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Flax-sentence-embeddings 28

[ "Does getting a request to review from a professor count me as a reviewer?", "I got a request to help comment on a paper in a journal from a professor. It's an informal request -- the professor is the one who officially reviews the paper. Can I put \"reviewer\" in my CV or not?" ]

[ "peer-review", "cv" ]

[ "Citing papers with newer arXiv versions", "I am writing my Master's thesis on topological quantum field theories, and would like to cite the following paper:\n\n\narXiv version: https://arxiv.org/abs/q-alg/9503002\nPublished version: https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.531236\n\n\nThe published version is from 1995, while on arXiv there are two versions, one from 1995 and one from 2004. Which one of the papers should I cite (published or arXiv)? And how should I cite them?" ]

[ "citations", "arxiv" ]

[ "What are characteristics of a \"good\" thesis topic?", "This may be too discipline specific, but I'm going to give it a shot.\n\nI'm still relatively new to grad school (6 months), but I've been told by several older students to keep an eye out for potential thesis/dissertation topics. I'd like to start a list of potential ideas for myself - I'm sure some will be solved before I start my actual thesis, and others are already solved and I just need to read more. But what are some characteristics of a \"good\" thesis topic?" ]

[ "thesis", "research-topic" ]

[ "Are European schools experiencing the same cost raise as American schools?", "After factoring in government subsidies (or lack thereof), is the total price for one year of undergraduate education in Europe increasing at a rate similar to America?" ]

[ "university", "funding", "united-states", "europe" ]

[ "My math students consider me a harsh grader. Is my teaching attitude wrong?", "I am a math major grad student at a big public school, and we need to do TA every semester.\n\nI got assigned to lower level classes last couple semesters, and it's been quite difficult for me. Even though I am a pretty nice person in general, I have so much trouble tolerating my students' sloppiness, arguing for more points when they don't deserve, and just explaining very simple things to students again and again in general (for example, why log(a + b) is not equal to log(a) + log(b)). \n\nI am sure many will think my attitude is wrong, and probably I need to hear that. I am also a \"harsh grader\", as my students would probably call me. The way I was raised, it's very hard to accept people not working hard, but feeling entitled to good grades. I have students coming to me asking how they can get extra points without doing any actual work. I feel offended by that.\n\nLet me know what you think about teaching in general. I enjoy doing research in mathematics and want to be in academia in the future. However, I feel this could be a problem for me if I hate teaching so much. Should I think more positively about this?" ]

[ "mathematics", "teaching", "teaching-assistant" ]

[ "Who or what is George Rajna?", "I don't know maybe this question seems off topic but anybody get the chance to look at vixra.org archive? \n\nIt seems it is blown up by some manuscripts from a guy, which is called \"George Rajna\", and more interestingly all of them are about some ridiculously (excuse me I didn't find another appropriate word!) hot topics in quantum physics or general relativity. Sometimes in my spare time I just look for crazy things for fun in internet that seems really funny to me. I can't believe \"George Rajna\" is a real guy (I mean someone really exists with his name or identity!) but it seems it's a just article posting robot, which blow up vixra.org?! \n\nAgain, I know maybe it sounds completely off topic but I appreciate if someone has any idea about people post their article (If you could call it a real article, which I'm not sure really?!!!) in vixra.org? People do it just for fun or really they have some serious intention?!" ]

[ "online-publication" ]

[ "PhD in autonomous underwater robots", "I have finally found my true calling. I want to work on autonomous underwater vehicles trying to solve different problems from research to oil and gas industry. \n\nThe problem is that I am having issues finding the PhD positions for this: \n\n\nIf I search for marine sciences, I usually end up reading a PhD position about oceanography related to biology and physics.\nIf I search for computer science PhD, it is usually very broad as it includes creating algorithms for autonomous robots.\n\"PhD in Marine Robotics\" does not bring many results. \n\n\nI specifically want to work on making underwater robots as autonomous as possible. \n\nThe only PhD program that I found is in MIT, but the chance of getting in there is quite low. Can anyone hint me on how to search for this specific PhD position? Thank you!" ]

[ "phd", "career-path" ]

[ "I want to do a PhD but I think I need more supervision. Should I be more direct in setting up more frequent meetings with my PhD supervisor?", "I began a paid position as PhD research assistant in Germany. Immediately after beginning the position, the principal investigator (PI) who hired me moved country and left the project (but remains part of the project as he secured funding). The ex-PI, new PI and I have meetings once a month to discuss progress, with little contact between these meetings.\nI also enrolled on an associated PhD program and got assigned a PhD supervisor who is an expert in my area of study. I have monthly meetings with my PhD supervisor. There are therefore 3 people who are supervising my work, but it feels like I am without any supervision because these three people have overlapping and minimal roles. I am employed by a research institute and taking a PhD at an associated university. My supervisor and new PI are associated with the research institute.\nI want to do a PhD but I feel like without any supervision I am in a post-doc like situation. I think I need more supervision/guidance mainly from my PhD supervisor, but it is not his role to discuss the work I am paid for, that should be the new PI.\nDo you think I should be more direct in setting up more frequent meetings with my PhD supervisor?\nIs anyone aware of how to best manage the paid positions that are quite separate from the PhD itself, and the multiple people involved?" ]

[ "phd", "germany" ]

[ "How many papers should a Ph.D. student review for their professor per year?", "My professor asks us on a frequent basis to review papers and get together, discuss their merit and come up with a review. This happens in bursts, where I may do 2 one week 2 another and then go for 3 weeks with none and then back to having 2 or so a week to look at. There is never more than a 2 week notice given before we must have these reviews in. I would say at a minimum I review 6 papers a semester, with 10 being the max. \n\nSo my question is how much time should a Ph.D. candidate student be putting toward reviewing a paper? Also how many papers a semester or year would you consider an average having to review as a Ph.D. student?\n\nNow realize I understand that I need to be reading papers and the state of the art in my field but that is not what we are asked. I feel it is more involved to come up with a metric of determining originality and such with each paper for a review." ]

[ "graduate-school", "advisor", "peer-review" ]

[ "No reply after almost two months since the first interview", "At the beginning of March I applied for a postdoc position that was very close to the research topic of my PhD. I also sent an email to the Professor who posted the position in order to persuade him of my qualifications and my willingness to obtain the position.\nOn the 18th of March he replied to my email and we scheduled a zoom meeting on the 22nd of March. The meeting went well, and he told me that there will be another formal meeting after a month (around 22nd of April). However, the 22nd passed and no meeting took place.\nAfter I sent him another email on the 27th of April, he told me that there have been issues related to the funding at the faculty level and everything has been delayed, and that they promised him he will get an update in the next few days, he also promised he will keep me updated.\nHowever, to this day I have not received any updates regarding the situation, and I am confused as to whether I need to contact him again. I don't want to look rude nor pesky, but I really want things to move forward and do the second interview as soon as possible.\nShould I contact him now or should I wait more? I believe the next few days means 3-5 days and should not exceed one week, but this is now the third week and I am still waiting." ]

[ "funding", "postdocs", "job-search", "email", "interview" ]

[ "PhD student hiring a LaTeX expert to typeset thesis?", "I am close to finishing my PhD. Some of my peers use LaTeX. Obviously, it looks much better than Word and alike. As I wrote a few papers that go into my final thesis, I however have numerous formats depending on the journal in question. I would like to transform them all into one final document with matching layout. I am OK with TeX, but I'd rather see a professional do it.\n\nI am now considering two options:\n\n\nTaking my limited TeX-Knowhow to the next level.\nHiring an expert. \n\n\nMy time is limited. I've got a couple more weeks to go and that should be enough for option #1, as I already know a bit of TeX. But I am an external PhD student and I work on the side.\n\nI have two questions:\n\n\nWhat factors should I take into consideration in deciding which route to take?\nIf I decide for an expert, what criteria do I need to evaluate if the expert is any good?" ]

[ "thesis", "latex", "formatting" ]

[ "In how many conferences should I serve as PC member?", "Three months ago, I served as a PC (=Program Committee) member in a top conference in my field (CS). Now, I was offered to serve as a PC member in another top conference.\nAlthough I found this job quite fun, I still wonder, in how many conferences \"should\" I be a PC each year? (\"should\" in quotes, since there is no formal obligation)." ]

[ "peer-review" ]

[ "Writing the dedication in language different than the language of a thesis or a book", "How is it received by the readers to see the dedication in, say, Chinese, while the entire other parts of the thesis or a book is in English?\n\nWould that annoy the readers who do not know the language of the dedication?\nWould that be considered as \"putting private message in a publicly-designated document\"?\n\nIs there a reference that says whether this is a good/bad practice?" ]

[ "thesis", "reference-request", "language" ]

[ "How do I cite a SDS in AMA format?", "Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I could cite a material safety data sheet (for a chemical compound) in the AMA format? An example would be appreciated, because I couldn't find anything helpful online." ]

[ "citations", "citation-style" ]

