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34,187 |
(I wish to remain anonymous, so I've omitted many details here. If those
details make this question unanswerable, please don't hesitate to vote it
down or close it.)
I've been a PhD student in mathematics for about two years. Whenever I am at a
conference, summer school, or a small seminar talk in our university, I
usually don't understand anything about the talk after the first two minutes.
Sometimes the speaker goes quickly through some basic concepts about group
theory, finite fields, or similar, that I'm able to follow because I know the
stuff already. But when the new stuff starts, most of the time I get so lost
that I can't even answer the simple question "What was the talk about?" when
my friends ask. So I just sit there with an open notebook, and after the
first few minutes of each talk, I start scribbling some unrelated things to
kill time before the next talk. If I see an interesting formula or similar on
the slides, even if I don't know what the speaker is talking about, I
sometimes try to see if I can figure out what that formula means, just because
simple mathematics is still fun - what I do still does not help me understand
the topic of the talk.
The problem might be partly about being able to focus, but I guess it's mostly
about the actual scientific content. When taking courses as an undergrad, I
never had problems of this magnitude while attending lectures because I had
time and material for studying the topic before and after the lectures,
and the lecturers had a decent estimate of what the students know before the
lecture.
Do you have similar experience? Is there something I can do to actually
benefit from listening to conference presentations? I hope this is not the
impostor syndrome - if everyone in the audience feels like this, conferences
are horrible waste of money, time, and natural resources.
I came up with a few ideas but they don't seem practical.
* "You're not really supposed to understand anything as a PhD student.
Just sit there and wait for a familiar term, theorem, concept, whatever to
appear. Conference by conference, talk by talk, you'll probably encounter more and
familiar stuff, and before you know it, you don't have this problem any
more." If I had to decide, I'd never fund a learning process this slow. Or probably it is much quicker than I can imagine.
* "Go to conferences with topics closer to your research." Well, they don't exist, unless I organize a conference about my research. And the point of going to conferences is to learn about things in your field that are not exactly your research (of course in addition to telling others about your research).
* "When the conference schedule is published, pick one interesting
presentation title for each day and try to learn something about that topic before
conference." It might take a few days of focused study for each talk, so some weeks before the conference. I guess that time would be better used doing research.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34188,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "In brief: conscientious study and engagement with mathematics, perhaps more broadly than one imagines one's specialty requires, eventually makes most conference talks intelligible. The process takes some years, to say the least. At the same time, many conference talks, even the better-quality ones, are very specialized, maybe not of terribly great interest even to the immediate specialists, but are \"novel\" in a sense that makes them publishable and thus evidence (to deans and department heads and funding agencies) that one is doing one's job. But their extreme *particularness* is easy to misunderstand, if one is hoping for persuasive, enlightening reports, rather than CV padding.\n\nAnd, almost surely, the much-less-senior people in the room, and many of the more-senior, have no real idea what's going on, almost all the time. The chief trick of relatively-senior people is to know that what they're missing is not terribly valuable, to say the least, except as CV padding for the speaker.\n\nAt the same time, trying to stay engaged, to become accustomed to a great variety of terminology and apparent goals, is a very good enterprise. For one thing, many \"programmes\" of course inflate their own importance enormously, whatever their actual, perhaps great, importance may be. In particular, they are presented in a fashion so as to be impressive, rather than \"easy\", all the more insidiously when the presentation pretends to give a shortcut, but doesn't really quite do so. But/and, especially in the face of hype, mere acclimatization to the buzz-words is psychologically reassuring, and eventually one will notice the repetition, and realize what the game is.\n\nThat is, for example, an array of ideas and definitions and notation that is impressive and baffling the first 5 or 10 times is much less so around 20th or 30th, especially when one notices that the scary/impressive/baffling part is 95% of all the talks in a given genre, and that the new stuff is small and innocent by comparison.\n\nAnd, somewhat more subtly, by paying attention, one can eventually discover the discrepancy between the impressive hype and \"how it's done in practice\".\n\nBut there're few \"textbook-style\" approaches to reaching any good level of sophistication, for various understandable-but-also-complicated human-nature-based reasons.\n\nIn summary: (1) don't presume (impostor syndrome...) that everyone else is understanding, although a few might be, and the more senior people have learned to not worry about it. (2) Don't presume that what you're not understanding is incredibly valuable, magical stuff. Probably is not. (3) Do try to make yourself stay engaged, so that your brain can process things a bit, and not be so baffled next time you hear essentially the same things again... or maybe 5-10 times later."
},
{
"answer_id": 34227,
"author": "Rannasha",
"author_id": 26528,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26528",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "You are definitely not alone in not understanding most of the presentations at a conference. Especially if you're new to a field, you tend to be very much focused on your particular research, and you don't have a wider view just yet. This is especially true if your work is highly specialized (and therefore is just a small subset of the material covered in a conference).\n\nAdditionally, most speakers are there to present their work and latest results, not to give an introduction to the field. Especially in smaller fields, you see the same faces at each conference, so the speakers will tend to focus on the latest and greatest rather than making a lengthy introduction for newcomers. The fact that unless you're a keynote speaker you probably only have around 20 minutes to speak further reinforces the issue. Every minute spent on the introduction is a minute less for the work you've actually done (as introductions typically tend to consist mostly of literature research and old results).\n\nThe understanding of conference talks will improve with time as you learn more about the wider field and the work of the conference-regulars. In the mean time, if you want to speed up the process you can go and talk to one or more presenters after their presentation and ask them to fill in the blanks. Almost every researcher will be happy to explain their work to a colleague from an adjacent field, because colleagues tend to have a sufficient level of thinking and plenty of general background knowledge (compared to a layman) to allow the researcher to quickly get to a decent level of conversation."
},
{
"answer_id": 34231,
"author": "Ruben Verborgh",
"author_id": 7206,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7206",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "It's not your fault if you don't understand a talk\n--------------------------------------------------\n\nUnfortunately, many speakers at scientific conferences do a poor job. Most speakers I've seen talk more for themselves than for an actual audience. Unwittingly, they focus more on exhibiting knowledge than on being actually helpful towards the people sitting in front of them.\n\n**This mostly happens because people don't know.** They see bad examples, which they assume must be good *because everybody does it* and just do what other people do.\n\n**So if you did not understand, don't blame yourself.** It's the speaker's job to make you understand something. It's quite a paradox that many speakers thank the audience for their attention (!) after a talk—as if the audience did them a *favor* by paying attention. Instead, good speakers should be thanked by the audience, because they made things understandable.\n\nBecome a better presenter yourself\n----------------------------------\n\nWhat I recommend to understand other's presentations better is to **start giving better presentations yourself**. Effective scientific communication cannot be explained in a simple post, but here are some basic principles:\n\n* Before starting to introduce yourself or reading the title of your talk (which is unnecessary anyway), **draw the audience's attention**. Explain to them *in a way they can relate to* why your problem domain is relevant.\n* Then, **explain the problem** you are addressing (and why it is a problem).\n* Next, **immediately state your conclusion**. Don't make your presentation a cliffhanger. Tell people the main point upfront; this helps them (decide to) focus on the remainder of the presentation.\n* Continue with a **preview of your main points** that support the conclusion. This is a mental map for the rest of your talk.\n* **Elaborate** on your points as necessary.\n* Close the story by putting **your points and the conclusion** into perspective.\n\nMany speakers fail to do one of the points above; especially postponing the conclusion towards the end is a common mistake that makes it hard for the audience to follow.\n\nWhy should you do this with your own talks?\n-------------------------------------------\n\n1. You **become part of the solution**. Other PhD students will now finally see a presentation they understand.\n2. You will **inspire people to give better talks**, which you will understand more easily.\n3. Doing the exercise for your own material, will eventually **help you do it for others.** If you see a poorly structured presentation, you will mentally start rearranging it into a better talk—helping you finally understand what others do more clearly.\n\nWhy is the above presentation structure relevant?\n-------------------------------------------------\n\nBy stating the conclusion first, you give people a mental map. **If they get lost during elaboration (like you often do), it's not a disaster: they know the most important thing already.** Furthermore, the preview will help them get back on track if they get lost during one of the subpoints."
},
{
"answer_id": 34235,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "The standard conference talk format is simply too short to give a presentation that can be thoroughly understood at a deep technical level. As such, I generally see people falling into one of two modes for conference talks:\n\n1. Attempt to present everything and make a horrible unintelligible mess that nobody can follow. This is especially true for mathematical talks, where few people can actually digest a complex set of symbolic manipulations in the minute or two that a slide is shown, let alone do it while their linguistic centers are being jammed by the speaker talking.\n2. Treat the talk as an advertisement for the associated paper(s), presenting a lot of intuition and motivation, but omitting most of the technical details.\n\nWhen I am listening to a dense mathematical talk, I simply do not try to follow the math at all. I look at the motivation, I look at the results, and I look at any intuitions the person has presented. If it seems interesting, then afterwards I will go and read the paper to actually understand the material.\n\nIf the person doesn't give a motivation or concrete results... I'm not going to bother to try to understand."
},
{
"answer_id": 34252,
"author": "Wrzlprmft",
"author_id": 7734,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7734",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "My personal attitude to conference talks is that I attend them for those 10 % to 40 % that I either understand since I am very familiar with the topic or that are not utterly horrible. I have found many people, including experienced scientists agree with me. As those numbers heavily depend on the field and scope of the conference (the conferences I attended range from medicine to applied mathematics) and given my experience with talks going in that direction, I find it easy to belief that conferences on pure mathematics have an even lower turnout rate. And yes, this is sad and mainly due to bad presenting skills.\n\nAlso, at least in my field, it’s quite common for senior researchers (and everybody else) to plan to use half of the time alloted to talks at conferences for other activities such as planning and discussing collaborations, sleeping, touristic activities, preparing their own talks or doing regular work. I would wager that the main thing that experience gives you is the capability to better predict which talks are a waste of time rather than understanding more talks.\n\nSo, as long as you understand some of the talks, this may be perfectly normal. And even if you don’t, this is not necessarily something to worry about: People approach and learn about new stuff in different ways. For example, if you prefer assessing new mathematics in small steps but with understanding these steps rather thoroughly, conferences may just not be made for you. (I once heard about a theory that there are two general ways to understand mathematics and similar, but I cannot find it right now.) So, if you do well with understanding papers and similar (still keeping in mind the impostor syndrome), I would not see any reasons to worry."
},
{
"answer_id": 34315,
"author": "Tobias Kildetoft",
"author_id": 12592,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12592",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "At the end of this answer I will try to give some advise on what you can do to understand a larger part of the talks at conferences and seminars (and this advice will be fairly specific to mathematics). But first, I would like to mention some things that influence how much of the talk you can reasonably be expected to understand. This is both because it is useful to have a good idea of this to see if you are doing enough to understand talks, but also because some of the advise is related to these points.\n\nFactors that determine how much you should understand:\n\n**1. The topic of the talk.** \n\nThis one should seem obvious, but the closer the topic is to your own specialty, the more you should understand.\n\n**2. The purpose of the talk.** \n\nThere are various types of talks, with various purposes. The most common talk is the \"by experts for experts\" talk, where the purpose is to explain the speakers latest research for others who do work in the same or related areas (most seminars and conference talks are of this type). This type of talk generally sets a fairly high bar for the prerequisites needed to understand the talk, since usually the speaker will have at most an hour (often only 45 minutes), and they want to actually present their own research rather than just give an introduction to a topic a large part of the audience will already be fully familiar with. \n\nIn the other end of the spectrum are the talks specifically aimed at students, which generally do not present any new research but gives an introduction to some topic. Foe these, one should be able to understand most of the talk as long as it is not a topic too far from ones own specialty (note that these should not be confused with seminars or conference talks given by PhD students or early postdocs, which can often be even harder to follow since the new results obtained by people early in their career are often of a much more technical nature than for those with more experience).\n\n**3. How far you are in your studies.** \n\nAgain a fairly obvious one, but the earlier you are in your studies (or your academic career), the less you should expect to understand of any give talk.\n\n**4. The speaker.** \n\nThis has already been mentioned by others, but it bears being reiterated: There are some really awful speakers out there. If the talk is given by one of them, even those who are intimately familiar with the topic (or even the results presented) will not understand the talk. \n\nOn the other hand, there are also some amazing speakers out there who can make you understand a talk on a topic you really should not have been able to.\n\nFiguring out where on this spectrum the speaker lies can be tough, but often one can tell by trying to get a feel for how much attention those in the room, who ought to understand the talk, are paying. If they seem to lose interest (even though the talk does not seem to be about something elementary), then probably the speaker is not doing a good job.\n\n**What can you do?**\n\nSo, what can you do to understand as much as possible of a talk, relative to what you ought to understand, given the above? These will be some generic pieces of advise on how to get the most of a conference (I will mention single-talk seminars at the end).\n\nBefore the conference, make sure you get abstracts for all the talks (if possible). From these, single out a reasonable number of talks that seem the most interesting, or where you know the speaker tends to be really good. Look more closely at these abstracts, and do some reading prior to the talks, but not by necessarily looking at the relevant papers (unless the talk is on a topic very close to your own). Instead, you should look up all those terms in the abstract you are not familiar with (or which you are not familiar with in the context). This will give you a better idea of what the talk is about. \n\nNext, see if you can find some of the main results about the objects mentioned in the abstract (often one gets a better understanding of an object if one known the \"rules\" it obeys rather than just knowing the definition). It can also be good to find some of the main conjectures about these objects, since this gives an idea of what sort of questions are considered the most interesting (not because it is likely that the talk will present a proof of such a conjecture, though it can happen, as I have experienced myself).\n\nFurther, one of the things that often causes a lack of understanding of a talk at a conference is simply being tired from seeing too many talks. To alleviate this as much as possible, I suggest you bring something to the talks that you can entertain yourself with in a non-obvious way once you get to a point in the talk where you have no chance of understanding more. \n\nThis might sound a bit rude to the speaker, but this is why I mentioned that it should be non-obvious. It should preferably be such that if the speaker looks at you, you will just seem to be taking notes (unless you are way at the front, you can often have your phone lying in front of you without the speaker being able to see this for example).\n\nAlong with the above it should be mentioned that it can also be quite alright to not see every single talk at a conference (though you should probably check with your adviser what the culture is at the specific conference to be sure). Which talks to skip can then be based on which abstracts seem to suggest that you will understand the least (or if you happen to know that some specific speaker always gives terrible talks, you can also skip that).\n\nAs a final note on this, I would advise that you try to see as many talks as you can. As long as the speaker is not completely awful, you will actually learn more than you notice as long as you pay attention.\n\nIn case of single-talk seminars, most of the above of course does not apply. I would say that for single-talk seminars, you can better afford to spend some more time on getting acquainted with the subject of the talk beforehand, so you should treat it like you would a conference talk that you have deemed to be of high interest to you (and don't bring anything to entertain yourself, but really try to pay attention all the way through)."
},
{
"answer_id": 34326,
"author": "Kate Gregory",
"author_id": 12693,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12693",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Are sessions from previous conferences ever filmed and made available online? If not, are particular presenters (those who sessions you thought you might want to see) putting any talks of theirs online ever?\n\nIf so, try watching one of these, from some previous year, very slowly. Pause, copy things down from the slide, look things up. Rewind when the presenter connects what they're saying to something they said before. Try doing some of it yourself by hand or with the appropriate tool to \"follow along.\" Work out how much effort it takes to figure out how the title of the talk connects to what is actually presented. This may be easier if you have access to the actual paper of the same title. \n\nOnce you've \"deconstructed\" one talk like this, you will know a lot more about the issues in the talks you attend. For example, perhaps the structure and organization of the talk is terrible, and you could now give the presentation in a way that would make sense to people who don't already understand the material. Perhaps there's a simple visual aid (diagram, graph, table) that would illuminate the topic tremendously. Or perhaps it's just insanely difficult and requires hours of work to even begin to understand. In some fields, that would make it ineligible as a topic for a one-hour talk, but apparently not in mathematics.\n\nIn my industry it's normal to leave talks that turn out not to be right for me. If I'm not sure a talk is going to work well for me, I sit towards the back so I can slip out. For the sake of the speaker's ego, I will usually pack up quietly, everything except my phone, then wait for a moment when the speaker is not talking (eg the pause right before/after a slide change) and stand up, holding and looking at my phone, frown, and run out of the room apologizing to those I go past. This allows everyone to tell themselves that I had to deal with an urgent call or email or something. I find that staying in a talk half listening while trying to do something else just wears me out and leaves me with nothing accomplished. Who knows, you might even have a great hallway conversation with someone else who couldn't follow the talk and left!\n\nIf you manage to \"crack the nut\" of presenting complex topics in a way that can be understood by those without the background, you'll surely have a long and successful career. Even if all you manage to solve is the shorthand and assumed background that these presenters are drawing on, you'll understand more talks in the future. And if you career depends on understanding talks, then it's a skill you should learn. Just keep in mind you're almost certainly not expected to understand every single talk at conferences you attend."
},
{
"answer_id": 34331,
"author": "David Hill",
"author_id": 11258,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11258",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "First of all, it is not overly surprising that you are having trouble understanding research talks as a 2nd year PhD student. When I was at that level, I found talks to be completely incomprehensible. That being said, I do think attending them is worthwhile.\n\nI wouldn't recommend randomly writing down formulas in an attempt to decode them. Instead, a useful exercise might be to to keep track of terminology that appears in various talks. If the same terminology appears in different presentations, this is a good indication that it is important. After the conference, you can follow up on what the term is all about, where it comes from, and why it is important. Ask your adviser.\n\nThe key is to look for recurring themes in talks. Say, in one talk, the speaker defines \"hefelumps\" and goes on to state three (incomprehensible) properties that hefelumps have. In another talk, the speaker defines \"woozles\" and goes on to list a very similar list of properties. It may well be that this list of properties are part of a standard argument in your field that gets a certain theory going, and knowing this will cue you into what the speakers are planning to do next. When you see these patterns, it's worth asking your advisor what the relevance is.\n\nThis has been said before, but I don't think it can be emphasized enough--many talks are \"for experts, by experts\". In particular, it is entirely possible that there are two or three people in the audience that the talk is directed to. These are potentially not going to be very useful. To recognized these, you need to know who is who in the field and what they are working on. It may be helpful to go over the conference schedule with your adviser before you attend. Maybe s/he can clue you in to some of the politics.\n\nOn the other hand, the expert-to-expert talks can also be some of the more amusing, especially if the experts involved are rivals. I was recently at a conference where three different groups were jockeying for the credit for a certain result. The interactions were priceless. With that in mind, I'll finish by saying that not everything you learn from a math talk involves mathematics."
}
] |
2014/12/12
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34187",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26497/"
] |
34,202 |
Financial terms, content quality, etc, is not a problem. The author has a contribution that will significantly impact the advancement of human knowledge about a particular topic.
Can anyone submit a paper? Or does it require some affiliation with a larger group such as an educational/governmental/corporate institution?
I am talking about journals of such clout as the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Physics of Fluids, etc.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34205,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "Anyone can submit a manuscript to a peer reviewed journal. The challenge that face persons without training in scientific writing through, for example, a PhD, is that the manuscript is probably far more likely to be rejected because of poor writing or other mistakes. The key issues for authoring a good paper is to have a good grip on the literature in the field, knowing the sources that should be referenced to provide the basis for the own work, to know how to write clearly, concisely and precisely, and to understand any specific publishing aspects of the field. \n\nIt is not rocket science but usually requires both good coaching and training. Approaching the authoring with care is therefore a good strategy."
},
{
"answer_id": 34214,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "Anybody can submit to almost any journal (there are some out there where some sort of existing membership is a pre-requisite, but they are rare exceptions). \n\nThere is, however, an additional barrier that an author has to overcome if they are not known and/or they are not affiliated with some reputable institution. In essence, peer review of a journal submission is attempting to evaluate *credibility* of the arguments presented in the paper. Authors who are known in the community that they are submitting to or who are coming from highly reputed institutions have an inherent advantage in that they already have some credibility simply through their reputation or affiliation. An author who does not have these advantages will naturally be faced with more skepticism about their statements, particularly when dealing with an experimental work where the paper cannot contain every relevant fragment of information about the work being reported.\n\nWhat this means, in practice, is that when a submitted paper has flaws, an unknown and/or unaffiliated author is more likely to get rejected whereas a author drawing on prior credibility is more likely to get asked to make revisions. This might not be ideal, but pragmatically it is fairly reasonable: there is a lot of really bad stuff submitted to journals, and the quality of a submission is typically fairly well correlated with author and institution.\n\nSo how should an unknown and/or unaffiliated author go about publishing? First off, it's very useful to get feedback on pre-submission drafts from trusted colleagues, so that the initial submission can be as good as possible. Second, it's rare that any major development is contained within a single paper. Rather than trying to publish \"the one big paper,\" one can build up credibility by publishing a sequence of manuscripts, starting in still-credible but less prestigious journals. \n\nFor example, if the work is about a general new principle, there could first be a paper proposing the principle and analyzing its implications, followed by another paper making experimental tests of some of those implications, followed by a bigger paper pulling it all together an demonstrating the general power of the principle with more diverse experiments. These are all perfectly reasonable papers---no [LPU dishonesty](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Least_publishable_unit) needed, just an understanding that most significant ideas usually result in more than one journal paper worth of work, and some idea of how to segment the work sensibly."
},
{
"answer_id": 34221,
"author": "Andreas Blass",
"author_id": 14506,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14506",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "My initial reaction to this question was that the only requirement for submitting a paper to a typical journal is that one has to be a human being. But then I remembered Shalosh B. Ekhad, which, in addition to numerous papers with human co-authors, also has a few solo papers."
},
{
"answer_id": 34255,
"author": "Matt",
"author_id": 26547,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26547",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Anyone can submit a paper to a journal. Author institutional affiliation rarely if ever plays a role in the peer-review and acceptance/rejection of a paper. The gold standard for high-quality research is that the paper makes a significant contribution to the field, advances theory or practice, has a high degree of rigor, and is written using formal, scientific, though accessible language."
},
{
"answer_id": 85983,
"author": "Nikey Mike",
"author_id": 51566,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/51566",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "As other has pointed out, the affiliation is not mandatory, although it might help. I have recently found a paper in a leading top-tier journal in physics, [Physical review D](http://journals.aps.org/prd/about), a leading journal in elementary particle physics, field theory, gravitation, and cosmology, which appears monthly. The impact factor for PRD is high, 4.5, with Article Influence® Score: 1.105. There it can be seen a recent paper titled \"Comment on \"Fermion production in a magnetic field in a de Sitter universe\"\", by Nistor Nicolaevici, Attola Viwtas. The second author is currently unaffilitiated, as you can see from [arxiv version of the paper](https://arxiv.org/abs/1610.07951), or the [published version](http://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.95.048501):\n\"Attola Viwtas unaffiliated, Alte Strasse 42, 89081 Ulm, Germany\"."
}
] |
2014/12/13
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34202",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8719/"
] |
34,211 |
I am planning to apply for a PhD program and would like to request a letter of recommendation from a professor. However, I am quite hesitant about which way is better for me to make the initial request: asking the professor during the break of the class or just sending him an email?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34212,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "My recommendation is definitely in person \"after class\". There are several reasons to do so. First, it is personal and you can iron out any details there and then. Second, the person you approach will have a face to go with any future e-mail conversations. Third, it is less likely a person will dismiss you in a direct approach than in an (impersonal) e-mail approach.\n\nThere are of course ways in which you can blow your hopes with a personal approach as well. Just be brief and to the point, try to be professional about it. If the person appears not to have time, ask if you can meet during an office hour or if an E-mail would be better. After all, you have just presented yourself and is now \"a face\".\n\nThere is of course nothing wrong with just sending an E-mail but I know from personal experience that I sometimes get mails from students who apparently have attended my classes but made no impression so I ask myself, who the ... is this? Not a great basis for a letter of recommendation. I personally also think that a personal approach shows more initiative and drive. All this is of course from the perspective that you actually can meet with the person without engaging in long distance travelling etc."
},
{
"answer_id": 34224,
"author": "Formagella",
"author_id": 24716,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24716",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "An e-mail from someone you can't even remember is easy to reject, there's almost no emotions involved. Plus if he says yes, you still have to meet to talk about the details and write them down, or risk misunderstandings via e-mail. It's better in person. \n\nDuring a break or after class there may be other students waiting to ask questions, or the professor may be in a rush, or any other such disturbance, it doesn't feel serious to me and you risk getting only half an answer or him telling you to set up an appointment. \n\nJust go find him during the official office/consultation hours (whatever they're called in your country), or if he said you have to take an appointment first, then take an appointment but go discuss it in person."
},
{
"answer_id": 34238,
"author": "Ben Bitdiddle",
"author_id": 24384,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24384",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "You could try doing both - first talk to him after class, and if he expresses interest, send a packet of materials by email (your resume, things you'd like him to include, maybe your transcript if it's good). It's good for him to have these things electronically because then the materials are harder to lose and he has a written reminder of your request."
},
{
"answer_id": 123795,
"author": "Seub",
"author_id": 8268,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8268",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "Don't agree with other answers! I'd 100% prefer students to ask me by email. It gives more time to think about how to phrase the request properly, motivate it, and give details; and it gives more time to the professor to think about his/her answer.\n\nThe other answers say it's more personal to ask face to face and the professor may forget who you are unless they see you, that's a strange argument. If your professor doesn't remember you by name, don't bother ask him/her for a letter."
}
] |
2014/12/13
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34211",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24065/"
] |
34,215 |
I got a series of emails from a student. At first, I thought she was being over-polite. But now things are making me very uncomfortable. For instance, at every email she thanks me for giving her good grades; it gave her motivation, encouragement etc. (this makes me very uncomfortable since it might imply I'm giving her preferential treatment) and I am the best TA she has ever seen. Her emails bear a tone which can be interpreted as either overly polite or very subtly flirtatious e.g. using emoticons, signing emails with only "Yours", "have a good night", "lovely day".
I am willing to give the student the benefit of doubt. English may not be her first language, so she may not know some phrases in emails are only appropriate with your closed ones. I want to tell her that she should avoid these phrases in formal emails not so directly. How can I convey this to the student?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34217,
"author": "earthling",
"author_id": 2692,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2692",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "This is an extremely common problem for some teachers. \n\nIt may be difficult for her to control. Some cultures have extremely high regard for teachers. This puts you in a natural position as a target of infatuation.\n\nIf it can be interpreted in multiple ways, try to ignore it.\n\nIf it continues to get stronger, then explain that what she is doing is inappropriate considering your relationship (I'm referring here to the power dynamic between teacher and student).\n\nIf you are really uncomfortable and you cannot let it slide, then explain to her that she should not use certain phrases because it implies something that will never be there.\n\nIf you're too gentle with it may encourage her to try even harder. So, be clear (not mean, but clear).\n\nOne last, very important, thing is to make sure that you are not accidentally doing something which, in her culture, indicates some (romantic) openness on your part. In some cultures smiling at a stranger is just a nice way of saying hi. In other cultures that same exact smile is saying, \"Hey, I would be very interested in dating you.\"\n\nPeople see what they want to see, so look at yourself and see what you do that might be indicating to her that she has a shot. Then change."
},
{
"answer_id": 34218,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "You should keep your replies short, polite and professional. Do not respond to what you see as flirtatious. Try also to interpret what you see as flirtatious in a different light, as you say, it could be due to language issues. It would be bad if you started to respond in a manner that assumed something that was not intended.\n\nIn the end it is very important to not fuel any behaviour that you think is \"suspect\" but at the same time you cannot avoid responding altogether. Acknowledge praise briefly but do not return praise since that could appear as favouring a student before others. Turn the focus of a response quickly from any polite exchange to focus on the course material. You may also take opportunities to point out that information given is also given to others to at least subtly impress the fact that there is no \"special treatment\".\n\nIn short, act as if nothing special is going on, be brief to the point and professional in your response. Do not try to be anything other than yourself or treat any student differently from others. Keep records of your mail or other exchanges."
},
{
"answer_id": 34220,
"author": "Oswald Veblen",
"author_id": 16122,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16122",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "I would try to *ignore it* as long as that is practicable. As in Peter Jansson's answer, just reply professionally, as if you didn't notice the tone of the email. \n\nUnless the emails become overtly flirtatious, or unless the student begins to say inappropriate things in person or in other settings, you may be able to just avoid responding to the tone you perceive in the emails. Each class ends in a few months, after all. \n\nIf you feel you cannot ignore it, I would show the emails to another faculty member you trust, and ask for their opinion. Don't tell them what to look for - just ask them to read the emails and tell you if they see anything unusual. This is a good test, in general, to see whether you might be misinterpreting an email.\n\nIf the other faculty member agrees the emails have crossed the line from friendly to flirtatious, I would first try a *non-confrontational* way of resolving the situation. Two easy options include:\n\n* Make an announcement to the entire class about how to write a professional email. Of course, the announcement may be intended for a particular student, but it is less confrontational to announce it to everyone at once. Don't focus just on the flirtation issue, but make sure to emphasize that the student/professor professional relationship should be respected.\n* Send an email to the entire class about professional communications, similar to the announcement above. Again, the goal is for the one student to get the message without realizing the email is really intended for him or her.\n\nOnly if that sort of non-confrontational technique does not work would I move on to any sort of direct intervention."
},
{
"answer_id": 34313,
"author": "Denisa Dalila",
"author_id": 26595,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26595",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "It is a delicate matter as it can't really be pinned down as flirtatious but it does not seem very professional either. For example, even if I get quite familiar with some collaborators or colleagues, I do not add emoticons or texts that I normally use when talking to my family. \n\nI would keep the answers as professional as possible, keep the tone quite \"dry\", and keep a very good track of all mails that go back and forth (just in case any problems later arise). \n\nI would also approach as soon as possible, as part of the lecture course, the way that communication between teacher and students should take place - as @Oswald Veblen wrote above, or new routines in communication... you can eventually come with some reason for it. If the mails from the student continue in the same tone after bringing it up to the class, I would approach the subject directly with the student, at school, in an open space (if her intention is to flirt, you can never know how she will react when you will bring up the subject - better to have things as transparent and as clear as possible). \n\nI would not start to change myself and be on a 24/7 stakeout, analyzing each and every move and grimace I make. I would make sure though that I behave in the same way with everyone. \n\nA last thing, if it helps, maybe not :). Last time I was in a similar situation, only that it went to a not so subtle communication, I approached the person and told him that - probably I have misinterpreted the whole situation but I'd rather make a fool of myself than leaving things unclear. I told him I appreciated our collaboration but I was not interested in taking things further than just professionally. \n\nHope it was all just a misunderstanding! All the best!"
},
{
"answer_id": 34345,
"author": "supercat",
"author_id": 21086,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21086",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "A general way of responding to behavior that might appear flirtatious or unprofessional is to politely inform the student that while you appreciate her efforts to be polite, other people might possibly misconstrue her language or actions as meaning something she didn't intend. Don't imply that *you* perceived her actions as being flirtatious or in any way dishonorable, but rather that--whether or not she is aware of it--some people are very sensitive to such things.\n\nSuch an approach will effectively request that she avoid acting flirtatiously toward you, but at the same time avoid any aspersions on her actions to date. A statement that a person's actions could be misconstrued is not an accusation of impropriety, since it could be true even of some actions which were 100% proper. Someone who welcomed a person's flirtations and expected to continue doing so would be unlikely to make such a statement, but a person who thought continued flirtations might become annoying might make such a statement even if they hadn't yet. Consequently, the act of making such a statement is not a claim that one has been offended.\n\nIgnoring a person's attempts at flirting may sometimes be effective, but some people may escalate their efforts until they get some sort of response. Since there's often no good way to respond to acknowledged attempts at flirting, it may be better to respond to an attempt at flirting which is subtle enough that one can claim to believe it wasn't deliberate, than to wait until increasingly-overt attempts can no longer be denied. The sooner flirtation can be discouraged, the easier it will be for everyone involved to save face."
}
] |
2014/12/13
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34215",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23165/"
] |
34,222 |
Two years ago I enrolled in a very high-ranked program in field X. Partway through the program, I developed severe health problems which affected my memory and cognitive function, and which made it difficult to learn the required material. In addition, I also found I was not that interested in the research itself (although the aforementioned memory/cognitive problems were far more damaging to my learning than the lack of interest).
Due to the combination of these two factors, I sought medical leave to deal with the health problems, which was granted in March. Around July/August, the problem was partially alleviated, and I have mostly been feeling better, and have decided to switch to another field of study Y. I talked with my adviser about my situation and explained the health problems, and he asked me if I was still planning on re-entering the program, and I told him that I felt that I might perform better working in field Y; we mutually agreed to terminate the leave, and I am currently applying to a second round of graduate schools.
This is where things get slightly more complicated. The health insurance I had under the medical leave was far better than my ordinary health insurance, and my mother has (since August) been trying to persuade me to extend my leave as long as legally possible, potentially up until Fall 2015 enrollment. According to doctors I talked to at the previous institution, it is not uncommon for students to take up to three years on medical leave, so this is AFAIK legally possible. In the interim time, she wants me to tell my adviser that I am still dealing with medical issues, and am not yet able to decide on re-entering the institute's program in field X, during which I can apply to other schools in field Y and enroll in one of them for Fall 2015. I have not yet told her that I have previously spoken with my adviser and agreed to end the leave.
My question is:
* Under this set of circumstances, was I right in contacting my adviser and terminating leave, instead of extending it up until Fall 2015 enrollment at another institution?
Personally, my gut instinct towards my mother's proposal is that it is effectively financial blackmail, arguably dishonest, and would sour post-leave relations with my adviser. However, I am generally bad at gauging these sort of questions, and seek advice here as to what the correct course of action would have been. My mother has told me that the institute legally has to extend my medical leave as long as I am otherwise in good standing and still expressing desire to eventually re-enroll, and that by doing otherwise, I am potentially burning academic bridges behind me and making it more difficult for me to find a new graduate position. In any case, I hope that this question is sufficiently generalizable that it can help people who find themselves in similar circumstances regarding the handling of academic medical leave.
### Edit
To clarify, I was not paid a stipend during leave, and the insurance premium was paid for by the institution.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34226,
"author": "Bob Brown",
"author_id": 16183,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16183",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "You made the correct decision, and the only ethical decision. Your leave was granted on the premise that you would return. When that ceased to be true, you correctly terminated your relationship with the program, ending your medical leave benefit.\n\nAs far as burning academic bridges, you'd do a far more effective job of bridge-burning if you flim-flammed your old program into paying for more leave, then told them you wouldn't be returning. Although that sort of information should be confidential, I guarantee you it'd get around unofficially, perhaps not as a statement of the facts, but as, \"this is someone you do not need and do not want.\""
},
{
"answer_id": 34234,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "Assuming that you are in the United States, the ethics of the situation are not clear-cut, because the health care system is such a mess. It may not be clear to either you or your former advisor who is actually paying for the health care. For example, the school may have outsourced responsibility to a third-party insurance solution, or it might be covered by some unusual provision of the new health law, or the FMLA, or who knows what. Honestly, I have no idea, and probably you can't find out without detailed interactions with HR, and even they might not be in compliance with laws and regulations and might not even know it.\n\nIt's also the case that, while there is a clear conservative ethical solution of \"better safe than sorry,\" it's not actually clear that it is the right thing to do, given the amount of financial and/or medical problems that can be caused by a short period uncovered in the US. A colleague of mine, for example, who was actually continually covered with a good plan, had problems getting critical medical care for a child because her plan was late in handling paperwork on a year-to-year transition. On the flip side, I kept using some of my university's medical services for years after I had left, because I asked about it and was told that my alumni status meant it was still OK: it turned out that I wasn't supposed to, but nobody including me knew that.\n\nSo it's a pretty mess to sort through. How should you deal with it?\nLet's lay out some principles:\n\n1. You really don't want to burn bridges. This means that if you decide that it is important to try to stay on the same plan, then you should make sure that your advisor is OK with it. Some professors I know would tell you to do it, and some would be uncomfortable. What you *don't* want to do is have the professor be uncomfortable and only find out later.\n2. Second, how critical is the difference between the plans? Are you potentially facing many thousands of dollars in extra cost or being forced to go untreated for your medical conditions? If the difference is relatively small, then let it go. If the difference could destroy your health or life, then it's appropriate to try to use the options that are available.\n\nNone of this is ethically squeaky clean, unfortunately, and I wish that it were so. Unfortunately, because health care coverage is so tightly linked to employment in the United States, we have a system that sometimes forces people to choose between problematic options.\n\nIn sum: if you can afford to drop down a grade in health care, that's the ethically best choice. If you can't, make sure your professor is OK with you taking advantage of something that is permissible under the system but ethically questionable."
}
] |
2014/12/13
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34222",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11263/"
] |
34,230 |
I have submitted my manuscript to one of the top-tier journal in my field. The reviewers' feedback was positive in the first round of revision; one reviewer favoured the paper and asked for revisions while the second reviewer did not read it because I did not adhere to the target word count of the journal. The editor then asked me to make an R&R. I submitted my revision and 5 days after the resubmission the dashboard was converted into "awaiting EIC decision". The editor discussed the decision with one of his associates and then asked me to wait for a couple of days to render a final decision. He did not tell me that it would be sent out for a third review.
My question is that why the need for days to render a decision after discussing the reviewers' reports with the associate editor? Can anyone from the journal's editors explain this case?
Edit: The problem is that the status "awaiting for EIC decision" took around 15 days till I received an email from the editor that he was out of the disk and once he received on X day he would render a decision. At that day or the following day, he told me to have patience and waited for couple of days as he was discussing the reviewers' reports with his associate. My question is whether there was disagreement between the reviewers then he may assign another reviewer or what?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34233,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "In general the editor makes choices as to how to best get a manuscript evaluated. If one reviewer did not return a review, it is only natural to ask for a new reviewer's opinion. The fact that the editor-in-Chief confers with another editor could mean that they confer whether or not the existing single review is sufficient.\n\nAs for time, I am not sure why you question a few days for a decision. Most editors do their work outside of normal departmental duties so finding time for discussing a particular manuscript can take some time and surely five days is not anything remarkable?\n\nSo from my view point, as Editor-in-Chief (of another journal), you seem to be very impatient and lacking insight in the everyday editorial business of a journal. I do not see anything strange about what has happened and I particularly do not see any reason for the editor to let you in to the internal work of the journal editorship."
},
{
"answer_id": 34262,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "Your edit contains the answer to your question: editors are people too, and sometimes delays happen because of that fact. This is less true for a \"professionally edited\" journal like Nature or Science, where there is likely to be a formal handoff of responsibilities between editors when one is unavailable. Most journals, however, are run by faculty volunteering their time as part of their service to their scientific community. If an editor is unavailable for a week or two, it is likely that everything in their queue will just wait until they return. And that's generally OK, because a week or two doesn't make a big difference in a multi-month process.\n\nIn your case, your edit states that the editor had a slipped disk. This is an incredibly painful medical condition that is probably screwing up their whole life while they get it dealt with. Compared to this, you and your paper are not a high priority, and you need to have some patience."
}
] |
2014/12/13
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34230",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26530/"
] |
34,239 |
What are the factors that are considered when granting a PhD degree. For example, if a person has published excellent papers, but their dissertation is not perfect i.e. omissions and typos, would the committee consider it?
Also, what happens if they have good papers published, but the oral defense is not great.
People generally believe that if the dissertation advisors says OK, then everything works out. How true is that?
P.S. I am asking in the U.S.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34245,
"author": "Rannasha",
"author_id": 26528,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26528",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "It greatly depends on the country and less so on the university. In general, it is true that a supervisor will not approve a thesis to be sent to the committee that he/she doesn't feel has a good chance of being accepted. Because doing so would not only reflect poorly on the supervisor, it also means more work for everyone involved.\n\nIn general, things like language errors are not cause for rejection unless you make it really bad. The thesis is judged primarily on its scientific content. Note that in some fields, you can create a thesis by simply making each published paper into a chapter and adding an introduction and conclusion. This allows for all of the critical parts of the thesis to be completed and reviewed beforehand.\n\nThe importance of the oral defense depends on the country. In my country, the Netherlands, the oral defense is practically irrelevant for most people. While in theory you can fail, as long as you keep talking, you will pass. It's mostly a show for friends and family. But in other countries the oral defense has more weight"
},
{
"answer_id": 34250,
"author": "Patric Hartmann",
"author_id": 20449,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20449",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "It mostly depends on the university policy. Normally typoes are accepted to a certain extent as especially foreign students are not expected to manage the language perfectly.\n\nOmissions on the other hand are a totally different thing. You have to omit many things anyway as they would not fit into the frame of your thesis. On the other handm if you omit something which is part of the area you are doing research on, then chances are high, that you are rejected - at least you will never get more than a \"cum rite\" and if you're satisfied with that, then I'd reconsider the whole doctorate-thing."
},
{
"answer_id": 34263,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "Although the exact process varies from university to university, the general form of the process in the United States is typically as follows:\n\n1. The student needs to do work that makes a novel contribution to the sum of all human knowledge. This is the universal part of the process, and the key thing that a Ph.D. really certifies that you are capable of.\n2. The student, with guidance from the advisor writes up this work in a thesis document. In some areas this is not-yet-published work, in others it is a summation of things already published. In either case, it should be a complete and thorough presentation of the ideas and work.\n3. Eventually the advisor and student are both satisfied, and the advisor judges that the student's work will pass external review.\n4. External review is obtained from some combination of oral or public defense and input from other committee members. Sometimes the defense is a serious part of the process, sometimes it is not; in either case, an advisor should never allow a student to stand for a defense unless they will pass.\n5. The student satisfies any additional requirements imposed through the external review. Sometimes this is just correcting typos, sometimes this is a lengthy period of additional research. If it is the latter, then the advisor has generally screwed up.\n6. Submit the final document for archive, and graduate.\n\nNote that this process assumes some flexibility in the length of a Ph.D., which is typically the case in the US. I know that in some other places, such as many institutions in Europe, there is often a shorter and fixed schedule. I'm not sure how one deals with not being ready on time in that case..."
}
] |
2014/12/13
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34239",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/25092/"
] |
34,246 |
What to do if somebody is suspicious after reading the review report of a research paper that one of the reviewers may be his ex-coworker, who is not an expert in the subject of the paper?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34247,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "First, I doubt any editor would appoint a reviewer by \"mistake\". Editors look for persons who are deemed to provide in-depth reviews on the manuscript or in some cases part of it. As editor it is of course difficult to keep track of co-workers so it is probably not uncommon that co-workers become assigned. If a reviewers feels they cannot provide a fair review, and one such instance can be if they feel to close to the author, they have a responsibility to decline the review. It is possible an editor appoints somebody relatively familiar with your work in the belief that they have insights that may be useful. This would be a poor assumption on the part of the editor and one I would deem as slightly lazy.\n\nDespite these and other safety-measures reviewers that for one or another reason are unsuitable become appointed. Many journals therefore have opportunities for authors to signal non-preferred reviewers. It is also possible to add names of non-wanted reviewers in the submission letters. Such persons usually are ones with whom a personal conflict exists.\n\nWith all that in mind, it is not clear that the editor has made any mistake despite the fact that you look unfavourable on the choice and *suspect* that you know one of the reviewers. If you feel a review is off in some respect, you are free to signal this to the editor when you return a revised manuscript (assuming you received a revisions \"verdict\"). If your manuscript is rejected and the rejection is due to the reviewer you would see as non-preferable, you should contact the editor to see if you can discuss a \"second chance\". The problem here is that you need to have sound arguments for the problem arising from the reviewer. The fact that no indication of the non-preferred status of the reviewer is, form the view of the editor, a complicating factor; how is the editor to know? Suspecting you know the reviewer is not a very solid ground for changing the opinion.\n\nSo, the best you can do is to work with the reviews to improve the manuscript and provide good arguments for not following points where you believe reviewers do not have a strong point. So take the reviews in stride and simply argue for what you think are reasonable constructive changes to your manuscript."
},
{
"answer_id": 34253,
"author": "Rafael Max Wayld",
"author_id": 26545,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26545",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "First of all, it is perfectly alright to review a coworker's article, unless they were involved in the research or provided assistance of some sort - in other words, they shouldn't be biased. If, as your question's title suggests, the reviewer is not an expert in the field, and the editor made the mistake of appointing him with this task, you could contact the editor asking why he did so. Mention that he is just your coworker and not an expert in this area. Instead of making quick judgments, wait for the review and go through it to see if it is acceptable by your own standards. It is very unlikely, I believe, that it would be worthless to a point were you might want to ask your editor to reject it, nevertheless you could always make a request to exclude that review from being published.\n\nNOTE: Contact your editor and ask for advice."
},
{
"answer_id": 34256,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "The question seems to be predicated on two assumptions:\n\n1) If the review was not blind and the OP knew that the reviewer was his **F**ormer **C**oworker, he could make a convincing case to the editor that **FC** was not qualified to review the paper.\n\n2) Thus, because he *suspects* that the reviewer was **FC**, he wants to contact the editor to find out if this was the case.\n\nThe second assumption is really a mistaken one, I think: according to the principles of blind review, you shouldn't know the identity of the reviewer. If you think you do, you should nevertheless act as if you don't, and if you have partial information, you should definitely not go around sleuthing to see if you can solve the case. This is one of the basic cultural assumptions of peer review. I think that if the author goes down this road, it is very likely that he will be told that his actions are inappropriate and will burn bridges with the editor and the journal.\n\nI find the first assumption problematic too, in a more subtle way. The reason that reviews are anonymous is that you should not be engaging in an *ad hominem* discussion of the reviewer. Just because you know someone's identity doesn't mean that you are an authority on their academic and intellectual qualifications. Maybe **FC** didn't know your subject well back when you knew him, *in your opinion*. How do you know what he knows now? \n\nChoosing a suitable person to be the referee is the editor's call, not the author's. Calling attention to someone's identity -- even hypothetically, as in \"I don't know who the reviewer was, but *if* it was **FC**...\" -- as a strike against the referee report will be regarded by many as obnoxious. If you have anything to say to the editor, it is about the referee report itself. If the referee report contains a comment that through its specific brand of inexpertise suggests to you that it was made by **FC**, forget about the **FC** part and explain why the comment is *definitively* incorrect. If you can point out clear errors in the referee report that are in the serious to egregious range -- i.e., a reasonable person would worry that they compromise the integrity of the verdict -- then you have a case for getting the report thrown out and/or getting an additional independent report. More likely the situation is not so clearcut, and in my opinion you should still compose a polite response to the editor if you feel that a lack of expertise played a factor in the report, but you fully expect to resubmit your paper elsewhere. \n\nGetting a bad (as in, less than skilled) referee report and having to resubmit elsewhere is quite a common feature of peer review. Luckily there is a lot more than one journal, so you can just start fresh elsewhere, and doing so is usually a much better idea than trying to extract reparations from the editor and/or the referee."
}
] |
2014/12/13
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34246",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26541/"
] |
34,271 |
I come from a developing country and I got admitted to a UK university in MSC, Computer Science. As I am not financially strong, I am also applying for a fully funded scholarship. There is an online form I need to submit for the consideration of this scholarship.
There are some questions that I can't answer them in the way the needs to be answered and convenes the scholarship organization. One of them is:
>
> What will be your objectives during the award?
>
>
>
If I answer this question it would be simple like the following:
>
> My main objective during the period is to get more and more knowledge and to learn new technologies that will give boost to my career.
>
>
>
I'm guessing this answer isn't viewed positively from by a scholarship committee.
*What content do scholarship committees expect to see in the "Objectives" section of an application?*
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34312,
"author": "Gary Baley",
"author_id": 22830,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22830",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "\"During the award\" sounds a bit strange to me; I guess it means during the period covered by the scholarship. First, I'd be sure to answer the question with specifics, not generalities. Something like \"During the award period, my objectives are: 1) to complete the first year with an A average grade, 2) to master programming skills in Java (or whatever) such that I can independently program a controller for quad-power drone aircraft, and 3) ... etc."
},
{
"answer_id": 34324,
"author": "Alee",
"author_id": 26560,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26560",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "I tried my best to answer the question. Please review it. If you find something missing or inappropriate let me know.\n\n\"In my Masters program my goal is to expand my mental horizons, detailed understanding of latest tools and technologies adopted by engineering, with the time. I also want to learn technical, managerial as well as behavioral aspects of the field to work in higher positions. I strongly feel that master’s program will inculcate a strong quality assurance and testing component in my knowledge, so as to raise the level of excellence in my work. I came to know that an academic experience is must-to-have component for growth in global field of Computer Science, as well as to make a mark in professional career. From use of sophisticated tools to advanced theories, MS teaches me all that I need to know to enhance my academic experience and qualification.\""
}
] |
2014/12/14
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34271",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26560/"
] |
34,275 |
I've noticed a majority of professors that I have had will tell students something along the lines of, the exam covers Chapters 1, 2, 3, or the exam covers topics X, Y, Z. Sometimes this is ends up being so broad that it is unlikely that students will even see all the material that is fair game on the exam. It also likely ends up with some material being more prominent than other material which means playing the guessing game.
Why are professors hesitant to tell students more precisely what they expect them to know?
I do realize that not all (perhaps even most?) professors have not written the exam at the point of informing students what is covered. However, given that undergraduate course material is fairly static, would not the professor be expecting the students to have the same knowledge as the previous students?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34277,
"author": "ff524",
"author_id": 11365,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "Due to time constraints, most exams directly ask about only a small fraction of the course material. If a professor explicitly tells students exactly what parts of the material are going to be directly tested on the exam, many students would only bother to learn that material.\n\nTherefore, professors often include anything they want students to learn/study in the exam coverage. \n\n(There are obviously tradeoffs involved: include too much and students won't be able to study the really important things at a sufficient level of depth, include too little and the students won't get enough breadth.)"
},
{
"answer_id": 34280,
"author": "Oswald Veblen",
"author_id": 16122,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16122",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": true,
"text": "There are at least four worries, in my experience:\n\n* The students may be trying not to study any more than they absolutely have to study. So if the professor says something isn't on the exam, they won't study it.\n* If the professor says what is on the exam, but doesn't explicitly mention something, and then that thing comes up (even as a minor part of another problem), the students may complain that \"you said that wasn't on the test!\". This can happen even if the professor really made a good faith effort to say what was on the test, and the students simply misunderstood.\n* The professor may not have written the exam yet, and so she doesn't know the exact topics that will be included.\n* Someone else may write the exam, if there are many sections of the course taking the same exam. In that case, the professor may not be permitted to say what is on the exam. When I was a postdoc, they didn't even show us the common calculus exam until just before it was administered.\n\nThere are various strategies to cope with these worries. A common one, as described in the question, is to just say that the exam can include everything from the class, which is not very informative but is otherwise harmless. \n\nThere are other strategies, as well, such as making an exam review packet that includes more than the exam possibly could, and then selecting exam problems based on the review packet. But these don't help with the issue of common exams written by someone else.\n\nBy the way, if turnaround is fair play: we professors often ask the dual question: why do students so often ask what will be on the exam, when they have just had a class on the same material that will be on the exam? As you can imagine, we may feel that we have already told the students what we want them to know, by designing the course to include it!"
