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thread-23070 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/23070 | What do I need to configure to get Marlin to run an Ender 3 Pro with CR Touch? | 2024-02-15T01:53:48.250 | # Question
Title: What do I need to configure to get Marlin to run an Ender 3 Pro with CR Touch?
I have an Ender 3 Pro, board version 4.2.2, and a CR Touch with 5 pin connector. I also removed the z-axis endstop connector at the endstop.
I've been building and flashing Marlin 2.1.2.2, but I haven't found a configuration that makes the CRTouch work as expected. Typically, during auto homing, the machine will ignore the probe triggering and drive Z into the bed either 100% of the time or most of the time. I didn't take detailed enough notes to know for sure.
As a test case, I tried following along with this answer exactly and still had the same problem. Configuration changes from the Marlin Ender 3 Pro default:
* Z\_MIN\_PROBE\_USES\_Z\_MIN\_ENDSTOP\_PIN commented out
* USE\_PROBE\_FOR\_Z\_HOMING uncommented
* Z\_MIN\_PROBE\_PIN uncommented and set to PB1
* BLTOUCH uncommented
* NOZZLE\_TO\_PROBE\_OFFSET set to { -44, -9, -0.9 } (here I differ slightly from the { -44, -9, 0 } in the answer)
* AUTO\_BED\_LEVELING\_UBL uncommented
* ENABLE\_LEVELING\_AFTER\_G28 uncommented
* Z\_SAFE\_HOMING uncommented (not in the answer, but in a comment)
On my first boot after inserting the SD card with firmware:
1. The probe deployed and retracted a couple of times, ending retracted with the red LED on
2. The machine seemingly flashed the firmware as it sat on a blue screen for a while
3. The CRTouch LED turned purple I think when flashing ended, though I can't tell from my video
4. When I got to the main menu, I started auto homing
5. X and Y axes worked as expected
6. For the Z axis, the probe centered on the build plate, deployed, and the LED turned blue
7. The probe started lowering, contacted the plate and retracted. The LED turned to blinking red, maybe steady red first. The Z motor kept driving down so I killed the power
The extruder fan also made a loud buzzing noise that gradually grew quieter. In the past I've noticed the buzzing seemingly get quieter when the probe is deployed or retracted.
Anyone know what could be causing this, or how to troubleshoot it? Creality's firmware works as expected, so it's not a hardware problem. I was thinking maybe PB1 is wrong for the Ender 3 Pro, but from what I see online I gather it's the same mainboard between both printers.
# Answer
> 2 votes
I think this is an issue with Marlin v2.1.2.2, which I was trying to use. https://github.com/MarlinFirmware/Marlin/issues/26809 this issue points to another bug with probing. My issue is different, but downgrading to 2.1.1 solved it.
# Answer
> 0 votes
I also have an ender 3 pro that I added a bl touch to. I set mine up with removing the z limit switch and connecting the bl touch using those pins along with the z probe pins. You need to verify which board you have (probably a v4.2.2) and which cpu is on your board,mine was STM32F103 RET6 CPU there are some using a different model. I was never able to get marlin to build and work with the bl touch, however I was able to flash https://github.com/zisismaras/ender\_3\_4.2.2\_firmware which worked fine. A 4.2.2 board with the RET6 cpu is required. You / someone could do a config side by side and figure out which flag(s) you are missing in your configuration or you could just flash whichever probe grid you are comfortable with and use these auto builds.
---
Tags: creality-ender-3, marlin, bltouch, z-probe, crtouch
--- |
thread-23121 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/23121 | Add 5th stepper driver to the SKR mini E3 v3 to use it for a second extruder motor | 2024-03-04T17:51:20.167 | # Question
Title: Add 5th stepper driver to the SKR mini E3 v3 to use it for a second extruder motor
I am trying to add a second extruder motor to my Ender 3 V2 so I can use both independently. My Ender 3 V2 has an SKR Mini E3 v3 build in. I have seen the post SKR Mini E3 v3 + additional TMC2208 = 5 stepper drivers (works!) and tried to build it. But now I am stuck building the Marlin firmware.
Has anybody done this before, or know how to do that?
# Answer
This is not that difficult, but you need some experience in configuring and compiling (Marlin) firmware.
In fact, you already linked to the solution. From the link you see that the person used the following pins to connect to the separate stepper driver on the breadboard:
| Wire | Description | SKR pin | Stepper pin |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| GND | ground | PD4 | DIR |
| Vio | 3.3v on SPI1 header | PD5 | STEP |
| OB2 | to motor M2B | n/c | CLK |
| OB1 | to motor M2A | either one | PDN\_UART |
| OA1 | to motor M1B | either one | PDN\_UART |
| OA2 | to motor M1A | n/c | MS2 |
| GND | ground | n/c | MS1 |
| Vm | to 24v from PS | PD0 | ENN |
> In words, what you're seeing here is that I am taking 3.3v and ground from the SPI header, and taking the pins we need for STEP, DIR, ENN (enable), and the UART from the "I/O" connector. Add 24v power (and ground) from the power supply.
>
> Now about the UART cable. You'd need to fashion a cable to go from one of the TMC2208's "PDN\_UART" cable, split into two wires, one of which has a 1k resistor. The side without the resistor goes to PD2 and the one with the resistor goes to PD3.
>
> Last thing, not shown but rather important: a 100uF electrolytic capacitor rated for 35v or higher. This will bridge the 24v and ground lines and should be close to the driver. I don't really need it for proof of concept but when driving actual loads during actual prints it's gonna be important.
>
> I also had the idea of using the EXP1 connector's pins too. (As a klipper user, my e3v2's fancy screen don't work anyway.) Could fashion a single plug to hook up all the needed wires save for power. Wound up leaving that option open for the future.
As you are altering the board (adding a stepper) I'd prefer to define the extra stepper in the SKR Mini E3 v3.0 pin specification file.
E.g. append the stepper section to read:
```
//
// Steppers
//
#define X_ENABLE_PIN PB14
#define X_STEP_PIN PB13
#define X_DIR_PIN PB12
#define Y_ENABLE_PIN PB11
#define Y_STEP_PIN PB10
#define Y_DIR_PIN PB2
#define Z_ENABLE_PIN PB1
#define Z_STEP_PIN PB0
#define Z_DIR_PIN PC5
#define E0_ENABLE_PIN PD1
#define E0_STEP_PIN PB3
#define E0_DIR_PIN PB4
#define E1_ENABLE_PIN PD0
#define E1_STEP_PIN PD5
#define E1_DIR_PIN PD4
```
If UART is used be sure to set the `E1_HARDWARE_SERIAL` and the `E1_SLAVE_ADDRESS` in the section under the stepper section.
Furthermore, change the `config.h` to include you have multiple extruders:
```
#define EXTRUDERS 2
```
I assume you don't use 2 heaters and 2 temperature probes, so set:
```
#define SINGLENOZZLE
```
And select a driver type:
```
#define E1_DRIVER_TYPE TMC2208
```
For what it's worth, or depending on your hard- and software skills, you could probably better buy a new controller board with more stepper drivers; these boards are very affordable these days.
> 1 votes
---
Tags: creality-ender-3, marlin, stepper-driver, creality
--- |
thread-4647 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/4647 | commandline remeshing and simplifying tools | 2017-09-23T12:05:50.500 | # Question
Title: commandline remeshing and simplifying tools
I'm currently trying to remesh and simplify some protein structure models (very large) to reduce the file size of the STLs I need to print from.
The raw file before manipulation is ~4.9GB.
I'm currently attempting this on my home PC (16GB Ram, AMD FX9590, dual RX480s - so no slouch by any stretch) but I'm currently watching the progress (which isn't fast), and the RAM usage is worryingly close to 16GB now, with about 40% of the calculation still to go.
I'm using MeshLab's Quadratic Edge Collapse Decimation, to drop down by about 60% since there are a lot of redundance internal vertices etc and the print will already be quite difficult even with a small number of faces.
If my PC ends up not being able to handle this, does anyone know of any good commandline tools for Unix that I could use on one of my servers to handle remeshing and simplification, where I have considerably more ram and CPU power available.
First post on this SE, so apologies if this belongs somewhere different.
# Answer
> 7 votes
Netfabb came up in a number of suggestions that I found. Take a look at 3D Printing Under Arch Linux, which offers a number of solutions for Linux, including:
* OpenSCAD
* FreeCAD
* Blender
* NetFabb
* Slic3r
### Netfabb
Taking the section on Netfabb:
> netfabb Private will provide you with a fully-loaded tool-box to do all this and much more:
>
> * fix complicated file errors
> * make late design changes
> * combine parts into one
> * hollow out solid parts into a shell
> * smooth the mesh to improve surfaces
> * **reduce file size**
Installing it:
> netfabb is not at official repository so you must install it from AUR using yaourt
>
> ```
> $ yaourt netfabb-basic
> $ netfabb-basic
>
> ```
However, it is unclear as to whether there is a cmd line interface. It could be worth reading Problem in Netfabb Command Line execution and *in particular* the documentation on Automating Netfabb \- although this seems to suggest that command line functionality is only available to users with *Ultimate* subscription and not *Basic*:
>
From Reducing Size of STL file to upload to shapeways, this post (#10) states:
> You can also decimate the model in Netfabb easily - Right click \> Level of Detail \> Choose something like 50%... or more or less depending on the level of detail needed.
Although, this isn't available in Basic subscription, or so says post #12.
---
### Meshmixer
I also came across this, non-command line option.
From How to Reduce the File Size of .STL and .OBJ 3D Models
> For example, you can give the free 3D modeling program Meshmixer a try. Choose the ‘Select’ tool from the menu on the right, then double-click on your model (this will select your entire mesh). Then click on the ‘Edit…’ option and select ‘Reduce’.
>
> You can now reduce the polygon count using several options. The best working choice is to use the percentage tool. It will immediately tell you by how much percent your file size (and polygon count) has been reduced.
Available for Windows and OSX.
From Reducing Size of STL file to upload to shapeways, this post (#8) states:
> The meshlab tutorial is exactly what you want to do - the options described help preserve the overall geometry of the model while reducing the poly count. Start with a target of 150,000 polys and work up until the desired detail is retained, bearing in mind the printability I mentioned above.
Also, by way of Quora, How do I reduce the size of an STL file? Does it affect the CAD coordinates for 3D printing?, I also found this Meshmixer tutorial: Easy Guide on How to Repair Your .STL Files. Under the section **Problem 4: File Size is too Large for 3D Printing** are the following steps:
> The last problem that you may stumble upon, particularly as your objects get larger and their complexity increases, is that the resulting `.stl` file size is too large for your 3D printer or 3D printing service of choice. Third party printing services like i.materialise or Shapeways have upload limits so you may have to change the size of your file (100 MB limit at imaterialise and 64 MB for Shapeways). It’s important to reduce the mesh without sacrificing the quality, which I should say at the outset is best done at the initial export from your CAD software to minimise any distortion. My number one quick tip is to make sure in the export settings that your saving in ‘Binary’ format, not ‘ASCII’ – it’s a significantly more compact file format for `.stl`’s without losing quality). However if it’s not an option, Meshmixer can be really useful to quickly reduce file size and visualise how this will affect the quality of your surfaces.
