Can I use the mm.dd.yy date format in academic writing? The date format is usually written as mm/dd/yy and sometimes the month written out followed by the day followed by a comma and the year. My question is: is it academically acceptable to write the date in mm.dd.yy format? I like the . . . format better than the / / / format, which is why I ask the question.

The International Standard ISO 8601 is YYYY-MM-DD.
See Wikipedia and A summary of the international standard date and time notation.

Sadly this is not used by everyone as can be seen in this article about date formats per country:

The most popular order is day-month-year (Little-Endian, cyan in the image), used by about 57% of the world population.
Next is year-month-day (Big-Endian, yellow), used by about 29%.
Then month-day-year (Middle-Endian, magenta), used by about 6%.
The remaining 8% use a mix of the above.

But, in the end the most important is the standards used in your university or the conference or journal you are sending your papers to.


How can I cite a workbook? I want to cite someting from this workbook. How can I cite it? The year is 2009 but what should I put between brackets if there is no specific author?

I would treat it as an online resource since it is not published and might be replaced by a newer version at some point. To cite this, you don't need an author but make sure you state the date when you retrieved the resource. In BibTeX it is done using @misc entry for example.

Another, but less formal, possibility is that instead of a reference, you use a footnote where you will place an URL and the date you retrieved the resource.


There is some indication that I am not that good at teaching – should I still strive to become a professor? Since I was an undergraduate I have been a tutor many times, either a drop-in tutor or a private tutor. However, somehow these students politely turned away from me for reasons I do not know. In all conscience, I am very meticulous in preparing lecture notes and every class. I thus am tempted to think that if it is possible that I just have no that kind of teaching charisma.

Is it still possible for me to become a professor?

Please first let alone the other various necessary conditions for becoming a professor.

There are many possible interpretations of why the students turned away from you. You should not jump to the conclusion that you are bad at teaching. For example, it is possible, judging from the information you gave in the comment, that the students simply did not wish to have a tutor, despite the good intention of the parents who hired you. This is especially common in certain East Asian countries where competition for educational resources are fierce. Moreover, depending on the type of students you tutor, your experience may not speak to your potential as a professor at all. After all, the academic need of a high school student is quite different from that of a college and graduate student. Your teaching style may work well for college students, but not so much for the high school ones.

Finally, even if teaching is not your strongest suit, the experience you gain as you finish grad school and post-doc should help you build the necessary skills (yes, teaching can be an acquired skill, not just an innate charisma). So depending on where you are along your education, there may still be time for improvement. Also, depending on the type of university you work in, the relative importance of research and teaching can vary considerably. So even if everything else fails, working in a research-oriented university should help a bit with the problem.


Do I need to change my CV when a former school changes affiliations? Some years ago, I studied in a small training center that had a "cooperative arrangement" with a larger university. I earned a graduate certificate bearing the name of the university along with graduate credits and a transcript from the university, but attended courses in the training center. I put these details on my CV:

2005        Graduate Certificate in X        <location>, University of X

Recently, the training center and university ended their cooperative arrangement and the training center has a new partnership with another university. Do I need to adjust my CV to reflect the change?

I think the best approach is to keep the original CV entry, as this represents the actual qualification that you received. However, you might choose to add a note explaining the history, if you think this is likely to be helpful to prospective readers.

I agree that in the case described by @brechmos, where a university has changed its name, providing this information is likely to be useful. It's less clear to me that this is true in the OP's case: it seems (essentially) that the qualification he has used to be accredited by University X, and is now accredited by University Y. It's not clear to me why this would be useful information to someone reading the CV. I guess it might be relevant if the training centre has a high enough profile that people now naturally associate it with University Y, and would think that something listed with University X must be a different centre. Otherwise, I suspect noting the change is more likely to confuse people than help them...


Should I mention that I quit my job and give up good salary to take a PhD degree in the personal statement? I have a good job and salary now. And I want to quit my job to take a Ph.D. degree, which means my income will be cut in half. Should I mention that in my personal statement to prove my dedication to academia? Would that be like I am looking down the academia as I quantify the benefits academia brings me with the money?

In my opinion no. You should mention your current work and any relation it has to doing a PhD, and that you wish to now do research and gain a PhD. Emphasize why you want to do a PhD but do not compare your current job with that. Anyone reading your reference will likely make positive inferences about you having real-world experience and that you are following your heart. Generally try and steer away from any negative comments.


What are “ad hoc” reviewers/referees for journals? What are “ad hoc” reviewers/referees for journals? Is this a different role from (regular) reviewers/referees? If yes, how are they different?

I see some people use the term ad hoc somewhere in the referee-service section of their CV, and some people don’t. Is there any difference? What is the proper practice?

Ad hoc might be used in the context of conference review where reviews are usually done by the members of a Program Committee and an extra (usually a specialized expert) reviewer is brought in for one or two papers which require careful review beyond the capability or capacity of the PC members. I haven't seen it used in the context of a journal.


Impact of gap year during phd program on future post-doc and employment options? I am a Doctoral candidate in a top program in my field in the U.S. I should be starting my second year of classes in September before sitting for qualifying exams, however I had an catastrophic academic year. My program Chair and Dean of Students are have been understanding on my situation and have offered me all the support possible to allow me to resolve the issues that got in the way. Provided this, they  have recommended I take a medical leave of absence from my program to I would start fresh.  The way things currently stand, my transcript shows okay grades for the Fall semester and failing grades for the spring. I have asked for a retroactive medical leave that would wipe my slate clean, at least  for the spring semester. This may or may not be possible to do.  In the event that I can't wipe my failing grades from the spring semester record and return to complete my program with an outstanding record, I wonder if and how having a gap year will on my transcript affect my candidacy when applying for top-notch post-doc positions and fellowships?

It is not uncommon to have a break doing a PhD program, especially in the U.S. where it normally takes longer than in other countries. A list of reasons to have a gap includes maternity, health conditions, family situations (in some countries / cultures), or even temporary financial reasons. All these explanations seem fair to me, and I would not hold such them against the candidate.

What is very important, though, is

how (and whether) you will address the gap in your cover letter
how your supervisor will speak about this in the recommendation letter.

If you are open to your colleagues and do not let them down without a reason (in other words, if you are doing your best given the situation), I do not see why the situation itself should be held against you and diminish your chances of future success.


When reviewing a resubmission, can I request a version with changes highlighted if the journal does not require it? Reviewing is time-demanding. It makes huge sense to re-review if comments and changes are submitted. While first review takes a lot of time, the second can be very quick.

If authors provide a version that shows the changes - this makes re-review very fast. They also don't have to spend too much time on resonse-to-reviews letter.

Can I simply reject to re-review if such changes-highlighted version is not provided?

You can certainly ask for it but if the journal does not require authors to provide such files, you are not likely to get one. So why ask? Well, by asking you provide the editors with the wish from reviewers to see this as a permanent feature and in the end such changes may be made by the journal in their instructions for authors.

The reason why I think it is unlikely your request will be immediately heard is that editors usually handle many articles and may work under severe time constraints (often on their free time outside of work). Communicating back and forth with authors of varying background requesting new versions of manuscripts is usually a time consuming venture that could delay the process by weeks, depending on the responsiveness of the author.

So, there may be a good reason to make a request but I would not expect the wish to be heard in many cases.


What is the most appropriate time frame to apply to a Postdoc? Possible Duplicate:
  How long before PhD graduation should I start applying for post-doc positions?

I'm about to start a Postdoctoral program of 1 year, after that, there is a high possibility that the project won't go on. Hence, I have to find a new position.

What would it be a good time frame to start contacting professors to find a second postdoc, I found that applying very early usually ended up in me being not a suitable candidate because I had no immediate availability.

I know that there is no one size fits all time frame, but in your experience, what would be a better practice?

Charles answer here (https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/5303/4231) applies to your case. Some positions will start right away and some positions will have a fixed start date set in the future. I suggest you start looking around 6 months into your 1 year postdoc, at first focus on positions starting later: that info should be in the job advertisment. Then, if you have not found something suitable, focus on positions starting right away when you approach the end of your postdoc.

Do not wait until your postdoc is finished to look for a new position.


Is dishonesty sufficient to terminate a grad student? I am a professor who runs a research lab at a university. I have a grad student who works with me, and who also has a history of lying. Most recently, he took information home with him that should have been kept in the lab (which was a breach of our IRB/research ethics). I believe that it was an honest mistake, but the problem was how he dealt with it. He told three different stories about what happened with this information, each of which contradicted the others. So, he either has a poor memory for how he handles important study information or he is flat-out lying to me (I believe the latter). I need to trust that my students follow lab procedures when I am not around and that they will be accountable for their actions. I am liable for my students' actions and mistakes.

Have you dealt with a dishonest student in a research setting? Did this result in termination of the student or...?

Termination of the advising/mentoring relationship

You should check with your department or university policies, but at most places you can unilaterally terminate your advisory / mentoring role by emailing the department chair or graduate coordinator. This is, after all, a voluntary role for you. And given that you no longer trust the student, I don't think you can operate as their advisor in good faith yourself (you couldn't write the letters of recc that they'd need for funding or jobs, for example).

