Should I submit one strong recommendation letter or one strong letter and one weaker letter? I'm a third year undergraduate engineering student in India.

I am applying for a research program at a foreign university which will start at the end of my third year. This internship program requires at least one and a maximum of two letters of recommendation. As is the case for many students in my college (and I suspect many Indian engineering undergrads as well), I do not have much interaction with most of my professors outside of classes. My grades are decent but nothing spectacular in my courses.

Hence, I only have one strong letter of recommendation from a professor with whom I am doing a project. The rest of my professors who I have spoken to about the same have only given me tepid responses and have advised me to come back only if I cannot find anyone else ready to give me a letter.

In this case, what should I do for filing my LoRs? Would it be better to submit only the strong LoR or should I submit a weaker LoR as well?

It depends a lot on how you define "a weak LoR". Consider 5 levels:

+2: My best student in 10 years.
+1: DWIC (did well in class) + hard working, take initiative etc
0 : Simply DWIC, e.g. Kerkyra's LoR.
-1: He was in my class, he asked me to write LoR.
-2: Don't take him

Unless you make someone very upset, people will not write a -1 and -2 LoRs. If you believe the weak ones are still +1s, you can submit.

FYI, I fell out with my Master thesis advisor, and decided not to use his LoR (he still offered to write one). I managed to get 3 PhD admissions with full scholarship using three +1 LoRs (but I submitted more than 50 applications).

Good luck!


Locating a specific German Ph.D. Dissertation from 1959 I am trying to access the following work online, but I'm having no luck finding it:

  Krüger, Dietrich. 1959. "Die Bildersprache des Demosthenes." Ph.D., Classics, Göttingen.

Any idea where I could access it?

In general,

I'd always expect the university library where the dissertation was done to have at least one exemplar in their archives.
The national library is also supposed to have at least one exemplar of every book published in Germany.

For searching books within Germany, the university libraries of several German Länder have a common online catalgoue (Gemeinsamer Verbundkatalog, GVK), see also https://www.bszgbv.de/ which also include Baden-Württemberg and Saarland.

GVK lists 3 exemplars of the dissertation at the Göttingen University library: https://kxp.k10plus.de/DB=2.1/PPNSET?PPN=146113365
https://www.worldcat.org/ is an online catalogue covering even more libraries from around the globe.


Lack of team support in post-PhD Mathematics career I received my PhD in mathematics about ten years ago. Despite my preference,  desire, and attempts, I was not offered any postdoctoral positions. Part of the reason was (I think) that my dissertation topic was outdated, as opposed to being trendy. Since then, I have accepted a couple of tenure-track positions in teaching-oriented institutions, the second at a two-year Community College and in two years from now I will most probably be tenured. However, I constantly struggle with existential questions. I am not where I wanted to be. Granted, I have a job, but if my goal was to have a job, I was totally capable of aiming at a higher-paying job, instead of mathematics, when I was deciding what to study at college. As a teenager what intrigued me about mathematics (and still does) was its beauty and the opportunity it provided me for being creative through research and continuous learning. However, since my PhD the processes of research and learning have been very slow, despite my continuous attempts. For a long time I used to think the reason was lack of time due to heavy teaching load. While that may have contributed to the problem, I now think a bigger reason is lack of team support. There is a disconnect between my job and my research. I don't have people (graduate students, researchers, etc.) around me to whom I can talk about my research, everyday or every week. Consequently, the ratio of outcome to the time that I spend on research and learning new things is very small. So what are my questions?

Ideally I would have liked to be part of a team, a lab if you like, consisting of one or two senior mathematicians (lab leaders), research assistants (mathematicians like myself who are not young enough to be postdocs, but still need to develop their research plans), postdocs, and graduate students. My question is, does such a model exist anywhere?
Are there any options for mathematicians who really are not after a secure job and prefer to work as research assistants (paid less), rather than tenured "calculus teaching" faculty who do not meet age requirements to be considered for postdoctoral positions?
Suppose someone (e.g., myself) didn't know better and did his dissertation on a topic that was not trendy and because of that couldn't secure a postdoctoral position. Is that the end of their career as a research mathematician? Are there any other options? What would you suggest?

This model is extremely common in Europe (for example, one of my coauthors in Germany is in a group with her and another senior professor, two junior mathematicians on essentially very long term second postdocs, and about 7 or 8 young postdocs and 7 or 8 graduate students), but there is no institutional framework for it in the US.  I know of pairs of tenure-line faculty at the same institution who are close enough to essentially run a joint research group, but outside of a few departments, they are unlikely to have more than one postdoc at a time, so "research group" mostly means them and their graduate students.
Not really.  Essentially postdoctoral positions are the only mechanism that exists in the US system for paying people who are not already performing at a pretty high level to do research.  You could still apply to these, though as I think you've already guessed, the odds aren't great this long post-Ph.D.  I think the other possibility would be obtaining a long term, non-tenure-track lectureship at a research university (for example, my department hired someone to such a job this year) where there are senior faculty who might work with you.  There would still be high teaching expectations (though maybe not worse than a TT community college position), and any research involvement would be "on your own time," but presumably that's largely the case now.
I suppose this depends on how you define "career as a research mathematician."  The answer is obviously not "absolutely no," look at Yitang Zhang.  Of course, that's a very extreme example (Zhang didn't even have a teaching position in mathematics for several years), but I think it does show that if you do something undeniably great, at whatever age, the community is open to it.  On the other hand, this is like asking "If I can't get on a Division I college team, does that mean my career as a basketball player is over?"   Obviously, no one can stop you from playing basketball, but if you mean doing so professionally, the odds are slim. If you're really that good, then maybe an NBA team will notice and hire you.  But you're not going to be in the place that they look for potential new players, and you'll be missing out on how most people develop their skills.  So it's a tough row to hoe.

I think in terms of what's realistic: if what you're missing is being around other people doing mathematics, getting ideas, etc. and you're not worried about security then I would look into finding a permanent (or at least renewable) but non-tenure-track teaching position at a larger research department.  It will certainly have some downsides, but I think it's the closest feasible approximation to what you're looking for.


Who/what determines the order of articles appearing in an issue of an academic journal? Who/what determines the order of articles appearing in an issue of an academic journal? Does the editor or the publisher decide this? A few examples reveal that it is not alphabetical by author or title. Is order determined by time (i.e. when each paper is accepted), or does the order indicate how the editor/publisher perceives the potential impact of each piece?

It is the editor, that determines the order. Other than that there are no general rules. Typically, they just pick the order that "makes sense". Maybe a topical article first if one is available. Maybe there are a couple of articles that fit nicely together, and (s)he wants to emphasize that, etc. etc.


When does one go for an invited paper? I have little understanding about invited papers, but as far as I know, I think these are non-peer-reviewed papers presented at a conference.

Now why and when does one go for an invited paper? Is it only to advertise one's work? Is there any other merit in this?
Also, are normal papers and invited papers the same as far as cost is concerned?

Being invited to present a paper or give a keynote is an honour. It shows that the community recognizes your work. Of course, it is also a way to further advertise your work, or to reflect on what you have done. Generally, the audience is larger for invited speakers.

One accepts the invitation if one has time and prestige of the conference matches one's reputation. If you have a small reputation, an invited talk at a workshop is an honour. If you are super-famous, you'll tend to only accept invitations to prestigious events.

The cost may depend on how much money the conference has in its budget, which will often depend on the sponsors. Sometimes the conference will waive the registration fee, often they may provide accommodation also, and sometimes they may even cover airfare. Bigger conferences will be able to cover more of the costs. Small workshops may not be able to cover any of the costs.


Academic dean (interim graduate program director) not responding to e-mails This question goes along with this post here:

E-mails being ignored by university

Interestingly, my situation is also at a college institution in California. However, rather than note that it might be a problem with America, I want to ask a specific question. The academic dean of my Graduate department program very consistently does not answer any e-mails from students. 5-6 of my colleagues have tried e-mailing her over the past year and a half of our program. In order to reach her, I have had to go directly to her office (attempting this 3 times to finally speak with her). I just e-mailed her again recently, and am not receiving any response again.

Major note: She is also the interim director of my specific graduate program

Question: Can I as a student in the program say or do anything about this? As busy as an academic dean may be, it doesn't seem acceptable in my opinion.

Depending on the size of the institution, the dean herself may answer none of her correspondence directly no matter whether by email or formal letter. Deans usually have office staff to filter all communication and sort it by priority. Deans spend an inordinate amount of time in meetings at all levels, both on and off campus. If you sent an email to a vice president of some relatively large company you would get the same result. Multiplying your attempts only makes the problem of scale worse. Your repeated attempts are received as just noise.

A dean at a large place may not even be able to field email from faculty directly, much less from students. You can enquire from the office of the dean what is the best way to obtain answers and to meet your needs, but don't expect that personal contact is likely or even possible.

You can complain, of course, but it would probably need to be to the dean or to one of her superiors. But they have the same sort of office procedures.

In general, however, I'd suggest that you direct questions to the lowest office in the organization for which it makes sense. Usually that is the department office, perhaps even a secretary there. But perhaps even an individual faculty member is more appropriate unless your issues are about misconduct at some lower level that really requires upper-level action.