},
{
"answer_id": 34288,
"author": "Patric Hartmann",
"author_id": 20449,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20449",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "There are several aspects to this:\n\nFirst of all: I don't know what questions I will use in the exam before I actually have written it - which may very well not have happened before the actual day of the exam. I have a pool of over 300 questions, categorised by the expected length of the answer (no multiple choice over here in Switzerland - you must word your own answers). The duration of the exam (normally 4x60 mins) determines the number of questions from each category. But the actual questions are chosen randomly, I even wrote a programme to do this part for me, to make sure that it is fair (I have my \"favourites\", the programme doesn't).\n\nSecondly, I want the students to have a close look at large parts of the most important materials of the field. I don't expect them to know everything and all questions are worded in a way, that you can answer with the knowledge from one area or that of another; e.g. a question on the relevance of Higul or Nietzsche can be answered from a historical point of view (what lead there and where did it lead afterwards?) or from a philosophical point of view (what did they say and why is that important?). So if you're weak in historical knowledge but strong in philosophical, you can put the stress on the latter and still get full scores - and vice versa, of course.\n\nThis way the exams are fair: Everybody knows the area, they can learn what is most interesting to them and still everybody can get good grades, given they really put effort into the preparations.\n\nFor oral exams the answer is pretty similar: The examiner and the co-examiner prepare a pool of questions at a meeting normally not much more before the exam than maybe a week. So also here: We simply don't know what questions will be in the exam, we just know which areas we want to cover. Also here we will adjust the questions to the strongest areas of the examinee. They have 5 to 10 minutes at the beginning to show us what they know: They choose a topic and get started. After that we ask questions with stress on that area. You quickly know which students have prepared well and which didn't.\n\nBasically: If we see the effort, the grade will be good."
},
{
"answer_id": 34293,
"author": "Paul de Vrieze",
"author_id": 10183,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10183",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "In addition to the other answers my personal motivation is based upon the fact that any exam is only a sample. To be valid as an assessment of how much the student knows about the subject this can only work if it is a truly random sample. If students know, or can predict due to a bias on topic selection, what topics are actually going to be assessed there is no random sample, and therefore the exam is no longer valid as random sample.\n\nAs such I do not give hints on what is covered in the exam. I do make clear which topics will not be covered, or what the structure of the exam will be. I will even help with tips such as including answer plans (such as mindmaps), examples and diagrams."
},
{
"answer_id": 34306,
"author": "Akka Demic",
"author_id": 23986,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23986",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "I think your premise is wrong. I've never had a professor not disclose the scope of knowledge and/or skill that I'm expected to know at the end of the course.\n\nI've always been told to expect the exam to cover a subset of that material, sometimes with more explicit relative weighting between areas."
},
{
"answer_id": 34456,
"author": "Trevor Wilson",
"author_id": 8937,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8937",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "The question raises a few points that I would like to address separately.\n\n> \n> I've noticed a majority of professors that I have had will tell students something along the lines of, the exam covers Chapters 1, 2, 3, or the exam covers topics X, Y, Z. Sometimes this is ends up being so broad that it is unlikely that students will even see all the material that is fair game on the exam.\n> \n> \n> \n\nIn your \"sometimes\" scenario, it sounds like you are saying that the exam covers a chapter or topic that has not been addressed *at all* in the lectures or in the homework. If so, this sounds like a serious problem that is different than the concern described in the question title.\n\n> \n> It also likely ends up with some material being more prominent than other material which means playing the guessing game.\n> \n> \n> \n\nIndeed, not all material from the term can be represented on the exam (because the exam period is so much shorter than the term!) So some material will end up being more prominent than other material (which may even be absent.) I don't agree that this means \"playing the guessing game\". I think it would usually work better to study everything a little bit than to guess a random subset and study that to the exclusion of everything else.\n\n> \n> Why are professors hesitant to tell students more precisely what they expect them to know?\n> \n> \n> \n\nThere are two senses of \"expect [students] to know\" here. In one sense, we expect students to know everything we taught; otherwise we wouldn't have wasted our time and theirs teaching it. In a more limited sense, for the exam we expect you to know the answers to the exam questions. Obviously we're not going to tell those.\n\n> \n> However, given that undergraduate course material is fairly static, would not the professor be expecting the students to have the same knowledge as the previous students?\n> \n> \n> \n\nIn the first sense, yes: for this term's exam, we expect the students to know everything we covered this term, and for last term's exam, we expected the students to know everything we covered last term. So if what we covered is the same, what we expect the students to know is also the same (but this isn't a very useful observation.) In the second sense, no: we ask different question on this term's exam than on last term's exam; otherwise if some students get hold of the last exam, it defeats the purpose of the exam.\n\n**Executive summary**: We expect you to know everything we taught you—duh :-)"
}
] |
2014/12/14
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34275",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21194/"
] |
34,276 |
Let me explain my case first. I submitted an article to a Computer Science Conference, and it got one rejection, and two qualifications as a borderline paper. The reviewer that rejected the paper only said that it was not in the scope of the conference and nothing more. The other two reviewers made thoughtful comments and the final verdict was that I should submit it for a workshop on that conference.
I made the necessary changes, submitted to the workshop and it got accepted. Here it was one accept, one borderline and one reject. So I changed some parts that the reviewers suggested and submit it for the final printing.
The thing is that there will be an special edition of a journal that is planning to consider the papers submitted to this conference. So the authors should re-submit their papers for a new review and they state that the papers should present at least 30% of new material.
Here is the point, the deadline is approaching fast and I am making the add-ons based on what the reviewers point me before (when I first submit it for the conference and then what was the suggestions for the workshop), but I am running out of ideas; by the way, I am the sole author of this paper. What should I do in this case? Should I just submit it with the changes? I just don't know if that would be enough. Or am I just wasting my time and should I left it because it has already been published in the workshop?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34320,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "My short answer would be, do what you think should be done and submit it. How anyone can put a fixed, in this case, 30% new material requirement on something appears ridiculous. To imagine a good paper would be rejected because it is not 30% new creates a sense of amusement in me. Either the manuscript is publishable or it is not. It can of course be deemed not appropriate for the issue but that is a different problem.\n\nApart from the idiosyncrasies of your system you need to assess the value of your manuscript. Is the work publishable or not. Will the thematic issue be the only way forward for this manuscript or will it be publishable elsewhere? Actually regardless of the answer to the latter question, sending it to the thematic issue would not hurt. You could get it published there which probably would attract attention to it since it is published along with other papers with similar focus. If it is rejected you will likely have additional feedback that would help when publishing elsewhere. I will point out to anyone thinking otherwise that I am not suggesting sending in something subpar just to get reviewers to help here!\n\nIn the end you need to see what you think *can* and *should* be done with your manuscript and make sure you do it. You cannot do much more, if you fall short of 30%."
},
{
"answer_id": 36771,
"author": "DCTLib",
"author_id": 7390,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7390",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "From an ethical point of view, submitting your paper is perfectly fine if you make clear what the changes to the workshop version are that make the paper contain something new.\n\nAs far as the question whether you should do it is concerned: If you cannot even convince yourself that you have enough new stuff in the paper to justify (another) journal publication, then it will be insanely hard for you to convince the reviewers that there is enough new stuff. So the submission is likely to waste your time (and possible the reviewer's time -- if the paper gets past the editor) as it is too likely to be rejected. If you are very lucky, some reviewer will suggest a possible point of extension that will make the paper strong enough for another submission."
}
] |
2014/12/14
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34276",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6144/"
] |
34,286 |
My question relates to a certain type of opaque pseudo-technical prose that unfortunately is so pervasive in management literature. Authors with this kind of writing style like to make completely arbitrary distinctions between imaginary concepts which are devoid of any internal logical structure, inconsistent throughout the literature even within individual sources, and of highly questionable empirical value. Because of the low information density of such literature, I find it very difficult to retain and it is frustrating me to tears.
How can I approach this kind of literature in a way that allows for satisfactory information retention?
Again the most important characteristics:
* Extremely low information density
* Complete lack of academic wit
* Inconsistent use of unclear terminology throughout
* Distinctions which are introduced only to be violated
* High noun-to-verb ratio which obstructs flow
To give you an example from a 'leading' textbook in this field:
>
> The financial perspective specifies the financial performance objectives anticipated from pursuing the organisation's strategy and also the economic consequences of the outcomes expected from achieving the objectives specified from the other [...] perspectives
>
>
>
While this is merely a badly-written, not necessarily difficult sentence, I find it very difficult to pinpoint the central statement or to paraphrase the sentence in such a way that a clear, concise, and informative sentence results. This is typical of the kind of literature I have described above.
To clarify: Ignoring this source -- which I would usually do with literature of this kind -- is not an option as this source is the official textbook for a class I am taking and which I would like to complete. So what I am looking for are little tricks which I can use to maximise retention of this thin material and to extract what's truly important, while efficiently ignoring the rest.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34298,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "It is a mistake to read any scientific literature like a novel, and especially when you are trying to sift to see if there is anything worth reading at all. Instead, you should take a triage approach, in which you first attempt to determine what, if any, meat an article actually contains.\n\nMy own personal triage list goes:\n\n1. Read the title and abstract. The abstract should tell a story roughly of the form: Context, Problem, Solution, Evidence. If it does not, the article is already in big trouble.\n2. Skim the structure of the paper and look at the figures, especially figures showing results. You should be able to get a sense of what the paper is about and what evidence it is bringing forth from this. In my opinion, every paper needs figures, preferably lots of figures: even the most abstract mathematical symbol manipulation can generally benefit from diagrams that help give intuitions and intellectual roadmaps for the reader.\n3. If there weren't any results in figures, go looking for results in the text. Theorems, numbers, any sort of evidence that they authors actually have produced evidence.\n\nAt this point, if you haven't been able to find anything the authors appear to have actually done, it is appropriate to discard the paper as meaningless. If they *have* done something and you haven't yet been able to penetrate their prose, then if you need to understand what they've done you can start recursing with further passes and dissecting particular sections for material. [A nice guide for doing so can be found here.](http://web.stanford.edu/~siegelr/readingsci.htm)"
},
{
"answer_id": 34307,
"author": "Steve",
"author_id": 26589,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26589",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "I run into the same thing and agree it is frustrating. To decipher the example above, do the following:\n\nUse different coloured highlighters. Separate the sentence at the \"and\"; this is a clear split between two sub-ideas.\n\nThe subject is \"financial perspective\" so realize that this is what you are defining. The \"and\" indicates two parts to the definition.\n\nNotice the final subordinate clause for the first section: \"pursuing the organisation's strategy.\" They are asking what the quantitative result is of the strategy.\n\nThe second half is stating that another set of objectives exist, and there will be outcomes from those objectives which are not obviously financial (employee morale, innovative ideas, etc.) They are asking what the expected financial return (or loss) would be from achieving those objectives.\n\nI have had to go through entire textbooks analysing ridiculous sentences like this. I feel for you. Breaking the sentences down by highlighting will help tremendously."
},
{
"answer_id": 34334,
"author": "keshlam",
"author_id": 10225,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10225",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "Last-resort, completely-silly trick: When I had to force myself to read through a particularly awful textbook, I decided to read it aloud to myself in a series of silly voices. That actually did make me pay attention to what I was reading, so I could get the emphasis and inflections right... and perhaps surprisingly, I *did* find and retain the new ideas I was reading for.\n\nAnother approach can be to take it as a translation or editing task. Into another language, or into the same language minus the sequipedalian verbiage and jargon. Again, the goal here is to try to make a bit more of a game out of it so it isn't a completely uphill slog.\n\nNote that if you have any interest in publishing your own textbooks at some point, this can be an excellent education in what *not* to do... you might want to take notes on that too.\n\nOccasionally, the right answer is not to read the textbook at all and just work from the lecture notes. Or see if you can find a set of Condensed Cream Of Textbook notes somewhere -- Cliff Notes-ish things do exist for some books. \n\n... But in the end, the real answer is \"try things and see what works for you.\""
},
{
"answer_id": 34346,
"author": "Ornello",
"author_id": 23374,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23374",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "Bad writing reflects bad thinking. The 'material' you quoted is basically garbage, and if I were you I would ignore it completely. The old tale of the emperor with no clothes comes to mind here....\n\nUnfortunately in the academic world and the management world this sort of language is all too common."
},
{
"answer_id": 76076,
"author": "user296844",
"author_id": 18207,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/18207",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "Read the intros and conclusions, and skim over any big bullet-points. Most business-speak is bullshit through-and-through. Above all, don't take it seriously."
},
{
"answer_id": 132822,
"author": "Martin Kochanski",
"author_id": 56925,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/56925",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "Read it quickly, badly and inattentively. Do not try to treat it as if it contained useful content. Definitely do not highlight it in six different colours! Make only the briefest of notes, if any.\n\nYour subconscious will filter out the meaning from the rubbish. That is what it is designed to do. Ask yourself about the book a few days later and if you answer \"yes, it had this or that idea in it\", then you can go back and have another look."
}
] |
2014/12/14
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34286",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/25093/"
] |
34,287 |
This question is only concerning references to non-permanent (and even semi-permanent) information, for example, Web pages (but not limited to web pages).
I understand that some researches post the normal author, year, time, etc... and the URL of a referenced non-permanent Web Page.
I've heard that some readers or reviewers may object to reference any non-permanent source. To eliminate these complaints, am I allowed to simply include the original web page, saved as a PDF file, as as an attachment, with the research paper? (to, for example, IEEE)?
Can I include the PDF referenced web pages, via arXiv? (as part of the published research paper).
Can I reference the PDF referenced web pages, via PDF files I host on Google drive (or something similar)?
I'm aware that in certain situations, you should not reference a Web page. However, that is not my question (and in certain situations, it is OK to reference web pages; for example, if your study is showing how the web page changes over time :-) ).
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34291,
"author": "Paul de Vrieze",
"author_id": 10183,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10183",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "First of all, there are two common usage cases of referring to web pages. There is use like any other reference - in which case you refer to mainly the written content on a particular web page (hopefully, and in many cases, this is dated). The other case is when you refer to a website such as academia.stackexchange.com. \n\nWebsites are inherently dynamic and their use is not as a reference (a footnote may be more appropriate here).\n\nThe primary factor in deciding how to use the materials is by looking at their role within the paper. In your case you are looking at specific parts of dynamic web pages. These pages would in effect be illustrations, not unlike pictures of observations or experiments (say a set of photo's from microscope observations in the case of a biology paper). The papers/pdfs should be treated as such and either included in-line, as appendices, or made available as separate download (preferably through the publisher)."
},
{
"answer_id": 34295,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "I think that there are three main cases to consider here:\n\n1. The web pages are aggregated *data*, e.g., in your example of a study that quantifies change over time. Collecting web pages as data is routinely done in scientific studies, such as complexity studies that track a *lot* of pages. In this case, the pages are not generally cited (and any data from them is likely to be at least partially abstracted and de-identified, to deal with a variety of legal issues).\n2. An individual web page is a subject of study, e.g., for literary or intellectual criticism. In this case, the standard references to the URL with time accessed is appropriate, along with block quoting of critical passages as part of your analysis. You should save full copies yourself, and share them upon request, but likely cannot publish them unless you obtain permission or unless the source has explicitly adopted a copyright that allows republication (e.g., [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights)).\n3. The web page is being cited as a scientific work (some overlap with the last case). In this case also, the standard reference of URL with time accessed is appropriate. This is unusual, since most scientific works go into archival papers of some form, but does happen---I've certainly done so, when that is actually the right document to cite. This should still be a document with some expectation of longevity, e.g., a blog post on a scientist's established site, the archives of a mailing list or discussion group, a manual from a piece of software's distribution site."
}
] |
2014/12/14
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34287",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26573/"
] |
34,310 |
Why do graduate schools ask for a CV to be included in the application? Do they look for anything else besides publications and work experience?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34325,
"author": "Rami M. Nassar",
"author_id": 26611,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26611",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "Think about it like this, CV is an official paper to introduce yourself for others. \nAt least it has the basic information about you and your achievements."
},
{
"answer_id": 35142,
"author": "David M W Powers",
"author_id": 6390,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6390",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "We want to know who you are, who is the best fit as supervisor/advisor, what is the best fit as a topic?\n\nA better question is why we ask for a proposal - you are not generally in a position to write a proper proposal till 6 to 12 months in once you've done a full lit.review.\n\nWhat else do we look for beyond the formal education/publication part?\n\nWork experience tells us about what you can do, and what discipline you've been experosed to. Also hobbies, languages, clubs, sports and community involvement are important to mention. Were you on the chess team, the debating team, the school paper? These also complete the picture of who you are, what you can do, and what you could do!\n\nThese days everything is interconnected - technology has applications, sport and art make use of technology, science studies both the inner world of mind/brain and society (social/life sciences) as well as the external world of physical entities and devices (physical/biological sciences) and the way everything relates to everything else (information/cognitive sciences).\n\nFrom you community involvement I might get insight into your aims in life, you leadership ability, your willingness to work alongside other people and health.\n\nI'm not interested in a statement of purpose or some other nonsense that sounds more like something out of a fortune cookie than the kind of evidential data that belongs in formal curriculum vitae.\n\nFrom your interest in languages or writing, your experience in debating or the school paper, I will gain ideas about how you'll go writing a thesis or dissertation, whether you will understand the literature, whether you can work on particular interdisciplinary or application-oriented parts of the research.\n\nFrom your interest in music or dance, sports or photography, I might find connections that relate to (say) projects in computer science or engineering, in signal processing, image processing, speech processing - or extend them in new directions to song recognition or music transcription."
},
{
"answer_id": 35217,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "A CV is the academic equivalent of a resume, providing all of the relevant details of your (academic) career to date. Graduate schools ask for this information for the same reason that businesses ask for a resume when you apply for a job: it is a terse summary of your qualifications as a candidate.\n\nIn addition to publications and (research-related) positions held, a CV also should include your undergraduate and graduate degrees, service, any awards, and any other academic-relevant information about you. A nice summary, with links to additional guide material can be found [here](http://gecd.mit.edu/sites/default/files/CV%2008_11_0.pdf)."
}
] |
2014/12/15
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34310",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26594/"
] |
34,314 |
This is a question that fascinates a lot of people prior to attending graduate school. The question whether one should already have chosen a thesis topic so that all efforts will be put on creating that thesis and more time can be used to explore that given topic.
Or a more basic question, is it feasible or even possible for someone to know exactly what their thesis topic would be before going into graduate school?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34316,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "There may be advisers, departments, universities, countries (academic cultures) or fields where you need to come up with your own idea. I would not think this is the norm, however. In many cases Phd positions are financed by project funding so that the project is largely defined. This does not mean that the entire PhD is staked out in advance but the direction is. When you start a PhD you need an adviser which would imply that the field and direction of research of that adviser will determine the direction of your research. In many academic systems you directly apply to a PhD project which is pre-defined. I could probably come up with more cases that point away from come up with your own thesis topic.\n\nThat said, however, it is not inconceivable that someone could enter a system with an own idea but since coming up with great ideas commonly involves having a deep understanding of a field, and that in itself being one of the goals of a PhD, it would be a very rare case.\n\nSo depending where you are or where you are heading in the academic world, you do not need to know the thesis topic in advance. You will be looking for topics that may interest you and once finding positions announced decide if they fit your interests. It is rare that you find exactly what you dream of so many go for positions that are \"close enough\". Another point here is that you would probably not select a topic only, you would also consider the academic milieu and if you think it would be good for you and your endeavour into research."
},
{
"answer_id": 34318,
"author": "Benedict Eastaugh",
"author_id": 6067,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6067",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "This is a very local issue, depending (as Toxep Jinkson says) on the country, university, field etc. For instance, at least in the arts and humanities, it is usual in the UK to apply to PhD programmes with a thesis proposal that explains pretty much what your thesis will be on. Of course, there's nothing to stop you changing what you work on once you're accepted into the programme, have discussed it with your supervisor etc.\n\nAs to whether or not it's advisable, again that depends on local conditions. If your PhD has coursework then you have plenty of time to think about good thesis topics while you do that. On the other hand, for a purely research-based PhD like those in the UK, it's good to know the topic going in because you're supposed to get on with research straight away.\n\nI've seen mixed results with this approach, to be honest. I ended up sticking with exactly what I proposed, but I suspect that's less common: research often doesn't turn out how one expects, some topics seem like a good idea at the start but as one learns more one's focus shifts and what appeared to be an interesting and tractable question turns out to be tedious or impossible to make progress on. Many of my fellow PhD students changed topic partway through, although often this was more a change of emphasis than a complete change of topic—that's less common, and correspondingly more difficult since ars longa, vita brevis (in particular, PhD students in the UK are expected to complete within four years)."
},
{
"answer_id": 34337,
"author": "BrenBarn",
"author_id": 9041,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9041",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "The answer is heavily dependent on the field, school, and department you will be applying to, and also the individual faculty you will be working with. As the other answers suggest, in some programs it is common for students to be immediately attached to an ongoing project, and the general boundaries of their possible dissertation projects will be set by that. In other programs that is almost unheard of, and each student must develop his or her own project.\n\nThat said, my impression is that you should have at least some idea (or ideas, plural!) of questions you would like to answer, even if you don't know exactly what the thesis topic per se will be. One big reason to have such ideas is that you aren't likely to be accepted into grad programs if you have no plans for what to write about. The difference between programs seems to be that some of them expect you to apply knowing that you will work on a particular project and write about that, some expect you to have a topic in mind and stick to it, and some expect you to have ideas but won't care if you change your mind during the program.\n\nThe individual variation in attitudes towards this question was, for me, beautifully summed up in a personal experience. When I was applying to PhD programs, I visited a certain school along with several other prospective students. As part of this process, each student had a short meeting with each faculty member. One professor, during our meeting, mentioned that she felt \"students who come in with a dissertation topic already in mind sometimes miss the point\" --- that is, that they should be open to exploring new things they hadn't thought of before. I then went across the hall to meet with another professor, whose first question was \"Do you have any ideas for your dissertation topic?\" And this was in the same department!"
},
{
"answer_id": 34338,
"author": "Eric Wilson",
"author_id": 10036,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10036",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "This will very greatly by the discipline. My PhD was in mathematics, and I do not know of any of my colleagues that entered grad school with an idea of the problem that they would solve for their dissertation. In fact, most entered with no more than a notion of the area of mathematics that interested them (algebra, analysis, topology, applied math, logic) and at least half ended up in a different area from their notion on entry.\n\nIn mathematics it seems not feasible to me to know the area upon entry. The frontiers of mathematics are just too far away ..."
},
{
"answer_id": 34356,
"author": "angarg12",
"author_id": 27993,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27993",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "Just to touch a point that nobody else did, there is also the issue of *timeliness*. \n\nSome fields of research advance pretty fast, and what was a great topic before starting graduate school, may be outdated or not relevant anymore when you are about to start your Ph.D.\n\nFor these fields it is usually better to define the topic close to the moment when you will actually start your research. I did my Ph.D. in Computer Sciences, and I have seen people Ph.D. topics get outdated while they were developing it!."
}
] |
2014/12/15
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34314",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20070/"
] |
34,327 |
I often produce figures with a surface with quantitative data attached, plotted in a heatmap type style (see figure).
Previously, I've used the default matlab colormap for this but I recently noticed how terrible this is when printed black & white, the high and low colors appear the same.
Is there a better/recommended colormap I should use to improve clarity when printed.
Related: [Are there good reasons to avoid using color in research papers?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/13616/are-there-good-reasons-to-avoid-using-color-in-research-papers)
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34328,
"author": "Davidmh",
"author_id": 12587,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12587",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "I think the default colour map is not that good for most cases, since having essentially four different colours can make it look different than what it is. [A very clear example of what I say](https://abandonmatlab.wordpress.com/2011/05/07/lets-talk-colormaps/) (and a bunch of rants why one should not use MATLAB).\n\n\n\nSee the yellow stripe? It is essentially an artefact of jet, and not a property of the data (more on the post).\n\nFor a better option, I would suggest [Color Brewer](http://colorbrewer2.org/), that can suggest you different colour schemes safe for black and white, colourblind friendly, etc."
},
{
"answer_id": 34329,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "The figure examples pretty much says it all, if you look at how the different hues are translated into a grey scale you will see that a two-tone scale going from a colour rendering dark in B/W to a colour rendering light in B/W would the solution. But, this is not much different from using a monochrome scale from light to dark since the boundary when colour one and colour two may only be clearly visible in colour and not in B/W.\n\nThere is thus reasons for trying to solve graphics in B/W until it is clearly impossible to solve what you want to visualize in any other form than with multiple colours. Back in time, one would always argue that copying colour papers would result in poor B/W copies is not so relevant anymore since it is possible to use colour copiers, a combination of scanning and printing in colour or downloading a pdf to print in colour.\n\nSo while colour is all around us there are still reasons to consider B/W as a primary choice. Colour blindness (as mentioned in another reply) is one such reason. Plotting software, be it rudimentary as Excel or more advanced as Matlab\nforces colour in cases where it is not necessary."
},
{
"answer_id": 34336,
"author": "Ander Biguri",
"author_id": 16023,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16023",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "**UPDATE:2** \n\nUse perceptually uniform color-maps when possible. I suggest to use this nice toolbox in Matlab ([colorBrewer](http://uk.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/45208-colorbrewer--attractive-and-distinctive-colormaps)) or to use the new perceptually uniform colormaps from python matplotlib ([also available in Matlab](http://uk.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/51986-perceptually-uniform-colormaps)).\n\nMatplotlib's new colormaps look like this:\n\n[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Hnmz4.jpg)\n\n**UPDATE:** \n\nIf you use Matlab, and you have access to Matlab R2014b or newer, use the default colormap: parula. They designed it so it is a good colormap, not only for b&w printing but also for correct data visualization (i.e. it doesn't add features due to the choice of colour, as jet does)\n\nExplanation: <http://blogs.mathworks.com/steve/2014/10/20/a-new-colormap-for-matlab-part-2-troubles-with-rainbows/>\n\nParula looks like this:\n\n[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/DsRZ8.png)\n[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/bVCeo.png)\n\n**Original answer**\n\nUse the \"hot\" colormap. If you use Matlab this is one of the built colormaps. I believe than in numpy and other languages you also have this colormap included.\n\nYou can see in the image below, how the commonly used \"jet\" , the \"hot\" and a \"gray\" colormap are seen in grayscale. It can be seen that the \"hot\" colormap is quite good both in colour and grayscale. \n\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 34484,
"author": "nivag",
"author_id": 14115,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14115",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "Thanks to those who pointed out that Parula is the new default Matlab colormap and solves this problem nicely. I will give a more general explanation of why this problem arises. A very good series of articles about colormaps can be found [here](https://mycarta.wordpress.com/2012/05/29/the-rainbow-is-dead-long-live-the-rainbow-series-outline/).\n\nI'll consider the colormap as a series of colours in Lab space, for reasons which will become clear shortly. In Lab space L represents the colour's lightness and a and b give the colour. Therefore we can view converting to greyscale as taking only the L component (with a=b=0). Therefore to convert well into greyscale our colormap should be monotonic in L and ideally approximately linear.\n\nThe 3D color inspector plugin for imageJ provides a handy tool to visualise the colormaps in Lab space. Looking at the Jet colormap (the old Matlab default) in this way the problem becomes clear. Jet is not monotonic in lightness and approaches maximum lightness somewhere in the green/yellow range. Therefore, when converted to greyscale the two ends of the map appear dark while the centre is light coloured.\n\nCompare this to the parula colormap, which is monotonic in lightness. If you do further analysis you can also show that it is reasonably linear in lightness. The conversion to greyscale will therefore be pretty good.\n\nThere are many other colormaps which also have this property of monotonic lightness, in particular most monotone maps. However, it is also advantageous to maximise the distance between colours in Lab space to increase clarity when viewing in colour. Monochrome maps are relatively weak in this respect as they have a much more limited range of ab values than rainbow type maps.\n\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 60913,
"author": "Neil G",
"author_id": 1245,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1245",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "For a free (and maybe nicer?) alternative to Parula use Python matplotlib's **Viridis**. See this fascinating [talk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAoljeRJ3lU) for its development:\n\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 62105,
"author": "hugke729",
"author_id": 47973,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/47973",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "The chosen answer mentions the 'hot' colormap, but I tend to find this is often too bright. I find that the 'cold' colormap (top) often works better.\n\n[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/E2n5H.png)\n\nAlso no one has mentioned monochrome colormaps (bottom), which are just like grayscale but without the gray. These give you the ability to pick any hue you like, which can be helpful for making the colormap fit in with other elements of a presentation/poster/report etc. And you're guaranteed they'll remain meaningful in black and white.\n\nI give more detail [in this post](https://brushingupscience.wordpress.com/2015/12/15/stop-using-rainbow-colourmaps/)"
},
{
"answer_id": 109583,
"author": "jberrio",
"author_id": 92625,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/92625",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "I could write an answer to your question but why rewriting when the exact problem you describe and its solution have been beautifully explained in this webpage\n\n<https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/viridis/vignettes/intro-to-viridis.html>\n\nIn there you will find the following colour scales:\n\n* Viridis\n* Magma\n* Plasma\n* Inferno\n* Cividis"
}
] |
2014/12/15
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34327",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
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] |
34,330 |
I must create a new module (first time to do from scratch). In the past, I've had either existing course descriptions, textbooks, etc. as a base on which to structure a module which is new for me. This time, I have nothing (blank canvas).
My thought is to use an open access textbook and some initial looking makes me believe I can find something either usable as-is or that will allow me to mix-and-match the chapters into something suitable.
I'm concerned about what, if any, dangers might not be obvious to me at this stage but might cause significant problems for the students, myself, or the department later (say, after the semester begins).
After reading [this question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/28670/2692), I still find myself wondering.
If anyone has designed a course using an open access textbook in the past, what are the key considerations which should be considered for first-timers?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34333,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "It's important to check the license used by the author to make sure that it's compatible with your use of the open access textbook. \n\nIssues to check include:\n\n1. Does the license allows you to redistribute the book to your students (e.g. by putting it on your course web site) or whether students have to get it from the author's web site. I would not be willing to use any material that I couldn't distribute to my students, because the author might pull it from the web at any time.\n2. Does the license allow you to modify the work (e.g. fix typos or more broadly edit the work)? How are you required to describe any modifications?\n3. If there are any restrictions on \"commercial use\", does your course constitute commercial use? Some people have argued that for-profit higher educational institutions can't use Creative Commons NC (CC-NC) licensed materials in courses.\n\nMany open access educational resources are licensed under the Creative Commons license with varying options (CC-BY, CC-NC, CC-ND, etc.) The Creative Commons web site has clear explanations of how those licenses work. Many other resources have been put up on the web with no specified license. If there's no license specified you should contact the author and ask for permission to use the material."
},
{
"answer_id": 34612,
"author": "Aubrey",
"author_id": 26682,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26682",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "I think Nroan's answer is perfect, but let me be a bit more clear: the answer is *none*. \nAs others have said better, one crucial quality for material course is *quality*: if you had an excellent \"closed\" textbook and a mediocre open access one, you should choose the better one, for the sake of your students. \nBut in this case I don't think you can actually choose, and this is for the better: you can start off with an open access textbook, and you probably can make it better. \n\"Openness\" of things boils down to their license. They are often (as said) [Creative Commons](https://creativecommons.org/licenses):\n\n* **CC-BY-SA** allows you to do whatever you want with the original material, and create your own derivative works *without even asking*, provided that you release your material with the same license. For example, Wikipedia articles have this license: everyone builds on the previous version of the page, the license persists, the article (often) gets better.\n* **CC-BY-NC** allows you to do everything *without even asking*, provided that you do not have a commercial purpose. Nroan's response hints that this is maybe tricky, but I'll come to that.\n* **CC-BY-ND** is rare, but **CC-BY-NC-ND** is common: it is the strictest version of Creative Commons, and in practice you can use and share the material, but not have commercial purpose and create derivative work *without asking*.\n\nThis is important: you can't do it *without asking*. \n\nOf course, you can directly ask the author, and I doubt very much you can't negotiate a way to use the material as you want. It is possible you'd have to pay, but this is the norm with closed textbooks. \nCreative Commons are licensed used to share our creative works: the *open access*-*open knowledge* movement advocates for a more flexible copyright system in which people are allowed to share and build things together. \n\nThe only thing you should pay attention, thus, are the different licenses of the different materials involved: if you want to create a new textbook, for example, you should check them and ask/negotiate permission if needed. \nCopyright-wise, things can't get *worse* than with closed-access content.\n\nHope this clears a little."
}
] |
2014/12/15
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34330",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2692/"
] |
34,335 |
Bear with me while I put some biographical information here.
I'm a bachelor of engineering graduate from India with approximately a decade of work experience in design, engineering and project management. I've got a real fascination for the following subjects:
1. Optimization methods
2. Chaotic and dynamical systems
3. Data analysis and statistics (a field in which I work - as a quality management professional)
I have presented a couple of papers in international conferences in the first subject - based on work I did by teaching myself optimization methods. Learnt the ropes on researching papers/work, contacting researchers, running my own studies, writing concise papers, over many attempts in unpublished papers. I have only read books and papers on the remaining two subjects (#2 and #3) for over seven years but haven't really contributed anything significant or original.
Since I never was in the right financial state to pursue a masters or a PhD, I never earned one. I turned down an MS admit at Duke in 2010 for financial reasons too (didn't manage to secure funding). I considered and visited Indian universities including the IITs but find the entry barrier high for any univs worth going to, because I have a 7.0/10.0 GPA on my Bachelor's degree. Moreover, I hate going back and asking for recommendations from professors that I share no common interest with or who had no bearing or influence on my technical interests whatsoever. My mentors have all been in the industry, and all MS/PhD applications seem to want only academic recommendations, which I thought was stupid.
Having read a number of reports and accounts from researchers on the troubles PhD scholars face and the standard of life, I'm inclined to think that I wouldn't be happy giving up my job and my lifestyle (and compromising my wife's lifestyle) for a decade of research which may or may not lead to a PhD. I love the subjects but I'm looking for a way to learn and discover things in them without subjecting myself to the financial commitment that comes with a huge loan.
Is a life of independent research (something that is exciting for me personally) a viable way to move forward, or should I consider getting a formal research postgraduate degree? I'm eager to hear thoughts, advice, comments. Thanks for taking time out to read this.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34400,
"author": "Phil",
"author_id": 26688,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26688",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Honestly, independently researching on your own time could be a lot tougher than working in a research group.\n\nHere's a tip: if you are **serious** about researching, go to graduate school. A lot of people do independent readings as a hobby as well. Find which category you fit into."
},
{
"answer_id": 34414,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "I agree with phil above.\n\nResearch is fascinating but also very hard if done on one's own. There're so many results/problems out there. Without the guidance of a field expert you might just be spending time repeating someone else's research without knowing it."
},
{
"answer_id": 34418,
"author": "silvado",
"author_id": 3890,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3890",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "It seems you have two options to weigh against each other:\n\n1. Do research independently, viewing it more as a hobby than as your profession, or\n2. become a professional researcher, which would require getting the appropriate formal education.\n\nIf you want to make research the most important aspect of your life, then option 2 would be the way to go. However, from your current biography, it seems that this may require more effort and changes to your life than you may be willing to invest. Getting a PhD is a definite requirement along this path.\n\nIf you go for option 1, it will still be possible to make research an important aspect of your life. It will be more difficult though to maintain sufficient investment of time in view of work and family commitments to keep things running.\n\nPersonally, I think that being a hobby researcher can be viable and satisfying in research fields where you don't need expensive equipment. While the examples I know mostly do something like locally focussed historical research or botanical/zoological research in their environment, it seems that mathematical or theoretical engineering topics will also be feasible for this. If you want to go that way, the internet certainly provides much more advice on being a hobby researcher than I can hope to give here. A link to start with may be [this question on cstheory.stackexchange.com](https://cstheory.stackexchange.com/questions/2966/what-would-you-advise-someone-who-wants-to-do-research-as-a-hobby)."
}
] |
2014/12/15
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34335",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26617/"
] |
34,349 |
I am a Masters graduate student studying finance at a large public university located in a major city. Recently, I accepted a job as a teaching assistant. A significant number of students are from non-western cultures, with East Asia being especially heavily represented(China, S.Korea, etc). In leading discussion,I have found communication to be a problem and I strongly sense it has cultural roots.
Encouraging participation through questions does not seem to help and the students seem to be painfully shy. I attempt discussion that builds upon the text, but the students seem to have trouble expressing themselves and finding their voice. I use mainly open ended questions with some close ended questions for clarification. At the very first session, I explained my expectations:
1. Respect is crucial. While attacks on ideas are encouraged, personal attacks are inappropriate.
2. Creativity of thought is encouraged
3. That I am open to feedback about the students opinions.
4. Acknowledge wish to speak by raising hand
I feel its important for students to have their own ideas and to actively engage in these smaller discussion sections as it applies the concepts taught in lecture. In addition, I want feedback regarding what I can do better and students' opinions are valuable.
Some relevant background
1. English proficiency: Understandable but mediocre with accent
2. Most present in the USA less than 1 year
3. No family present in the US.
Coming from a western culture (USA), aside from leveraging the professor, what else can I do to improve the efficacy of these discussion groups?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34355,
"author": "Dirk",
"author_id": 529,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/529",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "*I have found communication to be a problem and I strongly sense it has cultural roots.* \n\nI think this is the first point to start with: Try to find out if your sense is right here and try to identify what kind of cultural difference may be the cause. In fact I am not sure if cultural differences are really the only (or most important) problem, but you may well be correct. However, there are very different cultures also in east Asia and also in the same country.\n\nOne thing that I have heard of is that in some Asian cultures it is impolite to ask questions to a professor (because it somehow shows that she did not explain things well). It may well be considered impolite to try answer questions for which the answer has not been well prepared in advance. (If this would be the case, you could, in principle, think about preparing questions in advance and hand them out a week early.)\n\nIf discussing of unprepared ideas is really important for the class, I am not sure what you could do. You may consider collecting different styles for the class such as\n\n* participants present prepared thoughts on homework questions in written form as a hand-out or orally (or both),\n* prepare handouts for some topics and distribute them in class, then let the participants work on them alone (or in groups), let them prepare statements and collect the statements,\n* have open discussion (prepared or non-prepared).\n\nIn any case, communicate the different modes clearly to the students, i.e. explain what they have to do, what you expect them to deliver and what (besides the actual content) they should learn in class. In this way you may get the message across, that \"discussing\" (and comparable skills) is really something that you expect the students to learn."
},
{
"answer_id": 34367,
"author": "J.R.",
"author_id": 780,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/780",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "You don't really explain how you try to get these discussions started. Do you ask open-ended questions (such as, \"Does anyone have any questions?\") or pointed questions (such as, \"Who can explain why X did not work in this case?\"). \n\nYou also don't explain your protocol for letting students answer questions. Do they just chime in? Raise their hands first? Do you call on them individually?\n\nAlso, what mechanisms do you use to prevent a few extroverted and knowledgeable students from dominating the conversation?\n\nLastly, how do you encourage classwide participation? What expectations have you set?\n\nThe problems you discuss (students who are introverted, intimidated, embarrassed, or hesitant to talk), are not unique to any one culture, although certain cultural backgrounds or language barriers can exacerbate those problems.\n\nHere are a few tricks that might help:\n\n* Call on certain students individually. Try to get all your more taciturn students speaking more often, and your more vocal students giving others a chance to talk. (If a few students have already answered a couple questions, tell them that they are \"done for awhile,\" and they need to give their classmates a chance to answer some questions now.)\n* Let the students work in pairs for five minutes or so, and then call on those teams to share their thoughts. This may help students feel more confident as they realize they are not the only ones in the room who may be a little unsure about something. Also, even if a quieter student says very little in class, under this arrangement, they are still articulating their thoughts to a peer. (In your specific case, you might considered pairing up an international student with a native English speaker.)\n* Use polling tools (a.k.a. \"clickers\"), if they are available at your institute. These will get everyone into a mindset of participating. You can also use your poll results to steer the conversation in a certain direction (for example, \"Someone who answered (b) – please tell us why you thought that was the best answer.\")"
}
] |
2014/12/16
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34349",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23518/"
] |
34,350 |
For final exam in my university chemistry class, a note sheet, 8 by 11, was allowed. You could put anything on the sheet, however it was to remain 1-sided. Of all things, I forgot about the last rule, and created a 2 sided note sheet for the exam. Well, now that the grades are out, my professor emailed me saying that a third of my points were deducted because of my note card. He was really being generous, because the rules say that I should actually get a score of 0.
Well, I still passed the class, but will this incident be put on my academic profile for applying to the engineering department? I mean, I'm still mad at myself for this, but do I have to and how would I explain it to the school if it's necessary?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34353,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "Often a professor is no more eager than you to invoke formal disciplinary mechanisms, as they are often complex and time-consuming. From what you describe, it sounds like you've been given your punishment and find it fair. If the professor was interested in taking it further, you would likely (but not necessarily) have been informed in the same email.\n\nTo find out, you can simply email the professor back. Say pretty much what you said here: you made a mistake, you find the punishment fair and even generous, and you just want to check whether the matter is now settled, or if you need to anticipate further disciplinary action.\n\nIf the professor feels that the matter is settled, and that the grade reduction is all the consequence that you need to face, then you can safely put it behind you; if not, it may become part of your record and may require explanation, depending on how things proceed."
},
{
"answer_id": 34365,
"author": "Oswald Veblen",
"author_id": 16122,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16122",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "At the U.S. schools I have been at, a minor punishment for academic integrity such as this does not appear on your transcript and you are not obligated to mention it when you apply to other schools (unless they ask, which I don't expect that they will.) The same holds for most other \"internal\" disciplinary actions that the school takes. \n\nThis is particularly the case if the professor has not taken \"formal\" action. At many schools, there are two options for the professor. For minor penalties, the instructor can handle it personally with the student, as long as they can both come to an agreement. In this case, there is no permanent record of the penalty except with the professor. \n\nFor more serious penalties, or if the student and faculty don't agree, the instructor has to initiate a formal process. If the formal process results in a penalty, then additionally a disciplinary letter is put in your file (probably in the dean's office for your college). If there is another incident, the presence of the first letter will make the penalty worse. At my school, students are expelled after the third formal incident.\n\nYou can check with the professor, as jakebeal says, to find out whether a letter has been filed. As he says, you could tell the professor that you understand the penalty and accept it, and will not repeat it, but for your information you'd like to know if formal paperwork was filed. You could also ask this in person during office hours."
},
{
"answer_id": 34377,
"author": "David Hill",
"author_id": 11258,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11258",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "This answer follows on your comment to jakebeal's excellent answer (which you might consider accepting). You have already emailed your professor and, as he has not replied, I'd take that as \"nothing further needs to be discussed\". Conclusion: no, do not contact him again about this matter.\n\nAlso, in your comment below the question, it appears that you professor already has a good opinion of you (you were above average on previous exams, etc) and therefore lightened the punishment. This is already a pretty strong indication that he does not intend to take things further."
},
{
"answer_id": 100117,
"author": "einpoklum",
"author_id": 7319,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7319",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "Consider asking the Professor to retake the exam with next semester/next year's class, this time without a 2-sided note sheet. Explain that you made an honest mistake and were not trying to hide it etc. That way you're not asking for a \"free pass\" or anything."
}
] |
2014/12/16
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34350",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26632/"
] |
34,354 |
I am applying now to PhD programs in various management related fields (quantitative marketing and finance) and took both the GMAT and GRE back in October.
My score, specifically in the quantitative section, wildly varied between the GRE and GMAT. Basically, this was the breakdown of my scores:
**GRE:**
**Verbal**
159 (81%)
**Quant**
160 (78%)
**Analytical**
4.5 (80%)
And on the other side...
**GMAT:**
**Verbal**
40 (91%)
**Quant**
41 (49%)
**Total**
660 (80%)
**Analytical**
5.5 (81%)
**Integrated Reasoning**
8 (92%) [Perfect Score]
None of the schools I'm applying to exclusively accept the GMAT, but many do state that they prefer it. I'm wondering if I should just simply hide my GMAT or if my GRE in combination with my GMAT make the quantitative section there look like a random fluke.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 38358,
"author": "Tripartio",
"author_id": 20418,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20418",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "Since the fields you mentioned (quantitative marketing and finance) are both heavily based on mathematics, I would think that the quantitative score is by far the most important. If you can possibly avoid it, you don't want to be in a position of having to explain away a weakness, especially where the weakness is at a very important criterion.\n\nThus, I recommend that you submit only the GRE score and make no mention of the GMAT. Although your verbal score in GMAT was quite good, it isn't quite as important for those fields you are applying for, and the mediocre quantitative results would probably outweigh anything positive you might otherwise have.\n\nThat said, you could simply call the schools you want to apply to and ask them directly; since each school might have different preferences for GMAT and GRE and their respective scores, one blanket answer might not be suitable for all the schools you are applying to.\n\nSpecifically, you could try to talk to the department chair or to the graduate program director (just call the department office and ask to be transferred to the right person). You don't have to identify yourself; just say that you want to anonymously ask a question related to admissions.\n\nI know that that last suggestion might sound wild, but believe it or not, it often works surprisingly well--I recently used that kind of strategy to receive anonymous answers from a research ethics office concerning a grey research ethics question I was faced with, and I quickly got the exact clarity that I needed for my situation. Never underestimate the power of picking up the phone and calling."
},
{
"answer_id": 39007,
"author": "Eliza",
"author_id": 29501,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/29501",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "I can't speak for PHD programs, but I know that business school really only care about your highest score, so it is not a big deal if you send multiple scores, they will only look at the highest. This might be different for PHD programs and with scores from multiple tests, so you should check like someone else mentioned. But since your verbal score on the GMAT is higher I wouldn't immediately give up on sending that score."
}
] |
2014/12/16
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34354",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26636/"
] |
34,360 |
Do all countries have the same gender imbalance in science?
That is, while some countries may have a higher proportion of women in science, while others have a lower proportion of women in science, if you compared the gender ratio in physics compared to the gender ratio of biology in a country, would you always see the same or similar results? Or could you see a higher proportion of women in physics compared to biology in one country, but see a higher proportion of women in biology compared to physics in another country?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34376,
"author": "Noah Snyder",
"author_id": 25,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/25",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "Within Europe alone there are huge variations in the number of female mathematicians as documented with lots of graphs and maps [here](http://womenandmath.wordpress.com/past-activities/statistics-on-women-in-mathematics/)."
},
{
"answer_id": 94081,
"author": "John Slegers",
"author_id": 37939,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/37939",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "It is a misconception that women are underrepresented in science or [STEM fields](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science,_technology,_engineering,_and_mathematics) fields in general. The reality is that women have entered some STEM fields to the point where they are no longer underrepresented (e.g., biology) while largely forsaking other STEM fields (e.g., computer science).\n\nToday, more women than ever major in so-called STEM fields. [More than 58% of all bachelor’s, master’s and doctorates in biology are being awarded to women](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/education/edlife/where-the-women-are-biology.html).Within certain University biology departments, women also make up nearly half of the faculty. And within the department of behavioral and social sciences, [70% of faculty members are women](http://www.browndailyherald.com/2016/03/16/women-in-science-tend-to-gravitate-toward-biology-cognitive-sciences/) :\n\n[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/WiJZq.png)\n\nHowever, [women comprise only 18% of students receiving bachelor's degrees in computer science and engineering](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/making-sense/truth-women-stem-careers), and those figures have actually dropped over the past couple of years :\n\n[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/A7kZD.png)\n\nAnd in spite of [having an overall 2-to-1 advantage in being ranked first for the job](http://www.pnas.org/content/112/17/5360.abstract) in any STEM field, women remain underrepresented as faculty members for those fields as well. Policies to attract more girls and women into subjects such as computer science, physics and engineering [have largely failed](http://www.mrctv.org/blog/study-girls-feel-more-negative-emotions-about-math-boys).\n\nThese trends in gender representation are consistent internationally. For example, if we look at Britain, we see that [women are eg. less than 20% of all engineering and computer science undergraduates, but more than 60% of all biology undergraduates and even more than 75% of all veterinarian undergraduates](https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/infographic-gender-breakdown-at-course-level) :\n\n[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/KGtZL.jpg)\n\nIf we look at Europe as a whole, we see that 40% of the 17 million scientists and engineers in the EU are women. However, men are particularly overrepresented in manufacturing (83% of scientists and engineers in manufacturing were male), [while the services sector was much more balanced](https://epws.org/eurostat-women-in-science-and-technology/) (55% male and 45% female). \n\nFurther, we see that [women are in the majority in all of the EU Member States among students studying for Master’s degrees](http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Tertiary_education_statistics). Yet, we also see that there are considerably more female than male students studying social sciences, journalism, information, business, administration or law, with women accounting for 57.6 % of all students within this field of education :\n\n[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/kZXro.png)\n\nEven if we look beyond Europe and North-America, [we see a very similar gender distribution across different fields](https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/03/women-are-still-under-represented-in-science-maths-and-engineering-heres-what-we-can-do) :\n\n[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/MU0cW.png)\n\nMy girlfriend and I, both living in Belgium, are a perfect reflection this pattern as well : I work as a programmer in corporate R&D and have only male colleagues, while my girlfriend teaches bio-chemistry faculty at a local university and has mostly female colleagues.\n\nObviously, [there still remain differences in the gender gap on a per county basis](http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/women-science-technology-engineering-and-mathematics-stem). Peculiar about these differences, however, is that women are actually [less likely to enter a STEM field](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/02/the-more-gender-equality-the-fewer-women-in-stem/553592/) in countries with greater gender equality :\n\n[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/1FnwO.png)\n\nOne possible explanation for the aforementioned gender distribution is [the high \"geek factor\"](https://www.usnews.com/news/stem-solutions/articles/2016-11-23/study-girls-less-interested-in-stem-fields-perceived-as-masculine) in fields like computer science, physics and engineering. Another would be [gender stereotyping](https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/09/24/study-suggests-link-between-ethnicity-gender-stereotypes-and-interest-stem) transmitted through our interaction with others. However, there also biological differences to consider, like the [difference between men's and women's brains](http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/the-hardwired-difference-between-male-and-female-brains-could-explain-why-men-are-better-at-map-8978248.html). \n\nMen may simply be more driven by a biological urge to build things, whereas women may simply be [more driven by a biological urge to help people](http://www.qmed.com/mpmn/medtechpulse/why-women-are-embracing-biomedical-engineering). It would be foolish to underestimate the impact of sex hormones on our individual preferences when even among monkeys [males prefer to play with trucks and females with dolls](https://www.livescience.com/22677-girls-dolls-boys-toy-trucks.html)!"
}
] |
2014/12/16
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34360",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3945/"
] |
34,363 |
Many journals in my field accept both Word and LaTeX formats for article submission. From the publisher's point of view, what are the advantages of using the LaTeX format for submission?
