Diagram of education in the Netherlands How would the dutch educational system be represented in a diagram? Or put differently, what are the different roads that lead to the academic world in the Netherlands?

PS. This question ("What are the different roads to get into academics in the Netherlands?") came up in chat awhile ago, so I drew a diagram and it was suggested I share it as a self answered post as well, because it's a neat resource. Didn't do it back then as some parts lacked, but somebody asked me the same question more generally again so looked up the diagram, finished it and wanted to share it publicly now after all.

PS. I have only been part of the Dutch system for the first 8 years, but I know it pretty well as I know a lot of Dutch people, still I might have made mistakes. If so: apologies.


Can work documented within a manual be published in a journal? I work on an actively developed collaborative project. The project is a simulation package. The model has various manuals and guides. These guides are non-peer reviewed collaborative documents self published online. When features are added to the model it is important to keep the guides up to date. For example, when a new feature is added the user guide must be updated to enable users to use the new feature.

I recently added a major update to the code. I documented the use of the new submodel and it's numerical verification in the collaborative user guides.

To make this novel contribution permanently available to others (the guides are changing constantly) and to reach a wider audience, I submitted an article to an archived peer reviewed journal. The article included the theory, implementation and verification of the new submodel. i.e. some of the content from the guide is in the article.

One of the reviewer's comments I received was:

  It bothers me that the present paper does not add any new findings or results to those already published in <the guide>. Figures xyz of the current manuscript are same as the Figures abc of <the guide>. Therefore, I do not recommend the publication of this paper in the <journal> in its present form. The authors must delineate the similarities and differences between the works mentioned above.

I am the author of the relevant sections of the guide. The guide is not a permanently available archived peer reviewed journal. That is the reason I decided to publish in a journal.

I would draw a parallel to a PhD thesis chapter (or an MSc thesis). These are publicly available, arguably more "peer reviewed" than manuals or guides and will be permanently archived. It is typical for thesis chapters to be converted in to journal articles - so why not a non peer reviewed, non permanent and unarchived manual?

Is this a valid and fair comment? Is content presented in manual or user guide be published in a journal?

I think the comment is fair, but can be rebutted. I would prepare an answer layered on two levels:

On the practical level, change figures xyz as much as you can. Maybe run some additional simulations, change the plots, legends, colours, etc.. This will show some willingness to the editor.
On the more crucial aspect of whether your work can be considered "novel enough" to be published in the journal: I would argue that

the paper will provide a much more coherent context to the model (as only published articles can), and as such its dissemination will be facilitated;
the guide is subject to be changed in the future, while the published paper is a much more "stable" resource for future researchers;
depending on the model itself, you can argue that the paper will make it possible for researchers that don't use your code to implement the model in their own codes. If this is true, you might reword some parts of the manuscript to focus more on the model itself, which should be the paper's main selling point, than on its implementation in the code.


What to include in Abstract and Conclusion (and what not to include) of article What I have understood till date is that abstract summarizes the work done in the research article (Journal + Conference), and so does the conclusion section.

However, the conclusion section not only summarizes the work (like abstract) but also give a hint of what results were produced?

Can someone best explain what to (and what not to) include in Abstract section? Similarly in the conclusion section

What exactly goes into the abstract depends on your field / research problem. It is helpful to remember when the abstract/conclusion is read and what purpose it should fulfill.

The abstract is normally read before the actual paper and the reader needs to decide whether or not the paper is interesting to them and if it worth to invest the time reading it. Therefore, it should include

the problem that was tackled (maybe with a motivation for that problem)
the methods used
what makes the paper stand out from similar work
what kind of results you got

The conclusion is read in the end and should sum up what you want the reader to remember about your work. A motivation is probably not necessary because they took the time to read (most of) your work so it is unlikely they were not interested. The content is similar to the abstract but more focused on the results.

the problem that was solved
the methods used
what makes the paper stand out from similar work
a more in-depth description of the results
limitations
future work


What does satisfactory completion of Master's degree mean? I received a conditional offer with following condition from a university in London, UK with following condition.

  Subject to satisfactory completion of Master's to be confirmed by an official original document from your current university's registration department.

What does satisfactory completion of Master's mean? I haven't found a clear definition of "satisfactory" degree. Is there a chance that they use this term as an accuse to decline my offer? No matter what degree I will achieve, they can classify as "unsatisfactory" and reject me.

Satisfactory completion means that you've completed the program by satisfying the requirements, as opposed to, say, simply leaving.  Additionally it implies meeting any final evaluation criteria, e.g. passing any final exams.

Usually this phrase doesn't imply anything more by itself, though it's not uncommon for additional constraints to be attached to it.  For example, if they want your GPA to be above a certain point, they may say "satisfactory completion with a GPA of at least 3.5".


Accidentally finding the solution to an exercise I was given an assignment for a graduate course a few days ago, and I had to do some background reading in order to understand what one question was asking. In the process of doing this reading, I discovered a paper that contained the exact question I was working on, but phrased as a statement. A proof of this statement was also included, meaning the solution was now laid out in front of me.

I'm not sure how to approach this situation. I can't simply reference this paper, since telling the instructor "the solution may be found here" misses the point of the exercise. On the other hand, I can't write my solution without providing a citation, since that would be academic dishonesty. What should I do in this situation?

Literature research is a legitimate process in science, they can't blame you for that. Clearly, however, you did not "rediscover" the result. One option would be to tell the tutor that you found a solution in the literature and if s/he could give you an alternative assignment instead.


Do academic journals ever recommend software writing tools for scientific writing that suggest better paragraph construction? I'm helping a professor with some edits to a paper under review. Comments include advice that a better writing style be used and awkward wording be fixed. The professor is comfortable and expressive in English as a second language but indeed the sentence construction and phrasing is awkward and unsmooth and it sometimes takes a while to see how sequential points connect. I'm not a particularly good writer myself and it reminds me of my first attempts at scientific writing as an undergraduate before I had any experience writing. In this case though, this is likely going to be their fully-developed style.
They are readily amenable to grammar and word order fixes much but less so to paragraph rewrites; "no, that's now how I want to say it" or "...what I want to say."
I sense that further suggested rewrites on my part might not be the way to go, but "objective" advice on writing might still be welcome.
Short of a professional technical writing service, are there dispassionate tools (e.g. websites or programs) that tackle paragraph-scale technical writing construction, and do academic journals every recommend any of these or similar? What other solutions might exist for this situation?

Yes there are such tools. An example is Grammarly. Caveat: they won't be as good as having a real human proofread your manuscript.
Journals will probably not recommend any tool or service, unless they've formed a partnership with the tool/service (example).


Should one include grants that were not finished on the CV? If one gets a grant, and by some reason (e.g., administration problems with the university) the project needs to be ended before the grant is over. Should one list such grant in the CV? or just let it go into oblivion?

If put it into the CV is OK, then should one state that the grant ended before its time? or even state the reasons?

The main reason to include a grant on a CV is to show that you can get a grant, which you did. Whether or not you made productive use of the grant is generally measured from the publications arising from the grant. You can provide explanations, if necessary, in accompanying letters -- a CV does not contain explanations, it just lists the essential facts.


Effectively studying research papers How to read one to more research papers that are nearly 20- 30 pages in a short time since I have other miscellaneous works ?

There is a really good document by Columbia University that explains how to read a paper (focused in science and technology). The key is to read firstly on breadth, getting the best information from the abstract, figures, tables and so on. And then in depth if you think that from the first diagonal reading the paper is worth the time to do so.


What to do when I suspect Research Integrity Office of covering up malpractice Two years ago I read a paper that I thought had implausibly good results. The data were archived online so I examined them: they were clearly fake. The first author replaced them with other data which were also clearly falsified/fabricated.

I reported the paper to the relevant University. Several more versions of the data were produced, and the University's Research Integrity Office (RIO) closed the case apparently satisfied that the correct version of the data had finally been found. A corrigendum was published. However the new data contain suspicious patterns and several figures in the paper are cannot be reproduced. I don't know of any explanation for the multiple versions of the data. All versions of the had file-creation time-stamps that post-dated publication.

The original specimens are in the RIO's possession. A portion of them could be re-analysed non-destructively in 1-3 days (relevant MSc-grade experience required), which would help assuage doubts about the veracity of the paper. The RIO has declined to do this, citing lack of resources and personal skill.

Am I being unreasonable in expecting the RIO to do more than (apparently at least) take the author's word on trust regarding the final data being correct without verifying them?
How could I arrange for the specimens to be re-analysed by a third party so that the RIO/journal would accept gross differences from the final data as evidence of malpractice?
The RIO tells me that I should contact the author directly to address the irreproducible figures. I doubt the first author will be keen to cooperate - they almost certainly know that I reported their paper to the RIO, know that the RIO has closed the case, and I have no authority to compel disclosure of files etc. Can anything be done here?

I believe the RIO is seeking to avoid making an adverse finding.