I went to a college with about 2000 students and never corresponded with the dean. I went to a graduate institution with 40,000 students and never even knew who the dean was.


Literature Review versus Literature Survey. What is the difference? I have read several articles about literature reviews. At the same time I found some guides about literature surveys. I am confused... how is a literature survey different from a literature review? What is the standard procedure to conduct a literature survey without making it a literature review?

Reviewing the literature relevant to a given field is a standard part of doing research, as this serves to put your work into the context of the larger discipline in which you are working.

If there is an actual difference between the "literature survey" and the "literature review," it's that the latter can serve as a paper in and of itself, and is much more extensive than a literature survey, which is typically a major part of the introduction of a research paper.

The literature review as a standalone article could be compared to a "curated" overview of the literature in the field—who has done what, how do papers relate to one another, and what are the most important present and (possibly) future directions of work in such a field. Such papers can also be considerably longer than a traditional research paper, and some reviews might cite as many as a thousand references!

In comparison, the literature survey of a standard research article is usually much shorter (1-2 journal pages), and will not cite nearly as many papers (anywhere from 10 to 100, depending on the topic and the amount of relevant literature available).


PhD Journey 2nd Year: Looking for perspective/focus Without being too specific to my own problem, I wanted to ask your opinion/experiences about research process.

Recently I have read that a mediocre idea that is perfectly executed is much better than a brilliant idea that is poorly executed.

I am currently in track 1: My scope is clear and I feel comfortable to carry it out.

However, I have this irresistible urgency to expand my scope to a new, exciting research area that neither me nor my supervisor have prior background. I am lucky since my supervisor supports this decision, in fact found some contacts in this new subject. But now I am having some doubts, especially whether there will be enough time for me to get familiar in this new subject area and able to produce something.

Also, people around me telling that it is also common conducting a post-doc in a different area and I should consider this opportunity later not now during the PhD.

What do you think about based on your PhD experience? Would you rather stick to what you know the best and expand your knowledge marginally or sail to the unknown?

Many thanks.

Would pursuit of this new track in any way compromise your chances of getting the PhD in a reasonable time? If no, then it must surely to be better to research something that excites you rather than plod on with something that does not.

If, however, your PhD is the key to your future career, then why risk it for the sake of pursuing an idea that you can safely pursue after you win your PhD.

I too am in the second year of a PhD but my future career does not depend on it. I feel free to pursue interesting ideas, and if that delays my PhD I am happy with that.

So it all depends on your appetite for risk>


How can publishers justify author fees for open access journals? The context for my question is that I recently discovered a new journal called Experimental Results, published by Cambridge University Press. Their mission, as stated on their website, is:

  Experimental Results is an Open Access journal providing a forum for experimental findings that disclose the small incremental steps vitally important to experimental research; experiments and findings which have so far remained hidden. Such results often go unpublished due to the traditional scholarly communication process, in which only a select group of experiments are chosen to make up the narrative of a single paper.

  Articles for consideration in Experimental Results include validation
  and reproducibility of existing findings, null results, supplementary
  findings, improvements or amendments to published results, as well as
  results that could be of importance, but for whatever reason, the
  researcher has not followed a particular line of questioning to
  produce a full narrative for a traditional paper. Where applicable,
  work published in Experimental Results will clearly link back to the
  related article.

While I applaud the idea of open access and publishing the science that Experimental Results is targeting, I can’t say that I understand how Cambridge University Press can justify the absurd 700 EUR article processing charge (ACP). How can they rely on authors’ good intentions to pay that amount to publish <750 words (the stated word limit) of science that is largely procedural?

Furthermore, when publishers houses see >35% profit margins on their “products” by relying on faculty service obligations for manuscript reviewing (among other factors), why does Cambridge University Press (one of the oldest and most well-established scientific publishers) need to charge a fee for this, at all? Why can’t it be truly free and open access?

Speaking generally, I do understand the common justification for fees relating to open-access publishing (i.e., someone's gotta pay, and if it won't be the university libraries, it's going to be the authors) - but this seems like it has gone too far, in my opinion.

To summarize my specific questions for clarity:
1. What is a reasonable justification for author fees in journals like this?
2. Why would authors be motivated to pay such fees to publish, instead of freely sharing information?

(Also, I am new to asking questions on SE, so I apologize if this type of opinionated/targeted question is inappropriate or violates policy by lacking a "correct" answer. This just seemed like a well-informed community in which to have this discussion.)

The short answer: some journals use author fees to offset the costs of running open access.

Over the past decade, two practices have become more common together in academic publishing: full open access journals and author fees. The STM Report, an overview of STEM publishing, says the practice is growing in their 2018 edition, "3.2.1 Gold APC and author fees":

  A growing number of journals make their entire contents freely available immediately on
  publication (full open access journals) using supply-side payments. Generally, these
  payments take the form of an article publication charge (APC) levied by journals at the point
  of publication, and it is up to authors (or frequently their research funder or institution) to
  make the payment.

In other words, traditional academic publishing has consumers (research libraries, universities, independent researchers, databases) paying for access to a journal. Open access means that the consumer side is effectively free. Instead, publishers recoup costs through  "supply-side payments" like author fees (known as a Gold APC [article publication charge] model) or institutional sponsorships (known as a Gold no APC model). Authors' fees have been around for decades in various forms, including "page charges," but this report and other commentators (like Kent Anderson) observe that these fees are on the rise again.

What is involved in that cost? The report also includes an answer, under "2.9.12 Overall costs of peer review," emphasis mine:

  The notional global cost of peer review is substantial, albeit largely an estimate of academic time  devoted  to  it  rather  than  actual  cash:  an  RIN  report  estimated  this  at  £1.9  billion annually,  equivalent  to  about  £1200  per  paper  (RIN  2008).  The  Houghton  report  used  a slightly  higher  figure,  at  £1400  per  paper  (Houghton  et  al.,  2009).  These  figures  are  full costings, including estimates for the time spent by the academics conducting the review. The publisher’s  average  cost  of  managing  peer  review  (salaries  and  fees  only,  excluding overheads,  infrastructure,  systems  etc.)  was  reported  by  the  PEER  study  at  $250  per submitted manuscript (Wallace 2012).

So Cambridge University Press may be using the author fees to offset staff salaries, fees, overheads, infrastructure, and systems. Some of their cost is related to peer review, and some would be entailed in running the journal itself. Even if the actual peer reviews from experts are unpaid, all of the surrounding work incurs a cost. Given the RIN report and the PEER study estimates, that cost is somewhere in the hundreds or low thousands of dollars, pounds, or euros.

How does that affect submission rates? As you might guess, some authors are turned away by fees. That said, these publications still tend to get submissions, perhaps because author organizations are able to pay the fees, because the pressures to publish outweigh the costs to the author, or because they are attracted to the open model for ideological reasons. In other words, the motivations vary from author to author.


Use of total page count in footer I am writing my bachelors thesis and I'm unsure whether to put the total page count into the footer.
The options I consider are:

  page # of ##

  page #

  #

where # is the page's number and ## is the total page count.

While I find the first option nice for small documents where a page might get lost, I think it's unnecessary for a large and bound document.

The second alternative might be pretty but the reader should be able to infer the additional information compared to option three.

The last option is common in books and journals. Is there a significant difference to a thesis that justifies different styles?

I am pretty much free in the layout of my document and don't have to follow any styleguides.

Which style of page numbering should I use?

You basically answered yourself.

Option 1: not necessary for bound documents.
Option 2: doesn't add much with respect to 3.

So keep the standard approach 3. There are not sufficient motivations to justify putting more ink on those pages.

As the quote says, a designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.


Is it bad if I am not a teaching assistant during my PhD? I've applied to be a teaching assistant (helps with running undergrad labs and marking reports/tests/exams) every year so far during my PhD, but have never been successful. I'm getting to the end of my PhD, and despite my best efforts, have no teaching experience, thus that section of my CV is blank.

Would this be a bad sign for post-PhD employment?

Outside of academia, the lack of teaching experience will have little or no negative effect on your employment prospects.

If you are going into academic positions, the significance of not having been a TA will depend greatly on your field and the type of institution you will be working at. For instance, if you are at a research-intensive university, teaching experience isn't as essential as at a small liberal-arts college. In a similar vein, an engineering graduate is less likely to be expected to have teaching experience than a PhD recipient in, say, mathematics or the humanities.


Are there any accredited universities in the world offering students the option of acquiring a BA/BSc in psychology completely online? I travel a lot and I'm interested in getting a psychology degree but after researching online I still haven't been able to find a good university that offers the choice to complete a psych degree by distance education.  I'm a Canadian citizen so programs that accept Canadians is vital.  With all the current online offerings I'm shocked that I can't find a quality university offering a BA or BSc in psychology online or by distance offline.  Any suggestions? I'm interested in CPA accredited degrees otherwise it's worth nothing in Canada.  And, I'm open to programs with a few on-campus requirements if an accredited degree is unavailable fully online.  I want to be able to pursue a MA or a PhD in Canada after completing the undergraduate program.

