Do I need recommendation letters from supervisors if I have a master's? Applying for 2018-9 admissions (Missed 2017-8 admissions). Got master's applied math. Want PhD in pure math.
How applicable is the following (source)

a recommendation from someone who only taught a course can mean "this person is a slacker who never bothered to do real work, so they can't find any supervisors to recommend them".
If out of school, delay your application by 1-3 years, and look for work as a lab tech at a university, institute or private company. Make sure not to displease your boss.

if I have a master's?

How might self-study affect applicability? (source)

they can check out your blog, notes etc but probably will not unless they are interested anyway, or it gets hyped up by your letter writers

Contexts:
Application:

I'm allowed only 2 or 3 recommendation letters for some local applications, here in Country A.
Besides research ability/potential, some Country A local applications are looking for soft skills such as leadership, communication, interpersonal, etc

Me:

Bad grades in bachelor's
Bad grades in master's for non-pure maths
Good grades in master's for pure maths
Research: Had a lot of group research projects including a semester-long main research project with 3 supervisors. None of them can give me very strong letters of recommendations

Plan:

Ask 1 or 2 profs in pure maths classes for the research ability/potential. Despite little to no research opportunity apart from problem sets, I have done some of my own self-study and researched/asked about some skipped/not elaborated/unclear/wrong parts in classes (not on this stackexchange account).

Ask boss for the soft skills parts

If I see you have been involved in lots of supervised research projects on your CV/statement, but that none of your letter writers are any of your supervisors, I will find that a bit weird, but it wouldn't kill your application.  Remember (I feel this has come up in a lot of questions lately), in mathematics research experience is not that important for getting into PhD programs (at least in the US).  What is, is having learned and showing a capacity to learn advanced mathematics (as well as work ethic + motivation).

Edit (in response to comments):

You seem to want to get a letter from your boss, and that's fine, and it may be helpful, but the point is that typically letters from the workplace don't provide too much insight into academic abilities, unless that letter writer is closely connected to academia (e.g., they have a PhD in your field of study).  This is why non-academic letters are usually not sufficient to get one accepted into a good graduate program, and you should get letters from academics as well.  (I would try to get at least 1 letter from a pure math prof from your bachelor's and 1 from a prof from your master's.)
Certainly having done well in advanced pure math classes, and having successfully gone through a master's in a related area makes you a reasonable case for grad school in pure math.  (How much the master's helps depends a lot on the details of program.)  Whether what you've done at work will be helpful in evaluating your academic abilities depends on what you were doing (see also the previous bullet point), but at least your boss can address things like work ethic and general intelligence.

Since I don't know the details of your situation, or what your application looks like, I can only say from what I've heard so far, I car guess there are several programs that would take you, but I'm not sure which ones.  I would recommend applying to a variety of programs at different levels of competitiveness and see where you get in.  It's also a good idea to try asking a couple of your profs advice on applying.


Does improving systems count as “research experience” in grad application? Like What is exactly meant by “research experience” in grad application? but situation-specific:

Between graduating master's in 2016 and applying now for PhD admissions for 2018-9, I started teaching maths at a branch of a company that is something like Kumon.
During this time, I looked up Google Sheets and SQL programming to learn on my own supplemented by my experience with Excel in master's and then created paperless spreadsheet templates.
I wasn't guided, instructed, requested or paid to do this, but I did improve processes at work.

Could said looking up then creation count as "research" ? If so, how? If not, why?

From other post:

  As a rule of thumb, the more that what you did was something other people could not have done

Additional comments based on aforementioned:

Well I think what I did would've been pretty simple for a/an CS/Engineering/IT/ICT person but not just any employee in my company could've developed the paperless systems I made.
Also, the IT department in my company didn't for reasons I guess I'm not allowed to disclose.

No. Research is working towards creating new knowledge (not just knowledge that you didn't have, knowledge that is genuinely new to experts in your field, too) that advances the state of the art in your field.

Programming/IT/engineering work is not research, unless it is undertaken to create new knowledge.

Examples:

Writing code to simulate a physical system, so as to answer questions about its behavior that have not been addressed yet, is part of doing research.
Writing code to implement a new kind of wireless communication system, so as to evaluate its performance, is part of doing research.
Writing code to help me organize my students' homework submissions is useful work, but it's not research.


What are the benefits and drawbacks of rotating professors to teach subjects not in their areas? It seems that many universities are rotating professors who teach a subject. I was talking with a friend and he mentioned that as a result of this, he is struggling with a professor who is teaching a subject outside his area and is still learning the materials. My question, is why do schools apply such strategy? Wouldn't it be better to focus on few related topics, instead of assigning professors to some random courses?

Most programs I've ever heard of don't randomly assign professors - but the typical system in the US I'm aware of has each professor required to teach X number of credits. The department has requirements for what class must be taught (like standard intro classes, courses required for the major, etc), as well as the opening for a variety of specialty courses (often called "electives") - but the core courses have to be taken up first.

While departments differ, it seems the most common system is one where professors pick the classes they will teach (sometimes by seniority or department rank getting their first pick, sometimes by some other method). The natural order of things is that it's easier to teach a class the second time than it is to teach it the first time (since you already have so much material prepared and you have had some practice now), so professors naturally end up teaching many of the same classes year after year. However, most departments have comings and goings nearly every semester - retirements, people leaving, sabbaticals, medical leave, changing course load amounts (buying out of teaching, becoming a department chair, not being the chair anymore, winning a big grant, having a big grant run out). Thus things are constantly in flux, so even if you really, really wanted the same courses taught by the same professors every semester - you can't have it, it isn't possible.

There is a downside to having things static, even when you somehow manage to have so much stability that it's possible. Some examples:

Many professors get comfortable with the material enough that they don't make large updates, and it can get stale and out of date over time (both materially and in method used).
Professors, being human beings, get bored of saying the same thing over and over and their excitement, passion, and patience can begin to wear thin even with classes they once enjoyed.
Some students aren't a good fit with some professors, and if a required class is always taught by a professor they don't get along with this may interfere with academic progress.
Professors can lose sight - or just not have a good idea to begin with - what the goal of teaching some material actually is. Most programs have courses that build on each other, like Introduction -> Research Methods -> Stats -> Advanced Research Methods. If you only teach stats and don't ever run an advanced class, are you sure you are teaching the stats students will need - and are you emphasizing applications that best prepare them for the advanced material? If you teach a Calculus I class, are you making sure students get all the groundwork they need for Calculus II? I've had students tell me "the Professor assumed we all had JavaScript in the previous class and designed the whole class around it, but half of us had never seen it before!" - with not very encouraging results.

However, there are downsides to moving people around a lot too:

The first time is always the hardest. No one knows what to expect, every question asked will be one you might not have answered before, the teacher's idea of pacing and time required to complete assignments will basically be wild guesses, etc.
Sometimes someone is asked to teach a class because no one else is available. I talked with a visiting academic who was a statistician, and he said in his first semester they came to him and said, "Hey, have you ever used C++ before?" He said, "Well, I guess a little bit in undergrad..." And so they said, "Great, don't have anyone else to teach this required class - will you teach a C++ class for us?" So he just had to figure it out as he went. It isn't ideal, but the alternative: no class offered that semester, which may mean students can't take required key classes or they will just miss out on learning important material entirely. Sometimes everyone just has the make the best of a non-ideal situation - come to think of it, that's what most of us have to do most of the time!

In the end, there is a first time for everyone. Experienced professors had to teach a class for the first time too. Sometimes this can even be a positive experience for everyone, if the professor and the student choose to handle it that way. One of the hardest things about teaching people is when you've forgotten what it was like to not know. You can all learn together, and it can be easier to have empathize with students confusion and anticipate their questions when you are confused and have questions too! The job of a teacher isn't always to be an expert bestowing their grand accumulated wisdom, but instead sometimes they are just a guide and skilled companion to help you through difficult territory.

...and sometimes neither of you want to be there, but it's a required course and the department is making them teach it so you suck it up and move on. :)


Value of Print on Demand Publishing of PhD Dissertation Following on from my question here, I understand there are many non-traditional methods of publishing a PhD dissertation as a book. One of it is Print of Demand (POD) method. A contributor to the question in the above link gives VDM as an example.

However, a close look at the Wikipedia article (same link as the VDM) reveals that POD is not peer reviewed and often adds little to a person's publication record.

I am wondering that if a PhD dissertation is of sufficient standard to be passed by the relevant university (assuming the University is reputable itself), why does it need to be peer-reviewed? Also, if it is reproduced as a book by POD, why shouldn't it add to the publication record of the author.

The PhD is often the first major work of many students (I fall in this category) so making the most out of it is the only way to add value to one's CV.

I am wondering that if a PhD dissertation is of sufficient standard to be passed by the relevant university (assuming the University is reputable itself), why does it need to be peer-reviewed?