PS. The University in question is a large, well-respected and well-funded institution.

Your first mistake was to report the irregularities to the relevant university. If that was the university of the offender, then their primary interest is to deflect/reduce any possible damage to their institution. Clearly, publicly uncovering unethical behaviour within its own university does not serve this purpose.

There have been documented cases in the UK, where the public reporting by the head of department (HoD) of plagiarism resulted in the sacking, not of the offender, but of the HoD, because of damage done to the University.

If you're seriously concerned, you should expose this to the editors of the respective journals or, better, to the public. The problem with the latter is, of course, that you may make strong enemies. One option may be to find allies, i.e. influential senior researchers in your field who are prepared to co-author any publication and/or to support/sign your letters to relevant editors.

In the end of the day, malpractice like this is drowned in the scientific discussion. If the results cannot be reproduced in independent studies, then they loose credibility and will be ignored. So perhaps, you should not spend too much frustrating effort on this.


Is it possible to send an extended version of a low-tier conference paper to a high quality journal? In Computer Science, it is common for extended version of conference papers to be submitted to journals. In this case, is it relevant which conference the paper was published in, for acceptance to a high quality journal? For example, is it possible for the extended version of a good paper from a low-quality conference to be accepted by a high-quality journal?

The short answer is: yes.

The journal review process is generally completely independent of the conference review process.  You will likely face additional skepticism from the reviewers, who may well be rightly prejudiced against the original publication venue.  If your paper really is solidly good enough for the journal you send it to, however, it's likely to do just fine in review there.


What kind of information are expected in the "Additional comments" section of a letter of recommendation? A student of mine asked me to write a letter of recommendation for  undergraduate admission. I know Academia.SE focuses on questions about graduate schools and above, but I hope my question is general enough for this site.

The university my student is applying to has a standard form for the letter of recommendation, with standard information on the applicant (name, GPA, intended major,...) as well as on the recommender (name, position,...), followed by three essay-type sections about 1. academic/intellectual performance, 2. personal/interpersonal evaluation and 3. additional comments.

I am confident that I can give inputs on the 2 first essay sections on my student as I have been supervising her/him for some time, but I am clueless on the third one.

What kind of "additional information" is the admission committee expecting to read in this section ?

Would it give a bad impression if I don't write anything (I will write very enthusiastically on my student's academic and interpersonal prowess)? I am worried of it, as the form specifically mentioned that I "may attach additional sheets, if necessary".

Is it the right place to comment about the fact that the student's diversity (being a foreigner, a woman,...) would be an asset for the university she/he is applying to?

Note: this is not in the US, but for a university with a world wide reputation and the American-like system.

Note: this is just my opinion, not necessarily the "correct" or "necessary" way to do this. I also agree with @aparente001 that you could highlight some other accomplishments of the student outside their academic work, or reflect on a particular struggle the student had and overcame if appropriate. Another alternative is an anecdote about the student that highlights one of the other characteristics you discussed or something else in their application.

That said, Sections 1 and 2 relate to the characteristics of the student, and you could write these sections without necessarily knowing anything about the university or program the student is applying to. Section 3 is an opportunity for you to say "this student would be a great fit for your university because _____." That reason might not be particularly about their academic performance or personal demeanor but rather something that ties the student to where they want to attend. If you don't know what the student's particular ambitions are, it would be completely appropriate to ask them.

Essentially you are corroborating the student's statement of purpose or similar essay they might be including in their application (you could ask them for this, as well). Along the lines of diversity, I'd be a bit wary of saying "because this student checks categories A, B, and C they'd be great for your school's statistics!" (I know you wouldn't really say that, but I'm just pointing out that the school will already have whatever diversity-related information they need to make those decisions) However, there might be related issues you can highlight. Maybe the student has aspired to be the first generation in their family to attend an institution of higher learning. Maybe they want to go to University X because of their excellent program in the agricultural sciences. Maybe their parents are both physicians and the student wants to go to University Z because their broad liberal arts education will allow them to seek what really drives them. It all depends on the student and their goals. Anecdotes are great too. This is your opportunity to talk about the time your student gave a talk in class on a particular topic, or produced a particular project, or took on a role in the school play, etc, and showed a particular passion or aptitude.

I'd avoid leaving it blank if you want to submit a solid recommendation.


Introducing yourself to potential thesis advisor you didn't attend any class with I'm studying CS and I'm really interested in a particular topic. There will be a course covering this topic in the next semester. The professor of this course never saw me but I will have to attend the course next year.

Since I am starting to think about the thesis, I thought this is a good time to find an advisor, and I believe he might be a good choice.

Is it unpolite/weird to contact the professor asking him to participate in one of his projects? This imply that I want him as supervisor for the thesis.
Should I send him an email or talk to him personally? He's quite famous professor here and probably receives tons of emails and will take some time to get a response (if any). On the other side, I'm very nervous about talking with him (shyness).
What should I ask him in order to "break the ice"?

some reference about the topic (I don't need them);
if he can show me some of his projects (and if I can join one of them);
or go straight to the point and ask him about the thesis

Go for it! This is perfectly normal, not at all weird or presumptuous!
I would put together a short, well-written email where you briefly introduce yourself, indicate your interest in his research, and propose a brief meeting to discuss whatever it is you want. Something like this would probably work:

Dear Dr. Eisenhardt,
I am Ignus Ignatius, a sophomore in the Computer Science Department here at Mutant University. I am looking forward to taking your Advanced Bioinformatics course next fall; I really enjoyed the bioinformatics module in Dr. Xavier's survey class this semester).
I am currently looking for a research internship and noticed that you have several active projects listed on your lab webpage, including the development of algorithms for processing NMR spectra.
Are you or your collaborators looking for interns? If so, I would love to talk for a few minutes if/how I might fit in your group (CV attached). I'm free Friday at 2:30 during your regular office hours and have a pretty flexible schedule on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Thank you,
--Ignus Ignatius

I would not ask for reference recommendations unless you actually plan to read them. Similarly, I'd try show that you did as much "homework" as possible by referring to specific things that this professor is doing. Some people spam out literally hundreds of generic "hire me" emails: this never goes well for them and you do not want yours to be mistaken for one of these.
You can rarely go wrong with a polite, personalized email. At the very worst, the prof will write back to say that they are not taking students right now, or never reply at all. Nevertheless, if this makes you very nervous, you can also ask a professor that you do know to introduce you to your "target." This also isn't that weird, though you do need to be careful if they work on very similar things--you probably want to avoid suggesting that the professor you already know is somehow worse.


Is it appropriate for employers recruiting students to ask professors for syllabi of their classes? Since graduating I have maintained contact with a number of professors at my university and have gone back on recruiting trips. I check in on the courses being offered from time to time and have noticed several have changed.

Can asking for information or syllabi on classes be rude or inappropriate now that I am formally recruiting at the university in a professional setting?

EDIT: To clarify, I am not recruiting for the University, I am recruiting for a private company at the University's career fairs, etc.

I don't see why it would be an issue.

I've been in a similar position in the past - recruiting at the university that I graduated from. On every trip, I made it a point to visit the department office to catch up with the department chair (who was a professor when I was there), the academic advisers, and the professors. I never asked for a syllabus for courses, but I did make it a point to talk about changes to course content. I felt that doing this would help me stay closer to the department and college, but also would make me better at recruiting and interviewing since I would have a better understanding of what the students were learning in the classroom.

I would encourage you to, somehow, stay in touch with changes to the classes that are core in the departments that you recruit from so you can be a better interviewer. I would also encourage you to share this information with HR and hiring managers so they know the capabilities. If there are new courses or new content, it could make the hiring process for interns or new graduates easier.


Is it possible to get an estimate of the average CGPA or conventional system of marks for an engineering course in any Indian university? How can a student of engineering compare themselves to other students of the same studies in their own university and elsewhere in the country?

I just googled around a bit and it appears that Indian Universities print their grading scheme behind the student's transcript.
Here is an image: https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-b0c360832d9a2bb3d45cf20f92295a78.webp
So that part is taken care of. If you find a transcript floating around online, you immediately get the grading scheme or the "conventional system of marks" as you put it for that particular univeristy.
I'm quite sure the "average CGPA" of a particular class in any University is not freely available information. You might need to reach out to the adminstrative staff for information regarding this and you will most likely be ignored unless you're a student of the university you're reaching out to.


Why are the acceptance rates of Oxbridge and top US schools not comparable? I have just had a look at admissions statistics for grad school. Oxford seems to have much higher acceptance rates than, say, Princeton or Stanford. I do not want to conclude that it therefore is easier to get into Oxbridge than Ivy League Schools, lets say (for grad school that is), because I am probably forgetting some crucial factors here.
Or is it just that getting into Oxbridge is easier than Top US unis?

