be very helpful, but can also be a bit hit and miss. If you're dealing with specialized knowledge, that's just how it goes. Still, such sites can often help with less systematic, more field-dependent ways of finding the right person to talk to.
Various professional organizations may have "networks of experts", which are basically lists of people willing to talk to media or the public about topic X.
Finally, sometimes plain old publicizing the problem, or even offering rewards for a solution, can help attract talent - especially if it's a somewhat obscure problem with practical utility. As for rewards, if you're a professor this is called offering a student a problem to work on... If you're in industry, you could try to get a professor to do some consulting work, and so on.

If all else fails, you could always work on the problem yourself. Having done the full literature search and talked to various people, you might well have come up with some ideas on how to proceed.


Delayed conference review notifications We recently submitted a paper to a large IEEE conference (ISIT 2019). We have not yet heard back from our reviewers and the dates for the same have passed (it has been a week since). Is this anomalous (delays), or are there situations as per protocol when authors are not notified of their reviews? Is this common to expect in EECS conferences?

Edit:
We received an email on the 10th of March that reviews would be provided to authors within the next day; several of our peers have corroborated that they have received the same and responded with rebuttals. The conference website, however does not state this date officially. And for context, the notifications for the conference are due on the 31st of March. The conference website is accessible here.

From what you have written, it sounds like this is one of the many computer science conferences that is in the process of shifting to include an opportunity for author rebuttal.

Conferences already often struggle to hit their intended deadlines for response, due to the challenges of wrangling reviewers---most do send responses either on their deadline or within a couple of days, but that often involves frantic activity behind the scenes on the part of the program chairs.

Rebuttal rounds are amplifying this problem, as they are still new for many conferences and haven't yet been properly figured into their planning and scheduling heuristics.

Most likely, then, this is a case of conference organizers struggling with a new process and you happening to be the ones being affected by slow reviewers.

Finally, it is worth noting that they didn't miss the deadline that was promised on the website (March 31st), but only the unannounced "bonus" rebuttal deadline.

Bottom line: the particular situation you are describing is not normal, but also not an unusual failure mode, and an appropriate response is to ping the organizers after the deadline has passed by a few days.


A question related to writing of SoP I am going to apply to some US universities. So SoP is one of the important things in the application procedure. My question is related to this topic.

So, after completing the Ms degree (from University X), I will be a first year PhD student at some other University (say University Y). However, I am still looking for an US University for Ph.D. Now, as a student of University Y, I have read some topics which are considered advanced in my area of preference, that's to say these topics are bridges between the Ms degree and the Ph.D. degree.

  Should I include, any sentences like this in SoP, "I have done some
  credit courses like a,b,.... at University Y as a first year Ph.D. student".

Thanks in advance.

Since the SoP is intended to detail your goals and path ahead, you could say something similar to that if those topics support those goals specifically. But if those courses are also in your CV or transcripts it will also be known that you have studied those things.

However, detailing that you studied them as a doctoral student is less useful. But, after mentioning your intended sub field of study you can certainly say that you have taken certain advanced courses in that field.

But in general, make the SoP focus on the future, not what you have done in the past. Other parts of the application will detail your past accomplishments.


Appropriate to thank examiners? I have just completed a research degree. By the rules of my university, my dissertation was examined by two outside examiners, whose identities were kept secret from me during the examination process. Now that I have received my results, my supervisor has told me who the examiners were (this was permitted by university rules and the consent of the examiners).

Is it appropriate to send them each an email thanking them for their efforts?

Yes.

It's a lot of work to examine a thesis and (generally) this is unpaid work done in our own free-time. So a simple thank you will make your examiners feel appreciated. This will have the side benefit that your examiners will remember you in a positive light, which may be useful in the future when you are looking for a job, for a reference, for a place to visit to give a research talk, etc.

It never hurts to be polite.


Is it okay to send a connection invitation on LinkedIn to an academic event director? As a just graduated student, I have submitted my contribution proposal for an academic event and the organising committee has accepted it.
Despite I have still met none of the above mentioned committee members, would it be fine to already send a connection invitation on LinkedIn to most of them (in particular to the event director)? If yes, would it be better to include also a custom message into the invitation request?

It is unlikely to cause harm for you to send the invitation.  It is likely to be ignored.


What to do when no one speaks English around you? Often when I attend conferences and meetings, there are some social activities sometimes specifically for graduate students to mix with each other and get to know other students and build possible future collaborations and contacts. Once in a while I end up with a group of let's say all Chinese foreign students. I am not Chinese and I don't know any Mandarin/Cantonese. But it is a little frustrating and in my opinion quite rude when everyone carries on their conversation in Mandarin sometimes bypassing me directly and I have no clue what's going on and I stand there looking like a complete idiot.

If the gathering is something like a cocktail party, I would move on pretty quickly. But if it happens to be a formal dinner then I am stuck at that table and the entire evening might go by with me hardly talking to anyone. My question is, what can I do or say which will make them realize this and to consider other people around who may not know Mandarin?

Just to clarify, this is in the USA and the students I am talking about are all foreign students attending American universities so it isn't a question of them not knowing English. Sometimes I know a friend or two and I would jokingly tell them only English which works for a couple of minutes and then everyone reverts to Mandarin again.

Any ideas?

This is a very relevant and interesting question. I agree with all answers so far that the problem can only be solved by being (pro)active, perhaps more than many young PhD students are comfortable with.

Anyway, what I can add to the discussion is a bit of insight from the "other" side. See, I am Austrian (mother tongue is german), and in my line of research Germany is pretty well-established. Hence, when there is a conference in Europe, german speakers (Germans, Austrians, Swiss) often form about a third or so of all participants. In these conferences, random chatter (not so much technical discussion, which people are used to doing in english anyway) often starts in english when a non-german speaker is present, but usually changes to german when the non-german speaker moves away or seems to be not interested in the conversation (e.g., he/she is turning away, or does not contribute at all to the conversation). Of course this means that it is hard for a non-german speaker to join in on a conversation after it started. Usually, if a non-german approaches the group, chatter will turn to english again, but this usually does not happen unless this person is already good friends with one of the people in the group (or would you approach a group of strangers talking in an unknown language?).

However, I don't think there is much to be done about this - it is just natural that a group of people converses in their joint language that they are all most comfortable with. People are not actively trying to be rude - but, sometimes, what comes naturally is not what is appreciated by the largest group of people in the conference.

Some concret suggestions:

When at a formal dinner, and you don't know anybody, try to not be seated surrounded by larger groups of people who are clearly friends or come from the same university / country. This can make for awkward dinners, even independently of language issues, but it is easy to spot already when sitting down. For networking, it is much easier to get into conversation with other people in your situation (more or less alone currently).
At receptions or conference breaks, as you say yourself, I would usually just move away from people who are excluding me by speaking a different language. If you are actually interested in what they are saying, but can't contribute for language issues, rocinante's suggestion is best - just tell them.


