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[ "Proportion of papers involving grad students and postdoc", "I am wondering if there are studies measuring the proportion of research papers involving at least one graduate student (master, PhD) or Postdocs in the authors." ]

[ "publications" ]

[ "PowerPoint presentations including Latex both under Windows and Mac OS", "Possible Duplicate:\n How to make a presentation that includes math symbols? \n\n\n\n\nI have been using TeX4PPT for PowerPoint under Windows for a few years to include matematical formulas in PP presentations. Recently, I got a Mac notebook and I would like to use my PP presentations both under Windows as well as under Mac OS X. However, I cannot find a program that would allow me to use LaTeX generating formulas in PP under both operating systems (so I could use my presentations freely on both OS). Any ideas?" ]

[ "online-resource" ]

[ "No interesting research topics available - should I quit and pay back my stipend?", "I’m currently enrolled in Mechanical Engineering MSc program in the UAE. I’m on a scholarship program as a TA/RA. I just finished my first semester through which I suffered greatly but I ended up with a GPA of 3.75.\n\nTo find a research topic, we are required to choose 3 topics off a list and then be assigned one of them. All three of my choices were given to more suitable candidates. I will have to choose another topic. The problem is all the other topics are of absolutely no interest to me.\n\nI don’t want to waste my time for two years doing something that I hate. I would rather quit now and start looking for a job instead of wasting my time. But if I quit, I will have to pay back the fees and probably my stipend, which could add up to 35,000 USD. This amount increases with every semester I spend in grad school, so I have to decide now whether to stay or leave. \n\nI might be able to pay the 35,000 with the help of my family. But I would like to know if quitting could affect my job prospects and opportunities. What would you do if you were in my place?" ]

[ "graduate-school", "masters", "quitting" ]

[ "Ranking of National Institutes of Health as Research Institute versus top universities", "due to lucky (?) circumstances, I ended up as a postdoc at a top 3 university (level of Harvard, Stanford, MIT). However, the supervision and my direct working environment are anything but ideal.\n\nCurrently, I am funded by my home government so I could technically switch my job after 12 months. I would have the opportunity for a postdoc at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda and to be involved in a (to me) more meaningful research project.\n\nWhile the NIH-institutes are well known to researchers in my home country, my current university has a much better standing among the general public in my home country.\n\nNow to the question:\n\n\nWhere does the NIH rank as compared to the to top universities for people in the US (both in academia and outside of academia)?\nWould you consider switching the institution in favour of more meaningful work or is the reputation of the above mentioned institutions in your view way above the NIH?\nWich university among all institutions in the US would be in your eyes \"equivalent\" in terms of reputation to the NIH? \n\n\nI know, circumstances matter a lot. However, I would be eager to know how a random recruiter at big pharma company would judge two candidates (all other things being equal) from a top university versus the NIH.\n\nThank you very much for your responses,\nJ." ]

[ "ranking", "government-institutes" ]

[ "What's a good way to prevent students from saying I lost their paper?", "As a teacher, I've often had students say that they turned in an assignment, but that because I don't see it, grade it, and return it back to them, that I must have lost their papers/assignments. I tend to be disorganized at times, so it's hard for me to confidently say that I really haven't lost their papers. To make matters worse, I have lost a student paper or two over the years only to find it weeks later. \n\nHow should I respond? \n\nNotes:\n\n\nMany have noted electronic submission. I'm assuming for this question that students turn in something physical that I could theoretically lose. ;-) This also allows this question to be applicable to schools that may not use electronic submission." ]

[ "teaching", "students", "teaching-assistant" ]

[ "What should/can I do on finding an error in a published article?", "Recently I found a paper that has a number of typographical errors, esp in equations. Should one notify the authors or the publishers on such issues? How do the approach change if the article is somewhat aged?\n\nWhen should/can one write a 'Comments on ...' article? How different is an Errata and a 'Comments on ...' article?" ]

[ "publications", "journals", "errors-erratum" ]

[ "University Teaching Certifications for Different Countries", "A while back I asked this question which was about teaching certifications. As I dig into the subject more, it seems teaching certifications are quite rare for university teachers in many countries.\n\n\nThe UK has the PGCHE (post graduate certificate in higher education) - optional \nCanada has the UTC (university teaching certificate) - optional \nI'm unaware of the US having anything required or anything optional for university teachers\nIn Switzerland I don't see any information on university teaching certificates\n\n\nI'm curious about European countries, especially Switzerland, and what teaching qualifications are accepted or required for university teaching.\n\nIs anyone familiar with this topic in that geographic region?" ]

[ "teaching", "europe", "certification" ]

[ "Is deferred enrollment normal or acceptable to graduate programs? What are the acceptable reasons for it?", "I am an undergraduate student majoring in computer science. I am currently doing graduate (Master's) program application for top US universities. \n\nHowever, just now I get a pretty nice research assistant internship which requires me to work for them for one year.\n\nI think I might take a gap year between my undergraduate and graduate study for the internship. But if I am accepted by the university I want to go, can I ask for a defer enrollment? I know I can reapply the next year, but despite the new research experience, my professor might refuse to write me reference letter again , the things might change (more applicants, less slots) and I might not be accepted the next year(I am also wondering will turning down an admission affect my application for the same program the next year). So I am thinking if I can use the defer enrollment to \"hold\" the admission.\n\nIs taking a research gap year an acceptable reason for defer enrollment? Or generally, what are the acceptable reasons to take a defer enrollment?" ]

[ "graduate-admissions", "application", "research-assistantship", "time-off", "deferral" ]

[ "Can one write a research paper on a engineering project idea that one cannot execute due to financial constraints?", "We have a project idea of making a few processes in farming automatic. As it includes much of robotics the budget required is high, which we cannot afford.\nSo, can I write a detailed research paper on the idea?" ]

[ "research-process", "paper-submission", "research-undergraduate", "engineering" ]

[ "Research interests Vs Statement of Purpose(SOP)", "I am not sure if this question is too specific. Please feel free to mark it as such if it is.\n\nI have come across a PhD advertisement that says \"upload a curriculum vitae including a brief description of your research interests\".\n\nDoes 'brief description of your research interests' means SOP? I can see that research interests and research experiences are different. Is 'brief description of your research interests' different from SOP?" ]

[ "application" ]

[ "Gap year before post-doc?", "I have been in a rush to accomplish academic goals since I remember myself. Started my PhD right after undergrad and did my Masters on the same time. Now I am about to submit my thesis and feel kind of burned out, having spend so many years in a far from perfect working environment. \n\nAcademia has always been my goal (I like both teaching and research and I am not interested in industry), which is why I started a PhD on the first place, but I really feel I need a big break to think clearly of what I really want before applying for a post-doc. I also read this somewhere: \"The rest of your life you are going to be a scientist. This could be your last chance to be something else. Take it.\"\n\nSo I thought a \"late gap year\" would be ideal for me. I would get to travel, which I love, volunteer in wildlife conservation and in schools of developing countries and take some time to clear my mind, so that when I am back, I can take the right decision for a post-doc and be totally dedicated in it.\n\nUp to now I have a decent resume with a 5th paper in preparation (including first-authored) and several international conferences, fellowships and awards. However, I am very concerned on the impact such a gap would have on my CV, since I want to apply in high reputation universities/institutes, where competition is fierce. \n\nShould I tell a future PI I did a gap year and if not, what would be the appropriate excuse for a year off? Also would this gap have an impact in future job-seeking (mainly for positions in academia)? Finally, I am also worried about the reaction of my current PI (who has been asking me lately, which lab I am planning to apply for a PD) when I tell him my plans. The last thing I want is a reference letter from an angry PI.\n\n*EDIT*My field is Molecular Biology. I performed my PhD research at several European countries and I am flexible with post-doc positions (Europe/Israel/US/...) depending on the projects available." ]

[ "phd", "postdocs", "cv", "work-life-balance", "emotional-responses" ]

[ "Retaking undergrad econ courses to apply to masters in econ programs?", "I majored in a social science (not economics) in undergrad and I did poorly in a couple of intermediate-level economics courses, with grades in the C range. I was clearly a bit unfocused at the time.\nI'm applying to masters programs in economics this fall and, while I have a mix of undergrad and even grad courses in economics and statistics with grades in the A range, my sense is that those two intermediate economics courses from undergrad will be a weakness in my applications.\nI plan to take a couple of math prerequisites before applying, but I'm wondering if it's also worth retaking those two econ courses -- or if somehow the act of retaking them (regardless of grades) would be viewed negatively by admissions committees.\nAll of this is leaving aside the other obvious considerations (have solid recommendations, do well on the quant section of the GRE (for programs that require test scores), etc.).\nHow should I handle this? I feel that I'm already at a disadvantage for having not majored in economics or STEM, but I'm committed to doing everything I can to strengthen my profile." ]

[ "masters", "undergraduate", "grades", "economics", "major" ]

[ "My defense is next week and and I have found an error in one of the proofs in one of the chapters of the thesis. What to do?", "In one of my PhD thesis chapters, I have a derivation of a theory that I have proposed in the paper. I just found out that I have made an error in the calculation, and my derivation is flawed. The chapter is yet to be submitted in a journal, so it has never been peer reviewed. I never saw the flaw before this. Do I bring it up during my defense? And what do I say if the committee asks me about it? Can that have a negative outcome on my defense result?\n\nI am feeling scared now!\n\nShould I mail my advisor? My defense is on Monday afternoon and I don't know what to do!" ]

[ "phd", "thesis-committee", "defense" ]

[ "How to (gently) pressure a collaborator?", "During my PhD I had an awesome collaborator that taught me a lot in an area that my main advisor had no experience at all. \nI have a paper draft with him that's getting more than 3 years to get published. He is extremely perfectionist and always wanted to add one more little detail here and there. With that, I don't mean from a writing standpoint. He actually asks for new calculations and analysis which usually takes months to finish. I read papers in this area which presented much fewer results and details than my paper. It's frustrating because I'm applying for faculty positions and I need this paper to show as a record of a very important part of my research plan. I explained it to him, many times. I also like him very much and would like to have him as a collaborator. So, I don't want to make pressure in a bad way. In short, he doesn't need this paper, he doesn't need the collaboration. He is a very accomplished researcher. Also, he didn't have any formal responsibility for my graduate studies. But still, I need the paper. We are in different countries, so I cannot have a one-to-one conversation with him. My former advisor cannot do much as well. My question is simply: what should I do?\n\nEdit.\n\nI talked with my collaborator and everything went pretty well. I submitted my paper this morning!!! Thanks for the feedback. I think just the act of writing here, in addition to the feedback I got help me a lot to leverage. (I also followed some Carnegie's rules)" ]