PrincetonAdmissions Data (about 11% acceptance rate)

Oxford Admissions Data (about 24% acceptance rate)

Cambridge Admissions Data (about 39% acceptance rate)

For PhD acceptance rates, many schools/departments essentially require PhD candidates to find a potential supervisor prior to applying. My, non-Oxbridge, department's acceptance rate is something like 90% for students who find a supervisor prior to applying and 0% for those without a supervisor. This "requirement" really changes the dynamics of applying for a PhD.

For Masters programs, I think there are a number of minor factors and one large one that result in UK universities having a higher acceptance rate than US universities. Graduate classes/modules in the UK are only taken by Masters students. PhD students and advance undergraduates do not take graduate level classes. This means departments need to accept enough Masters students to make teaching the classes worthwhile.

Getting enough fee-paying students is hard and the competition between programs is fierce. Departments tend not to pass up on students that they think can pass. While "entry tariff" (basically the GPA of admitted students) is starting to count in league tables, in my experience UK universities are not as adapt at manipulating the league tables. Further, UK universities generally have a hard minimum "GPA" of a 2.1 degree classification in a related field. Since undergraduate education in the UK is more specialized than the US this means that a "related" field is much more narrowly defined. Minimum requirements are strictly enforced in the UK so Brits tend not to apply to positions that they are not qualified for. Overall, this cuts out the bottom of the application pool. That said, something like 80-90% of students get a 2.1, and I do not think thesee factors substantiallychange the acceptance rates.

What I think matters the most is the fact that students only apply to a select few schools. My UK students tend to apply from between 1 and 4 Masters programs. I have less experience with US students, but my intuition is they apply to a lot more schools. I think that the reduced number of UK applicants increases the UK acceptance rates.


Postdoc, country and comfort zone Due to covid, I had to extend my current postdoc contract till mid of next year. My postdoc albeit with my PhD supervisor, is on different topics and in collaboration with other groups. My advisor offered me to extend it till end of the next year too.
I am starting to search for other positions in my current country of residence and also other places. But, I am starting to feel comfortable here which is killing the drive to move to new country/place.
I am single, and want to try for academia (tenure track positions) in my home country in a year. But it seems, my motivation has shifted since I graduated my PhD in February 2020. I am two mind about what I actually want to do.
How do I come out of this comfort zone and make rational choices? I am probably digging my own career grave here. I want to stay in academia but I also don't want to leave my current position this or till mid of next year. And I know that doing a postdoc with PhD supervisor is looked down upon in academia. So, I am already in a bad place career wise.

I suggest that you pursue all options open to you at the current time and delay decisions until you are required to finalize them. In other words, apply for some positions in your home country and see what develops. If they then seem better than your current situation, then do that. But you can also pursue options in your current country with the same goal.
Just be honest with your supervisor, who seems supportive now and may be supportive of your need to be flexible.
Many of us had to make compromise decisions along the way due to such things as a bad job market. Now it is the pandemic. People generally will understand such things and that one can't proceed now as if things were normal.


How to follow up the result of postdoc committee? I have been accepted for postdoc position at university A. In the meanwhile, I applied for postdoc in university B, and I am waiting to hear from them.

I would like to write a follow-up email to my potential mentor at university B asking about the decision of their committee, because I need to finalize my decision about the job at university A. How can I express my situation in a polite email to university B?

Just ask them if a decision is imminent as you are keen and motivated.

Trying to write some form of « I have an offer from X, should I take it? » may not help...


Does the number of references influence reviewers decision? For journal article, does the number of references one has for an original research work have an influence on the reviewer? Like if I have say 11 references, in such a case, will the reviewer take it for granted that my work is incorrect?

There won't be any hard minimum or maximum number of references that a reviewer will be looking for.  In my particular field (engineering/robotics) and in my experience, 20 - 40 references seem to be common, though twice or half that will not necessarily raise any eyebrows. The most important factors are that the author is covering previous work sufficiently (covering keystone papers in their area of research, as well as recent similar work) while well establishing their current contribution, and that any included citations are relevant. Too many or too few papers beyond a reviewer's general expectation in their field will probably prompt a closer examination that these are upheld, but won't necessarily lead them to immediately conclude the work is incorrect. The correctness of your paper is an almost completely separate issue that should be recognizable by a reviewer who works in your field based on your paper content.

As a reviewer, rejections I've given due to lack references were because of specific missing references that, if considered, effectively invalidated the author's claim of novelty or reduced their stated contribution significantly.


Is it better to focus on relearning mathematics fundamentals or learn material as needed to understand research papers? I am working toward a PhD degree and my major involves lot of mathematics. The problem is that my basis of math is not very strong but after putting a lot of time I can understand the theorems, lemmas, corollaries in the published papers. Sometime I wonder should I start learning the basics again or should I read the research papers only to make my math strong. If I start from the basics then it may consume lot of time however it may help me understanding things better and in applying accepted ideas to more general problems. On the other hand if I learn through research papers then my knowledge will be limited to only the problem I am working on and new ideas of solving the problem may not fluently come into my mind.

In essence which of the following strategy is better in your opinion

Start learning from basics.
Learn through published research papers during the literature review.

It will not be very easy to learn a broad subject in mathematics by reading research papers.  Books which cover the subject starting from the basics will be more cohesive (for instance, regarding notation and terminology) and will leave you with more approaches to solve problems. If your major requires a lot of mathematics, hopefully you can identify a specific area (like analysis, geometry, probability, etc.) that you need, and find a good text that synthesizes a lot of the research.


How to explain a recent bad semester to graduate school admissions? I am an international student with a 3.7 US equivalated GPA. I applied to a grad school program in the US fresh out of undergrad and was accepted.

I was a part-time student at that grad school. During the next semester, I took up some courses at a local community college instead of the grad courses (physics 1, chem 2, o-chem 2, o-chem lab). I ended up having situational depression and got help really late in the semester. I was only able to withdraw from one course early in the semester, and failed two courses, and got a B in one.

I am currently re-thinking the grad program I applied to at first and want to apply to another one. However, this program is more prestigious. While my undergrad GPA  and experience are good enough for the school, I am worried about how my recent bad semester at the local cc will be interpreted to the admissions office.

BTW: These courses that I bombed are not pre-requisites for the program I am applying to.

Should I discuss this bad semester in my personal statement? Are my chances of acceptance really low because they are recent grades?

If you explain as eloquently as you have here what happened, I cannot imagine a semester hurting you.

What impresses admission officers is when they see people who have a passion about themselves, and express
intellectual curiosity, but at the same time, are willing to be vulnerable.

If you explain what happened on your statement of purpose, just as you have here, that will go along way with admissions.

My answer is that one semester of subpar grades will not hurt you.


How to tell my advisor I don't want to stay in academia I don't want to stay in academia after finishing my PhD. My current research field is not exciting to me anymore, but also I am too old to change fields. Although my research and my interest were so far quite theoretically focussed, I would like to find a more applied job in R&D in a big prestigeous company, helping improving future technologies.

Now: How do I tell my supervisor? I want to avoid leaving the impression I think our research field is boring.
My supervisor tries already finding Postdoc positions for me, and probably thinks I'm quite qualified for staying in academia. So I fear to be disappointing.

How do I tell my supervisor? I want to avoid leaving the impression I think our research field is boring.

The other answers are already very good. You don't have a specifically academic problem, yours is a communication strategy issue.

be honest: in your specific case, tell your advisor as soon as possible in order to avoid a situation when too individuals want/wish each other only good and due to a misalignment it ends up in a clash;
focus on the positive side: Communicate that you are motivated to go for an industry position. It's easier than to focus on why you don't want to stay in academia.

There are always two sides of a coin. Your question sounds as if you wanted to avoid something (staying in academia) and that is always difficult to communicate, since it pushes you to defend your decision. Try to formulate it as if you were positively pulled to somewhere else. Then it's not you who is on defense, you took the active part in the conversation and usually it will be the other party to defend their position why not to do something (going to industry) is a bad move. As pointed out by others, you own a decision to do something (subjective, hence any reason is good enough), but there usually arises a need to explain why you don't want to go the default route (calls for more objective arguments, which are much harder to formulate). Your motivation for being pulled somewhere can stay vague, I wouldn't even hesitate to invoke emotions, such as I feel like I would like such a job and want to give it a try.


Putting a scholarship received for upcoming summer school in CV I applied for a summer school and received a scholarship to attend. In the meantime, I am planning on applying for a Masters, in a field related to summer school, before attending the summer school. Is it acceptable to put the scholarship in the CV?
What would be the appropriate place to put the scholarship? I have a honours and awards section in my CV. But I'm not sure that's the proper place to include the scholarship for the summer school.

Sure. Just make clear the scholarship it is for a date/summer school in the future. You could also add sth. like planned/forthcoming/... or the like, to make this point clear.


