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[ "How many candidates are usually invited for a campus interview?", "I am currently a candidate for a few jobs, and have a few campus interviews. \n\nHow many candidates are typically invited for a campus interview?\n\nI am mostly interested in answers for positions for the range of positions, tenure-track, non-tenure track, lecturer positions, and postdocs." ]

[ "job-search", "interview" ]

[ "Concerns about a very old PhD advisor?", "I’m thinking about taking a 70-year old math professor as my PhD advisor, in a US school. I like his teaching and research. If I don’t choose him, I would probably have to switch fields, which I can do with some pain, since I have not specialized deeply yet. My main concerns are:\n\n\nAs he is far more likely than a young supervisor to pass away suddenly due to his age, how should I best plan for this scenario? What will happen to me if it happens?\nHe is also far more likely to retire than a young supervisor – could his retirement (in the unspecified future) cause problems for my future career in academia, with respect to references and networking?\n\n\nRelated: How should I take a potential PhD supervisor's age into account, when planning to follow PhD with habilitation?" ]

[ "phd", "advisor", "age" ]

[ "How to do on-site institute evaluation as a member of the evaluation panel?", "Many academic institutes are routinely evaluated by an advisory board. In addition to the public performance metrics, such as publications and funding, the board usually goes on site to meet the personnel and get a better picture of the institute, its culture and its performance.\n\nAs a panel member, what information should we try to obtain in priority during the site visit? How should we evaluate what we see and hear, and how much importance should we give it?" ]

[ "evaluation" ]

[ "Are software citations indexed?", "It is encouraged to cite relevant software in research papers (e.g. MIT guide). The question is,\nAre these citations indexed at all by any engine?\nI can hardly find any software on e.g. google scholar to navigate the citations. For example, SageMath devs request to notify them manually about each citation to collect them on their page.\nI am of course talking about software without an accompanying research paper." ]

[ "software", "indexing" ]

[ "Research comparing paper and online student evaluations of instruction", "What research exists (point me toward references) that compares the effectiveness, validity, and security (or at least a subset of these) of paper and online student evaluations of instructors?\n\n\nAt my institution, a working group of faculty and administrators have proposed switching from a paper-based student evaluation system to an online system. I do not doubt that an online system will save time and money. The current system involves printing, sorting, distributing, collecting, sorting again, reading, and processing three pieces of paper for each student enrolled in each course, followed by data entry and number crunching. I lose an entire period of class time when these happen so that we can guarantee most students participate. According to the office that coordinates this effort, the time and cost involved are equivalent to one full-time employee above and beyond what people are already paid to do. \n\nHowever, many faculty members have raised concerns, among which are the following:\n\n\nParticipation will decrease. Only the motivated (very conscientious and very irritated) will participate, potentially skewing the results.\nIn order to increase participation, instructors will be required to offer \"carrots\" that amount to grade inflation.\nSince all students on the roster will be notified by email, even students enrolled in the course, but who have never come to class, will be evaluating instructors. These students who have not participated, do have a right to evaluate instructors, but usually do not because it occurs during class time.\nStudent evaluation of instructor surveys will no longer be anonymous. Students will have to log in with a certified log in to verify that they are who they say they are and to match them to surveys for specific classes. While this data will be \"anonymized\" prior to processing and distribution back to instructors, it will always exist somewhere with identifying information attached to it.\n\n\nMembers of the working group have responded to these and other concerns with statements beginning \"Research shows...\" However, as an academic, I do not believe \"research\" until I have seen it myself. The working group has not yet provided a list of references." ]

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

[ "What can I do with a book summary?", "I finished reading a textbook of about 250 pages. For my personal reference, I created a summary in note form of about 30 pages. Formulations are close to the original text with some variation on my part, and there are literal quotes. I don't consider it a replacement of the book (obviously?).\n\nWhat can I do with this summary? Is it fair to give it to friends who are interested in the topic? What about students? Can I even publish it online?\n\nI am aware that laws may play into this. The book has been published in the U.S., I live in Germany." ]

[ "teaching", "books", "copyright" ]

[ "Should I continue a project someone else started?", "I think there are two situations where your supervisor might ask you to continue a project someone else started:\n\n\nSomeone produced some data, but never wrote a paper about it\nSomeone wrote a paper and your supervisor thinks there is more to investigate\n\n\nMy question is: How can I decide whether it is worthwhile to continue a project or not? \nAnd I ask this question independent of whether the field of research is worthwhile. \n\nYou might also ask my question this way:\nWhat are clear indications that my predecessor did sloppy work that might look good in a paper or presentation, but might become very annoying if you trie to understand in detail how he/she did it.\n\n\n\nI mean first of all there are technical things:\n\n\nDid your predecessor leave a structured folder system of his work?\nDid he (I'll stick to he) leave all raw data?\nAre the sampling methods well documented?\nDid he document more about his analysis than you can find in his paper? (papers are sometimes not very informative about how it was done, I mean how it was actually, actually done)\nWhat analysis tools did he use? Will it be available to you? How good will it be replicable? (Think of software compatibility and licensing issues)\nIs there a \"source code\" of the analysis that you will be able to reexecute and modify or will you get only vague descriptions of how the analysis was done?\nIf it involves code: how well is it documented (commented)?\n\n\nThe social component:\n\n\nIs your predecessor still approachable and how (meet in person, phone, e-mail)?\nHow willing is your predecessor to still contribute to the project?\nHow much time does he actually have to support you?\nIs he still interested in further insights about his past project?\nHow much does your supervisor really know about the project? Will he be able to help you with details?\n\n\nThere might be other things to consider:\n\n\nWill I be able to produce substantial additions to my predecessor's work? Or will my work be the \"and someone else tried this with it\". You either might benefit from the fame of your predecessor's work or might stunt in the shadow of it.\n\n\n\n\nOf course my supervisor should know better than me, whether its worthwhile. He has a better overview in the field of knowledge and he probably supervised the project, so he was somehow involved and should know what was done and how it was done.\nBut I think you can't always trust the judgement of your supervisor. Especially if he is a visionary, he might see more in the data/project than there actually is. He might see more what he wants to see in the data than what there actually is. And my experience is, the higher up someone is, the less he really knows about the projects he is \"involved\" with.\n\nIt would be good to have sort of a checklist. When most of it is checked you could say \"Ok, let's start the project\" and if not it is a clear indication of \"Keep your hands off this project\".\n\nMaybe in a continuing question I could ask \"How to leave a research project for someone else to continue\" or \"How to work in a way that someone else can join in or continue on his own at any time\"." ]

[ "research-process", "advisor", "collaboration", "projects" ]

[ "What are the pros and cons of publishing a positioning paper based on a grant proposal?", "We are preparing a grant proposal, which is planned to be submitted in about a year. A part of the proposal is an critical analysis on the state-of-the-art in a particular field. From there we identify some research topics that seem important and promising on which to the best of our knowledge no other people published on. Around these fields we build the rest of the proposal.\n\nWe were thinking about the idea of using the text of the literature analysis and the identification of these new topics, to write a positioning paper for a conference or journal. \n\nThe main question is: What are the pros and cons of doing so? \n\nWe are also interested in your feedback about the timing of doing so?\nYour recommendations on the type of venue of doing so (important journal, or small workshop conference, research group website)? And maybe even some general recommendations related to this topic, that we did not thing about.\n\nIs it a good idea to publish it before submitting the grant request (such that we can cite it in the proposal)? Or is it better to wait after one knows if the proposal is accepted or rejected? We understand that by publishing, other people could also get inspired to work on it, or even ask funding on it. We don't worry to much about that, but maybe we should. Are there other risks? For example if the proposal gets rejected how many years do we have before the ideas get to old to receive funding in revised/recycled form?" ]

[ "publications", "funding", "online-publication", "research-topic", "position-paper" ]

[ "I submitted the correct personal statement to the correct schools, but I realized I left highlights in my submission what should I do?", "I wrote my personal statements for two schools and they had the correct information for each school and submitted each statement to the correct school. But in my excitement to be completing my final two applications, I left highlighted sentences and words that I reviewed and finalized in my submitted essays. Being that I did this over the holiday, I labeled my drafts as \"final\" stepped away for a couple hours and just uploaded them to the portal and submitted my payments. I had a random epiphany scrolling through social media and realized my mistake. The Statement is completely edited and grammatically correct, but the highlighting is going to raise eyebrows. What is the best course of action in this instance? I do not believe that the portal used to upload my statements will cooperate to let me upload new versions of the statements since it is finalized. Thank you in advance!" ]

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

[ "What are the main goals of administering preliminary / qualifying exams to graduate students?", "If I were a Spanish Major as an undergraduate and decide to pursue a PhD in a completely unrelated field (like Theoretical Physics), it makes sense to give a qualifying exam to check that I had the necessary skills to begin the program. But if I'm coming from a B.S in math to a PhD program also in math, it doesn't seem to make sense to give a qualifying exam, as if the knowledge I gained in my undergraduate was insufficient. I presume that one is accepted into a PhD program because he/she has already demonstrated the \"qualifying\" skills. Thus, I'm baffled by the notion of the qualifying / prelim exam. I'm curious about the ultimate goals of these exams, and how they relate to the professional development of a graduate student." ]

[ "phd", "qualifying-exam" ]

[ "Should I publish in a journal that appears on Beall’s list?", "I have written an article in the field of Information Systems and I would like to publish it in a journal. I downloaded the Scimago journal rank, and decided to publish in a journal called Journal of Theoretical and Applied Information Technology. This journal appears to be in the quartile Q3 of Scimago, but one thing that caught my attention is that they publish three volumes per month. Each accepted submission must pay a cost of 300 USD.\n\nWhen I was searching for the reputation of this journal, I found that it is listed in the famous or infamous Beall’s list. My questions are:\n\n\nWhy does this journal appear on Scimago if it is a predatory one?\nWould it be a good idea to publish in it?" ]

[ "journals", "disreputable-publishers" ]