[ "writing", "interpersonal-issues" ]

[ "Graduate Student Co-authorship Etiquette (Dissemination of Student Papers Not For Publication)", "I recently finished my masters degree and co-authored a lengthy paper (It was my idea and I took the lead on the research and writing). The paper is not for publication but provides valuable information and research for the the department faculty and dean.The paper is a program development proposal that our academic department would like to implement. Our group discussed sending the paper to the Dean in conversation with her, and one of the co-authors brought it up with her again at the end of the semester and offered to send it to her individually without consulting our group.\n\nI'm okay with her sending it, however, I felt that she acted independently and did not consider the time-lines of the other co-authors for doing final edits, or offer to CC us when she sent it.\n\nMy name comes last on the paper (alphabetically) even though I wrote and researched more than the other two authors combined. I have the sense that my co-author is taking more credit than she is due on this project since her name comes first and because she acted independently.\n\nI requested that I be provided an opportunity to review the paper and to be CC'd on any future sharing of our work with others.I think my co-author was offended. \n\nI am interested in asking my two co-authors if it is okay to have my name as the first author on this paper (then she can send it).\n\nPlease advise if I am being petty or if this is a reasonable concern on my part. I would like for the Dean and faculty to remember my contributions. The co-author who offered to send it has already made her mark on the program in other ways and I am not sure I have stood out as much." ]

[ "graduate-school", "etiquette", "authorship" ]

[ "Reivsion in ScholarOne: Where to upload the response to reviewers as a attached file?", "For the revision, I found there are two possible attachment places for the response document.\nI don't know which one is the appropriate place for attaching the document. Please help me!\n\nOne is in 'Step 1: View and Respond to Decision Letter'. At the end of the page, there is a sub-section named 'Attach a File:'.\n\nThe other is in 'Step 3: File Upload'. Similar to the first submission of the manuscript, I think the response document could be attached as supplementary file below the revised version of manuscript.\n\nSo where is the right place to attach the document responding to reviewers comments?" ]

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

[ "Will a dropped class hurt PhD application?", "I'm currently in a Master's program for mathematics and I want to apply for a PhD. \n\nI'm thinking of dropping one of my classes because it requires a final project which will be very time consuming. (I would have very little time to complete obligations for my other classes.) If I drop it, this class will appear with a grade of 'W' on my transcript which stands for \"withdrawn\". I'm worried how much this will blemish my transcript in the eyes of PhD programs. \n\nI'm thinking this won't matter so much because this is the only class out of 11 classes that will have been dropped. Also, this is a physics class, not a mathematics class." ]

[ "graduate-admissions", "grades", "transcript-of-records" ]

[ "How to find grant opportunities for academic position?", "I am a senior Ph.D. student in software security in Germany. I am looking for some grants for my postdoc. I have a proposal ready, but I do not know good enough about the grant opportunities. So, I think that I need to submit my proposal to many places to increase the chance of obtaining a good grant? What do you think? Is any neat database for finding the grants?" ]

[ "research-proposal" ]

[ "How to know a community of researchers in order to be more successful in research and getting papers accepted?", "Knowledge is what lies between heads of people in a community; This is an idea, I recently learned from a video tutorial on writing research papers in a youtube video. In this video, a professor presents such a model of knowledge which is different from what I already thought. \n\nThis suggests a measure of success in research is the amount of change she's able to effect in the space between heads. This video talks about community and people in power in that community. So we must know the community, its structure, who the people in power in the community are, and what knowledge is already in the space between heads. \n\nThe ideas proposed in this video seem tantalizing but I feel I haven't completely understood his thesis. I will try to lay out what's hanging me up about this: \n\nI want to understand what a \"journal's community\" is? since this professor says that will affect the acceptance of a submission. \nIn short, please help me understand the outlined aspects of this model of knowledge?\nNote from question editor: if you have some ideas about how to improve this post further, with the goal of getting it reopened, please grab your red pen and help out. Thanks.\n\nWe usually want to know something from a perspective. Here we want to know a community such that we as researchers can better understand how to communicate with the community through Papers. All of the aforementioned sub-questions are around this single thread." ]

[ "journals", "writing", "community" ]

[ "Do research grants from USA governmental agencies (e.g. NSF, NIH, DOE, etc) require that all of the PIs be affliated with a university?", "or to other research organizations for example government labs?\n\nI am currently a post doc at large and would like to co-write a proposal (probably NSF) with a Professor at a nearby University. With the funding, I'd be getting a salary and doing the majority of the work and the lead PI (the prof) would work partial time and time in the summer." ]

[ "funding", "independent-researcher", "affiliation", "nsf" ]

[ "Should I be honest about my past history of attending a Master degree in the past?", "I am planning to attend a PhD program in the future. Should I be honest that I have some experience of attending a full-time Master degree in the past for three years? I had a somewhat rocky relationship with the thesis supervisor resulting in me being kicked out from the program. I am a bit worried that revealing this might be not too beneficial for me during the application process. Can I pretend that I did something else during the three years? In reality, I did some work in a part-time manner while attending my old program (self-employed)." ]

[ "graduate-admissions", "application" ]

[ "Can I use text from my dissertation in a manuscript?", "There has been general discussion of whether one can use a published work in their dissertation, with the consensus being 'of course'! The first two chapters of my thesis will be published works. I'm interested in the reverse now; I intend to write the third chapter of my thesis as a draft of sorts for a publication. Now I'm wondering whether including text and figures from my dissertation in a [future] manuscript constitutes 'self-plagarism'.\n\nA fellow graduate student advised me that it's only 'self-plagarism' if I formally copyright my thesis, however, I'm skeptical of that being the important distinction." ]

[ "thesis", "plagiarism", "self-plagiarism" ]

[ "What should I do if actually I found a serious flaw in someone's PhD thesis and an article derived from that PhD thesis?", "Recently, I came across a PhD thesis and an article derived from that PhD thesis and found a serious flaw in them that actually makes their conclusions invalid.\n\nIn the first place, I was unsure if I'm right or not, so I contacted the guy that wrote the PhD thesis and subsequent article and described my concerns and I showed my calculations to him and asked if he thinks in fact there is a major problem in his PhD thesis and that article, which is derived from it. He responded back that embarrassingly, in fact I'm right and there is a problem but he can't do anything about it.\n\nI didn't want to force him to do something but I'm just thinking maybe there might be a possibility to publish an erratum for at least that article. It's a major flaw and unfortunately it just invalidates the major conclusions of paper and PhD thesis. Surprisingly, the article is cited for 15 times and nobody found that obvious problem. My question: What's the best way to deal with these kind of situations that even author himself/herself admits that in fact there is a major flaw in his/her thesis or article?" ]

[ "publications", "thesis", "errors-erratum" ]

[ "Should unsavory but otherwise scientifically correct experiments lead to retractions?", "The following occurred at my university (this is from a preliminary report that has been published): \n\n\n Three colleagues requested permission to perform a certain chemical experiment (analyzing environmental samples) in a laboratory. The request was denied as the lab does not have sufficient ventilation for this sort of job. The colleagues ran the experiment anyway for several months. This was uncovered when several workers in nearby offices complained about headaches, skin rash and breathing difficulties. One person had to stay in a hospital for several days. The scientists have been suspended from or have left the university.\n\n\nApparently, the results from these experiments were used in a publication.\n\nShould this publication be retracted? One argument is that the researchers knowingly risked the health and lives of persons to conduct their experiments. Others argue that the results themselves are OK and that the ‘side effects’ do not change the validity of the paper. Are there any ethical standards that deal with this situation or similar cases?" ]

[ "ethics", "retraction" ]

[ "What does a PhD Committee do?", "I have been reading that many students have a PhD committee. I assume this is a group of experts supervising the student.\n\nIn my case, and I think this is quite common, I had two people. One was the principal supervisor and the other was the associate supervisor.\n\nAlmost all my contacts were with the principal supervisor. The associate supervisor was a back-up resource if and when needed. \n\nThis was a simple one-on-one contact between me and my principal supervisor.\n\nI am just wondering how does a PhD committee work?" ]

[ "phd", "advisor", "thesis-committee" ]

[ "Advisor's/University's rights in the PhD/MSc alumni's research projects and publications", "After a series of discussions about the level of dependency of a research student on his advisor in this link and this link, a question comes to mind that when the person is graduated and leaves the university; even he is now working independently in a company or he is a faculty member of a university; as far as most of the researches he is going to do may be based on his PhD dissertation; \n\n\nUntil when should this person contact his supervisor about the researches he is doing? \nShould he ethically acknowledge that his researches is roots of his PhD project under his advisor's supervision? \nIf, based on his dissertation, he works on a research project; should he talk about it to his supervisor and he should be aware on every single after-PhD project? Just because the base of the publication and research is the PhD dissertation which is done under his supervision? \nTo put in a nutshell, as a matter of academic ethics, what are exact rights of a supervisor in projects done based on his student's supervision (after graduation of the person)? What are the rights of the university from which the student is graduated?" ]

[ "publications", "ethics", "university", "advisor" ]

[ "How do I express a degree on my CV that I have completed but have not been awarded?", "I have completed all the requirements for an M.S. degree and have filed the appropriate paperwork. All I have left to do is walk at the end of this semester. I want to put this on my CV, but it seems appropriate to differentiate it from my Ph.D., which is (only) \"In progress\", and another M.S. which I completed a few years ago. \n\nHow should I express this on my CV? Should I say \"Anticipated\" or \"Expected\", with the date? \n\nMy question is different than Should one list incomplete degrees on a CV? because that question asks about a degree that was entirely incomplete, unawarded, and is not likely to ever be awarded. In my situation, the degree needs only to be formally awarded." ]

[ "cv", "degree", "terminology", "graduation", "credentials" ]