If you don't feel the relationship can be repaired, then you should drop them.

If the student has no other advisor, they may be at risk to be an orphan. Since most stages of graduate school (orals, candidacy, continuing enrollment, funding, research) require an advisor, a student who has no advisor is at risk of not being able to continue in the program. There is often a short period of time that is given to the student to find a new advisor. At some places students are formally terminated if they can't advance; at others not being allowed to advance puts them in a limbo state where they cannot enroll but are not terminated.

Departments tend to not like the creation of orphans and there may be informal sanctions for an advisor who orphans students for no good reason. However, you do seem to have a good reason and if true, your colleagues should back you.

The real result is however that the student may have to leave the program.

University Expulsion

Not being able to continue for lack of an advisor is much more common than actual expulsion, given that expulsion procedures usually require a hearing and the presentation of proof of malfeasance.


Are online exam proctoring services efficient and trustworthy? Several universities are providing online degrees using a service "Online Exam Proctoring". Have these online proctoring services reached to a level of efficiency and trustworthy that even a complete MS degree from a top university  is being awarded based on them?

According to an article of the German news site "Spiegel online": NO

http://www.spiegel.de/lebenundlernen/uni/iubh-fuehrt-on-demand-online-klausuren-ein-so-einfach-war-schummeln-noch-nie-a-1129916.html

A short summary of the article in English:
There was a test exam that was supervised externally using the students smart phone and computer. The student used his own computer where he had to install a special software. After some technical trouble, the connection to the proctor had been established. The student had to identify showing his passport, he had to present the room to the proctor via his mobile phone camera. He ensured that there are no illegal tools (additional books etc.) or other persons in the room. The mobile phone was then set up to show the student as well as his computer and keyboard. The tool on the computer enabled access of the proctor to everything that is shown. Then the test started and the proctor appeared to continuously observe him.

However, the student tried cheating and was VERY successful by doing so.
The student was able to read from an undetected cheat-sheet that was pinned to the wall in some distance. The student managed to open some book and to read in his notes, despite this was not allowed. Finally he even stood up and walked around in the room. The proctor did not react. All this cheating remained undetected.

The proctoring service has some statistics that mentions 4000 detected cheating attempts in more than 63000 online exams. The article finally raises the question how many more undetected ones took place.

From my personal experience in IT security: A computer system (and especially a room) that is under the student control should never be used for such an exam since its security cannot be guaranteed. Clone the monitor signal, have a special kernel driver in place, have the exam running in a virtual machine, ..., there are many ideas. Some might work, some won't. It is a similarly difficult task as preventing cheating in online games: A lot of effort goes in but you NEVER get rid of cheaters. As long as there is some motivation (there definitively is for university exams!), you will find people helping you cheat.


Should I write my master's thesis in English, as a non-native speaker? I'm currently enrolled in a Master's degree Program in Statistics in Italy. I just started working on my thesis and my advisor asked me if I wanted to write it in Italian or in English. Apparently, both languages are accepted but presenting a thesis in English would mean having to discuss it in English too.
It's a 10-min Q&A session so not that big a deal, however I wouldn't want to put the evaluating committee in a difficult position since none of my professors are native English speakers.

Given that I have no interest (at the moment) in pursuing an academic career beyond my Master, what could be the benefits of writing the thesis in English? Would it realistically make any difference for future job search abroad, for example?

The reasons I write all my work in English, regardless of the country in which I work, are threefold:

The scientific community works in English
English texts are easier to reuse
English texts are easier to share and diffuse

Reasons 2 and 3 are effectively based on premise number 1. In terms of the ability to reuse my work, more often than never I might have to give a presentation, a talk or create a poster based on some report/thesis/paper I previously wrote. This scenario is  common to both academia and industry. When this happens I can easily extract sentences, keywords and figures from my previous work if all the text contained in them is in English, without the need to translate it.

Similarly a document written in English can be given to anyone and they'll be able to read and understand it without requiring a translation.

Therefore if I were you I would write the thesis in English, and present it also in English. I don't think that your examiners will feel in any way threatened by this. Ever more so if you are a foreign student and Italian is not your native language. You should not be expected or forced to write and/or present in a language you are not that familiar with, if English is an allowed option.


An inteview with another live offer out! I already have an offer for a TT job at another institution, but I received an inteview offer from a school I'd really like to work for. I was told (twice) that they didn't like two of their first three candidates and that they'd like to inteview me if the one they liked fell through.

They told that they'd have an answer as to whether or not I'd interview on Friday by Wednesday. Which turned into Thursday. At about 5:45PM on Thursday, I was called by one of the committee members to offer me an inteview for Friday. (I am currently visiting faculty here, so the turnaround is possible if really inconvenient and hard to swing.) I agreed, excited. But it occurred to me during the conversation that I should ask if I could safely assume that the first candidate fell through, and I was told I could not!!!

I was flustered, continued the conversation, finished it. I then calmed down and emailed very shortly after and said that I could not accept the inteview until I could actually be considered in contention for the job and that I should have immediately said so upon learning that my assumption that the first candidate had fallen through was not correct.

Has anyone heard of such things happening? Getting a backup lined up outside of the first round of invites to campus interviews after an offer has already been put out?

They know my clock on the other offer expires soon, so I know they're scrambling to make sure that they could consider me should the other candidate fall through. But I was told that the interview would only happen if the candidate did fall through.

Has anyone heard of such things happening? Getting a backup lined up outside of the first round of invites to campus interviews after an offer has already been put out?

It's not usual, but I have heard of such things here in Europe. And why not? If the search committee already knows that, or at least has the strong impression that, their originally preferred candidates are not going to work out, why not immediately line up backup interviews? I should also note that they seem to be playing with unusually open cards towards you, so I would certainly count this as a positive.

If I understand you correctly, your main problem seems to be that you already have an offer that you cannot delay until you will get a decision from this school. Note that it isn't only about whether the preferred candidate will work out or not - even if the preferred candidate cancels, you still need to ace your own interview and do better than the other backup candidates (typically, if a search commission goes through the trouble of inviting backup candidates, they will invite more than just one person!).

At the end of the day, your options are likely as follows:

Try to delay your standing offer, and/or convince the school where you are interviewing to hurry up. Some schools seem to be fairly flexible with timing (I have heard from TT offers to be delayed for many months), others are not. There is only one way to find out.
Cancel your standing offer, and take the risk with the interview.
Cancel your interview, and take the TT offer.
Accept your standing offer, go to the interview regardless, and back out of your earlier acceptance if you get the second job. You certainly can do that, but you should expect some backlash. I would not recommend that, even if it may appear like the approach with the highest short-term profit for you personally.

If you need to decide right now (option 2 or 3), you should ask yourself (a) how much better the second job is than the first one, and (b) how disastrous it would be for you if you ended up with no offer at all. Oftentimes, when making such decisions, it is better to take the offer that you already have than a slightly better offer that you may or may not get, but at the end of the day the decision is yours to make.


Apply for PhD with low undergrad GPA and good grad GPA i have poor ungrad GPA (2 of 4), and good grad GPA (3.88 of 4)

What are my chances if I apply for PhD study at Germany?

B.Sc pure mathematics
M.Sc financial mathematics (i love it)

I recently applied for a PhD Position in Germany (and got it) with a very good M.Sc. but a much worse B.Sc. My professor did ask about my bad grades in the B.Sc., but in the end being honest and saying I was lazy, but feel more fit in the area then my grades might tell. This is in engineering. In the end my grades didn't matter too much, because my professor knew me from my master's thesis already.

That being said, with a very good grad GPA you will probably have good chances to at least be invited to an interview. At that point your grades don't matter that much, because you can tell them about your skilsl yourself and explain your undergrad GPA if you must. I think many people here in Germany are less focussed on the actual grades than on the person and how they sell themselves. I am not saying grades don't matter, they are certainly looked at, but if you overcame the first hurdle, it is up to you to close the deal.

TL;DR: There is a chance. But you can only know for sure if you apply!


Professor doesn't tell TAs what should be on exams until the day of the exam As a TA I am responsible for preparing problems and solution sets for the exams.  Last time we had an exam, the professor didn't tell us which problems he wanted to select for the exam until the morning of the exam, which meant I had to write solutions for a large number of problems the night before the exam, most of which did not end up being on the exam.  Now there is another exam coming up and I fear I will have to do this again.  What should I do?

Tell him you'd like it if either a) he gave you the problems at least  one day before the exam or b) he gave you permission to decide what would be on the exam (within reason, of course)


Is obtaining Multiple PhDs in two different and barely related disciplines detrimental to the career? My situation is like this: I have tried to obtain an MS in CS/CSE but failed. Now, I am studying an MA in Education and planning to get a Ph.D. in Education. After that, my plan is to get a Ph.D. degree in data science.

Now, why this strange plan? The answer is, STEM pays money, but STEM research is hard. So, first I need to have a guarantee that if I fail to obtain a degree in data science, I always have something to fall back on.