>
> For this example I’m going to return to the leaf from Problem 1, which as a `.stl` file is 30.757 MB – pretty large for such a small design and definitely over the limit for someone’s email if I wanted to send it. So let’s look at how we can get this under 10 MB.
>
> 1. Select the entire model by pressing Ctrl + A on your keyboard to select all.
> 2. Go to **Edit\>Reduce** to bring up the options to reduce the mesh. Essentially the file size of a `.stl` is directly related to the number of polygons (triangles) that make up all of the surfaces. We will use the Reduce tool to reduce the quantity of polygons, therefore reducing file size.
> 3. The menu will give you a range of options to reduce the size of your file. The simplest is to use the default Percentage option, allowing you to determine the final file size you want rather than needing to know exactly how many triangles will be used to make up the file. In this case I have calculated that in order to get my original .stl file below 10 MB, I need a reduction of 70 % or more. As you adjust the values, you will get a preview of what your model will look like, allowing you to control how much reduction you employ before the model becomes too distorted and ‘pixelated.’
>
> 4. Once you’re happy and have accepted the changes, you can click on the Export button or go to **File\>Export** to save this new reduced `.stl` file. As you can see in the comparison below, there is almost no perceptible difference in the quality of the 30.757 MB file compared with the final reduced version at 9.362 MB. I have simply increased the size of the triangles, minimising the quantity needed to create the same volume. Your regular 3D printer, or even a highly accurate SLS printer will never even know the difference in a change like this. It’s only if you really go crazy with the file reduction that you might start to notice them in your final print (and in fact many of the low-poly models which are popular on Pinshape can be produced using this technique – start with a detailed .stl of the object you want, and then just keep reducing the number of triangles!).
### Blender
From Reducing Size of STL file to upload to shapeways, this post (#8) states:
> Another option is to import the model into Blender, then use the Remesh or Decimate modifiers. Blender can be tough to get into initially but there are plenty of introduction tutorials on YouTube to help.
Blender *does* offer a Command Line Interface (CLI), see Command Line Arguments:
```
Usage: blender [args …] [file] [args …]
```
However, there doesn't appear to be an option for *Remesh* or *Decimate*. Although take a look at Is it possible to decimate or remesh via the CLI?:
> You can specify a Python script to run, see the Python Options section of the documentation you linked. In this script, you can import the model, add the modifiers, apply them and export the result.
Related - Is it possible to automatically simplify geometry in blender without losing object shape?, which has this comment:
> Is there a way to execute this modifier from command line and export the result?
which then leads to Can modifiers be computed and applied from the command line?
> You'd have to use `bpy.ops.object.modifier_apply`, e.g.
>
> ```
> import bpy
>
> for obj in bpy.context.scene.objects:
> bpy.context.scene.objects.active = obj
> count = 1
> length = len(obj.modifiers)
> while obj.modifiers:
> name = obj.modifiers[0].name
> print("%s: Applying %s (%d/%d)" % (obj, name, count, length))
> bpy.ops.object.modifier_apply(modifier=name)
> count += 1
> print("All done.")
>
> ```
>
> *For info on how to to run the above, see here.*
### Meshlab
Seeing as you are already using Meshlab, it might be worth reading Executing meshlab from commandline reduce faces of a mesh iteratively (awesomebytes/reduce\_faces.py)
```
#!/usr/bin/env python
import sys
import os
import subprocess
# Script taken from doing the needed operation
# (Filters > Remeshing, Simplification and Reconstruction >
# Quadric Edge Collapse Decimation, with parameters:
# 0.9 percentage reduction (10%), 0.3 Quality threshold (70%)
# Target number of faces is ignored with those parameters
# conserving face normals, planar simplification and
# post-simplimfication cleaning)
# And going to Filter > Show current filter script
filter_script_mlx = """<!DOCTYPE FilterScript>
<FilterScript>
<filter name="Quadric Edge Collapse Decimation">
<Param type="RichInt" value="1448" name="TargetFaceNum"/>
<Param type="RichFloat" value="0.9" name="TargetPerc"/>
<Param type="RichFloat" value="0.3" name="QualityThr"/>
<Param type="RichBool" value="false" name="PreserveBoundary"/>
<Param type="RichFloat" value="1" name="BoundaryWeight"/>
<Param type="RichBool" value="true" name="PreserveNormal"/>
<Param type="RichBool" value="false" name="PreserveTopology"/>
<Param type="RichBool" value="false" name="OptimalPlacement"/>
<Param type="RichBool" value="true" name="PlanarQuadric"/>
<Param type="RichBool" value="false" name="QualityWeight"/>
<Param type="RichBool" value="true" name="AutoClean"/>
<Param type="RichBool" value="false" name="Selected"/>
</filter>
</FilterScript>
"""
def create_tmp_filter_file(filename='filter_file_tmp.mlx'):
with open('/tmp/' + filename, 'w') as f:
f.write(filter_script_mlx)
return '/tmp/' + filename
def reduce_faces(in_file, out_file,
filter_script_path=create_tmp_filter_file()):
# Add input mesh
command = "meshlabserver -i " + in_file
# Add the filter script
command += " -s " + filter_script_path
# Add the output filename and output flags
command += " -o " + out_file + " -om vn fn"
# Execute command
print "Going to execute: " + command
output = subprocess.check_output(command, shell=True)
last_line = output.splitlines()[-1]
print
print "Done:"
print in_file + " > " + out_file + ": " + last_line
if __name__ == '__main__':
if len(sys.argv) < 3:
print "Usage:"
print sys.argv[0] + " /path/to/input_mesh num_iterations"
print "For example, reduce 10 times:"
print sys.argv[0] + " /home/myuser/mymesh.dae 10"
exit(0)
in_mesh = sys.argv[1]
filename = in_mesh.split('/')[-1]
num_iterations = int(sys.argv[2])
folder_name = filename.replace('.', '_')
tmp_folder_name = '/tmp/' + folder_name + '_meshes/'
print "Input mesh: " + in_mesh + " (filename: " + filename + ")"
print "Num iterations: " + str(num_iterations)
print "Output folder: " + tmp_folder_name
try:
os.mkdir(tmp_folder_name)
except OSError as e:
print >> sys.stderr, "Exception creating folder for meshes: " + str(e)
exit(0)
for it in range(1, num_iterations):
if it == 1:
out_mesh = tmp_folder_name + folder_name + "_it" + str(it) + ".dae"
reduce_faces(in_mesh, out_mesh)
else:
out_mesh = tmp_folder_name + folder_name + "_it" + str(it) + ".dae"
reduce_faces(last_out_mesh, out_mesh)
last_out_mesh = out_mesh
print
print "Done reducing, find the files at: " + tmp_folder_name
```
Also
> here are some updates for python 3.6.2: https://gist.github.com/tylerlindell/7435ca2261e7c404ccc1241f18e483aa
# Answer
> 3 votes
I'm facing the same problem 6 years later, Meshlab is running out of memory during *Quadratic Edge Collapse Decimation*.
There's another command line tool written in Go \[1\], which simplifies meshes in STL files.
The instructions that follow are for Linux (Debian).
First, make sure Go is installed on your system. Then install `simplify` with:
```
go install github.com/fogleman/simplify/cmd/simplify@latest
```
This will install to `~/go/bin/simplify`. Now simplify your mesh with:
```
# Reduce mesh to 10% of original size.
~/go/bin/simplify -f 0.1 input.stl output.stl
```
If you need to convert your 3D model to STL first, take a look at `openctm-tools` \[2\].
```
# Install OpenCTM tools.
sudo apt install openctm-tools
# Convert PLY to STL.
ctmconv intput.ply output.stl
```
\[1\] https://github.com/fogleman/simplify
\[2\] https://openctm.sourceforge.net/
---
Tags: print-quality, 3d-models, software, slicing
--- |
thread-20702 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/20702 | Managing Flashforge Guider 3 Plus printer on Ultimaker Cura | 2023-03-18T09:12:44.417 | # Question
Title: Managing Flashforge Guider 3 Plus printer on Ultimaker Cura
I seem to be having trouble managing the printer for slicing process in Ultimaker Cura. I use Flashforge Guider 3 Plus printer and added it to Ultimaker Cura manually (there was no Guider 3 Plus option for Flashforge printer in Cura). In the machine settings, I only set the printer dimensions and left the Printhead Settings as default. Machine settings will be attached below).
The slicing process went well. But what I found when I was going to print on my printer is as follows
Does anyone have any idea what's going on? And how is this problem solved?
# Answer
Perhaps it's due to your G-code, it doesn't look like you modified that either. The start and end G-code for the Flashforge printers can be grabbed from the G-code file, just open it up using notepad.
I have a Flashforge Guider 3 Ultra, but haven't tested it with Cura yet. Found your article while doing research, it looks like most people just bear with their proprietary software "Flashprint". Having found some issues with it myself, I'll be testing how well Cura works in the next few days.
> 1 votes
# Answer
According to their own website (the FAQ), you can ask for the settings.
> **Can I use other slicers with Flashforge 3d printers, say Cura, Prusa Slicer, Simplify3D, etc.?**
>
> *Yes, you can. Except for Flashforge Official slicer, Flashforge 3D printer is also compatible with other slicers. But you need to adjust some parameter setting in those slicers. Contact our support team for help.*
> 0 votes
---
Tags: ultimaker-cura, diy-3d-printer, flashforge
--- |
thread-18428 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/18428 | 3D scanner capabilities | 2021-11-22T23:07:32.380 | # Question
Title: 3D scanner capabilities
Will a 3D scanner capture internal details within an enclosure?
I'm contemplating buying a 3D scanner, but they're pretty expensive so I'm looking for advice on whether they will actually be useful for the projects I have in mind. So with the picture below as an example, could I expect to generate a usable STL file by scanning this?
# Answer
> 2 votes
If you require precise scanning capability, for the purpose of reverse engineering, a photogrammetric scanner may not provide that precision. As you've noted, many scanners are quite expensive and with higher precision comes higher expense. The professional grade scanners will provide resolution figures based on a sample size. For example, a particular scanner will advise for 1.0 mm for an object of 1 meter (example, not necessarily reality) and the resolution may be worse for a larger item.
Having a stationary object provides for a better result. Living beings tend to move, making it difficult to scan with any detail. Reflective objects may require a non-reflective coating (chalk paint) to remove detail-damaging specularities.
I have what is known as a structured light scanner (SLS). It calibrates by using a known pattern and projects varying light/dark patterns on the calibration panel. This calibration sequence is then used when the object is scanned. The distortion and light/dark changes are then converted into the 3D mesh, which is later converted to an appropriate object, such as .STL, .OBJ or other formats.