Do publishers eventually use LaTeX to typeset the final version of the article? In that case, I can imagine that having the references ready in BibTeX and equations in TeX (among other things) can save quite some time in the typesetting process, and be less error prone. Are there any other advantages?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34364,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "If a publisher accepts LaTeX manuscripts they likely use LaTeX also for the final type-setting. I am sure there are exceptions but could not point you to one.\n\nThe benefits, apart from obvious LaTeX benefits such as equations and built in standards for references, numbering of equations, figures and tables etc., lie in the way a manuscript can easily be taken from a manuscript form to a finished product.\n\nMany journals have class files that allow you to move from manuscript to essentially \"proof\" mode by changing a switch in the document and \"re-compiling\" it. This also means that the journal can go to typesetting without moving file contents to a new format or another program (not many journals are type-set in Word).\n\nIn the case of journals that do not have class files for use by the author, moving a manuscript from a generic LaTeX format into a specified journal format is not necessarily difficult. There are probably many different approaches to this but from a LaTeX point of view all definitions of a document are there in the plain LaTeX file and it would be easy to apply a class that re-defines the plain format to something that will yield a finished layout.\n\nWith LaTeX focus is on writing the text, not formatting the manuscript. As Editor-in-Chief for a journal that uses both Word and LaTeX, I have spent many hours weeping over hopeless Word formatting (including field codes that do not work) that is both unnecessary and complicating moving the document to the type-setter. LaTeX is a text file and so does not contain anything that cannot be easily spotted and changed if need be. \n\nSo, to be fair, one can mess up with LaTeX as well, and I want to point at an overarching rule which is to always strictly adhere to any instructions for authors provided by the journal and not to send in material that is of a format that differs from what is asked for.\n\nSo the benefits of LaTeX is that the move from manuscript form to finished layout is simplified and reduces the amount of manual work for the type-setter. But, in all type-setting there is always need for manual control so LaTeX is not 100% automatic, just closer to it.\n\nAbout BibTeX referencing: Most journals and I would guess type-setters want the manuscript in as few parts as possible. therefore many provide a `.bst` for the reference style but ask that you run BibTeX to produce the `.bbl` file (containing all references properly formatted with `\\bibitem` formatting) and then paste the content into the document to provide a complete and correctly formatted reference list inside the document file itself."
},
{
"answer_id": 34372,
"author": "yo'",
"author_id": 1471,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1471",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "**The biggest benefit: Their typesetter will love you.**\n\nNow seriously: There are three possible cases:\n\n1. **They use LaTeX for everything.** Then posting a LaTeX article means: less work for them (I mean, *much much much less work for them*), less errors introduced, clearer proofs, typesetter more happy etc.\n2. **They use what you use.** Then it depends on how well the LaTeX template is done. I've seen journals (mostly engineering and chemistry) that have a LaTeX template just \"because people were bugging us to have one\". Then choose what you prefer and what you think is easier. Or, write to them and ask what they prefer.\n3. **They send everything to somewhere, and all articles are completely re-done there at low costs and high quality.** Yes, this seems to be the case for some journals[*citation needed*] and as before, it doesn't matter what you do use.\n\nSo, FWIW, LaTeX is never a mistake, nor is asking what they prefer.\n\n---\n\nAs for BibTeX, it's a bit more complicated than what Pedez presents. The rule is: Follow the guidelines (you have read them, right?). If BibTeX is not mentioned in the guidelines, suppose it's not supported, choose your favourite style, and either include the `.bbl` file or simply copy the contents of the `.bbl` file in place of the instruction `\\bibliography{mybibfile}`."
},
{
"answer_id": 34389,
"author": "user2379888",
"author_id": 9365,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9365",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Latex is always good, but I've gotten skeptical of going out of my way to format my articles of the journals and provide source files. I've found that some journals will rekey the whole manuscript, no matter what you send them. I've picked up on that by discovering typos that were not in the originally submitted files. They also often have their own particular bibliography formatting style."
},
{
"answer_id": 37819,
"author": "Gimelist",
"author_id": 22213,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22213",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "I just had an article accepted to a earth science Springer journal. I asked the typesetter whether they prefer LaTeX or Word. His reply was:\n\n> \n> It is better for us to submit the manuscripts as latex or word\n> document to avoid font missing problem.\n> \n> \n> \n\nI'm not sure what you can make of it.\n\nAlso, it seems that the proofs were reformatted into something which is not LaTeX or LaTeX-based at all. This is weird, given that I submitted the article using Springer's LaTeX template. This could be because in this field, people hardly use LaTeX."
},
{
"answer_id": 37826,
"author": "Anonymous",
"author_id": 11565,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11565",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "> \n> From the publisher's point of view, what are the advantages of using the LaTeX format for submission?\n> \n> \n> \n\nBecause if they don't, their competitors will, and authors who prefer to write their papers in LaTeX will choose to submit elsewhere. See the comments [here](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/14565/)."
}
] |
2014/12/16
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34363",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22213/"
] |
34,370 |
I am preparing to give a job talk for
an on-campus interview for a tenure-track assistant professor position.
The university is located in city X.
I really want a job in city X
because I have many relatives living in city X,
and my parents also live a few hours by plane from city X,
and I feel that city X is a good place for my wife and I to raise our kids.
I would like to spend one slide and a minute near the end of my job talk
in order to explain why I really want to live in city X.
Would this strengthen my case,
or would this be seen by the faculty as "too much information?"
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34373,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": true,
"text": "Just to put what's already in the comments into an answer:\n\n* **Yes**, you should convey the information you've told us to the hiring faculty. If you've gotten a campus interview for a faculty position, they are already extremely interested and satisfied with your on-paper qualifications. Final decisions are often strongly motivated by who they think will take the offer and who they think will stick around, happily and productively, in the job. You list several things that would earn you lots of points on that score, and since the hiring faculty cannot and should not ask too many questions about your personal life, the way to make that information known is to tell them so explicitly.\n\nHowever,\n\n* **No**, you should not put that information in as a slide. Your talk should be about your professional work. Throwing in \"I'd like it here! Hire me!!\" while people are listening to your work is jarring and shows (I think) just a soupçon of poor judgment. I assume that your on-campus interview is structured so that anyone who is involved in hiring you has multiple opportunities to talk to you outside of the context of your job talk. If so, then I wouldn't even bring it up at all in your talk, except possibly as an ice-breaker at the beginning or a parting shot at the very end."
},
{
"answer_id": 34385,
"author": "iayork",
"author_id": 26671,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26671",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "I would not put it in a slide, but I would feel free to briefly mention it at the beginning or end of your talk. Immediately after you're introduced is a perfect time to say something like \"Thank you [name of introducer], I'm looking forward to my day [or I've had a wonderful day] and I'm really excited to be in [city], because this is my favorite place in the world and I have so many family and friends here.\" You make your point quickly and efficiently without being effusive, it's a nice compliment to the people who are listening, and I think most people would find it a charming and elegant way of segueing into your talk."
},
{
"answer_id": 34397,
"author": "jobucks",
"author_id": 4313,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4313",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Your talk is likely to be to a wider audience than the selection committee (who may not come in some universities) and might be even wider than your immediate disciplinary group.\n\nYou want to convey appreciation for the opportunity to address them. At the beginning, thank them for the opportunity and put up a slide or two on the main strengths of the university and town. This can feel like an exercise in bald-faced flattery but it is the equivalent of \"good morning, how are you\". You are simply acknowledging the audience and you will feel the appreciation mirrored back to you quite palpably. \n\nDon't include personal reasons here unless they are likely to be shared by your audience. Once I a slide - about the third in my opening pack before I started speaking - and simply said \"flat\". I was coming from a city that was very hilly. The point is that these points must be shared.\n\nAnd then to your talk --- and very good luck. Just remember that everyone likes to be liked. Let your liking shine through!"
}
] |
2014/12/16
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34370",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8802/"
] |
34,374 |
I'm working on my first publication on work I did as an undergrad. My adviser from undergrad will be helping me edit and go through multiple drafts, but because I'm now at a different university for grad school I haven't spoken to him about this first draft.
I've looked at the publisher's website, but they were vague and provided only general comments about how to format the manuscript. I don't want to send my draft to my old adviser and have him think I'm an idiot because my formatting is different from the norm. (Perhaps relevant: this publication has to do with marine biology and physiology.)
1. What font is appropriate? Times New Roman 12?
2. Double spaced?
3. Do figures go at the end? Should I space my figures the way I want them spaced in the publication?
4. Do I include line numbers?
Side question: What is an appropriate length (in number of words/pages/whatever) for this type of publication? I know it depends on the journal, but it's hard to translate pages in a journal to typewritten pages. I'm submitting to a journal with an average impact factor.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34375,
"author": "Cape Code",
"author_id": 10643,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10643",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "At this stage, *content is what you should focus on*. In most biology journals, formatting is done by the publisher. Thus formatting at this stage *only serves the purpose of making your draft easy to read and comment on*, so to answer your questions:\n\n> \n> What font is appropriate? Times New Roman 12?\n> \n> \n> \n\nIf your adviser usually reads on a screen, consider using a sans serif typeface (Calibri, Arial, etc.), if read on paper TNR is fine.\n\n> \n> Double spaced?\n> \n> \n> \n\nOnly useful for people who print it out and need space to scribble. \n\n> \n> Do figures go at the end? Should I space my figures the way I want them spaced in the publication?\n> \n> \n> \n\nFor the convenience of your adviser, you should include them where you think they are relevant. It's usually editorial management software that place them at the end (which makes reading draft cumbersome). Consider using a smaller font size for captions to help differentiate them from the body.\n\n> \n> Do I include line numbers?\n> \n> \n> \n\nCan be helpful if you do not use interactive commenting tool (like the one of MS Word) it never hurts to have them IMO, make sure they are continuous, and *include page numbers* by all means.\n\nNote: this only applies to internal circulation, you might need to re-format for submission following the journal's guidelines."
},
{
"answer_id": 34378,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "The [general formatting advice from @CapeCode](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/34375/8313) is sound. Generic font (certainly not anything odd) and 1.5-2 line spacing is fine for the text. Tables and figures should go at then end. Many journals ask for figure files not to be included in the manuscript file at all, follow such advise. If figures are separate all figure captions go at the end of the manuscript file. \n\nRegarding line numbers it is not a major issue unless the journal specifies something special. Some manuscript systems provide only PDF-files of the manuscript. Some reviewers then prefer to have the line numbers to locate their comments. If the journal provides the Word files then as @Cape Code states these can be more of an issue. So try to see if you can figure out what the journal sends out but in the end I do nto think it is a major issue.\n\nIn addition, I strongly want to push following any instructions for authors to the point. Make sure your use the proper reference formats and follow other journal formatting details. If no explicit instructions for authors exist then look at recent articles to see what styles the journal uses. A manuscript that follows the journal style looks more serious than a manuscript that does not.\n\nAs for length, I would say that 6000-8000 words incl. references is a reasonable size for a regular research paper in your disciplines, shorter is possible but longer should be treated as a warning. If you really want to know just count the words on a page and guestimate the total for the article, you will not be far off."
},
{
"answer_id": 34398,
"author": "Phil",
"author_id": 26688,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26688",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "Most of these would depend on which journal/conference you are submitting to. For instance, IEEE and Springer each have their own style."
}
] |
2014/12/16
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34374",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21458/"
] |
34,379 |
I am in the process of updating my teaching and research descriptions the main website of my university. It seems many of the best descriptions are written in the 3rd person, but as far as I am aware, they were all written by the individual being described. Presumably those willing to talk about themselves in the 3rd person also put in the effort to have a good web presence. It seems disingenuous to write about myself in the 3rd person. My university has no guidance or policy on this issue (it must be an oversight given how much they love to manage everything). Is there a preferred style for official descriptions on the web? The webpage is dynamically from a CMS system so it is possible that some pages (either now or in the future) would present the content in a way that it is not obviously linked to an individual.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34381,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "I think that it depends on whether the web site is written from a personal or an institutional perspective.\n\n* **Personal perspective:** On [my own web page](http://jakebeal.com), I use first person because I have formatted it as a web page about me personally and about my personal work.\n* **Institutional perspective:** A close colleague of mine has formatted their page as \"Name Laboratory\", and it includes description of both themselves and of all of the students and postdocs in their group. Their web page is written in the third person, including their self-description, because it is from outside perspective of the group as a collective, rather than their own perspective.\n\nJust as in most questions of writing and tense, either can be correct, and I think the question is really about which you feel most comfortable doing."
},
{
"answer_id": 34399,
"author": "Phil",
"author_id": 26688,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26688",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "I've seen both 3rd and 1st being used. Though I mostly see 1st person used. I'd opt for 1st person to properly propel your voice.\n\nMany of the 3rd person ones that I have seen are non-personal and feel awkward as I can't get a sense of the voice of the author."
}
] |
2014/12/16
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34379",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929/"
] |
34,380 |
I have a Master of Science degree from the EECS department at MIT. From the [website](http://www.eecs.mit.edu/academics-admissions/graduate-program/degree-programs) it is pretty clear they call it an SM degree. I think many US universities refer to a Master of Science degree as an MS degree. My UK department has offered for a long time a program that leads to a Master of Science degree that we call the MSc program, but next year we are introducing an MSci degree. Do the different abbreviations officially mean something? Is it dishonest to refer to my SM as an MSc in the UK? If not, is it helpful?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34383,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "There is no difference: M.S., M.Sc., and S.M. all mean Master of Science. The difference for S.M. is that it is in Latin: *[scientiae magister](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master%27s_degree)*. \n\nI have no idea whether it will actually help anybody's confusion to translate back to MS, but there is certainly no question of honesty. For anybody with a Ph.D., however, I expect it will not make the least shred of difference, as a Ph.D. supersedes it quite effectively."
},
{
"answer_id": 34424,
"author": "nivag",
"author_id": 14115,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14115",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": true,
"text": "While all these degrees fall under the category of Master of Science there are technical differences in the course content. In general you should always refer to your degree by its actual title/abbreviation. If you think someone might not know what an abbreviation is e.g. on your CV or something, you could add a brief note such as MS (US Master's) but I'm not sure how useful this really is. Google has all this information readily available.\n\nFor the particular degrees you list:\n\n* I've no idea if there is a difference between an SM and MS, but I'm not in the US.\n* A US MS is generally two years compared to the UK MSc's one. I also the impression that the MS is more research focused, although that might just be my view of things.\n* An MSci is a 4 year combined bachelors and masters that is increasingly popular in the UK. Generally students only do a single research project/dissertation in their 4th year which is slightly shorter than an equivalent project for MSc students. So having an Msci is not exactly equivalent to an MSc.\n* This is before you get to some of the more obscure things such as MRes which some UK students do. These are still broadly at Masters level but have different focuses to the course.\n\nJust to be clear, I would consider it somewhat dishonest to translated the abbreviation of your degree."
},
{
"answer_id": 143593,
"author": "GE the CPA",
"author_id": 118900,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118900",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "Harvard University uses SM for its Master of Science degrees. Please see <https://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2017/06/harvard-launches-data-science-masters-degree-program>."
}
] |
2014/12/16
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34380",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929/"
] |
34,402 |
Quite a few tenure-track job ads I've come across recently have mentioned supervising research of undergraduate students as one of the position responsibilities specifically. I have had plenty of opportunities to supervise graduate student research activities, but have no experience supervising undergraduate research.
Personally, I never took advantage of opportunities to do research as an undergraduate (as an engineering undergraduate student, I was more focused on doing internships). So, unfortunately, I don't have any personal experience on "the receiving end," so to speak, to draw upon for what makes a good (or bad) approach to undergraduate research supervision.
My question:
>
> What are the key components of being an effective supervisor of
> undergraduate researchers?
>
>
>
If the field of study matters, this is in engineering (in particular, electrical engineering, and some of the job ads I've seen combine research supervision of both the electrical engineering and computer science undergraduates).
Somewhat related:
[What are the main differences between undergraduate, master's, and doctoral theses?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7252/what-are-the-main-differences-between-undergraduate-masters-and-doctoral-thes)
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34403,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "I have had some pretty good success advising undergrads by:\n\n* Making sure that the problem is extremely well-defined. That is, don't throw them into the water and see if they swim. Think a lot about what the expected outcome will be, and what the foreseeable steps, challenges and problems will be. Yes, this is a lot of work and means that you could (almost) \"do the work yourself\" in the same time, but for undergrads you can typically not yet expect that you can just drop them a research question and see them run with it.\n* Have regular meetings. Make sure that there is progress, and if there isn't, make sure that you know what the blocking issues are. Don't expect them to necessarily come to you first with any issues. In my experience, undergrads often are a bit shy about asking for help, and sometimes get stuck on (for you) relatively easy problems unnecessarily.\n* Make sure that you *would be able to do the project yourself given enough time*. I know that this is somewhat controversial, but for grad students, I am perfectly happy to accept projects where I myself wouldn't know how to do every part myself. That is, I expect a grad student to be able to solve her/his own problems. For undergrads, I do not do this. I want to be able to help undergrads in a meaningful way if they get stuck, technically.\n* Conversely, make sure that the work is not just random grunt work. In my experience, the best way to make sure that the undergrad research project is *not* interesting for the student is by letting them do something that everybody else either considers unimportant or terribly tedious to do. Undergrads are not yet experienced, but they are still colleagues and *not* some sort of scientific minions.\n* Somewhat related: make sure that you are excited about the project, or at the very least be able to convincingly pretend that you are. Again, having the feeling that nobody cares about their project is a surefire way to make for a terrible research experience.\n* Integrate the undergrads into the lab. When there are talks, the undergrads are invited (i.e., expected to come). When the grad students are expected to regularly speak in the internal seminar, the undergrads need to do this as well. If there is a regular lab beer night, the undergrads are invited as well. If the lab usually goes to lunch together, the undergrads are asked to come along. You get the idea.\n* If at all possible, give them a fixed work place in the lab, and require them to be there at least some percent of the time.\n\nTo summarize, the best undergrad projects in my lab always worked on a well-defined project, which was still an integral part of the research agenda for the lab that others were enthusiastic about. On concrete example from my research: some members of my lab are currently working on benchmarking compute cloud providers. That typically means hacking up some automation scripts, deploying benchmarks, gathering some data, and analysing the results. This is rather tedious and error-prone work. Hence, I got a computer science bachelor student to build a web-based platform, which students could use to define, schedule and execute benchmarks using a relatively simple DSL (domain-specific language). The platform the student built technically wasn't terribly complex, but the solution worked well, tackled a common community problem, and most importantly saved multiple grad students a ton of time. We also published the tool as open source software and wrote a small paper about it, allowing to student to go to a conference to another continent. During the conference, a number of professors asked the student for details on his tool, and expressed interest to also use it for their research."
},
{
"answer_id": 34404,
"author": "Ben Bitdiddle",
"author_id": 24384,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24384",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "When I was in high school, my (favorite) supervisor\n\n* **Gave me a written problem statement** at the beginning of the project. In retrospect I really appreciate that he put it in writing, because it's easy to forget what was said in a verbal conversation.\n* **Explained most of the relevant background to me**, instead of telling me to do a literature review. I really appreciated this because I wouldn't have understood most of the papers if he'd asked me to read them myself.\n* **Kept his door open** so I could bug him whenever I had data or a question. (We didn't have weekly meetings, but I talked with him almost every day.)\n* **Supervised me directly** instead of handing me off to a grad student.\n* Had me give talks at **group meeting**.\n* **Was actively interested in my future career**, and even helped me submit my project to a science fair.\n* In general, he **told me what to do, but never how to do it**. He would tell me what problems to solve, and what directions were worth exploring, but he wouldn't help me code or tell me how to solve problems."
}
] |
2014/12/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34402",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11192/"
] |
34,407 |
**Background:**
I am a student. I didn't have anything in life for four years, and I worked myself silly at times for it. So now I ask - when I pay hundreds of dollars over the production cost (new textbooks are over a week's pay *each*) what and whom am I giving my money to?
It's probably not those working in the publishing factory, I don't think it's the professor who wrote the book; I imagine a rich entrepreneur , who, by positioning himself well in life, makes an immense amount of money while directly producing nothing of value, aka, the brass of a publishing company (correct me if I'm wrong). In fact, when our college tried to use an "open source" textbook, publishing companies promised to stop selling us books - all over that one class!
Now, I can buy an international version for some 20 or so hours of my life (aka, payrate) for each and every class. However, there are plenty of people in this process who deserve to be paid (yes, even the brass.) That said, books are so (over)priced I think it is more unethical **not** to pirate the book or buy a used or international edition - by feeding the predators, I become part of the problem.
However, there are many people on this site who are vastly more informed and experienced in academia than me and so I ask the following questions.
**Questions:**
* Is it ethical for me to buy international textbooks?
* Incidentally, is it legal in the United States to buy international textbooks?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34410,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "The US Supreme Court ruled that [it is legal to buy and sell international editions of textbooks](http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/11/how-an-ebay-bookseller-defeated-a-publishing-giant-at-the-supreme-court/). As for the ethics, it clearly goes against the wishes of the publisher, so one might conclude that despite being legal that it is unethical. As for where the money is going, I believe most big publishers are publicly held, so the profits in general go to the share holders. Of course the costs include the salaries of the executives, royalties to authors, and the salaries of the individuals running the printing press."
},
{
"answer_id": 83417,
"author": "Brendan",
"author_id": 67860,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/67860",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "NPR did a piece on this concluding that publishers' response to piracy and digital copies was to keep jacking up the price assuming there are many people who don't care about the cost and just pay the price asked regardless of how ridiculous (ie their parents pay or student loans, grants, or scholarship money pays for it). This results in $30 books shooting up to $100+ in a decade or two. If the publishers are happy with this model, I see no ethical issue as poor and middle class can still pirate or buy cheap copies while those who don't care about exponentially increasing prices can offset the fact that less people are buying standard versions. The fact that they are required to lower the price by 80% to sell outside the US should be a pretty clear message that the ethics problem is not on the consumer/pirate side. As iTunes $1 song sales was the solution to piracy when the alternative was pay $15 for a CD with 1 song you wanted, the solution here would be for publishers to go back down to realistic prices where it is easier just to buy the textbook rather than go through the hassle of pirating it or locating international editions. They won't stop making international editions because other countries will just bootleg xerox copies of the book and bind it, as I believe was the practice before international editions became available (and I think I bought a few of those in the past as well). I hope they figure out price-fixing doesn't work like the music industry, as pirated/international editions are saturating the market currently."
},
{
"answer_id": 96231,
"author": "Peter Green",
"author_id": 42323,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/42323",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "> \n> Is it ethical for me to buy international textbooks?\n> \n> \n> \n\nBig companies want to have their cake and eat it. They want to source their labour and materials from whereever in the world is cheapest but they want to discriminate on price based on what each local market will bear.\n\nAmerican students have easier access to money than students in most other places. Even in relatively rich countries like the UK the student finance system is not set up to support students buying large numbers of expensive books. \n\nSo textbook companies set a high price for American students driving them deeper into debt while setting a lower price for the rest of the world where students can't and won't pay american prices.\n\nI see nothing unethical about refusing to play along with their price discrimination games and buying an international edition."
},
{
"answer_id": 111547,
"author": "Allure",
"author_id": 84834,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/84834",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "Strongbad answered the legal aspect. I won't say whether or not it's ethical because it's ultimately up to your personal values, but I'll mention this tidbit which hasn't been mentioned yet.\n\n**All the book contracts I've seen has had author royalties tied to sales revenue**. The clause can be complicated, but the essence is always the same: the more revenue the publisher makes from the book, the more the author is paid. If you buy an international edition, you pay less, so the author also gets less. If you pirate the book, you paid nothing, so the author gets nothing also.\n\nWhether or not this is ethical is up to your personal values."
},
{
"answer_id": 114460,
"author": "Dmitry Grigoryev",
"author_id": 32934,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32934",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "While publishers often argue that international editions open access to knowledge in poorer countries, this argument is hypocritical at best. Publishers do make a profit when selling such books, it's by no means a charity. And the \"market segmentation\" strategy is not unique to textbooks, it is applied to various retail goods from computer games to luxury products with the purpose of **maximizing the total profit**. So if you think that you're paying a higher price for your calculus book so that poor a Syldavian student can afford one too, you're being simply misled.\n\nFurthermore, the means required to implement such market segmentation are disruptive to the free market because they **violate the [First-sale doctrine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine)**. If you let publishers forbid reselling international books, what prevents the car manufacturer from forbidding you to resell your car to someone who'd have to buy a new one otherwise, with the same argument that they're losing a profit? (If you think my example is too far off, consider what fraction of the car's price is software, with copyright considerations which are not that different from a textbook). I don't see anything ethical about it, quite the contrary.\n\nBuying cheaper books most probably reduces royalties the authors get. On the other hand, if you have a fixed budget to spend on books, buying international books will get you more books while the authors will get the same amount of money on average. Free market is great at maximizing the profits at one side an utility at the other, and I don't see **how disturbing free market can be more ethical** than letting it do its job."
}
] |
2014/12/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34407",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23544/"
] |
34,411 |
I've read several questions relating to the (typically US) practice of requiring students to buy up-to-date, expensive, editions of textbooks. I can see why the publishers are in favour of this, but I don't understand why everyone else plays along. As far as I've seen, the UK seems to get along fine without this.
In my field (mathematics) it seems pretty obvious that new editions are generally not that important - maths just doesn't change that fast (the material taught at undergraduate level has mostly been around for the odd hundred years). So my question is:
**Are there subjects for which it is important to have the most up-to-date edition of a texbook**, enough to justify the cost to students (/libraries)?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34412,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "With regards to \"the most up to date,\" it certainly depends on the frequency of versioning: for example, I cannot imagine a subject in which a new version every year would be justified from a scientific consensus perspective.\n\nThere are, however, fields where the consensus is advancing quickly enough that a new version every 5-10 years would certainly make sense. A number of biomedical sciences, for example, would have this property, as there has been a continuing rapid advance in our understanding of the mechanisms of control within individual cells and their relationship to organism-level behaviors.\n\nOf course, a highly motivated instructor might collect notes and surveys themselves such that a textbook was not needed, but that's an independent axis from your question, I believe..."
},
{
"answer_id": 34415,
"author": "Stephan Kolassa",
"author_id": 4140,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4140",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "Take undergrad economics. While standard micro- and macroeconomic *theory* likely doesn't change quickly enough to warrant a new textbook edition every few years, students might be... irritated... if recent economic events (the US housing crisis, the Great Stagnation, right now the ruble meltdown) were not reflected and discussed. \n\nSuppose the last example of a major crisis in your econ textbook (printed in 2004) were the dotcom bubble bursting in 2001 - today's college students were barely walking back then. This would be ancient history for them.\n\nYes, of course a motivated instructor could work with an older textbook and provide the updates based on his own notes. This is a lot of effort, though, and apparently few instructors go to this trouble."
},
{
"answer_id": 34440,
"author": "user28375028",
"author_id": 21694,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21694",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Communications engineering, from what I understand, is rapidly changing (what with the Internet at all). In fact, any textbook related to computer technology is bound to be severely outdated in several years (with some exceptions). There can be issues, for example, when students are led to believe (as is the case in my telecommunications textbook published in 2005 and used in 2014) that Token Rings are common alternatives to Ethernet--something that [this article from 2007](http://www.networkworld.com/article/2287366/lan-wan/ethernet-vs--token-ring.html) quite firmly denies. \n\nWhile introductory calculus hasn't changed much in the past couple hundred years, fields that are rapidly changing, e.g. anything involving computers, require up-to-date textbooks. I don't imagine anyone will benefit much from a textbook on internet communications published 5+ years ago as opposed to a current one."
},
{
"answer_id": 34447,
"author": "chmullig",
"author_id": 6024,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6024",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Machine Learning and related fields in statistics, etc require fairly frequent revision. New algorithms are being developed and adopted at a fairly rapid pace, in large part because the technology is enabling datasets and algorithms that were previously infeasible to be common.\n\nEven an introductory machine learning text with a copyright 5 years ago was probably drafted even earlier. So a now common technique might have been brand new. One fairly simple example would be elastic net regression, which was first written about in 2005."
},
{
"answer_id": 81204,
"author": "Weckar E.",
"author_id": 56566,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/56566",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "I find that many STEM fields like to use specific editions of textbooks not because of the content, but because of the end-of-chapter problems. \n\nThese tend to change per edition (if not the actual problem, sometimes the numbering), and many intructors like to assign these as homework. This practice doesn't work as well if not all students have the same problems available under the same problem number.\n\nI'm not saying it is a good reason, but it is a reason it happens."
}
] |
2014/12/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34411",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20036/"
] |
34,416 |
The [University Grants Commission (U.G.C)](http://www.ugc.ac.in/) is the autonomous and statutory body in India responsible for governing the rules and regulations of the universities and various other academic institutions
that come under its purview.
The rule for appointment of teachers in the important academic institutes of India is governed by its rule, ["UGC Regulations on Minimum Qualifications for Appointment of Teachers and Other Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges and Measures for the Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education 2010"](http://www.ugc.ac.in/oldpdf/regulations/englishgazette.pdf).
It is generally taken as the order of the day.
In this regulation, there is a provision for calculating the points for research papers, research contributions etc. I tried to go through them, but feeling slightly ambiguous. It is given generally in Appendix III.
My question is in the tables given against each item maximum score is given.
But how should we take the count of each item. I tried to go through the same but did not find anything.
What is the value of each item and how does it contribute to the maximum score as given in the tables in the aforementioned report.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 45251,
"author": "Aditya Singh",
"author_id": 23489,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23489",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "First of all, the link you gave us in your question is not working. So, I can't figure out what you are talking about. \n\nIf you are talking about API (academic performance indicator), then I think you should look for the application form issued the university where you wish to apply for the post of assistant professor. You will find all the information about API including how to calculate your own API in that application form itself."
},
{
"answer_id": 45321,
"author": "MrMeritology",
"author_id": 17564,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17564",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "I was able to download the paper using the link provided, and thus the link is functional.\n\nI have looked at Appendix III briefly, and will offer my interpretation. However, I am not Indian and have no experience in India, so my interpretation is strictly based on what I have read and my background (US, academic + industry, where we do not use such explicit scoring systems).\n\nMy interpretation is that ***the maximum number of points would be awarded if the requirements for each item are fully met***. E.g. if you publish a research paper in one of the specified refereed journals, you get 15 points for that publication, regardless of the number of citations that paper gets or the ranking/reputation of the journal, or even your own opinion of the quality of that paper. *Though it is not stated in Appendix III*, I would interpret \"max points\" as meaning that a lower score might be awarded if the criteria is only partially met. For example, if you published an essay or commentary in a journal rather than a full research paper, you might award yourself 4 points or 7 points rather than the full 15. (E.g. I had a letter published in *PNAS* critiquing a published article. It went through a review process, but at 500 words would hardly qualify as an \"article\". So maybe it's worth 1 point in this category.)\n\nIn part I base my interpretation at the *fine granularity* of the scoring system and the many explicit rules and criteria that go along with each item. I also base my interpretation on the lack of any mention of \"quality\" or \"impact\" or \"significance\" in the criteria.\n\n---\n\nWhat my interpretation leaves out is the cultural norms, both across Indian colleges and universities, and also by regions, fields/disciplines, etc. What ever the *official* and *explicit* rules of any scoring system, there are always *unofficial* and *tacit* norms as to how they are executed and interpreted."
}
] |
2014/12/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34416",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/25129/"
] |
34,417 |
Few days back while attending a thesis defense, one Professor was asking the defender why does he think, he deserves the degree. I was wondering since then, is there really any general answer for that? or the answer should be given describing my own work and then emphasis them how it is important for research field?
I asked the question here to know your opinion about it and to list down what could be the possible answers to this question.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34419,
"author": "silvado",
"author_id": 3890,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3890",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "The general requirement for getting a PhD degree is to produce novel research results (including of course writing them down in a dissertation and defending it in front of a committee). By this, you should show that you can work as an independent researcher.\n\n> \n> one Professor was asking the defender why does he think, he deserves the degree.\n> \n> \n> \n\nIf someone asks that during the defense, the answer should point out in which way the results are novel and a contribution to the current knowledge in the thesis' area of research."
},
{
"answer_id": 34420,
"author": "Dirk",
"author_id": 529,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/529",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "Usually the answer to this is formulated in the rules of the institution. In Germany we call this the \"Bachelor-/Masterprüfungsordnung\" (for BSc and Msc) or \"Promotionsordnung\" (for a PhD).\n\nThe one from my institution contains something like\n\n> \n> Die Promotion dient dem Nachweis der Befähigung zu vertiefter selbständiger wissenschaftlicher Arbeit.\n> \n> \n> \n\nwhich translates roughly to \n\n> \n> The PhD degree certifies the ability for in-depth and independent scientific work. \n> \n> \n> \n\nIt also says that one needs a written work (called dissertation) and an oral exam. For the dissertation there is\n\n> \n> Die Dissertation muss die Befähigung der Verfasserin oder des Verfassers zu vertiefter und selbständiger\n> wissenschaftlicher Arbeit nachweisen und einen Beitrag zum Fortschritt der Wissenschaft auf [insert some field] darstellen.\n> \n> \n> \n\nwhich is roughly\n\n> \n> The dissertation has to certify the ability of the writer to do in-depth and independent scientific work, and to contribute to the advancement of science in [insert some field].\n> \n> \n> \n\nThere are also some regulations for the oral exam but actually there is not a specific term what constitutes a passed or failed oral exam."
},
{
"answer_id": 34422,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": false,
"text": "For a Ph.D., my favorite explanation is [this cartoon](http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/) by [Matt Might](http://matt.might.net/).\n\nIn short: a Ph.D. is a measurable contribution to a sum of human knowledge.\n\nTo be able to answer this question, all you need is an idea of how to describe what you have discovered, and how it fits into the context of work by others that has come before. This is often not easy to answer, but an important thing to think about as one is writing one's thesis in any case."
},
{
"answer_id": 34449,
"author": "Floris",
"author_id": 15062,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15062",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "Let's look at the abbreviation: PhD. *Philosophiae Doctor* which literally translates (my translation) as \"Teacher of the beloved wisdom\". (Doctor from doceo - to teach; philosophia from φιλος - dear, beloved and σοφια - wisdom or knowledge.\n\nTo be worthy of a PhD, you must therefore *teach* - which in the widest sense means *add to the body of knowledge that came before*. You are no longer learning - you traveled to the edge of the universe of knowledge, and boldly went where no-one had gone before. And - and this is a crucial element - you told stories of what you discovered when you came back.\n\nThe question is a good and fair one - and the answer should be obvious: \n\n> \n> Through my research I have discovered [X,Y,Z] which I have taught the world through my publications and dissertation.\n> \n> \n> \n\nNo need to blush - just state the facts."
},
{
"answer_id": 34485,
"author": "Joshua Taylor",
"author_id": 8313,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8313",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "When I arrived to this question, there was (and probably still is) a highly upvoted comment:\n\n> \n> \"I fulfilled all of the requirements.\" — [Eusyan Henley](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34417/what-makes-someone-deserving-of-a-ph-d#comment76360_34417)\n> \n> \n> \n\nI think that it's very easy for a new PhD or candidate to have serious doubts about the quality of their work, and to suffer a bit of [the impostor syndrome](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome). After all, they've spent numerous years seeing just how much knowledge is out there, and realizing that despite their new expertise, in the big scheme of things, it's actually a pretty small piece.\n\nI've just completed my PhD, and one of the things that my advisor mentioned to me was very helpful, especially when I was feeling a bit of what I've described above. At my university, PhD students become *candidates* when they complete their *candidacy*, which includes their *candidacy proposal*, in which the student presents their research proposal to a committee (typically with members of their eventual examining committee) who must approve the proposal. My advisor reminded me that regardless of my own perspective on my research, the fact of the matter is that three or four years ago, a committee of experienced researchers, professors, etc., (i.e., my candidacy committee) reviewed my proposal and confirmed that the work it describes merits a PhD.\n\nBased on that reminder, I framed by defense slides by beginning with a very quick review of the original candidacy, including a slide with a short problem statement. At the end of the defense, I pulled up another copy of that slide and addressed each point in the original problem statement, explaining how I'd addressed it. Then I followed with some \"reveal text\":\n\n> \n> [quod erat demonstrandum](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q.E.D.)\n> \n> \n> \n\nMy research involved a fair amount of proof theory and formal logic, so this was especially appropriate, but the point remains: the work that I presented was that \"which had to be demonstrated\". The experienced committee said several years ago that the proposed work merits a PhD, and I completed that work.\n\nThe point here is that it's not really the candidate's place to determine what merits a PhD. They haven't, at that time, enough experience to make that determination. The university and committee does, and has already decided what merits a PhD, and it would be entirely appropriate to respond to the question \"What merits a PhD?\" with \"you, as a committee member, explained that to me some number of years ago, and I've fulfilled those requirements.\""
},
{
"answer_id": 34497,
"author": "Des",
"author_id": 26783,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26783",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "For a Masters Degree, you are using existing knowledge and applying it to a new situation. For a PhD, you are creating new knowledge - you have discovered or invented something that was not known or existed before. If you can show that you have done this, you deserve a PhD."
},
{
"answer_id": 34603,
"author": "algorithmic_fungus",
"author_id": 10920,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10920",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "This question is not a check if you are over self-confident or anything the like. Simply provide arguments why your PhD work matches the acceptance criteria that a valid for that institution. Your supervisor should know. \n\nIf criteria seem not obvious for some reason, emphasize the scientific novelty (some details you have investigated first ever) and any scientific recognition of the results (accepted papers, attended conferences). Negative results that just disprove the initial work hypothesis may be near equally significant."
},
{
"answer_id": 43966,
"author": "posdef",
"author_id": 5674,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5674",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "A couple of years a senior and well-respected scientist that I know personally told me his perspective regarding what the title *PhD* means to him. I try to take that with me since then, especially at times of self-doubt.\n\nHe said the most important message that the title *PhD* conveys is that the holder has survived a significant period of time (3-5 years depending on where you live/work) in the academic world, battling with self-doubt, uncertainties in work, questionable guidance/project management, and many more challenges. \n\nSo, the way I see it; if you have survived until the end of your thesis defence **AND** fulfilled all criteria set by the university † (including original research), then you damn-well deserve the title and there's nothing anyone can fuss about. :)\n\nGood luck with your work/defence. \n\n---\n\n† after all it's the university that grants the title, and thus its the institution's responsibility to make sure that the titles they bestow upon candidates is up to the international standard. It's their reputation on the line, as well."
}
] |
2014/12/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34417",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26698/"
] |
34,428 |
I recently asked [this question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/34152/2692) about how many office hours per week are common for undergraduate lecturers but then I just read [this one](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/34402/2692) about supervising research done by undergrads. This got me thinking that perhaps my previous question was going in the wrong direction.
I have >300 students in 3 different subjects. 200 of those students are in one subject and that subject requires students to do extensive research. My challenge (explained in the question linked above) is that I seem to have too little time to properly support this many students.
These are business students so there is no lab. The research is reading the literature, finding data, integrating the two into some meaningful insight.
So, my question is, **when supervising undergraduate students who are doing research, how much time on average, per week, per student, should this consume of the supervisor's time?** 15 minutes? 30 minutes? 1 hour?
**Edit:** To put this in perspective, the students are not writing a bachelor thesis. However, they are expected to put in about 100 hours of non-class time (after the class time has finished) doing their research and writing it up. The final product is about 4,000 - 5,00 words (so far less than a thesis).
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34429,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "One person cannot possibly supervise 200 undergraduate research projects per semester of any substance. This sounds more like a term paper with a research component than 200 fully-fledged research projects. When I did undergraduate research, it was a 20-hour per week job that I got paid for, and even then my supervisor and I rarely met for more than half an hour per week. \n\nThere are only 168 hours *total* in one week, and only 40 working hours in a week. If you spent your *entire* job meeting with all of the students every week, you could give them 12 minutes each. This is clearly impossible. 200 students is so many that giving them each a 30-minute kickoff meeting to discuss their initial idea at the beginning of the semester would take you two and a half *weeks*. This would put some students at a serious disadvantage over others by potentially delaying their project start or leaving them confused about what is required of them.\n\nIf these are not much more than a term paper, then one person can probably do this by putting the assignment together on paper or in email and only answering questions during normal office hours. These kinds of assignments have clearly articulated goals and guidelines and apply techniques as laid out in lectures and homeworks. If you want a more substantial, independent project, then you need TA support, at least 6 and as many as 20 TAs to cover 200 students."
},
{
"answer_id": 59530,
"author": "Oswald Veblen",
"author_id": 16122,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16122",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "I can relate how long I spend, in my own experience. My experience is in mathematics and computer science, which may be different from other fields.\n\n* When I wrote my PhD, I usually met with my advisor for about 1-2 hours each week, unless there was a special reason to have a second meeting.\n* I work at a department with a master's program. When supervising a master's thesis, I expect to meet with my advisee for about the same amount of time, about 1-2 hours a week, unless there is a reason to meet a second time.\n* Similarly, when I co-authored a paper with a strong undergraduate student last year, we met for about 2 hours a week for a semester and a half. Part of this was instruction by me about the area, and part of it was research meetings to engage with our problem.\n* When I advise an undergraduate \"senior project\", I set up a meeting for one hour per week with each student I advise. These projects are \"research light\" at my institution, and can even be expository for some students. But at least one senior projects I have supervised developed into a different co-authored paper, so some real research is done as well.\n\nIn every case, I expect the student to work for several hours between each of our meetings. When they are writing, I require them to send a draft at least s day before we meet, so I can review it. When they are writing computer code, I also require them to send that a day before we meet as well. This helps me keep the meetings productive - we can talk about challenges they have encountered in the research, or about my feedback on their work, or about future plans, etc., with a minimal amount of wasted time during the meetings. \n\nEach time I have a meeting with a student, I try to make a plan before it begins about what we will talk about. Of course, if the student has something more pressing to discuss, that takes precedence over my plans. But I try not to waste and meeting, because that leads to having to meet again that week or to slipping deadlines, both of which I want to avoid if possible. \n\nOf course, you cannot possibly meet for one hour each week with 200 students. I find the even four personal meetings per week is more than enough to keep me occupied - both in terms of time and in terms of mental capacity. So you will need to find a way to economize, and give less personal attention. You might try organizing group peer review sessions.\n\nFrankly, I am surprised you can even grade the 200 papers that are written - if you can manage 30 minutes per paper all day long that is still over 2 weeks of grading! \n\nIf you have any say at the department, you might propose having the students work in groups; 50 groups of 4 is much more appealing than 200 groups of 1, both for advising and for grading."
}
] |
2014/12/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34428",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2692/"
] |
34,441 |
I'm writing a paper on The Beatles and in this paragraph I'm talking about the formation of the group. I got the info from their biographical book. So it's just a summarized version of a chapter. I have no idea how to state that this info is from a book?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34443,
"author": "Bob Brown",
"author_id": 16183,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16183",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "You are paraphrasing the material, not quoting it. (You summarized it.) Put the citation at the end of the paragraph and add the source to your bibliography."
},
{
"answer_id": 34446,
"author": "padawan",
"author_id": 15949,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15949",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": true,
"text": "Summarizing a chapter in a paragraph and citing it at the end, I think, is not a good idea. \n\nIt is better to write \n\n> \n> Sivpnos mentions the formation of the group in Chapter 5 of History\n> of The Beatles [12].\n> \n> \n> \n\nAnd then write your paragraph in italic.\n\nActually, if you can, put citations at the end of each 2-3 sentences.\nThe following example is more proper when writing an academic manuscript.\n\n> \n> The Famous English Rock Band Beatles was formed in 1957 [34]. First,\n> Rocn Qunnin, the founder of the band, named the band as The Blackjacks. Then, with Paul McCartney joining the band, the name was changed\n> to The Quarrymen [21].\n> \n> \n>"
}
] |
2014/12/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34441",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26729/"
] |
34,450 |
I'm about to finish my undergraduates studies; I majored in mathematics and minored in physics, and I always intended on going to grad school to pursue a PhD in mathematics, but I've been having doubts recently. I did well in all my courses (3.92 GPA), but I'm trying to seriously consider if my background is strong enough now and if I'd truly have the motivation to stick it out. I've also been thinking even if I decided to give it a shot, it might be nice to take some time off for rest and to improve on some of my weaker areas. But I've been told by a few people that **if you want to do a PhD in mathematics, you have to go pretty much right after undergrad**, mainly because recent letters of recommendation are so important, and professors forget you after a time. So **I wanted to know if this is true**, and also thought I'd ask for advice if anyone has been in a similar situation.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34451,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "I doubled in math and physics at MIT, and went on to get a PhD. in physics. Although I had a successful career, first as a supergravity theorist and then as a computational physicist, I have always wished I had gone into math, which was my stronger love and better talent.\n\nYou don't have to be uniformly strong in all areas to do wel in a math PhD program. (Although many nice ideas stem from creative ideas in unrelated parts of math.) You do have to be pretty sure you can become insanely strong in one area, and you do need to be confident that you will love what you are doing."
},
{
"answer_id": 34452,
"author": "Vladhagen",
"author_id": 14518,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14518",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "At least in my area of the world (Western US) and among the professors from the institution where I did grad work, almost everyone did a master's degree first. There are exceptions to this of course. How I see it is if you are a genius, go on to the PhD directly. Otherwise, a MS can give you some good background without drinking from a fire hose. This is how I improved my weaker areas. I was weak in analysis before grad school. I was able to take 4 analysis classes (graduate level!) for my MS and it was a significant boost. \n\nWhen I applied to PhD programs, I got my letters from professors I had taken graduate classes from (and my thesis advisor). This allowed them to comment not just on how well they *thought* I would do in grad school, but how well I *actually* had done. This also allowed for them to comment on my research. I think it made me a stronger PhD candidate.\n\nI will back up that you will need to be (somewhat) confident that you can become very strong in a specific niche. But that is why you go to grad school; its purpose is to make you strong in your field. And your strengths may change. I entered grad school as a group theorist and left as a probabilist."
},
{
"answer_id": 34453,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Entering a PhD program is a major commitment that you should not enter into if you're not completely ready. Your question shows that you're very unsure about what you want to do. Thus I would not recommend entering a PhD program at this point in time. \n\nIt is certainly possible to work for a while and then go back to graduate school. \n\nMy own personal experience is that when I got my BS degree (in Computer Science), many friends urged me to go on to graduate school immediately. Instead, I went to work as a software developer for the next three years. It became clear that I would need at least an MS degree in order to advance within the company that employed me so I went back to graduate school for an MS in applied mathematics. During my first semester as a full time graduate student I became very interested in a new area (interior point methods for LP), and applied to switch into the PhD program so that I could really immerse myself in that topic. I wouldn't recommend this approach to everyone, but at the same time, I'm quite certain that it helped me to have worked for a while before going back to graduate school."
},
{
"answer_id": 34454,
"author": "Kimball",
"author_id": 19607,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19607",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "The other answers don't really address the issue of recommendations, so let me, at least briefly. I've been on our math PhD admission committee several times and we get many applications from people who've gotten their undergrad some time ago.\n\nFirst, yes there is some truth to it being easier to get in right after your undergrad degree. The letters of recommendation are important. If your professors know you quite well, and the department is relatively small, they should still be able to write you decent letters after a year or two hiatus, but if it gets to 5-10 years, they may not, and with that kind of time lapse, their letters won't count for as much anyway.\n\nMy advice would be to consider what else you want to do. Is there something else you really want to do for awhile (peace corps, travel, interesting job opportunity)? If so, it won't kill your chances for grad school, but you may have to apply to more backup schools. If you're out for longer, it might be best to do a masters first before getting into a PhD program.\n\nIf you don't have any definite ideas, why don't you try applying to a few masters programs (Vladhagan's suggestion of trying a masters first is a good idea to give you a sense of what you want to do and give yourself a better background) and a few PhD programs that seem interesting to you? At the same time, maybe go to a career fair and send out a few job applications in the spring? The PhD programs that accept you (at least if you're in the US) at least should give you an opportunity to visit, so even if you're undecided about a PhD in the spring, visiting these schools (and similarly any job interview impressions) may help you make a decision."
},
{
"answer_id": 34458,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "> \n> But I've been told by a few people that if you want to do a PhD in mathematics, you have to go pretty much right after undergrad, mainly because recent letters of recommendation are so important, and professors forget you after a time. \n> \n> \n> \n\nYou do not have to start a PhD program \"pretty much right after undergrad\". It is most common to do so, but there is a substantial minority of students who are older and/or spent several years out of school. In (American, at least) academia, your age counts for nothing; the ticking clock in the sky keeps track of the number of years since your PhD. I know several people who spent years off from undergrad in the sense of leaving school but clearly kept up with their mathematical reading and learning -- while in the Israeli army, culinary school, creative writing programs... -- and started grad school with skills at least at good as those around them and a maturity that most 22 year-olds lack. I've looked through hundreds verging on thousands of job applicants' CVs, and I am struck by how often the stronger candidates were in their 30's rather than their 20's when they got their PhD. \n\nOf course the biggest risk in taking time off between undergrad and grad is that you will get distracted by the rest of the world and not come back for graduate study. But that's only a risk in the context of your original plan: if you found something else that you like better than being a graduate student, good for you. It is also relatively common that after a fairly small time away -- one or two years -- people realize that they really do prefer an academic career. (For some reason this seems to be most common among high school teachers. Isn't that a bit sad?) If you're not totally committed to a PhD program, taking time off and seeing whether your desire waxes or wanes is a pretty smart idea.\n\nOf all things in your decision, I don't think that going straight to a PhD program because you're worried that your professors will forget about you is a good strategy. Professors don't forget about students that quickly, but after a few years, they may. To combat this, I would say: if you are not sure whether you want to do a PhD right away, why not **apply right away** to PhD programs? Certainly knowing where you can get in and seeing the programs that admitted you are all factors in your decision. If you apply right away, professors will write letters for you, and if you go away even for a long time, those letters should still be equally usable afterwards: your past undergraduate performance is not a function of time."
}
] |
2014/12/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34450",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26741/"
] |
34,459 |
I am currently two years into a math PhD program at a mid-tier state school. I read a lot of advice about getting a STEM PhD on the Internet, but a lot of it seems very inapplicable to mathematics. I don't have a lab or a PI, I don't need data, and my assistantship consists solely of teaching. None of the advice I read sounds anything like the experience I'm having here.
Compared to other STEM fields,
* How common is it for math students to be supported by external funding (e.g. NSF GRFP) rather than a TAship? How common is it for math students to do internships in industry to gain practical experience? How common is it for math students to do outreach or volunteer work during graduate school?
* Does a math department generally provide support and guidance to students when it comes to finding and applying for fellowships and internships? Is it a common attitude that it is the student's responsibility, if he wants those things, to undertake all steps of this process by himself?
* Is it normal for math departments to disregard students' research interests in favor of mandatory coursework? For example, because all of my time is tied up in the 1st/2nd year courses and exams, I have been unable to do any research for the last two years, despite being very prepared and capable on my first day. (I published during undergrad and was chasing several promising ideas when I arrived.) When I asked to be allowed time to do research instead of taking classes, I was rudely shut down.
* How often do mathematics departments get together in social or community events, such as departmental happy hours?
* How is networking different in mathematics? Do professors generally have connections in industry or prominent members of their field, or is that a rare thing?
