Found out I might have unknowingly cheated after term completion One of my classes had a midterm scheduled right after we were all sent home due to Covid-19. The professor said that for this midterm, we were allowed to use notes, both his and our own, browse the internet, and talk with peers during the exam. While this seems abnormal, we, as a class, checked multiple times and he confirmed this policy every time. Thus, during the exam, about 2/3 of the class (~10 people) got in one video call and were talking during the exam.

For the final, the professor simply said that the rules would be the same as the midterm listed above. To our discredit, no one double checked what the professor meant and simply went with it. Of course, the same ~10 people got on the video call again and did the final. It was not an easy final, despite us collaborating and looking at notes, leading me to suspect nothing wrong. The professor also had not posted a note saying collaboration was allowed on the exam, although this was the same as the previous midterm, so I thought he had just overlooked this. Looking back, I see the fallacy in this, but it did not seem important at the time.

However, recently I was talking to an acquaintance from the class, one of the 10 in the video call, and I found out that he had indeed checked with the professor about peer collaboration on the final, which the professor explicitly disallowed (this was during office hours). This acquaintance said he did not tell this to us as he needed us helping him on the final to pass the class.

I'm conflicted on what to do now, as it has been over 3 weeks since the end of semester (4 weeks since the final in question) and most of the class was in on the video call. If anything, all our answers were EXTREMELY similar (most were exact copies) to the point that it would be obvious we were collaborating. On one hand given the above, it seems unnecessary to dig this up. On the other hand, I'm not sure that I'm not reasoning my way through having cheated. Please advise.

Assuming that the no-collaboration rule was really not communicated to you, then you didn't cheat.  You followed the rules as you reasonably understood them based on the information you were given.  There's no such thing as "unknowingly  cheating"; it requires intent.

However, there is a substantial risk that the professor may think you have cheated, if he mistakenly thinks he made it clear to the entire class that collaboration was not allowed.  So it is in your best interest to clear it up before any formal charges are considered.  Just explain what you've said here: you were told that the rules would be "the same" as the midterm (if you have this in writing, better yet), and you later found out that other students were told something different.

The fact that the term has ended means nothing.  It is entirely possible, in all academic systems I know of, to impose a punishment for cheating even after the term is over, perhaps months or years later.   And it is not too unusual that investigations can't be completed before grades are due, in which case the professor may assign the grade based on an assumption of no cheating, but it can be changed retroactively if his investigation confirms wrongdoing.

So even if you don't want to "dig it up", the professor still can, and you will convey more honesty if you get out ahead of it.  You have a good defense, but it won't look as good if you have to say "well, I found out afterwards there might be a problem, but I didn't say anything because I hoped you wouldn't notice".

Note that your acquaintance definitely did cheat, if he's telling the truth about what the professor told him: he'd been clearly informed that collaboration was not allowed and he did it anyway.  Moreover, he did it in a way that placed innocent students at risk of being suspected and prosecuted for cheating.  Many people would feel that you also have an obligation to report this to the professor.


Proper citation of equations in scientific papers - terminology Most scientific papers refer to almost any formula that contains the "=" sign by the word "equation". Consider this case:

Let value = function(input) (1) where input is a known input value and value is the result of the function computation. In this situation, there are no effective unknowns (we are guaranteed that no unknowns are hidden in the function expression either).

Most papers (if not all) often refer to expression (1) in sentences like "equation (1) is equivalent to", "referring to equation (1), we see that..".

Some pedantic referees, however, suggest the use of a more proper word (e.g. formula (1) instead of equation (1)).

Is there a grammar reference that solves this seemingly insignificant issue?

Further clarification

An  example of an expression not considered an equation by a referee:
(a+b)^2 = a^2 + 2ab + b^2 (1).

From Higham, Handbook of writing for the mathematical sciences (emphasis mine):

Referencing Equations
When you reference an earlier equation it helps
the reader if you add a word or phrase describing the nature of that
equation. The aim is to save the reader the trouble of turning back to
look at the earlier equation. For example, "From the definition (6.2)
of dual norm" is more helpful than "From (6.2)"; and "Combining the
recurrence (3.14) with inequality (2.9)" is more helpful than
"Combining (3.14) and (2.9)". Mermin [200] calls this advice the "Good
Samaritan Rule". As in these examples, the word added should be something more informative than just "equation" (or the ugly abbreviation "Eq."), and inequalities, implications and lone
expressions should not be referred to as equations.

Pro-tip: arguing with a referee on such trivialities is rarely worth your time. Just do what they suggest.


Monitoring employee's work habits - is it acceptable and how to express dissaproval appropriately? I've recently started as a Lecturer but have been with the same University on a fixed-term contract some time prior. My University is mainly using MS Teams as the official chat, e-mail, calendar and everything else integrated platform, the use of which has obviously increased heavily due to the currently work-from-home (WFH) policies. While I have received such a "analytics report" prior to WFH as well, I strongly suspect they have increased in frequency over the last couple of months (I haven't actually checked the date of every single report). These analytics are based on our online activity and contain assessments such as:

  Your work patterns the last 4 weeks:

  68% (time) Available to focus

  This is the time you typically have leftover to focus on your tasks outside of meetings, emails, chats and calls.

  15 Quiet Days

   These are days without interruptions of meetings, emails, chats and calls outside your working hours set in Outlook.

  Productivity insights:

  Quiet hours pattern

   Your work during quiet hours has increased from 0.5 to 2 hours over the past few weeks.

  Time spent in email

   Your email hours have increased from 2 to 7 hours over the past few weeks.

While I can understand the need for the University to hold records of our online communications (especially when e.g. students are involved) to protect itself and provide evidence in case of any disputes, these statistics and analytics feel invasive and make me extremely uncomfortable.

While some of my colleagues have a blanket concern about any of the data being collected ("as it could be used against us in any dispute with the Uni"); I am personally less worried about raw data justifiably collected, as I can offer my own interpretation of that if needed. However, the above analytics are done by an algorithm which (especially as somebody working with machine learning) I would never trust to evaluate something as subjective as research work. I am worried that the summary could give a false picture of my work. And being so closely monitored just feels uncomfortable. I.e. I don't understand how they measure "how much I work during quiet hours" (and can't find the info easily). I also tend to work well in "bursts" -- have some slow days and then work long and late several days in the row when I get in the "zone" (making the "quiet days" information of dubious benefit).

This becomes even more important now during the WFH times. I have some colleagues who are very reluctant about using any such services due to security reasons, and due to this I can't bring myself to properly encourage them to use the provided services. But using such services is one of the very rare things that alleviates and eases WFH for some of us (and has generally been well-accepted by most of my colleagues). Every time I have to use a collaborator's personal phone number to attempt instant communication (the equivalent of poking your head in somebody's office, which I would typically do by pinging somebody on Teams), I want to lecture them on how much more difficult they are making the WFH situation. On the other hand, every time I get yet another "analytics" e-mail, I want to follow their example, and only log in to official Uni services for 2 hours a week during the official team/school meetings, instead of begin available from morning to evening (my typical work hours).

So, my questions are:

Is this appropriate, typical, allowed?
How would I go about expressing my disapproval?
Do you think I could influence all or any of this by expressing disapproval?
(all this considering I am a very fresh Lecturer in a fairly new organisation still finding it's way, so I don't have leverage to kick up too much of a fuss)

A full answer is beyond the scope of this site as it involves questions of surveillance and governance generally. However, the question is really about how such data is used, how it is retained, and who gets to see it. If it were sent only to yourself and then discarded, it would be benign, in fact.
For legal questions you need to consult a lawyer. If you are unionized then the union likely has good representation.
If the data can be seen and used by others then there are some principles that should be adhered to, though they might be ignored. Here are some general principles that should apply everywhere.

Do you give explicit permission for any data gathered?
Is the the data collected used for a valid purpose?
Is the data collected minimal to achieve a valid purpose?
Does the data collected have a reasonable life span for the (valid) purpose?
Will the data be shared only with those having a valid reason to see it?
Others ...

Since this is an educational system the additional principles might involve such things as permitting individual flexibility so that an instructor can properly respond to situations that aren't common/universal. One of our long term principles as educators is that the professor has quite a lot of autonomy over how a course is delivered. How a Law course is delivered will be very different from how a CS course unfolds.
As a low level employee you probably have little personal influence over outcomes and can be easily silenced, especially if the principles are being ignored. But collective action can make a difference. I assume that many academics are uncomfortable, at least, with being surveilled. Join with them in discussion groups initially and see if you can formulate common positions and potential actions. You may not have much leverage, but a committee of your senior peers will.


How/whether to update PhD admissions committee about new scholarship I applied to 4 US PhD programs and I've received 3 rejections and 1 waitlist.

I also applied for a scholarship for $25,000/year x4years and just found out that I got it.