Can I tell my advisor I want to finish my PhD in 6 years? I am international student, studying PhD in Electrical Engineering at UNC and just finished my first year.
My employer gave me full scholarship to US. So, I have 6k monthly salary while they cover all tuition fee and medical.
I would like to take my time to finish it in 6 years. No rush as I am enjoying staying in US and very fortunate to have my children study here.
However, my advisor is pushing me to work harder, he plan to graduate me in four years. How can I tell him my opinion? I am afraid it will give him bad indication that I am not serious while I am interested to do good but at longer time.
Thanks

I suggest, fairly strongly that you go along with the professor and make four years your target. There are a number of reasons for this.
First, you want your advisor happy with you and with the opinion that you are making progress toward a common goal. They may actually need your results as part of a larger picture.
Second, there is no guarantee that any doctoral student meets their time target. Things happen in research that can't be predicted. Some of these lead to additional time. You have a cushion that you can fall back on in this case.
Third, if you do finish in four years, there may be additional opportunities that arise are not visible now and that might make sense at that time. Perhaps you can find a way to just stay on with additional research if your funders are happy. And you may find that you can find something suitable elsewhere, but still in a place you want to live.
Things happen over six years that aren't predictable. Who would have guessed six years ago that the US and the world would be in the current state it is? We hope that in six years it will be better.

“If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?” ~~Albert Einstein


Leaving PhD for a professional master's program I am in the 3rd year of a social sciences PhD program and just haven't found it fulfilling. I've tried therapy in the past, meditation, new diets, exercise, even moving to a new place in attempts to plow through the program. Those things improved my mental health somewhat but didn't make me more fulfilled with or interested in my work. Lately I've had my sights set on another career path that requires a professional master's degree, which is composed of coursework and internships. I've done months of research into this new field, talked with people in it and I have a bit of experience in it. I think it is right for me.
I've considered finishing my PhD and going for this new path afterwards, as I've already done a lot of fieldwork abroad (although much of my research remains on hold with the restrictions in place). But I don't see a practical need for the PhD anymore, nor do I have an interest in my topic. Plus my mental health has vastly improved since taking a break from the research and doing other productive things (volunteering, learning a new language, learning some programming skills for my new career path). So, I'm seriously considering leaving my PhD.
My concern now is if i apply for the professional master's program having left my PhD, I don't know how that will look to the admissions committees. I completed a different master's degree in the past and received many accolades over the past years, but I am afraid leaving a PhD will still look bad. Has anyone gone through a similar experience of leaving one graduate degree to go into another (either professional or academic)? How did it go? For those who've been on admissions committees how would you consider someone who left a grad program to pursue another in a totally different field and for very different reasons?
Edit: I should mention my advisor is not happy about my idea. I told them frankly about my proposal over email and they were shocked, and responded with a list of reasons why I should not quit. I will be meeting with them virtually soon and hopefully a face-to-face conversation will help them understand where I'm coming from... but their possible lack of support with my plans going forward is obviously worrying...

I have sat on admission committees, taught in professional and graduate programs, and written recommendations for undergraduates, masters, and PhD students to go to professional programs.  That said, my experience is with programs in a business school. Depending on your program of interest, what I say may not be relevant.
For masters programs in a business school, your profile is not unusual. Lots of MBA and business masters programs see people who finished a PhD and then decided they hated it, sometimes after years and sometimes right away. We also see lots of applicants who are giving up on a PhD to pursue an area they now find more interesting.
In my experience, students who did a PhD or left a PhD program tend to fall into one of two camps: excellent students and so-so to poor students. The best bet to separating these groups is motivation.
The students I typically saw do very well were people whose interests shifted, had clearly worked hard before, and were excited about their new area. The people who did not do well were people who had sort of "failed out" of the PhD, had not made progress toward a PhD for years, or were not succeeding at post-PhD work. Often, these students were not excited about the program they applied to; rather, they applied just because they needed a job and this sounded like the way to get one with the least work.
I think your key is making sure your recommendations convey your enthusiasm for the new program -- and to also express that convincingly in your own letter. It may also help if you can use your academic contacts to chat with professors in that program. Your advisor may be helpful... or may abandon you since you are no longer targeting academia. You are probably the best judge of which of those is most likely.
Finally... congratulations for giving thought to whether the PhD is right and healthy for you. I know plenty of people who just pushed through and then ended up repairing the damage that caused with years of therapy.


In APA, do we italicize the names of wars and treaties? For example, is it:

the Korean War or the Korean War?
the Treaty of Versailles or the Treaty of Versailles?

The APA guidance doesn't say exactly.  Gives a list of what to italicize and examples of what not to.  I would definitely opt for not doing it though.  The implication of the directions are much more to only italicize what you need to, not italicize everything not forbidden.

https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/apa/other/italics

Note also, that I'm really unaware of ANY style (just checked Harcourt Brace and Merriam Webster, as well as personal experience) that recommends italics for wars or treaties (or legislation).  I have only seen treaties in italics when the entire treaty (not just a word within it) is cited in a foreign language (often French, Latin or German), but then you are treating it as foreign text, not because it's a treaty.  Oh...and don't italicize a single foreign word within a war or treaty.  Keep entire thing normal text (but capitalized first letters, like a book).  I have never seen wars italicized--perhaps you are wondering because ships are?

Note though that court cases are often italicized.


Advantage of pure maths courses in transcript for physics grad school Are there an advantages of doing courses in pure maths (master level) courses, if you want to apply to physics grad school for a phd in areas such as string theory, or high energy physics? Apart from the obvious advantage, that you get better at math, which is used a lot in this areas, I am asking about the direct advantage for grad school applications on the transcript? Does the selection committee like to see more grad level physics courses in maybe slightly irrelevant areas, or pure maths courses which have use in these areas?

I think the real answer is that it depends on what it is that you're planning to do. The more closely your courses align with your proposed field of study, the easier it is for the committee to evaluate. So, taking pure mathematics courses makes more sense if you're going into a theory-based field than if you're doing something more experimental in focus.

However, you should also keep in mind that a strong grade in an upper-level mathematics course will at best be "neutral," and it might be possible to explain away a bad grade; a bad grade in any physics course will not go over so well. So you should factor your interest level and ability to handle the courses in your selection process. You should also consider if the course in physics is considered a "standard" course for undergraduates pursuing graduate admissions. If so, then it makes more sense to take that class than an elective mathematics course. (Otherwise, the question will of course be "Why didn't you take course X?")


How to inform conference organizers about your legal name I am in the following situation. I have a name I prefer to use for personal reasons but the name on my passport is different.

If I apply for travel support for a conference, the recommendation letters will be for the preferred name but the invitation letter for visa, if I am to use it, should be for the legal name. What is the protocol for informing the organizers about this discrepancy?

In my previous experience, when my preferred name and my legal name were the same the organizers issued the letter for my preferred name without checking whether it is my legal name so action from my side must be necessary.

When you apply, there is a form; should I simply fill out the name field like "Preferred Name (legal name: Legal Name)"?

Your situation isn't uncommon. In particular, many women prefer to use their birth name rather than their married name for reasons of continuity, etc. Some people need to use an alias for various security and/or political reasons.

Just include a note explaining the situation as you have here. If you are asked, you might offer to provide a photocopy of the first page of your passport for verification. But only if asked.


Is it bad form to use the word exciting in a paper, when discussing other people's results? When writing a paper with a collaborator, they didn't like that I used the word "exciting" in the abstract since they said that they don't like when people use personal personal qualifiers in writing papers. In particular my sentence was

"With these exciting results in mind, we study..."

(where the 'results' I am referring to are from a few recent experimental papers which I had nothing to do with). I initially wrote it in this way to emphasize that the recent results are interesting. Is this truly something that should be avoided?

Note: If it makes any difference I work in physics.

An established rule on proper writing demands to "show, don't tell". This does not mean that your results can be left to "speak for themselves", but it suggests that rather than simply claiming that your results are exciting, you should demonstrate and argue why they are. The onus is on your interpretation.

Moreover, the attribute "exciting", just as "interesting", is particularly trite because it is over-used and terribly vague. It begs the question as to what it is that is so exciting.