[ "Should I quit my Ph.D. program in scientific computing to become a software developer?", "I’m three years into a Ph.D. program in scientific computing and I’ve just received my M.S. I’m thinking about leaving school to go to a programming bootcamp and become a software developer. I’ve done pretty well with my coursework, I enjoy learning (at my own pace), and I’m good at teaching, but I have doubts about my ability to do solid research. I’m working in an interdisciplinary area and I don’t really have a deep understanding of any of the fields involved, so I am pretty dependent on my advisor for direction and ideas. I’ve put in a lot of (mostly coding) work on a project, but haven’t published yet. I always tell myself that if I stay, I will dig into papers and textbooks and learn as much as I can, but it feels like a pretty big mountain to climb at this point. I’m already in my thirties, having been a teacher for many years, and the lack of money is starting to get to me. I also have a serious hobby I’d like to pursue, but I’m not sure how realistic that is.\n\nSo why would I stay? Partly a desire to finish the project I’ve started. Partly a conviction that this research is at least tangentially related to some very important problems (climate change). Partly a fear that my domain-specific (mostly mathematical) knowledge will go to waste. Partly a bias for academic over business pursuits (my parents and my sister are all scientists). And partly a longstanding habituation to an unstructured schedule, with freedom to study what I want when I want. Are any of these good enough reasons?" ]

[ "phd", "programming" ]

[ "Are non-Western University PhD's really frowned upon?", "I am completing my master's by thesis this year at a small university in the West. I would really like to pursue my PhD (Maths/Stats) in Hong Kong, but I've been told by my supervisor and others that a PhD from a non-Western country is looked down upon by employers. Especially in my desired industry (finance).\n\nThis doesn't really make sense to me because Hong Kong is obviously a very developed city, the language of instruction is English, and it's a big financial center. The universities I'd want to enter (University of Hong kong and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) are also ranked in top 100.\n\nIs my supervisor wrong here, or is this something I should seriously be considering?\n\nI am particularly concerned about Hong Kong or Singapore employers, but also of ones based in Europe and Australasia." ]

[ "university", "ranking", "hong-kong" ]

[ "Not convinced by your own knowledge", "I'm 26 and an Bachelor-Student in the Electrical Engineering field.\nMy interests are Control-Theory and Robotics.\nMy Grade are good (maybe i get an 1.x Grade for the Bachelors Degree).\nMy Control-Theory Prof is very convinced of my knowledge and gave me the advice to go to an University.\n\nIm currently studying at an Fachhochschule and want to go to an University for an Master Degree in my interest field.\n\nThe Problem is, that Im not very conviced about myself. Im thinking that I have to learn everything (math, physics) from Scratch to be prepared for the Study there.\nThe Problem is not that Im not ready to invest a lot of time for it (I am!), but I think that i should learn the Mathematics from Scratch again for getting an feeling about whats happening (control-theory is very mathematic).\n\nI can calculate a lot, but developing own Ideas and get behind the Ideas of other People is at some point very difficult and ends often in accepting things. I want to have an intuitive feeling for whats going on, and for that I think I should repeat the mathematics (Analysis, Linear Algebra, Integraltransformation) and start to dive in Functional-Analysis.\n\nAt this University the Master-Course starts twice a year, April and October.\nI have emailed the Faculty and being told, that I have to complete the Math III Exam with is part of there Bachelors-Degree Course, and maybe another exam which i dont know (maybe theoretical electrical engineering).\n\nMy idea was, to spend the first Semester to get skilled in mathematics and consist the 2 Exams, and maybe If the time allows, to finish some other Courses which are held in the first Master-Semester.\n\nMy problem is, that Im 26 and I think Im very old. Im working since 2016 as an Working-Student at an Global Player in the Research&Development of Photovoltaic Systems.\nIf I see other students which maybe starts with me.. they are 21,20..\nBut I think Im doing right, if I want to employ in that Field, I have to learn. Im living only once, and If that is my dream, I have to forget my age.\n\nWhat do you think about my Plan?\nSorry if this is very confusing to you.\n\nHave a nice day!" ]

[ "masters", "bachelor" ]

[ "Is it a bad idea to ask professors questions weeks before the class starts?", "I am a graduate student, and my fall classes start in a few weeks. I have already began reading the textbook for one class, and I have come across 1 or 2 things that I couldn't figure out. It's not the end of the world if I don't figure these out; for one, I can probably get an answer on math stackexchange. However, I like this professors field and would like to develop a little bit of a relationship with her. I would also like to show her that I am motivated. Would it be a bad idea to send an email with questions about the material before the class actually starts?" ]

[ "mathematics", "etiquette", "professors" ]

[ "Should I mention in my SOP about one of that of my relatives studying at the university inspired me to join the same university?", "My cousin is stuyding in a university and I wish to apply to the same. Will it help mentioning her in the SOP that she has inspired me to apply there? Our areas of interest are different (she is more inclined to telecommunication and I am to ML). Will I be looked on favourably because she is one of the top rankers there? I know nepotism doesn't work anywhere but will it help in some way at least?" ]

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

[ "Review article in an area already published few years ago", "I want to write a review article in a particular narrow area of interest as part of my Doctoral research. But there is already a review article on that area published 2 years ago. So can I write a review paper on that area ?" ]

[ "publications", "literature-review", "review-articles" ]

[ "Emphasizing in paper: italic or bold?", "I am preparing a paper for a conference in EECS field. (Generic suggestions are also welcomed!)\n\nWhat should one do when he or she wants to emphasize one particular word?\nShould that word to be emphasized be in italic or bold?\n\nI myself rarely see text in bold, which makes me wonder whether bold should only be used in section or subsection headings?" ]

[ "publications", "writing" ]

[ "What is the legal status of using copyrighted images in academic/conference talks?", "I am told that we can use copyrighted images in our lectures to students now as they are for purely educational purposes, as long as we correctly attribute them. That is to say there is no need to ask the permission of the copyright holders. \n\nWhat is the status of using copyrighted images in conference talks? Does it also count as education?\n\n\n\nAs pointed out, this will depend on the country in which the talk is given. Let me restrict the question to the US and UK in that case. If anyone knows the situation in another country then it would be great to hear that too of course.\n\nIn the UK, the reason why I suggested you could use copyrighted material in lectures without asking permission was http://lti.lse.ac.uk/copyright/copyright-2014.php#education ." ]

[ "conference", "copyright", "graphics" ]

[ "Is there any way to find Donald Knuth's undergrad/master's thesis?", "Just what the title says. As far as I know, Knuth's undergrad thesis was so good that the faculty at his university decided to honor him with both an undergrad degree and a master's automatically.\n\nI wonder if this thesis is available for the public to see. I suppose students at Case Western have full access to it, but I'm unfortunately not one of them. Is there a way to get access to this thesis?" ]

[ "masters", "thesis", "undergraduate" ]

[ "Permanent document identifier requirement for DBLP indexing?", "First of all we are holding a conference which is the 12th year of this conference. All english papers of this conference from the 7th year are indexed in IEEE, however for the first 6 years there exist no document identifier over internet. We would like to index this year's conference papers in DBLP in addition to IEEE. I have read this page about the requirements to index proceedings of conferences in DBLP.\nSo there are my questions:\n\n\nSince there are no permanent identifers for the first 6 years of this conference is it possible to index papers from the 7th year up to now in DBLP or it should be a complete collection of all 12 years of conference?\nIn the DBLP help page, it's noted that \n\n\n\n All contributions should be registered for permanent document\n identifiers, such as DOI.\n\n\nMay an Arxiv identifier be accepted as a permanent document identifier for indexing in DBLP? \n\nAny answer would be appreciated.\nThanks in advance." ]

[ "conference", "arxiv", "doi", "indexing" ]

[ "Life as a financially independent academic", "I hope this is not to much rambling, but there is a concrete question in the end. I really like being a mathematician. I like the constant learning, I like working on problems at research-level and I even like teaching university students. I did my PhD and definitely had fun, but during the time, I have also seen aspects of academia that I do not like, most of which fall under \"publish or perish\", namely the constant struggle for grants, publications and the all-elusive tenured positions.\n\nI'm obviously not alone in this, but let's assume that I have some money, not enough to be overly rich, but enough to keep a modest standard of living without ever having to work. (The details of this are not part of the question, just assume that salary will not be much of a job-motivation.)\n\nNow this got me thinking. I would never want to \"retire\" at an early age, but on the hypothetical, what if I do not join the fight for tenure and instead effectively tenure myself?\n\nI know that there are many people without university affiliation, who occasionally publish some papers, but are there any who do this full time? There would be enough time to talk with collaborators, write articles I am actually interested in, visit guest lectures at the local universities and the occasional conference on a holiday. Apart from teaching, I would do what everyone else is doing, just on my own. But would it work the same? A possible doubt is, would many people even be interested in working with me? I'm a reasonably competent mathematician but would probably be ineligible for many sources of funding, couldn't offer a big name or any return visits, and would be less motivated to get joint work published in the best possible journal. To put the question succinct:\n\nIs life as a full-time \"independent researcher\" feasible?\n\nWhat are other pros and cons? Are there precedents (apart from bored 18th century noblemen)?" ]

[ "mathematics", "funding", "career-path", "independent-researcher" ]

[ "Is Accepting others mistake wrong in acaemia?", "I am a PhD student after the mid stage. I come to know a very strange thing about academia that acceptance is a bad thing. Let me define acceptance, many time i hear the statement of other collegues including my supervisor, research fellows etc. What happens that I always tried to accept their arguments even if they are wrong. If they are wrong, Instead of being harsh, I try to accept their argument then explain my argument. The problem arises due to this is that many times these people try to manuplate me. Like in TA work I listen to the person who comes to me (student) no as I am listening to him he starts thinking that I have not understood his statement, which is not always the case. \n\nIn short I accept others mistake, errors etc, but when it comes to me that if i am wrong other people show their very rude behaviour. I don't Is this common in academia? What kind of person I should become the one who point out others mistake and make them realise that they are wrong or the one who accept others wrong things in a positive way?" ]

[ "academic-life" ]

[ "How should I complete the \"Statement of the problem\" part of my thesis proposal if it there are very few similar works in the literature?", "I don't know how should I state the lacuna in the discipline. If there were researches worked on my topic before, I could cite them and say that they have worked on A, B, C, and I want to work on D, but there is not.\n\nMy MA thesis is sort of a following to a PhD research conducted 4 years ago (but not following one of those 'suggested for further research' questions, of course), and the topic is relatively new.\n\nTo help me with writing this part, what questions can I ask myself and find answer to?\n\nI major in Translation Studies, by the way." ]