In the case of the object in the image, one would perform repeated scans while rotating the item on a turntable or similar work space. These are nested and processed by the software as noted above. With the walls, recesses and holes in the pictured item, it will be necessary to place the object in various orientations, by resting it on a flat side, or upside down. The software may automatically adjust the new scans, or may require point identification to begin the automatic sequence.
Unfortunately, these SLS devices are also not particularly inexpensive, but such a term is fairly subjective. From a hobbyist standpoint, it could be considered big bucks. For a prototyping operation or especially from a production environment, the cost may be a small portion of the budget.
David SLS is one such device. Amazon has a listing (unavailable) as does Walmart (out of stock) priced at US$2360. Not inexpensive, but not astronomical. The listing from Amazon specifies 0.1% of overall size. For a 150 mm wide object, that would mean 0.15 mm resolution.
# Answer
> 2 votes
A more budget solution is presented in
with lots of detail posted at https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2021/modeling-my-grandpa-3d-photogrammetry
Essentially it's some fancy PC software to stitch together a lot of digital photos of an object, and produce something you can print. The code used was `COLMAP + OpenMVS` and is explained in gratuitous detail in https://peterfalkingham.com/2018/04/01/colmap-openmvs-scripts-updated/
# Answer
> 2 votes
Yes, a 3D scanner is capable of capturing internal details within an enclosure. However, the quality of the scan may depend on the specific model and settings used. It is always best to research and read reviews before making a purchase to ensure it will meet your needs. As for the picture you provided, it is possible to generate a usable STL file by scanning it with a 3D scanner.
# Answer
> 2 votes
Yes, 3D scanners can do that, provided that all surfaces are in sight of the scanner.
Within our company we scan complex turbomachinery parts (e.g. impellers) using a robotic arm with 3D scanner and a rotating platform to scan the whole surface of the parts to compare used parts to new parts and evaluate if they can be used for another maintenance interval.
---
Tags: scanning
--- |
thread-23147 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/23147 | Extruder occasionally reverses direction | 2024-03-15T19:30:14.447 | # Question
Title: Extruder occasionally reverses direction
The extruder gears on my Ender 3D printer v.4.1 occasionally reverse direction when feeding the PLA filament, as if testing it by trying to pull it out, then resume the correct direction and continue proper feeding. So far there is no effect on the quality of the prints.
What is the purpose of this occasional momentary reverse action, and is it to be expected?
# Answer
### What is it?
This reversal of the gear direction is perfectly normal, and is called **retraction**. It is basically a *recoil movement* of the filament.
Retraction (generally) occurs when the extruder effects movement and displacement from one part of a print to another. It is to prevent the molten filament from dripping unnecessarily all over the print and the print bed - otherwise known as *stringing*.
In short, it is perfectly normal behaviour and nothing to worry about.
---
### Additional information
#### Retraction towers
Note that you can check that your retraction is fine by printing *retraction towers*, such as this:
<sub>Image source: Persistent Stringing with Retraction Tower</sub>
#### Parameters
There are a number of parameters that can affect retraction, and these include:
* Retraction distance
* Retraction speed
* Minimum displacement
* Enable combining
* Z-axis elevation when retracted (Lift z)
You can adjust some, or all, of these parameters should your retraction not be "up to scratch".
However, this is going beyond the scope of your question, so I won't cover them here. Moreover, as haven't mentioned that your prints are failing, then it is probably best if you don't change these settings - unless you have to.
#### Further reading
There are many online resources about retraction. Some suggested reading:
> 3 votes
---
Tags: extruder
--- |
thread-23146 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/23146 | Seeking a Centralized Interface Solution for Managing Multiple 3D Printers in a MakerLab | 2024-03-15T15:06:24.613 | # Question
Title: Seeking a Centralized Interface Solution for Managing Multiple 3D Printers in a MakerLab
I'm responsible for a MakerLab in an engineering school, equipped with a diverse set of 3D printers: 5x Prusa MK3s+, 2x Prusa MK4, 2x Bambulab X1 Carbon, and 1x Formlab. Students currently initiate prints via USB/SD card on a shared PC. We're aiming to streamline this process by implementing a simple, centralized interface to manage all printers, view print histories, and start jobs. An ideal solution would also enable students to check print statuses from their mobile devices.
So far, I've explored Repetier Server, Octoprint, Prusa Connect, and Prusa Link. However, challenges have arisen:
* Repetier Server seems to require specific firmware, posing compatibility issues with our Bambulabs;
* Octoprint suggests running separate instances for each printer, which complicates centralization;
* While the Prusa MK3s+ could integrate with a Raspberry Zero, this doesn't solve our need for a unified interface.
**Specific Requirements**:
* Centralized control for all listed printers
* Ability to view print history
* Facilitation of print job initiation
* Mobile accessibility for students to monitor prints
Given these constraints and goals, does anyone have experience with or can recommend a solution that fits this setup? Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
# Answer
> 0 votes
For a printer to be controlled from a distance, the printer needs an advanced controller board or a dedicated controller board and a small interfacing board. Most printers have just a simple controller board, not being able to perform other tasks than sending G-codes to the printer.
Ultimaker printers have an advanced controller with enough performance to do more than just send G-codes, it also hosts a printing server host. You can connect to the Ultimaker cloud to access the individual printers and manage and browse through (un) finished prints.
There seems to be a solution for other printers, an example for Lulbotz printers, stacked in a farm is managed by software found on AutoFarm3D. Note that you are required to run a Separate Raspberry Pi 4 board next to the simple controller board.
Whether this operates with the Prusa MK4 printers is unknown, supported are:
> Recommended 3D Printers
>
> * Bambu Lab X1/X1C
> * Bambu Lab P1P/P1S
> * Bambu Lab A1 Mini
> * Bambu Lab A1 (coming soon!)
> * Prusa MK3/S/+
> * Prusa MINI
> * Artillery Sidewinder X1/X2
> * Artillery Genius/Pro
> * Creality Ender 3 S1
> * Creality Ender 3/Pro/V2
> * Creality CR10/V2/V3
---
Tags: software, octoprint, repetier, bambu
--- |
thread-23151 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/23151 | Can RAMPS V1.4 with DRV8825 drivers run 10 motors? | 2024-03-17T07:48:28.620 | # Question
Title: Can RAMPS V1.4 with DRV8825 drivers run 10 motors?
We need to drive 10 motors for our 3D printer. My doubt here is, RAMPS offer only one driver position for X, Y, Z. But I need multiple X, Y, Z. Is there any possible way to achieve this?
# Answer
RAMPS is getting pretty outdated and is nothing more than a shield on top of the relative simple and limited ATMega 2560 microcontroller. Nowadays, 32-bit microprocessors are more common, more powerful and have more pins to be used for various tasks, like running multiple steppers.
However, you could use several RAMPS boards if you acquire a Raspberry Pi to run Klipper printer software, Klipper can control multiple RAMPS boards from the Raspberry Pi.
> 1 votes
---
Tags: diy-3d-printer, ramps-1.4, stepper-driver
--- |
thread-6558 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/6558 | Is there a table or list of tare weights of empty spools of various manufacturers? | 2018-08-05T15:32:58.167 | # Question
Title: Is there a table or list of tare weights of empty spools of various manufacturers?
It would be helpful to me if I knew in advance how much the ***empty*** filament spool weighs.
Not having emptied any spool yet, I can't contribute data points, but has anyone compiled a list of empty weights from various manufacturers and sizes?
I am asking the question because when I open a fresh spool I am curious how close it is to 'what it says on the tin'. And to find out how much I got on a "transitional" or "imperfect" spool.
# Answer
Yes, there is a table on Reddit - Empty spool weights for estimating remaining filament which suggests that the norm (in 2015) was between 170 and 330 grams for a 1 kg spool, superficially in a bimodal distribution clustered around the high and low points. Presumably these were for 3 mm filament, this post dating to before the popularity of 1.75 mm...
Manufacturer's have an incentive to reduce the mass of their spools, or even ship without spools, since the shipping cost will eat into their profit margin.
> 6 votes
# Answer
I use the 3D Printing Wiki's Spool Weight page.