[ "How to react to unfair criticism to my published study?", "Background\n\nFew years ago, I have published an article on a peer-reviewed internationally recognized journal. My study went through an extremely sound (blind) peer-review, which allowed me to improve many aspects of the final manuscript. The article has been cited a sizable number of times since then.\n\nProblem\n\nI came across an article by a colleague, published in an edited book, in which the author express criticism about some aspects of my study. I am always open to criticism and suggestions when they are constructive, sound, and polite. What I have found particularly upsetting is that, in an attempt to bring to the forefront what s(he) thinks are flaws in my published study, the colleague has actually shown his/her plain misunderstanding of many of the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of my work.\n\nQuestion\n\nI am wondering what could be a viable option in front of the above-described situation. \n\nShall I do nothing, leaving the scholarly community to judge who is right, or should I try to publish somewhere a polite but firm reply to what I consider an unfair criticism? \n\nIf the latter is the case, should I write to the Editor of the journal on which I published my article to ask him/her if the journal would accept a sort of reply \"in defence\" of my earlier publication?" ]

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

[ "Reading list about the organisation of education in colleges in America", "I have been chosen by my university (where I am a professor in science) to be part of a task force determining the undergraduate general education requirements. To be a better informed committee member, I am trying to understand the general situation at colleges in the country (the US) and the debates that have concerned this kind of questions. (To circumscribe a little the question, let us say that by \"college\" below I mean the top (e.g. top 100) liberal arts college and the top 100 colleges integrated in a university (Harvard college, etc.))\n\nMore specifically, I am trying to find good books that \n\n1) describe the different types of policy that the colleges have.\n\nFor example:\n\na.-- Some colleges ask students to choose a major and a minor, other two equal concentrations. Are there colleges that require nothing of that sort? Which college do what? How many?\n\nb.-- Some colleges force students to take classes in a variety of fields (science, humanity, arts, etc.). How widespread is that? What form does these requirements take?\n\nc.-- Some colleges strongly encourage or force students to take a large number of courses where they would read about the \"great books\" of the Western Culture. See for examples the \"core curriculum\" at Columbia and Chicago. Other don't have that requirement, and some on the contrary require students to take a minimum number of courses directly concerning non-Western Cultures. Again, I'd like to know examples, and statistics.\n\nd.-- Some colleges require student to know or learn at least one foreign language. How general is that? Are there schools that require two foreign languages? or one ancient language (like ancient Greek, Latin, Biblical Hebrew, Old Arabic, Hittite, Sanskrit, etc.)? \n\nEtc.\n\n2) Either neutrally explain or take a side with detailed arguments in the vigorous debates that have taken places in the academic community and beyond about those issues. (For example, my haphazard research with google led me to The Closing of the American Mind, which takes a vigorous position in factor of the first option in 1c above)\n\nI am very thankful for any suggestion of readings on those subjects." ]

[ "reference-request", "curriculum" ]

[ "Typical experiences of transgender people in academia?", "I've recently come to accept that I'm transgender (MtF, male-to-female). I won't go into the exact details of this as it's personal, but I have a \"girl mode\" where I identify as a female. I'm also a researcher/lecturer at a respectable university. I'm yet to reveal this side of myself at work, but it's not impossible that my colleagues or students will run into me in girl mode e.g. at the mall.\n\n\n Question: What are typical experiences of openly transgender academics?\n\n\nI'd be particularly interesting in examples of successful academics who are openly transgender.\n\nI know there are both legal protections and university policies which prohibit discrimination based on being transgender, but no policy can make people like you.\n\n(Update: As things developed, I gave an answer to my question below.)" ]

[ "university", "job", "academic-life", "gender" ]

[ "Not submitting reviewed manuscript", "I have just addressed reviewers’ comments to one of my papers. I am the first author and did most of the job.\nOne of the authors does not want to resubmit. They offered no explanation and have been avoiding me. How to behave in this case?" ]

[ "paper-submission" ]

[ "Long term research plan", "I have been on a junior professor position for three years and I start thinking about my future. Is there any suggestion for young faculty on how to come up with a long term research agenda? I feel that being under publication pressure for several years has somehow restricted my vision and turned my research towards incremental work. Of course there is always an idea to get another paper done, but is this the right mindset over the long run?" ]

[ "research-process", "career-path", "assistant-professor" ]

[ "Is there a certain time of year that Canadian Universities make graduate admissions offers?", "When do Canadian universities start to offer and finish offering admission to their graduate programs? If it matters, I'm applying for a masters in computing science.\n\nFor background, I've already received one offer, but don't know what to expect on timeline for possibly receiving offers from other places I've applied." ]

[ "graduate-admissions", "canada" ]

[ "How to address bad research experience", "I want to apply to CS PhD programs this year. Just a litte background: I did my BS and (non thesis) MS in EE/ECE at the same school. During my BS I did two semesters of undergrad research that went fine and gave me valuable experience. \n\nDuring the second (last) semester of my MS I took on for-credit research with a professor. We got all the forms settled and decided on a project. However, after a certain point (me reading papers to catch up on the work) he stopped responding completely. I sent him emails frequently asking for resources to start my project (required some simulation resources at the least), but he never responded. I also tried to catch him at his office whenever I was free during the semester but completely failed. At the end of the semester I was awarded a B. Should I even address this on my application? Would it look bad to not include this experience at all?\n\nThe other weird caveat is that this is the only B throughout both of my degrees, so it is pretty noticeable." ]

[ "graduate-admissions", "computer-science", "research-undergraduate" ]

[ "personal motivations in job applications", "I am a US post doc applying for a position in Norway. The application asks me to include my motivation for applying for the position. Should I mention my personal willingness to move to Norway? I recently visited and loved the culture and outdoor lifestyle there. Of course my letter is primarily focused on my research interests and how they align with the posted position, but I was wondering if it is appropriate to include 1-2 sentences about my personal desire to live in Norway." ]

[ "application", "application-cover-letter" ]

[ "Are reviewers impressed by a quick response to a request to revise and resubmit?", "My colleagues believe that if you submit your manuscript revisions quickly, reviewers will be impressed by your confidence about the issues raised. \n\nHowever, I think that a quick response is not always the best option. If you consult with other people, you may submit better revisions which of course requires more time.\n\n\nAre there any benefits in responding quickly to a request to revise and resubmit a manuscript?\nAre reviewers impressed by a quick response to a request to revise and resubmit?" ]

[ "publications", "phd", "research-process", "peer-review", "publishers" ]

[ "I'm 2 months into my PhD. When can I ask my supervisor about the rejected candidates?", "I was recently accepted for a PhD position after going through the application process of submitting the usual documents (CV, motivation letter,...) as well as an interview. \n\nI have heard, from my now colleagues, that during the application process, my supervisor had mentioned that I had come across as very motivated.\n\nI am curious however, if there is ever a good time (say after one has established a rapport with one's supervisor) to ask about the other candidates who fell short? Or is it something quite taboo?" ]

[ "phd", "graduate-admissions", "etiquette", "supervision" ]

[ "Need advice about a vague question on postdoc position search and post thesis submission dilemma", "I am a veteran PhD student who have just submitted my PhD thesis and am waiting for my defense. The defense is to be scheduled for the end of the year (end of November). Due to lack of proper foresight and getting overwhelmed during the last year of PhD work, I have no option for my next career move.\n\nI will be getting supported by my advisor till I defend my thesis. However, I am worried that I don't have enough time to get a position anywhere by the time I defend. I have started looking for positions and applying for them.\n\nMy advisor says that due to the lack of funds, she won't be able to keep me as a postdoc after my defense but she can support me for 4 months into the next year as a research assistant till I get some position. At the moment, I am submitting my papers, working on remaining projects. Also, would apply for fellowships. \n\nMy question is very vague, and is borderline panicked rant, and I apologize for it.\n\nHow should I effectively utilize my remaining months before my defense?\nIs it possible to get and start a position within 4-5 months?\n\nI am an international student and will secure a work visa after my PhD defense. So, there shouldn't be any visa issue." ]

[ "phd", "application", "postdocs" ]

[ "Optimal project stage (ripeness) for conference presentation", "I need to choose one of two recent experiments to submit to a psychology conference taking place 10 months from now. Both studies are equally relevant to the conference topic, but they differ in terms of their maturity stage: \n\n\nI have only recently started to analyse the data of. In the Abstract I would submit I would just mention my hypotheses and methods, and speculate about results. Thus, this study feels a bit 'unripe' to base a conference submission on, and indeed might rightfully get rejected as being too high-risk (unclear if a \"null result\" would still make for an interesting research report).\nI've been working on its manuscript for a while, which has very recently been accepted as a peer-reviewed journal article. This study, on the contrary, feels to me a bit too 'ripe' to present at a conference since, as a soon-public article, it's no longer newsworthy on any extra 'channels'.\n\n\nThe two choices I am faced with lead me to a question that I've long been pondering: what is the optimal stage at which an (empirical) study is best presented at a (scientific) conference, i.e. how early or late into its lifetime? Else put: should one err on the side of too ripe, or too unripe\n\nMy guess is, somewhere in between having (almost) final results for analyses (but no write-up yet) at one end, and having the manuscript under-review but not yet accepted, at the other end. My current choices are just a bit outside of this ideal interval, on either side! \n\nWe've all seen people at conferences pushing both ends, i.e. either putting themselves out on a limb and winging work that is obviously still in progress; vs taking \"on an academic tour\" work that isn't by any means recent anymore and in some cases even recognisable from previous conferences/papers. But my question has to do with the optimal stage at which to present stuff, from the point of view of both the presenter and the audience.\n\nI see this as a trade-off between how well the presentation would come across ((1) risky: conference public being the first to see a \"first draft\", vs (2) safe: presenting already-reviewed data that's likely to be well received) and how useful said presentation actually is in terms of getting feedback ((1) very much so, since there will still be time to implement feedback; vs (2) not at all since the work is done and published, if even just very recently so)." ]

