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36,561 |
I am writing a few research papers for an upcoming conference and things have been going decently. But I could really use more time to analyze my papers.
I am new to writing and this entire conference process, however - How should I e-mail the organizer requesting a deadline extension?
```
Hi Dr. Bobster,
I would like you to extend the deadline for the
international conference on procrastination.
Sincerely,
Procrastinator
```
Also if it helps: I should make this *extra* polite because this is also someone of high influence.
***Updates***
---
It looks like for the past versions of this conference, they gave at least a week extension. This is a fairly well known event, though it doesn't usually end up presenting any ground breaking research.
---
It looks like the past few events had extensions, its a well-known event but not too crazy. There's no way I can finish this with the other things I have..
---
If anyone wants an update, I cut the paper short, finished it on time and submitted it.
---
I asked for an extension. I didn't get a reply - so I thought that they thought I was being stupid. BUT.... they extended the deadline! Phew!! Maybe I didn't have to cut it short..
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36564,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "The words you propose are reasonable, but unlikely to have much effect. Usually, you just plain cannot affect the deadlines of a significant conference. If it is a small conference, however, there is a good chance that you can get a one week extension, and even that they may give a blanket one week extension to everybody."
},
{
"answer_id": 36568,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "It is very unlikely that there will be any extension *due to your request*. If you are *\"new to writing and this entire conference process\"*, you are presumably not well-known / important enough that a conference organiser will make exceptions/changes to accommodate you specifically.\n\nHowever, that does not mean that there certainly will not be an extension. In my field, many conferences (especially smaller ones) have the annoying habit of *always* extending their deadline for a week or more. Contrary, the largest and most prestigious conferences in my field make it a point to never, and for nobody, extend the deadline.\n\nWhether your conference is likely to extend can be predicted pretty accurately by looking at the past. Check out the previous web pages of the same conference - if they extended the last one or two times, they will likely do so as well this year."
},
{
"answer_id": 36574,
"author": "Charles Stewart",
"author_id": 24914,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24914",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "The wording you propose is ambiguous: do you want an extension for yourself or for everybody. It only makes sense to ask for an extension for yourself if the request does not waste the time of the PC member to whom you send, and the PC will be usually be most busy in the timeframe around submission. \n\nAnd the PC is only likely to grant an extension for the whole conference if many more people will fail to meet the deadline than they expected: to do so is embarrassing for them -- although not as embarrassing as failing to have enough speakers to fill the promised number of days.\n\nThe PC for workshops and more informal conferences are likely to be generous in granting individual extensions, but there is only a point in asking if you give them some information that is relevant to them: the minimum should be (i) some information about what kind of thing you will hopefully submit, and (ii) name a deadline that they can grant with the one-word email \"Sure\" or decline with \"Sorry\". And (iii), something to say why you are attracted to the conference is often appreciated. So for asking for an individual extension, I recommend that your email looks something like:\n\n```\nDear $PCMEMBER,\n\nI won't be able to submit all the materials required by $DEADLINE - does it make any sense\nto submit later? I attach the short version of my abstract below, and will provide the\nrest of the materials by $IMUSTREALLYFINISHBYTHISDATE.\n\nI hope that it will still be possible for me to present my work with you at $CONFERENCE. \n\nBest,\n$ME\n\n```\n\nAnd something along the lines of `$PERSONRESPECTEDBYPROGRAMCOMMITTEE spoke highly of $HISorHER experiences at your past conferences and I would greatly look forward to the chance to present my information with you` would be appropriate for the third point."
}
] |
2015/01/10
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36561",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26850/"
] |
36,570 |
I have organized several times some international conferences on my field (computational chemistry), where accepted proceedings are afterwards evaluated again for it submission to a special issue of a journal. Now I am thinking that I could create a journal for all those submission, even if at the beginning we have no impact factor (ISI) or if people are not so interested, but I would like this idea very much.
So I wonder of you can point which steps should I follow for creating a journal. I think I could attract many submissions, and I have servers where I could host it, but do not know the other technical and/or legal details.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36681,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "Having followed a few new journals from birth to quick success I can see the following steps:\n\n1. Make sure you identify a scope that has long-term interest (pretty obvious)\n2. Make sure the idea is supported by your scientific community; that they see a benefit in yet another journal. Community involvement really helps.\n3. Assemble a group of enthusiastic and well-respected scientists in the field of interest to form a group to plan for the journal and who may constitute the nucleus of the editorial board (equiv.).\n4. Create a proposal including a description of your goals and target audience for the journal.\n5. Decide how the journal should be published. Open Access seems like a safe bet and initiate discussions with an Open Access Publisher. It is possible to publish on your own but using a publisher may provide access to other types of support so a careful assessment of the options are important.\n\n----Now we assume the journal has passed the planning stages and will be launched\n\n6. Make sure the community knows about the journal. This ground work can be continuous throughout the process but has to be realized by this point.\n7. Try to attract as many prominent authors as you can and have them submit high quality work. This will help make the journal attractive. One goal, like it or not, is likely to get an impact factor (if that matters in your field) and that means publishing papers that get referenced. Attracting good papers in under any circumstances a good start.\n8. Maintain high standards in your review process and make sure to maintain high publications standards. Good papers attract other good papers when people realize the journal is to be counted.\n\nOnly the contributions you can attract determine the success of the journal. Although some of the points above may seem obvious or even trivial, the more effort you add early on the higher the chance for success. In the cases I have seen, having the community on the train from the beginning and following the development has proved to be fruitful."
},
{
"answer_id": 36719,
"author": "Benoît Kloeckner",
"author_id": 946,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/946",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "Peter Jansson's answer tackles a good part of the process, but let me add the question of the publisher.\n\nYou can go through an existing publisher, in which case you will have to choose one (and then convince it that it is a good idea to start your journal, but if you managed steps 1-5 in Peter Jansson's answer, it should not be difficult). There are several criteria to be considered:\n\n* What service does the publisher provide to the editorial board? Discuss with editorial boards of journals published there to find out. Also, a publisher which is well-known in your field can have an easier time making your colleagues become aware of the existence of your journal, but it seems that this task is largely up to the editorial board anyway.\n* What service does the publisher provide to authors? For example some publishers ask authors to format their papers in their style prior to submission, which can be a pain, or may have painful electronic system that authors must use to submit or to contact the editorial board. Your past experience can give you a good idea. Also, the question of usual cost the journal charges for extra pages or for open-access is crucial. Publishers can also have very different policy with respect to green open access, see the [Sherpa/Romeo](http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/) site for info about this.\n* What service does the publisher provide to readers? For example some commercial publishers provide very poor copy-editing; you can care or not. Also, the question of the usual cost of subscriptions for non-open access journal is crucial.\n\nYou could also want to go with your university's press if it exists, so as to be close to the publisher and interact more easily with it.\n\nIf you plan on act as publisher as well, things are more complicated. Let's assume that you do not want to manage subscription payments nor article processing charges; you will still deal with quite some stuff.\n\n* Your journal should have an owner; it may be you, or your university, or another institution, or you could create a legal body for this (e.g. a foundation), notably if you want some money to flow. For example, I know a journal run by department, with money and one full-time staff from a university and a national research institution.\n* Your journal should have an identification, most notably an electronic ISSN. This is not difficult to get as far as I know.\n* Your journal should be indexed in the databases used in your field (e.g. Zentralblatt and MSN in mathematics). Asking the publisher of the database would be the obvious way to go.\n* You will need a software to track submissions (which need to be assigned to an editor, which need to be assigned to a referee, which await for a decision, etc.) and to host the website of the journal. Most probably you know how to do this part since you did it for your conferences.\n* If you want a paper version, you will have to deal with a printer and with mailing issues, but this is very XXth-century and very likely for a journal that does not charge subscriptions.\n* You may need to use an anti-plagiarism software, depending on your field (sometimes in small fields plagiarism is easily detected, but this is not universally true).\n\nI certainly miss some points, please free to add in comment and I'll try to keep the list up-to-date."
}
] |
2015/01/10
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36570",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/284/"
] |
36,573 |
I am a very recent Ph.D. student (since October 2014), and the deadline date of the conference in which I want to participate is quite near. I don't want to miss the conference, but as I am so new in my Ph.D. program, I don't have something really concrete for the moment. For this conference, however, it is possible to revise the paper until 15 days before the conference.
Accordingly, I am thinking of submitting my M.Sc. dissertation to the conference. As I think I will have an improved version of my M.Sc. in 3-4 months (at least, I really hope), I suppose that it is worth doing this.
Is it really a bad idea to submit a M.Sc. dissertation to a conference? Are there some ethical issues to consider?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36577,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "Typically a dissertation is not considered to be a peer reviewed publication. This means that the material in it can be extracted and turned into conference or journal publications. In some fields, this is a typical practice after completing a dissertation, where in others it goes the other way (the dissertation is assembled from peer-reviewed papers).\n\nYou cannot, however, just submit your thesis directly as is. A dissertation is generally much longer than conference or journal papers. A dissertation typically also has much more freedom in style, and does not have to be targeted at the biases of a particular community. Thus, to make a credible conference submission, you will need to compress or extract a nugget of contribution of an appropriate size, and may also need to tailor its focus and language to better match that of the conference where it is being submitted."
},
{
"answer_id": 36591,
"author": "O. R. Mapper",
"author_id": 14017,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14017",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "I agree with what [jakebeal](https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733/jakebeal) says in [his answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/36577/14017) about ways to make a submission based on your Master thesis, and I would like to add that you could talk to your former Master thesis supervisor. Maybe he or she is interested in drafting a submission together with you. As your supervisor, they are probably more or less interested in the topic.\n\n*For example, everyone supervising a graduation thesis in my own department is always strongly encouraged to create at least one paper out of that thesis, and while mostly, students are not interested in writing anything themselves and we only present refactored parts of what they created (which ultimately means that their effective contribution warrants co-authorship among the less significant positions), we are always entirely happy and supporting if a student actually wants to become one of the main authors and writes parts of the paper him- or herself.*\n\nLike this, you could benefit from writing together with someone more experienced who can help you create a submission that has a certain chance of being accepted.\n\n(All of the above is under the assumption that your Master thesis topic is somehow related to your PhD research, so both are somewhat compatible with the conference in question.)\n\nFurthermore, I would like to respond to the following statement you make:\n\n> \n> I don't want to miss the conference\n> \n> \n> \n\nThis sounds like your primary objective is to attend the conference. That is a legitimate desire, for reasons such as getting a good overview over the state of the art in your field, getting some first external contacts in your field, or simply for learning how conferences in your field look and feel in general.\n\nYou may want to talk to your supervisor exactly about that wish, as there may be various options:\n\n* If your department's finances allow for that, you might be allowed to attend without presenting anything. At my own department, new doctoral candidates are often allowed to attend one conference in the very beginning of their career even if they do not have any submission, just to learn how conferences work (preferrably, that is a conference that is attended by at least one other member of the department, so they also have someone to \"show them around\").\n* Even though you have nothing \"really concrete for the moment\", if you have started looking into some things, defined something on an abstract level that you are about to try, or have a certain plan, you could think about preparing a minor submission to the conference, e.g. a poster or a workshop paper. On this type of papers, it is often acceptable to present work in progress, as one of the main goals is to discuss and possibly refine an approach or model.\n* If your work is not concrete enough for that, maybe you could participate in a doctoral colloquium, which is an event somewhat similar to a workshop that is frequently integrated into conferences, as well. Such events are sometimes meant for doctoral candidates to present and discuss their ideas and plans for their upcoming research."
}
] |
2015/01/10
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36573",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24694/"
] |
36,578 |
Research articles are often priced at 20-40 USD. I know that typically a researcher's institution subscribes to [myriads of journals](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/29923/452), and that some research articles are accessible online for free either legally or illegally, but I am curious to know some numbers that would help quantify how many / often individuals buy research articles, and how much money journals make from this source of income.
I am not looking for guesses or opinions, but actual numbers.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36586,
"author": "Floris",
"author_id": 15062,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15062",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "I tried digging through the [2013 annual report of Elsevier](http://www.reedelsevier.com/investorcentre/reports%202007/Documents/2013/reed_elsevier_ar_2013.pdf). Under \"Revenue\" (page 111) they list both \"subscriptions\" and \"transactional\" - but the latter include not only reprints, but also books etc.\n\n\n\nAs you can see, even if we lump books and reprints together, it is still less than subscriptions.\n\nTo get a more complete answer you may have to ask them directly."
},
{
"answer_id": 36593,
"author": "Florian D'Souza",
"author_id": 26958,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26958",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "While I can't give actual firm numbers, I know that two (non-academic) consumers of academic articles are law firms and pharmaceutical/life science companies. One of my former classmates worked as a research assistant for a law firm that handles biotech and patent cases, and I recall having a conversation with him where he said they easily spend $20-30,000/year on articles, with the exact amount depending on the cases they see and how much background information they need. These costs are wrapped up in the general legal fees charged. From my own experience, I worked briefly for a life science startup, and we would purchase around $600-1,000 in articles a year (although we tried obtaining articles through academic collaborations as much as possible)."
},
{
"answer_id": 36798,
"author": "Andrew is gone",
"author_id": 27825,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27825",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "Speaking as a librarian, *very* rarely - only if it's urgent and can't be obtained in a useful way through ILL. The cost of journal article purchase is usually three or four times an ILL fee.\n\nMore generally...\n\nI [ran some numbers](http://www.generalist.org.uk/blog/2011/jstor-where-does-your-money-go/) on this for JSTOR in 2011, based on their public filings - it's hard to be sure, but the answers were \"very little\". In 2008, 0.35% of their income came from pay-per-view, and based on the quoted average, this came to something like seven or eight thousand articles/year. \n\nIt later transpired that themselves suggested around twenty thousand a year, but the numbers for this didn't quite add up, as the per-view price would be substantially lower than expected, so either a lot of material was somehow discounted or only the cheapest articles were being purchased. However we sliced the numbers, the easy answer was \"not enough to really be significant\". JSTOR have, to their credit, substantially widened public access since then, so these numbers will probably have dropped further."
},
{
"answer_id": 111474,
"author": "Allure",
"author_id": 84834,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/84834",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "An order of magnitude estimate for the revenue a publisher might get from these direct purchases is \"several thousand dollars per month\". For a publisher as large as Elsevier it might reach the low six figures per month. Given that Elsevier's revenue is in the billions, this is literally a rounding error.\n\nSource: I used to work in academic publishing."
}
] |
2015/01/10
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36578",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/452/"
] |
36,585 |
With a few other professors, I have been working on proving a certain mathematics conjecture. Our solution seems to be working perfectly in computer simulations but we can't find a proof. (..its a very big result if it works!...)
I have been trying pretty much everything I can think of. Nothing is working.
What do you do in such a situation?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36597,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "[*A journey of a thousand li begins with a single step.*](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/a_journey_of_a_thousand_miles_begins_with_a_single_step)\n\nRather than aiming for a big result all in one go, why not break the problem down by aiming at some smaller results that will bridge you towards where you want to go. For example:\n\n* If you restrict to a much more limited range (even to a single scenario!), can you show the result for that special case? You may then be able to generalize bit by bit.\n* Can you identify some property P such that, if property P holds, the overall result will hold? You can then separately try to show that your system has P and that P implies the desired result.\n* Can you break your system into little pieces and take an inductive approach, where you show that if all but one fragment are correct, then the last fragment will be correct too? You can then show that this holds for larger and larger fragments.\n\nComplementarily, if the simulations work but you can't find the proof, it might be the case that the result does *not* hold, but it appears to because your simulations are all coincidentally close to some special case. I have *often* seen this happen to people. So an alternate approach that you can take is to try to break your simulation. For example:\n\n* What happens when you hold all simulation parameters constant except for one, and change that parameter greatly, say across a range of a couple of orders of magnitude?\n* What happens if you radically alter the initial conditions, e.g. making initial conditions extremely homogeneous or heterogeneous in a strongly correlated way?\n\nIf the simulation fails in more extreme conditions then, well, you know why you couldn't find a proof. If it doesn't fail, then you may gain insight into *why* it doesn't."
},
{
"answer_id": 36630,
"author": "DS R",
"author_id": 27610,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27610",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "You should take a small break, say a week, away from this problem. It will help if you engage in some other creative activity during the break. That will help you genuinely take a better perspective."
},
{
"answer_id": 36631,
"author": "Noah Snyder",
"author_id": 25,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/25",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Have more than one project, so that if you get too frustrated you can switch to a different problem and come back to the other one in a few weeks."
}
] |
2015/01/10
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36585",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27646/"
] |
36,589 |
I attained my bachelors degree in computer engineering in January 2014. I was not a prolific programmer as an undergrad, instead focusing on my other coursework and in general completing my degree. I am now paying the price for that. I got a job after graduating that involved writing code, however I had a hard time understanding the programming tasks required. Luckily I had senior coworkers who were very helpful. Despite this I was fired after five months because I was unable to complete my tasks in a timely manner.
Since then I have begun working on my own (basic) projects such as library management and a chat engine.
After a few months I was able to get another programming job. This time I was able to understand the tasks I was assigned, however I still struggled to complete them in a timely manner and my boss was growing quite frustrated with me. I decided to leave the position after two weeks because of this.
I have continued to improve my programming skills since graduation, but I am still very slow at developing my programs and I rely heavily on Google. I suspect that this is because I did very little programming as an undergraduate. I do enjoy programming, and I regret not pursuing it more passionately then.
I have since considered applying to a masters program in computer science in order to improve my programming knowledge. I'm not sure that this is the best route because I believe that most masters programs in computer science are more research oriented. I believe that if I continue my studies and complete all my programming assignments I will be able to do well in industry. I would appreciate any advice on deciding between a MS and an MBA so I can remedy the errors I made in the first two.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36590,
"author": "Alexandros",
"author_id": 10042,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10042",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "Although having done a bachelor in computer engineering without doing any coding at all is highly unusual, learning to code is mainly a self-taught art. Even if you had been fully taught many programming languages during your undergraduate years, they might quickly become obsolete. On a perfect world an undergraduate degree on computer engineering must have given you the necessary theoretical base on databases, programming concepts, data structures and algorithms. Then it takes many / endless hours of coding to learn how to successfully apply those concepts on real-world software applications. So, regardless of doing a MSc or not, you must still code on your own \"free\" time, either on your little self-projects, on learning / self teaching new programming languages or participating on open-source projects and communities like Stack Overflow (SO).\n\nThe fact that you avoided coding on your undergraduate years is a bad sign though. Successful programmers are usually partly (or fully) geeks who enjoy installing / testing a new linux distribution every few months, hack their laptops to automate tasks, participate on SO by coding and solving other people's problem just for fun. Are you sure that coding is what you want to do for the rest of your life? Programming is really a hard and stressful work (as you saw on your first real jobs) and is very hard to enjoy it, if you do not have any real passion for it.\n\nOn answering your core question, most MSc programs I know, are mainly focused on particular aspects of IT science, such as databases, networks, electronic commerce etc and not on teaching programming. If your core motivation is learning how to program, I would suggest to follow (and pay for) some industry certifications (e.g. Oracle for Java and Oracle DB) and their respective structured courses. There is even multiple free educational material for those certifications, so you might even not need to pay for it. Still, to really learn coding you must spend hundreds of hours of actually coding and you should not simply expect to learn programming by studying at yet another course or getting a new degree."
},
{
"answer_id": 36595,
"author": "Lightness Races in Orbit",
"author_id": 12378,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12378",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "I feel like this whole question is a great example of someone taking a Bachelor's course on the assumption that it would open up career doors for them, without ever really considering or understanding how [little] said course related to their chosen career path.\n\nNo degree is going to magically make you a programmer or a software developer, surely not a research degree, and certainly not a *Computer Science* degree. \"Computer Science\" is a misnomer for courses that would be better called \"*Computing* Science\". It's not about developing software.\n\nTaking a Bachelors course in Software Development/Engineering should have given you a great foundation, but it sounds like it may in reality have been more of a Computer Science course (a contradiction that is unfortunately rather common in the undergraduate academic world). Regardless, whether you took a real Engineering course, decide to go and take one *now* or just leave it be entirely, my advice is as follows:\n\n**If you wish to improve your skills, take up more hobby projects and consider contributing an open-source repository.** It sounds like this is going to be a slow road so you should probably get an unrelated job to tide you over for the next few years until you have become a useful programmer."
},
{
"answer_id": 36600,
"author": "Mark Harder",
"author_id": 27662,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27662",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "You need to frame your question more precisely. What caused your productivity problems in your programming assignments? Saying you were \"too slow\" isn't very enlightening. Why were you too slow? Did you make too many mistakes that had to be corrected? Are you sure your slow coding was the main issue? Why do you say so? To answer this question, you would need to consult your more successful workmates. What did they say?\n\nIf you were having problems completing assignments on time, did you seek help or mentoring from coworkers or supervisors? If your employers knew your educational background (and why wouldn't they?), why did they hire you in the first place? If they hired you knowing your weaknesses, did they offer extra help? Jobs are not like academics. Jobs are focused on getting the job done, no matter what. Besides gaining an education, in school your knowledge and capabilities are constantly being evaluated. The job is not about you. For that reason, good managers will help their employees be successful. It's to everybody's benefit.\n\nWithout knowing where you attended college, or where you worked, I can't evaluate your poor understanding of English grammar. If you attended college in an English-speaking country, why don't you know the language better? If you were working on an English-speaking job site, I'd say your inability to communicate effectively was a hindrance. I have to differ a bit with you and one previous commenter about the nature of education. Education should not be confused with training. While a form of education, the latter is quite narrow. It consists of imparting the minimum knowledge and skills to perform some function, programming or nursing for examples. There are broader skills that education in seemingly unrelated topics can teach you. From education in the liberal arts and sciences, you learn how to recognize patterns, how to generalize your observations and frame them in more abstract but general ways so that you can apply them to seemingly unrelated problems. You will learn basic logic and how to use it to critically evaluate data and arguments you encounter in work and life. Writing and speaking exercises will compel you to express your thoughts clearly and logically.\n\nHow well did you perform when you took these courses? What did your teachers say about your performance? If a college level liberal arts education is your foundation, but you lack specialized training in computer science and coding, then pursuing a Master's degree could be a way to acquire that training."
},
{
"answer_id": 36601,
"author": "jamesqf",
"author_id": 27365,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27365",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "Getting a masters COULD improve your programming skills, or not, depending on the work you do, and the use you make of it. There's also a question of exactly what kind of programmer you want to be, because all programmers/programming jobs are not alike. Working on business-oriented software development, perhaps as a member of a large team, is quite a different experience from using programming as a tool in basic/applied research, where you may be one of a few (or the only) real programmer tasked with translating the ideas of non-programmer scientists into code.\n\nI have to agree with others, though, that becoming a reasonably good programmer takes practice. It's a lot like any physical sport: you can study the theory all you want, but unless you actually get out and DO it - and push yourself in the doing - you will never be good at it. That means not just following a recipe (I'm almost tempted to say 'design pattern' :-)) to code something once and turn it in, but taking it apart and learning how & why it works, and perhaps more importantly, why it fails. (Debugging is a highly underrated skill.)\n\nI really think you should have gotten at least a start on this as an undergrad. If your teachers didn't try to force you to, IMHO they shortchanged you."
},
{
"answer_id": 36603,
"author": "sean",
"author_id": 15501,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15501",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "If your goal is only to improve programming skills, then doing an MS is just a waste of time and money. If you find it difficult to learn programming by yourself, you can take a free online programming courses in [Coursera](https://www.coursera.org/) or [Udacity](https://www.udacity.com/). There are plenty of them, for example:\n\n<https://www.coursera.org/course/interactivepython> \n\n<https://www.udacity.com/course/cs046> \n\n<https://www.udacity.com/course/ud036>\n\nNote also that there are many career options for a BSc degree in CS that do not require much programming skills. For example:\n\n* If you don't know how to code, but you know how to test other people's code, you can become a test engineer.\n* If you can talk to customer and convert the discussions into UML diagrams, then you can be a Business Analyst.\n* ..."
},
{
"answer_id": 36604,
"author": "kevinbatchcom",
"author_id": 27670,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27670",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "A masters degree in computer science will not increase your programming knowledge much, if at all. I earned both a bachelor and master degree in computer science. I did some programming for my bachelors degree, but very little for my masters degree. To my surprise, my masters degree was mostly a higher-level and less in-depth presentation of much of the same material covered in my bachelors degree (at completely different universities). (Lesson learned -- If I had to do it again, I would get my masters degree in a different field from my bachelors degree.)\n\nComputer science coursework (for software development) focuses primarily on teaching the fundamental concepts of algorithms, database theory, graphics theory, etc. At the bachelor level, programming exercises are intended to help the student understand the theory and demonstrate a basic understanding. Degree programs do not provide in-depth training for any particular programming language or platform. Instead, they provide the fundamental concepts that are widely applicable in computer science. When I began professional work as a developer, I quickly discovered that my CS coursework left out many topics that were extremely relevant to the platform I was using and the type of development I was doing. There are so many languages and platforms that no CS degree could possibly cover them all. Many professional training books and courses offer in-depth training for specific platforms or types of work. But even those courses will not and can not cover everything you need.\n\nI have worked with some developers who were great people, but only marginally competent at development. A competent developer (or a professional in any field) will have some amount of both **skill** and **talent**. **Skill** is a combination of training and experience. **Talent** is the in-born ability of certain people to intuitively learn concepts or skills in a field, and understand problems/scenarios in their field. For example, I took piano lessons as a child. While both I and my teacher tried hard to improve my skill, I really didn't have much talent. I finally gave up playing the piano when I realized that my lack of talent made skill acquisition very hard, and I would never acquire enough skill to compensate for my lack of talent and play well.\n\nTo put it bluntly, it sounds like you may not have a lot of talent for programming, and are trying to compensate with more skill (education). That may or may not succeed. I am not trying to be unkind, but to encourage you to take a hard look at your own talents. If you are not sure, ask a trusted colleague for their frank assessment. I certainly commend your desire to improve yourself professionally. I would encourage you to consider looking for another type of technical work that may be a better fit for the talents you do have. I have worked with colleagues who couldn't write decent code, but who had great customer service skills, a knack for regulatory intricacies, or an amazing understanding of reporting details. With your drive to improve, there is a position out there that is a good fit for you."
},
{
"answer_id": 36634,
"author": "Fahad Rana",
"author_id": 27698,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27698",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "I am myself an undergraduate student of CS and believe me I have realised very early that programming is whats going to matter. i wont be solving Calculus questions in the office. The situation of yours is different but what my Discrete Mathematics teacher told me, might be of your use. He said that after graduating, do masters and if possible doctorate as it opens up your mind towards your field giving you a much more dynamic and wide point of view of your field. So thumbs up for master's degree."
}
] |
2015/01/10
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36589",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27648/"
] |
36,596 |
Following [the answers to this question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7360/how-common-is-it-to-inadvertently-reinvent-the-wheel-in-academia) that it is quite common to inadvertently reinvent the wheel in theoretical/computational research, have there been cases where the decision to accept a paper to a journal/conference has been revoked on this ground, because someone found out later that the results were not actually original? In such cases, how would one distinguish between oversight and plagiarism?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36598,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "By \"revoked,\" I assume that you mean [retracted](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retraction). I have often heard of papers being retracted for plagiarism, but never for reinventing the wheel. \n\nI believe that the reason is, there are so many different ways to invent wheels, that it is almost always possible to tell if an idea is actually an independent invention. A reinvention will likely use somewhat different terminology, have a different formulation of the problem, use different types of evidence, or whatnot. There will be so many small differences, that it would be clear that the work is original, in the *copyright* sense, and not an academic fraud.\n\nThe fact that is it a reinvention of an idea that was already discovered elsewhere, however, means that it is likely to sink into obscurity once this fact is discovered... except... sometimes, a reinvention is not just a reinvention. Sometimes, the *reason* for a reinvention is that an idea has not reached a community. In that case, the contribution may not be the reinvention, but the *importation* of a mature body of work from elsewhere, in which case even a reinvention of a wheel may constitute a legitimate scientific contribution, in the form of bringing together two strands of research that complement one another and allow vital new progress to occur."
},
{
"answer_id": 36606,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "jakebeal answered most of the question just great, but I would like to comment on this a bit more:\n\n> \n> how would one distinguish between oversight and plagiarism?\n> \n> \n> \n\nI think this is no big issue in practice. Typically, people start talking about plagiarism if and only if the similarities (text-wise, or, in rarer cases, idea-wise) are so substantial that it would be very unlikely for the author(s) to have arrived at their text without knowing the original. When authors honestly have \"just\" re-invented the wheel (as it frankly happens all the time in research), it is very unlikely that the end product would be so similar that they get accused of plagiarism."
},
{
"answer_id": 36653,
"author": "mightypile",
"author_id": 14899,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14899",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "This may differ from computational work, but the concepts overlap, I think. In experimental science, it is traditionally expected that a published contribution is original, to the extent that you often have to sign a document essentially claiming originality upon submission. However, for numerous reasons (nicely explained by Juhm Eoonpibis at <http://dx.doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.0020124>, and cited 2400+ times!) replication of work is valuable in the sciences. We all have biases and make mistakes. And it is literally impossible to control for everything that may affect the outcomes of your experiments. So doing the same thing someone else has already done is actually a really nice validation of the previous work. It can demonstrate that two (or more) investigators have done the same or similar experiments and (hopefully) arrived at the same conclusions.\n\nThe original work will probably remain the exemplar of the phenomenon explained and garner all of the citations. But the \"me too\" experiment will make everyone who comes after more comfortable that the phenomenon is a real thing and not just a statistical fluke because of the weather on the day of the experiment or someone wearing cologne or forgetting to wash their hands."
}
] |
2015/01/11
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36596",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27631/"
] |
36,605 |
I am applying this time for graduate admission in physics at Utah. In the online application they require a financial statement. Does graduate admission require it too, even though I must need a TA/RA?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36609,
"author": "ff524",
"author_id": 11365,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "A financial statement is required by the US for visa eligibility for *all* international students applying for standard student visas. It is not needed for admissions decisions, as stated in the form you've uploaded.\n\nThe purpose of the statement is to show that you will be able to support yourself (and any dependents) while you are in the US. If the university offers funding, you will use that as a source of support on your I-20. If the university funding does not fully meet all your financial requirements, then you will need to show that you can handle the rest of your expenses through other sources.\n\nYou don't need to worry about the I-20 until after you've been admitted. The university will give you more information then, including how to submit the necessary documents and what the official program expenses are for visa purposes."
},
{
"answer_id": 36623,
"author": "user141592",
"author_id": 27327,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27327",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "When I applied, I emailed and asked about the financial statement for the one university that required it (Ohio State), and they told me to upload a document stating basically:\n\nPersonal funds: 0$\n\nFrom university: (Tuition + standard stipend for the given program)$\n\nI suggest emailing them and asking what they prefer you to do."
}
] |
2015/01/11
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36605",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] |
36,613 |
Recently I prepared to submit to a conference of IEEE. In the requirements of submission, it indicated that:
>
> PDF and Postscript files:
>
>
> * must not have Adobe Document Protection or Document Security enabled,
> * must have either 'US Letter' or 'A4' sized pages,
> * must be in first-page-first order, and
> * must have ALL FONTS embedded and subset.
>
>
>
I have searched for the phrase of "first-page-first", but still did not have an idea of it (sorry my first language is not english).
If anyone can tell me what's the meaning of it exactly I would be very grateful.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36618,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": true,
"text": "I am pretty sure this is just a ridiculously dated instruction. On some older printers, the pages were ejected print side up and new pages were added to the top. This means that the first page printed would end up being the bottom page of the document when you picked it up. If you then wanted to staple the document in the correct order, you needed to reorder everything. With these printers it was much more desirable to print \"back-to-front\" such that when you pick up the document from the printer everything is in the \"correct\" order. Some computers provided (and maybe some still do) the option to print \"back-to-front\" to avoid this. Some people conceivably, though I have never seen it, produced documents in a first-page last order to help with the printing. I think this instruction just means that the pages should go in the order you expect them in: the first page of your pdf should be page 1 and the last page *N*. In a first-page-last order the first page would be *N* and the last page 1, which would be really awful to read on screen."
},
{
"answer_id": 36657,
"author": "Justin",
"author_id": 27715,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27715",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "I asked my wife, who is a professional conference manager and organizes IEEE conferences (the last one she did was the S3SConference) and her response was: \"The first page of the submitted PDF must be the first page of the paper\" and the clarification was \"some papers get submitted with several cover sheets embedded in the PDF before you get to the actual content of the technical paper. I have to edit out the cover pages before they are presented to the selection committee which makes my job harder.\"\n\nPurely an anecdotal answer, but that was her opinion based on her work."
}
] |
2015/01/11
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36613",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27581/"
] |
36,616 |
It seems that there is no requirement for professors to serve on even a single dissertation committee. (This is so at least at my US university and I believe is common practice worldwide - please correct me if I'm wrong.)
So why would any of them do it, other than out of the pure goodness of their heart? It seems like purely volunteer work.
(Of course, one can imagine professors being eager to serve on the committee of a John Nusb or a Ludwig Wittgenstein, if only so that their names appear as a footnote somewhere in the history of science, but most of us are not Nusb or Wittgenstein.)
[Personal anecdote: I am asking this question because I've been having some trouble filling my committee. Many professors simply respond that they have no time, are too busy, etc. I am left feeling like a pathetic beggar grovelling for favors, even though I may be paying hefty tuition fees, which presumably helps pay at least a little for their salaries.]
Addendum: I simply wanted to give a little context for my query, but it was perhaps a mistake for me to add the above personal anecdote.
I'd prefer answers to stick simply to the question itself, which to repeat, is quite simply this: "What incentives do professors have to serve on dissertation committees?"
Perhaps we can leave to avenues other than StackExchange the opinion-based debates about whether the current situation is ideal or whether I personally have a moral defect and should change my "client" mentality.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36619,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "I have never heard of a department where staff are required to serve on dissertation committees. In some cases committee members are co-authors on the resulting papers, but this is country and field dependent. Similarly in some cases committee members get \"credit\" during tenure and promotion reviews. As in most things academic, it really is about the \"goodness of our hearts\" (or our selfish desire to be involved in research).\n\nConstructing a thesis committee should really be a joint venture between you and your supervisor. Making sure students have the thesis committee they need/want is one of the core responsibilities of a thesis supervisor. If they are unable to fulfil this duty, then you may want to reconsider your supervisor. If you are having trouble finding a primary supervisor, that is a very different issue."
},
{
"answer_id": 36621,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "In my experience, in the U.S., faculty are expected to serve on such committees now-and-then, but there is no specific rule, no specific compulsion to serve on any particular committee, and no reward for serving on more rather than fewer. In fact, such committees are time-and-energy consuming, to various degrees, so such service is easily viewed as a net loss in material terms.\n\nThat is, yes, it is fundamentally out of a sense of generosity and service, rather than compulsion.\n\nEven for faculty who are generally inclined to agree to serve on such committees, the possibility of declining any particular invitation allows one to avoid situations that have ill portents: no one wants to be on a committee that has to cope with serious problems in a thesis, or serious problems in a student's attitude or capacity.\n\nIn particular, *scheduling* can often be a decisive problem: faculty will not want to cancel classes or meetings with their own PhD students or trips to conferences or vacation-time ... merely to accommodate lack of foresight about scheduling. Peoples' schedules fill up far in advance, and *simultaneous* scheduling of several faculty is a highly non-trivial matter. A lead time of \\_at\\_least\\_ a few months is wise, and also gives a more civil window for genuine feedback and critique of a dissertation, as opposed to the sort of last-minute railroading-through that I have seen far too often.\n\nAnd, given that faculty rightly view such service as volunteer work, if a student approaches them with an attitude that implicitly assumes otherwise (e.g., the \"client\" model), that situation easily falls into the \"ill portent\" case, and is immediately avoided."
},
{
"answer_id": 36629,
"author": "Chris H",
"author_id": 8494,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8494",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "The professors serving on one committee will also have their own students, who they will want to see graduate (even if you assume pure selfishness they want their recrords to look good). Those students will need to be examined as well so in a sense it's *mutual* assistance, but time-deferred. Also good relationships between academics are how a lot gets done: this is a fairly easy way for an academic to build relationships with other (perhaps more senior) professors. So while generosity is important in this sort of thing, it's not quite that simple.\n\nAs an aside, you might like to ponder the effect on such well-established networks and systems of treating academics and their research groups as business units in a corporate entity."
},
{
"answer_id": 36632,
"author": "GEdgar",
"author_id": 4484,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4484",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "At some institutions, promotions and salary increases are based on certain categories like \"research, teaching, and service\". Dissertation committee service might bolster the \"service\" component. But of course one might serve on other types of committees, or do other types of service, either within the university or outside the university. Refusing one particular type of service (such as dissertation committees) won't hurt you, but refusing all types of service just might."
},
{
"answer_id": 36633,
"author": "Herman Toothrot",
"author_id": 4050,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4050",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "How about to learn and be exposed to new concepts and ideas? Or to get a publication or two with little effort and time? It can also foster new collaborations with other faculty in and out the department. It can create stronger ties within the department, but also sometimes conflicts in committee meetings. (There are some funny stories about these...)"
},
{
"answer_id": 36650,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "I am not a faculty member, but a scientist working in industry. Nevertheless, I have served on university dissertation committees a number of times, and I find it quite rewarding for a number of reasons. In particular:\n\n* I am generally scientifically interested in the work that the student is doing, and get to have a hand in ensuring its quality.\n* Good students frequently go on to become new colleagues and collaborators.\n* Serving on a committee strengthens existing collaborative relationships.\n* It is just plain *satisfying* to help mentor an enthusiastic young researcher.\n\nThus, even without the more structured expectations, responsibilities, and quid-pro-quo that comes with a faculty department, I find that there are sufficient reasons to serve on a dissertation committee."
}
] |
2015/01/11
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36616",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] |
36,620 |
Is it possible to determine what percentage of a tenure track/tenured professor's salary is paid for by tuition? At my UK university, our school budget includes income from student fees (we only get a portion of the fees each student pays), grants, and central university funds (presumably some of this is indirectly from student fees). I am curious if a calculation could be made for STEM departments at US R1 type universities. Presumably some of this information may be available for state schools.
I think the answer I am looking for would be something along the lines of the ratio of the total amount of tuition fees (hopefully divided up into undergraduate and graduate fees) given to the department divided by the total costs of teaching (again, ideally divided up into undergraduate and graduate costs). In other words if a department gets $500,000 from tuition fees and the teaching costs are $1,000,000, then 50% of the teaching costs are paid for by tuition. Teaching costs would have to include space charges, IT charges, printing charges, and the cost of staff time. These all seem to be known, well defined, quantities. An exact estimate of the cost of staff time would require going through each member of staff and prorating the salary by the percentage of time allocated for teaching (e.g., 0% for someone who has bought out his teaching and maybe 40% for someone who has not). Presumably, someone in the university/department has access to these numbers.
This is only a guess as to what an answer will include, but if there is a different (more general) way of getting to the answer, that is fine too.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36625,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "I think that you'll never be able to sort this out. Most universities cross-subsidize departments to the point that even individual departments don't know how much of their own faculty lines come from the tuition of students majoring in that subject vs. tuition from other departments' students. Does the English department fully fund itself through the fees students pay for English classes? I doubt it. State funding, though a diminishing portion of most state universities' budgets, picks up some fraction of the costs. \n\nAlso, departments see level funding in the face of modest fluctuations in class enrollments. If 45 students took Calculus I last fall and 52 sign up this fall, the department doesn't see increased revenue for that. The department has a number of faculty lines coming from the dean's office to teach the projected enrollment. If that spikes or drops off substantially such that more instructors are required, then the department has to negotiate more or fewer lines with their dean. \n\nThat being said, I think that most departments negotiate expected breakdowns in effort with the faculty they hire. Of a typical 9 month appointment, a faculty member might be expected to do 35% teaching, 35% service, and 30% research (or whatever), and that might be the expectation regardless of whether the teaching load is a 1-1, 2-1, or 2-2. Where, again, it's entirely unclear whether that 35% teaching is completely funded by tuition or partly funded by tuition, central endowment, and/or a local named chair."
},
{
"answer_id": 36645,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "I agree with Balx's answer, but also want to contribute a few more points:\n\n* In many other European countries, students pay no tuition, and thus there can be no contribution.\n* Faculty in the US can be paid according to either a 9-month or 12-month salary scheme. When they're paid for nine months per year, they are expected to raise their remaining salary through external grants. Then you have to ask the question of *which* salary you're referring to in your calculations.\n* Salary differs widely among faculty members at differing levels of pay.\n* Graduate tuition is often an internal accounting device, as graduate students themselves (and particularly PhD students) are rarely expected to cover their own tuition costs."
},
{
"answer_id": 36652,
"author": "Andreas Blass",
"author_id": 14506,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14506",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "To the best of my knowledge, my university salary is paid out of what the university calls the \"general fund\". That fund includes the money the university gets from tuition, the money it gets from the state (except possibly for state money earmarked for specific projects, like a new building), and I think also the indirect cost funds from research grants (and maybe other income sources too). Once that money is in the general fund, it gets completely mixed together, regardless of source. And I get the same salary, entirely from that fund, whether I'm teaching my normal course load or whether part of my time is devoted to administrative duties, or whether I'm on sabbatical. So, as far as I can tell, the proportion of my salary that comes from tuition is just the proportion of the general fund that comes from tuition; no finer analysis is possible. (Unfortunately, I don't know what proportion of the general fund comes from tuition, but, since the University of Michigan is a public institution, that information is undoubtedly publicly available somewhere.) [Edit: Deleted the sentence about \"25% quite some years ago but not from an authoritative source\". That 25% was for state support, which has probably decreased since then. Tuition is probably a much larger share of the general fund.]"
},
{
"answer_id": 54216,
"author": "sciczar",
"author_id": 40984,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/40984",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "The average annual total compensation of a lecturer at a public baccalaureate US institution in 2014-15 is $76,893 ($54,223 for salary only) according to [higheredjobs.com](https://www.higheredjobs.com/documents/salary/category_affiliation_rank_15.pdf). You can look on the chronicle, glassdoor, etc. for average information about the type of faculty your interested in at your institution. \n\n\"The average published tuition and fee price for in-state students enrolled full time at public four-year colleges and universities is $9,139 in 2014-15\" [collegeboard.org](http://trends.collegeboard.org/college-pricing/figures-tables/average-published-undergraduate-charges-sector-2014-15). I am sure you can find the tuition at the institution you are interested in. A typical full time student takes 15 credits per semester or 30 credits a year.\n\nNow class sizes are all over (typically from 10 to 200 for intro courses), which is what you would want to know if you are talking about your professor that is teaching your class. However, if you are interested in the total amount of faculty including those that do not teach (research faculty or graduate faculty that do not teach undergrad courses) you will want to look at the student-to-faculty ratio (typically 12:1 to 20:1). For this purpose lets suppose you are interested in a course that has enrolled 20 and the faculty member that is teaching that course (or in general all faculty at an institution with a student-to-faculty ratio of 20:1).\n\nNow we have to consider the teaching load of the faculty member of interest. These can range from 1-0 (tenure track at a research institution) to 4-4 (full time teaching faculty) depending on position (see higheredprofessor.com, I can only post 2 links). Let's assume you are talking about the ever increasingly prevalent full time teaching faculty, which would mean 24 credit hours annually ((4+4)X3) for the typical 3 credit hour course.\n\nNow it is simple math: \n\n$9,139 student tuition / 30 credit hours X 20 students / faculty X 24 credit hours/ $76,893 faculty salary = ~2 \n\nThis means that income from student tuition is twice that of what the total compensation to faculty are paid or that half of a tuition dollar goes to pay for the faculty that teach the course. This of course is often much worse, where non-tenure adjunct or part-time faculty are paid less to teach larger classes that may have a lot of students paying higher rates for out-of-state tuition. But to answer the question about salary only, lets look at an instructor's salary at master's institution to teach this load with an average class size of 200 students paying out of state tuition: \n\n$22,958 student tuition / 30 credit hours X 200 students / faculty X 24 credit hours/ $46,878 faculty salary = ~78 \n\nor about 1 cent of a tuition dollar goes to pay for instructor's salary. This is more of the trend of how things are going as tuition and class sizes increase and higher paying tenure track jobs are replaced with low paying benefits ineligible part-time non-tenure instructor jobs."
},
{
"answer_id": 54249,
"author": "D.Salo",
"author_id": 12438,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12438",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "Another wrinkle: different pots of money for different delivery modalities. Where I am, online courses are paid for VERY differently from face-to-face ones. General-fund money pretty much can't be used for online courses, so a much higher percentage of instructor salary for those comes from tuition.\n\nOf course, the mix of online and face-to-face courses for any given instructor varies from semester to semester, so... have fun with that math, I suppose.\n\nYet another wrinkle: grant funding, for instructors who also pursue research grants. Grants don't last forever, but they may \"buy out\" one or more classes for a given instructor for a while (at which point less of their salary is from tuition)."
},
{
"answer_id": 63262,
"author": "Daniel R. Collins",
"author_id": 43544,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/43544",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "While you're not going to get department- or professor-specific breakdowns, there are reports that show proportions for public colleges as a whole. Unfortunately charts in articles below (sourced from GAO and State Higher Education Executive Officers, respectively) for public college funding don't totally synch up (one says 25% funding from tuition, the other 47% in 2012), but all agree that tuition as a percent of total revenue has markedly increased in recent years.\n\n* <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/04/student-tuition-public-colleges-gao_n_6411998.html>\n* <http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/04/21/states-increase-higher-education-spending-rely-on-tuition-in-economic-recovery>"
}
] |
2015/01/11
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36620",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929/"
] |
36,624 |
To give credit where credit is due I strive to make it clear where ideas of others, which I use/refer to in my papers/work, are from. For this I cite and quote and this question is about the correct form to do so. Unfortunately I lack the words to describe the problem and like to give two examples.
1. >
> There is this idea (Person(s) 1984).
>
>
>
2. >
> It has been this idea of Person(s) (1994).
>
>
>
While I know that it is possible to use (1.) form I often also encounter the cases in which I would rather prefer to phrase it in the style of (2.) in which the Person(s) cited appear as an **actual word of the sentence**. Now this is where I am lost what to do with the year of the actual cited paper/book/etc of this Person(s).
The question therefore:
Is it possible/legitimate/"okay" to refer to previous works/others by telling about those people directly inside of a sentence (meaning *appearing as a part of the sentence*)?
additionally:
if yes, how?
if no, reason why not possible/"okay"?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36628,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "Both ways are equally acceptable and used in separate instances. Basically if the author(s) names occur in the sentence type (2) should be used and if the name(s) are not then type (1) should be used. The question is then when the two forms result.\n\nType (1) is a more passive form used when you, for example, are describing general background where the specific reference might not be key. The form is quite common (but not exclusive) to the introduction section. The sense is that the information is more distant from your own study. Version (2) is used when the cited studies are building the story and is closer to your work and thus more important for understanding the details of your study. A good example may be in the discussion where your results are compared with other specific studies. This is just a generalization since both are useful in all parts of a research article."
},
{
"answer_id": 49488,
"author": "WBT",
"author_id": 36320,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36320",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "[Purdue's page about APA in-text citations](https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/03/) indicates that your example 2 is quite acceptable in that style. Your example 1 needs a comma after the authors but otherwise also fits within ADA style rules. \n\nThe decision on which to use depends on the main point you're trying to make. If you're just trying to say the idea is out there or that some fact has been proven, etc. it makes more sense to put the authors' names in the parentheses. \n\nIf you want to distance yourself a bit from those conclusions, or if you're about to contrast what Person(s) found with what Other(s), possibly including you, found, or if you want to emphasize the person as a part of that idea/discovery, it makes more sense to put the author outside of the parentheses."
}
] |
2015/01/11
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36624",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24376/"
] |
36,636 |
I am currently an undergraduate thinking about doing a Bachelor's thesis (and publish one or two papers if at all possible). I have found an advisor in computer science (artificial intelligence). I have begun to review literature suggested by my advisor. Most of the times I can understand the general idea of a paper (and why it is novel or important). However, very often I can't understand all details of it. Sometimes it is the lengthy math proof that I can't follow and sometimes it is the algorithm description that lacks too many details for me to code it up by myself.
So is it necessary or recommended for me to figure out everything in a paper? I can certainly ask for advisor all questions I have about a paper but I do not feel good about it. I think it is a kind of wasting his time to go through all mathematical details that support a major claim which I have already understood. Also I want whether this aspect of literature review is different if I am an undergraduate vs. PhD student vs. professional researchers.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36646,
"author": "seteropere",
"author_id": 532,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/532",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "*This depends on how the paper is related to your problem.* Since this is a Bachelor thesis or project I would assume it has a specific problem and doable in couple of months (maybe over one semester or so) and the results hopefully would be published in one research paper. For example, a learning algorithm for structure X. Usually, the number of directly related papers to your problem is very small compared to the number of related papers. So all you need to do is to try understand (in this case the algorithmic part) of one or two directly related papers. You know you understand them if you explained their similarities/differences and write their algorithms in your own way. \n\nIf, on the other side, your problem includes proving something then you need to look for how the paper proves something. Advisors are there to help you when you stuck. Moreover, many papers can be understood if we read about their techniques/terms from other sources. For example, a constrained learning algorithm cannot be understood without knowing what is constraint satisfaction/optimization. \n\nI always find it useful to start writing the content of my research paper (at least the section names) before having the results. If my paper is going to be a mathy one then I need to understand the mathematical stuff out there. If not, I would skip long mathematical proofs. \n\n*In short: i) start writing the content of your paper ii) you will see the gaps iii) read the papers content that would fill the gaps.*"
},
{
"answer_id": 36648,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "I would posit that there are three general levels of depth to which you need to understand a paper:\n\n1. **Understanding context:** For anything related to the work that you are doing, you need to be able to understand it well enough to explain how it relates to your work, and why it should or should not be directly compared. This is the \"general idea\" level that you describe.\n2. **Direct comparison with other work:** For work that is closely related to your own work, you will likely need to be able to make a direct comparison, possibly even by running instances of the other work on the same problems. Here, you need to understand at least well enough to correctly apply the other work and to make a cogent comparison of the relevant qualitative and quantitative attributes. You'll probably need to understand most of the paper for this, but not necessarily all. For example, you might not need to understand the proof of an algorithm's correctness, but would need to understand its uses and performance characteristics.\n3. **Building on top of other work:** For work that you are actually making use of in developing your own work, e.g., by using it as a component or by extending a prior technique, you need to understand it very thoroughly indeed. This is the level at which you really do need to understand everything in the paper."
}
] |
2015/01/11
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36636",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27699/"
] |
36,640 |
I am trying to write an introduction for a scientific paper. I am not sure, when I am announcing my subject, should I write that this is the subject, or just mention it without announcing it outright?