No idea what to do with my PhD research I am a PhD student in my second year. I have not published anything yet and I feel my results I got so far are not publishable. I have two years left. I am stressed and I am afraid that I might not be smart enough to be a PhD student.
I think I lack the skill to ask a good question and answer that question as a part of my research. I cannot come up with a good idea or question so that by following those I can publish.
Anyone with the same experience, what did you do to get yourself out of this situation?

Edit

Just to clarify more. I am in Europe. Here there isn't any coursework. I studied everything so far on my own. Everyday I go to my room in the lab. I have plenty of time, at least 8 hours per day and if necessary I can spend more time too. I don't have teaching obligations.
Sometimes, I might have an idea, which ultimately turns to be useless, but even then I tell my self if it was possible to turn into a publications, others would have done that, so it must be a hard problem or idea.
My main issue is that there is no other person with my background in the lab. People with different backgrounds are a PhD student here and everyone works on his/her PhD almost alone. I wish I could pair to another student and brainstorm and discuss different ideas. However, it is not possible here. I told my supervisor, he replied first you should prepare some initial results so that we can approach others group for collaboration. But even then I won't discuss with another person on a daily basis because of the distance between those groups which are in other countries.

Don't panic. What you're feeling is very common: so called "impostor syndrome" (where you feel that you're not good enough to be there) is very common in academia.

Talk to your supervisor about how you're feeling, and try to narrow down the focus of your research question. You have plenty of time still, but its important you take the time to understand exactly what your work is trying to answer, which will in turn help you understand where to focus your efforts (for gathering data, publishing papers, etc.).

Some supervisors are more diligent than others, so if you feel yours is too busy or not providing the help you need, don't suffer in silence but talk to someone else. Many institutions have some form of tutor system, or faculty position devoted to helping out students that are under pressure or struggling.


Is there any online tool where students can register for tasks/assignments? I'm teaching architecture and I want my students to select a building that they will work with from a list. When a building is selected by one student, it should no longer be an option for the others (first come - first serve).

Is there an online tool where a list can be created and students can select their object of interest, preferably without going through a whole registration process?
Our student-platform unfortunately does not offer this functionality.
Any suggestions?

Tool could be in English or German.

I found the tool "Doodle" (doodle.com) where a poll can be set up with different options to fit my needs. With this tool, appointments can also be arranged.

Here's a link to an example I set up: select architect


How many words are considered to become subject to verbatim copy? How many words can become 'subject to verbatim copying'? For example, if I write 'to disseminate content' in my paraphrasing and later on find that 'to disseminate content' is used exactly elsewhere. Is it considered as plagiarism in such a case? (i.e. 3 words matching)

There is no single "number of words" threshold, because the issue is the degree of creativity and salience in the choice of words, which is dependent on the exact phrase and context.

If those few words are extremely significant and clearly attributable to a particular person, you might need to quote them, e.g.:

  "Eat my shorts" (Simpson, 1997)

On the other hand, some words are just not very interesting, and have a much higher threshold for quotation, e.g.:

  On the basis of the data presented, this study concludes

My recommendation is that rather than stressing about particular thresholds, you read the original source that you are paraphrasing, then set it aside and do something else for a while.  Then come back and write your summary from memory, in your own words; what you produce will almost certainly be different enough from the original to be not problematic.


I had an argument with my professor, and I feel like I was disrespected. Was I in the wrong? I do not want my professor to know that I wrote this question, since that would just escalate the situation further, so I will not be very specific about certain details.

I am in a research course that has weekly meetings. There is a software that the research group that I am in uses, and that is where the argument was had. Some further background is that my professor, and some other guy (call my professor B and the other guy T) said that we should all have a meeting to discuss something. As a result, I went on to the software to list all of time intervals for which I am available to have a meeting. A couple of days later, I get a message from B that I didn't show up for the meeting that I set up (it turns out that both B and T attended the meeting that I allegedly set up). But that's false, all I did was list my available times. So I responded with first saying that I didn't set up that meeting, and that I didn't even get a chance to see their responses until now (after I had posted my available times, both T and B agreed to have a meeting at a specific time, and B asked me if that time would work, but of course I didn't see that until after the meeting they had).

After I posted my reply, I expected B to, in some sort of way, to politely acknowledge that there was a miscommunication between me and him. But instead he replied with (paraphrasing him), "Look at the messages, you gave us your availability, we responded. It is not our fault that you didn't look at the software again."

I felt disrespected after reading that message. Because I did not want to escalate the situation further, I just apologized for not looking at the software sooner. I felt like I was disrespected mainly because it seems my own consent was disregarded, while theirs was valued over mine.

Was I in the wrong? Was my professor in the wrong?

Was I in the wrong? Was my professor in the wrong?

We are steering deep into the realm of Interpersonal.SE, but this is absolutely the wrong question to ask. There was clearly a misunderstanding. It happens. It does not matter whose "fault" it was (if anybody's, really - in most misunderstandings nobody is doing anything terribly unreasonable). They were displeased that their time was wasted, you apologized. Case closed, moving on. As you say yourself, there is no reason to escalate a tiny hiccup into an actual conflict.

One thing I suggest is to use this as a learning opportunity to improve your processes for future meetings. In your case, I strongly suggest that going forward you send a meeting invite to all participants after a date has been agreed upon (and also to check your scheduling software after sending out a scheduling link - at the very least a reasonable amount of time before the first slot you suggested).


Split paper into two, one was accepted, is it fine to negotiate the rejected paper to be accepted? I had a paper ready for journal publication, but decided to break it into 2 conference papers and submitted them to a conference.
Now, one of them is accepted but the other one is rejected! The thing is, the 2 papers are related and I think they should be published together. The paper which is rejected, had 3 reviewers. One accepted it, one weak-accepted and the other one rejected it. The two who accepted it, marked it as innovative, highly useful and relevant. (All 3 reviewers mentioned they are highly confident on being able to judge my paper)
Now, can I write to the conference and tell them to review the paper or argue with them that the paper could be accepted based on points made by the two reviewers?
PS: I had to break them into two papers because of the page limit. Furthermore, it makes more sense for them to be published together since they are parts of a single framework. However, this doesn't mean that one cannot be published without the other; as I mentioned, I believe publishing them together just makes more sense. Moreover, I was very confident that both will be accepted!

Now, can I write to the conference and tell them to review the paper or argue with them that the paper could be accepted based on points made by the two reviewers?

You can try, but what do you have to tell them that they do not already know? They have already read the reviews, thought about them and reached a decision. Unless you can think of a compelling argument that invalidates or rebuts the criticism of the unfavorable review, your chances of success are essentially zero.


Is it unusual for a math department not to have a mail/web server? I'm a PhD student in a math department at a research university in the US. When I started the program I was given an account on the department server with a website and a nice department email address. Now I've found out that the department (or the university?) is doing away with the server and instructing everyone to instead use the G Suite email and Google services that the general student body of the university uses. So I suppose I'll have to pay to host my website somewhere, or convert it manually into a Google Site as the department is suggesting (which unfortunately, to my knowledge, doesn't support math markup). I'm worried that having a Google Site as opposed to a .edu website will appear unprofessional, and I'm a bit irked that I'll have to take the time to migrate my site elsewhere. Also I think it's peculiar that not even the math faculty will have a .edu domain to host a website.

Should I be upset by this? Is this unusual? Or is this just the trend of the future? Is this more typical than I think it is?