[ "conference" ]

[ "Is there any formal format for statement of purpose?", "I'm about to submit my application for various PhD programs and I was wondering how should I format my statement of purpose.\n\nShould it be addressed like a formal letter? Just contain my name and say 'Statement of Purpose'? Should I end it with something like 'Sincerely, ...' ?" ]

[ "graduate-admissions", "statement-of-purpose", "writing-style", "formatting" ]

[ "Is it OK to re-use data from a previously publication in a new publication?", "In a previously-published paper we have one chart with about 6 traces — a pair of controls, and four test subjects. We are now preparing a follow-up paper in which one of the test subjects now acts as a control, with another half-dozen new traces compared to it. Assume that each of the experiments is technically valid (i.e. presenting either figure alone would be fine in terms of replicates, stats, setup, etc.) Is it OK to re-use the data for the shared trace in both papers? We would prefer not to repeat the whole experiment — aside from cost, there's an ethical issue (animals are involved and we want to minimize suffering). We are tentatively thinking that we can re-use the data along with an explanatory note (\"Trace X in Figure 3 is re-used from reference Y\") but I'd appreciate other thoughts." ]

[ "publications", "data" ]

[ "When should I publish in interdisciplinary versus subject-specific scientific journals?", "Most science research is published in subject-specific journals, of which there are many. However, there are a relatively small number of interdisciplinary journals, some of which are the most highly cited of all journals (Nature, Science); others have impact factors comparable to subject-specific journals (e.g., PLOS ONE, J. R. Soc. Interface, etc.).\n\nIf we discount arguments around open science and similar business model arguments (which could favor journals like PLOS ONE), and assume that the purpose of publishing is simply to get your research read (and cited) by the largest \"relevant audience\", when should one publish in an interdisciplinary journal versus a subject-specific journal (assuming they have comparable impact factors)? (Are there any papers out there that compare the fate of publications [or their authors!] in the two different types of journal?)\n\nThanks in advance." ]

[ "publications", "journals", "science", "impact-factor" ]

[ "Is It Okay to Continuously Use One's Private Email Address?", "I would have a question: Is it okay to use one's private email address to reply to all the university-related emails after having set up a forwarding to one's private email address - be it as a Professor, PostDoc, PhD-, graduate or undergraduate student, and use one's university/work email only for the most important emails that one wants to send?" ]

[ "etiquette", "university", "email" ]

[ "Why would a conference ask for a title page if the submitted paper has been submitted somewhere else?", "I am in the process of submitting a paper to a conference. In the submission page I read:\n\n\n Title Page (Mandatory if multiple submissions, submitted to a\n pre-print archive, or substantial overlap with prior publications)\n\n\nWhy would a conference ask for a title page if the submitted paper has been submitted somewhere else?" ]

[ "paper-submission" ]

[ "Travel grant for summer conference between PhD and first job?", "I am a PhD student in the US (mathematics) and I expect to graduate in May. \n\nI got invited to speak in a European conference in June, which is in the awkward time between graduation and my first job (I expect to get a postdoc, and those start August or September). My current department has told me that they cannot fund me after I graduate.\n\nThe conference offers some support for young researchers, but it is very meager and I will be flying trans-continentally. I was wondering if there is an outside source that might fund single-conference travel grants for young mathematicians?" ]

[ "phd", "funding", "travel" ]

[ "Adding references for glossaries", "I am writing my thesis and I have decided to add a list of glossaries to explain certain terms. I decided to copy most definitions for these terms from here because I believe they are best explained there. This site, SEVOCAB provides definitions by the IEEE for international standards in Software and systems engineering. \n\nMy questions:\n\n1) Am I correct in copying directly the definitions from here? I thought it would be best to do so because you are using approved definitions to explain concepts that may frequently be interpreted differently by different authors\n\n2) Of course I understand that I need to cite the website and that the definitions come from there. I thought of adding a sort of disclaimer or reference either at the beginning of the glossaries or somewhere in the thesis itself. For example, I have a section called clarification of terms whereby I make a distinction between Software Engineering and Software Development. How should I go about this?" ]

[ "citations", "glossary" ]

[ "What is a scopus indexed conference and how to identify the same?", "What is a scopus indexed conference and how to identify the same?\nI want to know what is meant by a conference indexed in scopus?\nIts easy to know which journals are indexed in scopus from the scopus homepage.\nIn my case I want to know if there are any conferences in Mathematics which are scopus indexed?\nDoes there exist any page like this https://www.scopus.com/sources.uri?\nIf someone can provide any information, then I would be grateful." ]

[ "conference", "scopus" ]

[ "Why do many talented scientists write horrible software?", "I am a software engineer and I have been working with people with academic backgrounds for several years. Many times, I've noticed that (even otherwise brilliant scientists) produce code of extremely low quality (unless their background was precisely Computer Science).\n\nSince those people are very good in doing their research - and eventually obtain remarkable results - it seems they are clever enough to write decent code. Is it just that they don't think it's worth the effort? Plain arrogance? Lack of time?\n\nExamples\n\nIt seems to me that in academia the most popular languages are C/C++ and Python (neglecting MATLAB and other vendor-specific languages). The language where I have seen the most amazing pieces of junk is actually C++. The main points are:\n\n\nReally, really naive C++ code. They claim they chose C++ over Java/Python/whatever because \"it's faster\", but they new everything, even an array of 3 floats that is deallocated few lines later, where 3 is known at compile time.\nThey have learned pointers from C and they use only them.\nSome of them (not most of them) have read some random blog posts about OOP and now put virtual everywhere, using abnormal levels of abstraction.\nThey are convinced of pointless optimization choices.\nThey lack proper memory management.\nThey copy/paste massive amounts of code from project to project and within the same project as well.\n\n\nAnd in this list I am omitting the problems with the process, rather than the product. Scientists use:\n\n\nno version control,\nno automated builds,\nno documentation,\nno software process at all (neither agile, nor traditional waterfall).\n\n\nThe workflow is:\n\n\n I devise the algorithm, I write it as a massive 10k LOC piece of C++ and I click build somewhere.\n\n\nAs this assessment could be probably biased by my own experience, I have inspected some open source projects run by researchers (and maybe a few software engineers) and cited in many important papers. Virtually all of them were:\n\n\ncrashing on corner cases,\nhad ugly GUIs,\nand the code - in my opinion - was ready for a complete rewrite." ]

[ "software", "workflow" ]

[ "Math preparedness for an Econ PhD", "I am currently getting my masters in Public Policy and considering getting a PhD in the near future. I'm looking for advice on whether to pursue a PhD in public policy or economics. I've heard that public policy phds are not as well received as econ phds on the job market. My fear with applying to the econ phd program is that I have not taken the advanced course work in linear algebra, matrix theory, real analysis and the other standard econ prerequisites. I will say though that a majority of my courses in my masters program have been quantitatively focused, having passed the equivalent of calc I and II, but my concern is that they are not in depth enough to make me a competitive candidate for admission. \n\nWould something like coursera or MIT open courseware math courses in these subjects be sufficient? or should I take something for credit at a local college?\n\nAppreciate the advice!" ]

[ "phd", "mathematics", "economics" ]

[ "Writing a thesis acknowledgement: should I address the person as \"you\" or use 3rd person?", "I'm writing an acknowledgment for my thesis. I looked at several written acknowledgments and realized that the people who are acknowledged are addressed by \"you\" rather than \"He/She\". For example, \n\n\"I'm thankful to Dr. Marry. You have been the weekly contact ....\" \n\nBut I personally prefer to address them in a 3rd person format saying \"She has been the weekly contact\".\n\nI'm wondering if my preference is wrong and not common." ]

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

[ "How do I stop feeling unwelcome in my department?", "I could not find a PhD advisor and the person in charge of my PhD program suggested that I leave with a master's degree. He said that I was good at carrying out tasks but I did not have the motivation to advance the state of the art in my field. Some time later I found an advisor in a different department, and he seems to like me. But I still cannot get over what the graduate coordinator said, and now I hate visiting the building because I feel I do not belong and I don't want to talk to anyone I know. What should I do?\n\nAfter I found an advisor the graduate coordinator said something like \"I knew you had it in you, I just wanted to see how much you wanted it.\" But I don't know if he really means it, and if he did, I think that's kind of a mean thing to do." ]

[ "advisor", "emotional-responses" ]

[ "Why are PhDs the most common doctoral degree?", "I have heard many people say they have a PhD in a certain area. For nearly all of my life, I thought a PhD was simply a doctorate, and I didn't know that it had anything to do with philosophy. \n\nThere are many doctoral degrees, why are PhD's the most popular doctoral degrees by a long shot?" ]

[ "phd", "degree" ]

[ "If my B.Sc.project contains source code, should I include it in an appendix?", "I do a B.Sc. degree project in computer science at KTH Institute of Technology. The work included a fair amount of source code written in C and NuSMV and the report is somewhat technical even for a CS report. We had a peer review this week where I got to know\n\n\nput the problem statement up front and clearly\nadjust the language for a non-technical audience\nput definitions and acronyms in a glossary\nuse the shared latex template\nremove some duplicated text\nupdate the illustrations with text and numbering\nscale down the images so that they look better\nmaybe put in an appendix (with the code)\n\n\nDo you agree that the source code should be in an appendix or is it better to put it inline or even maybe not include the code at all?\n\nIf you want to you read the draft from this link." ]

[ "computer-science", "degree", "projects", "project-design" ]

