Datasets:

---

flax-sentence-embeddings

/

stackexchange_title_body_jsonl

like 0

Follow

Flax-sentence-embeddings 28

[ "What types of higher than undergarduate degrees look exceptionally good relative to other equal level degrees?", "I've heard a few people get exceptional job offers (huge pay and great benefits) just by getting a masters in certain fields. This has happened more than once. They describe a wild job offer as though their grades and institution (inside the US) had little or no impact. Instead, it was more about the degree title alone. (If I recall correctly, one individual was not even interviewed. The employer saw they had a PhD in some field, and gave them an incredible offer.) \n\nTo be more specific, which masters or PhD level degree did you have observed graduates get exceptional (almost over the top) job offers? Also, why do you think that degree is viewed so highly?" ]

[ "career-path" ]

[ "Easiest way to get a bibtex citation of a paper that scholar is still not showing its proper published paper?", "For some reason, even papers published in very places like ICLR, still don't get updated on scholar, for example "HOW POWERFUL ARE GRAPH NEURAL NETWORKS?" paper still shows as arxiv in scholar.\nso what is the easiest way for me to get the bibtex citation of these type of papers that scholar still don't update their published place, other than writing it myself? (I know, I'm lazy)" ]

[ "citations", "google-scholar", "latex" ]

[ "Australian Honours degree for admission into European PhD programs", "I have currently completed a Bachelor's degree in mathematics in Australia and want to go onto do a PhD in pure mathematics in Belgium or Germany. I need to either complete my Honours degree next year at my current university or move elsewhere to do a Masters degree as my current university doesn't offer Masters. I want to stay at my current university due to having good research opportunities here, however, I am concerned I won't be admitted to a PhD program at the universities I want to go to with only a Bachelor Honours degree (4 years).\n\nThe universities I want to apply to require Masters for admission, however, state that degrees of minimum 4 years in length considered equivalent may be accepted. Upon contacting these universities with my issue, they essentially just reiterate the information already provided on their website, and it seems I just need to apply to the program to truly find out whether my degree will be considered sufficient for admission or not. \n\nDoes anyone know if Australian Honours degrees would generally be considered equivalent to European Masters degrees, at least in Belgium and Germany? Also, does anyone know if it is common for students to be turned away from admission to a PhD due to only having an Honours degree, assuming they have good results and research experience?" ]

[ "phd", "graduate-admissions", "germany", "australia", "belgium" ]

[ "The position I applied for was advertised as Associate Professor with Tenure, but now they’re saying it’s tenure-track Associate Professor", "I am an associate professor, who has received tenure in the US in 2014. After receiving tenure, I moved to Europe to help my family with some health issues, and found an associate professor position in a country where tenure is 'by law' meaning the position cannot be revoked or taken away. I am now looking to return to North America, and have begun to apply for associate professor job openings.\n\nI have applied for a position as tenured associate professor. I interviewed and was told I was selected by the department as their top candidate. However, the dean at the new institution just emailed me that the new position will be associate professor \"tenure-track,\" meaning I would need to apply for tenure within 4 years.\n\nClearly, what I had applied for is not what I am being offered. In my view, there is a flaw in their advertising. The position description clearly stated \"the University of X invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor or Tenured Associate Professor in....\"\n\nWhile I understand that each university has its own interest in mind, this seems like a very bad start of a relationship. If I accepted this demotion, I would probably do so with some resentment. The University in question is academically equal to the one I first received tenure from. \n\nI am seeking advice on how to respond to this proposition and would be very grateful to hear people's opinions." ]

[ "tenure-track", "associate-professor" ]

[ "Dr. ‹First Name›: a good nickname or a \"professional cancer\"?", "Is the informal Dr. ‹first name› something a starting academic should avoid?\n\nAs my father was Dr. ‹my last name›, I have, since receiving my PhD, cultivated Dr. ‹my first name›. A senior colleague recently advised me to stop: she called this unprofessional, and suggested that over time it would be a significant drain on my academic career. She went so far as to label this kind of informality a \"professional cancer\".\n\nContext: I am an engineer and social scientist based in the USA, but I work with colleagues in Europe and Asia regularly.\n\nWhile I feel that is hyperbole, I have discussed this with several trusted advisers. The responses have been polarized. Concerns raised include sacrificing respect, confusing personal branding (I have a memorable last name), and making more formal colleagues uncomfortable. Is this a real mistake I'm in the process of making? Is this a simple age division issue? Might the informal name actually be a benefit?" ]

[ "phd", "united-states", "titles", "personal-name" ]

[ "Academic Interview: What is your Greatest Weakness?", "A common interview question is \"What is your greatest weakness?\". Having done some online research on this, there are lots of articles on how to tackle this with generic job interviews, and the idea is to turn a negative into a positive. Some examples have been: \"I'm not great at public speaking, but have been attending evening classes to improve\", \"I have trouble managing my work-life balance, but have recently been working on a more careful personalised timetable\", and \"I have not been great with deadlines, but I now give myself a personal deadline of 24 hours in advance\".\n\nHowever, academic interviews are often very specific, and focus on research, publications, collaborations, outreach, teaching etc. What are some examples of how to answer this question well, which are specific to academic interviews (e.g. for a postdoc / lectureship / professorship)?" ]

[ "job", "interview" ]

[ "Who to ask for letters of recommendation when changing fields after PhD?", "I want to apply to competitive postdoc programs in a different field than the one of my PhD. It asks for 3 recommendation letters. What to do if none of my collaborators is well-known in the target field/institutes?\n\nI do have some papers \"in between fields\", but I didn't have enough opportunity to pursue this interest during my PhD (so neither papers nor collaborators are world-recognized).\n\nExcept for advisor, should I aim for:\n\n\ncollaborators in my main field (they won't be recognized in the target field, much less - target institution),\nor collaborators from the cross-disciplinary paper (they won't be recognized either, but are from the right field),\nor the most recognized profs in the target field (with whom I have been talking, but not collaborating)?" ]

[ "career-path", "postdocs", "recommendation-letter", "changing-fields" ]

[ "faculty position: personal statement in the cover letter of a job application", "I am applying for a position in a state where my spouse is. Would it be a good idea to mention this fact in the cover letter so that they know that I am really interested in the position? I just want to make sure that it doesn't go against me.\n\nThanks." ]

[ "job-search", "faculty-application" ]

[ "How economically efficient is the grant system?", "I wonder if someone (or eventually some country, organisation, etc ...) already evaluated the costs of the system of grants. \n\n\nIt costs at least the salary of the researcher who writes and gets the grant\nbut also the salary of all the researchers who didn’t get it, and could have done something else than writing a proposal\nplus the costs in administration (e.g. the National Contact Point(s) in Europe at several places in each country)\nplus the cost of organising the referral (travels, meetings, ...)\nplus the cost of the grant itself, of course.\n\n\nOn the positive side, of course the entire society benefits from a completed grant.\n\nSo my questions are:\n\n\nAre there some studies about the economical efficiency of the grant system?\nWhat are their conclusions?\nHow much does the granting costs?\nAre there other system evaluated?\n\n\nPartially related questions : \n\n\nHow much time do researchers spend on writing grants?\nHow to quantify the loss in productivity due to time spent on writing proposals\n\n\nbut this question is really about the economy of research and factual investigations about the system of grants, not about feeling from researchers." ]

[ "funding", "reference-request", "productivity" ]

[ "Recent data supported by media report, not by peer-reviewed article?", "In the letter of intent for the dissertation proposal, the student reports data about the number of minority hires for x-number of program positions in the upcoming season. The source for the data is a sports newscast from February 2020; the season starts in September 2020.\nThe chair wanted a peer-reviewed article (not the newscast) for this data.\nWe (the student and I) have been unsuccessful in finding peer-reviewed articles for this data. Presumably (because we can't think of any other reason), such an article or article is elusive because the hiring event is so recent.\nThe recent data is truly relevant to the study.\nWhat is an acceptable way for this dilemma to be reconciled? Initial thoughts are to cite more than one news source.\nNote: This is a no-hurt feelings zone. If the question needs to be rephrased to comply with stackexchange guidelines, then ok. And if that is the case, then please give guidance." ]

[ "citations", "peer-review", "online-resource", "research-proposal" ]

[ "Austrian PhD without undergraduate degree?", "The Austrian school system used to not have undergraduates. So when graduated from a high school, you just got in a Master's program for about 2 years and then PhD program for about 4 years. However, we called it \"Master\" and \"PhD\". So it means that \"it is a PhD degree in Austria\", but by American standards, it is actually \"a Master's degree\". Should I still list as \"PhD\" degree on my CV?" ]

[ "degree", "austria" ]

[ "PhD application to Austrian University", "I have a master's degree and I would like to study for a doctorate in Austrian universities and among the questions that are in the application is \"Where do you want to carry out your project ? (library, archive, institute)\". \n\nHow can I answer this question?" ]

[ "application", "university" ]