Update regarding my specific scenario to address some questions in the comments: The email through GMail still gets the .edu extension as name@university.edu or some variation. I'm not sure what will happen to my name@math.university.edu email, but it sounds like that will still work? Word is that they're still figuring out specifics. But they're planning on getting rid of the web server though. They haven't been giving new faculty or grad students the @math email address or a math.university.edu/~name website like I received, and they're working with people with larger sites [on the math server] to fit their needs. But it sounds like after the switchover the math.university.edu domain won't be available to redirect to any new website either, which sucks because there's at least one faculty here with a massive website, and the switchover will break tons of links online, and references PDF notes and papers.

I've found out that the department (or the university?) is doing away with the server and instructing everyone to instead use the G Suite email and Google services that the general student body of the university uses.

It sounds like the university is outsourcing IT, which is normal.


Price difference between master's and phd programs I heard from a friend that master's programs tend to be more expensive because master's students don't have advisors or as much university funding for their time in academia. However, sources online seem to only indicate to me that the PhD is more expensive. Can someone clear this up?

Masters students are often unfunded. That is, they have to pay (most of) the tuition fee. Against that, PhD students are typically funded. That is, they are paid to study. Here's an example. The student here is not only paid a monthly stipend of $2000/month, (s)he doesn't have to pay tuition fees.

In other words, yes, it's often cheaper to do a PhD than a Masters. Caveats apply: it's possible you may not be offered funding (in which case a PhD is also more expensive). Also, since a PhD takes longer than a Masters, if you graduate with a Masters and then get a well-paid job immediately, the extra income might be enough to compensate for the price difference.


Are Mathematics graduate programs open to admitting a student out of high school with graduate work? During my high school career, I had the unique opportunity to take multiple mathematics courses at my local university, and after graduating, I took two graduate level math courses: Measure theory, and a class on topological manifolds. This was a great experience, but it has left me in a shifty situation.

I asked the department head if I could be admitted into the program since I took a full time course load receiving a B+ and A respectively, but it was denied due to the fact that I did not have a bachelors. The only option given to me at this university would be to enroll in the undergraduate program and take graduate courses.

I would be open to that idea, but it has multiple pitfalls. First of all, I am not guaranteed any research opportunities, which view as highly restrictive on my growth as a mathematician. In addition, I am not guaranteed funding opportunities like I would be in the graduate school. This in combination with the fact that I would have to take 50% more credit hours of course work would mean I would end up having to take out more loans than I would like. This is all very disappointing for me.

Instead of enrolling in courses again, this semester I began independent study in algebra and differential topology using Aluffi's and Lee's book respectively on the subjects. In addition, I have been exposing myself to more theoretical physics, such as Yang-Mills theories and Supersymmetry. Because these subjects are capturing my interest as well, it seems natural that I take my studies towards Algebraic Geometry and String Theories. I really want to get involved with a program to help enable me with my studies, but I do not think an undergraduate program would be adequate. For those of you who are still reading, how can I work towards getting into a program which would enable my studies an empower me with supervised research?

EDIT

I did not think my undergraduate work would to be too relevant, since most of it was not rigorous; that is, calculation based. I took undergraduate courses in ODE's, PDE's, probability theory, analysis, mulitvariable calculus, and linear algebra. Unfortunately, I did not do well in the ODE, calculus, and linear algebra courses because they were during the summer, and I had not yet acclimated to the required amount of work. In this specific program, my course work is nearly equivalent to a bachelors degree, sans single variable calculus and a class in discrete math.

I know of one case in which someone went straight from high school into a graduate program, so it is theoretically possible if you can find a university that agrees.  However, it's almost unheard of, and it would be a bad idea for just about everyone (even setting aside the question of whether undergraduate education provides any benefits beyond preparation for graduate school).

What I assume is that you'd like to do important research and are looking for preparation that will help you accomplish this goal.  The minimal standards for a Ph.D. are actually pretty low, and you can squeak by without knowing much or doing impressive research, but this sort of dissertation will set you up for career failure.  Instead, you need to enter a strong Ph.D. program, ideally one of the top ones, and really excel.

It sounds like you've completed enough courses for a minimal undergraduate degree in mathematics, but probably not enough to be competitive at a top grad program.  The applicants at these programs have generally taken a more extensive and rigorous collection of undergraduate courses (e.g., abstract algebra, topology, complex analysis), and it's not uncommon to have taken more than two grad courses, sometimes many more and in a few cases starting in high school.  Plus it's common to have undergraduate research experience or other substantial independent work, such as a senior thesis.

Basically, imagine yourself in four years.  That's who you're going to be competing against for admission, the other extraordinary high school students who went to college and became even more knowledgeable and impressive.

If you could find a university that would admit you to graduate school now, you'd probably end up going to a second tier school, spending some time catching up on courses, and then writing a good thesis but not living up to your potential.  Your career would get off to an inauspicious start, you'd have trouble on the job market, and in the long term you'd likely end up with a less research-oriented job than you might have had otherwise.

Of course I could be wrong about this: you might have exceptional luck or be the next Terry Tao.  But diving into graduate school at a young age with minimal preparation is an incredibly risky strategy.

This is something that's really hard to discern from college catalogs.  They usually focus on the minimal requirements to complete each degree and move on to the next level, but that's not how people do things in practice.  Instead, the vast majority of future mathematicians spend at least three years on their undergraduate studies, and generally four (in the U.S.).  The operative question isn't how quickly you can complete the degree requirements, but rather how much you can achieve along the way.  Preparing well for grad school is far more demanding than completing an undergraduate degree.

So what I'd recommend is that you pick an undergraduate program in which you'll have really outstanding fellow students, so that you learn from and are pushed by them.  Being part of a cohort like this is probably the single biggest factor in success, and your goal should be to find amazing people to hang around with and discuss mathematics.  You should then take whatever undergraduate courses are needed to fix up your background (if any) and move on to graduate courses.  You should also look for research opportunities during the summer or perhaps the school year, but it's not worth obsessing over this.  No program will guarantee anything, but at the very least you'll surely have some success applying to summer REUs, and it's reasonable to hope for even more than that.  Perhaps you'll finish in three years, and perhaps you'll decide to stay for four, but either way you'll be far better prepared for graduate school than you are now.

It sounds like you're in a great position to do well, with a remarkably strong mathematics background.  However, I'm convinced that the right question is how to get as much as possible from your undergraduate studies, rather than how to skip by them as quickly as you can.


Is this unprofessional academic writing? How to cite it anyway? I am currently preparing some case studies written by Harvard Business School professors. The case is a 'real marketing' case; based on a true story. It is mostly compiled from many sources such as newspaper articles and books. Aside from common knowledge, the authors sometimes provide information (i.e. factual) without any reference, other times they do. I, sometimes, try to 'find' an original source for their un-referenced claims (and always track the referenced ones).

My question: If I don't bother to find a primary source by myself and simply cite the case writers for the information they are presenting (the ones without references), is this a bad practice? Is it plagiarism? (Since the information could have belonged to someone else)

One more thing I noticed which is really confusing is that, sometimes, the authors write an idea without a reference and then, by accident, I discover that such an information belonged to reference #24 (for example) which is like 5 pages away (How did I discover it? By tracking the reference #24 and reading it and discovering that this information is the same presented in page 1 for example (which was without a reference))! How should I handle such a situation? Can I, again, simply cite the authors for whatever un-referenced information they are presenting? (Assuming that they are HBS professors and know what they're doing)

I am just worried about plagiarism and crediting the wrong people.