> 4 votes
# Answer
Extracting the data from the table linked to in Damien's answer:
| Manufacturer | Flavor (type, size, etc) | Year | Spool Weight, g | Comment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 123-3D | | | 198 | |
| 3DActive | PLA, 0,5kg | 2021.0 | 195 g | Spool by Häfner , model: SD 200/52-43K , Diameter=200 Width=44 CoreDiameter=52 |
| 3D Online | | | 227 | |
| 3D Ware | | | 211 | |
| 3D-Fuel | PLA, 1 KG | 2021.0 | 262 | Ribbed style sides. Very consistent weight across 7 tested spools. This is just under their claimed weight of 265g. |
| 3D-Fuel | PLA, 1 KG | 2021.0 | 288-294 | Solid style sides. Weight ranged across 3 samples. |
| 3D Fuel | | | 264 | |
| 3DFIL | 1kg | | 235 g | Diameter=200, Width=63, Core diam=54 |
| 3dJake | 250g | | 108 g | Diameter=140, Width=44, Core diam=51 |
| 3dJake | TPU 750g | | 212 g | Diameter=200, Width=51, Core diam=53 |
| 3dJake | 1kg | | 240 g | Diameter=200, Width=75, Core diam=52 |
| 3dJake | 2.3kg | | 605 g | Diameter=300, Width=103, Core diam=51.5 |
| 3dJake | 4kg | | 870 g | Diameter=350, Width=110, Core diam=51.5 |
| 3dJake | 8kg | | 1045 g | Diameter=355, Width=182, Core diam=36 |
| 3DO | PETG, 1kg | 2023.0 | 255 g | |
| 3d Online | PLA 1kg | | 208 g | Diameter=198, Width=70, Core diam=57 |
| Abfil | 750g/1kg | | 248 g | Diameter=200, Width=67, Core diam=53 |
| AIO Robotics | PLA 500g V1 | | 115 | |
| AIO Robotics | PLA 500g V2 | | 210 | |
| Amolen | | | 190 | |
| Amolen rev.2 | | 2023.0 | 148 | |
| AmazonBasics | PLA, Silk PLA | 2023.0 | 264 | |
| Amazon Basics | 1kg | | 200 g | Diameter=200, Width=75, Core diam=53 |
| AMZ3D | PETG, 1kg | 2022.0 | 230.6 g | Diameter=200, Width=65, Core diam=55 |
| AMZ3D | PLA, 1kg | 2018.0 | 230 g | Diameter=200, Width=65, Core diam=55 |
| Anet | 1kg PLA | | 226 g | Diameter=200, Width=65, Core diam=56 |
| Arianeplast | 750g | | 224 g | Diameter=200, Width=45, Core diam=55 |
| Arianeplast | 1kg | | 226 g | Diameter=200, Width=65, Core diam=55 |
| Arianeplast | 2,3k | | 680 g | Diameter=300, Width=100, Core diam=55 |
| Atomic Filament | PLA, 1kg | 2015.0 | 319 | |
| AzureFilm | PLA, 1kg | 2021.0 | 163 | Older design, they have a new one for 2022 |
| AzureFilm | 1000g (and 750g wood), black with small Cores | 2023.0 | 220 | Source: AzureFilm customer support |
| Basicfil | PLA, 500g | 2021.0 | 187 | |
| Bambulab | 1KG White plastic | 2023.0 | 207 g | Cardboard ring in center weights 36 g so total weight is 243 g |
| Basicfil | 1kg | | 225 g | Diameter=200, Width=80, Core diam=50.5 |
| CC3D | | | 164 | |
| CC3D | PLA MAX | 2021.0 | 153 | Diameter=198, Width=64, Core diam=53 |
| Clas Ohlson | PLA, 1kg | 2021.0 | 175 | old spool design? |
| Cookiecad | PLA | | 177 | |
| Comgrow | | | 207 | |
| Coex LLC | PLA, 1kg | 2020.0 | 335 | |
| COEX | PLA, 1 KG | 2022.0 | 320 | They are switching to cardboard soon. |
| ColorFabb | 1kg | | 240 g | Diameter=200, Width=66, Core diam=62 |
| ColorFabb | 2,3kg EcoPla | | 590 g | Diameter=300, Width=100, Core diam=55 |
| Creality | 1 Kg, old | | 141 | |
| Creality | 1 Kg, new | | est. ~200-220 | near identical design to newer Gembird spools |
| Creality | CR-PLA(PLA+) | | 140 | |
| Creality | 1kg | | 138 g | Diameter=200, Width=63, Core diam=54 |
| Creality | 1kg Hyper ABS | 2023.0 | 180 g | Cardboard Spool, Diameter=200, Width=58, Core diam=88 |
| Creality | 1kg Hyper PLA | 2024.0 | 173 g | Cardboard Spool, Diameter=200, Width=64, Hole diam=55 |
| Dagoma Chromatik | 750g | | 204 g | Diameter=200, Width=52 |
| Dayfil | 1kg carton | | 190 g | Diameter=200, Width=80, Core diam=56 |
| Devil Design | 1kg plastic | | 257 g | |
| Devil Design | 333g plastic | | 148 g | |
| Dikale | 1kg | | 178 | |
| Dikale | Old | | 196 | |
| Duramic 3D | cardboard | | 132 | |
| Duramic 3D | 1kg Cardboard | 2022.0 | 136 | Diameter=200, Width=65, Core diam=55 |
| Duramic 3D | PLA+, 1kg | 2022.0 | 236 | Diameter=200, Width=67, Core diam=55 |
| Elegoo | PLA, 1 KG | 2022.0 | 171 | Cardboard Spool |
| Eono (Amazon) | 1kg | | 192 | Amazon |
| EPESTOEC | 1KG Spool, PLA | 2023.0 | 159g | Black Spool, 5 Window |
| Eryone | PLA 1kg | | 216 g | Diameter=200, Width=64, Core diam=55 |
| Eryone | TPU 500g | | 190 g | Diameter=200, Width=37, Core diam=53 |
| Eryone | 1kg spool | | 186 | |
| Eryone | PLA Marble, 1kg | 2020.0 | 181 | Diameter=200, Width=63, Core diam=54 |
| Eryone | Cardboard, 1kg | | 187 | |
| eSUN | PLA+, eMarble, eSilk, eTPU | | 242 | Weight is an average of 10 empty spools |
| eSUN | eSilk | 2021.0 | 211 | |
| eSun | Transparent | | 214-220 g | Diameter=200, Width=60, Core diam=51 |
| eSun | standard | | 230 g | |
| eSun | Réutilisable | | 160g | Diameter=200, Width=65 |
| eSun | 1kg noire | | 250 g | Diameter=200, Width=64, Core diam=54 |
| eSun | 500g transparent | | 203 g | |
| eSun | 500g noir | | 212 g | |
| eSun | 1.75mm PLA+ Grey | 2023.0 | 633 | Diameter=269, Width=102, Core diam=53 |
| eSun | 1.75mm ePLA-ST Grey | 2022.0 | 262 | Diameter=199, Width=65, Core diam=54 |
| eSun | 1.75mm PLA+ White | 2022.0 | 266 | Diameter=200, Width=64, Core diam=54 |
| eSun | 1.75mm ePLA+HS Black Cardboard | 2023.0 | 153 | Diameter=200, Width=63, Core diam=54 |
| Extrudr | PLA 1,1kg | | 240 g | Diameter=200, Width=66, Core diam=62 |
| Extrudr | TPU 750g | | 228 g | Diameter=200, Width=53, Core diam=53 |
| Extrudr | Extrudr 2.5kg | | 590 g | Diameter=300, Width=100, Core diam=55 |
| Fillamentum | | | 233 | Craft Filament |
| Filament-PM | 500g Spool | | 205 | |
| Filament-PM | 1kg Spool | | 225 | |
| FilamentOne | | | 220 | |
| Flashforge | ABS, 1kg | 2020.0 | 176 | |
| Flashforge | PLA, 1kg | | 175 | |
| Form Futura | rPLA, 750g | | 151 | |
| Francemaker | 1kg | | 205 g | Diameter=200, Width=63, Core diam=52 |
| Francofil | 500g | | 227 g | Diameter=200, Width=55, Core diam=52 |
| Francofil | 750g-1kg | | 246 g | Diameter=200, Width=67, Core diam=52 |
| Francofil | 5kg-10kg | | 1050 g | Diameter=335, Width=245, Core diam=51 |
| Geeetech \ Giantarm | PLA 1kg spool | | 180 | |
| Geeetech | 1kg | | 183 g | Diameter=195, Width=64, Core diam=64 |
| Gelo | 1kg | | 186 | |
| Giantarm | 1kg | | 197 g | Diameter=200, Width=65, Core diam=– |
| Gizmo Dorks | 1kg | | 156 | |
| GNVTNTP | TRICOLOR CoExtruded PLA 1KG | 2022.0 | 156 | Cardboard Spool |
| GoHigh | 1kg | | 127 g | Diameter=194, Width=60, Core diam=72 |
| Grossiste3d | PLA 1kg | | 215 g | Diameter=198, Width=65, Core diam=54 |
| Grossiste3d | PLA 500g | | 208 g | Diameter=200, Width=35, Core diam=54 |
| GST3D | PLA 1kg | | 200 g | Diameter=196, Width=63, Core diam=52 |
| GST3D | PLA 1Kg | | 212gr but other spools: 241gr | |
| GST3D | | | 207 | |
| Hatchbox | Old | | 224 | |
| Hatchbox | PLA, 1kg | 2020.0 | 245 | Diameter=200, Width=67, Core diam=55 |
| HZST3D | 1kg | | 177 | |
| Inland | 1kg | | 222 | |
| Inland | 500g | | 196 | |
| Inland | Reusable | | 205g, 240g\* | \*240g with the 35g inner tube left over from Inland 1kg PLA+ Refills |
| Ice | 750g | | 200 g | Diameter=198, Width=56, Core diam=53 |
| Jayo | 1KG Spool, PLA | 2023.0 | 135g | Cardboard |
| KIMYA | PETG-S, 750g | 2023.0 | 242 g | |
| Kingroon | PLA, 1KG spool | 2022.0 | 166.6g | |
| Machines3d | 750g | | 203 g | Diameter=200, Width=52, Core diam=53 |
| Maker Geeks | 1kg | | 193 g | |
| Material4print | 1Kg Spool PETG | 2020.0 | 240 g | Diameter=200, With=53, Core diam=54 |
| Markforged Onyx | 800cc/960g | | | |
| MatterHackers | build | | 250 | |
| MatterHackers | 1kg PLA (MH Build) | 2019.0 | 228 | |
| MatterHackers | build PLA | 2022.0 | 213 | |
| MECH Solutions | PLA+, 1kg | 2022.0 | 254 | Diameter=199, Width=63, Core diam=54 |
| MiKA3D | PLA, 500 g | | 115 g | Same spool as AIO Robotics 500g spool |
| Nanovia | 500g Spool | 2014.0 | 255 | |
| Nanovia | 500g Spool | 2021.0 | 182 | |
| Nanovia | 2kg Spool | 2021.0 | 668 | |
| Neofil | 750g | | 210 g | Diameter=199, Width=53, Core diam=53 |
| Novamaker | PLA, 1kg | | 180 | |
| Numakers | PLA+, 1kg | | 200 | |
| Octofiber | 1kg | | 240 g | Diameter=200, Width=55, Core diam=53 |
| Overture | type I (1 kg), PLA, PETG | 2023.0 | 238 | |
| Overture | type II | | 187 | |
| Overture | Cardboard | | 176 | |
| Overture | Cardboard 2023 | | 170 | |
| OWL | PLA, 1kg | | 186-190 | |
| Paramount 3D | 1kg | | 208 | |
| Plastika Trček | 1kg | 2019.0 | 218 | |
| PlastSpaw | 0,7..1kg | | 200g | Spool have smooth sides, Diameter=200 Width=66 CoreDiameter=50 |
| Proto-Pasta | | | 100 | |
| Prusa Research | Prusament 300g Mini Spool | | 130 | |
| Prusa Research | Prusament, PLA, 1kg | | 193 | Diameter=200, Width=72, Core diam=50 |
| Prusa Research | Prusament, PLA, 2kg | | 226-228.5 | Diameter=200, Width=123, Core diam=50 |
| Prusa Research | Made for Prusa Research | | 234 | |
| Polymaker | Polycast, 750g | | 224 | |
| Polymaker | Polyterra 1KG | | 187 | |
| Polymaker | PolyTerra PLA, 1 kg | 2022.0 | 137 | Cardboard Spool, printed weight 140g |
| Prima Value | 1kg | | 245 g | Diameter=200, Width=75, Core diam=53 |
| Prinsfil | 1kg | | | Diameter=200, Width=57, Core diam=78 |
| Printed Solid | PLA 1.75mm 1kg plastic spool | | 326 | |
| Push Plastic | | | 328 | |
| Real Filament | 1kg, cardboard | | 208 | |
| RECREUS | PETG, 750g | 2023.0 | 232 g | |
| Replitech | PLA 1.81kg (4Lbs) 600M Spool | 2022.0 | 178 g | Spool size: 210mm diameter x 86mm width; Center Core: 52mm diameter |
| Redline Filament | 1kg | | 200 g | |
| Renkforce | PLA, 1kg | | 179 | |
| Repkord | PLA | | 193 | |
| Rosa3d | PLA-PETG-800g | | 231 g | Diameter=200, Width=53, Core diam=53 |
| Rosa3d | 800g transparente | | 242 g | Diameter=?, Width=?, Core diam=? |