(**Note.** I'm sure it is evident from some of the above questions that I am feeling a little put off by my department. The point of this question is not to seek out sympathy or validation. The department just seems stubbornly uncooperative, and completely uninvested in my future, which is not what I was expecting. I want to know how common this is- whether it is unique to my department, or the nature of the discipline. But this is a peripheral point, the question I'm asking is about how these factors work in general, not just with me.)
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34486,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "In brief, many aspects of math grad school are very different from CompSci, for example.\n\nThe vast majority of math grad students are funded by TA-ships, although some have NSF and other fellowships. The (large) size of typical math depts is tied to their role as service departments, teaching lower-division math, and this is what funds the large number of math grad students.\n\nInternships in some applied math fields are desirable, but non-trivial to arrange.\n\nOutreach and volunteer work are not strongly connected with these other questions.\n\nIt is not that math depts \"disregard students' research interests\", but that, almost universally in the U.S., further coursework beyond undergrad work is ... wise. If one has an unusually solid background, there are usually procedures by which to \"test out\" of requirements. On another hand, I am well aware that a certain number of grad students do feel that they're all ready to do research, and that coursework gets in the way. The \"problem\" is that \"research\" at a professional level in mathematics is not necessarily an immediate continuation of the sort of \"research\" typically done in undergrad projects. Another \"problem\" is that mathematics is an old subject, and there is a lot of very useful, helpful, enlightening stuff already known... and whose relevance to any given research project is very difficult to guess based on ignorance. I am absolutely not in favor of \"oppressing\" students by pointless busywork, but I am equally opposed to ignorance. Accurate perception of a given situation is difficult, and both students and faculty often have pre-existing biases... Again, testing-out of requirements ought to be a viable option, if one is well-prepared. If one doesn't see the relevance of the requirements, I'd tend to interpret this as reflecting a need to better understand the *content* of the required subjects. (Because they *are* relevant.)\n\nIn particular, depts to not \"disregard students' research interests\", except as not automatically exempting students from \"requirements\". Further, there are many hours in a day...\n\nAs to social events... it depends.\n\nNetworking? People know people. \"Industrial connections\" would exist only for very applied people, although connections to applied science research groups inside the university are common.\n\nAnd/but none of what the question describes strikes me as unusually \"uncooperative\". In my observation, it is very common that math grad school is quite different from what people are expecting, exactly insofar as many students expect to immediately \"start research\" (perhaps parallel to the impression given about other STEM fields' programs), rather than having any required coursework at all. Also, there seems to be a not-uncommon disaffection with TA-ing, as though this were lowlier than having a fellowship of some sort or research assistantship... and is construed, again, as \"obstructing research\". But without all these TA-ships, many fewer math grad students would have any financial support at all. (There's little grunt-work available in mathematics that would compare to the low-level research-support work in some other STEM fields, which does (by tradition) get the student's name on a published paper, etc.)\n\nSo, yes, mathematics is somewhat different from other STEM fields. Further, the fact that a program is not what one presumed it would/should be is not at all a strong indicator that something's wrong with the program (although, of course, there are dubious programs). The greatest resentment I see is among students who believe that they're fully-fledged \"researchers\", and are offended to not be immediately treated as such... While this message can be imparted rudely, and perceived as \"a rude shut-down\", the many issues of professional competence are not easy for novices to judge.\n\n(One more time: one can see about \"testing out\" of requirements...)\n\nEdit: prompted by Brian Borcher's comment... Teaching is an important part of an academic mathematician's job! The question of \"how much\" is secondary. The TA experience is very important to get up to speed on teaching, and, in unhappy cases, to discover early on that one hasn't the taste for it, if that is so. (I had one PhD student who discovered this unhappy fact in his own case, so he did not take the academic route.) Part of what one should try to learn is that \"teaching is not a burden\"... !!! ... to say the least. :)"
},
{
"answer_id": 34487,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "I'm going to focus on the third question: \"Is it normal for math departments to disregard students' research interests in favor of mandatory coursework?\"\n\nIn comparison with PhD programs in many other fields, PhD programs in mathematics in the US typically have quite a bit of required coursework and often include preliminary/qualifying exams that cover a very broad range of topics. In my experience, graduate students working in other STEM disciplines typically have fewer required courses to take. Thus the answer to your question is \"Yes, this is quite common.\" \n\nFor example, as a graduate student I took required courses in abstract algebra, real and complex analysis, functional analysis, and topology, even though my dissertation was in computational optimization.\n\nIt's traditionally felt that mathematics PhD's should have a broad background in mathematics so that they can easily teach undergraduate courses in almost any area of mathematics. The required coursework helps to develop this breadth. \n\nKeep in mind that the academic job market for PhD's in mathematics in the US is very different from the job market for PhD's in other STEM disciplines. Most PhD's in mathematics will end up working in teaching positions at community colleges and regional comprehensive 4 year colleges rather than in research oriented positions at universities. Having a broad background in mathematics (and experience as a TA) is helpful preparation for teaching oriented positions."
},
{
"answer_id": 34551,
"author": "Ben Webster",
"author_id": 13,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "While I think some of your questions point to genuine weaknesses in math departments (a lack of an internship pipeline, for example), a lot of them reflect a really unrealistic idea of what \"cooperation\" means. Your DGS, chair, etc. have met a lot of 1st/2nd year graduate students, and thus they know that very few of them are ready to do serious research, and in fact very few of them really know what that would mean. It wouldn't be looking after your interests to leave you to do research on your own, with no way of checking that you aren't just wasting your time. 1st year classes exist to cover basic material that any mathematician should know. If you know the material, it would have been reasonable to skip them (and usually departments will give students flexibility to do this), but as I say below, if they are taking up all your time, that gives the lie to your suggestion that you were already ready to do research. \n\n*How common is it for math students to be supported by external funding (e.g. NSF GRFP) rather than a TAship?*\n\nRare, outside the very top schools.\n\n*How common is it for math students to do internships in industry to gain practical experience?*\n\nRare in my experience in pure math departments.\n\n*How common is it for math students to do outreach or volunteer work during graduate school?*\n\nMore common. I've known lots of people who taught (for example) in prisons as volunteers, or worked with K-12 students. Depends a lot on what's available.\n\n*Does a math department generally provide support and guidance to students when it comes to finding and applying for fellowships and internships?* \n\nFor fellowships, they should but the reality is more mixed. In my experience, the problem is more that students aren't willing to go through the application process, so faculty have been burned a few too many times to be proactive about it. It might require a little initiative to get help with this.\n\n*Is it a common attitude that it is the student's responsibility, if he wants those things, to undertake all steps of this process by himself?*\n\nYes. Graduate students are adults, and responsible for themselves. It might happen that someone in the department is looking for graduate students for an opportunity like this, but at the end of the day, it is up to you.\n\n*Is it normal for math departments to disregard students' research interests in favor of mandatory coursework?*\n\nThis is pretty insulting: obviously the department requires the coursework because they believe it is in the students' interests. Of course, it's hard to have a system that fits everyone, but very few students could be successful in grad school in math without taking a couple of years of classes (again, with the possible exception of the best schools).\n\n*For example, because all of my time is tied up in the 1st/2nd year courses and exams, I have been unable to do any research for the last two years, despite being very prepared and capable on my first day. (I published during undergrad and was chasing several promising ideas when I arrived.)* \n\nIf you were very prepared and capable, then your first year classes should have been easy, and you should have had plenty of time. If they were hard enough to take up all your time, you didn't know the material.\n\n*When I asked to be allowed time to do research instead of taking classes, I was rudely shut down.*\n\nI can't comment on whether it was rude or not, but I can't say it was a surprise that this approach did not work. Since you haven't mentioned a research advisor, I'm going to assume you don't have one. Very few students would be capable of doing this, and I have trouble imagining that your undergrad publications were so strong and independent that the department should have had faith that you were one of them. \n\n*How often do mathematics departments get together in social or community events, such as departmental happy hours?*\n\nDepends. Departmental happy hours aren't a strong tradition, but department teas are, and usually departments have a department-wide social event like a picnic or holiday party every semester or so.\n\n*How is networking different in mathematics? Do professors generally have connections in industry or prominent members of their field, or is that a rare thing?*\n\nRarely in industry, usually with prominent members of their field, but this depends a lot on the definition of \"prominent\" and \"field.\""
}
] |
2014/12/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34459",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26743/"
] |
34,460 |
I have an accepted paper in [TrustCom 2014](http://www.greenorbs.org/TrustCom2014/). The conference was held several months ago. However I could not find any information regarding the proceedings. They do not answer email. Is it normal? In general, how long after a conference are proceedings published?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34486,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "In brief, many aspects of math grad school are very different from CompSci, for example.\n\nThe vast majority of math grad students are funded by TA-ships, although some have NSF and other fellowships. The (large) size of typical math depts is tied to their role as service departments, teaching lower-division math, and this is what funds the large number of math grad students.\n\nInternships in some applied math fields are desirable, but non-trivial to arrange.\n\nOutreach and volunteer work are not strongly connected with these other questions.\n\nIt is not that math depts \"disregard students' research interests\", but that, almost universally in the U.S., further coursework beyond undergrad work is ... wise. If one has an unusually solid background, there are usually procedures by which to \"test out\" of requirements. On another hand, I am well aware that a certain number of grad students do feel that they're all ready to do research, and that coursework gets in the way. The \"problem\" is that \"research\" at a professional level in mathematics is not necessarily an immediate continuation of the sort of \"research\" typically done in undergrad projects. Another \"problem\" is that mathematics is an old subject, and there is a lot of very useful, helpful, enlightening stuff already known... and whose relevance to any given research project is very difficult to guess based on ignorance. I am absolutely not in favor of \"oppressing\" students by pointless busywork, but I am equally opposed to ignorance. Accurate perception of a given situation is difficult, and both students and faculty often have pre-existing biases... Again, testing-out of requirements ought to be a viable option, if one is well-prepared. If one doesn't see the relevance of the requirements, I'd tend to interpret this as reflecting a need to better understand the *content* of the required subjects. (Because they *are* relevant.)\n\nIn particular, depts to not \"disregard students' research interests\", except as not automatically exempting students from \"requirements\". Further, there are many hours in a day...\n\nAs to social events... it depends.\n\nNetworking? People know people. \"Industrial connections\" would exist only for very applied people, although connections to applied science research groups inside the university are common.\n\nAnd/but none of what the question describes strikes me as unusually \"uncooperative\". In my observation, it is very common that math grad school is quite different from what people are expecting, exactly insofar as many students expect to immediately \"start research\" (perhaps parallel to the impression given about other STEM fields' programs), rather than having any required coursework at all. Also, there seems to be a not-uncommon disaffection with TA-ing, as though this were lowlier than having a fellowship of some sort or research assistantship... and is construed, again, as \"obstructing research\". But without all these TA-ships, many fewer math grad students would have any financial support at all. (There's little grunt-work available in mathematics that would compare to the low-level research-support work in some other STEM fields, which does (by tradition) get the student's name on a published paper, etc.)\n\nSo, yes, mathematics is somewhat different from other STEM fields. Further, the fact that a program is not what one presumed it would/should be is not at all a strong indicator that something's wrong with the program (although, of course, there are dubious programs). The greatest resentment I see is among students who believe that they're fully-fledged \"researchers\", and are offended to not be immediately treated as such... While this message can be imparted rudely, and perceived as \"a rude shut-down\", the many issues of professional competence are not easy for novices to judge.\n\n(One more time: one can see about \"testing out\" of requirements...)\n\nEdit: prompted by Brian Borcher's comment... Teaching is an important part of an academic mathematician's job! The question of \"how much\" is secondary. The TA experience is very important to get up to speed on teaching, and, in unhappy cases, to discover early on that one hasn't the taste for it, if that is so. (I had one PhD student who discovered this unhappy fact in his own case, so he did not take the academic route.) Part of what one should try to learn is that \"teaching is not a burden\"... !!! ... to say the least. :)"
},
{
"answer_id": 34487,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "I'm going to focus on the third question: \"Is it normal for math departments to disregard students' research interests in favor of mandatory coursework?\"\n\nIn comparison with PhD programs in many other fields, PhD programs in mathematics in the US typically have quite a bit of required coursework and often include preliminary/qualifying exams that cover a very broad range of topics. In my experience, graduate students working in other STEM disciplines typically have fewer required courses to take. Thus the answer to your question is \"Yes, this is quite common.\" \n\nFor example, as a graduate student I took required courses in abstract algebra, real and complex analysis, functional analysis, and topology, even though my dissertation was in computational optimization.\n\nIt's traditionally felt that mathematics PhD's should have a broad background in mathematics so that they can easily teach undergraduate courses in almost any area of mathematics. The required coursework helps to develop this breadth. \n\nKeep in mind that the academic job market for PhD's in mathematics in the US is very different from the job market for PhD's in other STEM disciplines. Most PhD's in mathematics will end up working in teaching positions at community colleges and regional comprehensive 4 year colleges rather than in research oriented positions at universities. Having a broad background in mathematics (and experience as a TA) is helpful preparation for teaching oriented positions."
},
{
"answer_id": 34551,
"author": "Ben Webster",
"author_id": 13,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "While I think some of your questions point to genuine weaknesses in math departments (a lack of an internship pipeline, for example), a lot of them reflect a really unrealistic idea of what \"cooperation\" means. Your DGS, chair, etc. have met a lot of 1st/2nd year graduate students, and thus they know that very few of them are ready to do serious research, and in fact very few of them really know what that would mean. It wouldn't be looking after your interests to leave you to do research on your own, with no way of checking that you aren't just wasting your time. 1st year classes exist to cover basic material that any mathematician should know. If you know the material, it would have been reasonable to skip them (and usually departments will give students flexibility to do this), but as I say below, if they are taking up all your time, that gives the lie to your suggestion that you were already ready to do research. \n\n*How common is it for math students to be supported by external funding (e.g. NSF GRFP) rather than a TAship?*\n\nRare, outside the very top schools.\n\n*How common is it for math students to do internships in industry to gain practical experience?*\n\nRare in my experience in pure math departments.\n\n*How common is it for math students to do outreach or volunteer work during graduate school?*\n\nMore common. I've known lots of people who taught (for example) in prisons as volunteers, or worked with K-12 students. Depends a lot on what's available.\n\n*Does a math department generally provide support and guidance to students when it comes to finding and applying for fellowships and internships?* \n\nFor fellowships, they should but the reality is more mixed. In my experience, the problem is more that students aren't willing to go through the application process, so faculty have been burned a few too many times to be proactive about it. It might require a little initiative to get help with this.\n\n*Is it a common attitude that it is the student's responsibility, if he wants those things, to undertake all steps of this process by himself?*\n\nYes. Graduate students are adults, and responsible for themselves. It might happen that someone in the department is looking for graduate students for an opportunity like this, but at the end of the day, it is up to you.\n\n*Is it normal for math departments to disregard students' research interests in favor of mandatory coursework?*\n\nThis is pretty insulting: obviously the department requires the coursework because they believe it is in the students' interests. Of course, it's hard to have a system that fits everyone, but very few students could be successful in grad school in math without taking a couple of years of classes (again, with the possible exception of the best schools).\n\n*For example, because all of my time is tied up in the 1st/2nd year courses and exams, I have been unable to do any research for the last two years, despite being very prepared and capable on my first day. (I published during undergrad and was chasing several promising ideas when I arrived.)* \n\nIf you were very prepared and capable, then your first year classes should have been easy, and you should have had plenty of time. If they were hard enough to take up all your time, you didn't know the material.\n\n*When I asked to be allowed time to do research instead of taking classes, I was rudely shut down.*\n\nI can't comment on whether it was rude or not, but I can't say it was a surprise that this approach did not work. Since you haven't mentioned a research advisor, I'm going to assume you don't have one. Very few students would be capable of doing this, and I have trouble imagining that your undergrad publications were so strong and independent that the department should have had faith that you were one of them. \n\n*How often do mathematics departments get together in social or community events, such as departmental happy hours?*\n\nDepends. Departmental happy hours aren't a strong tradition, but department teas are, and usually departments have a department-wide social event like a picnic or holiday party every semester or so.\n\n*How is networking different in mathematics? Do professors generally have connections in industry or prominent members of their field, or is that a rare thing?*\n\nRarely in industry, usually with prominent members of their field, but this depends a lot on the definition of \"prominent\" and \"field.\""
}
] |
2014/12/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34460",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1070/"
] |
34,464 |
I'm applying for tenure track jobs this year, and unfortunately the silence from universities I've applied to has been almost deafening so far. While I'm sure there are several factors contributing to this, one concern that has been nagging me comes from the fact that I am currently finishing up a postdoc in England, and I've been applying to North American institutions exclusively. My questions are:
>
> Would the potentially high cost of flying me to an interview lead to some institutions passing me over?
>
>
> If so, would it help if I offer in the cover letter to (at least partially) pay my way?
>
>
>
I am concerned because I feel that by far my best chances are for positions at smaller liberal arts schools or state colleges. My guess is that these types of institutions may have smaller search budgets than so-called R1 universities, and really for the cost of interviewing me they could interview two or three equally qualified people who live nearby.
At the risk of making this question too localized, I should mention that I am working under a very generous grant with a substantial research expense budget, and so the cost wouldn't necessarily be out of my own pocket, assuming I can give a research talk at the interview.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34465,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "> \n> Would the potentially high cost of flying me to an interview lead to some institutions passing me over?\n> \n> \n> \n\nI believe many universities, especially smaller universities, will balk at flying overseas candidates in for interviews. Often they will move down their short lists and only if they are unable to find a suitable candidate that is higher than you on the list, will they be willing to fly you in. This isn't a huge disadvantage, but it is a disadvantage. In my experience candidates often hurt themselves during interviews and rarely perform so well they substantially move up in the rankings.\n\n> \n> If so, would it help if I offer in the cover letter to (at least partially) pay my way?\n> \n> \n> \n\nI would not offer to pay for an interview directly. This would in essence be calling out the search committee for being cheap. A better strategy would be to mention in your cover letter that you will happen to be in the States, possibly even states/cities near by, on a couple of dates and you would be happy to extend your trip and come to them for a visit. It would be nice if you have an academic pretence for those visits (conference, seminar, or visiting colleagues), but even saying you will be in the States for personal reasons is fine. If you do not get an interview, you do not have to go to the States."
},
{
"answer_id": 34489,
"author": "JenB",
"author_id": 26776,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26776",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "I have done lots of international interviews before with skype - it is quite common for university staff. I don't believe cost is a factor or that offering to contribute would help at all. They will set up a skype interview if they are interested in you.\n\nA better suggestion might be to use your research budget to go to some US based conferences and present your work and meet some people. Perhaps stay an extra couple of days at each end. You might also arrange a research visit, where you go to a few relevant institutions to talk about collaborating on some project. That way you have the opportunity to make a good impression with some US based research groups, which is much more likely to land you an interview when they recognise your name among the applicants."
}
] |
2014/12/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34464",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8633/"
] |
34,471 |
Although I am primarily interested in studying pure math, for certain personal reasons, I had to ask such a question. What I fear now is the mismatch that'll be noticed between my Personal Statement, where I intend to write about my interests in pure math and this query which clearly exhibits the fact that I have as yet not made up my mind. Even if I re-do my personal statement to reflect an interest in applied math instead of pure math, the fact that I wasn't sure at this terminal stage of the application process might go against me. Is there any way to rectify my mistake?
For reference, this question is with regards to a university in the UK.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34501,
"author": "Des",
"author_id": 26783,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26783",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "It will not go against you. I shows that you have an enquiring mind and are willing to change your mind as new opportunities open. To continue in a subject that is not right for you will be a really bad experience for you and may end up in failure - that's not good for you, or the institution. Go ahead and ask the question, but frame it as a positive decision, rather than a negative one."
},
{
"answer_id": 34503,
"author": "Davidmh",
"author_id": 12587,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12587",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Assuming your personal reasons are sound, a polite conversation cannot hurt you. Explain your reasons, and keep an open attitude. It is very common for people to change sub-fields (and fields) after their PhD, or even postdocs, so it will not strike as an big oddity.\n\nNow, if it is possible or not, depends mainly on where does your funding come from; and if the university regulations allow it. This will be brought up in the conversation.\n\nIf your reasons for studying applied maths are your desire to clone green dogs, well, it will look bad."
},
{
"answer_id": 34515,
"author": "mako",
"author_id": 5962,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5962",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Although I am primarily speaking from my experience in the US, my experience is that nobody will hold you to what you have written in your personal statement during your application. It is not a contract. You'll be lucky if anybody even remembers!\n\nThe point of the personal statement is (a) to show that you can think and write clearly about your research and preparation and (b) to ensure that your interests overlap with available resources in the department including both funding and faculty.\n\nIf you want to switch to something that the department (or individually faculty member admitting/funding you) can advise and support you in doing, people will likely not have a problem. If you want to switch to something that the people admitting you cannot supervise you effectively on, the problem is much more serious that you \"looking bad\" because you will either be supervised poorly or working on something you do not love.\n\nIf you heart lies in an area other than one you suggested in your personal statement, you should raise the issue before you say \"yes\" to a program so that you don't end up in a program that is poorly suited to supporting you in following your interests."
}
] |
2014/12/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34471",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26760/"
] |
34,481 |
After reading [this question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/264/what-is-the-typical-time-period-after-which-an-incoming-grad-student-is-expected), I am curious as to the publication expectations for part-time students. I am a Mlitt Student (working full-time and studying part-time) and am in the process of switching from my (uncompleted) masters programme to a PhD programme. My own personal feeling is that if it is expected that a full time student publish before they get their PhD then the same should be applied for a part-time one. It may take me longer to do a PhD but should the same expectations to publish not be there?
As I'm in the process of changing to the PhD I'm not sure yet if there is a requirement to publish to gain it, which of course may make the decision anyway. I am aware as per the answers in the linked question that this can vary between different institutions and disciplines. I am in the Humanities.
I am mainly asking in the context that in my Mlitt it was expected that I write my research thesis and possibly present at a conference, but there appeared to be no real pressure to publish an article etc. If this is something that will change, I'll have to factor it into my work-plan.
**Edit(additional info):** When I originally posted this question I attempted to keep it a generic as possible so didn't include info from my own case. I think this example shows where there can be slight differences between what can be expected from a full-time and part-time student. In my university full-time students have to do a blended PhD(about 20% coursework, 80% Thesis) whereas due to working 9-5(or more) I'll be doing a traditional PhD of Thesis only (an option not allowed to full time students). Personally I don't think this should have major impact on expectations on students to publish but does highlight that as a part-time student I shall be getting(hopefully!) my PhD by way of a different process to full-time student so there may be different expectations.
The easy answer is 'Ask your supervisor' and I will but it would be great if someone was either a part-time PhD student or supervised one etc, could give some insight on if there is an expectation in academia that a part-time PhD student publish?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34482,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "The expectation to publish does not depend on whether you are full-time, half-time or spare-time student, it is based on the general expectations on students in your field, department, or academic culture, or some combination. If a PhD thesis is a monograph then the main focus will be to complete such a thesis. this commonly does not preclude publishing as well. If you need to write a thesis that consists of published papers and manuscripts then that is what you need to do. \n\nI doubt the advisor is the key player here although that person will be representative of what you can expect from your graduate school education in terms of expectations on your writing. So check what is written in the form of PhD these and you will know. Communicating your results will inevitably be required so some form of written result will be on the horizon."
},
{
"answer_id": 34492,
"author": "Ben Voigt",
"author_id": 8705,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8705",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "While it (usually) isn't a deal breaker to not publish, failure to do so will hurt you in one way or another.\n\nDuring my defense last week, one of the committee members suggested that the work wasn't significant, and commented on lack of peer-reviewed publications. That didn't prove that the work wasn't significant, but having a journal publication in hand makes fielding a question about significance as easy as quoting from a review report, while having none means that you will have to provide justification in oral arguments.\n\n(Context: part-time PhD in Electrical and Systems Engineering, now \"all but deposit\")"
}
] |
2014/12/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34481",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12454/"
] |
34,493 |
What is the rough salary one should expect from a research university in New Zealand, say in mathematics or sciences areas, at the beginning assistant professor (called Lecturer in NZ) level professor?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34524,
"author": "Jeromy Anglim",
"author_id": 62,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/62",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "Wikipedia suggests that \"assistant professor\" is equivalent to \"Lecturer\" in the [Australian and New Zealand Academic ranking systems](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_ranks_%28Australia_and_New_Zealand%29).\n\nMy guess is that you can google any New Zealand university and they will list salaries for a Lecturer. For example, I searched for \"university of auckland academic salaries\"\nand obtained [the following document](http://teu.ac.nz/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/Terms-of-settlement-2013-2015-Academic-Staff-signed.pdf)\n\nSo if you were employed as a lecturer in 2014, you'd probably start at $76,535 (New Zealand Dollars; [exchange rate](https://www.google.com.au/search?sourceid=chrome-psyapi2&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8&q=new%20zealand%20to%20us%20dollars) as of 19th Dec 2014 is 1 NZ dollar buys .78 US dollars; so starting salary would be around $60,000 USD) and each year you'd typically go up an increment (i.e., about $2,500 NZD; $1,950 USD) until you hit the top of \"lecturer\". At that point, further pay rises would be contingent on applying for a promotion to senior lecturer.\n\nThe relevant section from the University of Auckland agreement is shown below.\n\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 34525,
"author": "Michael Homer",
"author_id": 17740,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17740",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "You can find the current [collective agreements for all universities on the Tertiary Education Union's website](https://teu.ac.nz/explore/find-your-branch). Entry-level salaries for a lecturer, and the low point of the senior lecturer range, at the start of 2021 were as follows (all NZD):\n\n| University | L1 salary | SL1 salary |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Auckland | 83,602 | 106,285 |\n| AUT | 73,966 | 91,226 |\n| Waikato | 77,402 | 95,883 |\n| Jossuy | 74,478 | 93,335 |\n| Victoria | 79,276 | 99,870 |\n| Canterbury | 79,671 | 102,142 |\n| Lincoln | 73,018 | 92,723 |\n| Otago | 82,416 | 103,678 |\n\nThe average is about NZ$78,000. These generally have annual percentage adjustments built in, so the base rate increases each year. There is generally also an automatic progression within a grade for current staff across several steps spread between the lecturer base and senior lecturer base, and it is generally possible to be appointed mid-grade as well according to experience (e.g. working time since PhD). All of this varies from school to school, and there are also other payments that may apply, so you should check the agreements for particular details you're interested in. If you're not a union member these rates will generally apply to you when you start as well (by law, historically, but the situation may change).\n\nA couple of the agreements linked above have expired, and may have been replaced but not yet made available on the website, and some contain increments that hadn't come into effect yet. The general area of the numbers is right, though. There is a fair amount of variation between institutions, particularly the largest and smallest universities. There's also quite a bit of variation in how the scale works above that lowest-level entry point and how many steps there are (between 6 and 9 before moving to SL)."
}
] |
2014/12/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34493",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20950/"
] |
34,498 |
I've been applying for tenure track positions in computer science.
Recently I visited university X for an interview and they have hinted that they are likely to offer me a position after my second visit. Assuming all goes well, how much time can I expect to be given for deciding on that offer?
I have also applied to several other places where any decision won't be made within the next few months. So my worry is that I might receive an offer from X "too soon" and hence won't be able to also take into account other opportunities.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34502,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "In my experience, this depends somewhat on the level of the hire. \n\nA search for a full professor, named chair, department chair, or dean might result in a long period of negotiations with the candidate. These kinds of searches often go \"one candidate at a time\" rather than bringing in all candidates for on campus interviews at nearly the same time. Since the process is sequential, there's obviously more room to give the candidate time to consider the offer. \n\nHowever, when it comes to hiring a new assistant professor there are typically several reasonable candidates that were all interviewed on campus at about the same time. If the university suspects that a top candidate isn't likely to take the offer they may make an offer with a short deadline in hopes that they can still get their second or third choice. \n\nIn the past when I've made offers as a department chair (in mathematics) the offers were open for one or two weeks (with some possibility for an extension if there was negotiation going on.) I have had to say \"no\" to requests for extended time to consider an offer. \n\nYou can always ask for an extension of the time period, but I wouldn't count on getting one. \n\nI've also participated in searches in other academic departments. The only reason for extended time on offers that I've ever seen was negotiation of startup packages- in the physical sciences and engineering new faculty often have very specific needs for laboratory space and equipment that have to be negotiated and this can take time."
},
{
"answer_id": 34507,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "> \n> I have also applied to several other places where any decision won't be made within the next few months. So my worry is that I might receive an offer from X \"too soon\" and hence won't be able to also take into account other opportunities. \n> \n> \n> \n\nI'm sorry to be the one to tell you the bad news: if you get one offer \"unseasonably early\", then it is very likely that the intent of this offer is to \"squeeze you\": more precisely, to place you in the position of having to turn down a tenure-track offer without any other offers in hand. This is hardball, but it's legal hardball: at least they're squeezing you with a job offer.\n\nI don't think there's anything you can do to respond to this until you actually get that first offer. At that point, you should:\n\n* Write back immediately to the department which has offered you a job, expressing your delight and serious interest. Say that you will need to receive the offer in writing before you can respond to them in any way. (Often this delays things for a few days.) Make sure that whatever deadline you get counts from your receipt of the formal written offer.\n* Write immediately to all the places which you would consider possibly preferable to the offer you've gotten. Tell them that you've received an offer from University X. If you haven't heard anything about your application then you can't really say much more than this. On the other hand if they've contacted you about an interview, then you should offer to reschedule the interview ASAP, in time to have the interview, get an offer from University Y, and consider which of the two (or more) offers is preferable.\n* If you have any bites from University Y then you have to keep writing back to both universities, doing everything in your power to get two job offers simultaneously rather than sequentially.\n\nTrying to deal with multiple offers with not fully compatible time frames is a rather stressful situation. To try to keep your stress levels down, remember how much more awesome it is than not having any offers at all. Also, don't be shy about asking for what you want or need: this is your life, after all. \n\n**Added**: I didn't directly address the title question because Bwoak Morckark already did that nicely. But to corroborate: it is extremely unlikely that you will get a few months of deliberation. Really stretching things out -- including negotiations about startup, equipment, and so forth -- could get you maybe a month, but if you asked for that much in advance you wouldn't get it. Your potential employee simply can't afford to spend the entire hiring season waiting for one (tenure-track) candidate."
}
] |
2014/12/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34498",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26784/"
] |
34,510 |
A professor agreed to write me a letter of recommendation for a military program. He said 'yeah, send me a vita'. What is a vita?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34512,
"author": "eykanal",
"author_id": 73,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "This is simply shorthand for curriculum vitae, also called a CV or resume. He's just asking you to send him your resume so he can list stuff you've done when writing your letter."
},
{
"answer_id": 34513,
"author": "mako",
"author_id": 5962,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5962",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "A \"vita\" is just a short term for a *curriculum vitae* (i.e., CV) which is similar to, but not exactly the same as, a resumé.\n\nThere are many questions on this site, like [this one](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9884/curriculum-vitae-in-application-for-phd) asking about how to create a CV and many other webpages which can help with figuring out how to write one."
}
] |
2014/12/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34510",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17694/"
] |
34,520 |
From John Baez's [*Advice for a Young Scientist*](http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/advice.html):
>
> Your talks should be clear, concise, fun, exciting, and *never ever run over time*. For each extra minute your talk runs over, 10% more of the audience will decide you are a jerk and start fantasizing about you falling down a trap door.
>
>
>
After 11 minutes, 110% of your audience will start hating you.
That makes perfect sense, because that includes the people waiting for the room to open up for the next talk to begin.
But some people at my college like to take the opposite view. One lecturer never releases his class until he's run at least five minutes overtime. In the mandatory presentation class, the teacher maintained that going five minutes over the twenty minute talk period time was ok, but when one student went one minute undertime, she insisted that he repeat the assignment.
My question is: how should the speaker treat overtime?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34521,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "It's very different to require a 20 minute presentation. It would follow that speaking more than 20 minutes is okay; perhaps the recommended time is 20-25 minutes but the professor is very strict about the lower limit to make sure you have that much material. Perhaps not the best didactic method but analogous to a minimum page length in writing.\n\nYou are trying to see a generalization where there shouldn't be one. There's a culture of being late in America just like there is a culture of going over on talks. It's problematic though, especially because some prefers eschew the boundary entirely and run well into your next class. So yes, that is a thing, and it is problematic, but you should not treat assignments as the same category."
},
{
"answer_id": 34522,
"author": "earthling",
"author_id": 2692,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2692",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "The speaker should follow the guidelines given. Granted, normally one should limit a presentation to exactly 20 minutes. A range is much more common, and much more reasonable. Indeed, I would say the limit that was given was really 20-25 minutes (though not given in a very clear way).\n\nIt's like speeding. The posted speed limit is 65, so how should you consider yourself when you go over 65? You should slow down and fit within the posted limits.\n\nIn presentations, when you cannot fit your material within the allotted time, it shows your lack of preparation. If you just keep blabbing away, it shows your inability to follow your own structure. If you simply do not think the limit is important then you are showing a great disregard for the audience.\n\nThis is true of lecturers, too. If they do not care about the time limit they are simply being disrespectful. A philosopher would say being disrespectful to anyone is really showing your own disrespect to yourself.\n\nIn the end, people who do not follow the limits are saying they are special and the rules do not apply to them. Sadly, this attitude is all too common. Trying to change others is futile but we should do what we can to set a good example for others, regardless of our position."
},
{
"answer_id": 34523,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "Speaking for longer than the allotted time is unprofessional, and it can be very damaging and offensive in some circumstances. For example, if a conference schedules talks back to back, then it's not acceptable for one speaker to try to use part of the next speaker's time.\n\nIt may not be quite as bad in other cases, but it's still disrespectful to the audience. It tells the audience that the speaker believes his/her final words are more important than whatever else the audience might need to do, and it forces anyone with other obligations to risk drawing attention by leaving before the end of the talk.\n\nClasses are something of a special case for two reasons. One is that the professor has a certain degree of power over students in the classroom, unlike a typical seminar speaker; another is that it's easy for professors to rationalize that they are going over time for their students' own good. Going over time is still problematic, but some people don't feel bad about it.\n\nAs for how to handle it, this problem should never even come up if the speaker is on top of things. It's important to keep track of the remaining time and adjust the presentation to omit details as needed to finish on time. If you screw this up, then you are out of luck if anyone is scheduled to use the room after you. Otherwise, you could apologize and offer an extremely brief summary of your remaining points. (I.e., if you suddenly discover that your time is up, that's when you should switch to the 30 or 60 second summary of your conclusions, rather than continuing with the seven minutes remaining in your talk as planned.)"
},
{
"answer_id": 34529,
"author": "Davidmh",
"author_id": 12587,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12587",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "Going overtime in a conference is a nightmare for the organising committee. Usually, there are parallel sessions focusing on different topics, and people try to make their own collision-free schedule to make the most of the conference, if one talk gets shifted, the people changing rooms will be affected. Also, it is common to have a few keynote speakers for the whole conference, but if one session is very delayed, you are either forcing the whole conference to wait for you (and then you will get the hate of 10x the audience of your talk), or make people miss the keynote (that is presumably of particular interest).\n\nExact timing of a presentation is difficult, but perfectly doable. You should rehearse it until you are confident. You can always take an extra minute from the questions, but then be aware that you are depriving another person from speaking."
},
{
"answer_id": 34534,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "I think the amount of time leeway in how long you can talk is proportional to how long you are talking. If you are supposed to give a 4 minute summary and it takes 6 minutes, that is too long. Similarly, giving a 4 minute summary in 2 minutes is too short. Alternatively, I think it is perfectly reasonable if a 60 minute lecture takes anywhere between 58 and 62 minutes. I think audiences will generally give you up to a 10% margin for error. Many talks, both research and teaching, also include a small period of time for questions at the end which provides a nice buffer.\n\nFor a typical teaching scenario a 1 hour time slot is often only 50 minutes of teaching and you might allocated your self 3 minutes for questions at the end. This means you should be aiming for your class to take between a 43 and 51 minutes. If you hit 51 minutes, you apologize and tell the students they can stop by your office to ask questions and that there will be a chance for questions at the next session and you let them out 1 minute late. If you finish early you can ask for questions. If you do not get questions you can recap the syllabus and schedule for a few minutes and let them go 5 minutes early."
},
{
"answer_id": 34536,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "I think the presentations teacher who is forcing students to repeat talks if they run too short is not working in reality. Her students will be very ill-prepared for real conferences, where such behavior is not likely to be appreciated.\n\nAs someone who has chaired a lot of sessions at conferences, I have to admit that I have **minimal** tolerance for people who try to run over their allotted slots. If your slot is 20 minutes, I will warn you when you have five minutes left and again at two minutes. If at 20 minutes, you're not on your conclusion slide, I will cut you off and ask the next speaker to set up their talk. \n\nHowever, a lot of that issue comes up when one of two situations occur:\n\n* The organizers of the event where the talk takes place do a poor job of managing the session and ensuring speakers stick to their time slots.\n* The speaker is clearly unprepared for the time slot they have been allotted.\n\nI recently attended a talk which should have been about 45 minutes long. When the speaker stopped, after nearly **75** minutes, he had only completed two parts out of *seven* in his outline. He had way too many slides, talked about each one for far too long, and generally ticked off the audience in the process. \n\nAs for lectures, as a student, I would tolerate a minimal overrun to \"tie things up\"—if the lecture is 90 minutes, for instance, a one- to two-minute overrun would be OK. But an extra 10 or 15 minutes would be unacceptable. As an instructor, I would rather end the class five minutes early and leave some material uncovered rather than run that far overtime."
},
{
"answer_id": 34542,
"author": "Ed Daniel",
"author_id": 26820,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26820",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Keeping to time is just basic respect, for your audience and for any fellow speakers.\n\nAdmittedly, it varies somewhat with context - the only presentation at a group meeting going over probably doesn't have many knock-on effects, whereas at a conference there's coffee going cold outside, parallel sessions getting out of sync, and generally far more going on and more people to annoy.\n\nThat said, a rule of thumb: Is your time worth more than that of everyone in the audience combined? No? Then don't finish late - even when they all filed in five minutes late (another pet hate of mine). Yes? No, it isn't.\n\nAt the courses and conferences where I've presented, I've always been the last speaker before lunch, where you're already struggling to keep the audience's attention before you start. With a bad chairman, half of that last slot can disappear easily; that speaker is then faced with either making everyone late for lunch or mutilating his/her presentation. Bad chair or not, it's disrespectful for earlier speakers to put other speakers in that position. Admittedly, my experience is that you get massive brownie points for getting back on track and saving the lunch break, and you can get some interesting conversations in the lunch queue as a result, but you shouldn't have to.\n\nWithin the department, where we're being kept from actual productive work, I like to count the people in the room, calculate a rough figure for their combined hourly cost, and hence work out how much of our hard-earned funding is being wasted every minute that the speaker goes over. Needless to say, I'm not paying attention while doing this.\n\nThe worst example of going overtime that I've experienced was at a conference with a number of lunchtime sessions. Someone whose name started with Sir was assigned one of the first ones, and he was still talking (and his audience still hungry) when the second sessions were over and we were meant to be back in the main auditorium. As it happens, that was the same room where we were booked to give the second session; we ended up giving a software demo standing in the hallway, with one of us holding a laptop for the other and people pressing in to see what should have been projected on the wall.\n\nSo, having been on the receiving end of it both as audience member and speaker, my personal tolerance for it is very low indeed. From discussions with many colleagues over many years, I haven't found one yet who's OK with it, even when they find the topic interesting."
},
{
"answer_id": 34554,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "Amongst the answers presented so far, I see a lot of strong sentiment, but am missing two things that I think are extremely important: 1) context-sensitivity, and 2) *how* a speaker should manage timing.\n\nTo the first point, the degree to which a speaker should be concerned with running over (or under) time is highly sensitive to the precision with which their talk is scheduled. Contrary to what most of the answers have said thus far, this can vary highly depending on venue.\n\n* Lecturing a class is the most rigid context, as students often have other classes that they must leave to go to immediately at the end. You need to stop on time, period.\n* Conference talks are typically designed for a five minute question period, which provides a cushion for going a couple of minutes over: you just get less questions.\n* In settings aimed at discussion, such as workshops, there is often a looser schedule with more flexibility and buffer times built in. Here, one can feel comfortable running over somewhat longer as long as the extra time is primarily caused by interaction with the audience, as that is the purpose.\n* In informal settings, such as an invited presentation in a group meeting, you can go over as long as the discussion takes you. In this type of setting, I have had a 15 minute talk turn into a 90 minute talk, because the people I was presenting to wanted to dig deep into discussion with every slide.\n\nTo the second point, for the more tightly constrained talks, it is important to also have a way of thinking about time management in order to ensure that one can end on time.\nA very useful method that I learned from one of the best speakers I know is to include an \"accordion section\" toward the end of the talk, containing material that\nis enriching but not strictly necessary. If you are running ahead of schedule, you can dawdle in the accordion section, explaining all of the lovely details. If you are running behind schedule, you can skim through.\n\nFor example, I might give a talk that ends with a couple of case studies. The first case study will get an in-depth treatment no matter what, while the second case study is there to show the generality of what I have been talking about. If I have enough time, the second case study can be presented in the same detail as the first. If not, then I can instead say something shorted, even to as short as, \"X is fairly general, as can be seen by the fact that is works just as well in case study Y as well.\"\n\nThus, you should always plan your talk to be precisely on time, and include an accordion section that simplifies the task of controlling your timing. In settings where there is flexibility in the schedule, however, you should feel free to allow the audience to extend the time of your talk within the bounds of schedule flexibility."
},
{
"answer_id": 34568,
"author": "supercat",
"author_id": 21086,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21086",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "There are many contexts where it is extremely important that talks fit the allocated time as precisely as possible. Some other contexts benefit from more flexibility. A speaker may be able to precisely predict how long it will take to present a certain corpus of material, but it's much harder to predict how long it will take to present the amount of material the speaker has *which the audience will be interested in*. In some contexts it may be better to have the speakers guess what the audience will want to hear and present a fixed corpus of information, but in others it may be better to have speakers adjust the lengths of their presentations according to the audiences' levels of interest. The latter approach would likely be better most of the time *but for the fact that speakers and audience members may have conflicting time obligations elsewhere*. The problems created by conflicting time obligations, however, often outweigh the benefits of such flexibility.\n\nIf in a certain context a speaker could go overtime without creating difficulties for himself, the audience, or anyone else who would want to use the space, then it may be good for the speaker to adjust the length of his talk according to what the audience wants to hear. Such situations are not the norm, however. If a particular conference or convention has many activities which people will be able to do at \"any time\", and most visitors will be expected to want to spend a lot of time on such activities, then it may make sense to have talks which might benefit from going overtime be followed by \"free time\"."
},
{
"answer_id": 34607,
"author": "Akka Demic",
"author_id": 23986,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23986",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "Don't do it. If you do, don't expect attention from anyone after your allotted time. The busier people in the audience may very well need to leave at the scheduled end-time in order to make their next meeting."
}
] |
2014/12/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34520",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24274/"
] |
34,530 |
After a successful PhD in computer science (including some awards from top conferences, internship at top industry research labs, and a good number of citations to my ~15 papers) in a top-10 US school, I got a postdoc at a top-3 US school.
I had a number of postdoc offers and chose the one whose topic more far-related to my phd thesis, in order to learn new things, get out of the box, and show that I'm not a one-trick dog (or doc? ;) ).
The topic is different but not too much far away (i.e., I didn't move from theory to systems, rather from algorithms to (applied) machine learning).
I've been in my new position almost 6 months and feel like a complete failure.
I can't go on with one of the projects I was assigned to and it is not for lack of trying: I just don't understand the results I'm getting because I don't know the field well enough and I can't figure out what I am actually supposed to do to improve them.
My supervisor gets quite "adversarial" when I ask for feedback and I try to explain what I don't understand. On the other hand, he says that I'm very helpful on other projects, helping the students, and a valuable addition to the group, and he would have told me if it wasn't so. Indeed I think it is true and I'm doing a good job on other projects (which are not "mine").
The project I'm failing at could have a great impact on science (not just CS) on the long term, but I feel like any engineer trained in the field could lead it to completion, so I don't find it particularly exciting.
I guess I'm missing the excitement I got when I had to prove theorems during my PhD. Right now, the project involves just messy data analysis, and a lot of try-and-error coding (mostly error), all without much feedback from the supervisor (who actually told me to ask the students...which I did and they weren't exactly helpful).
Anyway, this is getting me extremely stressed (I actually started seeing a therapist about this), and I'm thinking of moving away from this position, although I may have the possibility of renewing for another year (if my supervisor would even still consider the option, which he gave me when I started)
What are the pro/cons of moving away after 1 year with not exactly much positive work done yet, especially of which I could claim ownership? I believe that right now my supervisor would not, in the future, write me a very positive recommendation letter, in my opinion.
Note that I already have offers for next year, on topics more related to what I did during my phd.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34684,
"author": "CuriousCat",
"author_id": 17548,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17548",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "You specifically asked about the pros/cons of leaving after one year without much to show for, so I will start with that. In my experience, you build credibility over time. And the more of that your resume shows the better. \n\nImagine the following situation: \n\nYou leave this position now and move to another school. Likely not in the top-3 anymore. Your next university takes you, after all you come from a top-3 school, even without published results one could assume you profited from that. But now, after another year, funding completely dries up at your new university and you have to leave again. Now you already have two very short post-doc employments on your resume. It might start looking like a downward spiral. If you decide to leave academia then, you would have to explain why it took you two years at different schools after completing a PhD to figure out that you were not cut for academia. \n\nI am not suggesting that this is bound to happen. I am just pointing out a negative scenario to consider. And there will always be people who made something like this work. \n\nAn argument in favor of leaving would be, if you cannot at all imagine turning the situation around, \"wasting\" more valuable time and ultimately having nothing to show for after 2-4 years - or however long you stay. \n\n---\n\nBut aside from the pros/cons, I believe a careful examination of your situation is called for. \n\nYou say, \"*I just don't understand the results I'm getting because I don't know the field well enough and I can't figure out what I am actually supposed to do to improve them.*\", however, later on you point out: \"*any engineer trained in the field could lead it to completion, so I don't find it particularly exciting. I guess I'm missing the excitement I got when I had to prove theorems during my PhD.*\" \n\nWith regard to the struggle of not knowing what to do, I would respond: You have a PhD! You should have acquired the ability to do a thorough literature search and familiarize yourself with almost any topic within a reasonable amount of time. Especially, if your new field is not too far from your old one. Read publications, text books (if they exist) and talk to others in your new field. Is your new supervisor the only faculty member at your top-3 school that deals with this matter? Or are there others with a similar interest? After six months, you should have gained some understanding of what you are doing and what the results mean. \n\nThis brings us to the second part, the lack of excitement. As a general advice for career choices, I would recommend putting down a list of expectations that you have with regard to what you do. And then assign each item a priority. But only assign each priority once. Based on your question, this list could contain:\n\n* I want to conduct research at a top-3 university\n* I want to conduct research in a field with which I am familiar\n* I want to conduct research in a field that I find exciting\n\nOnce you have assigned a priority to each of those, only one has the top spot. Follow that top priority. If you current position does not satisfy that, move on."
},
{
"answer_id": 34689,
"author": "Jessica B",
"author_id": 20036,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20036",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "Not really an answer, but some advice: it's normal to need time to get going as a post-doc. Usually you end a PhD at the end of a fairly large project. You have completed what you've been building up to. Therefore you need to start pretty much at the beginning with new projects as a post-doc, and it takes time before they come to completing. After that you'll usually have different projects at different stages, so the start of post-doc time is likely to be unusually slow results-wise.\n\nIn terms of the question: the main problem with trying to move when you've not produced much recently is in not being able to secure a job. If you've already got offers, you might want to think more about the personal side of moving jobs.\n\nPS. You might like to look up 'imposter syndrome'."
},
{
"answer_id": 34709,
"author": "Lev Reyzin",
"author_id": 10,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "If you've realized after a year that you want to go back to doing theory research, you should simply do that. It's not \"bad\" to leave a post-doc after a year and take a different one (I did that, though for different reasons). When you apply for permanent jobs, if you don't have a letter from your current host, that should be fine as long as you have good letters overall, including one from your PhD advisor. Your overall record will matter a lot more than what project you did where.\n\nIn trying to figure out what you *should* do, I would suggest simply figuring out what you *want* to do. It is sometimes possible to \"overstrategize.\""
}
] |
2014/12/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34530",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26810/"
] |
34,547 |
Let's assume that some scientist discovers a phenomenon that has never been noticed before.
He wants to write a paper about it but he doesn't want to constantly write "effect of change of some properties blahblahblah". Can he therefore name this effect with a name of his choice? For example "*Discoverer's name*'s effect". Or "*fluffy puppy* effect" (just because he likes *puppies*)?
The same for constants. Can one name newly discovered constant "*my name* constant"?
This question can be simplified to: "what are standards for naming new physical entities?"
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34548,
"author": "Floris",
"author_id": 15062,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15062",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "Usually the way this works is that a researcher discovers some phenomenon and publishes it without giving a name. Then someone else comes along and writes about \"Jonif' discovery\" and before you know it the world talks about the \"Jonif effect\".\n\nGiving things a name yourself is done in some fields - for example, in MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) it is conventional that people who develop a new pulse sequence will give that sequence a \"catchy\" name (usually some clever abbreviation, never really their own name). So you have names like CAIPIRINHA (which is really the name of a drink, but stands for \"Controlled Aliasing In Parallel Imaging Results IN Higher Acceleration\").\n\nIn the end, the name that the community adopts is the name by which something will be known - so you are free to call it the \"teletubby galaxy\" but if everybody insists on calling it Andromeda-X42 you will be a lone voice. If you have the good fortune of discovering something new and valuable, name it wisely or be ignored.\n\nReiterating the point made by Wathulieq: suggesting that a particular phenomenon/constant/equation should be named after you is considered a major *faux pas*. Others will do it for you - when you try to jump the gun and suggest that it be named after you, you will come across as conceited. I can think of no example of a well known effect that a discoverer named for themselves. Some examples where they did not:\n\nNewfix's Laws (he called them \"Axiomata sive Leges Motus\")\n\nHooke's Law (\"Explaining the power of springing bodies\")\n\nJosephson effect (for which he got the Nobel prize... not available for Newfix or Hooke, or surely they would have qualified) was described by him (Physics Letters Vol 1, No 7, 1962) as \"new effects\":\n\n\n\n* he didn't say \"we present here the Josephson Effect\".\n\nThe list could go on and an. If you are the greatest, you don't need to say so - others will do it. No offense intended, Mr Ali.\n\nIf you are interested interested, there is a follow-up question on a sister site, History of Science and Math: [What famous laws were named by their discoverer?](https://hsm.stackexchange.com/q/691/543)"
},
{
"answer_id": 34549,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Usually if the results are important enough, the scientists peers will name it appropriately. For instance, if I am the first to write a paper about the gyrostability of felines, I may talk about this \"self-righting tendency\" and if the context is clear, simply \"tendency\" or \"effect\". If I want to name it, and hope that the name sticks, I would choose something catchy and descriptive, but I probably wouldn't name it after myself. A common way to do this is to say something like, \"the tendency for falling felines to self-right, which we will henceforth refer to as the Buttered-Side-Up effect, has been recognized since the 15th century {{citation\\_needed}} but a satisfactory treatment has not been made to date\"."