[ "Is it necessary to show what improvements you have made to similar work in literature reviews section?", "I have seen quite a few research publications where the literature review section doesn't compare past work to the author's work. It's like:\n\n\n [1] did this using X technique. [5] used Y technology. (etc.)\n\n\nThis type of literature reviews are easier to write as I don't have to read similar works in extreme detail to create a list of things that we are doing and they are not. I can understand their technique by reading their abstract but it won't matter too much as long as I am using a completely different technology.\n\nI have also seen some good publications which compare each and every work in literature review section to their own work and say \"They did not do this\", \"Their work couldn't do that\". While, of course, this looks a lot better but it's a lot harder to write.\n\nLet's say I using queuing theory for a similar work which has been done using some other technique. I can easily state that they used this technique in their work instead of trying to find drawbacks in their work.\n\nSo which approach is better when writing the literature review section?" ]

[ "research-process", "publications" ]

[ "Has a STEM professor ever won an Oscar?", "Has a STEM professor ever been nominated for - or won - an Oscar for their academic research?" ]

[ "career-path", "industry", "academic-life", "awards" ]

[ "Recommendation letter from a supervisor after falling out", "In the event of a falling out with a supervisor (Master's thesis or PhD) is there generally anything one can do about it if one wants to apply to a (different) PhD program, for which one would need a recommendation letter? I am mostly interested in the European academia. \n\nI am certain this must have happened a lot in the history of academia and I am wondering what happens in such situations. Is it the end of one's academic career? Are the other options to leaving or (if possible) changing research groups within the university? I know that one can't force a person to write a positive letter, but is there anything that outsiders can do to effect such a situation or is all the power with the supervisor?" ]

[ "advisor", "recommendation-letter", "interpersonal-issues" ]

[ "Are abstracts confidential during the review process?", "In an answer to a question about the confidentiality of reviews, I basically said you cannot reveal information about the review until the paper is publicly available. This question about revealing information after publication is making me rethink my answer. The question I have is, is the information (e.g., title, authors and abstract) that you are given to decide if you want to review confidential?\n\nIt seems to me that the process of agreeing to do a review is NOT \n\n\nPlease review our reviewer guidelines (including confidentiality policies),\nIf you accept these guidelines please look at this abstract and let\nus know if you want to review.\n\n\nRather, it seems it is \n\n\nPlease look at this abstract\nIf it interests you, please consider our review guidelines.\n\n\nThis suggests to me that the initial information (title, authors and abstract in a non double blind review) are not confidential." ]

[ "publications", "peer-review" ]

[ "Why does the application portal ask 'To what other programs/universities are you applying?' while applying in US universities?", "I am applying for higher studies in US universities. Every time I fill up the online form, there is a section where they asked which other universities or programs I am applying too? Why do they ask these questions? Do they check where I am applying?\nWhat if I wrote a university name but later drop the idea to apply?" ]

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

[ "What are the chances of getting into a PHD program even if your graduate research is completely different?", "I have decided to apply for PhD in cybersecurity even though my research during my graduate time period is totally of a different topic, which is neuroscience. My CV is majorly focused on research in neuroscience and data science and it doesn't contain any previous experience even though I have been learning a lot in cybersecurity and getting trained in the area.\n\nWhat are my chances of getting into the program(in US, Sweden, UK) even thought I don't have a research experience in Cyber security nor have worked on a project?" ]

[ "phd", "application" ]

[ "Tell supervisor I am unhappy with grading even though grades won't change", "I have been working in a group project of six people at university.\nI think I made an substantial effort, and would consider me among the two best performers in the group (please accept this as a fact for answering the question). I do not bear grudges against my group, I think we worked well together and I liked working with all of them. I just put more effort in the project, and I am proud of my contribution.\n\nNow the grades have been published, and I have been graded worse than two other students, because of things which were not communicated to be part of the grading process:\nWe finished the project mid of July. Recently, there has been a presentation of parts of our results, which required some extra work. I am currently abroad in an internship. The two students did some additional experiments for the presentation. I was not aware of these additional experiments, because there was no communication about that on our mailing list, basically the two students just happened to be around. I communicated my internship early, and this was accepted by the supervisor. I think the additional experiments do not outweigh my previous contributions by far. Also, I would have helped with the experiments from abroad (which would have been easily possible, because it's computer science), if I would have known.\n\nI am unhappy with this distinction, because I think it is not fair and does not represent my performance, which is also admitted by the two students with the better grades. For me, it would have been ok, if we all got the same grade.\n\nHowever, the grades are already published, and there is no good way of changing the grades now (pushing the entire team to the better grade is not an option because of politics; I do not want the two to get a worse grade; I would feel unhappy with only me being upgraded). I know this and I accept this.\n\nNow, should I tell my supervisor, that I am unhappy with the grading and explain my reasons why, even though I know it will change nothing in the grades? I do not want to make accusations or anything, just express my problems with the grading.\n\nI do not want to burn any bridges, and might want to work with this supervisor again in the future.\nI would see this as\n(i) feedback for my supervisor for the grading process\n(ii) a way for me to finish the project and get over the frustration (again, I do not intend to make accusations, just lay out why I am unhappy).\n\nShould I do this or should I just swallow my pride and deal with it?" ]

[ "grades", "supervision", "group-dynamics" ]

[ "Options with a Diploma in Theoretical Physics (A failed MSc)", "To put this bluntly a number of our class are facing a real prospect of failing their finals myself included. By fail I mean not obtain MSc. and instead obtain a Diploma.\n\n\nWhat are our options if we instead obtain a Diploma in HEP Theory and not an MSc?\n\n\nWill any other programmes take a student with a diploma for a repeat?\nIs a PhD still a reality for those of us holding offers?\nHow can we explain this to future employers when \"no-one fails a masters degree if they put the work in\"\n\n\n\nI am unsure if the reality of the volume of work we have undertaken nor the academic credentials (on paper) of those attending and potentially failing, will strike a chord with any reader who has not been in this exact situation. Consequently, I will save our despair for the MSc. coffee room chat and keep the question on its intended topic.\n\nThe reality...\n\n\nOut of those risking failure the grade average is between 70%-95% (mine is 86%)\nThis includes a number of scholarship recipients with perfect undergraduate grades (GPAs)\nNo resits\n\n\nI emphasise that if any of the concerned did fail this would be highly unexpected and possibly a bit embarrassing for the programme due to the merit of several high calibre students in this group (I would not consider myself in this list) not to mention the time invested by all. This does not change the outcome of a fail for the student." ]

[ "phd", "masters" ]

[ "What are the differences between teaching in the quarter and semester system?", "I am currently working as a junior faculty member at a university where we teach a 2:2 (2 fall, 2 spring) on the semester system. I would like to know the differences between this and teaching a 2:2:2 (2 fall, 2 winter, 2 spring) on the quarter system. What is the workload difference? How is class preparation different? Intensity of each week? Grading timeline and expectations? Other considerations?\n\nEdit: @Buffy is correct. The current courses are each 3 credits. The 2:2:2 courses are each 4 credits. The three-credit courses meet once per week for 3 hours (or are online) and the four-credit courses meet once per week for 3.75 hours (or are online)." ]

[ "teaching", "united-states" ]

[ "Which is a better combination for PhD recommendation letters?", "My field is language-related and I have been conducting research in it with two professors in the past couple of years. Is it better for me to request recommendation letters from these two professors for my PhD application or should I rely on a more diverse approach? For instance, combining letters from one of these professors with those coming from professors who taught me during the MA years (which, by the way, I graduated from several years ago) or maybe even my MA thesis advisor. I should also mention that it is not very likely for me to apply to universities in the US." ]

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

[ "Why don't I want to learn anything?", "I'm an undergraduate student, rising senior. I've been immersed in academia now since freshmen year, and I'd like to pursue a PhD in Computer Science in the future. I'm posting here because I just feel hopeless right now.\n\nI've had research experiences at top schools, like MIT, and now, at a top research company (where I've been for a couple of months). \n\nI know to the readers these sound impressive, but with every experience, I feel like I let my mentors and advisors down. I feel like they all had really high expectations for me -- and I just disappointed them. \n\nWith every opportunity -- and in every scenario, whether it was in school or some other aspect of my life -- I noticed a common pattern in myself :\n I just didn't want to learn. \n\nI did very well in high school. I do very well in college. But I just don't have the motivation to learn ... anything. I want good grades. I want to build the projects I have in mind. I want to finish my research project and get that publication. But I don't want to put the work in. Everything I achieved through academics was done under some combination of procrastination, stress, fatigue, and luck. I never really cared about what I was learning. I often did things just the day before, or late. I only learned just enough to do the assignment or get the grade I want. I always thought -- I can learn it the way I'm supposed to later. I just wanted the results. I wanted to look good on paper. I didn't want to feel ashamed in front of my mentors and co-workers, so I always did just enough to look like I was doing something.\n\nThese couple of months that I've gotten the opportunity to work as a research intern at a top research company (I didn't even get an interview to get there, I think I just got lucky), I've felt like shit. I knew nothing about NLP when I got here, and now it's the focus of my project. I've been working with neural nets for 2 years now, but I still don't fully understand the basics. I just feel like I should know this by now. And with every meeting, I feel like I'm doing the bare minimum -- just enough to look like I was doing something.\n\nI feel too slow. Whenever I have to learn about a new topic or read a new paper, I get overwhelmed. I think I will never understand it enough to be able to contribute anything meaningful. And when I see how knowledgeable, motivated, and quick people are about their work, I get discouraged. I feel like time is quickly passing me by, and I am crumbling under every passing day.\n\nNow I'm contemplating whether I will even have potential for an academic career in computation, or an academic career in anything, or a career at all. I know I love solving problems. I know I am creative and have good ideas when I really understand something. But that's what I'm worried about. What if I never attain that level of understanding?\n\nI just don't know -- is this normal and must I just learn to deal with it? Am I experiencing this just because I'm at a different level than my co-workers here, who are PhD's and research scientists? Have academics gone through this phase where they feel like they just can't do it?\nOr is there some underlying issue? What have been people's experiences?" ]

[ "career-path", "academic-life", "productivity" ]

[ "How to quote in the title of a thesis in APA style?", "I am writing my bachelor thesis (in psychology) and I am planning to use a quote from the series Game of Thrones as my title. More specifically, my title is:\n\n\n ‘The lone wolf dies but the pack survives’: The influence of perceived social consensus on the fear of death \n\n\nNow, I am really unsure how to quote this. According to APA Style, I would have to write the producer, director and the year in brackets but it doesn’t make much sense to this for the title (it looks stupid). \n\nIs there any possibility to quote in the title using footnotes?" ]