| RS Pro | 1kg | | 237 g | Diameter=200, Width=75, Core diam=53 |
| Sainsmart | TPU 800g | | 187 g | Diameter=200, Width=62, Core diam=57 |
| Sainsmart | TPU 250g | | 108 g | Diameter=155, Width=37, Core diam=54 |
| Sakata | 1kg HR870 | | 257 g | Diameter=200, Width=66, Core diam=53 |
| SIMAX3D | PLA 1kg | 2020.0 | 202 | Diameter=200, Width=74, Core diam=53 |
| Smart Materials (Makershop) | PLA 750g | | 240 g | Diameter=200, Width=53, Core diam=53 |
| Sunlu | | | 150 | |
| Sunlu | PLA+ 1kg | 2023.0 | 132 | |
| Sunlu | PLA+ 1kg | 2023.0 | 155 | |
| Sunlu | PLA+ old | | 145 g | |
| Sunlu | PETG 1kg | | 130 g | |
| Sunlu Masterspool | 1kg | | 200 g | |
| Sunlu | | | 133 | |
| Sunlu | 250g spool | | 55 | |
| Steadytech | 1kg | | 179 | |
| StrongHero3D | | | 151 | |
| Spectrum | | | 247 | |
| 3D Solutech | | | 173 | |
| SK-Honpo | PLA, 1kg | 2022.0 | 171 | Japanese distributor |
| Stronghero3D | Black Spool, 1 kg, 4 windows | 2022.0 | 154 | Black Spool, 4 windows (with bars) |
| Stronghero3D | Black Spool, 1 kg, 5 windows | 2022.0 | 123 | Black Spool, 5 windows |
| Stronghero3D | Clear Spool, 1 kg, 5 windows | 2022.0 | 121 | Clear Spool, 5 windows |
| Suntop | PLA, 1kg | 2022.0 | 177 | |
| Sparta ABS+ | ABS+ | 2022.0 | 157 | Clear Spool |
| SOBV3D | 1kg | | 210 g | Diameter=199, Width=70, Core diam=51 |
| SOBV3D | 1kg Démontable | | 152 g | Diameter=200, Width=71, Core diam=52 |
| TecBears | | | 133 | seems to be Sunlu spool |
| Thumwan | 1kg | | 192 g | Diameter=199, Width=66, Core diam=54 |
| Tianse | PLA, 1kg | 2021.0 | 180 | Diameter=196, Width=60, Core diam=75 |
| Tinmorry | 1kg | | 186 g | Diameter=198, Width=65, Core diam=55 |
| Tinmorry | | | 184 | Similar to Eryone |
| Torwell3D | PLA, 1kg | 2020.0 | 185 | |
| TTYT3D | PLA, 1kg | 2022.0 | 173 | Similar to DO3D Spool |
| TTYT3D | 1KG cardboard | 2023.0 | 121 g | |
| Verbatim | PETG 1kg | | 238 g | Diameter=200, Width=75, Core diam=52 |
| Voolt3D | PLA, 1kg | 2022.0 | 209 | Brazilian manufacturer |
| Voxelab | PLA Pro, 1kg | 2022.0 | 172 | |
| Voxelab | PLA, 1kg | 2022.0 | 137 | |
| Wanhao | 1kg | | 239 g | Diameter=195, Width=57 |
| Warhorse | | | 133 | seems to be Sunlu spool |
| Yoyi | | | 175g | |
| Yoyi | TPU | | 169 g | |
| Yuaneang | 1kg PLA | 2018.0 | 202 g | Solid plastic spool. |
| Zyltech | PLA, 1 KG | 2022.0 | 94 | 5 Spoke plastic spool. |
| Ziro | | | 226 | |
| Zortrax | 800g | | 183 g | |
| Zortrax | 1Kg | | 178 g | |
Source: 3D Printing Wiki's Spool Weight page
Table created using Github:greenonline/HTMLTableToMarkdown
> 2 votes
# Answer
Following on from Sean's excellent answer, here is the (out of date) table in question:
Image: Empty spool weight table
In table format:
| Brand | Size | Year | Color | Width (mm) | Diameter (inner/core/outer) | weight |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 3D Solutech | 1kg | 2015.0 | Black | 65.0 | 57/81/199 | ~173g |
| 3D Supply Source Transparent PLA/PETG | 1kg | 2015.0 | Black | 65.0 | 57 / 81/ 199 | ~173g |
| Atomic Filament | 1kg | 2015.0 | Black | 72.0 | 52 / 98 / 204 | ~319g |
| Atomic Filament | 1kg | 2016.0 | Black | 74.0 | 52 / ? / 201 | ? |
| Colorfabb | 750g+ | 2015.0 | Clear | 57.0 | 53/105/200 | ~236g |
| eSun Inland | 1kg | 2015.0 | Black | 67.0 | 53 / ? / 199 | ~224g |
| eSun Intservo PLA/ABS | 1kg | 2015.0 | Clear | 64.0 | 52 / 90 / 200 | ~253g |
| HanBot | 1kg | 2014.0 | Black | 78.0 | 40 / ? / 198 | ? |
| Hatchbox ABS | 1kg | 2015.0 | Black | 62.0 | 32 / 58 / 200 | ~226g |
| Hatchbox ABS | 1lb | 2015.0 | Black | 61.0 | 32 / 58 / 163 | ~157g |
| Honeycomb Drone | 1kb | 2015.0 | Clear | 53.0 | 52 / 60 / 220 | ~183 |
| IC3D ABS | 2.5lbs | 2014.0 | Black | 74.0 | 52 / ? / 203 | ? |
| Invent-a-Part PLA | 1kg | 2014.0 | Black | 74.0 | 57 / 96 / 198 | ~227g |
| JustPLA Chroma Line PLA | 1kg | 2015.0 | Black | 93.0 | 57 / 95 / 180 | ~197g |
| MadeSolid PET+ | 1lb | 2014.0 | Black | 55.0 | 52 / ? / 199 | ? |
| MadeSolid PET+ | 1kg | 2014.0 | Black | 71.0 | 53 / 93 / 203 | ~345g |
| MakerGeeks Brand PLA | 1kg | 2015.0 | Black | 83.0 | 38 / ? / 190 | ? |
| MicroCenter Inland | 1kg | 2016.0 | Black | 65.0 | ?/90/? | ~224g |
| MonoPrice PLA | 1kg | 2015.0 | Black | 78.0 | 39 / 96 / 194 | ~221g |
| NinjaFlex | 500g | 2014.0 | Black | 54.0 | 52 / 94 / 200 | ~329g |
| Octave ABS | 1kg | 2012.0 | Black | 90.0 | 32 / 58 / 161 | ~168g |
| Prototype Supply | 1kg | 2014.0 | Black | 69.0 | 53 / ? / 199 | ? |
| Reprapper ABS | 1kg | 2012.0 | Black | 90.0 | 32 / 58 / 161 | ~157g |
| Sainsmart TPU | 800g | 2015.0 | Black | 65.0 | 57 / 81? / 199 | ~173g |
| Sainsmart TPU | 800g | 2015.0 | White | 84.0 | 32 / 49 / 162 | ~153g |
| SMW3D | 1kg | 2015.0 | Black | 78.0 | 32 / ? / 200 | ? |
| Taulman Nylon / TGlase | 1lb | 2014.0 | Black | 70.0 | 19 / 51 / 127 | ~90g |
| Taulman PLA | 1kg | 2015.0 | Black | 84.0 | 38 / ? / 190 | ? |
| Ultimachine PLA | 1kg | 2012.0 | Black | 71.0 | 53 / 93? / 203 | ~345g |
| Up! ABS | 700g | 2013.0 | Black | 55.0 | 53 / ? / 198 | ? |
| XYD Filament | 1kg | 2015.0 | Black | 67.0 | 53 / ? / 198 | ? |
| Yasin | 1kg | 2015.0 | Black | 60.0 | 48 / ? / 199 | ? |
| Zen Toolworks Flexible | 1kg | 2014.0 | Black | 60.0 | 52 / ? / 198 | ? |
Source: Reddit - Empty spool weights for estimating remaining filament
Table created using Github:greenonline/HTMLTableToMarkdown
> 1 votes
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Tags: filament
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thread-2774 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/2774 | Which is the best 3D printer to print bodies scanned? | 2016-09-14T22:37:01.057 | # Question
Title: Which is the best 3D printer to print bodies scanned?
I want to print people's bodies scanned (or get 'minimes', see the Figure 1). And I watched that the printer 'project 660' is very good to do this (Figure 1). But, the price of that printer is really expensive, roughly $60'000. And If you want to get a 'minime' printed by that printer, the cost is $230 for a model of 10cm. For me that price is expensive too.
Does anyone know what printer I could use in order to print 'minimes' with:
* Good resolution, or details of the person's face (for a model of 10cm) and a good smooth surface of the model printed (Figure 1).
* Ability to print complex models such as bodies (Figure 1) without problem.
* Inexpensive: less than $150 per 'minime'.
* An option to print in color.
Thanks.
*Figure 1: Models printed*
# Answer
> 2 votes
I do not think there exists a printer that meets your requirements. "Cheap"/hobbyist printers roughly fall into two categories:
* FDM: does not meet your requirement for sufficient detail and smooth surfaces in the face (and can not print in color).
* SLA: meets your requirement for detail in the face but can not print in color. If you are willing to drop the color requirement, this would be a good choice.
There are some hobbyist projects to do full color printing, but they are in a rather early stage. One option is colorpod that can be used to convert an FDM printer (such as the Ultimaker, but the principle works with any printer) however it is in a rather early stage of development and not very reliable yet. Another option is Plan B but that is a DIY project and not available for purchase (and is not very mature either).
That leaves you with the commercial color options. You've already ruled out the 3D systems/projet machines. Another (slightly cheaper) commercial option is MCOR IRIS but it also runs in the tens of thousands. While researching this question I stumbled upon 3D Pandoras but it seems a relatively new company so it may turn out to be a literal Pandora's box (they mention "most affordable filaments" as one of the advantages of their printer even though it doesn't use filament at all) - and prices are not listed on their website.
# Answer
> 0 votes
There are several options for printers that can produce high-quality 'minimes' at a lower cost. One option is the Formlabs Form 3, which has a maximum build volume of 14.5 x 14.5 x 18.5 cm and can print in color. Another option is the Prusa i3 MK3S, which has a build volume of 25 x 21 x 20 cm and can also print in color. Both of these printers have good resolution and can handle complex models. Another option is the Creality CR-10, which has a larger build volume of 30 x 30 x 40 cm and can print in color. However, it may have a slightly lower resolution compared to the other two options. These printers range in price from \\$500 to \\$1000, making them more affordable than the 'project 660'.
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Tags: 3d-models, print-quality
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thread-16753 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/16753 | Converting .par files to STL | 2021-07-18T03:42:23.563 | # Question
Title: Converting .par files to STL
I am using SolidEdge to create 3D models in .par files and right now I have over 30 files and I need to create STL files to print them in 3D printer using GrabCad
Is there a way to convert all those files in one go instead of converting them one by one by exporting them to STL inside SolidEdge
# Answer
Yes, there are several software options that can help you convert your .par files to STL files in bulk. Some popular options include MeshLab, Netfabb, and 3D-Tool. These software programs allow you to batch convert your files, saving you time and effort. Additionally, GrabCAD also has a feature called the "Batch Print" tool that allows you to select multiple files and convert them to STL at once. You can access this feature by going to File \> Batch Print. I hope this helps!