[ "Advisor retirement while finishing doctorate on limited time constraint", "I am a doctorate student in mathematics, having returned to finish my Ph.D after a long absence. Four years after my initial departure, I returned after gaining maturity in the working world and rekindling a personal interest in higher-level math, and to become competitive for work nearer to home. \n\nSince I was restarting with a long-tarnished reputation, but since my advisor was very forgiving and gracious, I was allowed to conditionally resume my degree under extremely stringent conditions, which I met - I passed tough qualifiers and I completed my coursework in a short frame of time on my own dime while maintaining full-time work. \n\nFollowing completing my qual and degree program requirements, I began to focus strongly on my research in order to complete the dissertation. I recently passed my preliminary oral exam for my dissertation in May, spent the first half of the summer reviewing additional papers for my writing, and commenced writing my dissertation formally in July with hopes on a December graduation. \n\nThe trouble began anew when my advisor retired suddenly in August. Although I had been updating him on my progress and asking him for advice while writing, finding time to meet with him became problematic, as he started to become absent and increasingly difficult to reach and schedule with. However, his \"hands off\" approach had me still writing, and I had a substantial amount of work to review and share with him, and he agreed to meet with me yesterday. \n\nThat meeting yesterday was when disaster happened. I noticed that he had become very temperamental; he was highly critical of what little he let me present to him, and overtly stated that he was not going to waste his time and read what I had written. The solutions that I was able to present to him were dismissed out of hand without any further explanation, and his first statement was to tell me to trash everything I had written and start from scratch (even though he didn't read it or hear anything but a small portion of it). \n\nAs the (heated) four hour conversation progressed, he jumped from clear and reasonable critique to complete incoherency, which I found unusual and hard to incorporate moving forward. \n\nWhen the conversation concluded, I realized that he had in mind a different dissertation problem for me to solve, one that wasn't even covered in my preliminary exam in May. \n\nHe stated that I had until the end of the weekend to clean up my writing, make it presentable, and incorporate the new problem he presented, adding three extra tasks to boot (one of which he had never required me to research before). I am to send the writing to my committee at the end of the weekend and have them evaluate its status. \n\nI mentioned that while my work has substance and progress, it was not complete and organized (that's why I visited him in person), and that my final oral exam was supposed to be the point of my committee's evaluation, not when the writing is still in media res. Without his confidence, my committee will not grant scheduling my final oral, and will likely not take the time to read what I send until they hear the word from my advisor anyway. He didn't care. \n\nIn short, this unexpected, sudden, and strange conflict with my advisor has suddenly put my graduation in heavy jeopardy with respect to the stringent deadlines imposed by the Grad College for December graduation (due to my long absence), has put new my job at risk (since obtaining a Ph.D was part of the hiring requirements for contract renewal next year), invalidates three years of hard work to rebuild my formerly tarnished status after my long absence, wastes the tens of thousands of dollars I paid out of pocket to do this, and permanently ends my twenty-year dream of obtaining a Ph.D. \n\nThank you for listening and for offering whatever advice you offer. I am at the end of my rope and feel powerless, worthless, and hopeless." ]

[ "graduate-school", "advisor", "all-but-dissertation" ]

[ "Which affiliation should I use?", "I am a postdoc working in one university till 1. July. I am leaving for another university after that. During my stay at my current work, I wrote a paper as a first author for a conference that will kick off in September.\n\nWhich affiliation should I use? Taking into account that the conference travel will be covered by the new employer, however, the paper is written at my current university.\n\nBy reading this article, it looks like using the two affiliations is one approach. But I'm not quite sure if the new employer will be happy with this." ]

[ "affiliation", "academic-freedom" ]

[ "What kind of work is expected in Masters dissertation for admission to PHD in Number Theory in Europe", "I am a Masters students in mathematics at a University in Asia. \n\nI am applying to European Universities for Phd position in number theory. \n\nI am interested in Analytic number theory and wanted to do my Masters dissertation in it, but no one in my university works in analytic number theory. \n\nBut fortunately, 1 professor from another Institute agreed to guide me . So, he has given me a research paper to study when I went to his institute to discuss with him but we couldn't discuss more about msc dissertation as he was very busy. \n\n\n My question \n 1. what is exactly expected in a masters dissertation by European Universities in pure mathematics for admission to a PhD program? \n 2. Am I expected to prove new results? \n 3. If I am unable to prove new results then how many papers I am expected to read given that I have 4 months of semester for dissertation along with 3 compulsory courses? \n\n\nWhat will European universities expect of me in my masters thesis?" ]

[ "graduate-admissions", "thesis", "europe" ]

[ "Unacceptable quality of writing in a letter of recommendation", "I have received a letter of recommendation which clearly has been written by my referee's assistant, rather than himself. That in itself wouldn't be a problem if it didn't contain phrases such as what's more... and like event study etc.\n\nWhat should I do about this? Do I just forget about the reference? Do I very carefully suggest to the assistant to make some minor changes (this letter is based on a previous draft I was asked to submit)?\n\nIt may also be worth noting that the referee is the first supervisor for my thesis and I do not want to seem ungrateful by requesting changes to my letter of recommendation.\n\nIt seems to me that the use of the phrase what's more in a letter of recommendation is per se unacceptable, but my native language is German, so any comments by native speakers of English in this regard is appreciated." ]

[ "recommendation-letter", "writing-style" ]

[ "Credit, recognition, or compensation for reviewing an accepted article as a native english speaker?", "I have been asked to review a paper that has been accepted for publication in english because I am a native english speaker. This request is coming from the director of a center. I am still a student. I don't technically work under this person or this center but I do have an affiliation. The review is going to take a couple hours of work. Is there any appropriate recognition or compensation for doing this review?" ]

[ "publications", "ethics" ]

[ "How to handle multiple versions of a paper (e.g. conference and journal version)", "A usual flow of a project (in my field) commonly looks like this:\n\n\n having a result -> (1) writing a paper (with all the proofs) -> (2) making a conference version -> (3) uploading a full version to eprint -> (4) journal version\n\n\nUsually, (2) is a shorter version of (1); and (3)\n is almost the same as (1) up to some changes that came up during the process of making (2); Yet, the work on (2) and (3) happens almost at the same time.\n\nThe question is how to deal with maintaining both versions (full + short) of the same paper. \n\nSo far I have been keeping two separate \"papers\", but this solutions has its problems: if you make a change to one (say, fixing a typo), you need to remember making the same change in the other one (which you usually forget). \n\nWhat is the best strategy?" ]

[ "writing", "version-control" ]

[ "Are 'please cite my paper' emails socially accepted?", "I am a PhD student in physics. A few months ago, I submitted a paper (which has meanwhile been accepted, but not yet published). The preprint is on arXiv.\n\nNow, I saw that a few days ago, another manuscript, from a different group, has appeared on the arXiv, and I think there are large parallels. It's not that my work would dramatically alter the interpretation of their conclusions, but I think it would have been appropriate to link the works.\n\nThey also have a very broad 'catchy' title on their paper to make it sound spectacular and it seems to me that this title also relates to my work.\n\nI'm not really suspecting conscious malice from the authors or so. But I wonder if I should send one of the authors a link to my paper, or if this is frowned upon." ]

[ "citations", "email", "preprint" ]

[ "Does the Americans With Disabilities Act require accommodations for students whose disability prevents them from behaving ethically?", "Does the Americans With Disabilities Act require accommodations for university students whose disability prevents them from behaving ethically?\nDoes it forbid punishment of unethical behavior which is caused by a disability?" ]

[ "united-states", "health" ]

[ "Is endowing a professorship less effective in a lower-ranked university than in a higher-ranked one?", "This is a follow-up question to What does it take for a lower-ranked university to compete with a top-ranked one?.\n\nWolfgang Bangerth's answer says that \"Faculty will generally only go to places where there are also good students, and the best students go where they can historically expect to get an excellent education.\" Does this mean that if I want to endow a professorial chair, and I want the endowed professor to produce world-class research, I should do so at a top-ranked university instead of a lower-ranked one? The argument being that, to produce world-class research, one presumably needs top faculty, top students, and money. The endowment covers the money aspect, but there's still faculty & students, and if those gravitate towards top universities then it would presumably also make more sense to endow a chair at a top university.\n\nIf the answer is \"yes\", top universities such as Harvard and Oxford already have billions of dollars in endowment. Is there any way out of this rich-get-richer situation? (I'll ask this as a separate question if it is unrelated to the present one)." ]

[ "funding", "university", "ranking" ]

[ "GPA in MBA programme?", "I notice that when someone asks about GPA, they usually mean an undergraduate GPA. Is there GPA for a masters degree or MBA? If not, how a student's performance is measured (in UK and US)?" ]

[ "masters", "gpa" ]

[ "What to keep and what to say in a 5 minutes power point presentation?", "I have a power point presentation in front of our Head regarding my research and achievements. Time limit is 4 minutes presentation and 1 minute discussion. I am wondering what to keep in the PPT? \n\nI have now prepared with 5 slides:- an Title slide, Introduction, Ongoing Research, Achievements.\n\nShould I keep a Title slide? If I keep it, then how much seconds should I take and what to say in the Title slide. \n\nWhat to say and how to finish up the ongoing research in 1-2 slides in a couple of minutes?\n\nCan you please suggest?" ]

[ "presentation", "seminars", "evaluation" ]