Are there any accredited universities in the world offering students the option of acquiring a BA/BSc in psychology completely online?

Yes

There are likely hundreds of programs. How well they meet your needs will be determined by 1) What you mean by 'accredited', and 2) residency restrictions.

  Accreditation

Are you interested in accredited institutions or accredited programs? Institutions are accredited by organizations recognized at the government level as being able to guarantee that all programs at the institution meet some minimum standards. In the US, regional accreditation is king, while the more prestigious sounding national accreditation is generally viewed as easier to get and less rigorous. In Canada, accreditation appears to be handled through membership in the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada.

Again, in the US, many of the large flagship state institutions have an online campus to accompany their bricks-and-mortar traditional campuses. For example Univerity of Maryland University College appears to offer an online BS in Psychology. UMUC is regionally accredited in the US by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, just like the the bricks-and-mortar campuses of the University of Maryland system. Certainly, some of the larger schools in Canada also have a similar online presence.

The on-line for-profit schools in the US tend to be nationally accredited, with the notable exception of the much maligned University of Phoenix, which offers an online program in psychology. University of Phoenix is regionally accredited by the Higher Learning Commission as part of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

Individual programs may also be accredited or certified by various professional organizations. If you are looking for an online psychology program certified by a professional psychology association, try starting at the website of the association and look for lists of certified programs.

  Residency

Attending an online only institution should not have residency restrictions based on your country of citizenship, but it probably does. For example, I would imagine you would need to have a US education visa in order to be admitted into some US institutions, even if the program is entirely online and you never need to step foot on campus.


Coping with not speaking local language, as an academic? One requirement in academia, especially as an early career scientist, is the the willingness to study or work in different countries.

Personal motivation for the question: Apart from the professional side (having a job, developing as a researcher,...), the positive aspects of going abroad are clear to me: I really enjoy getting to know new countries, their mentality, culture, nature, etc. It is also a great opportunity to meet new people and make new friends. But on the downside: I only speak English and German, and I’m really bad at learning new languages, I might add. Also, I’ve seen a lot of non-German speaking colleagues struggle with learning German at my home University for years (and I assume that a lot of people in academia must have the same problem).

I’m currently in the third year of my PhD and doing a medium-term research stay in Norway. Not understanding most of what is said around me makes everyday life more difficult and also somewhat more lonely (even though most people do speak English in Norway, so I am able to get by). Moreover, I feel that I really miss out by not learning the language while I’m here. But for my job it is not required to know the language, which makes it not immediately necessary.

Thinking about PostDoc options for after my PhD, I don’t want to limit myself to only English/German speaking countries. However, I hesitate to take a longer position, knowing that I might not be able/willing to learn the language. Knowing that I will always force people around me to either be impolite or to not speak in their native language.

If an academic doesn't learn languages easily apply only to jobs in countries where s/he already speaks the local language?

I’m specifically posting this here as opposed to some language forum. I’m interested in how other people in a similar position deal with this situation. I'm aware that it is in theory of course possible to learn every language but I'm interested in in opinions and experiences from real life.

Learning a language is a lot of work, particularly if it is not that similar to languages you already know.  So it's not an endeavour to undertake just because you might get a job somewhere later.  You need real motivation to learn a language properly.  The main reasons I see for an academic to learn a language properly are: because you enjoy learning languages, because you plan to spend a lot of time in a place it will be useful, or because you need it for your academic work.

If you are serious, in academia there are resources that may be easily accessible to you.  The main ones are:

take/audit language classes at your university before going there
take language classes for foreigners at your destination university

Universities get a lot of foreign visitors, and depending on the university, they may have other support besides their own language classes.

I did a 1-year postdoc in Japan, and one piece of advice I got from someone who was doing a postdoc there before me was start learning Japanese as soon as possible.  So I studied Japanese for about a year beforehand both by taking university classes in the US, as well as some extra studying on my own.  I also took lessons in Japan, as well as studied on my own.  While my Japanese is still far from a native level, after a couple months in Japan, I could handle most non-technical communications on my own in Japanese.

I do want to stress this requires real effort on your part, and it's hard if you don't really enjoy it or aren't serious about it.  I met several foreigners there who just attempted to learn Japanese by osmosis and maybe some small efforts on their own, and even if they had been their many years, they couldn't have a real conversation in Japanese.


How should I state my graduation year? I’ve been MS student and completed all my courses in years 2012-2014, but instead of taking my master’s exam in 2014 (which is requirement for graduation) I took a break. I have defended my master’s thesis and passed the master’s exam this year. During this break out period I wasn’t student, so I am unsure how should I state this on my resume and make it look as good as possible.

I suggest stating the date ranges during which you were registered as a student, as well as the degree date:

SomeUniversity September 2012 to March 2014 and January 2018, MS SubjectX 2018.

That will presumably match up with the employment section of the CV that will show work during the gap.


Writing thesis that rebuts advisor's theory A potential masters thesis advisor became pretty famous (in his field) for the development of a certain theory in behavioral economics. However, I find that his theory is relatively unexplainable, and I feel that I have come up with an alternative theory that would explain the exact same phenomena, but in a more justifiable way.
Knowing very little about how thesis advisors view their students' work or the dominance of their own theories, I see two possibilities:
First, my theory might not be very good and my professor will either point out the flaw, or encourage me to continue developing the flawed theory because it's better than nothing.
Second, my theory may actually be pretty good and my professor may view it with hostility, consciously or subconsciously. Is it unreasonable for me to consider this a possibility? Is it a possibility? How likely is it?

There is no predicting personality without close study, but if the person is a true scholar they will welcome an advance, even if it refutes something they did earlier.
No, hostility isn't an unreasonable possibility. But whether it is likely depends on the person. Impossible to say how likely. You are in a better position to judge, knowing them. Are they insecure? Do they welcome a challenge? Are they fair and honest?
But it would probably be better to approach them with a questioning attitude rather than one making bold claims. After all, you might be wrong, as you say. And you should be sure of the wider literature. Has the theory been validated by others? Accepted as fact?


What questions should I ask as a candidate during an interview for a tenure-track assistant professor position? I will soon be at an on-campus interview
for a tenure-track assistant professor position.
I expect that in the course of the day,
I will be asked the question,
"Do you have any questions for us?"
What are good questions for me to ask
to show that I am interested in the department
and would very much like to join?

I don't think that most candidates are very good at faking interest. So, ask the questions you are genuinely interested in, and your interest will show through. It is true that you have to give the best impression you can during an interview, but you don't want to come across as fake or scripted.

I would start by reading the university, college, and department websites. That may give you some questions.

If you run out of questions, you can always ask other faculty in the department about themselves. It is rumored that academics love to talk about themselves.  You can also talk about your research, which is an easy way to make small talk and show off your communication skills.

Given that general advice, here are some questions that I think are common and "safe":

Ask about the tenure process. How long is the probationary period? What is the general process? Is there any form of mid-tenure review?
Ask about teaching. What courses do new faculty typically teach?  How tightly controlled are they? Will you have a lot of new preparations? Do faculty often teach over the summer? What process is used to make teaching assignments (seniority, rotation, etc.)?
Ask about benefits. They can tell you about the insurance and retirement benefits, which vary significantly from school to school.
Ask about housing. Where do most of the faculty live? How far from campus do they live? How expensive is it to live in the area? Are there any particularly nice locations to live near the college?
Ask about living in the area. Is it a lively place? A quiet place that's "good for raising a family"? Is there much nightlife? Is there convenient local shopping?  Is it good for biking?

Here are some questions that you have to think about carefully before you ask them:

Salary. Some prefer to talk about this during the interview; some prefer to wait until an offer is made.
Two-body problems (if your spouse is also looking for a job at the university or in the area). Again, some prefer to wait until an offer is made, others mention it early. See these questions: Should one disclose his/her family information in an academic job interview? and When during the application process should a candidate mention that their spouse is also looking for a job?
Unusual goals. For example, if you are being interviewed by department X, but you want to work mostly with people in department Y. In some cases, this sort of thing is a mark in your favor - in others it will doom your chances of getting hired.


Will it be a good idea to take 3 months off after PhD defense to improve my skillset and work on my mental wellbeing? I have struggled throughout my civil engineering PhD. My topic was away from the realm of my advisor's expertise, and as a result my research can be considered as an independent endeavor. She (advisor) was always there to guide the direction, but she didn't give any technical input to my research.

In addition, my group colleagues, who worked in topics related to my advisor's expertise, published several publications in prestigious journals (IF > 10). While, I struggled to get one published in a 2 impact factor journey. This caused a lot of anxiety during my first 3 years of PhD.

On top of this, my advisor did not proactively correct my manuscripts I had submitted her. So, lot of my manuscripts are pending her consideration. This also affected my mental peace.

Being in final year, I started looking for postdoctoral positions since the beginning of the year. Applied to many, but was rejected. My advisor said to me the other day that if I don't get a postdoctoral offer, I can stay in my current lab for next 6-8 months and search for positions.