In an ideal world, that could be reasonable, but in practice it's unclear what the standards are for a dissertation.  For example, imagine a student who works diligently for years but doesn't accomplish much.  Many advisors, even in very prestigious departments, will eventually let the student graduate with a minimal dissertation.  Or what about a sloppy student whose dissertation is full of minor errors? Hopefully the advisor will put pressure on the student to fix the errors, but sometimes, given the choice between letting the student graduate and keeping on struggling fruitlessly with this, the advisor caves in and approves a shoddy thesis.  Perhaps this shouldn't happen, but occasionally it does.

Of course peer-reviewed journals are also far from perfect, but their judgments are somewhat clearer.  A paper accepted by the Transactions of the American Mathematical Society is a more meaningful guarantee of quality than a dissertation from a top-five math department, although on average the dissertations will be better.

Peer review can also lead to valuable feedback and suggestions.  A dissertation has often not received many comments from anyone not on the thesis committee, and getting anonymous feedback from other experts can be important.

  Also, if it is reproduced as a book by POD, why shouldn't it add to the publication record of the author.

The problem is that it doesn't "add" anything that wasn't already there.  Your dissertation is part of your academic track record, and your decision to let a company print it on demand is not additional evidence of quality or impact.

It's certainly useful to try to get visibility for your dissertation.  In a field where this is considered appropriate, posting it online (for example, on the arXiv) is very valuable.  Far more people will look at it there than via any POD publisher.  Letting someone print it on demand too can't hurt, as long as there are no copyright issues, but it won't help much either.

  The PhD is often the first major work of many students (I fall in this category) so making the most out of it is the only way to add value to one's CV.

Certainly.  In most fields, you can make the most of it academically by turning it into journal articles or a scholarly book.  Mathematics isn't a book-based field, so I can't speak to this from personal experience, but my understanding is that publishing a dissertation as a book involves a lot of review and editing, and it's really not the same as letting a POD publisher reprint the dissertation.


Can I compare my research work with another work published many years ago? In scientific research and publishing (as I have been told ), one should compare his work with previous published works. I am intended to compare my results (working on now in 2019) to another published in 2002(considered as a pioneer work) . Is this long time gap between these two research works acceptable in scientific community and journals ?
Have you ever published such a research paper ?

Note: The field I am talking about is computer science .

Yes, certainly you can do this comparison. The time difference makes no difference whatever.

However, since it has been a while in a fast changing field, you need to be sure that there haven't been advances since 2002 that you haven't considered and might make your work less valuable - even already obsolete.

In mathematics, you can extend Euclid, if you have something new and interesting. But it has to be new by today's standards, not by his.


Where would I report missing metadata in Crossref / Science? I hope this isn't the wrong part of the StackExchange network to ask this; if so, please point me in the right direction :-)

I just stumbled across missing metadata in Crossref, where the initial experimental publication on Graphene (DOI link) shows only the first author (Novoselov) in Crossref's metadata, rather than the eight authors on the actual publication.

As I couldn't quickly find something like a "report error" link - does anyone know where one would generally report such an omission? Should one rather address Crossref or the "data provider" (in this case: Science)?

Update, after Anyon pointed me in the right direction :

As it turns out, there is a list of all depositors (which takes forever to load), from where one can get details for all publications controlled by a specific depositor; turns out that URL scheme includes the prefix of the DOI:

https://apps.crossref.org/myCrossref/?report=missingmetadata&datatype=j&prefix=10.1126<— right here

which makes it easer to go directly to the "Missing Metadata Report" page. This then seems to indicate that 62,901 out of 265,942 articles (i.e. nearly 25%!) from Science are apparently missing author information (if I'm reading this correct), so no big deal, I guess??

From Crossref's FAQ:

  I’ve found a problem within your metadata - how do I get you to fix it?

  While we aren’t able to correct the metadata provided by our members, report any metadata issues to our support staff and we’ll contact the responsible member and ask them to make corrections.


Is it acceptable to wear the same outfit every day? I am a male graduate student in natural sciences at a public university. I want to simplify my life a little bit by wearing the same outfit (more or less) every day. (Obviously I would have multiple copies to be hygienic.) I tend to wear untucked casual button-downs with some casual khaki pants and sneakers. Would this be looked down upon by the faculty? I am not so worried about other graduate students, but I do not want to make a poor impression on the faculty. Any guidance on this would be much appreciated!

Of potential importance: I am TAing one class right now and will be taking two classes this upcoming semester.

One of my faculty colleagues who just received tenure (at my r1 university) has worn basically the same outfit (same colored button-down shirt with khaki trousers) for the past decade - from graduate school to his current position (he may have indeed been wearing this his entire life, but we only have data for the past decade). I believe his closet only has one type of shirt and trousers.

Aside from gentle ribs from others about his 'uniform', it's well tolerated by others as it's a minor eccentricity compared to some of the other faculty.  Just be open to someone asking you if you: 1) have multiple shirts or a single shirt; 2) wash them regularly.

tldr: If it saves you money / brain-cycles  / spoons / closet-space to wear the same uniform clothing every day, do it. It worked for Steve Jobs, it can work for you.

Fine print: There may be a gender factor as men in academia and industry who basically wear a uniform are well known but it is rare to encounter women who do the same. This requires more exploration.


Is it possible to save a (science) PhD in 10 months? In short: I am starting my fourth year of PhD, and my funding is running out in roughly ten months. I could use some advice about how to make the most of the time I have left, in particular to make sure I deliver something coherent and I am employable afterwards.

More context:

During the past three years, I have struggled with personal issues (breakup of a long-term relationship due to moving away for the PhD), poor lifestyle choices, and discipline problems, all impacting my PhD research.
The result: after three years, I still haven't finished writing the manuscript of my main project, a project I don't like at all because it was half-baked since the beginning. What makes it harder to swallow is that I am 100% responsible for this situation.
My supervisor was understanding at first, and started becoming stricter and stricter over time because of the lack of output. This in turn caused some other problems (stress, loss of sleep). Recently we had a discussion where he told me he would not let me finish my PhD, because otherwise I'd need 10 years to complete it and he can't afford to pay me for such time...
I reached the point where I am completely disgusted with what I am doing and I am seeking a way out. My only problem is that I'd like to make sure I am employable. So I figured my best bet would be to try completing the PhD, no matter if it is imperfect / incomplete.
Since I have only ~10 months left (roughly 10 because I could probably survive a few more months with my savings) to make up for the last three years, I'd like some pointers about how to make the most out of it, without going completely insane. To be more specific, I guess I am looking for advice about efficiency (both in professional and personal life), how to be more stable, how to make strategic choices and set priorities when there is a lack of time.

To be honest, from your description I would be less concerned with finishing your PhD and more concerned about your mental health.

You should probably talk to a mental health professional or GP, and then worry about this. The chances that the road to a PhD would be forever closed for you is reasonably small, but if you don't take care of yourself the impacts can be significant.


Could one become a successful researcher by writing some really good papers while being outside academia? Would it still be possible today to go from relatively unknown to a respected figure in physics by writing some spectacular papers being outside the academia?
(Just like Einstein did)

My impression is that the likelihood of this is proportional to how theoretical the field that you have in mind is. In math or theoretical physics, it's at least imaginable for an outsider to produce an important new discovery. In High Energy Physics the idea alone seems outlandish.

That said, even in math the ratio of cranks (deluded amateurs who are convinced they have made an important discovery without having actually done so) to actual amateur geniuses is almost infinite to one. If you want to do research, in any field, the winning strategy is to study under a respected member of the community and learn how to produce, evaluate, and communicate your ideas in this way.


Is a faster implementation of an existing algorithm publishable? So a paper exists, it was published 3 years ago and had a novel algorithm (more or less, it's in the area of finite-difference time-domain simulations).

I've taken the algorithm and accelerated it by a factor of 100x (example, I don't have the true number), producing the same results in the end, but providing an opportunity to essentially simulate more (iterations/objects) in the same amount of time.

The methods used to accelerate it aren't particularly novel, though some aspects might very well be a bit different from mainstream ideas. All in all, a person set out to do the same thing would probably be able to do it, but I would not call it trivial. However, I know that this has not been done before.

Is this something worth publishing? I am going to ask my supervisor, but he's been very busy lately ( >.< ), I haven't been able to catch him for ~4 days. I would like some of your opinions.

If I understand the question correctly, the dilemma is whether to just distribute the code or whether to also make a scientific publication out of it.  The way that I typically think about this type of problem is to see whether it passes any of the following tests:

Does the improvement enable a significant scientific or technical work that was not previously possible?  For example, if faster simulation allows a control loop to be done in realtime that couldn't before, that advance may be scientifically valuable even if the methods are not interesting in and of themselves, but you have to demonstrate that value.
Does the improvement make a qualitative change in the operation of the algorithm which is interesting, e.g., changing a scaling property that was previously a limit?
Is the mechanism of the improvement interesting in and of itself, e.g., such that it teaching something about the nature of the algorithm or such that it might be applied to other algorithms or problems as well?

Any of these is a good reason to publish an improvement on an algorithm.