},
{
"answer_id": 34550,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "There are several levels in your question. A researcher can certainly come up with a name for, say, and effect observed in research. This new name should be descriptive to stand a chance to catch on because it is only when accepted by peers in the field that the name may stick. It is also possible to name effects after their first discoverers and the same applies, if any agree on it it may become used. naming something after one-self is probably a really bad idea. Trying to be funny or ambiguous equally so.\n\nAs for constants, one can certainly name a constant anything you wish but if the constant has any wide relevance there are usually organisations that will have to accept names and numbers. some of this work is done within [Bureau International des Poids et measures (BIPM)](http://www.bipm.org/en/measurement-units/) that maintains the SI-system. The different Unions within the [The International Council for Science (ICSU)](http://www.icsu.org/) also organise working groups (equiv.) to work on terminology and propose standards for the different fields. within different fields there are varying additional international bodies that organizes nomenclature and terminology.\n\nSo standards are usually set by standardizing organisations. There focus on terminology , constants etc. that have wide significance and where accuracy both in terms and numbers are required. On top of that the scientific community self-organizes softer terms such as those of effects or theories but the success of introducing new terminology or what have you is always depending on the peers accepting it in a longer perspective."
},
{
"answer_id": 34575,
"author": "Tom Au",
"author_id": 755,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/755",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Chemists who discover a new element of the Periodic Table have the right to name it. Marae Cunuu, who won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry, named her discovery \"polonium\" after her native Poland.\n\nI would not be surprised to see this practice followed in other scientific fields."
},
{
"answer_id": 34594,
"author": "Stephen",
"author_id": 26848,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26848",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "You may absolutely call your findings whatever you want. I have seen it done many many times - but some people may consider you to be an 'arrogant jerk' (shall we say) for naming things after yourself - especially if they are trivial.\n\nI have seen trivial things being named as if it were something incredible or ground breaking, and all I think is: *what a loser*. Adding two numbers together that both end with the number 3, does not deserved to be called \"Pedez's Second Principle of Arithmetic\" (this isn't actually a thing, but makes my point)\n\nHonestly, unless you discover a new element or your finding is truly notable don't name it anything. As others have mentioned, the academic community will name it for you if they deem it notable enough."
}
] |
2014/12/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34547",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/41071/"
] |
34,552 |
In my job before grad school, I could expense items as soon as I had a receipt and I knew exactly when the money would arrive (typically the following pay cycle). In grad school, it seems to be a mystery when I will receive reimbursement.
* I bought tickets and airfare on day 1 of this scenario
* I was not allowed to request reimbursement until 6 weeks later, after the conference
* The conference ended, I requested reimbursement. 6 weeks later, still nothing!
So for the last 12 weeks, my account is down airfare and tickets, and for the last 6 weeks, I'm down the hotel, transportation, and meal costs. I've sent all the emails I can and have asked around -- the response I get is "The finance department does not give exact days of deposit."
Is this the norm in academic institutions? What is a reasonable reimbursement time for conference travel from a department?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34553,
"author": "Alexandros",
"author_id": 10042,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10042",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "Just my two cents.\n\n* Departments pay after they receive the necessary invoice from the student. So, they cannot pay hotels before you return from the conference.\n* In my department, buying the air tickets is not enough. I also have to provide the boarding passes that I actually used the tickets. That means you can only get the air tickets money AFTER returning from the conference. This makes partly sense, because if you got sick and cancelled the trip they would not have given any money to you in advance, so you would not have to return them back.\n* In many conferences (for CS), you get the registration invoice at the desk and not when you pay online. Again, this invoice is needed for getting back the money you paid, since most institutions cannot provide funding without invoices.\n* Logistically you might make a reservation in 2014 and the trip is going to be in 2015. Institutions cannot pay money in 2014 for an invoice issued on 2015. This might also occur for smaller logistic periods (every 3 or 6 months) as well, depending on the country's tax laws.\n\n**Bottom line**. You should start counting time AFTER coming back from the conference. Expecting to be paid in advance without providing the proper invoices is simply not possible. After that, it depends on each department's bureaucracy on how soon you will get the money. And believe me six weeks does not seem that far fetched too."
},
{
"answer_id": 34567,
"author": "mako",
"author_id": 5962,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5962",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "**It is standard for departments to wait until after travel to process reimbursements.** In fact, many require boarding passes or other proof that travel occurred that are impossible to provide before travel finishes. Some departments will reimburse before but this is (in my experience) the exception not he rule.\n\n**Reimbursements after the fact will vary based on the specific bureacratic rules for approval, the people doing the processing, and the backlog that the administrators are facing.** I've had travel reimbursements processed in three days and in three months at the same institution.\n\nTwo general pieces of advice:\n\n1. Remember that administrators are humans who understand that carrying the costs for travel can be difficult — especially for graduate students who are more likely to live paycheck-to-paycheck and carry these kinds of bills on their credit cards than faculty. I've made my situation clear to the folks doing the processing and had my reimbursements bumped to the head of the queue.\n2. In the future, keep in mind that administrative assistants can often purchase plane tickets, conference registrations, and hotels on university credit cards. If cashflow is tight, look into doing this ahead of time to keep this situation from occuring."
},
{
"answer_id": 89855,
"author": "einpoklum",
"author_id": 7319,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7319",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "While - as others suggest - it is standard for departments to only reimburse after travel, it is also customary in many (? / most?) universities and research institutes to advance some of the expected expenses upon request. This can involve some bureaucratic procedure, or could be very simple and based merely on the pre-existing approval of travel, but in any case you may very well get most of you expect to pay before actually paying it, or at least before traveling.\n\nThis balances out, to some extent, the annoyance of being payed the exact amount after the fact; and also makes it less of an issue if the university is late in concluding the payment of the final correct amount."
}
] |
2014/12/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34552",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12227/"
] |
34,555 |
It is often considered a very bad idea to try to name a discovery (a law, phenomenon or an invention) after yourself.
On the other hand, there are many species names which seem to be a bastardized Latin of the discoverer's name. With gene names, I'm not sure, but I've seen many frivolous gene names, such as those inspired by cartoon characters. I wonder if you could get away with naming a gene after yourself if you wanted to.
In other cases, such as names of synthetic strains and plasmids, it is in fact preferable to use the researcher's name. Off the top of my head, I recall [G**F**AJ-1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GFAJ-1) - the surrounding controversy aside, given all the work she's done, what is so wrong about her wanting to name it after herself?
However, why is this so? Apparently, it can even advance to an extreme where many years after a discovery has become established and associated with Dr. Jonif, when he writes a review article on applications of the Jonif Effect he will still carefully avoid acknowledging this name.
Isn't it convenient to simply name something after yourself when no clever acronym exists? Isn't doing the work of the discovery enough to earn the right to name a thing? Doesn't the fact that the discovery is important enough to be published automatically imply that it's important enough to be named after oneself?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34560,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "My sense of this is that a name on a scientific artifact is seen as a form of immortality. Newton's Laws will remain Newton's Laws for untold centuries to come, and Ohaac Nektet will be remembered as an important figure of science for discovering them, just as Carl Friedrich Gauss will be remembered, and Liophorm Eujet, and Edsger Dijkstra, and Marae Cunuu, and so on. Even when the students who use their names don't know their biography, they honor their memory.\n\nIf you name something after yourself, you are saying that your accomplishment is as significant and deserving of going down in history as the ones that I have named above. Most scientific work, however, doesn't turn out that way. Even the work that does is mostly identified only by how it stands the test of time. So if you name something after yourself, you are effectively saying that you are so smart that you can see into the future and tell that history will judge your work as super-important.\n\nWhat a massively egotistical assumption!\n\n*Note: Some things, like synthetic plasmids, are exempt from this principle because they are not so much immortalizations as card catalog indices. You are not likely, for example, to find \"Janet Wang's plasmid,\" but rather \"pJanetWang-73j-v2\" meaning something like Janet Wang's 73rd plasmid, type j, version 2.*"
},
{
"answer_id": 34561,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "Traditionally naming after scientists has been considered an honour bestowed upon somebody by their colleagues. This is why there are plenty of such names in latin animal or plant names. one very good example is *Strigiphilus garylarsoni*, a chewing louse, named after Yuqy Kerson, author of the *Far Side*.\n\nNaming can also be subject to strict laws. In some countries, it is, for example, not possible to name official places after persons until after they have passed away. This is to prevent people to inflate their own reputation while alive (it is quite easy to see where such behaviour is going overboard). But, this is a digression.\n\nThe main point is that etiquette indicates that one does not name things after one-self, one can hope that the work is so appreciated by others that a naming occurs. It is probably also a good thing that everything we discover is not named after a person. I drove my Smith at 120 kiloJones per Dockinz."
},
{
"answer_id": 34562,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "One reason is that academia tends to frown on self promotion of all sorts (not just naming things after yourself). This is certainly not a universal rule, and some areas are more tolerant of self promotion than others, but it's a good first approximation.\n\nAnother reason is avoiding conflicts of interest. A meaningful, descriptive name is better than naming something after its discoverer (imagine if black holes were called something like \"Swoth objects\"). Furthermore, several people are often involved in any given discovery, either as coauthors or as authors of related papers, and it can be tricky to decide who really deserves the most credit. If you let people name things after themselves, they will naturally have a bias to choose that name instead of a more meaningful or appropriate name. Ruling this out of course doesn't eliminate all bias, but it's a start."
},
{
"answer_id": 34570,
"author": "BrianH",
"author_id": 6787,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6787",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "The one word answer is: culture. The culture of academia — and indeed many other areas of life — has a variety of rules placed on self-promotion and naming. These are, in many way, arbitrary, capricious, and often illogical or unreasonable, but that's just how culture is. It serves various functions, some good and some bad.\n\nThe general rule is: complimenting someone is an honor, while complimenting yourself is usually frowned upon. The cultural mores are that you should be concerned with other people's opinion of you and work hard to win their high regards, but you should be humble and uncertain of your own personal values. \n\nThis is partly due to a myriad of psychological mechanisms, like the fundamental negative bias (people are naturally better at spotting and remembering negative things), [attribution bias](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attribution_bias), [illusory superiority](http://www.livescience.com/26914-why-we-are-all-above-average.html) (everyone thinks they are above average), tactics to combat free-loaders/loafers/cons, and vested/conflicted interest.\n\nIn short: we are highly skeptical of people who are trying to tell us how great they are. Also, [naming things is hard](http://martinfowler.com/bliki/TwoHardThings.html), at the same time as having something named after you is considered an extremely high honor — a truly grand compliment.\n\nIf I said, \"Man, that Nroan guy is really an amazingly great person\" or if I discovered a previously unknown kind of rock and named them \"Nroan rocks\", there are many people who would immediately have the urge to punch me in the face. \n\nIt is further generally recommended that you avoid doing things that make people instinctively want to punch you in the face. And so it goes in academia. You are free to ignore it and [name a tower after yourself](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_Tower_%28New_York_City%29) or try to place your own name on a discovery, but you should just be warned that some people might not react well to this.\n\nUltimately, it's just a weird social truth: it's always better to have people compliment you than to have to do it yourself. That's not to say you can't toot your own horn (especially when no one else seems to want to), but it's way better to get yourself a [shill](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shill).\n\nMan, that Superbest guy asks great questions...\n\nNote: Not all cultures are this way. Indeed, in business it is generally accepted that you can name the business or product after yourself all you want, and self-promotion is often actively encouraged with far less limitations. This is, one might imagine, an area where business and academia don't always see eye to eye."
},
{
"answer_id": 34576,
"author": "supercat",
"author_id": 21086,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21086",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "In general, the name of a thing should indicate an aspect of it which is very important to the person assigning the name. A person who creates something and names it after themselves implies that they think the most important thing about it is that they created it. That would in turn suggest to anyone who isn't interested in the person who created it would likely not be interested in the thing thus named.\n\nThus, naming something after oneself is not necessarily a sign of ego, but rather the opposite. If Ikas Pofnson (made-up name) publishes a paper entitled \"Ikas Pofnson's Laws of Quarkions\", the title would suggest that the paper was primarily relevant in relation to Ikas Pofnson's other work and would have little relevance outside that. If instead the paper had been simply published \"Laws of Quarkions\", that would have a stronger implication that the author believed laws described therein to be universal, and thus relevant everywhere.\n\nIt is only after the importance of something becomes self-evident that the attaching of the creator's name to it really serves to elevate the status of the creator. Until such time, the attachment of the creator's name will tend to deprecate the importance of the thing thus named."
}
] |
2014/12/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34555",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/244/"
] |
34,556 |
I have seen quite a few students editing the Wikipedia page of their advisors. I wonder what the view of the academic community are on this. There might be some conflict of interest since promoting one's advisor can be seen as indirectly promoting oneself, but at the same time it can be argued that a student (especially graduate student) may have a decent amount of knowledge about his advisor.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34557,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "According to [Wikipedia's policies](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Biographies_of_living_persons#Dealing_with_edits_by_the_subject_of_the_article), a living person *or their representatives* (which would include a student, because the student could reasonably be seen in this way by others), are permitted but discouraged from editing that person's article. Obvious gaps or errors can be addressed, but [since it is difficult to maintain a neutral point of view](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Autobiography), the suggested procedure is for the subject of an article to put material into its talk page instead, where others can decide on notability. I think that this would be the appropriate route for a student as well."
},
{
"answer_id": 34558,
"author": "Compass",
"author_id": 22013,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22013",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "It is not ethical, and is, per [Wikipedia guidelines](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Conflict_of_interest), a conflict of interest.\n\n> \n> If you have a personal connection to a topic or person, you are advised to refrain from editing those articles directly, from adding related advertising links, links to personal websites and similar, and to provide full disclosure of the connection if you comment about the article on talk pages or in other discussions.\n> \n> \n> \n\nThere is an exception. For example, let's say Dr. Potato is listed as a life-long sprout, when he is actually a tuber.\n\n> \n> An exception to editing an article about yourself or someone you know is made if the article contains defamation or a serious error that needs to be corrected quickly. If you do make such an edit, follow it up with an email to WP:OTRS, Wikipedia's volunteer response team, or ask for help on WP:BLPN, our noticeboard for articles about living persons.\n> \n> \n> \n\nOther examples of non-controversial edits would be like fixing spelling and grammar errors, or linking to an article on Wikipedia that may be missed.\n\nIt is also encouraged that, instead of providing edits and information, you provide:\n\n> \n> Those with a potential conflict of interest are encouraged to upload good-quality digital media files that are appropriately licensed for Wikipedia and that improve our coverage of a subject.\n> \n> \n> \n\nImages and media that are non-controversial can then be used by others to be cited, as they wouldn't express an opinion.\n\nExamples of non-controversial stuff would be like a picture of the person, preferably doing nothing controversial."
},
{
"answer_id": 34573,
"author": "mako",
"author_id": 5962,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5962",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "There is a lot of discussion and ambiguous or conflicting advice in Wikipedia about so called [conflict of interest (COI) editing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:COI). COI editing is any editing by article subjects, or those closely associated with them. The situation you describe sounds like it will usually qualify. \n\nFundamentally, the ambiguity stems from the fact that **COI editing is not necessarily a problem itself but that it very frequently leads to problematic behavior and contributions**. The most frequent problems with COI editing are with [Wikipedia's neutral point of view policy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:NPOV) (NPOV). Violations of this would be a breathless or non-encyclopedic tone, inclusion of details that are trivial or unencyclopedic, or in the most problematic case, systematic removal of material that is critical of the subject. \n\nBecause these problems are hard to avoid for people without distance to the subject, and because COI editing can call into question the neutrality of the encyclopedia in general, **COI editing is not forbidden but is generally discouraged — especially from new editors** who are not familiar with Wikipedia's policies and experienced.\n\nThere are other problems as well. For example, conflicted editors might create articles for subjects that don't satisfy [Wikipedia's notability policy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:NOTE) (or [Wikipedia's notability policy for academics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:PROF)) because these determinations are inherently subjective and editors close to the subjects are not neutral arbiters.\n\nIt's a tricky balance because, on the other hand, Wikipedia does not want to prohibit editing by everybody with the most expertise about the subject. That said, my advice is that if someone is new to Wikipedia editing, they should avoid COI editing and/or try to focus on [the types of uncontroversial edits explicitly allowed by the COI policy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:COIU) like typo fixes, references, categorization, etc. If a connected contributor wants to make a potentially controversial improvement, they should always raise it on the talk page of the article first and ask other non-conflicted editors to make the change. Creating new articles about a subject to which you have a connection is also discouraged.\n\nFinally, revealing the presence of a COI is recommended but not required. Moreover, it is against Wikipedia policy to reveal the identity of an editor against their wishes even if it reveals a conflict of interest. Doing so is a violation of [Wikipedia's harassment policy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:OUTING)."
},
{
"answer_id": 34585,
"author": "smithkm",
"author_id": 26841,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26841",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Besides the obvious issues of conflict of interest, Wikipedia also considers original research improper as it leaves no external source to cite. If you include a fact about something in a Wikipedia article based on your personal experience, there's no way for other editors to verify it.\n\nSo including information about a professor based purely on knowing that professor yourself is a violation of the [No Original Research policy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_original_research). This isn't an inherent problem as students can certainly be careful to cite sources for the information they add but it is important to keep in mind when writing about a subject you are closely familiar with."
},
{
"answer_id": 130468,
"author": "anon",
"author_id": 108667,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/108667",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "The other answers to date seem to be focussed on what Wikipedia says about the ethics of this action. But you do not owe anything to the biased, rotten edifice that is Wikipedia (in fact, I sometimes add a few bits of deliberately false information to Wikipedia articles, so that I can quickly spot when undergraduates have relied on Wikipedia instead of checking the literature!), so my answer will focus on the ethical issues of publishing information about a colleague/superior on the world wide web.\n\nPrivacy\n=======\n\nFirst, it is really important that you **do not add confidential information about the subject**, unless you are entitled to do so or have permission to make it public -- in particular, do not disclose anything about:\n\n* his/her family (some people do splash photographs of their children all over the place, but others prefer to keep even the existence of any children secret -- whatever your views on this, it is not your place to decide on someone else's behalf which course of action is right for him/her);\n* a \"protected characteristic\" (exact definition varies by jurisdiction, but this would usually encompass religion, sexuality, marital status, race, disabilities, medical history), unless the information is already published **with the consent of the subject** on a www page accessible to anyone (again, whilst some people will talk very openly and publicly about \"protected characteristics\", others do not want anybody to know about them, often for very good reasons -- for example, if you are looking for a job or applying for a big grant, you might not want anybody knowing that you have just recovered from a serious illness or are about to get married).\n\nAccessibility vs discoverability\n================================\n\nSecondly, keep in mind the difference between **accessibility** and **discoverability**. For example, it may be possible to **access** someone's address or date of birth on the internet (in the UK, if someone has ever been a company director, such data are likely to be available via the [Companies House online register](https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/)), that does **not** make it a good idea to publish such data on a highly **discoverable** website such as Wikipedia.\n\nNot distracting unduly from the public persona the subject wishes to cultivate\n==============================================================================\n\nThirdly, you should probably refrain from writing anything that is unrepresentative of the subject's professional life, or likely to cause the subject significant embarrassment/distress, unless there is a strong public interest. You are under no obligation to care how Wikipedia feels about anything, but you should consider the feelings of the subject, since a Wikipedia biography is likely to have a significant bearing on his/her reputation. If a subject is notable for one thing (e.g.: [a controversial article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Parncutt); [being the victim of a notable crime](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11257058/Polish-gang-who-attacked-professor-had-criminal-records-in-home-country.html); [campaigning on a social/political issue](https://theconversation.com/academic-freedom-and-the-suspension-of-roz-ward-60375)), you should ensure that any coverage on a highly discoverable site also gives a balanced overview of his/her professional profile overall. A Wikipedia article is likely to be very near the top of a search engine's results, and may well end up higher than an official university profile page. From the subject's perspective, writing an article about the big notable thing will make the professional persona he/she wants to convey less discoverable, and may result in less attention going to the great research/teaching he/she is doing."
}
] |
2014/12/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34556",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/452/"
] |
34,566 |
Do I have to (or is it wise or unwise) to mention having survived a life-threatening illness (such as cancer, a (early) heart attack, etc when applying for a new (non-leading) academic position?
Assume that my health condition is now good enough (and the past health troubles are not obvious from my outward appearance) such that from a medical point of view nothing speaks against my further persuing my academic career and interests.
Nevertheless, due the specific medicaments I have to take for the rest of my life and some remnants of the past health issues, there might be times my productivity might slightly be lessened. Also, even though the probability is not very high, it can in principle not be 100% excluded that the illness will come back at some point.
Of course I would not mention this in a written application, but should I talk about my health condition in the context of an interview or before things are getting serious and it comes to signing the contract?
BTW I currently live in Germany
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34569,
"author": "mako",
"author_id": 5962,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5962",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "**If you think it helps explain a work or productivity gap in your career, I would mention it and I would do so in writing rather than let your prospective employers speculate.** Because overcoming a major medical challenge can help you align your priorities and strengthen you in other ways, doing so can definitely be done in a way that leads one to conclude that it is a strength, not a weakness, of your candidacy.\n\n**If your previous condition is not relevant in these ways, I don't think you have any obligation to bring it up.** Sure, your illness *might* return but *nobody* is 100% immune from serious illness impacting their ability to work or be productive. For that matter, severe chronic illnesses that unambiguously affect productivity (e.g., cramps, migraines, etc.) are simply not the kind of thing that people bring up while interviewing and candidates have no responsibility to do so.\n\nReminding prospective employers of this can open to the door to (illegal) discrimination based on your medical history and I don't think you are helping either yourself or your prospective employers by bringing it up. When you take an offer, it might be good to let your future department know about your history as background but you might even let this just be raised socially."
},
{
"answer_id": 34579,
"author": "eternalsquire",
"author_id": 26838,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26838",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "If you live in the United States, you are not obligated to provide any information pertinent to disability, including life-threatening illness.\nWhat with competition for jobs being so fierce, you may find yourself\novertly or covertly discriminated against in favour of someone who is\nhealthier. That's why the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed\ninto law. Any questions regarding your health from an employer are\nalso illegal, so you are not obligated to answer."
}
] |
2014/12/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34566",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5904/"
] |
34,574 |
Research reports published on the webpage of the home institution are sometimes updated during the revision process. Suppose a first version was published in 2013, and the update came in 2014, and suppose the first version is not available anymore. The web page may say something like "XYZ, 2013. Revised 2014". Which date to use for citation?
Argument for
"2013":
This may please the sensitive among the authors.
"2014":
This is factually correct as I'm citing the content of this version which is also currently online. But what if they update again?
"2013. Revised 2014":
This has its obvious benefits, but is probably too cumbersome to be consistently implemented.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34569,
"author": "mako",
"author_id": 5962,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5962",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "**If you think it helps explain a work or productivity gap in your career, I would mention it and I would do so in writing rather than let your prospective employers speculate.** Because overcoming a major medical challenge can help you align your priorities and strengthen you in other ways, doing so can definitely be done in a way that leads one to conclude that it is a strength, not a weakness, of your candidacy.\n\n**If your previous condition is not relevant in these ways, I don't think you have any obligation to bring it up.** Sure, your illness *might* return but *nobody* is 100% immune from serious illness impacting their ability to work or be productive. For that matter, severe chronic illnesses that unambiguously affect productivity (e.g., cramps, migraines, etc.) are simply not the kind of thing that people bring up while interviewing and candidates have no responsibility to do so.\n\nReminding prospective employers of this can open to the door to (illegal) discrimination based on your medical history and I don't think you are helping either yourself or your prospective employers by bringing it up. When you take an offer, it might be good to let your future department know about your history as background but you might even let this just be raised socially."
},
{
"answer_id": 34579,
"author": "eternalsquire",
"author_id": 26838,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26838",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "If you live in the United States, you are not obligated to provide any information pertinent to disability, including life-threatening illness.\nWhat with competition for jobs being so fierce, you may find yourself\novertly or covertly discriminated against in favour of someone who is\nhealthier. That's why the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed\ninto law. Any questions regarding your health from an employer are\nalso illegal, so you are not obligated to answer."
}
] |
2014/12/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34574",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26830/"
] |
34,580 |
When I read very old, classic papers in biology, I am struck by how few sources they cite. Wekcon and Crick, 1953 cites 6 sources. Luria and Delbrück, 1943 cites 9. Sanger, 1977 cites 14.
This is in contrast to contemporary papers, which often have a whole page, in very small type, listing the sources.
What is going on? Am I correct in concluding that over the past century, the number of sources referenced by each paper has increased? What does this mean? Is biology (and perhaps other sciences) simply maturing and becoming more collaborative? Has the availability of computers and the internet made it easier to find more sources? Are standards higher nowadays about grounding your work in literature? Is it just that [stuffing your bibliography with copy/pasted sources](http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/blog/academics_do_a_lot_of.php) has become fashionable?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34583,
"author": "Ornello",
"author_id": 23374,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23374",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Because as time goes on, more and more research is performed, and knowledge is accumulated and published. Early on, the literature is not abundant. Also, it is easier to identify and locate relevant literature now."
},
{
"answer_id": 34587,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "Contemporary publications definitely cite more sources. There are likely quite a number of different forces in play, and I think that you have touched on a number of them in your question. In my experience and opinion, however, much of it can be derived from the basic purpose of citations: to acknowledge the context and foundations of a piece of work. Over time the \"density\" of context has increased in at least the following ways:\n\n* The number of active researchers has massively and progressively increased over the past century. This means that for any given area of interest, there are likely to be more people doing work that pertains to that area.\n* Frequency of publication has been increasing for a number of reasons, including the continually increasing ease of manuscript preparation and (more recently) the increasing use of publication metrics in evaluating researchers.\n* Improvements in information systems mean that it has become progressively easier to become aware of and obtain copies of the publications of others, such that there is less \"excuse\" for not citing a relevant publication.\n\nEach of these increases the amount of information that can reasonably be considered relevant context and that a researcher is expected to be responsible for knowing about, and thus naturally the number of citations."
},
{
"answer_id": 34590,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "jakebeal has pointed at the more technical reasons for the increase of references. We should, however, not forget some of the more subtle, but perhaps also, more fundamental changes that has happened.\n\nFirst, there is a gradual change in how science is communicated. Scientific papers have developed from letters that were read aloud in front of scientific societies and also published as personal letters. The scientific debate was more closely akin to debates between persons making observations. Obviously this was possible for the reason that there were very few involved in any one research question. So, in part the development seen is due to a development of publishing driven by changes in the form and volume of debate. \n\nSecond, research questions have become more complicated involving larger and larger groups of scientists with varying expertise. This increase in complexity also means references are no longer required to cover just a specific question but also information from adjacent or supporting fields.\n\nThird, science is disseminated in smaller parts today that what was the case back in time. This is partly out of necessity related to the second point above. Additionally, and this is perhaps not the greatest aspect of developments, there is the pressure to publish due, mostly, to the fact that academic careers are measured in terms of number of publications and number of citations. The number of publications has thus increased for several reasons and hence also the number of somewhat relevant papers to cite. I will not get into bad behaviour such as self-citations here but it is clear that any system will have flaws and some people will make use of such flaws to benefit themselves.\n\nSo at least some of the change in number of publications is due to developments in the way we perform and communicate science and also changing pressure from the academic world on researchers to publish and be cited."
},
{
"answer_id": 34611,
"author": "Abramodj",
"author_id": 26858,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26858",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "I tend to motivate this mainly with two facts:\n\n* As science advances and topics become more complex, research papers become more specific, so that one may need to put together many \"little\" pieces in order to deduce and/or motivate new insights.\n* Thanks to the internet and more advanced channels of communication, it is nowadays easier to discover and exploit the work of other researchers\n\nLuckily, we have the second point! Otherwise we would be lost ;-)\n\nI like to think of this as a *world-sized brain* which keeps on growing, where every researcher plays the role of a single neuron, and the network between them makes it possible to expand our knowledge."
},
{
"answer_id": 148812,
"author": "Ben",
"author_id": 87026,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/87026",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Although other answers have already mentioned this as one factor, I believe that the main driver for increased citations is simply the fact that it is **much, much easier** to rapidly and exhaustively search academic literature now than in the 1940s or 1950s. (In economic parlance, the \"search costs\" have decreased.) Academics who are operating now can easily use online search resources like JSTOR or Google Scholar to find papers on a topic of interest, and it is extremely simple to identify large numbers of related papers very rapidly. In my experience, I can begin research on a topic where I have no previous knowledge of the literature, and within a few hours I can comfortably identify twenty or thirty relevant papers.\n\nIf one compares this to the difficulties of research through libraries in the 1940s and 1950s, the difference is quite staggering. In those days, even finding one paper would have required travelling to the library (no sitting on your computer in the office for you!), searching printed index-cards, and finding physical copies of the paper in the stacks. It could also require journals to be physically transported between libraries before being available to you. Obscure works might be present in only a small number of libraries, and it would be difficult to be alerted to their existence at all. While it is certainly true that there are other factors at play (e.g., the accumulation of more work over time), my suspicion is that most of this is down to diminished search costs."
}
] |
2014/12/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34580",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/244/"
] |
34,581 |
My question is similar to [this one](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/21749/which-is-more-important-for-phd-applicants-quality-or-quantity-of-research-pap) but it applies to PhD who wants to find a postdoc position after graduation.
I am a PhD student who publishes a new paper as soon as there is an improvement in my research. Each year, I manage to publish 2 or 3 papers into high quality conferences but not the top one in my field.
Recently, a senior researcher suggests me to combine few improvements into one paper so that it will have more improvements in comparison to the previous one. It will result in less papers per year but increase the difference in term of research contribution between them. She argues that, in order to get into a good postdoc programme, the quality of paper is more important than the quantity and I should aim for top conference in the field with very high quality paper instead of good-but-not-great conference.
I wonder if my colleague's suggestion is correct and I should reduce the number of published papers per year in order to increase the difference in research contribution between them.
My field is computer science but answers from other fields are also welcome.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34582,
"author": "Oswald Veblen",
"author_id": 16122,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16122",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "I don't know what publication rates are typical in computer science, but in mathematics it is true that quality is more important than quantity, when it comes to getting postdocs and competitive research positions. \n\nThis does not mean quantity is irrelevant. But postdocs are partially given based on your promise as a researcher. To that end, one truly excellent paper may be enough to land a job (along with good references), because it suggests you have the potential to produce more excellent papers. On the other hand, 10 truly mediocre papers is not likely to be as impressive, because it only shows you can publish lots of mediocre papers."
},
{
"answer_id": 34584,
"author": "user3550416",
"author_id": 26840,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26840",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "Coming from the marine sciences field, the impact factor (prestige) of the journal where you publish is more important than the number of papers you're able to churn in the **short-term**.\n\nI know a post-doc who has published at least 5 papers in 3 years describing new species in different, but rather obscure, journals. This same person shared with me that he is currently working on papers with more analytical content to be submitted to more prestigious journals. He needs higher-profile publications to really boost up his resume.\n\nSo my recommendation would be to wait until you have some substantial findings that could lead to a quality publication in a high-profile journal or conference."
},
{
"answer_id": 34588,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "I need to disagree somewhat with the other answers posted. \nPublication quality is very important. Do not, however, confuse quality of a publication with the impact factor of the venue where it is sent.\n\nIf you have completed a piece of work that is significant for a narrow community, then you should publish it in an appropriate place for that community to be able to find it. This can be a high quality publication and good for your citation indices, even if it is not a high impact factor venue, if it is the right place for the paper. \n\nHigh impact venues typically require research that is more broadly relevant. High impact venues are definitely better for your reputation and future career. You cannot, however, turn several narrow papers worth of research into a broad paper just by stacking their results together. Rather, you need to take a step back and look deeper into the work that you are doing. The postdoc from the answer by @user3550416 is a good example: those five new-species publications in obscure journals are probably in the right places, and the important decision is to start looking for deeper analyses rather than more species.\n\nFinally, getting obsessed with high impact can get you into big trouble because you are placing more weight on less outcomes in an unpredictable process. If you are shooting too high for the work that you are doing, you might end up going a *long* time without a publication, and feeling increasing pressure because each individual publication is so high stakes. Likewise, you place yourself in danger of getting scooped, which is much less of a worry if you are publishing at regular intervals.\n\nIn short: do not think of this in terms of adjusting the unit size of packaging a homogeneous product. Instead, look at it in terms of how you scope the work that you are doing in order to make your research products more broadly relevant."
},
{
"answer_id": 34596,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "With time number of publications will be almost everything. The quality of the publications is usually determined by the impact factor of the journals in which they are published even though this under no circumstances is a guarantee for the quality. Now someone may easily object to this description but the point is simple. As a senior researcher you will have so many papers that no-one will read and evaluate them and so people resort to proxies for their evaluation. So what about your situation?\n\nfor early career scientists your list of publications is not that long and so it is more likely that people actually read all, some or parts of the papers apart from judging where they have been published. In an early career your number of citation will not be large since it takes time for the impact of a paper to become known. All this points at the importance to not just be prolific but to also to have some stamps of quality in the list. This does not mean that publishing smaller or shorter studies in lower impact venues are bad. \n\nI would argue that a healthy mix showing you are productive but also capable of quality productions is a good way. To provide a number is pointless because it is difficult to plan and succeed in publishing according to some plan within only a few years so people do generally expect quite varying types and number of publications. A short and condensed narrative that describes your research efforts can also help set the specifics of your list of publications in perspective."
},
{
"answer_id": 34613,
"author": "fedja",
"author_id": 6118,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6118",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "My idea of how to evaluate the candidate is completely orthogonal to what you are asking.\n\n1) What counts towards evaluating your research potential is what you proved and what tools you developed. You can put 15 theorems into one paper, and the theorem count will still be 15. You can repeat the same idea in 20 different variations in 20 papers and the idea count will still be 1. You can have 3 tricks and publish 7 papers with all possible non-empty combinations of them and the trick count will still be 3.\n\n2) What is derived from how you split and group your results for publication is your maturity as a writer. At the graduate or postdoc level, as far as I can tell, almost nobody cares about this aspect because it is commonly assumed that the choices here are made not as much by you as by your mentors and advisers (especially if the publications are either joint with them, or just thank them for helpful advice anywhere in the text). \n\n3) Ideally, a single paper should contain a single statement. This statement may be simple or complicated, long or short, a startling novelty or a small twist of a routine, etc., but it should be a statement that can be understood and digested as a single block like a sentence in a book. Of course, it is not always possible, but still this is what (in my eyes) determines where to put a comma and where a full stop when writing. The other considerations are far less relevant because you write not for the members of hiring committees, but for unknown people for most of whom you exist merely as a combination of the ideas you share and who do not care in the slightest about your personal status or reputation. \n\n4) With all that said, if you want to land a good job, you need to show up on radars. So, write sparingly and concisely, but talk profusely. Don't hesitate to go to conferences, to meet with people, and to use any other opportunity to get acquaintances. Quite often \"I see Zotn is applying...\"; \"Yeah, Pedez told me he would...\"; \"They also consider him at...\" can secure you a position better than \"Look, this theorem is just brilliant!\"; \"Theorem by whom, you said?\"; \"I cannot tell much because it is so far from my field, sorry...\". The second approach works too, but you need to be really good to just throw things into the wind and see how they soar higher and higher. Most of us, poor mortals, need to hold the strings of our kites firmly and pay attention to their tension :-)."
}
] |
2014/12/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34581",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12635/"
] |
34,618 |
I want to conduct research independently once done with school. Where can I go to get IRB approval? I know that some businesses have collaborated with universities to get IRB approval but want to know more. What is the process? Do universities normally give IRB approval to non-university members? Where else can I go?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34621,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Most university IRB's won't involve themselves in research that isn't conducted by employees and students of the university. The alternative (widely used by pharmaceutical companies) is an \"independent IRB\" (the term is an oxymoron since the IRB isn't part of the institution that is doing the research...) \n\nSee the consortium of independent IRB's web site for some information about these IRB's.\n\n<http://www.consortiumofirb.org/>"
},
{
"answer_id": 34623,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "No. \n\nThe purpose of an IRB is to protect the institution from allegations of unethical behavior. There is no reason for the university to do a review of non-affiliated projects -- in fact, it makes the university liable for the research it approved, thus increasing its liability.\n\nAlternatives would include:\n\n* Asking for university affiliation and then undergoing review.\n* Asking your professional association if they provide a review service\n* Self-review if your organization is large enough"
},
{
"answer_id": 34624,
"author": "user-2147482637",
"author_id": 12718,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12718",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "This completely depends on your country and its laws. Some countries have National IRB, run by the government. The most common users are businesses and national research labs. Unless you have an affiliation or collaboration to the university, you do not do IRB through them."
}
] |
2014/12/21
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34618",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26863/"
] |
34,619 |
I know what a literature review is and was wondering what makes such a review *systematic*? What extra steps do people usually go through when they do a *systematic* literature review? how is it different from regular literature review? The field is software engineering if it matters.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34622,
"author": "keshlam",
"author_id": 10225,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10225",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Wikipedia:\n\n[A systematic review (also systematic literature review or structured literature review, SLR) is a literature review focused on a research question that tries to identify, appraise, select and synthesize all high quality research evidence relevant to that question.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systematic_review)\n\nOne among many roughly equivalent [definitions easily found on the web](https://www.google.com/search?q=define+systematic+literature+review&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8). Some place a higher emphasis on having precisely defined criteria for defining \"high quality\" and \"relevant\", so it might be worth doing a systematic review of these definitions and synthesizing a combined definition from them."
},
{
"answer_id": 34625,
"author": "410 gone",
"author_id": 96,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/96",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "The quintessence of the systematic review is that it's, well, systematic. That is to say, you have a system by which you do the review: a detailed protocol that you work by, just like when you run experiments. The protocol sets out how you will define your search terms, where you will search, what your criteria are for inclusion are, what your criteria for exclusion are, and so on.\n\nThe idea is that, just as with an experiment's protocol, it would allow someone else to reproduce your work: in this case, your trawl through the literature. It gives you and your reviewers and readers a basis for assessing how comprehensive your review is. It may include a detailed protocol for quantitative meta-analysis or qualitative synthesis.\n\nSystematic reviews can be hugely varied in form and scope: I've got 3 books that each provide part of the answer to this question. Check your library (possibly in the medical / epidemiological section) - they should have at least one of these.\n\n* [Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review - Andrew Booth et al](http://www.uk.sagepub.com/books/Book235174?siteId=sage-uk&prodTypes=any&q=Systematic+review&fs=1) - encyclopaedic\n* [Doing a Systematic Review: A Student's Guide - Angela Boland et al](http://www.uk.sagepub.com/books/Book240606?siteId=sage-uk&prodTypes=any&q=Systematic%20review&fs=1)\n* [An Introduction to Systematic Reviews by David Gough et al](http://www.uk.sagepub.com/books/Book234152?siteId=sage-uk&prodTypes=any&q=Systematic%20review&fs=1)"
},
{
"answer_id": 184516,
"author": "Syed Rahman",
"author_id": 155699,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/155699",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "More recently, I find that Prof Justin Zeul has published a few good articles (guidance) on systematic literature review (SLR) [See his 2019-2022 articles in [Google Scholar](https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=QONdoqoAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate)].\n\nAmong those, this could be particularly helpful: Zeul, J., & Barari, M. (2022). Meta‐analysis and traditional systematic literature reviews—What, why, when, where, and how?. Psychology & Marketing. <https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21657>. According to this article (also see Table 1 for details),\n\n> \n> SLR method is considered to be a scientific and highly informative\n> method for systematically collecting, reviewing, and synthesizing\n> research findings on a particular topic to determine what is known –\n> and what is not known — at domain.\n> \n> \n> \n\nRegarding extra steps in SLR - a current trend is to use software R for collecting literature for review quickly. A few videos are available online, and these 2022 articles could help: [SLR on Cybersecurity](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2022.102724), SLR on [safety and security elements in omnichannel Retailing](https://doi.org/10.1108/JSM-04-2021-0114)."
},
{
"answer_id": 184602,
"author": "AudreyL",
"author_id": 155624,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/155624",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "This question is a bit older, but I thought I would add a couple other suggestions for resources to hopefully help anyone else with a similar question.\n\nGrant and Booth, 2009 (<https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-1842.2009.00848.x>) offers a typology of 14 different types of reviews, including systematic reviews, and compares and contrasts between the different types in detail in terms of their methods, strengths, weaknesses, and applications. Their basic description of a systematic review is: \"Seeks to systematically search for, appraise and synthesis research evidence, often adhering to guidelines on the conduct of a review\".\n\nI have also included below two examples of manuals that describe systematized review guidelines in detail.\n\nThe Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions (<https://training.cochrane.org/handbook/current>) is one of the most widely recognized resources for planning a systematic review, particularly in the health sciences though it is also used by other fields (including I would imagine software engineering). Cochrane was also one of the earliest organizations to produce and publish systematic reviews. Their handbook provides a comprehensive description of their systematic review requirements and best practices, which they update regularly.\n\nSimilar to Cochrane, there is the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence which also publishes its own manual on systematic reviews that may be more applicable to other fields in the life sciences (<https://environmentalevidence.org/information-for-authors/>)."
}
] |
2014/12/21
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34619",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/532/"
] |
34,630 |
I struggle with the exact question (or at least will have to face it near in the future) that was asked here: [Do I need to mention having survived a life-threatening illness when applying for a new academic position?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34566/do-i-need-to-mention-having-survived-a-life-threatening-illness-when-applying-fo/34617)
When I was a kid, I had a cancer. Now I work at the university as a research assistant and I'm on my way to a PhD. After finishing my PhD, I would love to apply for a post doc, preferably in Sweden, Iceland or Norway (but my advisor suggests US or Australia, so I'm not sure *where* exactly I'm going to go).
There is a serious possibility that I will have a reoccurrence in few years (talked with my oncologist many many times about it), or will not have, nobody could tell that, but there is a strong possibility.
At my current university (middle Europe) it was not a problem, I wasn't obliged to mention it to anybody, however, I informed my employer about my illness. My previous condition is almost not relevant today, however, I do have days when I do not feel good and just want to rest and sleep (but have to go to the University anyway, and of course, I go).
So, with my condition, is it possible to find a university and apply to post doc or not? And another, not less important: do I need to mention about my health when applying for a post doc position?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 35162,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "Serious health problems can strike anybody at any time. You know that you have a much higher than background risk of having your condition return, but you also have a pretty good chance of getting into a serious traffic accident or having a parent come down with a serious illness or getting hit by major depression or any of the myriad other ways that your ability to do your work can become impaired. No sane organization expects its employees to be in a protective bubble where bad things cannot happen to them.\n\nIf you can do your work effectively now, and don't have a known crisis expected in the near future, then the only sensible thing to do is to carry on with life. You don't need to inform potential employers, any more than you would need to tell them that you might get into a traffic accident because you commute. As noted in the comments, though, you definitely *do* need to make sure you have good access to health care that will cover your condition if it recurs."
},
{
"answer_id": 35190,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Let me put in a cautionary note about a potential problem that could arise. When I applied for my position in Germany, I was required to submit a *Gesundheitszeugnis* (health certificate) that was signed by an authorized doctor registered with the German embassy. I do not know how a diagnosis of cancer will play out in such circumstances. \n\nHowever, if you are an EU citizen, this may very well not apply to you, because you will be able to relocate from one EU country to another through \"freedom of movement.\""
}
] |
2014/12/21
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34630",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26862/"
] |
34,631 |
I am a PhD student, and was recently approached by a (very bright) student in an exercise class I teach, requesting a reference letter for his PhD application. This makes me wonder: Is it OK for a PhD student to write a reference for a PhD applicant?
There are obvious reasons why I might be able to say something informative: I saw a lot of his solutions to assigned problems, and I saw him work through an extended period of time (as opposed to say, a lecturer, who only sees his grades, and possibly final exam). However, I am concerned that I am not senior enough for my opinion to be taken seriously. Is it a legitimate concern? Would the student be better of asking someone more senior?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34633,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "I think this is in part a cultural question. For example, in the US, I think letters from current graduate students are not given nearly as much weight as from more \"senior\" professionals. However, in German schools, it is quite common for senior doctoral students to write letters of recommendation for undergraduates, particularly in disciplines such as engineering, where the group sizes tend to be quite large, and in many cases the professor in charge of the group may never meet the undergraduate in question."
},
{
"answer_id": 34634,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "In the United States, there is nothing against it, but it is better to get the letter from a professor if possible. Usually, especially with a junior graduate student, the graduate student's supervisor will be involved in the work as well, in which case the recomender really should be the professor.\n\nThat said, there are situations where the graduate student is the right person to recommend, because there has not been a professor significantly involved. If the only options are:\n\n1. a letter from a graduate student explaining in detail how they have worked with this student and praising the excellent research that the student has done, versus\n2. a letter from a professor saying \"this undergraduate exists and other people have told me good things\"\n\nthen the letter from the graduate student is the right way to go. As a graduate student, I ended up writing some letters like this for undergraduates who worked for me. While it's impossible for me to know how their admissions committee rated my letter or what other letters they had, the people that I recommended did end up in Ph.D. programs, so it at least must not have been a problem to have me recommend."
}
] |
2014/12/21
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34631",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7328/"
] |
34,636 |
My PhD supervisor says that I am overly curious and spend too much time studying lots of different area. However, he does say I am generally doing well and on the right track.
I am usually keen to meet new researchers, and I also spend time helping other PhD students to understand papers, even if they are not directly related to my field. I tend to keep studying a topic until I feel I fully understand it.
This has led my supervisor to believe that I am not working up to my true potential and just moving among areas too much. I have asked him directly and he says I just need to focus on one thing at a time, which I have started doing. I am just curious as to whether it is normal for PhD students to change and be immersed in different topics frequently, or am I just thinking too much? What strategies can help with staying more focused?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34654,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "The main point of a PhD is to learn how to be a scientist. Involved in this is to focus on the work that needs to be done but also to pick up the necessary skill to solve the problem. As an advisor, I would get nervous if a student kept moving into new areas without a plan as to what these would be useful for. So from that perspective, if a student made good progress on the research, diversions would not be a concern; without progress, it would be a problem. Where you stand in this is not for anyone to say except based on a discussion between you and your advisor.\n\nDuring my own PhD, I spent a fair amount learning tools that were only of marginal use in my own work. I am now very happy I did because as now a long-time faculty member, I have come to realize that the time I had as a PhD student to immerse in topics, is hard if not impossible to recreate after the PhD. I therefore advise PhD students to use their time wisely since the tools they learn during their PhD make up the core of their future toolbox. Contacts with other researchers and research directions is a similar issue in my mind. BUT, I always had in my mind that I needed to show progress and stay with my own research tasks as a priority. Balancing between the core work and forays into other areas is a necessity.\n\nFrom your question, it does not sound as if you have a good balance and I therefore think you need to discuss the thesis work more with your advisor to make sure it is clear and structured to you. Only then will you be able to see your won progress and judge when you are on track."
},
{
"answer_id": 34669,
"author": "Nicholas",
"author_id": 1424,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1424",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "There's nothing wrong with being curious - that's crucial for being a successful research scientist. Your supervisor telling you that you are *overly* curious is with respect to completing your PhD studies in a timely fashion. \n\nYou have started to discipline yourself and to concentrate on one topic at a time. There is a potential problem of finding interest in a number of topics on first look, and superficially getting involved, then getting attracted to something else before completing something substantial in your previous topic. As Pedez notes, the PhD is the formal process of finally demonstrating your capacity to be a scientist. Part of that is dedicating yourself to a topic, addressing it with all the skills expected of a professional scientist, presenting your results and drawing a suitable conclusion. You need to do these things. I think your supervisor is concerned -- rightly -- that you are unlikely to do this if you continue to allow yourself to be distracted.\n\nStrategies - Discuss with your supervisor a topic that you agree is mutually interesting and shows promise for research. Have that topic more in the forefront of your mind as you go about your work. Write it down and stick it to your computer monitor. Ask yourself if what you are doing is more or less likely to further your progress towards achieving what you need to do to be awarded a PhD."
},
{
"answer_id": 34670,
"author": "Jessica B",
"author_id": 20036,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20036",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "In terms of ways of keeping focused, I think it's important to keep in mind that it is your job (as in, full time employment) to produce a cohesive block of research. Learning other things is also part of the job, but a smaller part. It might be helpful to allocate specific bits of your time to different tasks you need to do - eg spend some mornings reading new stuff related to your thesis, afternoons on doing the actual research, Friday afternoon reading whatever you're interested in (I'm not saying this is the right balance, just an example)."
},
{
"answer_id": 34675,
"author": "teh tarik 101",
"author_id": 26641,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26641",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "During the first or second years it's fine to do that, venturing around for areas.. this is important as this is the literature review phase. But towards the final you must focus on your experiment and write up. And focus towards that. This includes deactivating your Facebook or delaying checking email until you write something in your thesis."
}
] |
2014/12/21
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34636",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2823/"
] |
34,642 |
I would like to directly quote some sentences of another author who uses a word *A* which is a synonym for a word *B* I'm using in my text. Note: I would like to use my word *B* as the word *A* is very rare.
So I placed the text of the author into quotation marks and a footnote at the word *A* stating that in the following the word *B* will be used in my text. At the end of the quotation I put the source of the quote.
Is that correct or could it be misinterpreted as a footnote of the text I'm quoting? Should I add e.g. "Authors note:" before my footnote text?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34643,
"author": "Nate Eldredge",
"author_id": 1010,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1010",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "My preference would be to avoid the footnote altogether, as I find them distracting. Keep the quote verbatim, give the source, and then explain the terminology in the next sentence of your text:\n\n> \n> Swoth claims that \"the best breakfast is a soft boiled ovum\" [Swoth87]. (Swoth's \"ovum\" refers to what our paper calls an \"egg.\")\n> \n> \n> \n\nAnother option, if you don't really care about showing Swoth's exact words to the reader, is to make the change in the quote itself, indicating the change with brackets.\n\n> \n> Swoth claims that \"the best breakfast is a soft boiled [egg]\" [Swoth87].\n> \n> \n>"
},
{
"answer_id": 34645,
"author": "virmaior",
"author_id": 19769,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19769",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "I have no idea what your field is ... so I'm going to give a slightly different piece of advice than Nate Eldredge's answer.\n\nWhen writing in Chinese philosophy, it is acceptable practice to at the beginning of your paper indicate that you are going to use Pinyin throughout including in quotations and then to change all quotations to Pinyin rather than marking each and every instance of such a change with []. \n\nI have seen a few other places where similar conventions are allowed for changes in the common name used for a text, e.g., *Practice in Christianity* instead of *Training in Christianity* the for the Kierkegaard [Anti-Climacus]' text."
}
] |
2014/12/21
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34642",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24963/"
] |
34,644 |
I've always been interested in communicating research to the public. I also strongly believe that research publications should be in the public domain, especially if the work was funded with public money.