If you cite the secondary source (the book written by the sort-of-careless Harvard professors), you are not at risk of plagiarism.  That does not mean it is great practice: finding a primary source or something close to it is always a good idea.  But you will not be at fault if you simply site the Harvard profs and take them at face value.

One thing you could do is find secondary "primary" sources to back up the profs.  Then you could site an idea like this:

  ... and that is why monkeys like to steal bananas from the Harvard library (Mr. Fancy Harvard Prof 1, Mr. Fancy Harvard Prof 2, 1999) (Mr. Honest Zoo-Keaper Who Interned at Harvard, 1998).

Wherein the "Mr. Honest Zoo-Keaper Who Interned at Harvard" is the primary source you found on your own, externally, who seems to back up the less-than-well-documented assertions of the illustrious "Mr. Fancy Harvard Prof 1" and "Mr. Fancy Harvard Prof 2".


I wrote a thesis for my undergraduate degree - it was published but not in a journal. Is it still relevant to cite? I wrote a thesis involving not-quite-graduate-level research prior to graduating with my undergraduate degree. It was presented at a conference [by another researcher from our lab], and not published in a journal or peer-reviewed publication. I have cited it for several years as part of my resume - at what point is it no longer relevant to include?

Note for clarification: I have had only one other publication in the [approximately ten] years since completion of my undergrad work.

If the research was original and academic, then I would say keep it in there if it's relevant to the role that you see yourself working in. If it was a team effort, make sure you cite it as such. Since it wasn't officially published, I'd suggest linking to it online (and hosting it somewhere if it isn't already hosted by your academic institution).

Of course, I'm not really authoritative on this type of thing, but if I were evaluating prospective employees, I'd love to be able to see relevant examples of their work even if they weren't formally published.


Should I inform my referee about my applying result even I get rejected? My referees tell me to inform them the result once I know. Should I still inform them if I get rejected? I don't want to disappoint them.

You should tell them the result of your application. If the result happens to be negative, briefly tell them about your next step (e.g. will you apply to the same thing again in the future? what do you plan on doing until then?). They may even suggest a next step.

If you don't inform them of a negative result right away, they will find out if you eventually ask them for a second reference letter. Furthermore, since they explicitly asked you to tell them the result, it would be impolite to not.


Uploading preprints of old Elsevier papers to arXiv, and updating arXiv preprints by newer versions Let's say that my first scientific paper was published in 2010 in one of the Elsevier mathematical journals. At that time I didn't care about uploading a preprint of the paper to arXiv which I now regret. Is it ok to upload the paper to arXiv today? Do I break my license agreement with Elsevier by doing this? Is it appropriate?

Also, let's say that I uploaded a preprint of another paper to arXiv 6 months ago and at the same time I submitted the paper to one of the Elsevier journals. I was asked by the Elsevier reviewer to make a revision of the paper. I made the revision and the paper was accepted for a publication. Is it ok to replace the original preprint on arXiv by the latest version of the paper which will be published by the Elsevier journal?

Finally, assuming that the answer to the previous question is affirmative. Is it ok to replace an original preprint of yet another paper by its latest version even if the paper was published three years ago (but I never replaced the original preprint by any newer version)?

This is covered on the Elsevier website. Some key points:

  An accepted manuscript is the manuscript of an article that has been accepted for publication and which typically includes author-incorporated changes suggested during submission, peer review, and editor-author communications. They do not include other publisher value-added contributions such as copy-editing, formatting, technical enhancements and (if relevant) pagination.

and

  Authors can update their preprints on arXiv or RePEc with their accepted manuscript.

and

  Preprints should not be added to or enhanced in any way in order to appear more like, or to substitute for, the final versions of articles.


Resubmission of paper has been "under consideration" for 30 days. Request update? I (re)submitted my paper to a Nature related journal (after revisions) and it has been "under consideration" for about 30 days. Should I ask for an update? If yes, is this too rude?  :

Dear editor,

I hope you are doing well. I have noticed that the status of our paper titled “ “ has not changed for about 30 days. I am not sure what the time frame is for resubmissions. Is it possible I have missed an update? If there is anything I need to do at this stage, please let me know.

Journals such as nature and Science and their related publications run on tight schedules. Not hearing from them quickly is usually a good thing since rejections are made quickly. Yes, a month may seem long but for me is too early to worry. It is difficult to say what time frame is reasonable but two months would be on the long side.

Having said that, these journals have professionals working full time with the journal, unlike many others where editors work on the journal along side regular academic work. This means they rarely let any job lie around for very long. Of course, a mistake may happen, but I would not make such an assumption as a first choice. So take it easy for another couple of weeks. If there is any pressure on you for getting advance notice of publication, for, for example, job applications or salary discussions, a mail providing the cause of urgency would always be possible but if it is only pressing anticipation, sending mails to editors early is not a great idea. But in this case, estimating the time frame is more difficult than for regular journals but give it another couple fo weeks at least.


Unintentional Plagiarism in my Masters Thesis About four months ago I graduated from a reputable university and received great feedback from the committee who judged my masters defense as well as my thesis. Prior to my defense, I was asked to prepare my paper — not my thesis — within 5 weeks of graduating. There were a few problems regarding the quality and quantity of the data and figuring out the appropriate analysis took considerable time. During this period I wrote and rewrote all the sections that are essential to a paper, keeping in mind that these exact sections would form my thesis as well. A colleague also edited my introduction, at times embellishing my sentences that went beyond what the cited authors stated. The time crunch resulted in lower quality work.

Once the paper was “approved” I was given the green light to work on my thesis, at just two weeks prior to graduating. All I had to do was copy and paste my paper into my thesis document, but I wanted to improve my literature review and make sure all the sections flowed well. In the end, even my thesis document did not turn out to be at the quality I hoped for. It was well received, but I believe that it is highly unlikely my supervisor even looked at my thesis, much less even read the first few pages.

I just re-read my thesis and upon scrutinizing it I have found that I have unintentionally plagiarized from other authors in different areas, including the literature review, methods and materials, and one line in the introduction, all which was likely due to negligence and carelessness (can I call it that given the time I had?) of finishing on time. I didn’t outright copy, but sentence structure and wording are strikingly similar.

My friends (many who are in academia), family, and therapist (psychologist) have all advised that I use this as a learning experience for the future, as the university nor my supervisor would be willing to give me a second chance as such rarely is offered for something of this magnitude.

At this point I’m looking for any sound advice... What do I do? How do I move past this? I worry about my future :(

While I don't know the policies of your university, nor anything about your advisor, I would suggest that you explore any possible option of submitting a corrected version of the thesis. Explain to your advisor what happened. Be very clear and honest about it. Perhaps they can make an accommodation. The paper, on which it is based can, perhaps, be used to show proper intent.

If you can't substitute a newer version, you will need to create and try to submit an addendum giving proper credit wherever needed.

I doubt that the paper is in any danger of being rejected, since the citations are correct there.

While many might consider this a serious breach, rather than panic and carelessness, I doubt that it would be career ending. Intent matters a lot in such things.