I'm thinking that I should update the school I'm waitlisted at because the scholarship could probably help my chances of getting in. I have some questions I'm hoping I can receive some input on here:

How should I go about updating the waitlist school about this scholarship? Should I do this in writing or by phone?
Should I inform the schools that have already rejected me about the scholarship--is it possible they may change their decisions based on this new information? And if so, how should I approach telling them?
The scholarship would require me to research a certain (widely researched) disease and maintain one of my MSc supervisors (at a different institution) as a co-supervisor during my PhD. Is it likely that the school(s) will mind this (especially the second part)?

Thanks in advance for any and all feedback!

You should definitely notify the program for which you are on the waitlist, since this could matter for their decision.  If they have contact instructions on their webpage or in the notification you received about being on the waitlist, then you should follow those instructions.  Otherwise, you could try replying to the notification e-mail.  I'd recommend doing this in writing, rather than by phone, so that you can provide details.  You can just say something like "I'd like to update you on a development in my application: I was just notified that I have received the X fellowship, which ... [give the financial details and any restrictions].  Please let me know if you would like any additional information."

It can't hurt to ask the schools that have rejected you, just in case, but you should expect the answer to be no.  I'd phrase it very tentatively (along the lines of "I understand that this is probably not possible, but I don't suppose that my application could be reconsidered in light of this fellowship?").  Don't spend much time on this, since I'd expect that the most likely outcome is that someone will spend 15 seconds typing a "Sorry, that isn't possible" email in response, but I don't think anyone will be offended if you don't sound presumptuous.

Regarding the restrictions, it's hard to predict how much the department will care.  You should definitely mention these details in your e-mail, so they can make an informed decision.


Do you write "letter of recommendation" on recommendation letter? Almost all examples I can find in the internet do not say "letter of recommendation", however there are a few which do.

It’s frustrating to have to look for a bunch of emails titled “Letter of Reference” to find the one about a particular student or post doc candidate. Alternatively, if I’m on an online platform, I want to make sure I’m reading the right letter.

So, as a matter of convenience for anyone handling the letter, I include a header

  Letter of Recommendation for Anna Goodresearcher

or something similar as the subject of my letter. That way, it’s immediately obvious who the letter is for, making life easier for whoever is organizing or evaluating the applications. If it’s a postdoctoral reference or something else being sent directly to an individual by email, I try to include this in the email header as well.


What if I can make a profit for an assignment/project I did similar to "Google"? This is kind of like the google story. We are currently doing an project individually. The idea I came up with can be used as a website that can make profit. My question is, let's say I was able to make money with the code I am writing, since this is a university project that I will submit for marks, do they own a piece of that profit. I know that the Google guys had to pay about $300 million to Standford but it seemed to me like the "patent issue". And they dropped out so I really can't say much about their case. The facebook story is different.

So am I obligated to share the profit with the university or does this differ from institution to institution? After all, even if they take my code, since I wrote it, I can rewrite it with ease.

Edit: It's kind of like inventing something that can be sold or used as a service. Does the institution own a piece of it.

This cannot be answered in general.

It depends on the contract you have with the institution and the applicable law in your jurisdiction. It may depend on how you were funded as well.

I know of examples from both extremes: your university owns 100% and your university owns nothing, as well as everything in between. Some intermediate setting is probably more common, but, as I said, it depends.


Benefits of including short and/or long-term visits abroad on my CV? I am in my first year of a theoretical physics PhD in the UK and I'm coming to the end of a week abroad at another institution where some collaborators of mine work. The purpose of the visit is to make some quick progress on a specific project, and I applied for (and was awarded) a small grant from an EU funding body to pay for the visit.

The answers to a closely related question, "Should I include research stays in my CV?", suggest that such stays should be included on a CV.

I see my CV as essentially a record of my professional activities, and this visit therefore falls within that scope, but I wonder if, due to the short nature of the visit, it would be seen as padding. I already have a modest section of my CV devoted to grants, awards and prizes, where I also list the specific monetary amounts I received, so is it wiser simply to list the funding and not mention the visit it was used for?

Further to this, I intend to apply for more funding soon which will allow me to visit the same institution plus another in another country for much longer (possibly up to six months). If I am successful in this regard, should I include the visit, the funding or both on my CV?

Question:  What are the possible benefits/drawbacks of including a visit or/and its funding on a CV?

I don't see any drawbacks adding your grants and visits in CV, but it will surely increase the weightage of your CV in this competitive world. I have been a Travel Grant Reviewer since last 5 years to select suitable candidates to attend the meetings/conferences. My experiences give the following merits to add them in CV.

Grants/Awards/Prizes proves your ability to be considered in top researchers.
Visits abroad proves your ability to work in different environments/places and with different peoples.
Listing your conferences and presentation details proves your ability/interest to present your work in the international forum.

So all the points have their own meaning to define your potential. If you don't mention them, then how do you think that you will be evaluated properly?


Switch majors in pure math masters in order to apply for a PhD in statistics? I have finished the first year of my Masters in Mathematics from a German university. The area that I intended to write my masters thesis in was in Differential Geometry. However, I have decided that I would not want to pursue a career in academia in the future, or at least not one in pure mathematics.
I want to get a PhD in statistics from a top US university.
Is it a good decision for me to switch my major to Probability Theory and Stochastics? This would involve another year of coursework, thus making my masters 3 years instead of 2 years. Will this be reflected negatively on my grad school application? Will they think that if I couldn't complete my masters in 2 years, how can I complete my PhD in 4-5 years?
I have done well in a rigorous Stochastic Processes course in my first year of masters and I did well in 3 statistics courses and a couple of baby probability courses in my undergrad. I might also get to be a TA for the stochastic processes course next year.
The other alternative is that I start my thesis in Differential Geometry and then apply for a PhD in statistics. When doing so, I'm afraid that I won't be getting recommendation letters for a statistics program from my pure math professors. Are my fears valid?

There are a lot of issues here. Whether you get good letters from maths professors is up to them and your relationship with them. Only they can answer that, so you might pose the question to them. Not writing the thesis may impact on that, but only they can say.
As to whether a switch gives you any advantage in application to a US doctoral program, it also depends on that program. Every US university is different in that regard and you can, really, only learn the answer by making application. But I can guess, at least, that you can make it work either way. Math is a good foundation for statistics and the details may matter less than your insight.
But you can plan for both outcomes, at least, by applying now for doctoral programs based on your two year degree while still considering the three year switch. You have a year to figure it out and don't need to make a final decision at this point, I think.
And don't define "top" US universities too narrowly. If you do, you are likely to not get offers. Cast a wide net. There are lots of great US institutions that aren't in the top 10, or even 30, or ...


What is reasonable expenditure on meals during a conference? I am currently at a conference in the US
and I will be reimbursed by my adviser.
I was wondering what is a reasonable per diem spending for meals?

Of course I could ask my adviser directly,
but I feel bad doing so,
because I am afraid my adviser will think that
I am trying to spend the maximum amount possible.

I don't want to blow my adviser's budget,
but I also don't feel that I need to save every last penny
in terms of my meal spending.
I would like to have maybe one nice meal a day ~$20
but otherwise eat cheaper meals < $10.

What types of spending guidelines would help me not to upset my adviser?

Ask your advisor. Your university is likely to have a maximum allowable per diem that is based on the city that the conference is in. It varies from university to university, but mine just pays the per diem for that city regardless of how much you actually spend. Many universities do it this way. It saves time and money processing expenses on a meal-by-meal and receipt-by-receipt basis. If your university does this, then it doesn't matter how much you spend on yourself.

Also, given that the per diem is likely capped in the $40-$50/day range anyway, you are unlikely to blow your advisor's travel budget on food even if you hit the max every day.


Postdoc exploring tenure track faculty jobs against the wish of mentor I have been a postdoc for a year and half with a good number of publications. I feel it is the time for seriously exploring the TT faculty positions. However, my mentor wants me to work for a few more years in the current position. Though I have good rapport with my mentor, I dont know if it is ethical and practically possible for me to  proceed with applying without taking his reference. Advice will be appreciated.

It's your future and not that of your adviser, so I'm surprised that an adviser would say that they want you to work as a postdoc "for a few more years" -- which sounds far beyond the usual 3-year postdoc period.

My recommendation is essentially the same as for at least half of the questions on this forum: Communicate with your adviser. Have an honest talk about your future, why you desire to look for tenure track jobs, what you need from him in this regard, etc. You will very likely need your adviser's support (through letters, introductions, and in other ways), and the only way you'll get that is if you have honest conversations about what each of you want to get out of your current relationship.


Is it possible to study abroad as a PhD student? I hope to enter a PhD program in economics in the next few years, ideally at a top US school (Berkeley, Stanford, MIT, Harvard, etc.) Are there usually opportunities to study abroad during such a program? For example, if I attended Berkeley intending to focus on macroeconomics, would it be possible to study abroad with some of the macro theorists at Cambridge or U of Edinburgh?

This would not be an opportunity to "experience the local culture," which many undergraduate study abroad experiences focus on, but more a chance to gain multiple perspectives from academics in different countries. In my opinion the rigors of a top PhD program rule out the former.