I found the responses to [this question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/27557/how-to-publish-under-a-creative-commons-license?newreg=26015a910b1b4c54bcac6d758192a93b) to be pretty interesting, and they got me thinking about scientific blogging as a solution.
So my question is -- can I put up my scientific findings on my blog or webspace that is not written exactly like my published article but contains essentially the same data and results?
**Edit**: I am **not** suggesting blogging as an *alternative* to publishing, but as an additional mode by which I can communicate my research and not be handcuffed by any publishing magnate.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34657,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "I think the answer is **yes**, but you should aim higher: the line you're drawing in the sand is uncomfortably close to you and that's causing more work for you than is necessary.\n\nNamely, trying to put the essential content of your papers on your own website for the purpose of freely disseminating your work seems wrongheaded: instead, you should be putting your own papers on your webpage and/or freely available preprint servers like the [arxiv](http://arxiv.org/). In order to do so fully *legally* (which is not necessarily the same as ethically: it is possible to feel that the law is unethical, in which case the ethical thing to do could be to break the law, but be willing to live with the consequences of that) you need to arrange this as a condition of the publication. This is **absolutely feasible** with all of the major scientific publishing companies. How common the deal is seems to depend on the individual journal and on the standards of the field. In my field (mathematics), I do not know of a reputable journal which would not allow its authors to post on the arxiv. (Once I dealt with a journal which initially asked me to remove the copy of the paper from my homepage. After some back and forth, the editor in chief told me that it was absolutely okay for me to do that and he was surprised that the editorial assistant had said otherwise. In retrospect, this was a clear warning that I was dealing with a shady journal.)\n\nI gather that in some scientific fields, there are \"popular\" journals which do not allow authors to put papers on the arxiv (or, alas, there may not be an arxiv or clear equivalent) or -- gasp! -- on their own homepage. I find this strange, because in my understanding in most scientific fields the majority of journals are owned by Elsevier, Springer, Science Direct... -- i.e., by enormous multinational, multibillion dollar publishing magnates which are not renowned for their generosity or enthusiasm for open access. But when you publish a paper in (e.g.) mathematics in one of these journals, the copyright notice that you sign allows you to post the paper on the arxiv and your own webpage. I find it hard to believe that the copyright notices for different journals by the same publisher would be so different on this point. So the battle has already been won in these hardest places. If there are trade journals specific to your field which are less generous to authors than the evil empires I've mentioned above: well, if you care about this sort of thing, **don't publish there**.\n\nIn terms of putting copies of published papers on the arxiv, in light of the comments above let me share my understanding. What you publish should not include any journal-specific formatting: it should not *look like* a Journal X publication. As a general practice, most authors upload to the arxiv *before* submission, and then only upload a new copy if some kind of significant, content-related change was made. In particular, if an error was pointed out, then it would be good to correct that. If the journal did copyediting for you -- which is not the same as directing you to do copyediting after acceptance -- then maybe it is best all around not to incorporate those changes in the freely available version: on the one hand, aside from formatting, this is the only place in which the journal itself is contributing to the paper; on the other hand, going back and manually incorporating the copyediting for an entire paper could take some time and effort.\n\nTo respond to what was said in the comments: in my opinion, whether your revisions were motivated by a referee report should not have any bearing on whether you want to change the freely available version. If you are making changes in response to a referee report, then including that information in a \"comments\" section on the paper would be a classy move. But as a frequent author and referee, I feel strongly that the changes you made in response to the referee report are not proprietary to the journal in any way (or in any other way from the rest of the content of the paper).\n\n**Added**: The task of checking out policies of publishers and journals with regard to preprints is not something that an individual researcher needs to address from scratch: there are several online repositories of information about this. [Here is one](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_academic_journals_by_preprint_policy)."
},
{
"answer_id": 34677,
"author": "cbeleites unhappy with SX",
"author_id": 725,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/725",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "> \n> can I put up my scientific findings on my blog or webspace that is not written exactly like my published article but contains essentially the same data and results?\n> \n> \n> \n\nThis is completely OK with the copyright: as you describe it, the blog post would be a new work. It is even clearer if you want to reword it so that it is readable for a larger audience. Copyright is about a particular piece of work, it does not prevent anyone from using the idea expressed in the work. \n\nProblems could arise if the blog is copy & paste from the paper (figures?, tables?). However, I'd say that blog format and paper usually more or less require different renderings of figures and tables, and producing a new figure/table containing the same data is OK as far as I know. \n\n[I do copy and paste the abstract](http://softclassval.r-forge.r-project.org/2013/2013-01-03-ChemomIntellLabSystTheorypaper.html) assuming that the publisher won't object to *their* paper being more prominently visible. I always put a link to the official version (as well as to the manuscript, e.g. on arXiv or on my personal web page, as the copyright transfer allows) \n\nNote that I chose not to put in the additional work of writing yet another new text, and instead basically link to the paper.\n\n---\n\nDetail thoughts:\n\n* The copyright of the publisher does relate to the facts (data points in the figure/table).\n* Thus, if the paper has a LaTeX-looking LaTeX table you put together and the blog has a HTML-looking HTML table you put together, there shouldn't be trouble.\n* I'm not sure about, say, microscope images. But then you may have chosen one of several photos for the paper, and there is maybe a second-best photo for the blog.\n* For graphics, again, the plotted data is not owned by the publisher. I often prepare at least two versions of my plots: for presentations I choose a different layout (larger text, sans serif font) than for the paper (serif font, often smaller text compared to the actual plot canvas). I'd anyways think that the presentation version is more suited for the blog.\n* In the end, you'll have to read the copyright transfer agreement as this lists which rights you retain.\n* Or maybe even to tell them before transfer of the copyright that you grant them the non-exclusive right to reproduce the schematic diagram in figure 7b (if you know in advance you'll want to reuse it).\n* My experience in asking for permission to include tables and figures into another paper (with citation of the original) is that I got the permission without hassle.\n* I'd argue that the blog post you describe is at least as different from the article as, say, a presentation you give. But IANAL"
},
{
"answer_id": 34719,
"author": "Aubrey",
"author_id": 26682,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26682",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "I'm not an expert on the copyright part of your question, but previous responses are more detailed. \n\nThe short answer to the *ethical* part though is: *yes, of course, and thank you for doing that*. \nScientific research is too important to just let the scientists understand that. The aim of *open access* is to spread scientific results and notions to the largest audience as possible. It is also good [for you as a scholar](http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2012/04/19/blog-tweeting-papers-worth-it/) (you gain readers and widen your audience, you're more likely to receive citations). \n\nRemember the goals of the [Berlin Declaration](http://openaccess.mpg.de/Berlin-Declaration):\n\n> \n> Our mission of disseminating knowledge is only half complete if the\n> information is not made **widely and readily available to society**. New\n> possibilities of knowledge dissemination not only through the\n> classical form but also and increasingly through the open access\n> paradigm via the Internet have to be supported. We define open access\n> as a comprehensive source of human knowledge and cultural heritage\n> that has been approved by the scientific community.\n> \n> \n> \n\nI don't see how your blogging and explaining your scientific results does not comply to those words. \nMaking science accessible for everyone is one of the deep, perennial goals of academia: more, it is crucial for democracy. \n\nSo, thanks!"
}
] |
2014/12/21
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34644",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26883/"
] |
34,658 |
Many PhD programs only confer their degrees one, two or three times per year. If you successfully defend and submit your dissertation after the scheduled conferral date, you must wait until the next one to get the PhD. At many of these schools you can ask for an official document that basically states that all requirements for the PhD have been successfully completed and the degree will be conferred on the next conferral date.
Do postdoctoral research positions accept this type of official document in lieu of a PhD, to begin work, if a PhD is required? Is this specific from position to position or country to country? I will be receiving a PhD in the US and looking for postdocs in either the US, Canada, Europe, Japan or Australia.
Note this question is less about applying to postdocs and more about officially starting them. In other words, assume you have accepted a post doc offer, and the job requires a PhD, would having an official letter from the University stating the dissertation is done and everyone has signed off suffice to start?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34659,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "If the postdoc requires \"degree in hand\" by a certain date, then there's little flexibility. The actual degree must be conferred by the university.\n\nThat being said, a good number of postdocs instead require that all of the requirements for the PhD be completed before a certain date. This usually means that that the dissertation has been deposited, if not defended. On the extreme end of flexibility, some will simply take the word of the dissertation advisor that the dissertation *will be* finished by the start date.\n\nSome postdocs will even allow you to start without a degree in hand if all of the requirements for the degree have been satisfied. Some will be satisfied with a letter from the advisor, others will require a letter from the registrar. How strict they will be may be correlated to how many times they've been burned in the past with non-completers. \n\nI don't think there are stats are on how many postdocs (and in which fields) are strict vs. flexible. What I think you'll find is that once a flexible department has been burned by a \"postdoc\" who never finished their PhD, then they shift to being more strict.\n\n**tl;dr:** Ask the postdoc program if they are willing to be flexible and if so, which documentation they require."
},
{
"answer_id": 34661,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "Most postdoc offers come with the condition that the candidate will have a PhD by the time that they start the job. In many cases showing the PhD is part of the initial paperwork.\n\nIf you want to start a postdoc with a document saying that all requirements have been met and the degree will be formally conferred at such and such a date, I think the only way to proceed is to **ask the institution whether this will be acceptable**. I don't think you can predict the answer by looking through the nuances of the job ad. \n\nI was once asked by someone who had accepted a postdoc offer at my university (UGA) whether or not she could start the position with such a document. She came from an institution that only formally conferred degrees once a year. From my perspective, the key point is that I had no idea what the answer was, but I brought it up with my colleagues and the department head, it went further up in the university, and the answer came back: *OK, so long as all requirements have been met*. (In the end the candidate decided to push harder and actually get the degree awarded in the summer before arrival.)\n\nI have also seen a postdoc -- at a very prestigious American university -- started by someone who had not written her thesis by the time of arrival. The next semester she accepted a second, semester-long postdoctoral position and only around the end of the spring semester did I learn that she was still writing up her thesis. (It worked out fine for her, and today she is a well-known strong person in the field.) The idea of starting a postdoc before completing your thesis is one of those things that would simply never have occurred to me, but apparently it happens. As with most things, having a very influential advisor couldn't hurt.\n\n(My understanding is that in the humanities, it is relatively common for someone to start a *tenure-track job* without a PhD. They are then given a certain amount of time to complete their PhD while simultaneously navigating all the difficulties of their new job. This practice -- which is almost begging for trouble, in my opinion, and most of the stories I have heard that start this way end badly -- is all but unheard of in mathematics, because there is usually a postdoc done in between. You should probably have a PhD by the time you *finish* your postdoc!)\n\nMoral: you really need to ask. \n\nLet me end with a remark which leans towards the obvious: nothing is for sure until it happens, but if you have some specific reason to doubt that you'll have a PhD by the start time of a postdoc, you should bring that up ASAP and ideally before you accept the position in the first place. In the current job market, there is no lack of qualified candidates with PhD in hand."
},
{
"answer_id": 161696,
"author": "WetlabStudent",
"author_id": 8101,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8101",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "I, the question asker, ended up accepting a postdoc in Australia. The University offered me to start the postdoc without the degree, but at a slightly lower salary (which would then be raised once I had the official degree). I countered by saying that I was willing to wait a couple of months to start the postdoc with the degree, to get two years at the advertised salary and have some time off. The job ad said the start date was negotiable. The University then gave in; they let me start right away anyway, at the advertised salary, without the degree, as the PI really wanted me to start ASAP. Later I found out the rules which hold pretty much universally in Australia. At Australian Universities, you are allowed to start a postdoc without the degree in hand. Australian Universities have a minimum wage for someone with an official PhD. Therefore, Australian universities are allowed to pay you less than the advertised postdoc wage if you don't officially have the degree, and some PIs/Universities will try to get away with this if they can, to save money. However, they are not forced to pay you a lower wage, so you can negotiate to get the advertised wage. Just thought I'd post a follow-up answer in my specific context.\n\nYou might wonder, why do Australian Universities allow you to start without the degree. One of the big reasons is that Australian dissertations go through a form of peer-review by people external to the University (rather than just the thesis committee and a department chair/impartial rep). You can imagine all the delays this could create. Therefore, to avoid having all PhD candidates being unemployed for months/years while their theses go through peer review (and foreign students immediately being deported!) it is generally seen as fine by PIs to start a postdoc as long as the thesis has been submitted for external peer-review. Most PIs will want the thesis written so they aren't working too much on their thesis while doing their postdoc."
},
{
"answer_id": 190509,
"author": "Chris Jefferson",
"author_id": 20453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20453",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "In the UK it is common to begin a \"post-doc\" while still working on your PhD - my funding stopped after 3.5 years. I then did a 6-month 'postdoc', and began a second 'postdoc' while finishing my PhD and submitting it.\n\nThere is an expectation that you are still working towards your PhD, and you will often receive a lower salary until you have your PhD."
}
] |
2014/12/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34658",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8101/"
] |
34,662 |
I am applying to a master's degree in computer science and while writing my SOP I see two options:
1. I participated in a bunch of competitions, read a bunch of papers, worked with a senior scientist and produced a draft of a paper which is about to be published. These are all chronological events. Should I describe each one of these events in a separate paragraph and explain what I have learnt from these that caused me to develop a research interest?
2. Should I just directly mention all the events very briefly in 5 ~ 6 sentences and the next couple of paragraphs talk about the specific topics I am interested in conducting research in, without mentioning the motivation behind what got me interested in these topics.
While concluding I would like to mention few specific faculties whose work fascinates me. I would like to describe the works of few particular faculty members which I would like to work under(Possibly have them as my thesis advisor if it is fine by them).
Are either of these two options fine or which one should I choose preferably? Also how the should overly narrative(Tone and everything) of a SOP be?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 43823,
"author": "Kasra Manshaei",
"author_id": 32385,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32385",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "To the best of my knowledge nobody cares how you got interested in a specific topic in details but the idea which got you there is important (i.e. something that shows your point of view to the topic). After this you better jump into the main body and start writing experiences. \n\nI strongly recommend to avoid **being arrogant** i.e. do not mention all the positive points directly but try to put them between lines in a smart manner e.g. if you have worked with a great scientist you do not mention that but having a sentence like *\"when I was working with Dr.xxx\"* or *\"Dr.xxx whom I used to work with encouraged me to do this\"* or stuff like that.\n\nabout ***\"I would like to describe the works of few particular faculty members which I would like to work under(Possibly have them as my thesis advisor if it is fine by them).\"*** I'd say in a maswter program you have enough freedom to choose your supervisor so there is no need to mention in the application phase! that option is for PhD applications usually. On the other hand when you mention your special interests, people out there figure out which direction you'll probably go and who is better to be your supervisor. But in the section that you are showing your enthusiasm for this program you can name 1 or 2 faculty member and a keyword of what they do just to show that this is not just a **random** application but you know where you are applying to!"
},
{
"answer_id": 43829,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "To answer your top-level question:\n\nAbsolutely not.\n---------------\n\nYour statement of purpose should be an account of what you want to do in graduate school, and your qualifications to undertake that research. Admissions officers do **not** want to read about everything you've done as a researcher since you were a child. Nor do we want a blow-by-blow account of your research career.\n\nInstead, briefly summarize your history, and move on from there. The bulk of your essay should be what you plan to do, not what you've already done."
}
] |
2014/12/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34662",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15418/"
] |
34,663 |
I did a bunch of code projects like implement a algorithm or use the code from a paper on a different dataset. These may not be unique (they may be, but I am not sure). I wouldn't say that these projects have the best efficiency/accuracy for a particular problem. But these are stuff that I was just messing around with and got some interesting outputs. I maintain a blog about all these activities that I do. These projects are related to machine learning, a subject in which I am interested in pursuing a MS degree.
Should I mention these blog posts in my SOP?
My SOP is a research statement, and these are not entirely research projects, but they do reflect my interest in machine learning. Would mentioning these projects benefit me in any way?
If you do recommend that I mention them, how should go about that?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34666,
"author": "Ooker",
"author_id": 14341,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14341",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "In [a notorious question in Academia.SE](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1529/choosing-research-ideas-to-include-in-a-statement-of-purpose), JeffE has stated this:\n\n> \n> * What have you already done? What problems have you solved, or at least worked on? What independent projects have you been part of? What were your key contributions? What did you learn? What did you teach the world? How do your results compare to what was already known? What original ideas are you most proud of? Be specific, technical, credible, and confident (but not arrogant). **Refer the reader to your web page for more details**. Have a web page with more details: preprints, project reports, source code, videos, etc.\n> \n> \n> \n\nSo yes, yes you can.\n\nHowever, personally, I would like to mention it in my CV."
},
{
"answer_id": 34667,
"author": "David Ketcheson",
"author_id": 81,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/81",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "**Yes**. You could mention it in your SOP and/or in your CV.\n\nI have received some applications from students in which they mentioned a technical blog, and so far it has always left a positive impression. In my opinion, keeping such a blog demonstrates:\n\n1. Maturity in writing and communicating (especially if your blog communicates something technical in an informal way that is not sloppy).\n2. Organization of thought and effort.\n3. Initiative.\n4. Love for learning ideas relevant to your discipline."
},
{
"answer_id": 34671,
"author": "Ben Bitdiddle",
"author_id": 24384,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24384",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "On the one hand, having a blog shows initiative. It shows you are interested in your subject and spend a lot of time learning on your own.\n\nOn the other hand, when I think of these blogs I don't think of my PhD classmates. I think of foreign students who have no formal credentials or experience and are desperate to prove themselves outside of the system. This is doubly true if no one reads your blog, or if it's written in poor English. Most of my classmates have no time to write blogs because most of their working time goes towards classes, research, or projects that involve other people.\n\nI would say that if you have real credentials, you should not mention your blog, because it lumps you with those other guys. But if your application sucks otherwise, you may as well mention it because it's all you've got.\n\n(I have a similar opinion on Coursera classes, which is another path taken by students who are desperate to prove themselves outside of the system. Except Coursera classes are even worse because it's harder to measure what the student learned.)"
}
] |
2014/12/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34663",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15418/"
] |
34,665 |
When do we write a mathematical expression on a separate line, and when do we write it inline with the text?
I believe that the answer is the same for researching papers and Ph.D. theses, or maybe even textbooks; but please correct me if I am wrong.
Here I am referring to a paper/thesis on mathematics. When one writes a mathematical paper, sometimes one writes a mathematical expression in a separate line such as in the following example:
>
> We know that the identity
>
> a2+b2=c2
>
> holds true if ....
>
>
>
While sometimes one writes the mathematical expression inline with the text, such as in the following example:
>
> Let f:X->Y be a one-to-one map, ...
>
>
>
My impression is the longer the expression is, the more likely it is written in a separate line. But is there any (possibly unwritten) rule for it?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34668,
"author": "410 gone",
"author_id": 96,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/96",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "As with any style question, work through these rules from the top, and stop when you have an answer:\n\n1. Read the style guide / advice to authors carefully, and follow its advice. It will often contain the answer.\n2. Ask your editor / supervisor, and follow their advice.\n3. Copy the style from recent works that are in the same category as yours; so if yours is a review article to the Journal of Studies, copy the style from recent reviews in the Journal of Studies; if it's a PhD thesis to the Institute of Thinking, copy the style from recent PhD theses to the Institute of Thinking. This will only be successful if there's an obvious pattern present. Look at several works, don't just pick one: you're looking for a *pattern*, not just a single *precedent*.\n4. Follow best practice in typography and graphic design. If your own eye isn't yet trained, ask someone who does have a good eye for these things. One way to assess this is to try several things, and pick whatever's clearest to a reader new to the material. But don't do this too often: you don't want to exhaust the goodwill of your style-checkers.\n\n(you might wish to swap around numbers 2 and 3, e.g. if you know that the rules have not changed recently)"
},
{
"answer_id": 34672,
"author": "silvado",
"author_id": 3890,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3890",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "The book \"Handbook of writing for the mathematical sciences\" by N. J. Higham shortly discusses that point in Section 3.7 (\"Displaying equations\"). I cite the first sentence of that section:\n\n> \n> An equation is displayed when it needs to be numbered, when it would be hard to read if placed in-line, or when it merits special attention, perhaps because it contains the first occurrence of an important variable.\n> \n> \n> \n\nIn all other cases, equations should be put inline (being a mathematician, the book author does not mention this explicitly)."
},
{
"answer_id": 34676,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "In the areas in which I work, there are no formal rules and it is left up to the author when to separate an equation and when to embed it in the text. When I am writing, I find that there are three fairly straightforward principles that work well for me in determining whether an equation (or other mathematical statement) deserves its own line or can be inline with the text:\n\n1. Will I need to refer to the equation elsewhere? If so, it needs its own line, and equation numbering as well.\n2. Is it more than ~1/3 of a line long? Anything so long that it is likely to get broken across lines and otherwise be a typographical mess should be pulled out onto its own line. Numbering is not required.\n3. Do I want the reader to \"pause\" and contemplate the equation, or do I want it to \"flow\" as part of the sentence encompassing it?\n\nThis last needs a little bit more explanation... let's elaborate on one of the examples from the original question. If I write the sentence this way:\n\n> \n> We know that the identity a^2+b^2=c^2 holds true if the system is in condition X.\n> \n> \n> \n\nthen the equation should be inline, because the sentence is really about condition X, rather than about the equation. If, on the other hand, the reader's attention should be directed to the equation, then it is better to use something like the following form, with the equation on its own line:\n\n> \n> We know that if the system is in condition X, then the following identity holds:\n> \n> \n> \n> > \n> > a^2+b^2=c^2\n> > \n> > \n> > \n> \n> \n> \n\nNote: these principles reduce to a similar effect as the style guide given by @silvado"
},
{
"answer_id": 34679,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "You may want to check the book [Mathematics into Type](ftp://ftp.ams.org/pub/author-info/documentation/howto/mit-2.pdf) published by the *American Mathematical Society* (AMS). See particularly section 2.5 in the Updated version (1999).\n\nThere are basically no fixed rules for what should be typeset as so-called *display* (on a separate line) versus run into the text. Length of the equation as well as importance are key parameters in making such a decision.\n\n*Length*. Long equations will be difficult to set and to read if set into the text. Hence they need to be set in display mode. \n\n*Importance*. If an equation is important to the text then it is likely better to set in in display mode since it will be easily seen.\n\nRunning everything in display is not useful. in-text equations save space while display equation break up the text. From this it is evident that the mix should also consider the length of the final text and the readability of the text.\n\nThere may of course be specific instructions for individual journals so check, in your case earlier PhD theses for hints, perhaps with the book mentioned above in one hand."
}
] |
2014/12/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34665",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24832/"
] |
34,678 |
I've applied to three US universities (A, B, C) for PhD programs. Universities A and B offered me interviews on two separate weekends, which I accepted. I then made travel arrangements with Universities A and B for interviews.
I was then offered an interview with University C on the same date as my University A interview. I asked C for an alternate date, which happened to be the same weekend as my interview with B. I informed C of this and gave them a list of dates that I was free to interview but was told that those were the only two dates possible at University C.
I asked A and B about changing my interview date but was told that I could not since travel arrangements had already been made (through the university/a university-sponsored travel agency).
Universities A and B are both higher on my list than University C, so I've decided to decline University C's interview.
How can I do this politely? I don't want to burn any bridges with University C.
---
Related question: [What should be done about conflicting invitations for graduate school interviews?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/15019/what-should-be-done-about-conflicting-invitations-for-graduate-school-interviews)
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34681,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "They seem to have all the facts already. Just tell them that you had already made travel arrangements to visit A and B on the dates that C wanted you to come out, and that you have to regretfully decline to come to C. They're not going to be mad at you."
},
{
"answer_id": 34683,
"author": "silvado",
"author_id": 3890,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3890",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "You have asked for an alternative interview date, gave them a list of options where you're available, and made efforts to reschedule conflicting appointments. I don't think there's anything more that could be expected of you, so it should not be perceived as impolite if you just inform University C that unfortunately you can't come to any of the two offered interview dates due to conflicting appointments. If you want, you can explicitly mention interviews at other universities - that will make it clear that you're genuinely interested in doing a PhD, and it will be understandable to most academics that everybody has a ranking of opportunities in such situations.\n\nYou could offer to retract your application, or state that you expect that they won't consider your application any further, but I don't think any of these would be required."
},
{
"answer_id": 34707,
"author": "user4384060",
"author_id": 26938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26938",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "Personally, I would recommend simplicity and honesty. Tell them what you have told us: I’m sure they will understand your problem. They are people too."
},
{
"answer_id": 34708,
"author": "galois",
"author_id": 25375,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/25375",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "I don't see any reason they would be upset by you telling the truth. In fact, trying to get too deep in explaining *\"why I am choosing to go to A and B instead of you\"* could potentially be more \"offensive\", if that's what you're worried about. Concerning politeness, I would call if possible; quickly, too. There's no reason to leave them waiting to hear back from you if the answer is 'no'!\n\nBe short, sweet, and to the point.\n\n\"I am sorry to say that I won't be able to attend an interview on either of the dates provided. If a time comes up other than those provided, please let me know. I apologize for any inconvenience.\"\n\nIt's also possible to leave an opening for a possible interview with University C later that way."
}
] |
2014/12/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34678",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17331/"
] |
34,685 |
English is not my native language and when I read mathematical papers, sometimes I saw sentences such as
>
> The matrix A has rank ≥ n.
>
>
>
I am wondering if this sentence should be considered as grammatically wrong. I think the correct expression should be
>
> The rank of the matrix A is greater than or equal to n.
>
>
>
Are expressions such as "The matrix A has rank ≥ n" considered as acceptable in mathematical papers/theses/textbooks?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34686,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "> \n> Are expressions such as \"The matrix A has rank ≥ n\" considered as acceptable in mathematical papers/theses/textbooks?\n> \n> \n> \n\nNo, it's often considered poor style to incorporate fragments of equations like this into text. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's ungrammatical, but many people consider it bad writing. Some others don't care about this issue, which is why you sometimes see it done, but this is more common in informal or unedited writing.\n\nThe issue is that \"rank ≥ n\" is mixing together English and mathematics within the same construction. If this doesn't bother you, imagine a more dramatic case like \"n + five\". (By contrast, when someone writes \"if x ≥ y\", the inequality \"x ≥ y\" is a self-contained unit within the sentence.) There's no logical reason why mathematical writing conventions couldn't allow this sort of mixing, but they don't.\n\nSaying \"The matrix A has rank at least n\" is shorter and cleaner than \"The rank of the matrix A is greater than or equal to n\", but they are both acceptable. I'd recommend avoiding \"The matrix A has rank ≥ n\" (I can't think of a good reason to prefer it, and avoiding looking bad is a reason not to use it)."
},
{
"answer_id": 34687,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "In principle, it is generally acceptable to mix together mathematical and prose statements, as in your example: either construction would be technically be grammatically correct.\n\nIn practice, which to choose depends on how you want your reader to think about the statement that you have written. Prose emphasizes the relationship, in your example focusing the reader on \"greater than.\" A mathematical statement tends to instead be thought of as a unit, in your example focusing the reader on \"rank.\" You should thus choose accordingly.\n\nOne exception: small integers referring to counting within a small range should always be written as prose. Some examples of this distinction:\n\n> \n> We selected eight conditions to test.\n> \n> \n> We found that 8 of the 73 samples were positive.\n> \n> \n> \n\nThe boundary of \"small\" is a bit hazy: certainly less than 10, usually less than 20."
},
{
"answer_id": 34716,
"author": "yo'",
"author_id": 1471,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1471",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "*(Copy Editor and mathematician speaking)*\n\nI, for one, allow these mixed constructions when editing the articles. I do know that it is not the best grammatical style, but not everything in math is easy to put down in proper English grammar. The two rules of thumb I use for these boundary cases is: Is the text clear to the reader? Can you *easily* make it grammatically correct?\n\nFor instance, the sentence \"For matrix A, the equation rank(A) ≥ 5 holds.\" is cryptic and long. A better option might be \"For matrix A, we have rank(A) ≥ 5.\" or \"Matrix A satisfies rank(A) ≥ 5.\" I would be fine with \"Matrix A has rank at least 5.\" However, this gets complicated if you have more such expressions in a row, like in:\n\n> \n> ... which is defined as a non-real algebraic integer in modulus >1 whose Galois conjugates except its complex conjugate are in modulus <1.\n> \n> \n> \n\nvs.\n\n> \n> ... which is defined as a non-real algebraic integer in modulus greater than 1 whose Galois conjugates except its complex conjugate are in modulus less than 1.\n> \n> \n> \n\nI prefer the first option. This went through the AMS language editorial, as far as I remember, without any problem."
},
{
"answer_id": 34718,
"author": "fedja",
"author_id": 6118,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6118",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "I let it pass if the sentence is unambiguous and can be pronounced normally when reading without any special effort like in \"If $A$ is $\\ge B+C$ and $f:[0,A]\\to\\mathbb Z$, then... (If the quantity/parameter/number $A$ is larger than the sum $B+C$ and the function $f$ maps the interval $[0,A]$ to the set $\\mathbb Z$, then...) because in this case the extra words just slow the reader down. However, when seeing any ambiguity like \"If A, B, C.\" (which comma is \"and\", and which is \"then\" here?) or something that, if attempted to be read as a sentence, violates not only the rules of the grammar, but also those of common sense as far as structuring sentences is concerned and which, if one needs it to be said at the board in a classroom, will have to be split into separate sentences and totally restructured to be comprehended by ear, I usually object.\n\nSide note: what's the point of not enabling mathjax on Academia?"
}
] |
2014/12/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34685",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24832/"
] |
34,690 |
I like maps very much, any common maps, geographic, historic, statistic, etc., or I would say reading maps is my favorite hobby. I can sit at table and read maps for several hours without any stop.
I was studying courses about math and physics in university. I am planning to pursue a PhD degree in the future. It would be great if I can convert or leverage the my map hobby as my career.
So my question is, considering my background, Is there any research direction which is closely related with map reading? If difficult to find such position in academia, is there any jobs in industry can greatly fulfill my idea?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34686,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "> \n> Are expressions such as \"The matrix A has rank ≥ n\" considered as acceptable in mathematical papers/theses/textbooks?\n> \n> \n> \n\nNo, it's often considered poor style to incorporate fragments of equations like this into text. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's ungrammatical, but many people consider it bad writing. Some others don't care about this issue, which is why you sometimes see it done, but this is more common in informal or unedited writing.\n\nThe issue is that \"rank ≥ n\" is mixing together English and mathematics within the same construction. If this doesn't bother you, imagine a more dramatic case like \"n + five\". (By contrast, when someone writes \"if x ≥ y\", the inequality \"x ≥ y\" is a self-contained unit within the sentence.) There's no logical reason why mathematical writing conventions couldn't allow this sort of mixing, but they don't.\n\nSaying \"The matrix A has rank at least n\" is shorter and cleaner than \"The rank of the matrix A is greater than or equal to n\", but they are both acceptable. I'd recommend avoiding \"The matrix A has rank ≥ n\" (I can't think of a good reason to prefer it, and avoiding looking bad is a reason not to use it)."
},
{
"answer_id": 34687,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "In principle, it is generally acceptable to mix together mathematical and prose statements, as in your example: either construction would be technically be grammatically correct.\n\nIn practice, which to choose depends on how you want your reader to think about the statement that you have written. Prose emphasizes the relationship, in your example focusing the reader on \"greater than.\" A mathematical statement tends to instead be thought of as a unit, in your example focusing the reader on \"rank.\" You should thus choose accordingly.\n\nOne exception: small integers referring to counting within a small range should always be written as prose. Some examples of this distinction:\n\n> \n> We selected eight conditions to test.\n> \n> \n> We found that 8 of the 73 samples were positive.\n> \n> \n> \n\nThe boundary of \"small\" is a bit hazy: certainly less than 10, usually less than 20."
},
{
"answer_id": 34716,
"author": "yo'",
"author_id": 1471,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1471",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "*(Copy Editor and mathematician speaking)*\n\nI, for one, allow these mixed constructions when editing the articles. I do know that it is not the best grammatical style, but not everything in math is easy to put down in proper English grammar. The two rules of thumb I use for these boundary cases is: Is the text clear to the reader? Can you *easily* make it grammatically correct?\n\nFor instance, the sentence \"For matrix A, the equation rank(A) ≥ 5 holds.\" is cryptic and long. A better option might be \"For matrix A, we have rank(A) ≥ 5.\" or \"Matrix A satisfies rank(A) ≥ 5.\" I would be fine with \"Matrix A has rank at least 5.\" However, this gets complicated if you have more such expressions in a row, like in:\n\n> \n> ... which is defined as a non-real algebraic integer in modulus >1 whose Galois conjugates except its complex conjugate are in modulus <1.\n> \n> \n> \n\nvs.\n\n> \n> ... which is defined as a non-real algebraic integer in modulus greater than 1 whose Galois conjugates except its complex conjugate are in modulus less than 1.\n> \n> \n> \n\nI prefer the first option. This went through the AMS language editorial, as far as I remember, without any problem."
},
{
"answer_id": 34718,
"author": "fedja",
"author_id": 6118,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6118",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "I let it pass if the sentence is unambiguous and can be pronounced normally when reading without any special effort like in \"If $A$ is $\\ge B+C$ and $f:[0,A]\\to\\mathbb Z$, then... (If the quantity/parameter/number $A$ is larger than the sum $B+C$ and the function $f$ maps the interval $[0,A]$ to the set $\\mathbb Z$, then...) because in this case the extra words just slow the reader down. However, when seeing any ambiguity like \"If A, B, C.\" (which comma is \"and\", and which is \"then\" here?) or something that, if attempted to be read as a sentence, violates not only the rules of the grammar, but also those of common sense as far as structuring sentences is concerned and which, if one needs it to be said at the board in a classroom, will have to be split into separate sentences and totally restructured to be comprehended by ear, I usually object.\n\nSide note: what's the point of not enabling mathjax on Academia?"
}
] |
2014/12/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34690",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26917/"
] |
34,700 |
Young male student soon to receive an Engineering Degree unsure about the next steps to follow. Undecided whether to go for a PhD directly or do a Master studies first (if he goes for the Master, he will first have to do a thesis work anyway). Has to decide between a PhD position to which he has promising chances to get a scholarship funded by a top company in the world, or apply for a prestigious scholarship for a Master's degree to which he stands good chances and that could probably lead to study in a top US university. His goal is to study at a top university and do research at the highest level. Seeks advice from experienced or knowledgeable advisors and academics about what to do next.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34701,
"author": "afaust",
"author_id": 21371,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21371",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "You should ask yourself what is your dream destination, and make decisions that will lead you to the destination. Is studying at a US University a destination or point in a journey?\n\nIf I read your post correctly you are already accepted to UK. So, on one hand you have the opportunity to go in UK, or on the other hand possibly be accepted for Fulbright which will maybe get you to US. What is the alternative if Fulbright/US do not pan out?\n\nLast note, never underestimate the value of a good advisor, even from a lesser University. Attending the best school with an adviser who will not advocate for you, limits your options later on. Again, what you choose depends what your destination is."
},
{
"answer_id": 34702,
"author": "Ben Bitdiddle",
"author_id": 24384,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24384",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "It seems like you're choosing between\n\n1. A (nearly) guaranteed PhD offer at a middling university.\n2. A fully funded master's program that you *may or may not* be accepted to, but may offer you the opportunity to jump to a better PhD program *if* you get the Fulbright scholarship and perform well in your master's.\n\nSome factors you may consider are\n\n1. If you take the master's offer you will spend a lot of time preparing for a PhD. You will need to perform extra well for two years to secure your letters of recommendation, and it will look bad if you don't accomplish anything significant during that time. In the end you might not get into your school of choice, and then you will have worked very hard for no visible gain. How confident are you that you can (1) get the scholarship, and (2) perform consistently well once you're actually there?\n2. A master's degree will give you more background in computer science, and you will learn more about theoretical CS than \"it involves both programming and mathematics.\" A *lot* of things involve both programming and mathematics, and getting more experience (in coursework and research) will let you better evaluate your options before jumping into a long commitment. Most theoretical CS students I know entered their PhD program knowing they wanted to study \"approximation algorithms,\" \"cryptography,\" etc, not just \"theoretical CS\" or \"some field that involves both programming and math.\"\n\nIt's also kind of a red flag that you're undecided between a PhD and a master's, and I think before you go for a PhD you should have a stronger opinion on this. If you are uncertain about your career and your research area you will be at a significant disadvantage compared to your classmates who aren't.\n3. If your first choice is the PhD offer, you can easily apply to both and turn down the Master's offer, but if your first choice is the Master's offer, it would be awkward to apply to both and turn down the PhD offer."
}
] |
2014/12/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34700",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22302/"
] |
34,737 |
Presumably, evaluations are anonymized to protect the students from possible retaliation by the instructor or institution.
Is there anything in the reverse direction (keeping that information hidden is beneficial to the instructor)?
What are potential consequences if a student chooses to place identifying information (e.g. knowledge of a particular conversation) onto an evaluation?
---
The exact situation is that one of my friends was considering discussing a very long conversation she'd had with the professor on the class evaluation, and how it exemplified issues she'd had with the class. She's taking a class with that professor next semester, which is a big issue for the student. That issue aside, I'm wondering if there would be good reaons to avoid this even if she would never take another class with this instructor.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34738,
"author": "Wrzlprmft",
"author_id": 7734,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7734",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "The only ramnifications I can think of is that whoever handles, edits or publishes that class evaluation may recognise the deanonymisation, consider it accidental and thus decides not to pass it for that reason.\n\nAs you can always pass deanonymised criticism to an instructor, be it by mail or by putting it on public display, there seems little point to me to protect the instructor from it on this particular medium.\n\nSomething else you might consider though is that even if the professor does not want to retaliate that criticism, they will have more difficulties to fairly evaluate the critic, which may have effects in either direction. While this is some annoyance you could spare the professor, it would also happen with non-anonymous critique made in other ways."
},
{
"answer_id": 34739,
"author": "Ben Bitdiddle",
"author_id": 24384,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24384",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "On the flipside, I was going to write a very nice teaching evaluation about my advisor. Part of the reason I respect him so much as a teacher is because I've had conversations with him that reveal that he cares deeply about his teaching and puts a huge amount of effort into his class.\n\nBut I didn't write any of those details in my evaluation, because I didn't want him thinking I was sucking up to him, and I thought it would mean more to him if it came from a student who was not his. So I just gave him good numeric scores and a few comments that could have come from any student."
},
{
"answer_id": 40324,
"author": "sevensevens",
"author_id": 14754,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14754",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "In general, class evaluations correlate pretty strongly with the grade the student received in the class, so evaluations aren't given much weight by the department, and most faculty are not likely to change the course based on them. \n\nGiven your specific situation, where the student will be taking another class, it would probably be best not to out yourself on a negative evaluation. He is not likely to change is teaching style (the good outcome), but if the professor is vindictive, it may make the next class more difficult for your friend. I don't see anything positive coming from outing herself, but I could see a potential for abuse from the prof."
}
] |
2014/12/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34737",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8158/"
] |
34,740 |
I was reading up the [Reddit page here](http://www.reddit.com/comments/rbgcz/my_friend_got_his_acceptance_letter_to_memphis/), which described a case of admissions error, in which:
1. The person obtained an acceptance for a PhD program in writing.
2. The person personally called the university and confirmed acceptance of the program
3. The university then said that they had made a mistake, cancelling the acceptance.
What would be some things that the person can take, and if some of these actions required specific conditions, what would be the conditions be?
For the purposes of answering this question, we will assume that there is no stipend involved, and the acceptance was confirmed by the departmental admissions staff.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34738,
"author": "Wrzlprmft",
"author_id": 7734,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7734",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "The only ramnifications I can think of is that whoever handles, edits or publishes that class evaluation may recognise the deanonymisation, consider it accidental and thus decides not to pass it for that reason.\n\nAs you can always pass deanonymised criticism to an instructor, be it by mail or by putting it on public display, there seems little point to me to protect the instructor from it on this particular medium.\n\nSomething else you might consider though is that even if the professor does not want to retaliate that criticism, they will have more difficulties to fairly evaluate the critic, which may have effects in either direction. While this is some annoyance you could spare the professor, it would also happen with non-anonymous critique made in other ways."
},
{
"answer_id": 34739,
"author": "Ben Bitdiddle",
"author_id": 24384,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24384",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "On the flipside, I was going to write a very nice teaching evaluation about my advisor. Part of the reason I respect him so much as a teacher is because I've had conversations with him that reveal that he cares deeply about his teaching and puts a huge amount of effort into his class.\n\nBut I didn't write any of those details in my evaluation, because I didn't want him thinking I was sucking up to him, and I thought it would mean more to him if it came from a student who was not his. So I just gave him good numeric scores and a few comments that could have come from any student."
},
{
"answer_id": 40324,
"author": "sevensevens",
"author_id": 14754,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14754",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "In general, class evaluations correlate pretty strongly with the grade the student received in the class, so evaluations aren't given much weight by the department, and most faculty are not likely to change the course based on them. \n\nGiven your specific situation, where the student will be taking another class, it would probably be best not to out yourself on a negative evaluation. He is not likely to change is teaching style (the good outcome), but if the professor is vindictive, it may make the next class more difficult for your friend. I don't see anything positive coming from outing herself, but I could see a potential for abuse from the prof."
}
] |
2014/12/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34740",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26713/"
] |
34,748 |
Are there alternatives to Academia.edu and ResearchGate if one is searching for a venue that promotes "informal" (\*) cooperation and networking among scholars (specifically, in mathematics and science)?
(\*) As far as I know, the aim of two sites mentioned above is mostly sharing papers rather than opinions, insights, and interesting material of various sorts related to research. I would like this alternative site to be more informal: a scholarly social network rather a mere preprints repository.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34738,
"author": "Wrzlprmft",
"author_id": 7734,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7734",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "The only ramnifications I can think of is that whoever handles, edits or publishes that class evaluation may recognise the deanonymisation, consider it accidental and thus decides not to pass it for that reason.\n\nAs you can always pass deanonymised criticism to an instructor, be it by mail or by putting it on public display, there seems little point to me to protect the instructor from it on this particular medium.\n\nSomething else you might consider though is that even if the professor does not want to retaliate that criticism, they will have more difficulties to fairly evaluate the critic, which may have effects in either direction. While this is some annoyance you could spare the professor, it would also happen with non-anonymous critique made in other ways."
},
{
"answer_id": 34739,
"author": "Ben Bitdiddle",
"author_id": 24384,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24384",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "On the flipside, I was going to write a very nice teaching evaluation about my advisor. Part of the reason I respect him so much as a teacher is because I've had conversations with him that reveal that he cares deeply about his teaching and puts a huge amount of effort into his class.\n\nBut I didn't write any of those details in my evaluation, because I didn't want him thinking I was sucking up to him, and I thought it would mean more to him if it came from a student who was not his. So I just gave him good numeric scores and a few comments that could have come from any student."
},
{
"answer_id": 40324,
"author": "sevensevens",
"author_id": 14754,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14754",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "In general, class evaluations correlate pretty strongly with the grade the student received in the class, so evaluations aren't given much weight by the department, and most faculty are not likely to change the course based on them. \n\nGiven your specific situation, where the student will be taking another class, it would probably be best not to out yourself on a negative evaluation. He is not likely to change is teaching style (the good outcome), but if the professor is vindictive, it may make the next class more difficult for your friend. I don't see anything positive coming from outing herself, but I could see a potential for abuse from the prof."
}
] |
2014/12/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34748",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] |
34,752 |
I wrote a mathematics manuscript (see [Extremely mild punishments for academic misconduct](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34735/extremely-mild-punishments-for-academic-misconduct)), and sent it to a professor, who then attempted to have it published after adding coauthors to the paper. His misconduct is not my concern. My concern is that the manuscript is not of publication quality, and I would prefer that my name not be attached to it. Virtually all of the manuscript is written by me, and all the work was done by me, so I can't claim that it is not my product.
My question is: What excuse do I use to have him take my name off the manuscript?
I would prefer to remain on good terms with this professor. I would also prefer not to mention in any way that the manuscript is worthless, because it solves a problem that he had been attempting unsuccessfully for quite a while, and such a statement would be deeply challenging to his pride.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34762,
"author": "padawan",
"author_id": 15949,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15949",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "You have a third choice:\n\nDo not forget that all the authors should sign a contract before publishing a paper.\nI am not telling you not to sign it.\nHowever, it would be a good approach if you told your professor\n\n> \n> I am sure that huge improvements can still be made on this paper.\n> Could you please delay the submission and let me work on the paper for\n> another period of time?\n> \n> \n> \n\nThis way, you told that paper is not of publication quality and implicated that you're not comfortable with your name on it.\nIf the professor still insists on publishing, only then you may say\n\n> \n> It's not like I'm not trusting your judgmental skills but when I know\n> that I can do better, I cannot do with less. So please do not\n> misunderstand me but I don't want to be a coauthor of a work that is\n> less than my potential.\n> \n> \n> \n\nIf your professor is professional enough, he will hear what you say.\n\nMaybe not the best solution, but I would go with this one."
},
{
"answer_id": 34770,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "I think cagirici's advice is sound but, of course involves a bit of confrontation. In fact there are no actions other than letting the whole thing pass that would not involve something that would do so. It sounds to me as if your work although not of publication quality at this time really is yours. This makes the action from the professor problematic to say the least.\n\nSo what can you do. First, regarding unwanted co-authorships: you could argue that you want to see the contributorship of the new co-authors. Search here on academia and on the web for the term contributorship and you will find many good hints on what can be counted as enough contribution to be on the paper. One link, I often use is to the [ICMJE](http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html). I realize the thoughts of coauthorship/contributorship varies between fields so you will have to imagine how to set the rules in perspective for your field.\n\nSecond, about just adding authors: clearly from your post the ownership of the work is yours so to have somebody else add authors is not right and you have the right to say no. You can even dump the professor and go elsewhere.\n\nIf you really want to leave your work in the hands of others you could just say that you are happy to see someone trying to take your attempt and turn it into something useful and that you do not feel you should be part of that development and that your \"meagre\" contributions in your view doesn't merit co-authorship. After that type of grovelling, you may wish to have a drink or two. I personally think such actions would be going too far and you really should take the bull by the horns and try to see how a proper paper could emerge and with contributors that really contribute. You can at least start by talking to the professor about the merits of your draft and how the professors sees it developing and being published in the end"
},
{
"answer_id": 34771,
"author": "Kimball",
"author_id": 19607,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19607",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "First, I'd say try as hard as you can to see if what you've done is already known. It sounds like there's a good chance for this to be the case if it's simple mathematics (which I infer from your question and the comments). (Math Stack Exchange might be useful here.) If so, you can just provide the professor the reference and say it's already known, so you can't publish it. Problem solved. \n\nIf not, answer this: is the problem a pure mathematics problem, or a problem in another area that just has a simple solution for mathematicians? If it's the latter, then it may not be so embarrassing to publish something with simple mathematics. Alternatively, if the question itself is pure math and interesting, but just has a simple solution, you could aim for a \"recreational\" journal like Math Magazine (I think that's the name of one).\n\nOtherwise, here's one possible route that *might* work, but it really depends on the professor and the situation. You can tell him that it's his problem and that your mathematical contribution was not enough to warrant coauthorship (both true), so please not include you as an author but just mention you in the acknowledgements."
},
{
"answer_id": 34802,
"author": "Dave31415",
"author_id": 15074,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15074",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Just publish the paper and move on. No one is going to hold you accountable for publishing some paper that is not spectacular. Academics are judged by the number of successes and not penalized by the number of subpar efforts. Don't create a confrontation that is not necessary as this person is going to have an effect on your future."
}
] |
2014/12/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34752",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26808/"
] |
34,753 |
Anybody has idea, how much copying is allowed in a recommendation letter and whether they really run a copying test on the letters of recommendation?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34754,
"author": "keshlam",
"author_id": 10225,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10225",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "There isn't much creativity involved in most recommendation letters. And frankly, that doesn't matter. The important thing to a school or employer is that the individual who signed the letter believes it accurately describes you. \n\nYes, it would be nice if every letter was rewritten completely de novo. It isn't very surprising when it doesn't happen that way.\n\nDon't worry about it. The worst that will happen is that they'll contact the recommender, he'll say you're a good candidate, and that'll be the end of it."
},
{
"answer_id": 34755,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "While our university occasionally submits statements of purpose, research statements, and writing samples through plagiarism detectors (and gives the admissions committee the results), I have never seen this done to letters of recommendation.\n\nThere are just very limited ways of saying nice things about students. I use the same variation of an opening for all my letters, with only minor changes in intensity (I am very/slightly/marginally pleased to write this letter of recommendation) and close with the same sentence on all of them. \n\nI wouldn't worry.\n\n---\n\nAddendum given the changes to the the original question: I don't know if people have seen the output of plagiarism detectors but they don't provide a simple YES/NO answer. Instead, they provide a statistical quantification of how much unquoted text *might* be drawn from other sources (e.g., 3-5% of the text appears duplicative). Each report is several pages long with parts of the student text highlighted and possible prior sources highlighted. \n\nThe reports are quite \"noisy\" with many false positives -- notably in one case that I remember, highlighting text in the *bibliography* because the citations matched citations in other bibliographies. [facepalm] \n\nRunning LORs through plagiarism detectors would serve no useful evaluative purpose in terms of how the admissions committee views the *candidate*."
},
{
"answer_id": 34764,
"author": "sevensevens",
"author_id": 14754,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14754",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Almost every prof I know uses a template for recommendation letters, and adds a paragraph or two specific to the student. I'm not surprised a about the reuse of a paragraph and similar wording.\n\nRemember, the purpose of a letter of recommendation is to make the case that you are a good student, and will be a dedicated, ethical researcher, not to introduce new research or new ideas. A letter of recommendation would likely not pass several requirements of publish, professional research as it does not present a novel idea, nor does it have external references. \n\nA recommendation letter is a vote of confidence in the individual. Its difficult to see how similar content between letters would hurt either the recommend-er or the recommend-ee, so long as the recommendation accurately reflects the opinion of the recommend-er."
},
{
"answer_id": 34765,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "> \n> Anybody has any idea, how much plagiarism is allowed in a recommendation letter and whether they really run a plagiarism test on the letters of recommendation?\n> \n> \n> \n\nI have read literally thousands of academic recommendation letters, and I have never run one through plagiarism detection software. I don't understand why you did that *after* the letter was submitted: what were you hoping to gain?\n\nYou also sound slightly naive about how \"plagiarism detection software\" works. Such software does not directly detect plagiarism; it only makes a more or less compelling case for it according to the degree of similarity. The letter is a highly structured, ritualized writing style. Having 10% of a letter be the same as some other letter is not itself problematic, and it certainly need not imply \"10% plagiarized\". \n\nA recommendation letter is not an academic paper, and most people who write many (graduate school) recommendation letters keep a basic template and fill in information accordingly. Therefore a lot of recommendation letters are going to be a lot more than 10% alike without there being anything problematic. This is another reason why putting a graduate recommendation letter through a plagiarism detector is not a very plausible thing to do. \n\nIn summary: I think it is overwhelmingly unlikely that anyone except you will know what percentage of this letter the plagiarism software reported as copied. I doubt you'll have a problem.\n\nOn the other hand, I am not quite willing to say that including an entire paragraph in a letter that one found on the internet is a good practice. It depends a lot on what the paragraph is. If the language in that paragraph is boiler-plate or standard, then I certainly don't care. (In particular, I hope you would have told us if the copied paragraph was the very last one, e.g. something like \"In summary, Ms. X is a very strong candidate and deserves the highest consideration. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you require further information.\") However, if the paragraph contains distinctive, poetic or especially clever language and your writer lifted it from the internet because he liked someone else's clever language better than his own: well, it has nothing to do with *you*, but I don't think is a good practice, and it doesn't fill me with confidence about his writing skills or professional ethics."