[ "thesis", "writing-style", "quotation" ]

[ "Role of small talk in academia", "Small talk in the title refer to the small questions or words that are culturally used in preserving and maintaining relations among people.\nThe normal small talk are as follows\n\nHow are you?\n\nHow is your health?\n\nHappy married life.\n\nI am deeply saddened by the news of your brother passing.... etc.,\n\n\nActually, all these are more relevant in case of relatives, extended family and personal relations. But, I observed that lots of people in academia network also does the same.\nIs there any purpose in small talk? Is not engaging in small talk an improper etiquette?\n\nConsider the situation in which a lab mate underwent a life event and everyone in the lab is wishing or showing condolence for the same. Is it improper to not care about it as it is an personal level or non-academic achievement?" ]

[ "etiquette", "india", "workplace" ]

[ "How to get a research professor position?", "Since universities do not normally pay the salary of a research professor, and salary along with research funding comes from external resources, this not a paid position. On the other hand, a few people are interested in a job without a secured salary (or a few researchers are confident enough to get enough funding to secure their salary too).\n\nAs a result, universities do not advertise for hiring research professors (at least, I do not see in job websites). Therefore, it should be based on private negotiation. Logically, universities should not have limitation for the number of research professors, as they do not pay their salaries. If they can obtain fund, it is good for them, if not, the university loses nothing.\n\nIn the aforementioned circumstances, I guess, potential researchers should start this negotiation. If yes, how this negotiation is normally started? A potential research professor contacts the university President, Vice President for Research, Dean, Department Chair with a proposal?\n\nWhat is the procedure for hiring a research professor?" ]

[ "research-process", "professors", "university", "funding" ]

[ "Do extracurricular research/activities in graduate school negatively affect your future?", "I'm the kind of graduate student that finds many research topics interesting and wants to participate in lots of student organization activities related to science and academia. But recently, one of my professors warned me against \"doing too much\" beyond my research focus, both in terms of publications and in terms of extra-curricular activities. As I see it, your goal as an academic is to develop a \"specialty\", so it is important to focus on one narrow topic and pass over opportunities to research other interesting, but unrelated topics. But can research outside of your particular focus in graduate school really negatively affect your ability to get hired in an post-doc or tenure track position in the future? How can \"doing more\" reflect negatively on one's self?" ]

[ "graduate-school", "research-process", "extracurricular" ]

[ "I have found an error in a textbook. What can I do about it?", "In the book Electronic Devices and Circuit Theory (10th edition) by Boylestad and Louis Nashelsky, I have found a technical mistake. \n\n\nWhat can I do about this?\nTo whom should I send an email, the authors or the publisher? (Also, there is no email address mentioned in the book or on the Internet to which I can send my suggestions.)\nI have never written an official email of this kind. If I should send an email, how should I write it?" ]

[ "publications", "email", "books", "errors-erratum" ]

[ "Stay put or enter the US application process", "I am an American who came to Europe last fall to do an MS which would complement my BA, since the field of study for my BA was different than my current one. My original plan was to apply to PhD programs in the US this fall, but recently I was offered a PhD position by my current adviser. I have until this summer to decide, which means I can either stay where I am now or decline the offer and cast the dice in the US application process.\n\nIn itself, my current department is not particularly well known in the US, where I would ultimately like to work. However, my field is small and my adviser is somewhat influential. Moreover, the advising is high quality. My adviser and I generally meet for one to three hours a week to discuss my work. I genuinely like my adviser, her insight, and the work I am doing. If I stay here I would also have connections to a lab in the US which is among the best in the world for my field. I would spend some time there as needed/desired, and the other members of my dissertation committee would likely be from this lab. \n\nThere are several US departments where I originally planned to apply. They have good faculty, have a large number of students in the same subfield, are close to other institutions doing related research, etc. In short, if I were accepted to one of these schools, I might sleep sounder knowing that others have tread my path, and at least some have had a good outcome (solid reputation, decent job, etc.).\n\nMy situation can be problematized as follows. The offer from my adviser is obviously an opportunistic move on her part. As a friend of mine put it, “she sees a talented young scientist and wants to snatch him up before someone else does.” Regardless of whether the characterization is accurate, that's a way of looking at the situation. My task is to decide whether the move is the right one.\n\nHas anyone had a similar experience or just care to share some insight?" ]

[ "phd", "graduate-admissions", "application", "united-states", "europe" ]

[ "Questionable content in student's theses", "If having some questionable aspects in the thesis - like not elaborated and rather simple theoretical models -, that did not influence the whole work and results, but might still arise the thought \"Why didn't the student know/do better here?\", can this have a negative influence when applying to some graduate school?" ]

[ "phd", "graduate-admissions", "thesis", "thesis-committee" ]

[ "When a graduate student be a part of a research grant, does he get paid in addition to a university stipend?", "This year I will graduate from a European university and willing to start a Ph.D. program in the USA. As a graduate student, there is a “guaranteed financing” opportunity of approximately $ 32,000 per year. My question is when a graduate student is part of a research grant (ie NIH / NSF grants) of his PI -in their own lab-, does he receive payment in addition to the guaranteed funding stipend? Does income from the research grant -if some- and guaranteed funding stipend different things?" ]

[ "graduate-school", "funding", "united-states", "salary", "research-assistantship" ]

[ "Allowing preprints boosts the impact factor – was this argument ever (prominently) made?", "Background\n\nThe impact factor is a journal metric that rewards citations in the first two years after publication (or five in some flavours).\nFor better or worse, this metric has some importance and thus there is some incentive for journals to increase it.\nSome journals have been accused of artificially inflating it.\n\nIf a preprint of a paper was available a considerable time before publication, this increases the chance for citations within the first two years:\n\n\nThe paper can already be cited shortly after publication as related work, corroborating evidence, etc., whereas without a preprint the citing authors would not even have known about the paper in time.\nWork sparked by the paper gets a head start to be finished and published within the two-year span.\nAuthors that would not have access to the paper otherwise can cite the paper.\n\n\nThus, allowing preprints has a positive effect on the impact factor of a journal, the only question is how much.\nSome other journal metrics are similarly effected, but the impact factor is arguably the most prominent one.\n\nQuestion\n\nHas the link between allowing preprints and boosting the impact factor (or other journal metrics) ever been prominently made? Alternatively, was it prominently opposed? For example:\n\n\nHave any journals, editors, or other people in charge stated improving journal metrics as a motivation for allowing preprints?\nHave prominent advocates of preprints used this argument?\nIs there any evidence that journals allowing preprints benefit from this move in terms of metrics? (Eliminating the effect of other trends and factors of course.)" ]

[ "journals", "reference-request", "bibliometrics", "preprint" ]

[ "How to indicate a 'summary' of some sort in a presentation", "Soon I will give a presentation in college for a few professors. In this presentation I research a somewhat complex concept, though the focus is how said concept can be used in company X. \n\nSo I'd rather not spend too much time elaborating on the concept and spend more time on the actual findings of my research. How can I do this though? \n\nCurrently I have a slide with a rather long quote on top, 5 key points in the middle and a 'summary' or a 'simplified' version below. I'm not entirely happy with this though, as in my opinion a simplified sentence implies the stuff above is less important or even too complex for my audience." ]

[ "thesis", "computer-science", "presentation" ]

[ "Creative way to kick off a talk?", "I have to do my defense seminar in couple days. I personally hate to kick off the talk with \"hello and thank you for attending my talk\". I am wondering if you know better ways/phrases to start a talk. You attended many conferences so I bet you saw some good starts." ]

[ "presentation", "seminars" ]

[ "How to mitigate bad grade in research on PhD application?", "I've just finished my fourth year (out of 5) of biology studies in one of European universities. I have some experience in research and my grades are quite ok (in US scale it would be 3.75, which means I'm in 5% of the best students in my university). This year I'm starting my master thesis and I expect it to be rather successful - I have interesting topic and good supervisor, with whom I have good contact. This year I'm also starting new studies in electrical engineering and I would love to work in biomedical engineering.\n\nThere are several PhD programmes I would like to join abroad (mainly US, UK and Germany). However, I have just got my grade for a research project from spring semester, which is really bad (C+). It is my only grade lower than B, but since it's in research (actually, it's my only grade in research), I'm afraid that it might be a big obstacle in admission process. I'm not a kind of person who blames everyone for my failures, but this time I cannot explain it in any other way than bad supervisor who didn't like me. I've learnt many methods during this project and I've done the worst job for the research group. I've also learn a lot about research in general by seeing my supervisor's mistakes. That is why I'm really happy about this experience, but it doesn't change my grade.\n\nMy question is: is there anything I can do to make this grade seem less important or to explain it to admission committee? I'm pretty sure that \"Supervisor didn't like me\" is not what they want to hear." ]

[ "graduate-admissions", "graduate-school", "statement-of-purpose", "grades" ]

[ "Publishing rejected papers", "I was reading a blog post, How to reject a rejection, by biologist Claus Wilke where he explains that it is common to resubmit a rejected paper to the same journal after a revision or appeal a rejection and get it published there. This was surprising to me because, in mathematics, my impression is that this is very uncommon. I believe overall resubmissions and appeals are uncommon, not just successful ones. I suspect a reason for this is that are many good journals that are appropriate for any given (good) paper, but maybe it happens more than I thought for the most prestigious math journals like the Annals.\n\nWhile I'm interested in mathematics, I'm also curious about how things are different in different fields, so let me ask generally:\n\n\n How common are resubmissions and appeals for rejections for the very top journals in your field? How often are these successful?" ]

[ "publications", "rejection" ]