This is very confusing so here's an example.
a. *Man was always interested by aliens. This paper discusses the possibility of alien life.*
b.*Man was always interested by aliens. Currently, scientific discoveries are shedding light on whether it exists.*
Which phrasing is better? Is the first one too blunt?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36641,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "The purpose of the introduction is to focus in on the specific, and likely more narrow, topic of your research from a larger perspective. the \"larger perspective\" is the larger scientific problem to which your study is tied. Therefore you can start the introduction by briefly explaining the larger perspective followed by identifying the existing gaps in knowledge and gradually work towards your own question. \n\nMany books on scientific writing compare the introduction to a funnel where the wider question is focused to the appropriate width of your research question. the main point is to set your study in a wider perspective so that you can tie your results into the gaps of the larger perspective. This helps readers to get a good perspective of your research and evaluate the results *vis-à-vis* existing knowledge.\n\nHence, your scenarios *a* and *b* look like a way to describe the writing strategy where in reality the two or three sentences usually requires one or a few paragraphs of text."
},
{
"answer_id": 36642,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "You want to \"capture\" your audience when writing—that is, you want to make sure that you hold their attention as long as possible. Getting their attention by telling them what the purpose of your paper is, and what they're going to learn, is a good way to do so.\n\nWhile the \"funnel\" approach that Pedez mentions [in his answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/36641/53) is valuable (and is also discussed in general books on writing as well, such as Sheridan Baker's [*The Practical Stylist*](http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0321333497), where it is called the \"keyhole approach\"), the \"key\" to the introductory paragraph is its conclusion—this should be the generating point both for the introduction and everything else that follows."
},
{
"answer_id": 36644,
"author": "Vector Lightning",
"author_id": 24195,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24195",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "The best model for an essay is \"get attention and state idea, explain explain explain, restate idea.\" However, every essay is different and there are countless strategies. \n\nThe best idea is to start the essay with something that captures attention and at least hints at the topic. Then at the end of the first paragraph state your claim. You want to snag the attention of the reader, and tell them the thesis statement. Keep the \"hook\" relevant though. A good idea is to start with a shocking fact or tell a quick story, unless its a scientific essay.\n\nThe middle is for explaining everything, and maybe a good idea is to use a paragraph to discuss the stuff from the hook paragraph. Then the end is pretty much an inverse of the first one: Restate your claim and tie up loose ends."
},
{
"answer_id": 36655,
"author": "Jeromy Anglim",
"author_id": 62,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/62",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Coming from a **psychology perspective**, I have seen eminent authors adopt both writing approaches.\n\nIntroductions to journal articles should generally have an opening. The opening of an introduction should generally introduce the **aim** of the research, the **importance** of the research, the **gap** in the literature that is addressed, and the **method** adopted to achieve the aim. Of course, often these themes are only touched on in the opening, and emerge more completely through the course of the literature review and are also often consolidated at the end of the introduction in a section often titled \"the current study\".\n\nYour question pertains to how to structure the sentences or paragraphs of the opening. The more common model I have seen used is to have a motivating introductory paragraph that relates more to importance or gap and then have a second or third paragraph that culminates in the aim of the research. However, it's also possible to do it the other way around and have a very clear opening paragraph that states exactly what the study aims to do. And then have a second paragraph that touches more on importance, gap, and context. \n\nI have found article deconstruction to be a useful tool to develop ideas about writing structure. In particular I wrote up an article deconstruction of an introduction that used the [\"aim-first\" approach here where the first-sentence started with \"The purpose of this study was ...\"](http://jeromyanglim.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/writing-principles-for-concise.html) . I also have [more detailed notes about introductions](http://jeromyanglim.blogspot.com.au/2009/12/how-to-write-introduction-section-in.html) - see particularly the discussion of the opening."
}
] |
2015/01/11
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36640",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27688/"
] |
36,654 |
I am currently enrolled in a distance masters's course in my country as a backup. I will be only applying to some really very competitive schools. If I don't make it through those schools I will apply next year or year after that and continue to do so till I make it in. I am very very passionate about these schools and the research going on in there.
Class for this distance course will begin by the end of this month and I will quit as soon as I get an admit in any school of my choice. Should I mention joining the course in my application forms?
Some of these schools want me to upload transcripts of any course I have attended after school. Considering the fact that the course has not yet begun there is no way I could get a transcript from them.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36672,
"author": "Kimball",
"author_id": 19607,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19607",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "Your grammar's a little strange, but as I understood your question: (1) you haven't taken any classes in said program, and (2) you don't plan to if you get into another program. In this case, no, there's no need to and I can't see how it would help at all. If you do plan to take at least 1 class even if you get into the program you're applying to (so you would have extra experience currently not documented before your desired program starts), then you can mention this in a cover letter or other appropriate place on the application."
},
{
"answer_id": 36673,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": true,
"text": "The basic rule of thumb is this: if you're actively involved in something *at the time of application*, then you should mention it. If you're *tentatively* enrolled (for example, you've been offered admission, but have not yet officially registered), then it doesn't actually count, and you need not mention it."
}
] |
2015/01/12
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36654",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15418/"
] |
36,659 |
How should I fill this information if I have more than one given name and more than one last name?
For example, if my name is Zuen Eduacma González Rodríguez. I have 2 given names: "Zuen" and "Eduacma", and I have 2 last names (The first one of my father and the second one of my mother because that how it is done in Mexico): "González" and "Rodríguez".
Should I only write:
>
> First name: Zuen
>
>
> Last name: González
>
>
>
or should it be
>
> First name: Zuen Eduacma
>
>
> Last name: González Rodríguez (or González-Rodríguez)
>
>
>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36662,
"author": "ff524",
"author_id": 11365,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "The solution that involves the least hassle in most cases is to fill out the form so that it matches your name on your identity documents (e.g. passport).\n\nThis avoids problems (annoyances, mainly) that can arise as a result of having \"different\" names in different systems."
},
{
"answer_id": 36664,
"author": "Miguel",
"author_id": 14695,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14695",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "I am in your exact same situation: Spanish name with 2+2. I have lived abroad for 6 years now, most of it in Ireland.\n\nThere is no way out of misunderstandings, I'm afraid, and your second last name will often be assumed to be your only family name.\n\nHere is a recipe that has worked out for me so far:\n\n* For a non legally-critical situation, e.g. your name on a paper or a name tag at a conference, use your first last name only or hyphen both last names. You can then initialize your second (or even first) given names. People from English-speaking countries often have a middle name, so that's not a problem.\n* For legal and official stuff, use your full name as per your identity document so it cannot be used against you. If they get it flipped over it's their fault."
},
{
"answer_id": 36665,
"author": "J.R.",
"author_id": 780,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/780",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "I would say it partly depends on how you want be known at the school where you are applying. Fill it out the first way, and you'll be known as Jiin Gopmáxez at that school. That's how your name will likely be printed on class rosters, and that's what professors will see when you've registered for their class. If you'd rather be known as Juan Eduardo, it'll be a constant uphill battle explaining that to your instructors each semester. \n\nHowever, if you put Juan Eduardo as your first name, most professors will see that in the first name field, and they'll be more likely call you Juan Eduardo on the first day of class. \n\nAs for your last name, hyphenated last names are not uncommon in the U.S. Therefore, if you are applying to a U.S. school, it might be worth hyphenating the last name – but not if you feel like you are compromising your own identity to do so. If you feel like your last name is González Rodríguez (no hyphen), then list it that way. People might get confused initially, but they will adapt. Moreover, if they've never seen a 2+2 name before, some might even be thankful to learn something new.\n\nPart of this is a tradeoff between how much you want to retain your name as it is, and how much you want to fit your name into a culture that is more accustomed to First MI Last.\n\nAs a footnote, perhaps a university registrar will read this question, and begin to wonder if they should tinker with their institution's online application form, to be more accomodating to people from other cultures."
},
{
"answer_id": 36674,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "I know a number of people who deal with similar situations, and the last name will never cease to given you bureaucratic headaches in English-speaking countries, because no matter what you do, other people will sometimes enter it incorrectly into databases in a variety of different and unusual failure modes.\n\nMost major institutions, however, will be capable of understanding the variety of names in the world, and yours is a fairly common case. As such, for a government form, put down your name exactly as it is structured on your passport. For any other form:\n\n* For the first name, put whatever you want people to actually call you. In America, two first names is actually not uncommon: in addition to the Hispanic population, it's an long-standing Southern tradition.\n* For the last name, put both names, or else you *will* confuse people.\n* In both cases, you can add a hyphen if you want to reduce confusion by making it clear which name-components go together. It won't stop the corporate screw-ups, though, so don't feel you have to compromise your heritage this way unless you want to."
},
{
"answer_id": 36702,
"author": "Ian W",
"author_id": 27760,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27760",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "I'm pretty sure this will get voted down as \"Not answering the question\", but the truth is we can not tell you what's right. \n\nWhat kind of form is it? Does it have a legal status (ie: passport, Driver's license, academic transcript); something someone will ask, \"How do I know this is really you, because the names do not match?\", which may have consequences. I could share stories where people are at risk of losing government benefits or even their job because the legal names provided (exp. Asian legal + English common names) did not match originating documents. It has caused untold stress and countless hours of effort and expense to correct. One poor soul entered into a form his given name and in the \"preferred name\" box entered \"Same\". You can guess what they called him.\n\nThe best advise it to ask the provider of the form. You may also want to read for your amusement and share with them for their information the following:\n\n[Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names](http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/) \nto help them improve their data systems."
},
{
"answer_id": 36703,
"author": "orbatos",
"author_id": 27761,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27761",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "Anyone who believes this problem to be solved, or is building a system and wants to work with the issue should read this: [Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names](http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/)\n\nEssentially you will have to decide based on what you are doing and the longevity of your information in the system how to approach the problem. In most European and American systems this means your last name will be hyphenated, or you can choose one.\n\nThe first name will need to be one word as well unless you wish to deal with endless issues with clerks incorrectly entering the information.\n\nIn short, come up with a compromise you can live with that will cause the least amount of problems, or there will be constant issues with every entity you run across. This is especially important in academic publications, as you will need to reference them consistently later."
},
{
"answer_id": 61362,
"author": "Daniel R. Collins",
"author_id": 43544,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/43544",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "It may depend on the forms and systems in use at the particular institution you're working with. Taking my university as an example (U.S., large urban community college), our systems work fine with your full name, i.e., option #2. The class rosters I receive routinely have two names per field (i.e., have a space in them; but not any accents or diacritical marks). \n\nIf you're filling out a form that has separate fields for first & last, then I would print your full name as given in those fields. If there's only one field for \"name\", then I would insert hyphens to reduce confusion about which parts go together."
},
{
"answer_id": 88430,
"author": "gnclmorais",
"author_id": 72520,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/72520",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "As a Portuguese person with four names, living in the UK for a few years now, I’ve found that putting my first 2 names as First Names and my last 2 names as Last Names works virtually everywhere.\n\nI got to this conclusion after having a British Airways staff person telling me the system couldn’t find my tickets automatically because I had filled them in with 1 first name, 1 middle name, and 2 last names."
}
] |
2015/01/12
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36659",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27242/"
] |
36,667 |
I'm in the process of conducting a systematic literature review and an integral part of this is the definition of inclusion and exclusion criteria for filtering the search-result-publications.
A common criteria for these reviews is that the publication is an academic publication or otherwise academically acceptable. I haven't been able to find a proper definition for this. The ones that I can think of are that the publication fora must exercise peer-review on the papers and that the fora are widely accepted by (inter)national funding agencies.
Hence, my question is what makes a publication or a publishing forum academically acceptable?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36669,
"author": "Arno",
"author_id": 12047,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12047",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "I am afraid this is an impossible question to get right: An \"acceptable academic publishing forum\" would be one that is accepted by \"acceptable academics\" - and \"acceptable academics\" would be identified by publishing in \"acceptable academic publishing fora\"...\n\nPeer-reviewed is not a bad criterion, but it falls short: There are peer-reviewed journals for creationists and homeopaths - so the value of peer-review depends crucially on who the peers are. It doesn't even work as a necessary criterion, as missing the arXiv for math-y fields or books for humanities would mean that a literature review is very incomplete.\n\n\"Acceptance by funding bodies\" gets the question backwards: Funding bodies try to approximate what the academic community considers good publication venues, they don't define it.\n\nIf formal inclusion/exclusion criteria are important for you (maybe because you do some meta-statistics?), you will need to look for field-specific standards. In medical subjects, I could imagine that \"listed on pubmed\" would be an acceptable one. In this case, looking are published meta-studies and their criteria would be useful."
},
{
"answer_id": 36675,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "Acceptability is in the eye of the beholder. You cannot get this \"right\" for two reasons:\n\n1. Different scientific communities have conflicting opinions about about the credibility of various publication venues.\n2. Even \"good\" venues publish rubbish papers.\n3. Some important papers are published as white papers or technical reports, and will not appear on any list of journals.\n\nTo my eyes, the real question is not about what the \"right\" value is, but about how the boundary that you draw will affect the conclusions of your systematic review. \n\nFor example, if you are attempting to perform a meta-analysis on the data within other data sets, then you just need a wide enough scope to be sure to get good statistical validity. Therefore, if your topic is well-studied, you can probably restrict yourself to only those publications listed in some field-appropriate major database, e.g., PubMed for biomedical literature, DBLP for computer science. It doesn't really matter which one, because you're not actually going for comprehensiveness, just for sufficient sampling, and it's more important to get well-curated data than all data. Moreover, the bad publications in the dataset are expected to be drowned out be the good ones in your data processing.\n\nOn the other hand, if you are attempting to summarize all of the credible thinking regarding a topic, then you would want to set a much broader criteria, e.g., any journal or conference with at least 5 years of publication history and not on [Beale's list](http://scholarlyoa.com/publishers/). In this case, you can be so generous because you are going to be using a lot more personal discretion in deciding how much weight to give each paper and interesting thinking may turn up in obscure places.\n\nThese are the two main cases that I typically see for systematic review; for other cases, you may need to adjust or pick other strategies. In all cases, however, the guiding principle is a) there is no \"right\" answer, and b) your choice should be driven by the effects it will have on your review."
}
] |
2015/01/12
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36667",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27732/"
] |
36,668 |
What are the intention of the question ?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36671,
"author": "Stephan Kolassa",
"author_id": 4140,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4140",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "US state universities frequently charge lower tuition to in-state residents. The form states that if you do not fill in all the information requested, you will be classified as a non-resident and be charged the higher rate. Check the U of Utah's tuition system [here](http://admissions.utah.edu/cost/)."
},
{
"answer_id": 36684,
"author": "NeutronStar",
"author_id": 8975,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8975",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "As an alum of the school it appears you are applying to (University of Utah) I can confirm what Scuchav Kohahso said about lower tuition for in-state residents. One thing that should be mentioned is that after attending a specific university for a while *you may qualify as a resident of that state* and thus, after attending a university for a certain amount of time, you can eventually become a resident and be charged in-state resident tuition. I don't know how this works for international students though."
}
] |
2015/01/12
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36668",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] |
36,677 |
In my past experiences, I have almost never typeset my manuscripts according to the formats required by the journals to which I would like to submit. I leave my manuscripts as produced by the LaTeX article documentclass.
Recently I am wondering: Would such a behavior generally give handling editors a negative first impression?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36678,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "I think there's a balance to be struck here. Some reviewers will be annoyed if there's no room on a printed version to scribble their notes about the paper. This means that typical IEEE/ACM two-column, single-spaced formatting might annoy some people. The argument from them pretty weak if your formatting conforms to the journal style rather than being some tight format that you made up. \n\nOn the other hand, using the journal style generally gives you a reasonably readable presentation designed, more or less, that way. It was probably also designed in the age of print to get the most words on the page, so it's not perfect.\n\nThe worst thing you can do from a reviewer's perspective is to come up with your own formatting that looks slapdash, unprofessional, sloppy, or is hard to read. Almost no matter what you do, someone will be grumpy, but if you use the journal template, you'll engender the least complaints."
},
{
"answer_id": 36679,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "Speaking as both an editor and reviewer, I am definitely prejudiced against a paper that fails to follow prescribed *submission* formatting (which may or may not relate to the final published format). It is simply a matter of professionalism and prior correlation.\n\nAs an editor and reviewer, you see a wide range of material submitted. Some is really good, and some is really bad. I've even gotten a few that were outright insane. The vast majority of the papers that failed to follow prescribed formatting were definitely not good.\n\nMaking a good-faith effort to follow formatting requirements generally isn't hard to do, and especially when doing so just means using the journal's LaTeX package rather than the default. Neglecting it means that the author is being sloppy and unprofessional at something easy. This doesn't necessarily impugn their science, but if they don't care enough to follow professional standards on something easy, it's a good indicator that they are likely to be unprofessional in other places where it matters more as well.\n\nOne exception: I am likely to give a pass to particularly aged/emeritus types who have a solid track record but are clearly not comfortable with modern word processing technology."
},
{
"answer_id": 36680,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "Not surprisingly, the best way is to follow the instructions. But, if you for some reason do not then keeping a manuscript very simple is the best second approach. Simple, generic, typography, 1.5-2 line spacing, figures and tables separate from the text works in most cases. As an editor and reviewer I find evidence of special formatting most annoying. It distracts the reading and is also completely unnecessary since the journal will likely reformat the article during type-setting.\n\nThere are some aspects where you should try to put some effort in: try to make sure you adhere to the journal's standard fro referencing and make sure your reference format is correct. It is really annoying when references are not complete or the reference list is haphazardly put together. The key is in the details so make sure you get the details correct. You do not want the editor or reviewers to get annoyed by inconsistencies in details, make sure they can read a well prepared manuscript with little effort and disturbing elements.\n\nSo, if you cannot follow the exact instructions, just keep it very simple and avoid inconsistencies."
},
{
"answer_id": 36696,
"author": "Anonymous",
"author_id": 11565,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11565",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "I'll venture a minority opinion (I'm in mathematics, where the culture is very possibly different than in other fields).\n\nAs a referee, I have an instinctive *negative* reaction if I know that an author *has* taken the time and effort to conform to a particular journal's style. The grounds for this is that most journals employ typesetting staff for this purpose. Especially considering the very high price of many (if not all) journals, for authors to refuse to do this suggests to me a principled refusal to waste their time.\n\nThat said, I can see that many people hold the exact opposite opinion, and even that my own feelings may be a little bit silly. So I certainly don't actually hold this against authors when evaluating submissions. (Indeed, if I receive something formatted, I never know if it is the author or the editorial staff that has formatted it.)\n\nMy impression is that most (but maybe not all) mathematicians wouldn't hold it against you if you don't bother. Moreover I believe that most mathematicians in fact don't bother with such formatting guidelines.\n\nI have never heard anyone voice @jakebeal's opinion before. Of course, counting the upvotes, he speaks for at least eight other people! You might take this as evidence that the answer to your question is dependent on what your field is."
},
{
"answer_id": 36717,
"author": "GEdgar",
"author_id": 4484,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4484",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "What reason might there be for not using the journal's format? Here is the one I have heard of. \n\nIf your papers are always accepted by the first journal you send them to, then you might as well format them for the journal. (But it probably means you are aiming too low!) \n\nOn the other hand: if you sometimes have a paper rejected by one journal, then send to another (and another, and another...), why should you have to change the formatting for each one? In cases like this, the author would prefer to do the formatting once, for the accepting journal. Sensible journals would allow this."
},
{
"answer_id": 36779,
"author": "sevensevens",
"author_id": 14754,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14754",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "If you are writing your paper in LaTeX, then you should use the LaTeX template provided by the journal (I have yet to submit to a journal that does not provide a LaTeX template). This will take you a few extra minutes.\n\nThe LaTeX output is what both the editor and the reviewers will see. Why would you not want to ensure this looks professional? Are you submitting to so many conferences you do not have an extra 20 or 30 minutes to polish your submission?\n\nI don't check for adherence to journal standards during reviews, but I've gotten several papers where the author(s) didn't see what the LaTeX file would look like in PDF form. These papers almost always have other issues, and reading through a poorly formatted PDF discourages me from giving the paper the extra attention it might need."
},
{
"answer_id": 36904,
"author": "Corvus",
"author_id": 27900,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27900",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "Sadly, many journal submission guidelines still request an archaic format in which the figures are all placed at the end of the manuscript. Often the figure captions are themselves separated from the figures. This may have made sense in the days of hard copy submissions, but is pointless -- especially at the review stage -- given current technology.\n\nAs a reviewer I find this format intensely annoying and it is possible that my review quality suffers as well; I sometimes read through several figure references before flipping back to look at several figures at once. My personal opinion is that authors' highest priority should be to submit their work in a format that minimizes effort on the part of the referees, and if this conflicts with house style requirements, the author has every reason to ignore those requirements. \n\nThis is not to promise that every journal will tolerate such a decision on the authors' part, but I have never seen a harsher consequence than a relatively polite request to reformat."
},
{
"answer_id": 36918,
"author": "Federico Poloni",
"author_id": 958,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/958",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "**Beware of what the journal styles put into your paper**. For instance, Elsevier's style file [`elsart`](http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/elsarticle) (recommended for instance by [this journal](http://www.elsevier.com/journals/linear-algebra-and-its-applications/0024-3795/guide-for-authors#23000) in my field) contains a footer with the words \"preprint submitted to Elsevier\". If I haven't submitted it yet, I don't want to write a **false statement** on an e-print on arXiv. The recommended style file for [this other journal](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/%28ISSN%291099-1506/homepage/la_tex_class_file.htm) in the same field inserts the text \"Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.\" on the manuscript, which is **outright false** and borderline criminal in my view.\n\nSo **you'd better not use documents created with these classes for anything beyond journal submissions** (e.g., preprints, which at least in maths are basically a necessary step, or sending manuscripts to a colleague). This means that if you use them you *need* to prepare at least a second version. \n\nMy experience is that changing LaTeX format can be time-consuming, due to various package incompatibilities. So I have started submitting papers using the style which I am already using for the preprint (and for my internal notes --- I typically start to write down a manuscript much before deciding to which journal I am sending it). **No one has ever complained** (editor, referees...). More recently, **Elsevier explicitly authorized this practice** on many journals by launching an initiative called [Your paper Your way](http://www.elsevier.com/yourpaperyourway).\n\nSo my suggestion is **just forget about journal styles** unless someone insists on them."
}
] |
2015/01/12
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36677",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/18107/"
] |
36,685 |
In our research institute, advisors give phd students a lot of freedom and sometimes are not so much involved in the research. This was also the case for my latest research project. I gave him some demos every now and then to show my progress and another phd student helped me out a bit with making some examples and nice figures. However, I came up with the initial idea and step by step made the necessary decissions to come to the point where we are now. We are now in a phase where my advisor and the university want to patent my research and we are discussing all the possibilities with people from the legal departement. However, in all documents the other phd student + my advisor are also mentioned as "inventors". Wheras I'm quite sure that according to the laws related to being an inventor on a patent, they are officially not an inventor of this research project. The research that I did is quite applied so there is some chance that we can make some money with it in the future (selling it or starting a company). The university states that the inventors get 30% of all the profit that comes from the patent. This means that I would only get 10% since we are with 3 co-inventers. Also when I would start a company that does something with these results I would still have to give them some of the profit whereas they did not do something significant in the end.
When I look at researchers at other universities, I notice that it is quite common that all the authors on a paper are also the inventors of the patent that is associated with it. I can imagine that for most of these cases all the people involved at some innovative contribution which makes them a legitimate inventor. On the other hand it is also quite hard to say to your advisor that they should not be an inventor on the patent...
Is this an unspoken rule at many universities that advisors and co-workers are also inventors on a patent (similar to authors on a paper)? Is someone having experience a similar situation? How should I bring this up to my advisor and co-worker or would it bring me into more trouble when I would start this discussion?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36687,
"author": "Alexandros",
"author_id": 10042,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10042",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "The fact that \"all the authors on a paper are also the inventors of the patent that is associated with it\" probably protects you more, otherwise an unethical supervisor could easily do the patent by himself behind your back. \n\nOn the other hand, wanting to remove the other co-authors from the patent is probably unethical on your side. In any case, you would have a hard case proving that this was entirely your idea when you have co-authored the related paper and cooperated on this project from the beginning. Also, if indeed your patent is that good (which unfortunately most aren't) you will still make a lot of money, regardless of 10% vs 30% (since the bulk of the money will still go to the university)."
},
{
"answer_id": 36700,
"author": "cbeleites unhappy with SX",
"author_id": 725,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/725",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "First of all, your legislation is what counts. Patent law differs substantially between legislations. The remainder of my answer is based on the situation in **Germany** - but similar rules may exist for your legislation.\n\n> \n> Is this an unspoken rule at many universities that advisors and co-workers are also inventors on a patent\n> \n> \n> \n\nIANAL, and I'm not even totally sure about the situation in Germany, but I'd look for spelled out rules in\n\n* the \"employee invention law\" (Arbeitnehmererfindungsgesetz)\n* if you are employee as well as PhD student: your work contract or the relevant collective wage agreement\n* you may have signed a contract for your PhD that has relevant clauses, e.g. stating that any invention you invent is treated as \"academic invention\" regardless of whether you are also employee of the university or not.\n* If you are PhD student but not employee (e.g. paid by a scholarship), things may be totally different.\n* If you are in a research institute which is not part of a university, rules again can be different (industrial invention rules instead of academic invention could apply)\n\nI found a web site dedicated to [\"inventor's compensation\" (in German and for Germany)](http://erfinderverguetung.org/verguetungsberechnung/). \nThey explain rules to estimate how much the invention the inventor's own invention and how much the company contributed (influenced e.g. by whether you used the university lab + instruments, and by your profession: how much of an inventor you are expected to be due to your profession and job). \n\nThis website explains that for you as well as for your (supposed) co-inventors, a point value (according more or less to a check list plus some common sense) should be calculated, and the percentages of co-inventorship are then calculated as percentages of the sum of all co-inventors' point values."
}
] |
2015/01/12
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36685",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27749/"
] |
36,707 |
I am preparing to give a presentation after few days. Some papers are authored by two people and some are by three. While referring their work during presentation what should I write for two authors.
Suppose there are two authors only - X and Y. Shall I write ***X et al. proved that*** ...... or ***X and Y proved that....***
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36708,
"author": "ff524",
"author_id": 11365,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "This was addressed on English.SE, [Is \"et al.\" acceptable for citations with exactly two authors?](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/23442/is-et-al-acceptable-for-citations-with-exactly-two-authors)\n\nThe answers there indicate that major citation styles (MLA, Harvard) do *not* use \"et al.\" when there are only two authors.\n\nAPA style [also](http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2011/11/the-proper-use-of-et-al-in-apa-style.html) does not use \"et al.\" for only two authors.\n\nI'm not going to exhaustively check every citation style, but I'm not personally aware of any where \"et al.\" is acceptable when citing a publication with only two authors.\n\nAlso of interest to those who happen to like grammar: the [English.SE answer](https://english.stackexchange.com/a/23444) also points out that using \"et al.\" for two authors can be considered incorrect, regardless of style considerations (text in brackets is added by me):\n\n> \n> The Latinate abbreviation \"et al.\" is short for \"et alii,\" which means, \"and others,\" and always refers to people, not objects. So if you had two authors, adding \"et al.\" would indicate that there were [plural] other authors - and since there are no[t multiple] other authors in this case, it is incorrect to use it.\n> \n> \n> \n\nWhile \"et al.\" could also technically stand for the singular \"et alia\" which would be technically correct, that's certainly not a conventional abbreviation."
},
{
"answer_id": 36709,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "While in publications, you should follow whatever the official style is, in presentations you are typically much less constrained. \n\nMy own guiding principle for slides is to minimize the amount of visual clutter on screen, and especially to minimize text---after all, I want people to be listening to the talk, rather than simply reading the slides. What's important to communicate is:\n\n* This material belongs to a particular publication (either yours or somebody else's)\n* A sufficiently unique identifies that somebody can find it in an associated bibliography.\n\nI go for a fairly sparse slide format, so I tend to communicate references in the tersest way possible on the slides, using [X & Y, YEAR] for 2 authors and [X et al., YEAR] for 3+, and then saying the citation more fully as I talk, e.g., \"X, Y, and Z's paper last year in Annals of Randomology.\" In presentations, however, there is much space for personal style and expression. At the other extreme, I have also seen people include entire full citations on slides, complete with page numbers and DOI. What is important is to give credit while you can experiment with what best suits your own sense of design and the balance between communication and completeness."
},
{
"answer_id": 36731,
"author": "Oswald Veblen",
"author_id": 16122,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16122",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "Follow the requirements of the journal, if they are firm. But let me argue why you should include all the authors, if possible, in many circumstances, even if there are three or four (or more). In particular, I come from a mathematics background, but this applies to many fields. \n\nWhen you cite a paper as \"X *et al.*,\", the other author names are invisible. If the paper is good, and gets cited often in this way, people may begin to know it as the \"X *et al.*\" paper - thus obscuring the contributions of the other authors. Thus X gets, in effect, sole credit in the text, and the other authors are relegated to the references section. The same holds at presentations.\n\nReputation is particularly important for many authors - especially younger ones, but even well established ones. It helps build their reputation for quality work, which in turn is related to jobs, grants, editorships, etc. The authors whose names are obscured may miss out on recognition that they actually deserve, solely so that an author can save a few characters in an electronic document. \n\nThis is particularly relevant in fields where authorships are alphabetical by default, such as mathematics. In this case, the first author only had the luck to have a name that comes earlier in the alphabet. \n\nThere have been studies where the effect of having an early-in-the-alphabet name have been investigated. Two of them are:\n\n* [What’s in a Surname? The Effects of\nSurname Initials on Academic Success](http://web.stanford.edu/~leinav/pubs/JEP2006.pdf)\nLiran Einav and Leeat Yariv\n* [Alphabetization and the Skewing of First Authorship Towards\nLast Names Early in the Alphabet](http://www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/~cm1993/papers/Alphabetical_preprint.pdf) by Jonathan M. Levitta and Mike Thelwall\n\nThe essay [\"Et al.\" is unethical](http://sbseminar.wordpress.com/2010/02/21/et-al-is-unethical/) by Niil Snmder was influential in my thinking about this issue."
}
] |
2015/01/13
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36707",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13294/"
] |
36,713 |
I would like to know if it is an unwritten rule to include the names of the departments of the authors' of a journal submission?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36714,
"author": "Maarten Buis",
"author_id": 14471,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14471",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Strictly speaking, it is usually a written rule, as journals have written rules governing what they expect from submitting authors, and this usually includes information about their affiliation. It is an unwritten rule in the sense that tere is no rule that all journals should follow the same format, but it is very common to include the authors' affiliation. \n\nSometimes this information is helpful as different departments belong to different \"schools\". So knowing the department alone can sometimes help you \"place\" the article in wider debates. Sometimes, it helps disentangle people with the same last name and the same initials. Regardless, this information only helps when you are an insider to the (sub-(sub-(sub-)))discipline discussed in the journal. However, those insiders are a legitimate audience for a journal, so I don't see a problem here."
},
{
"answer_id": 36716,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "You always need to include your primary institutional affiliation, even if that all the affiliation you've got is \"Me, Myself & I Consulting, LLC\" (and I've seen papers with that sort of affiliation).\n\nDepartment information, however, is much more optional. After all, many people who are not in traditional university faculty positions may not *have* a clear or meaningful department. Consider, for example, a strong institution like the Santa Fe Institute, which has professors but doesn't appear to have bothered to subdivide itself into departments. For another example, my department currently has the name \"Information and Knowledge Technologies\", which I'm fine putting down as a departmental affiliation; before the last re-organization though, it was \"Business Unit B\", and before that, it was \"Department 49\", neither of which would have made any sense to write down as a department.\n\nBottom line: include departmental information if you think it is helpful, or if it is explicitly required. Otherwise, it is up to you."
}
] |
2015/01/13
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36713",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/18107/"
] |
36,720 |
Theoretical computer science conferences usually have a review period of about two months. Programming committee members have potentially dozens of papers to review, alongside their regular day jobs. How thoroughly are papers usually reviewed? What kind of heuristics are often employed to review papers faster? Does correctness of every proof get verified in detail, or do reviewers put some trust into the authors getting it right?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36724,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "If a PC member has dozens of papers to review, then either a) the conference is doing it wrong or b) the PC member is expected to outsource most of the reviewing work to external reviewers. A good heuristic for not over-burdening the reviewers is to expect each reviewer to handle no more than 3-6 papers. With those sort of numbers, it's entirely reasonable to expect that each paper will get reviewed in great detail.\n\nIn practice, however, a great degree of variability in the quality of reviewers. Some reviewers will do a very thorough job---my theoretical papers often get back detailed comments from at least one reviewer that makes it clear that they worked through all of the math. Everybody in academia also has \"bad reviewer\" stories about people who didn't take their job seriously. For example, I recently saw a reviewer provide a review which, in its entirety, said, \"Accept as talk.\" Good conferences with responsible program chairs try to mitigate these effects, but there's always a good deal of noise in the process."
},
{
"answer_id": 36925,
"author": "Ben Bitdiddle",
"author_id": 24384,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24384",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "It varies. As a first year PhD student I was asked to review a theory paper, even though I had almost no background in the field. The professor explicitly said I only had to read the first half of the paper, and I only had to tell him if it looked interesting and correct.\n\nAt the same time I'm sure many reviewers do a diligent job and don't outsource their reviewing to inexperienced graduate students.\n\nRelated: <http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1760>"
}
] |
2015/01/13
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36720",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27545/"
] |
36,721 |
I have tried to submit some of my papers on unrelated topics to a journal and gotten rejected, either desk rejection or rejection after peer review, by the journal. Recently I worked out a new paper and would like to submit it to this journal again.
The reasons for rejections have never been elementary ones, say "poor English" or "of poor quality" or something like these (I know all these reasons from my peers). For most of the time parlance such as "the results are not significant enough to warrant publication in ..." is the reason.
Then I would like to know: Does my records in that journal significantly affect the viewpoints of the editors on my current submission?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36722,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "My guess about the situation is that your prior rejections will not significantly affect the editors' opinions on your new submission.\n\nHowever, the fact of your prior repeated rejections *is* evidence that you are misjudging the suitability of your papers for that journal, either the aptness of the topic(s), or the level and quality. Thus, if I had to wager, I'd bet that you'll be rejected again... not *because* you were rejected before, but because the factors in play that led to your prior rejections will most likely manifest themselves in the present case.\n\nSo, really, you should get more-specific advice from an advisor or mentor about appropriate venue(s) for your papers, as well as possibly critiques of the writing style."
},
{
"answer_id": 36723,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "The answer lies in why they have been rejected. Papers can be rejected because they are unsuitable for the journal, are of low quality either technically or scientifically or both. You should have received some words of why the rejections came about. There is of course a chance that an editor will tire from seeing papers to be rejected from the same author time and again and that this will lead to preconceived ideas that all output from that author is of the same quality. \n\nSo key for a successful submission is to find out why rejection has occurred. Try to avoid any mistakes that can be the grounds for the rejection. Supply the manuscript in exactly the way any Instructions for Authors dictate. Provide a good accompanying letter for the submission that details the importance of the research and the conclusions you have reached as well as why the journal appears to be suitable for your point of view."
}
] |
2015/01/13
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36721",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/18107/"
] |
36,725 |
Today some of my friends were discussing a motivation letter. One friend's application was rejected. One reason his friends find out is that the letter of motivation is very emotional. So I was thinking: is there no place of emotion in academia? People used to study a lot as a strong feeling works in them, inspiring them to do more and more work. This is the emotion. Can it play harmfully in a letter of motivation?
**Edit: I have collected his small letter. It is included. We thought it is very emotional.**
>
> College XY has best undergraduate mathematics department of the university of XY.
> IITX is built upon the basement of the first engineering college of Asia. I completed my B.Sc. from XY and M.Sc. from IITX. Both the times I got first class after each evaluation. I had a dream to continue my PhD studies in a good western university. I tried. My degrees are equivalent to degrees from European universities. I came to the understanding that my knowledge is not much sufficient for their requirements. Currently I am working in a project focussing on a very particular problem. I am out of touch from many interesting topics of mathematics.
> Many advanced parts of mathematics are till unknown to me which shall be very useful in my work. So I am thing for a better opportunity to revise my
> mathematical concepts in a better way and to collect new knowledge. I wish to build myself in a way that I can continue my PhD work in a good university and I can be a successful researcher. If I get the opportunity to continue the diploma hope I reach my dreams.
>
>
>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36726,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "There is most certainly a place for emotion in academia.\nThat place is amongst your most trusted friends and closest colleagues.\n\nScience works by identifying truths that hold regardless of whether we care about them or not, regardless of whether we desperately want them to be true or fear that they might be.\nScience is funded by agencies who don't care how much your work means to you, but rather how its outcomes might support the agency's mission.\nProfessors are hired by other faculty who don't care whether working there will fulfill your dreams, but rather how your skills and abilities will fit the needs and goals of their department.\n\nSo by all means, have emotions, share your emotions with people who genuinely care about you as a person, and allow your emotions to direct your passion in research and teaching. But know that you will be judged not by your passion, but by the fruits of your labor, and make sure that those are at the forefront of how your present yourself to strangers."
},
{
"answer_id": 36728,
"author": "Robert Buchholz",
"author_id": 19905,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19905",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "Emotion in academia is a double-edged sword. On one hand, emotion (e.g. curiosity, drive) is usually what drives us to conduct research in the first place. But as research should always be targeted at getting closer to a objective truth, emotions must not interfere with your struggle for the truth. Yet there are many emotions (e.g. fear, faith, trust) that can cloud your judgement and lead your research down a wrong path.\n\nIn short, emotions can be a good reason to conduct research, but must not affect its results. If your friend's motivational letter was suggesting that he might be affected by emotions in the latter way, this may justly be held against him."
},
{
"answer_id": 36730,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "There is a wonderful quotation by Bertrand Russell that perfectly sums up the nature of emotions in academia:\n\n> \n> Nothing great is achieved without passion, but underneath the passion there should always be that large impersonal survey which sets limits to actions that our passions inspire. [1]\n> \n> \n> \n\nYou should definitely show a sense of inquisitiveness, drive, enthusiasm, and eagerness; the \"catch\" is that we want to see that *in your work*. Dazzle us with your papers and presentations. Wow students in your lecture. But what we don't want is for *you* to tell us that you're enthusiastic and passionate. Leave that for others, such as the people writing your letters of recommendation, to tell us that. \n\n[1]: *The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell*, George Allen and Unwin Ltd., p. 536 (1961)."
},
{
"answer_id": 36732,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "In brief, even after imagining that text's language cleaned up, the problem is not about \"emotion\" but about lack of verifiable substance. As in @aesmail's good answer, insubstantiated claims, or, worse, claims which appear to be counter to any documentable reality, are at best unpersuasive. For example, unsupported claims about the quality of one's university or department are at best pointless, and suggest that one does not know how things work. Proposing to \"collect new knowledge\" gives a very strange impression, as though the writer believed that learning new things was somehow unusual... while being remarkably inspecific. \n\nThat is, if I were to receive such a letter, I'd consider it basically content-free, for all practical purposes. \"Emotion\" is not the issue. The problem is that such letters should *not* be content-free, but should include tangibles, past accomplishments and connections with the future, etc. A content-free letter competes very badly with content-ful letters."
},
{
"answer_id": 36733,
"author": "Massimo Ortolano",
"author_id": 20058,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "As others have said, the main problem of that letter is not its emotionality, but the lack of content and the presence of unnecessary details. Let me analyse a few example sentences:\n\n> \n> College XY has best undergraduate mathematics department of the university of XY.\n> \n> \n> \n\nAccording to whom or according to which criteria?\n\n> \n> IITX is built upon the basement of the first engineering college of Asia.\n> \n> \n> \n\nThis is unnecessary: it does not actually strengthen the previous claim, nor it gives useful information to understand the background of the applicant. It's just a historical curiosity. Probably briefly listing the main research topics of the department would have been more useful. \n\n> \n> I completed my B.Sc. from XY and M.Sc. from IITX. Both the times I got first class after each evaluation. \n> \n> \n> \n\nWhat was he evaluated on? Typically students have to write a dissertation at the end of their degrees, it would have been better to add information about these: objectives achieved, feelings about continuing on the same topics or moving to other topics.\n\n> \n> Currently I am working in a project focussing on a very particular problem. \n> \n> \n> \n\nWhich problem? Is it a toy problem or a research problem that can be suitable for a publication?\n\n> \n> Many advanced parts of mathematics are till unknown to me which shall be very useful in my work. \n> \n> \n> \n\nIndeed, many advanced parts of mathematics are also unknown to mathematicians. So which are these parts that are needed for his work? \n\nTherefore, on the basis of the above, I would have rejected his application too. You can write an emotional letter, but the emotions should be just an addition to the information needed by the application board to correctly assess the level of the applicant."
},
{
"answer_id": 36814,
"author": "Developer63",
"author_id": 26795,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26795",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "The original poster is asking totally the wrong question. The problem isn't his friend's level of \"emotion\"; it is his friend's utter lack of social intelligence at how he will be perceived in writing such a thing. The answer is not for his friend to become a smoother wordsmith; the answer is for his friend to get out into the world more, and actually develop a functional level of social intelligence.\n\nThe intended reader of this letter is a HUMAN, probably a group of them. Each of them can be expected to be a very, very smart human, who will analyze the letter on many different levels, but nevertheless, a human, with emotions, from which the writer would like a particular (favorable) response. My immediate emotional response, as a human, after reading this, is disbelief, annoyance, and disgust. Disbelief at how clueless the writer is, annoyance at how little useful information he provides me, disgust at how little he must have thought about me and what I might want to see in such a letter, and then a bit more annoyance at what a waste of time it was to even read it. This letter is so poor on such a fundamental level, it's hard to wrap my head around the idea it was written by someone seeking entry into a PhD program.\n\nThe primary emotions being expressed in the letter are anger at the injustice and victimhood of being denied, and bewilderment at not understanding the reasons why, and then more anger at finding out his prior education, is, apparently \"worthless\" in the eyes of these institutions.\n\nSo, the reader of the letter should admit into their PhD program, an angry victim of rejection, a victim who seems to believe the fault was with the evaluators, not himself, yet does not show any understanding of WHY others rejected him? A candidate with this lack of awareness does not inspire confidence, doesn't seem like a good bet.\n\nAnd instead of telling us even what area the \"very particular (mathematics) problem\" is in, we are left to guess? Why doesn't he just say it's a \"problem in the area of (some mathnobabble area, I'll say \"online reputation management\") involving (slightly more particular considerations, I'll say \"mathematical models for detecting falsified reviews\"). What is he hiding from us by being vague? Maybe he's hiding... that he actually knows NOTHING! Yet, perhaps he knows a great deal. The reader cannot tell anything useful about what he does and does not know in the relevant area. \n\nA socially intelligent writer would have gone to great lengths to find out why his qualifications were perceived to be unsuitable by other institutions, and then calmly but briefly explain it. How could he appear to not know WHY those other institutions rejected him? Was he so lacking in motivation, he did not bother to find out the specific, detailed reasons for his rejection? I submit that much academic work is about figuring out what the problem is that needs to be solved, and then applying thinking and action to solve it. How is it possible to have confidence in a candidate who accepts rejection without clearly figuring out the reasons, what the PROBLEM was? How can this man be trusted to take effective action to identify problems, and then solve them, as part of a a PhD program? To address this issue, he must be able to briefly and calmly explain what the problem was, and preferably why it will not be an issue at the desired institution. For analogous examples from Finance and Economics, \"European institutions require an EU-accredited course in Financial Derivative Models, which was neither required nor available at my prior institutions.\" Or, \"European institutions prefer graduates of the Austrian school, while my coursework was centered around the Chicago school\". Explaining why the problems other institutions cited won't be an issue at his desired institution is an exercise I will leave to him.\n\nAnd overall, there is little to no mention of anything substantive he has done, nothing that can be verified; the primary mentions are of the injustice he feels has been done to him by having his degrees ignored and disrespected by other schools he has applied to, schools who are obviously arbitrary, mean-spirited, and just out to get poor little him.\n\nI hope I reach my dreams? What ARE his dreams, maybe a little statement of them would help? His dreams are so vague he can't even briefly state them? And he HOPES he reaches, not he \"is determined to do the work to reach\", his dreams? But don't just try to be more smooth; invest time, attention, and emotion to figure out what his dreams actually are, so that he can clearly and compellingly express them in a sentence or two. \"My dream is to...\" (I'll say, \"help the online world become a more honest place\") \"...and being admitted into this program would bring me closer by...\" (\"being around brilliant mentors who can help me devise and improve mathematical models for detecting patterns of deception and fraud\"). \n\nSuch a letter should be written to show an awareness of, and caring for, the point of view of others. As it stands, it loudly conveys a lack of awareness in those areas. The readers would be likely to conclude the writer is unaware, a bad thing in itself, or, even worse, uncaring.\n\nThe writer of the letter would be better advised to take up some hobby or activity, take a year off from school if necessary, to work on and improve his social intelligence. Maybe go to a university and work as a mathematics tutor for students in the areas he has learned, while taking classes or doing other work that involves interacting with people a lot. It should be an area that requires a level of social intelligence skills to be successful, provides opportunity after opportunity to develop them, and provides immediate and direct personal feedback on how well he is doing. A quick list of ideas could include doing commission sales work, working as a bartender, and volunteering to canvass and advocate for political candidates and their campaigns."
},
{
"answer_id": 36838,
"author": "silvado",
"author_id": 3890,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3890",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "The problem is not about emotions. Other answers have pointed out a lack of substance, but I'll make a different point. It's that your friend draws a very bad image of him/her-self. Your question title should really be \"Can a letter of motivation that highlights weak points be harmful in a PhD application?\"\n\nJust isolate these four parts of the motivation letter:\n\n> \n> I tried.\n> \n> \n> \n\n*And then?*\n\n> \n> my knowledge is not much sufficient for their requirements\n> \n> \n> \n\n*So no surprise you're not admitted.*\n\n> \n> I am out of touch from many interesting topics of mathematics.\n> \n> \n> \n\n*Not good if you're to pursue cutting edge research for a PhD.*\n\n> \n> advanced parts of mathematics are till unknown to me\n> \n> \n> \n\n*ditto*\n\nThis is an application. It needs to draw a good image of the applicant, **not** show the weak points."
},
{
"answer_id": 36855,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "Here is my cruelly honest translation of the letter. I am not trying to insult you. I have received many similar messages as unsolicited emails (always from India), and this is essentially how I read them.\n\nCollege XY has best undergraduate mathematics department of the university of XY. - I am aware that my university isn't particularly good, so I am making a desperate attempt to argue that my education wasn't as poor as the general standard for my university.\n\nIITX is built upon the basement of the first engineering college of Asia. - If something isn't actually good, point out how big, old or expensive it is and maybe people will be fooled.\n\nI completed my B.Sc. from XY and M.Sc. from IITX. Both the times I got first class after each evaluation. - Hard to tell due to the bad English, but apparently the applicant is claiming to have had good grades. Impossible to tell whether this means top 10% or top 90%.\n\nI had a dream to continue my PhD studies in a good western university. I tried. - What is this supposed to mean? Applicant once was accepted and started a PhD at a European university, but failed?\n\nMy degrees are equivalent to degrees from European universities. - According to whom?\n\nI came to the understanding that my knowledge is not much sufficient for their requirements. - Contradicts the previous claim.\n\nCurrently I am working in a project focussing on a very particular problem. - Currently I am doing some research that I am not at all interested in and that I am not even prepared to explain in detail if someone asks me about it, because I don't understand it myself.\n\nI am out of touch from many interesting topics of mathematics. - In an application I was once asked about some basic (first year level) knowledge related to what I was applying for and didn't even have an idea what the words meant.\n\nMany advanced parts of mathematics are till unknown to me which shall be very useful in my work. So I am thing for a better opportunity to revise my mathematical concepts in a better way and to collect new knowledge. - Maybe I could become a mathematician by doing my undergraduate degree all over again, this time at a proper university.\n\nI wish to build myself in a way that I can continue my PhD work in a good university and I can be a successful researcher. - Because I underestimate the effort involved in learning things properly, I think that I can do this on the side, while officially working on a PhD, and even get a PhD too.\n\nIf I get the opportunity to continue the diploma hope I reach my dreams. - Diploma or PhD, what's the difference? It's all the same to me.\n\nBesides, my English isn't good enough to study in English, and since I am blissfully unaware of the fact it is not likely to improve. Sorry that I can't mention the special strengths of the university I am applying to. I have no clue what they are, and anyway, I am sending this to several hundred. It would be too much work to adjust the text for each."
}
] |
2015/01/13
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36725",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8569/"
] |
36,735 |
A professor of mine, who's native language is German and who is teaching a class in English in a German speaking country, suddenly answered an e-mail which I wrote in German (I'm a native German speaker too), in English. I'm wondering why he does that? What the proper way for me to react is, i.e., should I use English when sending him e-mails from now on?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36738,
"author": "Massimo Ortolano",
"author_id": 20058,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "> \n> suddenly answered an e-mail which I wrote in German [...], in English. I'm wondering why he does that?\n> \n> \n> \n\nHe might think that since the official language of the class is English, all communications should be carried out in this language. Or, maybe, if you're asking a technical question, he prefers to use English to avoid confusion between the technical terms employed during the lessons and the corresponding German terms.\n\n> \n> should I use English when sending him e-mails from now on?\n> \n> \n> \n\nGiven that the official language is English, this should arise no complain on his part. But you can also ask which is his preferred choice between the two languages, given that you are a native German speaker.\n\nIn Italy, I teach in a couple of courses which are taught in English: many of the emails I receive from Italian students are written in English, and I typically answer in that language. It's a good practice for both."
},
{
"answer_id": 36739,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": true,
"text": "I wouldn't worry about it too much: given the bilingual nature of his work, your professor probably context-switches back and forth between languages frequently. If the professor is very comfortable in both languages, they might not have even realized the switch, e.g., if responding to your email in the middle of a large block of work in English with their head in \"English-mode\".\n\nIf you want, however, next time you see the professor in person, you might ask if they have any preference for language in their communications with you: it could easily go either way (e.g., in English to make forwarding to non-German speakers easier, in German for personal comfort, or even no preference at all)."
},
{
"answer_id": 36757,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "Explanation 1. For some reason the professor finds it easier to express a certain thought in English. As a native speaker of German myself, I often find myself in this situation. For some reason I can think of a nice formulation in one language but am unsure how to put it in the other. Also, e.g. when dealing with a student who could also be considered a colleague (student has a PhD or wrote a joint paper with the professor's colleague), in some fields the professor might be unsure whether to use *du* or *Sie* - a problem that doesn't exist in English. Or the professor wanted to reuse part of an email sent to another student. Or the email uses technical terms whose German translation sounds awkward.\n\nIn this case you can just answer in whichever language you prefer.\n\nExplanation 2. The course is taught in English at least in part to make the German-speaking students get used to using English. Or at least the professor thinks so.\n\nIn this case it may be better to reply in English."
},
{
"answer_id": 36773,
"author": "damian",
"author_id": 27812,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27812",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "I would not interpret too much into this. I have to deal with such questions (in which language should I write an email?) almost daily in my function as an assistant professor. My native language is German, but I teach at a Dutch university (some courses are in Dutch, some are in English). With Dutch students, I usually communicate in Dutch (a language which I speak at near-native level), with international students in English - but when it comes to Germans, it already becomes complicated: It seems natural to communicate in German, but at the same time, although German is my native language, it is sometimes just **easier to express a thought in a language I use daily in research** (English) **or teaching** (Dutch or English). \n\nSecond, I sometimes write in a specific language in order to be able to **forward, (B)CC or archive** the mails. It's just not very practical if you cannot share something with a colleague because of language issues. Also the other way round, you sometimes **copy/paste** things without wasting time on translating things.\n\nThird, I honestly am sometimes just **unaware of the language i use**. If I just have been talking in one language with a colleague, I might use that one in a mail that as well, without it being a concious choice. The hard part of working in several languages are not the languages themselves, it's switching between languages.\n\nSo, I would not put too much weight into this issue. However, it might also be that the professor wants to make a statement: I have some colleagues who want to make a statement by communicating only in a courses \"official\" language to avoid the impression that they would differentiate between students. \n\nBut, of course you can just ask what language the professor prefers. I get these questions occasionally, and - to be honest - I usually don't care too much."