> 0 votes
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Tags: software, stl
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thread-23160 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/23160 | Resin printer screen damage? | 2024-03-18T06:58:06.707 | # Question
Title: Resin printer screen damage?
After an incident that caused a hole in the FEP and resin leakage, the screen now gives the same dark right side for all 3 test patterns. You can faintly see it split into 3 other sections but not as dark. It will not even attempt to print a file- just the same thing as the test patterns during every light cycle.
There may or may not have been a piece of support or something in there that put pressure on the screen, but there are no visible cracks.
Usually my screens fail differently. The clearly delimited sections of varying light brightness are a mystery.
I'm thinking this is the screen and not the controller board or something else that is bad... Thoughts?
# Answer
I have had the same with my Anycubic Photon. It was the screen itself that started delaminating and the contacts coming loose from the resin. Replaced the screen and it fixed the issue.
> 0 votes
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Tags: resin, lcd-screen, anycubic-photon
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thread-19057 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/19057 | Prusa i3MK3S+ layer skip with polycarbonate (overheating?) | 2022-03-06T17:44:24.183 | # Question
Title: Prusa i3MK3S+ layer skip with polycarbonate (overheating?)
On the last couple of polycarbonate prints with my Prusa, one or more layers have been completely skipped (i.e. no material extruded). The rest of the print is fine save some minor warping. I'm printing in an enclosure that gets up to ~60 °C with the power supply outside the enclosure. I'm also printing out of a dry box with a fairly long bowden tube. I suspect it has something to do with overheating because this doesn't happen when I print without an enclosure.
I cracked the print in half just to take a look in between the layers.
# Answer
Turns out I was just ruining the PETG parts that held the extruder gears. They didn't really melt but got soft and crept really badly. I replaced them with new parts everything was fine.
> 0 votes
# Answer
If you are experiencing overheating, consider to provide input/output airflow to the enclosure for the controller board and for the power supply. I've seen elsewhere on the 'net (forgotten locations) of Prusa printers with DIY extensions to the cables that are used in those components, allowing them to be located outside, with ambient airflow.
> 0 votes
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Tags: prusa-i3, adhesion, underextrusion, filament-jam, polycarbonate
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thread-22810 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/22810 | TPE print fail - filament fails to extrude after normal start | 2023-12-13T15:23:50.083 | # Question
Title: TPE print fail - filament fails to extrude after normal start
It is my first time printing flexible filaments.
I have been trying to print a flexible case for my mini-PC using the TPE 83A by eSun on my KP3S pro.
Whenever I try to print it starts well, then after printing a few strokes, the print systematically fails. It is not an adhesion/levelling problem as I installed a BLTouch probe and made a 12x12 points grid of my 200x200 printing bed, which works perfectly with PLA. It seems that after printing a few lines, the nozzle just stopped extruding filament anymore (see photos); although the extrusion gear still seems to be turning.
FYI my nozzle is a hardened steel nozzle, that I recently acquired to replace the original brass nozzle (because I wanted to print abrasive filament). Could it be the problem? I read that a hardened steel nozzle may not conduct heat as well. I did try a wide range of temperatures and saw the same results; also given the small size of the MK8 nozzle used by the KP3S, I would wager that heat losses due to poor heat conductivity of the nozzle may not be as important no? (I guess that the delta in temperature between the contact point with the heating also depends on the length of the nozzle)
Other information:
* I print in an enclosure
* I try to keep my filament dry by using a heating box + desiccant
* Also the filament doesn't seem to warp, the filament that is on the bed seems to be well adhered. The problem seems to come from the "extrusion system", whereby the filament just stops extruding.
* I used the recommended printing profile for flexible filament (e.g. reducing speed to 35 mm/s for top speed and to 20 mm/s for the first layers, retraction distance at 1 mm)
Any idea of what might be happening? I gleaned a lot of info from Proper settings for printing rubber and rubber-like materials? on printing flexible filaments. I will perform a bunch of tweaks based on that question to hopefully troubleshoot my way to a proper print through trial and error; however, it would be nice if someone has a better idea that could direct me as to what could be the problem given the symptoms observed.
# Answer
After several months of trial and error with this filament, I finally managed to understand the issue. It was a mechanical issue due to the filament sensor of the KP3S Pro.
The out of the box setup of the KP3S pro is with the filament roll being set on rollers and passed into a filament sensor to anticipate situations where filament is running out.
However, this sensor applies pressure on the filament, and it creates a mechanical strain that prevents more elastic materials from being pushed through the extruder.
In order to lessen the mechanical strain on the filament I mounted it over the machine with a spool holder, and stopped using the filament sensor when printing my eSun eLastic TPE 83-A. I found this video, Kingroon KP3S Pro Top Mount Spool Holder in Detail, which uses a KP3S spool mount model which can easily be adapted to the KP3S pro.
Thus the filament feeds directly in the drive, and I have no problem printing this flexible filament.
I may (or may not) explore a bit more in the future to see if I can tinker with the pressure of the filament sensor so that I can take advantage of it also with flexible/elastic filaments. But for now I will be printing flexible filament without using the filament sensor.
I won't go in detail about the parameters I used yet for this filament, because I am still exploring the best parameters for this filament. But this issue really was the core of my problem and I could already obtain very satisfactory results with my KP3S Pro printing this eSun TPE-83A.
> 3 votes
# Answer
Depending on your extruder geometry, you might have to slow down even more. I can't print TPU at 35 mm/s on my extruder, at least.
The problem with flexible materials is that they really don't like to be pushed into a narrow hole. Instead, the filament between the extruder gear and the heatbreak will buckle and bend to the side, forming a loop inside your extruder housing. If that happens, there is no more pressure and the extrusion stops. See Proper settings for printing rubber and rubber-like materials? for a very detailed analysis and tips.
If you use PrusaSlicer or a derivative, a good option to limit the extruder speed for a specific filament is Max Volumetric Speed. That way you can limit the speed for all types of extrusion with a single number, instead of many speed options in the print profile. I'm not sure, but I don't think that Cura has a comparable setting.
> 1 votes
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Tags: filament, fdm, tpu, flexible, tpe
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thread-23150 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/23150 | Bambu Labs P1P printing looping | 2024-03-17T00:36:38.620 | # Question
Title: Bambu Labs P1P printing looping
I had fairly good prints until recently. Now, every print has the loops and such below. Inland PETG and Bambu PETG have the same issues. I know it is going to be some small, simple setting, but after a spool of failed prints, I'm starting to lose my mind. It is a P1P Bambu printer with a 0.8 mm nozzle and either Inland PETG or Bambu PETG. I am using a dehumidifier/drying dock running almost constantly (I live on the Texas Gulf Coast, meaning humidity). I've tried print temps from 235-255 °C and heated bed from 75-80 °C (Textured plate)).
# Answer
> 2 votes
If you are indeed using the base profile that tops out at 250 mm/s and an 0.8 mm nozzle, it's probably insufficient cooling combined with print speeds that are too high. You'll need more cooling than 10 % even at lower speeds with an 0.8 mm nozzle. The large extrusions have more thermal mass and tend to cool slowly. As to why it specifically makes those "loops" instead of just sagging, the filament is probably not completely melted which will cause it to curl all over the place as it comes out of the nozzle. Slow down the prints to 15-20 mm³/s at the fastest and increase cooling.
# Answer
> -1 votes
Several different methods can be tried to solve this problem;
1- The type of filament you use (PETG) is a material that holds more moisture. You should definitely check your fan settings according to the region you live in.
2- I think you may have also reduced the retraction speed in the formation of the filament pile in the image. You are probably doing it to get a more uniform layer with a slow retraction, but the filament melting in the nozzle may have become leakage and formed piles at certain points.
But here especially because problems occur in the beginning and end layers;
3- Instead of reducing the retraction speed, you can better control the moisture content of the filament by changing the temperature between the layers. Higher temperature can vaporize the moisture in the filament and thus improve print quality.
Especially since the starting layer will cling to the ground, and act as a support structure, it can create leakage due to excessive moisture.
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Tags: print-quality, troubleshooting, stringing, bambu-lab-p1p
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thread-23165 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/23165 | PLA Print fail - Stringing and underextrusion | 2024-03-20T12:37:21.967 | # Question
Title: PLA Print fail - Stringing and underextrusion
I've been printing for a few months now and most of my prints end up pretty fine, but recently this started happening:
I print on a Creality CR-10 Smart Pro with 1.75 mm PLA and a 0.4 mm nozzle at 200 °C nozzle temperature and 60 °C heatbed temperature. There's major stringing, and the supports and small printed structures like the fingers have big gaps, so technically that would mean it's both over- and underextruding? I tried adjusting the Z-axis. My print bed is probably bent down in the middle as per the sheet of paper leveling and I'm wondering if the x-axis isn't bent upwards, too. Nonetheless, I could still manage to print out some nice big parts until a few days ago and the print bed and x-axis being potentially bent is something I've noticed a while ago already.
I tested the drive gear (sometimes it ticks mid-print, is that a sign that something's off?), and with manual in and out commands, the measured distance is equal to the requested distance, so that one doesn't seem to be broken. I cleaned my hot end, unscrewed everything, scrubbed off some molten PLA, changed the nozzle, and tightened the hot end back together with the relevant parts heated up to 260 °C. I tried cold-pulls, around 8 of them, heating up to 200 °C and pulling at 90 °C, using the same as usual white Creality PLA filament. I can't see any debris and the shape of the thing I pull out seems the same as what others find. Another 2 things that changed are a firmware update and an OrcaSlicer update (I sadly can't roll back to the old version to test if that's related).
At this point I honestly don't mind the stringing, it's just the holes that I want to fix. I can remove material in post-process, but it's a real pain to add some and the prints are really weak, too. One of the fingers just broke off.
Is there any quick way for me to send my OrcaSlicer printer, filament, and process settings so you can better help me with the issue? If there's a chance I might have missed something during one of my attempted solutions, what are typical things I could've missed?
I'm going to try a filament dryer.
So I used the Sunlu FilaDryer S2 for around 12h on 55°C and it's not really better. Anyone got an idea?
# Answer
You may want to tweak retraction parameters (retraction speed, retraction length), as well as, print speeds.
Maybe tweak these parameters and try to print one of these stringing tests with different parameters.
If the Z or X axis aren't moving during the print, they shouldn't be the issue, especially since your print seems to stick to the bed, and I wager that the smart in the name means that it has some auto bed-leveling function, and should therefore adjust for aberrations.
> 1 votes
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Tags: creality-cr-10, underextrusion, stringing, direct-drive, drive-gear
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thread-6439 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/6439 | Is hot glue suitable for FDM printing? | 2018-07-21T12:46:33.373 | # Question
Title: Is hot glue suitable for FDM printing?
Is hot glue suitable for FDM printing, or some process similar to it?
I think it has all of the required properties, and could produce a flexible transluscent print. It's cheap, hotends are cheap, and the technology has been around for a while.