[ "Unresponsive advisor, job offer in limbo", "I'm in a rough place right now in the homestretch of my PhD, and I'm looking for advice. I've recently reached out to my advisor about this, but they are not responding to my emails, hence me asking this question here. \n\nMy advisor is on sabbatical this year (my final year of my graduate program). Three months ago, I sent my advisor a more-or-less complete draft of my thesis, and I have not heard anything at all from them since. No edits, no comments, nothing. In part, I feel responsible for this situation; I was slated to finish last year, before my advisor left, and now they are having to edit my thesis while on sabbatical. I realize that this is a big burden. I am not sure whether or not I have the right to be upset about how long this has taken as a result. \n\nMy main concern that I have is that I want to defend before September 1st, as I have an academic job that is set to begin on that date (contingent on me actually being awarded a PhD). In order to give committee members enough time to review my thesis and for my university to process the necessary paperwork, I will likely need to have edits incorporated into my thesis by the first week or two of July. Given how long this is taking, I am not sure if this is possible anymore, and I am not sure who is ultimately to blame here.\n\nMy main question is this: Is it out of the question for someone in my position to ask their new employer whether or not it is OK to defend their PhD after the start date of their new job? Would I most likely have the offer revoked if I do so? I realize that there is know surefire way of knowing without actually asking, but I'm looking for some advice before potentially shooting myself in the foot here." ]

[ "thesis", "advisor", "job", "sabbatical" ]

[ "Why do some publication venues prefer TIFF over some vector formats?", "Why do some publication venues prefer TIFF over some vector formats?\n\nExample:\n\n\n Most figure file formats are acceptable, although TIFF is preferable." ]

[ "publications", "graphics" ]

[ "How to manage your advisor's jealousy over your work?", "Say you made a smart move in solving an important question that your advisor did not think of and all of a suddenly your advisor becomes jealous because you have made your advisor look bad. What are the best way to manage situation like this?" ]

[ "advisor", "interpersonal-issues" ]

[ "Best position title for International/USA context", "I am writing a resume for a doctoral application. In my current job, I am an Assistant Professor (tenured). However, besides being young, I don't have a doctorate or postdoctoral degree. I am also not a genius or a prodigy. In my country, the way you manage to be a university professor is different from other countries. If you want to work at a federal public university, for example, you take a test with several stages, and in some cases, people with only a master's degree and young people can get the job. I am still starting my career as a professor and researcher; I have no papers published in high impact journals. I don't want to look like something I'm not, but it also shows that I have some merit in having this position. I would like to know my title in an international context, specifically in the USA. My first option was a Full-time Lecturer (permanent appointment)." ]

[ "phd", "cv", "job" ]

[ "Authorship Dispute: Soft threats from funders to cancel project unless they are listed as coauthors", "A lot of backstory but I will try to be brief. I am employee of USA university but work abroad at a research nonprofit serving industry. (industry meaning an industry in general; many companies) My assigned handlers at the research nonprofit have power to ban me from the research non-profit facility, which would lead to unemployment and loss of residency. Access to the research nonprofit facility is a type of funding because academics don't normally get to work on tools this expensive. The (non-scientist) handlers don't help train me on equipment, get access to the research nonprofit facility and its resources, don't plan experiments, don't collect or analyze data, etc. When I was starting out and asked the handlers for help they indicated I was external and any issues I had with access or training were my own problem, and that asking the handlers for help was inconveniencing the handlers from their own work activities.\n\nGenerally the handlers are mean to me and take away opportunities to present my data to the industry sponsors which are afforded to my peers at research nonprofit who are internal. The handlers invoke the contract which gives the handlers all discretion in this area. My USA bosses threaten me with the handlers banning me from the research nonprofit facility if I do not make slides about my data and let the handlers present it. When the handlers present my data in situations where they don't think I will be able to see, the handlers just put their own name next to it, not mine or any of the USA people/institutions. My friendly colleagues at research nonprofit who do see such presentations then show me what the handlers are doing. I kept my head down and worked independently of them for a year and a half to get data in this tough situation. Now that my contract is up and the handlers and USA bosses can't hold employment/residency as leverage anymore I would like to publish my data ethically and independent of the handlers that do not satisfy any criteria for authorship I am aware of. \n\nIncluding the handlers as coauthors would also be against the Publication Policy for the research nonprofit and EU university that handles my Visa. However USA universities I am aware of do not have a written Publication Policy and research nonprofit would likely defer to the USA universities in a formal dispute. USA bosses say I need to put handlers as coauthors because not doing so would threaten the project. Since the handlers presented the slides I authored to industry USA bosses say that counts as coauthorship of any publication resulting from my time here. Also the handlers are managers of some of my peers who did contribute to my work. What I see as threats of being banned from the facility if I do not list them as coauthors USA bosses say is actually a type of direct support of me that I should be rewarding them with coauthorship. \n\nSorry, I feel that was already too long. Any advice on how to handle this? Just don't write the paper? Create a messy dispute? Acquiesce? I already have 30 or so papers, so while I would like to show productivity from this stint it won't make or break my next career move." ]

[ "ethics", "funding", "authorship", "collaboration" ]

[ "Can I accept an offer from a MS program, but continue applying to other schools?", "I have accepted an offer to a MS program, but after further consideration, have decided I am unhappy with the program and the location of the school. Would there be consequences if I applied to more programs? Would I be burning bridges? If it makes any difference, I am unfunded and would enter as a coursework student. I would like to switch to the research-track after a semester, but I am not currently taking up a spot in a PI's group." ]

[ "graduate-admissions", "masters", "ethics", "withdraw" ]

[ "Going to a lower-ranked school for better advisor fit", "Computer Science PhD admit here. \n\nIs it crazy of me to turn down a top school (MIT/Stanford) for a lower-ranked school (think Cornell/UW/Columbia/Michigan) if I think there is better advisor fit?\n\nObviously all of these are fantastic schools and I am very lucky to be choosing from them. However, I felt like I got along really well with my would-be advisor at the lower-ranked school than I did at MIT/Stanford. People have told me that it's crazy of me to turn down MIT/Stanford since they are, along with Berkeley/CMU, on a different \"level\" than the other schools.\n\n(My field is somewhat narrow so there is only 1~2 faculty at each of the schools doing research in the area. So regardless of which school I go to, if the advisor doesn't work out, I would be in a dire position.)\n\nEDIT: Both advisors are well known in the field (and both have produced outstanding graduates), but the MIT/Stanford professor is good deal more senior. Also, talking with their current students, the MIT/Stanford professor is known to be pushy and have a \"strong\" personality (which may work for some people, but not sure whether it will work for me, as I've never worked with such people before)." ]

[ "phd", "advisor", "computer-science", "students", "ranking" ]

[ "What do you call a person with a bachelor's degree?", "I am a nutritionist in Mexico and I have a bachelor's degree.(I studied for four years at a university) In mexico my bussiness card says L.N. which means licenciada en Nutricion. I don't know how to translate that." ]

[ "undergraduate", "titles", "translations" ]

[ "Should I appeal my paper's rejection in PRL?", "My manuscript in PRL was rejected after two rounds, although apparently quite narrowly. \n\nFirst round the paper was sent to two referees. One was very supportive to accept, and the other provisionally rejected but was willing to see what we had to say in response. \n\nSecond round we actually got both of the original referees to accept the paper. But for whatever reason the editor sent it to a third referee, who recommended to reject the paper. Typically PRL ends the review process at two rounds: it always rejects if there is no complete consensus to accept the paper after two rounds. \n\nWe agreed among us that the argument is not a deal killer, definitely fightable if we have the stomach for it. \n\nAs far as I can see we have a few options, and am wondering which we should go for.\n\n\nAsk for a further round of review. Although the review process is technically over, in our collective experience, the editors will typically oblige your request, and even more so when you've got two good acceptances. The downside is that you have no idea how many additional referees you will end up having to fight with - some of our friends have ended up with 5 or 6 referees, not the easiest considering how PRL referees are like. \nAppeal straight to the divisional associate editor, the default course of action. What this person says is final, even if it's to overturn two acceptances. \nOne of the lower Physical Review journals has offered to publish as a 'rapid communication' without further review. \n\n\nAny advice?" ]

[ "peer-review", "physics" ]

[ "Independence as a postdoc working with former PhD supervisor", "Having recently finished my PhD, I have now secured funding to act as PI on a project.\n\nI continue to work alongside my former PhD supervisor, with the old supervisor listed as a collaborator on the new project.\n\nThe former supervisor frequently refers to me as their 'postdoctoral fellow'. Question 1: Is this appropriate, given that I am the PI on the new project? The former supervisor is certainly in a higher position than I (Professor, whereas I am indeed a postdoc), but I feel that I should not be considered 'their' worker.\n\nThe current project requires me to use equipment owned by the former supervisor, and we closely collaborate on a lot of work. I value the impact my former supervisor has had on my career so far, and would hope to continue to work with them in the future. Question 2: How can I best make clear (respectfully) that they are now a colleague?\n\n(UK based)" ]

[ "advisor", "postdocs", "workplace" ]

[ "Difference between proposing a research framework and research approach", "I would like to get some concrete examples as to what is the difference between saying that I am presenting a research framework and a research approach. \n\nTake the field of robotics or any other engineering field for example. People do all kinds of field experiments and simulations. Different papers may have a different ratio of mixing of the two. Some may also be theoretical. \n\nSo what kind of paper would fall in the category of the research framework and what kind of paper will fall in the category of research approach? Because I have confusion when writing a paper, should I say I am presenting a framework or an approach?" ]

[ "writing", "writing-style", "terminology" ]

[ "How to approach a student with bad hygiene?", "I teach engineering at a community college in the US. I currently have a student with very poor hygiene. He stinks pretty badly, has obviously greasy hair, doesn’t change his clothes frequently, and I usually seat him in the back of the room (during exams and labs, when I have power over seating arrangements) so I don’t have to smell his (relatively strong) body odor.\n\nThis student has also spoken with a colleague of mine about his low self-esteem. He’s worried that he isn’t making friends, and doesn’t know if the people he hangs out with are hanging out with him because they want something from him (help with classwork) or because they are truly friends. \n\nIn my opinion, this student follows me around like a puppy, and he tries too hard to impress people (students and faculty alike). I am a young-ish female faculty member and I try to create very large boundaries, especially with my male students. As an example, he frequently finds the need to explain to me (in way too much detail) why he gets questions wrong on exams (I don’t care, and I don’t need to know, which I’ve told him several times with no success).\n\nSo, I would like to mention to this student that his hygiene is off-putting and isn’t helping him out in the friends department. However, because he already follows me around like a puppy dog, I don’t want to encourage any more interaction from him. Additionally, it frankly embarrasses me to have to bring up hygiene issues with somebody in their late teens / early twenties. How can I bring this issue up while still maintaining my boundary as a female faculty member who doesn’t want her male students following her around and asking her for advice all the time?\n\nI was hoping that I would be finished up with this student by now, but I am the only professor who teaches Electrical Engineering courses, so I can’t recommend that he take classes with someone else, or ask another colleague to discuss this with him. He will be taking another of my courses next semester and I don’t personally know any of his other intended professors for next semester to ask them to bring it up." ]