Co-supervisor demands more output I am one month away from finishing my dissertation. I did not receive much guidance from my supervisor, so I asked a co-supervisor to join my project about two years after I started (with still two years left). In these two years I think I had 5 or 6 meetings with him, which is not too often, but his feedback in these moments was always very valuable. Moreover, when my relation with my supervisor deteriorated, he was there to 'protect' me. I am pretty sure I would not still be working as a graduate student otherwise.

He now points these things out to me in quite an angry way via email and argues that I have not provided him with enough output to justify the time he has spend on me. We currently have one paper together that is under review. I have no idea how to provide more output for him because we have no other papers together. I have only one month left in my current contract so I don't want to start a new paper. I can put his name on another paper that's currently under review but that doesn't feel right since he did not contribute to this paper.

Right now I feel very stressed about this and I have no idea what to do. I cannot afford to have a bad relationship with my co-supervisor right before I wish to submit my dissertation but I also feel this guilt trip is not fair. What do you think? Do you see a solution? Thanks for your advice!

What is an angry email? All caps, curse words, sarcasm? You must have this conversation with him. It sounds like he has been pretty helpful, so it would be very appropriate to ask him what he would like to see. He has been with you for two years, and he must know your current time restraints. His requirements should be workable, if you know them. We can discern from your current position that you are not afraid of work.


Is it common to have a mentor in academia? At a recent networking workshop (not one of the "just don't be an introvert" ones, an actually helpful one with applicable ideas) I learned that it is supposedly very common to have a (career) mentor in academia.
This is not meaning a supervisor or a former supervisor you are still in contact with, but a person a few years further in their career than you, not necessarily exactly working in the same field but well established and experienced in some aspects of academia and academic careers where the mentee is in need of guidance (networking, public outreach, being from a similar minority, whatever is important to the mentee).

I promptly started to figure out what I would need in a mentor, who could be a good mentor and now how to approach them. But the questions come back nagging, because while this all makes sense and an online research came up with many tips and mentoring schemes I still have never met someone who said they had a mentor in this way.

So the question is: Do people have mentors in academia? If so, what are your experiences as a mentor/mentee? And would it be appropriate to ask someone who you have never met before for an informal conversation because you feel they might just be right for you?

I won't try to guess how common it is, suspecting that it is quite common. But it is very useful in any case.

But there are two (at least) scenarios.

The first is that your "mentor" doesn't even know that s/he is your mentor, but you just take cues from them about how to behave in any academic and personal situations that you observe. How do they lecture? How do they respond to questions? How do they interact with colleagues. I've had many mentors of this kind. I was lucky enough to meet up with one of the most important ones later and thanked him for providing the role-model I needed as an academic. He was in the same field, but his research area was very different from mine.

The second is more personal. This is someone that you specifically interact with, though not necessarily in a research sense. But someone that you are comfortable asking questions of. Even somewhat uncomfortable questions. Someone who you trust will give you good feedback and not be shocked it you ask a strange question that you might not ask a stranger. These relationships are harder to arrange and must, IMO, develop over time.

The second sort of "formal" mentor can be more instrumental in promoting your career, of course, since they know you well and, having taken on the role, are likely to be supportive when asked.

If you are a grad student, I strongly suggest that you seek out one or more professionals as mentors of either kind. Even better, is to seek out a circle of people who are mutually supportive - but for the right reasons. People who respect one another and help when they can.


Retaking GRE during gap year from PhD to improve pre-doctoral fellowship award chances I am taking a year off from my PhD program. I was funded for two years but because my academic standing is no longer 'good' due to substandard performance I have been terminated from my funding mechanism until I return and get back in good standing. When I return I will reapply for the same funding and there is a good chance that it will be awarded again. However, I've used up one of the two years of funding and will have to repeat the first year of the PhD when I return. Thus, I will need to apply for NSRA and NSF pre-doctoral fellowships when I return to my studies in fall of 2016 to fund the second year of classes. I don't know if GRE scores play a significant role in NIIH F31 grant applications, and I am now wondering if it is worth retaking the GRE during this time off to get a more competitive score that will help my application? Any thoughts of how best to proceed.

The return of investment on a GRE score is much less than other activities. If your score is horrid, then go for it. I wouldn't spend more than 2 weeks prepping, though. Squeezing out every point from that GRE is not worh the effort. I would wager that the score is only to determine the seriousness of your application, and that it would not be a major deciding factor otherwise.


Should I still try to publish this paper I wrote after it getting rejected? I had submitted this paper of mine to a reputed springer journal some time back. There are reasons for me to believe it is a good journal although it has an impact factor of only 0.941 since most of the original work on the problem ( I will describe that in detail below) I'm working on was published in that journal. A few days back I received a decision from them which said that they wouldn't be considering it for publication and this was the reviewer's comment - "I am afraid i do not see a contribution by this paper valuable enough for publication in the Journal. Neither regarding the problem setting nor regarding the solution method any new insights are provided".

Now, I do admit that my work isn't something path breaking or completely novel (I shall give a detailed description in the end). What I have essentially done is that I have used existing algorithms and techniques and have applied the same on the specific problem I was working on and have got significant results (please see the complete detail of the problem in the end).

So post rejection I have actually been in a complete dilemma on whether I should actually try publishing my work again with some other journals and I have also begun to wonder if journals actually accept such work. The problem is that I have no prior experience of publishing papers and I'm an undergraduate student. So it would be really nice if someone could help me with this.

More on the Problem:

The problem I have been working on is the Traveling Tournament Problem. So what I have done here is that I have taken existing techniques and algorithms for this problem and I have applied it to a very popular sports league in order to schedule it. And doing so has actually given me some "significant"(?) results like reduction in the travel distance in this league.
I am also pretty sure no one has actually worked on this particular league before, so this would be the first instance of the same.

In publishing there is a phenomena called "me too" publications (see for example Day & Gastel: How to write and Publish A Scientific Paper) where one takes existing methods and apply them to a new area, data set, whatever context is applicable. Although not wrong, these types of studies usually do not contribute much new knowledge except resulting in the understandng that the method(s) work in (yet) another circumstance.

What can then be done? As I alluded to initially, there is nothing really wrong with such studies. What is necessary is to convince the editors and reviewers that by applying the method(s) to the new area, you have actually achieved something new (in the sense of scientific discovery). For example, applying a formula to a new set of numbers is not a discovery unless the new numbers themselves contain something that can be set apart from what has been done before. So it boils down to what might sloppily be called "packaging"; you need to package your study so that it is evident what new discovery is achieved. It is not sufficient to just say that it is a new data set but you need to convince that applying the method(s) to the new data set shows results that expand our horizon beyond the obvious and also be explicit why one, for example, would not expect the result you obtained (or equivalent).

I have deliberately kept this answer as general as I can because the issue you bring up applies to many if not all fields. I would give the manuscript a hard work over and really think about what truly scientifically (intelectually) new aspects you bring forth. It may be that your writing has not been clear enough to bring the message through. It may be that you are too involved to see the bigger picture that needs to be explained to others. Or, in the worst case, it may be that your study is too trivial. Avoid falling into the "me too" trap, it easily happens and the remedy is usually to make sure the perspectives of the study are re-written carefully to highlight the core research problem to be solved.

So to answer, yes you should try again unless you find you are stuck in "me too" land.


How to make clear tasks for students about resolving paradoxes? Question

When creating questions for coursework, exams, and similar, I sometimes want to task students with explaining counter-intuitive results or dissolving paradoxes, as I consider this is a good opportunity for them to train or showcase their understanding of the bigger picture or their skills to make an argument.

Now, a problem with just asking “Why is our intuition wrong here?” or “Solve this paradox.” is that it requires that everybody agrees upon what is intuitive or paradoxical here. A student may (quite rightfully) consider the correct result intuitive or just be happy with calculating the correct result and noticing that it is different from what intuition assumes.

Therefore I loathed such questions as a student since they strongly depend on interpretation. Can I somehow avoid this problem without dropping the respective task altogether?

Example: The Birthday Paradox

The birthday paradox is that n = 23 is the smallest number such that for a group of n people, it is more likely that two birthdays coincide than not. The number n is much lower than what most people would expect intuitively. I am seeking to ask a question that has an answer along the lines of:

  While the probability that a given member’s birthday coincides with another only grows slowly (linearly) when the group size is increased, birthdays can also coincide between newly added group members. The number of such pairings grows faster (quadratically).

Now if I ask the students: “Why is n so low?”, they could ask: “In relation to what?”. Also, they might ‘simply’ calculate n, and I could not rightfully complain that this is not what the question asked for. (Of course, correctly calculating n in this case requires including pairings between newly added nodes and hopefully grants the students the kind of insight I am aiming at. However, some may still apply some formulas blindly and this is not so obvious in more complicated examples.)

Let your students debunk a wrong argument

Present a specific faulty argument based on intuition. Then let your students find the flaw in it. This way you relieve your students from the burden to divine what you consider intuitive. They also have a more specific task that cannot be solved by just deriving the correct result.