Suppose, you are seeing my resume, what would your first thought be? Is having PhDs in two different disciplines counterproductive to each other? If I apply for a job in academia/research, would I be seen as a pariah in both education and/or STEM?

I think you're planning too far ahead, and are definitely overthinking this.  Most people find a PhD a pretty grueling process, generally well beyond expectations.  My feeling from having gone through it myself, and knowing many others who have, is that the odds are very high that you'll have no interest in going through it a second time.

Get a PhD in the field you actually want to work in.  Finishing a PhD is hard; finishing a PhD in a field you're not very interested in is even harder.  Put your energy into doing one field well, rather than spreading your energy out and doing two fields at a lesser level.

But to disregard that and answer your question, I think people without PhDs would probably be impressed, while people with PhDs would think it very strange, and not necessarily good.  But I suspect there would be pretty wide variance in opinions, depending on surrounding circumstances.

Edit: I should add that Master's Degrees make a pretty good supplement to PhDs.  So if you finish this MA in Education and then move to a different field that you can plausibly supplement with Education, that would be normal and probably pretty effective.  But again, plan to do your PhD in a field you're interested in.


Where to host lots of experiment data We are a masters degree student group who have conducted a quite significant study which has pulled a lot of interest from the HCI/MI communities in CS. We have been encouraged to host all our data for the public such that other researchers can use it in their research (them cites!). We have phyiological synchronized data for galvanic skin response, electroencephalography, 17 point face tracking and heart rate information. We also have video data, but those are not included for anonymity reasons.

The data comes from two experiments conducted. The first is a test where participants are exposed to positive/negative and neutral images and included 49 participants. The second is a usability test while having sensors attached, then a cued recall session with sensors (with a new data set) and a cued recall debrief session with SAM values. It had 39 test participants.

The raw data is in the area of 50GB compressed. We have personally used the data for two articles where we first classify emotions, and in the second paper find usability problems / frustrating events from physiological data.

Now, the actual question - where can we host this? We considered github but that seems odd. Does google maybe have a solution? We could host it our selves, but that would mean maintaining a website with it for years to come.

I think figshare might be what you are looking for.

About figshare:

  figshare is a repository where users can make  all of their research
  outputs available in a citable, shareable and discoverable manner

From their FAQ, What are the file size limits?

  Up to 5gb single file uploads 20gb of private space

  If these options do not meet your data needs do get in touch with us
  and we'll see what we can do.

Also, they offer unlimited public space, so I think they can cater your needs.


Research promotions in the middle of post-doc contract I noticed that a few people in my field (Computer Science / Community Informatics) have taken up post-doc positions immediately after their PhD but within a year of starting those post-docs have been promoted to Lectureships either internally or in another academic organization.

The individuals concerned have been very active in their field, and published considerably either during their PhDs or immediately after their PhD write-up or often both (so I do feel like they've earned this!).

Is this a common practice for academic recruiters (project managers, professors) to employ someone like this for 18month/2 year/3 year contracts knowing that most likely in a year or two they will be promoted or hired by another institution?

And as a recruiter/senior academic, do you encourage this kind of rapid promotion even if the individual doesn't fulfil their full contract length?

Any responses, particularly from people who've made switches like this or hired people like these would be appreciated!

When I recruit postdoc it’s under the assumption that they are taking on a transitional role. In some sense I believe it’s in both our interests to have them leave sooner if possible. It’s good for them (pay bump, tenure career starts etc), and for me it helps since it signals to future postdocs that I’m able to get them on the right track to a faculty position.

In some cases it’s the opposite: a person has secured a faculty position straight out of PhD, and then postponed their start date to take up a one year postdoc (in MSR/Facebook research etc, or with another research group). This is usually done to build up one’s professional network before committing to a department.


Re: Terminated from D. Health Science program E.B.D.. Possible to apply to different program? I concede this is similar to a few other questions, but any help would be appreciated.

My husband completed the twenty coursework requirement for his D.H.Sc. with a 4.0 G.P.A. from the online program of an established accredited U.S. University.

When admitted, the program claimed no one could finish the course work E.B.D.  Then after two years, eight courses including two dissertation semesters and  approval from the committee on his thesis project which was closely related his statement of professional interest in his application and the professional work of both of us since 1996, the University changed the policy to the traditional two years after coursework completion to complete the thesis.

Ironically, but irrelevant to us, when he was two courses from finishing the courses, the University changed it back so in theory no one can finish E.B.D., so I am speculating there were already issues, but we can't change the past.

During the seven years, he has at four faculty thesis advisors from the University although his Thesis committee, who are all Ph.D's in his professional field have otherwise has remained intact.  His project was again approved by the committee after completion of the coursework with Thesis advisor number three, also from his profession.

Where this came off the rails was when the third faculty advisor was promoted and the fourth faculty advisor, who is from a different health care profession, took over about a year and a half ago when he was well into data collection of the approved study.  I have little doubt without this change he would have finished his Thesis over a year ago.

Faculty advisor number four, never liked his study, kept requesting changes in method and data verification including a completely re-do of the study including a legally impossible data verification requirement from a third party governmental agency that refused to release raw data, even with subjects signing a release.

They spent most of the past year and a half at an impasse and the advisor kept asking for changes, my husband, hired a dissertation coach to help, made most of the changes, but then after reviewing each change, the advisor refused to take the project back to committee because of the data verification issue.  Frustrating to us is our data collection method was approved in the two previously approved studies, but this advisor felt this point made the study flawed.

My husband requested a new advisor several times, ideally going back to thesis advisor number three who was still employed by the University, always denied, which of course did nothing to help the relationship with faculty advisor number four.

He has now received the anticipated termination letter.  In my opinion, this last faculty advisor decided early on that this Dissertation was going no where but because it was his job, he just kept leading him one with one more change, one more change and because he was six years into this, my husband kept trying to make it happen.

Now what?  He is distraught and after seven years and knowing that he has spent the past year and a half fighting this advisor, I am trying to find a way to salvage all of this time, money and quite frankly a decent study with meaningful data since we have been running the study in our business (another problem for the advisor, we are for-profit and the subjects are paying customers, not non-for profit) for two and a half years.

Can he approach another University that might accept some or all of the coursework and do a Dissertation through them?  He already has a Masters Degree and a Professional Degree.  But are there any options to make something of all this work?

Any ideas would be helpful and appreciated since the University is not returning any of our calls or e-mails.

Wow.

Okay, it's too soon to give up on this institution.  Go higher up.  If you don't want to subject your husband to the risk of more frustration right now, go on your own initially.

Your story didn't leave clear for my what the internal dynamics of the committee were....  Any hope there?

Thinking about @mkennedy's great suggestion, I realized that a paragraph I wrote in another thread would be useful here too.

Lay out the contradictions in a calm tone of voice, letting the situation do the heavy lifting -- avoid expressive language, bitterness, tears, etc., if possible. Say you would like some advice. If no advice is offered in that appointment, give your email address and phone number, and ask if you can check in in a couple of days. If possible, bring some of your paper trail with you, to leave with the administrator. (You don't have to go over them in detail together during the meeting.)


Can someone with poor coursework record but decent research profile fit in academia? I want to try to enter academia by doing 2 postdocs after my PhD. However, I am bothered by the fact that I have been consistently poor/average in my grades during my undergrad, master's and PhD degree.
I had 3.2/4 GPA in undergrad. I had to retake 3 courses in my second year as I had flunked them. They were related to my current field of research.
My master's and PhD GPA were 3.75/4 each.
I had a bit of TA experience during master's and PhD. I took tutorials for a laboratory course for first and third year undergraduates.
Will my performance hinder my shortlisting for interviews in academia when I do apply for tenure track positions?

There might be some effect but I'd expect it to be small and easily overcome. If you want a largely research position grades will be mostly irrelevant and you will be judged on the quality (and maybe quantity) of your research.
But even if you want a teaching position, you may have some insight into the troubles and travails of students that might serve you well. If you know what it is to work hard to overcome difficulties, I think you would be an asset.
Don't overthink it, and write the best applications you can, with good letters from the faculty.


How to deal with unnecessary stress introduced by the supervisor? I am doing my PhD in a high prestige UK university.
I am finishing my second year and I have funding for three years in total.
I have already two papers finished (pending to be published) and working on two more.

I like research and I like being pushed to achieve the best I can. What I don't like however is introducing unnecessary stress into my daily life. With this I mean the following:

I think that it is totally acceptable and expected of me to work overtime when nearing a deadline. Usually the month before a deadline I work 12 hours per day, 6-7 days a week. This is totally fine and to some extent I enjoy it.

My supervisor is a brilliant researcher. Young and successful in his field with many publications in high prestige venues. However, he's also the classic stereotype of the super-workaholic academic who works 7 days a week, from early in the morning until late at night.

It's common for him to send messages or emails at 23.00 or during weekends asking for something. This could range from asking to complete a certain task or a simple "What is the status of X?".