I couldn't find any examples or anyone talking about such a material for use, on here or the general Internet. I wonder if there are tradeoffs or challenges that make it not worth pursuing.
# Answer
You could mount a hot glue gun to a 3D positioning frame, but you would immediately notice the following:
* Hot glue sticks are fat, so you lose a lot of precision for each feed/retract increment. I.e., it's a lot harder to get precise feeds with a fat stick because the stick size is so much larger than the nozzle.
* Hot glue sticks are short, so you would to create a filament to spool the stuff or come up with a glue stick feeder.
* Hot glue melts at 120 °C and common plastics such as nylon melt at much higher temperatures. So hot glue would make an AWFUL structural part like a stepper mount. Even PLA barely deals with stepper temperatures. Note that temperature tolerance is irrelevant for costume parts.
* Hot glue is soft, which makes it a great glue, but not very stiff for, say, making parts for a 3D printer. However, the parts might be fine for use only in costumes, etc.
But, if you then used your 3D glue printer to dispense glue for gluing stuff together, well...that might be valuable. :D
> 4 votes
# Answer
Yes, we have Hyrel users who print with Hot Melt Adhesive 3796 from 3M (essentially a high performance hot glue) with our Krakatoa series print heads.
These heads don't print with filament; the user fills a metal reservoir with paste, gel, or even powder or granules, loads the reservoir onto the head, loads the head onto the printer, applies heat if necessary (some models up to 250C), and then prints the gcode with positive displacement. The KR2 is like the KRA above, but it is made specifically for higher temperature, higher viscosity materials, with tighter tolerances and multiple gaskets.
I have used this model head to print materials including hot glue, polycaprolactone, porcelain, vasoline, toothpaste, plasticine, and metal clays.
Watch Hyrel3D KR2 and TAM Overview for an overview of this head.
Note: I sell this equipment, and have used it since 2012.
> 4 votes
# Answer
<sub>If the user, TheSmasherOr (who suggested the edit) posts their own answer, then this wiki answer can be deleted</sub>
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From this (rejected) suggested edit:
There have been some new and interesting discoveries by Stefan Hermann on this subject; it seems that Hot Melt EVA Plastic can indeed be turned into a sort of Filament and used inside a 3d printer. This filament has to be oiled after melting as to not stick to itself and everything it touches.
After all of the conditions are met though it can be perfectly good to use in FDM 3D printers to make what you would normally make using one. although it is quite difficult to bridge and make overhangs due to the goopy nature of EVA.
More on this topic can be found in this ~19 minute video by Stefan Hermann of the CNC Kitchen YouTube channel:
> 1 votes
# Answer
I think not. Unless you intend to make a very special printer that feeds on glue stick, you must make filament from it. Should be doable.
But my experience with cold hot glue, is that it is not very durable. It's a bit elastic but nothing like elastic filament. It breaks instead. So when you have your filament, I think you will have a bit of trouble handling it, feeding it into the printer etc. If you, for instance, clog the nozzle the slightest, the extruder will tear the filament to shreds very quickly.
> 0 votes
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Tags: print-material
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thread-20935 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/20935 | Resin printer LCD breaks if layer is too big | 2023-05-11T21:41:25.310 | # Question
Title: Resin printer LCD breaks if layer is too big
I've recently gotten into Resin 3d printing with a refurbished Elegoo Mars 1 but I've run into a weird bug where the printer would not expose any resin to the LCD.
I tested it by taking off the build plate and basin and looked at the LCD when it was exposing the layers. I've tried updating the firmware and tested about 20 odd prints of various sizes and detail. With those I saw that prints with large individual layers essentially stopped the LCD entirely (The exposure would flash on the LCD for a second then the LCD would not turn on again until I completely restarted the printer). What is more bizarre is that the first test print I did worked perfectly and still does for some reason (which was the tugboat and a random miniature).
For specific printer details I have an Elegoo Mars with the C type motherboard. There are no burn marks on the wiring or circuits and the LCD screen was replaced recently with a brand new one. And nothing is misaligned or unplugged. I even double checked that the LCD was still functional with the test exposure tools on the printer.
From my observations it is a data streaming issue with how it is connected with the USB drive. But that is a software issue that I am not capable of knowing.
Any ideas on what could be wrong or if this has happened before?
**EDIT**: Discovered that the Firmware needed to be updated to the latest version. Also, after testing out several very different print files the original print file that was having this issue was corrupted in some way as rebuilding it and printing the new version more or less worked. I also did another go around with cleaning everything and making sure that both the plate was level/tightened, FEP replaced, and that there was no IPA leftover on either.
# Answer
> 2 votes
## I've tried updating the firmware...
aaand here is most likely your problem. Your Firmware update most likely did not handle properly, resulting in a corrupted firmware. Reinstallation of the firmware might be in order.
You might want to test a different USB drive, in case it is a problem with just that specific dongle. Sometimes a USB stick might be ill-formatted or too large to allow running an update.
To verify it is a problem with the USB driver, in many machines one could also slice a model, connect to the printer via a cable and print directly from the computer's slicer. If the problem is the USB port, then this should print properly, but it is not always an option.
# Answer
> 2 votes
<sub>If the user, Illogical Consistency (who suggested the edit) posts their own answer, then this wiki answer can be deleted</sub>
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From this (rejected) suggested edit:
> I had to dig deep into several other websites and found out that I had to partition my newer 32gb usb with a FAT32 4096 partition and only put the .SH4 .CBD and .TXT files in the root. On then would the firmware update properly.
From this comment:
> I dug deep into several other websites and found out that I had to partition my newer 32gb usb with a FAT32 4096 partition and only put the .SH4 .CBD and .TXT files in the root. Then the firmware finally updated
# Answer
> 0 votes
Resin particles or residues can accumulate on the LCD screen, hindering its proper operation. Check that the connection cables are not loose or damaged.
Before performing a firmware update, I suggest making a backup.
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Tags: resin, lcd-screen, elegoo-mars
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thread-23183 | https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/23183 | At what bed temperature is it safe to remove PLA prints? | 2024-03-28T15:31:05.850 | # Question
Title: At what bed temperature is it safe to remove PLA prints?
I print with PLA with hotbed set to 60 °C. If I try to remove the print immediately after printing, the bottom part of the print might deform and keep the shape to which it was bent at the time of removal. If I don't remove the print immediately, and let the hotbed cool down, then the prints are perfectly flat when removed.
At what temperature is it safe to remove PLA prints? Would it be okay to modify my G-code so that the bed heating is turned off approximately 10 minutes before the end of the print? Would it make any sense to append a "cooling routine" to the end of my G-code that would move X and Y around for some time with the fan at full speed and heating turned off?
# Answer
> 4 votes
The reason we use heat in our platforms is to lower the temperature difference between filament being laid down and already hardened filament as some filaments shrink when cooling down (ABS is notoriously known for a larger shrinkage percentage). The temperature we use for the heated bed is close to the glass temperature of the plastic we print, at this temperature, the plastic is malleable. Because it is soft, it can better cope with the stresses caused by the relative cooler layers on top of the layers close to the bed. This prevents warping and prints getting loose from the build plate.
The reason for cooling down first after printing is to prevent the warm malleable first layers (as they have the bed temperature, especially with low height prints, or prints with a thin base) be deformed when removing from the build plate.
The temperature at which it is safe to remove the parts (so they won't get permanently deformed by the removal process) depends on the filament type. It has to be well under the glass transition temperature; so that it has hardened enough that it cannot be bend and maintain that shape. So, when printing different materials, the temperature is different. Furthermore, this is also depending on the geometric shape of the print, a larger volume print object with a relative high height to volume ratio cannot deform as easily as low height to volume ratio prints.
From personal experience, I remove large height to volume ratio prints directly after printing (printing on glass with 3DLAC), a quick tap will generally remove the print. With small height to volume ratio prints, like name tags, I wait for the **bed too cool to either the print gets loose by itself** (usually still temperature left in the bed) or **the temperature has dropped to half the printing temperature difference** (somewhere between 30 to 40 °C).
Because of the different materials and the print geometry, it is hard to device a strategy; some materials stick better (can also depend on the build surface). Cooling down the build plate before the print is finished is strongly discouraged, what if the print gets unstuck and the final layers are ruined on a long print? This waste of time and resources is not worth the few minutes to wait for the plate to cool down. **If you cannot find the time to wait**, you should look into alternatives; **a flexible steel bed** or **multiple sheets of glass** where you can quickly empty or replace the bed surface.
# Answer
> 2 votes
You haven't said what printer or bed you are using, or given any details of what kind of contact area you have with your print, so I'm only really able to give you a generic answer, but it will hold true for pretty much any consumer printer form an Ender E3 to a Bambu X1 and everything in between.
PLA is a very stable material that doesn't suffer badly from warping, which is one of the reasons why it's effectively the default for most printers these day.
If you have a removable flex plate you can remove your print almost immediately after the printer has completed the print. I printed a model with an 8" flat square base at 60 degrees a couple of hours ago and was impatient. I flexed the bed within a minute of the print stopping and had zero warping. This is my normal experience. I've only had warping if I've done something weird.
Just gently ease it off at a corner and you will be OK.
If I were less impatient it would probably have released automatically after 2-3 minutes.
I'm using the standard Bambu textured plate. For smooth PEI wait for the bed to cool for 5 minutes and it should release automatically as "sometimes" the cheaper smooth PEI beds can delaminate if you take the print off without them having cooled a little. Especially if they're cheap.
ABS is a different story.
Unless you're doing something uncommon, there is no need to modify your GCode, your slicer will manage the bed for you in a way that's suitable for about 90% of prints for about 90% of people. Unless you have a really specific use case or a printer with a custom slicer profile, your system will already be tuned in.
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Tags: pla, g-code, heated-bed, temperature
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thread-5 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5 | What is the h-index exactly and how does it work? | 2012-02-14T20:30:26.703 | # Question
Title: What is the h-index exactly and how does it work?
What is the h-index, and how does it work ?
# Answer
The h-index is a measure of the impact of someone's publication list. An h-index of 10 for example means that the person has published 10 papers with at least 10 citations. The total number of papers published may be higher, but only 10 will have 10 or more citations.
Critics argue that this measure disadvantages young researchers who did not have time to publish a lot and whose work has not been published for long and thus may not have attracted many citations. Other criticisms include that it makes a researcher focus on how to increase the citation count for a paper that may be not that good but would increase the h-index.
For more explanation, see for example the Wikipedia article.
> 35 votes
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Tags: bibliometrics, methodology, ranking
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thread-18 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18 | How do I select a graduate program? | 2012-02-14T20:49:07.940 | # Question
Title: How do I select a graduate program?
I've applied to several graduate (MSc) programs overseas, and I've received several acceptance letters. Now I have the problem to select one of those programs. How should I do it? What should I look into each program?
* No program offers funding, and some programs are elegible for a local scholarship.
* I can fund some programs with my own money.
# Answer
May I ask why you chose an MSc instead of a PhD? What is your career goal? I don't mean to imply one is better than the other. If you are going to spend a lot of money and time, it should be well-spent.