[ "LaTeX itemize options: are they allowed to use in a master thesis?", "In my Master thesis, I used this:\n\n\\begin{itemize}[label=\\ding{167}]\n\\item Access Windows XM from Ubuntu Server\n\\item List the directories contents of Windows XP\n\\end{itemize}\n\n\nThe output is:\n\nMy question: must I avoid the use of such beautiful things when writing my thesis or is it a normal thing to do ?" ]

[ "thesis", "latex" ]

[ "Digital whiteboard: your experience", "We do need a Whiteboard in our new Meeting room. The question popped up, whether it makes sense to buy a digital whiteboard. We present mostly our results, sometimes we discuss something and and do use Flip-charts to draw something. However, we are not sure if a digital whiteboard would be beneficial in such a setting.\n\nWhat is your experience with such a device ? Do you use it mostly for teaching or also for classical presentations ? Does it enable more lively discussions ? How much time and training does it need to use it in an efficient way ?" ]

[ "presentation" ]

[ "Reputation of Masters thesis supervisor", "I have two options for my masters thesis (theoretical physics), Professors A and B. A is senior and globally renowned. B is very junior but appears to be making a strong impact in the field. \n\nWhen it comes to applying for PhD positions, how important is my supervisor? I'm aware that A giving me a strong letter of recommendation will carry much more weight than B, but I think I'm slightly more interested in B's work. Also, B has told me that if the project is successful it will almost definitely result in a publication. A is not so sure. \n\nA and B are actually part of the same group. Best case scenario would be having the two of them as joint supervisors. Let's assume that isn't an option and I must choose." ]

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

[ "Strength or Existence of letters of recommendation do depend on the intent right?", "Related to:\n\nHow should I ask for letters of recommendation whose strength is dependent on intended program?\n\nSo I found out that one of the professors recommended a junior coursemate for an internship even though that coursemate got a 1.0 (0.0 is the lowest, and 4.0 is a the highest with 1.0 being the lowest passing mark) in the class.\n\nLetters of recommendation do depend on the intended program right? If I were leaving math completely for say law or business I'm going to have a higher chance of having a recommendation letter and even higher strength of recommendation letter compared to applying for a PhD program in math right?" ]

[ "phd", "graduate-admissions", "graduate-school", "recommendation-letter", "internship" ]

[ "How should I insist to be the first author?", "First, some context. I'm a MSc student and I'm going to defend my thesis soon. The current plan is to submit the results of the thesis in two conferences: a less relevant result, which I'll call A, and a more relevant one, which I'll call B. So far so good, but here's the (typical) problem: who gets to be the first author? Me or my advisor?\nOther answers to similar problems recommend a dialogue approach. I've already tried this, where I've written an email manifesting my interest in being the first author and why. The answer was that I could the the first author on result A, but he'd likely be the one in result B. Honestly, based on what I've read, I think my contributions for the work are weighty enough to justify my stance, and I'll try to persuade my adviser to change his point of view. Thus, my question is not whether or not I should talk to him (I already know I will) but how to make him change is view of the situation.\nBelow are some reasons why I think I should be considered the first author. Feel free to comment them or even disagree. If at the end of this there is strong evidence on why I should be just a co-author, I'll have no problem in changing my mind. Also, this pertains the result B, since there is not any contention about result A.\n\nThe paper will be an "enhanced" version of my thesis. What I mean is that the work will be basically the same, but with some extra simulations for which I didn't have time to complete by the thesis deadline.\n\nAs a consequence of 1., the text was written by me. However, my adviser has read it and provided feedback. The writing on the paper might have more contributions on his part, but most of the writing will still be me.\n\nHis argument is that the idea and the preparatory work came from his side. To be clear, he provided the topic (for which I applied and was accepted) and already had some literature review done. Also, some other previous theses were meant to provide results for this one (e.g. building of a database, or the study of a certain phenomenon). In the end, I used the database and cited some general results. However, most studies were in a non-applicable range for my work, so I had to devise an alternative (the result A that I mentioned above).\n\nI can see where his argument comes from. That being said, it is also true that I significantly expanded his initial literature review and provided most of the work. He provided the initial setup and possibles issues, and gave me some tips and guidelines throughout the work (meetings normally twice a month, and sometimes emails in between), but never a definite solution. From there, I'd consider his feedback, research some more and try to provide closure to open questions. Some of these were pointed by him, some by me during the work. All the simulation work and required inputs (except the database mentioned in 3.) was either done by me or adapted from other sources (third party).\n\nOf course he had a part to play here. I probably wouldn't be finishing my thesis on this specific topic if it weren't for him. That being said, I feel like that's what an adviser should do. His guidance was important, and I'm not trying to neglect that, but is it really enough to warrant him the first author spot?\n\n\nAnother important aspect to mention is that currently, we're on amiable terms and I'd like to keep it that way (as much as possible). Partly because it is always good to foster connections, but also because I haven't defended my thesis yet and he'll be on the jury. If this publication makes it through, this might be an important step in starting my career, so I want to fight some more.\nAlso, neither of us is having an imposing speech. What I mean by that is that nothing is set in stone, and there's still room for changes. At least, that was the idea I got from his speech patterns.\nDisclaimer: Some journals do order authors by name. If this was the case, I wouldn't even be asking this question. However, the conference/journal we're targeting clearly distinguishes between first and second author." ]

[ "publications", "masters", "conference", "authorship", "author-order" ]

[ "How can faculty best telegraph work-life balance challenges under COVID to our administration?", "Work-life balance is more challenging for faculty than ever under COVID-19. What are equitable, privacy sensitive ways to telegraph needs at the individual level? What are acceptable accommodations to suggest?\nTo be clear, I am looking for strategies for individuals. If you are underwater from the fallout of this pandemic, it is hard to even join the cause, much less organize. In comments directly below can be found exemplars of the viewpoints these individuals are up against: they are dead weight, complaining, or not team players.\nThis is a unique year in which to attempt to find solutions: administrative members are distributed, and unofficial channels of communication are often not operational. The unofficial conversations that used to help resolve these kinds of situations are more difficult. Further, faculty and administration vary widely in their interpretation of the current crisis.\nThis was highlighted for me when a tenured faculty member in a recent meeting was pushed by a dissenting faculty member to point out that she was the vulnerable member in her family, due to obesity, and so could not be physically on campus. No one wanted that moment to happen, and yet it did.\nThere is, simultaneously, a call to step up and come back to campus, often explicitly.\nhttps://president.ufl.edu/updates/2020/07/in-person-classes.html\nRegardless of academic rank many are responding to personal challenges ranging from lack of child or elder care, to personal COVID-19 high-risk status, to more exotic things which are more difficult to categorize. My international students are trapped in their home countries, visa-less. Impact is everywhere, and even a faculty member with no 'traditional categories' of difficulty might well be under water. At the same time, universities are making hard choices and cutting positions or asking more, sometimes both.\nThe impact is clear. My own unit has lost a number of our best people, who have left for the relative certainty and balance of industry, or simply left to focus on the complexity of their own lives. Anecdotally, more women than men have left. I am in the US, where things are admittedly presently a bit more extreme, but I think that this question can generalize across university systems in many countries.\nIt is my belief that one major lack is a good way for individuals in need to communicate their need. For many reason, they may hesitate. This problem extends up the chain: my dean and provost are both high risk, and both working in the office.\nSo, what are equitable, privacy sensitive ways to telegraph needs at the individual level? What are acceptable accommodations to suggest? How do we address the untenable state of work-life balance in academia under covid-19?\nAside, that is, from leaving.\nUPDATE: I have moved to an industry position, sacrificing my academic 'family' for the health and well-being of myself and my family. I have valued the contributions of this community in my academic life, a chapter I now close." ]

[ "academic-life", "administration", "work-life-balance", "covid-19", "minority" ]

[ "Are computer skills degrading?", "I teach masters level engineering students. I have observed that computer usage skills are slowly and constantly degrading among my students from year to year. Has anybody else observed this kind of effect?\n\nWhat could I realistically do to combat this problem? I do understand that even if its not my job to do so I need to address the problems somehow. Unfortunately I am getting a bit frustrated to teach students how to graph a function, or numerically find the local minima etc. when i should be talking about formulating multibody dynamics for example.\n\nHow do I check that this isn't just a bias that I have somehow accumulated during the years of teaching? I am aware of the it was better in my youth bias. Frankly i dont believe i was much better in most aspects. But I sure knew how to use my computer." ]

[ "teaching", "mathematics" ]

[ "Is it possible to get an ISSN number for an online journal from an other country?", "We are a group of international graduates in the process of launching an open access e-journal and we are now facing the different technical steps. Our based country has an ISSN national center, however we wonder if it is possible to get an ISSN from an other country (european or north american) even without being physically based there.\n\nThanks in advance for your answers" ]

[ "journals", "legal-issues", "online-publication" ]