[ "What incentives do professors have to increase the PhD completion rate in their department?", "In other words:\n\n\n How do professors profit if a larger (rather than smaller) proportion of entering PhD students in their department complete their degree?\n\n\n(At my department at least, it seems like the only benefit is \"warm-glow altruism\". A professor gains no more from having more students at her department complete their PhDs than I do by having fewer stray dogs in my town getting killed by traffic. A professor's career prospects does not seem in any way affected by whether 80% rather than just 50% of PhD students complete their degree. Not surprisingly, the completion rate, at least at my department, is closer to the latter.)\n\nNote: I am not asking whether it is a good idea to give professors stronger incentives to increase PhD completion rate. Neither am I asking for suggestions as to how PhD completion rates can be increased. Rather, I am asking what the incentives at present are (granting of course that this varies from place to place)." ]

[ "phd", "professors", "degree" ]

[ "What is the possibility of being rejected by Graduate school if a professor has already acclaimed to give me a RA offer", "I have passed several loops of evaluation by a professor, who would like to be my future advisor. He told me that he made his final decision on me and was pleased to offer me a RA position in his lab. He asked me to submit my application and he could expedite the application so that I could get the admission quickly. But I have a weakness of undergraduate GPA(3.01/4, he didnt ask for any transcript information during our connection). I'm waiting for the admission information but very uptight about the result. I'm super worried about being rejected by the graduate school because of my undergraduate gpa." ]

[ "phd", "graduate-admissions" ]

[ "Can a poster and publication have the same title?", "Can a poster and its related publication have the same title or do they have to be different?" ]

[ "publications", "titles", "poster" ]

[ "Quantity vs Quality of Publication during PhD", "My question is similar to this one but it applies to PhD who wants to find a postdoc position after graduation.\n\nI am a PhD student who publishes a new paper as soon as there is an improvement in my research. Each year, I manage to publish 2 or 3 papers into high quality conferences but not the top one in my field.\n\nRecently, a senior researcher suggests me to combine few improvements into one paper so that it will have more improvements in comparison to the previous one. It will result in less papers per year but increase the difference in term of research contribution between them. She argues that, in order to get into a good postdoc programme, the quality of paper is more important than the quantity and I should aim for top conference in the field with very high quality paper instead of good-but-not-great conference.\n\nI wonder if my colleague's suggestion is correct and I should reduce the number of published papers per year in order to increase the difference in research contribution between them.\n\nMy field is computer science but answers from other fields are also welcome." ]

[ "publications", "research-process", "postdocs" ]

[ "Is it possible to get into graduate school for math with a non-math UG degree?", "I'm an undergraduate biology and chemical engineering dual major student. I recently got into pure math while I was researching patterns in biology which lead me down the rabbit hole of fractals and non-Euclidean geometry and eventually, lead me to number theory. I really enjoy the subjects. Is it possible for me to pursue my graduate studies in pure math? If so, what would be the necessary steps I should take to do the same? I am in my second year of studies and I do intend to take the GRE Math Subject test but I would really appreciate any other advice you could give me. Also, switching majors is not an option because my uni doesn't have a good math program. If you are reading this, I hope you have a nice day ahead." ]

[ "phd", "graduate-admissions", "mathematics", "masters" ]

[ "Is it a good or bad idea to list declined fellowships (for a PhD program) on one's curriculum vitae?", "E.g. as shown in the example here.\n\n\n \n 2011—Centennial Fellowship, Princeton University Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (accepted)\n 2011—Top Student Award, University of Washington (declined)\n 2011—Program in Climate Change Fellowship, University of Washington (declined)\n 2011—Faculty Fellowship, Columbia University (declined)\n 2011—Charney Prize, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (declined)\n 2011—Regents Fellowship, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (declined)\n 2011—Chair’s Award, Stanford University Department of Earth and Environmental System Science (declined)" ]

[ "cv" ]

[ "Making your code publicly available: Does it have to undergo review?", "In cases when the authors would like to make their code available online after it is published, is it recommended for authors to make their code available for review when they submit technical papers for review and possible publication? \n\nSide Note: The author may not necessarily choose to include his code for review because he is \"hiding\" something. The author may have questions like: (1) Is it the responsibility of the reviewer to review code? (2) What if one of the reviewers proves treacherous with the code? Even if he doesn't replicate the idea, he could add a few things to it and publish it without approving the initial submission for acceptance. For instance it had happened that a reviewer rejected a paper and now wants to publish an extension of such work. The rights of the author has to be respected to the letter especially for example a PhD contribution. The author must be confident that all these are addressed. Also, it is usually assumed that a good research is reproducible even when the code is not made available. Besides, several papers have earned the \"respect\" of researchers far and wide - and their source codes were not published." ]

[ "publications", "peer-review", "copyright", "online-publication", "code" ]

[ "How normal is it to get email replies in ungrammatical English by a high indexed journal (in the context of lack of communication)?", "I submitted a brief report (2,000 words) to a high-indexed journal and after some five days sent an email stating that a preprint for the manuscript had been uploaded. A journal assistant replied he was to get back to me on the preprint as soon as they heard from the assigned editor (I thought: Whatever, it’s just a preprint notification.) However, after 20 days, there was no reply, and after a month, the manuscript was still at the With Editor stage.\nI sent a short email to check whether an editor had been assigned and received the following reply: “Dear XY, Th editor has mailed to patience that he is working on the same. Best, XY” After the email, the status of the manuscript changed to "In Review". How would you interpret this?" ]

[ "peer-review", "journals", "paper-submission", "editors" ]

[ "How to request a professor who has moved colleges to acknowledge project work?", "At the end of last semester , I had taken up some research work under a professor of a different department. \n\nNow , I had been updating him with my progress on a weekly basis until my final exams arrived , due to which I was forced to put a hold on the project work. \nAfter my final exams got over, I came to know that the professor has moved colleges. \n\nSo, I was thinking of mailing him the progress I have made on the project. Now , the issue is there has been almost a month since he moved colleges but I have anyway been constantly working on the project.\n\nIf I manage to get him to acknowledge my work and get a recommendation from him, it would be pretty neat. So how do I go about framing the email?" ]

[ "professors", "research-undergraduate", "communication", "projects" ]

[ "In creating a Google Scholar profile, should I use my personal email address or my university email address?", "I want to create a Google Scholar profile. As far as I can tell, such profiles are not transferable from email address to email address. Should I use my personal email (Gmail) account, which I will hopefully have for the rest of my life? Or should I use my university email, which is actually hosted and maintained by Google? I am a post-doc and will be at my university for the foreseeable future -- probably for a few years, but not forever.\n\nI have a personal Gmail account (e.g., [email protected]).\nMy university's email addresses are hosted by Google. (My university email address is [email protected], but it is hosted and maintained by Google" ]

[ "google-scholar" ]

[ "What's the point of conferences on a CV?", "I've seen many academic CVs list the conferences the individual participated in, and I can't help but wonder how is this information useful? I can understand citing journal articles because this gives information as to the type of research the individual is doing, but I have no clue as to why listing conferences adds anything." ]

[ "conference", "cv" ]

[ "Should I email a group regarding issues in work they've cited?", "(Preface: I'm just an undergraduate, so none of this actually matters; it just seemed an interesting case study.)\nAbout years ago, a lab published a very unexpected result (in, I should add, a predatory journal).\nLast year, another lab produced some evidence to support the paper (in, I should add, an even worse predatory journal, which doesn't matter except that they might not have heard of some of the issues in peer-review).\nI failed to replicate the original results. There seem to be some subtle but serious issues with the original paper that might explain this; but I don't intend to publish this rough work. In particular, the method used in the original work is notorious for false positives.\nI recently found out from funding reports that the other lab is still working on the phenomena and are probably done with their data-taking by now.\nIs it even remotely good practice to send a quick email to the other lab with concerns?\n(I wouldn't be concerned about bad work in C- journal, but this has some recent relevance.)" ]

[ "research-process", "etiquette" ]

[ "The usage of a literally incorrect phrase to simplify the meaning in manuscripts", "I am writing a survey paper in computer science, where I frequently use the sentence: \n\n\n ....videos that are taken from uncalibrated monocular moving cameras....\n\n\nIn long sentences, the above phrase makes the meaning very complex. I found in some papers:\n\n\n ....uncalibrated monocular moving videos....\n\n\nAlthough this phrase is not literally correct (because the adjectives should describe the camera, not the videos), it is widely used. I would like to know, whether this usage is OK in order to make the sentences shorter." ]

[ "publications", "computer-science", "writing", "writing-style" ]

[ "Is it possible to get into Psychology research after a PhD in HCI (human computer interaction)?", "I'm very interested in psychology research, especially exploring patterns and reason of behaviour, and mechanisms of human mind. During my PhD, I spent considerable amount of time exploring cognitive and neuropsychology literature, and conducted quite a few behavioural and user studies. I'm very confident of my skills in designing experiments and statistics.\n\nMy questions are:\n\n\nIs it possible to be employed by a psychology department merely with\nthese skills and knowledge? \nShould I rather try other types of jobs\nwhich could compromise between my interest and skills?\n\n\nA little bit more about my background: I did one-year taught master course in psychology, but both my undergraduate and PhD were in computer science departments." ]

[ "career-path", "changing-fields", "psychology" ]

[ "Can I keep items purchased out of my startup funds?", "I am a new faculty in US based university. Surprisingly, when I arrived to my new office, there was no computer in it. I wonder, if I will buy a computer with my startup, would I be able to keep it for myself when I will leave the university?" ]