I find this exhausting. To work hard during the week I need to have a "safe space" where I know that I can relax without worrying about work. Otherwise I feel demotivated to work hard. Due to this behavior I have anxiety issues. Recently, after a very stressful period mostly due to work, my hair started falling. This was identified by my GP as "Telogen effluvium". It can happen after very stressful periods. Thankfully it stopped but it's a clear sign that I've been stressing too much.

Ignoring my emails and messages is not an option for me. The reason is that I know that he genuinely cares about my PhD and many times his messages may be about the changes he has done on my paper. Ignoring this makes me feel ungrateful.

My most important problem is that, looking back, 70% of the stress introduced by supervisor could have been totally avoided if he could relax a bit. He's micromanaging me and wants to know everything. And many times we could have taken a month more on a project instead of rushing things.

Moreover, because he's always pressuring me to do as many things as possible as fast as possible, I feel that I cannot do any quality work. I prefer quality for quantity. He's the opposite.

I have tried to convey my feelings to him multiple times already. He does not seem to get it. Or he may back off for 2-3 weeks and then resumes his previous behavior. In a recent confrontation I mentioned the words "unnecessary stress" and he didn't take it very well.

Many colleagues have told me that I should be thankful because he's actively working on my PhD while other supervisors are totally absent. I find this unfair. None of the two should be OK.

Overall I feel burned-out and demotivated. This saddens me because I really like my PhD and research in general.

However, I don't think I can take this for one more year.

Question: How to deal with a workaholic supervisor who is introducing unnecessary stress into my daily life?

p.s. It's important to mention that my supervisor probably suffers from anxiety as well. This is somewhat known by his PhD students and he has implied it one or two times.

It is not unreasonable for a supervisor to write emails in the middle of the night. I do it myself, and frequently at that (sometimes because I am honestly just working late, sometimes because I am in a different time zone). However, it is unreasonable to expect immediate response when you do so (more accurately, it is unreasonable to expect immediate response for basically any email, as the medium is fundamentally asynchronous and nobody should expect you to have your email open all the time).

That said, a significant part of the problem also appears to be your own mindset. You can't realistically change when your supervisor sends you work, but you can definitely change when you read it, and when and how you react to it. Just not reading emails in the night is a big start. Many people do it, and you do not need to have a bad conscience when you do it as well. A second part of this is also to not interpret every email as implicitly highest-priority. Try to assess what a realistic timeline for any given work task is - if your supervisor does not specify you don't need to assume it needs to be done next thing in the morning.

One problem that you may face is that you have by now trained your supervisor that you read and react to every email at any point in time. Even if it's unreasonable, it is somewhat understandable that this is by now how your supervisor thinks you work. The most pragmatic way is to change things gradually over time, combined with a non-accusory one-on-one talk with your supervisor that you are unable to deal with your current work mode. Don't use the words "you are stressing me out" or anything else that puts the token and blame on him. Say that you are stressed out and need to change how you work. The goal is not to elicit a different behavior from him (although this may also come out of the meeting as a sideeffect), but to communicate to him how you plan to address your stress-related issues going forward.


In a research paper, is it acceptable to include expletives in the results of a text analysis? Currently, I am doing a research paper and as a result from my text analysis, I found a record which contains a (*UCK) word. Is it ethical if I submit it as it is to a conference? Hereby in the image (in the third record)

Yes, it is ethical.  When you play Scrabble with other enthusiasts, bad words are perfectly acceptable and no one bats an eyelash.


Is it possible for a published paper with PMID to not have a PMCID? I’m trying to find the PMCID (Pubmed Central ID) for a paper, but it does not have one. It has a PMID (Pubmed ID). Under what circumstances does a paper have a PMID   but not PMCID?

PMIDs are given to any paper indexed in the pubmed citation database, and that is any paper in a journal indexed by pubmed. Which is pretty much all reputable journals more than a couple of years old.

PMCIDs are given to papers where a copy of the paper is availible on Pubmed Central. While pubmed and pubmed central have similar names, they are not the same thing.  Pubmed Central is a government run archive service for manuscripts openly accessible to the public. Different journals have different policies on allowing authors to archive copies of the manuscripts on public servers (like Pubmed central). Open Access journals allow archiving. Many closed access journals allow archiving after a certain period, or on payment of a fee. Allowing archiving is not the same as doing it though. While some journals that allow it will go as far as automatically uploading papers in mnay cases its something the author has to do themsevlves. I believe that that NIH requires research funded by them to be uploaded to PMC within 6 months of publication, but the NIH doesn't fund all research in the world. Many european funders, for example, either don't have a archiving requirment, or do, but don't specify pubmed central as the archive (other archives are available).


How to cultivate relationships/recommendors as an introvert I'm getting close to finishing a PhD in applied mathematics (next May), and I'm starting to think about next fall's job application season.  I'm realizing that one of the things I'm missing is a strong recommendation from a senior academic that isn't on my committee or a professor I've taken courses from.  I realize that it takes time to cultivate these relationships, but I'm now also realizing that I've been a fairly introverted student in the sense that I haven't really pushed myself to build any collaborative relationships that would make asking for a recommendation more natural.  I've had lots of conversations with senior people at conferences or who have visited my department, but I never seem to follow up because I doubt their level of interest in me or my projects (this is flawed, introversion-driven reasoning, I realize).  I have a few loose collaborations going with other junior academics but again, I've been a little shy and flaky on pushing those projects forward for some reason or another. I also wouldn't consider these collaborators senior leaders in my field, which isn't an issue for collaborating, but the value of their recommendation is perhaps less so than someone higher up the proverbial ladder.

The question is the following: since I still have a little bit of time before the next application season (6 months or so), should I focus on nurturing the collaborations I already have going, or should I start trying to get a little more bold with more senior people?  I realize that I should probably do both, but I welcome any input.

This question seems to be incorrectly premised; this is particularly evident in the following sentence:

  I'm realizing that one of the things I'm missing is a strong recommendation from a senior academic that isn't on my committee or a professor I've taken courses from.

Why do you feel that is missing? A good reference is one that assesses your suitability for the post you're applying for. As such, it will need to be written by someone with knowledge of (most of) the following:

Candidate's technical skills/expertise
Candidate's professional experience and achievements

Able to verify key claims the candidate has made on their cover letter/CV about what they did in the relevant role

Candidate's transferable skills (communication skills, teamwork etc)
Candidate's general work ethic and behaviour
Able to verify any extenuating circumstances that may affect the candidate's application (if relevant)

This means that the best formal references are from people the candidate has worked closely and consistently with over an extended period of time, and generally from those in supervisory roles. Your committee are precisely the people best placed to provide act as your referees. In terms of other good referees, if you've been, say, particularly involved with the teaching of a particular course, the lecturer you worked under may also be a suitable referee. Again, it's a similar sort of supervisory relationship, where they'll be able to make judgements of interest to a potential employer.

While it is sometimes the case in academia that referees with a looser connection are used (e.g. viva examiners), particularly to testify to the candidates academic knowledge, I'm not aware that this is hugely common. Most potential employers would expect to see references from supervisors; if those are absent, it's a huge red flag.

The real benefits you want to unlock from wider collaboration stem from the networking opportunities (although your primary purpose in seeking the collaboration should always be the overlap in research interests and potential for a strong shared project). Perhaps they'll be impressed enough to employ you, or they'll point you in the direction of open positions that they know of. They may well be willing to provide you with introductions to other PIs, that might grease the wheels of a job application.


Chances of Being Accepted for a Book Author as a Graduate Student I recently identified a textbook which is currently looking for authors of chapters. It states "For selected and invited authors" on the website, so I am wondering, if I submit a chapter proposal, if it has any chance of being accepted having myself being the only author, and not having graduated with any graduate degree yet. I also have no publications, but several are in the process.

I asked my PI if he would coauthor it, and he responded stating that he gets several requests to write book chapters per year and does not do any of them because he does not have time.

My question to the more experienced: if a chapter proposal has content which is completely golden and is well-written, does it have a chance of being accepted to be included in the book? Are book authors generally desperate to find authors for currently-researched topics, or is it generally competitive? Would they even consider a graduate student author? If it matters, the field is physics/nanomaterials.

I don't know about physics, but in Computer Science book chapters tend to be the lowest class of peer-reviewed publication. Most book editors are struggling to get any good contributions, and the only chapter-books (as opposed to text books with a single, or few, dedicated authors) I really see succeed nowadays are written by a closed group of people for a specific purpose. For instance, I know that some Dagstuhl seminars collectively decide to write a book - every participant writes one or two chapters, often together with (a subset of) members of their research group.

For books with an open call, you can in my field basically never be too inexperienced to write a chapter, as long as your English is good. That said, I generally advise my students against writing one anyway. Chapters are fairly long, so they may take an inexperienced writer substantial time to write, and the reputation and scientific impact of having a chapter in a book that is virtually never read is so negligible that the same effort is better directed to writing a different kind of paper.

Finally, the reaction of your advisor may also be a hint that they don't value book chapters either. Even if you can get your chapter accepted, is it a good use of time to work on something that your advisor appears to not put much stock in?


How best to format and position legend in line chart when legend text is long? I always struggle when showing line chart with long legend title like this:

Is there any best practice to a chart with long legend title?