In what format I should share a semi complete business & technical innovative idea in enterprise Question
Does this fit a Yellow paper or a Whitepaper or other kind of document?
Context:
What is my document about ?
I am developing an idea, out of a business need. It is not an algorithm or a 100% technical specification to solve the problem, it can accept a wide range of solutions. To put you in context, it is about:
"Evolving ETLs with future business specifications". For this, I wrote a document presenting many ideas, a study of the existing techniques and technologies. Along the lines, and in the first section of the document, I exposed the problem and how I see the new solution. Therefore technically it is not 100% specified, because I have not 100% the knowledge and experience nor I have the time to develop more (this is why I want to throw the document).
Why do I write this document ?
As you know all, in a professional environment (without necessarily a research subdivision), other developers are not just there to discuss ideas. Even seeking knowledge (at least in my space) is not easy. Simply asking for a review from other say experimented developers in the same field of study also can be out of scope, they are already working on on-running products and not necessarily looking for innovation (let's say it, without $$ or reputations).
The core purpose of the document is to:

Save my work, even when not 100% specified.
Share knowledge and in a way seek indirectly help and get the attention of more experimented peers hiding somewhere.
Prove some motivation.
Very probably, it can be a base for new products around the idea.
Push others to thinking (like some ppt presentation I saw in IT late meetings, some presentation with a lot of question marks "??")

Is this what we call a Yellow paper ?

To share new enterprise ideas, you should follow the procedure defined by your enterprise. I suspect a white paper would be suitable, since a yellow paper may reveal too many technical details that your enterprise might want to patent.


How to cite a paragraph from a paper with a citation in it In my paper, I want to cite a paragraph from another paper that looks like this:

  Universities are an ideal target for attackers because they have high bandwidth and open systems.“A university is not a high security area,” says Andreas Pfitzmann, professor for data security at the Technische Universität, Dresden.

How can I do that citation?

Normally, you would switch between double and single ticks for the outer and inner quotation, respectively.

Alternatively, for a quotation of the length you are showing, consider using a (slightly indented) quotation block.

I will look for some examples when I have a stable connection again.

Of course, you should also check the styleguide of your target venue, although in my experience, paper styleguides rarely mention such details/special cases.


Blind grading for exams isn't very blind TL;DR:

How should I blindly grade exams when I can recognize over half of the papers by the handwriting?

Situation: I'm a TA for an first year physics class of approximately 50-60 students. Due to a complaint along the lines of "the grader hates me so I failed the class" that the department got last year, there is a proposal in the department to ensure that tests be swapped to blind grading. However, as the class assigns a fairly large amount of homework, from experience I know that I can reliably recognize more than half of the class's handwriting. The proposed system goes along the lines of having students use an ID number that they get when they take the test that isn't shown to me until I'm putting grades into the computer. The problem is that I feel that this would do very little to actually reduce bias if TAs can just recognize handwriting without a name.

Short of putting people on rotation for grading this stuff, which has its own problems, are there any better ways to implement a blind grading system to remove any handwriting bias?

If I understand this correctly, blind grading is a formality introduced by the University to make students' claims on the biased teachers unjustified. I would say - keep it that way and do not bother any more. You are not going to hate them and give them lower grades, are you? So, it does not really matter that you in fact can recognise the handwriting. If a student is really really bothered to keep their identity secret... well, they could try to write with the unusual hand.

Answering your question formally - to implement a real blind grading system you can swap the scripts between departments, or TAs.


How should I reference the institution in my grad school applications if I went to a satellite campus? I go to a well respected University of X. However, I actually attend a campus that is smaller and separate from the main large campus. As I look at graduate schools and begin drafting my statement of purpose, should I specifically mention (every time) that I go to U of X, City campus, or just mention the university as a whole?

If the rules and regulations are the same at both campuses, I doubt that you need to make a distinction. This is especially true if you would have been welcome to take classes at either campus without distinction.
But the university has an official name. If the satellite campus has a different official name you could, and maybe should, use that. But the "expanded" name may just be a geographic signifier without any official distinction other than geography. But you can ask the university for advice, of course.
My former university has several campuses in various cities in the same geographic region of the state. There is no distinction in the degrees offered and it is the university as a whole that grants them. The diploma shows no distinction. Is that the case at your institution?


Can I post on Arxiv a final paper published on PLOS ONE? Can I post on Arxiv a final paper published on PLOS ONE? I would like to put on Arxiv the final edited paper, replacing the old pre-print. Can I do that?
I am wondering if this violates any rule of either PLOS or Arxiv, or is OK.

On the PLOS website it says:

  All content published by PLOS is Open Access and distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. You should credit the appropriate PLOS journal in your coverage and provide a link to the freely available article in any online coverage.

I also saw other answers to this question, but nothing specific for PLOS: Can I submit published articles to arXiv as well?

Which license should I choose?

Yes, you can.

Read the CCBY license: you are allowed to share (copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the material
for any purpose, even commercially) the material as long as you attribute (you must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made). So you can put the paper on arXiv, as long as you attribute.


How much reading is appropriate to give to students? I'm designing an introductory undergraduate course on social science which is mostly based on not-so technical textbooks and articles (little math involved). Essays will be the key form of evaluation. I want to have an idea of how much readings to give to my students per week. The credit system my university uses is such that for 1 hour of contact teaching 1 hour of autonomous work is expected. I have 2 hours of contact teaching per week. If I assume students can read, say 20 pages per week (assume average article/journal size), I can give them 40 pages per week as background reading. This, I assume does not include their own study of textbooks (otherwise it would be impossible to give them readings!).

Do you have an idea of what sort of relation is used in terms of contact hours versus pages of reading?

It really depends on the focus of the class, and what other homework you are giving students.

Certain classes are expected to have more reading.  Societal and philosophical theory fields are heavy on reading, as are (obviously) literature classes.

Remember, different students will read at different rates, and the more you cover the less detail you can cover.  It's sometimes better to go into deeper depth than to cover more for both these reasons.

It is important you disclose the reading to students as early as possible, preferably before they apply for your class.  At the very least all major reading assignments longer than a few pages should be disclosed on the first day of class.  This gives students that need to time to read ahead.


Beginners' guide to publications in mathematics I solved an interesting problem in probability, and I think it's worth publishing as an interesting application. However, I am not a mathematician and don't know anything about existing journals or conferences where my problem may fit.

Is there a comprehensive guide with all the important journals and conferences in math, with an explanation of what kind of papers they may publish?

You mention that you are not a mathematician and that you feel that your solution to a math problem is worth publishing.  If you are an undergraduate, you might want to consider journals targeted at authors who are undergraduates (search the internet for "undergraduate math journal").

If you are not an undergraduate (or even if you are), I recommend you look at the three journals published by the Mathematics Association of America:

Mathematics Magazine "offers lively, readable, and appealing exposition on a wide range of mathematical topics."  (Read more about it here.)
The College Mathematics Journal "is designed to enhance classroom learning and stimulate thinking regarding undergraduate mathematics. It publishes articles, short Classroom Capsules, problems, solutions, media reviews and other pieces. All are aimed at the college mathematics curriculum with emphasis on topics taught in the first two years."  (Read more about it here.)
The American Mathematical Monthly "publishes articles, notes, and other features about mathematics and the profession. Its readers span a broad spectrum of mathematical interests and abilities. Authors are invited to submit articles and notes that bring interesting mathematical ideas to a wide audience of Monthly readers."


Is it better to do undergraduate research in the summer, or during the school year? Also, if an undergrad does research during the school year, are they expected to be as productive as someone working during the summer?  Do professors calibrate their opinions of students to account for how many hours a week they've said they could commit?

I think the main question is a false dichotomy. Most students don't have a choice between either doing research over the summer or doing it during the year. As long as it doesn't interfere with your grades or other activities, more research is always a good thing, no matter when it happens.

That said, in my experience you should simply have a conversation with your professor (or direct supervisor, who will often be a grad student or post-doc) about time commitment and expectations. No one expects you to do the same amount of work in 10-15 hrs/week that you might do in 30 hrs/week, and no one expects you to work full-time while taking a full course load. As with many things in life, just make sure to communicate about expectations.