[ "funding" ]

[ "Teacher put all of the answers to the homework in white font?", "We have Science homework due tomorrow and it's basically a \"fill in the boxes\" homework about energy in Microsoft Word. Well, my friends and I quickly realised that the teacher had put all of the answers in white font in the boxes. So, all we need to do is change the font to black and there's our homework.\n\nI really don't know if this was an accident, intentional or a trap to test which of us are honest or not. So what do I do?\n\nDo I just turn the font to black, read it over and laugh at how easy it was, or do I delete the boxes and actually try? I know which one I should do, of course, but if all the people in my class have done that and the answers are the same, what do I do?" ]

[ "homework" ]

[ "Internships for PhD students (e.g. in data science or programming)", "I still have 2-2.5 years of my PhD program, but it want to try my skills in programing, especially in the taste of data science (needless to say, I do it overnight for some hobby projects and I like it a lot). \n\nMoreover, as working in companies may seem as one of the options \"what to do after getting PhD\", I would be nice to test how does it work for me in practice, and to learn skills, network, etc.\n\nIs there such a thing as internships (e.g. in data science or programming) for PhD students?\n\nIf so, where to search for them?\n\n(If it changes anything, I'm doing PhD in EU; but US would be a nice target.)" ]

[ "phd", "career-path", "internship", "programming" ]

[ "Why Elsevier Journals don't change status of a paper?", "Why Elsevier Journals don't change status of a paper?\n\n\nI am new to this publishing world and I don't have much knowledge in this field.\nI am Junior Researcher.\n\nI communicated only one paper until now in Elsevier Journal.\n\nMy question is \"Do Elsevier Journals not change status of a manuscript\"?\n\nI have submitted my manuscript nearly 5 months back and it is still showing the status \"With Editor\"\n\nI am kinda confused whats going on.\n\nHow will a researcher come to know about its status?\n\nI did mail the Editor two times but got no reply.\n\nWhat should I do? Should I continue waiting and hope that one day I will get some reply and status will change?\n\nDo all Elsevier Journals keep the same status from Day 1 until acceptance which is \"With Editor\"?" ]

[ "peer-review" ]

[ "Acceptence of cross-major master application in Germany", "I am planing to apply for a Master of Computer Science in Germany, as an undergrads with a major in Physics. Although I have taken a bunch of CS courses covering core concepts such as programming languages, data structures & algorithm, networking and databases, with an additional exchange experience with its major in CS, transferring from a theoretical science to a applied engineering is still not a minor gap. Some people are saying German universities are rather harsh compared to Americans in terms of openness to cross-major application. Therefore I would like to know it is really so difficult?" ]

[ "graduate-admissions", "computer-science", "germany" ]

[ "When should someone be a coauthor instead of being in the acknowledgements?", "We had a master's student working on our project. He set up a database for us, and wrote some of the initial code with me in a pair programming session. At one point, he had more commits to the repository than any of the other students working on the project. Then he went to do an internship for the summer, and after that my advisor did not want to keep him on the project for some reason, even though I thought he was friendly and easy to work with.\n\nMy advisor chose not to list him as a coauthor, and put him in the acknowledgements section instead. However, there was another guy (a professor) who didn't write any code at all, and wasn't there throughout most of the project, but he wrote the introduction and related work sections for us, and he got listed as a coauthor, even though he probably did a day's worth of work on the project (maybe two). In fact, my advisor gave him the coveted last author position, even though my advisor came up with the idea and directed the whole project.\n\nWhat determines who gets put as a coauthor, and who gets put in the acknowledgement sections?" ]

[ "authorship" ]

[ "How do I tactfully tell my advisor (who's much busier than I am) that I'm too busy to do such-and-such?", "I recognize my advisor is busier than I am. But, nonetheless, I feel the need to tell her sometimes that I am overloaded with too many tasks and I need to push a deadline back or pass on some request.\n\nHow do other people handle this tactfully?" ]

[ "phd", "advisor", "email", "time-management" ]

[ "recommendations for increasing the visibility and ranking of a faculty?", "I was wondering what it really matters for a university to climb in the university rankings, for example in Science fields such as Mathematics, Physics or Computer Science?\nI found that there are the following different services to let people know about lecturer's research in a Faculty:\n\n\nGoogle Scholar, I believe that one can put here even articles not peer-reviewed\nScopus, the service indexed by Elsevier\nWebofScience, I have not used directly, but I believe is somewhat like Scopus\n\n\nBut I believe that services like Google Scholar are like arXiv, in the way that one can put a link to any research paper that one has made irrelevant if it was a good conference or not.\n\nIt is not better to aim to conferences that would be indexed in Scopus, DBLP, or that will use Scimago to raise the score of an institucion? \n\nSo what is the recommendation in these cases, to try that the papers are indexed in well known sites or a new faculty should only aim to have web presence?" ]

[ "ranking" ]

[ "How long should a professor stay?", "When you accept a tenure-track position in the USA, how long are you expected to stay? Does it look bad if you change jobs a couple times after a few years at each university? Is there an unspoken standard?" ]

[ "professors", "career-path" ]

[ "Withdrawing paper from a conference after presentation due to error", "Please refer to the following link for details. I am planning to send an e-mail to the conference chairs regarding my withdrawal. \nI wanted to seek help from the experts in the community for drafting the e-mail since I believe that it should be very carefully crafted since it is going to cause inconvenience to the conference committee(even though I haven't submitted the copyright form and the paperwork hasn't started yet).\n\nWhat are the details that I should include in my e-mail? Do I need to be specific about the error or just write that I've discovered an error in the paper(considering the fact that I will continue to work on the paper and submit it to a journal)? Also, what possible responses should I expect from them?\nAny help would be highly appreciated. I am having problems sleeping since the day I've discovered the error and cannot concentrate on my work. I just want to make the fact explicit and move ahead." ]

[ "publications", "conference", "research-undergraduate", "errors-erratum" ]

[ "What is \"technology in the classroom\" that so many job applications ask for?", "I am applying for academic mathematics positions, and I noticed that a few job applications ask for experience using technology in the classroom.\n\nWhat use of \"technology\" in the classroom are these hiring committees looking for in an applicant?\n\nThe only things I can think of for mathematics is the use of computing programs, or videos and demonstrations shown on a projector." ]

[ "teaching", "job-search", "faculty-application", "application-cover-letter", "technology" ]

[ "Recommendation letter for application to CS graduate program from professors in math?", "I graduated from Dept A with a master degree, and then pursued a PhD in Dept B (which is applied math). But I left the PhD program in B this fall. I am now applying to some CS master programs (including some professional master programs and non-professional ones).\n\nMy research in Dept A used some computer programming and machine learning methods, although A isn't CS. In Dept B, however, most of my experiences were taking courses and doing TA, and very little research in stochastic processes.\n\nI asked my previous research advisor in Dept A for a letter of recommendation. He politely say no, because we didn't have academic interaction in the last three years after I joined Dept B. Also I guess that the fact that I didn't finish PhD in Dept B may be another reason. Note that he recommended me when I applied to PhD program in Dept B, and he knew little about computer programming. \n\nSo I find some professors in Dept B, whom I took probability and stochastic processes courses from or was a TA for. I was wondering if their recommendation letter will help my application to a CS master program (including some professional master programs and non-professional ones), given that these are two different areas and my experience with CS was mostly from my master study in Dept A?\n\nDoes recommendation from my previous research advisor in Dept A really not help much, because our collaboration was too old, compared to recommendation from the professors in Dept B?\n\nWhat if I am applying to PhD Programs in Statistics, instead of CS master programs?" ]

[ "graduate-admissions", "recommendation-letter" ]

[ "Potential supervisor replied but did not explicitly say if he is ready to supervise", "I sent an email to a potential supervisor for PhD in Computer Science with a concise introduction, research I am exploring and a brief about how one of his publication is relevant to my research. Put in some good question around it as well. Then I asked if he is willing to take PhD candidates in his lab.\n\nI received a response within half an hour of sending the mail. Though the content is a bit ambiguous. It says, \"Thanks. There is just one position available in a particular stream. So please go ahead and apply.\"\n\nHow do I interpret it? Does this mean he is ready to supervise? He didn't put in any response to my question though. How do I reply to him further as I'll have to mention in the application if the supervisor is ready to take me in." ]

[ "phd", "graduate-admissions" ]

[ "Re-typesetting an old paper, what to do with the result?", "I am using an old paper, published in 1986.\nIt is in the form of a \"Letter to Nature\" (which is a scientific journal).\nIt doesn't appear to be typeset in TeX, at least not TeX as we know it today.\nFurthermore, it is a scanned copy, so it is just a image, embedded as a PDF.\nThe lack of multiline equations, and highlight-able text is getting to me.\n\nI'm considering re-typesetting it myself by hand in LaTeX (it is quite short)\nfor my own benefit and understanding.\n\nThe paper is still being cited today, and is used in university courses to teach the subject. It seems a waste to have gone to the effort to retype it neater, and then just leave it in my draws.\nIf I re-typeset it, what can/should I do with the new version?\n\nCan I host it online myself (giving full credit to the authors)?\nShould I send a copy to authors, for them to do with as they will?\nAre there issues with the fact that it has been published in Nature? Perhaps they have some copyright on it?" ]