I try to show several alternatives below, but of course, it's not comprehensive.

(a) Stretch y-axis limit

(b) Put legend outside chart's body

(c) Shorten legend title

Update

I'm a researcher in computer science field. But, general discussions beyond research domains are also welcome.

When it's not too big, I recommend shrinking the legend font size and whitespace and reducing the complexity of the labels.  If it's very big, however, I recommend instead moving to a systematic coloring scheme and explaining the coloring scheme in the caption rather than a legend.


For writing samples, is it necessary to provide an English translation of a conference paper written and presented in my native language? I have a paper, written in my native language, presented in a conference. If I want to use it as a writing sample in the applications to phd programs in the US, should I provide an English translation of that paper?

It would be advisable to submit a translated copy of the paper (with the original) for a PhD program in the US (or any English speaking country), as chances are, the people reviewing your application may not speak your language nor have easy access, or time to have the document translated.

It may be wise to submit the original with the translation, with an official note stating that it is a true and accurate translation (say from your university or the publisher if they provide this service).


Using "et al." in maths papers In general, mathematics papers have no first author; instead, authors are listed alphabetically. Therefore, citing “Smith et al.” is at best misleading (it implies that Smith did all the work) and at worst insulting (Zelmanov never does any work!). Basically, all the authors are considered equal but citing “Smith et al.” messes this balance up.

The “et al.” style is made slightly more complex because it means that the “big shot” may come further down the list. For example, Zelmanov is the big name but the paper is Smith, Smythe and Zelmanov, cited as Smith et al. So you don’t realise that it’s a Zelmanov paper.

My question is:

  What should be done if a journal changes your citation of Smith, Smythe and Zelmanov [10] to Smith et al. [10], especially when Zelmanov is the big name?

Is the answer simply to ask them to change it back to Smith, Smythe and Zelmanov? I think that changing the citation to “Zelmanov et al.” undermines the equality ethos even more — it is a slap in the face to Smith and Smythe, and anyway how do I not know that Smith won’t win a Fields medal himself one day?

I should say that before today I have never seen this in a maths paper.

Added 2018: This was resolved nicely. I send the copyediting team an email asking if every instance of "et al." could be changed back "especially on line 244 because "et al." here is just a single person!", and if not can I edit the certain bits to remove the names. So they removed each et al. and it appeared online a week later. No hassle (but lots of worry!).

While mathematics is not my area of specialization, I think that in your question you are making a general and IMHO wrong assumption about the importance of the name, appearing in the "et al." construction. Essentially, this construction is used only for the purposes of convenience (brevity for readability) and not for implying the amount or importance of work, performed by any of authors.

When people see the "et al." citation, I am pretty sure that decent scientists immediately refer to the full citation in a reference list in order to obtain full information on all authors of a paper in question. Therefore, I believe that the "problem" that you have described in your question is really an artificial one, which exists only in your imagination (due to the incorrect assumption, mentioned above).


Funding ran out, can I leave I'm a PhD student in experimental biology in the UK. My funding grants me a monthly stipend for 3.5 years (including money for consumables/conferences etc).

In my group, the standard practice is for people to work for 3.5 years and then write up (though actually different people have different funding, and the funding that the department provides directly does last 4 years).

When I started, I was quite happy to stay for 4 years (the stipend is sufficiently generous that I've saved enough to cover me), but, relationships with my PI have deteriorated significantly. * At this stage, I've said that I wish to write up at the end of 3 years, and be  ready to viva by 3.5. This is something that she refuses to grant.

  What should I do in this situation? I don't feel that anyone can be expected to work for free (theres no expectation that I should have saved money), and therefore feel that (1) she should either give me her blessing to write up, and all the support that goes with it, or (2) she should find additional funding for the final 0.5 years in order to force me to write up in the department.

Note: the UK has a different funding model to the US, and I'd prefer to just hear answers relating to the UK funding situation (i'm well aware that students in the US have a far tougher time of things, both in terms of money, but also in terms of the very very long PhD's that some people must endure).

*: We've had  a difficult relationship from the start, truthfully. She is fairly old and established at this stage, and has very little interest in discussing things, but rather dictates her wishes via emails from her secretary and then comes to the lab to complain when things don't work. This has slowed my work appreciably as we're constantly jumping around to keep her happy.

Unless UK universities differ significantly between each other, your supervisor will not have any role in assessing your final thesis - this will be done by the internal and external examiner.

Your supervisor will normally propose these based on personal experience - and I suspect in most cases the university will go along with those suggestions (at least that was my experience).
So a malicious supervisor can give you an examiner who will give you a hard time - while a friendly supervisor will suggest a friendly examiner.

So where am I going:
If the relationship with your supervisor has deteriorated to the level where you feel you would just quit - but are nevertheless motivated to complete your work, it would be highly advisable to seek some advice within the university (and possibly also if you aren't motivated to make sure you don't make a mistake). There should be a person responsible for dealing with such situations - I forgot what they are called...
Ideally, you could be given an administrative supervisor and submit the thesis under their "guidance" - they won't need to be an expert in the field, but should understand your work.

The key question in this case is whether the work is sufficient to be considered for a PhD, but only you or your supervisor (be it old or new) can determine that.

A side note on funding:
The university as an institution is unlikely to continue your funding, unless you are employed doing some work, say on a part time basis to carry on with your work. Where people are paid beyond the standard grant duration, this is done by the department - potentially the sponsor if there is an industry sponsor. I believe it is up to the department ow they organise this - i.e. whether they pay you to write up or whether they pay you to continue/complete your work before/after writing up but before defending the thesis.


How to skim through Phd Theses My adviser asked me to go over some PhD theses over the weekend, and by some he meant three 200~ pages theses.

Is there an effective way to skim through theses that you have figured out, as more experienced academics. I could not go over all of them without taking most of my weekend doing so.

Of course, you can use existing theses just like you would a journal article where you extract information to guide your research. However, I'd like to focus discussion here on the role of theses as a tool for teaching you how to write your own thesis.

Choosing theses to deconstruct:
Assuming you are writing a PhD thesis yourself, it can be really helpful to find a selection of other PhD theses in order to give you a sense of what the overall product can look like. Three is a good start, but I would be aiming to find about six or seven. The best theses are probably those that are

on a similar topic or at least in the  same discipline as your thesis and with a broadly similar methodological orientation
follow a similar structural framework to your own (e.g., similar length, same in terms of whether it is a large thesis or PhD by publication)
well written

Things to learn from deconstruction: Carefully deconstructing such manuscripts can teach you a lot about both what a thesis involves and also what are some of the alternative modes of presentation. For instance you can look at things like:

How was it formatted
How many chapters were there and how was content distributed
How were aims presented and how was the importance of the thesis justified
How was literature, method,results, and discussion distributed (e.g., some in each chapter or over separate chapters)
How extensive or focussed was the literature review
What was the overall scale of the thesis (e.g., amount of data collection, sophistication of analyses, etc.)
What is the standard expected of a thesis (e.g., seeing the imperfections of  theses that have passed can be helpful should you fall victim to perfectionism)

When in candidature to spend time deconstructing:
In fact, examining and deconstructing theses can be a useful exercise at multiple stages of your PhD candidature.

At the very start of your PhD it can give you a broad feel for what it is that you are aiming to produce.
When you are moving towards setting out the overall structure of your thesis in terms of chapters and sections it can give you a feel of whether you are on track
When you are making formatting and stylistic decisions, existing theses can provide a useful frame of reference.


Is it allowed to write notes during the "read instructions" stage of a TOEFL exam? Is it allowed to take notes during the "read instructions" stage of TOEFL? At this stage the timer is stopped and it's a good time to take notes such as drawing tables for speaking and writing sections. But I'm not sure on whether it is allowed in the exam. I'm asking this question because I didn't find any section of the TOEFL rules that addresses this scenario.

I watched the test procedure video. At about 2:47 the paper was described as "scratch paper for your use during timed sections of the test". To me, that suggests you are not allowed to write on it outside the timed sections. You should be able to ask during check-in.


Advice for applying to phd (in Finland) I will be graduating with a Master of Science degree from a German University of Applied Sciences in March 2019. My goal is to develop myself more towards research and development, and I want to apply for a PhD in Finland. Specifically, in the areas of technical computer science and industrial engineering because of my educational background.

Does anyone have some advice for me regarding the application process, funding and when best to start applying?

There is a finite number of universities in Finland. Disregard universities of applied sciences (ammattikorkeakoulu); they are teaching institutues with some R&D and do not offer PhD positions. Wikipedia contains a list of proper universities: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_Finland . I recommend starting with technical universities, including Aalto university.

Go through those universities and check if they have faculty in relevant areas. Follow the open position announcements in all of them. Apply when you find something relevant.

Also, you should contact relevant faculty and ask them about possibilities and vacancies. If your university has contacts to Finland, use those.

I recommend starting to apply when you know you will receive your master's thesis soon.