},
{
"answer_id": 36833,
"author": "peterh",
"author_id": 10234,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10234",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "I live in Germany since long ago.\n\nOn my experience, German are doing this mostly because 3 reasons:\n\n1. they won't worry because of your (for them) bad German.\n2. they are suspecting, your German is bad and maybe your English is better. It happens mainly on noisy phone lines, where they suspect mostly lingual problems and seldom acoustic.\n3. they only want to train their English (which they can't do with other Germans, but with a foreigner). Talking on German with a foreigner doesn't have any benefit for them, but talking on English means a possibility to a little bit of free training.\n\nI think that the difference between the native and a non-native language is always very strong and prof always knew if they changed it. Maybe it is possible if he replied his twentieth mail on the day to his undergrads and all of them communicated with him either of German or on English with various levels.\n\nIn your place I replied to the prof on English, but mentioned on the first row some like this: \"Ich würde gerne weiters mit Ihnen auf Jeitgch kommunizieren\" (I would be glad to communicate on German with you)."
},
{
"answer_id": 36834,
"author": "AncientOwl",
"author_id": 27850,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27850",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "It's standard to respond in the language being taught to give the students opportunities to practice the use of said language.\n\nThis is even more important if the students feel uncomfortable using the language.\n\nNo pain no gain, as they say."
}
] |
2015/01/13
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36735",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13427/"
] |
36,737 |
While offering an answer to another question on this site ([this one](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36531/what-challenges-to-expect-for-admission-to-masters-phd-in-computer-science-and-e/36699#36699) if you're interested), I was reminded of a particularly challenging experience that occurred during my interview process that might generalize to others.
I went to a decently well-known and respected undergraduate university, and while I was interviewing for a PhD position at various schools, at least one of my interviewers usually asked me how I could help his son/daughter/nephew, etc. get into my undergraduate university. This was not at the end of the interview when all other questions (both his and mine) were answered, but rather it was at the very beginning of the interview (e.g. "Oh, I see you went to university X. My [insert familial relationship] is applying there this year/next year. How can s/he get in?")
Not knowing if I was in a position to decline to comment, I gave some brief, generic suggestions and then tried to steer the interview back to my own application and admissions.
I can see this possibly happening in many scenarios, from graduate admissions (like my own experience) to possibly postdoc or faculty job interviews. Has anyone else faced this sort of situation before (off-topic questions that while not "illegal" are somewhat uncomfortable to answer), and any suggestions on how to diplomatically handle it?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36751,
"author": "Floris",
"author_id": 15062,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15062",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "Such a question at the start of an interview sounds to me like a poor \"warmup\" question - meant to be an easy lowball, and failing miserably. As such I think a light answer is all that would be expected - they are not asking for help, but thinking this is one you could easily answer. Your reply should demonstrate you can think on your feet, without appearing to put the interviewer down and without really engaging in an answer. For example\n\n> \n> I met such a variety of people there that I really can't tell you what they had in common - I guess you would have to ask the admissions office\n> \n> \n> \n\nThat's probably quite truthful, while being completely evasive. And then you can move on."
},
{
"answer_id": 40340,
"author": "ak001",
"author_id": 30746,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/30746",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Well, if I am on that situation, I would first try to think positively instead of realizing that it's an off-topic question. Maybe they are asking that to know how competitive the university is and hence, how competitive I am. By having a positive mind, I think we can answer the question in a quite diplomatic manner, such as explaining approximately how many students get into the university each year (particularly in our class) and telling them how we could get into that university (for instance our high school grades or our SAT score, etc.)."
},
{
"answer_id": 40347,
"author": "Daniel Wessel",
"author_id": 26614,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26614",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Is it possible to reframe the question, a bit akin to ak001, make it about what got you into that university. \"I don't know your [...]. When I applied, I ...\" and then highlight the strengths (diplomatically and without bragging).\n\nIn any case, I wouldn't take that question too seriously. Could simply have been poor impulse-control (perhaps the person had had a stressful day so far) and s/he did not think too deeply about what s/he was saying."
}
] |
2015/01/13
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36737",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26958/"
] |
36,741 |
Currently, I am in second semester of Muqtew's program in Computer Science and Engineering. Even though I am yet undecided, I lean a little bit more towards pursuing PhD program rather than getting into industry.
Many people tell me that research experience is the only factor in getting accepted to PhD. The problem is that I have a summer internship offer from an established industry, and I do not have any professors that will accept me as a summer research intern at this time.
Personally, I do want to try out the internship to see what it is like, possibly helping me decide whether to definitely pursue PhD or look for more industry options. However, as of now, I feel that it will be a bad move in terms of applying for PhD next semester, where I will probably lack research experience that other candidates might have. Meanwhile, I am trying to build research experience through course projects and directed research within academic semesters.
How much adverse impact will it have in PhD application if I were to choose summer internship at the industry?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36742,
"author": "marcman",
"author_id": 11819,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11819",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "I was in the same boat. What I found is that it doesn't hurt, but it doesn't really help much either unless the internship is in like R&D or some area where you're doing novel work. When push comes to shove, professors/admissions committees want to see strong letters of recommendation and a strong (or at least extant) publication record. If your summer industry internship can at least garner a strong letter or recommendation then you have something.\n\nWhat I did was to take the industry internship position and join a research project in my extra time. I worked an 8-6 position at a tech company and worked out optimization functions and ran simulations and such on my lunch break and at night. It wasn't a full throttle research summer, but I got a decent publication (and a great letter of recommendation from my research collaborator) out of it...and I still pulled in a nice tech company internship pay too ;-)\n\nAfter the summer, I decided I liked research more anyway so I went ahead with the PhD application. Turns out doing both simultaneously helped me make the decision."
},
{
"answer_id": 36745,
"author": "Floris",
"author_id": 15062,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15062",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "A person who has had his finger in both the academic and industrial pie, and then tells me that they want to do a PhD, comes across as more credible. You understand what each has to offer and you are more likely to stick with your choice. As for research ability - it has to be quality, not quantity, at this point. The rest surely will come in the course of a good program. \n\nIf the internship is interesting I would take it. Just make sure you learn something while you are there - do more than \"just your job\"."
}
] |
2015/01/14
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36741",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27791/"
] |
36,743 |
If a prospective student contacts a professor about his/her work or group and the professor engages (asking for more info, acknowledging the student's existence ;-), etc), is it common for the replies to just stop? I would think courtesy at least calls for the standard easy let down, e.g "Perhaps we should talk after the admissions process," but on the other hand I understand how busy professors are and how spammy prospective students can be.
So I ask those of you "in the know," if you've engaged a student, do you feel inclined to at least let them know you will not be responding anymore? Or do you ultimately just find it easier to not respond (for example if the info you asked for isn't up to snuff)?
(I'm specifically asking about CS/ENG people, but any discipline is free to respond)
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36756,
"author": "NDEthos",
"author_id": 7705,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7705",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "My experience as a PhD student would lead me to believe that sometimes professors get bogged down in the process of teaching classes, writing research grants, doing/planning research and all the other day to day activities that their institution demands of them. \n\nI would think you are the low person on the totem pole at this point. That might be different if you were a rising star but the vast majority of us are not recruited, we apply for admission. I might send one last email and in it let them know that you just wanted to check in and relate that you completely understand the time constraint they are under but you would like to make sure they had received what ever you had sent and if they were to busy that was fine and to just contact you when they had the time at a much later date."
},
{
"answer_id": 36761,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "As a faculty member, I try to respond to all prospective students but many times the questions are too vague, tautological, or impossible to answer:\n\n* Will I get in? Impossible to answer.\n* Will you work with me if I get in?\nTautological. If you are in my field of study and you get in, it's likely because I want to work with you. But I don't want to say yes because that may be misread as saying that we *will* accept you.\n* What are the strengths and weaknesses of your program? Not easily answerable, self-serving if I deem my own area strong and likely to insult faculty in the areas I deemed week.\n* Tell me more about your research. Too open ended. My CV is online.\n\nI don't mean to sound harsh but questions that can be easily answered are the most likely to get responses. \n\nFaculty do welcome e-mails from prospective students, especially those in our fields. When you get 150+ applications, it might be easy to miss someone in your specific area, so a personal message saying that you are applying is always welcome (especially early in the semester --- Sept or Oct -- before things get crazy). Questions that aren't answerable on our website are also welcome (for example, not all department websites list which students are associated with which faculty; asking about our team members in those cases is welcome). \n\nIf you pique our interest (and we have the time), we may ask for further info from you -- for example, a paper you wrote or other writing sample. While I try to send a simple \"thanks\" ack message to these responses, I may be asking for something in November that I won't look at seriously until February with the other application material. So don't take the lack or brevity of acknowledgement to mean anything significant.\n\nNote that we may not want to send an e-mail prematurely closing down discussion as we may feel that this is rude to an applicant who may have more questions. So we are in essentially a typical asynchronous communication hang condition.\n\nThat being said, I do often wish that I could respond in http status codes:\n\n```\n100 continue\n200 ok\n303 see other\n307 temporary redirect\n402 payment required\n404 resource not found\n406 not acceptable\n412 precondition failed\n417 expectation failed\n503 service unavailable\n\n```"
},
{
"answer_id": 37990,
"author": "EBS",
"author_id": 28771,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28771",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "> \n> If a prospective student contacts a professor about his/her work or group and the professor engages (asking for more info, acknowledging the student's existence ;-), etc), is it common for the replies to just stop? I would think courtesy at least calls for the standard easy let down \n> \n> do you feel inclined to at least let them know you will not be responding anymore? Or do you ultimately just find it easier to not respond (for example if the info you asked for isn't up to snuff)? \n> \n> \n> In an ideal world, yes, but you are contacting us, asking us to take time to engage with you. If we did this for every applicant, it would require many hours per week of work, on a task we did not initiate. Declining a student is also not pleasant and a non-answer is often substituted.\n> \n> \n> \n> \n> \n\nSome information you, and others, might find helpful:\nProfessors, like most people these days, receive many emails daily. We would love to receive emails from prospective students looking to work with us when they are high quality students and a good fit to our needs. The problem is that too many of the emails are \"fishing,\" and are a waste of our time. That sours us (or at least me) on the others before we even read them. Sometimes I try to be courteous and reply before filing the email, and hope to receive some information that indicates this student is a good fit. Sometimes I have nothing more I can add at that point in time, and am waiting hoping that I will later. Sometimes the emails just get lost in the queue after the student responds. \nFrom my experience:\n* Many of these prospective student emails are written using poor grammar, or very informal speech. This indicates the student is not serious about this pursuit. I only want students capable of high quality professional work. If the letter asking for a position (=asking for a job) is poorly written or very informal, what will the student's work be like if invited to join my team?\n* Many emails indicate the candidate has not done his/her homework. I am a female professor (in \"CS/ENG\") and receive many emails addressed \"Dear Sir.\" Those students never looked at my webpage. My picture is there. I want a student who is capable and motivated enough to do his/her homework. If he/she isn't going to work hard when asking for admissions/funding, what does that indicate about the level of effort the student will expend when pursuing the degree?\n* Many emails say the student wants to work in my field, but the listed area of interest, or the examples of areas of past work, are not in my field. Some students write to every professor in the department saying that field is his/her interest (we do talk with each other). Being flexible is good, but the PhD is a targeted field of study. This also indicates lack of sincerity, and lack of industriousness.\n* Many emails are simply trying to get past the admissions committee hoping for funding. I usually don't know if I will have funding in the coming year. I am not in control of the funding the department will offer. I certainly can't promise anything far in advance, and won't promise it right away. I am much more likely to take a student who has applied and has passed the admissions committee and fund that student, if I have funding available to grant. If the student has really impressed me by a good introduction, and follows up professionally, his/her chances greatly improve. \n\nHint: Often funding comes right when the school year starts, or a student who was in line to receive funding doesn't come opening a department funded slot. Unfunded admitted students are likely to be funded at that time.\n\nSuggestions:\n* Write a very professional letter.\n * Do your homework:\n\t+ In what area does the professor work? \n\t+ What courses does the professor\n\t teach? \n\t+ What papers has the professor written recently? \n\t+ What work is\n\t still open related to those papers? \n\t+ Is it an area you are truly\n\t interested in? \n\t+ What skills and background do you offer that would\n\t make it worth expending more of our effort to recruit you, and the significant effort to advise you once admitted? This needs\n\t to be more than just having earned a BS or BS/MS with decent grades. \n\t + Can you show me that you are industrious and capable of advanced work by showing an interest that is not superficial?* Write a targeted letter.\n* Proof read the email.\n* Have a friend proof read the email.\n* Proof read the email again.\n\nGood luck."
}
] |
2015/01/14
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36743",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11819/"
] |
36,744 |
I am currently a M.Sc. student and I was planning to apply for PhD programs. I asked my adviser to write me a letter of recommendation two months ago, and he agreed to do that. However, now that the deadlines are approaching (in 2 days) he has refused to write a letter, and basically he says that he wants me to stay in his research group and do a PhD under his supervision. In other words, he is forcing me to stay in my current school. I have been rejected from one of the PhD programs that I had previously applied, because he did not submit the letter of recommendation.
My first question is: what should I do? I do not want to create conflict, because he is my adviser and I need to defend my thesis in peace in the next two months.
My second question: If I do not send a letter of recommendation from my adviser, will it affect the decision of admission committee?
This is a time-sensitive manner and I really appreciate it if you could give me some insights, I am absolutely stuck here.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36747,
"author": "user141592",
"author_id": 27327,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27327",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "First point: what your professor is doing is absolutely not OK. There are valid reasons to back out of writing a recommendation letter late (illness, family emergency to name a few), but what he is doing is intentionally sabotaging your PhD applications.\n\nSecond: ask for a meeting with your advisor, where you can have some uninterrupted time to explain your motivation for wanting to go elsewhere for your PhD. Focus on things like wanting to diversify your interests, work with a large variety of people, maybe work on a research project that is not available at your school. Feel free to add in things like how working with him has helped you realise how many opportunities are out there and prepared you to undertake studies at *insert name of university you are applying to*. Ask him if he could write you the recommendation letter and tell him that when you have your acceptances you will make a choice of where to go, and you will not rule out your current institution until you have all the answers. Explain that you feel that he is limiting your options, and feeling shut in is not a good place to be when you are trying to make serious decisions about your future. In short, flatter him and the current programme, explain your motivation in a way that doesn't come off as \"this place sucks\" and hope for the best. Keep the tone of this conversation calm and non-confrontational. You don't want to destroy your last few months there, and even if he says no, thank him for his time and explain calmly that you hope he understands why you will still go on with the application with another recommender, and that you hope there will be no hard feelings between you.\n\nIf this doesn't work I would go to the professor that knows you the second best in your master's program, or maybe even from your undergrad, and explain the situation to them (confidentially) and ask if you can get a letter of recommendation from them instead on short notice. It will probably be seen as a little strange that your advisor isn't writing you a letter of recommendation, but at that point it's your best option."
},
{
"answer_id": 36774,
"author": "sean",
"author_id": 15501,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15501",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "While this is unacceptable behaviour, it it not uncommon at all. Many of my friends doing Master in Korea were in exactly the same situations as yours when they wanted to apply for a PhD in the US. Even worse, their advisers wrote for them bad LoRs, so that they could be rejected. Somehow they were all accepted, because doing Master in Korea often results in lots of publications.\n\n* Your first question: there is nothing you can do with your adviser. Your LoR should come from a prof. who really wants you to be accepted, and writes a LoR with his best effort. A bad LoR is much worse than no LoR at all.\n* Your second question: do not worry about what you can't control. Instead, try to make the best application with all you have.\n\nWhen I wrote my Master thesis, I was having a family problem and couldn't focus. As a result, my adviser didn't satisfy about my work. Of course, he didn't want to keep me for a PhD, and was willing to write a LoR for me. But I thought his LoR would not be strong, so I chose not to get a LoR from him. This is not really a problem for me when applying for a PhD in EU, because most of positions required a Skype interview (and some followed by on-site interview)."
}
] |
2015/01/14
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36744",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27795/"
] |
36,746 |
I'm a math TA and I find that my most consistent comment for improvement involved my board handwriting. Anybody have some tips or techniques I can use to make things a little neater on the board?
There are, of course, time constraints with teaching any course, so I don't want to simply write more slowly in order to assist in writing more neatly. Thankfully in a math course much of what I write is symbols which are easier to (borrowing a typography term) kern than sentences, but I still feel like I need to vastly improve my handwriting on a board if I plan on teaching for any length of time.
This is a sample of my handwriting:
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
EDIT: After checking the room in which I'm assigned to teach this semester, it turns out I do actually have a whiteboard instead of a chalkboard. Like I commented below somewhere, I'm sure 90% of the answers mentioned (those not expressly about chalk, anyway) will be completely cross-transferable and I'll try to make them all work. Thanks again for all the great answers!
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36748,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": true,
"text": "I have struggled with this too. Two things that I find help are:\n\n1. Write much bigger than you think you should. It's easier to be neater with bigger letters. You can fit less on a board, but honestly that's generally a good thing.\n2. Move your body along with your writing as you go. My writing gets worse the farther my hand is from my center of mass, and tends to trail downward too."
},
{
"answer_id": 36752,
"author": "user141592",
"author_id": 27327,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27327",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "In addition to Jile's great answer, what helped me was a chalk holder (you can find them online for $5-10). One reason people write terribly badly with chalk is that either the pieces feel like the are about to break, or they are tiny. Using a chalk holder makes writing with chalk more like writing with a pen.\n\nI'd also recommend having two or three loaded chalk-holders waiting in reserve; having to pause mid-lecture to empty out small fragments, reload a new piece, and regain the thread of your discourse is terribly awkward."
},
{
"answer_id": 36755,
"author": "Kimball",
"author_id": 19607,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19607",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "I would say the biggest thing that makes my boardwriting messy is rushing. I know you said you don't want to write more slowly, so my suggestion is to try this: **write (and speak) more judiciously**. Then you can write slower and more neatly, when you don't need to hurry. It takes practice, and requires more preparation, but with a little more thought and planning, you can often be more clean with your presentation, which allows your writing and speaking to become more clean. [Disclaimer: I don't always practice this, particularly when I'm in a hurry before class.]\n\nAlso, jakebeal's answers are good. The angle at which you write (both side-to-side and up-down) is also important, and when you're not in a hurry you naturally adjust your body to write at a more comfortable angle."
},
{
"answer_id": 36758,
"author": "nivag",
"author_id": 14115,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14115",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "The first few lines are quite legible if not that neat, but as you go on the font gets smaller. If someone was at the back of the room they would have a hard time reading it.\n\nI would try and keep the first lines as the minimum size for your writing, but if you are in a large lecture theatre it probably needs to be larger.\n\nI think this is a problem lots of people have. I don't know of an easy solution other than to consciously make your writing bigger than you think it needs to be."
},
{
"answer_id": 36764,
"author": "sjb",
"author_id": 27805,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27805",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "You say that you can read the text at\n\n[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/acEcv.jpg)\n\nbut is that partly because you're familiar with what it *should* say. There has been a meme over the last few years something along the line of:\n\n> \n> fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too. Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.\n> \n> \n> i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghi t pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh?\n> \n> \n> \n\nIt's the same for other presentation skills too. I know I tend to speed up a bit when talking in public, probably due to nerves, etc., which doesn't help sometimes."
},
{
"answer_id": 36768,
"author": "Amol L",
"author_id": 27809,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27809",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "In addition to good suggestions above, I can suggest one improvement seeing your writing.\n\nAlphabets like a, p, e, g d, all have very small 'compressed' circles. If you consciously try to make them larger(while of course, keeping the circle proportionate to alphabet size), the writing will be more readable.\n\nYou can write a paragraph on board which has all alphabets in it. You can then observe which alphabets have the problem I mentioned above, and improve on that."
},
{
"answer_id": 36785,
"author": "Raphael",
"author_id": 1419,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1419",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "Looking at your sample, I notice a couple of things.\n\n* **Size:** Some of the writing, e.g. all but the first bullet in the right half, is too small, in particular non-capital letters.\n* **Whitespace:** Be mindful of spacing letters, words, formulae, paragraphs differently and consistently. For instance, \"factors over R\" has more space between \"fac\" and \"tors\" then between \"factors\" and \"over\".\n* **Font:** Curved lines are harder to draw with chalk than straight lines. Many small letters and some of your big letters contain curves; try to use a more block capitalish style. \n\nWhichever font you use, make sure that letters/symbols are clearly distinct.\n* **Consistency:** Make the same letter or symbol look as similar as possible between instances (note your equivalency arrows and small \"n\" in formulae). Space structure elements consistently.\n\nI think spacing is the biggest issue here, followed by consistency. Note that the basic rules are mostly the same as in typesetting for print, for which lots of literature exists.\n\nAs for general advice for avoiding writing yourself in a position where it is hard to write well, these come to mind.\n\n* Keep your hand approximately at eyelevel. That means moving the board a lot.\n* Break new pieces of chalk in half; that way they are easier to hold and do not screech.\n* Rotate your piece of chalk frequently so you have a somewhat symmetric tip at all times.\n* Disregard pieces of chalk that have become smaller than your first digital bones.\n* Do not squeeze. If there is not enough space, switch to the next board.\n* Write with enough pressure. If you apply too little you do not get enough chalk on the board for clear lines. The necessary amount of pressure depends on chalk and board surface.\n\nAs for writing speed, note that at least when you change your font you will have to write more consciously, hence slower, for a while. Train slowly, speed will follow."
},
{
"answer_id": 36791,
"author": "Flyto",
"author_id": 8394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8394",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "In addition to everything above: write with your arm, not with your hand. The movement needs to come from shoulder and elbow, not from wrist. Some people write on paper this way anyway, but some (including me) tend to keep their arm still except for moving along the line, and use their wrist. This simply does not work on boards."
},
{
"answer_id": 36813,
"author": "Superbest",
"author_id": 244,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/244",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "Practice makes perfect.\n\nMy own handwriting (on paper) went from hideous to beautiful enough to get me compliments. I accomplished this by making a conscious effort to write neatly when taking lecture notes (even if it meant writing slowly), as well as writing things over and over until it was satisfactory (often compared to a sample).\n\nI don't feel like it really slowed me down all that much. Occasionally, during exams or fast speeches, I still revert to uglier handwriting in hopes of saving precious seconds, but rarely gain all that much. Conversely, I doubt you will really end up losing significant lecture time by writing neatly during real lectures, but of course you can always try it out in a mock lecture (note that writing neatly the at first will be much slower because you are not used to it). However, it did take me time to get better: The bulk of the improvement was over several months, and even after several years the quality of my handwriting was changing, though not as noticeably. Keep in mind that I would spend several hours taking notes in lectures every day, in addition to writing in my free time. Perhaps you can be a more diligent student than I was, but I would still say don't expect big changes overnight.\n\nThat said, I don't see why my experience wouldn't translate to board writing also. If you want your handwriting to be better, find a board and keep writing on it until it *is* better. It helps to actively force yourself to write neater.\n\nAs I said, lectures are a great opportunity for getting some regular, intense practice. If you can at all afford to slow down even a little bit, you should do so and you can get results sooner.\n\nRegardless of whether you decide to risk slowing down your lectures, you can always practice by yourself. As a grad student you will almost certainly have access to a blackboard. Go up there and write on it until your hand gets tired. Then erase and do it again. Keep an eye out for motions that make letters come out particularly ugly or pretty.\n\nSmall children learn to write by tracing dashed lines of letter shapes. You could simulate this by using some kind of projector to project \"worksheets\" on the board (with a blackboard, [white on black would probably look better](http://youtu.be/YOxSx7B5Huc), and a dim room helps).\n\nIf you feel like this is too much of a waste of time, write out material that you are having difficulty learning, research ideas and notes of future lectures. That way you are both practicing your handwriting AND doing some useful work."
},
{
"answer_id": 36826,
"author": "Aaron Brick",
"author_id": 14140,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14140",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "you could counter your tendency towards cursive ligatures by trying block capital letters for natural language text. the height of those letters is consistent, they are less likely to disappear among their neighbors, and the text fills out a rectangular block. i do it that way, but admittedly, i am used to handwriting in all caps."
},
{
"answer_id": 36854,
"author": "Andrei",
"author_id": 27859,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27859",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "The calligraphy - well that is fixed with paper, pencil and patience.\n\nOn the chalkboard it tends to be just slightly different.\n\nThe main trick that helped me was just to push the chalk into the chalkboard instead of pulling it, like we do it with the pencil on paper."
},
{
"answer_id": 36892,
"author": "David Richerby",
"author_id": 10685,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10685",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Use simpler letter-forms. In particular, your upper-case 'L' and lower-case 'f' are very intricate: compare them to the shapes of those letters in a simple sans-serif font, such as Arial or Helvetica. And make sure you finish writing every letter: many of the ones in the sample just deteriorate into a squiggle, as if you got half-way through the letter and were so eager to start the next one that you abandoned the one you were writing."
},
{
"answer_id": 73366,
"author": "Ashutosh Rana",
"author_id": 57601,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/57601",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "I think most people have already covered the important points.\n\nFor me the main items are 4 - \n\n**1) Size:**\nWrite **BIG**! Then go back to the last bench and see if you can read it without squinting.\nAt the beginning, a good way is to write a sample in a corner, go to the last bench, and if that is ok, dont rub this throughout the course. Use it as a reference all through till you get the hang of it.\n\n**2) Write in capitals** \n\nAvoid cursive. \n\nA bad capital handwriting is far better than a bad cursive. and sometimes better than a mediocre cursive too.\n\nAdded edit: exception - If you write in small letters, write spaced out and avoid running handwriting. I write small letters like a child on the blackboard so that it is readable. It is much different from the cursive that I normally use for writing on paper.\n\n**3) Use a little more space between letters and words** \nIt tends to make your existing writing neater and nicer! A useful illusion.\n\n**4) Use flow charts and text boxes -** \nJust like 3, they create the illusion of neatness and order.\n\nPS: I think 1 and 3 have already been mentioned by many others, but that just reminds you how important it is :)"
}
] |
2015/01/14
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36746",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10086/"
] |
36,766 |
A year ago, I finished my Master's degree and ended 6 months of working for an incredibly manipulative and demanding supervisor. We started working on a publication of my Master's results, which is awaiting final approval (post-corrections) at the journal we submitted to.
Last week, I read a paper this supervisor had published recently, which had a figure taken directly from my Master's dissertation. Our in-press article wasn't cited, and I wasn't co-author, referenced, or even mentioned in the acknowledgements. No direct reference was given for the figure, but the text surrounding it made it sound as if it had come from another article by my supervisor from last year.
It seems pretty clear to me that this is plaigarism - we worked on this project together, certainly, but the final product was a result of my work and their guidance.
My problem is, I don't know how to deal with it. We are currently co-authoring a paper, so I don't want to cause a rupture. I also plan to continue working in this field, and would like to avoid having a senior researcher and previous supervisor to be angry. At the same time, I don't want them to get away with using my work, and taking all the credit for it.
I will certainly tell them that I feel uncomfortable with how they used my work, but realistically, what can I expect/hope to happen here?
UPDATE - the figure in question is an overview of a simulation model I created, so is pretty much the core part of my Master's work.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36767,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "The issue here is somewhat thorny. Relative to you, however, there is unfortunately not much benefit in any event, because citing the figure is not normally enough to merit authorship. All you would have is one extra citation, which would likely get \"lost,\" because the publication with which it corresponds doesn't exist yet.\n\nSo I would make sure that your *new* paper cites the old paper, since it is the first to publish the figure. I would also make sure that you mention *politely* the concerns that you have over the use of the figure without citing."
},
{
"answer_id": 36781,
"author": "David M W Powers",
"author_id": 6390,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6390",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "It's hard to fix the past... Rather think of the future... I would (and in past case have) let the person know that you feel you should have either been a coauthor on the paper (preferred outcome usually) or been acknowledged as contributing to the paper (specifically all non-original figures must be acknowledged as to source for copyright reasons and there is the right to be known as author and originator in relation to all aspects of the paper you have contributed to).\n\nIf you are one of many students this supervisor has in this area, and/or the figure just encapsulates ideas that your supervisor has provided, then the shoe could be on the other foot, and the supervisor may not even be aware that you feel ownership of the figure (or other aspects of the \"joint research\"). In your thesis/papers you need to acknowledge where ideas have originated from other people - in a thesis this is likely to be restricted to a specific acknowledgements section.\n\nIf a figure is likely to be needed in future papers, I tend to note that it is copyright by me and reproduced with permission in all papers, and thus copyright is not transferred to the first publisher of such a paper. When I circulate things (even just charts and figures) I sometimes add a copyright if it is something that I am particularly proud of and/or want to retain control of.\n\nIf I were in your shoes my aim would be to ensure that I was consulted about future papers (given the opportunity to be an author, or acknowledged, or to waive my rights)."
},
{
"answer_id": 36786,
"author": "DVK",
"author_id": 20300,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20300",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "One possible approach is to discuss this by presenting it as a favor to you (e.g. \"I'd have been neat if that number could have been cited to this thesis, because that would help me have more citations a the beginning of my research career\") as opposed to accusatory approach of \"You ripped me off\"."
},
{
"answer_id": 36828,
"author": "Vic",
"author_id": 6928,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6928",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "I have had a couple of similar cases before. This is a form of both plagiarism and copyright breach (these two are not necessarily always the same). They had to do 2 things before using your figure in their article: (1) cite you; (2) Provide the journal with the written permission obtained from you, for using your figure in their paper.\n\nThe failure to do any of the above 2 items is problematic. In **theory**, you can (1) write to the journal and ask for the retraction of the plagiarizing article after providing sufficient evidence. (2) write to the publisher and ask the same. (3) write to the authors and ask them to send an erratum to the journal (or ask the journal to ask them). (4) If they did not do anything, sue the irresponsible parties.\n\nWhat happens in **practice** though? An article stole a figure and even a table of my article. Interestingly enough, they had not even bothered to re-write the content of my table, but had only take a snapshot of it, and had put it exactly as is, in their own article. They had not stated at any point of their article that those figure/table were picked from my article, nor had they contacted me previously. So I contacted the journal for many times, to no avail. Then I contacted the authors (there was no independent publisher to contact). They did not respond as well! So if I wanted to sue them, I had to fly abroad, and I doubt the court in their country had any stringent rules against such copyright breaches.\n\n**So in practice, there is usually little you can do, as journals heavily tend to sweep these issues under the carpet.** Another article had plagiarized most of the content of my article, without citing me. I contacted every one (journal, publisher, authors)... After numerous emails, the journal told me they will not retract it, and if I want to sue them, I can go to the court in their country!!!!\n\n---\n\nI now understand the complexity of the case, in which the author of the copied figure is also the author of the original figure.\n\nBecause **the journal owns the copyright** of the article content, not the authors themselves. So eventhough the author can claim that (s)he has used their *own* figure twice, the journal still has the right to sue them, since (s)he has breached the copyright of the journal.\n\nBut if the original article was an **open access** one, I think it is fine to use the image twice as its copyright belongs to the author (although it is not a good practice to use repeated content)."
},
{
"answer_id": 37225,
"author": "Felipe G. Nievinski",
"author_id": 28125,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28125",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "You could make an anonymous tip about your case to [Retraction Watch](http://retractionwatch.com/)."
}
] |
2015/01/14
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36766",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27808/"
] |
36,776 |
Some co-authors and I are currently writing a position paper that aims to introduce Community A to a set of problems in Community B, in which collaboration between Communities A and B is likely to be helpful. This paper is intended for submission to a peer-reviewed special issue that has invited such position papers.
There are already some meeting series that are intended to help foster such collaborations, but they are not very widely known. In our concluding recommendations, we are thinking of including a list of them (perhaps as a table), as an aid for readers who are motivated by our paper to seek out A/B collaborations.
Is such "advertisement" appropriate for a peer-reviewed publication, particularly given that some of the authors are involved in organization of some of the meetings?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37062,
"author": "410 gone",
"author_id": 96,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/96",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "As far as the *journal* is concerned, this would be a thing to ask your editorial contact at the journal.\n\nAs far as the *readers* are concerned, I'd ask myself: what's most useful to the reader? I'd have thought that pointing to an online resource elsewhere, is more useful than a list within the article itself. In an article, the list is frozen in time, and quickly outdated, with no option of maintenance. As a linked external online resource, then there would be the option of updates and maintenance - and even if you don't expect to have the resource yourself to maintain it, someone else might take over the upkeep.\n\nNow, you *would* need to be careful in how you present that online resource, so that it didn't look like spamming (it will help considerably if the resource is not seen as promoting a particular business or university). Precedent is your friend: have a look through recent articles in your target journal, and discuss with your editorial contact at the journal, to find a presentation that will be acceptable to all."
},
{
"answer_id": 37085,
"author": "Piotr Migdal",
"author_id": 49,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "In acknowledgements you can put pretty much anything, as long as it is not too long. \n\nHowever, if it is anything lengthy (e.g. more than 3 recommendations) I would strongly encourage to put it in a different form than a research paper. Eg. a column in this journal (if it is a applicable), or (in acknowledgements) a link to a website listing opportunities."
}
] |
2015/01/14
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36776",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733/"
] |
36,783 |
I submitted a paper to a decent mathematical journal more than six months ago. Later, after communicating with several people, I have come to find the notation that I used in the paper very confusing, and thus fear that people may have serious difficulty in understanding my work.
I have since revised my paper by eliminating some notations and adding more examples and explanations. I think the revised version is much better than the previous one, even though there are no changes affecting the results of the paper, and I haven't found anything wrong in the proof.
I am worried that the referees will be annoyed by the notation that I previously used, and thus lose interest in my paper. So, I am considering submitting the revised paper to the editor to help the referees better understand my work. But some people say the referees would be unhappy to see the revision if they do not ask me to submit one.
Two weeks ago, I got a reply from the editor saying the paper is still under review, but he did not say when the review would finish, saying something like "it is difficult to put excessive pressure on the reviewers." So, I guess the review may still require some time to finish.
Should I submit the revision or not?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36789,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "You should **not** submit your revised version at this time. If it had been just a day or two since you submitted, it would be a different matter. However, more than six months later, it is quite likely that the reviewers *will* be angry to receive a new version of the paper, particularly since you have made a great deal of changes. This will be even more so if they are a substantial portion of the way through the review process. (It is also unfair to the reviewers and editors if the author can keep changing and revising the paper while it is under review.)\n\nYour best bet will be to wait until the reviews have been returned, and use your revised version of the paper to \"jump-start\" the revision process."
},
{
"answer_id": 36871,
"author": "Kevin Walker",
"author_id": 27870,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27870",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "I'm a mathematician who sometimes referees papers for math journals. If I were the referee for your paper, I would prefer to receive the revised and improved version. Quite possibly your referee has not started yet. If they have started, they can choose to ignore the new version, or use the new version to make the refereeing process easier.\n\n(For what it's worth, a shorter version of this answer received at least six up-votes on mathoverflow in the brief time before the question was moved to here.)"
}
] |
2015/01/14
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36783",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27821/"
] |
36,787 |
Might it be odd for a student to love and have excellent academic performance in all subjects—I am that student. I am really confused what to study in the university. My grades are similar (high) in all subjects, and I prefer both scientific and non-scientific subjects. It's like I want to get a degree in all fields. How can I decide what I should choose? What can I study? I have tried a lot of tests, even paid ones, but I get similar percentages for all choices.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36793,
"author": "Ben Bitdiddle",
"author_id": 24384,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24384",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "I would pick a major that maximizes your future options. Not necessarily one that will get you a job, but one that gives you a strong foundation so it's easy to pick up knowledge of other subjects.\n\nOne good major for this is **math**. Once you have mathematical sophistication it's a lot easier to learn other fields, like physics, engineering, computer science etc. In general, I think it's a lot easier to switch from math to a more applied field than it would be to switch from an applied field to math. (Personally I majored in math, and then switched to computer science, which is another major I highly endorse.)\n\nBesides, it is a very fun major. At any reputable university the homework assignments require original thought and no two problems are the same.\n\nIn terms of career options, most math majors I knew either (1) went for their PhDs (2) became traders/took other jobs in the financial sector (3) branched into software engineering or data science."
},
{
"answer_id": 36797,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "Performing well in every subject is simply impossible past the high school level. Conversely, I would argue that a strong high school student in a US-style system *should* be able to perform acceptably in every subject (excepting effects of disabilities), since studies in high school are typically designed to give the sort of general grounding that will be required in most professional careers (critical thinking, analysis of written ideas, clear exposition of your own thoughts, creative expression, foundational mathematical and scientific knowledge).\n\nBeyond high school, one might still have the potential to be good at any particular thing. It is just that this is the time when one begins to study specialities more deeply, and there are simply too many of them to be an expert in all of them. This happens in a fractal manner at each level: in undergraduate, you can be excellent at whole major, but cannot study all the majors; in graduate school, you can be excellent at a sub-discipline, but cannot study all sub-disciplines; as you establish a career as an academic, it is important to identify a small scope of contributions within the disciplines you work where you can contribute uniquely well.\n\nThese realities also imply an answer to your dilemma. You don't have to pick the \"right\" academic focus, you just have to pick one that you will enjoy. And you can even afford to be wrong a couple of times, as long as you figure it out and shift to something that suits you better. Moreover, it's possible to do this at every level (though it's harder to make large shifts the deeper you go), undergraduate, graduate, postdoctoral, and even beyond.\n\nIn short, you can think of academic areas like the [Tim Minchin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Minchin) love song says: \"If I didn't have you, someone else would do.\""
},
{
"answer_id": 36808,
"author": "James T",
"author_id": 13203,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13203",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "It may help your search if you change the question slightly. You have been doing very well in all subjects, and you enjoy them all to some level. So the questions \"Am I capable of passing exams in (subject)?\" and \"Would I enjoy studying (subject)?\" are not giving you very informative answers.\n\nRather, consider asking: \"Could I imagine *not* studying (subject)?\" For me, this helped eliminate a few options from consideration when I was choosing school subjects, and has continued to be a useful guide. At the school level, I decided not to continue with studying chemistry - not because I was bad at it, or hated it, but because it didn't grab my interest for further study. Likewise, when applying for university study, I decided not to go for French, because although I like the language and literature, I felt that I didn't need a degree in French in order to satisfy my interests. And so on. On the other hand, the things that I have chosen to pursue are topics that I can't imagine being without."
}
] |
2015/01/14
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36787",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27822/"
] |
36,790 |
I have received an email from a journal in the field of engineering saying that they found an article of mine and want to feature it in their own publications for a fee. I cannot tell if this is something legit or something they send to everyone they can find. I have Googled, but there is not much information on them. How can I tell?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36792,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "### Absolutely not.\n\nWhile open-source journals can charge authors to help recoup the publishing costs in the absence of paid subscriptions, it is completely dishonest for a journal to \"republish\" a work that has *already* appeared in print. It is even **more** dishonest for them to charge you to do it. At best this is just an advertising service; at worst it's a scam.\n\nI wouldn't even dignify the email with a response. Send that email into your junk folder."
},
{
"answer_id": 36796,
"author": "ff524",
"author_id": 11365,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "[aeismail's answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/36792/11365) is 100% correct in general.\n\nHowever, the place that emailed you isn't a journal, and doesn't claim to be (at least, not on their website). It's a website that prints the citation and abstract of articles published in other journals, with a link to the original article on the original publisher's website. Presumably (based on your experience), they allow people to pay to have their abstract \"featured\" on the website. \n\nThis is not necessarily dishonest on their part - [they may be permitted to reproduce the meta-information of a published article](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/26479/can-i-collect-meta-information-on-papers-and-put-this-online), which is what they are putting on the website.\n\nHowever, it will be of zero benefit to you to pay to have your article \"featured\" in this way."
}
] |
2015/01/14
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36790",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5958/"
] |
36,794 |
Negative results are sometimes seen as failures, and confirmatory results as lack of creativity, even though both kinds can be useful. Have researchers any incentive to publish negative or confirmatory results (put aside the cases when they are forced to, e.g. certain registered clinical trials)?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36795,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "There is certainly incentive to publish negative results: a good negative result that clearly establishes, \"X is not possible\" or \"X is not true\" can be extremely valuable. I've published some negative results myself, and am proud of the work.\n\nNegative results, however, typically must hew to a much higher standard of evidence than positive results, in order to distinguish between \"X is not possible\" and \"I can't figure out how to do X.\" For positive results, showing \"I can do X\" automatically implies \"X is possible,\" but the syllogism does not hold in reverse. I think this is one of the main reasons why publishing negative results is so difficult. Also, it's easier for reviewers to argue with negative results, and harder to argue with positive: with negative, it matters strongly *why* they are negative, while with positive the \"why\" can be relegated to discussion and hypotheses for future investigation.\n\nConfirmatory results, however, are much harder to justify in absence of an explicit mechanism requiring them, as for medical studies. Typically, we get confirmatory results not directly, but indirectly through the development of new results building on the prior results: the prior results get confirmed through their use in the controls in the new study."
},
{
"answer_id": 36800,
"author": "Stephan Kolassa",
"author_id": 4140,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4140",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "There are [journals dedicated to negative results](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=journal+of+negative+results). If you have spent time and money trying to replicate a result but were not able to do so, you can either throw the data away or publish in one of these venues.\n\nIn addition, [John Ioannidis' classic \"meta-negative\" paper](http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124) achieved a minor sort of fame.\n\nThere are also journals that \"encourage replication\" (whatever that means in the context of high rejection rates), e.g. the [IJF](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01692070).\n\n(Of course, negative results have value from a purely *scientific* point of view.)\n\nSo, overall you can certainly get citations by replicating results and/or publishing negative results."
}
] |
2015/01/14
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36794",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/452/"
] |
36,804 |
I am limited to a set number of pages for a research paper I am writing. One trick that I thought of was to find large 'review' papers that talk about a lot of things.
For instance:
```
Bubble sort [1] is a great tool for sorting.
So is merge sort [1] and also quick sort [1].
Make sure to understand the type of data you
have, because certain algorithms can take
advantage of that [1].
[1] Comparing different sorting algorithms - Peter
```
This is a bit of an exaggeration but - would my paper be negatively reviewed if I cited a single paper too many times? Again, I am really pressed for space.
Note: I am new to writing btw
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36805,
"author": "Massimo Ortolano",
"author_id": 20058,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "For (real) reason of space you can surely cite a review paper or a book, but, to reduce the number of citations, I would do it in a different way with respect to your example. \n\nFor instance:\n\n> \n> Common sorting algorithms are the bubble, the merge and the quick sort\n> (see [1] and references therein for more details).\n> \n> \n> \n\nor\n\n> \n> Common sorting algorithms are the bubble, the merge and the quick sort\n> (see [1] for a review of their properties).\n> \n> \n>"
},
{
"answer_id": 36806,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "First of all you should cite original sources. The review paper can be cited for whatever conclusions or original work stem from it, not for whatever sources it, in turn cites. In your example, citing the same sources over and over again in a single paragraph is unnecessary. You are better of starting the paragraphs stating that the information is sourced from [1] in some way.\n\nIn general, citing a single source can be reasonable if it is a really original work and the only possible source for much information. This is, however, rarely the case and so my thought is that regardless of the situation, most will see it as somewhat suspicious. It all depends on whether the paper really *is* the only source for the information.\n\nSo, general advice is: avoid doing what you outline, unless it is the only possible way (from the point of view that no other sources exist. \n\nDespite having constraints on length, you should be able to fit a reasonable number of references in. I am sure that you may have to really think twice about your text. I have certainly been in situations where I have has to ask myself if each end every sentence written is () necessary and (b) concise enough."
},
{
"answer_id": 71524,
"author": "jessingrass",
"author_id": 49420,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49420",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "Depending on the field, you can often find several pieces of research to support your point. Making your point by citing several pieces is probably stronger, in fact. Following your sample, if there were three pieces of research that supported bubble sorting, and two different pieces for quick sort, you might say this instead:\n\nBubble sort [1, 2, 3] is a great tool for sorting. \nSo is merge sort [1] and also quick sort [1, 4, 5].\nMake sure to understand the type of data you \nhave, because certain algorithms can take \nadvantage of that [1].\n\n[1] Comparing different sorting algorithms - Peter\n[2] Bubble sorting algorithms - John\n[3] More bubble algorithms - Leanne and Karold\n[4] Only Quick sort - Paul\n[5] Quick Sort is Great - Julia\n\n^^ In the above, you maintain brevity, while keeping a strong argument. Hope this helps. Good luck."
}
] |
2015/01/14
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36804",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26850/"
] |
36,824 |
I am applying for a fellowship so that I can pursue a PhD in the US. The selection process includes an interview for shortlisted candidates.
I like to save the best for the last in order to surprise the audience. I think surprise, wherever it is used, has a good effect. I have a poster based on my undergraduate dissertation, which is said to be very attractive. It is inspired by [the poster of Michael Barton](http://www.bioinformaticszen.com/post/manchester-life-sciences-symposia/), which is introduced by the [Better Poster blog](http://betterposters.blogspot.com/2013/02/critique-protein-biosynthesis.html). I think I can use it to surprise the fellowship selection committee.
Now, should I apply this strategy to the interviewers? That means I will keep the information of what I've done in the SOP as minimal as possible, just enough to pass the first selection round to get to the face-to-face round. At this round, I will show them my poster and *hope* they will be favorably impressed.
Should I use this strategy?
---
I think I should quote [my comment on Hans Adler's answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36824/should-i-omit-some-of-my-qualifications-in-my-application-materials-to-surprise#comment81168_36853) here:
>
> I just take my A0 size poster in to the interview room. During the interview, professors will test my knowledge, ask me what I've done and judge that if I'm adequate to the fellowship. In the room it will have a white board for you to outline what I've done, and this is what is poster born for. Instead of drawing figure or chart by myself, I just need to open the poster and show what's what.
>
>
>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36825,
"author": "ff524",
"author_id": 11365,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": false,
"text": "### No.\n\n* How will you know exactly what's \"just enough to pass the first selection round\"? You won't. You can't.\n* Don't \"surprise\" by withholding helpful information. I believe most people find it annoying and inconsiderate when someone deliberately withholds information that they need in order to do their job (which is what you are proposing to do to the selection committee).\n* It's harder to change someone's opinion of you than it is to confirm it. Even if you manage to get an interview using this strategy, convincing the interviewer that the candidate he thought was mediocre is really exceptional is more difficult than making him think, \"This student is just as exceptional in person as I thought he would be!\" (Also see: [confirmation bias](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias))\n* Presenting yourself badly on paper can lead the committee to think that you don't know how to present yourself well, or didn't bother to find out how, or didn't care enough to put effort into your application. These are not qualities that people look for in an applicant."
},
{
"answer_id": 36837,
"author": "silvado",
"author_id": 3890,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3890",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "I fully agree with ff524's answer. As you still seem to think that your question outlines a good strategy, let me offer an additional point.\n\nOne purpose of having two rounds of selection is that the paper application focusses on different qualifications than the interview, and the committee wants **both** to be tested. So yes, by all means, do surprise the interviewers, but do that with **points that couldn't be shown on paper** due to their nature. Examples for these are:\n\n* Give a convincing oral presentation about your results or plans.\n* Show confidence even when asked critical questions.\n\nThe poster you mention may not be a good fit for the paper application anyway, but do not withhold any information about your research that would fit into the paper application format. \n\nIf you can show the poster at the interview, you would want the interviewers to be surprised by thinking \"This guy has very nice research results, **and** he can present it in an innovative format.\"\nYou don't want their evaluation to be \"This guy cannot write clearly about his research, **but** ...\" (nothing follows because you're not invited to the interview)."
},
{
"answer_id": 36853,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "I'm a bit puzzled by the question. Posters are one medium for presenting your research. Other options include talks (or the associated slides), articles and abstracts. A poster only really makes sense in a poster session, when there is actual space for putting it up, and ideally some time has been allocated for authors standing next to their posters and presenting them to interested people.\n\nSending in a poster as part of an application in general doesn't seem to make much sense, just like sending in the slides to a talk you have given. It's not really the right medium for the purpose. And the same principle applies to your presence before the selection committee, *unless* they are doing a poster session.\n\nYou should prepare a presentation of your work in a suitable format (probably an abstract, maybe in somewhat extended form, along with a URL to a preprint or published article) and send that along with your application. You can still bring your poster in case there is a situation in which you can use it. And slides in case you get the opportunity for a little talk. Don't think of any of these things as a magic bullet just because someone has complimented you on it. Choose the right medium for the occasion; if you have material in a less optimal medium such as (presumably) your poster, keep it in your sleeve as an ace to be presented *in case* an appropriate occasion should arise.\n\nIn my opinion, a poster would have to be truly extraordinary in a way that cannot be captured in another medium to justify sending it with your application. Besides, I am not even sure how you would send it. By snailmail would be slow, unusual and a hassle. If you send it electronically, most recipients probably wouldn't know how to print it in an appropriate size, and reading it on the screen is probably not much fun."
},
{
"answer_id": 36909,
"author": "Colin McLarty",
"author_id": 27912,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27912",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "No. Too often, interviewers will be surprised anyway by things you did put in the application and even things you said in an earlier interview. They are reading a lot of applications. The interviewers who do carefully retain all the information they've gotten are people who do not prefer surprises."
},
{
"answer_id": 37019,
"author": "Lightness Races in Orbit",
"author_id": 12378,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12378",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "Absolutely not.\n\nEven if you turned out to be a good candidate, I would reject your application on this basis alone. You're completely wasting my time by failing to be up-front about your qualifications when you know that I have a lot of work to do in prioritising applications and arranging interviews accordingly.\n\nIf I find out, after doing all of that work, that by hiring you I will be hiring someone who routinely withholds relevant information because he wants to \"surprise\" me, then I know I am only hurting myself in the long run. I would instead pick an individual who is capable of being up-front and honest — someone with whom I can work without constantly wondering what he's not yet bothered to tell me."
},
{
"answer_id": 184219,
"author": "Deipatrous",
"author_id": 119911,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/119911",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "No. In addition to reasons given above, the following story illustrates the folly of witholding. I once turned down a candidate, i.e. did not invite him for interview.\n\nHe then demanded to know why.\n\nI said such and such were essential.\n\nBut I have such and such, he said (in, however, not too convincing a manner, otherwise I would still have invited him at this point).\n\nIt is not on your CV, I said. It really should have been there.\n\nThere was no room, he said.\n\nYou managed to find room for... [activities that were not relevant] I said.\n\nYeah but I sent you the same CV I send to everyone, he said.\n\nThere's your mistake, I said, in future remember to tailor those few pages to the job you are looking for at that point in time.\n\nThank you for your kind advice, he said, welling up. (Of course he didn't!)"