[ "publications", "copyright", "latex" ]

[ "How to learn the format of a scientific paper, to emulate it?", "I'm a high school student, and I'm planning on doing a few simple chemistry experiments in my spare time (not as a part of any class). I thought it might be fun to write up a faux-paper on one or more of them. Unfortunately, I don't know anything about the format of real scientific papers - are there any guides I could read? How standardized is paper format?" ]

[ "writing-style" ]

[ "Do I add an acknowledgement upon initial submission? (to an anonymous review)", "When do I add anacknowledgement to a (philosophy of science) article?. Even though the acknowledgement does not specify my name, it does say something about where the work was done. Do I add the acknowledgement only when the article is accepted?" ]

[ "acknowledgement" ]

[ "acknowledgement part of thesis", "I am going to prepare the draft my Ph.D thesis and plan to submit it to my PhD advisor. Should I write the acknowledgement part in the first draft, or it must be written in the final draft?" ]

[ "thesis", "acknowledgement" ]

[ "Why is online course enrollment limited to specific times when a course is offered?", "Online course providers like edX and coursera offer free courses, but you can only take/enroll the courses at specific times of the year (not any time). Why is that? If you just want to learn something (not for a degree in accredited institutions), it would be much easier if you could do it online anytime." ]

[ "online-learning", "mooc" ]

[ "Can you ever get funded while you are in a different country?", "I'm not quite sure where this question fits, but is it possible in any field to get funded while you are abroad? As a post-doc is it possible to get funded say while you work remotely? I'm mainly talking in the EU.\n\nThis is purely hypothetical I'm just curious if this would ever be possible for any scientist. Maybe more possible for a theorist, someone who doesn't need a lab or equipment." ]

[ "postdocs" ]

[ "Efficient method to receive alerts for new publications", "I am currently using Google Scholar to receive alerts (emails) for new publications in my field. However, to my understanding (I might be wrong) Google Scholar doesn't allow to:\n\n\nUse regular expression\n\nmight very useful for looking at variants (noun, adjective, adverb) of the word of interest\n\nIndicate the field where the matching pattern should be found\n\n\nauthor name: if you write the name of an author, you just get all the paper that (s)he publish and all the papers that cite him/her. Also, if the author has a short and common name such as Do then, Google Scholar will basically send tons of articles.\ntitle: If I am looking for a concept that is used in a whole lot of different papers but only few papers really work on it such as the word evolution for example, then it would be useful to be able to ask for publications that contain the word evolution in the title only.\nJournal: Well... because we all have our favourite journals.\n\nUse AND and OR statements\n\n\nSuch as for example: Give me all new publications which author is John Smith AND where the word action potential is present in the title OR the article has neurophysiology as a keyword. Something like author: John Smith AND (title: action potential OR keyword: neurophysiology)\n\n\n\nThere are probably various algorithms that can be found online that would allow one to receive alerts for new publications. Can you give me recommendations of what (and why) is best to use for receiving alerts?\n\n\n\nFYI: My field is evolutionary biology and more precisely theoretical population genetics. I am particularly bothered by the fact that I am working on the concept of robustness in evolutionary developmental biology but the word robustness has meaning in so many different sciences and I just receive tons of alerts that are no relevant to my work." ]

[ "publications", "email", "literature-search" ]

[ "How do I go about getting into the engineering field with only a design degree from almost a decade ago?", "Due to health problems, I wasn't able to study well enough during my teenage years + 20s and I did not study or pursue something that truly interests me; instead I just graduated with a degree because it was easier for me at that time. My passion has always been in science - especially Robotics/Engineering or Physics. It has been bothering me for years and I know I can't get this thought out of my head unless I give it a try. I've been saving up money to study again and now I have the chance to do it, but I don't know how or where to start, not to mention I don't even know if it's \"wise\" to do it in my 30s. \n\nMy thinking is to ultimately get into a graduate program at a decent school; but before I do that, I'll need to have a foundation in math and science, and possibly a second degree in engineering or some relevant field. I tried so hard to find a school in the US that offers second degree in engineering but still didn't have luck, except for the ones that are less reputable in this field, and I'm not sure if it's going to be a problem when I try to apply for a more reputable grad program. So I assume it would probably take me 5-6 years. And by the time I graduate, I will be in my late 30s. I'm not worried about how much time I'm going to spend but I need to know if it's a field that welcomes older people to seek entry level employment after they graduate. Is there anything wrong with my \"plan\"? If so, what would be a better approach for me to do this? Any recommendations on schools/programs and how to go about it is highly appreciated! Thanks a lot!" ]

[ "graduate-admissions", "graduate-school", "engineering" ]

[ "Details an applicant should include/exclude in an introductory letter to a prospective grad school adviser?", "I'm applying for graduate school (PhD in computer science), and I'm considering writing to faculty whose research areas match with what I intend to pursue, to understand:\n\n\nWhether they'd be looking for new students at all in the coming year?\nIf they did, would they be potentially interested in my profile (I know no-one would guarantee an acceptance without me going through the process of application), but it would help to know if they would not be interested at all in me - which would leave me free apply to other schools in which I get a neutral/positive response.\n\n\nKeeping the above in mind, what would be the best way to introduce myself in the first mail?\n\n\nWhat should be the salutation - I know \"Respected Sir\" sounds archaic, but was wondering if \"Dear Professor X\" sounded too informal or not!\nDo I state my credentials (details of where I did my undergrads/masters) first, or do I state my purpose in writing to him/her?\nHow to mention my background concisely, without giving too much details, while at the same time not \"underselling\" myself as a potential grad student?\nI want to give a link to my resume/profile hosted on my website - should I embed the hyperlink, or is it better to write the link in plain text?\nHow do I end such a letter - the obvious ones (such as \"see you soon\" or \"till we meet again\") being not quite suitable in this case)?\n\n\nI'm basically afraid of saying too much (causing vexation) or too little (resulting in no response to my missive). I understand that the faculty are accustomed to seeing their inbox flooded with such mails each year, few of which ever get a positive response - which may not always be due to lack of an interesting profile, but the manner in which the mail is worded (Many professors have explicitly mentioned on their websites that they would not respond to generic \"Do you have funding\" type of queries no matter what the credentials of the student are!). \n\nThough my interest is specific to CS, I believe it would apply to other fields as well. Also, I would be interested in the opinions of both present faculty members (who have to sort through such mails), and past applicants to grad-school (who have the experience of successfully writing to their advisers before applying)..." ]

[ "graduate-school", "phd", "advisor", "application" ]

[ "Can I update my research paper before the camera ready date?", "I am trying to finalize the last version of my accepted paper. I have followed the suggestions that I got from the reviewers. While I am editing, I found that a relevant research paper that could benefit my argument if I include it in the related work. \n\nI am just asking if it is ok to extend my reference list (one of the references is self-citation) will it have any bad implications?" ]

[ "publications", "journals", "peer-review", "conference" ]

[ "Should I change my Ph.D. department to better reflect the nature of my project?", "I am in the first year of my Ph.D. program and, if everything goes well, in the end I will get my Ph.D. in Civil Engineering. \n\nThe problem is that my project, beside finding application to building materials, is way more related to other disciplines, like Physics. In fact, my second supervisor is in the Physics department and physics is also my background. I think that obtaining a Ph.D. in Physics or Materials Science would tell more about the type of research I am doing. \n\nSo my question is, do you think it is possible to keep my project, working in the same departments with the same supervisors, but changing the field in which I will graduate? Or is it the type of research that counts at the end of the day?" ]

[ "phd", "thesis", "changing-fields", "projects" ]

[ "What to do when haven't heard back from potential supervisor who is moving?", "I had contacted a potential supervisor and got a positive response from him. He said that he is interested but he said we should do a skype interview first. He also stated that he is moving to another university in 4 weeks and explained a few conditions and asked if I am still interested. I had no issue with the place or university since I am interested to work with him so I replied and sent my skype id for interview. Its been a week and I haven't heard back from him. I think he might be busy as he said that he will be moving to some other university. \n\nShall I write him again and if yes how do I start the conversation again or shall I wait for his response?." ]

[ "phd", "etiquette", "email" ]

[ "Master's in computer science vs Master's in information technology", "I have a BS in computer science and have been working as a developer for the last 6 months after my graduation. I am interested in pursuing a master's degree and I'm not sure which program, computer science or information technology, would open more academic and professional doors.\n\nI will have ~3 years of relevant experience after completing any program and my job will pay for ~80% of my education. \n\nWhat program have you taken, what doors has it opened? Has it gotten you interviews, or moved you up the ladder faster?" ]

[ "masters", "computer-science" ]

[ "Would it be weird to cold email former students of a prospective advisor?", "I was accepted to a PhD program, and the two professors I mentioned in my application have reached out to me to discuss research. Now I am wondering what is the best way to gather information on them. Is it considered odd to cold email a recently graduated student from the program? Or current students? I'll likely be in the same community as these people for awhile so don't want to be considered strange ...\nBasically, almost all the PhD advice I've come across stresses the importance of talking to an advisor's students. But how do I contact these people? I will be visiting the school but am not sure I will have time to both meet with all of the faculty I'm interested in and their students." ]