I am all burned out and having it difficult to be optimistic about my future. I am thinking of taking some time off (2-3 months off) (I have some savings to pull that off) after my PhD to gather my composure, work on my programming skills, and then join my current lab as a stop gap while searching for positions. I am already 30 years of age and have been a student throughout.

Will it be a good idea to take 3 months off after PhD defense to improve my skillset and work on my mental wellbeing? No, I have not been to any mental health counselor.

I took about 3 months off. I just did not very actively search for positions and when I found one ask for plenty of time to prepare (the start date was basically "whenever you can make it" from my employers point of view).
It was amazing. Yes, in that time I was in the process of interviewing (but I had not applied for more than this one job yet, that just was too good to not try) and then packed up my life and moved to another country. But I also met with friends, slept in, decluttered my stuff, data and brain, visited family and just took time to recover.

Everyone so far has reacted very positively to this fact. My family and friends admit that it made me a more happy, balanced person. My colleagues and supervisors (old and new) encouraged me to take the time off and stated multiple times that this was an appropriate and good thing to do. Even the lady at the office where I had to sign up as unemployed completely understood the situation and promised me not to bother me for at least three months, as long as I kept making progess with at least one application.


How do "lecturers" differ from "professors" in large universities? I notice that some universities have academic positions known as lecturers. Are these positions different from professors? Are transitions from instructors to the professor track relatively easy. This position seems similar to the adjunct professor position.

Note that I am talking about universities in the USA.

I used to be a lecturer at a university in the southwest USA.  As a lecturer, I was charged with only teaching lower division undergraduate courses (freshman & sophomore level).  In general, research and service is not a requirement for lecturers (unlike professors), but we are required to teach a larger load than professors.  And we were generally yearly appointments with no chance of tenure.


How can I convert my MSc thesis into a publishable research article? Suppose (only suppose) I have implemented the following 3rd-party research article for my MSc thesis:

  Deep learning and image processing for automated crack detection and defect measurement in underground structures
  F. Panella 1,2, *, J. Boehm 1, Y. Loo 2, A. Kaushik 2, D. Gonzalez 2

I have validated their theory and earned some skills in the area (say, tools, programming languages, and so on). And, now, I want to write my own research-paper in order to publish in a peer-reviewed journal.

How can I get started?

In general, reproductions of existing research is not publishable. If you want to publish, you usually need to do something new. There are two major ways that you can do new work based on existing work.

Make it better: If the existing approach works very well, you can develop an extension of the methodology that is more general than the original work. Maybe you can make a theoretical improvement, like removing assumptions about the loss function. Maybe you can find new areas where you can apply this methodology to solve other problems it wasn't meant for. Maybe you can make it more accurate, or make it's failure less likely.
Discover it's limitations: If it is a methodology that has limitations that are not widely known, that can be a research contribution too. For example, maybe this crack detection algorithm only works with certain ambient brightness. If it's too dark, it looses the ability to detect cracks. Maybe it makes some assumptions about the shape of cracks that are unfounded, and cracks that are a circle, instead of having distinct end-points, cannot be detected by this methodology.

In both cases, you need to do something that goes beyond what is contained in the paper and do something new. But it's not enough to just do something new, you have to do something that both new and interesting.

"Interesting" often means "in opposition of people's default assumptions." Showing that a cave crack detection algorithm doesn't detect cracks in hardwood floors isn't very interesting if no one expected it to. In that case, showing that it does detect cracks in hardwood floors would likely be interesting and open up many new applications for the approach.

Another way that your work could be interesting is that it solves a problem that people have talked about being interested in already. Maybe it's well-known that the algorithm breaks when it gets very dim, and there are multiple papers saying "it would be nice if we knew how to make this work for dim caves." Even if this hasn't been explicitly stated, if people say "I wish we knew how to detect cracks in dim caves" then showing that this methodology does that would be interesting, assuming the original paper didn't and that figuring out that it does work in this context is non-trivial.

These are not the only two ways to extend word, nor is it the only way to show that your work is interesting. But thinking about the problem in these terms will be a good way for you to get started.

Also, if you wrote a MSc thesis, presumably you have a thesis adviser. That person would be a great resource to talk to, both to learn about what is publishable and to get advice about how to get started doing publishable work.


Convention to denote author who left the research group? We at a company would like to publish a whitepaper to be included in the proceedings of an academic conference. The specified format requires us to list all authors together with their e-mail addresses.

One author (who did about 5% of the work) had parted ways with the company about half a year ago and had no connection with the ongoing research (or members of the research group) at all since. Thus he doesn't possess a company e-mail address any more either.

How should such a person listed among the authors? He contributed to the research, so naturally should be listed but I'd prefer to do it in a way that communicates "I have no connection with the group any more, I don't know about recent developments and if you contact me most possibly I won't be able to tell you too much useful information". Also, is it suitable to include his personal e-mail address?

From your question, I am concerned that you have not talked to the "author" about the manuscript. You must get permission from all authors prior to submitting a manuscript. It is not acceptable to submit a manuscript without permission from all authors nor is it acceptable to leave an author off just because they have left the group.

As for what is acceptable for an email address and affiliation, almost anything goes (as long as it is not misleading). I personally think universities and research groups should give permanent forwarding addresses to eliminate/reduce these issues.

In terms of the affliation, you should also ask the author. It is not uncommon to list an affiliation as the company/university where the work was done and provide a new corresponding address. As for email, it is common to list only the current address. This might be a new corporate email address, assuming it is appropriate. If not, a personal email or a new personal/professional email address is fine. Again, just ask the author and do what they want.


Publishing a novel idea without experiments and results I wrote a technical paper on a novel idea related to internet technologies. However, I don't have resources to conduct large scale experiment. Also, the numerical results cannot be consider as well. In the given situation is it wise to publish the idea paper in a low quality journal or submit it on arxiv?

Ideas are like ...opinions...: everyone has one.

"Just an idea" is not research, and is not typically publishable. An idea based on a substantial compilation of existing research may be publishable, in which case the added value is the synthesis. I see this semi-frequently in my field (which is different from yours), but these types of "ideas papers" typically have other value to other readers in that they are written from the perspective of experts in the field. It's not a way to enter the field. They also double as review articles, but I somewhat doubt your technical paper serves as a review.

Publishable in this context means being able to put it somewhere that people will see value in it. Of course you can always pay someone to publish it, but that doesn't really have value.


US Graduate School without subject GRE So here is the situation:

I am a Math student in a very well ranked French university, and I am going to finish my degree (i.e. 2-year MSc, after a 3-year BSc) in August. Therefore, it is time to think of the future: graduate school. In particular, I have been thinking to apply in the US, where many very good groups in the field I'm interested in are located. I have the highest possible GPA, followed advanced courses, research and teaching experience, potentially very good recommendation letters from well-know professors, received awards, and I'll be writing my MSc thesis at a well-known university on the East Coast.

However, I haven't been able to register for the GRE subject test soon enough due to personal reasons, and when I look at the US math graduate school, they almost all require the GRE subject test. Most of them even say that the applications without the GRE and Subject GRE will not even be reviewed, or will be very disadvantaged. The next session is in April, and the results must be submitted in December.

What is the reality of the graduation admissions system in the US? Should I try to apply anyway without the GRE Subject (i.e. are applications without GRE automatically rejected)? Should I wait one year to apply, until I can pass the GRE?

I'm afraid there's not really a lot you can do. Your best bet is, as always, to contact the departments you are interested in attending, and explain your situation to them. You'll need to have a very convincing reason why you weren't able to take the GRE subject test, and would need a waiver. They may be willing to make an exception; they may not.

Beyond that, I'm not sure what else you can do; the policies and deadlines are all well-known and published, and the departments are not required to give you special treatment.


Should I tell a PhD student's supervisor about a lack of understanding and somewhat ethically dubious conduct? Background to the question:

A PhD student who I worked with during my masters' recently sent me a coauthorship statement for a paper I published whilst I was a member of that group. We started in that group at the same time - he as a PhD, me as a masters' student, and he is now coming to the end of his project. The statement claimed he had a leading role in the project (he didn't) and claimed that he contributed significantly to the manuscript (this is somewhat arguable, but he certainly wrote some of it). I signed the document because I assumed that this was just some formality that he needed to graduate, and I wasn't prepared to cause a fuss over the wording in a document that I didn't view as important. Plus, the form has my former supervisor's signature so he presumably agrees with what was said.

However, now it turns out that he needed this agreement because he wants to write a chapter about my work in his thesis. Furthermore, he is asking me questions about the paper that are extremely basic. I don't want to come across like I am exaggerating, but the questions he is asking me are the sort of questions that are covered in first-year undergraduate chemistry courses - not the sort of thing that should be being asked by a PhD student about to graduate.

Actual Question:

The questions he has asked show such a lack of understanding of the topic that I really do not see how he can possibly put this in his thesis - let alone write a thesis on this topic. However, I am thinking that I should tell his supervisor about the things he's asked me. Given this, what would people advise?