Can someone change PhD topic within a department after admission? Suppose that someone applies for a PhD in the US with publications in topic X, and hence the whole SOP and
the target group both revolve around X. They get admitted, and realise soon after entering that there is another topic they would love to work on, albeit it is worked on by a different group.
Is it possible to switch? Or are they supposed to work on X with the same group during the whole PhD?

There might be exceptions, but generally in the US it is possible to change, though doing so might cost you time. The exceptions would be if you were being paid by a particular group (through a grant, say) and then, while it would still be possible, you would have to arrange funding.
But, for the most part, you are accepted into a department, not a specific group within it and you can probably change within that department. You would need to find an advisor to accept you, of course.
Most students start doctoral studies with only a BS/BA and little immediate research focus.


Remove co-author for ethical violation? My co-authors and I are preparing to submit a major project manuscript.  Unfortunately, we have just learned that one of the persons involved in the project has committed major scientific ethical violations related to the project, but not directly impacting this paper.

The scale of the ethical violation is quite large (think: non-consensual and dangerous medical experiments) and is directly connected to their work on the project. It does not, however, affect the validity of this manuscript or their contributions to it in any way.

Many of the co-authors, however, no longer want to be associated with this person in any way, and are likely to withdraw their names from the manuscript if this person remains an author.

Would it be reasonable to remove this person from authorship based on their ethical violation, essentially as a form of community shunning?

Personally I think you cannot do it, and I wouldn't even speak in terms of "reasonable" or "unreasonable". If someone makes a contribution to your work, that person is your co-author, deal with it. If a person wants to remove his/her own name, its their private decision, but I can hardly imagine doing that for other contributors without their consent.

When I engage in research with other people, I consider it a sort of binding contract: I do this for you, and I expect you to put my name on the front page. If you don't want to deal with me anymore, it's OK, but next time, not this time.

Furthermore, while I don't want to overthink it and portray pictures of possible dystopian future, I believe such ways of "community shunning" are very dangerous. Maybe today you have a valid reason for it, but you'll open a Pandora's box: first we retroactively remove people for their flaws, then for their views on sensitive topics, then for their thoughts.


Is it a good idea for a nonnative English speaker to have native speakers help make the English in statement of purpose perfect? I am applying to doctoral programs in the US.

Since I am not an English native speaker, I am wondering if it is okay to have native speakers help make my English perfect in my statement of purpose?

I ask so because I am concerned with that, since the committee definitely knows that I am not a native speaker in English, my perfect English in statement of purpose could lead them to suspect. By "suspect" I mean the argument: If this person's writing is this good, then this person's TOEFL scores must be almost perfect.

It's definitely a good idea (in fact anyone in your situation should do so), I have seen plenty of people around me in my graduate school who had done so. There even exist professional services specialized for this task (it's a pretty big business in some countries).

Regarding your concern that the jury might think that you have been "cheating", forget about it:

by providing a flawless statement of purpose despite being non-native, you are showing the jury a lot of motivation;
if the statement of purpose was used to assess your true level of English, they wouldn't ask for TOEFL/IELTS;
when writing research articles later on, you will still often have a native speaker around to answer questions.


What are the possible causes of a faculty position not being filled? I applied for a tenure-track faculty position at a particular institution in the U.S. I was selected for a skype interview, but was not invited for an on-campus visit. I snooped around on the department seminar web page, but did not find any evidence that this particular department actually ever invited anybody for an on-campus interview.

Today, I received an email from the department stating:

  Thank you for your interest in the faculty position within the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of [redacted]. Our search to fill this position produced many impressive applicants. However, for a number of reasons beyond the department’s control, the position was not filled.

I can think of a couple of reasons that a department may not fill a vacancy, such as:

the finalists all ended up taking a job somewhere else
none of the finalists could agree to the terms offered by the department

So, besides those possibilities listed above, what are the other possible causes of a faculty position going unfilled?

You will probably never know the full reason, because departments are not quick to air their internal issues with job candidates. But here are a few possible reasons:

The search was halted by higher administration. One possible reason to do this so late in the process is because of funding changes (e.g. the funding for the position disappeared or was reallocated elsewhere).
The search was halted by the HR department due to some violation of hiring practices.
The search committee was unable to come to an agreement about who to bring to campus for an interview, or the dean rejected all the candidates before they were interviewed.
Although this is less likely, someone who had planned to retire might have decided not to retire, or someone from another department may have been moved into the department (e.g. for legal reasons to settle a complaint).


What is an empirical study? I always read phrases such as "empirical data" and "empirical study." What does it mean when a study is empirical?

A good definition from Wikipedia is

  Empirical research is a way of gaining knowledge by means of direct and indirect observation or experience. Empirical evidence (the record of one's direct observations or experiences) can be analyzed quantitatively or qualitatively.

Another good resource is EricDigests.com is a further resource that goes through in detail the steps to empirical research, the 7 that are defined from that link are:

Randomisation
Control
Reliability
Validity
Implementation of Treatment Variable
Analysis Issues
Implementation issues

(The full details are on the 2nd link - too much to fit here)

Hope this helps answer your question.


Online Computer Science Masters as PhD Prep I have recently completed my undergraduate degree, and am interested in pursuing a master's and potentially an eventual doctorate.

I have been looking at affordable online degrees such as the following:

Georgia Tech | M.S Computer Science
U of I | Master of Computer Science
University of Texas at Austin | M.S. Computer Science
ASU | Master of Computer Science

Are these types of degrees (all of which are purely coursework and do not require a thesis) considered to be more "professional" masters programs that cannot lead to a PhD or could one get a PhD after the completion of one of these programs?

These are professional masters programs.

My department (Illinois) does not consider even our own online MCS program to be preparation for a PhD, because there is no requirement—and therefore in practice almost no opportunity—for research experience.

Moreover, it is unlikely that any instructor of an online course can provide useful recommendation letters for their students for PhD programs, because useful letters generally require direct, personal, one-on-one interaction.  Sure, they can write a letter describing your class performance, but such letters are nearly useless; we can already see your grades on your transcript.


What is the usual process for a paper after getting accepted? Can you still make edits for readability? We have submitted a paper to a journal,
and received comments from the reviewers.
We are about to submit revised paper and response letter to the journal.

As we revise the paper,
it sometimes bugs me that the paper is not quite perfect.
There are things like minor typos, grammar,
and even some more major flaws like parts where the phrasing should be improved.

I am trying to think ahead about what happens after the paper is accepted.
Assuming that the paper gets accepted,
do we get the chance to make final edits
to correct some of these bugs in the paper
(that do affect readability but do not affect correctness)?

Note
I actually have two published papers to my name,
but in both instances,
after writing the first paper submission together,
my collaborators performed the work of
responding to the reviewers
and getting the paper into the final product,
without involving me in the process.
(I am speculating that this may be because those two papers
were done during my Master's study,
but the paper revision was done when I had moved away to do my PhD.)
While I appreciate that I didn't need to do more work,
unfortunately, this meant that I did not have any experience
with what happens after getting reviews,
and I don't know what is the process to close the loop
and get the paper published.

Depending on the journal, one of two things may happen after acceptance:

For many journals, once the paper is accepted, that's the last time you touch it: at that point, the journal staff stick it into the production queue and in a few months it appears in a new issue with page numbers and citation information added.
For some "fancier" journals, the production staff does more extensive reformatting to make the paper look pretty and copyediting the text to correct such minor errors and make sure everything is in conformance with all of the journal's preferences for style.  In this case, you will work with the production staff on the final proofs, approving the copyedits they make, and may be able to insert a few minor changes (but generally just wording, not substantive technical changes).

This is further complicated by the fact that some journals now have an "Articles ASAP" or "Just Accepted" publication, which puts a preprint online before copyediting (flaws and poor formatting and all), and only later replaces it with a final version.

Bottom line: unless you know the journal does copyediting and has no "Just Accepted" stage, you should correct all of the flaws you notice now.


Work History / Professional Experience Section of US Grad School Application - Listing Research Internships I'm applying to biomedical sciences Ph.D. programs, and the applications typically allow me to type in my "Work History / Professional Experience."

I know that undergraduate research would not fall under this category, and technically internships would. However, my internships were both in research (over the past 2 summers). They were full-time positions. One took place at a hospital while the other took place at a medical school. Should I bother listing them in the work/professional experience section, especially if the application does not allow me to submit a CV/resume? I don't know if the schools want me to list any type of research here, even though both were work experiences outside of my undergraduate university.

List them anywhere reasonable rather than not listing them at all. Probably you can give short descriptions so that there is no misunderstanding.

But let the reader judge the significance rather than assuming that they aren't worth listing. Err on the "say more" side rather than "say less".

And, if you can send a Statement of Purpose, mention there how those things support the sort of thing you want to do.


Erratum, Rejoinder etc. in Article names: What are the differences? I am a little bit confused with the following terms and do not know how they differ:

Erratum/Corrigendum
Rejoinder
Commentary

In which cases is/should an article be named one or the other?
What other options do we have to discuss findings (other research articles) in journals?
Can Errata only be written by the original authors?