For example a task for the birthday paradox could be:

  Bob argues:

    A random person has a different birthday from me with a probability of 364/365 (ignoring leap years, seasonal variations, etc.). Hence, if I am in a group with n−1 other people, the probability that all of them have a different birthday is (364/365)n−1. This probability is first smaller than 0.5 for n = 254.

  Find the flaw in Bob’s argument.


Is it okay to use same figures in different papers? Currently, I am writing for two conferences, independent from each other. One paper is a generic one, while the other one is more technical.

However, I would like to use some of figures I have drawn in both of them. Is this ethical or are there any issues doing that?

EDIT: The conference are about advances in IT, electronics engineering and the papers have not been published yet.

Conferences mean very different things in different fields.

In some fields (e.g. most of pure mathematics), they are essentially just a venue for presenting/publicising your work to other researchers.  In such fields, conference abstracts are not treated like full publications; there is no strong expectation of originality.  So you can re-use your figures freely between conference talks/abstracts, and re-use figures from journal publications in conference talks/abstracts.

The only thing to worry about, in this case, is that if you re-use material too often, then people who see it multiple times may get bored of it, and think you are being lazy and not producing much new research.  But this is unlikely if you are just re-using one or two figures, provided your talks/abstracts contain substantive other fresh material.

In other fields (e.g. much of computer science), conferences are a publication venue in their own right, on a par with journals.  In such fields, there is an expectation of originality; so you should re-use figures sparingly, and usually explicitly note when you do so.  Essentially, in this case, treat it as you would re-using material between papers.  So it’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially in e.g. a background section, but it won’t count towards the original content that a referee will be looking for.  And the re-use should be noted explicitly and prominently — e.g. “The relationship between fuzzles and woozles is shown in Figure 3 (reprinted from Jones 2014).” — unless possibly the figure is clearly just a very simple and standard illustration of background material.


Short references in bibliography I found the following bibliography in a book:

Is there a website which generates this kind of references automatically, that is short references?

On google scholar there are only long references:

EDIT: I tried to do it with endnote, but there is not the style that I want. I used all Nature styles.

Thank you so much for your time.

Practically, no one copy & paste citations they way you try doing. There are programs like Endnote or Mendeley that are used for citation formatting. Each journal has its own citation formatting, so you do not want to reformat citations by hand each time.

So, after installing the program,  you first import the citations using for example google scholar (see below). Then, in program (at least in Endnote) you choose a style and it will format you citations in Word file accordingly. In case there is no corresponding style, you can edit the existing one.


Applying for Phd at two different departments, in the same university, but very relevant fields. Would it harm my admission? Biophysics and Condensed matter physics interests me. I am more inclined towards biophysics.
Would it weaken my application if i applied to both the biophysics program (Biological sciences department) and the condensed matter program (Physics department) in the same university? I want to apply for Condensed matter, in case i didn't get accepted in biophysics, i might get accepted in condensed matter.

P.S. I have a Bachelor's degree in theoretical physics.

I would see no harm in doing so. I view it as akin to applying to different schools when you first start college. To gain a better understanding, I would contact the graduate office at your school about multiple applications to different departments. Policies do vary from campus to campus.


Busy professor failed to finish recommendation letters My application officially ended on Dec 1, but the admission offices are still accepting recommendation letters. One of my professor just finished the letters recently, but there are two letters were not submitted. My professor insisted he has finished all the letters and he won't have time for this until Dec 15 because he is applying for an important grant that concerns the survival of his lab. Although the office are still accepting letters, I fear Dec 15 may be too late to submit the letters. What should I do ? Should I prompt my professor at the risk of irritating him ?

He is very busy, and that's also why he did not start writing the letters until the deadline after I called him. I always wrote very kind letters, and he was a very nice person, but I don't want to be bothersome and force the professor to prioritize my needs before his own. The grant is definitely much more important to him, and he promised to write the letters simply out of kindness.

First of all, find out if December 15th is too late to send the letters. If it's not too late, then you don't have a problem as long as the professor writes you a letter when he has more time.

Assuming the 15th is too late: Was the professor aware of the deadline when he offered to write you the letter? Did he have sufficient time to write the letter (I always erred on the side of at least a month, if not two)? If so, then he has a very real obligation to fulfill that promise. Writing letters of recommendation is not a favor that professors do for their students, it is a key part of their jobs as academics. Letters of recommendation is one of the key metrics by which institutions determine who they should accept. They help shape the landscape of the research community that the professors themselves are a part of. It is unfortunate for the professor that he has to spend a lot of his time writing a grant proposal to save his lab, but that does not excuse him from his other responsibilities.

Unfortunately, that doesn't necessarily mean that you should poke the professor every day and/or try to force the professor to write you the letter. Though he is the one at fault for failing to provide you the service that he should, you are likely the one who will suffer; either by not having a letter of recommendation, or having a haphazardly written letter that lacks attention to detail and fails to highlight your skills as a researcher. Normally I would tell you to find someone else to write you the letter, but given that you're out of time, I think your only option is to respectfully remind the professor that this is extremely important for your career, and that you require his letter of recommendation in order for your application to be considered valid. If he refuses to write it, then I would honestly consider that an ethical violation and encourage you to bring it up with your dean.

However, if you gave the professor 2 weeks notice to write the letter and/or did not make him aware of the deadline, then it may be hard to "force" him to fulfill his obligation as you did not perform your due diligence in lining up your letters early. That being said, most institutions have deadlines in December so I would assume that the professor was aware of the general timeline of when the recommendation would be due.


Feeling inadequate as a PhD student I just started a STEM PhD before last christmas and whilst things are going okay, I still feel like I'm not good enough and don't deserve the opportunity. I guess it's some form of imposter syndrome but it's driving me to become irrationally attached to my work because I lack confidence that it's good enough to impress my supervisor.
I consistently overwork myself and as a result my personal life is suffering- I even feel bad about taking weekends off. None of what I do feels like it's good enough and I constantly feel like a failure- I have a presentation in the next few weeks to present my project progress and I'm dreading it.
How do I ditch this mentality?

Many universities have a "counseling" office that can help with such things. But, I agree that it is probably imposter syndrome as you have moved to a situation in which your peers are more skilled than in the past. You probably stood out from the crowd in the past and now you don't, most likely.
But you have affirmation, just by being where you are, that you are worth it.
It is hard during a pandemic, but developing some social relationships with your peers can help. When I was a doctoral student, some of us played paddleball, rode bikes, played softball, etc. just to help keep our sanity.
But if the pressures are mostly internal, you can also set limits that seem artificial. For example, exercise for an hour before lunch every day. Get some aerobic exercise for a few hours every week end - on schedule.
You may find that these breaks aren't unproductive to your work, actually. Your brain will continue processing "stuff" even when you aren't staring at a computer screen. In fact, too-long hours can be counterproductive, producing blocks.
Give yourself a break, but also try to talk to a professional.


Is it acceptable for a graduate student to use their university email and affiliation in furtherance of a commercial interest? I received an email from a graduate student at a well-known university in the UK. The email is a marketing email for a campaign run by a company the writer of the email is affiliated with. The campaign is about something that may possibly be of interest to people in academia, so I bear no ill will to the writer for sending me such an email. However, I have concerns about the way the writer presented him/herself. The email starts roughly as follows:

  Hi [recipient's name],

  I am a PhD student at [name of university] and I am writing to tell you about [the campaign]
  [... long marketing blurb ...]
  [... request that I forward the email to other people.]

and ends roughly with

  Sincerely,

  [writer's name]
  PhD candidate, [name of university]
  [name of department]
  [university-affiliated email address]
  [link to the company's website]

The things about the email that got my attention are:

The writer presents him/herself as a PhD student in the opening and signature of the email.
The email is sent from the writer's university email account.
The email is about a campaign run by a non-university entity (a for-profit operation, to judge from a look at the website linked to at the bottom of the email) that the writer is affiliated with.
The writer does not explicitly explain his/her connection to or affiliation with said entity, except indirectly by saying things like "we believe ..." and "our mission is ...".
In a later short email exchange I had with the writer, (s)he seemed fairly polite and well-intentioned (specifically, I emailed the student to say I will not be forwarding the email to anyone at my department since it is not relevant to them, and (s)he emailed back apologizing for the inconvenience and promising to remove me from the mailing list). So, my impression is that although the details above may may make it sound like this is a very shady and dishonest attempt to create the impression that the campaign is originating from the writer's university, it is possible that using the university email and affiliation was done out of naivety and lack of thought rather than out of an intent to deceive.

My questions are:

Is it acceptable for a graduate student who is involved with a non-university entity to use their university email to send marketing emails for their non-university campaigns?
Is it acceptable for graduate students to send mass-distribution emails of any sort from their university email accounts? Does this violate any standard policies university IT departments have, particularly in the UK?
Is it acceptable for a graduate student who is also involved with a non-university entity to represent themselves as a PhD student in connection with a marketing email that they send out? (Note that this is a separate question than questions 1-2 above; i.e., assume that the email is sent from a private email server but that the writer is mentioning their status as a PhD candidate at a well-known university, e.g., in an attempt to gain credibility. Is this okay?)