You wrote:

  The statement claimed he had a leading role in the project (he didn't) and claimed that he contributed significantly to the manuscript (this is somewhat arguable, but he certainly wrote some of it). I signed the document because I assumed that this was just some formality that he needed to graduate, and I wasn't prepared to cause a fuss over the wording in a document that I didn't view as important.[...]However, now it turns out that he needed this agreement because he wants to write a chapter about my work in his thesis."

In order to include joint work in your thesis, many graduate programs require a statement to the effect that you are "a first author" on the paper.  So, in fact, that is just what that kind of document is going to be used for.  It's entirely reasonable that the purpose of the document was not clear to you (a master's student).  Maybe your collaborator should have been more explicit about what it was being used for.  Maybe you could have asked.

However, since he is a coauthor on the work, it is also his work, and he is perfectly entitled to represent it in that way.  The fact that he needs to be a first author in order to include in his thesis sounds like "a formality that he needed to graduate" to me.  Your signing this document does not undermine your first authorship on the paper (I assume you are; you don't quite say so) in any way known to me.

One could put a positive spin on the fact that you, a master's student, have done work that has formed a part of someone else's PhD thesis.  That is just about the strongest possible certification that you are doing PhD level work.  Maybe think about how to capitalize on that, e.g. in recommendation letters.  In summary, so far -- no problem.

  Furthermore, he is asking me questions about the paper that are extremely basic. I don't want to come across like I am exaggerating, but the questions he is asking me are the sort of questions that are covered in first-year undergraduate chemistry courses - not the sort of thing that should be being asked by a PhD student about to graduate.

Well, that sounds bad rather than good, but without further context it's hard to evaluate.  Presumably this is just a part of his thesis work (you said "a chapter"), so maybe his real expertise is elsewhere?  Maybe his background in his field is really spotty or worse, and somehow he managed to do enough work to get a PhD anyway.  Maybe he's not so bad but you're really great and thereby have higher standards for what a PhD student should know than others.

Yes, it is also possible that he is some kind of fraud or charlatan.  I kind of wonder that you wrote a paper with him and didn't notice until now, but maybe indeed his role on the paper was minimal.  My feeling is that while you can respond to this however you like, you have no "whistle-blowing" responsibility here: you are not one of the several qualified, professional academics who are charged with evaluating the student and his work before he gets his PhD.  It's on them, not you.

My recommendation: stop answering his questions, and instead say "I think you should ask your advisor about this."  He can't lean on you if you don't let him, and you don't need to let him -- as you say, he is about to get his PhD.  If his supervisor is also your supervisor, and you have a good relationship with him, then you might want to bring up the fact that the student has been asking you a lot of basic questions.  If the supervisor doesn't have an issue with that, that's their problem and not yours.  (Even if the PhD student didn't know what an atom was, you still can't do anything directly to stop him from getting his PhD.  The advisor can.)  If you don't have a pre-existing relationship with his supervisor -- I recommend letting it go.


Copyright for abstract My research paper was published as a conference document. I signed the copyright.  In accordance with it the publisher is a copyright owner. Now, I found that my abstracts is written (literally) on the website of some organization which is unknown for me. The abstract on the publisher's website is open and can be copied without restriction and without payment. So, as I understand the abstract is considered as an open access publication and can be borrowed by anyone and without my or publisher's permission. Right? Or there is some rules which can regulate such issue?

If the publisher now holds the copyright, they would have to provide the permission to reproduce it. The "law [that] protects such right" that you referred to in your comment is copyright law.

The publisher can explicitly allow everybody to replicate the work, e.g. through a Creative Commons license (although this often includes the clause to also reproduce the license information), or by a general waiver on their site. So you'd have to look for something like that at your publisher's website, and otherwise you might want to notify them of the reproduction - assuming you don't agree with it.

(Do consider that more publicity for your work might not be a bad thing.)


Citing a paper for which a corrected version exists online I need to cite a paper in an upcoming paper and conference talk. The paper appeared in a journal several years ago, and normally I would just cite the version that appeared in the journal. However, several important calculations in the section which is relevant to my work were incorrect, and a corrected version has since been posted to the arXiv. How should I cite it?

One approach would be to just cite the arXiv version, but I feel like this gives the impression that the article has not appeared in a peer-reviewed journal, while it in fact appeared in a top field journal. On the other hand I certainly don't want to cite the version with the incorrect calculations, as they make closely following the relevant section impossible. Is there a standard protocol for this?

I would list the published version in the bibliography, with something like "corrected version available as [insert its article ID] from http://www.arXiv.org" appended to the end of its entry in the bibliography.  When you discuss the article in the text of your paper, you should mention the corrections there too.

You should certainly not cite the arXiv version without explaining that the published version contains a mistake (readers may assume the published version is a cleaned up copy of the arXiv version, rather than vice versa), and it seems weird to say this without actually explaining where the article was published.


Getting married abroad on August 21st, job begins on August 23rd. What do I do? I just completed my Ph.D. and have recently been offered a lecturer position in a university. The first day of classes is on August 23rd, and I am getting married abroad in Europe on August 21st. The university is not aware of this, and I am not exactly sure about what to do.
I am considering catching a flight the day after my wedding (Aug 22nd) and then going to work on the 23rd, although this is risky and very stressful. Perhaps I will be expected to be present the week before I begin working, which is out of the question for me.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to handle this situation?

The best way to handle a situation like this is to get in touch with your Head of Department / Director of Teaching in advance (perhaps, after you receive a formal offer) and discuss your situation. Make them aware of your wedding date (congratulations, btw!) and explain that you can arrive to your post right in time for your first class, but you would be grateful if your first lecture can be rescheduled to give you a bit more time. In many Universities it is customary for colleagues to step in for each other in case of sick leave or important family events (like wedding). It is much better to arrange a replacement / rescheduling in advance, rather than risk not showing (or showing not prepared) for your first class.


How to not get "filtered out" during graduate admissions in top programs? There are a lot of questions about admissions on this forum, including many which discuss the importance of the GRE. However, my question is a little more specific than most of them.

In short, what does it take to not get "filtered out" of graduate schools admissions, particularly in competitive engineering/STEM programs?

I have read some answers on this forum that mention that candidate profiles are divided into MAYBE/PROBABLY NOT/NOT groups, where applicants who belong on PROBABLY NOT/NOT groups may not have their applications read by faculty--which makes sense, given the hundreds of qualified candidates they can choose from. (See this and this). This practice is consistent with what I've heard from other professors. However, what does it take to not automatically fall into those categories?

JeffE, for instance, mentions that, in his school, candidates are/were filtered by GRE and GPA. How does this process work? Are GRE/GPA scores the only filters or are other qualifications taken into consideration during the initial triage (i.e., publications)?

For instance, I received unimpressive GRE scores (~90% Q / ~70% V / ~10% AWA, ran off-topic). Moreover, while I ranked first in my graduating class, I am an international applicant from a (top) Latin American school and the committee may not be able to interpret my GPA. While I could take the GRE again and score better, that would consume time, energy and money (getting to the nearest test center requires 10+ hours of travel as well as sleeping over), all of which could be better spent in other parts of my application. Nonetheless, I believe I have an otherwise very strong application, having various first author publications in top journals and conferences, very strong LORs, 5+ years of research experience, and regularly serving as a reviewer for a top journal in my field.

However, my concern is to be rejected in the initial triage, given that I have no idea about what would get me past it.

The easiest way is to get buy-in beforehand. Find a specific PI you'd like to work with and contact them, best if by phone, preceded by email. Express your interest and how groundbreaking you find their research, and how you can uniquely contribute to their research program. Usually this gets you off the pile and onto someone's desk. The school may have cutoffs for standardized test scores, but even that can be mitigated if you capture a specific persons' interest. The point is, make a personal appeal to an individual.


How can I address my career future with my current PI? I'm currently midway through my first Postdoc gig, I got a 1 year contract and haven't heard a word from my PI concerning any possible extensions. I only have 6 more months left in my program, and I was wondering whether I should:

Ask him directly whether he is considering to extend my contract.
Start looking for other jobs without consulting with him first.

I know I'm under a grant that runs out shortly after December (my contract is due on February), and we might or might not have an extension for that. The answer should come around September's end, but I'm afraid it'll be too late to look for another postdoc then, I'm under a J1 visa in the USA, and I'm worried that the immigration process to extend it and the whole hiring process might take considerable longer than 5 months.

AS professors and more experienced professionals, what would you recommend to do, I'm also wondering whether asking him if I should look for another job might strain our relationship.

Your advisor has the duty to inform you if you are meeting expectations, and to notify you in a timely manner if your contract will be renewed or not. Politely bringing this up at the end of the meeting should not cause conflict with your advisor—unless your advisor is a control freak (in which case it's not exactly a bad thing that you'll need to move on!).

However, I would have this conversation as soon as possible, as the end of your contract will be here quite soon. You should inform him, if you'd like to continue working with him, that such is the case. You should also politely mention that if the finances aren't secure for a commitment, that you will need to consider additional job opportunities to ensure that you are not "stuck" looking for a job without a current source of income.


Example of educational theory not taken in account in e-learning software? In some papers I read some pedagogical experts claiming that e-learning software such as Moodle, blackboard, elluminate, etc. are not good because they don't take enough of educational theory into consideration. But there is a lack of examples in those papers.