[ "united-states", "students", "interpersonal-issues", "health" ]

[ "My mentor is advising me to \"not worry about the cost\"?", "In my school, we have a program that allows students to do research as an undergrad with a mentor. Not uncommon. Naturally, as a participant, this is my first dive into the world of research.\nI am choosing to do research on high power lasers.\n\nThe school gives us a 3 figure budget, but when my mentor heard of the laser being 5 figures, she told me \"don't worry about it.\" And mentioned that she has something, but i didn't quite hear what she said. She kept putting emphasis on keeping on going \"don't let the cost stop you\", etc.\n\nIs this common? Should i apply for a grant? I'm not sure anything 5 figures is worth undergrad research. Is this generally the case?" ]

[ "research-undergraduate", "soft-money" ]

[ "At loss about CS specialization/sub-field", "Unfortunately, I did not know where to post this sort of question as it is very ambiguous. So I figured the Academia forum was the best place to ask, but feel free to point me to another direction. That said, this question is more about getting inspiration, rather than getting answers.\n\nHere's my story: I'm currently studying computer science at college, and finally being top of my class in a particular course has given me the confidence to strive for greater things than I originally thought possible for myself. I want to pursue a job in research, because I would rather help mankind with technological/innovative progress than financial/social progress... So my dream is to acquire myself a well-earned Ph.D.\n\nBut here's the thing: I've studied computer security most of my life (leisure-study), and always imagined that this would be my main field of research because I'm very good at this specific area of expertise.\n\nHowever, recently i've started to rethink this career path. My realization was that this field, albeit obviously not wasteful, was not going to prove beneficial for mankind in general/long-term. Unless we could use these defensive information technologies against a synthetic alien invasion, who's plan A was to destroy our Internet, hindering communications. But somehow I still think they would succeed.\n\nSo I have started to look into other areas of computer science. I kinda always had a dream of working with quantum computers (probably more a physics/engineering field at the moment), but i'm not really one of those extremely hardcore nerd types (God bless you guys.), so I suppose that's out of reach for me.\n\nI'm leaning towards artificial intelligence, because I imagine that the two most prominent areas of research that will cause significiant improvements on our way of life will be either quantum computers, for their theoretical astonomical computational powers, and self-aware \"strong AIs\" that can help our race with all our physical, philosophical and economical problems (to name a few).\n\nBut I would still like to know if you guys think I should try to pursue something different. I'm not all that great at mathematics, but i'm extremely committed to my work once I begin, so I wouldn't mind becoming one of those \"hardcore nerd types\". I looked abit on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_science , and skimmed the theoretical computer science section, but nothing really sticks.\n\nP.S. Please do not provide an answer such as \"just learn what you love to learn\", but it's not that simple in this case. I love just about everything that has to do with computers, both theory and applied, and computer science isn't a small genre to pick from.\n\nThank you most sincerely." ]

[ "phd", "masters" ]

[ "Got a distinction, but only because of some exceptionally high marks - is this a disadvantage?", "I got quite a few B's and also a C, but then also very high A's, which then brought my GPA up again so that I ended up graduating with a distinction.\n\nI would now like to apply to PhD programs at top schools, and most of them require their candidates to have a distinction.\n\nMight I be at a disadvantage if compared to candidates who had A's throughout (so instead of A+, B+, = A (my situation) they might have A, A= A, or is it the other way around: does it look good that I was able to score some exceptionally high marks?" ]

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

[ "Can I leave my position on \"short\" notice?", "Specifics: \n-I have completed one year of a tenure-track position at a small school\n-I am unhappy in my job. I receive little to no mentorship or institutional support as a junior faculty. My pay and benefits are well below comparable positions in my area. I experience a high degree of stress that is affecting me personally and physically.\n-I have been thinking about non-academic jobs for some time and recently received an offer from a consulting recruiter. \n\nQuestions:\n-Am I being unethical/insulting by only giving ~1 months notice prior to the semester starting?\n-I am technically on a multi-year contract; can I legally break this contract? \n-I anticipate that my leaving will not go over well with the department and I honestly have no idea how to quit (i.e. who do I tell first?, how do I give notice?, etc.), does anyone have advice? \n\nThank you!" ]

[ "quitting" ]

[ "I forgot to deliver tutorials", "I feel like I have made a massive mistake of my career. I do tutorials for three subjects and although we are almost end of the first trimester but one of the module just started last week and I supposed to do the second week's tutorial today for that module. \n\nThis morning I felt sick and i had constant headache. Even though I went in University and I did one of my other tutorials but I completely forgot to deliver tutorials for the module which started last week. I realised that I missed them after two hours. I never felt that much disappointed in my entire life. \n\nI have Phd submission soon and the fact I was not feeling well today seems to be the major cause and I also completely forgot to organise my calendar for this week.\n\nWell it has happened now and I have informed the course coordinator. I didn't hear back from her yet. \n\nBut my question is how today's mistake can affect my job? What likely consequences I will face? How should I handle this mistake? And finally, will they judge my previous performance based on this mistake? \n\nCheers" ]

[ "teaching", "time-management", "tutoring" ]

[ "Do citations have to be put in context?", "When citing, does it have to be obvious from the sentence or placement of the citation what exactly is being cited or why the citation is there? Sometimes I feel like people cite things such that you can only figure out why there is a citation after reading the cited article. Is that ok or should the purpose of a citation be obvious from the text?\n\nE.g. should\n\n\n In the field of bla {cite bunch of reviews} people do lots of cool stuff.\n\n\nbe instead replaced by something like\n\n\n In the field of bla people do lots of cool stuff. For recent reviews see {cite bunch of reviews}." ]

[ "citations", "best-practice" ]

[ "Why do papers published by people in tech industry often have such a large number of authors?", "It is no secret that industry labs are competing with academia at a pace never seen before. Most of the tech conferences now are dominated by industries with superior funding, human resources, and data. \n\nWhat surprises me is that papers from industry are often written by a large number of authors. In fact, whenever I see a citation/reference with a whole string of authors, I can immediately predict that it comes from industry labs. Why is this the case?\n\nFor example, this very short and simple looking paper from Google is authored by 9 people. \n\nHere is another very brief paper from Google, similar to the style of an undergraduate project. Now why is 12 people needed to put it together?\n\nTake a look at another paper from Facebook. What looks to me to be a survey paper with no simulation or any equation required 17 authors.\n\nOr this, again, very short joint paper from Apple, Facebook, Google. Why 11 authors?\n\nWhy does this Google paper (that has three labeled equations in total) require 16 authors? Are these people gaming the publication/citation count system or what.\n\nWhy does this other Google paper require 31 authors? Am I to believe that they all contributed equally?\n\nCan someone please chime in as to why these papers require so many authors? I say many because I've seen student projects or theses written by a single person that (more than) rivals the depth of those papers that require some 15 people to write." ]

[ "publications", "authorship", "industry" ]

[ "Should I include challenges I faced on account of my caste in my diversity statement?", "Some of the graduate programs in US schools require you to submit a diversity statement as a part of the application. I have looked at some resources on writing it, like these ones.\nI happen to be from a lower caste in India. Hence there are specific challenges I had to overcome to make it to college. I am not sure if I should talk about it in my diversity statement because\nthere are quite a few professors from upper caste community in the departments I'm applying to and I'm afraid if mentioning my struggle will rub them up the wrong way. Is it a good idea to talk about my background in a diversity statement or is it better to leave it out?" ]

[ "graduate-admissions", "graduate-school", "india", "diversity", "discrimination" ]

[ "Can I work alone on an extension of a paper that had multiple authors?", "Is it permissible for one of the authors of a paper to work alone for the extension of that paper?" ]

[ "authorship", "extended-paper" ]

[ "Differing perceptions of men's and woman's evaluations of their own work", "I wonder about studies of bias in academia, specifically about studies of how people respond to men's versus women's own appraisals of their own work. \n\nMany studies have argued that people at large are more critical of women's claims in academia (or in business, but that is not my concern now) than of men's. I am looking for studies specifically on responses to self-evaluations." ]

[ "reference-request", "gender", "self-promotion" ]

[ "Name of section dedicated for explaining subjects that are not 100% related to main subject of thesis", "I am not sure this is the place to ask this question.\n\nI am writing my master thesis and I have sections in preliminaries that don't have anything to do with the main topic of thesis but they further explain things mentioned in preliminaries. My advisor is saying that I should delete those sections but I am thinking maybe there is a better approach.\n\nSo, my thesis subject is comparing two cryptography protocols and in preliminaries I explained tools that enables us to understand how powerful these tools are (i.e. if this tool breaks this protocol then this protocol is bad!). But I also added some extra information like this tool also breaks this old protocol so it is a powerful tool.\n\nThe extra part that my advisor wants to remove is about 5 pages which includes algorithm as well. I am wondering is there a way to explain thing that are not directly related to main subject of thesis but knowing them would be great. Like a specific section in the end of thesis dedicated for this random stuff. Like an appendix or something. But I believe appendix are for long tables or large figures. I am not sure.\n\nThe reason I am asking is that maybe deleting a 5 pages single spaced is not a wise approach knowing that I have spent time writing them and learning them was good too. \n\nAny help would be appreciated." ]

[ "thesis", "writing-style" ]

[ "Would an MDS (Master of Dental Surgery) from India be adequate for a research position in Australia?", "I’ve earned an MDS (Master of Dental Surgery) in public-health dentistry in India. My thesis and other research projects focused on developing a module for dental students on tobacco cessation counselling.\n\nNow I am in Australia, currently with an Australian spouse visa.\n\n\nWhat qualifications are required to work as a research assistant in Australia?\nIs it possible for me to work in research field as a research assistant or as a public-health professional without clearing the Australian Dental Council exam?" ]

[ "job-search", "medicine", "australia", "india" ]