[ "phd", "graduate-school", "etiquette", "social-skills" ]

[ "Change of research field", "I am an undergrad physics student and my research experience has mainly been in the field of Condensed Matter Physics. Through the experience I have come to realize that it is not what I want to continue with and wish to change my specialization when I apply for my masters. If I were to contact an advisor from a field different from the one I have some experience working in to join a group for say a Research Masters, will the experience (despite it being in a different field) work in my favour?" ]

[ "graduate-admissions", "research-process", "masters", "research-undergraduate", "changing-fields" ]

[ "Does submitting a paper in Latex format enhance the chances of acceptance?", "If there is an option to submit your paper in either Latex or Word, which format should be given preference? Does it affect the chances of acceptance? My paper relates to computer science & engineering, with a few mathematical formula, diagrams, and tables." ]

[ "paper-submission", "latex" ]

[ "Citing papers, that are cited within a paper?", "I am reading a paper which discussing the change in a specific idea in a field of science over time. I would like to basically summarize the points in the paper but in a smaller fashion by taking some quotes and explaining how they relate to my situation. \n\nFor instance, in the paper I am reading the author said \"in 2002, Stanley and Miikkulainen [SM02b] argued that the topology of a neural network also affects their functionality\" where the tag [SM02b] is a reference to a entry in the author's bibliography. \n\nIs it sufficient to only cite the author of the paper, or do I need to cite both the author of the paper and the author of the paper the author cited in the paper?" ]

[ "research-process", "citations", "writing" ]

[ "Editorial perception/bias regarding preprints in bioinformatics", "The quality of a journal manuscript submission being equal, does posting a preprint on arXiv or bioRxiv hurt your chances of publication in a journal? I'm asking about bioinformatics, for journals such as\n\n\nGenome Biology\nGenome Research (CSHL)\nBMC Bioinformatics\nBioinformatics (OUP)\nPLOS Computational Biology … etc.\n\n\nSo what's the perception regarding having preprints of a paper for the journals in the above list? Do you think it could hurt ones chances slightly for acceptance?\n\nI checked the policy of these journals, and preprints are not considered prior/duplicate publications, and are allowed. On the other hand Cell says they will consider it, but want you to talk to the editor first about your motivations etc. Doesn't sound very open to preprints. And ISMB partners with Cell Systems as far as I know." ]

[ "publications", "journals", "peer-review", "preprint", "bioinformatics" ]

[ "What is the best way (terminology) for a postdoc (PDRA) to refer to their 'boss'/'supervisor'?", "A postdoc, postdoctoral research assistant in a university on a contract has a supervisor or a boss. They may not be the PI on the grant which pays the salary as it may contain other universities as well. \n\nIn conversation and in email, what is the best term to use for your postdoc boss? Something doesn't seem correct with the term boss or manager, or even supervisor." ]

[ "research-process", "postdocs", "terminology" ]

[ "How can I put my publications into Scopus?", "I've got many papers which are not on Scopus, but are picked up by Google Scholar. How do I include all those other papers into Scopus?" ]

[ "scopus" ]

[ "US statute of Higher Education System", "I'm taking for granted several fact about higher-education system in the US, such as:\n\n\nProfessors can move freely between universities, even ones outside US. They are in this regard like professional football players.\n(Not every country wholeheartedly allows this.) \nLecturers can obtain tenure position. (Some countries are in the habit of \"perpetually in 5-year contracts\") \nThere is such a thing as liberal arts education. (Not all\ncountries have this!) \nAn undergraduate student can take a major and a minor in their study. (Some countries prefer to have only majors)\n...\n\n\nMy question: where can I find documents regarding all these higher education system rules and statute? Which part is governed by the government (state/federal), and which part is decentralized to the univ. management? \n\nLinks to such documents (US/UK/Australia/Can.) or Wikipedia pages would be greatly appreciated.\n\nThanks!" ]

[ "university", "professors", "education", "international", "legal-issues" ]

[ "Font size of text within image/graph for MS Thesis", "Can somebody suggest what should be the optimal font size of text like axis ticks, axis label, legend etc. ?" ]

[ "thesis", "writing", "graphics", "formatting" ]

[ "Is there a \"Rate my Advisor\" type website?", "I am not sure about the incentive effects of websites such as ratemyprof.com, as Professors with tenure may or may not care about undergrad students. However, they may be more serious about graduate students (supervision, co-authorship etc). \n\nDoes a ratemyadvisor type website exist? \n\nThis is important (I think) because relationships between supervisor-supervisee are probably more profound (given the time investment) and have arguably more ramifications on the future (reference letters bear more weight). \n\nAny thoughts are welcome!" ]

[ "phd", "advisor" ]

[ "Letter of recommendations from computer science professor for humanities?", "I am trying to apply for humanities (PhD is pure humanities) graduate school in USA next year. I am going to graduate with a bachelor in computer science. The application requires three letters of recommendation, how am I supposed to get those letters of recommendations? We studied zero humanities subjects. I study in Europe." ]

[ "graduate-admissions", "recommendation-letter" ]

[ "Same review for Math Reviews and Zentralblatt", "I have been serving for several years as a reviewer for both Mathematical Reviews (MathSciNet) and ZbMath.\n\nEarlier this year, I received an invitation for a paper for MR which I already reviewed for ZbMath. I dug up my old review and submitted it to MathSciNet without giving it much thought.\n\nBut there seems to be a pattern emerging. I received an invitation from MR for two more papers I already reviewed for ZbMath.\n\nSo here are my questions:\n\n\nDo the editors of MR know/check who reviewed the paper for ZbMath in order\nto find suitable reviewers?\nWhat do I do about the double reviews? \n\n\nMy idea was to just refuse to write the reviews. But if the answer to the first question would be yes, then the editors know that I have a thorough review lying around. Just resubmitting this one would save a colleague from writing a new one." ]

[ "mathematics", "review-databases" ]

[ "Editor invited after minor revision submitted", "According to editor guideline on springer website \"Accept with minor revisions is actually a commitment to ultimately publish the paper, provided the authors answer the remaining concerns (which should be relatively minor) in a timely and proper way.\" \nHowever, one of my article which was accepted with minor revision is now under \"Editor Invited\" status after the submission of revised version. I sent an email to editor, who was handling my article, he said he can not see revised version on system.\nIs it possible that an article might be handed over to another editor at final stages by journal office without notifying the handling editor?\nHow it can affect the overall review process? Should I expect more delay and more chances of rejection even the decision was Accept with minor revisions?" ]

[ "journals", "peer-review", "editors", "journal-workflow" ]

[ "Can a postdoc change his/her supervisor in Sweden?", "In Sweden, a PhD student can change its supervisor according to the higher education rules and regulations. They actually have quite a lot of rights during their studies. I wanted to know if this is also the case for a Postdoc working at a Swedish university?\nNote that this question is purely about the legal aspects of the matter." ]

[ "phd", "ethics", "postdocs", "supervision", "sweden" ]

[ "Is it okay to ask a professor from another university for class lecture notes of a course that he offered on that university?", "I find two very interesting courses that were offered in the Spring 2019 semester at ETH Zürich. Unfortunately, their class lecture notes are not shared publically. I wonder if it is appropriate to email the professors and ask them for class notes." ]

[ "ethics", "email", "lecture-notes" ]

[ "Doing an individual PhD in Germany from abroad", "In the next months I was planning to start an individual PhD in the Humanities at a German university. However, due to coronavirus restrictions I might not be able (or it might not be advisable) to move there for some months; while remaining in my home country, I might have to get a (non-academic) job in order to support myself.\nHence my question: assuming my potential supervisor agrees to keep most of our interactions virtual (videocalls/mails/etc), with occasional personal meetings, is it possible and feasible to pursue an individual Phd in Germany living (and perhaps working) in another country? As far as I know, both the PhD type (individual doctorate/Einzelpromotion) and the study field (Humanities) may allow for a larger degree of autonomy on the side of the candidate.\nPlease note the question is largely theoretical -- hopefully, I'll be able to move to Germany as soon as possible and find funding or employment there." ]

[ "phd", "graduate-admissions", "advisor", "germany", "covid-19" ]

[ "Updating a Professor on Denying School Offer", "While considering my options, I reached out to a couple professors to inquire on their work. Ultimately, I've opted not to go to the school in question, though I would love to work with that professor in the future, if he is willing to be a co-advisor of sorts. While he has not explicitly said he is willing to work with me, I'd like to send an email informing him of my situation.\n\nI ultimately decided to matriculate [elsewhere], but would love assist you in your future work if at all possible.\n\nI feel this comes off as if I assume he is already willing, but am trying to express the opposite, where the burden of "willingness to collaborate" is on him? If that makes sense? Thanks in advance." ]

[ "graduate-school", "advisor", "email" ]