I don't think what you're describing is all that common, and I've never heard of any sort of systematic program, but it does happen.  I ended up spending two months abroad during grad school to participate in a once off trimester program in my area of specialty.  There weren't any standard arrangements in place, though: my home university (very generously) moved things around so I could do it.  I think I've heard of other cases, all similarly involving unique circumstances like faculty moving around or particular personal connections.


When a PhD program asks for academic transcripts, are they referring to university-level transcripts only or also earlier transcripts? I have some questions regarding graduate admission (PHD) in us university.   The guidelines  stated  on the maximum university websites   are  that they require  academic transcripts.  My question is that, are the Bachelor of Science (BSc) and Masters of Science (MSc ) transcripts only?
or I will have to send all the academic records(verified) from the childhoods?


Why are papers without code but with results accepted? I just started reading some papers (Computer Science, specifically Computer Vision) and thought "now let's look at the source code" and was quite astonished that most of the papers don't have any source code implementing the described methods to look at, while claiming some performance or being better than other papers.

How do these papers get accepted in journals / conferences? Do people have to submit their source code privately to the reviewers at least, so that they can reproduce the experiment if possible.

Do most journals / conferences just "trust" that people who submit the paper really implemented the theory and got those exact results?

I always had this idea that any experiment should be reproducible by others else it's not scientific justified. Been wondering about this the last few days.

For me it seems that the reasons are two:

the belief that code is only a tool, a particular implementation being secondary to the idea or algorithm,
the historical residue (it was unpractical to print a lot of pages; especially as no-one could copy-paste it).

Additionally:

many scientist seems to be afraid to show their code in public, as they are aware of its poor quality (see also Why do many talented scientists write horrible software?), so they don't want to risk reputation (for both quality and catching possible errors).

Moreover, things related to current incentives in academia (where publications, not code, are related to one's career possibilities):

sharing code may mean risk of being scooped (instead of milking the same code for years),
cleaning up code takes time, which can be used for writing another publications.

  Do people have to submit their code privately to the reviewers at least, so that they can reproduce the experiment if possible.

Typically - not. If the code is not made public, almost for sure no reviewer have checked its existence; much less - correctness.

However, many scientists are starting to notice the problem (and they see how open source culture flourishes). So, there are new initiatives addressing such issue, like Science Code Manifesto:

  Software is a cornerstone of science. Without software, twenty-first century science would be impossible. Without better software, science cannot progress.

Or e.g. this manifesto. Try to search for reproducible research or look at things such as knitr for R and this intro to IPython Notebook, or read about using GitHub for science. And it seems it is taking off.


Significance of American Mathematical Monthly Problems in Math Grad School Admissions I have started solving problems from the American Mathematical Monthly. While I will definitely continue this, I am not sure how much this will help for math graduate school admissions (assuming I submit my solutions and they are recognized by the Monthly). How significant would multiple solutions to Monthly problems be in admissions? What about having the published solution to a problem? One issue is that I don't know how difficult the problems are presumed to be: all I know is that I personally have solved at least one of them!

It probably depends on the committee members, but I wouldn't expect it to help much.

If you get a really clever solution published, or they publish a problem you submit, that could make a difference.  It certainly wouldn't mean as much as a research paper, but it could be viewed as the same sort of thing on a smaller scale.

Otherwise, the potential impact is not large.  Solving Monthly problems would be viewed favorably, as evidence of talent and effort, but it's not likely to mean the difference between admission and rejection.  (Still, it's worth listing on your CV.)


Coming from Europe, can I work while doing a Master Thesis in USA? I understand this question is not strictly academic, but what I hope to find here is some feedback from someone who already had similar experience.

I live and study Electronics Engineering in Parma, a small town in northern Italy. I'm considering to move in order to get my Master Thesis done.
Now, as far as I understand, in USA the masters are somewhat different from what we have here in Europe. To the point that "Master Thesis" is not even a thing there, in fact I'm not able to find proposals online.

That said, I have friends who have done "gradated level" work there and validated it as a thesis back in Europe. So let's just assume I can get a place somewhere and be able to go there.

I immediately understand I will have to pay for my staying and the chances to get a salary are really narrow.

So, as per the title: can I work there (like weekend jobs) while studying?

Any help would be appreciated.

Most often, visitors to the US study under an F1 visa.

F1 visas do not permit off-campus work during the first year, and after the first year off-campus work is limited to work related to the degree; on-campus work is allowed but limited to 20 hours per week.

Schools you apply to will be familiar with having international students attending; you should direct questions about employment opportunities to the programs and schools you may apply for; any larger institution likely has a dedicated office for international student needs and questions.


How to get rid of annoying graduate student "supervisor" I am an undergraduate student who has developed a novel new model which according to my PI (principal investigator) will have a high impact.

My PI assigned a grad student to supervise me. Supervision consisted of meeting once a week to update him on my progress so far. Sometimes he would provide certain helpful suggestions(none that are actual innovations just slight fixes/alterations that would improve the model).

During the course of the year he (the grad student) has become more and more annoying. Unhelpful suggestions/requests, etc.

During our last meeting the grad student made some bold claims on the model developed by me claiming to be an equal author/developer. He made it clear he wanted to get a large amount of credit for the model (co-authorship).

I do not think that he has done enough meaningful work to deserve credit for the model (although he would be listed in acknowledgements). Knowing his intentions I wish to distance myself from him(including not having him review the paper), as to lower his chance of becoming a co-author.

I would like to achieve this in such a way that does not negatively impact my relationship with my PI, as grad schools require reference letters.

EDIT:
I don't think I have been very clear and for that I apologize. I acknowledge that he has contributed to the work. I also understand that having more authors doesn't reflect badly on me(I didn't even know about the score system). I just have problems with his claims of equal authorship. As we are nearing final results/submissions of paper and he has better relation with the professor he may try to take the first authorship position.

Additional: By my university guideline policies about co-authorship he has not done enough to deserve even a co-author position.

I am an undergraduate student who has developed a novel new model which according to my PI (principal investigator) will have a high impact.

Great!

  My PI assigned a grad student to supervise me. Supervision consisted of meeting once a week to update him on my progress so far. Sometimes he would provide certain helpful suggestions(none that are actual innovations just slight fixes/alterations that would improve the model). (...) Knowing his intentions I wish to distance myself from him(including not having him review the paper), as to lower his chance of becoming a co-author.

Less great. Much less great. Let me make something clear here: this is not your project alone, this is the project of you, your advisor, and the PhD student. The guy has invested a serious amount of time into this project (not as much as you, clearly, but still a significant amount), and now you have unilaterally decided that he is to be cut out when the time comes to publish your results? Likely, this is not to be going over well either with him or the advisor, and for good reasons.

Deteriorating professional relationships are never fun, but it is simply not feasible to decide midway through a project that you now would rather not have another researcher on board. If he has already made contributions to the project, and it certainly sounds like he has, it would be unethical to publish without him now.

EDIT: to make it clear, I am not saying that he should get equal credit to you. But it certainly sounds like he should get some credit.

The very least you need to do is follow user11192's recommendation:

  it is best to meet with your advisor (and possibly the grad student) to discuss an authorship plan.

Finding a "sneaky" way to get rid of the grad student before publication time is not particularly ethical, and has a pretty high possibility of backfiring on you.


How to handle rude and distracting fellow graduate student who sits in the same office? In a nutshell, I hate one of my fellow PhD students. I am sitting in the office with that fellow graduate student who frequently interrupts me when I want to focus on my work. He also often is very insulting to me in front of other fellow graduate students.

I general, I try to be nice and respectful to my fellow students, but I suspect this makes me a perfect target to him. Also he seems very nice to other people, just not to me. I wish I could change the department because its actually a major drawback and affects my whole PhD life, since I currently meet him every day all the time. I frequently miss lunch or some activities of my lab, since I know I couldn't handle his presence. But I don't want that my social life suffers because of him. Do you have any tips on how to overcome this situation successfully?

A friend once told me that people take from you exactly what you choose to give them. In other words, this person manages to distract you because you let them. Similarly they manage to annoy you with their rude behaviour because you let their insults get to you. Therefore, I am going to suggest you a nice change of approach, rather than a change of office.

IMHO the best way to tackle distractions is to ignore them. My experience shows that a large pair of noise-cancelling headphones coupled with a focused look that never leaves whatever it is you are doing, work miracles in this case.

Whenever I need to focus and lock myself in the zone, I gear up and ignore everything that happens around me. If people ask me questions, and I actually manage to hear/see them, I tell them, swiftly and politely, that I'll be with them once I finish whatever it is I am doing. Your body language is extremely important while doing so. You want to make sure that you show that you won't be leaving what you are doing to deal with them, because you deem that what you are doing is more important. For example, I don't remove my headphones to answer, and go back to my task straight away. In addition, once you adopt this technique, be democratic and use it with anyone and not just this particular person who distracts you.

Make sure that you show that you are actually focusing on work rather than on leisure. Human psychology 101 suggests that if someone sees that you appear super-concentrated whilst in reality you are browsing social media they will feel allowed to disturb since they will think that you're not actually working. You have the right to not be disturbed whilst you are on a break, however the fact that you are taking a break implicitly says that you are free and can be disturbed.