}
] |
2015/01/15
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36824",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14341/"
] |
36,829 |
I had a colleague who asked a professor to write a letter of recommendation on his behalf. The professor agreed and wrote 3 letters for this colleague. The colleague had an interview with one of the colleges he applied to and he came to know that the professor wrote that he doesn't know him very well.
My questions are: why would a professor agree to write a recommendation in the first place?! And what is the effect of this letter on one's application?
I asked him to write one on my behalf, and he might have written similar statement.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36845,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "In many cases professors agree to write letters for students we do not know well because we are the best option, according to the student, for them. Some students do not have good enough relationships with enough professors to get all the letters of reference they need. They may approach a professor and say, \"I know we do not know each other very well and I only took a class with you/worked in your lab for two weeks/etc, but I need someone else to write a letter and I think you are in the best option I have\". At which point, the professor may agree. If the student is not as up front, hopefully, the professor was clear and said something like \"I don't know you very well, but I can write you a letter and talk about X.\" Again, some students will agree.\n\nWhile it is not desirable to have references from people who do not know you well, including in a reference that you do not know the person well is not inherently bad. In fact, it probably is better to be up front about the relationship because it explains why the letter is so narrowly focused."
},
{
"answer_id": 36849,
"author": "Andreas Blass",
"author_id": 14506,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14506",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "If a student whom I don't know very well asks me for a recommendation, then I point that out to the student and suggest that it would therefore be better to ask someone else for a recommendation instead. But if the student, aware of the situation, still wants me to write the letter, I do it, and I include in the letter the information about how well (and in what circumstances) I know the student."
}
] |
2015/01/15
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36829",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/18244/"
] |
36,839 |
I had a meeting with my former teacher in my former school.
While we were enjoying our tea and pan cake, I saw Prof. Nickname, and we invited him to join us. An hour later, after the tea, Prof. Nickname left first and was walking back to his office. I ran after him and asked if he had time to write a recommendation letter for me, and he told me that he was busy with his teaching and could not write the letter for me. I could see on his face that he felt so sorry about it, and I wanted to comfort him but I did not know what I should say. Given that situation, how would you comfort your teacher who could not help you with a recommendation?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36841,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "\"Thank you, I understand.\" ... and then let the subject drop.\n\nAlso, consider that the expression you say may not have been sadness that the professor did not have time, but discomfort with having to say no to a request in person. In addition to possibly being true, \"I don't have time\" is also often used as a standard face-saving code for \"No.\""
},
{
"answer_id": 36940,
"author": "Developer63",
"author_id": 26795,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26795",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Why do you assume it is YOUR responsibility to \"comfort\" this big boy over his \"emotional distress\" at declining to write the letter for you?\n\nI think it is more like jakebeal said, that his perceived discomfort was at having to refuse the request in person, rather than at not having the time to do it.\n\nIn my experience, professors who feel very strongly about a candidate will MAKE time to write a recommendation for them.\n\nIn the meantime, you should accept that:\n\n1) This professor, for whatever reason, did not feel strongly enough about you to make the time. He may simply have poor eyesight and couldn't remember who you were, did not successfully connect you in his mind with who you were as a student. When you ran to him after the meeting, he may have been embarrassed about it. Or he may simply have been deep in thought about a particular problem and distressed at having his thoughts interrupted.\n\n2) This professor does not require any comforting from you.\n\nOn the positive side, your enthusiasm and confidence should serve you well, so keep your assumptions and move forward. You assume that the professor valued your work but didn't have the time; keep the assumption that your work was highly valuable, whether or not this professor realized it. Keep the assumption that the failure to recognize this is the professor's lack of awareness and is his problem.\n\nWhile it is wonderful that you want to comfort others, be careful not to overdo this in situations that do not call for it. Make sure you are fully using your attention and energy first to strengthen your own foundation, before giving this kind of energy away to others."
}
] |
2015/01/15
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36839",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27408/"
] |
36,840 |
I just wanted to know your opinion about an issue. I have contacted the supervisor of a research project for doctoral student position and I was encouraged to apply. By the way my experience really fits the position.
I applied through the online application platform and after that I didn't receive any mail regarding my status. Then the post for this research position was removed last week and I just saw that the position post is online again.
I think that they are not interested in me, because if they did I think they would have contacted me and not put the post again to search for applicants.
What do you think? Am I rejected?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36842,
"author": "silvado",
"author_id": 3890,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3890",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "If the project supervisor encouraged you to apply previously, it should be fair to inquire about the status of your application. Maybe just ask for a confirmation that they received it."
},
{
"answer_id": 36846,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "Reposting a search does not mean that all the applications received so far are unsuitable. It often means that they have not received the volume of applications they expected/wanted and are worried, without having necessarily looked at the applications, that they might have missed qualified applicants.\n\nGiven you applied on line and never got a status update, it is always reasonable to ask if everything is okay. Given the position has been reposted, it is worth asking if you need to resubmit your application. Sometimes HR and electronic systems do not carry applications over from one position to the next."
},
{
"answer_id": 36868,
"author": "Sydney Everhart",
"author_id": 27867,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27867",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "If the professor is not responding, why not just give the professor a phone call or drop by their office to talk? It may be best to first set up an appointment for the phone call or office visit."
}
] |
2015/01/15
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36840",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27852/"
] |
36,847 |
I am re-doing a module that I have failed, My first assignment have some questions that are identical to the ones I answered last year, would I be violating any laws or academic practices by copying my own answers from last year and re-use them?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36848,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": true,
"text": "This is a grey area and depends on both the nature of the questions and the specific academic misconduct policy of your university/department/instructor. If you wish to reuse your answers, I would ask the instructor in person if it is okay. If they say yes, I would suggest getting an email confirmation that it is acceptable. That said, while there are many reasons for failing a module, it is probably in your best interest to rework the initial assignments from scratch. If you failed because you were unable to grasp the later material, having a better foundation will help. If you failed because you did not put the effort into the module that it required, this is probably a good test to determine if you are now ready."
},
{
"answer_id": 36852,
"author": "Him_Jalpert",
"author_id": 27857,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27857",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "I once ran into this very situation with a course I was looking to upgrade the mark in, I **asked the professor** if I could just hand in my assignment from the last time around since it was the same as what he'd assigned. He told me that would be plagiarism, and said I should do the assignment again from scratch as it would be a better learning experience anyways.\n\nSome professors also keep an archive of work from the previous semester or two (at least some of them did at my school) for such occasions. They want to see if something a student has handed in is the same as their work from the previous year or the same assignment as one of their friends. It doesn't happen often but if the prof really wanted to look into it they could."
},
{
"answer_id": 36865,
"author": "Zuryn",
"author_id": 27865,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27865",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "In disciplines where answers are discrete and absolute (e.g., most math), if you were right before, your answer SHOULD be the same -- though you should show your work as usual. Where answers are subjective or personal, having the same answer is acceptable, though the result of the work should express any difference in opinion that has taken place over the last term. In cases where there are multiple solutions such as most programming, it may be useful to you (if not necessarily to your instructor) to explore a different method.\n\nUltimately, there are two routes to go about this:\n\n1) Ask your instructor for their advice (and follow it). Your grade ultimately depends on their opinion, so they are the best source for this.\n\n2) Make your own assumption and stick with it. While it will almost never reflect poorly on you to provide a different answer to the same question (assuming your answer is equally correct), engaging your instructor in a philosophical debate over the objective of education (whether the objective of the course is to learn, or to simply demonstrate knowledge) may require you to appeal your grade if your opinions are not shared by your instructor.\n\nIn real life, this question is unfortunately immaterial -- people (especially programmers) borrow work from themselves regularly, and from the standpoint of productivity metrics, generally come out ahead for doing it. Because this relates to the academic environment, this question is best answered by the most direct authority, your instructor."
},
{
"answer_id": 36869,
"author": "Notiophilus",
"author_id": 27869,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27869",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "I had to retake a module and its main practical. According to the rules for my university, on *no* account may you resubmit previously submitted work, as this constitutes self-plagiarism. As I wasn't keen on taking the same bloody practical twice, especially not if I'd have to rewrite, I asked my module organiser: she said carry on, the data will be different, don't worry about the words. \n\nIn the end, I used my report from the previous year as a template - the data and some of my conclusions had changed, but I used bits and pieces of my old report (e.g. in the table descriptions). If the answers you would be re-using require very little creativity, then you may not need to edit them very much. \n\nCheck the rules and practices for your own university. If you can't find an explicit answer, get in touch with your academic support team or whoever is closest; but unless your work is going to go through plagiarism software (e.g. Turnitin) I shouldn't worry too much about a complete rewrite. You might want to make sure that the person correcting your work is aware that you are retaking the module -- corral them after a lecture if you can, it's usually best."
},
{
"answer_id": 36897,
"author": "user3658874",
"author_id": 16189,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16189",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "I sat on a disciplinary board for a student who was in this exact situation a while ago. The student ended up being subject to disciplinary action; the fact that the plagiarized material was their own did not make a difference. \n\nOf course this is also going to be up to the teacher reporting it, and the school's judicial board to decide to uphold or overturn the decision. \n\nBetter safe than sorry, ask the professor first, and get an answer IN WRITING."
},
{
"answer_id": 36899,
"author": "yldm",
"author_id": 27894,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27894",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "My university's guidelines actually describe self-plagiarism, [here](https://workspace.imperial.ac.uk/registry/Public/Procedures%20and%20Regulations/Policies%20and%20Procedures/Examination%20and%20Assessment%20Academic%20Integrity.pdf). I think the point would be to go through the whole thinking process of your assignment again and most likely you will come up with a different answer. Sure, it would be fine if it is not completely different but the point would be to not copy it, but rather understand it fully."
},
{
"answer_id": 41387,
"author": "Nate Eldredge",
"author_id": 1010,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1010",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Just to add another reference, here is an excerpt from the [Code of Academic Integrity](http://cuinfo.cornell.edu/aic.cfm) at Cornell University, saying this is forbidden by default.\n\n> \n> Work submitted by a student and used by a faculty member in the determination of a grade in a course may not be submitted by that student in a second course, unless such submission is approved in advance by the faculty member in the second course. If a student is submitting all or part of the same work simultaneously for the determination of a grade in two or more different courses, all faculty members in the courses involved must approve such submissions. \n> \n> \n>"
}
] |
2015/01/15
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36847",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20546/"
] |
36,856 |
A question purely out of interest (and a bit of importance, since I'm enrolling in a research master program next month):
I wondered whether it is always necessary to include a research question in the introduction of a paper. For example, an introduction can also contain a description related to the purpose of writing the paper, right?
To give my question more context: suppose that you had to carry out a literature study on a specific subject in the field of software engineering for school, where you have to investigate a few methods (how they work and how they are related to one another). In this case, an introduction that explains why the paper will be written and an outline of what methods will be described would be sufficient, right? Or am I wrong? I mean, I don't really see the need to set up a research question, since the paper is more descriptive by its nature in this situation.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36859,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": true,
"text": "If you are writing a research paper it is quite difficult not to have a question in some form. The purpose of the introduction is to set your study (question/gap of knowledge or what have you) in perspective, to narrow the focus down from a slightly bigger picture to the gap you are trying to fill or narrow even further with your study. Even if your paper is a review, you are doing a review for some specific purpose.\n\nSo, you may be thinking too narrowly if you think of a question as a sentence with a question mark, the focus of your paper will be your research question, usually a gap in knowledge where you through your study takes our knowledge beyond the current limits."
},
{
"answer_id": 36862,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "To amplify on what Pedez has written, if the best research question you can think of about the work you have done is:\n\n> \n> Can we [prove|design|implement] ...?\n> \n> \n> \n\nor \n\n> \n> How do you [prove|design|implement] ...?\n> \n> \n> \n\nthen you a probably better off going without an explicit question and simply leading your reader through a narrative description of your work. The answers to these questions tend to be the trivial \"Yes, and here's how...\" since you wouldn't have written the paper if you hadn't answered the question already. These questions can be a little more compelling to the reader when the answer is contrary to what an expert in the field might have guessed or the question is widely asked (e.g. \"P=NP?\")."
}
] |
2015/01/15
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36856",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27855/"
] |
36,858 |
I am applying to a course in Quantitative Finance in a prestigious university in Europe.
I am wondering if it may be the case to block my facebook account; I don't want the commission to look at my profile or to gather information on me that I am not willing to give them directly.
I know that there are probably rules so that you can't discriminate based on age, sex, religion and stuff, but facebook accounts contain far more than that.
So I guess my questions are: Is it common for university to look at candidate's profile before accepting them? If it is, how much does this influence the decision?
Can my reluctance to give away some (personal) information be perceived negatively?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36860,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "I don't think it really matters for admissions purposes whether you block your account. If you have anything on your social media accounts that would be unusually damaging in a professional context, then it's probably a good idea to adjust your privacy settings (and/or posting habits) now rather than waiting for it to become a problem in the future, but ordinary Facebook usage is not likely to be an issue. In my admissions committee experience, I've never heard anyone refer to an applicant's Facebook profile and I've never looked at one myself. I've occasionally searched for information about an applicant online, for example to find a research paper that wasn't included in the application or to get more information about an award that was mentioned but not explained. If I run across something else that seems academically substantive (such as a math blog or mathoverflow account) I'll look into it, but I wouldn't bother to look at Facebook since I don't expect it would include anything relevant.\n\n> \n> Can my reluctance to give away some (personal) information be perceived negatively?\n> \n> \n> \n\nUnder ordinary circumstances, I don't think anyone cares at all. For all the admissions committee knows, you never post to Facebook, and they wouldn't be interested in any case. It would come across as suspicious if it looks like you are actively hiding something scandalous (for example, if there are rumors going around about terribly offensive things you've said on Twitter, and now your account is private), but that's presumably not the case here."
},
{
"answer_id": 36866,
"author": "Sydney Everhart",
"author_id": 27867,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27867",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "It would be best if you made your account private, especially if you are applying to work with a certain professor. People involved in hiring are often recommended to perform a Google search on a potential finalist for a position. If they uncover some poor quality social behavior on social media, it may affect their decision."
}
] |
2015/01/15
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36858",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15995/"
] |
36,867 |
**TL;DR**: How hard would it be to finish out a Ph.D. and have an effective early career (as a pure mathematician) after my adviser has unexpectedly passed away? My department does not have any tenure-track faculty able to take on students in my field at the time, but two postdocs in my field have offered to help, and the department has offered to fly me to visit researchers in my field. I am currently in my fourth year at a U.S. university.
I read [this similar question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11607/advisor-dies-suddenly-advice-needed-for-research-students), but it seemed to address practical plans for going forward more than the costs and benefits of doing so. What I'm looking for is advice on how difficult it would be to have a successful career and/or finish the Ph.D. in a reasonable amount of time, in addition to talking about what options I have.
I am a pure mathematics Ph.D. student in my fourth year. My adviser recently passed away unexpectedly, and my department does not have anyone else in his field who is able to take on students. He was a great loss to all of us, as he was a deeply intuitive mentor as well as an excellent researcher. Before my adviser's passing, I had anticipated 1.5 to 2.5 more years to Ph.D.
In the next six months or so, my department has offered me the option of working with a couple of postdocs (in my field) at my current institution, as well as flying out to occasionally meet with more senior mathematicians at different institutions. It is unclear whether the department will hire another researcher in my field anytime soon, especially one who is not fresh out of a postdoc. The department is currently uncertain if there will be tenure-track faculty there who could advise me anytime before I graduate. The department tends to offer at least 6 years of funding to Ph.D. students.
I currently have enough material for roughly one paper, but I feel that I still need guidance to finish my Ph.D., and I felt like I was really benefiting from weekly/biweekly meetings with a single adviser. My adviser helped keep me confident and excited, as well as explaining difficult techniques and offering new approaches to proofs or counterexamples.
I have heard some people advise on transferring institutions at this point, though my department does not recommend that. In addition, some people have pointed out to me that an adviser is an important early-career research collaborator, to the extent that it is difficult to do good research early in a career without having them to collaborate with or ask questions of.
If my time to Ph.D. is going to be lengthened significantly, I would like to know that going forward, as it would help me make decisions about whether to transfer, etc. So my question is: how hard would it be to finish out a Ph.D. and have an effective early career without an adviser in the traditional sense?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36870,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "In academia, as everywhere, life happens.\nFortunately, a lot of people understand this.\n\nIt will definitely be harder to succeed when your advisor has passed away than if your advisor had lived. I suspect, however, that it will be much easier than if you had a falling out with your advisor, which has been addressed in a number of different questions on this site.\n\nIt sounds like your institution is doing the best it can to offer you options for getting new advising, and that those options are not so bad. It is also the case that you are reaching the point in your program where you would in any case need to start reaching out to build strong relationships outside of your home institution. Where your advisor might once have helped bootstrap your connections, you have instead your institution's offer to help you meet with other mathematicians. This is a big juncture in your life and career, and everything changes. Despite the fact that [the original quote is false](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_word_for_%22crisis%22), a crisis really is both danger and opportunity.\n\n**Also, make sure to take care of *yourself*.** You just had somebody close to you die, and that might affect you in a lot of ways, including interfering with your ability to work. If you aren't already doing so, I would suggest proactively starting to see a counselor to help you navigate any psychological challenges that may come up: even if you don't feel you are having troubles now, they may start and it is better to catch them early, rather than having troubles that you might attribute to your new advising and then realizing six months down the road that it was actually your reaction to the death."
},
{
"answer_id": 36874,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "It's an unfortunate situation, but it sounds like your department is trying to do what it can to accommodate you. If one of the postdocs is willing and able to take on the role of advisor, that might be the best solution. Of course, a lot depends on factors that we can't know from this distance."
},
{
"answer_id": 36875,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "It is definitely a setback, but should not be disastrous if your are flexible. I see two major issues. If you follow the path they are setting you on with postdocs providing your primary supervision a infrequent meetings with a more senior person, I would worry that you will not get the support you need and will result in a serious setback. My guess is that at 4 years in and having a paper worth of results, that finding a new supervisor at another university might be possible. This would set you back in you would need to physically move and change research directions a bit, but apart from the lost time, my guess is your thesis might actually come out stronger."
},
{
"answer_id": 36876,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "The unexpected death of someone close to you is a tough situation; more than that, it is one of the archetypical tough situations throughout human history. The obvious -- but not easy -- general answer is that you need to either become more self-reliant, find other people to satisfy the needs and desires that were being met by the departed party, or some of both: some of both sounds healthy to me.\n\nIt sounds like your department is trying to work with you to meet your needs, which is great. My first comment is that's an ongoing process, not a one-time decision or fix. How are you supposed to know right now what accommodations are needed or optimal? You can't. You should identify specific departmental personnel and make clear that you will be checking in with them periodically about the situation.\n\n> \n> I have heard some people advise on transferring institutions at this point, though my department does not recommend that.\n> \n> \n> \n\nWhether they recommend it or not, you can leave at any time, and -- with a deceased thesis advisor -- an absolutely clear conscience. So if you know of a faculty member at another institution that you think would be an ideal advisor, feel free to explore that right away. It sounds to me like you don't, and I'll continue under that assumption.\n\nYour department's recommendation may well be reasonable....but do you understand why they're making it? I would hope that by saying this to you they have some degree of planning for your successful completion of a PhD. You say a little bit about this, but not enough: they offered for you to work with postdocs, but you say that there are no faculty in your field. That's a bit ambiguous: are these postdocs in your field, enough to help you finish your thesis? I'm guessing they must be at least close, because if not you could get a tenure-track faculty member who is not in your field. \n\nI think you should talk to these postdocs and get a sense of whether they could help you finish your thesis. If so, that sounds like a good option for your situation: basically they become your new thesis advisor, and the fact that they are not tenure-track at that institution is not so directly relevant, so long as they will stay there until you graduate. (Look into that!) \n\nFor the majority of students in pure mathematics that are not in the home stretch of their program, being without a designated advisor at their home institution would leave them terribly adrift: a few plane trips here and there will not cut it. Recently I was on the committee of a student whose advisor left the department soon after she started working in earnest on her thesis topic. They kept in close contact through weekly skype appointments *and* a faculty member in a related field stepped up to become her official thesis advisor. I watched this happen and would say that it set her back a full year. In the end she did graduate, get a good visiting position, and now seems to be doing extremely well. The moral is that ultimately it is all about the student: this was a real test of her character, and she passed with flying colors, but gosh it was hard, even hard for me to watch. (And I must tip my hat to my departed colleague as well: he was still closely involved with the student the whole time, infinitely more so than he was obliged to be.) \n\nI would say that you in particular sound like you really need a new advisor. Don't stick around at your home institution without someone stepping up to that role. (And certainly don't wait around for them to hire someone else! Unless they can tell you right now who they want to hire next year, in which case you should ask to spend the intervening time at the present institution of this person.)\n\nYou ask about how academia works without having an advisor to mentor you post-PhD. To be frank: by asking for a quantification of the marginal difficulty of the deceased advisor and in other ways as well, your question is telegraphing that you have an uncertain commitment to a post-PhD academic career. \n\nAn academic career in pure mathematics is hard for everyone, and thinking that the key to success is close post-PhD contact with your advisor sounds closer to wrong than right to me. I will admit that I had a fairly extreme situation: [my former PhD advisor](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Mazur) is one of the great mathematical luminaries of our time. He gave me the help and guidance I needed as a PhD student. But I have never collaborated with him, and since graduation I haven't asked him any mathematical questions. We remain on perfectly good terms (I have his phone number) and have professional interactions like two mathematicians in the same field, but once I got my PhD he became my **former** advisor (though that is still a critical role: e.g. it involved writing a lot of letters on my behalf!), if you take my meaning. One of my oldest friends got a math PhD. A few years later, [his advisor](https://math.dartmouth.edu/archive/kpbogart/public_html/) died in a tragic bicycle accident. So that meant the end of the mentorship, and I remember discussing the awkardness of the situation with him for several years after. My friend is now the chair of the math department at his university. Again: **ultimately it is all about the student**.\n\nTo sum up: as others have said, this may well be a traumatic situation for you. Take it as such, give yourself some time to grieve and to let things sink in. While you're doing that, involve your department in your plans to complete your PhD there or elsewhere and to find at least one new mentor. When you do find a new mentor, see if you can regain mojo you might have lost during this tough setback. But if you really think of mathematical research as something that you need someone else's guidance and energy to pull off, I would recommend that you complete your PhD and then look elsewhere for a career: either a teaching-intensive job or something else entirely. The main benefit of a research career in mathematics is that mathematics is frickin' awesome and spending your life doing it makes you a rock star. There are other benefits, but none that stack up against the sizable costs.\n\n**Added**: You speak as if you might not even finish your PhD. For someone who's four years into a math PhD program and already has enough results for a paper, I think not finishing the degree ought not even to be an option on the table. The more I think about it, the more I wonder if your natural emotional reaction to your advisor's death is playing a role in your thinking. Trust me on this: *everyone* wants you to finish your PhD. It's a cliche to say \"That's what your advisor would have wanted\", but it's probably true, right?"
},
{
"answer_id": 36894,
"author": "Orion",
"author_id": 19732,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19732",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "First off, I am so sorry for your loss. \n\nDisclaimer, my field is not mathematics. \n\nThat being said, adviser plays a dual role, expert and mentor. In their technical expert role, he or she works closely with you to guide you through the difficult problems. In their mentoring role, they take care of you being motivated, dealing with the stress, advise on how to be a member of research community, how to present yourself etc... Ideally, and most often, one person full-fills both roles. But not always.\n\nSo, maybe the postdocs plus an external expert, can fulfill the technical advisement role. But then also, ask the department for a faculty mentor. This person might not be as familiar with your work, but can offer you general and close support. Huge part of being a successful researcher is to be able to explain your work to someone not very familiar with your area. The sooner you start practicing that, the better. This is also a time of opportunity for your personal growth, on taking more responsibilities under unfortunate circumstances. \n\nAs far as your future goes, remember that the postdocs will become more experienced, and will be able to give you letters or references, along with the your mentor. All of them witnessing your resilience in overcoming this major setback at this hard time will speak volumes of you, and how you tackle problems. \n\nBut then, my field is not mathematics."
},
{
"answer_id": 36896,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "The first question that I would ask of the department (in particular the head of the graduate program or the department chair) is whether or not there is some faculty member who would be willing to act as your formal supervisor (perhaps in conjunction with another research advisor from outside the university) on your current topic. It may take some time (weeks) to get an answer. \n\nIf the answer is something like \"Yes, professor X has volunteered to take you on.\", then you should talk to professor X to see how it would work. Professor X might be willing to do his best to advise you on this topic even though it's outside of his area of expertise, and that would be a very fair offer. Of course you would have to decide whether you'd be willing to work with an advisor who wasn't as well qualified as your previous advisor. If professor X is only willing to advise you as you start over on a topic in his area of interest that would be a very different situation and you would have to decide whether to change topics or move to a different program. If the department has difficulty finding a faculty member willing to act as your advisor, then I'd say that it's definitely time to move on. \n\nOur department had a similar situation a few years ago with a faculty member who was supervising an MS student in cryptography. The student was only a few months from completing his MS thesis when the faculty member died. Although this was far outside of my area of expertise, I stepped in and together with the other committee members, we got the student through. It was hard for both me and the student but the student was clearly better off finishing the thesis in this way than picking a new topic and starting over from scratch."
}
] |
2015/01/15
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36867",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7380/"
] |
36,877 |
Prof. Z has taught thousands of students in my former school since 2010. In the Biology course that he taught, there were two students (A and B) with similar full names and nicknames, but their academic results were totally different.
Prof. Z liked student A but hated student B because student B used to be very naughty in Prof. Z's courses and got very bad grades.
On January 4th, Prof. Z received student B's email for a letter of recommendation. Prof. Z agreed to do so and arranged a time to meet student B. On the day when they met, Prof. Z knew he had made a big mistake, and he refused to do anything for student B.
Given that situation, what would you do if this happened to you (as student B)? This really happened recently in my former school, and student B was very angry and made a complaint to the head of Prof. Z's department.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36878,
"author": "Ben Bitdiddle",
"author_id": 24384,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24384",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": true,
"text": "As Student B, I would be pretty mad about this, even more than if he had declined to write me a letter in the first place. But I would also recognize that it was for the best (if he hadn't done this, he would have written me a bad letter).\n\nAlso, I would never have gone to the department head about this because\n\n1. It's not something that merits a formal complaint\n2. It's not something I'd want to be known for, especially among other professors who may be writing my letters of recommendation."
},
{
"answer_id": 36898,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "The questions-not-asked include asking about the basis for student B's actions. As @BenBitdiddle comments after his answer, perhaps student B was \"advised\" to ask the most famous professor, etc.\n\nMy blanket reaction to this is that this advice should not have come from any professionally competent \"advisor\", but probably from peers, or peer-based information. Abstractly, there's certainly nothing wrong with getting the opinions of one's friends and peers. However, it is exactly in such situations that the critical weakness in asking people who don't know much about a given thing is instantiated. How to know that this would be a problem? Difficult, for many understandable reasons, but that does not resolve the issue! \n\nThat is, younger people would benefit from appreciating the palpable fact that important decisions affecting their lives are made by people (often older) who need not share their viewpoint, nor their same-age friends' viewpoint.\n\nWhile it is true that some people who \"have power\" abuse it, this is not a universal, and it is not wise to postulate that all experienced/older people are oppressive or selfish. Genuine experience, as opposed to conjecture, is hard to replace. Thus, ideally, letter-of-recommendation writers are sufficiently experienced to have been through (and succeeded in) the endeavor for which they're writing a letter. Perhaps also experience (and successful in) appraising the likely future success of people in those endeavors. From this comes the value of letters of recommendation.\n\nYes, unfortunately, even a pretty-darn-good performance in a routine course doesn't give a letter writer much to work with. Many people hit that mark, etc. \n\nWhat's a student to do who has trashed all those bridges, before they realized that it'd matter? Probably spend extra time proving exactly that they'd caught on, and have moved to a different plateau. But there'd need to be tangible evidence, not just a promise.\n\nSo, in effect, \"tell your friends not to hope for letters from faculty in whose courses they'd done badly\"... And, if people discover themselves in the position that there's no alternative, then they need to get as close to a \"do-over\" as they can, because otherwise they've sealed their own fate, in any conventional avenue.\n\nYes, it is indeed unfortunate that this \"appraisal\" period comes during a period of peoples' lives where many things are in turmoil... \n\nSo, again, people who become aware of this mechanism should \"tell their friends\" to work hard to avoid finding themselves in such a situation. If one does, then it is almost surely better to allocate considerable time to repair the damage, rather than somehow \"fake it\" and limp along with fatally bad letters of recommendation.\n\nBy the way, part of the \"currency\" that faculty have to spend (or not) is their word/reputation, so they are very, very hesitant to blow it on bogus not-so-bad recommendations. Faculty who'll give glowing recommendations to nearly anyone will have debased that currency to an extent that it is nearly worthless... so you'd not gain from a letter from them *anyway*."
},
{
"answer_id": 36906,
"author": "Daniel Wessel",
"author_id": 26614,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26614",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Semi-serious answer:\n\n---\n\n**As student B:** Next time, claim a family emergency and ask whether the prof can please send you the letter of recommendation. As much as you liked to see him in person, you're at home caring for your dying grandmother (again). (And drop this case, you're getting an even worse reputation.)\n\n**As better student B:** Don't ask for a letter of recommendation from a prof if you did show abysmal behavior and performance in class. It's a letter of recommendation, not cronyism, there should be something to recommend.\n\n**As an even better student B:** Behave better in class and learn to learn (and to perform). University isn't school and you're supposed to be an adult by now -- you actually have a job: to learn the material, to understand it, and to learn how to think. And BTW, there's a place for naughty behavior in class -- *if it's smart*. But that requires understanding the material, which according to the grades B did not.\n\n---\n\n**As prof Z:** Apologize that you have written the wrong letter of recommendation, which was a honest mistake. Ask the student whether s/he really wants a letter of recommendation which essentially states that s/he was in class, disrupted it and got bad grades (if it's legally possible to write about negative events)\n\n**As a better prof Z:** Never write a letter of recommendation without checking first for whom you are writing the letter of recommendation. Ask for the identifying information that differentiated between the students when it came to assigning their grades. If students failed to understand their job, they might fail to understand what is involved in getting a letter of recommendation.\n\n**As an even better prof Z:** If you have a student B in your class, try to inform this person about the consequences of his/her behavior. And that in earlier schools, everyone might have been a winner, but here good grades require knowledge/skills/performance. Also inform administration that you have a student apparently riding on the coattails of another student. Every prof who had both students in their class should get this information.\n\n---\n\n**As student A:** Never give student B your diplomas.\n\n**As a better student A:** Ask prof Z. for that letter of recommendation.\n\n**As an even better student A:** Legally change (add to) your name."
}
] |
2015/01/15
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36877",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27408/"
] |
36,887 |
**Disclaimer:** This question is probably on the brink of off-topicness; maybe, it is also opinion-based and I don't exclude it is way too broad. Nonetheless, I'm asking this out of curiosity: so, if you close this question, I won't complain; but if you answer, I'll appreciate.
To try to stay on track, let me state clearly the rules of the game.
First, I'm interested in the following bilingual settings or situations:
1. Courses which are taught in a language which is not the local language (e.g. a course taught in English at a German university).
2. Courses which are taught in the local language that adopt textbooks written in a different language.
3. Students, researchers and professors who collaborate with people speaking different native languages.
Second, here is the question:
**Have you got any example of technical terminology or symbology (from whatever field) which has been, in your experience, cause of confusion, misunderstandings or mistakes in the above given situations?**
Let me give you a few examples I've come across:
* In English, the term *voltage* denotes a common electrical quantity. The Italian term for voltage is *tensione*. Many Italian students who have been exposed to English classes, however, instead of using the correct term when speaking in Italian, use the mistranslated term *voltaggio*, which looks similar to the English term, but is incorrect.
* In German and in several East European countries, the symbol used to denote voltages is U instead of the more common V. But this wouldn't cause much trouble were it not for the fact that the symbology employed to indicate the polarity of a voltage is opposite to that employed in US or in many other European countries. It took me a while to realize this, but now, if I have a technical discussion with someone from those countries, it's the first thing I point out to avoid many headaches to everybody.
* A Czech researcher told me that the common low-pass or high-pass filters are actually called high-reject and low-reject filters in the Czech technical literature, and this was a major source of confusion when he started reading the English technical literature.
**Note:** I'm not interested in common words that can sound awkward or rude or offensive in another language, just technical terminology which can cause confusion.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36888,
"author": "Wrzlprmft",
"author_id": 7734,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7734",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "The German word for *torque* is *Drehmoment,* which is a composite of *Dreh (turning)* and *Moment.* Thus a very literal translation of *Drehmoment* would be *turning momentum.* This leads to confusion with the English *angular momentum,* which is *Drehimpuls* in German, but which one might easily accidentally translate as *Drehmoment.*"
},
{
"answer_id": 36890,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Actually, I think one of the biggest issues that we have to deal with as scientists is the use of writing conventions. For instance:\n\n* The \"decimal point\" in Europe is normally written as a *comma*. So a German would see that \"a mile is 1,760 yards\" might not know if a mile should be 5280 feet or 5.28 feet! (This can cause confusion when translating back and forth.)\n* Similarly, I have to be very careful with my handwriting, lest my audience think my \"7\" is a \"1.\"\n\nA lot of what you're talking about, though, I think falls either under the header of \"false cognates\" (or *faux amis*, as they're known in French), or of words with multiple definitions. As examples of the latter, for instance, *Benzin* in German can mean both \"benzene\" as well as \"gasoline,\" while *Neigung* can mean both \"slope\" and \"gradient.\""
}
] |
2015/01/15
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36887",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20058/"
] |
36,900 |
What is the recommended way to reply to an academic interview invitation? And would there be a difference in response if the invitation was sent by a faculty or a staff? Should it be very short or should the applicant express his interest again in the position, maybe provide more details of his qualifications etc?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36907,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "If they call you and you answer, be excited and happy and keep the conversation really short. The person who called you does not really want to talk to you, they just want to tell you that you got an interview and possibly to dump some information on you. Your side of the conversation could be:\n\n> \n> This is so great and I am really excited to come for the interview. I have to run to a meeting/teach (doesn't matter if it is true or not) can we set up a time to talk in more detail later today or tomorrow?\n> \n> \n> \n\nAt that point the person calling will either setup a time or tell you they will email you the information they need to tell you.\n\nIf they leave a voice mail, you can either call them back or send them an email, unless they tell you to do one or the other. If they email you, you should probably only reply with an email, unless they tell you to call.\n\nIn the follow up conversation/email there are things you need to know, which search committees often forget about. You should of course express how excited you are to come visit and tell them about your work and learn more about them and their cool work, but you do not need to directly sell yourself at this point (or really during the interview itself). What you do need to do is:\n\n1. Setup a date for the visit. You should tell them when you are available.\n2. Alert them to anyone you want to meet during your visit.\n3. Find out how travel is paid for and arranged.\n4. What the interview consists of and who will be at those events.\n5. If they need a title and/or abstract, and if so when, for the job talk.\n\nThe reason you need to know what the interview consists of is that a campus visit may include one-on-one meetings/interviews, a panel interview, a research seminar on your past work, a teaching demo, and a \"chalk\" talk on your future work. If they want you to teach an hour lecture of an actual calculus 101 class, you really need to know that beforehand. Alternatively, they might want you to talk through a syllabus of a graduate class you would teach. A 10 minute research talk aimed at the search committee is very different than an hour long seminar with undergraduates present."
},
{
"answer_id": 36912,
"author": "jobucks",
"author_id": 4313,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4313",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "PS Start gathering the email addresses of everyone you will meet now. You will be tired after your interview/talk so get your draft thankyou emails lined up ready to send.\n\nAnd *don't* forget to thank all the secretaries, drivers, students who also do small tasks for you. First, they appreciate that and will remember when you return. Second, good schools find out whether you did. The general staff have a say in your appointment."
}
] |
2015/01/16
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36900",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24823/"
] |
36,910 |
Let's say you are passionate, I mean really passionate, about your field.
However, whenever you try to share the pleasure induced by your findings or further understanding or even acknowledged works with those you love and who love you, could be your family members or lover or spouse, you always get a response such as "Oh yeah, that might make a lot of money."
What do you do if you are uncomfortable with such a response but do not know how to properly express yourself in this context without hurting them?
What would you do to make yourself more comfortable?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36911,
"author": "jobucks",
"author_id": 4313,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4313",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "How about this - taken from Donald Schön (.. on top of the o) *Reflective Practitioner*\n\nThe response you are getting surprises you. It is often in the nature of skilled professional work that circumstances surprise us. And at that moment, we begin to work.\n\nStop yourself. Brake. And ask yourself, \"What surprises me? and what would I like to know more about?\" \n\nIf you can understand and articulate what surprises you in their response and how you can learn more, then you move from being irritated (and closing down) to being curious and opening out.\n\nDoes this help?"
},
{
"answer_id": 36916,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "Let's pretend that it's not an academic field that you are passionate about, but instead something like [train spotting](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railfan#Trainspotting) or [fantasy football](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_football_(American)) or [competitive button collecting](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Button_collecting). Seriously, pretend that when you are talking with non-practitioners, that every technical word that comes out of your mouth is replaced with something like \"'Jaques Israel' Pink Latticino Swirl\" or \"1820 Georgian British Livery button.\" \n\n*Would you feel upset by their disinterest then?* Depending on the answer to this question, I think that there are two ways to approach the issue:\n\n* If you would still feel upset, then it's not so much that you want the people close to you to be button enthusiasts too, but that you want them to be excited for you and supportive of your enthusiasm. A way that you can address this in your relationships is by talking less about the subject that you care about, and more about your little triumphs and setbacks in pursuing it. For example, if you are elated because you have just figured out a difficult problem, tell about your struggle and your joy, or about how it can affect your relationship with your fellow button collectors, but don't try to explain the problem or the solution.\n* If you would not still feel upset, then it seems that you feel there is something important about your field that means that non-practitioners should care about what is going on in it. In this case, you again need to drop the technical vocabulary, but instead talk about how the ideas that you encounter may come to affect the world that we all live in or our understanding of it. A personal example: some of my synthetic biology work focuses on the study of *translational regulation of Sindbis replicons via calibrated flow cytometry* (\"1851 Goodyear Patriotic Lady Liberty Button\"), but I talk about it with non-practitioners in terms of the ways it could make vaccination easier, safer, and more accessible.\n\nI either case, in my personal experience, the core of the solution is to drop the technical language and talk about whichever *human* dimensions it is that you really want the other person to engage with."
},
{
"answer_id": 36926,
"author": "Ben Bitdiddle",
"author_id": 24384,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24384",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "Some things you could try:\n\n1. Get really good at selling your work, and develop an elevator pitch that most laymen would find interesting and relevant.\n2. If your topic is very esoteric, you could try selling your field as a whole before moving to your specific research topic (answering the question \"what is math?\" rather than \"what is algebraic number theory?\"). This will generally be easier for laymen to relate to, and if you give them a good introduction, you may be able to steer the conversation towards the specific things that *you* find interesting about your field (rather than \"it could make money\"). As a bonus, this will remind you of the broader impact of your work, and the things that make your problems fundamentally interesting to other people.\n3. If that fails, you can find different people to talk to about your research."
}
] |
2015/01/16
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36910",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/18107/"
] |
36,914 |
I saw that some friends know who are the search committee members before their interviews. So would it be fine to ask the department who are they? And if it was fine, why the department didn't mention their names since the beginning? Could asking about their names be taken as negative thing?! A strong applicant could say that she doesn't care who are finalizing the list or interviewing her.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36930,
"author": "Anonymous",
"author_id": 11565,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11565",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "In general, I would recommend against asking who the search committee is. It might give the impression that you are trying to \"game the system\" rather than simply put your best foot forward for everyone. That said, I don't think this is a serious faux pas.\n\nSome departments, including my own, post a list of committee assignments on their department homepages -- mostly out of convenience for their own faculty. So you might be able to answer your question without asking."
},
{
"answer_id": 42044,
"author": "Sander Heinsalu",
"author_id": 6313,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6313",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Depends on the culture of the field. In economics, the placement officer told all candidates from our PhD program to ask who the interview committee members were when receiving a call or email offering an interview. \nSometimes the question was not answered or the answer was delayed, sometimes the committee was on the website of the hiring department."
}
] |
2015/01/16
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36914",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24823/"
] |
36,917 |
Our School Research Ethics Committee requires when designing an online survey that each question is optional for the participants. These rules were devised before the era of crowdsourcing when researchers had to rely on the goodwill of others to gather the necessary responses.
However as I am paying each participant to complete this survey (using Amazon Mechanical Turk) do you think I have a case to argue that I should be able to make some, or even all, questions mandatory?
I have not approached the Research Ethics Committee about this yet, I just wanted to see what the norm is in other countries and institutions.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36919,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "Mandatory is a difficult concept. I think it is ethically questionable to not allow a participant to withdraw from a study at any time. There may be edge cases, for example drug studies, where further follow up treatment is required, but even here I think that treatment would not be considered part of the study. When a participant withdraws from a study we still need to provide them with whatever inconvenience allowance was agreed. We are not even allowed to prorate the inconvenience allowance, however, we break our longer studies into hour long segments and pay an hourly inconvenience allowance. It is perfectly reasonable to use a \"forced choice\" response system where participants are required to give a response in order to continue with the study. Using the Mechanical Turk, I think ethically you should provide an easy means of dropping out that is constantly available that will not penalize the participants. When it is so easy to withdraw, forcing them to answer a question which is not inherently necessary, seems silly. If they do not want to answer it and they have no other option, they will just withdraw.\n\nConsider two experiments that consist of two questions. In the first experiment you either show either a circle or a square that is either red or blue. If for whatever reason the participant does not want to tell you what shape they saw, you can still get meaningful information about the color and therefore it would make no sense to force them to answer the first question. In the second experiment you show them a face and ask if it is a man or a women and based on that response you ask them if it was either Aluke or Nurol or Bob or DupeKx. For this experiment they need to answer the first question."
},
{
"answer_id": 36923,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "The IRB that I serve on would never approve of a paid participation survey in which the participants would be denied the compensation if they didn't complete the survey. Furthermore, if someone decides that they don't want to complete their participation in the study it would be unethical to make use of any partial responses that you'd already gotten from that participant. \n\nIn short, the answer to your question is \"no.\""
},
{
"answer_id": 36924,
"author": "BrianH",
"author_id": 6787,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6787",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "While this will definitely vary by review board, my personal experience has been that it's a standard that you are explicitly required to inform participants at an appropriate point (disclosures, usually) that they are allowed to refuse to answer any question they want by leaving it blank or marking it in some fashion. Sometimes this even means that, if they leave any question off, you have to throw out their whole set of responses because it's useless to you, but they must still be paid/credited for their participation even if it makes it useless to you.\n\nThe question is both ethical and practical - if you require an answer you may also be encouraging dishonesty, and possibly invalidating the usefulness of your survey anyway. \"I'm not answering that\" is better than \"I'm not comfortable answering that truthfully, so I'll just put down nonsense.\" And this set of rules actually goes far beyond just the idea of unpaid volunteers, as it applies to things like medical patients, paid employees, etc. \n\nNow, *this is not to say you can't do it* - ethics review boards have approved electrocuting and burning people based upon appropriate balancing factors, so it's up to the board and how you design and present your study.\n\nBut setting form fields as \"required\" will require appropriate disclosure to the participants and review board, and will likely be considered a negative that must be appropriately justified and handled. You will have to show that autonomy, right to withdraw, informed consent, non-coercion, and ethical payment are all handled appropriately. You will be making things hard on yourself, so if you don't have to do it this way, you probably shouldn't.\n\nYou are generally welcomed to pro-rate payment, so if a person refuses to answer all items you only have to pay them for the items they did answer - and you must put this in the informed consent forms and present this to the review board. Whether or not the particular online payment system or setup you use will support such a method might restrict your realistic study design, but that hardship is probably not something the review board will be particularly concerned about."
}
] |
2015/01/16
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36917",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27877/"
] |
36,920 |
I am writing a dissertation for my PhD in Romance Languages. I focus on Spanish literature and use primary sources all in Spanish and secondary sources in Spanish and English, but I am writing in English. Do I need to translate the Spanish quotes I use from my primary and secondary sources into English for my dissertation? I am using MLA style and I could not find a rule about this issue.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36919,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "Mandatory is a difficult concept. I think it is ethically questionable to not allow a participant to withdraw from a study at any time. There may be edge cases, for example drug studies, where further follow up treatment is required, but even here I think that treatment would not be considered part of the study. When a participant withdraws from a study we still need to provide them with whatever inconvenience allowance was agreed. We are not even allowed to prorate the inconvenience allowance, however, we break our longer studies into hour long segments and pay an hourly inconvenience allowance. It is perfectly reasonable to use a \"forced choice\" response system where participants are required to give a response in order to continue with the study. Using the Mechanical Turk, I think ethically you should provide an easy means of dropping out that is constantly available that will not penalize the participants. When it is so easy to withdraw, forcing them to answer a question which is not inherently necessary, seems silly. If they do not want to answer it and they have no other option, they will just withdraw.\n\nConsider two experiments that consist of two questions. In the first experiment you either show either a circle or a square that is either red or blue. If for whatever reason the participant does not want to tell you what shape they saw, you can still get meaningful information about the color and therefore it would make no sense to force them to answer the first question. In the second experiment you show them a face and ask if it is a man or a women and based on that response you ask them if it was either Aluke or Nurol or Bob or DupeKx. For this experiment they need to answer the first question."
},
{
"answer_id": 36923,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "The IRB that I serve on would never approve of a paid participation survey in which the participants would be denied the compensation if they didn't complete the survey. Furthermore, if someone decides that they don't want to complete their participation in the study it would be unethical to make use of any partial responses that you'd already gotten from that participant. \n\nIn short, the answer to your question is \"no.\""
},
{
"answer_id": 36924,
"author": "BrianH",
"author_id": 6787,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6787",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "While this will definitely vary by review board, my personal experience has been that it's a standard that you are explicitly required to inform participants at an appropriate point (disclosures, usually) that they are allowed to refuse to answer any question they want by leaving it blank or marking it in some fashion. Sometimes this even means that, if they leave any question off, you have to throw out their whole set of responses because it's useless to you, but they must still be paid/credited for their participation even if it makes it useless to you.\n\nThe question is both ethical and practical - if you require an answer you may also be encouraging dishonesty, and possibly invalidating the usefulness of your survey anyway. \"I'm not answering that\" is better than \"I'm not comfortable answering that truthfully, so I'll just put down nonsense.\" And this set of rules actually goes far beyond just the idea of unpaid volunteers, as it applies to things like medical patients, paid employees, etc. \n\nNow, *this is not to say you can't do it* - ethics review boards have approved electrocuting and burning people based upon appropriate balancing factors, so it's up to the board and how you design and present your study.\n\nBut setting form fields as \"required\" will require appropriate disclosure to the participants and review board, and will likely be considered a negative that must be appropriately justified and handled. You will have to show that autonomy, right to withdraw, informed consent, non-coercion, and ethical payment are all handled appropriately. You will be making things hard on yourself, so if you don't have to do it this way, you probably shouldn't.\n\nYou are generally welcomed to pro-rate payment, so if a person refuses to answer all items you only have to pay them for the items they did answer - and you must put this in the informed consent forms and present this to the review board. Whether or not the particular online payment system or setup you use will support such a method might restrict your realistic study design, but that hardship is probably not something the review board will be particularly concerned about."
}
] |
2015/01/16
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36920",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27916/"
] |
36,927 |
Ten days ago I contacted a professor who conducts research in a field I am deeply interested in, to ask about PhD positions. He replied very politely that he had no funding available to hire a new person in his research group.
Today, the university announced that there is funding available for PhD positions and they welcome applications. In the application I am supposed to choose from a list of supervisors and try to convince them via a motivation letter and without directly contacting them.
Should I put the name of that professor or is it not a good idea? Wouldn't he know that there is some funding coming up soon, to suggest to me to wait a bit or is it possible he didn't know about it? Was he trying to politely say that he is not interested in me? If so, would it be a better idea to choose another supervisor or be persistent?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36928,
"author": "Davidmh",
"author_id": 12587,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12587",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Maybe he meant that he didn't have funding to hire you directly. Or perhaps the university funding details are not known to everybody outside of the corresponding committee until they are out. Or even he was just oblivious to the existence of this.\n\nThere is no way to know without specifics, and there is little risk in just applying."
},
{
"answer_id": 36929,
"author": "Ben Bitdiddle",
"author_id": 24384,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24384",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "Well, there are two possibilities:\n\n1. The professor has no funding available to hire a new person in his research group\n2. The professor is trying to politely say that he is not interested in you\n\nIt seems like in either of those cases, you should choose another supervisor. It sounds like he doesn't want you, so if you apply to the university intending to work with him, you'll probably get rejected."
},
{
"answer_id": 36938,
"author": "Developer63",
"author_id": 26795,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26795",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "You should list that professor on your letter and at least go down with your guns blazing. He at least knows your name and has interacted with you enough that he would choose to look more closely at your application now.\n\nYou can only take his earlier statements about lack of funding at face value. Also remember that not all of us are fortunate enough to charm the socks off every person we meet upon first meeting them. This professor may be someone who needs to warm up to people. At the very least, he is likely to respect you for your persistence in reaching out to him again in this way.\n\nWhat is relevant here is that this professor conducts research in a field you said you are DEEPLY INTERESTED in. List this professor as your desired supervisor.\n\nThere may also be the possibility this professor may decline to be your supervisor, for reasons that have little to do with you, and may instead refer your application to another professor, who winds up becoming your supervisor. If he did such a thing, it would probably be based on his expert knowledge of the situation, and that would be a good thing for you.\n\nFaint heart never won fair lady. Forget the overthinking, analytical stuff here and if you are going to go down, going after something you want, make sure it is with both guns blazing. List this professor as your desired supervisor.\n\nToom Luqm."
}
] |
2015/01/16
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36927",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27923/"
] |
36,932 |
Psychology at universities in Germany is either in the natural sciences or in philosophy, depending on the university. This affects the kind of academic title you get. People doing their doctoral thesis either get the doctor in natural sciences (Dr. rer. nat.) or the doctor in philosophy (Dr. phil.).
If I am not mistaken, most doctors in psychology (internationally) are Ph.D.s. So my question is, how would you refer to your title internationally? As a doctor of natural sciences? As a Ph.D. (even if you have a Dr. rer. nat.)? Are there legal requirements? I am thinking about a website that is generally understood internationally and -- perhaps -- about business cards.
(And yup, personally, I think -- and act if -- psychology is closer to natural sciences than philosophy.)
(I'm sorry if I can't specify the question more closely. There's a similar question ([Choosing a title to hold upon completion of a doctoral degree: “Dr.” vs. “Ph.D.” [duplicate]](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3522/choosing-a-title-to-hold-upon-completion-of-a-doctoral-degree-dr-vs-ph-d/)) but I don't think it really covers this issue.)
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36934,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "In the US, most doctorates in science and engineering are also a PhD even though our degrees aren't in philosophy. While other degrees exist, they are less common. I would suggest translating your degree as a PhD since most international audiences will understand that you mean an academic doctorate. \n\nThat being said, I was able to get what Dr. rer. nat. meant, too, so you might decide to put that and not worry about it. Most people have the ability to search the internet when they are confused."