Erratum/Corrigendum

These are corrections to an article after publication, perhaps due to mistakes during copyediting, or mistakes made by the authors while preparing the contents. The two terms are often used interchangeably, but some publishers (e.g. Elsevier) make the distinction that errata correct errors introduced by the publishers, and corrigenda correct errors introduced by the authors. Other publishers (e.g. APS) consider errata to be for nontrivial corrections by the authors. Basically, which term to use will depend on the journal in question.

Commentary / comment
Response to comment
Rejoinder

Sometimes you see a published paper and you have a criticism with its overall methodology, or conclusions. It should usually be about something central and important to the paper - something like a significant factor being overlooked in a statistical analysis. Then you can often submit a comment to the same journal detailing this criticism. Sometimes this is known as a commentary.

Smaller mistakes and errors are often better dealt with by letting the authors know, and hoping they'll submit a correction. Other times future papers (by you or them) can quietly correct simple typos in equations etc. After the comment, the original authors generally get to write a response to this comment. Sometimes the commenters can write a reply to this response, and this is often known as a rejoinder response.

  In which cases is/should an article be named one or the other?

As I hinted at above, this basically comes down to what the journal or publisher wants to call things.

  What other options do we have to discuss findings (other research articles) in journals?

The most important option is to write a new research article, in which it's a good idea to discuss past works as a motivation for your own work. Some journals also publish "letters to the editor".


Conference presenting: stick to initial paper submission or include recent improvements? I submitted a paper for a conference. While the paper got submitted for publication in the proceedings, the feedback seemed quite negative. The main criticism was that the model I have designed uses too many simplifications.

I am giving a presentation at the conference in about a week and a half. Since I submitted the original paper I have achieved a significant amount, and have been able to improve my model and deal with a number of the simplifications.

My question is: for the presentation content, do I have to stick with the work that is going to be published, or can I also present some of the more interesting, newer work?

For reference, my field is engineering (renewable energy)

do I have to stick with the work that is going to be published, or can I also present some of the more interesting, newer work?

Absolutely present the improved model.

Conference submissions photograph the state of the work at the time of the submission. But from the submission deadline to the conference, many months can pass and usually people continue to work on their projects. Frequently, by the time of the conference, new results have been obtained, and these surely deserve to be presented.


What research has examined the cost in time and money of conference attendance? I am looking for surveys/studies that quantify the time and money academics spent on conferences/symposia/workshops/etc by both organizers and attendees. Specifically, I'm interested in both academic and institutional costs related to conference, travelling, and administrative tasks related to travel. (In my experience the overwhelming majority of expenses are covered by employer/grant/etc anyways.)

I am most interested in the field of computer science, and academics affiliated to US institutions.

I published a paper:
 Anderson, L., & Anderson, T. (2009). Online professional development conferences: An effective, economical and eco-friendly option  Canadian Journal of Learning  Technology, 35(2).

in which we calculated the costs (transportation, hotels, meals etc.) in dollars and in Carbon costs using a medium sized conference in the UK.
We were interested in showing the HUGE cost and carbon savings if the conference was held online and used this data in our book on Virtual Conferences.


Can grant money be spent on travel to program committee meetings? Many research conferences hold an in-person program committee meeting for all of the members of the program committee, where the PC members make the final decisions about which papers to accept or reject.  (At least, that's how it tends to work in computer science; I don't know about other fields.)

Can program committee members use federal grants to pay for their travel costs to attend a program committee meeting, for conferences where they are on the program committee?  Generally speaking, what funding sources do professors tend to use, to pay for travel to these meetings?

For each grant, or type of grant, there are rules specifying what it can be used for. You should follow these rules and, unless you ask us about a specific funding program or agency, it's impossible to give more specific advice.


How are unusual thesis topics looked at? So at my university, there have been professors who partner with industry, including a sex products company, one which develops devices.
What I'm curious about is how a PhD thesis is looked at which in part involves an area like this? Practically speaking, many skills involving machine design, control theory and perception systems are used so it's not a joke topic but I'm curious if the area itself has a negative impact on career development.

For a topic like this, I’d recommend making sure it’s something you’re comfortable having your identity tied to.
On this particular topic, I know folks who have outwardly countercultural identities built up, in which they've made work in this area part of said identity, and others for which they are more mainstream, matter-of-fact about the role of sexuality in everyday lives.
The key thing to avoid would be a topic that made you personally feel awkward/embarrassed about telling people about it (unless you were sure that you wanted to become less embarrassed about it, and practiced braking down your discomfort before becoming committed to it).
With respect to careers, it will likely be limiting in some aspects, but open other doors (and this ties into the identity aspect via asking yourself what you actually want out of life).


How do researchers affect the funding opportunities of their department I am mathematician, and I am interested how math departments view my activities.

Clearly, they view me as somebody who can carry teaching load. But I am also a researcher. What and how much I publish has an impact on my own career and my opportunities in getting grants and funding.

But what about the department? How does my work contribute to the department's possibilities when it comes research grants for individual researchers of the faculty, grants by several researchers on a project, or maybe huge grant schemes? Do I enter a statistics anywhere?

To be more concrete: when a researcher gets employed at a department, they not only do it for the sake of science. For example, they have keep an eye on their departments competitiveness. When I coauthor work with people at the department, then this certainly helps the individuals involved, e.g. in terms getting cited.

However, there are grants on a larger scale. For example, a department may apply to fund a huge center of research by the NSF. How does being productive at the department help in acquiring such a grant?

A few quick points:

Many grants have evaluation criteria that incorporate the research environment of the investigators. Thus, the research ranking and status of researchers in the department and the university of the investigator can influence the chance of getting a grant.
Researchers within a department can help each other do good research in a wide range of ways. Senior researchers often mentor and teach more junior researchers. Researchers often collaborate within a department. This is both easy, because you are collocated. It also often aligns well. I.e., an academic is not only helping his own research track record, but he or she is helping the research output and capacity of the department.
If you do good research and increase the prestige of the school, this can have a range of other beneficial effects for the department and other researchers. Academic visitors may be more keen to visit. Good PhD students may be more attracted to the department. And so on.

So in general, the contribution of a single academic to a department's research status is often only modest, but it is still meaningful. And in extreme cases, where the department recruits a research superstar, the effects can be profound.


Feeling regret for sending my code to my classmate As an international student, I found hard to integrate well with other classmates. I only have two relatively close friends in my class. When my classmate asked me to send my code to him, I did not reject him as I was afraid of losing this friend. Now, I feel extremely regret as I am facing an accusation of plagiarism. I will never allow others to access my work. I actually have evidence that all works are done by me.

However, I worked extremely hard on my assignment and amended it four times before submission. I do not think that I deserve mark reduction. Are there any things that I can do to change the professor's mind instead of mark reduction? I hope I can do any other things to compensate for my fault instead of mark reduction.

You are entirely at your professor's mercy or lack thereof.

As a student, you are responsible for knowing the regulations of the course and the school. This includes plagiarism and academic misconduct charges. You were told to do all work individually. On multiple occasions you violated that principle and knowingly did so because you did not want to lose a friendship. You intentionally made a choice and now you must face the consequences for making that selection which fell afoul of regulations.

The fact that you did all the work individually does not clear you of misconduct because you intentionally aided someone else in violating the academic misconduct regulations. If your friend had stolen your work without your knowledge, that would be an entirely different issue. However, you willingly participated in the process, which makes you just as much of a "cheater" as your "friend."

So, you may try to argue about your lack of culpability but your instructor is within rights to pursue academic misconduct charges against you. Any offer of a "reduced" sanction or punishment is entirely at your instructor's discretion.


Order of a PhD application in the United States I am applying to biomedical science PhD programs and have been working on personal statements for a while now. Many of the programs seem to have a very similar lineup with how they want the statement to look. However, they're usually ordered around a little differently.

I've found that there's a very good flow to my statement by starting with what influenced me (e.g. school/past research/etc.), current interests/faculty I want to work, career goals, research XP, and a closing statement that's usually geared toward why the school is a good fit. While this structure always varies between schools, I feel it's best done in how I sort of described here. Every now and then, a school is like "tell us why you like the school, tell us research experiences, tell us what motivated you, then tell us faculty you want and what you learned from research." This is sometimes hard to follow and ends up making my statement structure awkward.

Is it okay to not answer the personal statement points always in the order that they list the "points to consider including?"

Thanks

Does it look something like the following?

Please include information on

motivation
experience
Why this school?
...

If yes, I wouldn't worry about the order.
If, on the other hand, it is more like

Please include the following information in that order:

motivation
experience
Why this school?
...

then of course you should do that. However, I think it is rather uncommon to demand a fixed order, are you sure they want that?


How to include a paper presented by someone else on CV As part of a project (I work for a research org, not at a university) we submitted a paper (technically we actually submitted a panel, with our paper being one of the papers in the panel) to one of the big policy/social science conferences.