Can someone give me some example of educational theory not taken in account in e-learning software? Thanks.

Moodle and Blackboard & co are learning management systems, not e-learning software that is sometimes (but not always) built into such an LMS. There is indeed a lack of educational theory behind many e-learning units, for example, the learning goals are not clearly defined, the target group is not specified, the evaluation of the learning goals (if stated) does not actually match, etc. And there are many side issues (hidden curricula, usability, etc).


Strength or Existence of letters of recommendation do depend on the intent right? Related to:

How should I ask for letters of recommendation whose strength is dependent on intended program?

So I found out that one of the professors recommended a junior coursemate for an internship even though that coursemate got a 1.0 (0.0 is the lowest, and 4.0 is a the highest with 1.0 being the lowest passing mark) in the class.

Letters of recommendation do depend on the intended program right? If I were leaving math completely for say law or business I'm going to have a higher chance of having a recommendation letter and even higher strength of recommendation letter compared to applying for a PhD program in math right?

Your question seems to contain an assumption that there's some inherent ordering of programs from "easy" to "hard" (law and business being "easy" and math being "hard"), and that a letter for an "easier" program would automatically be stronger.  There's no such ordering.

Any reasonable professor would try to write a letter that addresses the strengths and weaknesses of the student in skills that are relevant to the program in question.  Different programs and areas of study require different skills, and the strength of the letter will depend on the student's strength in that specific area.

For example, suppose the professor has observed that a student excels in logical reasoning, but struggles with public speaking and analyzing real-world situations.  If the student were applying for a program in mathematics, in which logical reasoning is important, they'd likely get a strong recommendation.  If the student were applying to a business program, in which it is important to analyze real-world situations and speak convincingly about them, they'd likely get a weak recommendation, or the professor might decline to write one at all.


Difference of a PhD program for students entering with BS and MS Students who have a BS can apply for PhD programs like students with a Master's degree (in the US). I was thinking why should students with only Bachelor degrees be admitted while many with Masters degree apply too. I thought the program may differ for these two admitted students. So, my question is basically this:

Is there any difference between the PhD program that an admitted student with a BS starts, and the PhD program that a student with a Master's degree goes through? (assuming they are admitted to the same program at the same university)

PhD programs in the US typically have coursework requirements in addition to the PhD dissertation, and depending on the program, these course requirements can be quite significant (as much as 50 credit hours or 2-3 years of course work.)  A student who enters the PhD program after an MS will often be given credit for much of these course work requirements based on their previous MS degree.  However, it is often the case that students are required to "make up" particular courses that they have not previously taken.

Most programs have minimum credit hour requirements (total credit hours including courses and dissertation credits.)  A fairly common rule is "60 credits past an MS degree or 90 credit hours past a BS degree."

These rules vary a lot between universities and even within the same university, so it's important to understand the local rules that will apply to you when you apply to enter a PhD program.


Is it appropriate to mention that authors refused to provide code samples when asked? I work in a sub field of computer science. There was a recent paper (2020) that was published in a reputable conference that claimed to achieve state of the art performance on a specific data set. This data set is a hot dataset, and my research group has many papers on that specific data set (improving state of the art). I asked the authors very politely if they can share their code samples for their fairly complicated algorithm, to which they rejected and told me that it is not available.

One of my colleagues took 2 weeks to code up the algorithm, and verified its performance, as well as the claimed performance. Meanwhile, we reached a new breakthrough on the dataset and achieved a new state of the art. We are currently writing a draft.

Now, I can't help but be left with a bad taste from this whole experience. I don't see why they wouldn't share their code especially if they claim a state of the art on a very important data set. Most papers have to be compared with the state of the art to some extent, and so essentially, they're slowing down all researchers in this specific field to recreate their own work prior to publishing their own research.

Now my question is, would be advisable to add a note that the implementation of THEIR algorithm is our implementation, and that we reached out to them for their code and they declined?

would be advisable to add a note that the implementation of THEIR algorithm is our implementation

Absolutely yes. This provides important context for your experimentation and as such, is valuable information for the reader.

Even better, you could make your implementation of their algorithm publicly available, so that future groups of authors will not encounter the same situation as you did (and will cite your paper).

  and that we reached out to them for their code and they declined?

That is the more delicate question to ask. It would surely be legitimate to do so, as it would represent the situation accurately. But such a statement has a social implication, which is that the authors appear in a slightly negative light (perhaps rightfully so). Proceed with caution.


In what cases are you able to start a postdoc without a "conferred" PhD? Many PhD programs only confer their degrees one, two or three times per year. If you  successfully defend and submit your dissertation after the scheduled conferral date, you must wait until the next one to get the PhD. At many of these schools you can ask for an official document that basically states that all requirements for the PhD have been successfully completed and the degree will be conferred on the next conferral date.

Do postdoctoral research positions accept this type of official document in lieu of a PhD, to begin work, if a PhD is required? Is this specific from position to position or country to country? I will be receiving a PhD in the US and looking for postdocs in either the US, Canada, Europe, Japan or Australia.

Note this question is less about applying to postdocs and more about officially starting them. In other words, assume you have accepted a post doc offer, and the job requires a PhD, would having an official letter from the University stating the dissertation is done and everyone has signed off suffice to start?

If the postdoc requires "degree in hand" by a certain date, then there's little flexibility. The actual degree must be conferred by the university.

That being said, a good number of postdocs instead require that all of the requirements for the PhD be completed before a certain date. This usually means that that the dissertation has been deposited, if not defended.  On the extreme end of flexibility, some will simply take the word of the dissertation advisor that the dissertation will be finished by the start date.

Some postdocs will even allow you to start without a degree in hand if all of the requirements for the degree have been satisfied. Some will be satisfied with a letter from the advisor, others will require a letter from the registrar. How strict they will be may be correlated to how many times they've been burned in the past with non-completers.

I don't think there are stats are on how many postdocs (and in which fields) are strict vs. flexible. What I think you'll find is that once a flexible department has been burned by a "postdoc" who never finished their PhD, then they shift to being more strict.

tl;dr: Ask the postdoc program if they are willing to be flexible and if so, which documentation they require.


For each of these cases which is the designation that best describes my role in class Since I've finished my PhD I've been asked to perform some teaching duties. These duties correspond roughly to the three cases I describe below briefly.

1) So in this one course I was responsible for preparing the contents for classes which were mostly theory on the course subject. I would hand out problem assignments each week,I would discuss them with the students in class but not solve them. In the department I was the only one responsible for teaching this course.

2) On this other course I was responsible for solving problems in class for students. There were other professors teaching the course. Namely, theory.

3) Finally, on this other course I had to supervise students while they conducted some experiments in lab.

For each of these cases which is the designation that best describes my role in class? For example, in 3) I would say that the best designation that describes my role in class is "lab instructor".

Teaching Fellow (which is a title usually reserved for an instructor who is also otherwise affiliated with the institution as a student, usually graduate), alternatively, I have seen a few graduate students who taught classes in their own right and were given the title of Lecturer, which is analogue to "adjunct" at some institutions--generally, though, even at institutions that use the title "adjunct" and not "lecturer" for their adjunct professors, graduate students who teach courses in their own right will usually still be referred to as a "lecturer". The reverse, as far as I know, is not true though--at institutions that use "lecturer" over "adjunct" or where both "adjunct" and "lecturer" are in use, students that teach are not called adjuncts, but are usually identified as "instructor" or, though rarely, "moderators", or even, the difficult-to-cv pseudo title of "Course led by...".
Teaching Assistant. Your overview might literally be the definition of a teaching assistant.
Monitor. Proctor. Or, more specifically, Lab Assistant or Lab TA.


Careers in Mathematics I am currently an undergraduate freshman student at Tulane University. I thought for a long time that chemistry was my purpose, but after actually interacting with the school's science department I've realized that was a huge headache. I've recently rediscovered love and passion for mathematics, and have switched majors with my new curriculum being math-heavy. I've finished calculus and am currently taking linear algebra and real analysis, with a python class as well so I can teach math to computers as well.
However, most of my career research so far has been for science, with research opportunities and career steps in that field being pretty concrete and clear. I'm now hoping to pursue something like data science, but internship opportunities seem pretty scarce and competitive. Is there anything I can do to give myself a competitive edge and make myself more desireable for REUs and internships? (a la certain classes, online courses etc.,)
Thanks so much!

REU
I cannot speak for all REUs, but the ones that I have experience with usually look for a few things:

Good statement of purpose with a clear research objective. Even if this statement of purpose is a bit broad, it is important to show that you are able to ask good questions in relation to mathematics.
Good letters of recommend.
Specific coursework requested by the REU. I always found it odd that the REU at my university would specifically say a student needed understanding of Galois Theory OR Complex Analysis OR Graph Theory, and we would have students with none of these applying.