Recruitment is university-dependent. There might be two open calls, one ending around now (maybe has ended already) and before new year, or there might be open calls whenever there is funding. I do not know if it is possible to hire a PhD student without an open call; I would assume yes, but this might very well be university-specific.

There is typically an online form that you fill. It asks for studies, employment history, and maybe language skills and publications (if any) and so forth. There is typically room for a freeform application or motivation. Attach CV, maybe list of publications, maybe a cover letter or letter of motivation etc. I would not expect anyone to ask for letters of recommendation, but they might ask for people who can recommend you. I would mention such people in the CV.

On CV (no photo included, typically): http://www.tenk.fi/en/template-researchers-curriculum-vitae , http://www.aka.fi/en/funding/how-to-apply/appendices-required/curriculum-vitae-guidelines/ . These are guidelines for making a general academic CV. Leave off the empty categories.

Most PhD students get paid reasonable, but not large, wages. The program is typically four years with 60 ECTS credits of coursework. Some are funded entirely or partially by grant money they bring in themselves. I cannot give specific advice on grants; please ask someone you would like to study under.

Random vocabulary:

PhD student: jatko-opiskelija, tohtoriopiskelija, tohtorikoulutettava
grant: apuraha
university: yliopisto

Educated people and young people usually speak English, but I would still recommend learning at least a little bit of Finnish. It sends (a weakish) signal of commitment and interest if you can write on your CV that you know or are learning basics of Finnish, and will certainly make life and navigation easier.


How common are 'monitors' (class leaders)? I have found that in Asian universities, there is a concept I am unfamiliar with: The monitor. The monitor here is not someone who monitors but rather one student, usually elected by the other students, to speak for the group and to perform administrative tasks. This is a position of leadership and signifies that this student is special (and might get preferential treatment from the teacher).

From my other university teaching experience (outside of Asia), I have never seen this. I'm wondering, is this common across Asia to have these 'monitors?' Is it common in other (non-Asian) parts of the world?

Does anyone have any insights on things to be concerned with (for someone new to the idea of monitors)?

Note: It seems the monitor position starts in the earliest years (pre-K) and are not just at the university level but they also go up all the way to graduate-level classes.

I can provide details in Taiwan. I know the situations in many other countries in Asia are similar. Hopefully users from Asia on this board can confirm this.

In Taiwan, the role is called class leader in elementary school, middle school and high school. They are usually assigned by the teachers of the classes.

In college, it is called the class representative. The representatives are elected by the students. The length of the term usually is a year.

Upon entering college, students already select their major. The university groups all the students having the same major into one or more classes depending on the number of students (the standard class size is 50). They take all the required courses together if possible. The students in the same class know each other very well. The class is like a big family. Naturally, you have a representative who speaks for the class and handles all the administrative matters. You also have a deputy representative in case the rep is not available. There are other students responsible for other duties such as purchase, sports, etc.

The rep gets elected usually because he/she is popular in the class or a good student. I would not say he gets preferential treatment from the professor/department because he is the rep. Sometimes it is the opposite. I once declined a rep nomination because I wanted to concentrate on my study.

However, being a rep can be advantageous. You learn how to be a leader. You learn how to communicate with other people who are sometimes superior, such as the professor, department chair or even the dean. Leadership is not something you can learn it all from the books. You have to do it. Two of the four reps in my college class are very successful in their late career.

It would be much easier for the professor to talk to the class rep when he wants the whole class to do some unusual assignments. Once you can convince the rep it's the right thing to do, the rep would then pass the message to the whole class. You are more likely to get the cooperation from the students. I would not recommend you to use him very often, though. He represents the class, not you. He would lose the trust from his classmates when he becomes your pet student. In general, the class representative concept is more like the department chair of a university department.

Hope this helps.


How to find the best journals or articles to read When someone is just starting out, they can be overwhelmed  with the number of journal articles published each month. Reading everything published seems impossible due to time constraints.

After someone has enough experience, they naturally watch for articles which are impressive, see where these are published and where the articles it cites are published but when someone is just starting out, it's not clear where to begin.

How does one go about identifying the best journals to keep up on when they have no experience reading any particular journal?

This depends on your field. In mathematics, physics, and a few related areas there is arXiv.org. From which you get rss feeds or e-mail announcements for individual research areas. This is particularly helpful because there are a huge amount a journals in mathematics and physics and you could never keep up with all of them.

The added benefit is that most of what you run across on arXiv hasn't made it to a journal yet so it is relatively new and free. Then after you find useful and interesting articles you can keep track of them and find out where they were eventually published.

Another set of tools that can be useful is a good indexing service that lets you trace backwards and forwards the references from a paper that you know is important. This lets you see not only what the important paper references but also who has referenced it and where they did so.

Because of the fact that my research field does not yet have a single journal dedicated to my field these are the tools that I use most to find new literature and see what is going on. Of course if you are still looking around for a research field to get into there are the big general topic journals in each area which are a good place to start if you want a big picture.


Penalties for postdoc passing off students' work as his own? What penalties might be imposed for a postdoc taking the work of multiple graduate students (even from other institutions) and passing it off as his own without even providing an acknowledgment of their effort?

I understand that in cases where this is suspected, an email is sent out to the journal editor presenting evidence (e.g., lab notebooks, prior conference presentations, etc.).

But graduate students don't have much say-power. Even if they provide ample evidence, this is still possibly not enough because of the academic ladder and the seniority of the postdoc/PI involved. I just don't see an editor stepping in for a graduate student(s). It sounds ridiculous.

At the end of the day, what are the possible penalties/sanctions for such a practice (besides for the proverbially useless and mild "slap on the wrist")?

The sanctions are usually very light. Sanctions depends on institutions' willingness to reprimand the perpetrators.

In the case where this person is copying earlier conference contributions and claiming them as their own, it's a clear case of plagiarism. If the conference contribution is archived in a way, notifying the journal will result in the retraction of the paper. This will hurt the plagiarist's reputation possibly at the cost of a prospective employment opportunity.

In the case where a person "steals work of two graduate students, passes it off as his own" in the absence of publications that shows the work is effectively the students' journals are faced with a "someone's word against someone else's" situation. Often journals defer the responsibility of investigating to the author's institution. This can be a lengthy process with disappointing outcomes for the students.

All of this is off course highly unethical and all reputable journals will want to retract papers if they learn they weren't written by the alleged authors. But it's not illegal per se and "sanctions" range from nothing (the most frequent case) to a few years of publication ban, and in extreme cases: getting fired.

Some reading on the topic:

Arizona prof plagiarizes student’s thesis, gets reprimanded, but keeps her job

Heads up: “Borrowing” your student’s work will earn you a partial retraction — and a five-year publishing ban

If besides being interested in "what are the sanctions" you are wondering what you can do about it, my recommendation would be:

explore all internal reporting routes: report the behavior to this person's adviser, or to the dean.
If all fail (i.e. if they do not ask for the authorship record to be straighten) contact the journal's editors.

In all cases, be prepared to substantiate your claims. You mentioned you have lab notebook, or even conference publications to show that the material is not original. That is good. Don't expect a harsh punishment but at least the papers should be retracted.

(This answer has been adapted to the latest changes in the question)


Part-Time PhD in Germany I want to apply for a part-time (65% week hours) PhD position in Germany. The duration of the PhD is 3 years.

Actually I don't understand why some positions are full-time and some part-time, while the duration is the same. After graduation is there any difference between this two groups?

Salary group is 13 TV-KAH and I don't know how much they pay. I appreciate if you could explain it. I read some questions about this topic but I didn't find the suitable answer.

Most PhD students in Germany receive a regular salary, not a scholarship, and are officially employed as research/teaching assistent (this is what full-time/part-time refers to). It depends on various things like the source of funding if these positions are full-time or part-time.

The time you dedicate to writing your PhD thesis is technically your own free time. So there is usually no difference between these positions in terms of workload, value of the degree, etc, except for the salary. It's stupid, I know...

There are calculators on the internet that can tell you the exact salary, but lots of public charges depend on your personal situation (whether you have children etc) and things like where in Germany this is: http://oeffentlicher-dienst.info/c/t/rechner/tv-l/west?id=tv-l-2016i

For a 65% position it's currently ~2200 EUR/month (after taxes a bit less than 1500 EUR).


How to get started with PhD dissertation? (Management & Humanities) I got accepted to a university as PhD Candidate. My research proposal is sent & accepted, and I found a supervisor.
Though we plan to meet at least 1 time/month, I feel a bit confused about the way I should get started with my research. Of course, I plan to complete the literature review I started when I wrote my research proposal before engaging with fieldwork, and then with data analysis and dissertation writing. However, how do concretely those different steps go on? I mean :

When do I know I am over with the literature review and conceptual framework? I feel like I always find more papers and books to read every time I read a new paper. Continuing this way may mean always postponing fieldwork, which I know is not a good way to go...
When should I start writing some serious stuff concerning that literature review/conceptual framework? Before or after engaging with fieldwork?
When should I contemplate writing down a first contribution (i.e. scientific communication for a conference or article)? I feel discussing my theoretical perspectives with other PhD candidates/researchers may be fruitful to confirm/modify the way I tackle my topic. However, I don't know if working on a theoretical paper before engaging with fieldwork is relevant as it may change through time ...