[ "thesis", "writing" ]

[ "Is mild credential embellishment from industry considered academic dishonesty?", "One of my coworkers has a part-time academic/research position at a major university where they supervise PhD students and postdocs even though they do not have an advanced degree, or a degree related to the field where they are working.\n\nTheir listed credentials on their profile prominently include two groups affiliated with our company and they are listed as a 'founder' or 'co-founder/lead' on both. This is probably an embellishment of their role, which was mostly junior, but with a fair amount of administrative/coordination work. They also changed the name of one of the groups (which is internal to the company so not noticeable by someone outside it) to sound more broad than it actually is. \n\nTechnically I could see an argument for either title since the terms are kind of vague--'founder' since they were one of the members when each group was started, and 'lead' since they did some coordination work. But the overall role did not involve technical, thought, or academic leadership and this is hard to describe without revealing internal company information. I am concerned that they are passing themselves off as a thought leader in this (emerging) field, but wonder if my concern is overblown.\n\nIs this considered 'academic dishonesty', or 'unethical'? Or is this normal for people coming from industry (as opposed to a direct academic pipeline where one is a grad student, then a postdoc, then an assistant professor, etc.)" ]

[ "ethics", "industry" ]

[ "Is using a different methodology enough for a master thesis?", "I am preparing my master thesis. After finishing the literature review I found that all the existing literature always uses one method, which is choice modelling. My thesis is about how to analyze the preference of individuals by studying and analyzing the importance of attributes. \n\nI already know that I need to use Multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) in my thesis to analyze the importance of attributes. Can I say that the contribution of my thesis is using the different method? That is, using MCDM compared to the methods in the existing literature? I really can not compare these two methods as they are based on totally different assumption and technique." ]

[ "thesis", "masters" ]

[ "Does use of computer translation as an aide when writing a paper require a citation or disclosure?", "Related (not duplicates):\n\n\nIs it appropriate to cite a paper in a language I don't understand?\nWould it be ethical to hire a proofreader for theses and academic articles?\n\n\nOne of the things that I have found extremely helpful when writing in a non-native language is to use tools such as Google Translate, where I will first write what I want to say in my native language, put it into the translator, and then revise the translated output based on my actual knowledge of the language. Specifically, I am often able to recognize the correctness of a passage in that language (e.g. word usage, false friends, correct verb tenses, spelling errors, appropriate levels of politeness, etc.) better than I can write fluently from scratch.\n\nWhen doing such a thing in an academic paper, is it generally necessary to either:\n\n\nDisclose that an automated translation tool was used to assist in the composition of the paper?\nFormally cite the translation tool (e.g. Google Translate)?\n\n\nI'm not asking about any specific situation (contact your instructor or editor), but about best practices and general understandings.\nI'm not asking whether it's acceptable to copypaste directly from the output of an online translator straight into a manuscript, thesis, or course essay (that would be crazy), but whether the fact that one has used a translator in a non-trivial way can be considered unethical. Would the answer differ based on context? For example, my instinct tells me that this would probably not be ok for coursework in which mastery of the target language is a main focus (e.g. you are taking Advanced English as a Second Language and are assigned to write a short story), but would be more acceptable in a context (coursework or journal submission) in which mastery of the target language is not the focus (but rather the medium of demonstrating mastery over or research findings regarding some other thing), such as writing a paper on astrophysics for a journal that requires that all papers be in English (the journal is really focused on your astrophysics findings, and the language is just a standardized medium of information exchange, i.e. a tool to do so).\n\nIt's already well-accepted that using general language reference tools such as dictionaries, thesauri, grammars, and style guides are not unethical, but it's not clear if automated translation tools are truly analogous to them.\n\nIn a nutshell, the process I'm speaking of is as follows:\n\n\nWrite my original composition, findings, thoughts, analyses, etc. in my native language, without doing anything remotely resembling plagiarism.\nSend what I wrote through a translator.\nUse the output of the translator as a framework or draft, going through it and making appropriate corrections (conjugations, false friends, incorrect synonym chosen (e.g. translating \"hot\" as in temperature as \"spicy\" or \"sexy\"), awkward phraseology, archaic language, inappropriate diction, blatant translation errors, etc.), but without recomposing the entire paper from scratch in the target language." ]

[ "citations", "ethics", "language", "translations" ]

[ "Which license should I aim to publish articles & software under?", "Suppose I have the choice of license under which to publish my research work in Computer Science (constituting scientific papers and software) online; and that I need to make this decision before any journal or conference has accepted any of it. Specifically, suppose for the sake of discussion my academic employer would accept whatever it is I choose.\n\nSo, what to do, what to do... Is \"better\" or worse to put things in the public domain (e.g. via a CC0 dedication or otherwise), or to have a more rigid license? The FSF seems to be pretty critical of Creative Commons licenses, yet these can be seen at, say, arXiv... plus, I'm not sure I want to be all that legalistic with a 1000 pages of license text.\n\nWhat should guide me when choosing the license, then? And what does your \"licensing experience\" teach you?" ]

[ "publications", "intellectual-property", "license", "academic-freedom", "research-dissemination" ]

[ "Co-author keeps delaying crucial part of paper", "I'm working on a paper with someone from a different institution. I'm first author.\n\nThe data analysis has been done, but there are several ways to interpret the result. I proposed a survey of the population under study as a way to distinguish between mechanisms and his first reaction was that he liked the idea. \n\nI then came up with the survey and have done all the programming. My co-author knows the population involved (as he comes from there), so I'm reliant on his connections. \n\nThe problem is, he keeps putting it off, saying \"next week, I have commitment X\" (where commitment X changes according to week). \n\nI've talked to various peers at my current institution (not involved with my study), and all agree a survey would be a good idea. So it's unlikely that a survey is bad in the first place.\n\nThere seems to be a hidden reason for why he keeps delaying the survey release (all he has to do is to ask his contacts to distribute the survey). \n\nHow should I approach him? I intend to tell him, basically, that I'm uncomfortable about this situation, that I have difficulty understanding the reasons behind the delay, and that if there are hidden reasons why he appears to be reluctant to roll out the survey, he should let me know. Is this is good idea, and is there anything else I can add?" ]

[ "authorship", "collaboration" ]

[ "Reverse-engineering results in a published research paper", "I am trying to implement work in someone else's published IEEE research paper, to verify its results and observe some data. To fully implement what was done, I will need to implement the published algorithm - this will involve some reverse-engineering of what was done in the paper.\n\nNormally, when I face particular programming problems, I might use Stack Overflow or other sites to ask specific questions. Given that doing so it this case would reveal that I was reverse-engineering published work, are there any specific professional or ethical issues around the reverse-engineering aspect of this?" ]

[ "publications" ]

[ "What is an appropriate academic search engine and ranking system for classics faculty and programs?", "Google Scholar and the h-index are widely used in computer science to evaluate academic programs and faculty. Right now I need to evaluate classics programs. I went to Google Scholar and found that the faculty I was interested in evaluating did not have Google Scholar pages. Also, their articles were generally not indexed by Google.\n\nIs there another system that those in the classics use as an alternative to Google Scholar?" ]

[ "ranking", "evaluation" ]

[ "Recommendation letters: The more the better?", "Is there any upper limit for the number of recommendation letters for an application?\n\nDoes the strength of an application get enhanced by containing more recommendation letters? \n\nWhat if the additional letters are coming from less-related (to the field that one is applying for) staff, but impressive enough? For example suppose one is going to apply for Physics and 2 recommendation letters are required. He gets two letters from physics professor and besides he is sure he can get a good letter from a math professor. What should he do? \n\nThanks.\n\nPS: The target is a Grad school." ]

[ "recommendation-letter" ]

[ "Plagiarizing problem sets and homework", "I am a young student checking pupils homeworks.\nI've got a case - 2 pupils definetely cooperated when doing homework.\nDo you have tips to determine who actually solved it and who copied? Got some ideas myself (like maybe one who copied had a better handwriting) but it is better to ask." ]

[ "education", "plagiarism", "homework" ]

[ "Is it common for students to complain directly to deans, or for deans to review faculty's message to students?", "I am a tenure track assistant professor in a relatively small university (approx. 6000 students). Without giving too much identifiable details, I'll just way that a student was unhappy with some aspect of the course (e.g. grading scales) and filed a complaint directly to the department chair and the dean of the college without giving me any opportunity to respond.\n\nI certainly believe I didn't do anything wrong. At least no other student had a problem with the course. But that's perhaps not important to my question. (Update: The department chair stated over phone conversations that (s)he does not believe I did anything wrong under the extraordinary situation that we and many other schools are facing. My tone, in email messages, is professional but cold. E.g., using \"Mr.\" rather than first name, using \"I can...\" rather than \"I'll be more than happy to...\". The Chair said (s)he would not consider this to be an issue. So while it's less than perfect, the Chair cleared of wrongdoing in private)\n\nSurprisingly, the dean of my college got involved directly. Sending detailed instruction through the chair telling me what to do. After several rounds of negotiation, I gave the student exactly what this student demanded. But still, the dean does not like my tone. My messages to this student now have to be reviewed to make sure I sounded friendly and helpful.\n\nThis whole thing strike as rather strange. My question is how common are these? Is it common for students to complain to a dean and get their support? Is it common for a dean to get directly involved like this? \n\nA bonus question is, as a tenure track person, what should I do? (Shut up, do what they say, and update my resume, just in case?)" ]

[ "job", "tenure-track" ]

[ "Is it worthwhile writing about previous experience with courses, which will be taught in masters program, in motivation letter?", "I am applying for a masters program. I have read about the courses, which will be taught at the program. In fact, I think that I have had a lot of such courses in my bachelors program. Does it help to specifically mention that I think that I will do great at the program, because I have taken similar courses before? Also, I have got Bs for some of the courses (actually, the most of my classmates have done similar or worse, the grading was really harsh)." ]

[ "statement-of-purpose" ]

[ "What is \"Honorary Lecturer\" in the UK universities?", "I was browsing some UK universities, and I was surprised by the number of 'Honorary Lecturers'. I understand a 'honorary professor' position, normally given to an outstanding scientist outside the academia, but I wonder how a junior academic position (like lecturer) can be given with honorary title.\n\nFirst, I thought it can be a political figure or something like than rather that someone with scientific achievements, but suprisingly, I found it is VERY popular to fall in this category. \n\nFor example, 10% of faculty members in UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences holds the positions of 'honorary lecturer', 'honorary senior lecturer', 'honorary reader', or 'honorary research associate'." ]