[ "Is this plagiarism or just a bad practice?", "When I first began applying correct citations and referencing, I followed methods such as placing a citation at the end of the paragraph if I am paraphrasing for one person and not following a citation for each sentence. For example:\n\n\n One can use this website to write about various activities and interests such as music, art, science, etc... and one can also get in touch with the founder. However, to use the website, a person has to register and pay a fee. The website founder is known for his IT expertise. More people are joining nowadays than ever (Smith 2010, pp. 1-2) and those people can be great contributors to the website. Contribution is an important aspect of online communities (John 2014, p. 5).\n\n\nNow I am reading about how each one complete sentence should be cited instead, and by using lead-ins to help the readers. In my above example, I want my readers to understand that the first 4 lines are Smith's ideas and the last 2 lines (from 'and those people') are John's ones. Now I realize that such a practice is a poor one as it may confuse the readers.\n\nIt should be something like (using lead-ins or ibid. for more readability, of course):\n\n\n One can use this website to write about various activities and interests such as music, art, science, etc... and one can also get in touch with the founder (Smith 2010, pp. 1-2). However, to use the website, a person has to register and pay a fee (Smith 2010, pp. 1-2). The website founder is known for his IT expertise (Smith 2010, pp. 1-2). More people are joining nowadays than ever (Smith 2010, pp. 1-2) and those people can be great contributors to the website (John 2014, p. 5). Contribution is an important aspect of online communities (John 2014, p. 5).\n\n\nMy question: Can what I did in the past be considered as plagiarism (as in not making it clear whose ideas are for whom (like readers may think that unreferenced sentences are mine) crediting wrong persons, etc...) or just a bad style of writing? (Field is business and using, obviously, author-date system)" ]

[ "citations", "plagiarism" ]

[ "How important are classifications (ACM, AMS, PACS...)?", "For paper submission, I have recently spent some time struggling to find appropriate classification. The main question is: who needs this information and why?\n\nAt first I thought that they could be used by the editor to find an appropriate editor or referees, but I have had two experiences contradicting this hypothesis. In the first one, I was only asked to provide classification AFTER the review process. In the second, I was requested to point myself to appropriate editors and referees.\n\nIn my experience, I do not look at those numbers, and that is true for other colleagues. The only exception is when I am trying to find appropriate classification and look at other related papers for inspiration. In such occasion, I sometimes found classifications which did not seem to match the content of the paper. Apparently people do not care much for this. Another aspect of the question is: how bad is it to have a bad classification?" ]

[ "publications" ]

[ "How long does it take from the application for a professorship to the invitation to a lecture?", "On average, how long does it take from applying for a professorship to being invited to a lecture, provided that one is actually invited?\n\nI am referring to an application for W2/W3 professorships in Germany (both Fachhochschulen and regular universities).\n\nAnd what is the time before the lecture: \"Hey, you're invited for next Monday\"? or a little more time?" ]

[ "application", "professors", "germany" ]

[ "Should I wait to quit with MSc or quit right away", "My situation is as follows. I started a PhD 5 months ago in a reputable university. However, I am not happy with my lab and supervisor and do not want to spend 4 or more years here. I shared my thoughts with my supervisor and he told me it is better to stay one or more years and finish with a MSc than quitting now, and if I like it then I can just stay and complete my PhD. \n\nI already have a MSc but from much smaller university unlike my current one, what is the best action to take now?\n\nIs staying and having two MSc a good option, or quitting now would look better on my CV as I did not spend too much time in the program and start looking for other opportunities?\n\nIf it matters, the reasons I am not willing to stay are: \n\n\nThe current projects in the lab do not interest me and I do not want to be working alone, specially my supervisor told be it is better to work in the same line or else he would not have much time. \nMy supervisor has joined this field recently and does not provide useful feedback with no post-doc or other seniors to help. Much of what I will do would be completely on my own.\nAfter working for one semester, the research we are doing in the lab in far from the state-of-the-art and mainly focuses on getting papers accepted in a coming conference, (Is this reasonable motivation to quit? I prefer to be working with people more involved in the field.)" ]

[ "phd", "masters", "advisor", "quitting" ]

[ "How much do budgets affect likelihood of grant funding?", "I am preparing an NSF standard grant in mathematics, and I need to prepare a budget. As is typical I am requesting two months' summer salary, a travel budget, some money for student support, and a couple of other minor odds and ends -- but I'm not sure how much to request. I don't need anything, but I could make good use of essentially an unlimited amount of money.\n\nOne guideline is the average award sizes, which are published by the NSF. It seems quite reasonable to request approximately the average, and this is what I will probably do. But sometimes I wonder if I am wasting the opportunity to request more, for example to allow more of our students to travel to conferences. This is especially true since I would still be happy to be funded even if my budget was cut. \n\nWhen I get the opportunity, I will ask my question in person to someone who has served on a panel in my discipline. For now, perhaps it is useful to ask the interwebs: generally speaking, what is the relationship between the amount of the requested budget and the likelihood of funding?" ]

[ "funding", "nsf" ]

[ "In terms of academic careers, does the department type matter between Computer Science, Engineering, or Information?", "One of the oddities of working in an interdisciplinary field is that PhD programs - and ultimately departments where you would like to work in the future - are often offered under different departments. For my personal example, my field is Human Computer Interaction (HCI), and I have the option to join a PhD program in (that is, have received admission offers from) departments that are housed within colleges of Computer Science, Engineering, or Information. \"Rankings\", to the extent that anyone cares about them, exist separately for each classification, and so they are all \"top 5\" within their own classification and have a good reputation in the field.\n\nMy question is: in considering a plan to seek future academic jobs after earning a PhD (especially as a professor at an R1), is the name of the home department/college that hosts their program something that one should weigh in their decision making? How might the type of department that one gets their PhD from effect one's future career?\n\nBonus: If department type impacts availability of internships (especially those valuable to an eventual faculty application), or just having the alternative to go into another area of industry/consulting, that could be important for a person to know and consider. \"Plan A\" is primarily positions in academia, so an answer need not address this to be a good or accepted one.\n\nNote: The focus of research, topic, equipment, and even coursework will be largely comparable, faculty working in every program have degrees in widely differing topics (including some in Psychology, Art/Design, and Business/Management), and current faculty even often publish in the same conferences.\n\nFor example, if you've been involved with a hiring committee in Computer Science, have they evaluated applicants differently if their degree was not specifically in \"Computer Science\" and instead in Information or Engineering? Or similarly, do Engineering hiring committees have a preference for people with degrees from other Engineering departments? Issues at the administrative culture level? Have you found that informal cliches or hierarchies form between groups?\n\nUltimately I'd like to know if this a distinction I need to seriously consider in picking a program, or if I can instead focus on the dozen-other factors one should consider to compare options instead." ]

[ "graduate-school", "computer-science", "job-search", "faculty-application", "engineering" ]

[ "About detemining the time of interview", "I have been asked for a faculty position interview. Regarding the time, in their email they have only asked me about my availability for two days without a specific time. I want to know that in my confirmation reply, should I provide a specific time for interview or I just determine the day?" ]

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

[ "When should service providers (core or external) expect authorship?", "There are a number of areas of biology research where specialist knowledge requirements or expensive equipment mean that it's more efficient to outsource work to core or external facilities. This seems particularly common for next-generation sequencing (here and here), transcriptomics and proteomics, but Science Exchange is based around this concept and I'm aware of proposals for similar models in other areas, e.g. for work with pathogens that require high containment. The Diamond Light Source offers something similar, too.\n\nOn the whole this seems like a good thing; it has the potential to reduce duplication of investment in infrastructure, increase use of nationally-funded resources and facilitate multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research. However, I've recently heard a few people assume that a commercial service provider is ineligible for authorship, even in situations where I strongly suspect they would normally include someone as an author if they were doing the work for free. I'm also aware of situations where collaborations have faltered due to differences of opinion over this.\n\nPersonally, if someone has made a substantial and unique contribution to designing the experiment, running the experiment and analysing the results, I think I'd be uncomfortable not adding them as an author. Not to mention that such a paper could easily end up including experiments that none of the authors knew how to design or conduct. I'm pretty sure there are a lot of papers out there now reporting NGS which none of the authors could actually have generated without help.\n\nHow should commercial service providers be acknowledged in papers reporting work they assisted with, and does the fact that a service is paid for change the criteria for authorship? Is this affected by whether the PI pays for the access, or if the access is paid for from a central budget?\n\nGood-subjective answers only, please. I'm particularly keen to hear personal experiences or evidence from the biological sciences (hence the biology tag), but would welcome answers that compare and contrast this to other fields." ]

[ "authorship", "biology", "facilities-services" ]

[ "What are job prospects for a physics Ph.D. student focusing on quantum computing?", "I am about to start my 3rd year in my physics Ph.D. program with no paper, no defined project. My research area is quantum computing. My supervisor and I are the only ones in our department who do that kind of research and we are new to the field. I tried to apply for some internship and summer school in the field but I even did not get a chance for an interview. For this situation, I think I am not going to graduate with a decent publication record.\nWhat does it take to get a job in the quantum computing field? Will there be many jobs in the field in the coming years? Should only genius people consider the field? Will there be quantum computing jobs for an average person?" ]

[ "job-search" ]

[ "As a TA, I had sex with someone who turned out to be one of my students, what do I do?", "I'm a grad student and TA.\n\nI was playing pool on campus and met some people who happened to be in a frat. We played together and they invited me to their frat party. Long story short, I got really drunk and ended up having sex with someone. I didn't realize that they were in my class until the morning (I have a lot of students). \n\nWhat do I do? How do I make this right? I'm sure this is bad, but just how bad?" ]

[ "teaching-assistant", "sexual-misconduct" ]

[ "Is it ethical to use previous data from work in academic research?", "I worked in the Geospatial industry for 12 years+ with 4 companies and am currently in an academic field. One of the companies was forest plantations and no longer exists. \n\nI have a lot of geospatial data (satellite imageries, radar, UAV aerial photos, field records etc.) which I think is a waste if not used for good. This especially when coupled with latest data—for example, to investigate temporal analysis of land use/cover, forest and plantation—would result in impressive outputs. \n\nPlease give your opinions. Thank you." ]

[ "ethics", "industry", "data" ]

[ "What happens if you don't get tenure?", "I've heard different takes on what the convention is when an Assistant or Associate Professor does not achieve tenure. Can you just remain at your existing position and continue to teach and conduct research? Can you reapply for tenure again later? Is it more conventional to leave the institution for another tenure-track position at another institution?\n\nThis is in regard to US universities, but perhaps an answer articulating what is common in different countries is best." ]