How to show patents in my google scholar profile? I have a Google Scholar profile where my conference papers are located.
Google automatically added one, while I had to manually add another.
See https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ZveOfZYAAAAJ&hl=it
I'm also inventor for a few patents that appear on Google Patent.
See https://patents.google.com/?inventor=alberto+soragna&language=ENGLISH
I wonder why Google does not show the patents automatically in my Scholar profile. I see several users that have both papers and patents there.
BTW since a couple of weeks I also have a personal website where I listed the above publications (patents included), as suggested by Google scholar guidelines.
Thank you

Your patents published on 13 August and 3 September 2020, respectively. I suspect Google Scholar will automatically add them soon.


Should I take an extra but "short" recommendation from a bigshot? Usually during postdoc application in my field applicants are asked to arrange three letters of recommendation. Sometimes one can add more than three letters. Recently I visited an institute for two weeks and gave a seminar on my work. There I also interacted with a faculty member who is a very famous. I asked him if he could write a letter for me. He told me that he could write one. But that would be very short since he knew me only for two weeks. He asked me to take letters from people who knew me for few years and also said that he could write a "fourth letter" if I insist.

Will it be a good idea to ask a letter from him?

(From my personal experience and after discussing with some other people who know him very well, I know he is an excellent human being and also very friendly.)

I think he used short as a euphemism for generic. A short letter might still be excellent if it talks about very specific things and is to the point.

If the collaboration was intense during those 2 weeks, he might have useful things to say. More probably though, he warned you politely that his letter would be generic since he doesn't know you well enough.


Biographical Sketches in NSF Postdoc application I am applying for NSF postdoc and it is asking for Biographical Sketches ( see part 14 in here) https://www.nsf.gov/mps/dms/MSPRF/MSPRF_Application_Instructions_FY20.pdf.

So I was wondering if we can upload our CV here?

I would follow the specific directions.

Trace the links back and you get to a full description of what they want.  It's on pages II-14 and II-15 of this document:  https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/policydocs/pappg19_1/nsf19_1.pdf

Give them exactly what is asked for, in order, and matching the directions.

No, not your CV.


Why do universities have a reappointment process before tenure? US universities seem to have assistant professors go through a reappointment process before tenure. It seems like a similar review, complete with letters. Except unlike tenure, almost 100% of people get reappointed. In fact I do not know of a case in which a professor failed to have their contract renewed at reappointment.

Since it seems pro-forma, why do it at all?

It is not totally pro-forma; I do know of examples where the contract was not renewed, though it certainly does happen less often than a tenure denial.  I think the standard is basically "is it reasonable to hope this person gets tenure?"

I think the purpose is to try to get people ready for their tenure review by having a look at their case early, and trying point out where they are doing OK and where they could do better.  If nothing else, it focuses the minds of people in the department who might have let things slide otherwise.  It seems pretty logical to me.


Keeping track of and sharing what you read Do you keep a list of all papers you have read? Are there any good tools for that? and do they allow people to publish what they have recently read?

The tool I'm envisioning would allow people to follow each-others readings. I find it hard to determine which new papers are worth my time, and one of the greatest benefits of having a wonderful advisor was to get recommendations of which work to follow and which wasn't all that important.

So, are there any tools that sufficiently many people (incl. professors) use to record and publish what they read? Or am I the only one who would find that useful?

Yes, there are several products to do this.

There's CiteULike, which is completely web-based, has good support, allows you to share your library, see who has read which papers, which papers are trending in the last seven days, and has a good recommendation system.

I hate to say this, because I've always had good support from them, but its functionality doesn't really extend beyond that, and that's a problem: I was really enthusiastic about it, but I notice that I've barely used it in the last 14 months.

There's the Elsevier-owned Mendeley, where you can add people as contacts, and share what you own. Recommendations are also provided anonymously, based on overlaps between your library and other people's. It has a desktop application, which I have used, and a website, which I very rarely use.

There's zotero, which does allow you to share your bibliography with others, and to see who is sharing what. I found that it also insisted on duplicating all the pdfs on my local drive too, which meant I quickly uninstalled it.

And there's EndNote Web, which might allow libraries to be shared publicly, but I found the interface frustratingly unusable, so couldn't say either way.

In short, there are several applications which allow you to share the metadata of the papers you read, on the web. However, the user experience, ergonomics and functionality is patchy.


Do mathematics researchers regularly solve problems like the ones from Project Euler? I'm not sure that this is the right exchange for this question. It asks about the possibilities of research in mathematics and computer science.

Extended Background

I am very interested in mathematics and theoretical computer science. Over the past few years I've gained lots of experience from math competitions, programming competitions, software development internships, and talking to professors, and I've learned that I do not enjoy writing code; I enjoy writing "beautiful" and elegant code in practice, just as I enjoy beautiful and elegant proofs in mathematics, but I do not enjoy writing hundreds of trivial imperative lines of code to make some company money. I've learned that I like to think critically about problems, and I like finding the quickest, most efficient, most elegant solutions. I enjoy the mathematical (or theoretical) side of computer science.

So, recently, after coding only with imperative languages my whole life, I discovered Haskell, a functional programming language. It is extremely close to mathematics: Everything is a function. Ideas are defined rather than executed; instead of giving a computer step-by-step instructions, the computer is given a definition. This discovery reaffirmed my passion for mathematics and the mathematical and theoretical side of computer science.

Minimal Background/Question

I've also been frequenting a website called Project Euler, which is filled with 450+ mathematics-based programming problems. This is essentially the epitome of my passion. I love solving these problems with Haskell (and sometimes, when I'm clever enough, with merely a pen and paper).

I know that many of the questions (if not all of them) have already been solved and researched in both the field of mathematics and the field of computer science, and hundreds of their variants have been as well. However, many of these problems were initially proposed and solved hundreds of years ago by mathematicians (such as Euler and Gauss), and most of the relatively newer problems were all proposed and solved by the 1980s.

So my question is, are there still problems like this that I can think about for a living? If so, which field and sub-field is closest to this type of research? If not, would I be involved in these problems by teaching and then introducing them to students of mine, or hosting competitions?

TL;DR

Can I solve problems like this one as a career?
If this research isn't viable, would I be more involved with this type of problems by teaching and hosting competitions, etc?

This may be a better question for Math.SE.  That said...

These sorts of problems fall in the category of contest math.  Sometimes they are related to active areas of mathematical research (most often number theory, combinatorics, and geometry), but more often, current research deals with problems that are considerably more complex and can't be solved (or even stated) in a page or two.

Note also that, at least in the US, there are very few people who get paid to do mathematics research full-time and exclusively.  Most professional mathematics researchers are professors at colleges and universities, and their duties also include teaching and administration (to varying degrees).

There is a recognized subculture of mathematicians interested in contest math.  They may get involved in creating problems, organizing contests, and coaching students.  At some universities, such activities may be considered a significant part of their research or "scholarship" duties, but they would normally be teaching regular math classes as well.

Edit: Actually, there is a category of careers I had forgotten: intelligence. The NSA and its counterparts (GCHQ, etc) employ many thousands of mathematicians. Of course, it's hard for an outsider to know what goes on there, but it could be that their activities have more of a problem-solving flavor. At least they are not bound by the requirement that their work be publishable! The NSA has a well-known (and highly competitive) summer internship program for undergrads, the Director's Summer Program, so that could be one way of testing those waters relatively early on.