[ "professors", "university", "titles" ]

[ "Updated title of arxiv not recognised by Google Scholar?", "I submitted a paper to a journal and one of the referees suggested to slightly change the title of the paper. The paper was already posted on arxiv. I have updated the paper on arxiv after the revision, but this update is not recognised by Google Scholar. The main problem with this is that Google Scholar is not detecting the new citations to the arxiv paper since the new citations use the new title.\n\nAny suggestions on how to solve this issue?\n\nUpdate: I updated the arxiv version 2 months ago but Google Scholar does not detect it. It detects new papers that cite my manuscript, but not the updated arxiv.\n\nDisclaimer. I am aware of the following questions, but they are related to different issues.\n\nSubmitted to arXiv with a different title. How to make Google understand this is the same paper?\n\nDo all versions of an arXiv paper appear in Google Scholar?" ]

[ "arxiv", "google-scholar" ]

[ "Importance of undergraduate institution in grad-school admissions (math)", "I am a applied math major, and very much want to enter graduate school for applied math. I spent my freshman year of undergrad at a very highly ranked (top 10 or 15 depending on ranking) university, with an equally good applied math program. I unfortunately had to transfer out due to financial circumstances, and I am now attending a large state school, although it is research 1 and has an equally ranked (top 10/15) applied math program. \n\nAt this new institution I will be able to concurrently get a BS and MS in applied math with a minor in computer science, which is more than I would have been able to achieve at the original institution I was attending. With that said, I am worried that upon my transfer to a generally lower ranked university I severely damaged my chances of getting into a good graduate school for applied math. \n\nIs it generally the case that graduate school admissions committees will give more attention to applicants applying from better institutions? The applied math program I am currently in at the state school sends students to grad schools in the ivy league every year (and as mentioned is highly ranked), however I am wondering if it is significantly more difficult to gain acceptance into such grad schools coming from a generally lower ranked school." ]

[ "graduate-admissions", "graduate-school", "mathematics", "undergraduate" ]

[ "Co-authoring a paper with a persona non grata", "Suppose Researcher A did some joint work with Researcher B. While the work was still in progress, or the manuscript was in preparation, researcher B became persona non grata in Academia, due to wrongdoing. I don't think the exact nature of wrongdoing is relevant here, but let's say it is serious, as in for example:\n\nfaking research results (the research with A was not faked)\nseverely breaching research ethics (the research with A was not affected)\nsexual misconduct towards subordinates (that Researcher A was not aware of during joint work)\n\nWhat's Researcher A to do? I see four options, all of which have their ethical and practical drawbacks.\n\npublish the result jointly with B as planned. The ethical drawback is that it can be perceived as siding with B in the scandal/breaching a boycott, and the practical one is that Researcher A's career might suffer from association with the scandal.\nnot publish at all. The practical drawback is that Researcher's A CV suffers, and the ethical drawbacks are obvious: not publishing a worthy research funded by taxpayers is a waste of their money; it may hinder further progress of the field, and, for example, in Maths, if results have been announced or communicated to the community, then codes of conduct explicitly require that the details are published soon.\nwithdraw Researcher A's name. The practical drawback is as above, and the ethical drawback is that generally nobody should receive full credit for the work that was in fact joint, and even less so as a "reward" for the misconduct.\nask/pressure Researcher B to withdraw their name. The practical concern is that Researcher B may not agree, and the ethical one is that, again, Researcher A should not get more credit than their contribution to the work, and wrongdoing should not disqualify B from getting their share of credit where it is due.\n\nSo, what is the right course of action for A, ethically and practically?" ]

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

[ "How does author-initiated peer review differ from double blind peer review?", "Some journals (example) today ask the authors to initiate a peer review rather than initiating a blind peer review themselves.\nAre these articles different in terms of quality and bias?\nAre these articles accepted by experts/professors/scientists like regularly peer-reviewed articles?" ]

[ "publications", "peer-review" ]

[ "Is the classical chair system (in which a senior professor supervises junior professors) obsolete?", "Historically, only full professors could have a specific chair, and assistant and associate professors could only wonder under supervision of a chaired (full) professor.\n\nNow, every assistant professor is an independent academic, only with a lower salary and possibilities. On the other hand, a chaired position gains secured research funding, but no other faculty member is under his supervision (yes or no, this is my question).\n\nI think the classic chair system still exists in Japan (at least to some extent). Do universities in West Europe and North America still have such system to place junior faculty members (assistant/associate professors) under supervision of a senior (chaired professor) faculty member?" ]

[ "professors", "university", "assistant-professor" ]

[ "How to tell my advisor I am leaving the PhD program, when he is the reason I'm leaving?", "I want to give up my current PhD program, which I started 5 months ago, because I really do not like my current advisor's personality and working style. He lives a relaxed life and has no enthusiasm for science after getting tenure. He does not have funding and never releases decent papers because he does not work hard. \n\nBut I like my current direction. So I want to give up my PhD and switch to the master's program - as I have nearly finished all the coursework, and I do not want a gap in my CV - and then apply to a new school, as there is no other professor in my school doing work in my direction. \n\nMy question is: how can I tell him that I want to leave the PhD program? I do not want to tell him the true reason, because I want him to write a recommendation for me, and I think he likes me." ]

[ "phd", "advisor" ]

[ "Shortlisting criteria for an oversubscribed course: first-come-first-served vs grade point and classroom diversity", "I teach an advanced Engineering elective course which has a mixed audience of Junior (3rd year) and Seinor (4th year) undergrads and some Grad students. Since it is a interactive course with a lot of project based work etc. we are typically constrained to accepting not more than about 30 students (for reasons of grading time, vivas etc).\nSomehow the course has gotten popular and we get many more students wanting to take the course. I wanted feedback on how other instructors handle this sort of situation.\nThe default at our University's online registration system is a first-come-first-served which I don't like so much. I am tending towards a grade point based shortlisting criteria (which is a lot of work since the registration system is not geared to handle this so I must do the shortlisting manually) but I also like to have a fairly even split between 3rd years / 4th years and Grad students since it makes for a better discussion and project groups. Maybe think of it as a classroom diversity of perspective.\nJust curious to hear thought from others about shortlisting criteria and how much of "instructor discretion" vs a hard constraint / criterion is good. Sometimes I get students who seem really interested (or have some past background which makes for a demonstrable interest in this course area) but may not get in according to a grade point shortlisting criterion. Is it ok to make such exemptions and allow them to register?\nI guess, what's the tradeoff between some sort of objective "fairness" and a subjective evaluation by instructor." ]

[ "coursework", "grading", "pre-registration" ]

[ "Waiting with a lot of uncertainty", "I have to choose between industry and academia (1 year left). I think the success of below two points according to me is a minimum qualification to get accepted for PhD. But I am afraid of total failure.\n\n\nFirst paper under review (months of waiting time).\nResults for a scholarship program for summer research intern will be announced after 5 months. One of the top researchers in my field has agreed to take me but I am not sure about securing the scholarship. \n\n\nBecause of this uncertainty, fear of failure and long waiting time I am totally freezed. I have no motivation to take new projects because of no validation of my previous work. \n\nHow can I unfreeze myself and start working again? Or should I totally stop until the review comes?" ]

[ "peer-review", "undergraduate", "internship" ]

[ "Self plagarism with co-authors", "I think we can all agree that if I am presenting work that is intended to be new ideas and I present a previously published result of which I am the sole author, that this is self-plagiarism. The clearest example of this is reusing an already published result in a journal article without attribution.\n\nIf that already published result is in a co-authored work, is it still self-plagiarism, or does it somehow make it worse?" ]

[ "self-plagiarism" ]

[ "Keeping advisees aware of literature", "When advising students performing research in one's group, what's the best way to make sure that they keep on top of the literature?\n\n\nIs it best to forward any article of interest to the student?\nShould we keep a list of journals the student should follow independently of me?\nAre there other practices (reading journal, etc.) to make sure they stay up to date?\nIs this something that can be pursued at a group level instead of on a one-on-one level?" ]

[ "phd", "research-process", "literature" ]

[ "how useful are solo papers?", "I have heard a few times that having single-author papers is good for your career. I suppose this is because it shows you are capable of producing research on your own. But I wonder if it is a double-edged sword. Say you are early in your career and have only solo papers. Does this also look bad because it suggests you are not good at collaborating?" ]

[ "publications", "career-path" ]

[ "Undergraduate doing a research term - supervisor has not assigned me any work to do other than reading, after one month. What can I do to fix this?", "I am an undergraduate student, and am using a term to study with a professor. We got along well in his class and I thought he had a keen interest in helping students.\n\nFrom what I understand, initially I was supposed to work on a project that some other group would deliver to us. We waited until a week and a half ago, and abandoned that. In the meanwhile, I have basically been reading full-time. Unfortunately I find it very difficult to read for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week and so have been losing a lot of motivation at work. Typically when reading technical stuff, there is something I can apply it to which makes it easier to remember and motivate for. Instead, I am reading through entire textbooks, cover to cover.\n\nI have asked my supervisor what sort of project I can start working on, but he has instead told me to continue reading and that I need to be \"more proactive\". Is it normal for me to have to propose my own projects when I have no idea what the state of the art really is? I feel as though he is blowing me off. I have proposed projects before but he has said that they aren't relevant enough to the field.\n\nThe last working month has been one of the most miserable experiences of my life and it's been negatively effecting my professionalism, work ethic and personal relationships. What can I do to rectify this, given that I've already spoken with him? Do I need to resign?" ]

[ "advisor", "research-undergraduate", "productivity" ]

[ "Do not have the right tools for my thesis problem", "I am pursuing a PhD in analysis and partial differential equations. My advisor has given me a problem which actually turns out to have a very large algebraic geometry requirement. Although my analysis is very good, my geometry and algebra have always been a little weak. I find the problem very fascinating and, surprisingly, the problem can even be stated in a way that even a first year undergraduate could understand it. \n\nNow, I'm essentially stuck. I do not know if learning all the geometry that I never learned before would help me out. In fact, I doubt it. The other thing is that I feel that for a problem that can be stated in simple linear algebra / calculus terms, such weighty tools might not even be required and some kind of partial results should be obtainable with whatever knowledge I have. \n\nThe fact that I am not making any real progress is making me feel very insecure and making me question whether I can become a mathematician. I need some advice. \n\nShould I set myself a time frame and bundle up things as well as they can be bundled up? \n\nShould I set myself the challenge of learning all the geometry that may/may not work?\n\nShould I quit?" ]