Interestingly enough, the ignoring technique also works for rude behaviour and insults. Nothing clips one's wings more than instantly getting the feeling that one's behaviour has little or no effect. For your own sake, I'd suggest you begin by ignoring the rude comments that hurt you. This will not be easy at first, but you'll feel the benefits as you get better at it.

Now, nobody should be forced to feel like you do. What you describe is prototypical bullying. Bullying should have no place in life, let alone academia. The steps I would follow would be to begin by talking to this person telling them you would like them to stop with their rude behaviour. Although they might be joking you can't seem to tell whether that is the case, and think that the problem will be solved if they stop whatever it is they are doing.

After talking to them, wait some time. If the behaviour persists then escalate the complaint to your supervisor, the team/department head, or whomever you think has the authority to deal with this. The important thing is that you remain calm and polite during your interactions with your colleagues. Last thing you want is for others to accuse you of being rude.


Can I have both original experimental research and systematic review in one paper? serious question because I can't find the answer. I am currently doing an animal study, and I am preparing a manuscript about this. However, I am thinking of adding a second part to this paper by doing a systematic review also. Thus, to make it an article that has both original research and systematic review. The reason to do this is that there are some limitations of this animal study, and I think a systematic review can further back up the conclusion drew by the animal study. In another way, the systematic review has its limitation as well, and the conclusion drew from my animal study can back up the statement from the review. Kinda reciprocal relationship between these two and I feel it can make the quality of this paper better. So my question is if this is acceptable? I haven't seen a study that has part one about original experimental research and part two about a systematic review.

Your paper should have a complete convincing argument leading to your conclusions. If as the author you think a (perhaps unusual) systematic review of the literature strengthens your argument in an important way then include it.
Perhaps you could make it somewhat shorter than systematic.
You could include a statement in the paper or a cover letter to the editor explaining briefly why this material is necessary.


"Sorry to bother you" in an email? I recently sent an email to a professor asking him about an administrative problem I was having, but after I'd hit the send button, I realized I'd forgot to say: "Sorry to bother you" or something of that sort in the beginning...
Now I'm wondering is that considered impolite? Shoud you apologize to professors for bothering them or does that just make you sound phony?  I greeted him with"Dear Professor X", told him who I was, asked the question, and thanked him in advance.
He answered my question and all, but I'm just asking for future reference.

I think that @ndpl hit the nail on the head when he commented that what's most important is that your message to the professor be clear and concise.

During an academic semester I, like most academics, get a crazy number of emails. (I'm an assistant professor of mathematics at a college in the US.) If your email is short and to the point then chances are I'll be able to read it right away, decide what action on my part needs to be taken (if any), and move on to the next email. Empty statements like "I'm sorry to bother you." are polite, but just make my goal of getting through all the unread messages in my inbox that much harder to achieve.

So if your email was written in a professional manner, but was just terse, that's absolutely fine.


To resubmit a rejected paper or to choose another journal? How to decide? Last week I received the decision on my paper which I had submitted to a high rank physics journal. Their response was:

  These comments suggest that the present version of the manuscript is
  not suitable for publication in the ... However, if you
  feel that you can refute the criticisms, we will give further
  consideration. Please accompany any resubmittal by a summary of the
  changes made and a brief response to all recommendations and
  criticisms.

My supervisor wishes to resubmit this paper to the same journal. How can I decide whether to resubmit to the same journal or to another journal?

The main point to consider is probably that of success. The relevant questions here are:

Can you address the justified criticism?
Can you convince the editor or even the reviewers that the unjustified criticism is really unjustified?
Do you think that you can convince the editor to consult the opinion of yet another referee?
How much of the rejection is based on predominantly opinionated aspects, such as relevance and scope (e.g., “not enough physics”)? Apart from some exceptional cases (e.g., if you can actually add something to the manuscript that increases the relevance), such criticism is difficult to address.
Are the reviews criticising the same or different aspects?

Some examples:

You have three reports. All criticise a lack of relevance. They may or may not criticise other aspects. – Resubmitting is very likely a waste of time. Lack of relevance is a killer argument and most of the time, swaying a referee means convincing them that they erred in their assessment, which even in academia few people are capable of admitting. And you probably have to sway at least two referees. Moreover you have to convince the editor that you properly addressed the issues, so there will even be another round of review. It’s unlikely that the editor will consult additional referees.
You have two reports. The first one only criticises the lack of relevance but has no other major point of criticism. The second one finds the manuscript relevant but strongly criticises a technical aspect, which you can address. – The second referee can probably be easily satisfied. Unless the first referee has overlooked something essential, it will be difficult to sway them. However, the referees are one-to-one on this matter and by addressing it, you may convince the editor. Another possibility is that the editor consults the opinion of a third referee.
You have two reports. Both are negative but outrageously sloppy: For example, they criticise claims you never made, base their criticisms on misunderstandings they could not possibly have noticed as such or ask you to discuss alternative approaches which you did already discuss. – You can easily address the criticism and possibly sway a referee that is more awake during the second round. If you make your case clear, you may also convince the editor to consult new referees.

Another aspect to consider is that of time:

If at least some referees will be used again in the second round of review, this round is usually going to be faster, as it reduces or eliminates the time spent on finding appropriate referees and waiting for referees that decline to review. Moreover a referee that is already familiar with a manuscript needs less time to review it.
If you manage to convince the editor that some of the referees from the first round were not properly doing their job, this may lead to a speed-up of the next round.
If a major hurdle is the editor accepting your rebuttal, you waste little time if you fail, as such a decision usually happens quite quickly.
Depending on the constraints of alternative journals, submitting your manuscript there may require some rewriting work.

Therefore, even if you consider a resubmission to be less likely to succeed than a submission to the next journal, it may result in the least average time to publication.

Finally, you have to consider the number of journals that exist on the desired level and that are appropriate for your manuscript in terms of scope, length and possible other constraints. If there are only few such journals, you are more likely to exhaust your options and thus resubmitting is more likely to be worth the effort and time.


Advice wanted concerning students who have had run ins with the law. I am a first year grad student with an expunged felony in the state of Arkansas. I am looking for advice on if and how I should communicate this with my adviser. The felony is due to a drug crime and took place ~decade ago. I ask this because through out my academic career I may need to go to conferences in other countries and this may affect my ability to get through customs and enter those countries hosting the conference.

I am looking for other students who were in the same boat, professors who have dealt with similar situations, and in general opinions from advisers on how they would like to be approached in situations such as this.

Thanks for the communities knowledge in advance.

You don't need to explain the details.  Here is the most I would do.  If the situation comes up (e.g., your advisor suggests you attend a conference that would require international travel you are not comfortable with), tell your advisor how this will affect your professional work: e.g., you would prefer to publish in domestic conferences, you are not comfortable travelling internationally, or whatever the implication is.  Your advisor doesn't need to know the details of why (e.g., that you had a felony).

Of course, you can always explain these details if you feel comfortable doing so.  That will depend upon the nature of your relationship with your advisor.  But you shouldn't feel like it is mandatory to explain this aspect of your personal history.  This is a professional relationship, and in professional relationships, you only need to provide enough information to allow you to meet your professional obligations and goals.

Basically, think of it this way.  Why does your advisor need to know?  What will the implications be, in terms of how it will affect his advice to you?  Then think about how to convey the implications without the unnecessary details, and whether there is even any need or value in conveying any information at all.  That might help guide you figure out what to explain.  You might find you never need to explain anything related to this to your advisor.


Confirming the Identity of a (Friendly) Reviewer After the Reviews Somewhat a follow-up to this post.

I recently had a paper reviewed, and in receiving one of the reviews, I feel strongly that I know the identity of one of the reviewers (someone with whom I'm on generally friendly terms, but not enough to be a COI). Unfortunately, the paper didn't quite make it in, so we're looking to make the requisite changes and resubmit elsewhere.

Out of sheer curiosity, I'd like to reach out to this individual to ask if they were a reviewer for this paper. However, I believe this may be inappropriate, and have thus avoided doing so. Is it ever appropriate to ask such a question, and if so, when? I suspect doing so before the paper is accepted elsewhere is likely a faux pas for many reasons, including selfish ones (e.g., getting this reviewer again after making the suggested changes would likely be quite beneficial).

While not strictly relevant to the question, it's worth noting that this reviewer gave an extremely helpful and thorough review, though they ultimately gave a weak reject. In my reaching out to this reviewer, it would be solely to ask whether or not they reviewed the paper, and not discuss the review whatsoever (regardless of how they responded).

No, this is why the review process is anonymous...

Any "reaching out", while you say it is only to find out if they did or did not review your paper (and others will think "well that's because they want an inside track"...) will put the reviewer in a difficult position whether you intend that or not.

The reviewer's reputation with the journals they work with is important to them, so while you might be curious, don't go there.


Issues when splitting one long paper into two papers I've got a long policy/economics paper that will need to be split into two papers before any journal will be able to publish it.  I can make them into freestanding pieces.  But there will be significant overlap, particularly in the introduction, data description, and methods.