[ "Avoiding \"Zoom bombing\" in virtual conferences and seminars", "With travel restricted by the COVID-19 pandemic, many academics are organizing online seminars and conferences as a substitute for regular in-person university seminars, colloquia, and research conferences. \n\nIn real life, seminars are usually open to anyone who wants to drop in, and every attendee can be seen and heard and may ask questions. So an obvious approach is to organize the event using video meeting software such as Zoom, and simply post the link on a public website so that any interested person can participate. However, this also opens the event to \"Zoom bombers\", random people who just want to disrupt the proceedings with annoying or offensive video / audio / text chat - such abuse has unfortunately become very common in public Zoom meetings.\n\nWhat best practices exist to keep such an event as open as possible to legitimate participants, and let them interact with each other and the speaker in a reasonable way, while reducing the risk of disruption and abuse?\n\nWhat are the pros and cons of these strategies?\n\nStrategies could be general, or involve specific features of certain software.\n\nSome strategies I've thought of, and their drawbacks:\n\n\nCreate a password for the meeting. Then the question is, to whom should the organizer give the password? If they only give it to people they know, it excludes people who might be interested but whom they happen not to know. If they distribute it to large mailing lists of interested academics, it raises the chance that it will fall into the wrong hands.\nOffer to share the password by email upon request. This requires extra time from the organizer to respond to those emails, and to manually verify the credentials of each requester.\nRequire a nominal registration fee, as real-life conferences often do. This requires setting up an online payment system, which can be a lot of work, and may exclude people who are only casually interested, or who don't have funding, or who work in less wealthy parts of the world. It may also involve the organizer in a lot of bureaucracy with their university as to how the fees will be managed and spent.\nUse a \"waiting room\" feature, where participants must be approved immediately before joining. However, as far as I know, the host only sees the participant's name. If they see an unfamiliar name, how can they tell whether it is a troll, or a legitimate researcher whom they just happen not to know? Conversely, I don't think there is anything to stop a troll from masquerading under the name of a famous academic.\n\n\nI am wondering if people have thought of better solutions, that are specifically appropriate to academia. Such strategies might take advantage of specific features of the academic community, e.g. to authenticate genuine researchers (.edu addresses? accounts on preprint servers? ORCid IDs?). Answers could also address the pros and cons of such strategies as they apply to academia in particular, and how well they fit with people's existing expectations for academic conferences." ]

[ "conference", "seminars", "covid-19", "video-conference" ]

[ "What is the difference between personal statement and statement of purpose?", "I am planning to apply for a Ph.D. program in the USA. Some universities ask for personal statement whereas some for a statement of purpose. What is the main difference?" ]

[ "phd", "graduate-admissions", "united-states", "professors", "statement-of-purpose" ]

[ "How to list \"Visiting Student\" on my CV?", "As a soon-to-graduate undergraduate student that is on his hunt for a M.Sc. program, I am making sure my CV is up to date.\n\nI would like to highlight the fact that I have attended a nearby university as a \"visiting student\" and have successfully completed two courses at this institution while still holding a full time student (normal course load) status at my home institution. I had one of the courses credited at my home institution and did not bother with the second. This second course was simply for my own interest and would not have helped me achieve any graduation requirements at my home institution.\n\nMy question is two fold:\n\n\nIs this fact worth highlighting in my CV, considering the limited (and precious) real-estate in the two page CV format?\nIf so, what would be the best way to present it?\n\n\nPossible formats that I have considered (should I mention it):\n\n1.\n\n\n Education\n \n XXXX - YYYY: University of Somewhere, B.Sc. (Major in interesting subject, minor in cool subject)\n \n Also completed heavy coursework in awesome subject. Visiting student to University of Elsewhere during academic year ZZZZ - ZZZZ + 1\n\n\n2.\n\n\n Education\n \n XXXX - YYYY: University of Somewhere, B.Sc. (Major in interesting subject, minor in cool subject)\n \n Also completed heavy coursework in awesome subject.\n \n ZZZZ - ZZZZ + 1: University of Elsewhere, Visiting Student\n \n Completed N credits: SCI101 and ART102\n\n\nIn my (naive) opinion, I would believe that this sort of \"academic diversity\" would be favourably viewed by someone looking at my CV.\n\nSome would also say that, in my case, University of Elsewhere has a better reputation and name recognition then my home institution. Should this be considered as a valid reason to give it more space on my CV?" ]

[ "graduate-admissions", "cv" ]

[ "What are the best ways to find an external thesis examiner?", "My supervisor is too busy to find an external examiner for my PhD thesis, so the job will probably fall to me. I know all the academics who may potentially be an internal examiner, but I don't know any academics outside of my own institution. To be honest, I do not know where to begin.\n\nMy area is computer science, but it overlaps with medicinal fields as well. There are presumably any number of people who would have some expertise in some part of my research, but very few who would cover all of them.\n\nI feel that cold calling academics who are some way related to my research (maybe ones that I am citing in my thesis) asking if they will become my external examiner is a particularly poor strategy, but it is the only one that is apparent to me at the moment." ]

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

[ "Write a reminder about a possible undergraduate project", "I am currently doing some research for choosing a topic for my M.Sc. thesis. \n\nA week ago I sent an email to an external professor (I mean, not one in my University) asking about whether we could discuss about the topic I chose. The mail was (I believe) properly structured - not spammy and personally tailored on the prof, citing some works on the topic I took a look on, explaining my motivations on why I would like to study this topic, maybe a bit lengthy but not that much and divided in paragraphs - yet I had no answer.\n\nFor what I know it seems that this is not necessarily a \"no\" and a common suggestion is to write a reminder. \n\nNow, I would really like to work on this topic and taking contact with this professor would be a great chance for me, especially in order to continue my studies with a PhD. At the same time, this professor is quite important and maybe he just doesn't care too much about a M.Sc. thesis, so I was thinking to write a reminder asking, in short, if he could send me the contact of one of his PhD/postdoc students that may be interested in helping me with my work.\n\nMy question is: is this considered a bad etiquette? writing first to a prof and then rolling back to one of his students...may sound like I underestimated his position or I am just not motivated enough. \nIn case, how could I structure the message? It seems to me that \"if you are too busy\" is a bad way to start (sounds like I don't know whether the professor has anything to do or that he could be doing nothing). Also \"I know you are very busy but...\" sounds bad (but what? but I don't care? but I think it is more important to stop and talk with me?). So what could be a polite way to go for it?" ]

[ "etiquette", "professors", "research-undergraduate", "email" ]

[ "Concern about possible conflicts between research sharing policies", "Funders, publishers, institutions and others are increasingly moving towards policies that are aimed at sharing research.\n\nThe degree of openness — and other stipulations in those policies — vary quite considerably, so some sort of conflict between policies of a researcher's institution, funder and publisher or between those of collaborators is to be expected.\n\nHow much should a researcher be worried about these sorts of conflicts? Are there examples where sharing policies that differ have turned out to conflict in a way that actually inhibits the sharing that they were intended to enable?\n\nThis question was originally posted on the Open Science SE private beta, due to be closed tomorrow." ]

[ "publications", "funding", "policy", "open-science" ]

[ "Do universities mind study delay when reviewing your application?", "I have been getting good grades for the last 1.5 years for my bachelor (physics), therefore I have been considering applying to a more renowned university for my masters. \n\nLately, I have also put more work in my honours programme because I really, really enjoy it - and I want to keep putting my time in it. However, the last couple of months I have noticed that is quite stressful to maintain my standards for grades while also putting time in honours, friends, fraternity, girlfriend, ... - it is so stressful I get really bad headaches when I do not relax enough.\n\nTherefore, I am considering to follow one course less per quartile so I have more time to do other stuff, but can still maintain the grades. This means I will take 3.5 years to complete my bachelor, compared to the normal 3 years it takes.\n\nThus, my question; do universities take into account your study delay when reviewing your application?" ]

[ "masters", "application" ]

[ "Should I refer to myself as a PhD candidate or a researcher as an author of a paper?", "My paper was accepted in a reputed journal. As I have to submit an author biography, I was wondering whether I should refer to myself as a PhD candidate or better say a researcher?\nI feel that a paper authored by a PhD candidate may not receive the same attention since some people would see students as not that competent yet." ]

[ "publications", "journals" ]

[ "How to become a reviewer for an engineering journal?", "I am a PG graduate working in an engineering college as an assistant professor. Currently I have got one and half year of experience in teaching. \n\nHow to become a reviewer for an engineering journal? Do I need to pay money for that? Or by publishing paper in that journal can I become a reviewer?" ]

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

[ "How to cite \"obvious\" things or make them credible?", "I'm writing my thesis and I want to emphasize that the importance of energy, especially electrical energy, has increased tremendously and we are living in an information era which is fueled by electrical energy.\n\nHow would I make this sound credible?" ]

[ "citations", "methodology" ]

[ "Students not engaged at all - despite the efforts of their instructor", "My institution moved all courses online this term. I spent a great amount of efforts:\n\nPre-recording 3 hours of lectures (accompanied by 2% weekly asynchronous quizzes on Moodle)\nHolding two 1.5 hours of live Q&A sessions weekly on Zoom\n\nHowever, the attendance of the Q&A sessions have been embarrassingly low (less than 30 out of 320 students). Although students attempt to follow the weekly lecture videos, the vast majority of them only do so about 1 or 2 days before the weekly quizzes are due.\nNonetheless, students simply just complain about the workload in general (not just because of this course, but for the accumulated required screen time from all other courses).\nThe end-or-semester course evaluation will start soon. While I am confident that I have done all I could have creating quality learning materials, I am pessimistic about that the majority of students might just put very negative comments just because they are not happy about all courses moved online, not because of my teaching quality.\nIs this something I shall expect in this very difficulty time? To me, it is just unfair to receive evaluation from students who mostly do not even engage in the content in the first place.\nLet me know how you folks think?" ]

[ "evaluation" ]