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

[ "How to assist your home university in evaluating whether classes taken when studying abroad should allow transfer of credit?", "I am going to be studying for 1 semester in Japan for my computer science degree. This 1 semester will earn me my degree as well as my required internship. \nI was already accepted into TU and am in the process of my transfer credits but my advisor at TU is concerned that some of the classes I took here, in the US, don't touch on everything they do over in TU. \n\nHow should you compare two courses to help an advisor determine if the courses are similar enough to transfer credits?" ]

[ "transfer-student", "abroad" ]

[ "How do graduate schools feel about a student not accepting an offer?", "I'm sure it's common for students to reject 1-2 recommendations for admission to a graduate school, because they often apply to several places and sometimes they get accepted in more than one place. But what impression does this give to the graduate school when the student doesn't accept the offer for admission (not sure if this is the correct term)? Specifically universities in Europe where a lot of them don't have application fees. If you apply again in the future, are they likely to not accept you based on this information they have about you from the past? Is that information used at all?\n\nIn my case it's admission to a Master's program.\n\nAdditional question: if I got accepted to my first choice, would it be better if I told the other universities to cancel my applications?" ]

[ "graduate-admissions" ]

[ "A manuscript I refereed gave me an idea for a paper, not sure how to proceed", "So, last week I refereed a paper for a journal. The paper in question is a reply to a previous paper by a different author: it points out a serious problem in the original paper and then proposes a solution. The evaluation I sent back to the editors is that, while the problem is real (to the extent that a different researcher has independently identified it), there are a number of reasons why the proposed solution is not going to work. \n\nOver the weekend, I started thinking about the paper in question again and suddenly realized that I know how to solve the problem (in a nutshell: you need to use a technique originally developed to solve a mildly related class of problems, but which nobody had yet thought of applying to this particular domain). Right now, I have a bunch of handwritten notebook pages with everything I need to write a paper, and all I have left to do is to find a couple of hours to sit in front of my computer and type it up properly.\n\nThe question is, how should I proceed now? On the one hand, given that I've developed my own solution, I'm not plagiarizing the paper I refereed (in fact, I intend to give it proper credit for discovering the problem). On the other hand, if I hadn't been asked to referee this paper, I wouldn't have put enough thought into it to come up with my own solution. More generally, to what extent is it acceptable to write a paper that directly builds on a paper you've been asked to referee?" ]

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

[ "What is the effect of background music in educational videos on the learning outcome?", "Is there any research/study/survey/... that looked at the effect of background music in educational videos on the learning outcome?\n\nI am aware of (1) but they focus on educational virtual environments.\n\n\n\n(1) Fassbender, Eric, Deborah Richards, Ayse Bilgin, William Forde Thompson, and Wolfgang Heiden. \"VirSchool: The effect of background music and immersive display systems on memory for facts learned in an educational virtual environment.\" Computers & Education 58, no. 1 (2012): 490-500. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=4113404139067026741&hl=en&as_sdt=0,22" ]

[ "teaching", "reference-request", "mooc", "audio-video-recording" ]

[ "Differences between SSRN, arXiv, academia.edu, NBER working papers, et al", "Posting papers on depositories for working papers may lead to higher visibility than posting on a personal website. The depositories send out updates about new papers and people browse uploaded papers. \n\nThat being said, what are the relative benefits of the different depositories? Some of them are more discipline-specific, but I work broadly in social science and any of them could work for researchers like me." ]

[ "publications", "writing", "website" ]

[ "Contacting old honours advisor", "First a brief explanation (I'm not sure if other schools have different systems): at my university, if one took the correct courses during their degree - pure math in my case - then one had the opportunity to take a special course in which one chooses a supervisor and works on an independent, original research project with them, usually a part of the supervisor's active research that they deem is at the correct level for an advanced undergrad student to assist with. The student then gives a presentation in their relevant department colloquium when they've finished the bulk of their work, and the final grade was based on this as well as a written thesis. The student would then receive, for example, a B.Sc. with Honours, considered a pre-requisite for almost all M.Sc. and Ph.D. programs.\n\nAnyway, I took part in this program at my school. For various reasons, most prominent of which was my lack of work ethic, my research project was essentially pushed to the wayside in favor of other courses, and there was a palpable sense of frustration (from both parties) whenever I would meet with my supervisor to discuss my progress.\n\nI managed to put together a decent presentation (according to my supervisor and other audience members), and I received a fine grade for the course, but my relationship with my supervisor was irreparably spoiled at this point.\n\nI've since decided that I'd like to be a high school math teacher, but the whole honours course, and the struggles that came with it, have been on my mind lately. Would it be considered rude, strange, or a waste of their time for me to email my supervisor and express my regret to them? I'm not sure what I'd say to them, but I can't help but feel that I should say something." ]

[ "etiquette" ]

[ "Stepping around student religiosity", "In the not-too-distant past, I was teaching a course on cognition and language. One class focused on language and communication in different species. A student later emailed me to ask a number of clarifying and follow-up questions. One of which was \"If God wanted animals to communicate, why wouldn't He just have them talk\"? This student was an international student from a country where religion is a much more prominent component of public life, so - for lack of a better phrase - I took it as a good faith question that would have been pretty normal back home. I don't think it's my place to put forth my theological views, I don't teach anything close to religion/theology, so I answered the questions that I could and ignored the religious question. Is there a better way to have handled this?\n\nThanks" ]

[ "teaching", "international-students", "religious-issues" ]

[ "Changing a graph during a review?", "I am writing a machine learning manuscript for publication.\n\nIn a figure I had two learning curves for parameter 1 (P1) and parameter 2 (P2). Now, the reviewer asked to incorporate parameter 3 (P3) and show the learning curve for that.\n\nThe assumption is that the curve for P1 is better than P2 (P1>P2) and the curve with P2 is better than with P3 (P2>P3).\n\nHowever, after training with parameter 3 I found a curve that shows (P3>P2). Probably P2 curve was stuck at a local minima. Since, my original P1 curve was okay, I was not bothered with the P2 curve that much when I submitted the manuscript.\n\nSince, it is not expected, I retrained all three curves and after retraining I found the desired curves (P1>P2 and P2>P3).\n\nNow, can I put this newer curves in the figure and submit the manuscript? Or I have to keep the original P1 and P2 curves intact?" ]

[ "publications", "peer-review", "ethics", "graphics" ]

[ "How should I cite a screenshot in APA style for my student paper?", "When adding a reference to an image that is a screenshot, what is the proper way to cite in APA style?\n\nAlso, who is considered the artist in this case? The person who took the screenshot, the website where I've found the image or the creator of the software?" ]

[ "graphics", "citation-style" ]

[ "Include School Technical Project in CV for Grad Application", "I am applying for Electrical engineering field graduate studies recently. In my school, I have done several technical projects. (I have already participated in some research project and put them under the section \"research experience\"). \n\nThe question is that, grad schools are often looking for research potential, but my technical projects are usually too about technical implementation (such as building a small magnetic control car). I am wondering if it is suitable to put them in my CV for grad school application?" ]

[ "graduate-admissions", "cv", "undergraduate" ]

[ "Will it hurt my masters application if SOP focuses on my research interests, but the program has only a few courses on that subject?", "I want to pursue a master's in Computer Networks with an interest to learn Software Defined Networking. For some of the universities that I have applied, I have summarized like 'I would love to go deep into networking particularly software defined networking' Now will this be a negative if the colleges have only few courses on the subject?" ]

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

[ "Recommendation Letter for grad school without academic connections", "I have recently developed an interest in a hot topic of computer science and I would like to pursue a master's degree in that topic.\nLooking at the available grad school programs and their admissions process they all (very understandably) require recommendation letters. \n\nThe issue is that I graduated 6 years ago and not expecting to ever need a recommendation letter for further academic development I have not kept any connections with previous professors. I could try to contact some of them who I had a good relationship with back then, but I believe the most I would get now is either a rejection or a run of the mill \"This student was punctual and had good grades\" type of letter.\n\nIn the past 6 years I have served in the army for a year and worked in the industry for the next 5. I believe I have a good chance of getting a good recommendation letter from past and current managers. \n\nMy question is this. Do I absolutely need recommendation letters from professors in order to get a place at a grad school program or is anybody who I have worked under a good reference? \nHow do admissions committees look upon recommendation letters by non academics? \n\nI am not looking for a career in academia. I want to apply the knowledge I will get in the industry. (And I intend to put this in my motivation letter)\n\nIf it makes any difference I am interested in European universities" ]

[ "recommendation-letter", "europe" ]

[ "What action to take when questions regarding a published paper are ignored by its author?", "Recently, our group is trying to reproduce the result reported by a paper whose authors are from an Ivy league university. We are unable to reproduce the results because there are several implementation details are not mentioned in the paper. Hence, we decide to write the first author, who is now already a faculty member in another university, an email.\n\nAt first, we asked for the code, which we consider is perfectly fine, as the paper has been published. We feel the code in a published paper is no longer a secret in this transparent research era where reproducibility is highly valued. However, he simply ignored our email (3+ weeks, no response).\n\nThen, we thought, OK, seems that he is reluctant to share the code, so let's just ask him to clarify several implementation details so that we can implement the thing ourselves and hopefully, we can reproduce the result. So, we sent a second email which very clearly asks for clarifications. Again, he ignored the email (1.5 weeks+, no response).\n\nWe now feel angry and start suspecting the authenticity of their reported results. However, we cannot accuse them of anything, since we are not able to prove that they cheated, which would be a felony if they really did.\n\nWe always feel that upon the publication of a paper, its authors, or at least the correspondence author, hold responsible for any inquiries regarding the paper, especially when the authenticity is being doubted. What they chose to do - ignoring our email - is really irresponsible.\n\nWhat can we do?\n\nDisclaimer\n\nThanks for the answers and comments! It is interesting that many start besieging me on my \"bad\" attitude in the email. \n\nJust to clarify, \n\n\nI wrote perfectly polite emails to the correspondence author;\nI have NOT questioned his results or whatsoever." ]