Is it frowned upon to have entire paragraphs be identical between two papers?  Structure will be something like the following:

Introduction
    Para A1
    Para A2
Methods/Data
    Para B1
    Para B2

and for the other

    Introduction
        Para A3
        Para A2
    Methods/Data
        Para A3
        Para B2

In addition, some of the plots will probably appear in both papers. Will this be viewed as a problem?

Yes, it can be problematic if content is repeated verbatim in different sources, as it can be viewed as "self-plagiarism." The excellent Retraction Watch blog has an article that outlines the Committee on Publication Ethics's (COPE) views on the subject of when self-plagiarism merits retraction. In their proposal, the kind of reuse you're talking about could easily be considered plagiarism, even if it were cited as a quotation of the other paper.

The reuse of plots is also problematic—you'd need to make sure that reuse is allowed by the publisher of the article which appears (or which is accepted) first. If not, you can get yourself into trouble in that way as well. (Ultimately, this is how the fraud in the Jan-Hendrik Schön scandal was finally exposed.


Are there grants available to pay for travel to my PhD program? I have looked at this thread travel grant but it talks about when the OP already was pursuing his PhD.

I am from India and have a different scenario as I have just received my PhD offer in Computer Science. Does anyone know if there are institutions that can fund my going there (even just the flight)? (As a background I do have good academic records as well as papers published).

I have searched on the internet and have found one from tata. But, I was hoping if others here are aware of any others that do provide support?

Thanks a lot!

I am not aware of any relocation only independent grants, but there are a number of other ways relocation expenses could be covered. There may be funding available via the University, Department, or PI. If you are being funded by an external grant relocation
expenses may be allowable (e.g., the NIH allows relocation costs).


Leaving academia for financial reasons - how to communicate the reason of departure in a professional manner? I recently finished my PhD and continued to work at the same department as assistant professor. Amid lack of funding, and other academic joys, the department went an extra mile to procure my contract and I was assigned to interesting longterm projects. So from the academic perspective I should consider myself very lucky (most people fight for an uncertain short postdoc position), and the conditions for work are quite good in comparison to other departments in the field.

However, just a few months into the position, I decided to leave academia altogether, exclusively for financial reasons. I always accepted some pay gap in comparison to the industry, but recently I run into a few former classmates from undergrad, visited their companies to discuss collaborations, but suddenly ended up in getting a few job offers in comparison to which my current position looks quite inferior. The difference in the salary leaves me no option but to accept one of the offers. Also, since this happened I became quite demotivated to work.

I am expected to start in a few months. What would be the best communication strategy to my department? Considering that they did quite a lot, and I am in a position which looks perfect to them.

Unfortunately stating upfront the financial reason would be awkward and probably not understood, as talking about personal finances in most academic settings is frowned upon, and there is a culture which expects people to be happy with the academic salaries.

Express that you have enjoyed working in your department. (Even if this is not entirely true.)
Explain that you are only leaving because of an opportunity "too exciting to turn down." Don't volunteer exactly why it is exciting; if asked, talk about what you'll be doing, not what you'll be paid.
If there's a way you can help the department while you're in industry -- serving on a committee, helping with accreditation, accepting an intern, things like that -- it would be kind of you (though it is not obligatory) to volunteer unasked.
Keep your resignation letter short and cordial.

These tactics should suffice to keep your departure as amicable as it can be, assuming you're doing the normal things to minimize disruption (e.g. not leaving mid-term).


Writing a thesis proposal I graduated last year and had been working on a problem. Now I have some progress and am interested in applying (non US places mostly, mathematical physics). How should I write a thesis proposal? I have the draft version of my work but it is extremely technical and will require serious patience to read the whole thing. Whoever I can summarize the important ideas in a smaller thing.

My question is if I should attach an abstract, a summary and the draft of the paper along with the introductory mail? How should the mail be structured?

On a side note, one of the people at the institute had commended my work some time back when I had sent them a previous draft.

What worked for me was to select a potential advisor and schedule a meeting to check her interest on my ideas. Then I wrote that more or less like a project for technical people (that could come from different backgrounds, but in my field) structuring the text in a way that guided the reader.

Now, thinking back, it could have been easier to do it if I have structured it similar to a position paper.


Should I write a non-academic white paper? I have a B.S. in computer science, and I have an idea for a computer security white paper.  It essentially builds on top of another white paper's security mechanism.  It would propose an alternate application of the security mechanism, and it would also add an extra feature to the security mechanism, which would be necessary for the alternate application.

Is that sufficient to write a non-academic white paper about?

From research that I have done on reasons for writing non-academic white papers,  I have gathered they are essentially used to inform people, and persuade people making business decisions.

The real reason I would like to write this white paper is so I can ultimately get into a Master's program or PhD program.  Could writing a non-academic white paper offset a less than desirable GPA due to classes in my minor?  I have also heard that 5 years of experience in Industry could be enough to get into a Master's Program, which I almost have.

Also, would it be possible to get a grant with the proposal?

I also have a question about white paper verification.  Is it necessary to have a working prototype to publish the white paper?  I don't think it would be useful to redo the work that was done in the previous white paper, but would need to be done to build a prototype of course.  Could I just propose the features that would need to be added?

I have also done research on attacks that can be done on the security mechanism for the white paper I am building on top of, and I suspect these attacks could be applicable to my alternate application, but would occur in a different context.  Should I write about that as well? Or should I leave that for a separate paper?

Thanks for your time answering any of these questions.

Edit2
Someone answered my questions, so making it the original post.

Compared to an academic publication, the main problems with publishing a white paper are the following:

There is no dissemination channel. White papers are usually issued by experts, institutions or companies which already have a reputation and the means to reach an audience. Unless you already have a reputation in the field, it might be difficult to make your white paper reach its audience. If experts don't know about it, it won't have any impact and it won't be evaluated.
There is no peer review process before publication. So unless a few experts pick it up after publication and evaluate the content, publishing a white paper does not prove your skills to any non-expert (or to any expert who didn't read it). In other words, I can write something on my blog and call it a "white paper", it doesn't mean it has any value to anyone.

  Is this white paper worthy?

If you have a solution to these two problems, i.e. if there is a reasonable chance to make your paper known, discussed and evaluated, then it could be a valuable advantage when applying for a PhD.

  Could writing a non-academic white paper offset a less than desirable GPA due to classes in my minor? I have also heard that 5 years of experience in Industry could be enough to get into a Master's Program, which I almost have.

It's impossible to say because PhD applications depend on so many things. In general an industry experience tends to make academic grades less relevant.

  Also, would it be possible to get a grant with the proposal?

That's something to discuss with a potential PhD supervisor.

  I also have a question about white paper verification. Is it necessary to have a working prototype to publish the white paper?

A white paper is whatever you decide it is, there's no requirement. However you probably want to make it as convincing as possible, it's up to you to evaluate the value of a prototype in this perspective.

  I have also done research on attacks that can be done on the security mechanism for the white paper I am building on top of, and I suspect these attacks could be applicable to my alternate application, but would occur in a different context. Should I write about that as well? Or should I leave that for a separate paper?

That's way too specific to be answered here. You'd have to discuss this with an expert, typically a potential PhD supervisor.


What to do if I find actual exam marks higher than the marks I made for my exam? In course specification for the course I teach there should be two mid-term exams. For each one that total marks should be 20.  I forgot about that and gave the students the first mid-term with only 15 multiple choice (1 mark for each).

Now how can I correct my mistake? Should I give them a bonus of 5 marks or what is the best way to correct my mistake?

It also would be helpful to suggest a book that discuss such situations.

Options:
Re-scale the grades by multiplying a student's score, x, by 20/15. Thus a score of 12 out of 15 (which is 80%) would become 16 out of 20 (still 80%).

Just give them five more questions. Did you plan to get more data for grading purposes? You can always get more.


Proposing research as Ph.D. thesis in Sweden I am a geography M.Sc. and I want to study Ph.D. in Sweden. I wrote a research proposal about a computer program which simulates some spatiotemporal situations. I have done some underlying logic and calculations too.

The problem is many many Ph.D. programs in Sweden are announced with special conditions. They demand that you work on a specific question or problem chosen by the authorities. But I want to work on my idea since I think it is so needed in geography.

Since in my country situations are completely different I am wondering: What's the solution?

When it comes to PhD and postdoc positions there is essentially two types of positions, and some partially overlapping ones. The critical element here is where the money for the actual research is coming from. That is way more important than whatever idea you might have for a project.

So if the money is coming from:

a specific grant with certain goals and deadlines, then the PI (the principle investigator, i.e. the group leader) will have to show some results. S/He will want to have someone work on that project and nothing else
alternatively if it's core funding (from the faculty/university/private funding etc) then the money is not "earmarked" and the PI can pursue interesting ideas more freely.

So assuming you are not bringing your own research funds, if you really want to work on your own idea from day 1, and not willing to compromise on that, then your only option is to find someone that has plenty of money and not many ideas.