[ "Is just after your PhD a good time to switch your research area?", "I am finishing my PhD soon. The area in which I pursued my PhD is very challenging as I was only able to publish couple of papers even after spending many years. I want to switch into other research are due these reasons\n\n\nto attract more students \nto be comfortable to do research (along with teaching, I should be able to do research)\n\n\nEven though I like the research I am doing right now, I seem to be isolated in my university. If ten students join my university for a PhD, hardly one student takes this area. My research area is not like machine learning or deep learning etc, so researchers of my domain are also not that much interested in my work. \n\nThe thing is I can work different research area but: Is this the right time? I am heading to a post-doc and learning a new area will probably take several months. Although my switch is not 180 degree, I am still worried." ]

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

[ "When to take military service when applying for graduate school?", "I'm an undergraduate student with two regular semesters left before graduating. I am required to serve in the Military and have two options regarding the timing of my service.\n\n\nI can go into army before graduating. After serving for two year I would return for one semester, graduate, and then apply for graduate school.\nI can graduate first and then go into the army.\n\n\nThe differences between two choices above are: \n\n\nApplying as a undergrad student or not.\nIf I choose the latter one, I can audit graduate classes at my university.\n\n\nAnd now I have to decide. Is there any difference between applying as an undergraduate and with bachelor's degree if there's some gap year?" ]

[ "graduate-admissions", "undergraduate", "time-off" ]

[ "To what extent should I mention unpleasant undergraduate experience in a graduate school statement of purpose? (pure math)", "I have not enjoyed my undergraduate math program, primarily because it is not challenging enough - not enough advanced courses offered, too few research opportunities, classes are just not at the level I feel they should be for junior-senior math majors. I am choosing to apply to grad schools (pure math) which I know have elite and challenging programs. I do not want to spend 5 years repeating this undergraduate experience. In the statement of purpose one is asked to explain why they are applying to the particular program. Should I mention this desire to have a more challenging, competitive environment, as compared to the undergraduate program, as a reason? I do have other substantial things I will write about, but I'm wondering if I should also mention this, as it is one of the main motivations I have for applying to the programs I am applying to.\nThanks." ]

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

[ "Should I index all the specific terms which are included in appendix?", "I am writing my master thesis (Mathematics field) and I would like to know if I should index all the specific terms which are included in appendix.\n\nIs it necessary?" ]

[ "thesis" ]

[ "Can an international student gain admission to medical school in the USA?", "I have been an international student in the US for quite a few years now (since 11th grade, 4 years to be exact), and I have always been interested in studying medicine in order to become a doctor. Since I am currently a college junior I feel the need to start preparing for the MCAT and Grad school. Alas, med school for international student in the US is pretty much impossible, every institution I've looked up required at least having the green card.\n\nMy question is, can I realistically aspire to become a doctor studying in the states as an international student ? or will I categorically need a green card ? \n\nIs there a way designed for someone involved in my academic pursuits to get a green card (excluding the lottery due to statistics)? I've heard of program such as the DREAM act?" ]

[ "graduate-admissions", "united-states", "international-students", "medicine", "visa" ]

[ "How should I present my work to my advisor?", "I am a master student, working on something on my own. One day I came up a new definition (My field is mathematics) of something. I am not sure if it is publishable or not (Not even sure if it works). So I decided to present my work to my thesis advisor to a look first (His field is related to my work).\nBut the question arises, should I finish my work first (This includes the background introduction, comparison with other definition, etc), or I just present my rough idea first (After all, it is just a definition, I just need to explain why it works)?\nFor the first approach, it sounds reasonable, but it may take longer time for my advisor to read, and may not worth the effort if it is not publishable. For second approach, it is quick, and the result is not worth trying, I can work on something else. The drawback is my advisor may not understand what I am doing." ]

[ "research-process", "interpersonal-issues" ]

[ "Can anyone provide insight on a Master's student struggling with research?", "I just finished my first year of my Master's program in Atmospheric Sciences, and during this time I was a teaching assistant. Now that the summer has arrived, I'm starting as a research assistant with my advisor at the university I'm enrolled at, as well as a research assistant with a government organization. I'm currently working at this government organization, but I'm still getting paid equally between my two advisors.\n\nGetting to the point, my research is a bit ambiguous at the moment. My advisor from my university doesn't have a clear project for me to work on, and my other advisor has provided some insight into what I can work on, but it isn't much better. I'm worried that the summer will be unproductive, and my chances of graduating on time (2 years total for me degree) will be put into jeopardy. Can anyone offer advice/insight into this? It would be greatly appreciated." ]

[ "research-process", "masters", "thesis" ]

[ "Is it difficult to get admission to a phd in stem cell biology in Europe?", "I am looking for a phd position in stem cell biology and have been trying very hard for the last 6 months in Germany or any European country. I have tried to contact many professors via mail but have nothing by way of a good response.\nI have a good academic record and score.\n\nCan anyone please help me out how to best proceed or where I may be lacking in my method so far?" ]

[ "phd", "graduate-admissions", "germany", "biology" ]

[ "Are there any area in arxiv without requiring endorsement?", "Are there any areas in arxiv to post without endorsement?" ]

[ "preprint" ]

[ "Convert coursera courses to ECTs", "TL:DR version: I took some Coursera courses, I want to know how many credits they are worth by the institution backing it up (as well as how many credits a semester they offer, preferably, in the semester they offer that course).\n\nFull version: I know title may be a little confusing so I will clarify.\nI am applying for a Master's Degree program, and the pre-requisites include mathematical knowledge. I am an MD, so math is not a big part of my undergraduate program, however I work as a developer, and there I apply mathematical principles. For this course I need to prove my knowledge on the subjects of Probability and Statistics, Linear Algebra and Calculus so I contacted the institution and they told me I could study those subjects online via Coursera. I chose my courses and I am currently studying them.\n\nHowever application period has already started, and as part of pre-requisites I gotta fill a form, and some fields are about ECTs in the already mentioned subjects. I asked the institution via email how would I fill these, and they told me I can specify the course duration (in hours) and also how many credits (hours) a semester is offered in that institution, in order for them to know how many credits (ECTs) are they worth.\n\nIn this situacion, how could I know could I know how many credits a course is worth in the institution that backs up that course in Coursera? and how could I know how many credits a semester it is worth?\n\nSpecific courses are (feel free to suggest better alternatives, since I don't have to complete them due the deadline, rather I have to compromise to take them):\n\nLinear Algebra (Matrix algebra): https://www.coursera.org/learn/matrix-algebra-engineers\n\nThe three courses in this program (calculus, linear algebra): https://www.coursera.org/learn/linear-algebra-machine-learning\n\nProbability and Statistics: https://www.coursera.org/learn/probability-statistics?" ]

[ "working-time", "mooc" ]

[ "What is the equivalent degree of MPhil in the American education system?", "I am applying to some universities for a Ph.D. degree, and I have to list all the degrees I have earned or am expected to earn. One of such degrees is Mphil. However, it is not listed in the drop-down menu of options.\n\nThere are three options that I think could fit--'Other Doctoral(not Phd)', 'Other Doctorate', and 'Other Master'. Which one would be the correct option? 'Other Master'? Since Mphil stands for master of philosophy?" ]

[ "application" ]

[ "Low undergrad GPA, how should I inform a tenure track faculty job search committee?", "I have a mediocre (3.3) GPA in undergrad due to illness (legit - I had to take a medical leave and was hospitalized), but I have great grades from my graduate institution. I worry that search committees will not look highly upon my application. As I would like to apply for these positions, so how should I tell the search committee why I did poorly in undergrad?" ]

[ "job-search", "tenure-track", "gpa" ]

[ "Is it possible to have a career in academia and not be confident in their field of research?", "I thought getting a PhD in my mechanical engineering field would lead in gaining confidence in the field. However, it became other way round. I am far less confident on my skills and knowledge than I was when I started my PhD.\nI am well published in my research field, I have decent theoretical knowledge about my field. However, I am not confident. I often hesitate with my answer, even though I know I am right.\nI get afraid before starting a new project and technique even though I am sure that I can acquire new skillsets easily.\nSelf doubts is a recurring theme during all research endeavors. When I feel low confidence, I also start to regret my decisions to be in academia and pursue masters and PhD.\nDoes anyone else get this feeling? How to cope up? Can I find a place in academia with this issue?" ]

[ "research-process", "career-path", "emotional-responses" ]

[ "Phone contact after no response from scientific collaborator?", "I have a scientific collaboration with a senior scientist from a University in Europe. He agreed to work with me on the project and our roles were defined in the process(only supervision and minimal interaction from his side and active contribution from my side). Emails were received regularly from his side till December 22nd (prior to the holidays). After the holidays (on January 8th) I sent him the work that we agreed upon and he has to verify my conclusions and let me know whether I can proceed forward. Yesterday I emailed him inquiring whether his busy schedule has prevented him from responding to my document. Should I assume there is no further interest from his side or can I call him to find out what his thought process is ?" ]

[ "email", "collaboration" ]

[ "Is it acceptable to email the author of a paper that you cannot follow?", "I am reading a paper that I find very hard to follow.\n\nThis is partially due to my lack of experience in the subfield, but also I think because the paper is unclearly written.\n\nIs it acceptable for me to email the writer of the paper, and ask for explanations of basic concepts in the paper? i.e. I would ask for things that I think could have been explained more clearly." ]

[ "ethics", "etiquette" ]