[ "publications" ]

[ "How to communicate with reviewer who has waived his anonymity?", "(Within the standard review process) I received review comments on a paper, one of the reviewers, say A, waived his anonymity in the review submitted to the journal (I know A personally). Now, A made some suggestions (essentially about some way of using software developed by students of A) which do not work (suggested feature does not exist). Should I\n\n\nwrite an email to A directly asking about clarifications on how to use the software as he suggested, at the risk of the handling editor feeling like I went behind his back\nwrite this email, but include the handling editor as CC:, at the risk of A feeling like I would \"belittle\" him \"in front of\" the editor, or\nmention in the response that the feature was not implemented in the suggested software, citing documentation / error messages" ]

[ "peer-review" ]

[ "Chances of landing a post doc (Banach Space Theory) and tenure track position?", "Currently I am a 2nd year PhD student in Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. My research interest lies in functional analysis, particularly Banach Space Theory.\n\nI would like to know what are the chances to land a post doc in this field after my graduation and subsequently a tenure track position. If possible, I would like to have some statistical information to observe the trend.\n\nI frequently visit (literally everyday) Mathjobs to get an overall idea on how many post doc positions available on analysis (no PDE, by the way). Unsurprisingly, it is not a lot. \n\nI know that it is extremely difficult to land a post doc nowadays due to oversupply of PhD graduates (I assume most PhD graduates would like to stay in academia). However, I do not want to stuck at working post doc and cannot rise to tenure track. I think this defeats the purpose of doing a post doc, as it is an intermediate step of obtaining a tenure track position. If this is case, then I think it would be better to work elsewhere straightaway after graduation.\n\nEDIT: Geographically speaking, I prefer working in developed countries such as USA, UK, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Australia, etc." ]

[ "phd", "mathematics", "career-path", "postdocs", "tenure-track" ]

[ "How do pass/fail classes look to PhD admissions committees?", "I'm a junior hoping to do a PhD. I'm in a graduate level class right now in a different field. I believe almost all the other students are PhD students. The first couple weeks of the course were just barely accessible, though very challenging. Now, however, I really find myself unable to complete the problem sets. There are no office hours either. \nHow bad would it look to pass/fail this class? It's not particularly related to my intended research focus in the PhD.\nI believe I am a strong candidate aside from this class. \nAlso, I'm really not sure what grade I would get in this class. Probably a B at worst. I'd rather not mess up my GPA though. All of my other technical classes are A's or A minuses." ]

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

[ "How to grade students' lab worksheets to prepare them for a final lab exam?", "I am a physics lab TA and I was recently informed that my engineering students will receive a lab final at the end of the semester worth 50 percent of their grade. The final exam is not personally created by me, but is decided amongst all of the lab TA's teaching the same course in the same semester. The meeting amongst the TA's will occur next week, however I am attempting to prepare for whatever will come, for better or worse for my students. I want my engineering students to succeed, and I want to give them all of my resources to give them the preparation to pass the final exam. I assume that I will not be allowed to tell my students what the lab final will be, or what types of questions will be asked. My students are required to complete 9 weekly lab worksheets corresponding to their specific lab of the week. All sum total of all lab worksheets are worth the other 50 percent of the lab grade.\n\nOne issue I am currently weighing in my head is how to grade the lab worksheets. Should I go easy on the grading to soften the blow of the final exam, or should I grade harshly to force them to correct every mistake they make in prepration for the final exam?" ]

[ "teaching", "teaching-assistant", "grading" ]

[ "Proving a student took a test, if there is no signature", "I am interested, how can a student prove he is the author of a test, if he forgot to sign it or only a name or ID is provided and not both?" ]

[ "exams", "students" ]

[ "Is it fair to offer students a chance to improve their grade on an assignment", "A large portion of students in a class I'm taking did very poorly on the first project that was assigned in the class. The professor has decided to allow students that did not get full points on the project to increase their grade on project 1 by a percentage of their project 2 grade. \nHowever, the way the that increase is calculated does nothing for the people that did project 1 correctly and received full points. I feel that this is an unfair application of extra credit as it only rewards those that didn't do the first project correctly. Am I being reasonable when I see this as unfair?" ]

[ "ethics", "grading" ]

[ "What date should I use for graduation?", "When graduating from a university in the UK you are often conferred with an award before the graduation ceremony. I am therefore seeking clarification as to what date should be written on documents such as job application forms.\n\n\nFor an bachelor's degree, do I use the ceremony date or the award date?\nFor a PhD, do I use the date of the viva voce or the ceremony date?" ]

[ "awards", "graduation" ]

[ "What is the point of ScienceWISE annotation on arXiv?", "This is an example of a semantically tagged paper: Distributed Joint Source and Channel Coding with Low-Density Parity-Check Codes. On arXiv, it looks like this:\n\n\n\nIn the PDF (with Chrome as PDF viewer), it looks like this:\n\n\n\nWhat is the point of this? Why should I, as an author, add this to any publication?\n\nShouldn't I, if I want a link to Wikipedia, just add it by myself without the usertracking (respecting the privacy of the reader) to my article? And shouldn't I be able to find content of much higher quality and explicitly name it in my paper if it is necessary or otherwise, if it is not necessary because it is quite basic knowledge in the domain I write about just assume that the reader will know what I mean / know the textbooks where he /she can look up the definitions?\n\nSee also\n\n\nhttps://arxiv.org/help/sciencewise" ]

[ "publications", "writing", "arxiv" ]

[ "How much informal writing should there be in a research article?", "I am starting to write a research article in computer science area. While writing, I am using very formal terminologies and sentences which occasionally get quite boring. Sometimes, funny side of my personality pops up, and I end up writing some informal sentences which I have to delete later, picturing a very serious looking reviewer reading my paper draft. I always have this idea that a research article should be narrated like a story (keeping the facts and assumptions valid) to make it interested for the readers and stories often get quite informal. Don't they?\n\nSo the question is: How informal can I go in writing a research article even if my assumptions are correct? Do reviewers mind if the language used is not quite formal?" ]

[ "publications", "writing-style" ]

[ "Do graduate schools increase assistantship stipends if the student is accompanied by a spouse or dependent?", "Usually a TA stipend is only given to cover the expenses of a single student. I have received a stipend of about $19000 for 2 semesters (9 months) and a summer fellowship ($4000). Is it appropriate to ask for an increase even before I go to graduate school as I have to fund my spouse (I am an international student)? Or is it better to work for a semester or two, perform well, build a case and then ask for an increase?" ]

[ "graduate-school", "united-states", "teaching-assistant" ]

[ "What do reviewers mean by \"broad readership\" when rejecting paper?", "Our paper was rejected multiple times; several months later, another group published similar results in Nature. Though some details were different, the main logic and key points of the research were the same. \n\nA reviewer of our paper said our work lacked \"broad readership\" - this critique does not make sense to me. Is this because there are no \"big guys\" in our paper? Or our figures were not enough to impress the editors? Or because our university is not famous enough?" ]

[ "rejection" ]

[ "How to define a project/thesis for the Master level?", "I'm doing my PhD in computer science, and as a part of the PhD program I need to co-advise at least one Master thesis and 2 small Master projects. \n\nOf course I went to my supervisor in the first place, but he told me to find a proper topic to define a Master thesis/project that is related to my PhD and also possible to be carried out by a master student, then he will officially support me. Let's say that he is so busy all the time...\n\nAnyway, I want to define 2-3 MS thesis/projects to see if I can attract students to any of them. But I'm not sure how complex or easy it should be!\n\nLet's say that during my PhD I invent algorithms to solve data driven problems, should I define a thesis in which students should try to devise a new algorithm? or it is too much for them? Or just applying some already tried algorithm in some new data (plus data acquisition) would be enough as the MS level thesis/project?\n\nAlso if it is supposed to be related to my PhD, should it be the answer to one of my PhD questions?? then I should do it in the first place, not the student!\n\nI'm a bit bewildered here!" ]

[ "thesis", "masters", "projects", "project-design" ]

[ "Manuscript status is in \"Revise and Resubmit\" with only 1 reviewer's comment", "Manuscript submitted in an elsevier journal is now in "Revise and Resubmit" status. Journal editor provided only one reviewer's comments. The comments suggested some minor changes only and revision time is given 2 weeks.\nWhat do you guys think? What's the possibility of getting rejected?" ]

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

[ "Applying for job at same university as PhD application", "I have a question for a situation, but I'll try to keep it brief. Couldn't find any similar questions, but I'm not sure how to phrase the search either. \n\nI graduated with my MS in Jan. 2014, just around a year ago. At the time, I was trying to relocate to a different city for personal reasons. One of the places I applied for a job was a University in the city I wanted to live in, call it 'City X'. I did NOT get that job, but it came down to me and another candidate so I was close. I ended up taking a position in the same place as the MS program, thinking I would work for a year (or so) and then try to relocate after finding another opportunity in city X.\n\nNow, I have been thinking of obtaining my PhD and the same University in City X above offers it, so I applied about two months ago. I would LOVE to go to this school and get a PhD with this University. Based on past years, I expect the admission decision should come out in the next few weeks. I only applied to this school, given my relocation needs. I feel as though it is a coin flip whether I am admitted (longer odds than I would like personally).\n\nHere's the dilemma though. Another research-related position (job) opened with the same University. This job would be great too! I should also mention that the person looking for the new hire might also be sitting on the Admissions Committee. My question is this: will applying for this job hurt my chances at being admitted to the PhD program (or vice-versa)? I don't want to risk ticking someone off and not getting either position. Is this an actual risk or am I being paranoid? I just want to keep my options open.\n\nGiven both offers, I would take the position in the PhD program, as it is a long-term goal of mine. Part of me thinks that I should wait for the decision from the PhD and then apply to the job. The job was just posted today, so I could get results from the Admissions Committee before the job search is over...theoretically. The other part of me thinks I should just apply and see what happens." ]

[ "phd", "graduate-admissions", "job-search" ]