Not to sound too grim but you should know that it's a tall order


My department delayed my viva and is being unprofessional. Should I report this? I submitted my PhD thesis to my department last August for examination. However, I found out from my supervisor that my department only sent my thesis to examiners last November for examination. So it took them about 3 months to get my thesis to examiners. Before submitting my thesis, my supervisor already has elected examiners to examine my thesis and they all agreed to do so. Thus, there would be no problem in getting examiners to examine my thesis. And crazy thing is, when I confronted the staff who is supposed to handle my thesis examination, she nonchalantly said that she was so busy handling something else and she apologized for purposefully delaying my viva because her plate was full. I was beyond furious to learn how unprofessional she is when handling my thesis. Now I am thinking to lodge a report to the Dean of my school regarding how unprofessional my department was in handling my viva voce. But then, I'm scared that my department will have their vendetta against me when they found out that I made a report. Another option is to lodge a report to the Dean once I graduate from the PhD program but that seems like a cowardly move.

What should I do?

Complaining about this won't speed up your defense or get your thesis to your committee any faster. It will just make you disliked within your department. Accept the loss of time, do your defense, get your degree, and start your next job. Unless there are specific rules against doing so, take the lesson that when getting your thesis to your committee and scheduling your defense date, no administrator will ever take the issue as seriously as you. So instead of delegating something you care a lot about to someone who doesn't care at all about this task, you could do these tasks yourself and get them done under a timescale you like.


How do I report a ratio? I want to report a ratio in my thesis. The ratio is 16:84, but I also want tot report which number represents which class. Can I report that like this:

  The data was not evenly distributed with a ratio of 16:84 (CN:AD).

Or should I put the CN:AD in square brackets? And is it clear if I report it like this?

UPDATE:
Now reported it as:

  The data were unevenly distributed with a ratio CN:AD = 16:84.

Thanks for the suggestions!

As pointed out by xLeitix, there aren't really any standards on this. Another possibly clearer way to report that ratio is:

  The data were not evenly distributed with a ratio CN:AD = 16:84.


How much do Springer-Verlag authors make per book sold? How much do Springer-Verlag authors make per book sold?

This varies substantially, depending on the sort of book, how well the author negotiated (each book involves an individually negotiated contract), the price of the book, etc.  Based on one Springer contract I'm familiar with, here's a first approximation.  I can't say for sure how representative it is, but it's at least one data point, and I'd guess it's typical for Springer and competing publishers.

For regular sales, the author may get 9-12% of "net cash receipts", defined as what the publisher made on the sale (excluding taxes), with the percentage depending on things like how well the book has sold.  Note that "regular sales" excludes some special cases, for which there may be lower royalty rates.

Then the question is how much Springer charged the bookseller for the book.  You can download a 6 megabyte zip file of Springer wholesale prices.  I glanced at a few math books, and the prices look like they are about 60% of what bookstores are charging.  That's certainly the right ballpark, but I haven't computed any real statistics.

So a first approximation is that the author's royalty is probably 5-7% of the price you pay in a bookstore.  Considering that academic books are expensive, that's not bad, but nobody's going to grow rich off it.  For advanced books, selling 1000 copies in total is very good and selling 10,000 is amazing.


When do the application reviewers contact my references (PhD application)? When applying for a PhD position in Germany typically one of the required documents is:

Contact details of at least 2 academic references

This is just contact details (e.g. email addresses) of the people who agreed to act as your reference, not the actual reference letter (the latter is not required).
When do the application reviewers contact my references? Is it before or after they invite me for an interview? Or do they contact my references at all? In other words, in what stage of the application process my references have an impact on the probability of my application being successful?

Admissions committees may contact you references at any time, or not at all. Usually they will look through all applications, then choose a subset to contact references, and a subset of those to invite for interviews. It is also possible that they video interview a subset of applicants then contact their references afterwards.


Official Transcripts: Applying to Previous University I am applying for Graduate Admissions to the Previous University where I graduated nearly 10 years ago.
Application says to send official copies of Transcripts from Previous University.
But I am applying to Previous University, shouldn't they have it?
Sure, I can upload photocopies of their transcripts (application process is online only), but what else do I need to do?
How do I address this in application?
How do I tell them "I am uploading copies of Transcript, but you already have official Transcript"
Thanks!
Ok
I'll request official transcripts and return it back to them

In keeping with the tone of the existing answer and the comments:

Just do what the application instructions say.

In the best case, the university agrees that you do not need to send the transcript. You have saved yourself about 5 minutes of work.

In the worst case, your application is desk-rejected by an overzealous clerk. You never even find out why.

In a plausible middle-of-the-road case, you need to send some clarifying mails back and forth about why you haven't included the transcript. You initially saved 5 minutes of work, and then spent 30 minutes. Worse, somebody else also needs to spend some time on this.

Frankly, even writing this question probably already took longer than just sending the transcripts.


Master's institution forcing me to deposit $5000 immediately -- what can I do if I accept? I applied to CS masters programs in the US, and I have recently received an offer from a top-15 institution.

The program is unfunded, and I want to wait for decisions from other programs I applied to, some of which are funded.

However, the institution is telling me that they are only giving me one week to make my decision (I must respond by 3/13) and that I must deposit a non-refundable $5000 by that date in order to secure my admission.

As the school is not giving out a funded offer, they need not abide by the April 15th resolution.

Seems somewhat unethical to me, but in any case, I have some questions:

a) How common is this? For MS programs to force you to deposit huge sums of money within one week of the decision?

b) If I accept this offer, would it somehow notify other schools that I have accepted this offer, and make other schools less likely to give me an offer?

c) Let's say I decide to shell out my 5k -- would it be unethical for me to withdraw at a later date if I get into another school? They're not investing anything into me, and they get free money.

d) If I go the route of c), with whom would I be burning bridges with? Only the admissions folk?

I do not think the quick monetary outlay is common. You seem to be leaning toward acceptance and then backing out if you get a better offer. This may be possible because, in my experience, there is not a centralized system which lets other schools know you have accepted (although perhaps that could be different for Masters programs where you are using federal aid, not sure).

However, I would encourage you to take an alternative approach. Call them and explain that you are waiting to hear from other programs, some of which would be funded. Ask for a deadline extension until the April 15th deadline. In the past I was successful with this strategy, and I know students in our program have also successfully received extensions.


Motivating students when teaching a widely disliked course There is a general tendency of students (master's or less) to rate highly those courses that create a value for them at the industry. For example, in CS, networking or OS courses are found to be attractive by many students simply because these are (almost) indispensable for most job interviews. It is difficult to find the same kind of enthusiasm for say, an optimisation course.

Another example from ECE will be courses pertaining to electromagnetism. Students generally love VLSI-based or telecommunication courses and ignore or dislike the ones on EM. Similarly there could be subfields in many areas where research has stagnated and relevant courses do not carry industrial value, but it is impossible to exclude them from the syllabus.

How does a professor teaching such a course sustain the interests of the students? How does he/she make the best out of a bad job?

There are many ways to motivate students, including but not limited to

showing practical relevance of the course
explaining what makes the teacher passionate about the subject
linking the course topic to their own experience
actively engaging the students in discussions
giving the students adequate tasks and providing them with rapid and positive feedback (adequate = not too difficult and not too easy)

Some tips and tricks can be found on http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/affective/motivation.html


How do I correctly cite the C++ standard or its drafts? For my bachelor thesis, I have to reference a lot to the various C++ standard documents, be it the original standard or some of the working drafts.

How do I cite such documents? Many of the working drafts don't even contain a
title page to extract information from.

Working drafts are available at https://isocpp.org/std/the-standard

I would cite the current version of C++ standard, based on the APA Style (6th edition), in particular, based on the APA guidelines for citing electronic sources (Web publications), as follows:

ISO/IEC. (2014). ISO International Standard ISO/IEC 14882:2014(E) – Programming Language C++. [Working draft]. Geneva, Switzerland: International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Retrieved from https://isocpp.org/std/the-standard

NOTE: When the current standard will be finalized and published, the citation will have to be updated accordingly by removing "[Working draft.]" phrase and updating the year (i.e., 2015).


How to acknowledge a colleague's authorship of text in a syllabus Here is a situation that I have been in several times, but have only recently begun to give careful thought to.  Suppose you are asked to teach a course that you have not taught before.  A fairly common practice (at least where I teach) is to approach the colleague(s) who taught the course most recently and ask if you can adapt their syllabus (on the grounds that reinventing the wheel is in nobody's interest).  In every case in my experience, the colleagues have freely given me not only their syllabi, but also their assignments, exam questions, and any other instructional materials that they used, and have given me permission to make use of them however I wish.

Of course being something of a control freak, I never use those materials without re-engineering them somewhat; like many (most?) academics, I feel the need to take ownership of the course by putting my own stamp on it.  But I do usually take large chunks of those older course materials and incorporate them into my own.  I suspect this is not uncommon (although maybe I am just wrong on this point).

It has only recently occurred to me that if one of my students did something comparable to what I do -- copy large blocks of text from somebody else's work and insert it into their own without attribution -- it would be a clear case of academic misconduct.  And I would never dream of doing something like this in a work that was intended for publication.  But somehow until now, doing this in a purely instructional context has always seemed innocuous.