Internships
Data science (DS) internships are not scarce, as long as you are willing to go anywhere in the US. They are, however, often times competitive. I would suggest that you look very broadly at many fields for data science opportunities. (I, for example, got a DS internship one time working for a company that makes marine engines). Places like Google, Amazon, Apple, will be insanely competitive. Others, perhaps will be more tractable. If you have a background in chemistry, places like pharmaceuticals (Pfizer, Eli Lilly, etc) and chemical companies (Dow, DuPont, etc.) may be of particular interest.
Data Science as a Field
I cannot address every possible career path for math. I know people in law, medicine, engineering, academia, data science, psychometrics, business, athletics with math degrees. Given ten people with an undergrad in mathematics, chances are high that they will work in ten different fields.
I will specifically address data science as a career. DS relies on a trident of core topics:

Mathematics
Statistics
Computer Science

You need to be good in all of these. I would hear (and was given) advice to math students such as

A math degree teaches you to think & people will hire you for you ability to think and problem solve.

While this is true, it takes much more than a BS in mathematics (especially pure maths) to get a job in DS. You need to be competent in the trident of fields I mentioned above.
I would suggest becoming as expert as you can in PyTorch or TensorFlow, pandas, numpy, SKLearn (all in Python). I have never seen a job reject me for knowing those skills. Learning an object oriented language (Java, C++) is also helpful.
If you are also interested in chemistry, I would suggest getting a minor in it (or something else crosscutting). Read up on GANs and drug/molecule discovery. (See for example https://thischemicaldoesnotexist.com/) And, as I mentioned, fields like law and medicine (chemistry) are on the table.
Always willing to chat if you start a private chat and what to know more.


Ethics of soliciting letters for US permanent residency application? I recently received a request from a postdoctoral associate working at another institution to "write a support letter" for his residency application. I put the statement in quotes because the candidate in question has already written out the letter and is asking me only to put it on official letterhead, sign it, and return it.

Is such behavior considered acceptable for the US permanent residency application? Is there a difference in appropriateness if the applicant knows the recommender well?

For me, the key criterion is "do I know the person through shared endeavor" e.g. having studied or worked together for a reasonable period of time.

If there has been no previous contact i.e. a stranger, I would NOT respond at all to a request for a support letter.

As a possible comparison, a stranger asks you to guarantee a bank loan for them ...  most people can see where that one will lead...


How to support a student whose aspirations I don't support? I am advising an outstanding graduate student who is currently doing a summer internship with a government agency. He is also applying for a permanent job with the same agency, for which I was quite proud to recommend him strongly. That said, his prospective employer has been the subject of recent news reports which have led me to oppose its work.

I will certainly not renege on my duties as an advisor. But I don't have a good poker face, and I'm afraid that my changed attitude will be all too clear. What would be the kindest course of action? To share my thoughts once and once only, or to keep my mouth shut?

I don’t really understand what part of your “support” your question is about. In short: is the problem how to support him personally (in your discussions with him, in your work relations in general), or how to support his PhD work, or how to support his job application?

For his PhD work, I hope you are able to prevent outside circumstances from impacting negatively your work. As an advisor, this probably happens at some point with any student… and  any coworker, really.

For his job application, you don't need to state to support his future job, just to say he would be excellent at it. Just to give an example, stating that “Dr. Martin has all the skills necessary to excel in numerical simulations of deep offshore oil drilling” doesn't require you have to state “I strongly support offshore drilling”, nor does it imply it. Moreover, most recommendations are done in written.

Finally, regarding overall personal support throughout his graduate studies: that's a bit harder, but you truly have to put it past you, and it may not be easy. The best approach is clearly to be upfront with him: discuss it, preferably in an informal manner (i.e. don't make it a big deal). Points that seem important to mention:

I have strong feelings about your future employer, and I think it is best that I am frank with you about it.
It shouldn't change our work relationship, and I don't expect it to. I continue to support you wholeheartedly.
If you think you notice a negative impact in the future, please come and discuss it with me, we'll work it out.

But honestly, it's not a nice situation to be in. I'm a bit surprised as to how what could gather so much distrust from you that you cannot simply separate it from your work.


Teaching Loads by Field at Research Universities For computer science tenure-track faculty, the standard teaching load at a major research university in the US is 1-1 (meaning 1 course each of the two semesters).  My understanding is that in math the standard teaching load is 2-1 (two courses one semester, one course the other).

What are the standard teaching loads in other fields (e.g. physics, history, etc.) at major research universities in the US?

There is no standard load; it depends widely on the department, the number of students enrolled, the available number of faculty, and so on.

Moreover, in some departments, it is possible to fundraise your way out of commitments. For instance, if you bring in X dollars in overhead, you can "buy" out of teaching a class for a semester.

In addition, stating that a load is "1-and-1" can mean different things. In the department where I did my graduate work, professors now co-teach one class per semester, and sometimes offer an elective course on top of that 1-and-1 load.


What are the most common prerequisites demanded by Promotionsausschüssen (German PhD boards)? Reading the German universities' regulations on doctoral programs, one often comes to paragraphs about sanctions that can be demanded by the PhD board (Promotionsausschuss) as perquisites before they admit a candidate.

For example I have seen [updated to reflect the given answers]:

own publication(s) needed
take selected courses/modules offered by the university, which contents are related to the planned topic of thesis
submitting an exposé
letter(s) of recommendation
certificate of good conduct ("Führungszeugnis")
supervisor actually employed at the same university

Are there other common requirements demanded by such boards?

Other requirements (not necessarily prerequisites) may include the attendance of doctoral seminars (i.e. presenting your work one or more times during your PhD and having a committee judge whether or not you can proceed as intended) and the presentation of a certificate of good conduct ("Führungszeugnis").

Source: http://www.inf.ovgu.de/inf_media/downloads/forschung/promotion/2013/Promotionsordnung_2012_12_19-p-4194.pdf


Towards the end of PhD with just one publication. What are my options? I am a PhD student in Computational Materials Science in the US with just one publication in a Q1(according to Scimago Journal Rank) or Q2(according to Journal Citation reports) journal. Another as co-author in a Q1 (according to both) journal. I have manuscripts ready for two works with finalizing one more work and will be submitting them by July end. My advisor isn't available at the moment to work on my manuscripts. So, hopefully will get them done in July. But, I will also be submitting my thesis this August and hopefully defend in October. I will be looking for postdoc positions soon. But considering my poor publishing record, how should I approach prospective postdoc P.I's?

Towards the end of PhD with just one publication. What are my options?

Well, your options are the same as everyone at the end of a PhD :)

If you are interested in continuing as a postdoc, you should definitely apply.

As Buffy said, you should mention your work in progress in your applications. If possible, you can also give a link to a preprint version of your papers.

The only problem with a low publication record is the competition for a particular position: if in your field PhD students usually publish significantly more than you, all other things being equal a PI will choose another candidate who published more than you. But all other things are rarely equal in research, the PI usually wants to find the right person for the job, not only somebody who has published a lot.

Obviously a position in a major university or with a famous researcher in your field will attract many applications, so it's mathematically harder to get accepted. So
in the unlikely event that your publication record proves to be an issue (something you will know if your first batch of applications are rejected), you could try to adjust and target some less competitive positions.


Reuse text from progress report in final report of scholarship/grant Is it self-plagiarism to reuse text (multiple paragraphs) from a progress report to a grant giving agency in the final report to the same agency?

The specific case is an internal scholarship of my university (no guidelines except length), but I think the question is also relevant for all other grants that require both progress/interim and final reports.

The question is not the same as this question, because in my case both reports end up at the same place, so the whole "no one will ever notice anyway" argument doesn't work.

This question is also different, because it is about dissertation reports, not funding reports.

Self-plagiarism is an offense caused by violating the expectation of originality.

When you write a progress report or a final report, there is no expectation of originality of the text per se.  Rather, you are expected to have done original work during each period, and the report is expected to provide a clear and comprehensive presentation of the work that was done during the reporting period.

Thus, it is entirely legitimate to include text from an earlier report into a final report that covers the period of the earlier report. Now, it is quite likely that the text should change to some degree to fit the new context. Whatever changes you might make are not about avoiding self-plagiarism, but about how your perspective changes when you're discussing the whole project in retrospect.

To drive the point home: my own practice when preparing a final report is to begin by concatenating all of the periodic progress reports, add a writeup of the final section, and then reorganize and rewrite as necessary to provide a comprehensive final document. If I were instead to write the whole thing from scratch, I would consider that an inappropriate waste of my sponsors' money and also likely to end up accidentally omitting important information contained in the periodic reports.


Why do American colleges and universities have sports teams? In the USA, college sports are popular, and colleges may offer scholarship based on athletic skills.  Yet, universities spend significant money on sports, and nobody earns as well as the head of the sports team.

Considering that the universities are losing money on it, and it's not their core task, then why do they spend big money on sports?  Who benefits, and how?  Do all major universities have commercialised sports teams, or are there major exceptions of universities choosing not to take part?

Here is one side effect of a university having a famous sports team as mentioned by Federico Poloni in a comment: people know your name. This helps recruit new students, it helps alumni impress potential employers with a degree from somewhere they have heard of! I only know that Boise State University is actually a real university (and as it turns out a pretty good one) because their football field has blue turf.