To clarify, by "is it acceptable" I mean that I am interested in these questions from several different angles, such as: are such behaviors ethical? Are they legal? Do they violate any standard policies that universities, particularly in the UK, have? Do they violate any cultural norms within academia or the larger professional world? If I complain about the student's email practices to their department, are they likely to get in serious trouble? Etc.

Well, I'd start with university technology-use policies, which this student is quite likely to have broken. Where I am, policy contains the following stipulation:

Commercial, Political, and Non-University Activities
Users may not use University IT resources to sell or solicit sales for any goods, services, or contributions unless such use conforms to {university} rules and regulations governing the use of University resources. They may not use University IT resources to represent the interests of any non-University group or organization unless authorized by an appropriate University department.

Another possibility may be called something like "non-academic misconduct" (to separate it from "academic misconduct" such as plagiarism or cheating) or an "honor code violation."
If you care to pursue either of these avenues, you'll have to hunt down appropriate chapter and verse at the student's institution, as well as instructions for reporting.
If you don't care to be this formal, and if you know any faculty or staff in the student's department, a "what the actual heck is this and did you folks know about it?" email might be the way to go. Where I am this would certainly be grounds for at least a stern conference with the student, and at worst, non-academic misconduct charges.


Prospects for getting an assitantship | How do professors hire in Canada? I have applied to one of the top engineering school in Canada: UoT, University of British Columbia & UWaterloo.

I've interviewed a professor and he sent me his most recent research publications after the email. I asked a few prospects of the future project he wants me to work on and he even encouraged me that we can think of using a methodology (that I previously worked on) in his future project.

He's told me he's reviewing all the people who opted for his research supervision. More info in this thread 1.

So, what kind of chances are there for getting a Master's assitantship based on the professor's response? Do all professors have this enthusiasm while discussing with prospective students?

I apologise for this very specific question but anxiety kicks in during the admission process :)

First of all, the notion of " top engineering school in Canada " only makes sense in the academic bubble. I did my B.Eng., M.Sc.A. and PhD in a lesser-known French-speaking university in Montreal (École de technologie supérieure) and I work with people from Stanford, MIT, UBC, UWaterloo, etc. I did go to UBC for an international internship program during my bachelor's degree and it has many things going for it including the magnificent scenery, but I didn't go there for my postgraduate studies even if it does have an excellent reputation and better name recognition. All this to say that, in my opinion, you shouldn't put more pressure on yourself because it's UBC or any other brand. Amazing research is being done in places you've never heard of. You could lessen your burden by de-narrowing your scope.

To answer your question directly, to my knowledge, it is common for professors to share their research enthusiastically with prospective students regardless of if they think they'll hire them or not. There are too many unquantifiable variables to ascribe any sort of value to the chance of getting the assistantship you're seeking. What I can tell you is that professors are starving for competent students. If you're competent relative to your peers, you can bet you have more than a coin flip's chance of getting it. This is as close to an actual measure as I think you can get.


Which month to cite? Which month to cite, the month of acceptance or the month on which the paper was published online?

I am using bibtex and a custom bibliographic style where specifying month is not required. However, to update my bibliographic database and to know specifically what is the norm, this question has been asked.

In certain citation styles, you indeed need to add the month (respectively day and month) when you cite monthly (respectively weekly) periodicals. In which case, definitely use the month of publication: online publication if it's an online-only periodical, print publication otherwise (either print-only or print-and-online).

But such styles are a rather rare occurrence. It may be that using the month is not correct at all for what you intend. Could you give more details?


How does one reference work in Oxford Style for a Website without an Author or a Date of Publication? How do you reference work, Oxford Style, for a Website without an Author or a Date of Publication?

I am not familiar with the "Oxford Style" guide and therefore do not believe that there is a single "standard" style. I think Oxford style has a footnote in text citation and a reference list. This makes it similar to Chicago style. While I do not have the CMS to check, Prudue OWL has a nice comparison of MLA, APA, and CMS (all of which have comprehensive and standardized style guides). In CMS it doesn't seem to be a problem since you are using a footnote for the in text citation and the reference list doesn't require an author or date for webpages.


Stressed about Research Project So, I am a first year master student in one of the best universities in my area and I have the possibility of doing a research project in the next semester. I am torn between choosing a topic that is more related to my supervisor's research (and would get much more impact if published; publishing is also likely to happen) and another one that is more related to what I want to do in my master thesis (but would get much lower impact if published). I wouldn't mind doing the first one (I also find it quite interesting and would do both if I could) but if I want to have a chance of getting a position at this university, would it be more likely if I chose the one related to my master thesis?

The topic of a one-semester research project really has little bearing on your future career. You might as well explore something interesting to you, since you’re learning about your field at this stage. It won’t have much impact on future prospects, because you’ll be evaluated for positions based on your research potential at the time of your application. You’ll also be expected to diversify beyond your PhD topic.


Considering dropping Computer Science Master Background knowledge about me: I'm 26, have done a Bachelors in Mathematics and now I'm in my 3rd year in my masters in Computer Science in Germany.

I have found it very difficult in general to decide what to study, I've always been into learning things without specifying a passion and I've been a very good student. When I started my Bachelors in Math I really struggled because it was very theoretical but during the first year I decided that I would go into Applied Math and Computer Science.

Starting my Masters the courses were difficult and again I couldn't decide where to focus so I went with Machine Learning, since it was closer to my previous studies. Although I've finished all my courses I am really struggling with my Master Project(which is in Machine Learning), it doesn't seem interesting to me so I am just procrastinating. I decided not to change the project and try to find something else, because I thought that all of this time I have spend would be wasted.

I'm considering dropping the master and searching for a job, but that's also a problem since I don't have any experience.

Since it has taken me some time to finish my Bachelors and now I am really strugling with my Masters, should I leave it and try to acquire some knowledge from online courses about things that would be more relevant for a job?

Get that football across the goal line.  Your project is pass fail.  Just finish it.  Don't change topics.

DON'T drop out after so much time spent. After all, all the same options for career redirect will be there even if you have that extra sheepskin in your pocket.

P.s.  I hear you on the procrastination and avoidance.  but you have to find something to spur you on.  For me it was publishing.  Got a lot of egoboo from that.  Then the thesis was a cut and paste.  Maybe that works for you (can even sign up for a conference to push you).  But whatever the "trick" (e.g. "accountability buddy"), figure out something to push yourself.


What should I write in the preface of my master's thesis Please note that my guide abandoned me and I am studying and preparing my masters thesis myself. There is no  help from any faculty in my department as they can not bother, as they are not guide.
Being enrolled in a 3rd world institute, this is not surprising.

  I read 5 research papers (4 are on odd zeta values and 1 on Goldbach Conjecture) in number theory and I will explain the steps involved and prove statements which authors didn't prove. So, my thesis is expository and I have not proved any original results. I have written a rough draft of explanations of the papers.

But I don't know what should I write in the preface or beginning of my thesis, explaining what I have done as I have no idea of these sort of technical language. Also, I searched on internet about expository thesis but most theses were on proving some results or generalizing some conjecture. I could not find a work related to mine. So, I am asking here. I have also to be very cautious so that I am not accused of plagrism.

First 4 papers are about 4 different methods used in studying irrationality of odd zeta values and the 5th paper is a bit different.

Can someone please tell what to write in the preface.

You write:

What are the problems you are studying.
Why are they important.
What are your own contributions. (Maybe: "We present detailed proofs of the results...". Or maybe: "We summarize the results about A...".)
Is there anything new in your contributions? Mention that, too. Maybe you are writing in a different language, combining results that have not been explicitly combined before, providing a more detailed proof of some statement than you could find, etc.
What has been done before? A brief literature review is appropriate.

You should combine those parts in a way that feels natural. They are not section headings.

Plagiarism

To avoid plagiarism, do not copy text from elsewhere. Write in your words. This is especially true of free text, such as the introduction and literature review.

Furthermore, cite your sources. For example: "This proof follows the proof by [4], but we include additional details."

It might not be useful to rewrite theorems and definitions in your own words. If they are common knowledge (can be found in several textbooks), you can use the common ones. If the definition is less established, or if there are several variants and you have chosen to use a particular one, then a citation is appropriate, and explicitly mentioning any verbatim copying.


Measuring Learning outcomes I'm teaching a math course which covers several mathematics topics including differential equations (DE). In a recent exam I asked the students a question in which they are given a DE and are asked to solve it using at least two of the different solution techniques they learned in class. My intention was that asking for different solution techniques reflects fundamentally different skills than a single solution. Do you think this is true?