},
{
"answer_id": 36950,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "I would say that for business cards and websites you don't need to translate your degree title. Many people will already know what it means (German titles are unusual, but reasonably well known), and most will be able to basically figure it out, since it's got \"Dr.\" as part of it. If you are feeling particularly concerned about misunderstanding, you can put a footnote to the effect of \"German doctorate similar to a Ph.D,\" but it's probably better to let the other person look up a translation."
},
{
"answer_id": 37008,
"author": "Mikael Vejdemo-Johansson",
"author_id": 519,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/519",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "I translate my own Dr.rer.nat. as PhD when I feel like a translation is required, and state it as Dr.rer.nat. otherwise. Since it says Dr. right there in the title, it is seldom if ever misunderstood."
}
] |
2015/01/16
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36932",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26614/"
] |
36,933 |
*I apologize in advance if this question is too broad, or too subjective - I couldn't think of a better place to ask it.*
**Summary**: does mathematical aptitude impose an upper boundary on how well one can do in research areas where life sciences intersect with engineering and computer science? I.e., is an ideal researcher in such fields either an experimentalist or an applied mathematician/physicist?
---
I'm a computer science graduate thinking about pursuing a PhD in an interdisciplinary life science field; specifically systems biology, synthetic biology, bioinformatics, genomics or cognitive (neuro)science. Characteristic of all these disciplines is that they seem to - ideally - require one of the following **two profiles**:
* someone with great **experimental**/domain skills (e.g. molecular
biology, neuroscience methods etc.),
* someone with great **quantitative** skills (math/physics).
By virtue of my undergrad background, I'm likely closer to the second profile, even though I have *some* domain knowledge. However, here's where my self-doubts begin. People of this profile seem to be - in the long term at least - **expected to produce new theoretical knowledge primarily by employing advanced math**. Top research papers seem to be full of it. I'm concerned about this for the following reasons:
* my mathematical skills and aptitude in the context of this profile are average, or a bit above average at best. Sure, I can handle ordinary differential equations and numerical integration, but once it gets to the postdoc level and above, I'm competing with people who are elite talents and have backgrounds in math or physics from top schools. I don't believe I posses anywhere near the math talent that they have, and I simply wouldn't be able to do the job as good as them - and I don't want to be producing subpar research. Furthermore, I spent a significant amount of time studying things that don't seem applicable to this type of research, like CPU architecture or OS internals. Because I'm targeting programs in Europe - where a PhD is normally 3 years - I can't in this short time develop my math skills enough to close the gap, especially considering my less-than-elite talent (funny as it may sound, I believe I have a much greater talent for the humanities/philosophy, but the amount of positions there is close to zero).
* by far my strongest actual skill is **coding/programming**, and I could probably get some kind of position based on that. I believe I could do
well enough to produce some tools and maybe even get a (likely mediocre) PhD eventually, but
after this step - when an independent research path is expected - it
seems to me I would be at a disadvantage and heading for the
industry, because implementation skills are simply not enough, i.e.
they seem to have merely a supporting role in academia (since they alone cannot generate new knowledge, the main objective of research). Permanent faculty positions seem
to go out at much higher rates to math-inclined
individuals, who are at an advantage when it comes to formulating a
unique theoretical research statement. At least, this is my
observation.
Should I choose something else if I'm not a top math talent and thus can't evolve into any of the two profiles mentioned?
Or is such categorization of researcher profiles in fact a false dilemma and there are more options, i.e. not everything required to perform well in these fields can be reduced to mathematical aptitude?
For what it's worth, I did undergraduate research in computational biology that lead to published papers, and sure I could handle math at that level, but it just seems to me that to make it as a top full-time researcher, I would either have to become an applied mathematician or an experimentalist.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36937,
"author": "Developer63",
"author_id": 26795,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26795",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "It seems to me you are making excuses and \"failing yourself\", i.e., declaring your own failure in advance, for reasons that may or may not even wind up being relevant. I read in your question that you do in fact actually WANT to go for this, but you are afraid of failing in the end. So, the real question becomes, how do you define your own \"success\" or \"failure\" in this endeavor? If you wind up getting a PhD at the end of the day, will that in itself constitute success? If you pursue this path, but do not obtain a PhD, or do not obtain a permanent faculty position, will one of those unequivocally constitute \"failure\" in your own eyes? Is it still a failure if you wind up obtaining well-paid employment doing work you are passionate about, with brilliant people you love working with?\n\nAre you trying so hard to have everything \"perfect\" according to the limits of what you currently know, that you are keeping yourself from even pursuing something you appear to want?\n\nIt seems there are a range of possible outcomes here.\n\n1) You don't even get selected to start in the PhD program, and the whole issue is moot.\n\n2) You enter the PhD program, and in the course of your studies, discover some other, related area you are passionate about and particularly good at, and change your studies and degree program to focus on that previously unknown area.\n\n3) You enter the PhD program, do not enjoy it, do not complete it, and discover other areas of life you wish to devote your energies to.\n\n4) You enter the PhD program, and complete it, but not at the full level of distinction you wish, and at the end, wind up having less ideal choices than you would like to have, though one or two of the choices are reasonably appealing.\n\n5) You enter the PhD program, and complete it, in the process gaining all the advanced math skills you truly need, bringing your own unique skills to bear, and completing the degree with distinction, and have numerous appealing options to choose from at the end, \n\nThis is of course an artificial, limited list of the range of possible outcomes. Which of these would be success? Which would be failure? It seems to me entirely possible, almost likely, that you would have research partners with the math skills you desire, who would be interested in collaborating with you precisely because of your computer programming skills, and the ability to automate the creation of research models, and in the process, tackle even more challenging and interesting kinds of problems as a team than either could succeed at individually. Does all the ultra-advanced math have to come from uniquely you? Or is it sufficient to come from a research collaborator, as long as you fully understand it?\n\nSo yes, I personally believe you are creating a false dilemma for yourself. I think it would be helpful for you to consider, to the point of writing them out in much more detail than I did above, a RANGE of outcomes that could occur from pursuing this PhD program, and then decide which outcomes constitute \"success\", for YOU, and which outcomes would constitute \"failure\". Then, estimate the chances of each outcome coming to pass, 30%, 80%, and so forth. If there are one or more \"success\" outcomes with likelihood above 50%, then I believe you have your answer. Or, at the least, you are now clear about the question. Do you need \"slam dunk\" odds of success? or is 50% chance of success good enough for you to get started, confident that you can improve your own odds by hard work and passion?\n\nThe other question you musk ask yourself, is \"what are the other options\", and are any of them as well developed and appealing to you as this one? Because you don't mention them, I can only conclude they are not as well developed or appealing, and that you have put your energies into the option you are asking us about.\n\nThe other risk here, is having a well-developed option like you present here, choosing not to pursue it, and then later regretting your lack of action. Picturing yourself five years from now, what will you wish you had done?"
},
{
"answer_id": 36945,
"author": "Developer63",
"author_id": 26795,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26795",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "From your question and comments, it seems you view “success” as being involved in original research, in a long term position where you can focus passionately on your research.\n\nYou are less concerned about success in completing the PhD program, and more concerned about “10 years down the road” from that, about the research, about being involved in compelling original research, on an ongoing basis, being in the thick of exciting things that are being worked on.\n\nYou are concerned that a wrong choice NOW would lead to a poor outcome, where you would wind up doing less-interesting research, a career, a life, of frustration, preventable by a better choice up front. (Can’t say I blame you)\n\nYou have observed two types of profiles that succeed in this field:\n1) Someone with great experimental/domain skills (e.g. molecular biology),\n2) Someone with great quantitative skills.\nOf these, it seems you pretty much write off 1), apparently due to lack of background, and focus on 2), with the observation that you have limits in this area. So something closer to the great quantitative skills is how you feel you’d make your mark.\n\nYou feel your current advanced mathematics skills may limit you. I also infer that you do not wish to fully give your mind over to the advanced mathematics area, as it does not excite you as much as other areas.\n\nSo you are looking for an answer that says, \"Yes, you can make this work, and here's how, and here are examples of people who have done this.\" \n\nYou mentioned your concern about matching up to the mathematicians, competing with them. “I'm competing with people who are elite talents and have backgrounds in math or physics from top schools. I don't believe I possess anywhere near the math talent that they have, and I simply wouldn't be able to do the job as good as them - and I don't want to be producing subpar research.”\n\nI challenge your assumption that you are inherently and always competing with these people. Why don’t you focus on collaborating with them instead, certainly at least at first? Why not see if you can provide all the key skills around this area so they can collaborate and plug in with their terrific skills, their 10%, in service of your great experiment design? In the process, you will see how they think, your mirror neurons will get busy helping you learn rapidly, and you can decide if you want to learn to do what they do, or if you are just as happy to let them do that while you address parts of the problem that feel more creative and interesting to you.\n\nI suggest that a good next action step is to start by looking again at some of those many papers you mentioned that contain large quantities of advanced mathematics, and then check the author list, and use your own research skills to ascertain which co-authors were responsible for which parts of the paper. \n\nIf possible, contact some of them and ask--how did they divide up the mathematics portions of the paper? Do some of the collaborators even possibly have (gasp) a similar level of mathematical skill to what you currently possess, but great skills and creativity in other areas that were critical to success? You might also make some terrific contacts and have some amazing conversations in this process.\n\nI think the answer is to go back to the papers that had the advanced mathematics that looked intimidating, and do some data-gathering fact-checking on which authors really did what, and use them to get a more accurate, and likely more diverse, profile of the types of people who can be successful in this field, and with any luck at all, potentially find a few models you can identify with, and inspire you to take the plunge. (Who knows, maybe in the process you will discover *other* papers that are equally interesting to you, with less reliance on the advanced mathematics.)\n\nP.S. If, in the process, you don't find ANY models that inspire you, give you confidence, then DON'T DO IT!! Run Forrest, Run!!"
},
{
"answer_id": 36949,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "Speaking as a computer scientist who works with life sciences: **there is a lot more use for computer science than just modeling**.\n\nConsider:\n\n* Who makes and maintains the instruments?\n* Who handles [LIMS](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laboratory_information_management_system) development and deployment?\n* Who develops automation systems and precision protocols?\n* Who develops the control mechanisms that actually implement biomedical intervention concepts?\n* Who develops taxonomies, interchange standards, and data representations?\n\nThis just scratches the surface of computer science opportunities in the biomedical \nUnfortunately, the view that you hold of \"you're either an experimentalist or a modeler\" is far too prevalent in biomedical culture, and computer scientists often get little respect for their contributions. That culture is starting to shift however, and especially in younger and more engineering-centric subfields like synthetic biology... and especially in some of the [awesome things](http://2014.igem.org/Team:Aachen) the younger practitioners are doing."
},
{
"answer_id": 37131,
"author": "Inquisitive",
"author_id": 27985,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27985",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "If you want to do something in life, you should try it. Try it for a short time defined as less than 5 years.\n\nOne of the primary indicators it isn't working out for you is that you'll probably feel great stress if you are barely keeping up with your peers.\n\nPlease realize as well that different disciplines focus on different mathematical concepts. For example, if you are interested in becoming a PhD electrical engineer, you probably won't spend any time worrying about number theory or General Relativity. In other words, you don't have to learn ALL mathematics known to mankind in order to succeed in a field that requires skill at some form of advanced mathematics.\n\nHere's something pretty funny for you to absorb. I actually had a professor speak the following paraphrased words in my university philosophy class:\n\n**\"Most of the research produced at colleges/universities is garbage.\"**\n\nFrom my own experience at a university I can tell you that there are many dissertations sitting on shelves in back rooms that are doing nothing more than collecting dust. People aren't necessarily as brilliant as you think they are.\n\nJudging by what you've talked about here, I'm laying my money on the notion that you are going to succeed in life."
},
{
"answer_id": 44425,
"author": "user3780968",
"author_id": 32158,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32158",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "This question doesn't seem to be active anymore, but I just came across it and there's one thing that nobody has talked about: big data.\n\nData is everywhere in the \"wet science\" nowadays, and it really is changing the way people do research. I would say data analysis skills are at least as important as pure math skills, and these skills are a mixture of intuition, good programming skills, understanding of data management, statistics, machine learning, and perhaps more. \n\nGood programming skills are also not very common in the wet sciences.\nMy friend who's a glaciologist struggled with that in his PhD, doing experiments over and over because he didn't trust the code he wrote, and when they hired a programmer, the programmer didn't understand the domain, so he was pretty useless.\n\nThe opportunities of applying good data analysis skills are huge, even in the humanities. There's a major international challenge called \"digging into data\" shared by the US, Canada, the UK and the Netherlands that really recognized that (<http://diggingintodata.org/>)."
}
] |
2015/01/16
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36933",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17810/"
] |
36,941 |
I recently made some changes to a piece of (proprietary) code that my group uses which has made it two orders of magnitude faster. The code I updated wasn't mine and the original algorithm IP was published a few decades ago so I can't claim I did anything other than some clever refactoring/parallelizing (which somehow everyone else said wasn't possible). The impact of this update is such that work that would have taken months can now, in principle, be done in under a week (or from hours to minutes).
Unfortunately academia doesn't really reward 'enablers' for improving software so I'm not really sure what I can gain from this beyond some ideas in my own PhD that were not possible previously.
The critical point, compared to other questions I've seen on this topic, is that the code is now commercially viable. Understandably my supervisor is very happy and wants to keep things under wraps for the time being.
I'm aware that the university probably owns every line of code I just wrote. Do I have any ground to request compensation if the software starts being licensed? I don't want to sour the relationship I have with my supervisor which has up until now been very good (and I've just earned a lot of respect for this work).
If I was working in industry this is about the time I'd be going to my line manager and at asking for a salary bump or a promotion. In academia it seems like this sort of work is relegated to a pat on the back and a footnote. I suspect I'm being sour, but is this just the way it goes?
Am I allowed to ask that people cite the software even if it's not a publication (not that we have a website!)? For instance one can cite R, Numpy, etc.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36958,
"author": "Alexandros",
"author_id": 10042,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10042",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "As a software developer it is hard to believe that improving a piece of (proprietary) code can made it two orders of magnitude faster. Although parallelization can make it 2-5 times faster on a modern workstation of 6-8 cores, unless the original code was notoriously bad it is hard to imagine that it can really be faster by two orders of magnitude (~100 times faster) just by improvement, without changing the original algorithm. So, are you 100% sure that the acceleration you get is legit? Sometimes (especially with parallelization) when things are too good to be true, there is some subtle condition which usually breaks by parallelization. So, first make 100% sure (compare results produced for a wide range of input data) by the two versions of the software (the old and your version). I assume you use some version of version control system (who does not?), so you still have the old version somewhere. It does not matter if this experiment takes a few days - 1-2 weeks it has to be done to be 100% sure that something did not break and you do get identical results between the two versions of the software **for a wide range of input data** and not just by a small test case.\n\nIf you are 100% sure that you really improved the software without breaking anything, the main question is did you actually improved the original algorithm or not. Simply adding an OpenMP directive and parallelizing a code which was parallelizable all along, is not a publishable result. In this case, your improvements do not merit a publication and therefore **no publication => no citation**, since you did not create the original software. On the other hand, if you did more than refactoring / parallelizing the software and your contribution is significant you must publish these results on a technical-focused CS conference. Then everyone using your version of the software could cite this work and additionally could cite the online version of the software if it is publicly available. \n\nOn the legal version of your story, I really do not have the expertise to answer. In this case, I would search the IP policy of the university as @NateEldredge suggests and ask an experienced lawyer who knows about software patents. I do not think anyone of us here are really entitled here to give legal advice. Of course if your version of the software starts getting money for the university, you are probably entitled to a share and you must protect your rights as good as you can. It is just that right now, we do not know if this software is going to actually become a product for sale. \n\nAlso about your paragraph:\n\n> \n> If I was working in industry this is about the time I'd be going to my\n> line manager and at asking for a salary bump or a promotion. In\n> academia it seems like this sort of work is relegated to a pat on the\n> back and a footnote. I suspect I'm being sour, but is this just the\n> way it goes?\n> \n> \n> \n\nI do not know how much experience you have in the software industry, but be rest assured that you do not get a raise everytime you do a good job. After all, this is expected from you and it is a prerequisite for you **keeping your job** for a long time. You can always ask for a raise, but that does not mean you will get one. \n\nOn the other hand as I mentioned earlier, either you changed the software's algorithm and implementation so much that you deserve a separate publication or you bug-fixed a crappy code (which you will use on your PHD) which does not really say that much. Either case, this is probably the only credit you will get."
},
{
"answer_id": 36967,
"author": "choener",
"author_id": 8826,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8826",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "The most simple solution is to publish these new results. The question to this answer can be found here:\n[In which journals should I publish my software?](http://www.software.ac.uk/resources/guides/which-journals-should-i-publish-my-software).\nThis is the most appropriate thing to do. Some journals also have something like the ``OUP Bioinformatics Application Notes''. Check, together with your advisor, if you can find something like this.\n\nThe possibility of monetary compensation of some form is probably low. Not only because you are in academia, also because you most likely work as some form of public servant. Details are different for all countries and work places, however."
}
] |
2015/01/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36941",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27934/"
] |
36,947 |
Suppose that an undergraduate student is preparing for interviews for Ph.D. positions in natural sciences. Is it common/acceptable to ask a professor with relevant expertise and familiarity with the student's educational background and research ability to conduct a mock interview with the student as a way to ascertain problems in the student's preparation? Or will such requests be viewed as unnecessary or "asking for too much"?
I'm primarily interested in the acceptability of such requests in US colleges.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36980,
"author": "user141592",
"author_id": 27327,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27327",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "It depends on the professor. If it's someone who knows you well and has the time, then they would probably be happy to help. Most of the professors I came across during my undergrad were more than happy to help preparing me for grad school interviews. Just make sure you ask well in advance, so they have time find an appropriate time, and don't take it personally if they say no: professors are really busy. \n\nEDIT: Make sure you ask professors that have been through the graduate application process in the same country you are applying, if possible. Ones who received their PhD elsewhere, or say 50 years ago, will probably turn you down simply because they don't feel familiar enough with the process (unless they are directly involved in admissions for your school's graduate program)."
},
{
"answer_id": 37018,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Yes! We welcome such invitations. It's good for the entire department -- for both younger students to look at, as well as your peers so make it a big event.\n\nNot all faculty can go but the good thing is that these tend to be self-selecting -- that the faculty who are the most helpful are the ones who come."
}
] |
2015/01/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36947",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16049/"
] |
36,948 |
Mostly for fun, I've been working on an exposition about some ideas in my area of math (algebraic geometry). As far as I know there isn't any elementary introduction to this particular topic already out there. It's at an early undergrad level. I'd like to make it available, but I'm just not sure how best to proceed.
What are my options for disseminating it, and what are the pros/cons of each? I'm especially interested in what sorts of articles are suitable expository journals, vs what usually lands on a math blog. (I could also just put it on my site, but I hope someone and than my own students (and my parents) will actually read it.)
Other relevant info: I'm currently a postdoc at a research-intensive place. I'd like to be competitive for teaching jobs at good liberal arts colleges when I'm done in a couple years -- if any of these options would help with that, it's a point in favor.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37913,
"author": "Aaron Brick",
"author_id": 14140,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14140",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "you sound like you want to publish the paper. when you take the time to identify what journals it could plausibly appear in, you'll also find out your top choices. make the piece as neat and appealing as possible - have your peers go through it - and see where you can get it published.\n\nas i see it the second best thing to a journal would be submitting it to a conference; next best after that is a working paper; after that a blog post. certainly the higher up this \"value chain\" that you can publish will support your job search."
},
{
"answer_id": 44650,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "(Upon jakebeal's request:)\n\nSeconding @Kimball's recommendation, the \"Monthly\" (for all its problems...) is seen by undergrads, and also \"College M.J.\". Small consolation, but, indeed, it's hard to reach people who don't know the keyword to \"google-upon\". Conceivably, your enveloping HTML page could include more-naive keywords, or even nearly-hype-ish keywords, hubris-acknowledged, that would give g-hits."
},
{
"answer_id": 44664,
"author": "GEdgar",
"author_id": 4484,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4484",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "I doubt the *Monthly* is the place for it. If you decide to publish, see [THIS](https://mathoverflow.net/q/15366/454) mathoverflow question."
}
] |
2015/01/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36948",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23399/"
] |
36,951 |
Question that is really bothering me is what are the important factors for admission to top five engineering graduate school? I searched in different forums and saw people got accepted to PhD program at prestigious school with GPA 3.40 GRE Quantitative of 165 and no publication. However I also saw people could not get in to even master program with 4.0 GPA ,good GRE score.
I am starting to think that GPA ,GRE and even research experience are not determining factor. Can anyone please clarify this for me?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36966,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "To get into a top graduate program, you typically need:\n\n1. No red flags that will cause your application to be discarded.\n2. Something that causes you to stand out from the vast crowd of good applicants with no red flags.\n\nA lot of people seem to think that having an extremely high GPA, GRE, class rank, etc. will help, but it does not. The problem is that such standardized evaluations address only category #1. There are a lot of good students out there, and graduate programs aren't really interested in whether you are the *best* student. Instead, they are interested in whether you have problems as a student that would prevent you from succeeding in graduate school.\n\nThe honest truth is that there is a huge amount of unpredictability in satisfying criteria #2. and you can only do so much to control it. There are many useful things you can do to help make yourself stand out, like participating in research projects, but ultimately there are no guarantees, because you never know how many other excellent candidates might also be applying to that program in that year, and what exactly it is that will make one person's application resonate with the particular faculty member who reads it."
},
{
"answer_id": 36974,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "An important factor is where the student did their undergraduate work. The admissions committee will be familiar with many undergraduate institutions that have good reputations and some that have bad reputations. If you come from an undergraduate college that has a bad reputation or that the committee is simply unfamiliar with, then this will make admitting you a risky choice. If there are plenty of strong applicants from well known good undergraduate programs, then the easiest thing to do is to select from those students."
},
{
"answer_id": 36979,
"author": "sevensevens",
"author_id": 14754,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14754",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "I applied to, and was accepted at well know university after attending a small regional state school. While I have no proof of this, I sincerely believe the quality of the letters of recommendation is what made the difference.\n\nI had a 3.5 GPA and good, but not great GRE scores, and no papers. I was heavily involved in the ACM (computer science professional organization), and signed up for several grad level classes. I made sure my letter writers would have more to say then \"is a good student.\" Show that you are truly passionate about your field of study. That will be reflected in recommendations."
},
{
"answer_id": 36982,
"author": "lastuser",
"author_id": 27926,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27926",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "Is it usual that an undergraduate student in USA has published by the time he gets his degree BSc.? I really doubt it. 3 - 4 years is quite a short time for a student to equip himself enough to write anything meaningful. In Europa, a 5-year Master program (3 + 2 years) may probably last 6 - 7 years, because the Master thesis is a relative heavy project. People may even need a year to plan, set up and conduct experiments in the laboratories. After that they could spend several months on writing thesis, rarely one has publication."
}
] |
2015/01/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36951",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20608/"
] |
36,953 |
Is it or is it not good practice to make an author the subject of sentences in a paper? When should their name be central, discreet, or absent in the sentence? Here are five variations showing different approaches, four of which include the author’s name. Are there particular identifiable use cases for these styles?
1. Muhtson argued that this will never work.
2. Per Muhtson, this will never work.
3. The argument was advanced by Muhtson that this will never work.
4. This will never work (Muhtson).
5. This will never work [42].
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36954,
"author": "Corvus",
"author_id": 27900,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27900",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "Version 2 seems stilted; 3 is an unnecessarily verbose use of the passive voice. The choice between 4 and 5 is really a matter of the journal's style guidelines rather than an active decision you will get to make as the author. \n\nSo the real choice here is between 1 or 4/5. The key thing to note is that you sentence draws attention to an actor and an action through your choice of subject and verb. (See Jotepj Cihziomd, *Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace* for a superb discussion of this and many related principles)\n\nIn 1, the actor is \"Muhtson\" and the action is \"argued\". In 4/5, the action is \"This\" and the action is \"will not work\". Thus if your intent is to draw attention to the fact that Muhtson made this claim, as you would e.g. if discussing a history of ideas, version 1 might be preferred. If instead your intent is to draw attention to the claim itself, and the reference to Muhtson is simply a matter of good scholarship, 4/5 will be preferred."
},
{
"answer_id": 36955,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "There is more here than style: the first and third options *mean* something quite different from the fourth and fifth. In the former cases, what you are asserting is that someone else argued for X. In the latter cases, *you* are asserting X and using the citation as evidence/support/proof. (That I can't quite tell where the second one fits into this dichotomy is a strike against it.) In an academic paper, that is a not so subtle difference.\n\nI find the style question less critical. It is a matter of general good writing rather than anything specifically academic *or* it is specific to the journal at hand (so we need not discuss it here). \n\nOf course you can use an author's name as a subject of a sentence: you can write what you want, you know! As a matter of style, to my ear the first option sounds good, the second option sounds weird, and the third option sounds weaker and wordier than the first, but maybe the surrounding text gives you a good reason to write it that way.\n\nThe difference between options 4 and 5 is just a difference in citation style. First that is very field dependent; in my field (mathematics), we would do 5 rather than 4; in much of the humanities it would be the other way around. Second, unless your choice is so so strange that it prevents your readers from finding the references in your bibliography, the whole issue can probably wait until your paper gets accepted, in which case they'll either do it for you, tell you exactly what to do, or tell you that you did it wrong (and ask you to fix it)."
},
{
"answer_id": 36972,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "In addition to other good points made, there is the question of whether *you* wish to assert a thing, or only assert that someone else asserts it. That is, if you write \"Muhtson asserts X.\" then (from that sentence alone) it is not clear whether you agree, disagree, or are neutral. If, instead, you write something like \"One might consider X. For example, see [Muhtson].\" then you are at least tentatively asserting X, with Muhtson for corroboration. This distinction might matter more than style... although I'd agree that avoiding circumlocutions and verbosity is generally good (=more readable)."
},
{
"answer_id": 36988,
"author": "Hagen von Eitzen",
"author_id": 20647,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20647",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "To me, formulation 1 would appear useable only in special contexts, such as\n\n> \n> Muhtson argued that this will never work ([Jo97]), but later Runler found a way to get rid of the obstacles in many important cases ([Mi04] and [Mi04a]).\n> \n> \n> \n\nIn other words, you want to express Muhtson's opinion without sharing it (and of course you back this up with citations). In general, 4 or 5 seems to be preferred (e.g., [Corvus])"
}
] |
2015/01/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36953",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14140/"
] |
36,959 |
I'm a PhD student in pure maths at a university in Europe. For reasons that I won't go into, my research interests do not coincide with my supervisor's ones. This means that, although she gives me good general advice, she can't give me more "technical" feedback on my work. I've now written a complete first draft of my first paper, and I'd like to get some external feedback before thinking of submitting it to a journal. My question is:
>
> What is the best way to approach the experts in my field (for whom I am a complete stranger) to politely ask if they can read my paper and give some feedback on it?
>
>
>
Emailing, of course, would be the preferred means of communication, so suggestions on how to structure a potential email to send to the experts are very welcomed.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36964,
"author": "Massimo Ortolano",
"author_id": 20058,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Asking just for feedback on a specific paper is not, I think, a good approach. It would be definitely better to set up a collaboration, which can become a long-standing one and which can be more rewarding for both parties.\n\nMany PhD programs in Europe allow, and sometimes require, students to spend a period abroad. If your PhD program allows this and your advisor agrees, you can think of searching a research group working in your favourite field and spending from a few weeks to a few months or a year with them. You can then discuss your paper directly with them and possibly you can think of new works to be done in collaboration."
},
{
"answer_id": 36968,
"author": "Anonymous",
"author_id": 11565,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11565",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "Generally it's considered okay to e-mail researchers who you don't know and share your work with them. This is especially true if you are a student.\n\nBe conservative about it -- pick only a few people whose research interests align closely with the paper you're writing. (For example, whose work are you citing?) *Don't* e-mail famous people just because they're famous.\n\nThat said, I think that asking for detailed feedback might be seen as presumptuous. Rather, just tell them that you would like to share your work with them, describe it very briefly, and say something like \"If you have any comments I would be grateful to hear them.\"\n\nProbably most people will ignore your message. (They have no obligation whatsoever to read your message or respond.) Maybe one or two will write back with general feedback or suggestions, and if you are very lucky you might get some detailed feedback. What you might realistically hope for is a response along the lines of \"Thanks, this looks interesting, you might be interested in X, Y, and Z\" which at least gives you some related works to check out."
},
{
"answer_id": 36975,
"author": "Miguel",
"author_id": 14695,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14695",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "I will add my answer in the form of two examples coming from experience, given that there are already other answers that might be more generally useful.\n\nThe first example is regarding how I (a non famous recently graduated postdoc) handle this kind of enquiries. From my perspective, interaction with people interested in my work leads to, besides learning more about what I do, a potential gain in citations and contacts. Both are vital to me at this early stage in my career. I therefore tend to be very keen to address emails promptly and in detail, given they are reasonable (i.e. discard spam article invitations and random applications immediately).\n\nFor the other example I'm at the opposite side of the rope, contacting other people regarding my interest in their work. Here are three cases with different outcomes:\n\n* If it's regarding a specific paper I try contacting the corresponding author (that's the purpose of it after all!). Once I contacted a famous guy this way who failed to produce any response at all.\n* After changing topics, a world leading author in my new area happened to be a former collaborator of my PhD supervisor, so I got the latter to \"introduce\" me to the other, which was done in the form of a phone call between the two followed by an email by me. The expert replied politely but very briefly, clearly shutting down any door to further interaction - he was clearly not interested.\n* A more successful story is with regards to contacting a guy on a paper he had coauthored with a quite famous guy. After I didn't get a reply from him I tried with the famous dude, who did not only reply but also copied the less famous guy thus triggering his reaction and cooperation.\n\nIn every case I was very polite and as brief as possible in my emails.\n\nThe bottom line is that getting a reply from different people will vary depending on practical matters such as how busy they are, but will also wildly depend on their personal character. To increase your chances always try clear polite emails directly to the point, hope you get a reply but don't expect too much."
},
{
"answer_id": 36986,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "> \n> What is the best way to approach the experts in my field (for whom I am a complete stranger) to politely ask if they can read my paper and give some feedback on it?\n> \n> \n> \n\nFor a student who is not very senior -- let's say \"very senior\" means they already have a draft of their thesis -- I think that (probably: as usual on this site, a literal universal quantifier will get me in trouble) the best way to do this is with your advisor as an intermediary. \n\nDon't misunderstand: you ask whether it is frowned upon for you to directly contact experts and ask for feedback and the answer is a resounding **no**: you can contact whomever you wish, and they may or may not respond. However, they are much more likely to respond -- and to respond more deeply and usefully -- to someone that they already know, at least by reputation, especially if that person is at roughly their level of seniority (and, yes, even more if that person is more senior). \n\nWhen I was a PhD student, I didn't have the best luck \"cold-contacting\" people. I remember in particular trying to contact one guy who was a former student of my advisor and whose thesis I was reading. He was a professor in New York but he didn't have a webpage. I left a longish, awkwardish *phone message* for him at one point and never heard back from him. (Did he even get the message? Who knows??) I emailed a famous French mathematician and did hear back from him....four months later, which is like forever when you're in your 20s. I was so clueless back then: if I had been serious about it, I would have gone through my advisor, and they would have responded. Well, of course I knew that intellectually, but still somehow decided that it would be better if I did it on my own. (There were a lot of things that I did and didn't do as a graduate student that were directly motivated both by a desire for independence -- good -- and a lack of confidence -- bad -- intertwined in such a complicated way that it is hard for me to pull them apart even now.) It's not that people don't want to be helpful. It's that their time is at such a premium that they have to prioritize helping people that they already know. \n\nIf your advisor cannot direct you to those who have the research expertise you need, then I would say that she is not really your advisor and you need to find someone else who can fulfill that role. \n\nAnyway:\n\n1) As others have suggested, if you have completed drafts of papers -- even if not in as polished a form as you would want in order to submit to a journal -- then putting them on the arxiv is a great idea. You'll get some small (in most cases) positive (in my experience) number of \"cold emails\" just from them, and these can be priceless: in my case, more than once I got connected with the one other person on the planet who really deeply understood and cared about what I was doing. \n\n2) A lot of times you *will* still send an email. It's just that your advisor will have greased the wheels for you by ensuring the recipient's, um, receptivity in advance. Let me give a little advice on that:\n\n* Introduce yourself politely but don't make a big deal out of it.\n\nYou don't need to be overly obsequious or solicitous about their personal life and such. Something like \"Dear Professor X, Hello there. I am a student at University A working on Subject B. Though we have not corresponded before, I think you know my advisor, Professor Y. She encouraged me to contact you about my work on C.\" That's plenty of introduction; you could get away with less.\n\n* Try to write an initial email that the recipient can and will read completely as soon as they open it.\n\nThus you want it to be quite short, but not so short that it doesn't say anything. \n\n* Don't describe your work at length in the email. Instead, include files (of a reasonable length) and/or links to files or webpages. (If you have a webpage, you should put a link to it somewhere in your email!)\n* Make a clear request. Better: ask a math question.\n\nIf you include a 30 page paper and say \"I'd be grateful for any comments you have\": well, that's the sort of thing that I do to my good friends, and when I run into them the following year they politely apologize for not having finished it. Mathematicians like questions and -- here's a little psychological secret -- seem to regard a question mark as being much more compulsory of some sort of answer than most other people. (I am always amazed at how I can have a phone conversation or an email exchange with some non-academic type, ask a question, and their response completely ignores the fact that I asked them anything. To my eyes that is some kind of Jedi mind trick.) If you want to know whether X is true, ask them directly and right away whether X is true. \n\nIn fact, if you're not clear enough about what you want, it could go wrong in the other direction: some samaritan savant could reply with several typed pages that answer your question all too well and leave you without a thesis problem. (This is another good reason for getting help from your advisor.)"
}
] |
2015/01/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36959",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27937/"
] |
36,963 |
As background, many of my students fall into the "un-prepared" for university category. This has introduced many challenges. Some challenges are easily handled when a student is sincerely interested in learning (they want to know what to read and I guide them appropriately).
More challenging is that these students are not native-speakers of English yet they are studying in English. Again, those who work hard do well. Those who do not work hard, do poorly.
I am looking for a way to **encourage ALL students to spend more time outside of class studying.** To this end, I am considering composing some videos (a significant time commitment on my part) which will teach material that I do not cover in class.
[This question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/30513/2692) discusses how to identify the reason students are not doing home work and [this questions](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/11294/2692) discusses how to make best use of videos as homework. However, I am asking something different.
I have done some surveying of students and many of them *say* that they prefer watching videos over reading. What I really want to know is whether **anyone has seen or has researched the increased likelihood that a student will actually follow the homework because it is a video as opposed to in a textual format.**
**I do not want to get into the issues of punishment here.** The students generally know that less homework = lower scores but they think they can still pass and that is all they care about. Sadly, I care more about their education than they do.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37525,
"author": "PALADIN 458S",
"author_id": 28383,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28383",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "As a student, I would like to throw in my two cents...\n\nVideos are incredibly useful and I think that more professors would be wise to create/use them. When studying or working on a project, I often cruise right on over to YouTube and begin searching for videos on the particular topics that I need to know about. Specifically, I like to use lecture videos. If I have a mid-term coming up and my professor had videos available...my study time would be cut and my retention would be better. It is a very efficient use of time on our end. \n\nWhy are they so great? Because I can pause at any time I need some time to write something down and I can watch any part or the whole thing as many times as I want to until the information I want really sinks in.\n\nTo support this, all I need to do is point to Khan Academy. Nearly all of my classmates know what Khan Academy is and most of them actively use the site to help them with math. I've actually watched most of the Khan Academy videos for personal development completely unrelated to anything that I was studying in school. They're fun to watch and, yes, there is a lot of learning going on for me.\n\nConcerning video vs. text, I have recently taken to learning the Java programming language. I bought the most recommended books and started to get going. I've come a long way and I am starting to get the language down. The booster for this, though, was the innumerable videos on YouTube explaining the Java language for beginners. The books are great, but I really got my best impact from the videos. My learning curve was far steeper from the videos than the books.\n\nVideos...very effective teaching tools!!"
},
{
"answer_id": 37528,
"author": "blankip",
"author_id": 11420,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11420",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "In my current position I create mini-LMS (Learning Management Systems) solutions for our large company. Breaking these up by topics and groups much like SE does. My systems hold almost anything - videos, pdfs, spreadsheets, elearning, quizzes, games, online content (like SE). \n\nI am also a stat head and track everything that goes on all the way down to the time a person takes to answer a question - and if they are in the same browser what sites they visited during that question.\n\nSome things that may help you:\n\n* For long elearnings people generally skipped to the quiz at the end and kept taking quiz until they passed.\n* People don't watch long videos. Anything over 15 minutes have super high drop rates. Those under 7 minutes are generally watched.\n* People generally don't read through long documents unless they are told to. We get way more hits on web content then we get people opening up docs. This flipped about 5-6 years ago and is getting worse. To the point were we may do away with documents.\n* If you want people to *really* look at something there are three keys: **fear** (that they may get a bad score, not pass, look bad, whatever), **entertainment** (lack of professionalism and boring stuff), and **interaction** (have users do something every once in a while other than read/listen).\n\nWhat learning on my systems do the best. Unequivocally it is blended web learning. An example page may contain a few paragraphs of explanation, a video, few more paragraphs, a video, a few more paragraphs, and a couple of questions. Don't make the questions \"homework\" questions. They should be easy to answer if the read the page and watched the videos. The 2-3 questions should take 30 seconds.\n\nIf you don't have a system that can accomplish this I am available for hire. Just kidding. Just get your content and video on a page and give them the quiz from somewhere else (a link maybe) or even on paper. Your goal should be to mix 4-7 minute videos with graphics and information. Keeping the videos shorter also makes it easier to change things up if something changes whether it be the info in the video or the curriculum."
},
{
"answer_id": 43758,
"author": "gvenugopal",
"author_id": 33279,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/33279",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "I am currently involved in a research project that is associated with the study of the influence of LMS in a blended learning environment. I also use LMS to teach courses. \n\nEvery student has a different learning style. Visual learners will prefer video over text. But to engage the other students, you may think of activities that could be performed outside the class, if you are using an LMS. E.g. you could give them 2 minute quizzes they could solve from home, or create educational games."
},
{
"answer_id": 43781,
"author": "Szabolcs",
"author_id": 11907,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11907",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "It's been a while since I was a student, but I think it's still worth saying this:\n\nI find it *easier* (as in less effort) to *just sit through* a video than read a book. \n\n**But:** If I actually want to learn something or I have a specific task to solve, I find the linear format of videos extremely constraining, and I find them frustratingly slow. Like most people, I read much faster than normal talking speed. I can also *skim* texts easily, and find the relevant part, or go back and check a formula again. This is not possible with videos. There's a reason for taking notes in class instead of just recording it: a recording is not going to be useful for preparing for the exam.\n\nYou mentioned that many of your students are not native speakers of English. This is a big reason to avoid videos in favour of written material. I am not a native speaker either, and even though for the past few years English was the language I used the most, I still prefer watching English-speaking films with English subtitles. When watching videos there will *always, always* be at least a few words I can't catch or I can only comprehend with a few seconds' delay. Listening is simply more work for my brain than reading, and makes it *just a little bit harder* to pay attention to the content.\n\n---\n\nMy personal opinion on the matter (no more than an opinion!) is that *some* students are indeed more likely to watch videos than read texts. But that's only because it feels like less effort to them. In reality videos are going to be less efficient at communicating information. They will require significantly more time commitment from you and they will require more time commitment from motivated students as well, who would be able to learn faster from written material. But yes: I do think unmotivated students are more likely to watch a video than to read a text.\n\nPersonally I find it very frustrating when the *only* material available is a video because it just slows me down and forces me to take notes I wouldn't need to take if I already had written material ..."
},
{
"answer_id": 43806,
"author": "proth63",
"author_id": 33320,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/33320",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "I totaly agree, that videos should be short, 5 minutes is a maximum.\nIt is not possible to keep students involved in the learning process, if videos are longer.\nI think that the best is to create a blended learning environment, refering to a text and including activities to reinforce learning. Videos should be part of it.\nMoodle or Google Classroom could be used for this. Activities and videos could be then embedded into pages and show/hide when needed. Also, Quizlet is a very good tool to help learning.\nAn other advantage of using a such environment, is that the learning material is always available, even from student smartphones or tablets...\nHope this helps a bit :o) Rril"
}
] |
2015/01/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36963",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2692/"
] |
36,969 |
Suppose Jactsih and Kim wrote a paper in 2014. When I cite this paper, should it be
>
> Jactsih and Kim (2014) show that ...
>
>
>
or
>
> Jactsih and Kim (2014) shows that ...
>
>
>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36971,
"author": "Andrew is gone",
"author_id": 27825,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27825",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "This is a special case of a more general problem about 'plural' names for specific organisations/groups, which often comes up (and is different in the UK and US, to complicate things) - for example, <https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/138238/are-vs-is-for-proper-nouns-which-sound-plural-such-as-band-names> \n\nGenerally speaking, either is legitimate - it depends in part whether you think of \"Jactsih and Kim\" as the name of a single entity, the paper, or as referring to two individual researchers who happen to be mentioned together. You can also avoid this entirely by using the past tense - \"Jactsih and Kim (2014) showed that...\" is the same whether you think of J&K as one entity or two. (Ditto for \"found\", \"proved\", \"refuted\", etc). This would be my personal preference.\n\nUltimately, though, all questions of style in academic writing can be answered with \"have a look at what other papers in the field use; if you're thinking about a specific journal, have a look at what's common there.\" If they all use \"show\" for multiple authors, you probably want to use \"show\""
},
{
"answer_id": 36994,
"author": "Corvus",
"author_id": 27900,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27900",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "As a matter of basic writing style, this comes down to whether you intend the authors, or the paper, to be the actor in your sentence.\n\nIf you are writing about the actions of the authors, you should use the plural:\n\n* *Wekcon and Wrikk (1953) use only two pages to describe the structure of DNA.*\n\nIf you are writing about the action of the paper, use the singular:\n\n* *Wekcon and Wrikk (1953) serves as an example of how a breakthrough paper can launch its authors to academic stardom.*\n\nUsually the issue is not so clear cut, because usually we are simply describing the results from the paper rather talking explicitly about its authors or about it as a document. In this most common case, the usual convention is to treat the authors, not the paper, as the actors and thus use the plural.\n\n* *Wekcon and Wrikk (1953) demonstrate the double-helical structure of DNA.*"
}
] |
2015/01/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36969",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] |
36,976 |
One of my slides of my presentation at a technical conference includes a timing diagram. I have to explain the functionality of the read/write operation with the help of this figure. I have maximized the diagram and am planning to explain each signal assertion.
This slide is one of the many slides and I am concerned about the time needed to be allotted for the timing diagram. I feel it is rather important as it explains the functionality of the proposed model.
Please suggest how I should go about formatting the diagram as well as explain the timing diagram.
Edit1 : A timing diagram is used to trace a set of signals to explain the behavior of a particular system. More details [here](https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/105182/help-me-understand-this-shift-register-timing-diagram)
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36971,
"author": "Andrew is gone",
"author_id": 27825,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27825",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "This is a special case of a more general problem about 'plural' names for specific organisations/groups, which often comes up (and is different in the UK and US, to complicate things) - for example, <https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/138238/are-vs-is-for-proper-nouns-which-sound-plural-such-as-band-names> \n\nGenerally speaking, either is legitimate - it depends in part whether you think of \"Jactsih and Kim\" as the name of a single entity, the paper, or as referring to two individual researchers who happen to be mentioned together. You can also avoid this entirely by using the past tense - \"Jactsih and Kim (2014) showed that...\" is the same whether you think of J&K as one entity or two. (Ditto for \"found\", \"proved\", \"refuted\", etc). This would be my personal preference.\n\nUltimately, though, all questions of style in academic writing can be answered with \"have a look at what other papers in the field use; if you're thinking about a specific journal, have a look at what's common there.\" If they all use \"show\" for multiple authors, you probably want to use \"show\""
},
{
"answer_id": 36994,
"author": "Corvus",
"author_id": 27900,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27900",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "As a matter of basic writing style, this comes down to whether you intend the authors, or the paper, to be the actor in your sentence.\n\nIf you are writing about the actions of the authors, you should use the plural:\n\n* *Wekcon and Wrikk (1953) use only two pages to describe the structure of DNA.*\n\nIf you are writing about the action of the paper, use the singular:\n\n* *Wekcon and Wrikk (1953) serves as an example of how a breakthrough paper can launch its authors to academic stardom.*\n\nUsually the issue is not so clear cut, because usually we are simply describing the results from the paper rather talking explicitly about its authors or about it as a document. In this most common case, the usual convention is to treat the authors, not the paper, as the actors and thus use the plural.\n\n* *Wekcon and Wrikk (1953) demonstrate the double-helical structure of DNA.*"
}
] |
2015/01/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36976",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26638/"
] |
36,989 |
In the old days, software was shipped, then used, and eventually replaced or uninstalled. Academic publications are roughly the same: they get published, read and cited, and (for the most part) eventually replaced by newer results. However, while the way we create software has changed to where it now evolves, being updated regularly without uninstalling or fully replacing, publications have not. If you want to publish new results on a line of research you need to publish a new paper, even in cases where 80% of the theory or methodology behind it have stayed the same.
So I'm asking the question: does anyone know of a model where publications evolve over time, perhaps by being hosted and versioned on github or similar; where revisions can still get reviewed, but the authors can later change and extend their publication? Given the Internet, a model like that seems more appropriate to me. Publications could evolve over time from early position papers, to preliminary results papers, to conference style papers, to longer journal style reference papers, to books. Over the same time, the list of contributors could change and in particular, hopefully, grow.
Does anyone know of a publication model like that, either discussed in the library science literature or implemented in practice? I've looked at what some of the open journals do, but haven't found any model where publications can evolve.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36990,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "[Versioning of articles is supported by arXiv](http://arxiv.org/help/versions) for exactly the reasons that you mention. Each version of the article remains accessible and has a unique identifier, so when citing an arXiv document, it is best to use the version identifier. A person following the link, however, can see that there have been updates since the referenced version, and use the updated information.\n\nI'm not sure if any other publication venue offers this, though. I *think* that [bioRxiv](http://biorxiv.org/) does, but it doesn't make it clear the way that arXiv does, and talks about replacing an article with a link to the final published version. It's pretty new, though, and its policies may well be in flux."
},
{
"answer_id": 53967,
"author": "John Inglis",
"author_id": 40757,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/40757",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "If a manuscript evolves over time, and is posted to bioRxiv during that period, its progress can be tracked. Previous versions of preprints are linked under the Info/History tab underneath the abstract view of a posted manuscript. About 30% of all posted manuscripts have been updated so far. The previous respondent is incorrect about replacing articles: that does not happen. All versions of a preprint are archived. If a manuscript is published in a final form by a journal, a link to that paper is inserted under the abstract of the preprint and is seen in all its versions."
}
] |
2015/01/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36989",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9763/"
] |
36,991 |
[This question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/21979/can-students-finish-much-of-their-phd-thesis-before-applying-to-a-phd-program) addresses why it's a bad idea to try to do a lot of independent work before PhD in the hope of finishing PhD quickly.
Nevertheless, are there famous examples of people who have done so much work before PhD that they get a PhD pretty much automatically (say, 1-2 years or less)?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36992,
"author": "JeffE",
"author_id": 65,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "The closest example I can think of is [Mihai Pătraşcu](http://people.csail.mit.edu/mip/). After publishing several *extremely* strong results as an undergraduate, Mihai earned an MS in one year and then a PhD in one year, all in computer science at MIT."
},
{
"answer_id": 36996,
"author": "James T",
"author_id": 13203,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13203",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "Ludwig Wittgenstein was awarded his PhD from Cambridge in June 1929, having enrolled as a student in January of the same year. The PhD thesis was an English translation of his *Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus*, which had been published in German in 1921 (under the title *Logisch-philosophische Abhandlung*). \n\nWittgenstein circumvented the usual rule on terms of residence, because he had previously been resident as an undergraduate student in 1911-1913; he left Cambridge in the summer of 1913 without proceeding to a degree. Further, the reason for his being awarded the PhD at all was in order to make him formally eligible to teach at the university: there was no doubt as to his abilities."
},
{
"answer_id": 37030,
"author": "Flyto",
"author_id": 8394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "This happens, not often from super-gifted young researchers (although such do exist as outlined in other answers) but from people who are already professional researchers but do not have doctorates. \n\nSome universities in the UK allow people like this to obtain a \"PhD by publication\", where a body of existing work - perhaps 3-5 high quality papers - is linked together by a (sometimes lengthy) narrative and submitted. Typically a doctorate by this route must be completed in one year rather than three. (some universities also now offer a three year \"by publication\" route for new researchers, but that has a different intent)"
},
{
"answer_id": 37035,
"author": "user28375028",
"author_id": 21694,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21694",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "[George Dantzig](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Dantzig) solved two previously unsolved statistics problems while in graduate school (without realizing it). His advisor told him that he would accept his papers as his thesis (though I'm unable to confirm that he actually did this)."
},
{
"answer_id": 37045,
"author": "angarg12",
"author_id": 27993,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27993",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "In several countries in Europe (I can confirm by personal experience Spain, Austria and Sweden) there is the concept of \"PhD by papers\". \n\nThis means that the PhD Dissertation is a set of papers put together with a unified introduction (motivation, state of the art). Although some of these papers can be extended, they are pretty much the published version.\n\nIf you already have the papers, the whole process can take as little as 3 months.\n\nAlso I can't help to mention [Honoris Causa](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorary_degree) doctorates, which are awarded by universities to people who have accomplished outstanding contributions to some field of knowledge. These are the only ones who are awarded \"automatically\" to somebody."
},
{
"answer_id": 37047,
"author": "astaines",
"author_id": 27999,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27999",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "There are several types of PhD - one which is, in effect, a book, one which is, in effect, a series of papers, and one which is, in effect, a single giant paper.\n\nThe first form is common in arts and social sciences here in Ireland, and many of theses end up being published as books.\n\nThe third format was the usual format here, both in physical and biological sciences, and was often laid out as 'Introduction', 'Materials and Methods', 'Results' (usually more than one chapter), and 'Discussion'. This is falling out of favour, because it is too hard to produce papers from it.\n\nWe are moving, slowly, to the second form, which is the norm in the Netherlands, Sweden, and Finland ( and may be in other places too). This is a short introduction, a series of papers, or chapters in paper format, some of which have been published, possibly a linking narrative between chapters, and a final discussion section.\n\nI've supervised one person, whose PhD was ten papers, eight published, and two or so, in draft. He was (and is) a capable and prolific researcher, who had just never got around to a PhD, and was applying for a chair. Needless to add, he got the PhD and the chair :-)"
},
{
"answer_id": 37068,
"author": "Srivatsa Badariprasad",
"author_id": 28015,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28015",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "Apparently Lars Onsager (Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1968) did not have a PhD when he was admitted to the faculty of Yale's Chemistry Department. Thus he was informed that he could merely submit one of his previous publications, as a formality, in order to satisfy the requirements of a doctorate. However Onsager did some original research anyway on Mathieu functions and was subsequently admitted to the doctorate."