[ "Is there an Advantage to have a Teaching Statement with References", "I will be on the job market, again, next year. I am looking for a position that emphasizes teaching. I wrote a new teaching statement each year for the past two years since I just graduated with my Ph.D. last year, and I am relatively new to teaching, my teaching philosphy continually changes.\n\nI am including writing a teaching statement that includes references. My teaching statement usually includes a narration of what I actually do in class, and explanation of assignments I give. Education research also informs how I do things in class, and I would like to justify why I do things with references to education papers.\n\nI am in mathematics, and I notice that a lot of math teaching statements do not include references, which makes me think this is out of the norm.\n\nWill my teaching statement be stronger if I provide references? Or will this be unusual and better be left out of my statement?" ]

[ "teaching", "job-search", "teaching-statement" ]

[ "Are magazines (journals) \"Scientific American\" and \"Popular Science\" peer reviewed?", "Wikipedia says that New Scientist publishes articles which are not peer-reviewed.\n\nBut I found no information about \"Scientific American\" (SciAm) and \"Popular Science\" (PopSci)." ]

[ "journals", "peer-review" ]

[ "How to deal with (ex-) supervisor not meeting promise to write reference letter", "Before actually submitting anything, I contacted one of my ex-supervisors and he agreed to write a reference letter for me. That was almost a month ago. Then, the first time he received the invitation to submit a reference for me (invitation self-generated from the online application system), he promised he will submit it \"soon\" with enthusiasm. \n\nHowever, days went by, after two weeks of the initial invitation, nothing was received. I therefore sent a reminder to him and he again said he will submit it in one to two days (he did mention he was a bit busy). Now a week has passed and still nothing. The deadline for getting the reference is closing soon (in two weeks).\n\nWhat should I do? I have options to send him an email reminder personally (I cannot call him because we live in different countries right now). Or I can re-send an invitation via the application system. Which one would be more polite, as well as more effective in getting him to actually write it?" ]

[ "advisor", "recommendation-letter", "deadlines" ]

[ "Should honorifics be included in acknowledgments?", "In the “acknowledgments” section at the end of a paper, I currently have a sentence saying:\n\n\n The authors thank Bob Johnson for discussions and insightful comments\n\n\nHowever, I wonder: Bob’s full name is Robert Z. Johnson, he is a professor and a fellow of the Royal Society. Should his title be used? What about post-nominal letters? And middle initial? Finally, is it “Bob” or “Robert”?\n\nI initially went with “Bob Johnson”, because that’s how everyone calls him (heck, his academic webpage is title “Bob Johnson”!). But is that appropriate?" ]

[ "publications", "etiquette", "acknowledgement" ]

[ "Is it usual that a master’s program refuses to reveal graduation percentage?", "I’m preparing to apply for two master’s programs. For one of the programs, I asked an advisor how many people graduate each year. \n\nI asked because of the 350 people who apply each year about 120 are admitted. (It’s an online master’s.) This is a very high number to me, especially when compared to the other program I’m considering. So it makes me curious how many people actually graduate, which also can give me insight into competition in the workforce.\n\nShe told me they don’t keep records of graduate numbers because it fluctuates from year to year.\n\nThis sounds extremely fishy to me. Is this a common practice for master’s programs?" ]

[ "masters" ]

[ "Will anybody actually read your research and teaching statements?", "When applying to faculty jobs, how much weight is given to your research/teaching statements? Talking with a few folks on admissions committees at Very Good Departments in Big Research Universities, I was told in no uncertain terms that\n\n\nyour letters get you the interview,\nyour talk and individual meetings get you the job,\nnothing else really matters,\n\n\nwhere \"nothing\" includes your research statement, your teaching statement, the content of your publications, or your hairdo. Of course, I am working with a very small sample here. How true is this sentiment? (And if it is true, why keep asking us young folks to write these hackneyed teaching statements that nobody ever reads?) More importantly,\n\nQuestion: For those who have been on faculty hiring committees, what are the actual criteria you use to invite applicants?\n\nBy actual (in bold and italics) I don't mean \"what the job posting specifies\" or \"what the department charter says you're supposed do,\" but rather \"how you actually make these decisions in a meeting right before lunch while preoccupied with a grant proposal due at midnight and the fact that the cafeteria is going to fill up with noisy smelly undergrads if you don't get there soon.\"" ]

[ "job", "application", "job-search", "faculty-application" ]

[ "Writing an Original State of the Art Section When There Are Recent (Meta-)Surveys for the Topic", "Problem\nIn many fields, it is customary that every paper has a section describing the state of the art of the field, to give a background and show familiarity with related works. While sometimes, this can mean an exhaustive enumeration of related works in the area, other times it is more useful to reference literature reviews or surveys. However, this can be a problem: If a recent survey of the field exists, there is the danger of plagiarizing the survey. This is even more of a problem with meta-surveys, since otherwise you might just use several distinct surveys (if available).\nWhat I found\nFor a similar question, one answer proposes referencing both the survey and the original work. However, wouldn't it still look weird if the entire section consists of mainly one reference, that is paired with several others?\nQuestion\nWhich works do you cite in a state of the art section, when there is a recent and thorough survey for the topic of your paper?" ]

[ "citations", "writing", "plagiarism", "literature-review" ]

[ "Is there a viable path to a top Math PhD program through a non-flagship state school", "I know this is a topic frequently talked about here, but I'm coming from a different point than any of the posts I've found so I figured I'd ask.\n\nThis post is less of a \"can I do it?\" question and more of a \"what do I have to do to do it?\". \n\nCurrently I'm finishing up my 3rd year of high school, but graduating a year early because my school doesn't have any more courses along my paths of interest (Math, Physics, Comp Sci). While applying for colleges, I decided to go to UTSA because of some meetings I had with a few of the professors there who said they'd be glad to mentor me into mathematics and that there would be plenty of research opportunities (one of the main focus's of their honors college), and while I know it's not a top 20 school, I really enjoyed my experience there. I'll be entering taking Calc 3, Linear Algebra, and a Proofs course because the school wouldn't let me skip any more than that on my first year before I prove that I can handle it.\n\nOver this last school year I've taught myself Calc 1/2/3, Linear Algebra, and basic proofs and set theory. (Apostol Calc 1/2, Spivak Calc, Velleman Proofs, Greub/Werner Linear Algebra) and want to continue self studying (under supervision of a prof hopefully) while taking my courses. If I spent a solid 6-8 hours a day basically everyday working towards progressing so I can take graduate courses as soon as I can, do you think this would be enough to be able to weasel into a good graduate program assuming I have good test scores, GPA, as much research as I'm able to help with, and participating in the campus math clubs.\n\nBasically, I'm wondering how much I have to make up for a lackluster high school career. During middle school I was near the top of the state in UIL and Mathcouts consistently, but my high school did not have any academics math teams so I missed out on all that.\n\nAnother possibility would be to transfer to UT Austin after my first year to their mathematics program, but I'm not so sure that would be beneficial.\n\nUltimately, academia is the dream, so I'm willing to dedicate myself to seeing it happen if it's possible. \n\nThank you for your help!" ]

[ "graduate-admissions", "mathematics", "united-states" ]

[ "Including travel grants on CV", "In the UK, a number of scientific associations like the Royal Society of Biology or the Institute of Physics offer competitive travel grants to PhD students and early-career researchers. They are typically small in value, around £500. Nevertheless, it is funding that I have independently obtained, and I would like to include such travel grants on my CV for postdoc applications.\nWhat is a good way to include such funding on a CV? I'm not sure if putting them under "grants" is the best approach because that's usually for research funding. Also, should I list all such small awards separately or, if I have several of them, just state that I obtained a number of travel grants totalling £XXX from organisations YYY and ZZZ?" ]

[ "funding", "cv" ]

[ "What does it say about someone that accepts adding their name to a publication without doing any of the work?", "I'm a government researcher in R&D and have spent my career doing and publishing my own work. Some time ago I was asked to take over some research from another scientist that was being transferred. She barely started the work and all I ended up receiving were some rough notes for background info - no actual analysis. I told her that since it was her project at the start, I would add her name to the publication as a co-author.\n\nI have since spent several months doing the research and analysis and am ready to submit the publication. Since I did promise her to add her name, I did so fully expecting her to tell me to remove it since all the work was really mine - I didn't even use her notes. All she did was thank me for adding it.\n\nI guess I'm disappointed in her decision to keep her name on the publication. Is that unethical on her part?" ]

[ "publications", "ethics", "authorship" ]

[ "Do researchers make more mistakes as they continue to work in a discipline?", "I am a PhD student and try to work each and everything in detail. I am facing a problem right now as I am making lots of silly mistakes. In the first year, I made fewer mistakes. In the second year I made more silly mistakes and now in the middle of my PhD I am making lots of silly mistake during presentations and meetings with my supervisor. I think it is due to the fact that I am now reading and understanding things more deeply.\n\nQuestion: How can I better avoid silly and annoying mistakes in my PhD? I am actually surprised to see that in the first year I use to make very less mistake although I use to read more material. Actually right now I don't read very much material I focus on one or theorem, but it appears to me that I am making more mistakes. I don't as these mistake's will be reduced with time or not. One example of a mistake is many times I assume that it is easy to verify but when it comes to verification many times I fails and I have very much difficulty in proving trivial statements ( may not be trivial for others )." ]

[ "phd", "research-process" ]