},
{
"answer_id": 34769,
"author": "March Ho",
"author_id": 26713,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26713",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "I am surprised that nobody has mentioned the possibility that the supposed \"plagiarist\" recommender used his/her own text, which was also coincidentally found online. \n\nWhile a cut-and-pasted paragraph of 50 words strongly suggests copying of some kind, it is not necessarily the case that the 50 words were plagiarism (i.e. usage of another person's text without attribution). \n\nIt could very likely be the case that the recommender posted up one of his/her old recommendation letters online, and it got picked up as a template text by the anti-plagiarism software, which then detected the similarity. I would not at all find it surprising that my recommender(s) were reusing parts of their old recommendation letters, as they clearly have much better things to do with their time than write a completely new recommendation letter for each application. \n\nIn fact, it could even be the case that your recommender did not even post his/her letter online. Assuming your recommender has also forwarded their recommendation letter to his/her past students, it is not a stretch to consider that the student could have posted that letter online. \n\nWith the limited information, I find it rather uncalled for to immediately jump to the conclusion that your recommender has committed plagiarism."
},
{
"answer_id": 34835,
"author": "A E",
"author_id": 23260,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23260",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "Well, the title isn't quite asking the same question as the question body. \n\nThe direct answer to \"Is there any copyright on letters of recommendation?\" is that it depends on the country you're in (because copyright law differs from one country to another), but if you're in the UK or the USA then copyright automatically attaches to the creation of an original written work such as a letter. No need to register the copyright or declare it. Letters of recommendation are not exempt by virtue of their subject matter.\n\n> \n> copyright in the United States automatically attaches upon the creation of an original work of authorship\n> \n> \n> \n\n[WP: Copyright law of the United States](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_the_United_States#Registration_procedure)\n\nSo the general answer is: Yes, letters (whatever the topic) do fall under copyright law.\n\n> \n> \"how much copying is allowed in a recommendation letter\"?\n> \n> \n> \n\nCopying from oneself is fine (so long as one still owns the copyright in the work being copied). Copying from someone else is not, unless they've given you permission to do so."
},
{
"answer_id": 34836,
"author": "jamesqf",
"author_id": 25355,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/25355",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "This seems like a strange question to me, because if I were a new-ish prof asked to write a letter of recommendation, the very first thing I would do would be to type \"letter of recommendation template\" into Google (12.9 million hits), and use the first one that seemed to fit. Since I think I am not much lazier than the average new prof (and in STEM, have the advantage of being a native English speaker), I'd expect the majority of letters to be created the same way."
}
] |
2014/12/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34753",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26982/"
] |
34,759 |
I am 15 years of age and I have studied Computer Science.
This said, I normally read computer science papers on [**arXiv**](http://www.arxiv.org) (cryptography and security, mainly), and I have noticed that some of the papers published are tutorials, basics of fundamental theories and analysis of the most basics topics or techniques. I still read it in hope of discovering something new.
However, I sometimes end up learning nothing new and so I am starting to think that these authors are just publishing these material for sake of it or to reach some sort of goal.
I would love to publish in peer-reviewed journals but I feel like my age may hold me back from my work getting accepted and my lack of connections with the academia again due to my age.
I have done a lot of research pertaining to the pros and cons of publishing in arXiv, I have noticed far too much negativity about it but since I am far younger than most researchers, would it actually raise my stature by showing my knowledge and interest at a young age and build my future opportunities in Academic grounds or is it more likely to tarnish it?
If it may tarnish opportunities, could you specify on how I could avoid this?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 35141,
"author": "David M W Powers",
"author_id": 6390,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6390",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Reading just arXiv or even some top journal is not likely to be very helpful.\n\nIt used to be that subscribing to a journal (or ten) was the best way to keep up.\n\nBut the subscription model is dead, few academics subscribe to journals, few publisher retain print as their primary mode of distribution, and open access publications tend to get 5 or 6 times as many citations as papers that require purchase or subscription. I presume you read arXiv primarily because it is free.\n\nI presume you are still at high school but finding that not sufficiently challenging.\nI presume you have read what you school library has to offer, and need to go beyond.\nI presume you have looked at what's available from your local community/university.\n\nBeen there done that... I spent my high school years doing my own physics and chemistry experiments, extracting my own reagents and building my own equipment, building electronic devices and computers, programming unbeatable AI games/programs, programs to solve problems in mathematics, joining maths clubs and winning prizes in competitions, making use of university programs designed to encourage budding scientists and mathematicians... exploring my interests in the broadest possible way!\n\nContact the local university and talk to people there. E.g. I'm happy to take on high school students, and indeed at Flinders University we have the Australian Science and Mathematics School (years 10-12 only) on campus to facilitate just this encouragement of gifted students - but students need to be reasonably local. Even without a formal program or relationship, academics are happy to talk to high school students, and I've run courses and competitions for high school students, given work experience opportunities and summer scholarships (not exactly restricted to local, but focussed in the state and the surrounding regions that the university draws from). Sometimes I've just responded to high school kids contacting me out the blue, by working out a program for them. My university actually has a bit of a history of this, with Torrz Fai being the most famous example.\n\nWhat kind of program would I recommend for someone like you... I'd start out by recommending some of the classic papers, introducing you to the originators of the seminal ideas of the field, making sure you had the basics first hand - not via the Chinese whispers of arXiv, review papers or textbooks. Review papers are often written by PhD students as part of the process of organizing their ideas - it gives them a free publication before they done any significant work on their own. It also gets them lots of citations, and some people have an h-index that is mainly about their ability to write review papers or text books. But yes, if there was a particularly good review paper or text book, I'd recommend it - unfortunately for my research area there are no good text books I can use, although I do encourage students to dip into some of those that are around - but my research oriented courses would have at least a dozen original sources of information, and perhaps half a dozen texts or reviews. This leads to an idea from Information Retrieval... Hubs and Authorities.\n\nYou've probably heard of Brin & Page's PageRank, which became the basis of Google's ranking based on how much pages linked to each other - it is closely related to singular values/vectors, looking at relatedness of pages in a symmetric way. But an earlier approach (Kleinberger's HITS/CLEVER) developed around the same time distinguished between the source and target of links, distinguishing hubs (sources of lots of links) and authorities (targets of lots of links) - these relate to the left and right eigenvectors.\n\nWhat you need to find for your field is the hubs and authorities. A hub might be a review paper, or a website or society that coordinates the research area. The authorities are the people/papers that developed the seminal ideas and everyone cites. Always go to the source, cite the earliest and latest works in their developmental path. Look for the citations of that work (on Google and Google scholar, concentrating on relevant papers with hints like filetype:pdf and/or site:edu.\\* | site:edu | site:ac.\\* to get the papers by academics and find where the open access versions are lurking). A relationship with a university with relevant subscriptions would also allow you free access to IEEE, Springer etc. But all major publishers now allow people to archive preprints or postprints of their papers for free access - and this is what arXiv should be used for where allowed, but sometimes this permission is restricted to authors' own websites, or their employers'.\n\nThere are two ways to explore the field - and you can start from a single of interest. You can try to go deep and specific (citations of and by that paper). You can also go broad and applied (citations of the citations). Modern citation analysis is closely related to PageRank/HITS/CLEVER, and your library may have tools to help."
},
{
"answer_id": 35180,
"author": "ᴇcʜo",
"author_id": 26850,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26850",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "It's great to get involved in these types of things at a young age. Before I say anything else: don't stop - be curious, but don't be curious to impress people. I was exactly like you. But don't let that get in your head. There are literally students in their teens working to cure cancer and have had publications. That proves how smart they are. You need to do the same.\n\nActually I have indeed seen many people get \"pre-print\" published and not get it published anywhere else.\n\nIf you want to get published, Look for a journal/conference with a double-blind reviewer process (that way they won't know that you are from high school). Next, do **a lot** of readings in the area you wish to publish in. You need to understand the lingo of the field immensely before publishing in it (not just ten or a hundred; honestly, I would spend countless days reading papers - you **MUST** absorb everything in the field).\n\nThis is coming from a guy who worked as a research assistant while in high school. In fact, I know several friends who were in high school when they got their first publication; one was at an IEEE conference.\n\nAnother route, would be to look out for the Intel Science Fair or the Google Science Fair to show case your work. I'd highly recommend looking into those.\n\nAs one of the other posters said, professors usually love talking to bright students - But, they are looking for bright, humble students (not people who will waste their time) - So be careful!"
},
{
"answer_id": 175978,
"author": "Ben",
"author_id": 87026,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/87026",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "#### No, it definitely isn't --- use the peer-review system, at least until you get good\n\nYou are correct to note that one of the frustrating aspects of open-access repositories like ArXiv is that they include many low-quality submissions, which makes it harder to find the good papers. Consequently, the absolute *last thing* that academia needs is to have these repositories become even more clogged up with vanity papers written by fifteen year-olds. Sorry if that sounds a bit harsh, but it is the reality of what you are proposing.\n\nSince you are very young, a much better pathway is to try to master your field through coursework, self-study, etc., and then submit to peer-reviewed journals once you are ready to do so. Ordinarily, students pursuing an academic path go through an undergraduate and graduate education, and they are usually in their mid-twenties or older when they are in grad-school and first start to publish papers. There are many drawbacks on the traditional peer-reviewed academic journal system, but the great advantage is that these journals provide you with peer-review and a filtering mechanism. This is especially useful for novice researchers, to help them develop up to a level where their papers are worth publishing.\n\nYou are not going to raise your academic stature in any serious way merely by demonstrating your *interest* in a field. In terms of trying to demonstrate your knowledge, be careful what you wish for --- given your age, it is likely that your level of knowledge is extremely low compared to older researchers, so any work you publish is likely to exhibit your *lack of knowledge*.\n\n> \n> I would love to publish in peer-reviewed journals but I feel like my age may hold me back from my work getting accepted and my lack of connections with the academia again due to my age.\n> \n> \n> \n\nAnyone can submit a paper to a peer-reviewed academic journal --- just hop onto their submission website and follow the submission procedure. Most peer-reviewed journals use a blinded review system where the reviewers have no information on the identity of the author and no idea what \"connections\" they do or don't have. Even in the ones that don't use blinded review, the paper will usually only contain your name and maybe your institution, but not your age. So, unless there are some cues to infer your age from your writing, the referees reviewing your papers will have no idea whether you are 15 or 80.\n\nThe only thing that will hold you back from publishing in peer-reviewed journals is limitation on your ability to write a scholarly paper at the required standard. Some recreational/college journals publish simple papers and have had some young authors in their teens, often co-authors working with an older established researcher (see e.g., the [*College Mathematics Journal*](https://www.maa.org/press/periodicals/college-mathematics-journal/the-college-mathematics-journal)). Some conferences and their conference proceedings are also places where a very young researcher might be able to meet the requisite standard for publication."
}
] |
2014/12/25
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34759",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] |
34,767 |
I'm currently a third-year student at UC Berkeley studying Electrical Engineering and Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics. I'm still on the fence regarding whether or not I want to pursue a masters degree, and am quite stressed about my chances if I do pursue that route.
My major concern is my GPA. To give some context, entering my sophomore year, I had about a 3.65. About to enter the spring of my junior year, I'm sitting at about 3.12. It hasn't been that the work has been "too difficult," it's that I honestly didn't put in the necessary effort these last two semester and as a result, received less than satisfactory grades. I've done the math and calculated that if I can average around a 3.8 for my remaining semester, I can get to around a 3.4 cumulative by graduation.
As far as outside the classroom, I've done a little bit, but not much. I did a very small research stint last summer, as well as being an academic intern (basically a tutor), and am working at a small start-up on the side right now. I'll also be doing my first internship this summer (most likely at Visa).
I'm just wondering if anyone could inform me about my chances of getting into a graduate program in CS. I realize that I probably won't be able to get into Stanford, MIT, or a school on the level of my undergraduate institution, but I would still like to go somewhere good (been looking at USC and Purdue).
Has anyone been in a similar situation and have any advice regarding grad work?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 38114,
"author": "Alireza",
"author_id": 28811,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28811",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "It's up to you to decide whether to pursue a master degree or going for the industry. However, in case you selected to pursue your master degree I would see no reason to be so pessimistic about your chances. You're currently studying at a prestigious university and that's an important point to consider.\n\nThe grades of the last 2 years of bachelor program is so important as you would take most of your specialized courses during the last 2 years of the bachelor program.\n\nBe optimistic and keep up working towards achieving your dreams!"
},
{
"answer_id": 38130,
"author": "Inquisitive",
"author_id": 27985,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27985",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "Yes. You can get into a \"good\" program with that average. Keep working hard now and continue working hard once you gain access to the masters program. Study hard and do well on any entrance exams."
},
{
"answer_id": 41103,
"author": "sevensevens",
"author_id": 14754,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14754",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "> \n> I can get to around a 3.4 cumulative by graduation.\n> \n> \n> \n\nA 3.4 GPA will not take you out of the running for most masters programs (even at prestigious universities like Stanford or MIT), but you will have to demonstrate research potential.\n\n> \n> I did a very small research stint last summer, as well as being an academic intern (basically a tutor)\n> \n> \n> \n\nContinue doing research with faculty as much as possible. You will need 3 letters of recommendation, be sure they all have great things to say about you.\n\n> \n> and am working at a small start-up on the side right now.\n> \n> \n> \n\nWhile its great that you are working, start-up experience will not carry the same weight as research experience for top grad schools.\n\nDepending on your situation, it may make sense to quit this job and focus on undergraduate studies and research. I can't tell you if quitting the job is the right thing to do, but focusing on getting a great GPA and getting research experience will matter.\n\nYou'll also have to take the GRE to be admitted to most schools (I think MIT may not require it). Study hard and ace it. A good GRE score will provide a counter-point to your GPA.\n\nConsider casting a wider net. Apply to other good schools besides just Stanford and MIT."
}
] |
2014/12/25
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34767",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26995/"
] |
34,768 |
I have never been to grad school, but I have several publications, in good journals, as well as planned future projects. Some very prominent experts know me and think well of my work. In this case, should I apply for postdoc or just go to grad school?
If it matters, I am working in a subfield of mathematics.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34773,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "At this point in time, a Ph.D. is generally a non-negotiable requirement for a postdoc position. If you are already carrying out independent research, however, then it might be possible for you to *obtain* a Ph.D. in graduate school in a significantly shorter period of time than normal."
},
{
"answer_id": 34779,
"author": "Anonymous",
"author_id": 11565,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11565",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "You should certainly apply for grad school!\n\nIf your credentials are as you say, you will probably have the opportunity to go to one of the very best universities. Is there anyone whose work you have always admired? You now possibly have the chance to study under him or her. Take advantage of it!"
},
{
"answer_id": 34784,
"author": "Doug Lipinski",
"author_id": 19615,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19615",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "**What are you hoping to get out of a postdoc?** Typically postdocs offer a chance to enhance your research credentials and capabilities before moving on to a more permanent position either in academia or a serious research institution. **If you do not have a PhD and wish to follow this career path, the best way to enhance your credentials and capabilities would be to pursue a PhD.** A very capable PhD student can certainly do work of equal quality to postdoctoral researchers while also gaining a degree in the process. The only drawbacks to a PhD position compared to a postdoc seem to be somewhat lower pay and receiving slightly less individual credit for your work (in some fields anyway).\n\nTo more directly answer your question: Given enough funding flexibility, it's not unheard of for a professor to fill an advertised postdoctoral position with a very capable grad student. It would be very uncommon for a non-PhD, non-grad student to hold such a position.\n\nAs an aside, by definition you cannot hold a postdoctoral position without having a doctorate. The term literally means \"after doctorate\" and therefore requiress first gaining a doctorate. Any position you hold before obtaining a doctorate is by definition a pre-doctoral position."
},
{
"answer_id": 68971,
"author": "Eli",
"author_id": 54374,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/54374",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "There are some research assistant positions that might fit into your qualifications. Some of the RA positions may only require a masters degree."
},
{
"answer_id": 180349,
"author": "Monkey Tang",
"author_id": 151490,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/151490",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "The expression *Postdoc* is often misunderstood: it is an academic post, a job title - not a degree. In contrast, a PhD is a degree program not a job program.\nPost Doc means literally \"After Doctorate\".\n\nA postdoc positian can be held by anyone with a \"Terminal Degree\", in the majority of fields, including all sciences, the PhD is the terminal degree. However, some very special majors often in the humanities have terminal degrees at the masters level. These degress can hold post-doc positions without a PhD, and are very rare."
}
] |
2014/12/25
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34768",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26998/"
] |
34,775 |
I'm so confused. I can't distinguish between them. It seems to me that sometimes the statement of purpose (SOP) is the personal statement (PS), sometimes it is not the PS, and by the definition I'll give below, academic statement (AS) is the SOP.
### Is the SOP a PS (or not)?
I think most people will agree that the SOP is another name for the PS, and you only need one statement beside your CV and research proposal (if necessary) to be written. That explains why in Academia.SE, we only have a [sop](/questions/tagged/sop "show questions tagged 'sop'") tag but no PS tag or AS tag. And most of the time I see people ask about a PS question under the SOP tag, and accept the answer only says about the SOP. Except these two questions, where the posters notice that SOP is not the PS (I find them when searching for ["personal statement" "statement of purpose"](https://academia.stackexchange.com/search?q=%22personal+statement%22+%22statement+of+purpose%22)):
* [Academic Statement of Purpose vs NSF Personal Statement](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/14216/academic-statement-of-purpose-vs-nsf-personal-statement)
* <https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34698/how-to-best-answer-the-question-please-provide-us-your-personal-statement-why>
To be clear, the first question asks about **academic statement of purpose** and only localize to the NSF Fellowship application. But the (sole) answer only discusses the SOP, so I understand that ASOP is the other name of the SOP (don't know if it also be the AS as well).
### Is the SOP the Academic Statement?
Now, in the [announcement for a fellowship I intend to apply for](http://home.vef.gov/download/2016_VEF_Fellowship_Announcement_ENG.pdf), it requires me to have both an academic statement and a personal statement. It defines them like this:
>
> ACADEMIC AND PERSONAL STATEMENTS. Each applicant must prepare a one-page Academic Statement and a one-page Personal Statement. **The first essay addresses the applicant’s academic and scientific background and preparation, previous research, and a description of the study and research proposed** at a U.S. graduate school department. The Personal Statement includes information about the applicant’s background, practical experience, special interests, and career goals, with some attention to plans after degree completion. Applicants should also address how they might represent Vietnam as students in the United States and how they might represent the United States and contribute to Vietnam upon return.
>
>
>
More explicit details are provided in the link. Based on the definition of the AS, I think that it is the SOP as we widely know (or at least is [this SOP](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1529/choosing-research-ideas-to-include-in-a-statement-of-purpose/1555#1555)). If then, what is the PS in this case? Is it the place for the "my first trembling steps" stuff?
Or, does the aggregation of AS and PS in this situation equate the SOP as we widely know, and the recruiters just want to make it explicit?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34820,
"author": "Ben Bitdiddle",
"author_id": 24384,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24384",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "Your application is a chance for you to *sell yourself*, and prove to the admissions committee that they should give you money to do research. Your personal statement should address your \"background, practical experience, special interests, and career goals,\" but only in ways that prove you are a good researcher.\n\nYou shouldn't waste space talking about your childhood dreams, because usually those say nothing about your research potential. Instead you should highlight parts of your personal history that would make someone want to hire you for their lab."
},
{
"answer_id": 35117,
"author": "Ooker",
"author_id": 14341,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14341",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": true,
"text": "At least in the scholarship I'm about to apply, the SOP as we widely know is the academic statement. I still haven't got a satiate answer."
}
] |
2014/12/25
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34775",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14341/"
] |
34,781 |
I was browsing someone's thesis from a US university. I found several typos and missing (incomplete) sections. There was no plagiarism and dishonesty though. What would happen if I write to their advisor? Can some action be taken or is it a closed case once a thesis is accepted and signed.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34787,
"author": "Bob Brown",
"author_id": 16183,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16183",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "You should do nothing and hope that the people who find the errors in your own documents are kind enough to do the same. (There is at least one error in my own master's thesis and at least one in my doctoral dissertation. There are also errors in textbooks by respected authors. I've found one in a fifth edition of a book; I checked and it's in the first four editions, too.)\n\nIf the document were a book, a web page, or something else amenable to revision, one would send the author a polite note. The \"do nothing\" advice is for a \"one and done\" document like a thesis or dissertation."
},
{
"answer_id": 34789,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "Generally no official action can or should be taken regarding errors in a dissertation (assuming they are not a sign of dishonesty or fraud). However, it could be worth pointing out errors to the author in case he/she is preparing a publication based on the dissertation. I wouldn't do this if it's from long ago or you see that the material is already published, but you could be providing a useful service to the author otherwise. (If these errors have already made it into publications, then it's worth reporting them to the authors if they are substantive, so they can decide whether to publish errata, but it may not be worth reporting typos. I'm a perfectionist and would like to know of typos in my publications, but others might be annoyed.)\n\nBut you certainly shouldn't write to the advisor. That comes across like you are reporting bad behavior to an authority figure, so it's not appropriate unless that's the message you want to send (for example, if you discover plagiarism). Instead, you should communicate directly with the student who wrote the dissertation. If you can't figure out how to track down the author, then you can assume he/she isn't pursuing a research career and you don't need to worry about it."
},
{
"answer_id": 34803,
"author": "Remy",
"author_id": 27015,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27015",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "I think that not finding an error in a thesis would be much more impressive. If you've never seen errors in a scientific piece of work before, it is that you are not very attentive. You probably know of [the famous Excel error of Reinhart-Rogoff](http://theconversation.com/the-reinhart-rogoff-error-or-how-not-to-excel-at-economics-13646). Actually, this kind of thing happens all the time, in the best papers too. And it's normal. Scientists are human beings. That is why science is about replication. \nI don't even speak about typos and such. 90% of scientists writing in English are not English native speakers, so of course they (we) make a lot of mistakes. And so what ? Is it better to spend 100 hours reading again and again the same paper to correct a handful of spelling mistakes without any consequences, or should this time be better employed solving scientific problems ?"
},
{
"answer_id": 34806,
"author": "fedja",
"author_id": 6118,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6118",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "I do not know really. After all, it is the adviser, who bears the primary responsibility for checking the results of the thesis (the student is not mature enough most of the time and the rest of the committee do not care much this way of the other). \n\nMy personal experience with this was that my adviser gave me a 50 page thesis of his former student (written like 5 years before) and asked me to close the gap between the lower bound of $m$ and the upper bound of $m\\log 1/m$ for some quantity depending on the small parameter $m$. With my usual laziness, I decided just to see what I can get myself instead of reading anything someone else did, and after a few weeks I had a lower bound of $\\sqrt m$ with a short and very clear proof, which, obviously contradicted the upper bound in the thesis. \n\nNow, it is today that I'm a middle age cynical person with fairly low opinion of human abilities and standards of behavior, including my own. At that time I was a young boy to whom my adviser looked if not like a semi-god, then, at least, as an impeccable mathematical professor of intelligence bordering on supernatural. ***It was absolutely impossible that he could pass anyone with a wrong result!*** \n\nSo, I set up looking for a mistake in my own argument. By the end of the second week of search I was feeling like in a few days I would need to be sent to a mental asylum if I spend just a few more hours on it. The argument was absolutely clean. The heretical thought crossed my mind that the thesis *might contain an error, after all*, and I started to sift through 50 pages of dense text in which I didn't even know some words. In three more weeks I had read all of it and saw no error either. Back to my proof. Watertight. Back to the thesis and its half-page long computations. Nothing. When I finally found the mistake in the thesis (which was as stupid as $\\sin x\\to 1$ as $x\\to 0$ done en passe in the middle of a long sophisticated limit computation with trigonometric functions), I was half insane. \n\nMoral. *If you see an error in a (at least, mathematical) work, by all means, let it be known!* It can save if not the life, then the sanity of someone in the future, while all you can harm is something as ephemeral as \"self-esteem\".\n\nThe story is real though I omitted the names (some of which are easy to figure out and some are not). \n\nThe best way to report the error is, of course, to figure out what should really be there yourself first and to offer both the criticism and the way out simultaneously. Some good joint papers have been written exactly this way :-)"
},
{
"answer_id": 34807,
"author": "Chris Leary",
"author_id": 11905,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11905",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "There are at least two errors in my thesis. One I corrected in preparing a portion of the thesis for publication. The other remains unresolved, but I believe it can be patched up. I'm sure there are some others as well. It bothers me that they are there, but not to the point that I lose sleep over it. At this point in my career, it is probably almost irrelevant. I work in another area now, but I would like to go back and fix them some time, when I can find the time."
},
{
"answer_id": 34809,
"author": "SeasideMaths",
"author_id": 27021,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27021",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "What are you really hoping to accomplish by emailing the person's advisor? It sounds like you want to have the student's \"case\" re-opened and that you possibly disagree with the person's worthiness of his or her qualification. This is a huge deal (not a small one, by any measure). I think you are opening up the proverbial can of worms, and for no good reason I might add. Sorry to be blunt, but is this your business, really? (The question is only semi-rhetorical, but I think the answer is \"no\".)\n\nPlease read the responses of \"Izonqhous Mathugaxojiog\" and Bib Brojw above --- they are quite on the mark.\n\nIf the author wrote the thesis relatively recently, then do let him or her know directly (not through the advisor), as your constructive criticism could be useful as he or she prepares publications. If the person submitted their thesis some time ago, check to see which publications, if any, arose from it. Maybe the gaps have been closed in those publications.\n\nThese things are all that you should do. Leave it alone, otherwise.\n\nA committee of experts at some point decided that the person's thesis was worthy of a degree. They may not have cared that certain gaps existed in the write up. What was presented in the thesis was sufficient and interesting enough for them. The student succeeded in demonstrating a sufficient expertise, by their standards. The thesis may not live up to your own personal standards, but that doesn't matter at all. When you are on a graduate committee, you can apply your standards as you see fit.\n\nIf no academic dishonesty has been committed, then I say that you should leave this issue alone. Focus your efforts on your own work and achieving something that meets your own standards."
}
] |
2014/12/25
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34781",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26986/"
] |
34,792 |
I have a masters degree in Physics and I have worked in Italian high school for 15 years. Now I'm 47 and I wish to have a bachelor or masters degree in Mozh, because I'd like to change job. How difficult might be for me to have a Phd after the degrees, considered my advanced age (even if I don't feel it)?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34796,
"author": "Bob Brown",
"author_id": 16183,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16183",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "It doesn't get easier as you get older, but neither does age make it impossible or even difficult. What is needed is the self-discipline to do the work. I was nine years older than you are when I started the Ph.D. \n\nThe important thing to remember is that the Ph.D. is training for research. In the United States, at least, the work of the Ph.D. student is very different from the work of the undergraduate or even the master's student. Substantial independent work of high quality will be expected of you."
},
{
"answer_id": 34798,
"author": "Massimo Ortolano",
"author_id": 20058,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "I'll give an answer which is specific for the PhD in Italy. In other countries, things can be/are different.\n\n> \n> Now i'm 47 and i wish to have a bachelor **or** masters degree in Mozh\n> \n> \n> \n\nIf you want to apply for a PhD in Italy, you should have a Master's degree. Since you have already an MSc in Physics, you can probably stop to a BSc in Mozh, but I suspect that this would strongly limit your chances of being accepted for a PhD in Mozh. \n\n> \n> How difficult might be for me to have a Phd after the degrees, considered my advanced age?\n> \n> \n> \n\nIn principle, no more difficult than if you were 20. In practice, it depends on several factors. \n\nI want to highlight one practical factor: Do you plan to drop your current (or another) job during the PhD or do you plan to pursue the PhD while employed? In the first case, you would have to cope with the fact that you should get a scholarship and that PhD's scholarships in Italy are around EUR 1000/month [\\*], which is probably difficult to accept when one is about 50 years old with 15-20 years of work experience. In the second case, it might be difficult to find an advisor willing to accept you as his student, considering that you would not be able to work full time on your PhD. Moreover, it would be difficult for you to follow the mandatory courses which are requested by some universities.\n\n[\\*] Currently, they can vary (free of taxes) from about 1100 €/month to about 1500 €/month (rare)."
}
] |
2014/12/25
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34792",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27007/"
] |
34,804 |
I just found my grades for the fall semester, in an introduction to international relations class that I took, I got a B.
I got a 93% on the midterm, which was worth 25% of the grade.
I always came to class prepared, having done the reading, and actively participated, so I probably got an A in participation, which is 5% of the grade.
There was a mock UN simulation which was worth 20% of the grade that I felt my group did pretty well on, but I never got an actual score back. I made some small mistakes, but worse case scenario, I think I got around an 85%.
My final paper, worth 25% of the grade, everyone said that it was a really good paper, and that it deserves an A, even people who took the same class from her, as well as writing tutors that I went to.
The other 25% of the grade was reserved for quizzes that according to the syllabus, we're supposed to take place every two to three weeks. However, she only gave us two. The first one, she failed everyone, and said that she did that to scare us, and make sure that we read the material. The second one, I got an A on.
I asked her about the quizzes, and she said that they were used for extra credit, which doesn't make sense according to the syllabus.
I am really confused about why I got a B, and I think that she might have made a mistake.
Should I talk to her about it when I go back to school, and if so, do you think that she made a mistake?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34805,
"author": "Bob Brown",
"author_id": 16183,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16183",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Yes, you should talk to your professor. Do not use the word \"mistake.\" Just ask how your grade was calculated."
},
{
"answer_id": 34808,
"author": "Nobody",
"author_id": 546,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/546",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "To expand Bob Brown's answer, yes, you should talk to your professor **politely** with the objective how to improve your study **in the future**.\n\nIn my opinion, your grade is probably on the borderline between A and B. You need to ask her what grade you got for the final paper (worth **25%** of the grade). *[E]veryone said that it was a really good paper, and that it deserves an A* is not enough for you to say you did get an A on it. You need ask her how well was your final paper.\n\nGenerally speaking, it's not easy to change a grade after it's out of the professor's office unless there was an obvious calculation error.So, don't expect she will change your grade from B to A unless your final paper was extremely well written.\n\nI won't be surprised if she tells you that your final paper was okay but not good enough for an A. In that case, you should ask her what you can do to improve your writing skills so that you can get better grades for the future essay writing assignments in other courses. Good luck!"
},
{
"answer_id": 34818,
"author": "fedja",
"author_id": 6118,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6118",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "You can always come and say that you suspect a clerical error somewhere and want to check the calculations. Such a request is totally reasonable and I see no reason to get it rejected because when 4 people (1 professor and 3 TA's) grade 120 students, a few grading errors are inevitable and when one instructor grades 10 students and something distracts him, errors are still possible. \n\nHowever, the only thing you can insist upon is what is *explicitly* (yes, explicitly, nobody cares about how you (mis)interpret the words: the Supreme Court role here belongs to the instructor and the instructor only) written in the class syllabus. Again, no argument should ensue if you just say: \"Look, it says 120 points is an A, and I have 123\".\n\nEverything else is at the discretion of the instructor. You *can* make a sad face and say \"Poor me! Just getting my very first non-A grade after all that hard work!\" (or something else with the same meaning) and it *may* work, but don't get offended or frustrated if it doesn't. As long, as the formal computation yields B, getting anything better is a favor that may or may not be granted in exceptional cases, but not a right to fight for (no \"Give me a perfect grade or give me death!\", please. Remember that even if your name is Patyirk Qeprz, you are standing not in front of convention delegates, but in front of His Majesty Colonial Army officer, so his choice may be not quite the one you expect... ;-) )"
}
] |
2014/12/26
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34804",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27019/"
] |
34,821 |
After getting into some top schools, I linked my statement of purpose on my personal website so it could serve as a resource for others. Are there any reasons this might be a bad idea?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34823,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "In general, I think this sounds like a great idea. I would further say that the same essential content is often a good starting point for your personal professional website.\n\nThe only potential downside that I see is that in the future you might look back with embarrassment on naive ideas in your statement where your feelings have evolved over time. If you have enough self-confidence to be OK with with that, it's fine: nobody will expect a mature researcher to believe all of the same things they did when just starting grad school."
},
{
"answer_id": 34829,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "I think it would be a good idea. I often field letters from applicants asking about how to frame an SOP and have trouble pointing to good (and bad) SOPs as examples. \n\nThat being said, you should add a note to the top of your SOP saying that you've submitted it to turnitin.com and other plagiarism detectors -- even if you haven't and never intend to, it should serve as a deterrent for a lazy applicant who just wants to copy/paste your text in and submit it as their own.\n\n---\n\nIn comments, I was asked if graduate admissions use plagiarism detectors. The graduate school at my R1 started doing so a year or two ago. The results are included with the dossier. The admissions committee is free to ignore it, but the DGS or Chair is asked by the Provost about applicants whose statistical coincidence is higher than the norm."
}
] |
2014/12/26
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34821",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24384/"
] |
34,833 |
I want to be able to store the software projects my students submit so I can catch plagiarism. Some students copy work from previous years and it would be really helpful if I could find a way to store all projects so I could compare.
My university currently uses moodle but I can't find a way to create a project repository to detect plagiarism. (We do have the JPlag detection system but that only works for projects submitted under one particular group (assignment)).
Any ideas?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 35020,
"author": "Prashast Mehra",
"author_id": 27201,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27201",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "A software program can be coded in multiple ways, which renders plagiarism softwares impossible to detect similar projects/files. Students often change the variables, method names, comments, etc.\n\nIn case somebody simply copies a project without a single modification, It can be detected by jPlag. But in case of slight modifications, it is impossible for such softwares to detect plagiarism. Maybe in future AI can prove this whole thing possible."
},
{
"answer_id": 51166,
"author": "Ryan Dougherty",
"author_id": 19685,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19685",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "I and my university have used MOSS (Measure of Software Similarity) by Stanford ([theory.stanford.edu/~aiken/moss](http://theory.stanford.edu/~aiken/moss)) - I'm not sure of its effectiveness to detect slight modifications, but it seems to be the standard of most university CS programs."
},
{
"answer_id": 131785,
"author": "Manoov",
"author_id": 109576,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/109576",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "Have been using a Plagiarism plugin integrated on Moodle Server. This plugin integrates with assignment, forum and workshop activities in Moodle to check user-submitted content for plagiarism [provided by UniCheck](https://moodle.org/plugins/plagiarism_unicheck) Course faculty can view the complete plagiarism report, including plagiarism within the class. Plagiarism score/Report can be also shown to students (Optional)."
}
] |
2014/12/26
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34833",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27047/"
] |
34,837 |
Is it possible to enroll into and complete a graduate school in China while having only English language skills, without speaking Chinese at all? In particular, I am interested in (theoretical) physics.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34841,
"author": "Jill Clover",
"author_id": 6962,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6962",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "**Short answer:** \n\nYes for other majors. Probably not for PhD in physics (you need to search).\n\n**Long answer:** \n\nOver the past ten years, many university from US and UK launch joint institution, ranging from summer language program to university with PhD program, in China with local universities. You could search for NYU shanghai, Duke kunshan, Michigan shanghai, Nottingham Ningbo, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University etc (The words you do not recognize are name of cities where the university is located in China, except the last one since I forgot where it is). \n\nThe good news is that English is the official communication language in those colleges.\n\nAnother good news is that they welcome (truly) international students, since almost all the students are Chinese.\n\nSomething you may not be interested in:\nI do not know where the OP comes from. If OP comes from Africa, Chinese government provide special program with language program for those who can not speak Chinese.\n\n**Comment on comment:** \n\nWhat most Chinese people speak and their English language skills are irrelevant to the question. Most of the time you would communicate with your professors and fellows, other than some random guys on street."
},
{
"answer_id": 34843,
"author": "Ahmed Ekri",
"author_id": 26948,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26948",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "I don't think so, I am a medical student at China and it is compulsory for us to take Chinese Language. My friends doing their post-graduate degree already know Chinese, so I think it was a requirenment to apply.\nOther than that, there are some universities which take Chinese into account but without having it in the actual degree. So just to help you while you're staying at China."
},
{
"answer_id": 34846,
"author": "earthling",
"author_id": 2692,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2692",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "Absolutely. Here is just [one example](http://www.cgeschina.com/beihang-university/programs/masters/masters-physics-beihang-university/).\n\nThere are many trans-national programs all over Asia (China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Myanmar, etc.). Many of these programs are from partner universities in the UK or the US (and other countries). In these programs, the language of instruction and assessment is English. I teach in one such program (not the one linked above and it is related to business, not physics).\n\nCan you get by without being able to communicate in the local language? That really depends on you. For example, if you are a social person you will really need to be able to communicate in the local language. While everyone (staff, faculty, students) at the university (in your department) will speak English others outside the school often struggle (as you would likely struggle picking up Chinese if you lived in the west).\n\nIf you are the kind of person who prefers isolation, then the local language is not so critical. Depending on where your city, you can usually find stores where you can buy most of the food you like (that is, western food) and even a place which will rent to you.\n\nSome schools may well require you to learn the local language. The link above clearly shows it is offered (and you should take advantage of it). If you want to actively avoid learning Chinese, then you need to make sure the school you select does not require it. A quick email should sort that out."
},
{
"answer_id": 34850,
"author": "user3611727",
"author_id": 27058,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27058",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "If you include Hong Kong as part of China, the answer is Yes but limited to Hong Kong. English is an official language of Hong Kong. Universities in Hong Kong all use English as the media of teaching and the common language for research is English. No Physics courses are taught in languages other than English and no faculty members are not proficient in English. See [this official website](http://www.grad.edu.hk/grad/) for reference. The best are University of Hong Kong, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.\n\nOtherwise the choices are limited to those high-ranking universities in China such as Peking University and Tsinghua University. In Tsinghua, most faculty members use English for publication purpose but not at all for communications in research. Most teaching and administration stuff are in Chinese. So you have to learn chinese at least in conversational level to survive a Phd there."
},
{
"answer_id": 34876,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "As an academic who has traveled to quite a few places where I had no idea (despite some study) of the ambient language, but/and also to quite a few places where I *did* have an adequate idea of the ambient language...\n\n... and in contrast to the sort of wishful thinking that, for example, leads some tourists to say \"oh, everyone speaks English there\"... and leads some academics and business people to claim that English is the universal language of ... :\n\nThe psychological/cognitive load/burden of disconnectedness from the environment (apart from jokes about starving because one cannot ask for food) is highly non-trivial. \n\nTo be in a bubble for a week or so is maybe-tolerable, but for a year or more... I'd not do it. Either find within yourself the incentive to learn the language at least to the level of an 8-year-old, or don't go. The quasi-intellectual, quasi-independent-of-environment pose that has some mythological cachet is not good, in my experience. The people who fare best, in all ways, are those positively *interested* in the ambient language... and the culture depicted in it, etc."
},
{
"answer_id": 37851,
"author": "Alex Quan",
"author_id": 28685,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28685",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Depending on your home country, you'll probably end up with a scholarship.\nMost foreigners coming to an average run of the mill Chinese university would qualify for such. It would be a feather in the cap of XXX Agricultural Normal University to have you as an honored graduate student, so much so they would fork out $$$ for you to come there. \n\nwww.csc.edu.cn is an amazing portal for higher education in China and can search by \n\"English-taught\" programs. I'm sure there's one for you, China is a large place, many cities and many universities. And there's Hong Kong (and Macau) to go to for English taught programs at a higher price. \n\nMany a student have come to the land of China with zero Chinese but stuck it out and made friends and money. Inevitably, you'll pick up Chinese along the way I'm sure."
},
{
"answer_id": 80273,
"author": "liuergou",
"author_id": 65216,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65216",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "Maybe you will meet some difficulties at first. You will find difficult to listen to the class and do homework in Chinese. But at Chinese university, usually you can find Engish text book in the library and your classmates will be willing to teach you Chinese. Teacher's PPT sometimes uses English too. As long as you study hard, you will be accustomed to."
},
{
"answer_id": 85028,
"author": "Neo X",
"author_id": 69162,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/69162",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "Short answer, possible, but I highly recommend you against it.\n\nGenerally, US students are welcome to universities or research institutes in China, especially the top ones (Tsinghua U, Peking U, SJTU, ...) in Beijing and Shanghai. You would get used to everyday life in less than a semester, without learning much Chinese.\n\nHowever, physics is not a typical major to do so in this case. Top universities have many young professors with their PhD or postdoc done in US, as well as part time professors from top US universities. But there's almost no pure English physics graduate program in main land China."
},
{
"answer_id": 101335,
"author": "Scientist",
"author_id": 66782,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/66782",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "I am a postdoc living in China since almost 2 years. I came here without knowing any one phrase in Chinese.\n\nMy answer to the question is: **No, it is currently impossible to study in Mainland China for years in a row without learning any form of Chinese.**\n\nApart from the fact that few locals are proficient in English, almost all daily, and probably administrative communication runs in Chinese, and automated digital translators will not provide always a satisfactory solution. Surely local students and deputies will help in the beginning but after a certain time they will become less accessible. \n\nMoreover, Chinese comes as a package: one cannot truly learn the culture without understanding some of the language and vice-versa. Therefore interacting below the surface with locals will depend on learning some of the language even if not at any functional level. \n\nI cannot speak for Macau, Hong Kong, or Taiwan as I have not lived in these areas. I suspect it should be doable in these places, particularly in Hong Kong."
},
{
"answer_id": 102082,
"author": "Phil",
"author_id": 21815,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21815",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "Generally, one can enroll in some graduate programs in China that are taught in English， and in some cases, even if the program is not offered in English, some courses may still be taught in English, so there might be a possibility to still accept you. This will depend on the university and programs. For example, at my university some general undergraduate and master degree courses offered to Chinese students are taught in Chinese while some others are taught in English (it depends on the professor and topic). Besides, I know some Vietnamese Master degree students who did a master in computer science in Changsha without speaking Chinese... and another doing a PhD in computer science in Harbin without speaking Chinese. And there is some post-doc researchers and professors who also do not speak Chinese. I don't know for physics but if you look around, I think you can find. But of course, if you know some basic Chinese, you will better enjoy the life in China. At least, you should try to learn how to buy stuff, ask for the price of something or ask for directions using Chinese, to make your life easier! There is also some universities in China, where taking some Chinese training is mandatory for graduate studies. For example, in Xi'an Jiatong Univ. some students told me that for PhD they had to take 8 months of Chinese class on the first year. But in the end, they found that it was useful for daily life. Also if you speak Chinese, I heard that you may more easily get scholarships from the Chinese government perhaps for your studies."
}
] |
2014/12/26
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34837",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/845/"
] |
34,851 |
What are the benefits of poster awards? Is being awarded at a conference really useful for one's career (e.g. when applying for a PhD or a job) or is it just scene? In other words: Can I say that having such award on my resumé is better than just nothing?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34852,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "In my field the thinking is\n\n* It draws attention to posters from conference participators.\n* It provides encouragements to individuals (students) to make an extra effort\n* It encourages discussion about \"good poster design\"\n\nThe selection criteria is always focusing on good communication of good science, never one or the other. Since such awards are given only to students and there ids usually also a similar student presentation award both selected by a set of valued senior scientists, the award should be and is seen as a merit."
},
{
"answer_id": 34917,
"author": "mako",
"author_id": 5962,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5962",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "[Peter Jansson's answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/34852/5962) provides a good description of the general benefits of poster awards mostly from the perspective of the conference organizer. My answer focuses on your latter questions.\n\nA poster awards is definitely a positive signal of your quality as a researcher. If it was from a major conference (and perhaps even if it is not), it might do quite a bit to distinguish you from other prospective students in a PhD program applicant pool. Although its value while applying for non-academic jobs is more dubious, it can only there as well.\n\n**It is clearly better than nothing** and you should put it on your resumé or CV."
}
] |
2014/12/27
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34851",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19761/"
] |
34,854 |
In the US, many (most?) states have laws which require the publication of full salary details for all employees of state universities. For example, California has [a full online database of all state workers](http://www.sacbee.com/site-services/databases/state-pay/#req=employee%2Ftop%2Fyear%3D2013) it seems which includes UC Berkeley amongst others. Salary details to varying levels of approximation are also available for public university employees in some countries outside the US. [In which countries are academic salaries published?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/26487/in-which-countries-are-academic-salaries-published) has more details .
What effect on state (or public) universities has this publication of academic salaries had? Specifically,
1. Have they had to pay more on average in salaries because private sector competitors (including private universities) now know exactly how much to offer someone to entice them?
2. Have they found it more difficult to recruit people from the private sector (including private universities) who might not want their financial details to be public?
3. Have there been any other negative or positive side effects?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34866,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "The UC system has made a concerted effort to keep salaries at its flagship schools (UCLA, UCB) competitive with those at other R1s (including private ones) in order to attract and retain top faculty. They haven't always succeeded. If you look at [AAUP faculty salary data](http://chronicle.com/article/2013-14-AAUP-Faculty-Salary/145679?cid=megamenu), UCLA and UCB salaries are close to but are rarely higher than their peer private institutions (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Caltech, etc.). \n\nThat being said, this has largely been possible through the large scale shift in funding at the UC from the state to private funding sources (tuition+alumni gifts+[research administrative overhead](https://research.usc.edu/for-sponsors/frequently-asked-questions/)+endowment+sports franchising). \n\nOther state schools have not privatized as much as the UC system and have kept salaries and tuitions modest. \n\nNow as to whether the publishing of salary data of individuals has had an effect, this is unclear and to my knowledge no one has analyzed it in great detail. However, there are some side effects to publishing faculty salaries:\n\n* Greater legislative and voter scrutiny of faculty salaries (i.e., \"why does a professor at a public school make $180,000\"?) puts pressure on chancellors to either reduce salaries and risk faculty flight or to move towards privatization of income\n* Salary compression between ranks becomes much more visible\n* Salary inequity between genders and disciplines becomes more visible"
},
{
"answer_id": 34868,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "> \n> Have they had to pay more on average in salaries because private sector competitors (including private universities) now know exactly how much to offer someone to entice them?\n> \n> \n> \n\nI've occasionally heard of these lists being used to identify woefully underpaid faculty members who might therefore be disgruntled and easier to recruit. However, I don't think this has had a substantial effect overall on salaries at public universities. Most faculty members don't inspire bidding wars between universities, and recruitment is based on many other factors beyond just salary.\n\nFor context, note that average salaries vary substantially between universities, and these differences are sometimes pretty widely discussed in the community. Even in the absence of data on individuals, that's potentially useful information for recruitment. However, there seems to be no trend towards salaries evening out. Instead, they tend to end up balanced with factors like desirability of location.\n\n> \n> Have they found it more difficult to recruit people from the private sector (including private universities) who might not want their financial details to be public?\n> \n> \n> \n\nNot to a noticeable extent, at least for ordinary faculty positions. This could be more of a factor for mid-level administrators, whose salaries might come under greater scrutiny. (By contrast, the salaries of top administrators are public information for every non-profit university in the U.S., public or private, because they must be reported on IRS Form 990.)\n\n> \n> Have there been any other negative or positive side effects?\n> \n> \n> \n\nTransparency about salaries has a weird mixture of effects. On the one hand, it makes the overall patterns clearer, and anyone can judge for themselves whether the results are fair. For example, it's easy to gather data on whether women are being paid less, whether there's salary compression or inversion, whether different people receive comparable salary increases upon achieving tenure, etc. I don't know of any formal studies (which could be interesting), but there's at least a fairly widespread belief that this transparency helps cut down on abuses.\n\nOn the other hand, it can also increase disgruntlement. The actual salaries are almost guaranteed not to align perfectly with what would seem just to any given person (because of course different people have different visions of what would be appropriate). I've certainly looked on occasion at salary lists and wondered why on earth X was being paid 15% more than Y, and I once talked with a friend who had discovered that he was Y in such a case."
}
] |
2014/12/27
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34854",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/37765/"
] |
34,857 |
I would like to know, if possible, how long it takes on the average to reach a first admission decision for doctoral programs?
Let us say a doctoral program promises to inform the applicants of the outcome three months after the deadline for submitting application packages. Does this really mean that to reach a decision requires exactly three months?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34858,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "I am assuming that you are referring to programs that offer *rolling admissions*—that is, programs where you can submit an application at any time of the year. \n\nThe key words in your question are **on average**. If you consider all of the applications received by the committee, it will take the committee approximately three months to reach a final decision on a randomly chosen application. However, that is definitely not an exact number—in clear-cut cases, they could reach an answer much sooner. Similarly, applications received during \"peak\" periods or during the summer—when many faculty are on travel and therefore not as readily available to meet for such decisions—it may take a bit longer.\n\nPart of the reason for this is that several layers of decision are usually involved: first the applications need to be reviewed, and individual members of the admissions committee will have a chance to weigh in. Then, if needed or part of the program's process, interviews will be conducted. After that, the application will still need to be approved by the entire admissions committee, and possibly departmental-level approval will also be required.\n\nIf you have not heard anything after three (or better, three and a half) months, then a *politely worded* email to the admissions office to ask about the status of your application would be appropriate.\n\nOn the other hand, if there is a single admissions cycle per year, the decision-making schedule is usually more or less the same each year. Thus, regardless of when you actually submit the forms, notification of the decision comes at the same time for everyone."
},
{
"answer_id": 34861,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "In my experience it's common for academic departments to have a graduate admissions committee that meets periodically to make admissions decisions and decisions on financial aid. Sometimes decisions on financial aid are made separately from decisions on admission. \n\nIn our department we review applications as they come in and typically respond with a decision on admission within a few weeks. However, decisions on financial aid are made only a few times per year. For example, we'll meet in early April to decide on assistantship awards for the fall semester. \n\nUnder this system, if you applied for admission now, we'd review your application and reach an admissions decision by the end of January, and you'd either be told \"no\", or \"you've been admitted but we'll make decisions about financial aid in early April.\" \n\nI've seen other institutions where all of the applications are held until one meeting where both admissions and financial aid decisions are made at the same time. Under that system, you probably wouldn't hear anything at all until the committee met and made its decisions. \n\nA couple of other comments:\n\n1. Applications are often sent to a central office (\"graduate studies\" or something similar) and then distributed to the departments to make admissions decisisons. In my experience, there are many incomplete applications received by our graduate office. We don't see them in the department until and unless all of the required materials have been submitted. You can and probably should check with the office where you sent your application to make sure that the complete application has been received.\n2. Christmas (December 25) and New Year's Day (January 1) are important holidays in the US. Traditionally, fall semester classes end before Christmas and spring semester classes don't start until after New Year's Day. Many colleges and universities are effectively closed for a few weeks around these holidays. You shouldn't expect to hear anything from any university in the US until after New Year's Day because of these holidays."