It was accepted and someone else on our team presented at the conference. I'm listed as the second author on both the actual presentation itself as well as the paper. There is no conference proceedings or anything for this conference, so it wasn't peer reviewed and isn't publicly available anywhere. But I'm an early career researcher and still hope to include it on my CV somewhere, because it is a major project and was at a prestigious conference.

One other factor may be that this project is unique in that it does not actually have a guaranteed report coming at the end (long story short, we're building a database of sorts). So there may be a future paper submitted to a peer-reviewed journal, but potentially not. What's the best way to list the conference stuff? Or should I really, really not include it?

In your CV, you could write your name in bold in the author list of the paper and also make it available in a preprint repository. That way the paper will get a doi and will be freely accessible.


Are en-route masters in physics viewed differently from terminal masters in physics in the Canadian job market? A little bit of context behind this question: I was asked, during a student presentation, whether an en-route masters (usually awarded upon passage of quals in a direct PhD plan) really was worth the same as a terminal masters (with thesis), knowing the latter is the norm in Canada.

That physics undergraduate said that she'd rather earn a terminal thesis masters than an en-route one (although I feel that this particular undergraduate could be offered a direct PhD plan), because a terminal masters would signal that one is capable of completing a research project, while an en-route masters usually involves a failed, unfinished or downsized research project, since a person in position to take quals usually spent upwards of a year in a research project in the direct PhD plans I know about.

So are terminal research masters in physics regarded differently from en-route masters in physics on the job market?

P.S.: Perhaps the answer varies from a field to another, so what's applicable to physics may not be applicable to, say, chemistry or history.

My understanding is that an en-route masters is simply a masters awarded with an understanding that the person will also continue onto a PhD. I don't think this assumption/understanding makes it any less of a masters. In other words, the masters is not conditional on work done in the PhD. My impression is also that the person would have needed to do several significant things to get the en-route masters, and the magnitude of those things is likely similar to the person who got a terminal masters.

So, no, I don't think en-route is viewed differently in general.

Note that I am Canadian.


Poster session includes a "poster" + "article"? When we are accepted in a poster session, does it mean that we need to provide a "poster" (usually in A0 size) + an "article" which explains the topic in a separate file ? Or both poster and article are included in a single PDF file ?

And also this article must include an "abstract" like usual papers?

I ask this question because I have received a strange email from a workshop as follows :

  Posters have to  be formatted in LNCS-style and not exceed 1 page in
  length, with a PDF  draft of the proposed poster included as page 2 of
  the submission (A0 size  in portrait mode,  W 841mm x H 1189 mm, with
  all fonts embedded in the  PDF file). In addition, poster titles
  should always start with the  phrase "Poster Abstract:"

Here is the website of the conference : http://deic.uab.cat/conferences/cbt/cbt2018/

.

It'd the best to ask conference organizers for the clarification. Organizers of conferences are usually very friendly and quite responsive, so there's no harm in asking. And they will be able to give the precise and authoritative answers to your question.


How to prepare before going to grad school I earned my Bachelor's degree in Information Technology this year and I am currently employed in the last 5 months. I am currently 20 years old and expected to be 21 when I enter graduate school.

For my background, I don't think I have something special. I barely passed during the part 2 of my undergraduate thesis. I am just a regular student back then and was not active on any organization or extracurricular activities. A kind of student who managed to pass all my subjects without failing a single unit but some of them just barely passed.

As for the job, according to my employer, on all applicants that they I have, I was the only one who was able to answer their take-home programming exam.

I am planning to take up a Master's degree in Computer Science which is somehow different from my current degree next year.

As for my research project, I haven't thought of it as of now. To be honest, I will enter the graduate school to boost my skills and credentials and also for self satisfaction.

I have roughly around 6 months more to prepare. As a student planning to take up computer science, how should I prepare in entering grad school? I don't want to waste my 6 months to do nothing and I want to prepare that bad. Is there any advice you can give me? Or something to study before entering graduate school?

Prepare financially. Grad school is not cheap. Make sure you can afford it. Even if you're going to be funded, you're probably not going to be well-paid, so the money you can save now, while you still have a job, will be precious. By having a reserve available, you can mishaps like this one since even if funding runs out you'll be able to self-fund.

Prepare a fallback plan. This ties in with #1. Do your current job well. If you manage this, then if you go to grad school and find you dislike it (happens quite a bit, e.g. see this question) you can still hopefully return to the workforce seamlessly. Perhaps you can rejoin your original employer, perhaps you can join a competitor; either way you have a lot to gain by achieving a lot in your current job. Your employer might even be willing to fund you through grad school.

Start worrying about how to find a position. After having done the two things above, start thinking about where you're going to study. Which universities are you going to apply to? Which professors do you want to work under? What topics do you want to learn? Do you want to take courses or do you want a research-only Masters? Here's where money can come in handy again, because if you're able to self-fund you'll have a wider pool of potential universities to look at.

After you've identified a university/professor, the next thing to do would be to write to read some of that professor's papers, write to that professor to make contact, possibly discuss some aspects of the intended work, and apply. If you are accepted, then you can ask the professor about what to study before attending.


My university blocks leaking/whistleblowing emails related to an internal investigation A number of top academics in my public university have been suspended by its registrar pending an internal investigation. This was related to alleged involvement of those academics in a large scale commercial project.

Shortly after this was announced, the staff members began to receive a series of anonymous emails.

The purpose of these emails, as claimed by the anonymous sender, is to expose the truth. The sender criticized the suspension, and has so far sent leaked a number of correspondences and documents that "expose"/"implicate" the registrar and other parties.

I, as many of my colleagues, were not aware of these "secret" details before, but personally I've found them very interesting and enlightening so I welcome them and don't see them as "spam".

However, the sender claims that the University's management is actively trying to block these emails from reaching the staff members. As a result, he/she keeps changing his/her nickname and email address.

My question to you is, in principle, is the university right in trying to block such anonymous emails? Does that, in some way, violate academic freedom?

This is quite an interesting question.  I may be wrong on this, but I do not think blocking those emails would constitute a breach of "academic freedom".  Academic freedom usually protects the freedom of inquiry and publication for academics in relation to their academic work, but it would not ordinarily extend to give them any special right of inquiry and receipt of information with respect to their employment conditions and the administration of their employment (beyond the normal expectations of workers in other fields).  From your description, the emails relate to the employment treatment of academics, rather than a subject of academic research/investigation, and so it would be likely that the university would have the same rights as any other employer in respect of these emails.  While it may be unseemly for the university to block communications to its staff that criticise the administration of their employment, it is unlikely that this would constitute a breach of the principles of academic freedom.

One simple solution that strikes me as obvious in this case would be for any interested recipients of these emails to reply to the sender and supply their personal email address, so that future correspondence can be sent to them at an email account that is not controlled by the university.  If the goal of the sender is simply to alert relevant employees of alleged misconduct by the university, then that can be accomplished by sending the email to their personal email accounts.


Can two PhD students publish without involving their supervisors? I am a theoretical computer science PhD student. My childhood friend (my present roommate) is in the 3rd year of his pure mathematics PhD program. Very recently we both worked on a problem on combinatorial geometry and got some interesting results to publish. However both of our dissertation topics are way different from this work, so we don't want to involve our advisors in this matter. This was kind of our joint fun project.
We don't know whether it's academically unethical to publish paper(s) as PhD students without including our advisor(s).

(Note: We have nothing to lose even if they reject our paper right away, but we don't want the editor of the journal to mail the chair about this matter. Maybe I'm thinking too much because I've never done this kind of thing before.)

There is nothing unethical about publishing something like what you suggest. Personally I would be happy and encourage a student of mine if that happened. So from a formal side you need not to worry. I can add that authorship, or contributorship, does not include adding names to a paper if they have not contributed anything (or enough; see posts on authorship on this, Academia.sx, site). I would, however, be open about it with your advisor. I assume you have a good working relationship with him/her? The only thing that could complicate things would be if you are in a bad working relationship with your advisor or if your system is very hierarchical and not open to initiatives. Clearly only you can assess this. But, I do not want you to over-emphasize these "risks". If you get stuff published on your own and in a field that is not directly within your topic, it will only be viewed as  a positive in your resume when applying for, for example, post-doctoral positions.

As for risking rejection, I suggest you have someone whose views you trust to read and comment on the paper. Having someone independent look at the work is always good to work out details that can otherwise distract reviewers. This is always a good idea so it is not unique to your case.


Is it acceptable for a student to ask a professor to be included as a co-author on the professor's paper? This semester I participated in an independent study with a professor and one of his/her PhD students. In this independent study, I spent a very substantial amount of time building (coding) things to facilitate the research being performed by the professor and his/her PhD student. However, I did not perform any actual research (though without my work, their research likely would not have been possible).

A few weeks ago, I asked this question: If I work on a project but don't do research, should I be included as an author on a paper?

It seems that the general consensus was, "it depends, but probably yes". Unfortunately, though the professor has told me that I did excellent work and that s/he is very pleased, s/he did not offer to include me as a co-author on the paper (the topic never came up).