},
{
"answer_id": 37076,
"author": "aniztar",
"author_id": 28020,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28020",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "Schmitt found the Schmitt trigger circuit as a part of a project in his bachelors. He got a PhD for that."
},
{
"answer_id": 37192,
"author": "user28105",
"author_id": 28105,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28105",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "My father got his PhD in Theoretical Physics *instead* of a diploma in Munich: they counted his diploma thesis as a PhD thesis and his defense was accordingly quite longer and with a different setup (and the relatives waiting outside the examination room were rather worried at first because he took so much longer than anybody else and then floored as he had not bothered to clue anybody in in case it did not work out). However, this must have been about 1964 or so and the respective examination regulations do no longer permit this kind of shortcut and have not done so for a long time.\n\nSo this is not more than a historical anecdote."
}
] |
2015/01/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36991",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27545/"
] |
36,995 |
I am having trouble keeping organized the files for the computational component of my research project. In brief, I have written computer code which I use to run computational experiments. For each experiment, I get a set of output files, from which I generate output such as plots and tables.
The trouble stems from the fact that I have multiple experiments (say exp1, exp2 and exp3) and each experiment has multiple output files (say a.txt, b.txt, c.txt). This is further complicated by the fact that I have multiple versions of each experiment (say exp1 2014-01-02, exp1 2014-05-06, etc).
How should I organize the code and the output in a systematic way?
The system should satisfy the following key requirements:
* **It has to be easy to rerun version X of experiment Y.**
I occasionally have to rerun earlier versions of the experiments in order to check the results or to make slight modifications.
* **It has to record the output for each version of each experiment.**
I often have to run many slight variants of a single experiment
to tweak some small aspect of the results,
so it is essential to record the output for each run.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 36997,
"author": "user141592",
"author_id": 27327,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27327",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "While there is no right answer: a nested system of folders: the first one is called **Experiments**, with subfolders called **exp1**, **exp2** and so on. Each **expX** contains folders for the versions, and the version folders contains (if necessary) folders for **code**, **input**, **raw data**, **graphs**, and whatever else you can think of. That's how I would do it at least."
},
{
"answer_id": 36998,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "Funny you should ask, because I'm currently answering this question as I take breather from a project involving just such a family of experiments and variations.\n\nIn my own self-organization, I typically distinguish two types of such variants.\nIf some variants are \"dead\" and would only be referred to on rare occasions for historical purposes, then they get checked into version control and deleted from my working set---they can be exhumed by the powers of SVN/git/Mercurial when needed.\n\nFor the \"live\" versions, some experiments get grouped thematically and some chronologically. \n\n* Thematic is for when I'm it's a purely computer-based experiment (which can be re-run arbitrarily), e.g., \"overlay-network\", \"random-network\", \"unit-disc-network\"\n* Chronologically is for when my computer-based runs are based on real data from a physical system that can't be regenerated, but only replicated, e.g., \"2013-05-09 Alphavirus\", \"2013-06-09 Alphavirus run #3\", \"2013-07-02 Repeats of Failed Samples\"\n\nI maintain a strong distinction between several types of files, which must never mix:\n\n* Core code: there is precisely *one* version of any core code system, maintained by version control. If I need to maintain variants, they have to be set by option flags, not by forking the codebase (that way lies madness).\n* Each thematic/dated directory gets a README file, whatever notes are neecessary and (typically) two subdirectories: experiments and analysis\n* Experiment scripts for a thematic cluster live in the experiments directory\n* Each batch of experimental data lives in its own subdirectory of the experiments directory where its script lives.\n* Analysis contains scripts to process the experimental data. Often there are two layers: one to process raw data into results, and another to plot the results. This is because extracting results is often time intensive and figures are frequently tweaked. If there are a lot of results files, they get their own subdirectory too.\n* Plots, living in a subdirectory of the analytical scripts directory\n\nI also typically maintain a few master scripts which allow me to re-run large swaths of experiment / analysis when the core code is improved or a bug is found, which happens more frequently than one would like."
},
{
"answer_id": 36999,
"author": "Ben Bitdiddle",
"author_id": 24384,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24384",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Every time I run a script, I pass it two arguments:\n\n1. A file label that gives a name to my experiment\n2. A short blurb of text that automatically gets put into a README file. (This precisely documents the conditions of the experiment so I remember what I did.)\n\nAt the start of my script, I create a folder inside my \"output\" directory for the results of my experiment (and the README file) and I name the folder `$timestamp_$file_label`. All output gets generated inside that folder, and every time I want to change/rerun the script I just change the file label and the new output gets sent to a different folder. (Or I can use the same file label; it doesn't matter since the experiments will have different timestamps).\n\nI also use [git](http://git-scm.com/) for version control so I can easily go back to old versions of my code or take the code in a substantially different direction without erasing what I did earlier."
},
{
"answer_id": 37072,
"author": "Flyto",
"author_id": 8394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8394",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "I have a substantially similar situation, although most of the time it's not about my own code so much as input files for a third-party model. My approach is as follows:\n\n* input files go in a revision control system (I use git). Each time I run the model, that version of the input files is given a tag with a run number (eg \"Run\\_37\").\n* each time the model is run, output files go in a new folder that is named for the run number.\n* I also keep a spreadsheet linking the two with some other information such as the date, a brief description of what I was testing, and so forth.\n\nWhere matlab scripts or similar are used to programmatically generate input files, those scripts also get tagged in a similar way so that it is always clear which version of the script was used for each model run."
}
] |
2015/01/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36995",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8802/"
] |
37,000 |
I'm an undergraduate computer science major with a specialization in networks and communication looking at a masters in molecular genetics. In addition to a GRE biochemistry and molecular biology subject test score, I'm interested in MOOCs to enhance my resume.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37001,
"author": "Anonymous Physicist",
"author_id": 13240,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13240",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "No, because many people still do not know what MOOCs are (though they have been in the press a lot). Those who know what they are may not be sure if they are effective."
},
{
"answer_id": 37002,
"author": "Roger Fan",
"author_id": 20375,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20375",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "There are several issues with MOOCs, all of which make them a poor substitute for actual classes for admissions.\n\n* Poor penetration. There is more widespread knowledge of them than a couple years ago, but they are still fairly unknown. Chances are high at at least someone reading your application won't know about or understand them.\n* No grades. Few MOOCs offer anything more than a certificate of completion, and many don't even offer that. Even if they offered grades, verification of identity is a problem.\n* Wildly varying quality. College classes are generally of a certain quality/difficulty, and knowledge of the quality/difficulty levels for certain field-specific classes across schools is something that application committees will use to judge candidates against each other. MOOCs are much more of an unknown."
},
{
"answer_id": 37007,
"author": "Sol Infinus",
"author_id": 27966,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27966",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "It is difficult to say as it differs from university to university. But an MOOC course cannot act as a substitute to an actual course in a college because the depth of the subject is simply not enough in an MOOC. Hope this helps."
}
] |
2015/01/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37000",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27929/"
] |
37,012 |
I am going do do my thesis defense next week.
I am not nervous.
On the contrary, I am so over-relaxed that my instincts tell me this will cause a problem during my defense.
I am not sure when to take questions, though:
1. Should I accept the questions during the presentation or should I say that I will answer the questions at the end?
2. I am thinking of going with the second option, answers at the end. However, what if a jury member asks me a question during the presentation?
**Edit:** My thesis is on computer science. I'm going to defend it in English.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37013,
"author": "Koldito",
"author_id": 12314,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12314",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "The following is written from my perspective and it reflects my biases. \n\nIf someone feels the need to ask a question *during* your presentation, chances are it is because you failed to explain something properly and they don't want to get lost. I, for one, hate it when a speaker just barrels through difficult material and I have to struggle to keep up (one time, the speaker pulled up a slide full of long lines of lambda calculi and went \"as we can *clearly* see here...\"; avoid that). Go through your talk plan carefully, identify the tricky issues, and make sure that you don't have hidden assumptions lurking anywhere. If in doubt, assume that the audience won't be able to follow you unless you explain things carefully. This much should ensure that all the questions come at the end and, more importantly, that they are substantial (i.e., none of this \"I didn't quite catch your definition of blah, can you repeat it please?\").\n\nAs for thanking your advisors, it's appropriate if you keep it short (like 20-seconds-tops short). You already have the acknowledgements of your dissertation to wax poetic all you want."
},
{
"answer_id": 37032,
"author": "Daniel Wessel",
"author_id": 26614,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26614",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "Do's and don't of a thesis defense is hard to answer, but you seem to have two specific questions.\n\n**Questions during or after:** Adding to Koldito (and I've just seen that Szabolcs also mentioned it), what are the regulations of your defense? My defense was highly regulated -- 30 minutes presentation, 30-45 minutes (or an hour? no idea anymore) for discussion. Under these conditions we practiced to give the talk in 30 minutes and did not plan for many questions, as it was understood that the questions will be asked after the presentation. So if in doubt, go for what is already established in your discipline at your university. I think it's more important to focus on the issues that your talk is a) understandable and b) within the time-frame. If you are asked a question anyway you can either answer it directly if it is necessary for understanding, or -- if possible -- say that you'd like to answer the question in the question period (if you have one). Same with any presentation, some questions divert and are not central, and they're best answered later.\n\n**Thanking advisers:** Unless an adviser is narcissistic, I think it's enough to say in the beginning who your advisers were. The focus is on your work -- not you, not your advisers -- but what you did. Also you are not doing the presentation for the advisers, but address everyone in the audience. But if in doubt, do what comes natural to you."
},
{
"answer_id": 37070,
"author": "Nate Eldredge",
"author_id": 1010,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1010",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "A thesis defense is really a type of oral examination, and your advisor and committee are the examiners. They can ask questions whenever they want! And it would behoove you to answer them as best you can. As such, it would be wise to prepare your talk with some flexibility, so that even if some time is taken up by questions you can still talk about everything essential, and if there are no questions you don't run out of things to say.\n\nIf local custom is that questions be saved until the end, that's fine - but let your advisor/committee enforce that on themselves. If they choose to ask questions in the middle anyway, answer them.\n\nIf a question (or line of questions) becomes long and involved, and you are becoming sidetracked, then you could politely suggest resuming the discussion at the end. But let your advisor/committee decide whether they want to do that, or continue discussing that question right then.\n\nIf people other than your advisor/committee are present, and you get questions from them, you can answer them briefly if possible; but I would avoid spending a lot of time on their questions. For those folks, you can offer to talk to them further afterwards."
},
{
"answer_id": 175356,
"author": "Jonnovitic Ismaelov",
"author_id": 146768,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/146768",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "Ok good ideas.\nadvisor/committee are present, and you get questions from them, you can answer them briefly if possible; but I would avoid spending a lot of time on their questions. For those folks, you can offer to talk to them further afterwards."
}
] |
2015/01/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37012",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15949/"
] |
37,021 |
I hear a lot from the experts that citation count is a bad idea as a measure of judging a paper. This seems simply counter-intuitive to me. I would like to know if any study has been done in this direction?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37022,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "First off, don't trust generalizations too much. The number of citations is not a perfect measure by far. First, more citations take time to accumulate, once could possibly look at citations per year or something similar. Second, it is possible to cite your own work so without filtering out so-called *self-citations* you may see inflated values. Self-citation, in itself is not necessarily an evil either, there are many reasons why one must reference ones own earlier work. One obvious reason is that later work often builds on earlier work and part of that is usually earlier work by the same person. Third, the number of citations are field dependent and in bibliometrics methods exist to remove such bias. Hence an article in a hot topic with much research will receive more hits than an article, no matter how excellent, in a small field.\n\nSo, when judging an article from its citations, it is useful to keep the problems in mind and not over-interpret. This is essentially not different from any normal approach to any data set."
},
{
"answer_id": 37023,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "Citation count is a good example of a phenomenon subject to the [Matthew Effect](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_effect): a feedback process in which privileged individuals become more privileged as a result of their privilege. Quality, of course, does have a significant correlation with a paper drawing citations. Its citations are also strongly affected, however, by the fame of its authors, the fame of its venue, and also simply by the fact that other people cite the paper (thus making people like yourself judge it as \"higher quality\" and therefore more likely to cite it). Likewise, the mere fact that a paper is obscure does not mean that it is bad. Mostly, it simply means that nobody is paying attention to it. Finally, the fact that people are happy with a result doesn't necessarily make it true, as any number of scientific shifts in thinking (not to mention scandals) can attest; a paper may even draw citations precisely because other people are criticizing it.\n\nCitation count is still a good way of getting a good first impression of which papers *other* people consider important, but you really need to judge the quality yourself, as a scientist."
},
{
"answer_id": 37024,
"author": "O. R. Mapper",
"author_id": 14017,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14017",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": false,
"text": "I do not know of any study in this field, but I have a hunch that the following points apply (without any particular order, just numbered for convenience in the case of comments/replies):\n\n1. **Opportunity for citation:** A paper that presents the ultimate answer to a problem is probably more valuable than a paper that presents just an unfinished attempt at solving the same problem. Yet, the latter is much easier to build upon (because it still leaves obvious extension points) and thus might be cited much more frequently.\n2. **Meaning of citations:** There is no rule that a paper needs to be cited positively. If a paper has an obvious flaw, this may give rise to a number of other papers that just cite the flawed paper to point out what they are about to prove wrong or do better.\n3. **Citation scope:** Referencing a paper does not mean referencing the whole paper, or its core finding. A reference to a paper might mean that the whole paper is pointed out as related work, or it could just mean that the second half of a particular statement in the introduction section is pointed out as related. A citation can well point out a remark [that is completely marginal to the referenced paper](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4984/someone-cited-my-paper-in-an-irrelevant-manner), but that the citing author deemed to explain the fact in question particularly well, or that made a particularly recent mention of an old topic (to show the topic is still of interest).\n4. **Not all citations are equal:** The question whether something is or is not cited hinges on its relative relevance compared to other citations, based on the available space left in the current paper format, not on the global importance of the work.\n5. **Citation habits differ:** Even within one (sub-)field, citation habits differ wildly between conferences and authors. This is in part due to different paper formats and length restrictions (see previous point), but also simply because some authors are much more willing to throw in citations every now and then than others. Such habits can even vary for a single author, based on \"strategic\" considerations for the intended final target audience of the paper.\n6. **Citations can be transitive:** Authors occasionally face situations where they can either list several examples of related work, or cite a single overview paper (e.g. a state of the art report), to give an overview over some basics or otherwise related topic. The latter case is clearly more space-efficient and possibly more helpful (as the overview paper is designed to give an overview while at the same time conveying the information somewhat in-depth, which often cannot be done in a single sentence of a related work section), but does not increase the citation count of the works referenced in the overview paper.\n7. **Papers are not atomic:** There is no \"natural\" clustering of research questions, solutions, works and experiments. How many or how few findings go into/are allowed in a single published work is mostly a matter of style and personal preference of authors and program chairs. With that in mind, any particular finding may be presented in a single paper (which gets N citations), or split up into N papers (each of which may get only one citation). Thus, while the number of citations in this example may give a hint about the importance of each of the single *written documents*, it does not say much about the importance of the actual set of research questions.\n8. **Citation count is not normalized by field/community:** As correctly pointed out by [Cephalopod](https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14204/cephalopod), '\"What constitutes many depends on the field\". Groundbreaking work in a narrow field might never get many citations.' Likewise, fields where publishing small bite-sized papers at a high frequency is common naturally amass a much larger total amount of citations than fields where publications are very seldom and, when they occur, cover a large amount of progress, discussion and findings.\n9. **Citation tweaking:** As any metric, defining such a single factor for measuring performance, citation count is prone to abuse. If an author suspects citation count to be beneficial, there is an incentive to self-cite (or cyclically cite each other within an institute), and possibly even break up publications into smaller parts (related to the practice of *salami slicing*) to have more opportunities for those extra citations. As it can be assumed that some authors are already doing that, this renders citation count even less reliable as a quality indicator, as the \"training data set\" that would be used for comparison is already skewed.\n10. **Citation count ≠ citation count:** The citation count itself is not a reliable measure to start with, as different sources will provide different citation counts, depending on what citations (and what kinds of documents that contain citations) are counted:\n\t* Citations in a book can be counted by chapter (point in favour of this: If each chapter is written by a different (group of) author(s), every chapter has its individual list of citations), or for the whole book (point in favour of this: A book tends to have a certain focused topic, and - more so than e.g. conference proceedings - all chapters tend to follow a common \"narrative\", so some central works are likely to be referenced in various chapters).\n\t* If possibly predatory journals are included, a variant of item 9 can ensue in which [citations in less reputable sources (that are counted nonetheless) are bought](http://scholarlyoa.com/2015/01/20/did-a-romanian-researcher-successfully-game-google-scholar-to-raise-his-citation-count/), as pointed out by [ff524](https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11365/ff524).\n\t* Citation counts can include citations from totally legitimate works, which are nonetheless of a vastly different status compared to peer-reviewed publications. For example, Google Scholar sometimes seems to count student Bachelor and Master theses and other documents created while studying *if* the university's digital library that provides a copy of every such submitted document happens to be crawled by Google.\n11. **External factors influence selection of cited works:** If there is one particular finding in one particular work that is appropriate to cite, there is no question that that particular paper will be cited. However, often enough, things are much more vague - there are various eligible papers that allude to the same statement in different ways, and it is not at all clear which one is preferrable to cite. At this point, external factors that are rather arbitrary can directly influence whether or not a work is cited. For instance, the older paper might be cited to show the original finding ... but the more recent paper might also be cited instead to show that the topic in question is still of interest in recent works. The older paper might be chosen because it is the original reference, or the more recent paper at the more highly-valued venue might be chosen to make the reference stronger, or yet another paper might be chosen because it contains the more comprehensible explanation. Lastly, depending on the citation style, even space may be an issue - if an author is fighting for the last few lines to stay within the allowable page limit, at least in APA style, a paper by *Li et al.* has an inherent advantage over one by *Runler and Fuwmen*, one by *Runler and Fuwmen* has an advantage over one by *Erdenebileg and Papadopoulos*, and one by *Erdenebileg and Papadopoulos* has an inherent advantage over a paper by *Russell-Rodriguez and Pennington-Kiesewetter*."
},
{
"answer_id": 37028,
"author": "Inquisitive",
"author_id": 27985,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27985",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "Human beings, regardless of intelligence level, generally tend to subscribe to the \"herd mentality\". I guess it's because we, as animals like any other animal, want to conserve energy. For example, if everyone believes Stephen Hawking or Lisa Randall is rarely wrong, then it's in my best interest to focus on what he/she has to say. It will save me the energy of exploring other sources and finding answers for myself.\n\nAt someone's request I will try to clarify my answer.\n\nLet's say I'm writing a paper about black holes. Obviously, I want to write the best possible paper but I'm not the best physicist on planet Earth. The best physicists on planet Earth will probably have the most citations on the subject matter. Does having the most citations about a subject mean that the highly cited individual is always correct concerning the subject? No. I have to realize that if I'm referencing that person's work. Assuming that Stephen Hawking is right all the time about black holes or even assuming that he is right most of the time is a huge and dangerous assumption."
},
{
"answer_id": 37033,
"author": "Stephen Gourlay",
"author_id": 27987,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27987",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "The reason citation counts are not good for judging paper quality is that there are a great many reaons (15, 28, 26 - depending on the study) for citing, and citation practice vary between disciplines. See:\n\nCase, D O & Higgins, G M 2000 *How Can We Investigate Citation Behavior? A Study of Reasons for Citing Literature in Communication.* JASIS 51(7) 635-645 \n\nfor references to earlier studies, and report of a study in the discipline of communication."
},
{
"answer_id": 37201,
"author": "Cape Code",
"author_id": 10643,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10643",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "tl;dr.\n------\n\nIt only works under certain conditions.\n\n---\n\nThere is actually a whole field of study that explores the scientific process via publication metrics, it's called [*bibliometrics*](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliometrics). It is true that citation count **within a field** is sometimes used as a proxy to estimate an article's quality. See for example this recently published study about peer review:\n\nSiler K, Lee K, Bero L (2015) *Measuring the effectiveness of scientific gatekeeping* PNAS Jan 13;112(2):360-5. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1418218112\n\nFrom which the highlighted paragraphs below are copied. \n\nArguments in favor\n------------------\n\nFirst, the reasons given to consider citation count as a measure of quality (I edited the references to match the ones given at the bottom of this post):\n\n> \n> Scientists cite work for a myriad of reasons (1, 2). However, the\n> vast majority of citations are either positive or neutral in nature\n> (3). We worked with the assumption that scientists prefer to build\n> upon other quality research with their own work. As Latour and Woolgar\n> (4) suggested, citation is an act of deference, as well as the means\n> by which intellectual credit and content flows in science. Relatedly,\n> we also assumed that most scientists want to produce quality work and\n> will seldom attempt to garner credit and attention by blatantly doing\n> bad work. Thus, on the whole, the attention and impact associated with\n> citations provides a reasonable measure of quality. Citations provide\n> an objective and quantitative measure of credit and attention flows in\n> science.\n> \n> \n> \n\nArguments against\n-----------------\n\nThey also discuss the limitations of using citations as a measure of quality, **the logarithmic distribution of citations**:\n\n> \n> Because citations are often distributed exponentially, with a few\n> articles garnering disproportionate attention (5), we also used the\n> logarithm of citation counts as a dependent variable to diminish the\n> potential influence of a few highly cited outlier articles\n> \n> \n> \n\nAnd the **'social status' effect**:\n\n> \n> scientists often rely on heuristics to judge quality; status of\n> scholars, institutions, and journals are common means of doing so (6,\n> 7). Unsurprisingly, citations received by manuscripts were positively\n> correlated with the impact factor of the journal in which it was\n> eventually published.\n> \n> \n> \n\nIn short, comparing citation count of articles published in journals with a very different impact factor is a bad idea.\n\nPages 46 and 47 of reference number 3 give an exhaustive list of limitations of citation count as a proxy for quality (I edited the list for the sake of brevity): \n\n> \n> * **Time-dependent factors** Due to the exponential increase in scientific output,\n> citations become more probable from year to year.\n> * **Field-dependent factors** Citation practices vary between science and social\n> sciences fields [...] and even within different areas (or clusters) within a single subfield [...], small fields attract far fewer citations than more\n> general fields [..].\n> * **Journal-dependent factors** [...] journal accessibility, visibility, and\n> internationality [...] as well as the impact, quality, or prestige of the journal may influence the probability of citations.\n> * **Article-dependent factors** [...] There is also a positive correlation\n> between the citation frequency of publications and the number of co-authors of\n> the work [...]. And, as longer articles have more content that can be cited than\n> shorter articles do, the sheer size of an article influences whether it is cited [...].\n> * **Author/reader-dependent factors** The language a paper is written in [...] influence the probability of citations. [...] citations are affected by social networks: authors cite primarily works by authors with whom they are personally\n> acquainted. [...] men receive substantially more citations to their work than women do.\n> \n> \n> \n\nMany regular users of this site will love that one:\n\n> \n> * **Availability of publications** Physical accessibility [...], free online\n> availability of publications [...], and the publishing media [...] influence the probability of citations.\n> \n> \n> \n\nAnd lastly: \n\n> \n> * **Technical problems** [...] The incorrect citing of sources is\n> unfortunately far from uncommon: Evans et al. (1990) checked the references in papers in three medical journals and determined that 48 percent were incorrect:\n> “The data support the hypothesis that authors do not check their references or\n> may not even read them” [...] In a similar investigation,\n> Eichorn and Yankauer (1987) found that “thirty-one percent of the 150 references\n> had citation errors, one out of 10 being a major error (reference not locatable)” [...] Additionally, problems stemming from homographs and synonyms can arise\n> when researching publications and deriving citations from citation databases\n> using authors’ names.\n> \n> \n> \n\nAll these are linked to plentiful citations that you can find in the original document available for download [here](http://pubman.mpdl.mpg.de/pubman/item/escidoc:1758962:1/component/escidoc:1758961/BornmannLutzCitingBehavior.pdf).\n\nReferences\n----------\n\n1. Lynn FB (2014) *Diffusing through disciplines: Insiders, outsiders and socially\ninfluenced citation behavior.* Soc Forces 93(1):355–382.\n2. Hargens LL (2000) *Using the literature: Reference networks, reference contexts, and the social structure of scholarship.* Am Sociol Rev 65(6):846–865.\n3. Bornmann L, Daniel H-D (2008) *What do citation counts measure: A review of studies on citing behavior.* J Doc 64(1):45–80.\n4. Latour B, Woolgar S (1979) *Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts* (Sage, Los Angeles).\n5. Lotka AJ (1926) *The frequency distribution of scientific productivity.* J Wash Acad Sci 16:317–323.\n6. Long JS, Fox MF (1995) *Scientific careers: Universalism and particularism.* Annu Rev Sociol 24:45–71.\n7. Lee CJ, Sugimoto CR, Zhang G, Cronin B (2013) *Bias in peer review.* JASIST 64(1):2–17."
},
{
"answer_id": 37303,
"author": "Yasha",
"author_id": 28181,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28181",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Others have mentioned, but it bears repeating - citations are not necessarily positive. Plenty of papers use faulty methodologies and are cited as examples of *what not to do*.\n\nAlso, at least within the social sciences, citation is correlated with age and 'first mover advantage'. Because any academic paper worth its salt is going to cite previous work on the topic in the literature review, older papers will naturally garner higher citation counts, all else held equal. This has very little to do with the quality of those papers."
},
{
"answer_id": 55090,
"author": "rul30",
"author_id": 41693,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/41693",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "I think it boils down to the question:\n\nDo you use citations as a **measure** *or* as a **metric**.\n\nA **measure** is a value you get by *measuring* a quantity (e.g. miles, seconds, citations, words). A measure is a mostly objective attribute. A *measure* does not have any meaning, it is only a quantisation.\n\nA **metric** uses usually multiple *measurements* and combines them. After the combination the *metric* can be used and compared to a set of rules or other *metered* objects in order to sort or value them. The combination of measurements is the step were a) meaning and b) subjectivity enters the whole process.\n\nIt is therefore absolutely understandable to use citations as a measure but you will most likely never use it as a metric itself. When the number of citations is used as a metric for paper-quality, assumptions need to be made which cannot be proven (except by measuring something else as well).\n\nOnly because one can measure something does not mean that the measurement contains any information."
},
{
"answer_id": 76012,
"author": "Cliff AB",
"author_id": 47192,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/47192",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "First of all, what does it mean to *better*? \n\nI know this may sound like nitpicking, but I can provide an example that gives a strong **negative** correlation between citations and a certain measure of *better*. I typically write algorithms for my research. Generally speaking, you don't get to publish unless your algorithm is an improvement in some meaningful way over previous algorithms. But you certainly need to cite previously published algorithms! Thus, for a given problem, the early algorithms will have a very large number of citations, while the later algorithms will have a much smaller number of citations. \n\nSo if your definition of \"better\" is that the algorithm is faster (a very reasonable definition), then the papers with large numbers of citations are likely to be the worst in the literature (since they are the oldest). \n\nAs an anecdote, I just published a paper on an algorithm that I have reason to believe will close the book on optimization for that particular problem (partly because it's really fast, and partly because it's not a very hot topic). As such, I don't expect that paper to get many citations, even when compared with previous algorithms on that same problem."
},
{
"answer_id": 76035,
"author": "Jeromy Anglim",
"author_id": 62,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/62",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "*There have been many good answers to this question, but I wanted to frame what I see as the most important points.*\n\n**Citation counts measure impact not quality:**\nThe citation count of an article is a measure of research impact, and not quality. Even as a measure of research impact, it has issues, but in general, \"research impact\" is closer to what it represents. A high quality new paper will have minimal citations, because it has had minimal time to have an impact. Similarly, the quality of a paper is only loosely related to research impact. Some high quality papers are difficult for the literature to digest. Some low quality papers evolve into standard publications that are commonly cited in a given context. Entire literatures may use questionable methods but build a whole ecosystem of mutually reinforcing citations.\n\n**Citation count is confounded by time since publication**: One of the biggest points is that:\n`citation_count = average_citations_per_year x years_since_publication`\n\nTime since publication is unrelated to quality, yet it is one of the main drivers of article citation count. Thus, even if you did see citations as an index of quality, average citations per year would be a better index than total citations. Even there, it gets complex because articles in a given field tend to have a general distribution of citations over time where for example, citations per year typically tends to peak early and then gradually declines over time. So if you were trying to get a pure measure of quality based on citations, you would probably try to estimate the expected citation count after 30 or more years based on how many years has passed and known citation distribution characteristics. \n\n**Assorted other points**:\n\n* **Fields differ in citation practices**: Some fields have short citation half-lives so that more of the total citations an article will receive typically accrue in a shorter period of time (e.g., 5 years versus 15 years). Some fields include more references and therefore there is a greater sum of citations in the system. In general, this is more of an issue if citations are being used to do comparisons across disciplines. If you operate in a particular field, then this is less of an issue. And if you are aware that STEM fields tend to have shorter citation half lives and more references relative to social sciences, then you can incorporate this into your perspectives.\n* **Self-citations can be removed**: Many systems like Scopus allow for the removal of self-citations. This can be useful where you suspect such gaming is occurring (or generally where there is an academic that publishes a lot and self-cites a lot without getting citation traction with other academics).\n\n### Using article citation count as an index of quality\n\nWhile most answers here point out the problems with citation counts, it is worth taking a balanced perspective.\nAfter five or ten years after publication, average citations per year provides some information regarding the quality of a publication. Actually, it is a measure of impact potential as indexed by achieved impact over a finite period of time.\nIt's not definitive, but it is a useful bit of information. If you want to assess quality, either you or someone suitably skilled needs to read the article and appraise it. \n\nIn particular, if after five or ten years, an article has almost no citations, then this is a bit of a red flag for the quality of the paper. Likewise, if an article has hundred of citations per year, this suggests that it is likely to be an important piece of work. None of this is definitive, but it is suggestive and useful information.\n\n### General points on how to use citation counts\n\n* Citation counts are a measure of impact, not quality\n* Average citations per year is a better measure of the \"impact potential\" of a paper than total citations\n* Citation counts become more informative as more time since publication accrues. As a rough rule of thumb, five years post publication is probably a rough minimum to get a somewhat accurate sense of citation potential."
},
{
"answer_id": 106777,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "There was a paper published in 1994 in a medicine journal entitled *A mathematical model for the determination of total area under glucose tolerance and other metabolic curves* which describes a method for computing the area under a curve, dubbed \"Tai's method\". This paper got 311 citations according to Google Scholar, which isn't too bad for medicine papers apparently (although some can rake in literally 1,000 citations...).\n\nThis method is the [trapezoidal rule](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trapezoidal_rule) and according to Wikipedia, it was known to ancient Babylonians in 50 BC. Every undergrad with a vague math education, perhaps advanced high school students, or someone who reads a pop math blogs, knows about it.\n\nYou wouldn't know this insanity from just looking at the citations of the paper. There are many good arguments in the other answers, but if this isn't damning enough to make you look at citation counts with some circumspection, I don't know what will."
},
{
"answer_id": 125791,
"author": "einpoklum",
"author_id": 7319,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7319",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "Doe, Umanskaya, Milgab and Bennt suggest in [DUMB 1999] that it is indeed acceptable to evaluate papers based on their citation count, and that paper of theirs has over 5,000 citations, so we can probably take their word for it."
},
{
"answer_id": 125842,
"author": "user159517",
"author_id": 66417,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/66417",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "On top of all the other good points made already, there is also Goodhart's law to consider: \n\n> \n> A measure ceases to be a good measure once it becomes a target. \n> \n> \n>"
}
] |
2015/01/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37021",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27978/"
] |
37,034 |
Suppose that paper A has a lemma called Lemma A, along with its proof.
I want to use this lemma in another paper B. However, in the scope of my paper, I have to change it slightly, but without losing the general idea.
For instance, the original lemma might read as follows:
>
> Lemma A: The intersection of two straight lines in the plane is either empty, a single point, or a straight line.
>
>
>
Suppose I need the following variant in paper B:
>
> Lemma B: The intersection of two planes in 3-space is either empty, a single line, or a plane.
>
>
>
Also, the proofs for both lemmas are very similar.
Therefore, I have two questions:
1. Can I use the same methodology and same terminology with similar words to prove my own lemmas?
2. If I can, is citing paper A in my lemma confusing? If I cannot, can I just specify the lemma in paper A and say that this lemma and proof can also be used etc.?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37040,
"author": "J Fabian Meier",
"author_id": 27442,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27442",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Although many people do it, it is bad style and confusing to cite a lemma and restate it in a way that is not equivalent to the original one. I would suggest to state the lemma you need, and, instead of proving the whole lemma, explain in the proof that your lemma is very similar to the lemma A.1 and that the proof can be reused making the changes ... .\n\nIf, though, you just steal an idea, it might be better to completely prove your lemma in your version."
},
{
"answer_id": 37041,
"author": "Nate Eldredge",
"author_id": 1010,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1010",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "You should certainly cite paper A in any case.\n\nOne way this is commonly handled: state your Lemma B.1 and give the complete proof. At the beginning of the proof, write something like \"This closely follows the proof of Lemma A.1 from [A].\" Now your paper is self-contained and you have given appropriate credit. It is fine if your proof is similar in structure to theirs; in some ways this is better, because a reader who looks at both will more easily be able to see the similarities and differences. But do not simply copy and paste their proof and change the necessary words. Your proof should be your words, even if it is from their ideas.\n\nOr, state your Lemma B.1, but instead of giving a complete proof, say \"The proof is very similar to that of Lemma A.1 from [A]\". This saves space but will be more annoying to the reader, who in order to check your result will have to find the paper [A] and read through the proof, adapting it to prove B.1 instead of A.1. (The referee may be similarly annoyed.)\n\nSome people would omit the statement of Lemma B.1 altogether, and when they need to use it, would say \"By a slight modification of the proof of Lemma A.1 from [A], we have blah blah blah...\". This is even more annoying.\n\nWorst of all is to just say \"By Lemma A.1 from [A], we have blah blah blah\" where Lemma A.1 claims something different from (and not obviously implying) the statement you want."
},
{
"answer_id": 37042,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "In your example, those are not equivalent mathematical assertions, and so they are not identical lemmas. What I have done in similar cases is to say something along the lines of: \n\n> \n> Lemma X is closely based on Lemma Y in [cite], and follows a similar proof structure.\n> \n> \n> \n\nThis way you give appropriate credit to the original source, while still making your new assertion as you need."
}
] |
2015/01/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37034",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15949/"
] |
37,037 |
My former teacher, who had done her PhD in a top-10 university in the UK in 2009, is an assistant professor in my former school.
On the day when I visited my former school, I saw her at the school canteen unexpectedly. I smiled and nodded to her before I said "Good afternoon, Professor Uako." We were talking for a few minutes before she went back to her office. When I was sitting on a subway train on my way home, however, I was wondering
if it was impolite for me to call her that.
Can I call an assistant professor a professor, and say "Hello Prof. Nickname"?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37038,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "Yes, you can call an assistant or associate professor \"Professor.\" That's completely normal practice. The only time it might be inappropriate is if you are writing them in a formal context. \"Prof. Swoth\" is always OK, but saying \"Mary Swoth, Professor of Unusual Studies\" isn't really appropriate if Swoth is an assistant or associate professor."
},
{
"answer_id": 37039,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "Yes, you can call any kind of professor a professor, and you should. Addressing someone as \"assistant professor\" or \"associate professor\" would be...well, it's simply not done, so I can't say if it would be rude or just weird.\n\nIt is similar to military protocol, actually: e.g. if someone is a rear or vice admiral, you call them admiral. In contrast to the above example, I'm sure some knowledgeable party could be specific about what bad thing could happen to you if you screw that up!"
},
{
"answer_id": 37046,
"author": "Chris Leary",
"author_id": 11905,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11905",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "This is not an answer but an anecdote about my current university. For whatever reason, someone decided that the faculty with Ph.D.'s should be addressed as Dr., whereas those with only a masters degree should be called Professor. There are some Ph.D.'s on the faculty who are offended if you call them Professor, despite the fact that they hold the rank of Professor. To me, this is much ado about nothing. I always caution my own students to be aware of our peculiar situation. However, I tell them to call me Mr., Professor, or Dr., whichever they feel most comfortable with.\n\n(I had experience with two graduate schools in the US. In one the facuty were all addressed as Dr., in the other, all were addressed as Professor. Local norms and customs are hard to figure out!)"
},
{
"answer_id": 37051,
"author": "zoli",
"author_id": 28006,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28006",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "In Hungarian, we address only full professors as \"professor\". [Professzor úr! /Professzor asszony!]\n\n\"Mister/Ms teacher\" would be the universal addressing for educators. [Tanár úr! / Tanárnő!]\n\n(The exclamation mark goes with addressing in writing in Hungarian.)\n\n\"Mister Assistant Professor\" would be awkward."
},
{
"answer_id": 37053,
"author": "Inquisitive",
"author_id": 27985,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27985",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "Yes you can.\n\nThe \"Assistant Professor\" still teaches. The word Assistant is there to denote the rank within the academic system. Some have taught longer and are more accomplished and are rewarded accordingly.\n\nActually, calling the person \"Assistant Professor Jonif\" would be very awkward and cumbersome. It should be avoided."
},
{
"answer_id": 37055,
"author": "Andreas Blass",
"author_id": 14506,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14506",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "My impression is that, when someone is a professor and holds a doctorate, it's appropriate to use the \"higher\" of the two titles when addressing him or her. Which title that is depends on the institution. At some institutions, the people with doctorates are a proper subset of the professors; there \"doctor\" is the higher title. At other institutions, all the professors and some other people as well have doctorates; there \"professor\" is the higher title. \n\nOf course, to follow this advice, you have to know who has a doctorate, and you have to know people's ranks, and you have to know what sort of institution is involved. In the absence of that knowledge, just use a title that seems appropriate. As Chrac said, some people can be offended if you guess wrong, but I expect that those people are not very numerous. And, as far as I'm concerned, their being offended is their problem, not yours."
},
{
"answer_id": 37159,
"author": "blankip",
"author_id": 11420,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11420",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "I would just go to the sports analogy. You have head coaches (professors) and assistant coaches (assistant professors). I can't imagine calling any assistant coach who has coached me \"assistant coach\". Just saying it is a bit demeaning and basically reminding them that they are just an assistant. I think at best if used you would seem a bit naive and at worst a jerk."
},
{
"answer_id": 37167,
"author": "enthu",
"author_id": 15723,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15723",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Yes, You can.\n-------------\n\n**Hello Professor Nickname** and **Hello Assistant Professor Nickname**: Simply compare these two and you will see that the first one seems more polite and normal. (However, culture of calling people and it's etiquette may vary in different countries and universities.)\n\nHowever, I think that **Hello Doctor Nickname** or **Hello Mrs./Mr. Nickname** are good choices if you are in doubt about the politeness/correctness of using a specific title.\n\n---\n\nPS: This may be too pessimistic (and not so true) but I afraid, using **Hello Assistant Professor Nickname** may cause the person to feel that the student wants to remind that professor her level of profession (something like: you are an assistant professor not a professor) and this may cause her to be annoyed."
},
{
"answer_id": 66063,
"author": "helpful",
"author_id": 51612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/51612",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "I am a visiting professor and this is not my primary role. I have asked the human resources department at the university how I should be addressed. They suggested that the verbal title professor is appropriate. However, when written, I should state that I am a visiting professor ie Professor Nickname, Primary role details, Visiting professor, University details. Actually I always invite people to use my first name anyway!"
},
{
"answer_id": 97982,
"author": "Levon",
"author_id": 1452,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1452",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Yes, being a Professor is a profession, the Assistant, Associate, or Full Professor just denotes rank.\n\nAt my school students also address lecturers as Professor in recognition of their role (and a sign of respect) which is perfectly fine and appropriate.\n\nI'm in the US, and a professor (with rank of Associate).\n\n**The best thing is to just ask the person in question**, some of my colleagues are rather informal, my cultural background is more formal. Consequently, different people will feel differently - you can't go wrong if you ask."
},
{
"answer_id": 98214,
"author": "henning",
"author_id": 31917,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31917",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Another quirk: Here at a large Austrian university, my official German job title is \"Universitätsassistent (postdoc)\", which directly translates to \"University Assistant (postdoc)\". The official translation, however, is \"Assistant Professor\". And yet I don't have the rank of an Austrian Professor (neither \"ordinary\" nor \"extraordinary\"), and so German speakers would in fact be *wrong* to address me as \"Professor so-and-so\".\n\nThis is of course not only confusing to me. Since I also have a somewhat foreign name, students address me in all kinds of ways. I just got use to it as a fact of life."
},
{
"answer_id": 120830,
"author": "Jaired",
"author_id": 101292,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/101292",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "In our country, Prof holds a higher value when you are in the academe.\nWe have many PhDs but only few becomes a full Professor. And nobody calls you a Prof until you become a Full Professor. You are not even considered a Prof if you are an associate or an assistant Prof. Come to think of it, You can earn your PhD by completing a program (4-5yrs) but to become a full Professor, you need decades and decades (minimum # of researh, min # of Publications in ISI journal, Min Number of Community Work, Min # of teaching experience, Min Number of presentationa, etc). Its very difficult to become a Full Professor that it holds more value than any position in the academe."
},
{
"answer_id": 120847,
"author": "Ben",
"author_id": 87026,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/87026",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "In Australia the convention seems to be the opposite of that described in most of these answers --- it is usual here to reserve the title of \"Professor\" only to someone who is a fully professor. It is certainly not offensive to call someone \"Professor\" if they are at a lower level, but it might feel unearned to the recipient.\n\n[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/5bkKd.png)"
},
{
"answer_id": 120867,
"author": "starless",
"author_id": 64543,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/64543",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "In Finland, in most fields, anyone would be immensely confused by any titles beside their names, usually their first name or a nickname, outside some extraordinarily official circumstances. Just to give further indication of how country-dependent this really is."
}
] |
2015/01/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37037",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27408/"
] |
37,043 |
Courses taken and GPA can matter quite significantly for undergraduates, both for applying to graduate school and applying for jobs. What about courses taken and GPA during PhD? Do they matter at all for postdoc/professorship application? **Do postdoc/professorship application usually ask for a transcript?** What about for industry positions? Are there positions that would care about "good grades" or "advanced courses taken" during PhD?
I would guess the answer is largely negative, but I'm willing to hear other opinions.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37044,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "In my experience on many search committees I've never looked in detail at the coursework or grades of an applicant. We have however required transcripts as proof of the academic degrees that the applicants claim."
},
{
"answer_id": 37302,
"author": "Yasha",
"author_id": 28181,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28181",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "Yes, applying for academic jobs and post-docs will require your transcripts. How seriously they view the grades will vary from institution to institution. I would suggest, however, that while low grades may not exclude you from consideration, they certainly don't help. Coursework during a PhD is essentially training. You are being *trained* for your work as an academic. How well you fare in that training reflect something about you.\n\nIf you have a stellar publication record, fantastic references, and a killer dissertation, grades are likely not very important. But just remember, you're going to be competing against hundreds of other applicants for a job. Do you really want your transcript to be full of Bs? In a pool of candidates with 4.0 GPAs, you don't want to be the guy with a 3.0."
},
{
"answer_id": 37308,
"author": "Corvus",
"author_id": 27900,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27900",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "For what it's worth, I've served on dozens of faculty hiring committees at an R1 institution and I have never had a transcript made available to me as part of the application materials. So not only do we not care, even if we did care we wouldn't have the ability to do anything about it. It's true that competition is intense and any relevant edge helps--but grades aren't even part of the contest. \n\nPerhaps things are different in industry or possibly even at teaching institutions, though in the latter case I doubt it."
}
] |
2015/01/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37043",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27545/"
] |
37,052 |
I'm a recently hired assistant professor at a small teaching
university. The department head has been successful in dramatically
increasing student enrollment, such that our department is viewed
almost as keeping the faculty and university afloat (and the
department head is VERY highly regarded on campus). The department
head is close to the office admin (he treats her like a daughter
and she acts like a quasi assistant department head - approving new
classes and setting the schedule, for example).
When I was newly arrived I foolishly agreed to a scheme proposed by
the office admin where an instructor would develop a course that I
would teach next term. After not hearing anything for quite some
time, I checked up on the course progress and it turned out the
instructor didn't intend to give me anything related to the course
until the first day of class (when I was suppose to be teaching it
that day). There was some back and forth and eventually the
instructor committed to me that they would get me the course by the
end of November. The end of November came and went, and when I asked
about it I was assured I'd get it Friday. Friday came and went and on
Monday I was assured I'd get it the next day, which I didn't. When I
saw what she had made available to me on Tuesday, it turned out she
had barely started working on the course.
I went to talk to the office admin (who had set the whole thing up and
been acting as an intermediary) and told her the course wasn't near
completion and at this point I wouldn't be able to teach it. She told
me to talk to the department head. Previously I had wanted to involve
him and she had told me repeatedly not to. As I left she began
heckling me (telling me the instructor had been very busy with other
projects), when I tried to respond to her, she cut me off and told me
to talk about it with the department head. Again, as I turned to leave,
she started heckling me (asking me why I expected the course so
early) and told me I hadn't treated the instructor fairly.
I told her that I felt she and the instructor hadn't treated me
fairly, and that they had thrown me under the bus as a newly arrived
member of the department. She went NUTS. She started screaming,
saying she didn't appreciate being accused of throwing someone under
the bus and that I'd thrown her under the bus. She said she wouldn't accept being talked to that way and she would be complaining to the department head and her staff supervisor (which I found out later she did) and she slammed her door on me (I began walking away when she started screaming).
The department head came to my office and told me I wouldn't have to teach the
course and that I'd be assigned another section of a class I'd already
taught (which was fine with me and one of the solutions I'd previously tried to suggest). He didn't seem to want to hear anything else and just wanted
it wrapped up as quickly as possible. I had written up my understanding
of what had happened, which I gave him a hardcopy of (he didn't want to take it) and sent to him via e-mail. In the e-mail I asked to have another member of the faculty present at any meeting on the issue.
I think the existence of an e-mailed copy of the incident caught the department head's attention, as he then (later in the day) wanted to set up another meeting (but made it very clear no other faculty members could participate). At the meeting he again seemed very eager to brush things under the rug. I said that I wanted to be sure this didn't happen again, which he said he had no control over. I also said that I felt this shouldn't have happened and I wanted it to be treated seriously if it happened again, which he agreed to. I told him that the office admin had threatened to make complaints against me (which he said I didn't have to worry about). I asked him if I should be going on record about what had happen to HR and he told me not to. He told me that if I couldn't resolve things with him, the Diap was the next person to talk to and that under no circumstances would he involve other faculty members in meetings of this nature.
I talked to one of the senior faculty members and he told me that the department head has deliberately concentrated authority with himself and delegates things to the admin (so that another faculty member doesn't have control over them). He also said that he definitely didn't chastise the admin (and probably didn't even say anything to her).
I've thought about this situation and how unpleasant things will be in the department going forward. Since the new term has started I've been receiving dirty looks from the office admin whenever I've been forced into contact with her (I've been avoiding it as much as possible). I'm basically at the point where being in this department for the next 5 years leading up to tenure is pretty depressing (to say nothing of the idea of spending the rest of my career there) and am planning to set up another meeting with the department head.
Basically, I want to express that I think there's still a problem and I'm prepared to resign if that's the only solution. I obviously will make my resignation effective at the end of the school year (I won't leave them in the lurch). I'll tell him I wanted to give him another chance to solve the problem (and also feel that I should talk to the dean and HR before I tender my resignation so that they aren't blindsided - I want to let my department head know I'll be talking to them so he isn't surprised).
I'd be willing to stay if it was clearly expressed to the office admin that her actions were inappropriate. At this point I think that would require something along the lines of an official rebuke that would be put in her employment file.
For what it's worth, my teaching evaluations (from the one term I've been here) are very high and my research profile is probably the best in the department. I have a large number of other options for employment (which will probably be outside of academia). I don't need references or anything, so while I realize I'm "burning a bridge", that won't cause me any problems.
Does anyone have any advice on how I should move forward? I'd certainly understand anyone who thought I was "making a mountain out of a molehill", but this is still bothering me more than a month after the fact.
Sorry for the length, I thought it was important to include all relevant details.
EDIT: A moderator asked me below what I want from people who respond. I'm hoping for tactical advice (the best way to achieve an official rebuke, if it's impossible, advice on how to move past it). I'd also appreciate opinions on whether or not I'm justified being upset by the situation.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37061,
"author": "gnometorule",
"author_id": 4384,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4384",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "I can't tell you what is the 'best' solution to your situation, but I can share with you how I would approach it. If you allow, a few words about my background. After a Ph.D., I went to Wall Street. In my second job, a person who was senior to most people in my group was universally despised (the mere fact to be assigned to work with him made a female analyst begin to cry. Another time she had to be talked out of quitting because of how he had treated her.). While generally well-liked, I had a vendetta with this person for the entirety of my job with this firm, which was detrimental both to my and the other guy's standing.\n\nThis is meant to be an obvious analogy. You, as I did, appear to believe to be entirely in the right (and in your case, it's fairly obvious that you probably are); but morality, and success and happiness at work are not the same. While you seem to have the academic side of your career under control (you mention being well-regarded in your department for your research, etc.), I think you should spend some time working on the softer social side of your job...which will be part of *any* job you might have. What happened to you here, could easily happen again if you go through with quitting, and run into a similarly entitled admin at your next job. So instead of running at the first obstacle, tackle it head on. \n\nAnd for this, I would warmly recommend to de-emphasize due process, and to swallow your pride. Get some chocolates, and ask the admin to sit down with you in private - just you two. Tell her that you regret that you started off on the wrong foot, and for your part (even if you don't see a part at all, say it), you'd like to apologize; then hand her the chocolates. She let you down this time, but you can make her (and most) admins an ally. This doesn't always work. Some people simply cannot be worked with, but before you conclude that, work on your relationship with her. If you manage to make up, it will also reflect well on you with other department members, or at least your department head. If she's tardy in the future, remind her with a smile, and talk to your boss (in person), asking him to give her a nudge (which you could formulate along the lines of \"She's probably crowded, but I really need X urgently. Could you have a word with her and give her a friendly reminder?\")\n\nMinus the chocolates, this is what I would do now were I again in my old situation.\n\nIt's your choice, but I'd value not hating going to work every day, over feeling that I've been slighted; and it's clearly better than remembering having \"had\" to leave your first job. And really, what you describe here is work 101: you'll have that one admin in most jobs you'll have in your life."