Start writing now, every day. Put down any ideas you have.  Don't try to plan the whole project from the start. Don't wait to write until after the literature review, or after the fieldwork. Your daily writing will move the work along even though only a small part of it may end up in the finished dissertation.
Edit in response to comments.
Writing "even before you have anything to write about" is valuable because it can help you sharpen the particular questions you want to ask/research. You can speculate about what you expect to find (but be honest when you finally see the data). If you start writing every day  you can develop a writing addiction that will serve you well as the dissertation deadline nears.
You can rough out a version of the conceptual framework now and  refine it as you see more literature, and as your fieldwork plans develop. Don't think of the project as a sequence of distinct stages, even if the final written dissertation has that structure.
This is the short form of what my wife Joan Bolker recommends in her book
Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day.
(This answer may be flagged or deleted as the blatant product promotion it is. I hope not, since many students have profited from this advice. I haven't included a link to the title so you have to work a bit if you want to get the book. That may make a moderator hesitate before deleting.)


Is there an American alternative to the PGCE? The UK offers a Post Graduate Certificate of Education which certifies teachers domestically and is useful in the international school system.
As an American teaching abroad, I am looking for an equivalent.
What is the US equivalent to this?

There is no such certificate.

To teach at a public school in the US, you will need to be licensed by the state you wish to teach in. If you have a BA/MA in education from an accredited university, it is often trivial to get this -- you normally have to pay a fee, get fingerprinted, and provide your transcripts. But some states are worse than others -- you may have to take exams to prove you're qualified. I've heard stories about having to redo your BA/MA at an in-state school, but I have not been able to confirm such reports.  There is also such a thing as "emergency licensure" -- for example, if a school can't fill a key post, they can hire someone temporarily that normally wouldn't be eligible (e.g., a physicist without teacher training to be a physics teacher).
At a private school in the US, each school has their own rules. State licensure and/or a degree in teaching is a good first step, but each school sets their own rules.
To teach in an American school abroad, things are even less well-defined. To my knowledge, "American Schools abroad" do not have any oversight by the US Department of Education, so there are no uniform standards. Each school sets their own rules in accordance with local laws. Fluency in English and some previous teaching experience is often enough, though in some saturated markets (e.g., Geneva), and in some countries with stricter local policies, the requirements can be much higher.


How does one avoid bikeshedding in paper reading groups? We read papers once a week in my group, and I'm additionally part of a graduate class that involves reading multiple papers a week.

I've noticed that, when asked to think about limitations or future directions one could take from this paper, I tend to focus on the minor details that I understand rather than thinking substantially about the contributions of the paper.

It also seems to come up in group discussions, where we go off track talking about minor tangents in the paper.

How does one avoid this for themselves? How do discussion leaders prevent this happening to groups?

This is a real problem. In a reading group I am currently a part of, we have imposed the following policy:

Before showing up to the reading group each weak, each member must write a summary of the paper, like a short review, including strengths and weaknesses as well as questions for discussion.

I think that this helps ground the discussion in reality and has avoided "bikeshedding" to some extent. Specifically, writing a summary ensures that you know where the work fits into the big picture and what its main contributions are. After this is articulated, you can be sure that whatever problems you have found with the paper are in proper context (it may then be clear that they are minor problems, not related to the paper's main contribution, or it may be that they are major objections).

I think the act of finding flaws in a paper is invaluable, whether the flaws are minor or not. So the goal should not be to not find flaws, but rather to put those flaws in their proper context.

Finally, I think a good general piece of advise is to withhold judgment until reading at least the intro and conclusion in a positive light, without skepticism. That means you understand the authors' argument before you form an opinion. It may be that the negative thing you see with the paper actually has nothing to do with what it's about.


PhD Applications and GRE Subject Tests during Covid I just recently finished a masters program in Mathematics, unfortunately it seems most PhD Programs require a math GRE Subject test. At the moment I'm living with my parents and don't feel comfortable going in to take an exam with others - especially with the cases in the US right now, but I don't want to lose a shot at getting into some programs.
Does anyone know if universities have lifted the requirement for GRE Subject tests as a result of Covid?
Thanks

Certainly if universities want students in a time of chaos, they need to be somewhat flexible in their admissions. Some will have dropped the GRE requirement, and some haven't had it for a while.
Unfortunately that is an individual decision by an individual university (or perhaps a statewide system) in the US, so you have to inquire for each university to learn a useful answer. Don't assume that any given university has, or hasn't, made changes to their requirements.
However, note that ETS is making accommodations also. It is possible to take the General Test at home under certain circumstances. It doesn't seem to include the Subject tests, though that may change.


Does any scholarship require the benefiting student to make open access any research paper they wrote during the scholarship period? An increasing number of funding agencies require recipients to make all research papers it funded open access.

Does any scholarship require the benefiting student to make open access any research paper they wrote during the scholarship period?

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funds scholarships and has an open access policy:

  [...] We have adopted an Open Access policy that enables the unrestricted access and reuse of all peer-reviewed published research funded, in whole or in part, by the foundation, including any underlying data sets. [...]

The Max Planck Society in Germany funds scholarships and has an open access policy.

These are the two examples I remembered directly.


Why do some journals want figures at the end? This is one question that probably has an archaic answer.  I recently reviewed a paper for a journal that stuck all the figures at the end (with placeholders in-text).  Where I publish, we typically provide camera-ready manuscripts or at least give reviewers a version with the figures embedded so that they can see what the heck is going on.  Occasionally, you embed the figures plus they are attached separately at the end (due to how the system generates the PDF).  However, I recognize that dumping the figures at the end of a journal submission for review is quite common in some fields.

My simple question: Why?

I assume that at some point, there was a purpose to putting figures at the end rather than where they belong.  I am also aware that it is quite common for journals to shuffle around your figure positions.  But why would journals possibly want their copy to have all the figures dumped at the end?  Obviously it is not for the reviewers' benefit, as it makes certain papers nigh-unreadable ("As you can see in Figure 1" - opens up second copy of the PDF so I can see Fig 1 at the same time as the text).  Anyone know the reasoning behind this?

There is a long tradition of submitting text and figures separated. this stems back to when manuscripts were typewritten and figures were drawn by ink. Many journals have kept this format and now the reason to keep figures separate is to facilitate the typesetting/layout. In addition, many electronic submission systems assemble manuscripts by merging text files with graphics files. The reason for having separate graphics files is that the typesetting processing inserts figures during the process. Not all journals take camera-ready manuscripts (in fact none in my field).
As a reviewer, and if you review from a printout, it may also be advantageous to have figures separately since it is easier to look at them in parallel with reading the text. If you review on screen, it will of course not be an advantage.
There is actually no need to format a manuscript this way as long as figures and text are delivered separately in the end if that is what the journal requires for their typesetting. Always follow any instructions provided by the journal!


Question on academic integrity and using summaries I was taking a philosophy class, which met twice weekly. Assignments for each class consisted of reading select passages from different philosophical works. In addition to the selected passages, our teacher provided recommended secondary literature/commentaries to help navigate the texts and provide different perspectives.

In regards to the readings, due to various (mostly health-related) reasons, I often fell behind. This, for the most part, was not an issue, as the essay assignments for the class concerned very specific sections of the texts. In writing these, then, what I would do was consult both online summaries of the relevant sections and peruse the relevant sections from the texts myself.

Come the final exam (for which we were provided the questions ahead of time), while I was initially concerned that my having fallen behind would hurt me, it turned out that most of the questions I could answer based on what I already knew. As I was preparing for the final question, however, I realized that I needed to really understand one section of a book that I hadn't read; this was the night before the exam. This section was really dense, so while I tried for a time, and got partway through it, I decided it would be more prudent to consult one of the recommended commentaries in order to understand what the philosopher was saying. While I was doing this, I tried a few more times to make it through the actual text again, but I didn't get that much further. The secondary sources clarified the argument the philosopher was making, and I used what I'd learnt to finish my answer. Ultimately, the information I'd gleaned from the secondary source took up only a small part of my final answer.

At the time, I felt a pang that maybe I was doing something unscrupulous, and thus that I should just rely solely on the primary text. Would it be wrong, I asked myself, to rely predominately on the secondary text given my minimal understanding of the primary text? But I also knew that I had somewhat of a history of compulsive, irrational guilt which had affected my performance in the past, and thus I was more determined not to let this hurt my performance on the exam, so I did end up using the secondary source.

After the exam, I later informed the teacher that in preparing for the final, I had consulted online/secondary sources that provided some information/ideas which I hadn't taken from the text, and he replied that this was completely fine. I realized, however, that I hadn't said specifically that I hadn't made it through the relevant section completely and with trying to understand it fully, and that maybe I should've actually clarified this as well.