[ "How long should an academic CV be for someone applying to post-doc positions in Europe?", "I am preparing my CV for applications to post-doc positions in the field of social sciences. I will apply to positions in the EU, mainly in German language countries.\n\nI have updated my CV with my current position and experiences and I am wondering myself how long it should be at the max. Currently, with all details (Experiences in academia and in teaching; my course of education, language skills, a brief summary of my diploma thesis and my dissertation -- about 5 sentences each -- social commitments, IT skills and interests) I reach about 4 pages.\n\nA CV for a job in a company is said to have at a maximum 2 pages. I could not find any hints how long a CV should be for a academic position. Does anyone of you have ideas or experiences how long it should be?" ]

[ "postdocs", "cv", "europe", "social-science" ]

[ "What does IPR mean on a grade report in Canada?", "I'm was doing some continuing education in a Canadian University this fall. I was looking at my list of final grades on their website (none of them seem to be in so far), but one of them is marked IPR.\n\nI did a bit of Googling, and found that IPR stands for (supposedly, anyhow) Inward Processing Relief. Is this the case, and if so, what does it mean? Does it mean that they haven't finished processing the grades yet? If so, why do I only have it on one of my courses?\n\nScreenshot for reference:" ]

[ "university", "grades", "canada" ]

[ "How to decide if I want to pursue PhD", "I have a Master's in Computer Science and I currently work in a manufacturing company. My current role is IT Manufacturing Technical Leader with responsibilities split between technical and business tasks evenly. I've always wanted to move closer to more-technical-less-business tasks.\nSo my questions are:\n\nGiven I want to be more on the technical side, is it wise to pursue a PhD in Computer Science? I am not sure how a PhD will help or affect my future roles (in this company or otherwise).\nAnother conflict I have is regarding the PhD itself. I am not really sure what I would like to research. Is this something I should know and be ambitious about BEFORE applying to my PhD? My wife is currently in her Master's and she is really passionate about a lot of different topics in her respective field. She intends on pursuing her PhD. Seeing where she stands, it makes me question my desire to get into a PhD program when I have no idea what it is I want to be an expert in or research on. So to repeat my question, should I need to know what I want out of the PhD now or will it come to me while I am in the program?\n\nI have always wanted to get a PhD and I am afraid I shouldn't. I would appreciate some guidance on this." ]

[ "phd" ]

[ "Citing the present study to validate an information", "In geology, it is common to describe structures observed on land. Very often, these structures are described in details and then an interpretation is provided to explain how they have contributed to the formation of mountains. If a researcher (let's call him John) has worked on these structures in an area A, and you study similar structures in an area B (that is similar to A), then it is possibly worthwhile to cite John's work to support your observations/interpretations (depending on the context).\n\nLet's imagine now that instead of describing the structures in B, you describe them statistically. If you want to interpret the statistical results, you would need (qualitative) descriptions of these structures, e.g. from those provided by John. However, you haven't described the area B and no former research paper did it either, so even if your structures in B tend to be similar to those of A, you would need those descriptions to explain your statistics. \n\nTo solve this, would it be correct to cite the current study like ... descriptive-text...(this study) if observations about the structures have been made in B but not formerly established in another research paper?" ]

[ "citations" ]

[ "How to argue against questionable research practices such as P-hacking and Harking?", "I have come into conflict with co-authors when being asked to do things that I consider to be questionable. \n\n\nOnce I was told to try every possible specification of a dependent variable (count, proportion, binary indicator, you name it) in a regression until I find a significant relationship. That is it, no justification for choosing one specification over another besides finding significance. The famous fishing expedition for starfish (also known as P-Hacking).\nIn another occasion I was asked to re-write a theory section of a paper to reflect an incidental finding from our analysis, so that it shows up as if we were asking a question about the incidental finding and had come up with the supported hypothesis a priori. The famous hypothesising after results are known (Harking). \n\n\nIn both cases I refused to comply and explained my reasoning, what led to conflicts with the other party. I tried my best to not sound accusatory (not to give the impression that I doubt the ethics of the other party), but it nonetheless led to attrition and a worsening of the working relationship. In the long argument that followed, I was told that 'social science is not done as the natural sciences,' and that I was 'too inflexible,' 'too positivist,' and that everybody does these things that I was being asked to do. The argument culminated with me being asked to 'stop obstructing the progress of the paper,' what made me feel very frustrated.\n\nSince then I have seen several cases of what I suspect to be this type of research practice. For example, PhD students coming to me to ask about what they should change in their models so that their results come out significant, and people working at the same computer lab as me asking me for the same type of help. \n\nI do consider these things to be seriously questionable from an ethical point of view, and would like to be able to argue against them effectively. However, the other parties are usually experienced researchers or students under the supervision of an experienced researcher. As a young researcher, I feel that I'm at a disadvantage when arguing against. It is often the case that I'm arguing against the instructions of someone who has more experience, publications, and, supposedly, knowledge than I do. \n\nIs this one of those cases where we can't do much but try to be the 'change that we want to bring about,' shud it, and just make sure that we are doing the right things ourselves? Should we speak up more often? If so, any good strategies to be more effective and convincing?\n\np.s. The tag is social sciences because of my field, but I reckon that this happens in other areas as well, and I welcome input from other fields.\n\n\n\nEDIT 1: In example 2), at no moment anyone suggested that we would confirm the new hypothesis in a new set of data. The intention was to pretend that we got it right from the onset, which is why I objected.\n\nEDIT 2: Just to make clear. I am aware of the right way of doing these things (i.e. cross validation, confirmatory analysis in a new dataset, penalising for multiple statistical tests, etc.). This is a question about how to argue that p-hacking and harking are not the way to go.\n\nEDIT 3: I was unaware of the strong connotations of the word misconduct. I have edited and replaced it with 'questionable research practices'" ]

[ "ethics", "methodology", "research-misconduct", "social-science" ]

[ "Why are there some really young professors and other much older lecturers without professor status?", "I was just wondering how this is possible, there are some 50+ year old people who are 'Dr. X Y', and others who are maybe \"only\" 40 years old , but they are 'Professor Dr. X Y'." ]

[ "career-path", "professors", "titles", "age" ]

[ "Grammatical mistakes and minor typos made during grant application", "I have recently applied for a grant. The specific application consisted of a 3 page-pdf document and an online application form. The 3 page pdf document is solid (at least from my point of view), and there are no grammatical mistakes or typos. Unfortunately, in the form, I made some minor grammatical mistakes/typos. These are, however, very few and far between. For example, mistakenly not adding a word in the sentence, forgetting to add/type a verb in the sentence etc.\nDo you think that such errors/typos albeit very few, in general, can be detrimental towards the outcome of the application?" ]

[ "funding", "errors-erratum" ]

[ "Is it poor grammar to replace normal phrases with mathematical symbols in sentences in a mathematical paper?", "English is not my native language and when I read mathematical papers, sometimes I saw sentences such as\n\n\n The matrix A has rank ≥ n. \n\n\nI am wondering if this sentence should be considered as grammatically wrong. I think the correct expression should be \n\n\n The rank of the matrix A is greater than or equal to n.\n\n\nAre expressions such as \"The matrix A has rank ≥ n\" considered as acceptable in mathematical papers/theses/textbooks?" ]

[ "mathematics", "writing-style", "grammar" ]

[ "Is it appropriate to use the word “like” in a research paper?", "In a research paper, is it appropriate to use the word like meaning similar or similar to? For example the sentence:\n\n\n Like in Eq.(2), we will substitute y in Eq.(6) to simplify the equation." ]

[ "writing-style" ]

[ "Plagiarism in semester exam", "I am in masters and came from a very developing country to EU for study. The classes started online due to covid19 and exams were supposed to be on campus but they started online due to the situation. This was my first exam of the first semester.\nI came to EU country for an online exam to save from internet problems. This was the first exam of my life which was open book and online. We were clearly told that you can use all resources you need. Time was short so I used the internet.\nThere was one practice question that was taught in detail in class so I wrote it as it is. I was not really aware of plagiarism and the rules surrounding it. I copied from the internet and from notes which I made after listening to recordings of lectures because I record lectures during class. I didn't have a high typing speed and didn't use my laptop very often so I copied and pasted. In some places, I used software quilbot to paraphrase and forgot to put references, although they didn't tell me to put them. I also used recommended books and some other websites.\nThe Professor even mailed us about a question that was going to come in the exam where he just changed the value. I have a habit of learning things by writing on a page so I practiced there and wrote down in the exam. Now I got mail that I had 95% overall plagiarism and 100% in the practice exam with 3 other students of my country and from internet sources. By looking at the paper it can be clearly determined that it is cheating. Even spelling mistakes were also the same but only I know it was just a coincidence, or maybe we came from the same system of education and searched the same kind of things. Despite this, we have different grades. I was the second position holder in the bachelor's project.\nSo what should I do now? I am ready to give them the paper again but I am worried they don't put strict allegations. I have no idea about this kind of thing. I asked them many times to take an on-campus exam due to my unfamiliarity with computers." ]

[ "plagiarism" ]