One feature of American colleges and universities that is easy to forget is that they are often in the middle of nowhere. Pennsylvania State University is in a town named State College. You can guess which came first. So imagine you have thousands of young men and women in a place that is barely a town. What do they do on Saturday afternoon? Some will start organizing teams to play sports and then start going to nearby schools to play their teams. This grew greatly since the old days but the idea that a residential university is partly responsible for providing non-academic activities for their students take part in still exists as a real force. At smaller schools which do not have sports scholarships the sports teams are more about playing because the students enjoy it and it is just part of campus life.

Also at many schools the mission statements include character formation such as "building leadership skills." If this is the case you can actually argue that having some level of athletic competition on campus actually is part of the core mission. Maybe not an absolute vital part but one that contributes to the mission.

I am of course ignoring in large part the money and corruption that is part of the NCAA Division I level of college athletics. Of which there is an extraordinary amount of both.

Most schools, except for d3 schools, break even with their athletic programs. Americans want to be proud of something, that something for colleges is athletics. Most people wouldn't want to go to Harvard if they didn't have a good football team. I helps to bring diversity (age, interests, grades, and money) into colleges.


Why do some journals prefer MS Word? Some journals (specifically on biology or chemistry) accept only MS Word files as manuscripts, while many journals on mathematics or physics prefer LaTeX.
Even Science prefers MS Word.

Why do they insist on proprietary MS Word, instead of accepting PDF + plain text?
I don't think they typeset papers on MS Word.

I cannot answer for all journals but can provide insights into a few. One issue concerns the authors rather than the journals themselves. If a community has little need for equations then the need for LaTeX is also perceived as small. Hence a journal would not implement something that they think has no use.

In my own field of Earth Science, the usage of LaTeX varies between sub-disciplines. In Glaciology, being a quantitative subfield, a majority use LaTeX while in other more descriptive subfields no-one uses LaTeX. It is easy to see that this is also reflected in what formats the journals accept. Since the editors of the journals usually come from the sub-disciplines their journals cover, the editors are used to using the same authoring tools as others which further cements the existing structure.

On top of that the individual publisher may add capacity to journals. Elsevier, for example, has a LaTeX-class that can be used for their journals, while Wiley, for example, do not. This can help journals take the step to also include LaTeX contributions even though editors may not be users themselves.


Why do predatory journals invite people to editorial boards? I've been invited to the editorial board of a predatory journal. I know not to accept the invitation or reply in any way shape or form, but I don't understand why they are doing this, which is a bit concerning. How does the scam work?

I assume board members don't pay money to the journal.

If they want me to make them look legitimate, can't they just copy my photo and biography from my employer's website and falsely claim I'm on their board? Why bother emailing me and bringing them to my attention?

Well, if you agreed they would not need to fear that you demand them to remove your photo and name and that you could sue them. Also, you could write "on the editorial board of…" in your CV and at some places in the world this would enable you to reduce teaching or get a raise. I think that's basically it. If this would be true, there would be some people that accept such an invitation. Not sure if this is the case, but does not seem impossible.


If the Professor who recommends me somewhere has coauthored papers with professors there, would the LORs hold tremendous value? I heard somewhere a few days ago that while selecting a college for an M.Sc., it would be great for me to look up with whom the professors there have coauthored papers. This would mean that the two professors know each other and it would lead to a more trustworthy recommendation letter if written for a PhD.
How true is that? My guess is that it could make a difference but in the end it is mostly about the quality of research work that I have done.
I am from India thinking of applying to the US or UK in the future.

In my view (and I was MSc admissions officer at some point) recommendation letters at MSc level are largely a tick box exercise. I have admitted more than hundred MSc students and a recommendation letter hasn't made a difference even once. It is fine from my point of view that the student shows they can find somebody professional to recommend them, but as long as such a letter is not actively damaging, the box is then ticked and it doesn't make much more of a difference. Obviously I can't speak for all places.
This makes sense as well; applicants shouldn't have an advantage if they know somebody who published with me or XXX from our institution. Generally admitting students is not about whom they know but how good they are, and because 99% of recommendation letters are positive, I have to assume that there's very little information in them about the quality of the student. Even if some read a little bit less positive, this may be because the writer has a more critical attitude to recommendation letters, rather than the student being bad. People who write glowing recommendation letters for everyone who asks are around all over the place. Also recommendation letters at this level are quite regularly written by people who don't know more about the student than their set of results and maybe that they asked a few questions in class, but maybe not even that (at PhD level this is a bit different). Previous marks and course choices should totally dominate what's in recommendation letters. I'd go so far and say I'd be wary of institutions where this is different.


What are some of the smart ways of finding related literature online I am in my first year of PhD. I spend a lot of time reading literature related to my broad area of research. I find reading very enjoyable, but finding relevant content online takes up a lot of time. Are there any tricks that people often use to reduce the search time in search engines like "google scholar" (or any other search engines or recommender systems) ?

One thing that I recently learnt was to use the cited by button against each paper in google scholar. I find a relevant paper. Even if it is an old paper, I can find newer works which are based on the original paper and read through them.

Please share some tricks/hacks or tips that help you reduce your time in searching papers online?

PS - Let me confess that in addition to learning some tricks to increase my productivity, I am also interested to integrate the possible suggestions that I receive here into metrics and integrate them into recommender systems for citation networks, something which I wish to pursue as a hobby project.

I prefer using advanced searches in digital library sites like ACM-DL, IEEE Xplore, and Elsevier ScienceDirect.

For instance when you search for a particular keyword (e.g., image retrieval) in general search, you would be bombarded with many papers related to the keyword. While most of which is not even directly connected to he matter. In advanced search, you are given the feature to add constraints such as searching for "image retrieval" only within the title. Although this might remove some of the actually related papers, you could be assured that nearly all of the papers resulted from this search is directly connected to your keyword.


As a computational chemist, which online resources are available for Ph.D. level jobs? Which online resources are available for job search at the Ph.D. level in the computational chemistry field?

One of the best resources for jobs in computational chemistry (not limited to PhD level positions) is the job section of the Computational Chemistry List.

Another place where I've regularly seen relevant postings is the "Computational Chemists" group on LinkedIn.


Presenting a survey/review paper at a conference I have noticed that senior members of the community often present survey-like work at conferences, especially if they are giving a plenary lecture or have an extended time slot in a mini-symposium.

I am currently working on a survey/review paper, but a senior mentor advised me that it is not good to present such work at this stage in my career.  (I'm currently a postdoc, only about a year since I got my Ph.D.)

Why is this the case, and when would it be appropriate to present such work?

There are several reasons for this point of view:

when looking for a survey/review paper in a journal or talk at a conference, the first thing I do – is looking at the name of the researcher, how good (and how many) are his works in this field (and subfield of the overview talk).
to give a good survey talk, you both have to have a "big-picture" vision, as well as exposure to various details in many methods. It is hard to achieve both at the early stages of your career. And, most importantly, your potential audience has a tendency to think that it is unlikely.
giving review talk is, in my opinion, harder than a novel research one. The structure is different, and you cannot focus on the novel idea that is your baby and you are presenting. I would say, you need better presentation and slides' organization skills to prepare a similar quality survey talk.
presenting survey talks and publishing review papers is not perceived as good for your academic career. While it counts as a publication (and is no doubt useful for the research community), it is no equal in terms of the impact on your CV. Surveys can rarely define somebody's career and they play less of a role during application for a tenure-track position.

Is it fair? No. Can a young researcher give an excellent, inspiring, and even novel overview talk? Sure. Can that boost your research reputation? Sure. Still, unlikely in general.

I can totally see why the preparation of the survey paper itself is very useful:

by preparing a review paper you learn the subject matter, past and recent progress in the best possible way
you create a quality publication for others to enjoy
you learn the skill of writing a survey paper itself (which is different from a regular paper in a journal)

However, in my opinion, the benefits of actually presenting such a paper at a conference are limited for an early-career researcher.


Is using academic writing services for a thesis considered plagiarism? Can they write in an original fashion? There are many academic writing services (editing, proof reading and writing from scratch). These services range from writing basic essays to research papers and dissertations.
I will use editing and proofreading services because my mother tongue is different from the language of thesis.
I distrust these kinds of services, can they really do job appropriately and according to suitable form? Is this considered plagiarism and can they write in an original fashion?
Has anybody used these kind of services and what are your experiences?

There's a big difference between paying someone to proof read your thesis (generally acceptable, and sometimes encouraged) and paying someone to write original material from scratch (plagiarism).

The way your question is worded (and from one of the comments about getting someone to "edit and write the thesis") it sounds like you are asking whether if you pay someone to write part of your thesis, will they do it well enough that it wont be detected by plagiarism software (e.g., the idea that people who write paid essays just copy and paste huge chunks from Wikipedia and random journal articles). My apologies if this is not what you are asking. But to state the obvious point, paying someone to write your thesis and contribute intellectually is plagiarism and unethical whether they do it in a rigorous or a sloppy way. It is plagiarism, because you are not acknowledging the source of the intellectual effort.

Surely if you are paying someone merely to refine your expression, phrasing and give general guidance on structuring, then there is minimal risk of plagiarism.