My question now is, is it within the bounds of etiquette to ask this professor if I can be included on the paper? If so, what is a respectful and reasonable way to frame the question? I don't want to be imposing or assuming (especially because I did not actually conduct any research myself), but realistically I put in a very significant amount of work this semester (far more than the professor was expecting) and I think it's reasonable to at least be considered for co-authorship given that my work greatly aided in their research process.

For what it's worth, the professor is a reasonable person, i.e. this is not a case of "I'm being excluded unfairly!". Rather, the possibility of my being included as an author on the paper has not been brought up by the professor, so I'm wondering whether is it acceptable for a student to ask a professor to be included on his/her research paper?

It's fine to just ask.

But if you feel uncomfortable asking straight out "Can I be considered for authorship on this paper?" an alternative approach is to have a conversation about authorship that (1) makes it clear to the professor that you're interested in authoring a research paper, and (2) helps you understand the shades of "it depends" for your specific kind of research.

For example, you might bring up in conversation:

  In our field, what kind of contribution are students expected to make in order to merit authorship on the paper that comes out of their work?

Then you can ask,

  On this project, what additional work could I have done in order to have sufficient contribution to be considered an author?

and then, if you want very much to co-author a research paper and plan to continue working with this professor,

  I'm interesting in being a co-author on a research paper. On the next project we work on, can I have a role that (if I do it well) merits co-authorship?

Ideally, if you had just asked straight out "Can I be considered for authorship on this paper?", the ensuing discussion would also cover the points above.


Biosketch for New Researchers How do you describe your Research Support (part D of NIH's biosketch) if you've never been a named member of a grant?  For junior researchers, NIH provides helpful guidance here on parts A (personal statement) and C (contribution to science).  Certain applicants can skip the Research Support section (high school students, applicants for predoctoral or postdoctoral fellowships, applicants for dissertation grants), but what if you're none of those?  I don't want to leave it entirely blank, but I don't want to mislead reviewers.

I disagree with @Formite's answer. My perspective is mostly related to NSF grants and faculty applications, not NIH proposals, but it's very common and not at all bad for new faculty to have nothing to list for external support. Many people list their university start-up funds -- this is a good thing to do, since it shows university commitment. I think it would be seen as misleading to write down grants for which you weren't a PI, for example things that funded you as a graduate student or postdoc.


Can we submit (an updated version) of a work previously submitted to arXiv to a conference? Is this possible to submit a newer verion of a paper  submitted on arXiv (which was never submited to any conferences before), to a new conference and then update arXiv with the new version?

Yes.

Assuming the conference doesn't forbid that (many don't). If it does, then just update the arXiv version before submitting to the conference (or before signing anything).


how to find conferences that allow sit-in's For faculty lack of funding, how to find conferences that allow people to sit in without paying? For those that don't allow officially, will they check attendees' badge?

I have to say that I can't remember ever having my badge checked at any conference. In fact, by the second day, i've often lost my badge. What does sometimes happen is having your badge checked to get onto the campus in the first place. Also, people often have greeters at the door during registration.

I've "sat in" on plenty conferences before when they have been happening on my campus anyway. I'm not sure I'd risk travelling to one on that basis though.


How can I use parentheses in google scholar? I want to search for papers with this criteria : the title contains preeclampsia OR the title contains toxemia and the text contains pregnan*.

I used this:

intitle:preeclampsia  OR (intitle:toxemia AND intext:pregnan*)  489 hits

But google scholar didn't understand the parenthesis and gave the same results as this:

intitle:preeclampsia  OR intitle:toxemia AND intext:pregnan*   489 hits

What's wrong?

As you correctly recognized, Google Scholar doesn't understand parentheses. I don't think there is a solution other than making two separate searches and considering the results of both. If you wish to get a literature overview, that should be sufficient.

If you wish to count the number of hits, you may want to make a third search for intitle:preeclampsia  AND intitle:toxemia AND intext:pregnan* and use the inclusion-exclusion formula: |A or B| = |A| + |B| - |A and B|. (Warning: the number of results is just approximated in Google searches, and this method may return numbers that are way off).

If you wish to do something else, just tell us in the question next time. :)


Will I need to retake my written qualifying exams? I am early in the process of considering whether or not to return to a PhD program in mathematics.  The program consists of three parts:  a set of written exams (usually after year 1), an oral exam focused around the topics of one's specialty (year 2 or 3), and finally a thesis/thesis defense (year 4 or 5).

I stopped this process before the second and third parts, but in the process I earned an MS in Mathematics.  I'd like to return to my original university and finish what I started, but I'm hoping to avoid retaking the written examinations.

There are two arguments.

First, that I be required to retake the written exams:  It's been nearly a decade (that's right!) since I took them last, it would be justified re-preparation, and I would learn a lot by studying again to pass them.  After all, 9 years is a long time and the previous results shouldn't 'last' that long.

Second, the I be allowed to pick up where I left off.  Nine years is a long time, but it should be considered to be an extended leave of absence.  I have already proven myself as capable of passing these tests, as evidenced by my MS from the same university.  While I couldn't pass the present day equivalent versions of these exams (without much study), neither could many graduate students like me who are further along in their study.  Also, supposing such tests have expiry, what would the year-length of the expiry be?  Wouldn't any choice of length for an expiry be fairly arbitrary?

Given this situation, what can I expect?  Are there known universities with and without expiry on such tests?

What would be equitable here?  Most importantly what arguments can be made that I retake and pass these exams despite pertinent regulation?

I don't think this is a matter of finding the right argument.  If the rules of the specific department in question explicitly allow you to keep your old exam results upon readmission to the program after any length of time, then if you are readmitted to the program then you get to keep your old exam results.  If they explicitly say the contrary, then you can't.

More likely there are no explicit rules which address what happens when a student leaves the program and then is later readmitted to it: there are no such rules in my program, for instance.  In this case it is really up to the discretion of the faculty in the department.  Moreover, since this issue will probably be bound up with your admission decision, being too pushy or argumentative about it could really backfire.  I would say that it is certainly fair to explicitly mention that you passed the written qualifying exams in the same department at such and such a time, that you are excited to pick up where you left off, and that you are wondering whether this will be possible.

I do not advise that you say more than that or that you give detailed arguments.  It is also not a matter of "equitability": they are not obligated to admit you at all, so they cannot be obligated to admit you with certain additional constraints.  To be honest, the harder you argue about this the more strongly I suspect that you should take the exams again.  Nine years is more than long enough to forget everything that you learned as a master's student.  Indeed you write

  While I couldn't pass the present day equivalent versions of these exams (without much study).

Since you have said this, I would seriously consider removing the identifying information from your account!  Your own confidence that you could not pass the current versions of the exams is rather strong evidence that you should take them again.

  neither could many graduate students like me who are further along in their study.

There are almost certainly no other students in the program who passed their exams nine years ago.  Many PhD programs have total time limitations for exactly this reason.  (There was a student in my program who had done everything but his thesis, and he eventually got timed out because he had taken too long: I believe, after nine years.)  Moreover the other students in the program have spent the time since the exam pursuing their studies and going on to fulfill other programmatic requirements.  You left the program.  It is really not an equivalent situation.

Note also that although the mathematical knowledge tested on qualifying exams is not really time-dependent, nine years is long enough for the structure of the exams to have changed: if e.g. the syllabi are different or if the faculty know that the standards have been raised, then it is probably inappropriate to hold a newly admitted student to different requirements than other newly admitted students.  To be fair, it is probably more likely that there has not been significant change.

Finally, let me note that you haven't mentioned why you are not willing to take the exams again.  According to the structure you described, if you retook all the coursework it would take only one more year.  One year in an American PhD program is not a long time at all.  Taking one year to solidify your foundations before proceeding could actually allow you to graduate in less time than if you dive into something headfirst and then only after months or years realize that you need to backtrack to learn the basics.  Please think carefully about whether getting excused from the exams is really in your long term best interest.

Good luck.


Teaching a blind student MATLAB programming I teach a first year undergrad class in MATLAB programming, and one of my students is completely blind. Quite amazingly, the student memorises the whole chapter before class and regurgitates with the help of someone saying what the output is.

I wonder if anyone has some advice to help the student? I have heard of Emacspeak. There's also the issue of interpreting graphics - is there any software available that may help with this?

Yes, this is all possible, but I recommend seeking specialist advice. Blind support organisations often have technical advisors who are aware of the latest software and hardware adaptions that are available.

I taught a totally blind student through a whole computer science degree, including 3d computer graphics. The student had a box which was connected to the computer and supplied audio through an ear piece. This translated the screen pixels into sound so images could be perceived much as a hand-held scanner might. As the mouse was moved the pixels at the mouse location were translated to sound. In addition to text-to-speech and other features the student had a complete picture of what was on the screen.

Actually, it was better than that. The student could see windows hidden behind windows, because they saw it in three dimensions in their mind and the rest of us were limited to the limitations of a flat 2d screen. We were totally out-classed and out-performed by someone who although blind could perceive the screen images better than we could!