The crux of my dilemma, then, is to what extent I should have read/comprehended the original text before relying on secondary texts/summaries. Generally speaking, throughout the course, while I relied a lot on secondary sources/summaries, I made efforts to read the actual texts as well. For the final, however, I tried to read the actual texts, and did to an extent, but understood it only superficially, and ultimately the bulk of my understanding came from the secondary texts/summaries. Moreover, as I was reading the primary text, I felt a bit that I was only doing it so that I could subsequently turn to the secondary text without reservations—i.e., without relying on the secondary text entirely without having read the primary text at all. It's worth noting as well that the secondary source I consulted predominately in answering this question was recommended by the teacher, and to my knowledge it was never stated explicitly that we could only use secondary commentaries after having read the primary texts.

I'm wondering whether I should feel bad about this going forward. I've come to the conclusion that, while at worst this may have been a minor infraction, it isn't worth feeling bad about and I shouldn't let this hang over me at all going forward, nor should I attempt to further clarify this situation with my teacher, especially given that the class is over.

Don't worry. There is no academic dishonesty in studying from secondary texts when preparing for a philosophy exam. Nor is there any academic dishonesty in failing to read the primary texts.

You don't need to further clarify the situation with your teacher.


I have an "integrated masters" degree. How can I eventually gain a PhD? I graduated in the UK last year with an M Ost, an integrated masters of osteopathy. This is currently the standard qualification offered by colleges teaching osteopathy in the UK, although it's changed several times in the past and seems likely to change again.

My course consisted of 480 credits. 360 credits were at undergraduate level (including 120 at honours level) and a further 120 credits were at master's level.

I am intrigued by research, and wonder if it would be possible to eventually apply for a PhD, but I have no idea whether applicants with integrated masters courses are considered. I suspect not, and assume I would need to do some extra work.

However I don't understand what that extra work would be.

As you can tell.... I am a little lost! This seems the most basic of questions, but I am struggling to find any clear advice. I have contacted members of the faculty in my old college, but they haven't not been very helpful. Suggestions have included doing a further qualification in osteopathic studies -- something I'm not keen on. I would prefer something that is science-based, and would be accepted as qualification to go on to apply for a PhD.

I appreciate this is quite an open-ended question. Ideally I'm probably looking for pointers as to where and how to continue my search. Should I contact PhD-providing universities and colleges directly, and ask what I would need to do in order to be considered?

I also understand that PhDs are hard, hard work. I am not looking for questions around why I want to do one, or alternative options. Many thanks for understanding this.

In the UK, you will be expected to have some research experience before applying to a PhD programme in science: not necessarily publications (although that always helps!), but certainly having done an extended project and written a dissertation about it. In my field (physics) you can definitely apply straight out of an integrated masters degree, provided that your last year had a substantial research component.

If you don't have any research background at all (or just short summer projects or the equivalent), then this is the "extra work" you are looking for. Find a MSc by research in a field as close as possible to the one you want to do a PhD in. This also has the advantage that you get to decide whether a PhD is really for you while only taking a year, and to leave with a qualification at the end if it's not.

Of course, this is just general advice: as JeffE says, individual universities will be able to provide specific information on their admissions and funding criteria.


Do university rankings matter for research? Possible Duplicate:
  University rank/stature - How much does it affect one’s career post-Ph.D?

Do rankings of universities matter while pursuing research or should I be more concerned about finding a suitable supervisor irrespective of the university or institute rankings?

I think the importance you have to attach to this criterion (university ranking) when finding a new research job (from your question, it appears to be a PhD) is limited, because:

What counts if our research output: your results, and how you communicate them to your community. You want people in your field to recognize you as someone who can tackle difficult problems and design creative and efficient solutions.
Of course, your research may not be so stellar that everyone has heard of you. So, coming from a well-known group with a proven track record is important. You want your research group to be famous, because it reflect well on you.
But it's not that simple… not all group leaders are superstars! Failing that, it is better to be affiliated with a well-known department (or university). You want to be in a university/department that people think is good.
But not all people know all universities well enough to be able to judge them. Those who don't rely on externally published rankings.

See how rankings are introduced only as item #4 in the above list. Thus, even considering only the career advancement side of your question, university ranking is not a primary concern. Sure, it plays a role, but lots of students overestimate that role compared to, say, the importance of your own work and results.


Can I change my academic affiliation after a conference paper is accepted but before submitting the camera ready version? My case is the following; I was doing independent research while I was working in a university, which, by the way I did not use any resource from that place of work at all. During the time I was at this university, a conference came up where I saw the possibility to submit my research, and because they asked for an academic affiliation to be put in the paper; I put the one of my then current work-place.

While I was waiting for a decision from the conference on whether my paper would be accepted, I got a part time job in another university. The good thing about this new place is that they have offered me that they would pay any expenses related to research publication. I know that they have not said that straightforward, but I suppose that they want me to put them as my academic affiliation.

Now the paper has got accepted, and I have to make the final version of it, so I was wondering if it would be possible that I can change my academic affiliation to the new place which has offered to pay the expenses for me?

Can I do that?

According to your comment, you are asking whether the conference will allow you to change your listed affiliation between acceptance and submission of the camera-ready version.

In my experience, the answer is yes. I have done this several times without issue. If there's no way to do this by yourself in the paper submission site, you can email the chair and ask him/her to update your information.

Whether you should use your new institution as your affiliation just to get them  to pay for your expenses is another issue entirely, which you have already asked about in another question.


Is it possible to ask offers of admission to extend the deadline? I was offered an admission of offer (math) today and I found out that I have till Feb 15th to accept the offer. Most schools in my country (Canada) actually send out offers during Feb, and there is a low probability that I will get an offer then, is it okay to ask schools to extend the offer date?

Note I am Canadian. Schools in Canada don't generally give out scholarships until NSERC hands out theirs. My school gives entrance scholarships after you get NSERC, in which case, they announce it in March, wayyy past the deadline.

Yes, it's definitely okay to ask.  They're certainly not going to rescind the offer because you ask for more time.  Depending on the school, their applicant pool, how bad they want you, and (probably) how rigid their administrative structure is, they may grant or refuse your request.

You should, of course, word your request very politely and recognize that they have the right to say "no".


Phd after a master's in pure mathematics I am currently finishing my master's degree in theoretical maths (mostly courses around algebra, geometric algebra, a bit of Riemann geometry, K-theory etc) and I don't know which area to go into for a Phd.
I was interested in cryptography but have never taken any advance classes in coding theory. Is knowledge in "pure math" enough to apply for a PhD in this area? I wanted to do something which uses my theoretical math but into a more applied subject ... any ideas would be very welcome !

A Math Master's is a good start for any Math Ph.D. program. You may need to spend a minute or two convincing an advisor that you know enough about the field to be interested in it, but that won't take specific coursework most of the time.


How do I cite a product that cannot be sourced commercially I used a product in my PhD that is not available to buy. Our lab was given it as a free sample from a company that was considering developing this product. How do I cite it? Thank you

In your list of materials, you can just add a parenthetical after identifying the product and the manufacturer.  Something like "(not yet commercially available, but obtained by special arrangement)" should be fine.


Does a degree in economics/corporate finance from an Italian university prepare me for a PhD in economics? i am a master of corporate finance student in Bocconi. i have a bachelor degree in economics and wanted to continue on it but decided to switch to finance due to some restraints (my scholarship from European Union only allows me to register in one year programs; and as you know msc in econ programs are 2 year)

i do not hate finance but i do not love it as much as economics. besides, i beleive that that business life is not suitable for me. i have a great interest in economics which -unfortunately- revealed in my last years in bachelor degree. therefore, i do not have a high gpa.

so i have some concerns about for pursuing a phd degree. i will be very happy if you can help me.

although i have taken some math courses (calculus, statistics, linear algebra, econometrics), i am not sure that it is sufficient for a phd in economics. plus, i do not have very shiny grades on math (because i was not studying at all, i mostly entered the exams mostly 1-2 hours of study and survived with my previous high school math knowledge. as i mentioned above, i was not a hardworking student in my first years do to my lack of interest in economics).

calculus101: c+ calculus102:c+ statistics1: c statistics2: c econometrics: c linear algebra: b+

so do you recommend me to get a phd? can i survive a phd program (especially the math part)?

thank you for your answers which will help me to shape next 50 years of my life

I'm in the same situation, so maybe I can help. The first thing many people don't realize is that many fields of advanced level economics are almost entirely math. Thus an undergraduate degree in econ may not be the best preparation for a doctorate if the degree is not very mathy. My university has a special doctoral prep program for econ majors for exactly this reason. You can see the degree requirements here to get a sense of how much math my economics department thinks you need to get a doctorate.

http://www.american.edu/cas/degrees/bs-mathematics-economics.cfm

My personal opinion is that depending on the field of economics you want to study (and how much math is involved), as well as the rigor of the doctoral program, you may want to take more math classes. Also while those are great core courses which you have taken, if I was an admissions officer, I'd be concerned about the grades. Take some higher math and show you've improved.

To quote from one of my econ professors (a former central banker) "IF you come in with the math, graduate schools will have no problem teaching you the econ."

Courses you need:

Multivariate Calculus, Differential Equations, Real Analysis
More Statistics, especially time series analysis.