How to differentiate between articles, conference proceedings, etc.? I have many PDF files for some academic papers. I want to sort them into journal articles, conference proceedings, reports, etc.

How can I know which one is an article and which one is a conference proceedings and which one is ... (any other type of papers)?

Reference managing software such as Mendeley usually provide an import feature for PDF files. You simply supply a list of PDF files and the software automatically extracts the metadata such as title, author names, journal, and so on. The accuracy is usually pretty good, and then you can easily sort and organize the files in whichever way you want.


Proper citation of scooped or defective articles I'm curious about the correct way to cite a paper which is flawed when I publish in academic journals.  In the past I've added annotations to the bibliography (or included text in the main article) stating what the problem was.  But now I wonder if instead if such annotations should sometimes start with "The authors have been notified that...."

The reason is that I have encountered a professor who shamelessly fails to issue errata for mathematical errors and (worse) also fails to issue errata when overlooked prior work (not mine) completely scoops her weaker results by 25+ years.  (The weaker result has eclipsed the older one, drawing on the order of 100 citations.)   More recently, I found that she has another article failing to cite a similar article proving a similar result, and she failed to issue errata for mathematical errors in 3 of her papers.

Her lack of citation case wasted a month of my time.  (I wrote an article improving upon her paper, only to find my manuscript was still weaker than the original she failed to cite.)

If the paper duplicates or rediscovers earlier results, you can simply cite the earlier work together with the new one.

  All splines are reticulated [Smith 1963; Jones 2008].

Or if only the earlier paper is really relevant, you can cite it alone. But if the Jones paper is commonly cited in this context, and you don't cite it, a reviewer may wonder why.  You can of course explain why you don't want to, but it may cause more friction between you and the reviewer than you want.  Or, your apparent unfamiliarity with the famous literature in your field may, in a borderline case, cause your paper to be rejected before you have a chance to explain.

If you feel strongly, you can say something like "The work of Smith is often overlooked, but is particularly significant because blah blah blah...".  In other words, you can promote the work of Smith if you don't think it is as widely known as it deserves, but don't explicitly put down Jones.

If a paper has an error that is relevant to what you are discussing in your paper, then describe it in the text.

  It was shown by Jones that every snark is a boojum [Jones 2008]; note that Equation 4.16 in that paper contains an error, where X should be replaced by Y.

I do not see any reason to mention that the authors have been notified.  The reader will presume that you did so, because that's what any sensible academic would do.  If the authors didn't do anything about it, you can take it up with the journal if you feel it's really important; but I think it's unprofessional to use your paper to passive-aggressively shame them.


Salary for math professors at 4-year liberal arts colleges? I am working on the latter half of my PhD in mathematics at a mid-ranked university, and I am beginning to think about what kind of career I would like to have after I graduate. I am leaning towards a tenure track job at a more teaching oriented liberal arts college. I am more into the teaching aspect of the job rather than the research aspect of the job. I prefer living the quiet life in a smaller size town, and having fewer students that I can interact with rather than larger classes where I don't get much interaction with students.

However, salary is important to me and when I search online "liberal arts college assistant professor salary" I get conflicting, and some downright scary search results.

Examples:

Salary genius says:

  The average yearly salary for Liberal Arts College Professor is $36,550. If you are just beginning to work a new job as a Liberal Arts College Professor, you could expect a starting pay rate of $30,100 annually.

Salary.com says:

  How much does a Asst. Professor - Liberal Arts make? The median annual Asst. Professor - Liberal Arts salary is $56,978, as of January 30, 2018, with a range usually between $44,890-$69,846, however this can vary widely depending on a variety of factors.

Wikipedia says:

  Assistant Professor:
  $45,927 (Lowest Median By Field)

  $81,005  (Highest Median By Field)

  $58,662 (Overall Median)

I am okay with Salary.com's numbers and Wikipedia's. I know that these numbers go up as you get promoted to associate professor and full professor, and I think that somewhere in the neighborhood of $50,000+ is a pretty decent starting 9 month salary. But Salary Genius' cited numbers, to me, are an absolute joke for the qualifications required for the job and the amount of time we have put into getting those qualifications.

Question: I am hoping for some responses about what kind of salary I will likely be getting if I get a tenure track job at a smaller liberal arts college in, say, a rural town. What are the actual numbers?

Hopefully I can hear from someone who actually has experience working at these type of institutions.

The AMS does a salary survey with lots of information about math faculty pay by type of school and rank.  New hires at schools that only offer bachelors degrees almost all make between 40K-80K with the most common band being 50K-60K.


Is it unprofessional to use graphics from Wikipedia in a poster? Is it an acceptable practice to use simple graphics found on Wikipedia (and hence in Wikimedia Commons) in a conference poster?

From the legal point of view, this seems to be fine, as long as the image is properly attributed. Presumably it should suffice to mention the source in acknowledgements section. Or am I missing something?

How would this be perceived? Would it come across as unprofessional? The poster I am preparing is for an interdisciplinary and not too formal event, and the graphic I'd like to add is meant to illustrate a basic mathematical notion. (However, more general answers are very welcome.)

The primary issues with using Wikipedia for academic research are that it's a tertiary source, and there's no credibility/quality assurance.

So, you should make sure that

If the image contains intellectual content that requires citation, you should cite a primary source for that content.
The image (including its factual/intellectual content) meets academic standards of quality and accuracy.

Assuming these are satisfied, reusing images from Wikimedia (or a similar source) is not inherently unprofessional. Of course, if the image is of poor quality or doesn't fit in well with your poster, it will look unprofessional - but this would also be true if you had created the image yourself.

This is, of course, assuming that the image you are using is in Wikimedia commons (not all images on Wikipedia are), and

you follow the license requirements (protects against legal/copyright problems)
you correctly attribute the source (protects against ethical/plagiarism concerns)


Will my stressful year be seen as a negative? I am an undergraduate student in mathematics. My academic performance is really good but many people tell me "you are too stressed up", including people who know me for a few weeks.

Due to some serious family issues the last few years have been hell.

As the time passes everything is returning to normal but the professors who don't know about those events might think this is how my personality is.

I am going to ask letters of recommendation from those professors for a graduate school application. Do you think this will negatively impact my application? What I can do about it?

edit: It's just the air around me. Some professors mentioned this: "You are too tense, don't worry you will go alright". Not sure how to explain this better.

"Stressed out" could hurt you insofar as people who would give you otherwise positive recommendations might be tempted to tone them down.

When asking for letters of recommendation, discuss these issues candidly with the prospective recommenders. Some might not care. Others might "care" but they might also be open to a discussion of extenuating circumstances. A few will have their opinions shaped by your behavior. If and when you identify such a person, you might want to withdraw your request for a recommendation from them.


Terminology: Pagraph subject identification prefix text Reference books, technical manuals, MIL standards, etc., prefix every paragraph with a short subject identification statement. For example, paragraph 1.3 in the 16th ed. of the Chicago Manual of Style (CMoS) begins,

  1.3     Rectos and versos.  Publishers refer to the ...

Is there a common terminology for the bolded and italicized (in this case) subject identification prefix text? What is this writing practice called? In particular, does the CMoS define this practice (I've looked extensively in the CMoS but I couldn't find anything).

(FWIW, the MIL standards I checked typically identify this text as "paragraph identification", "subject identification," or "paragraph and subparagraph identifications". But I can't find in other style guides a description for this paragraph summary text.)

In my experience, this is just called the (sub)section name --- as driven by the LaTeX styling used in many STEM disciplines.  No fancier title is needed.