[ "Does being an older PhD applicant for U.S. universities mean there is less chance to be accepted with funding?", "I have heard this idea many times.\n\nSo, is there any truth to it?\n\nDoes an older applicant, say, 10 years older than the typical undergraduate, with equally impressive qualifications, get accepted to PhD positions in American universities without funding? \n\nIf so, what is the reasoning behind this decision?\n\nIf this idea has some truth to it, wouldn't it be age discrimination?" ]

[ "phd", "graduate-admissions", "funding", "united-states" ]

[ "Does applying for a Masters at a school when also applying for a PhD look bad?", "I want to go to graduate school for a PhD, but as a safety I'm also considering applying to master programs in the same or related field, if my undergraduate credentials are not strong enough for top programs. Would applying to the masters program where I am also applying for a PhD send the wrong message to the school though, that I'm not sure if I want to do this for a full PhD or not? Or do they understand that people apply to masters program as a back up for if someone's PhD applications don't go well?" ]

[ "graduate-admissions", "application" ]

[ "How to deal with a supervisor who doesn't care research and students?", "I'm in the social science discipline. This is the fourth year of my PhD. I'm in the process of writing up my dissertation. However, my supervisor is very lay back. He doesn't care much about my research. On average, it took 2 weeks for me to receive his feedback, but, sometimes, his feedback was not constructive. He often forgot what he said before and contradicted himself. I am very emotionally stressed. I hope to defend my thesis successfully and soon, but I don't see that happening. Any idea about how should I deal with him?" ]

[ "phd", "research-process", "thesis", "advisor" ]

[ "Applying for PHD programs in FLORIDA. I have a question about legal questions?", "On an application form for PhD programs in Florida, they ask:\n\n\n\"Have you recieved disciplinary action?\"\n\"Have you ever been arrested for, been convicted of, or entered a plea of \"guilty\" or \"nolo contendre\" (No contest) to a crime (excluding traffic offenses not involving death or serious bodily injury), or been adjudicated or required to register as a sex offender?\n\n\nMy friend that is asking was arrested for DUI (driving under the influence) with serious body injury. She is not sure if that is a Traffic Offense or a Criminal Offense.\n\nHas anyone else experienced, or have good information pertaining to this question?" ]

[ "phd", "graduate-admissions", "legal-issues", "law" ]

[ "How to answer question about funding a project", "On some project grant applications, one gets a question on something along the lines of: \"If you are unsuccessful in your application for this funding round, how do you plan on funding this project?\"\n\nHow should I answer this? Seems like some kind of catch-out question." ]

[ "funding" ]

[ "Putting some upcoming positions in CV", "I am going to apply for a Postdoc position which starts six month later. I am a postdoc in institute A and have new grant in institute B to start in upcoming month. Can I put this position and grant in my CV? Since I have not started that yet." ]

[ "mathematics", "funding", "postdocs", "cv" ]

[ "Should I ask my supervisor before adding a spin to the project I was assigned, or go ahead and try to make it work?", "I am a volunteer intern (funds are frozen for uni research assistants due to the pandemic) on a CV/ML project. Awhile back, I was assigned to detect and label moving objects in a video. After doing extensive research, I figured out that predicting, rather than only detecting their movement would be more precise and better in the long run.\nI have done tons of research and came up with an approach toward it, and I am fully committed to this now.\nThe project was assigned by one of my supervisor's PhD students and I haven't spoken to my actual supervisor all summer.\nShould I: (a) go ahead with the project and send him my final work when I come up with a viable solution and potentially the abstract for the paper,\n(b) email him and ask him if I can move forward with this approach.\nEither way, the idea I have and this area is super interesting and has research potential. If he said no, I'd probably explore it independently anyways. Only labeling the data also isn't useful experience for me, as I want to go to grad school. I was told research assistants you shouldn't be afraid to advocate for what they want, and this is an area I am highly interested in - and I believe it will still benefit them." ]

[ "research-process", "advisor", "computer-science", "research-undergraduate", "supervision" ]

[ "I changed a word from a source, how do I cite it correctly?", "I'm writing an analytical summary on Meditation II of Descartes from the compendium we have been given at school. We have been told to use this as our main source. Nevertheless, there is this specific part in section 12 of that meditation which I don't quite agree with:\n\n\n [...] something extended, flexible and movable.\n\n\nAs per Marleen Rozemond in Descartes' Dualism [Source] in page 93, this is a poor translation.\n\nThe reason I looked this up was because the word didn't quite fit the context, and then I saw other people had translated it as mutable, which is also a correct translation for the french/latin word.\n\nComplaining about the poor translation in the summary makes little sense to me, as it's not part of the context, and I have a limitation of 600 words to care about. Nevertheless, I am citing from the source of a document which uses the \"movable\" word instead of the \"mutable\" word.\n\nHow should I approach this? Should I make a postdata explaining why I have done what I did?\n\nFor reference, I am using the APA referencing style." ]

[ "citations", "quotation" ]

[ "Formatting of images for publication with Matlab", "I'm currently working on my first publication and heard from a colleague that the images must have precisely the same font size as the article's font. She told me that Origin could adjust this. Unfortunately, she works with Origin and I with Matlab, so that she cannot tell me how I can set this up with Matlab. Can someone give me a tip or an excellent workflow to create pictures that can be published with Matlab?" ]

[ "publications", "graphics" ]

[ "Asking for extension in submission of revision", "I submitted a paper to one of Elsevier journals. It got major revision and the submission time given to me was two months. Now the time is very near (10 days) and I think I cannot complete all changes to be incorporated. I asked for extension in due date of submission through editorial system using my login. Even after 4 days, there is no response. I am confused what should I do?\nIs the deadline really hard and if I submit after a week or so, it will be rejected?" ]

[ "peer-review" ]

[ "How important are recommendation letters when applying to a PhD in Germany?", "I am planning on applying to a PhD in engineering in Germany (either by contacting a group, which I will prioritize, or through a normal application at the graduate school).\nThe problem I currently face is finding good referees (by good, I mean respectable h-indices, for example).\nFor those acquainted with German academia: How much weight is put on the recommendation letters and, more importantly, the referrers when reviewing an application for a PhD position (more, or less, than in the US)?\nFor instance, if you had to rank these factors:\n\nLetters of recommendation\nTranscripts\nPublications/internships\nStatement of purpose\n\nWhere would the letters of recommendation be positioned?" ]

[ "phd", "application", "recommendation-letter", "germany" ]

[ "How to cite or refer to programming codes in a non Computer Science Master's Thesis?", "I am writing my Thesis in finance field and I am using Machine learning methods. Therefore, I wrote many Python and R scripts for collecting data, cleaning it and applying some statstics. \n\n\nshould I reference my own code that I wrote? if yes can you please tell me how?\nshould I reference all the libraries that I've used during my work?\n\n\nThanks" ]

[ "citations", "thesis", "code" ]

[ "How to describe a previous uncompleted PhD on postdoc applications?", "I am currently completing a PhD studentship, and I'm aiming to complete by the end of the year. After this, I'm looking for a postdoc position in academia or industry. At the moment I'm working on my CV and applications.\n\nOne thing I'm unsure about is how to describe my previous research experience. Specifically, I previously (around 11 years ago) took part in a PhD program, but unfortunately did not complete it.\n\nMy question is, how should I describe that time period (4 years) on the CV / applications?\n\n\nBe honest, call it a PhD studentship, but don't list it on my completed education/qualifications (the implication being that it wasn't completed).\nGive a vague position title (e.g. 'scientist') - not technically untrue - and be prepared to answer questions in the interview about what that actually means.\nGive a specific position title (e.g. RA) - less honest, but less likely to invite questions.\n\n\nWhich approach would be best? I would prefer not to have to highlight this with potential employers, if possible, but I also don't want to be dishonest on my applications. As a potential employer, which would be the lesser of the evils to you? Would you be more likely to throw out a CV at the shortlisting stage based on a historic uncompleted PhD?\n\nFor context, I have other research experience and fairly extensive lab skills. I also have various outputs including (mostly middle authorship) papers, talks and posters and have won competitive prizes and travel awards. I will also hope to publish at least one first author original research paper on my PhD work." ]

[ "application", "postdocs", "cv" ]

[ "How acceptable are the outputs of automatic LaTeX converters for journals with LaTeX requirement?", "Is there anybody there, who uses this combination as the pipeline of document production in his/her work? IF so what are the common bugs/imperfection that one should expect. \n\nFrom a latex-noob point of view, it seems faster and easier to work(collaborate) on a paper in Microsoft Word (For months) and then use a plugin or some other quick converter to make it into a latex on the last week(ideally a day) if there exist a smooth conversion tool to get to .tex format?\n\na reliable/acceptable converting should address the journal template/format, tables, table of content, footnotes, margins, figures, equations and bibliography. Is there a bulletproof conversion out there, and if not why?" ]

[ "publications", "formatting", "latex", "tools" ]

[ "Too much review time and the related actions", "We have submitted an article in a finance journal ( ABDC rank A) more than one year ago. After around 6 months they sent us the review of two reviewers where one reviewer reject the paper with few correction suggestions and another gave relatively good comments with additional correction suggestions. Hence the editor asked for revise and resubmission and also mention that if we comply with the reviewer's comments, he will personally read that article. Accordingly, we revise and resubmit that paper. It has been 7 months since our resubmission and they still do not give any feedback. Since I am a Ph.D. student, such a long review process is hurting my Ph.D. process. Can anyone suggest me what should be my action in this regard? Should I send the editor an email? If the editor does not respond even after that email, should I withdraw that paper from that journal?" ]

[ "peer-review", "journals" ]