In other words, are there fundamental differences in the learning outcomes measured between the following two questions:

Solve the differential equation dy/dx = y/x
Solve the differential equation dy/dx = y/x using at least two different solution techniques.

Given the subject you are teaching, I'd say that question 2 only adds a little information about "learning outcomes", over question 1.  Students need to learn to recognize when a given technique is even viable, and then to choose the method that is most appropriate (simple, straight forward) if multiple methods are viable.  Question 2 is somewhat more informative about this than Question 1.

I say "somewhat" because there are other possible questions and approaches that could be much more informative, if you really think it is important to measure other "learning outcomes" (i.e. what students know, and what they can do with that knowledge).  For example, you could ask them to explain why the chose the method they used, and to explain why they chose not to use other methods.  You could ask them to compare and contrast the alternative methods.  I realize that it's rare that math tests include essay questions, but that is only a cultural norm.  There's no reason that they could be utilized more.  (Too often, math students simply "plug in the formula" to get the answer and have little idea why it works or what they should do in some uncommon circumstance.)

For another example, what if you gave them a test question where none of the existing methods was an ideal or even good match.  The question might be: "How would you modify this differential equation so that it is solvable, and also that the solution is approximately correct for the original equation?"  I realize that this question may be beyond the reach of students who are just starting to learn differential equations.  But I offer this as an example of a test question that really would measure a learning outcome different from the skill of identifying the appropriate method and then following the solution steps.


While teaching how should I give justice equally to both female and male students? I am 27 years old unmarried male teacher. I have been a teacher (lecturer) for the last 6 months in an Engineering institution. My students are 4 to 5 years younger than me.

The problem is that while teaching I have soft corner towards female students. I don't understand whether it is due to opposite gender attraction or due  to female students asking more doubts than male students. I help  female students more than male students.  I know that it is against moral ethics of teacher's profession. But I couldn't change my attitude. Now, I think that male students might have noticed this and they may make complaints against me to the principal.

So what changes can I make?
While teaching how should I give justice equally to both female and male students equally? Or should I quit teaching?

If you really can't change your actions, find a different profession.

You're aware of the issue - you admit you spend more time helping the females than the males.  Find a way to equalize that problem.  Be sure that you make your time available to all genders - use office hours, or clarify to all students how to get help from you.  Look for the patterns where you realize that you cut off help from the men and continued to help the women - there's like an unconscious bias that you may be able to over come with a pattern.

Changing a pattern like this may not be easy - but it's what's rightfully expected.

Also ponder - why - why do you give women more time?  Are you hoping for something more than a teacher/student relationship?  Is something more pleasing about them? What's causing the problem, and can you reduce the factors that lead up to it?

I suppose the other alternative is to find a place where you teach only one gender.  Then you don't treat your students unequally.  Personally, that seems like taking a short cut.


Is it ok to fail with analysis? I'm a graduate student and I am really worried about the quality of my master thesis. It's my second year in graduate school and I've already done some pilot studies. But, entering the school, I was absolutely new in the real science (cognitive psychology) and now I'm afraid that data I collected is too dirty and statistical analysis I provided just incorrect. I have to present and publish my results anyway if I want to end graduate school and become a phd, but I feel ashamed of them.
So, I wonder is it ok to have problems with data when I'm just studying or I should refuse to publish or present these results?
My supervisor thinks everything's great and local journals will accept papers, but it is just bad, isn't it?

Since your supervisor thinks that everything is fine, you should not be ashamed of publishing your results.

If you are still unsure: You should talk about your concerns to your supervisor and request an honest opinion. Keep in mind, that he/she is also (partly) responsible for the quality of your results!


How to choose a good research problem? I am working to get a PhD, maybe next year this time around. Currently, this is my second year. I have published 3 papers. All of them are not about one problem but consider different problems. My strategy to find a research idea/problem is given below.

1 - Read papers whose titles are either interesting or I have some apriori understanding of those titles.

2 - Understand those papers as best as I can. That is, I try to understand each detail presented in the paper except the simulation results (this is because I think simulation results are hard to reproduce).

3 - I analyze the paper and try to find a very small problem which can be addressed (i.e. I can solve it) by the methodology of the paper.

4 - If I am successful at step 3 I start working on that problem otherwise I repeat the process from step 1.

By applying this strategy I have been able to write 3 papers and I have submitted a fourth (I am not satisfied with those papers because at very best they can be considered average papers). But my concern is that the problems addressed in those papers do not belong to one area. As far as I have seen, for the profiles of some of the renowned researchers in my field their PhD work is focused on one area. One main thing I console myself with is that almost all of those researchers had good supervisors. My supervisor does not even read the draft/reviews of my papers and the suggestions that he provides during the meetings are so broad that the problem becomes intractable. Under these circumstances what are your opinions: Is there any better strategy to do research?

I will be very thankful to you for providing me suggestions or commenting on my dilemma.

This is a really important question, and it's one that isn't asked enough.

From reading your question, though, it sounds like you are rushing a bit. Renowned physicist and biologist Uri Alon (34k+ citations) has written an excellent paper on 'How To Choose a Good Scientific Problem' and one of his main points is that one, however cliché it sounds, should take ones time to conceive a good project.

I strongly suggest you read his paper. It's not exhaustingly long, and reads like a good talk. He also has a TED talk that challenges the 'A to B' dogma in science, which has helped me a lot.


Should I change PhD programs based on available recreational activities? I just started a PhD at a US top 10 uni on the east coast. I'm studying for my generals in January right now and recently got situated in a research group.

During my applications to grad schools, I intended to go into a certain subfield of physics. I narrowed down my choices based solely on which faculty in that subfield were at which universities and eventually chose my current location because of the brand-name recognition (I intend to go into industry after graduation). When I got to this university this fall, I switched subfields entirely.

The thesis project my advisor has for me is interesting, he is rumored to be an excellent advisor, and the lab dynamic is actually great. But there's something unsettling about knowing exactly how the next 6 years of my life will be. I am getting really anxious about being stuck on the east coast (which I find to be miserable, no offense) doing exactly what I see his current graduate students doing, 2 weeks off per year, in the same tiny shared office and lab space.

I am really getting the urge to transfer to UC Boulder or San Diego where I feel like I can live my life in an enjoyable way outside of the lab while still getting a great training. I also have deep regret for choosing this school based on its faculty for a subfield I am no longer working in. I feel like I would have chosen a uni at a better location had I known this.

I'm not sure what to do. Is transferring the right move? How different will my career prospects be with a PhD from UC Boulder vs Harvard/Princeton/Yale if I'm going into industry? If I wanted to transfer to a different program, would I need to apply for Fall 2017? (Application deadline in one week). Am I expected to explain why I am transferring? What would I do over the summer? Do I need letters of recommendation from my current institution, given that I haven't done much here?

Go for it!  Many east coast academics, or people in general even, are not going to understand how you feel.  In my experience, for many academics on the east coat, outdoor recreation is not a priority (yeah, yeah, it's a generalization...).

You say:

  "either of those places offer me a refuge to break the work-sleep
  cycle (I am obsessed with backpacking and climbing). At my current
  institution, I feel very "trapped", like there is nothing here except
  working, sleeping, and drinking"

100% agree.  You can find a way to make grad school and your outdoor passions work together.  Just don't expect many of your (east coast) colleagues to understand this.  I have found that many academics in the west are very understanding of the outdoor lifestyle.  I've worked with researchers who live out here because of the outdoor opportunities.  The point is that sharing your honest reasons for wanting to transfer may actually help build connections.

I need to be near, or on, mountains.  This is a huge factor in what makes me happy.  I grew up in the West, but my undergrad and graduate pursuits were on the East coast because I chose to go to schools with name recognition over location.  For undergrad it was okay, but I couldn't stand it in grad school.  I turned down some great opportunities on the East coast to move back to the West.  Most of my advisors could not understand why.  Only one who loves to ski actually supported me.

As for how this will play out in industry, this is hard to say.  I am currently in industry in an area with tons of biking, climbing, skiing...  Part of the company culture is being outdoorsy, fit, and adventurous.  While the name of my school played some role in getting an interview, I think what really made me appealing was that I could connect with my future boss about all the awesome things we do.  Now I have a beard, long hair, and go on road trips all summer.  Wouldn't be doing any of that out east.


How hard is it to get an academic position in Australia/New Zealand with a PhD from the US? I am originally from India, currently a PhD student in Mathematics in the US. As such I don't have very many ties to the US and I was wondering whether it is common for PhDs from the US to get academic positions in Australia and New Zealand. I have seen some jobs postings on http://www.mathjobs.org/ advertising positions in Aus/NZ universities, but I am not sure how many US PhDs apply to them.

  Are most faculty members in Aus/NZ universities 'homegrown', or is it fairly common to see PhD's from other countries? Is a US PhD the norm, an advantage, or a disadvantage when applying for an academic position in Aus/NZ?