[ "In the related work section of a dissertation, can I use images and source code from other articles, with attribution?", "I'm brushing up the related work section of my master's dissertation, and it would be very useful to include some diagrams and code snippets from other articles on that section (and that section alone), to better help explain them. I go into some detail about what some articles propose and how it would relate to my own work, but I find it rather bland and quite hard to just explain them using words alone, since they all center around source code manipulation. \n\nAs you'd expect, they are all properly cited, but I am wondering if this is still unadvisable? Should I redraw these diagrams and rewrite this source code myself? Or should I just abstain from including them at all?" ]

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

[ "Asking professors in other Universities for comments on research", "If you are working on an individual research paper with the help of your advisor (e.g. M.Sc Thesis), what is the academic convention on asking for comments from other professors? For example, if your paper closely relates to a paper written by an author who is in another University, and hence might also be of interest to this author, would it be acceptable to mail him a copy and ask for his thoughts on the work, or could this be considered disrespectful towards ones own advisor?" ]

[ "thesis", "advisor" ]

[ "My masters project is very unclear, is it realistic to expect me to complete it successfully?", "I am doing a masters in electrical engineering which involves a project done in association with a company related to the university. I initially thought this would be a good thing as I expected the people at the company to already have the resources and knowledge to train me on the relevant things. But as I have come to realize, the project I was given was chosen out of a wish to have a certain product, without really knowing how feasible it would be.\n\nThere is existing literature by groups who had done similar things in the past, but all of them had access to different resources that I cannot use (fabrication processes with certain steps that do not seem available in what I have access to). In addition, their focus was more research-oriented, while in my case the intention is to make a commercial product eventually. The papers also tend to lack important information which, to be honest, even makes me doubt the amount of rigor that has been put into this kind of project before. Of course I have already done a literature review on what has been done, and I have some ideas about how to implement certain things, but basically everything I do is based on my guess for how things \"ought\" to work given what others have done and my understanding of the theory. I have no idea about how the fabrication will work out in practice.\n\nIn addition, before doing this project I had no prior experience with any of the chip fabrication details. In undergrad we had electronics courses, and I have sufficient understanding of the electronic circuit design, but the project also involves chemical aspects that I have never had to deal with before. It also requires knowledge of process details which are not usually needed for most applications, and are therefore not documented in what I have access to. I have tried to figure out a lot of this when doing the literature review, and I believe to have done a good job understanding relevant concepts, but my lack of any real experience prevents me from ever being confident that what I am proposing has any chance of working in real life. And none of the other persons I work with have ever done any similar work on that before, so I don't really have someone to guide me.\n\nI regularly have meetings with my supervisors, and I have explained my concerns, but it seems like we keep having misunderstandings about what can be done. I usually try to explain rationally the problems that I see with particular ideas, but they tend to rely too much on \"what the other group has done\", and seem to just assume optimistically that certain things will work out. Of course relying on previous work is generally a good idea, but given the important differences in terms of available resources and goals, there is no way for me to simply replicate what others have done, and to me it currently looks somewhat far-fetched.\n\nSo basically, I am worried that I will eventually reach a dead end due to infeasibility or issues that I have overlooked, and that I will then get blamed for not completing the project. Perhaps I am wrong in expecting this, but I thought that there would already have been something organized or planned out before I joined the project, but it is really all from scratch and with little guidance, and relies on various things working out which I have no control over.\n\nSo am I right in expecting more concrete guidance, and should it be a problem if the project turns out to be infeasible or not work as expected?" ]

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

[ "Why do editors sometimes accept a paper even if a reviewer recommends rejection?", "For the last many days, I have a question in mind related with the editorial decision of accepting or rejecting the manuscript after peer-review:\n\nFew days back I got a review report from a very reputed mathematics journal in which reviewer 1 had given some good points and suggestions to further improve the paper while reviewer 2 had given some points and rejected my manuscript. \nAlthough, its not tough to revise the paper as per the suggestions of reviewer 2.\nI would like to know why editor has given me chance to revise the manuscript while reviewer 2 has rejected it. I asked this question because in the past I had bad experience of rejection despite of getting acceptance from one of the reviewers." ]

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

[ "What is a teaching prep in terms of teaching load?", "I am new to this job search thing, and I keep seeing the teaching load description along with something called \"preps,\" what is this? \n\nFor reference, I am a Ph.D. student in mathematics in the U.S. looking for mostly teaching positions." ]

[ "teaching", "working-time" ]

[ "What is meant by rewarding No-Grades when one's adviser remained satisfied towards one's research?", "Being a PhD student (in U.S), if one's adviser looked satisfied (if remarked \"good\" in satisfied mood) towards one's research during all the semester but at the end of semester rewards you \"NO Grades\" in your research-credits, what does it mean? And how to put one's surprise before him? (note that the same adviser awarded 'Progress' Grades in research in other semesters)\n\nSecondly is it normal that PhD advisers do that while looking satisfied towards them?" ]

[ "advisor" ]

[ "Writing the Absolute and Relative Average in an Application Form", "In the application form of a master's degree program I'm applying for, I've stumbled upon this: \n\nPlease indicate both the absolute and the relative average of your previous degree.\n\nWhat does this mean? I'm not quite sure, but I don't think my transcript of records indicates a relative average, so what should I do?" ]

[ "masters", "application", "gpa" ]

[ "How to frame early university troubles related to mental illness when applying for masters program after more recent successes at university?", "Years ago I had a really rough few years of college, inability to focus, tons of stress, manic episodes etc. Instead of going into the drama of it all, the bottom line here is that during those years I cheated in a few classes because I felt paralyzed and paranoid almost all the time; by the time I was able to move about without that weight I was into another manic episode trying to get things done but not finding a way out (at this point I knew something was wrong but not what it was). I was caught and in the aftermath I submitted a statement that I fully accepted the consequences instead of contesting my obvious guilt.\n\nLater I would find out that I had type 2 bipolar syndrome that was untreated for the past decade and I was told that I was lucky that it hadn't gotten worse. Once I was on medication I tried college again at a different school and graduated recently with honors.\n\nMy question here is that I'm really interested in going to a masters program but I don't know how to explain my first attempt at college, the failures, and the mental illness or even if I should mention it at all. I don't want to hide things but I'd appreciate any advice on this" ]

[ "graduate-admissions", "masters", "cheating" ]

[ "When should I reply \"thanks\" to a professor's email?", "I received an email from one of my professors today and I am not sure if I should respond or not. The email contained the grade I received on a paper as well as my grade going into the final. I am not sure if I should reply with a simple \"Thanks\" or if I should just let it be. Also, the email was sent about 6 hours ago if that matters." ]

[ "etiquette", "email" ]

[ "The GRE vocabulary is infrequent to meet in academic life. What is the purpose of learning them?", "My question stems from this paper: An analysis on the validity of the lexicon required by GRE® test takers.\n\nAccording to the paper, \"the great majority of these words are too infrequent to be deemed as useful tools for graduate life\". Only 15 out of 302 analyzed words (about 5%) found to be frequent in academic corpus.\n\nSo why do they exist in the Graduate Record Examination?\n\nMy experience is that those words are especially helpful when you read articles from reputed newspapers and magazines, where the demand of complex language is high. Sometimes I do meet a GRE word that I've learned in a scientific paper, and thanks for my studying in GRE I don't have to look up the dictionary. I do use those words to show off in my TOEFL test, and I have a high score in writing and reading skills. In short, I am wholeheartedly advocate to learn advanced vocabulary, for the sake of getting fluent in the language. However, I don't understand why the GRE requires the test-takers to learn words which are too infrequent for their academic jobs." ]

[ "career-path", "gre", "language", "communication" ]

[ "Is it appropriate and useful to inquire if an open position has an internal candidate?", "It is not unusual for institutes to advertise positions (faculty or not) for which there is an internal candidate. In such situations, for external candidates, it may be difficult if not impossible to get in. When a position is advertised, is it appropriate and useful to inquire if a position has an internal candidate already? It might save a lot of time for the external candidate and possibly others (such as recommendation-letter-writers)." ]

[ "job-search" ]

[ "Attributing data from published figure", "I am in the process of writing a paper which does some analysis on previously published (and released) raw data. The analysis is quite different from that done in the experimental paper but there is one metric which is comparable. This metric is reported both as a plot and a number (the average value over a certain range in the plot) in that paper.\nMy question is: What is the procedure for including their plot as one of the lines along with data from our analysis? Do I have to get permission from the authors (paper is CC-BY)?\nI know that one can include whole figures from other papers in review articles and so forth, but here I want to use the extracted values from the plot and combine it with an equivalent one from our own work. I used WebPlotDigitizer to extract the values since the precision is not that important and the main point of the paper isn't the comparison.\nI attach an example figure to illustrate what I mean. The paper should stand on it s own without this comparison, but it is the first question people ask ("How do the metrics look when compared to Ref [1]?")." ]

[ "publications", "creative-commons" ]

[ "Sponsoring scientist for for NSF postdoc fellowship", "I wonder how do people usually find sponsoring scientist for NSF postdoc fellowship. Do you find someone you want to work first and then decide mutually you want to apply for NSF funding or you decide you want to apply then approach someone and ask if they want to sponsor you? \n\nI am asking because I don't have one yet, and I wonder if it's appropriate to just ask someone I want to work with. I feel I am quite late in this game, though I still want to give it a try.\n\nAlso, what if I eventually decided to work with somebody else? Would I disqualify for the grant (if I actually get it)?" ]

[ "funding", "postdocs", "nsf" ]