So my questions:

How common is this practice?
Is it generally viewed as a form of plagiarism (and have I just been oblivious to something that should have been obvious to me all along)?
If one does make use (with permission) of a colleague's course materials, is there an appropriate way to acknowledge that?  For example, by putting an "Acknowledgement" note at the bottom of the first page of the syllabus?  At the very least, doing something like that would model good behavior for one's students.

This sort of practice is quite common, and documents of this type are often treated as the "community property" of a department.  This is a lot like authorship on a community wiki, where there is no expectation that the document is the original work of any author and there is the expectation that further authors may freely modify and contribute more text.  It is therefore not plagiarism to use your colleagues notes as a base, any more than it is plagiarism to contribute to a Wikipedia article.

Often, these documents have no copyright or authorship markings, and are simply handled by custom and tradition.  If you want to make the collective agreement more explicit and remove any doubt for those that come after you, then you should probably select a creative commons license (like CC0 or CC-BY) and put a small marking to that effect in the header or footer of the document.  If you choose to formalize it in this way, however, you should explicitly get your colleague's consent as well, because you are moving the document beyond the informal method of relationship-based exchange in which it was given to you.


What to do when a good article is published in a predatory online journal that disappears? European International Journal of Science and Humanities (EIJSH) published my article about 2 years ago. The publication was online. The problem is that I haven't been able to access the EIJSH website for about 1 year.

The study was cited once or twice when EIJSH still existed. I feel really desperate.

Can you give me any advice about how I should act? It is a solid article - can I send it again to a better journal? Or would this be unethical? Do I have any other options?

This is a very important question, as even non-predatory publishers can have problems and face difficult times, eventually closing altogether (e.g. Heart Lung and Vessels).

As stated in the comment by FuzzyLeapfrog, it is very important to double check what you actually agreed upon by submitting your manuscript and when signing the copyright agreement (take notice that sometimes journals do not require you to sign anything but you actually accept their copyright conditions just by submitting your manuscript).

In addition, I would check whether the publisher is still viable, irrespective of the dead website, or not. I would also consider writing to the publisher to inquire on the best course of action.

If the copyright issue is solved, I would definitely consider posting your article in pdf on an open online repository. If no suitable reply has been obtained, you might still upload your article online, in good faith, remaining ready to remove it promptly if requested so by the actual copyright holder. ResearchGate also offers a good means to make selectively available the full texts of your publications.

Conversely, I believe it would no longer be possible to consider publishing it elsewhere in a standard journal (you might tentatively ask a journal of choice if they would be interested, but it is going to be a difficult sell unless your manuscript is really a stellar one...).

As a last resort, you could write a review or perspective on the topic, detailing your prior work with figures and tables (either the actual ones or slightly modified). This will ensure your findings remain always accessible in the mainstream scholarly literature.


What happens when you terminate a UK Ph.D. in the second year? I've read that after you "pass" the first year of your Ph.D.program you can either continue normally or stop and get a masters degree.

What procedure should one follow in the latter case? Do you get any official document (diploma, certificate) and if so, does this document have any value?

The situation here varies wildly depending on your particular program, which is strongly determined by your particular university, which in turn is strongly influenced by country.  Some places will allow it after two years; others have a specific non-time-based criteria (e.g., completion of a Ph.D. proposal or being ABD); others do not allow a Masters exit at all.

In the UK, Ph.D. students are often expected to have a Masters before they even start, so you are definitely not talking about a standard case in that system and need to talk to people at your particular institution to find out the answer.


Writing a topical review paper with co-author(s) Let assume a journal accepted a topical review proposal I submitted. It's often a good approach for a student like me (PhD student) to coauthor the paper with a more experienced researcher who is quite known in the field. In my previous papers, when was the first author, I wrote the whole paper and asked for feedback from the coauthors at the end of the writing (since they contributed in the experimental data acquisition for example, but not on the research development).
For the specific case of a topical review, I wonder how the coauthoring is done in practice ? Are the coauthors expected to write some parts of the review ?

Who does the actual "writing" (i.e. putting pen to paper or fingers to keys) is actually immaterial. I've published with half a dozen people where everything was "written" by one person, since he is (by far) the best writer in the group. He chose the words and the sentence structure.  But the ideas came primarily from two other people and the rest of us contributed ideas from our own experience. The "writer" synthesized all of that into a nice expressive form. But without the rest of us he wouldn't have been able to do it.
Authorship is (or should be) about intellectual contributions, not physical manipulations of keyboards or even of experimental equipment.
At the other end of the scale, I've written books with major publishers and worked with a copy_editor who helped with some of my (occasionally!!) awkward syntax. In no such case would anyone expect that their contributions were authorship.


Is it ethical to ask students to proofread a textbook? I will have a draft of a new textbook ready for the fall semester. It is an engineering class.

I very much want feedback from the students concerning the quality and usefulness of the material.

What are the best practices for getting this feedback from students? Is it ethical to give a grade (or extra credit at least) based on students' feedback?

Is it ethical to give a grade (or extra credit) based on student feedback?

I think the key question is, will reading draft material from your textbook help students towards their understanding of the subject of this class?

If yes, then it honestly sounds like a great exercise to me. Not only does it force the students to actually read some material related to the class (albeit in an unpolished draft form), it also could allow them to "check" their understanding by comparing the draft with the material they are already familiar with. Some suggestions:

It seems best if they are asked to read material that you have already covered in class and that there are other sources on; that way they are not just completely lost, but they have something to compare to and a way to reliably detect errors.
If this is part of the grade (extra credit or otherwise), I think it should be mainly based on completion, not on how many errors and typos they find. You could also ask them to write a "summary" of the chapter to check their understanding and thoroughness.

If no, then it is unethical. Your job as a teacher is to help the students learn the material, and using them as free labor to proofread your book is inappropriate.

This could be the case, for example, if the book is not exactly on the subject of the material that the class is covering, or if it is in such an unpolished form that it is difficult to get anything out of while still a student, and not an expert on the material.


Is there an archive like arxiv.org for agricultural papers? Is there any internet archive like arxiv.org intended for publication of agriculture-related conference papers or similar?

Posting on biorxiv.org should be an acceptable practice. Did you try and they removed it?


Is using a similar experimental procedure and analysis structure to test something different considered plagiarism? Here is the situation:

I am currently writing a thesis which uses a behavioral experiment to answer the main research question. Its main aim is to test how a certain welfare scheme would affect taxpayer behaviour, and thus relates to a very broad strain of literature on taxpayer behaviour. I have found a paper which uses (in my opinion) a very clever experimental procedure to test how behaviour is affected by the way taxes are used. Therefore I decided to use this experimental procedure and adapt it to the specific welfare scheme I am interested in so I can use it to answer my research question.

Currently I am in the progress of writing my thesis and was wondering where the line ends from building on previous work and plagiarism. Because the experimental procedure is similar in it's structure, the model used for the formulation of my hypothesis is also an adapted version of the model in the original paper. Consequently, the data I have also takes a similar form, which will result in taking similar steps for a correct analysis of this data.

So, would it be considered plagiarism if I have adapted an already existing experimental procedure, adapted the (mathematical) model previously used to formulate hypothesis, and use a similar structure of hypothesis testing (that is: first using statistical test A, then B, then C, etc on my own data)?

I have obviously referenced a great deal to this original paper, and even explained why I think the experimental procedure is so good and fitting for answering my question. Obviously, I am using my own wording and data, but was wondering if something like this can be seen as 'structure plagiarism' or is something desirable as it can be used for direct comparison of the papers.

You are only building on the shoulders of giants, there is nothing wrong with that, as long as you cite the sources. Your hypothesis and your data are original, you are only applying a method that has the advantage of having been validated in the literature.
This might make your work less original, but what is the point of developing a new statistical analysis if a perfectly fitting one already exists?


Suspected a person had an affair with the professor I was a TA for a summer course, and a student in the class somehow managed to get nearly perfect score on all the assignments/midterms/final exam.

I am suspecting that the person had an affair with the Professor, as given the persons capabilities they should be around average. Also, the professor would consistently look at that person in an awkward way.

What should I do? I don't have proof.

Initially I thought I should mind my own business, whatever, I mean there's no point in bringing it up..? it won't change anything for the better, just make two people miserable; though for some reason it's stuck in my head, I want to know what someone else would do in such circumstances

As you suspect, you should just let it go. I think it is indeed reasonable for the situation to prey on your mind, but it is beyond your power to really do anything positive or negative, and, as you say, any attempt to do so would probably just create unpleasantness without being effective.

The potential "victims" of the situation (apart from the student, we may argue... even if it is not clear in the moment) are other students, if any of them get worse grades due to the situation, or if they come to suspect that there's some hanky-panky going on, which would be suspected to influence grades. At the very least, the principle that anything distracting from the immediate goals of a class is undesirable... means that an affair between a student and teacher is bad in that sense.