},
{
"answer_id": 37065,
"author": "smci",
"author_id": 12050,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12050",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "I retitled this ***\"untouchable administrative member of department\"*** since that seems to be the crux of the issue:\nthe department head is in general excellent, however for reasons unknown [\\*] he has elevated the office admin beyond her competence and she is untouchable; you didn't sense this early enough and now you've walked into a landmine. Your issue is the political setup, not the particular issue with the new course not being ready; doesn't matter much and clearly she's out of line (although evidently she's also very insecure, and maybe if you'd privately managed to resolve it with her before it became a huge problem, this might have been avoidable; seems like she was genuinely afraid of getting the head involved, regardless whether he gives her a public rebuke or not; some would say it was a little naive to not have detected her untouchable status early enough; anyway it's too late now).\n\nSo it comes down to pragmatism vs principle; only you can weigh the following:\n\n* How many other people has the admin tangled with? Is she widely despised? Is she likely to leave/retire/get replaced(/promoted out)? You haven't supplied any context to us, we really need to know if you can muster the leverage to get her dealt with or not. Do some discreet asking around.\n* How long do you intend to stay there? How uncomfortable is it likely to get?\n* You can't get an official rebuke without at very least getting the dean involved (try that), threatening to resign, or maybe HR, which is burned-bridge territory.\n\n[\\*] As to the dept head and admin's unorthodox setup, there may well be more than meets the eye, maybe he will protect her, or turn a blind eye to her excesses, or she has the goods on him. Again, try to ask around before you make a decision.\n\nAfter you supply the missing information, it comes down to four options:\n\n1. You don't have the muscle to rectify this. Either a) resign quietly, b) resign to the dean and/or make a formal complaint, or c) stay and have to eat shit for a while until it blows over. Only you can determine what is the best career option. Put your pride and ego aside, admittedly hard to swallow.\n2. You do have the muscle, or she has made too many enemies. Palace coup time. Try not to alienate the dept head though. He is protecting her.\nIn general what they advise about conflict: only start a battle if you're pretty confident you can overwhelmingly win it. Seems doubtful based on what you've said.\n\nYou haven't told us enough to advise.\nThe only actionable thing I can say is to develop better radar for strange political setups like that, and the moment you do, discreetly figure out what their deal is, and don't cross insecure dangerous people needlessly.\nBoth academia and large organizations are stuffed with incompetent insecure people capable of being vicious who are nearly impossible to dislodge and flaunt it; the longer they're there the more intractable they get. The art is to flatter/ charm/ keep them sweet and working for you instead of against you. Strictly, this one shouldn't have been your battle."
},
{
"answer_id": 37093,
"author": "user28032",
"author_id": 28032,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28032",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "I'm probably going to get rated through the floor for this one, but there are two obvious things sticking out to me I consider worth pointing out.\n\nFirst the possible resolutions you list and want to decide between appear equally ridiculous to me. Basically it sounds like you want to have St Peter descend from heaven with the book of good and bad deeds, get the scores added up and paid out, everybody shakes hands and then life can continue.\n\nLife doesn't work that way. There is no compensation for past losses, and particularly life is not a zero-sum game: if shit happened to you that does not mean that somebody else profited equally from it, or that he or she had planned for that to happen.\n\nFor another, I think that the office admin appears to be doing an excellent job. She has been set up as the fall girl, and she works pretty well for that: an academic was supposed to provide you with course material in time and did not follow through. Obviously *that* is the person who actually let you down and who should have known what was needed by you when and provide it. Now it is hard to guess whether there is *another* story behind that (writing course material for someone else from scratch does not sound like something that should usually happen or be a good idea): if stuff is misorganized, a whole lot of negative consequences can accumulate all over the place without St Peter having anybody chalked up for malice.\n\nBut let's keep at this end of the story: whatever the reason, your course material provider did not come through, and you want the office admin on the hook for that. Are you surprised that she's not enamored with you?\n\nNow how did she get to be responsible for someone else in that manner? The way your office setup sounds, some people think they are doing her a favor by pushing responsibilities on her which she has a problem handling, responsibilities that are outside her area of expertise. She'll probably get paid more than usual because of handling more than usual, but likely not as much as a proper handler would get. And she's not been wise enough to refuse those favors of trust and responsibility.\n\nNow she's in a situation where she has to improvise and guesstimate a lot, and in that situation of getting more shoved onto her than she can competently dispatch, stuff went wrong. And mostly because somebody else did not carry the weight that she was told he would be lifting. She wasn't smart enough to just connect you and step out, so now she's being painted as the bad guy by you and you want her disciplined. And likely could have some chance of getting this accomplished. And you did try this via the department head already and she likely knows this. And you wonder why she's not all smiles at you.\n\nNow if you get her fired, the department will need to get another fall girl that the department head can load with the stuff he does not want to deal with himself but for which he does not seem to have the funds to hire somebody with more than administrational capabilities. It would be a fresh chance, sure, but one starting from scratch.\n\nDo you want to be the guy responsible for changing the department? Do you consider yourself sufficiently skilled in HR to make that decision?\n\nI'd rather suggest that you try rebooting your relation. Try getting out of the \"threat to her position and career\" role since you won't improve your standing with either her or the department in that manner. Avoid situations where she is responsible for stuff she has no clue about and that should not be part of her job in the first place.\n\nTry to avoid helping to set her up for failure. I don't know whether she has a chance to grow into the job that is expected from her, but it is not your basic task to fix that. If you can manage that she does not perceive you as a threat, you'll likely see much of what irks you now abate eventually.\n\nMost importantly: get rid of your notion of justice: when things go bad, you cannot pin all the badness to one bad person's score. Often there is minimal cause for large effect. Intrigants enjoy working with minimal cause for large effect, but you don't make it sound as though the office assistant is *enjoying* what she is doing. Nor do you make it sound like she is subtle. She is rather reacting like a frightened child."
},
{
"answer_id": 37132,
"author": "Faheem Mitha",
"author_id": 285,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/285",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "\"I foolishly agreed to a scheme proposed by the office admin...\". This was indeed foolish, and extremely unusual. I have to wonder what you were thinking. To a large extent, the whole situation grew out of that. Don't let office staff make your decisions for you. They're not qualified, for one thing. I'm also unclear how someone else can \"develop\" a course for you. What does that even mean?\n\nI agree with the general message of the other answers in that there is no point targeting the office admin. You should recognise that you made a mistake taking advice/suggestions from someone you should not have been taking advice from (and who isn't qualified to give it). Learn from your mistakes. The world is full of people giving bad advice. Just like the world is full of germs. You can't do anything about it, so develop better defenses. You probably have already have a filter for bad advice. So develop a better one.\n\nYes, it sounds like other people screwed up and behaved in less than ideal ways, but forcing them to confront their screwups isn't going to do you any good. You're not their father. And these people aren't criminals. They're your colleagues. Or department staff. Don't treat them like criminals or naughty children. I suggest you talk to the office admin, and basically say that you got off on the wrong foot, that there were some misunderstandings, and that you'd like to let byegones be byegones and get a fresh start.\n\nI agree with others that resigning would be a gross overreaction, unless of course, you are seriously dissatisfied with the job for professional reasons."
},
{
"answer_id": 37161,
"author": "blankip",
"author_id": 11420,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11420",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "A lot of the answers are really good if you really *needed* the job. I think by your post, you don't.\n\nI found myself in a position almost exactly like yours at an old job. I was a manager of a tech desk, I had a lot of credentials and found a job in a day. \n\nThe head project manager, chewed me out, belittled me, complained all the way up to senior VPs... a lot of drama. Because I wanted to change technology (and this would involve a few of her projects being squashed). It was my job to upgrade technology and I found it insulting that someone who didn't even understand what an IP address was, was telling me what we should use.\n\nTo make my story short, it basically turned out exactly as yours. Bosses told me she shouldn't have done it, she had no business even having the conversation, then tried to sweep it under the rug. \n\nHow did I deal with it?\n\nI was ultra open about it. I was new and didn't want people talking behind my back or thinking I was some kind of doormat. \n\nI have many examples. One of the first was her giving me dirty looks. I simply waited until she was talking to one of our directors and they seemed to be having a good chat. I walked by to get a coffee and said something to the effect, \"I am glad you can smile at work, I thought the dirty looks were a constant.\"\n\nIn a meeting she butted in loudly while I was talking a couple months in. I simply said, \"Excuse me I am talking. I appreciated that you can be loud and slam doors but you need to wait your turn for that.\" [almost everyone in the room was laughing but it was a little mean]\n\nShe promptly left the room and went to HR. Which was funny because our HR had to write her up for her previous outburst and put her on anger management watch - if she had one more issue she would have been required to go to a class. \n\nShe left a couple months later. I didn't try to stay away from her, ignore her, or anything like that. I simply completely acknowledged the situation and handled it with a bit of humor. \n\nI noticed quickly that my reaction really helped with my reputation in our offices. First, I didn't run to HR and file a complaint. Really this gets you nowhere and makes you look like a tattle-tale (also it is very easy for the person to just lie and act like it never happened or that you did something inappropriate). Second, the higher-ups saw that I would not let a person railroad me or (my ideas) because they had been there 10 years and I just started. Third, I didn't go talk behind her back and bad mouth her. Everything I said about her was to answer a direct question from a higher up or with her in the conversation."
},
{
"answer_id": 37163,
"author": "Nobody",
"author_id": 546,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/546",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "My reaction after finishing reading this long question is: a \"***Storm in a teapot***\" with the office admin, but a bigger problem is in the department.\n\nQuit an academic job (assistant professor) because of some problem with an office admin? I think you are over-reacted. The person responsible really should be that instructor and the department head shares some of the responsibilities. The office admin is only the messenger.\n\nIf you really want to start a fight. Please fight against that instructor and the department head because they didn't do their jobs. Please don't target that office admin. If you get that office admin fired, do you really think the problem is solved? It won't happen again? \n\nAnd I would like to say something for the students of that university. Please finish that scheme proposal for that course before you quit (if you ever quit that job) because you promised you would do it and it will be good for the students. You are a Professor in a teaching university. Please don't forget you have your responsibilities."
},
{
"answer_id": 37170,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "There are a couple of unspoken truths about academia:\n\n* Administrative people can make your life hell. From misplacing your grant applications to not ordering new toner for your printer, it entirely behooves you to be on their good side. This is triply the case for department heads -- I'm currently a program chair and I am deathly afraid of pissing off my staff.\n* Toxic departments are very common. There is no guarantee that your next job will be better. It may be, or it may be worse in different ways.\n* Being unemployed really sucks. Being underemployed (adjuncting) also sucks. Both are likely possibilities given the vagaries of the job market.\n\nYou're currently spending a great deal of emotional energy on this. I would try to clear the books as quickly as possible (chocolates help) and get back to focusing on your research. There's just one currency that's universally exchangeable on the job market, and that is research publications. \n\nIf your situation sucks, keep your head down and quietly apply to other places. But don't quit until you have a job offer in hand."
},
{
"answer_id": 37254,
"author": "user28150",
"author_id": 28150,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28150",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "Just picking out one tidbit from a comment of yourself on your question:\n\n> \n> I'd also appreciate opinions on whether or not I'm justified being upset by the situation.\n> \n\nThat, in a nutshell, is your problem. Feelings are caused, not \"justified\". They are no currency which you can cash in for action if they are not counterfeit.\n\nYou are willing to escalate the situation as far as it will go since you are convinced that the feelings you have in your hand beat hers. \"I take your complaint to your supervisor and raise you an official rebuke.\" And you ask for advice whether you should go \"all in\" and put your job on the table.\n\nBut this is a game that has no winner: the house takes all anyway. Don't worry about whether you are more righteously upset than the office admin. The question is how you are supposed to get along while you are there and you have not seriously attempted figuring that out. Your solution is that you want to have a permanent record on her file and then you both will get along fine and neither will be upset anymore to the degree where it would disturb the other.\n\nYou are a smart guy. That bet has lousy odds."
},
{
"answer_id": 103897,
"author": "Zeal",
"author_id": 87580,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/87580",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "Almost all of these answers involve some form of manipulation, political maneuvering, or else tongue-holding. These sorts of solutions ignore the fact that everyone involved is human, and as such, possess some level of humanity.\n\nThe issue here (as in all human conflict) is communication. The admin behaved very poorly. We can agree on that. But it seems clear to me that she was communicating fear. She is afraid of the department head, but more basically afraid that it will be revealed that she is in some way incompetent. Her fear led to an outburst which, of course, made her appear to be incompetent.\n\nNow she is living with her worst fear. You know she is incompetent, and you are raising it as an issue with the people from whom she most craves respect. How terrifying!\n\nYou are afraid as well. You fear that the admin will continue to make you feel uncomfortable, negatively affect your work life, and possibly involve you in another traumatic confrontation. Valid fears if nothing changes.\n\nAs long as she believes you view her as incompetent and are attempting to convince others to view her likewise, she is likely to make all your fears a reality. So the solution is simple: convince her that you do not view her as incompetent, and that you are not attempting to persuade others.\n\nCommunicate to her the following:\n\n* You **respect** the amount of responsibility she has, and the volume\nof work she is able to successfully organize and manage.\n* You **understand why** she was upset at you. She has a lot on her\nplate and she probably felt it was unfair to hold her responsible for\nthe actions of another. (Avoid discussing whether her actions were\njustified, including her attempts to belittle your concerns.)\n* You **regret** the confrontation you shared, and the actions you took\nfollowing it. You were attempting to prevent another conflict through\nmediation, but you realize now that neither of you desire conflict.\n* **You are afraid** that your relationship may not recover, which may result in the failure to work together effectively.\n* You **hope** that after communicating you can develop an\nunderstanding of each other to produce a relationship in which mutual\nrespect can survive whatever minor point of contention may arise.\n\nYour goal is to alleviate her fear of losing respect. She needs to **know beyond a shadow of a doubt** that you respect her. Then you can have completely acceptable interactions in which her fear does not overcome her self-control.\n\nMost of these answers are about getting what you want, but I would recommend considering that what you want might just include relationships filled with bidirectional trust and respect."
}
] |
2015/01/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37052",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7894/"
] |
37,054 |
Now, I understand that European PhDs are far from monolithic in format, and that most quals in my field (physics) can fall into two general formats, as far as North American PhD programs are concerned:
1. A set of tests covering the fundamental areas of undergraduate-level education in your discipline (I know MIT and Princeton can be quite nasty in this regard for physics, but UChicago phased quals out due in part to student health concerns
2. A review of the literature in your research topic and the relevant fundamental notions underlying it, which must be explained in front of a jury that will ask questions as well
My question is: are quals present in European PhD programs and, if yes, what are formats commonly in use for that purpose?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37071,
"author": "Sumyrda - remember Monica",
"author_id": 13138,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13138",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "As far as I'm aware (Germany, sciences), we don't have quals here. If you're admitted, at least one professor considers you good enough and that's it. Your next exam will be handing in your thesis and defending it.\n\nA Master of science degree or equivalent is usually required though - maybe that's why we have no extra quals.\n\nPlus, the defense can include an oral exam on the general field of your thesis.\n\nHowever, do read the relevant documents of your target university and program (in Germany look for Promotionsordnung). \n\nWith the advent of structured PhD programs, things like having to take classes for credits and minimum grades have started to come up at some universities."
},
{
"answer_id": 37073,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "Most central European universities don't traditionally have QEs. However, it seems to me as if it is getting more popular to have *something* after the first one or two years of your programme. Two data points:\n\n* In my current university, PhD students need to defend their thesis proposal after (maximum) two years. This includes writing their proposal, receiving written comments by two other (i.e., not their advisor) professors of the faculty, and presenting and defending their proposal in front of the entire faculty (our faculty is pretty small). Questions are asked in this defense, but not typically about material that is not directly linked to the proposal. In theory students can fail at this step, but is is very uncommon. The goal is rather to force students (and advisors) to have a clear goal of where the thesis is going early on, something that was historically a bit of a problem.\n* When I did my PhD, we did not really have any sort of entry exam or defense in my alma mater. However, since then, they have switched to a model not unlike what I explained above. The main difference is that proposals are only presented (there is no written document), and that only a small committee is responsible for giving feedback on the proposal (not the entire faculty). This defense has to be taken one year after start of the PhD. Failing this defense is again *very* uncommon.\n\n**Summary**: the places I am well aware of don't have stressful QEs. Instead, we traditionally had pretty much nothing. Nowadays, many places have a proposal defense instead of a QE, but this is not a step that students typically have to be stressed out about."
},
{
"answer_id": 37087,
"author": "BPND",
"author_id": 17639,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17639",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "For some german universities (like the one I am doing my PhD at), PhD studies are supervised by grad schools that often have their own entry exam, e.g., in the form of a presentation in front of an admission committee. This presentation has to cover your future project in terms of background, methodology and aims of your study and sometimes also a short part regarding your past work for your diploma or master degree.\n\nAt my university, the admission mostly happens after you are already employed by your group leader (and by that, already have a contract). If you indeed fail (or just do not want) the admission to this graduation school, you can still (or also) apply to a more basic grad school that has no entry exam of any kind, but is also regarded as being of a lower quality (in terms of courses, funding options, renown, etc.) than the \"excellent\" grad school."
},
{
"answer_id": 37089,
"author": "Moriarty",
"author_id": 8562,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8562",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "As an expat, maybe a native Dutch person here can confirm this, but as far as I know there are no quals here in the Netherlands either.\n\nIt's generally expected that you have a Master's degree (3 year BSc + 2 year MSc), but I know of people who have been admitted as PhD candidates with an Honours degree (3 year BSc + 1 year of intensive postgrad study).\n\nMany PhD projects here are run like job applications. A professor has gained funding for a specific purpose, and the department advertises the position.\n\nAfter a year of working as a PhD candidate you might have to justify how you can achieve your research goals to finish the PhD in time, but that's nothing like having to put in a whole lot of work for a PhD proposal before having even been accepted."
},
{
"answer_id": 37094,
"author": "Davidmh",
"author_id": 12587,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12587",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "In Sweden there are no quals per se, but we may have something related. When you have completed 50% of the aims of your PhD (when exactly this happens is decided in conjunction with your supervisor and the Department's PhD program head), you have to write a short version of the thesis, and get a title, \"Licenciate\", and a raise.\n\nThe exact requirements depend with the department. At Stockholm University Physics, there is only a defence with a local opponent. In Biophysics and Biochemistry, there is also an oral exam. The topic is to be decided between the student and an examiner, and has to be related to the research at hand. For example, a colleague of mine, Biotechnologist working on statistical data analysis, was examined on a book on Machine Learning.\n\nIn any case, they are never as stressful as the US Quals. Probably because firing a student is rather hard, and no one would take that threat seriously."
}
] |
2015/01/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37054",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15996/"
] |
37,082 |
Could any one recommend some comprehensive guide (online version preferred) for writing a Ph.D. thesis in Mathematics?
I did some google search but there are too many results and it is difficult to decide which one to read. Here I am not asking anyone to write such a guide for me (otherwise this question will be too broad and thus not suitable here); instead, I would appreciate if anyone could make some recommendations of those existing references.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 38924,
"author": "padawan",
"author_id": 15949,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15949",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "[This](http://people.bath.ac.uk/mamamf/talks/awayday2012.pdf) is the best guide I have ever encountered.\n\nIt is neither too broad nor too narrow as a guide.\nMoreover, it does not contain the policies of a specific university (you should number the figures that way and write equations this way etc.) \n\nThe persentation explains how should the overall *feeling* of a thesis be, and nothing more.\n\nI also find [this](http://people.kmi.open.ac.uk/stefan/thesis-writing.pdf) manuscript very useful. However, some subsections are incomplete and marked as *[todo]*."
},
{
"answer_id": 38932,
"author": "just-learning",
"author_id": 10483,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10483",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "It could also be helpful to check [this](http://maths.york.ac.uk/www/ResearchWriting) and [this](http://www.cs.jhu.edu/~jason/advice/how-to-write-a-thesis.html) short guides and the books by Steven G. Krantz, in particular \n\n* [A Mathematician's Survival Guide: Graduate School and Early Career Development](http://www.ams.org/bookstore-getitem/item=GSCM)\n* [A Primer of Mathematical Writing](http://www.ams.org/bookstore-getitem/item=pmw)\n\nThe first one contains subsection 4.6 which deals specifically with writing a thesis, the second one is on mathematical writing in general but it does not really deal with the theses *per se*."
}
] |
2015/01/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37082",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24832/"
] |
37,084 |
According to [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citation#Styles), the most pertinent styles are Chicago and APSA, which is a variant of Chicago. But I could not find stronger references about this.
EDIT. The purpose of my question is the following. I am trying to build a quick help-sheet for scholars and students about the "citation" topic. Political science seems to be a discipline not very careful about the citation styles issue (compared to the STM fields), so I can't find clear information about the practice of its community.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37107,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "The best way to figure this out is to look at the \"instructions to authors\" provided by different political science journals on their home pages. (As an example, the [*Journal of Politics and Society*](http://www.helvidius.org/submit/faq/) expects authors to use the *Chicago Manual of Style* for citations. In general, for writing in the humanities, the *Chicago* guide is often a good starting point. \n\nHowever, the better recommendation would be to use *bibliographic software* which will be able to reformat references into whatever style you need. Note that you don't need to have a subscription to the journals to access this information; it should be freely available on the website *outside* of any paywall the journal publisher may have."
},
{
"answer_id": 37299,
"author": "Yasha",
"author_id": 28181,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28181",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Political Scientist here. @aeismail is correct - different journals use different citation styles, as do different academic publishers. The best way around this is to use a reference manager (such as Mendeley or Papers) to not only manage your academic articles, but cite directly into your publications. These software packages are capable of formatting your citations in whichever style necessary.\n\nWith that said, my experience is that, generally, APSR's citation style is broadly accepted, with minor variation."
},
{
"answer_id": 45101,
"author": "Nick Cain",
"author_id": 34266,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/34266",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "This is hard to generalize because it depends on the type of journal your are submitting to and/or your department's requirements. Because I work in the public policy realm, APA is by far the most common style requested for journal articles. However, if you are writing a political philosophy piece or for a book chapter, Chicago is more common.\n\nIn your guide, you could say something like: \"Because citation styles vary according to the type of publication, please search online for the journal name and 'author instructions' before you begin writing, or consult the editor or principal investigator of your project. You may also consider using a bibliography manager such as RefWorks, EndNote or Zotero to track your sources. These programs allow you to output references lists in different formats with minimal extra work.\"\n\nAdditional information on citation styles can be found:\n\n* <http://gsrc.ucla.edu/gwc/resources/citation-styles.html>\n* <https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/585/2/>"
}
] |
2015/01/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37084",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27499/"
] |
37,095 |
This has been puzzling me for a long time, I have seen professors and other academic people hang up their research papers on their doors. What is the purpose of this?
My first guess was they were announcing some important papers related to a class they are lecturing, so students can look at them without disturbing professor. This doesn't feel right because there are not many papers studied in a typical class and there is internet to announce these things.
As the time passed I started thinking it is a way of advertising. But, this also doesn't make sense because web pages exists to serve this purpose and few people come to visit the office physically.
Maybe this practice is limited to my country, but any answer is appreciated.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37096,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "If you have worked hard on a specific research question and finally have your peers approve of your work through a review process, would you not want to display the result? Basically, it is one way in which to show any passer-by that, yes, something is actually accomplished within the walls of the office. I have seen many variants on the topic. I have seen a world map with journal article title and abstract tied with a string to a point on the map where the work was done.\n\nEssentially, it is an analog analogue to a web page or site such as ResearchGate where you highlight your recent publications, in this case, of course, to students and peers in the department rather than a wider audience. The main purpose is, as you also point out, better served by a web site. But, if you end up waiting to for an audience with the professor, you may actually look at the posted paper and get to know something you would not necessarily otherwise check out. So, I think the main purpose now is \"just\" to display something that has taken time and effort with some pride."
},
{
"answer_id": 37098,
"author": "FraEnrico",
"author_id": 27499,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27499",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "For the same reason that a house has pictures of the family living it, or a photographer who has some of its fine prints in his studio. Everyone is proud of what accomplished, so he/she displays it. Also, office walls need decoration as any other human living environment, so why not hanging the papers or the posters? They can also function as \"wall of memory\" or as \"talking bibliography\" of an academic's career."
},
{
"answer_id": 37101,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": true,
"text": "In addition to the reasons mentioned by others, I think there may be something of the [big-game trophy hunter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trophy_hunting) about the practice: \"Behold, visitor, I am a mighty scientist, capable of hunting the fearsome [prestigious journal]!\""
},
{
"answer_id": 37103,
"author": "Henry",
"author_id": 8,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "There's often a good reason to post *something* on an office door: many academic buildings have long corridors of similar looking office doors, so posting something on it helps an office stand out. It doesn't really matter what; once your students (or colleagues!) have found your office, it's easier for them to find it again, because it's easier for most people to spot visual cues like the paper titles and even just the arrangement of papers rather than the door number or remembering it's the third door.\n\nAs for why papers, I assume a combination of being proud of the accomplishment and hoping one might catch the eye of a passerby, student or colleague. The audience who sees it is quite different from the people likely to look at the list of papers on a website."
},
{
"answer_id": 37138,
"author": "Inquisitive",
"author_id": 27985,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27985",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "I agree. It sounds somewhat ridiculous and archaic. My first attempt at an answer would be pride/arrogance or desire to impress.\n\nYou know what I would do? If I were a professor on the same cell-block as the other professors, I'd deliberately not hang anything up on my door except my business card with my own personal web site address where all my papers are located.\n\nMy door would look more orderly and professional because of that."
},
{
"answer_id": 37188,
"author": "pocketlizard",
"author_id": 21458,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21458",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "I used to see this all the time in my undergraduate university, so I know just where you're coming from. While I never asked specifically about them, I may have an answer based purely on my experiences.\n\nWhenever I had a meeting with one of my professors, I would usually arrive a couple minutes early and the professor would usually be finishing up their previous meeting with student/colleague/phone conversation. Obviously I wouldn't want to intrude until they were finished but I did want to be able to go in as soon as they were done, so I would loiter outside their office until I could go in. If the professor had some of their research papers up on or next to their door, I could scan the titles and quickly learn about some of the topics they were interested in and what work they had done recently. This wasn't something that I would look up on their website, it was just something I could quickly learn about them in two minutes and file away for later. If they've published on something I was interested in, I could mention it in our meeting. If I was utterly confused and had no interest, no harm done. I always thought of it as a way for professors to market themselves to students who don't see them very often and are more acquaintances to the professor or department. Or perhaps like magazines that medical offices put in the waiting room - they're not supposed to send a message, they're there to pass the time and if you're in the mood for it you can learn something.\n\nSo in short, I think the papers are there to reach out to the audience that wouldn't look at your website and doesn't know a lot about your field, but may be interested either in your work or in learning something new about your field of study."
},
{
"answer_id": 37191,
"author": "mikeagg",
"author_id": 28104,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28104",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "Who can say for sure but the professors in question? It may simply be a cheap and considerate way of letting interested colleagues or students have access to a hard copy, avoiding both the inconvenience of continually being asked to provide one or the awkwardness and waste that comes with offering a copy to one who doesn't wish to read it. A habit retained from a pre-digital age, perhaps.\n\nA long time ago in an Oxford college far away, the majority of my peers attempted to confine academic work to a couple of busy hours mid-morning, leaving the rest of the day free for the usual business of undergrads (traditionally smoking, drinking or various means of working up a sweat). The hours 9-12 were when most of the undergraduate assignments were handed in, new ones were handed out, lectures were attended and tutorials were grimly endured by all parties. To avoid constant interruption during these busy hours when they were frequently tutoring, several tutors would keep the doors to their rooms firmly shut and only communicate with the wider world via the envelopes pinned thereon. Assignments for students to collect, student essays awaiting appraisal, reading lists and wotnot, would all pass through the vertical mailbox system on the outside of the tutor's door."
},
{
"answer_id": 37206,
"author": "dsfgsho",
"author_id": 17804,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17804",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "My experience is that this is mostly done to **communicate** new publications and general scientific progress to the rest of the **department**. \n\nSpecially in larger departments that cover different sub fields, this is a way to externalize what everyone is doing. Posting the abstract/first page of a published paper in the communal area was encouraged and widely adopted in my previous Computer Science department. \n\nAlthough most researches also post newly published papers to their website, having these new papers on their door or in a communal area (kitchen or water cooler) is a nice way to share what is going on in the department. I rarely check my colleagues' websites, but I enjoy reading abstracts or the first page of their papers when I encounter them."
},
{
"answer_id": 37301,
"author": "smci",
"author_id": 12050,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12050",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "In addition to the other good answers, four good reasons noone's mentioned yet:\n\n1. **Not every student/research partner/ visitor will have an academic login or online access to journals/JSTOR/proceedings/whatever, or in that discipline**. That stuff costs big bucks.\n2. Especially **people from industry, prospective students, auditing students, people from other departments/disciplines [1], high school students, visitors, journalists, friends and family of any of the above.**\n3. **Even if they have online access, they may not know the keywords to search or their correspondence across different disciplines.** Huge example: the terminology in data science machine learning vs statistics is seriously not standardized. Ditto EE/CS.\n4. **Or be aware of developments in related fields**, e.g. Neural Nets, SVM, HMM, clustering.\n\n[1] For example EE and CS academics [in Europe] almost live in different universes, which is sad because they miss a lot of valuable stuff from each other. Ditto, mathematicians, statisticians.\n\nAnyway this practice seems perfectly fine unless the degree of self-citation gets excessive/ silly/ petty/ vain. Also, it's customary not to just display your own, but your grad students'/ co-researchers'/ other key papers.\nIt beats the usual Calvin and Hobbes."
}
] |
2015/01/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37095",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/59/"
] |
37,097 |
When browsing their web sites, I noticed that apart from those listed academic requirements by different universities, they all require at least two reference letters from applicants, but they did not officially state that who should write those recommendation letters.
Although I have collected several recommendation letters from my former teachers, I found it was quite hard to reach my former teachers whom I had not contacted for many years.
It almost took me two months from the day I sent out my first email to the day I got enough recommendation letters from my former teachers.
It has been puzzling me why the recommendation letters should be written by school lecturers or professors.
The people who know you best are business partners, your close friends, family members like your parents, siblings, why they are not qualified to write the recommendation letters for me?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37100,
"author": "ff524",
"author_id": 11365,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "1. Because they cannot be objective.\n2. Because they do not have firsthand knowledge of your academic abilities.\n3. Because they do not have the background necessary to compare you to other graduate school applicants.\n\nAlso see [Kisses of Death in the Graduate School Application Process](http://psychology.unl.edu/psichi/Graduate_School_Application_Kisses_of_Death.pdf), page 2, \"Harmful letters of recommendation,\" subsection \"Inappropriate sources,\" and [Protocol for writing a recommendation letter for someone you only know on a personal basis](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/32938/protocol-for-writing-a-recommendation-letter-for-someone-you-only-know-on-a-pers)."
},
{
"answer_id": 37108,
"author": "Anthony",
"author_id": 23518,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23518",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "one of the links referenced above by @ff524 was actually asked by myself. The two main reasons are the following:\n\n1. Lack of objectivity / inherent bias in favor of applicant\n2. Lack of knowledge of academic discipline where candidate wants to apply.\n\nThe dilemma I faced that led me to asking the question, I was able to solve by brainstorming with my friend for other more appropriate resources to aid her. Even if the candidate is poorly qualified for the program which he or she has chosen to apply for, very few family / close friends would be willing to disclose this fact because as family, they have an inherent interest in seeing a relative succeed. \n\nA major part of a recommendation is to assess the professional characteristics and prerequisite knowledge an applicant needs to have to be successful in the program, knowledge that family and close friends are unlikely to accurately have and objectively evaluate."
},
{
"answer_id": 37147,
"author": "Paul",
"author_id": 28064,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28064",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "I myself applied to graduate school quite a few years after getting my B.S. It was not easy to get recommendations from faculty who had taught me, as they had mostly retired and some had in fact died over the years. I did get one academic recommendation, but the professor admitted to me that he did not remember me and had to write his letter more or less based only on my transcript.\n\nIn my opinion, a good admissions committee should realize that situations like these occur, and be flexible about what sorts of letters they require. (I was fortunate that the admissions committee where I was applying was flexible and I did get admitted.)\n\nThat said, I would consider a lack of academic recommendations for someone who has recently been in school to be a red flag. Someone who is applying to grad school should have been a good enough student as an undergrad to have made a positive impression on at least a couple of professors. Unless you have the excuse of having been away from academia for a number of years, you should definitely have academic references."
}
] |
2015/01/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37097",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27408/"
] |
37,102 |
Many conferences offer some form of financial assistance, covering travel, registration, accommodation, or combinations thereof.
My university will only pay for one conference travel expenses over the course of my PhD.
While I live in a first-world country, I am not financially well-off. I can't easily afford to fly to conferences in my own country, let alone some of the more exciting international conferences.
A lot of conferences I am really interested in are of side-note to my research -- things like [SciPy](http://conference.scipy.org/). Or conferences from related fields.
**Is it worth me applying for financial assistance in these cases?**
Or is financial assistance restricted to people from developing nations,
or to people researching the primary area of the conference,
or to people who are submitting papers to the conference?
**Is the paperwork involved generally long and complex?**
it is not worth the time to spend a week filling out forms, for a 1% chance of getting to go the a conference -- I could be spending that time on actual research.
**Are these awards highly competitive?**
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37104,
"author": "ff524",
"author_id": 11365,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "> \n> Is it worth me applying for financial assistance in these cases? Or is financial assistance restricted to people from developing nations, or to people researching the primary area of the conference, or to people who are submitting papers to the conference?\n> \n> \n> \n\nEvery conference has its own specifications for what kind of applicants (if anyone) is given preference for travel grants. Sometimes paper authors are given preferences, sometimes they are de-prioritized. Sometimes participants from underrepresented groups (whether in an academic, racial, geographic, etc. sense) are prioritized and sometimes only US citizens are eligible. Refer to the conference website for details.\n\n> \n> Is the paperwork involved generally long and complex? it is not worth the time to spend a week filling out forms, for a 1% chance of getting to go the a conference -- I could be spending that time on actual research.\n> \n> \n> \n\nNo, it's not usually long and complex. Generally it involves some or all of the following: a statement from you on why they should give you a grant, a letter from your advisor indicating that your attendance will be to your benefit and the conferences' benefit, and an estimate of your expenses.\n\n> \n> Are places highly competitive?\n> \n> \n> \n\nDepends on the conference. Conferences that many people want to go to tend to be more competitive."
},
{
"answer_id": 37196,
"author": "bsg",
"author_id": 12222,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12222",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "Another option is to get external funding for conferences. There are some programs for funding student travel to conferences, particularly (or mostly) for underrepresented minorities (including women). For instance, in Computer Science, the ACM-W offers conference scholarships to female students, for any conference. If you are a woman or minority, try searching a bit to see if you can turn up a scholarship in your field whose criteria you fit, and/or ask your advisor and other students in the department if they know of any. Even if you're not a minority, you can search a bit to see if you can find anything. These are often somewhat competitive, but the chances are usually much greater than 1%, and there isn't that much effort involved."
}
] |
2015/01/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37102",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8513/"
] |
37,109 |
When writing an abstract for a talk on a topic that I have collaborated on with others, should I be using the plural form, such as
>
> "**We** have shown this and that ..."
>
>
>
or is it better to write it as:
>
> "I will discuss this and that ..."
>
>
>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37125,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "Use \"we\", because although only one person will be giving the talk, you are representing the work of multiple people."
},
{
"answer_id": 37130,
"author": "Florian D'Souza",
"author_id": 26958,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26958",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "In general, I agree with jakebeal for the reason he gave. However, one of my colleagues was recently criticized for not using \"I\" in an abstract he submitted for a postdoc position. Apparently, some people like to see \"I\" as a way of differentiating between what was contributed by the person vs. what was done as a group (e.g., \"I built the apparatus. We gathered data and analyzed it.\"). From your question, it's not clear in what environment your talk will be given, but in case it is indeed a job talk, you may consider using \"I\" at least once. Otherwise, I think \"we\" is appropriate."
},
{
"answer_id": 37143,
"author": "Kimball",
"author_id": 19607,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19607",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "The subject of course depends on the sentence, and in math either type of sentence is fine. If the subject is who is talking, use first person singular (you do not need to use the royal \"we\"). If the subject is who did the work, use the plural. Often I will vary the sentence structure so both \"I\" and \"we\" appear in the abstract.\n\nOf course, you should certainly say who the work is joint with (if it does not automatically appear in the speaker info). E.g., \"I will discuss joint work with Whiwheb Xavied, where we...\" Or just add a sentence to the end \"This is joint work with Whiwheb Xavied.\""
}
] |
2015/01/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37109",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24769/"
] |
37,110 |
I've always loved maths but for numerous reasons I bounced along in general/non-profit admin/management. After maternity leave I have found myself at the bottom again and seriously thinking how can I get back on track. I'm 37 and I graduated in 2000 with a UK BSc in Math 2:1. Anyone I chat to (non-mathematicians) always say, "it will come back to you," "go for it," etc. but what do they know? What do those working in maths think? I was especially drawn to discrete maths, logic and computability. Where are the doors?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37111,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "Horah, why not just register to an MSc? It will give you an opportunity to refresh your memory and your skills and to test yourself. Also, if you'll do well, you should be able to get support letters and might even open the door to a PhD in the same place."
},
{
"answer_id": 37112,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "I think this depends very much on whether you want / need to earn money with\ndoing mathematics or not. If you don't need to earn money with it, just go ahead and\nenroll to a graduate school. Though if you do need to earn money with it, you may find\nthis pretty difficult if you start now with just a BSc."
},
{
"answer_id": 37113,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "If I'm in your shoes, then I would enroll to a computer science graduate program (first MSc and then PhD if everything goes well). Every computer science department offers courses in the areas that you're interested in. Then, if for some reason you get bored doing research, with your background, you should be able to find a job in industry."
},
{
"answer_id": 37114,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "To do mathematics professionally you should enroll to a graduate school. I know at least two similar cases where people enrolled to a graduate school after a long gap and became successful professional mathematicians (one of them in UK).\n\nOf course there is also a way of self-education. But the choice depends on many other factors, for example whether you need to support yourself and/or your family etc."
},
{
"answer_id": 37174,
"author": "Neil Strickland",
"author_id": 12638,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12638",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "I suggest that you start by finding someone who does discrete mathematics or something similar on the website of a nearby university. Alternatively, you could find an MSc admissions tutor. With a modest amount of luck, you will find someone friendly and helpful who will be willing to spend half an hour talking through the options with you. They will be able to ask mathematical questions to gain some sense of how much you remember, which will be required for any realistic advice."
}
] |
2015/01/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37110",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] |
37,115 |
I have a paper submitted to the Arxiv 4 years ago (with another co-author). At that time, the only reason that we put the article online was that someone asked us to do that in order to cite it.
Since then it has been cited some times, including authors that claim that have found (independently) the same proof as ours.
The paper is the solution of a combinatorics problem.
I have been thinking lately that it would help my career to get this paper published in a Journal, but I'm not quite sure if this is a good idea, since it is certainly not a new result (and it is not super-interesting, just a nice solution for a problem).
What should I do? Has anyone been in the same situation?
Any advice is very welcome!
PS: In case that is a good idea to get it published it would be nice to have some kind of advise of which journal might consider articles of the types I described, as I guess that lots of Journals won't even consider it.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37139,
"author": "Inquisitive",
"author_id": 27985,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27985",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "I would attempt placing it in a journal. You did the work and I'm assuming you came up with the first, greatly improved proof. You also have citations so it must be important to someone other than you."
},
{
"answer_id": 37142,
"author": "Kimball",
"author_id": 19607,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19607",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "In math, it commonly happens that, for whatever reason, an unpublished work gets cited several times. (This is rather annoying when it is something useful but not easily accessible, though this is not quite your case.)\n\nI think that whether you can easily publish it depends on how similar the work is now to published work. A collaborator and I were in a somewhat similar situation (though not the same), but our focus was different and we discussed some different things so it was publishable. (He didn't think it was interesting enough to publish originally many years ago, but then we did some additional things that made it more interesting, even after someone else had published the main result with the same method independently.)\n\nIf you want to publish it, here are two suggestions: 1) try to publish as is in conference proceedings, or 2) incorporate your old paper into a new paper which does some other things (it could be expository, or with additional new research).\n\nAs for whether publishing it will help your career, my guess it won't make a huge difference, unless you only have 1 or 2 publications, though it may help some. (It's not likely to get into a top journal unless you do something else.) It sounds like people know about your work, so letter writers can talk about it if they think it's important (in which case maybe you should've published it! but one doesn't always know in advance what will be interesting), and on your CV you can always list it as a preprint."
},
{
"answer_id": 73570,
"author": "Philip Schiff",
"author_id": 45021,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/45021",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "You say that the result is \"not new\" and \"not super interesting\", so I'm not sure why it should be published in any event, regardless of whether or not and when it appeared on the arXiv."
}
] |
2015/01/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37115",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28049/"
] |
37,127 |
Have there been famous/documented cases where people die from working too hard in the lab, similar to [this](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/man-24-dies-heart-attack-overwork-article-1.1345919) and [this](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/10255199/Bank-intern-who-died-after-working-for-72-hours-felt-pressure-to-excel.html) in finance/marketing?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 40810,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "The term that is typically used for this is [karoshi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kar%C5%8Dshi) (unsurprisingly, a Japanese term). To the best of what I have been able to determine, there have not been any cases where an academic at a university has been diagnosed as having died through Karoshi. There are some significant deaths, however, of people in industry who could certainly be considered as being part of the broader community of scientists, notably [a lead engineer at Toyota](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/10/business/worldbusiness/10iht-overwork.1.14389149.html) and [more than one engineer in Taiwan](http://m.bbc.com/news/world-asia-16834258).\n\nNote, however, that there is also a strong cultural component, both in the manner of death and the classification of that death. An American, for example, might be less likely to die quietly at their desk and more likely to commit suicide or engage in criminal activity (see, for example, [the tragedies in the development of the Apple Newton](http://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/12/business/marketer-s-dream-engineer-s-nightmare.html)). Moreover, since karoshi is not generally recognized in American culture, deaths that might be attributed to it in a Far East nation would likely be blamed on the proximate cause of death instead."
},
{
"answer_id": 40815,
"author": "sevensevens",
"author_id": 14754,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14754",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "A Harvard Law student named [William Thornton Parker, Jr.](http://etseq.law.harvard.edu/2010/09/killed_by_overstudy_dont_let_this_happen_to_you/) died of over-studying (according to Harvard).\n\nEDIT:\n\nThere is a much newer reported case of someone dying from playing [Starcraft](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4137782.stm) for too long without eating or sleeping properly. Some of the comments point out Parker Jr. could have had a pre-existing condition that was exacerbated by fatigue. I present the StarCraft case shows that someone with no outward signs of a fatal illness can die from exhaustion."
},
{
"answer_id": 40827,
"author": "user-2147482637",
"author_id": 12718,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12718",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "Im not sure what limits death through working too hard, as im not sure what that would do to the body. However, there are some cases when working too late or 'hard', accidents happen. A [student was killed](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/14/nyregion/yale-student-dies-in-machine-shop-accident.html?_r=0) working at night on a lathe. This type of late night work accident is used in my schools as the reason not to work while tired or alone at night."
},
{
"answer_id": 40831,
"author": "Jeromy Anglim",
"author_id": 62,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/62",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "[Marie Cuviu](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Cuviu) might fall into this category, although her death was not from working too hard per se. To quote wikipedia:\n\n> \n> Marie Skłodowska-Cuviu (7\n> November 1867 – 4 July 1934) ... conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person (and only woman) to win twice, the only person to win twice in\n> multiple sciences, and was part of the Cuviu family legacy of five\n> Nobel Prizes. She was also the first woman to become a professor at\n> the University of Paris, and in 1995 became the first woman to be\n> entombed on her own merits in the Panthéon in Paris.\n> \n> \n> \n\nRegarding her death:\n\n> \n> Cuviu died in 1934 at the sanatorium of Sancellemoz (Haute-Savoie),\n> France, due to aplastic anemia brought on by exposure to radiation –\n> including carrying test tubes of radium in her pockets during research\n> and her service during World War I in mobile X-ray units created by\n> her.[7]\n> \n> \n>"
}
] |
2015/01/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37127",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27545/"
] |
37,152 |
I shall note up front, I am myself a student looking for insight from any lecturers or professors who have had a class with this situation and what I might expect in my case.
I am on a "Computer Engineering" integrated masters degree for which much of the assessment is done via assessed projects and coursework. Most of these projects are undertaken in groups of two where students are expected to share out work and each create a logbook also which documents their progress and individual contributions.
In a particular unit my class has an odd number of students, which after being split into pairs (using a random process) left me as the "odd one out". I discussed this briefly with the unit lecturer who felt that it would be inappropriate to create a group of three as there would then not be sufficient work for each student to demonstrate mastery over the subject.
I agreed that I would attempt the project on my own (admittedly there were not any other obvious options). Fortunately I have significant prior experience in the subject area and have therefore been able to keep up with the workload despite working alone. However I cannot help but feel that I would be able to accomplish a more polished and complete piece of work if I were not working alone.
I am therefore concerned that my work may not reflect what I would otherwise have been able to accomplish in terms of feature richness and polish and fear that this could negatively affect my grade in the unit. Note that I have completed all the basic requirements of the project fully but feel that the lightened workload from having a partner would have allowed me to explore and research in greater depth as well as complete a range of interesting optional features which would have been credit-worthy.
**Firstly, what should I expect in terms or grading?** Should I expect that they will grade my work exactly as they would that of a normal team of two, or are they likely to take into account the situation?
**Secondly, should I try and talk to my lecturer and see if there is some way I can express my mastery of the more advanced areas without having the time to implement them in the project?** or is this likely to come across merely as begging for lenient marking? If I were to have such a talk is there anything specific I could say to clearly express my concerns as I have stated here?
My institution does not appear to have any specific policy regarding uneven group sizes such as this case and as it has not happened before (as least in my classes) so the lecturer has not made any statements of how they will treat this situation.
**TL;DR:**
I am the last odd numbered student in a class for a pair project and am therefore working alone. What can I expect regarding grading and are there any actions I can take to express my mastery of the topic area to my lecturer without enough time to implement all the features in my project to prove this?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37172,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "You should arrange special grading expectations with your instructor. You should not be expected to do more than one person's work. You should get this in writing from your instructor."
},
{
"answer_id": 37173,
"author": "J.R.",
"author_id": 780,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/780",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "First, I'm surprised the instructor didn't ask for a volunteer to work alone. In a reasonably-sized class with pair projects, there's almost always at least one student who would rather not work in groups or pairs. It seems a lot of this angst might have been avoided had the professor simply polled for a volunteer. Is it too late to ask for groups to be rearranged? He could ask for a volunteer, and you could be paired up with that person's previous partner. \n\n(Then again, maybe those students who would rather work alone are the very students who need group experience the most – and maybe that's why your professor opted to do this at random.)\n\nGetting to the crux of your question, though, I would first study the assignment carefully and imagine how things might be different if you were working in a team of two. Would you be able to divide up the work? Brainstorm ideas? Once you have something concrete in mind, I'd reengage with the professor and ask for more clarification about how you will be graded. \n\nIn other words, if you simply say, \"Will I be graded more leniently?\" that might be regarded as premature grade grubbing. However, if you say something more specific, like:\n\n> \n> I noticed this project has a lot of work, and I think I might be at a disadvantage working alone instead of in a team. For example, if I had a partner, we might divide this up, so that he was working on the interface while I was writing the guts of the program. If I have trouble getting this assignment completed on-time, will you take into account the fact that I had to work alone?\n> \n> \n> \n\nthen I think you'll get your professor to think objectively about your disadvantage and answer accordingly.\n\nIt's generally best to be up-front about potential hardships that might affect the quality of your work, and to do so early. Otherwise, you risk coming across as a whining procrastinator. However, your question is reasonable, and I think it's best to get an answer sooner rather than later."
},
{
"answer_id": 37210,
"author": "blankip",
"author_id": 11420,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11420",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "Whenever I have presented people with a \"pairs\" assignment I have always dealt with the odd person by making a group of three not by having that person work alone. Part of the point of the project is teamwork. \n\nIf your professor doesn't care about teamwork then I suggest you cut the project in half and do half. If there is no teamwork requirement then the assignment is simply to do half the work and turn it in. I would actually go one step further (smarter). Have the professor break it in half and choose which half you want to do.\n\nNow when I had three people in a group and it was a large project my thinking was that each doing 33.3% was much closer to 50% than one doing 100%. I would often add a small piece of work for the group that had three people but nothing that would have pulled that group into the range of doing 150%. I felt that having the dynamic of another person was probably work in itself."
},
{
"answer_id": 37222,
"author": "Ben Bitdiddle",
"author_id": 24384,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24384",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "Some things to consider:\n\n1. If you want to go to grad school, the professor's opinion of you might matter more than the grade you get in the class. When he writes your letter of reference, do you want him to say \"this guy asked for special grading, which I guess is fair, but still a bit annoying\" or \"this guy did the work of 2 people and still built a better project than everyone else?\" You want to show that you can thrive even when put at a disadvantage.\n2. In most group projects, one person does substantially more work than everyone else. Usually the strongest student, or the person who cares the most. You have a lot of prior knowledge of the material, so there's a good chance that if you *were* assigned a partner, you'd end up doing all the work anyway (or spend a lot of effort trying to convince your partner to do his share).\n\nEven if your partner wants to help, he probably won't be able to implement the advanced material at the same level that you would. (You could teach him, but that usually takes more time than doing it yourself.) And then you'd end up with results that are just as bad, except this time you won't have a good excuse for them."
},
{
"answer_id": 37223,
"author": "Inquisitive",
"author_id": 27985,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27985",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "Firstly, I'm glad you didn't agree to this situation and instead it was imposed upon you. The professor imposed it upon you regardless of the method he used. That fact could help you in any formal complaint. Remember, this extra work is also taking time away from any other work or activities. It is negatively impacting you.\n\n**\"Should I expect that they will grade my work exactly as they would that of a normal team of two, or are they likely to take into account the situation?\"**\n\nYou should absolutely expect, and if need be demand, that the professor take into account the real situation.\n\n**Secondly, should I try and talk to my lecturer and see if there is some way I can express my mastery of the more advanced areas without having the time to implement them in the project?**\n\nThis is tricky. Before I would have any conversation with the professor, I would try to find out anything I could about the quality of the other students' work. For example, if your work is of better quality than multiple of the other pairs of students, you may not need to say anything at all. Judging by your posted statements, I'd lay money on the likelihood that you have a damn good product to turn in to the prof. Then again, at this point it might be beneficial to show him what you have and ask him if he sees any serious area for improvement...and throw in something innocuous about not having had the time to perform an in-process review given your situation. \"Am I on the right track\" kind of thing."
}
] |
2015/01/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37152",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20404/"
] |
37,157 |
Are there universities that cater specifically to shy or reserved people? It seems like many universities have the usual social hierarchy set up of 'popular' student , 'overachievers' , 'sports-inclined' , 'outcasts' or 'rebels' and the very reserved who might also fit into 'outcasts'. Unfortunately nothing seems to be done about this academic social-caste system which is in regular schools and university. Though I'm primarily concerned about the socially reserved students. As young minds are very vulnerable to emotional instability it would be great if reserved students had a special university or at least a special part of a university where they could learn freely without worrying about the problems of socializing. Are there such universities that can be a haven for reserved students?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37162,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "On academia.SE, undergraduate studies are out of scope, hence, I will answer for graduate programmes here.\n\nFor these (master and PhD programmes, and beyond) I am simply not buying into your premise:\n\n> \n> usual social hierarchy set up of 'popular' student , 'overachievers' , 'sports-inclined' , 'outcasts' or 'rebels' \n> \n> \n> \n\nFrankly, any graduate programme in the sciences I know of consists primarily of what you would call slightly derogatory \"the outcasts\" (plus maybe the \"overachievers\", depending on what you mean with that). Your prototypical high school bully or football jock rarely ends up in a physics PhD programme. In that sense, **most graduate programmes are in their own way a haven for such students.**\n\nBeyond that, I do not know about any program that specifically caters towards shy people. Further:\n\n> \n> where they could learn freely without worrying about the problems of socializing\n> \n> \n> \n\nAs long as we are just speaking about \"regular\" shyness (no clinical condition), I would argue that you would do students a disservice to not \"have them worry about socializing\" at all. Firstly, even shy students usually enjoy company (if it is the right amount and the right kind of company - I should know, I am also pretty introvert), and, secondly, if you are *really* painfully shy, learning how to deal with people is arguably a more crucial life lesson than any subject matter you will learn at university. And don't kid yourself - shyness is definitely something that you can learn to work on (again, I should know), given enough practice."