I know many academics in Australia who obtained their PhD in the United States. In general, I think that overseas experience is seen as a positive, whether it be an Australian going overseas to do a PhD or a PostDoc or a non-Australian  obtaining their PhD or PostDoc overseas. Some ranking systems even rate departments based on the number of international faculty members.

Of course, you still need to meet the job requirements. Thus, it is still going to help if you have a great publication track record, have studied or worked in a world-renowned university with world-renowned academics, and so on. Most Australian universities have a job listing site where you can subscribe to job alerts. Also, you would generally need to have good English language skills.


How to balance academic reputation of PhD supervisor and teaching experience When I read general recommendations on how to choose a PhD programme/advisor, it seems that many academics agree that one of the most important factors is the reputation of the advisor.

Next year, I may have the opportunity to undertake a PhD under the supervision of a "superstar" faculty who is considered an authority in his field. However, the professor in question recently moved to a university where the official language of instruction is one that I don't speak (though I would be allowed to write my thesis in english), and thus I would most likely not be able to gain teaching experience during this time.

Now, most job offers for postdoctoral or tenure-track professor positions that I see advertised online require a teaching statement and that one of the letters of recommendation address the teaching ability of the candidate.

In light of this, my question is the following: Is teaching experience for entry level academic jobs so important that it is always better to have a fair amount of it while completing a PhD no matter how well-reputed your potential supervisor could be?

I'd advise caution: completing a PhD with no teaching experience is risky, as you're putting all your eggs in the "research" basket.

As other answers mentioned, there certainly are jobs that don't necessarily require teaching experience.  These are likely to be jobs in places where research is paramount; probably the top-tier research universities.  There is massive competition for these jobs; the number of such jobs in such a year is at best a few percent of the number of new PhDs.  Only the most successful researchers will have a chance at getting them, and if you don't turn out to be one of them (or discover you just don't enjoy research that much), you'll be out of luck in this arena.

At most of the remaining institutions, teaching is more important and experience will be valued, and you'll be in competition with candidates who have substantial experience.  So if you don't have any, you may be out of luck here too.

(I don't share MHH's confidence that alternative teaching activities such as high school outreach will be viewed as similarly valuable by a search committee.  Community college teaching might, but it also involves a higher level of responsibility and time commitment.)

That would leave only the bottom of the barrel of academic jobs: those who don't care too much about research accomplishments or teaching experience, and just need a warm body with a PhD.  These won't be nice jobs: they'll have high teaching loads, low pay, and limited instructional support; and even so there's intense competition for them.

The remaining option would be to leave academia for industry.

So in summary, if you aren't able to gain meaningful teaching experience, you'll be committing yourself to aiming for the most difficult jobs to get, without much of a fallback plan (within academia) if that doesn't work out.

(Disclaimer: My experience is limited to the US, and mostly in mathematics.  Things may be different elsewhere.)


When to follow up for recommendation letter I asked two potential referees, 1 month before application deadline, to write me a letter and both gladly accepted, and one asked me to write a draft (which I learned was a common practice).

It has been 10 days and I have never heard from them after I responded thanking them for accepting my request (and supplying the draft to the one who asked).

What is the best time to follow up with them without appearing pushy?

Also, one of my referees had an academic email address, which means the application system sent him an automatic electronic reference form by email, and I have no idea whether it was completed or not. Should I still follow up with him?

I'd wait until about 5-7 days before the due date, and then send a polite email reminding them that the letters are due, and offering to have the links to the forms resent if they need it.

There is a balance between being "pushy", and sending them a reminder too late for them to avoid feeling time pressure if they haven't written it.  I try to stay on top of things, but if I forget, I would prefer to receive notification more than a day or two before the due date.

Of course, if there's a situation such as "rolling admissions", where an on-time submission can still be a bad thing, I'd ping them earlier --- but a situation such as that should never come up, as you would have let them know that an early letter was really necessary at the time you made the original requests.

It might be a good habit, when sending them the "thank you for agreeing to write me a letter" message, to say something like "unless you ask me not too, I'll send out a reminder about a week before the due date".


Can one be average in academics but great in research at same time in PhD This has always kind of intrigued me. I have seen many students who are good in academics (the scale I am using for this is GPA, like around 3.8–4.0) and average in PhD research. I mean, they do research, but it's just the kind you would expect from an average PhD—publish dissertation, write to one or two top journals, and then graduate.

I have also seen a few students who barely maintain their GPAs (they usually hang around 3.3–3.5) but are so good and focused in research that they do groundbreaking stuff, and some even have filed and received patents on their dissertation.

My question is: how much of a PhD is about taking courses and excelling them, and how much of a PhD is about excelling in research, and how well are they interconnected? From what I have seen, there seems to be no precise correlation between GPA and quality of research. Is it because PhD research concentrates only on a precise problem? Or is it because of individual motivational factors?

What i wanted to ask how much of PHD is about creativity and how much
  is about perserverance and how much is it about academics

The snarky answer is: Yes.

A slightly more unpacked version of this in no particular order would be:

Academics (aka things you learn in courses) is important because we don't create in a vacuum. We invent new things, but also combine old things in clever ways, or modify others' ideas creatively for new purposes. Think of it as one component of the fuel for your creativity: why ignore it ?

Creativity is of course the key to doing something new, which is the most basic requirement for completing a Ph.D.

Perseverance is incredibly important, because most ideas don't come into your head fully formed and perfect. It may be that your first 10, or 100, or 200 ideas aren't quite right, but by studying them closely, and seeing what works and what doesn't, you're able to produce a genuinely interesting new piece of work. Slogging through the bucket of non-working ideas takes perseverance, and can't be replaced by anything else.


What should I do if my department head encourages us to do questionable practices to raise publication indices? In our departmental staff meeting, we were encouraged by the head to practice salami slicing and to require authors of the papers we review to cite our own papers. What should I do in this case? What is likely to happen if I express my disagreement? I am a junior member of the faculty.

This is scientific misconduct. First, you are responsible for yourself. In your situation I would not follow these practices since it can (and probably will) have bad consequences for you.

However, you should address your concerns. Almost every university has a person who is responsible for scientific integrity. Sometimes he/she is called ombudsman. Have a talk with them. Try to do this in an anonymous way, otherwise I would fear the consequences.


Students leaving a new lab - have I made a wrong choice? I've been accepted to a relatively prestigious neuroscience PhD program abroad and will be joining a new lab (2.5 y/o) in a few months. I've been in contact with a possible PI a few months before applying and was very excited about their previous and current research plans. From talking to their students (at the time, two postdocs, one PhD and one research assistant), I got the impression everything was going very well and everyone was very satisfied (this was about five months ago).

However, in a recent visit, I discovered both postdocs have decided to leave the lab (and also explicitly regret joining it), mostly due to disagreement about the way the research is conducted. I think it might be important to note that we're all pretty sure that the PI has some form of Asperger's, which is evident mostly in communication difficulties. While all of their students stressed that they are a very nice, generous person, who is always willing to help with whatever (and also well-funded), they also claim what was once seen as shyness and introvertness (which can be dealt with) is now being seen as mostly lack of understanding, direction, and general vagueness on part of the PI (i.e., not really having a clear direction of where the lab research should go or a good enough understanding of neuroscience).

The last PhD student and I get along very well, and they claim I shouldn't be too worried and mostly be prepared to work independently; however, I get the feeling they are also quite worried about the situation.

So I guess my question is: have I made a wrong choice? How worried should I be? I'm torn between moving forward with the program, and in the worst case moving labs after a year, and between giving up on this specific lab right now and trying to find other options. As I mentioned before, this is more complicated by the fact I would be moving abroad for this PhD, which includes quite a lot of pre-planning.

Thanks

Some additional information that may or may not be important:

I really like the PI, and we seem to get along well (as much as is possible with them).
The PI comes from a background in Physics, while their post-docs was in neuroscience. They don't have many publications, but those that they do have are in really highly-regarded journals. They are also very open to answering questions, but you need to be very direct in your questions.
One postdocs has a background in physics, while the other in psychology and neuroscience.

The main result of  a PhD program is not a PhD thesis, it is a PhD-level scientist. In other words, you.

Your PhD is about you learning to be a researcher. It's about things you pick up from supervisor and the lab: research methods, writing styles, professionalism, passion, attitude.

The postdocs in the same lab may have different goals than you, different experience, different needs and expectations from/towards PI. Their decisions are their own.

For the sake of example, let me exaggerate a bit. Imagine you also had a  college student in your lab, and your PI happened to be a great college teacher, spending a lot of time explaining some basic maths to the student. The student would probably genuinely  benefit from this, but as a PhD student, you could feel yourself a little bit overlooked.  Is not it what your postdoc colleagues might've feel at the moment? Is it possible for a PI to be equally perfect for all members of the lab? To what extent this all-round excellence matters for you?

Maybe, reflecting on these questions helps you to find the right decision. Good luck.