But, for you, just let it go, just as for most purposes we must just "let go" our disquiet with bad news on television. Yes, _if_possible_, we should not fail to act to improve things. But our plausible scope of action is not global, and maybe not even too much about every "local" thing.


Graduation paper submitted to conference, suddenly demoted to third author? I submitted a thesis to graduate as a Master's student at a European university approximately half a year ago. With my verbal approval, my uni submitted my work to a leading conference in the field of research, after having summarized my work and adding references together with some academic colleagues from another university.

The content, findings and conclusions remain largely identical to my original work, with large pieces of text remaining identical to the original. In my mind, this still makes me the significant author.

Yet, on the conference submission, I'm now listed as a third and last author. The order of authors was not discussed with me prior to submitting the updated paper and I did not receive any updated version up until the point where I was notified of the  submission.

I feel this is incorrect, and while I fully acknowledge that the universities want to promote themselves by placing contributors high on the author's list, this is doing me injustice as it still is my work.

Am I in the wrong here? Are there any intricacies or nuances in academics I should take into account while engaging with my (ex-)university on the matter?

Unless authors are arranged alphabetically, it would indeed be expected that the largest contributor be the first listed, and from what you have written that would appear to have been you.

Except...

You speak about the submission entirely remotely. It sounds like you were not involved and did not ask to be involved in the preparation of the conference submission.  Moreover, it appears that you did not have any discussion about authorship with your advisor. I still would generally expect an advisor to keep the student as first author, but if the advisor believes the student has effectively vanished and does not care about the publication, it is not surprising if a difference in perspective may have developed.  For example:

Your advisor may consider the revisions to be more significant than you believe.
Since your thesis should be a public, citable document, your advisor may be viewing this paper as a derivative work.

You really need to have a conversation about this with your advisor.  Start from an assumption of good intent---your advisor might just be a self-promoting jerk, but they also might have good reason for the choice they made, of which you just are not aware.

Finally, even if you don't end up as first author, consider this as a lesson for the future: stay involved in the preparation of any paper on which you expect to be first author!


How to React to an Introduction Email So, someone (A) introduced me to someone else (B) via email, so that I can ask B questions and get advice. The email is directed at B, and I am copied. Should I wait for B to email me, or should I email B first? If the latter, should I reply to the original email and copy A, or should I just open another thread with B?

Also, I don't know if it is important or not, but the email ends like this:

  Thanks for connecting with him, he is copied on this email.

Needless to say, "him" means me.

I find it worrying to see so many questions like this. They make academia seem like a terrifying place. It really isn't. Standard rules of engagement  apply (pun intended).

  So, someone (A) introduced me to someone else (B) via email, so that I can ask B questions and get advice. The email is directed at B, and I am copied. Should I wait for B to email me, or should I email B first?

Unless cultural rules say otherwise, you should email B first. Beyond saving B time (in emailing you unnecessarily), you can ask for what you want.

  If the latter, should I reply to the original email and copy A, or should I just open another thread with B?

Reply to the original email, do not copy A, perhaps blind copy A, maybe mentioning you've done so to avoid bombarding them with further mail, e.g., Thanks for the kind introduction A (bcc to avoid further inclusion).

(Don't start a new thread with B. That thread wouldn't include the introduction and B may forget who you are.)


Is a routine life achievable? I want to have a routine life habit: having lunch at lunchtime, having dinner at dinnertime, going to sleep at 10pm, etc. After all, a healthy brain is in a health body. Moreover, while I can prioritize my thinking flow over my hunger, other people that I care can't. One or two days breaking the routine is fine, as long as the "breaking the routine" doesn't become a routine.

However, this life habit seems unachievable to me, since my brain usually isn't tired when my body is. In uncountable occasions, I can literally stop caring the outside world to focus thinking about my problem. It's not what I want, but when the idea comes it's really frustrating for me to not thinking about it. I have the idea for this question when I was brushing my teeth before going to sleep, and after a consideration I decide to open the laptop to write it down, despite knowing it will take me an hour to think about it carefully.

I have tried many things to maintain the habit: taking notes, using calendar, using task manager. Sometimes the habit slowly starts, but is doesn't last for one month. I'm not feeling guilty about unfinished work, I'm feeling guilty about losing ideas if I don't note all of them down immediately. Noting briefly is only good for simple keywords to research later, not when you have a flood of idea.

So, is there any way to maintain a routine life habit?

Related questions:

How to avoid thinking about research in free time?
How to stop feeling guilty about the unfinished work?

I see you are having a few completely normal issues that many people in academia face.

Strict routines are good, and for some people they work wonders. But in my experience, the vast majority of people use more dynamic routines, where it doesn't matter, for example, if you've decided to go to bed at 01:00 instead of 21:00 in a particular day, as long as you are getting enough sleep.

As a researcher, get used to the fact that there will always be something to think about or to do. And since you are (unfortunately) not a robot, and your body needs rest to perform well, you have to set up some ground rules, the most important of which should be to make sure you get at least 7-7.5 (preferably 8) hours of sleep every day.
And there are different strategies how to "shut off" your brain in order to fall asleep: ambient music, alcohol, reading, a winding-down routine, etc. I've found that, for me, a good way to fall asleep is to think about floating in nothingness. Gets me snoring in a jiffy.

To help you record ideas, there is a very simple, but very effective, strategy: make sure you always have something near you to write on. Get a notepad (or notebook, or even simple printer paper) for your bedside table, you should have at least one notepad for all of your desks, get a pocket notebook to carry with you (and put it on a reel, so that you don't lose it).
So now, when you get an idea, but can't work on it at the moment, simply write it down in a concise way, and pick it up whenever you have time.
In fact, for ideas you know you won't have time in the foreseeable future to work on, or you are not sure how they fit in with the rest of your work, it may be desirable to keep an electronic list (or list of lists) of ideas, where you can elaborate ideas in greater detail, have references, associate ideas with keywords, sort them by importance, etc.


What should I do if I want to do a PhD at a particular lab but cannot secure a scholarship? I was able to make a good impression on a potential supervisor and he was willing to take me in provided I manage to secure a funding. We both hoped I could get the scholarship from PhD programme but I was not selected.

Now, I still want to join his lab but I was strongly discouraged from doing a totally non-funded PhD. I could wait and apply next year but I don't want a year break. I also don't plan doing a Masters degree as I got plenty of experience from my industrial placement year. Plus, I hope to save paying international tuition fees.

I talked with my university tutor and other researchers that I know and they encouraged me to contact the supervisor and try any way possible to work with him. I could propose working voluntarily during the summer (start the project maybe?) and ask for a technician/assistant position (short contract, 1-2 years) with the hope of him applying for grants when I'm already there, showing my skills etc? That's what I was advised to do.

I wonder how should I phrase that in the email. I don't want to write too much but I still need to convey everything. I guess, I'm not too good at writing and I don't want to ruin any chances I have with him.

Talking to your prospective advisor is the best option as they should know what other funding opportunities there are. If you demonstrate determination to study a PhD with them and enthusiasm for research they will most likely try harder to find you funding and support you in the mean time. Try to develop ideas for the PhD, think about what you really want to research. Volunteering or working temporarily for the advisor could be a way in to potentially get a publication. If you can get your name on a publication, you will be much more likely to secure funding. But I suggest you call the professor instead of emailing, especially if you are not comfortable writing the email.

As @Sayan mentioned, making multiple applications to different laboratories is also a good idea. International tuition is often crippling, but there might be better funding opportunities in another country which could take care of that. Letting the potential supervisor know you are doing this will further demonstrate your enthusiasm for research, and taking up an offer elsewhere does not mean you will never work with your first choice.


Is it possible/convenient to reply to the conference PCs regarding the meta-review result of a paper? I received the reviews related to my recently submitted conference paper and it is selected as a poster, and there is no rebuttal phase provided. So they do not expect the authors to reply the PCs regarding the results.

However, after reading the reviewers comments clearly (4-5 times) and considering all of them i noticed the following:

1- One of them totally didn't get the main purpose and the domain of the paper and held a strong opposition against it.

2- The 2 Others were happy about the novelty and the results, but one of them asked for comparing to other methods (which i believe they are not applicable to my studied problem), and more analysis (which i already did in the paper and he may have missed it)

So if i had the chance to send a rebuttal letter i definitely would have taken that to send a sound, well-reasoned counterargument (but polite) regarding the above points.

But i'm afraid doing so could be considered inconvenient and even be harmful (leading to a rejection)!

I assume that the committee has also seen the reviews and hasn't objected to them. At least a subset of the committee has likely looked. Presumably they agree with the decision.

You can communicate with them and ask for a new review, of course, but I think you are not likely to get it. They will most likely want to follow the established procedures which, as you say, don't anticipate a rebuttal. Conferences also have time constraints and the submission/review schedule feeds in to other things that also have time constraints. They are also pretty likely to trust their reviewers. My experience with annual conferences is that the set of reviewers is fairly stable and committees also overlap from year to year.

On the other hand, I also doubt that they would withdraw the acceptance as a poster as long as you don't come across as abusive or insulting.