Ask the student if they have looked into the devices available or already have support from appropriate blind organisations. If they do encourage them to follow up. If they do not, go through the appropriate special needs support office at your institution who are likely to have the right contacts.

Never underestimate the abilities of differently equipped students!

PS: I see you are in the UK. The RNIB is likely  to be able to assist. They have appropriate technical officers if the University does not.


What are the pros and cons to writing the same paper in two languages? I am a bilingual student and soon starting on thesis. I will be writing it in English although my native language is French and I am considering writing it in both languages so that the people closer to me can also read it. This is obviously more work but I am wondering if there would be any other advantages/disadvantages to writing papers in two languages. For example, would this increase the chance of publication? Would this make tracking citations more difficult?

I already saw another question regarding if it's better to write in X language first but I am not specifically wondering about the order in which it should be done.

so that the people closer to me can also read it

is one of the best reasons I can think of for doing two versions.

Occasionally I write two versions of a letter, in my role as a bilingual volunteer advocate for a child with special needs.  I've noticed that after writing the letter in language A, and then writing it in language B, I am then able to go back to language A and make some improvements that I am sure would not have occurred to me through the normal single-language editing process.

I would just caution you, if it starts to be more trouble than it's worth, to keep both versions chugging along strongly, don't get frustrated with yourself if you decide not to keep going with the French version.


What is the maximum time-span of a referee? I applied for a PhD program in 2017 and got rejected. I'm preparing to apply again in 2018.

Could a professor who gave me a recommendation letter last year refuse to do so again? If so, why, and how could I approach this issue? Is there any unwritten rule regarding how long a referee will provide a reference for a student?

Maybe there are cultural differences, but when I am writing a letter of reference for a student, it will hold lifelong. The rationale is simple:

It has a date on it, so the other side can see when it was issued and decide by themselfes how valid my interpretation of the student's performance is at the current date
I'm writing my true opinion on the student, there is no reason to change my mind.
If someone want's an updated version, they can call / contact me via e-mail.

I know of no official or inofficial rules (in Germany).

The situation might be different if you need a new reference letter. Then I would only write it if I can tell something new about you.

So if you need an updated letter of reference, the referee should recieve some content from your side to put into this letter, together with a brief explanation of your goals, how you improved, etc.


Can a person taking their undergraduate degree in humanities, apply for a masters in scientific fields? can humanities students apply for masters in the sciences or must they take a second undergraduate degree in the sciences if they choose to study in a different field?

Check the stated requirements of the program you're interested in. There's no easy answer.

Example: if you're interested in a Masters in Biology @ Harvard Extension School, then you're in luck because their website says:

  Eligibility: Before enrolling in any degree-applicable courses, you need to possess a four-year, US regionally accredited bachelor's degree or its foreign equivalent. You cannot already have or be in the process of earning a master's degree in biology or related field.

So you should be in the clear. However if you want to do Aeronautics and Astronautics @ MIT, then:

  You must have a strong background in mathematics and physics, and, with rare exception, familiarity with an engineering discipline. In some cases, unfulfilled entrance requirements may be satisfied during your first year of graduate study. If you're radically changing fields, advanced study before applying is recommended. You should also address your reasons for changing you field when you are writing your Statement of Objectives, a very important part of our graduate application.

It's up to you to assess if you have a strong background in mathematics & physics from your humanities degree, and if so, to convince the admissions people.


The best ways to cite a theorem whose assumptions/conditions are written earlier in the source? When one cites a theorem from a source in mathematics, the following problem usually arises: some assumptions/conditions of the theorem are written much earlier in the source, which do not appear in the statement of the theorem.

What are good strategies to solve this problem so that the writing could be more reader-friendly?

On the one hand, citing the theorem simply as "By theorem 3.1.4 in [Fang 2013] ..." means the reader may miss some of the conditions of theorem 3.1.4 if they appear earlier in the source.

On the other hand, yes, restating all the conditions of the theorem is considerably the "best" way. But if one has to cite a lot of hard theorems in a proof, restating everything may distract readers from the main issues.

Let me construct an example: if a chapter in a commutative ring theory book begins with "All rings in this chapter will be Noetherian", any theorem containing the word "ring" in this chapter would not include the word "Noetherian". If I cited one theorem in this chapter merely by its "number", a reader may be easily misguided if he/she directly read the theorem without reading the first sentence of this chapter.

There are a number of ways to handle situations like this, depending on how much prominence you want to give to the result you are citing.
If the cited theorem is quite important to your work, and you think the reader will benefit from seeing it written out, then you can include a complete statement:

Theorem 1.2 [Smith 1953].  Suppose $X$ is compact, Artinian, and hyperfinite, and $\sqrt{Q(X)-57} > \pi/4$.  Then $U(X) \sim \gamma$.

[Oh right, we don't have MathJax here. :( ]
Then elsewhere in your paper you can say "By Theorem 1.2, ..."
If the hypotheses of the theorem are particularly complicated and you don't feel it's helpful to include them in your paper, you could write:

Theorem 1.2 [Smith 1953].  If $X$ satisfies the assumptions of Section 5 of [Smith 1953], then  $U(X) \sim \gamma$.

Then you can write elsewhere "We can easily check that $Y$ satisfies the conditions in [Smith 1953], so by Theorem 1.2., $U(Y) \sim \gamma$".
If you don't care to say much about Smith's result (perhaps it's well known, or you're just using it as a black box), you can just cite it, perhaps with a brief comment about its assumptions:

Since $X$ is hyperfinite, by Theorem 5.6.7 of [Smith 1967], ...
By Theorem 5.6.7 of [Smith 1967] (which requires $X$ to be hyperfinite)...


What is the purpose of international editions of books sometimes omitting some problems, footnotes, or other content? I've noticed that - at least in the US - a book is published and sold at a non-trivial price to US residents. However, the author/publisher may also make an international version.

This version is subpar in my opinion. For example, they are cheaper, but also typically paperback, and I've seen in a science textbook things such as "this problem has intentionally been omitted for this edition" and "this [foot]note has been intentionally omitted for this edition."

Why are international editions stripped-down versions of their original counterparts? Why the need to omit certain problems and footnotes?

(I had asked this question first in Law Stack Exchange, but they deleted it and suggested I ask it here. So, any help on the legality of these reasonings would be appreciated).

In some cases, these international editions are sold at a fairly steep discount compared to their U.S. versions. This is intended to increase their accessibility to students in developing countries.

The intention behind omitting material that is in the "nice, but not essential" category, such as a particular problem etc. is to interfere with its utility in the U.S. and other "expensive" markets. Basically, it's to prevent the international versions from being marked up but still sold below the cost of the U.S. version.

As for the legality...the publisher owns the content. They can do pretty much whatever they please with it.


Is it possible to get a bachelor's degree just by having more than the required credit hours? I have around 126 completed credit hours and I know the required amount is 120. My major is in education and I was originally planning on becoming a teacher however I am no longer sure if that is the route I want to pursue and I have not entered the teaching program at my university. I have not been back in the classroom for at least a year mainly because I don't want to waste money and time continuing something that I'm not sure I want to do for a good chunk of my life. I know not every university is the same but is it possible to acquire a Bachelor's just by having more than the required credit amount or will I have to change my degree plan around?
PS. i have emailed the last advisor i spoke with but it's been awhile and i havent recieved a response

Generally speaking, no, a degree requires more than just a certain number of credits. There are usually specific requirements for certain courses, and more requirements for credits and courses within a "major". A minimum GPA is a requirement and there may be a separate GPA-in-major requirement.
But, you may have actually accumulated all of the requirements for a degree in some field if you don't care what it is. There is also some shortest path to graduation for you in any case. Someone like the university's "registrar" knows all of these things and can give you advice. But your advisor should be able to help, or even a secretary in one of the departments in which you have a lot of courses.
So, yes, you may need to change your plans, but you need specific advice from the institution offering the degree.


What is an academic sabbatical? The Wikipedia definition of sabbatical doesn't match how I think of an academic sabbatical. What does it mean to go on academic sabbatical, and does it depend on the country?

The definition of sabbatical in Wikipedia refers to labor terminology rather than academic sabbatical leave. As a privilege to employees, they can have temporary unpaid leave (for any personal reason) without losing their job.

However, academic sabbatical historically is somehow different. When a scholar needs peace of mind to focus on a challenging issue, s/he will visit a new institute to experience a new atmosphere. While still being in the academic environment, not having heavy official duties.

There are several motivations for a sabbatical leave (at least as I have seen):

A manager finishes an administrative position (e.g. Dean), and wishes to rest in a different atmosphere, but not far from academia.
A researcher working on a new idea, prefers to focus on his/her work somewhere with less commitments on everyday responsibilities (e.g. teaching, advising, etc).
A researcher is exploring new possibilities and opportunities, spend some time in a new department to live with new colleagues for a while.
A researcher is collaborating with another group and spend a year in the host research group as a visiting scientist/professor while being on sabbatical leave from his/her institute.
A professor in a mid-level university finds a temporary position in a top university. This is the base for many visiting professors in the US universities, e.g. international professors can experience working in the US universities. Even there are associate/assistant professors who find a post-doc position in the top universities, and use sabbatical leave, not to lose their job at home.