}
] |
2014/12/27
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34857",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/18107/"
] |
34,859 |
How damaging are writing errors like typos in faculty application documents?
Do search committees usually tolerate a couple of small errors in cover letter, sample publications, etc?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34860,
"author": "padawan",
"author_id": 15949,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15949",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "It depends on the conditions, for sure.\n\nIf there are a lot of applicants of your quality, then they should look for some criteria to eliminate people among applicants.\nAnd that criteria, in your case, would be the grammar of the cover letter.\n\nIf your work is outstanding, then they probably would overlook a few typos.\n\nHowever, keep in mind that there can always be a pair of grumpy(!) professors in the committee."
},
{
"answer_id": 34862,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "It's a minor factor, but certainly one that does influence my judgement of an applicant. If I'm down to deciding between two candidates to interview and they otherwise look to be about equally good, this is something that could be a deciding factor. \n\nSince you're likely to be in competition with many other applicants, it's in your interest to make sure that there aren't any typos in your application."
},
{
"answer_id": 34864,
"author": "Bitwise",
"author_id": 6862,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6862",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "To me, typos in a faculty application suggest one or more of the following:\n\n1. Detail - you do not pay enough attention to details.\n2. Rigor - you were not rigorous enough to ensure the document is error free by double checking and letting other people check the document.\n3. Importance - if the application was important enough you would have made sure it is error-free, therefore it may not be very important to you.\n4. Culture - you come from a culture where typos are acceptable, and did not bother to adapt.\n\nHaving said all that, in the end it is just a tiny factor amongst many more important factors. If you are awesome, this probably won't matter."
},
{
"answer_id": 34865,
"author": "mako",
"author_id": 5962,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5962",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "**It varies enormously among the faculty evaluating candidates.** There are faculty I've worked with who read applications extremely closely and point out the existence of typos, misspellings, and formatting errors in faculty meetings when we are discussing candidates. Some people are bothered by small errors and see them as a strong signal of a lack of professionalism, respect for the application process, attention to detail, and potentially as evidence of an inability to teach students how to write well.\n\nPersonally, I don't read application materials with an eye for these kinds of mistakes so only the most glaring and disruptive mistakes will even be noticed. When minor issues are pointed out (e.g., in a faculty meeting) I don't think it affects my feelings on candidates.\n\nIf the former type of person is a search committee chair or member, an applicant with typos in their material might be in big trouble. If the search committee is made up the latter type, it might not matter.\n\nSince there ***are*** at least some of the type who care deeply, and since small mistakes *really are* evidence of a lack of attention to detail and time spent on the application process, **take the time to carefully proofread your documents.** If mistakes tend to slip past you, ask others (either friends or a professional proofreader or copyeditor) for help."
},
{
"answer_id": 34867,
"author": "March Ho",
"author_id": 26713,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26713",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "There is literally **no good reasan for you** to have typos of any kind in your application, whether it be for faculty or student positions. \n\nWhile more difficult than simply running the text through a spellchecker, you should definitely go to some effort to find someone to proofread your application for spelling and grammatical issues.\n\nSince there is a nonzero chance that at least one person in the application committee is a pedant for spelling/grammar (and such people are clearly overrepresented in the academic community), it would be rather risky to submit any piece of application without having it proofread by a native speaker first."
}
] |
2014/12/27
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34859",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] |
34,869 |
In scholarly journals, or publicising in certain magazines you are expected to hold true to a certain design pattern and citation style. However, when publishing your own work independently you are free from those constraints, or are you?
I am a designer by heart and every couple of years I create a new template that I use for future academic papers, following contemporary design patterns. In my opinion, my templates look nice. Not too strict, though flirting with kittenish. I am convinced that a nice design leads to a fruitful first impression. However, I am aware that this might be very subjective.
My question is, then, do academics generally look down on "design hippies" and should all retain a strict - possibly even chippy - style? Or does all of this matter not as long as everything is legible and well-formatted?
I use hand-written, cursive fonts in informal paperwork all the time. That's why I posted this question: even though certain fonts are well-suited for distinguished forms of design and publicity (such as magazines or webdesign), how does a formal academic world react to such patterns. On a (possibly less formal) website, for instance, Pacifico would be used without question. Of course, an academic audience is an 'ole other bunch all together. That's where my inner designer and outer academic struggle with one another. Should we stick to the trusted, formal (and, let's be fair, boring) style, or can we go a little (just a tad!) crazy? Note that I'm not strictly talking about fonts. It can be anything, going from structure (column layout), to colours and highlights, to bold face and font families. Heck, maybe even illustrations!
*Update:* people in the comments seem to focus a lot on the fact that I mentioned Pacifico, a cursive font. First of all I should clarify that I only brought it up as an example. Secondly, I only considered that font as a candidate for large **headings** with a font size of 24pt or larger - which increases readability. I did not imply to use this particular font as the *main* typography for my text, but merely as a means for catching titles. I'd also like the emphasise - again - that I am aware that certain fonts are not formally applicable and would annoy rather than refresh an academic reader's mindset. But as said, I am a big fan of design trends (focusing on, but not restricted to, fonts) and innovation, and I am simply curious to know how academics think about this: how far can one go. How different is an academic design style from for instance web, advertising, magazines and newspapers.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34870,
"author": "Davidmh",
"author_id": 12587,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12587",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "I read papers, I don't hang them on my wall. That is the main objective, and your design should subdue to it. I enjoy a well crafted book, but I get extremely annoyed when some unnecessary decoration gets in the way of usage.\n\nIn your case, the font of the titles requires a mental effort from my part to read them, which I find unacceptable, and thus, annoying. When reading a paper, I usually skim through the sections to get a broad picture of it; with Pacifico, I need to waste neurons in deciphering it while constructing my mental idea. I also find that the numbers in the text stand out a lot, probably more than they should, as they are not information I would like to get while skimming.\n\nOn the other hand, I have encountered a few unique and very nicely crafted documents, and those made a more long lasting impression. If not for anything else, I remember the general image of the article. \n\nBottomline is, if your design is good, it will be welcomed; but if it has flaws, some picky people like me\\* may get displeased and cause a worse first impression. A standard template is a safer option; but more difficult to stand out.\n\n---\n\n\\*To give you an idea of how much, I find several citation styles to be rather annoying because they are clearly inferior to others. For example, anything without DOI in the modern times."
},
{
"answer_id": 34871,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "As March Ho mentioned in the comments, one important factor is legibility. This is true both at the level of fonts and more broadly in design/structure: if your most important goal is to communicate your ideas, then it's worth optimizing for ease of reading and comprehension. Unfamiliarity is itself an obstacle, so even if your design would be superior if widely adopted, it might prove inferior in practice.\n\nAnother issue is demonstrating membership in the community of scholars. Choosing an unconventional design amounts to announcing \"I am an outsider,\" and although being an outsider is not a bad thing in itself, it can come across to readers as a terrible sign. For example, when I see mathematics papers with highly nonstandard formatting, they are almost always crackpot papers of no value whatsoever. That's not company you should voluntarily join. I wouldn't consciously ignore a paper just because of the formatting, but I can't help approaching it with a strong prejudice. Unless your papers are really exceptional, unconventional design is likely to decrease your readership.\n\nThe fundamental issue here is whether you are writing for yourself or others, which is a common tension within academia. You can take the position that you are creating a work of art and aren't willing to compromise on your vision even if it will hurt the work's reception, or you can try to do what's necessary to increase your work's impact on the scholarly community. Different authors end up balancing these concerns in different ways."
},
{
"answer_id": 34872,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "If you are self-publishing, then you are free to format your work however you please. However, as the others have already pointed out, the harder your work is to read, the less it's going to be read, and the more trouble you will have getting others to take your work seriously.\n\nAs you mentioned in your question, you yourself find the font \"borderline legible.\" That's already a huge strike against its use: why would anyone else want to read it if you, the designer, find it only marginally legible? \n\nAs someone who greatly appreciates good page design, I have to admit that I find it too \"cute\" for its own good. There are many fonts that could serve your design purposes of being \"original\" without sacrificing legibility. Pacifico is not one of them. Also, the bold numbering in the text is probably not good unless those are going to be hyperlinks."
},
{
"answer_id": 34873,
"author": "A.G.",
"author_id": 10318,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10318",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "There certainly is room for improvement of scientific writing. The question is, are you trying to convey your work in a more efficient way, or are you just adding noise? \n\nI can think of several examples of positive attempts at improvement: Don Knuth's TeX project, the special fonts created for his book *Concrete Math*. Or the work of Tufte on graphics and page layout. Even though these can at times be annoying, inasmuch as novelty often is, they do help and some of their stuff gets picked up and ends up going mainstream.\n\nSometimes, reading older research (say, 50+years old) can be rather refreshing as well.\n\nOn the other hand, you have to be extra careful and really ask yourself if your design really helps. If you, and several others you will show your work to, are convinced of the improvement, then definitely go for it. You may even suggest to your readers that you are open to comments and feedback."
},
{
"answer_id": 34898,
"author": "Floris",
"author_id": 15062,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15062",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "Academia should be in part about the transfer of existing knowledge, and in part about pushing the boundaries and discovering new things. For the former, being a little bit formal and traditional is OK - although it's also good to bring a new and personal style to the way you convey the information (think of Richard Feynman's incomparable physics lectures that brought a new clarity to a traditional subject).\n\nI like it when people try different things - as long as these things contribute to the over all purpose of the paper. For example, I was very impressed the first time I read an internal report in which the author used pull-quotes to help in the process of following the narrative - very powerful, but rarely used in scientific publications. That kind of experiment - specifically aimed at aiding in the understanding of the document - is laudable. Just tinkering with fonts - especially fonts that are not so legible - is something I appreciate less. I'm OK with showing individuality of thought, and in the expression of the individuality in any form: but it has to support the main aim of the publication.\n\nSome people publish to show how clever they are: they use long words, complicated structure, difficult mathematical derivations... this can indeed give the impression that they are \"a notch above the rest of us mortals\". But it does not provide *access* to their thoughts, and limits the dissemination of their ideas and contributions. And that, ultimately, is what publishing ought to be about."
},
{
"answer_id": 34934,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "I believe the guidelines can be stated fairly briefly.\n\n*The typography* should convey the message without providing resistance to the reader. Selecting good type faces and setting the text according to typographical guidelines regarding line spacing and line length (number of characters) is key. Remember many journals are set to conserve space rather than readability as a prime target.\n\n*The illustrations* should as show (in Edward Tufte's terminology) graphical excellence, that is give the viewer the most ideas in the shortest amount of time with as little \"ink\" as possible.\n\nJust remember that if the main point is communicating science, then the ease with which the reader can access the information is more important than personal design ideas. The challenge thus lies in achieving \"excellence\". Fortunately, excellence usually also *is* beautiful (my personal note)\n\nReferences\nEdward E. Tufte, [*The Visual Display of Quantitative Information*](http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_vdqi). Graphics Press.\n\n(e.g.) Robert Bringhurst, 2012. *The Elements of Typographic Style Fourth Editions (vesion 4.0)*. Hartley & Marks."
},
{
"answer_id": 36811,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "In my experience, academic culture seems to be of two radically different minds when it comes to design:\n\n* For papers, there is virtually no appreciation for design innovation, qua innovation. I suspect that the cultural focus on *content* makes a glitzy presentation seem \"suspicious.\" In practice, there actually can be a good bit of innovation, especially in the design and presentation of figures, but it needs to be within some indefinable bound of scientific \"good taste,\" whatever that means.\n* For presentations, on the other hand, the sky is the limit, and innovation in communication seems to be highly appreciated. For example, I've seen a number of talks using [Prezi](http://prezi.com/) in the last few years, which are definitely following a trendy new tool and playing with its capability.\n\nPerhaps a good way to think of the differences is like the differences between forms of poetry: papers are like a [sonnet](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnet) where you can make beautiful art within a absolutely rigid form, while presentations are [free verse](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_verse) where there is much more freedom of choice for both good and ill."
},
{
"answer_id": 36815,
"author": "Superbest",
"author_id": 244,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/244",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "I think the best outlet for such creative yearnings is presentations, and perhaps posters. In these there is so much heterogeneity to begin with that you will not experience much prejudice due to simply being different.\n\nAnother good candidate is figures. Here, there are 3 chief cases particularly suited to creativity that I know of:\n\n* Diagrams, especially flowcharts showing steps of a project\n* \"Soft data\" where precision is less important. For instance, when you have a graph of number of PhDs over time not to present it as data, but to make the point that it is increasing, you can get away with some fancy colorful designs such as the default Word chart themes.\n* In complex and unusual datasets, where no good way of visualizing them has been agreed on. For example, in genetics, with heatmaps showing various signal levels across the genome you have some latitude in picking colors and adding little icons and so forth.\n\nFor publications, you couldn't easily mess around with the typography because most journals precisely specify their visual style, and they have some uniform theme across all the papers in their issue and across different issue they want to maintain. They won't let you choose your own font.\n\nFor *informal* texts, you do have an advantage: 90% of scientists use either Times New Roman, Arial or Calibri (the Word default). Another 9% use whatever came with their Mac or Linux system. If your font is slightly different, but largely similar to these (Pacifico doesn't work, LabisQ is fine) most people won't notice, and those that do notice would appreciate a good font (assuming you made good design decisions).\n\nWhen I use Latex to type my own informal writing, it ends up in Computer Modern. Granted, this is a very good font, but although being vaguely similar to Times New Roman, it clearly isn't even to an untrained eye. Because of this, I doubt anyone is bothered that I used a different font, and the comments I got tended to be favorable.\n\nSo for your informal texts I'm sure you can get away with taking some liberty in your font choice. It's still worth erring on the side of being conservative, though: First, don't make it too weird. For instance, writing a report in Comic Sans (I'm sure it is obvious) is a bad idea. Writing it in Helvetica instead of Arial - the rare person who notices will think better of you for it. Second, don't change it too often - if every other letter you send to a collaborator is a different font, I imagine the charm will quickly wear away."
}
] |
2014/12/27
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34869",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7121/"
] |
34,882 |
I want to defend my thesis in the computer networking field on master degree . all things are done. And now I want to write my thesis document. Is this document important for judges in the defend day or not to evaluate my thesis.
I ask this question because I think they just pay attention to your suggested method and result and presentation.
Is the document are so important for them? because if they do not pay a lot attention to that I do not like take a lot of effort on that maybe you say that I can put that on the internet for any citation By our language is not English.
If the answer is yes. I mean they pay attention to the document in case of evaluating my thesis. What parameter are important for them. Or better to say, I should bold which part or how to write my thesis in order to the judges pay attention to that? and they say themselves this student try hard and I should give him good score ( D: )
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34883,
"author": "Alexandros",
"author_id": 10042,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10042",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "> \n> Is this document important for judges?\n> \n> \n> \n\nYou are really asking the wrong question. Any official document that bears your name **eternally** is **important for you** and your future. You are a MSc student with probably small number of publications (if any) and a MSc thesis is an important milestone on your transition from a student to a researcher. It is also a quite large document (much larger than the typical scientific publication), so writing an excellent document at this scale is a valuable lesson even if you want to work in industry, where technical reports / documentation and deliverables are quite common. \n\nConclusively, you must always strive for excellence and always do the best you can. You must change your student mindset from \"Would doing A would get me a better grade\" to the adult mindset \"Is this really the best I can do **within the time constraints I have** or could I do better?\". So you should focus on producing the best thesis document you can (within your time constraints) regardless of how lenient the committee might be on judging it."
},
{
"answer_id": 34885,
"author": "AliceD",
"author_id": 23423,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23423",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "I have written three master's theses, out of which one turned out to be mostly for my own interest, one turned out to be pretty much useless, and the third was actually passed on to my later PhD supervisor. The latter scenario may happen when you decide to proceed in academia, or perhaps even in industry - future employers may show interest in it to assess your strengths and weaknesses. \n\nIn any case, for future employers theses, and for that matter your theses-supervisors (being potential referees), are **far more important** than any of the grades you made on any of your exams. So personally, I would say, **yes MSc theses are important** for your later **career**.\n\nThe answer by @Alexandros may be a more direct answer to your question, mine may be providing a more long-term drive to deliver a qualitatively good thesis!"
}
] |
2014/12/28
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34882",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19761/"
] |
34,886 |
As you can read on Wikipedia,
>
> Goodreads is an Amazon company and "social cataloging" website founded
> in December 2006 and launched in January 2007 by Otis Chandler, a
> software engineer and entrepreneur, and Elizabeth Chandler. The
> website allows individuals to freely search Goodreads' extensive
> user-populated database of books, annotations, and reviews. Users can
> sign up and register books to generate library catalogs and reading
> lists. [...] On the Goodreads website, users can add books to their
> personal bookshelves, rate and review books, see what their friends
> are reading, participate in discussion boards and groups on a variety
> of topics, and get suggestions for future reading choices based on
> their reviews of previously read books.
>
>
>
My question is:
>
> *Is there a scholarly alternative to Goodreads, that is, a website
> where you can shelf papers, journal articles, scholarly websites, and
> preprints as well as books?*
>
>
>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34921,
"author": "just-learning",
"author_id": 10483,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10483",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "There indeed is plenty of web sites where you can shelf articles, preprints, etc. ([Mendeley](http://mendeley.com), [Zotero](http://zotero.org), [CiteULike](http://www.citeulike.org/), and so on; a fairly comprehensive [list](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_reference_management_software#Password_.22protection.22_and_network_versions) is available on Wikipedia) but if you also would like to have the possibility of adding *reviews* like in GoodReads, the things are somewhat different. \n\nOne site that I know of that allows you to do this, in addition to merely bookmarking the items, is [ResearchGate](http://www.researchgate.net) with its [Open Review feature](http://www.researchgate.net/publicliterature.OpenReviewInfo.html), but you can only bookmark and review items that already are in their database (you can add the articles that you (co-)authored but I doubt that reviewing them is your intention). Perhaps there are some other sites with a similar functionality: e.g. [according to Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CiteULike) CiteULike has it too; on Mendeley you can [share articles' annotations within private groups](http://www.mendeley.com/features/read-and-annotate/).\n\nAlso, there is a number of sites allowing you to bookmark and review [arXiv](http://arxiv.org) preprints (e.g. [SciRate](https://scirate.com/)) but not the other kinds of items like the books."
},
{
"answer_id": 52738,
"author": "Pierre",
"author_id": 6456,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6456",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<http://f1000.com/prime> \"is composed of 5,000 Faculty Members — senior scientists and leading experts in all areas of biology and medicine — plus their associates.\n\nThe Faculty recommends the\nmost important articles, rating them and providing short explanations for their selections.\n\""
}
] |
2014/12/28
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34886",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] |
34,889 |
I teach English as a second language to pre-college adults in the U.S., and I'm interested in the idea of using essays from previous students as examples in a writing class. At a previous institution we used a permission form that students signed giving the university the right to reproduce or modify written work, in part or whole, and with identifying information removed.
However, as an adjunct who will likely work at multiple schools, I would like to have that permission myself as well.
* What would be the legalities to consider doing such a thing?
* If I have students' written permission, should I still have permission from the institution to do this?
* Will a signed statement (in English), given by someone whose understanding of English is demonstrably weak, function the same as any other?
* Is there a precedent for instructors to gain this permission? As opposed to the institution as a whole.
* Would a blanket statement applying to all assignments work, or should it be for each individual assignment?
**Edited to clarify:** I'm interested in both positive and negative examples. Perhaps more so negative ones since the errors produced by international student populations would be more authentic and difficult for me, a native speaker, to reproduce.
I also have no intention of publishing them outside of classroom materials. Izonqhous Mathugaxojiog made an excellent point that withdrawal of permission would be impossible if I did this. The only foreseeable publishing I can imagine would be as a course pack or teacher's guide given to the institution or other teachers, but I would still want to ask for additional permissions to do this.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34890,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "Good question! \n\nI ask students individually by e-mail if I can use their essays as examples for future classes. Almost always they are thrilled and happy. Then again, I only ask people who serve as positive examples. But I think if you explained to an ESL student that they have the bones of a good essay and that you would like to use it as a sample essay for future students to work on to help improve, I think they would be similarly pleased.\n\nThis would be more problematic if I wanted to use the examples in a textbook, used negative examples, or if I posted essays publicly on the internet. Then I might want a stronger version of a copyright waiver, such as what your previous school uses."
},
{
"answer_id": 34892,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "I'm not a lawyer and can't address the legalities, especially for students with a weak grasp of English. I'd imagine it would be best to write a clear, straightforward permission form that gives some explicit examples of what you have in mind in addition to an overall statement. I'd recommend the following principles as well:\n\n1. Students should be assured that they don't need to agree to this and can withdraw their consent at any time in the future by getting in touch with you. (The main drawback I see to this is that you wouldn't be able to use their work in published teaching materials, since that wouldn't be compatible with withdrawing consent in the future. However, if you have in mind large-scale public distribution or anything that hints of profit, you should really make this explicit anyway.)\n2. To avoid the appearance of coercion, it's best not to ask the students until after the course is over. That way, they won't worry that their decision could affect their grade.\n3. I'd mention this in advance to your department chair in e-mail, not necessarily to ask permission but just to make sure he/she is aware of it. That way you'll find out quickly if the chair considers it a problem, and you'll have the e-mail as documentation if you run into any difficulties later. (Adjunct positions can be precarious enough that it's not worth taking unnecessary risks.)\n4. If you request permission for a small number of carefully chosen essays, you can explain to the authors why each one would be a useful teaching tool. That would likely get a better response than just asking for blanket permission, although it would be more work and cut down on your flexibility."
},
{
"answer_id": 35111,
"author": "Aubrey",
"author_id": 26682,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26682",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "A technical but not legal suggestion (as I'm not a lawyer). \nYou [can choose a license from Creative Commons](https://creativecommons.org/choose/) and ask your students to release their work in such a license. \n\nGiven your needs, you could have something like a **[CC-BY-SA](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)** or **[CC-BY-NC-SA](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/)**.\n\nPros: \n\n* these licenses are internationally recognized\n* there are many translations (so you can actually let the student understand the terms of the license)\n* you would be given the right to modify the text, print it, share it.\n\nYou would have though to release *your* material with the same license (and I see as a feature, not a bug, but that is a personal opinion): often this is seen as a limitation if you want to *publish* something, but as long as you don't want to incorporate these excerpts outside classroom materials it's not your problem."
}
] |
2014/12/28
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34889",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27095/"
] |
34,893 |
I am currently writing a book in mathematics. I have written a few pages and often stumble upon the question "is this good pedagogy" or is this "good typography". The chances of my work getting published is slim, but I am using it for a personal collection of notes and ideas in addition to learning writing a longer text. Below is an excerpt from my notes
An older version of my notes can be found [here](http://folk.ntnu.no/oistes/Diverse/Integral%20Kokeboken.pdf).As now the notes are dividied into a somewhat strict pattern with lemmas, propositions, corollary with theorems reserved for the main purpose of each section. I have a ton of questions about layout, design how formal to be in my writing, and how spiced up I should make the text. I see modern calculus books like to divide the text into blocks (a different color for theorems, proofs etc) while published articles tend to keep a much more minimalistic presence. I just do not know if I am on a good path, or if I need to do some fundamental changes.
To summarize
* What are the do's and dont when writing longer notes (mainly aimed at undergrads).
* Are there any books or literature on writing longer academic texts?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34895,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "There are many books and online resources on mathematical writing. These range from style guides that deal with issues from type setting to copy editing to books that talk about mathematical writing at a somewhat higher level. Here are a few of my favorite sources:\n\nNicholas J. Higham. Handbook of Writing for the Mathematical Sciences. SIAM 1998. <http://www.worldcat.org/title/handbook-of-writing-for-the-mathematical-sciences/oclc/697886419>\n\nSteven G. Krantz. A primer of mathematical writing : being a disquisition on having your ideas recorded, typeset, published, read, and appreciated. American Mathematical Society, 1997. <http://www.worldcat.org/title/primer-of-mathematical-writing-being-a-disquisition-on-having-your-ideas-recorded-typeset-published-read-and-appreciated/oclc/797735421>\n\nSIAM Style Manual for Journals and Books. <http://www.siam.org/journals/pdf/stylemanual.pdf>"
},
{
"answer_id": 34896,
"author": "Christian Clason",
"author_id": 13852,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13852",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "In general, my advice would be \n\n1. look at other books or lecture notes and copy the things you like, change the things you don't;\n2. get feedback from your target audience;\n3. don't overthink it for your first draft: you can (and likely will have to) edit it multiple times anyway.\n\nBut mostly I want to recommend Paul Halmos classical essay, [How to write mathematics](http://retro.seals.ch/cntmng;jsessionid=5D10D817325382AB2D2EB6EEF8E7A93A?type=pdf&rid=ensmat-001:1970:16::59&subp=hires), L’Enseignement Mathématique, Vol.16 (1970)."
}
] |
2014/12/28
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34893",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15597/"
] |
34,899 |
If you are seeking an engineering job, do employers care about which university you attended? Do they look at your grades, or bias their decision based on the college's reputation? There are stories of Ivy League graduates struggling to find employment, while another person at a small, virtually unheard-of college grabbing that opportunity. So if you are attending a prestigious school, and your grades are lower than someone who is attending a small, high-school-like school, how will that affect your employment opportunities?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34902,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "As much as we'd like it not to matter, many large employers *do* have \"preferred\" schools, whose graduates don't have to go through as much scrutiny. \n\nThat said, the effect is diminished when you're applying to smaller firms, where there are less layers of HR involved in the hiring process."
},
{
"answer_id": 34906,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Many firms tend to prefer certain schools -- drawing exclusively from CalTech or from MIT, etc. Some hiring managers tend to feel that this builds coherence and loyalty within the engineering ranks. \n\n(Heavens forbid that you put an MIT engineer with a Caltech engineer on the same team unless you want to have them compete against each other.)\n\nSome hiring managers have intense loyalty towards their own school and want to promote their own. \n\nOthers simply choose the best available in a specific domain. \n\nIt all boils down to the hiring philosophy of the company. \n\nMy own advice is that you should choose the program that you feel has the best fit with your interests. There's no point in going into a 'good' program if it's weak in your own area of study."
},
{
"answer_id": 34911,
"author": "Mad Jack",
"author_id": 11192,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11192",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "> \n> If you are seeking an engineering job, do employers care about which university you attended? Do they look at your grades, or bias their decision based on the college's reputation?\n> \n> \n> \n\nIf you have a solid foundation in the skills that matter for your engineering discipline/sub-field, and can convey that to recruiters in a phone/on-site/on-campus interview, then I would say that to a first-order where you did your degree does not matter *so long as you can get the recruiter's attention.*\n\nGetting the recruiter's attention is the trickier part for those coming from lesser-known schools. For example, at the engineering schools I'm familiar with, new grads can find a lot of good fresh-out career opportunities by attending on-campus engineering career fairs and the like. The downside of attending a lesser-known engineering school is that they may not have a decent attendance of engineering companies that come to the campus for recruiting purposes in the first place. This puts the burden on the student in getting a recruiter's attention. \n\nEngineering students (and students in other fields, I'm sure) from any institution can greatly benefit from networking with peers at other institutions and those already in industry. For those from lesser-known institutions, networking can be an invaluable tool for opening doors to career opportunities. Also, while obtaining an internship may be equally as difficult as obtaining a full-time position for those from lesser-known schools, participating in several internships along the way to obtaining your degree if at all possible (and performing the duties of the position well) would really go a long way to improving your chances of success."
},
{
"answer_id": 34913,
"author": "Cort Ammon",
"author_id": 25234,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/25234",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "**Does it matter: yes.** Everything matters. Next question please! Upvote at your leasure!\n\nThe question you should ask is **\"How much does it matter?\"**\n\nThe answer really depends on how well you know your field. A brand-name school is most likely to help you get through an initial screening, but unlikely to land you the job. If you're on the fence, technically, and you need a large number of interviews to land the job, a brand-name school may be the ticket you need. On the other hand, if you actually know your stuff, you won't be so dependent on \"good luck\" in the interview, and you can afford to get missed in the screening once or twice... all you need is one interview and you're set!\n\nAlternatively if your activities stand out, you wont need the brand-name school to sell your way past the screening process -- what you've done will speak more than your alma mater."
},
{
"answer_id": 34927,
"author": "Wan",
"author_id": 27123,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27123",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Traditionally, yes but more and more companies are beginning to move past that. Government jobs however are different. They would select based on school and also background.\n\nBut, anyone who has worked in a diverse environment would know all that very surface level. Engineering is all about finding solutions to problems. It always depends on the company's business model, hiring policies, alliances and other factors. It is not as clear cut as school where an A is an A regardless of the person getting it.\n\nThe whole \"go to a good a school, graduate and get a good job\" line is very misleading. It might work out for a lot of people (especially back then when a select few go to college) but do not depend on it to work out for you (unless daddy's the boss, then why are we even discussing this). Depend on yourself first and keep at it till it does work out. It sucks but you will be able appreciate every bit of it much better than you struck gold at first strike."
}
] |
2014/12/28
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34899",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26632/"
] |
34,900 |
I have to cite a multi-chapter report. Every chapter has different authors. Should I cite with the name of the main author and then the specific chapter? Or should I use the first author of the chapter I am citing?
If the main author is Smith but Lefd is the author of a chapter where Smith is not in the authors’ list, should I cite with “(Smith et. al 2000, Ch 6)” or “(Lefd et. al 2000)” and then add a citation for each chapter in the cited literature section?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34908,
"author": "Massimo Ortolano",
"author_id": 20058,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "> \n> should I cite with **(Smith et. al 2000, ch 6)** or **(Lefd et. al 2000)** and then add a citation for each chapter in the cited literature section?\n> \n> \n> \n\nI've checked *The Chicago Manual of Style* and the *New Oxford Style Manual* and it seems that the second style is preferable. I don't know if there is a standard way to abbreviate if one has to cite many different chapters.\n\nHowever, if you're writing for a journal, there might be a preferred style, which can be described in the journal style guide or applied directly by the typesetter."
},
{
"answer_id": 34932,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "Remember that the reference in the text is \"only\" a flag to enable the reader to find the important information, the reference, in your reference list. With the \"author-year\" form the in text information provides a knowledgeable reader with a flag that can make the reference known without looking into the reference list but in a system where references are provided with only numbers (Vancouver style). So the important information is in the reference list.\n\nWith that background, it is clear that referencing the authors of the chapters is the way to go. If no clear author exists for chapter the compilation or book editor can be referenced but adding the specific chapter number in the reference (assuming the chapter IS numbered). There is no major point in adding the chapter number to a reference pointing to a chapter given by its author. All such information will be given in the references. Even if more than one chapter has been written by a specific author (team) you can still provide only the usual \"author-year\" but label the references, for example, (Smith et. al 2000a), (Smith et. al 2000b) etc. All will be explained in the reference list. \n\nSo as a conclusion, use references as if the chapters where articles in a journal but be careful by providing all necessary information about full publication information of the chapter (number and name of chapter) as well as book editor, title, publisher etc. in the reference list. Please refer to journal instructions (equiv.) for details."
},
{
"answer_id": 34935,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "If authors are identified for the chapters, then this document is best treated as an edited collection. In this case, the chapter authors are the author and the chapter title the title. The overall report title is then the collection title (filling a similar role to journal title) and the \"main\" authors the editors.\n\nThe exact details of how this is formatted depend on the style where you are submitting, but if any names are appearing in the main text, they are of the chapter authors."
},
{
"answer_id": 34943,
"author": "J. Zimmerman",
"author_id": 7921,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7921",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": true,
"text": "In your example, you are citing the **chapter** author's work, not the work of the compiler/editor of the book as a whole. According to the APA *Publication Manual*, use the following reference format for this situation. \n\n> \n> Author, A.A. (1967) Title of chapter or entry. In A. Editor & B. Editor (Eds.), *Title of book* (pp. xxx-xxx). Location: Publisher \n> \n> \n> \n\nOf course, your intext citation would reference the chapter author too, not the book author/editor. The same general format holds for other reference styles as well."
}
] |
2014/12/28
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34900",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4050/"
] |
34,901 |
there are similar questions on how to list on CV publications that have not passed the accepted or in press stage when applying to junior research positions ( PhD/postdoc).
I am not clear if such publications should include the journal name or not, and what would be the reason for either choice.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34903,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "I would definitely include publication titles for \"in press\" articles, since they've already been accepted (and you could provide the confirmation email if asked to do so!).\n\nAs for \"under review\" articles, I would only list them in the CV at all:\n\n* If I were a graduate student or postdoc\n* If I needed to demonstrate that the articles were under review (internal performance reviews, etc.)\n\nIn both instances, I would also include the journal name."
},
{
"answer_id": 34904,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "Everyone I know feels that \"accepted / in press\" is just as good as appeared: the delay between acceptance and publication has nothing (or anyway, too little) to do with you. You should certainly list them on your CV, no matter who you are. I don't even list these as in a different category as the ones which have already been published: the only difference is that (roughly speaking; electronic publication and DOIs complicates this somewhat) I can't tell you the bibliographic information if it hasn't appeared. I think it is very important not to list a paper as accepted without listing the journal, because therein lies the route to verifiability that your paper has been accepted.\n\nIn my opinion, you should list submitted articles on your CV no matter who you are. (I would be interested to hear why @aeismail feels differently about this.) This advice comes from someone who works in a field (mathematics) for which recently submitted articles ought to be freely available: if you want to get credit for having submitted an article, then whoever you are trying to get credit from ought to be able to see the article. Ideally they don't have to ask for it specifically (because maybe they won't), so you should include a weblink to submitted papers on your CV. (This last part is more for people who are in a potential-hire situation...which is not restricted to grad students and postdocs. Nowadays, lots of academics are in a potential-hire situation or would like to be.) \n\nIn mathematics, each paper takes a long time: the period between when you say \"Aha, I can prove the theorem\" -- and e.g. start to give talks about it -- and the period which it gets accepted is probably over a year in many cases, and closer to two for serious, important work in many cases. Who is reading this part of your CV and isn't interested in what you've been working hard on for the last year or two?!? \n\nWhether to list the journal submitted to is a well known question mark. I do not put this information on \"external\" documents -- i.e., the CV and the publication list which are on my professional website. I do usually list it on \"internal\" documents -- annual reviews, grant applications, job applications (well, it's been a little while). There are a lot of nuances here: one is that it is really hard to know how much credit to give someone for *submitting* a paper to journal X. After all, anyone can submit a paper to the most prestigious journal in their discipline, and in many cases they will spend a nontrivial amount of time before rejecting you. So you want to be careful about this. Nevertheless, where you submitted a paper is an important piece of information about how you feel about the paper, which is worth including in various cases (e.g. grant applications, where the panel will be suitably skeptical). Another issue is that one commonly submits to more than one journal (not at the same time, but in sequence) so the information about where you submitted a paper is likely go out of date, so is less suitable for a sporadically updated CV and more suitable for a CV guaranteed to be complete up to such-and-such a date. \n\nNote also that in my discipline, many people -- especially young people but not always -- also include papers which are \"in preparation\" on their CVs. This is, frankly, a little shaky: I have papers on my own CV which have been \"in preparation\" for getting on a decade. But the above philosophy still applies: if you've been working on something for five years and you're 75% done, then shouldn't you say something about it? \n\nOne last piece of advice: it behooves you to make absolutely clear *the distinction between* all these categories. I get annoyed as a hirer when people use categories that don't fit easily into any of these boxes: e.g. some job candidates list papers as **provisionally accepted**, **conditionally accepted**, or **accepted pending revision**. What a hiring committee litmus test that becomes: their proponents will insist that these be counted as actual publications, their detractors will insist that they don't count as any more than submitted, and people in between will get a headache. \n\n(I don't mean to imply that it's necessarily the candidate's fault. Sometimes the journal tells me that my paper has been provisionally accepted, and when I need to create a CV for a grant application that gives me the very same headache: please give me a paper status that has a clear, unambiguous meaning! They do enjoy their little games, the journals...)"
},
{
"answer_id": 34914,
"author": "o4tlulz",
"author_id": 6978,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6978",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "An accepted article is as good as a published article and you should include it in your CV / Resume. As pagination - issues etc are not yet final, including a [DOI](http://www.doi.org/) with the details of the articles is good practice. You should also try to publish pre-print versions of these articles if your publisher allows that to get some further exposure. \n\nIn my area (Electrical Engineering), a submitted article does not mean much. It takes almost no effort to prepare a couple of articles and submit them to even the highest ranking journals for review, only to have them rejected a few months later. In many cases, it is seen as an effort to fluff publication records. If the manuscript has been through the first or second stage of reviews and you need to show some more publications (and honestly who doesn't?) then you can include them but the distinction that the paper has been through some stages of review, together with the name of the journal, should be clear."
}
] |
2014/12/28
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34901",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4050/"
] |
34,912 |
I did my undergraduate and graduate degrees at a university that includes course evaluations as part of the transcript. My evaluations from my professors and instructors generally are good to excellent.
I am applying for jobs right now, and some ask for graduate and undergraduate transcripts. I can order two kinds of transcripts, one with evaluations, and one without.
**Would it be beneficial for me to include my evaluations with the transcripts in my job applications materials?**
It would be attached in the same file as my transcript, not attached as a separate file.
For reference, my undergrad/grad transcripts with grades and records is composed of four pages. The evaluations are an extra 14 pages.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34916,
"author": "mako",
"author_id": 5962,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5962",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "If your course evaluations range from good to excellent and there is nothing harmful in them, including them can only be helpful.\n\nIn the worst (and probably more likely case) people will simply not read the additional 10 pages of transcript. This is, of course, exactly where you would be if you didn't send them in the first place.\n\nA thick application file is not a problem. Just remember that it falls on you to help narrate and explain what you include. For example, if there are a few choice quotes from the evaluations, you might want to call those out in your application front-matter."
},
{
"answer_id": 34918,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": true,
"text": "I assume that by course evaluations, this is a narrative **faculty evaluation of your performance in a class that you are taking** -- and not the case where you are TAing or teaching a course and your students are evaluating you. \n\nYou can include it but undergraduate and graduate grades are very peripheral to most academic job applications -- except for entry level and post-docs when we have little else to evaluate you by. Even then, their use is fairly deprecated. You're not going to be *taking* classes, you're going to be *teaching them*.\n\nInclude them just to be complete."
},
{
"answer_id": 177003,
"author": "fectin",
"author_id": 73396,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73396",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "It won't make any difference.\n-----------------------------\n\nNo-one outside of HR will look at your transcripts at all, and HR will only look for whatever hard qualifications the job requires: bachelors/masters/PhD, what field it's in, very rarely even that you have specific coursework. It's possible that they will check your GPA if there's some recruitment incentive tied to it.\n\nNo-one will read your evaluations. That may feel like a waste, since it took up a good chunk of your life, but your transcript's contents really just don't matter outside academia. It's very important that you *have* a transcript, but in practice it acts like an especially elaborate version of a diploma."
}
] |
2014/12/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34912",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22503/"
] |
34,919 |
I could not find a PhD advisor and the person in charge of my PhD program suggested that I leave with a master's degree. He said that I was good at carrying out tasks but I did not have the motivation to advance the state of the art in my field. Some time later I found an advisor in a different department, and he seems to like me. But I still cannot get over what the graduate coordinator said, and now I hate visiting the building because I feel I do not belong and I don't want to talk to anyone I know. What should I do?
After I found an advisor the graduate coordinator said something like "I knew you had it in you, I just wanted to see how much you wanted it." But I don't know if he really means it, and if he did, I think that's kind of a mean thing to do.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34920,
"author": "Orion",
"author_id": 19732,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19732",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "You mentioned that your new advisor is in a new department. So, can you cut the losses with the old department? \n\nBut, although the comment stings, and your feelings are understandable, being able to handle it is part of completing Ph.D. To complete a Ph.D., you need (within a reason) to go against the grain, latch onto something, not listen when you are told it can't be done, and pursue it against the odds. In the process you grow a thicker skin and not let doubtful comments get and define you. \n\nSo, it is possible that your advisor meant to test you, and see how determined you are to continue the process. I am not saying that it is the best approach, but I have seen this happen."
},
{
"answer_id": 34922,
"author": "fedja",
"author_id": 6118,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6118",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "Well, all you can really do is to clench your teeth and work. It may take a few months to a few years before you get to the point when you'll be certain that you are worth something and then a few more years before you finally realize that your brain is ridiculously slow, blind, and malfunctioning and you slide into the normal stable depression state any working mathematician lives in (I'm not so sure about other sciences but do not see why it should be any different there) :-). \n\nThe point is that what people see is what you produce: above a certain level, you are judged by your output, not by your working habits and other \"test\" criteria. On the other hand, above the same level, you spend the rest of your life walking a narrow path between being dissatisfied with yourself to the extent of quitting and being not enough dissatisfied with yourself to strive for improvement. You just have veered too much to the left, that's all. \n\nAs to the graduate coordinator, the second phrase puzzles me way more than the first (the first one makes sense and I can easily say it myself when I see that the things just do not work out after a few years, the second one looks more like a lame excuse for saying the first). Well, who cares? If you can do something, you'll see it yourself. If not, some other people will take care of showing it to you.\n\nAs to the feeling of \"not belonging\", the internet won't help here. Either talk to your psychiatrist (if you believe in psychiatry), of just take time out and do some physical activities on fresh air. \n\nAbove all, remember that we have all been there at the beginning of our careers: stupid worthless students struggling with the most routine homework and learning that the first problem of solving which they were proud was actually put on the test just to console those who cannot figure out anything interesting. \n\nSo, veer a bit to the right (not too much though) and continue walking forward (and, of course, as it was said in the final song of Monty Python's \"Life of Brian\", always look at the bright side of life...)"
},
{
"answer_id": 34942,
"author": "Scott Seidman",
"author_id": 20457,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20457",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "In many departments, the ability to match up to a source of funding is a *de facto* qualifying exam. If no adviser is stipending you, and the department needs to cover your stipend, you are a burden on the department. In current funding environments, departments often need that money for other things -- especially carrying faculty salary during funding lapses.\n\nThis creates a funny situation for students who can't find an adviser. They haven't failed a formal qualifier. Is there something \"wrong\" about the student such that no adviser accepted them? Maybe, maybe not. Could be the research interests didn't match up. Programs do their best to try to match the research areas of accepted students to those of faculty who can support students-- but sometimes they miss. Could just also be that such a student isn't the best student, and that potential advisers feel that there will be too much work in dragging them through to a degree. Could also just be that there were better students in the group who attracted the offers from advisers, and no one with funding was left to pick them up.\n\nIn any case, I recommend trying to be a little introspective about how you could have made yourself even more appealing to potential advisers such that you could have paired up earlier. In the career path you've chosen, you'll perpetually be selling yourself. Use this as an opportunity to figure out how to sell yourself better. If you want to feel more welcome, publish as much as you can, and early. Apply for every funding opportunity you can reasonably apply for. Take your teaching responsibilities seriously. Show your department that you're the opposite of a burden."
}
] |
2014/12/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34919",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27109/"
] |
34,923 |
I am part of the organizing committee for a workshop in a STEM field that historically has problems with underrepresentation of women (and other groups, but let me focus on women in this question). I would like to help foster an inclusive environment at the workshop and more generally in my department and am looking for suggestions for how to proceed.
The topic of the workshop is slightly out of my field of expertise and I do not have a long list of qualified speakers (of any gender) that I can offer suggestions from.
I suspect that the senior member of the committee will take the attitude that he is "gender blind" and chooses speakers to invite based only on their quality but that because of implicit biases, the invitee list he draws up will be something like 90% male. I do not think he will be particularly open to a direct conversation about gender and underrepresentation.
I saw [this question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/21117/) which was asking *whether* preferential invitation of female speakers is normal; I am instead asking *how* to foster diversity (perhaps by preferential invitation or by other means).
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34926,
"author": "Jessica B",
"author_id": 20036,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20036",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "This idea is based purely on my own experience:\n\nAs a young researcher, cost is a reasonably significant factor in deciding whether to attend a conference. In some settings the cost can be reduced if you can find someone to share a hotel room with. Finding such a person though can be difficult, particularly if there is no public list of who is attending the conference and your gender is under-represented. I think it might be helpful if the registration form had an option along the lines of 'I would like to be put in touch with people who might be interested in sharing a room' (with appropriate follow-through, of course)."
},
{
"answer_id": 34956,
"author": "Tom Church",
"author_id": 563,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/563",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "Aimed at a different point in the pipeline, you can try to make it more possible for speakers to accept your invitation. One step that can make a huge difference for certain people (in many cases, converting a 100% impossibility into an acceptance) is to provide resources for **childcare at or near the conference**.\n\nFor some ideas about specific steps you can take, Matilde Lalin recently wrote [a nice overview](http://terrytao.wordpress.com/2014/08/20/matilde-lalin-attending-conferences-with-small-children/) of different ways conferences can and do support attendees traveling with children (published on Terry Tao's blog).\n\nOne that's not mentioned there is to allow attendees to purchase a hotel room in the conference-reserved block for a nanny. I know that the [American Institute of Mathematics](http://aimath.org/) does this, and it can make the difference if the only other option would put the nanny somewhere far from the conference. \n\nDepending on the size of your conference, this needn't necessarily mean that you subsidize or even organize the childcare; it can help even just to put attendees in touch with local daycares/nannies/babysitters, or provide other information. However unless your conference is very small, I hope you'll give thought to implementing some of the other steps that Lalin outlines.\n\n---\n\nAdded February 2015:\n\nXrec Maynin has written an excellent paper [\"Addressing the underrepresentation of women in mathematics conferences\"](http://arxiv.org/abs/1502.06326) that addresses exactly this question, which is simultaneously scholarly and actionable. In particular, in Section 4 (pp 17-21) he gives **thirty-eight** concrete suggestions that organizers can follow. Not all of them will be applicable in a given situation (including that of the original question here), but many will be."
},
{
"answer_id": 100272,
"author": "Noah Snyder",
"author_id": 25,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/25",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "One helpful thing is to find lists of women in the relevant field to look through to find potential participants to invite to speak. For example, in Number Theory you can look at the list of participants in the [Women in Number Theory conferences](https://womeninnumbertheory.org/win-4-2017/). Not every field has such easy sources of lists, but there are a lot of them out there, and it can help to find speakers whose research interests you but who you hadn't met before or otherwise didn't come immediately to mind. Similarly, social networks being what they are, having women co-organizers of the conference can also be quite helpful in brainstorming great women speakers who you might not have thought of on your own."
},
{
"answer_id": 100281,
"author": "Anna SdTC",
"author_id": 69614,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/69614",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "First of all, the suggestion of making sure there is childcare and it is possible for everyone to attend the conference is very valid and relevant.\n\nSecond, is there more than one person in the committee who can suggest experts in the field? If you suspect that the most senior person will claim to be \"gender blind\" while not being so, can you involve more than one person in the selection process? Not only this is good to mitigate everyone's potential biases, but it's good too because more people can have potentially more connections. Hence, the more people you involve in the selection committee, the longer list of experts you can reach, and therefore you can possibly aim for a higher quality of speakers. If only one person makes the selection, this person will likely overly represent their collaborators, coauthors, friends and the people they are more connected too, while forgetting about other experts that they may not know as well or not know at all."
}
] |
2014/12/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34923",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27118/"
] |
34,924 |
I'm writing an essay, and want to know the promotion rate and average duration from assistant professor to associate professor and associate professor to professor in recent years. Sadly I don't know the data for the US. Could anyone tell me?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34925,
"author": "Dan Fox",
"author_id": 4189,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4189",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "The US National Science Foundation collects a lot of data from surveys of recent doctoral recipients that it publishes on this [web page](http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/publication-series.cfm?seriesId=13). The precise thing you are looking for (tenure success rate) does not seem to appear, but there is a lot of relevant information. Specific professional societies collect similar information. For instance, the American Mathematical Society publishes an [annual survey](http://www.ams.org/profession/data/annual-survey/survey-reports) of information on recent doctoral recipients; it includes data about the salaries and employment situation of recent doctoral recipients in the mathematical sciences."
},
{
"answer_id": 43544,
"author": "Kimball",
"author_id": 19607,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19607",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Well, I'm sure this is too late for the essay, but I happened to come across some (old) [data for US medical school faculty from the AAMC](https://www.aamc.org/download/121130/data/aibvol9_no7.pdf). They look at average number of years to promotion and percentage of faculty promoted within a ten-year period, both from assistant to associate, and associate to full, broken down into various categories (gender, degree earned, whiteness, clinical vs theory, etc).\n\nThe 10-year promotion rates, both to associate and full, are generally in the 30-50% range, and for those specifically in tenure-track positions, around 50%.\n\nI suspect the numbers would be higher for Arts & Sciences or Engineering faculty."
}
] |
2014/12/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34924",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27117/"
] |
34,929 |
I am applying for a lecturer position at a university, and one of the application materials is a publication list.
I am a graduate student in my last year of PhD, and I plan on focusing my job search on teaching positions. I currently have no publications, nor will I have any anytime soon.
It looks like on the application, I have to upload something in order to submit it. **What do I upload if I have no publications?**
I was considering just a page that says "no publications" but I thought I would check here before I make a move.
For context, I am a student in mathematics. I have been told that it is not unusual to have no publications as a math PhD student.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34930,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "If you do not have publications (including papers \"in press\") then the publications list can be left empty. If you have papers. You can, however add headings for publications \"under review\", if you have any or \"manuscripts in preparation\", again, if you have any. You may also have unpublished reports of different types. Such contributions can also be listed under a separate heading. What can be included is difficult to say but in my case, I used to include annual reports I had to write to a super-computer center and a research station, both which were collated with others and printed by the organising body. So any report sitting in a drawer is not valid. \n\nObviously the a \"manuscript in preparation\" will not be very strong but it will at least indicate that something is ongoing. But, note that a manuscript in preparation should be something worth reading to make it to such a list. In a situation like yours any written material prepared for some official body and with some distribution, can be used to indicate your activities. There is a grey zone which is undefinable (which is why one generally avoids such listings later in the career), so do not put in anything. In short, you need to be able to show these \"claims\"."
},
{
"answer_id": 34931,
"author": "BiA",
"author_id": 22989,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22989",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "Some online application tools are not considering the possibility that you have no publication record. Your idea is ok OP, I would do the same if I was in your position. An empty page is not good since the potential employer can think of a wrong application and dismiss it.\n\nAnyway let me say that you should have some publication to apply to a university position, the suggestion of Toxep Jinkson are good. Try to follow them."
},
{
"answer_id": 34944,
"author": "Ethan Bolker",
"author_id": 7018,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7018",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "I think your *cover letter* is one of the most important parts of your job application. It's what I always read first when recruiting. In it you can describe - in a nonapologetic way - why you will be good for this particular institution (presumably with its focus on teaching). Since you are getting a PhD you can legitimately say that you know what mathematical research calls for, perhaps that you enjoy it, even if you don't see much cutting edge publication in your professional future."
}
] |
2014/12/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/34929",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22503/"
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