[ "tenure-track" ]

[ "Is there a university that has only graduate programs?", "Is there any university in the United States (or Europe) fully committed to graduate programs (master and PhD)?\n\nWhy this is not a common scheme? Why research universities are not interested in this model? Without huge number of undergraduate students, a university can save money on campus expenses, and heavily uses its resources for research." ]

[ "research-process", "graduate-school", "university", "united-states", "united-kingdom" ]

[ "Collaborative development of teaching materials and assessments", "I have been teaching for 10 years. During this time I have also been developing and contributing to open source software. The collaborative nature of open source projects and scientific research has contrasted strongly with my experience of teaching. People publish their research results in journals for peer review and they post their source on GitHub and other online repositories for review and collaboration, but there seems to be a dearth of collaboration on the development of good teaching materials and assessment. Am I overlooking a community somewhere where there is good peer review of teaching materials with a focus on current pedagogy?\n\nI would like to be able to upload the pictures, notes and so on that I have developed to explain a particular concept and have other people critique it and make it better. Further, I would like to be able to contribute a question which assesses a particular skill and have it reviewed by peers and improved. This way we could build a repository of high quality materials and spread the load of development of new questions.\n\nMy specific field is chemical engineering process dynamics and control, but I would be interested in knowing if there is such a community somewhere in any tertiary education field." ]

[ "collaboration", "online-resource", "assessment" ]

[ "\"Full\" versions versus \"Preliminary\" version of result/paper. Are they considered different?", "This is a common pattern in publications, not exclusive to my field (TCS):\n\n\n An author submits a paper to a conference (as preliminary version). Then, after acceptance to a conference, virtually the same paper (modulo some modifications, etc mostly in length but rarely in any conceptual level) is submitted to a journal, possibly with a different title (but not always). The latter is called full version. In many cases, the two versions are indistinguishable and in most cases epsilon away (for a small epsilon).\n\n\nAt the end, the author has two publications (conference+journal) from practically the same technical result.\n\n\n Is this considered as one or two publications? (technically of course are two different publications, but how people perceive that?)\n\n\nFrom what I have seen, this is generally considered as 2 publications. So, an author with 5 results that follows the above pattern will have 5 conferences + 5 journals = 10 publications. Another author with again 5 results that are submitted only directly to journals (for one reason or the other, for example lack of travel funding from the institution) will have only 5 publications and, subsequently, will be ranked lower than the first author/candidate. \n\n\n My question is: How do academic people perceive the same publication that has been published in a conference as a short version and, subsequently, in a journal as a long version where both versions contain virtually the same text/results. How can someone evaluate this when sometimes these two publications appear with a different title?" ]

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

[ "How common is it to get one very positive and one very negative review?", "In the past year I have, on three separate projects submitted to three different venues (both conferences and journals), received incredibly mixed reviews. In each case there have been two reviewers, one with a very positive review and one with a very negative review, and the editor has decided to reject the paper without soliciting a third reviewer. They all follow this general pattern: \n\nOne reviewer: This is useful, interesting work. \n\n\n\"well-written, informative, to the point...quite helpful\"\n\n\nThe other reviewer: I don't see the point of this work. \n\n\n\"To be quite honest, I am not sure what the purpose of such an article is.\"\n\n\nI have two questions. \n\n\nHow common is this? It this just me or does this happen a lot? If the former, what can I do to help avoid it? All of these papers have included a discussion of the impacts/applications of my results and tied them to the existing literature. If this is pretty common, though, and it's just the luck of the draw then I'll keep plugging away and submitting. \nHow should I incorporate this feedback? While any rejection is frustrating, usually it comes with the silver lining of suggestions to improve the project. But what on earth do I do when the feedback is simultaneously \"this is a good/interesting project that I find helpful\" and \"this project is useless\"? I don't want to just throw out these projects, especially since I think at least some other scholars find them helpful/interesting.\n\n\nAt this point I'm confused and disheartened and would really welcome feedback, especially from other scholars with the same experience. \n\nThanks!" ]

[ "publications", "peer-review" ]

[ "4th year PhD student(24 years old). I am lost", "Lately I have some issues with my academic life and my life. I am not doing anything. literally anything. This week, I was home all day, doing nothing. Just sleeping. I am seeing a therapist, but it is not that helpful. I am going to give you some background. I hope somebody could help me out here.\n\nI am a 4th year PhD student. My major is electrical engineering and I am 24 years old. I started my PhD when I was 21 and everybody was telling me that \"you're smart \", \"you have a lot of time ahead of you\", \" Just chill\", etc. I came to the states, leaving all my family behind to achieve my goals. And look at me now, I literally achieved nothing. (I finished bachelor when I was 21).\n\nAll my life, I used to do the minimum to get the work done. So instead of going to MIT or Stanford, I ended up in a university with ranking of around 40, which is good for me. With that being said, I gradually started to decrease the amount of effort I put in my work. Getting to my 4th year of PhD, I only have two conference publications.\n\nMy therapist is telling me that I value the work I do. But I am not organized at all. I don't have a schedule. When I wake up in the morning I don't know what I want to do. When I go to the lab, I stare at the monitor and I don't know where to start. I procrastinate. So I open youtube, Instagram, Twitter, ... . Anything that help me ignore the reality. I am using my phone at least 10 hours per day. I want to change, but something big inside me is preventing me to do that. It hurts me when I see myself, achieving nothing. Sometimes I try to start. I go to a new place. I do some scheduling for what to do the next day. But it remains on the paper. I feel like I don't have the power to continue. But there is a flame inside me, which I know is still alive and I can do it. I am lost.\n\nMy advisor is kind. He's telling me I need to publish. He told me that I need to graduate next spring (2020). But he doesn't push me or anything. He tells me to go to him if I had any questions, so he could lead me through my work. \n\nI really don't appreciate the things I have now. When I look at my situation, I pity myself. \n\nI don't know what to do now. I really appreciate your help and answers." ]

[ "phd", "graduate-school", "academic-life" ]

[ "Is it appropriate to use acronyms when citing a source in MLA?", "I'm writing an MLA research paper for a school assignment. When citing a source in-text, is it appropriate to use an acronym? For example, I'm citing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Would it be acceptable to cite the source as (CDC)? If I'm citing the source at multiple points in the paper, could I cite it with the full name the first time and with the acronym for any subsequent citations?" ]

[ "citations", "citation-style" ]

[ "Method/tactic to extracting information from articles", "I am generally curious to hear what sort of technique/method people have to extract information from scientific articles, in order to write e.g. introductions. \n\nI for instance, normally read an article in PDF, then read again and highlight \"important/relevant\" information. I end up going a bit back and forth to actually combine the information with other sources in my own introduction.\n\nI know most people know not to start reading method first, and rather start with abstract and intro/discussion and things like this; however, does anyone have any good tips on more efficient ways of organizing the information I find, to make it easier for my self to use later?" ]

[ "writing", "methodology", "reading" ]

[ "Is it okay to reference something well agreed by only one source, [e.g. 1 source]?", "I am wondering if it is okay write something like: \n\n\"Many scholars hold the view that this is like that\" and then give one example reference (e.g. Gans et.al. 1965) ? \n\nThe reason I am wondering because it is generally accepted and no one seems to disagree on that. Is it better (1) not to reference at all, (2) reference the most original paper and skip e.g., or (3) mention few?" ]

[ "citations" ]

[ "Are there any studies on how lecturer review sites such as Rate Your Lecturer affect student choices?", "A version of the lecturer review website Rate Your Lecturer recently became active in the UK.\n\nDo you know of any studies which consider to what extent students use this or any other review websites to guide their choice of university?" ]

[ "teaching", "students", "reference-request", "website", "evaluation" ]

[ "Phd difficulties: waiting to finish, supervisor not reviewing thesis", "I am at the end of the fifth year of research. My thesis was written last year but my supervisor refused to take in any submissions stating that he is very busy. I followed up from time to time for feedback but that irritated him and he told me to wait till he called me on his own. I have now applied for an extension at the university for another year. In a recent face to face conversation on what is expected of me and how to move things forward, my supervisor says that it will take time for him to begin the review and that Phd depends on mostly my behaviour and not the research work that I have done. I have sought the university's help informally but they say they cannot do anything to help. They say I need to sort it out myself. What should I do?" ]

[ "phd", "advisor" ]

[ "Project management techniques applied to research", "Are there books/writing on project management as applied to scientific research (for PhD students and higher)?\n\nI am looking for something synonymous to Scott Berkun's \"Making Things Happen\", which was written for software developers.\nOther interesting and useful practices I am familiar with include Agile and Extreme Programming. Maybe I am looking for sources on comparing research process to product development.\n\nJust to be clear, this is not question about software, but about practices." ]

[ "management", "best-practice", "project-design" ]

[ "Is it alright to contact lab members of a lab you interviewed at for an update on your PhD application?", "I am international applicant for a PhD program in Molecular Biology. I have interviewed with a professor and have had a chat with all of the members of the lab I am extremely interested in working in. It has been over 4 months since I first got in touch with the lab as of now. I am trying to be patient, but is it okay to get in touch with a current PhD student in the lab to get an update on what impression I had left on them and if the professor is going to be considering me.\nThis is for a graduate program in Molecular Biology in Canada.\nThank you." ]

[ "phd", "graduate-admissions" ]

[ "Another student has been assigned the same MSc thesis as mine (and already defended)", "I am in a dilemma as to how to approach this issue. Basically, myself and another student were assigned the same thesis topic. Only difference is, I have been doing it part time and she completed her in 2017. We both were liaised by the same co-superviser who has now left the university.\n\nThe whole thesis is the same. I do not just want to re-word her thesis, because I actually want to learn something. However at the same time, I have had a lot of busy months at work and because of that I have been lagging behind in my thesis. \n\nShe did some simulations and produced some results and discussed it. My simulations are the same as well. So, it is Okay that I replicate the results using my own simulations (even though its the same)? Or do I have to do something completely new? The literature review part is going to be similar as the topic is similar. I personally think, there isn't much I can do differently besides explaining the same results in my own way." ]

[ "thesis", "masters", "literature-review", "science" ]