In any case, sabbatical allowance mainly depends on the university employment rules.


I have published all my PhD papers independently, how get a postdoc position? I have a PhD in organic chemistry from a top-tier university and published 5 papers in good journals. My PhD advisor was very helpful and helped me a lot but she is not in any of my papers as she believed her contribution is not enough for co-authorship. I thought it is a privilege that I can get all the credit.

Now that I apply for postdoc positions, it is a downside to my applications. In two phone interviews, I was specifically asked why my advisor is not in my papers. One told me "she probably did not like/approve your work" and the other said, "I am not satisfied that you can collaborate with your future supervisor".

Although she had complimented my publications in her letter of recommendation, nobody likes my sole authorship.

How can I apply for a postdoc as I feel I am stuck in my career because of a mistake.

I would recommend considering these options:

Try to write or formulate your own project. Some funding agencies, e.g. ERC Starting Grant requires you to have at least one important
publication as main author or without the participation of your PhD supervisor. You already achieved it, so it might be benefited.
Don't take it personally. They may have better applicant (=somebody matching their needs better) and they tried to find some reason to reject you. Very probably all other points were excelent and the authorship was only one suspicious think. If they didn't read recommendation of your supervisor then they didn't made their homework; not you.
Endure this period between PhD and postdoc and continue to apply for other opportunities and improve in soft skills too. Positions for highly qualified people are opened not so often.  It took me almost one year to find appropriate postdoc position after my PhD. I invest my time and some spare money to local or near international conferences to do social networking, getting career advice and some feedback. I tried to apply for jobs in industry, in small companies, other universities, academic institutions, etc. I got also small grant for short internship.

Chance favors the prepared mind. Good luck.


Would it be appropriate to email a professor about the culture of an undergraduate college before applying? I will be going to college soon and since I live in an area with few education options, I have very little idea what I would need to do to get into various colleges.  Would it be appropriate to email a professor at a given college and ask them what their program requires/likes to see/what skills most good students have?  What is the culture at their school?  My parents are college professors and I see the ins and outs of academia every single day and I want my college of choice to have certain attributes that are not always obvious from their website.

Most colleges have this information available on their website. If there is any specific question you have that is not covered on their website, of course it is appropriate to email someone in the department and ask. But if what you want to ask, such as the admission requirements, is already posted somewhere, then by asking this you will come across as someone who does not bother to search on their own before asking them.


What is the differences between purchasing Harvard Business Review PDF and reading the article? I was reading this Harvard Business Review article, The Making of an Expert and they were offering a PDF purchase.

Are there major differences between the content of the PDF and the free article?

Many publisher offer a teaser - an excerpt of an article - as an advert for the full article. The teaser may contain the abstract, some graphics, maybe a lay summary or press release about the article, and so on.

In the case of your Harvard Business Review article, they let you read the first eight paragraphs, which gives you an idea of the article's content and style. The full article is about five times longer than that excerpt.

If you buy the pdf, you get the full article, together with its references, and any supplementary information. (though in this particular case, there are neither references nor supplementary information).

Note that five pages of text can get turned into nine pages within a journal, thanks to graphics and other materials that appear in the PDF, but don't appear in a text-only version: for example, in the PDF of the article in question, the first page consists of a single image.  The text-only version may or may not contain the side-bars that appear in the PDF ("Things to Look Out for When Judging Expertise").


Sharing paper after it has been submitted to journal? I am a co-author on a mathematics paper, and we have submitted it to a journal. It will take a long while before we hear back from them, and I wanted to share my paper with friends and family.

If you share a paper before it has been submitted, it is theoretically possible that other people could steal your work, etc, before you submit it. What about after you have submitted your paper?

This might be similar to Can I publish research as "working paper" after journal submission? but I am curious about the mathematics world of academia. Also, what about other fields?

I strongly recommend that you share your paper, not only with your friends and family but also with the entire academic community.  Upload your paper as a preprint to arXiv.  This is the major way for papers to be shared before publication (and after), so that other researchers can learn about your results without waiting for the peer review process (which in mathematics is particularly slow).

(Of course, you'll need to make sure your co-authors agree before you do this.)

See Why upload to academic preprint sites like arXiv?

You may want to double-check that your intended journal will still publish papers when their preprints are on arXiv, but I've never heard of any reputable publisher in mathematics having a problem with this.

  If you share a paper before it has been submitted, it is theoretically possible that other people could steal your work, etc, before you submit it. What about after you have submitted your paper?

I would not worry about it.  The journal has a record that you submitted it, which would be powerful evidence in case of a priority dispute.  Posting to arXiv is an even stronger form of evidence, since it's automatically visible to the public.

In most cases, "stealing work" is a minimal risk, compared to the much larger risk of not getting sufficient attention for your work.  It's usually best to err to the side of sharing.


Searching public domain works from a particular scholar This is a general question, but I have a specific example in mind.

I'm interested to search Francis Galton's works to see if he ever mentioned Condorcet. Galton died in 1911 so all his works would now be in public domain.

So far the best solution I could find was a google search targeted towards a website that contains a lot of his works.

https://www.google.com/search?q=condorcet+site:http://galton.org

Is there a better way?

You might like to try Google Scholar, e.g.,

https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?as_yhi=1911&q=Condorcet+author%3AFrancis+Galton


What should be included in an extended abstract (CS) I've been tasked with writing an extended abstract. I'm studying computer science (CS) and I have had a look online for an idea of what an extended abstract should contain.

So far, I gather that it should contain roughly 1000 words, excluding graphs, diagrams and references. It also appears that it should contain an introduction, and some preliminary results as well as address the what, why and how questions.

I was wondering, could someone provide me with a bullet-point-style breakdown of what an extended abstract needs to contain?

As an example of what I mean, here is how I would break down an abstract:

Define the topic
Describe the problem that the topic is facing
State why this research is important and what it provides
Describe the main contribution of the paper and summarise the conclusion
Describe future avenues of research

The content may include the following, some of which may overlap with the points you have mentioned already.

Definition and scope of the topic
The problem you are to focus on the topic
If the problem was faced before, describe the state of the art.
If you are introducing the problem, express the importance of it.
Discuss the methods and novel techniques to be employed
Highlights of the results obtained
Possible future enhancements and further work in progress

Some extended abstracts also allow the use of references, consult with the publisher/conference committee for any clarifications.

The extent of explanation on the above points is confined to the constraint of the maximum length prescribed by the publisher/conference committee you wish to submit to.


Teaching philosophy with a PhD in math I am currently in a PhD program for math in the US studying mathematical logic, and I plan to pursue a teaching career at a university after I finish my degree. Philosophy has always been a side interest for me, and I am wondering how feasible it would be for me to teach some courses in it once I can land a position. Almost all my current knowledge comes from self-study. I took some undergrad courses, but no graduate work. Would I be considered qualified to teach an undergrad course in logic or philosophy of math if it is listed with a PHIL prefix? Personally, with my knowledge of mathematical logic, I feel that I am more qualified to teach these courses than many philosophers. However, I don't know that accreditation boards see it that way. Reaching further out, what about the philosophy of science, metaphysics, or epistemology?

I did think about taking some philosophy courses at my current institution, but it is a small department, and they seem to be interested in what I would call "soft" topics - nothing like what I normally read and am interested in.

If I must take some graduate level philosophy, should I consider online courses? Are there even any decent places that will allow you to take courses without working toward a specific degree? Probably not, I fear.

Edit: I am particularly interested in the accreditation aspect here. Not what I think I am qualified for, but what I would be considered to be qualified for.

The basis for teaching university-level courses is publication, not so much the courses you may have taken. Therefore, in order to teach a PHY-xxx course, you should expect to be required to have published some research that is relevant for philosophy. That may be in the philosophy of logic, preferably in a philosophy journal.

How close your research has to be close to philosophy will be entirely dependent on the philosophy department and program as well as who their staff are. If they do not have a logic specialist they may be more open to consider you, but be assured that you have to give them reason to prefer you over one of their instructors (professor or lecturer). By allowing you to teach a PHI course the department clearly takes a risk (you are not "one of them"), a risk that is perceived to be higher than letting a philosophy professor teach a logic course, even if it is not that professor's main field.

Indeed, departments tend to take as granted that their professors are implicitly qualified to teach any of their courses (even though that may obviously not be the case), while being a priori suspicious of professors from other departments.

It may therefore be easier for you to give a course on a topic you hage to learn from scratch in mathematics than a course for which you think you are perfectly qualified in philosophy.

In any case, you should not go to the PHI department and argue that you have taken PHI courses which supposedly qualify you to compete with their professors who, after all, have a PhD in Philosophy. Write a couple of articles, a book, that is the way to do it. Or, offer to teach the course jointly with a PHI professor and see how it goes from there. Who knows, the other prof may take a sabbatical and hand you the course!