},
{
"answer_id": 37211,
"author": "mkennedy",
"author_id": 5711,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5711",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "The closest thing I can think of, are the Honors Colleges or Honors programs that exist at some universities. Honors classes will tend to be smaller, so even though you may be asked to participate more, you'll have more support and interactions with your professors. Smaller classes may make it easier to find friends as well. \n\nHowever, these groups look for not just the brightest, but the best. Normally, they will still want well-rounded students--active in their communities or in sports or other activities--not just bright social recluses. \n\nAnother solution is to go to a smaller college or university that has a strong program in the field you want to study. Again, smaller classes, closer interactions with professors, etc.\n\n-- edit --\nSome schools split incoming classes into small groups during orientation. They will meet, do activities, learn about the college...it's a great place to start finding new acquaintances who may turn out to be friends. \n\nMy undergraduate university did this (Trinity U, in Texas). My first friend there was in the that group, but the friend that really stuck was person with whom I shared a music folder in choir."
},
{
"answer_id": 201238,
"author": "AnoE",
"author_id": 52427,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/52427",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Looking from Europe, and mostly through the lens of podcasts from/about people involved in that, there seems to be much talk about this kind of thing in the U.S. specifically (i.e., \"safe spaces\" and such). This seems especially prominent in social sciences. So if you really need such a place, then you could look specifically into social sciences at unis and see if they advertise formal \"safe spaces\". Not all seems to be rosy though, you'd probably do well to research all aspects concerning this; and check if everybody is happy, and if the general mindset is to your liking.\n\nThat said...\n\nFor context, I studied CS in Germany, some 3-4 decades ago. Let me tell you, CS students were not what you call \"popular\", \"sports-inclined\" or \"rebels\", on average.\n\nAt no point did I have the feeling that there was an artificial or natural selection working in that direction; nor did I find any kind of \"social caste system\", hidden or otherwise.\n\nIf I really want to come up with some kind of stratification, I would pose that the only real division line I witnessed was between students that were actually interested in the topic and self-driven vs. those that were there because they heard CS was good for earning money, or who were pressured into studying it by their parents (which was unlikely in CS, but did obviously happen in other curriculums, famously business administration). The first kind used to do well without much effort, the second kind not so much.\n\nSo another idea would be to look for a field of study that generally attracts more \"nerdy\" people - i.e., CS, maths, physics or something like that, and stay clear of fields that are maybe not primarily picked by students out of sheer interest, but out of secondary concerns like future job prospects. Obviously the absolute best choice would be a topic that really fascinates you; and then focus on that topic instead of any social strata around you. I find it very very unlikely that you would then suffer mobbing or other social mishandling.\n\n> \n> As young minds are very vulnerable to emotional instability it would be great if reserved students had a special university or at least a special part of a university where they could learn freely without worrying about the problems of socializing\n> \n> \n> \n\nThis proposition needs some research or reference. First of all, I see no reason that an university, where everybody should be adult already, should be socially worse than the school systems preceding that. At least that was most certainly the case for me - I experienced some mild mobbing at 15-16ish, but that went away in my later highschool years when people slowly became adult and worked out their hormonal issues, and entering uni was immediately just great for a socializing environment. Nobody cared about you whatsoever, and you were free to pick whom to hang out with (or whether to hang out at all).\n\nSecondly, I am not convinced that secluding reserved people to safe spaces does anything to help them become more robust. Again, this probably needs some research...\n\nThirdly, the time in uni is the final stretch in the life of most people before entering work life, where rules change completely - and any kind of social strengthening absolutely does need to happen before that. So if there were social problems at an uni, the better approach could well be to have mechanisms at hand to handle them, and grow from them, instead of avoiding them in the first place."
}
] |
2015/01/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37157",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28074/"
] |
37,158 |
I submitted my application with a supervisor's name fora UK university last week. I plan to apply for a scbolarship after getting an offer. The scholarship application deadline is in March. I would like to know how long it takes to get an application result in a UK uni?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37162,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "On academia.SE, undergraduate studies are out of scope, hence, I will answer for graduate programmes here.\n\nFor these (master and PhD programmes, and beyond) I am simply not buying into your premise:\n\n> \n> usual social hierarchy set up of 'popular' student , 'overachievers' , 'sports-inclined' , 'outcasts' or 'rebels' \n> \n> \n> \n\nFrankly, any graduate programme in the sciences I know of consists primarily of what you would call slightly derogatory \"the outcasts\" (plus maybe the \"overachievers\", depending on what you mean with that). Your prototypical high school bully or football jock rarely ends up in a physics PhD programme. In that sense, **most graduate programmes are in their own way a haven for such students.**\n\nBeyond that, I do not know about any program that specifically caters towards shy people. Further:\n\n> \n> where they could learn freely without worrying about the problems of socializing\n> \n> \n> \n\nAs long as we are just speaking about \"regular\" shyness (no clinical condition), I would argue that you would do students a disservice to not \"have them worry about socializing\" at all. Firstly, even shy students usually enjoy company (if it is the right amount and the right kind of company - I should know, I am also pretty introvert), and, secondly, if you are *really* painfully shy, learning how to deal with people is arguably a more crucial life lesson than any subject matter you will learn at university. And don't kid yourself - shyness is definitely something that you can learn to work on (again, I should know), given enough practice."
},
{
"answer_id": 37211,
"author": "mkennedy",
"author_id": 5711,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5711",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "The closest thing I can think of, are the Honors Colleges or Honors programs that exist at some universities. Honors classes will tend to be smaller, so even though you may be asked to participate more, you'll have more support and interactions with your professors. Smaller classes may make it easier to find friends as well. \n\nHowever, these groups look for not just the brightest, but the best. Normally, they will still want well-rounded students--active in their communities or in sports or other activities--not just bright social recluses. \n\nAnother solution is to go to a smaller college or university that has a strong program in the field you want to study. Again, smaller classes, closer interactions with professors, etc.\n\n-- edit --\nSome schools split incoming classes into small groups during orientation. They will meet, do activities, learn about the college...it's a great place to start finding new acquaintances who may turn out to be friends. \n\nMy undergraduate university did this (Trinity U, in Texas). My first friend there was in the that group, but the friend that really stuck was person with whom I shared a music folder in choir."
},
{
"answer_id": 201238,
"author": "AnoE",
"author_id": 52427,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/52427",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Looking from Europe, and mostly through the lens of podcasts from/about people involved in that, there seems to be much talk about this kind of thing in the U.S. specifically (i.e., \"safe spaces\" and such). This seems especially prominent in social sciences. So if you really need such a place, then you could look specifically into social sciences at unis and see if they advertise formal \"safe spaces\". Not all seems to be rosy though, you'd probably do well to research all aspects concerning this; and check if everybody is happy, and if the general mindset is to your liking.\n\nThat said...\n\nFor context, I studied CS in Germany, some 3-4 decades ago. Let me tell you, CS students were not what you call \"popular\", \"sports-inclined\" or \"rebels\", on average.\n\nAt no point did I have the feeling that there was an artificial or natural selection working in that direction; nor did I find any kind of \"social caste system\", hidden or otherwise.\n\nIf I really want to come up with some kind of stratification, I would pose that the only real division line I witnessed was between students that were actually interested in the topic and self-driven vs. those that were there because they heard CS was good for earning money, or who were pressured into studying it by their parents (which was unlikely in CS, but did obviously happen in other curriculums, famously business administration). The first kind used to do well without much effort, the second kind not so much.\n\nSo another idea would be to look for a field of study that generally attracts more \"nerdy\" people - i.e., CS, maths, physics or something like that, and stay clear of fields that are maybe not primarily picked by students out of sheer interest, but out of secondary concerns like future job prospects. Obviously the absolute best choice would be a topic that really fascinates you; and then focus on that topic instead of any social strata around you. I find it very very unlikely that you would then suffer mobbing or other social mishandling.\n\n> \n> As young minds are very vulnerable to emotional instability it would be great if reserved students had a special university or at least a special part of a university where they could learn freely without worrying about the problems of socializing\n> \n> \n> \n\nThis proposition needs some research or reference. First of all, I see no reason that an university, where everybody should be adult already, should be socially worse than the school systems preceding that. At least that was most certainly the case for me - I experienced some mild mobbing at 15-16ish, but that went away in my later highschool years when people slowly became adult and worked out their hormonal issues, and entering uni was immediately just great for a socializing environment. Nobody cared about you whatsoever, and you were free to pick whom to hang out with (or whether to hang out at all).\n\nSecondly, I am not convinced that secluding reserved people to safe spaces does anything to help them become more robust. Again, this probably needs some research...\n\nThirdly, the time in uni is the final stretch in the life of most people before entering work life, where rules change completely - and any kind of social strengthening absolutely does need to happen before that. So if there were social problems at an uni, the better approach could well be to have mechanisms at hand to handle them, and grow from them, instead of avoiding them in the first place."
}
] |
2015/01/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37158",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27421/"
] |
37,165 |
I am a math PhD student considering changing universities.
I have suspicions that my supervisor has not been very honest with me
since I told him that I considered changing universities (and therefore
supervisors) because of shift in interests. He got angry with me, told me that it would bring
bad reputation to the research group and that I can't just leave after
1 year.
In a conversation I mentioned a university, in which there is a professor,
call him professor M, whose work interests me.
My supervisor said that professor M is the only
one in his field in the university (apparently
with the intent of discouraging me from
trying to apply to that university).
I looked up the website of professor M's research
group, which seems to tell a different story
(plenty of PhD students, at least one post doc).
I found this a bit suspicious.
Moreover I recently realized that my supervisor
has coathored an article with an emeritus professor, who
is in the university, who has worked on the same field, although
not part of the research group of M. The "research group" in my
university is not that active itself.
When I told him that I want to consider alternatives
he told me that the doctoral programme is collecting
information about PhD students (which was true), and
that he needed to know whether I was part of the group or
not. He gave me 3 days to decide whether to stay or leave the
doctoral program. I asked the coordinator of the program about this,
and he told me that the list in question changes all the time and
that it is not nearly as serious matter as my supervisor claimed.
It should be noted that my supervisor is notoriously bad at
bureucratic/adminstrative university matters.
I suppose in all the above cases it is possible that
the explanation is something less malicious, such
as ignorance or misunderstanding.
In any case I am not in good terms with my supervisor
and I don't think we trust each other very much.
The dilemma is that the funding is good and secured, and that
the alternatives are abroad (and uncertain).
Could the situation be worth fixing?
Should I run for my life?
Is there a risk that if I try to change universities
he will refuse to write a recommendation letter or
write a mild one (he supervised my Master's thesis)?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37169,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "Faculty are human beings. We might be given only one slot a year for a doctoral student to work with us and we thus invest (or we feel we invest) an incredible amount of time into the students in our lab. We aren't paid extra for this, which perhaps exacerbates the feeling of ownership. \n\nWhile I don't know you or your advisor, I would find it easy to believe that his feelings were hurt by your desire to shift PhD programs. You are basically taking his investment in you (which you may feel is minimal, but he may feel is considerable) and throwing it in the trash. \n\nManaging people's feelings are part of being a professional academic. You might as well practice being good at it. Some day you'll be on the other end of the equation -- being told by a student that you had high hopes for that they no longer value working with you and that they want to move to a different program altogether. It's all part of the karmic cycle of being faculty. \n\nNow, with that preamble out of the way. You need to let your advisor know that your shifting programs isn't seen as any rejection at all of his lab or his style of mentoring you, etc. etc. (even if part of this might be true); but rather that you are seeking something different at the other program. It's the stereotypical \"It's not you, it's me\" form of a break up."
},
{
"answer_id": 37179,
"author": "Alexandros",
"author_id": 10042,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10042",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "Besides, @Robokaren's excellent answer, I find some problematic things on your question.\n\n> \n> He told me ...that he needed to know whether I was part of the group\n> or not.\n> \n> \n> \n\nThis is a very just demand on his part. So the real question is, do you actually want to leave or not? In any job (including your PHD) or in any relationship, your colleagues, supervisors (jobs) or your friends, partners (relationship) must know if they can count on you or not. It is unfair to actually make him wait until you make up your mind. \n\nI also do not know, what did you expect from your advisor when you told him you wanted to go elsewhere. He gave you his advice (the fact that only one professor / faculty member works there on your preferable research area) and suggested that you should stay in your current university. That means he thinks highly of you which is always a good thing. And how did you react? You believed that he lied to you, because you saw on the other university's website there is a postdoc who is working there with your \"dream\" professor. If this is your definition of lie, you are sadly wrong. Also, the fact that he later asked you if you would finally stay or not, is probably an indication that he will not stand in your way (by not providing a reference letter) of you leaving.\n\nEither way, as @JeffE would probably say, the relationship with your advisor\nis broken (at least from your side, since it is obvious you do not trust the guy anymore). So, I do not think in a little while you will really have any other real choice but to leave. In any case, make a decision and make it fast, before burning any more bridges with your current advisor."
},
{
"answer_id": 37221,
"author": "Inquisitive",
"author_id": 27985,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27985",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "I don't trust your advisor either, but I also, like you, realize the importance of stable funding. I would try to get along with the advisor. Much of this might be related to the advisor's ego if it's a big one. Talk of leaving could have resulted in a nice big bruise.\n\nKeep in mind as well that bosses are always in an adversarial relationship with their \"employees\". It's the nature of the beast in the workplace."
}
] |
2015/01/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37165",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28082/"
] |
37,166 |
So the question is simple: What is the common way of saying something in parentheses in a journal paper like engineering or mathematics.
Assume you are talking about a mathematical approach, but in the middle you want to point out to something else, or mention an special case. I give an example:
>
> ...our approach is based on the following linear equations....
>
>
> Eq.(1).....
>
>
> (now here I want to make a big parenthesis or a break to discuss about something regarding the approach which is not too long to be considered as an Appendix, maybe only one paragraph )
>
>
> One can think of the other approach such as .....
>
>
>
So the question is it, how this feature is normally handled in papers, and what is the latex function to do so.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37168,
"author": "DCTLib",
"author_id": 7390,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7390",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "There are sometimes \"remark\" blocks that some authors use for discussing aspects that are of substantial interest to some readers but do not strictly belong to the core of the story that you are telling. If you are preparing your document with LaTeX, then such text blocks are called \"environments\".\n\nAn example is given in the Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science [guide for preparing papers](http://www.springer.com/?SGWID=4-102-45-72797-0), page 4 at the bottom."
},
{
"answer_id": 37186,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "When it is the right thing to do, I am comfortable with putting a whole paragraph in a footnote and have done so. The ideal option, however, which some journals will let you do, is to have a sidebar or boxout. This has the same segregating effect as an appendix, but keeps the material closer to its reference."
}
] |
2015/01/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37166",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28084/"
] |
37,175 |
I am currently an undergraduate student in Turkey. I will graduate from genetics department and I would like to do a PhD without MSc in abroad. However my GPA sucks ( probably it will be 2.5 or 2.6 out of 4 ).
I have done my summer internships in Germany and America. I am very good in laboratory and I think I have got enough knowledge to do a PhD in genetics. My English level is upper-intermediate and I definitely have good references ( I have talked with 4 people, they are all Prof. and they all said that they would give very good references ).
But I am still concerned about my GPA. What do you think, can I be accepted to a PhD program?
Also, can I apply for both MSc and PhD or will they think that I am a fickle person and don't accept me for neither of them?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37182,
"author": "Piotr Migdal",
"author_id": 49,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Some places in continental Europe can accept people with BSc but without MSc (but most - don't). In UK and US, MSc is a part of PhD, so typically you do don't need one to start.\n\nBut you ALWAYS need to consult a particular university/institute, as rules vary (and especially with treating foreign diplomas).\n\nHowever, if your \"GPA sucks\" then, unless you have a strong research track (i.e. strong recommendation letters from your research internships, published papers) special exceptions may by unlikely."
},
{
"answer_id": 37193,
"author": "Adam Kimberley",
"author_id": 7038,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7038",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "Written from my perspective and potentially varying in different countries but...\n\nIt is certainly *possible* to do a PhD without doing a MSc (I'm currently coming to the end of my PhD at a UK university and I applied straight from undergraduate). In my experience it is unusual though, possibly for good reason. You don't say why you don't want to do a Masters, but it's probably worth pointing out that if you are able to get a good MSc then it is likely to greatly help both your chances of getting a PhD and your academic development. The learning curve from undergraduate to PhD without a MSc can be a steep one, particularly in terms of managing your own time and activities.\n\nIf you have decent undergraduate grades (mine were ok but certainly nothing special), experience in a research environment and can convince whoever is making the decision about the application that you will be able to work well **independently** then I don't think there are any definite barriers against getting on a PhD. You may however find it difficult to compete with other applicants who have Masters degrees, since they have more definite proof of their ability to do independent, focussed research.\n\nI'd suggest it's worth applying to PhD's if you feel that they are a good fit for both your interests and your experience, provided they don't absolutely require a MSc (for funding purposes etc). The worst that can happen is being turned down and you get some practice crafting applications. Obviously there is a time cost to this however so I'd advise being selective with your choices, only applying where you feel you have a real chance. This may also allow you to apply to some MSc programmes without having to worry too much about conflicting applications.\n\nHope that helps."
},
{
"answer_id": 37204,
"author": "sevensevens",
"author_id": 14754,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14754",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "In the US, its quite common to go from BS to PhD. When I entered grad-school for a masters degree most of the other students assumed I was a PhD student. \n\nThe general consensus I found in grad-school was that the university preferred PhD students as they had committed for 3-5 years of doing research for very little pay, and the ones that couldn't cut it could \"drop into\" a masters program. Master's students (like myself) had difficultly finding assistantships as they were \"taking them away\" from PhD students.\n\nWhile a low GPA is not good, you can make up for it by getting great GRE scores and making sure your letters of recommendation are super. Not every PhD student has a 4.0 GPA coming in. If you have good recommendations, I would consider applying to a university as a PhD student (many schools will not allow you to apply to 2 different programs).\n\nEspecially consider applying to schools your recommenders work for or closely with. Also consider trying to get a full-time position at one of your internships where you'd work closely with researchers. This will allow you to strengthen your application for next year if you are not accepted."
},
{
"answer_id": 37220,
"author": "Corvus",
"author_id": 27900,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27900",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "In the US, students often go straight from a BS to a Ph.D. But many graduate schools e.g. [UC Berkeley](http://grad.berkeley.edu/admissions/requirements/ \"UC Berkeley\") have a college- or university-wide minimum GPA of 3.0. This has been discussed a bit on a previous SE thread: [Minimum GPA?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/15784/do-all-universities-have-a-minimum-required-gpa-for-graduate-school-application \"Minimum GPA?\")\n\nThe bottom line is that with a 2.5 or 2.6 GPA, you'll be ineligible for many PhD programs and you will not be a strong candidate for the others. Great letters can compensate for a 3.2 or 3.3 GPA, but rarely if ever will help much below 3.0. In your case, a masters degree may be a necessary step to partially compensate for the undergraduate grade point while building up research experience that will make you a more competitive candidate."
}
] |
2015/01/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37175",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28090/"
] |
37,177 |
What is the difference between a research paper and a scientific paper? Does the research paper also mean a term paper at the end of your Masters?
I need to present a research paper. So does it mean I need to present a solution to an existing problem or does it mean a summary of various solutions already existing?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37180,
"author": "ff524",
"author_id": 11365,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "A research paper is a paper containing original research. That is, if you do some work to add (or try to add) new knowledge to a field of study, and then present the details of your approach and findings in a paper, that paper can be called a research paper.\n\nNot all academic papers contain original research; other kinds of academic papers that are not research papers are \n\n* review papers, (see [What is the difference between a review paper and a research paper?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/10467/what-is-the-difference-between-a-review-paper-and-a-research-paper))\n* position papers (which present an opinion without original research to support it)\n* tutorial papers (which contain a tutorial introduction a topic or area, without contributing new results).\n\nA scientific paper is any paper on a scientific subject. \n\n> \n> Does the research paper also mean a term paper at the end of your Masters?\n> \n> \n> I need to present a research paper. So does it mean I need to present a solution to an existing problem or does it mean a summary of various solutions already existing?\n> \n> \n> \n\nIf the term paper at the end of your masters contains original research, then it's a research paper. \n\nDepending on the policies of your department, you may or may not be required to attempt original research during your masters. In some departments, a review of existing literature may be fine. If you're not sure exactly what's required from you, you need to ask the relevant faculty or staff members in your department."
},
{
"answer_id": 37181,
"author": "Paul de Vrieze",
"author_id": 10183,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10183",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "Research means that you add something new. Something you didn't know before, and ideally something no-one knew before (although at BSc. and MSc. levels the novelty requirement is generally relaxed). This can be a new investigation, or simply an analysis of a number existing papers. It must however not be a summary of existing solutions. It should go beyond that.\n\nAn important thing to remember is that in terms of assignment you are expected to demonstrate insight and understanding. To demonstrate this you need to engage with the topics, not merely summarise (which requires less understanding)."
}
] |
2015/01/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37177",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28092/"
] |
37,190 |
After the first review process, could the rebuttal totally change the reviewers' minds, i.e. from accept to reject or the other way around?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37194,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "First, it's worth noting that very few computer science conferences actually allow a rebuttal: mostly, the decision you get is the final decision. In those rare cases that I have encountered that have a rebuttal period, it mainly serves to help disambiguate papers that are near the borderline. Thus, it can certainly shift the status of a paper between accept and reject (e.g., by showing that reviewer #3 really was nuts and should be discounted or by eliminating the doubt that the authors were benefiting from), but is unlikely to do so unless the paper was already quite close to the boundary."
},
{
"answer_id": 37197,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "> \n> After the first review process, could the rebuttal totally change the reviewers' minds\n> \n> \n> \n\nVery likely no. The rebuttal letter is usually very short (a few hundred words, typically) in comparison to the actual paper, so it is unlikely that the few extra explanations will turn the reviewer around entirely. Also, what is true for most humans is also true for academics - once people have formed their opinion about something, it is hard to fundamentally change their mind. That is, if a reviewer hates a paper enough to vote for full reject in the first round, a few good explanations will not be enough to turn her/him around to accept.\n\n> \n> from accept to reject\n> \n> \n> \n\nNot unless you write something really idiotic (\"I don't understand the criticism that this paper is drawing. I am sure, Prof. Bigshot did not have to listen to such criticism when he originally published the same contribution.\"). Also, if your paper is accepted, what is there to rebute?\n\n> \n> or the other way around?\n> \n> \n> \n\nAs jakebeal writes, the most likely case is that the rebuttal letters are used to differentiate between a number of borderline papers for a few remaining conference slots. In my (limited) experience in the matter, nobody will even really look at rebuttal letters for papers that are already clearly accepted or rejected."
}
] |
2015/01/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37190",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28100/"
] |
37,207 |
I'm currently applying to an MSc programme at Imperial College London but at the bottom of the page for each of the programmes I am considering, it states the following:
"A Postgraduate Certificate and Postgraduate Diploma are not available on this programme."
Is this usual for MSc programmes? What exactly does it mean?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37209,
"author": "Compass",
"author_id": 22013,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22013",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "I am not familiar with UK terminology, but the probable American equivalent, the Post-Master's Certificate, is usually taken after a Master's degree and reduces the number of courses taken.\n\nThe graduate certificate may indicate a program that can be taken after graduating with a Bachelor's, and would fit between an BS and an MS in terms of education level.\n\nI guess the better way to say it would be it's the Master's-level equivalent of a Bachelor of Arts vs a Bachelor of Science in terms of course load.\n\nIn most cases, if you're applying for a Master's program for MSc, you probably don't need to worry about anything regarding a PGCert or something similar. Those are separate degree programs that you're not going for.\n\n*As always, contact the advising department to make sure.*"
},
{
"answer_id": 68739,
"author": "DimP",
"author_id": 49855,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49855",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "> \n> [**What are postgraduate diplomas and certificates?**](https://www.prospects.ac.uk/postgraduate-study/postgraduate-diplomas-and-certificates)\n> \n> \n> Postgraduate diplomas (PGDip, PgDip, PG Dip, PGD or PgD) and certificates (PGCert, PgCert, PG Cert, PGC or PgC) usually follow Bachelors study in a similar subject. They are both at level 7 on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) and generally vocational in nature, which makes them a popular choice for professionals looking to boost their CV.\n> \n> \n> The key difference between the two is that a postgraduate diploma is more extensive. Postgraduate diplomas require that you gain 120 credits, the equivalent of 30 weeks' full-time study. Meanwhile, a postgraduate certificate usually requires just 60 credits, the equivalent of 15 weeks' full-time study. Diplomas take around 6-12 months to complete when taken on a full-time basis, but part-time study can take up to a few years. Both diplomas and certificates are usually classified into distinction, merit and pass.\n> \n> \n> \n\nThe exact structure of each PGDip/PGCert usually depends on the university itself, but as @kitty said, in most of the cases a thesis is not required. On the contrary, this is usually in what your PGDip differs from the equivalent Master's Degree. \n\nHowever, many universities now offer the option to their students to go on after they have completed their PGDip commitments and write up a thesis, in order to reach the 180 credits a Master requires.\n\nIt is worth noting all these qualifications are of the same level (NQF level 7). For more, see:\n\n> \n> [**How does it differ from a Masters degree?**](https://www.prospects.ac.uk/postgraduate-study/postgraduate-diplomas-and-certificates)\n> \n> \n> The postgraduate diploma is often vocational, or at least allows the student to pursue a new study direction. It is, however, on the same level of the NQF as a Masters, and students often complete a dissertation to reach 180 study credits and turn their diploma into a Masters.\n> \n> \n>"
}
] |
2015/01/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37207",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28113/"
] |
37,212 |
Is there a standard practice in academic writing regarding the use of accented letters when the underlying language is English? I'm specifically thinking of the word *naive,* which often has a dieresis above the *i,* but I suppose this is applicable to other words.
I would prefer to not use them since it's simpler and seems somehow less pretentious to me.
Also, is there is a difference between dissertations and journal articles?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37213,
"author": "user141592",
"author_id": 27327,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27327",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "I personally always use them, mostly since my last name includes a dieresis, but most style guides only tell you to be consistent: either always use them, or never use them. Like Chrac pointed out in his comment: consistency means consistency for each word. There have been some answers that point out that names should always be spelled with whatever accents marks the person uses. To do otherwise would be disrespectful. For other words it's up to you."
},
{
"answer_id": 37215,
"author": "Massimo Ortolano",
"author_id": 20058,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "Do you like reading papers with misspelled words, grammar errors, uncertain syntax, badly formatted equations, unreadable graphs and unclear pictures? Probably not. \n\nModern typesetting systems and careful proofreading allow writers to avoid, as much as possible, the above unpleasantnesses and, moreover, allow them to typeset all sort of characters. Furthermore, macros and shortcuts can be defined for quickly repeating difficult words. Thus, with modern typesetting systems there's really no excuse for not using diacritical marks, regardless of practices which date back to an epoch when typesetting systems were not as flexible as modern ones. \n\nAcademic papers and books are not only read by native English speakers, but by people from all over the world, where a missing accent can be cause of confusion or, in case of many missing accents, considered a sign of sloppiness (which typically does not put the reader in a favourable mood), especially if the accent is missing from a proper name."
},
{
"answer_id": 37239,
"author": "BrenBarn",
"author_id": 9041,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9041",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "You should follow the conventions of the style guide for the journal/publisher you're writing for. A general pattern is that words which have been fully borrowed and assimilated into English as ordinary vocabulary (such as \"naive\") tend to lose their diacritics, whereas words or phrases that are still considered foreign, flowery, or restricted to specialized use (e.g., détente, fin de siècle) tend to keep them. The place where you would most likely keep them is in proper nouns (especially names of people)."
},
{
"answer_id": 37246,
"author": "user2622016",
"author_id": 28143,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28143",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "It would be very hard to be consistent with the two dots, for example if you use it in naïve, you should probably use in coöperate, reënter, etc.\n\nThe diaeresis forbids to join in speech sounds of two vowels - it gives a hint to the reader not to read cooperate as in *Cooper*, or reenter as in *reel*\n\nSometimes we see them separated explicitly co-operation, re-enter, but since naive, cooperation, and reenter are very common, special orthographic rules may apply.\n\nI would write:\n\n* naive\n* cooperate or co-operate\n* re-enter"
},
{
"answer_id": 37273,
"author": "Daniel",
"author_id": 22062,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22062",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Not having enough reputation for comments, I'll add my perspective on the topic with an answer.\n\nThere are words that have more than one accepted usage, such as naive/naïve or a la carte/à la carte, where accepted means these are actually alternative spellings and are shown in dictionaries. [Here](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:English_words_with_diacritics) is a list of English words with diacritics; some of these words have alternative spellings.\n\nHowever, while in some languages it may be acceptable to replace diacritics by a version without, such as the German *ö* replaced by *oe*, in other languages certain funny looking characters are not considered diacritics. An example that comes to mind is Finnish, where *ä* and *ö* are considered two vowels that also have their place in the alphabet, and not a version of *a* and *o* on steroids. As such and as stated [here](https://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/lang/finnish-letters.html), \"*replacing them by ae and oe is not acceptable for Finnish*\".\n\nSo my view on the subject is to use them unless you're unable to; and I can't see why you would be [unable](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typewriter) to do so nowadays. I don't mind *naive* because it is still correct (and a widely used alternative spelling); *Jyvaeskylae* instead of *Jyväskylä* on the other hand, would just tell me you either do not know the correct spelling or are plain lazy."
},
{
"answer_id": 71656,
"author": "Matthew Nace",
"author_id": 56985,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/56985",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "The question you need to answer is what purpose the accent serves. Traditionally, in English and related languages, the accents have three purposes: to change pronunciation (for instance, the cedilla in the word soupçon causes the c to be pronounced like an s, not a k), to distinguish between homophones (as in French, between a, which means \"have\", and à, which means \"at\"), and to mark a change in historical spelling (the circumflex often indicates an s that has been lost to history, as in the French word hôpital, which used to be hospital).\n\nMy answer would be that an accent that shows a change in pronunciation (especially acute accents and diaereses) should be retained in formal writing, because we cannot know who will read it, and the reader may need these pronunciation aids; the same argument could be made for homophone distinctions, particularly in poetry.\n\nHowever, if the accent marks a spelling change, it would depend on when the change occurred: there is no reason to continue to mark a spelling change that occurred before the word entered the English language. If the accent exists, for instance, on the French word, like contrôle, and it shows a letter was omitted long before the word was borrowed into English, then there is no reason to continue to mark the missing letter that was never part of the English spelling. There is, for instance, no mention on Oxford Dictionaries on-line of the spelling hôtel in English. The older word hostel came into the language in the middle ages, and is still spelled thus. The newer form hotel arrived in the mid-seventeenth century, when its French form was already spelled with a circumflex, and the two words were used differently. Hence, it is pointless to write hôtel; these are two separate words, not a change to an older form in English.\n\nOn the other hard, there are some newer conventions that are equally acceptable. The older spelling coöperate had already been completely lost by the time I learned to spell, twenty-five years ago, having been replaced by co-operate, which seems to do the same job, and so is perfectly reasonable. These days, cooperate seems to be quite common, and of course, there are no language police to say that it ought not be so; however, in formal writing, I still use the hyphen (as in e-mail; remember when there was still a hyphen there? And that was an originally English word! \\*\\*And yes, it is okay to begin a sentence with the word \"and\"; your English teacher only said no because all young school children do it far to much)."
}
] |
2015/01/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37212",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10371/"
] |
37,224 |
I took the TOEFL test more than three months ago (outside US). Well before my deadlines. But I haven't received the paper scores yet and I shall mail them to the admission committees as an obligatory in my application package. Now, I'm running against the clock. Although I contacted customer support at ETS, the only thing I got is copy-pasted information of mailing time (allow 4-6 weeks abroad...) with a we-can-do-nothing-else statement.
This is totally upsetting. I don't want to lose my applications (and the money I have spent to get all my document translated, legalized, etc.) because of such kafkian situation. Also, it doesn't make sense to order extra reports; probably, they will get lost again.
Has anybody else passed throughout this predicament with ETS? What did you do? What should I do?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37226,
"author": "user28126",
"author_id": 28126,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28126",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "I faced similar problem during my undergrad application process. The admission officer told me to fax them a print of my score report from my online account. You can try asking the admission office at the institute that you are applying to and see if there is any way you can self-report the score before the official report arrives. \nGood luck!"
},
{
"answer_id": 37231,
"author": "Nobody",
"author_id": 546,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/546",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "There is a probable cause for the mail delay - weather.\n\nI am a retiree from the US and I currently live in Taiwan. In the past month or so, I have experienced mail delays between the US and my current residency. Usually the first class air mail (US Postal Service) between the US and Taiwan is about 2 weeks ( sometimes 3 weeks at most). But, recently the time is about a month. And I haven't received couple of mails from US that were supposed to be delivered in the last week of December last year.\n\nI mailed something to the US the week before X'mas. The receiving ends said they have not got it. I had to check with the local post office, their response was that this was due to the bad weather in December and January in the US.\n\nMy advice is: contact the admission offices to see if there is another way to send in the official transcript. Even if you receive the score report today, please consider using express mail to send to the universities because it could take another month or so for delivery. (I do know express delivery is expensive, bit it's worth it if you have good chance to get to a good university). Good luck!"
}
] |
2015/01/21
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37224",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28124/"
] |
37,233 |
**Is it appropriate for a student to attend a class s/he is not registered for?**
I am a CS student and I am almost done with my degree, but there are some very interesting electives that I will not get to take and I would love to simply attend those courses any way.
Is this inappropriate to do? Should I ask the professor's permission first?
I am not sure what my school's policy on the matter is, since I could not find a single source on the topic online from them.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37234,
"author": "ff524",
"author_id": 11365,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "> \n> Should I ask the professor's permission first? \n> \n> \n> \n\nYes, this is the polite thing to do. (It's a perfectly reasonable and common request, so no need to be embarrassed about asking.)\n\nAs an instructor, it's useful to be able to understand any apparent discrepancy between the number of \"official\" students and the number of students I see in class. (For example, for determining whether I need to reserve a bigger classroom for an exam, or if I need extra TA support.) So even though I've never turned down a request like this (given that it's permitted in my university), I still like to be asked.\n\nSome schools have an official policy about this kind of thing. If you couldn't find anything relevant, maybe the professor will know and will clue you in when you ask him."
},
{
"answer_id": 37235,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "In the American system, this is called \"auditing\" a course. Auditing means that you are attending the class but are technically only listening (auditing => auditory => listening) to the material and not sitting for exams or handing in homework assignments. You can audit a course formally (which often means that this is listed on your transcript) or informally in which you just sit in on the lectures/discussions. For the former/formal, see your local university guidelines. This answer deals with the latter.\n\nPermission of the instructor in all but the larger lectures is always a good idea unless your university has an open classroom policy (as with many European universities). The instructor may have different rules. For example:\n\n1. In larger lectures, I do not mind auditors (of any ilk) in lecture but they may **not** attend discussion sections since those are for the paying students.\n2. I allow graduate students to audit my graduate seminars but with three rules: a) They must attend all of the sessions; b) they must do all of the readings; c) they must not be a 'dead body' but must participate in the seminar discussion.\n\nNote that the university itself may have rules on auditing which the faculty member may ignore (for example, I do not mind if local community residents audit my lectures even if they are not registered as auditors through the university).\n\nThis is different from PASS/FAIL (also known as CREDIT/D/FAIL) which is another alternative in which you take the class but are allowed a lower level of participation."
},
{
"answer_id": 37287,
"author": "Longdaysjourneyintocode",
"author_id": 28164,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28164",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "Other, more qualified, people have answered your direct question, so I will add to it without detracting from what they have to say.\n\nThere are some schools with 'alumni audit' policies, in which - as the name suggests - alumni can formally audit courses. Check with the registrar on policies about this. If your school has such an option, find out the rules. Some classes may be auditable and others may not. Some may be auditable online if you are far away from your university...etc. \n\nWhile you will likely only be able to do this for one course at a time for courses offered at night, assuming you work a day job, it could be a good way to take those elective courses, create & maintain relationships with professors and with your university.\n\nGood luck with your studies, and have fun."
},
{
"answer_id": 37354,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "As a student who has attended four universities and counting, I can provide a student's perspective on this subject.\n\nMost large state schools require auditing students to pay the same tuition to audit a course as it would cost to actually take that course for a grade. The ethics of this are debatable, but I personally disagree with it strongly. \n\nIf your university charges to audit a course, then I would consider asking the professor if you are aloud to sit in on some lectures. The professor may be alright with you 'unofficially ' auditing. However, this will depend entirely on the professor and how strict your university policies are. \n\nIf the course is very large, as many entry level courses are in state schools, then you can consider just auditing unofficially and without permission. Be careful though, you would potentially be violating university rules, and may anger the instructor. But, if it's a large class with hundreds of students, chances are you will not be noticed, and your presence will not detract from the course. Learning is never a bad thing, and charging students to audit a large course like this is wrong, in my opinion.\n\nKeep in mind that when unofficially auditing a course, you will most likely not have access to any online material used, and be unable to submit assignments/take exams, unless the instructor agrees to allow otherwise.\n\nOverall, never stop learning. If you want to learn something then it's up to you to seek out that knowledge whatever way possible. No one will fault you for this morally, but Universities don't like missing out on tuition fees. Don't get in trouble."
},
{
"answer_id": 37358,
"author": "cbeleites unhappy with SX",
"author_id": 725,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/725",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "I'd like to add a perspective from **Germany**: \n\nFees here are usually paid for the fact that you are registered as a student (typically a general service fee, student union fee, possibly obligatory bus ticket), only very particular courses have course fees (sports, languages, and postgraduate courses that get you certified for sth. come to my ming). And even if you do your PhD without being registered as student or work as post-doc, for general lectures usually nobody checks whether you are technically \"allowed\" to attend the lecture: many *lectures* are anyways public. Registration is required if you want to take an exam and get a certificate, but usually not if you are just interested in the knowledge.\n\nSo for most lectures it would be totally OK to just attend and listen. \nThat is, unless it is really crowded: then it would be seen as impolite to take away the seat of a student who needs to hear that lecture. So for certain subjects, you'd just not get in in a polite way, whereas in others (SMT) the lecturer may be happy to have one more face in the audience.\n\nIn fact, a certain amount of broadening your horizon is encouraged (\"studium generale\"). For that purpose, lectures that are of interest to students of unrelated subjects or the general public are often offered in the evening hours. For example, I heard some more physics than I was required, plus a bit of philosophy, computer science, economics and law and got an introduction to Polish language (I'm chemist). \n\nFor language and sports courses you'd typically be required to register. And you may not be that welcome to more intense courses that are meant for smaller groups such as excercises and lab practica (where there would be questions as to who pays insurance and material as well as safety concerns such as whether you know what you are doing)."
},
{
"answer_id": 37378,
"author": "Tom Au",
"author_id": 755,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/755",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "Policies vary, from university to university, and even from department to department in the same university.\n\nThe first thing you MUST do is to ask the professor for permission. Not doing so, is a form of \"stealing.\" If you have the professor's permission, it's more like borrowing.\n\nThe professor will usually know what the university's policies are, or at least be in a position to find out. In some cases, there may be an extra fee involved, for as many credits as the course is worth.\n\nIn some cases, there may be \"loopholes,\" that is, there is no problem if you audit for less than half the semester, then \"drop out.\" Some universities will allow you \"sit\" for three to five lectures early in the semester before having to choose between courses. In other cases, you may be allowed to attend ONE lecture on a particular topic. (I have used all these strategies in my career). \n\nIn any event, do what the professor tells you. That is the best guide for \"university\" policy, as well as his/her own."
}
] |
2015/01/21
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37233",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27558/"
] |
37,236 |
I found some relevant advice on the first day of teaching online (e.g. [here](http://teachingcenter.wustl.edu/strategies/Pages/teaching-first-day.aspx#.VL9C13Mo7qA), [here](http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/teach/firstday.html), [here](http://teaching.berkeley.edu/what-do-first-day-class), and [here](http://teaching.colostate.edu/tips/tip.cfm?tipid=93)). Common themes include setting expectations, motivating the course content, and having two-way interactions with students.
Besides for reviewing the syllabus (and relevant university-wide policies referenced but not located in the syllabus), how can an instructor most effectively use the first class session? Are there any especially effective ways to do these things on the first day of a class?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37237,
"author": "Patricia Shanahan",
"author_id": 10220,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10220",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "From a relatively recent student point of view, once you have discussed the syllabus, university policies, and your rules for e.g. how homework should be turned in, try to make as much as possible of the class typical of what the rest of the course is going to be like. Think of it as a sample.\n\nStudents may be faced with having to make a decision early in the session on which classes to take. The more typical the first class is, the more valid data they have to make that decision. If, on the other hand, you spend the whole of the first class doing things other than teaching in your normal style for the class, they have no way to evaluate whether that style works for them."
},
{
"answer_id": 37238,
"author": "Ben Bitdiddle",
"author_id": 24384,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24384",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": true,
"text": "Students basically want to know if they should take your class. To that end I would include\n\n1. A short (10-15 minute) sales pitch explaining what exactly your class is about and why your topic is interesting.\n2. Administrative details of the class (I would cover this after the sales pitch, so students who are late don't miss anything).\n3. A presentation on the first topic in your syllabus. This is important because hearing your first lecture will give them a good idea of the difficulty of the class, which prerequisites are required, and the style/quality of your lecturing. Also, if your entire first lecture is a sales pitch, students will feel like they wasted time coming to your class, or that your class is \"easy\"/not serious."
},
{
"answer_id": 37240,
"author": "thecommexokid",
"author_id": 25091,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/25091",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "My perspective is as a student of physics; I hope this answer generalizes sufficiently.\n\nI have had several teachers in physics who have presented on the first day whichever tricky mathematical theorem, process, or derivation will be used most frequently throughout the semester. This becomes valuable because each time the concept comes up during the rest of the course, the teacher can say, \"Now I'm using the Helmholtz theorem (or whatever), which you'll recall from our first class,\" and the distinction of having been the very first material presented means the students *actually do* remember it, or at least remember *of* it. Whereas a proof done sometime in the middle of the fourth lecture will as likely as not need to be reviewed each time it recurs, because the students don't recognize it when it resurfaces.\n\nSo if the item is well-chosen, it can save enormous amounts of time in the presentation of later material, since it can essentially be skipped each time it comes up with a casual \"…as you'll remember from our first class\" in a way that material introduced later often sadly cannot.\n\nObviously you have to determine if there is a similarly valuable sort of thing in whatever field you teach."
},
{
"answer_id": 37244,
"author": "Prashant Kumar Gupta",
"author_id": 28140,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28140",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "Tell them about the history of topic, get an idea what your students know about it. Then relate it how is it different from that or how is it related. Let them know, Why they are studying this topic, What is application of this and what can be the possible future of the topic. Sometime, even pros and cons can be discussed.\n\nThen, You can start about the topic lecture, This will create some idea to the students in the practical life and they can get more valuable information and study with more interest.\n\nLet the conversation flow from both the sides and motivate them to ask more questions they can ask."
},
{
"answer_id": 37286,
"author": "jraow",
"author_id": 27889,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27889",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "At my top 10 US university, some of the math professors do not care about grades, or administration, etc. They would rather teach. So within one minute of starting the class, they begin the main material. Any administration information is placed on the website or sent through emails, if necessary.\n\nBut the (undergraduate and graduate) students are at a sufficiently high level that grades are not an issue either. Virtually all my friends are hovering around the 4.0 range. So this may not apply to other situations with lesser students."
},
{
"answer_id": 37321,
"author": "KharoBangdo",
"author_id": 12064,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12064",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "I'll add something more to the already good answers from the perspective of a student, what he expects his first lecture to be. \n\nOne of the things which, apparently, is pretty common throughout the academic life is, seriously listening to the advice of the so called *Seniors*.\n The *Seniors* will *advise* you to take a particular course regardless of the teacher / teacher regardless of the course. \n\nSomething along the lines of \n\"Dont take that professor's course, he will screw you up every class with tonnes of homework & will not give good credits even if you manage to pull it off.\"\nOR \"Take this particular course. It has great opportunities. The recruiting companies want this course as a prerequisite.\" \n\nSo, professors, during your first lecture, assuming you are privy to this gossip of *Seniors* being passed down since generations, please address each & every \nrumour & clear the thought process of the naïve juniors & be absolutely truthful about it. Then the students can really decide for themselves whether to take the course or not"
},
{
"answer_id": 37325,
"author": "dionys",
"author_id": 22520,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22520",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "For undergraduate courses your \"first day of class\" is really an administrative meeting with students that are signed up for your class. Often students are still arranging their schedule for the semester. In this light, the first lecture is an opportunity to get them excited about the course topic and familiarize them with your approach to teaching it.\n\nIn my experience, it's a good idea to do something real in the first lecture in any case, to give the students an idea of what your lectures will be like and to give them a taste of the course material. Just keep in mind that anything important that is touched on in the first lecture should be revisited in a subsequent lecture--basically treat it like a bonus lecture that most of your students didn't attend.\n\nIn my view, the first session should be used to accomplish the following:\n\n**1. Motivate the course topic and your syllabus.**\n\nTry to communicate why this course is important and why you are interested in teaching it. Your engagement and enthusiasm can have a strong positive influence on the engagement and learning potential of your students. Whenever possible, take the opportunity to relate the course topic to current events, new approaches/practices, or recent research results.\n\n**2. Clarify your expectations for the course.**\n\nDon't read information verbatim from the syllabus, but try to quickly sum up what you expect from your students and what their grades will be based on. Here, a little information on yourself as and instructor, and a little friendly advice on how to stay on your good side is often helpful.\n\n**3. Highlight any important or unusual requirements for the course.**\n\nIf your course requires background in another subject, or if past students have had lots of trouble with certain topics, try to give students a heads-up regarding any difficulties they can prepare for.\n\n**4. Get a feel for the level of your students and their expectations.**\n\nA short quiz or survey can often be helpful as a segue or starting point for a discussion of the course topic in addition to giving you some idea of how familiar your students are with prerequisite material and material to be covered in the course."
},
{
"answer_id": 37751,
"author": "digitaljoel",
"author_id": 28594,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28594",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Show the students why this class is awesome. You want to sell them on the class. Covering a syllabus or the policy on late work isn't going to do any of that. Students come to the first day with very low expectations because they are conditioned to the fact that it's a \"do nothing\" day where they just cover administrative crap.\n\n**Give demonstrations of why your subject is amazing and relevant.**\n\n* Show awesome chemistry or physics (something that produces fog or involves lasers!)\n* Show math puzzlers (I once had a teacher \"prove\" that pi=2 and nobody could refute it.)\n* Read touching poetry or even meaningful modern song lyrics (show you are in touch with their generation)\n\nI've been out of school for a long time, but still remember my greatest teachers and they always loved the subjects they taught and kept it interesting."
},
{
"answer_id": 37763,
"author": "Massimo Ortolano",
"author_id": 20058,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "Sorry, I know I'm gonna lose a great deal of rep for this, but I couldn't resist (from [Spiked Math](http://spikedmath.com/562.html)): \n\n"
}
] |
2015/01/21
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37236",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11365/"
] |
37,241 |
I'm in a large class where lectures are recorded and posted online. The lectures are difficult enough that I benefit a lot from being able to pause the videos and stare at the slides for a few seconds, or even rewind the video if I realize I missed something from an earlier part of the lecture. It's also nice to be able to pause the video if my mind starts wandering, so I can give the lecture my full attention.
However, if I don't go to class, it's easy to get behind on the lectures, and it's easy to get distracted while watching the videos (so watching a lecture online takes me a lot more time than I would have spent in class). What do you think is the best approach?
If it makes a difference, it's my advisor's class, and the lectures are at 9 am.
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37242,
"author": "Patricia Shanahan",
"author_id": 10220,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10220",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "A combination may be best. Go to the lectures. During the lecture, if you miss something, or have trouble understanding, make a note of the time. Afterwards, before attempting the coursework, bring up the recorded lecture and view the places you missed during the live lecture.\n\nThat way, you get the keep-on-track benefit of the live lectures. You spend your viewing time in a very focused mode, looking only at the difficult parts of the lecture, which may reduce the tendency to get distracted."
},
{
"answer_id": 37252,
"author": "Alexandros",
"author_id": 10042,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10042",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "Just go to the class. In class you can ask questions for things you do not understand or answer the instructor's questions as well. Moreover, you also have the chance to interact and get to know your co-students and coordinate assignments (for group assignments) or reading sessions.\n\nIf this was a concert of your favorite artist, would you consider watching the concert from YouTube the same as actually being there? Especially, if you already paid for the ticket (since you are officially enrolled to the class and therefore paid the corresponding fees - if any). Live interaction during a course is vastly superior to watching a lecture in your pajamas, which is still a valid alternative for people who cannot be there (sickness, online learning, free courses on Coursera). Do not miss this opportunity you are given to actually be there. And use video lectures as supplementary material as the excellent answer from @PatriciaShanahan already states."
}
] |
2015/01/21
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37241",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24384/"
] |
37,245 |
For example, if he spends 20 hours a week on his advisor's project, and 20 hours a week on a project with another professor (that the advisor is not involved in). Do most advisors find this acceptable, or do they see this as taking up work time that belongs to them?
And what if those 20 hours a week are spent on non-research activities, such as taking classes unrelated to the topic of the PhD, or a part-time job outside the university?
|
[
{
"answer_id": 37280,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "It really depends on the funding source. \n\nIt is fairly common for researchers in industry to get a Ph.D. \"on the side\" as part time work away from their full-time job. Many professors are OK with this because 1) an industry researcher often has more maturity in their approach to a subject than a student fresh out of undergrad, and 2) The professor is likely not required to provide funding for the student. \n\nA professor who is funding a student to work full time from their grants, however, will be rightfully angry if the student does not work full time for them."
},
{
"answer_id": 37294,
"author": "BigAl",
"author_id": 28177,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28177",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "It is down to the supervisor, i myself believe any extra research projects adds a LOT to your own skills. Being taken out of your comfort zone and learning new skills improves yourself as a researcher. Besides how much \"real\" work time can you devote to one PHD before your productivity falls off dramatically.\n\nI see a lot of PHD's concentrate soo much on their project that they don't spend enough time learning new things that makes them so much more productive in the long run. However, aimlessly going to lectures where you don't apply those skills is less worthwhile than doing a project. Having said that, if you know a good lecturer whose lecture series illuminates a previously difficult and unknown area, and those gems are out there, then it is not wasted time. Devoting your time to a job unless it does teach you new skills may be pushing it."
}
] |
2015/01/21
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/37245",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24384/"
] |