[ "What are the common criteria of evaluation for a Post-Doctoral or Tenure-Track faculty position?", "I am waiting for my PhD viva and I would like to start applying for Post-docs or faculty positions. We all know that a CV is never too good, so I would like to ask some things about the elements of evaluation for Post-Doctoral/tenure-track faculty positions. I know each university has its own rules, so I am looking for a general answer here. My PhD is in the field of Mechanical Engineering from an European University.\n\nHow important are:\n\n\nTPC (Technical Program Committee) at conference?\nReviewer at journals and/or conferences?\nJournal papers. What metrics are important? Impact factor, indexing (ISI, Scopus, Scimago quarter). Is quantity more important or less important than quality?\nConference papers. Are they of significant importance compared to journal papers? What metrics are important here? Indexing? Proceedings resulting in publication are more valuable than those private (only on the proceedings book).\nPrevious research grants as R&D engineer with a MS. degree. They seem to be really important. How should it be stated? Reference of the grant, name of the project, and length?\nAdvanced studies diploma (1st year of some doctoral degrees). Is it very important?\nRecommendation letters. How many are usually needed? Should all of them be of University lecturers, or engineers working at industry are also appreciated, if they previously worked with me?\nProfessional references. Are they needed if recommendation letters are sent out?\nDoes any other metric seem to be important, like teaching experience?" ]

[ "phd", "postdocs", "faculty-application", "engineering" ]

[ "Is it normal for things to be so cutthroat, and what to do about it?", "I am a postdoc in mathematics. I like doing math, but I do not feel like I belong to a community, in the true sense of the word.\n\nMy vision of mathematical research is that it should be a massive collaborative effort to solve puzzles and publish the solutions, and no one should be excluded without a good reason. Also people should be allowed to openly talk about each others' results objectively without any feelings hurt.\n\nHowever, in my field, people seem to see research as a competition. They form factions and play the game of inclusion-exclusion and loyalty matters more than truth, so does pride and it is almost impossible to be sure if an error is an error in a paper without making enemies.\n\nPeople also treat knowledge as private property (within their factions or to oneself) and tend to keep secrets.\n\nThere are two types of secret-keeping generally practiced in my field:\n\n\nWhen working on a project one would avoid talking about what they are working on and what are the partial results etc. in fear of being scooped.\nWhen the work is done one should avoid proper exposition in the paper or explanation to the public so that:\n\n\nthey can stay ahead in the competition\nthey can make their results look as non-trivial as possible.\n\n\n\nAs much as I do not want to force people to disclose their secrets, I value clear explanations and talking to people about my work in progress. But as I do not belong to any faction I seem to be taking a huge risk on my career in doing so.\n\nThe fact that everyone is expecting secret-keeping also makes me reluctant to work with them because I do not want to sign an invisible NDA and unwittingly make enemies when I discuss with others on joint projects (and it is hard to set a boundary on discussion). This is not particularly helpful to my current state of isolation.\n\nPerhaps it is just my field that has an environment incompatible with my belief, or perhaps all this is considered normal in any field. Nevertheless do you think this is a good reason for me to seek a different career path than academia?\n\nIs it feasible to make a career doing open research?" ]

[ "mathematics", "open-science", "quitting" ]

[ "line chart or column chart", "I want to show the average response time based on number of tasks on a device on a chart. So the x-axis is \"number of tasks\" and y-axis is \"average response time\".\n\nMy question is which charts I can use? a line chart or a column chart?" ]

[ "thesis", "graphics" ]

[ "Is it possible to make a decision upon a manuscript just within a month?", "I am the author of a 12-page double-column manuscript submitted to IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics. Here is the record of the updates within the journal online system, corresponding to the aforementioned manuscript:\n\n\nSubmission Finalization: 7th Aug. 2015\nUnder Review: 11th Aug. 2015\nAwaiting EIC Decision: 16th Sep. 2015\n\n\nThe journal has declared that the authors might expect the result between 8 up to 10 weeks after the submission. But how is it possible to review a 12-page manuscript with a 6-page supplementary material just within one month?\n\nWith a full sense of anxiety, I might think that it would be a sinister sign for the early rejection of the manuscript.\n\nDoes anybody have any experience with this journal or similar transaction ones, with such very short review-to-result time interval, to evaluate my situation?" ]

[ "journals", "peer-review", "ieee" ]

[ "Retroactively turning down an accepted offer to a professional program from one school in favour of an offer from another school?", "If I accept an offer to a professional program from one school (e.g., law, medicine, pharmacy, etc.) and then later get an offer to a better program from a different school, can I retroactively turn down the first offer to accept the second?\n\nBoth schools are in Canada, but answers relevant for US schools may also be useful.\n\nI'm actually asking for my brother. The problem in his situation is that the acceptance deadline for one school is after the offer date for another (\"better\") school. The first school has refused to extend the deadline and the second school has refused to give early notification that an offer is pending.\n\nI am hesitant to say the exact type of program because I don't want to expose his identity to anyone making a decision regarding his admission.\n\nThe following question is about grad school, not professional programs, so I'm unsure if the answers apply.\nIs it legal to withdraw a signed offer letter from grad school?" ]

[ "graduate-admissions", "medicine", "law" ]

[ "Effective open-ended student evaluation questions", "As we reach the end of the semester, the students in my class are being asked to do their evaluation of my teaching, as is common at most universities. As with most evaluations that I know of, I have been given an opportunity to provide open-ended prompts for the students to respond to.\n\nI would like to craft open-ended questions for the students that will help me to improve my class/teaching style. This class was a large (~100 students) lecture, so I would like to focus the questions on how to improve myself in teaching large classes. Has any research been published showing which questions (or which types of questions) generate answers that are most effective at helping teachers to improve at teaching large lectures? If no research, is there any anecdotal evidence of \"most helpful\" questions?" ]

[ "teaching", "reference-request", "evaluation-criteria" ]

[ "Clarification about MMath and PhD", "What is the main difference between an integrated four-years MMath degree and a \"standard\" three-years Bsc followed by a one-year Master’s degree?\n\nAnd what is the \"natural\" progression (if any) after a MMath: is it a PhD or it is not possible to apply to it and a further Master’s degree is needed?" ]

[ "masters", "united-kingdom" ]

[ "Can software based project be considered for the award of PhD?", "I am having issue in understanding the meaning of Philosophy in technical area. Suppose I have novel project that could be even patentable, can that be considered as a topic for PhD? The project is software oriented and can be developed on any standard computing machine such as PC/Tablet/Mobile phone. When I approached one professor for accepting me as his candidate for PhD, he started telling me that there is no Philosophical approach in my topic and it is just a project work. My topic was mainly related music synthesis involves developing algorithms to develop music from certain text based script files. Also no one did any work on specific topic that I opted." ]

[ "phd", "thesis" ]

[ "Failed my 2nd Qualifying Exam in PhD. Absolutely devastated. How to proceed?", "I just failed my 2nd Qualifying Exam in my PhD program. It was supposed to be a 60,000 word paper but it was an incomplete work.\nI am in my 4th year at my PhD and my research is in field of humanities. My major is Geography. It is an integrated course, as in I joined as soon as I got my Bachelor's. I am doing my research on a multidisciplinary and very practically useful subject based on sacred forests and urban landscapes (I won't go into details). But, I was going through some intense emotional time for 6 months (June to December 2020-a critical period) due to personal tragedies in my family. Also low funding is also a problem. I am an international student. And pandemic is just making it worse.\nNow, I feel absolutely devastated.I am not going to get a chance again at re-exam, and that is fine too. I can understand why they wouldn't want to invest in such a bad student. I do work very slowly, but sincerely and did learn and correct accordingly as my advisor said for this 60,000 word hell. Though I could not do field surveys and data collection due to strict travel sanctions, I tried backing up my research with more literature. The problem here is my research is focused on a more practical part of urban forestry, and it is so niche that there is a severe lack of academic work on my topic, if you don't count ancient scriptures (which is hardly academic).\nI realise my mistakes and I am willing to do everything to correct them. I just need some more time. But being told I am not suitable to be a PhD student just based on the incomplete paper (it was just 40 pages long) hurt me more than being told how my research was absolutely useless. I am aware that my research IS useless at current stage, but I had all the future work set up in proper parts so it becomes relevant. I was not sure if I can give reasons about tragedies and poor health because last time I tried that they had said 'so what? even pregnant ladies do phd" and that was that. And that is fine too. But being told I am useless as PhD student was like taking a direct hit on what defined me. It was sort of an existential crisis. The shame and incredible sense of loss is palpable and making me clam up instead of working to get out of it.\nI know it is not the end of the world and I am sorry for long sob story. I want to know how to proceed? Is it possible to get into a PhD after failing quals? Or do they dismiss you if you have failed quals? Should I immediately apply to a PhD or gain some work experience before?\nThank you." ]

[ "phd", "qualifying-exam" ]

[ "Is it possible to complete a PhD in CS in 3 years?", "I have always wanted to get a PhD. I'm in my thirties now and have a full time job. I don't necessarily need to get a PhD for my job, though it could open doors to a few research jobs that I can't apply for now. A few friends and colleagues have gotten their PhDs in about 5 years, they tell me that some have even spent 7 or 8 years.\n\nIs it possible to complete a PhD in 3 years? Why or why not?\n\nThis would be a post-masters PhD in the US or Canada." ]

[ "phd", "computer-science", "united-states", "canada" ]