[ "Receiving a \"Major Revision\" After undergoing a \"Minor Revision\"", "I submitted my article earlier this year in January. After 5 months i received a "Major revision", there was 3 different reviewers, and they made very relevant comments, that i found very useful. I answered all the reviewers and resubmitted the article.\nMonths later i received a "Minor Revision", one of the 3 reviewers asked to add futur research direction section. The other asked to correct the number of a certain section. The corrections where easy and i resubmitted the article.\nSurprisingly, today i received a "Major Revision", which is absolutely unlikely. The email contained comments from the editor and #reviewer10 (a new one). The associate editor email was the following:\n\nEditor comments :\nThe comments from the reviewer are quite negative.\nThe editor questions about the quality of the paper. The paper is not well written. The equations are\nnot well edited. Some figures are given in quite low quality.\nThe authors should carefully revise the paper.\nThis maybe the final chance for the revision.\n\n\nReviewer #10: This paper focuses on electric energy forecasting based on artificial intelligence.\nEnergy forecasting is one critical point in energy systems, and there are many research studies on\nartificial intelligence-based energy forecasting. However, the innovation of this paper is not enough.\nThere are many research studies on artificial intelligence-based energy forecasting. For example, the\nneural networks, support vector regression, gradient boosting mentioned in this paper are common\nmethods. It seems that the reviewer cannot find anything new. In addition, feature selection in load\nforecasting is also a common method. In general, the paper uses the common methods to solve a\ntraditional problem. The reviewer suggests that the paper should not be accepted by this journal.\n\nThe comments from the associate editor are surprising, if there was some issues with the English in the paper or some figures, this would surely have been dealt with during the 1st revision or the 2nd revision although in the previous emails, the same associate editor didn't mention any issue or comments. But now suddenly there is an issue.\nThe comments from the reviewers demonstrates that the reviewer have not taken the time to read carefully or have not understood the content of the paper. There was 3 reviewers which made positive comments (accepted) the content.\nIt is written "reviewer10", i would assume that the paper was reviewed by at least 6 reviewers a none of them made a negative comment. So how am i getting "rejected" because of one bad review off of 10.\nEven if it is a major revision, the due date is 24 November, which is 13 days ahead, quite bizarre for a "major revision".\nMy question is : Is there anything i could do? should i raise my concerns to the editor or refuse the revision." ]

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

[ "Thesis supervisor wants me to publish my work in his own conference", "I am a Computer Science Master's Student, currently working on my thesis at a research institute. I have multiple supervisors: A, who was my \"theoretical\" supervisor when I started my thesis 5 months ago, B, who is my \"technical\" supervisor, and C, who is my new \"theoretical\" supervisor, as A is leaving the company soon.\n\nI will finish my thesis at the end of the month. My problem is the following: A would like me to publish my work as a 6-page paper in an upcoming conference, with me as the main author, and him as a co-author. The problem is, he is the General Chair of the track where he wants me to publish. He even mentioned how I shouldn't worry about the paper not getting accepted, since he has so much power there.\n\nI expressed my worries to him about this being unfair. I've checked the website of the conference, but I did not find any policy explicitly forbidding this practice, still, I think it is not right. When I told him about my concerns, he waived them away, saying \"Everybody does it like this\".\n\nNow, I am pretty sure that neither my other supervisors, nor the leader of the research group knows about A's plans, since he only discussed this with me, and didn't CC the emails about this to the other supervisors (as he usually does, because we discuss every question about my thesis together).\n\nMy question is the following: what should I do now? Should I contact the other supervisors about this? Should I just flatly deny publishing the paper in his conference? Or should I play along?\nAs all of my supervisors will have an effect on my grade, I do not want to hurt anyone's feelings. I have less than a month left until my thesis defense, but the deadline for the conference application is in a week." ]

[ "publications", "thesis", "conference", "conflict-of-interest" ]

[ "How much is submission acceptance to high-profile conferences influenced by internal politics?", "I was speaking with several professors in my department about submission to high-profile conferences like CHI in human-computer interaction. Most of the professors were of the opinion that acceptance in most of these high-profile conferences (typical acceptance rate of less than 20%) is heavily influenced by politics: even though you may have comparatively good research, the editors will most likely be more favored toward accepting papers published by Microsoft Research or Google Research or from other high-profile universities where they have close relationship with the faculty and researchers.\n\nThe professors advised me against spending time and resources on publishing to these conferences and instead concentrate on second-tier journals (like those published by Springer) for better return on investment for my efforts.\n\nI assume in good faith that most of the editors may not reject papers without reading them, but does anybody concur with the opinion of professors at my department?" ]

[ "publications", "conference", "peer-review", "computer-science" ]

[ "Career advice: How to move on in academia after a negative PhD experience?", "I am post-PhD and I am really struggling with the job search phase of my career. My PhD took me almost a decade to finish, with time off, because after successfully completing all of the requirements up to the dissertation in the span of 4 years (note: my discipline is generally known to have longer completion times), my writing period was fraught with dealing with mental health issues (that are likely to some extent environmental... a direct result of things that happened in both my masters and PhD, sexual assault in the field and many personal losses). While the university and the department did everything they could to accommodate me so I could finish, my masters supervisor, the PI I had on a project I worked on before my PhD, and my PhD supervisor saw me through their respective duties, but now ignore any attempt at communication and requests for references (note: I was close with my PhD supervisor at the beginning of my PhD, but I am now seeing indications that they have distanced themself as well after a couple of years of me trying to figure out the post-doc world). I have one other reference from one of my committee members in my department, but nothing more. Most TT jobs I’ve seen require 3 references, and teaching positions require 2 refs. I want to continue on in academia and am currently working on publications (while getting support for my mental health). With Covid, the precarity situation and without the references, I’m afraid it may be difficult to even get a teaching position now, even as an adjunct. I have taught at the university level (both in my undergrad and masters) but not in my doctoral discipline. However, I don’t know what to do in terms of references if it truly is the case now where the three core people I could normally get a reference (that would attest to my ability to do a job) from won’t even acknowledge me. I didn’t have this problem with my undergrad professors and am still in touch with them (who are at a different university than my masters and PhD). I am basically trying to move on successfully after a horribly fraught 12 years of work but keep coming up against obstacles. Any suggestions to start to rebuild my references? Even if I can’t stay in academia, I will need more than what I have.\nAlso, if anyone has suggestions about the standard practices of academia for addressing long PhD completion times due to mental health issues in applications, please feel free to include. I applied for a post-doc grant and felt required to explain my long completion time but (stigma!) I feel it works against me.\nThanks you your thoughts." ]

[ "career-path", "recommendation-letter", "health", "non-tenure" ]

[ "If I am willing to repeat major courses, that I passed with a D grade, will they look bad on my transcript while applying for graduate school?", "I am a student majoring in civil engineering and I am in my 3rd year.I had a harsh beginning: I took 2 intensive courses during my first year of college after a gap semester. I didn’t perform well during my first and second year of college. I have repeated one failed major course( got a D- the second time) and one physics course passed with a D( I got a C the next time). I have withdrawn from a surveying class during summer and retook it the next year. Recently, during the last semester of my second year I decided to work hard in order to raise my GPA and I achieved a score of 84.64 on my semester average. \nHowever, I am regretting and overthinking what happened during the first 2 years so much that I think that the only solution to relieve myself of the pain of thinking and blaming would be to repeat the courses that I passed with a D( 5 courses: one of them is a social elective, one an environmental chemistry core course but important for my graduate field of interest, and the three others are major courses: geology, mechanics of material and mechanics of fluid).\nWhich is better, to move on or to repeat these courses? Or to audit them? ( I am asking in term of graduate admissions).\nMy GPA is 2.92 over 4 which means 77/100. \nIn my university, 80 is 3.2 over 4.\nI don’t follow the lettering system" ]

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

[ "What are your thoughts on epigraphs in theses?", "I am wondering if there is a general consensus as to the suitability of epigraphs in a thesis, either a single one at the start of the document, or an appropriate quote to begin every chapter.\n\nFor example, at the start of a technical chapter describing some code, I could write\n\n\n Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it. - Donald E. Knuth\n\n\nI am lucky to have complete freedom over how I choose to typeset my thesis (Master's thesis in astronomy) and I like the idea of a thematic quote to begin a chapter. However, I am wary of seeming unprofessional or tacky so I am curious to get some more thoughts on the matter." ]

[ "thesis", "formatting" ]

[ "How much emphasis should be put on GitHub reputation in a computer science MSc application?", "My undergraduate major was not computer science, but civil engineering, and I took five computer science courses in college. I worked as a software engineer for five years after I graduated, but not for famous companies. I love open source and I spend much time on it. Now I have a 2000+ stars GitHub open source repository and several 50-100 stars repositories.\n\nMy target is a top 30 computer science MSc program in the US.\n\nHow helpful are popular GitHub repositories like mine for applications, in particular when changing fields?" ]

[ "graduate-admissions", "graduate-school", "masters", "computer-science" ]

[ "Should I refuse my advisor's request to write a research paper?", "My school policy for PhDs does not require any publications, but it's good to publish anyway. Recently my advisor asked me to write a journal paper, but I have more experiments to focus on.\n\nShould I refuse him or just put my work on hold for a while? Personally I want to publish, but this time I am really not in position to write quality paper as I need focus on my work to finish my PhD on time." ]

[ "publications", "phd", "journals", "advisor" ]

[ "In Google Scholar, is it possible to view the list of papers cited by a specific paper?", "For any paper on Google Scholar, you can click \"Cited by ...\" to see a list of subsequent papers that cite the original paper.\n\nHowever, is it possible to see a list of papers that the original paper cites? I realize that one can simply view the paper itself for the list of references, but I would like a way to see it as a list of links in Google Scholar, similar to the \"Cited by ...\" list." ]

[ "citations", "google-scholar" ]

[ "Does red-line curve denotes better result in a graph?", "In a colloquium, an eminent senior professor showed a graph from a peer-reviewed journal (published by some other group). The graph contained three curves: \n\n\nblack dots (blurred) \nblack line (blurred) \nred line (thick and bright)\n\n\nAll these curves in the graph reports the same property (obtained with different methods). \n\nWhen talking about the graph, the speaker mentioned, \"Since the authors thought that this data (by pointing the red line) is most important, they have used red line\"\n\nMy question is, is there such practice of using red-line to highlight good results in research articles? \n\nNote: I ask this question because, in Origin Software, the first and second curve are, by default, black and red. If those colors are used, it may given an impression that the red line graph is the better result (compared to black line graph)." ]

[ "publications", "graphics" ]

[ "Illness affected performance - but not that much?", "In my second semester of sophomore year, I was moderately sick for most of the semester. It was not life-threatening, but I often could not attend class because I didn't feel well. As a result, I was behind and had to work a lot to keep up. My research output was significantly lowered during this period also, for the same reasons.\n\nHowever, it's not like my semester was bad - my GPA was lower than usual, but from a 4.0 to a 3.9. My research was lessened, but I still did some productive work. It's just that it turned a perhaps stellar semester (at least, a semester in line with the rest) to a perhaps good one. One slightly less great semester might not matter much for some grad schools, but I'm aiming for top ones as well. Is this something I could ask my advisors to note in their letters?" ]

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