In some places, like the UK, not much more time is needed to get a PhD beyond an MSc. In the U.S., PhD's in the sciences are usually completely funded. Per badp this seems not to be the case in Italy.
For either an MSc or PHD I suggest looking at the career paths of former graduates of that lab. This is something I wish someone had told me when I entered *my* lab. **The charisma of the lab boss or excellence of the equipment are meaningless if, after 2-3 years, you can't move on as you hoped.** Trace the career path of the last few graduates - from MSc all the way to how many wanted to and got faculty positions and how long it took them. In my experience what you do is much less important that who you know, which comes from getting into the right environment.
> 13 votes
# Answer
As you are presumably pursuing this degree so you can eventually work in industry, I would consider the following:
* Find out which programs are more highly regarded in industry.
* Consider the success rates of each university in helping their graduates find employment; this can vary significantly from institution to institution.
* Consider the extra-curricular aspects; what does each program's city have to offer? Programs with ties to local industry may help you obtain some useful internship experience.
> 6 votes
# Answer
Depending on which country you are talking about, there may be league tables for the universities in that country. While the total ranking can be misleading, they provide useful information such as staff to student ratios -- the higher the ratio, the more opportunity you will have to ask questions.
I would also look at the reputation of the universities in the specific field that you want to do your MSc in, e.g. how many people work in that area and are they well-known (involved in many conferences/journals and similar).
In the end it might boil down to money though, so you should probably look at what you can afford first (not only in terms of tuition, but also living expenses in that area).
> 3 votes
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Tags: graduate-school
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thread-40 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/40 | Submitting a subset of my work to ArXiv | 2012-02-14T22:00:53.470 | # Question
Title: Submitting a subset of my work to ArXiv
I've been thinking of publishing a subset of my work in fluid dynamics to arXiv. I realize the following about arXiv:
1. ArXiv isn't a journal
2. I would need to be endorsed to submit an article on arXiv
The reasons I would like to submit a subset of my work to arXiv are:
1. It would only be a subset of my work thereby NOT negating my chances of publishing work in a regular journal.
2. I would like to disseminate information to the society as soon as possible.
Does anyone have any thoughts or comments about this? Is there something that I'd need to feel uneasy about?
I realize that there has been another question regarding submission of work to arXiv and I read it here.
# Answer
> 13 votes
Opinions on when to submit things to arXiv vary both between and within fields. See
for lots of opinions. You should talk to your advisor/colleagues who can give you a better sense of how people in your field think about this.
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Tags: journals, publications, science, arxiv
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thread-73 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/73 | What are the most important criteria to consider when hiring postdocs for a research group? | 2012-02-15T06:22:56.637 | # Question
Title: What are the most important criteria to consider when hiring postdocs for a research group?
One of the most important challenges that academics will face is group management. Although this takes many forms for graduate students, undergraduate assistants, and so on, I believe postdocs are a fairly "universal"—a professor hires a postdoc specifically for his group.
However, it's not necessarily clear what qualities to look for in a postdoc.
* Does it make a difference if it's your group's first or second postdoc, versus the n'th postdoc?
* How much weight should one give to letters of recommendation?
* How do you analyze a publication record, especially when towards the end of the PhD, many papers are often still unpublished and therefore "embargoed?"
* Are there any criteria that applies specifically to postdocs that might not be considered in, say, hiring for industry or business?
# Answer
> 12 votes
My answer, item by item:
* I think that there is a difference if this is yet another postdoc or your only postdoc. But most important, we should pay attention to the ratio postdoc/permanent researchers. If the ratio is low (few postdoc, lot of permanent researchers), you can choose to work with "junior" postdoc (=someone not completely capable for working alone), while if the ratio is high, you need postdoc that are in fact already at the level of an assistant prof. But at some point I think we must ask ourselves if we always need one more postdoc. I guess this will depend on the field. In theoretical fields, when we hire a postdoc, this is to work with him. In some more practical fields, we tend to hire postdoc to make them working for us. The two cases are different : in the first case we need someone that will have ultimately an academic position, in the latter we need someone for coding, experimenting, etc.
* Personally, I am not interested in the letters. I ask for references and I take my phone to know more about the candidate. Letters are always telling that the candidate is great, even if this is not completely true.
* I ask the candidate his/her papers, even those unpublished, and I read them. Then I contact some of the other authors to know more about who done what.
* Clearly yes. A postdoc is a researcher, I think that the way of working is very different : you can spend a lot of time without being "productive" when you are a postdoc, which is not the case in industry. This can be depressing, so we have to make sure that a postdoc (which has less guidance than a PhD student) can handle that.
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Tags: job-search, postdocs
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thread-16 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16 | As a postdoc with a one-year contract in Switzerland, am I allowed for a B visa? | 2012-02-14T20:45:57.213 | # Question
Title: As a postdoc with a one-year contract in Switzerland, am I allowed for a B visa?
I worked for a year in Switzerland, but I have been given an L visa, even as a European. This has strong limitations in terms of rentals and bank services. Other people got a B visa for the same contract. Was this a mistake, and how can my university enforce a request for a B visa ?
# Answer
When did you graduate? A new law came into effect in 2010 which requires that all **new postdoc hires** of individuals who **held a PhD for more than 2 years** at the start of the contract be only given L permits. (I only found out after I had a similar discussion with human resources a few weeks ago.)
If you have had your degree for less than 2 years, it is possible your university can sort it out for you. If you have had your degree for more than 2 years, there's pretty much nothing the universities can do (aside for lobbying for a change of the law).
In regards to bank services: for a place to put your money, try PostFinance for which you can open an account at most post offices. They care a bit less about the issue with the permits. The main problem with having an L instead of a B permit, with regards to banking in general, is that they may be unwilling to give you a credit card or extend you a loan; you shouldn't have problem getting a place to put your money.
> 5 votes
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Tags: postdocs, visa, switzerland
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thread-58 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/58 | Teaching Assistantships and research | 2012-02-15T00:47:55.850 | # Question
Title: Teaching Assistantships and research
I'm working as a TA now, and I've found that I'm spending an inordinate amount of time on my TA-ship. Is this normal? Furthermore, is this expected? I'm worried that my research career will suffer because of my lack of research productivity.
# Answer
I suppose it depends on the factors that are causing you to spend more time teaching than you think you should. You should talk to (1) the other TAs and (2) the course leader/director. Find out what is expected and what others are doing.
If you are a relatively new graduate student, then I think it's normal to spend more time teaching and preparing for your teaching. As you start teaching the same courses repeatedly, the time you have to spend in preparation will decrease.
If you think of the time you are teaching as working on a craft that you will use for the rest of your career, then it is time well spent.
> 6 votes
# Answer
In Canada, TA's usually have a contract that specifies how many hours they should be working per week / TA term. If you are going way over that you could talk to the course coordinator.
Your supervisor may also get upset if you are spending a large proportion away from you research project, which his / her grant is paying you to work on. This is especially true if you are approaching your reclassification exam -- assuming you are going that route.
> 6 votes
# Answer
I know what you feel like. When I was a fresh TA, I spent an "inordinate" amount of time with my TA-ship. I came to understand that both my research and my teaching assignments did have equal priority and I couldn't neglect one and give preference to the other.
There were always weeks when my teaching load was more manageable and I could progress my research and vice versa.
Of course, how the dynamics of your advisor affect this have a major implication on what "inordinate" would mean.
Here was my experience as a TA the first time I did it:
1. Taught two sections of a lab, each requiring about 2 hours of lecture (4hrs total), 5 hours of preparation (5 hours total), 1 office hour each (2 hours total) and 2 hours grading each (3-4 hours total as I graded the same thing for both sections)
2. Graded 200 homework assignments a week for a course what was out of my specialization (8-10 hours a week)
Total TA time per week ~ 25.
I also had to do research and that time commitment was highly variable!
I hope that generally gives you perspective.
Some background about me:
1. Been in grad school since Fall 2006.
2. Pursuing a PhD in mechanical engineering.
3. International student.
> 4 votes
# Answer
Depending on the course, you may have to invest up to two days of your working week to TA. If the course involves homework assignment, you will have to prepare them, grade them, and give them feedback for every mistake they do (they are learning). Be extremely careful when such tasks are requested, they are a potential career killer. I don't know if there are legal requirement to respect on this regard, but you are not going to have any friend if the professor has to grade two hundred students tests a week instead of delegating the task to his minions (postdocs)
> 1 votes
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Tags: teaching, teaching-assistant
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thread-128 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/128 | How to recruit a PhD student without a strong connection to teaching? | 2012-02-15T20:37:34.823 | # Question
Title: How to recruit a PhD student without a strong connection to teaching?
As a postdoc, I'm considering to apply to research-only positions (for instance in a research institute, and not a university), and I know that one of the responsibilities of being a researcher is to recruit PhD students.
I personally only know people (including me) who have been "recruited" for a PhD by one of their teacher (usually at Master level), and so I wouldn't be sure of how to proceed in order to recruit a PhD student as a young researcher:
* Are there some specialized websites where to post ads?
* Is it better to contact some teachers to see if they have good students to recommend?
Moreover, in this case, which criteria can one use? If I were to teach, I would have a whole semester to know a student, and to decide whether it would make a good fit for a PhD, but how to do that during a one-hour interview?
# Answer
> 10 votes
PhD studentships are quite often advertised like "normal" jobs, i.e. on general job boards/recruting websites. If you have contacts, by all means use them. As for evaluating the candidates, similar guidelines as for evaluating applicants for any jobs apply. I don't think there's a one-fits-all answer. Note that the hiring process may also depend on what institution you'd be working for. They might have an HR department that screens/selects the candidates.
# Answer
> 7 votes
There are a couple of ways to determine whether a particular graduate student is a good candidate for your lab.
* **Subject knowledge**. While this is often unfair to the student, I know many researchers who will only accept students who are familiar with their area of research. This saves time in getting the student up to speed, which can take many months, as you probably know.
* **Simple personality matches**. By the time they're looking into your lab, they've already been accepted into the graduate program and kept their grades up high enough to be applying to labs, which means that (assuming you agree with the standards of the program) they are fairly smart. Your job is determine whether the student would be a good match for your lab in particular, and whether you want to work with them on a daily basis for the next 5+ years.
* **Rotations**. Many programs have graduate student rotations, which will give you an opportunity to interact with many students, and get the chance to know them better than the one-hour interview you mentioned.
Aside from this, read up on general interviewing tips. Almost all the articles you'll find discussing general hiring advice is applicable to recruiting graduate students/postdocs as well.
# Answer
> 3 votes
I am presuming by your question that you are talking about working in Europe; in North America, scientists at non-academic research labs generally are not generally expected to recruit PhD students. Unfortunately, I don't think there is an easy method for applying for positions outside of posting announcements on sites like academia.edu or TIPTOP.
However, you will need to make sure that you are clear on your future workplace's requirements and regulations regarding the recruiting of graduate students. Many such institutes do *not* have PhD-granting programs of their own; in that case, you would need to make sure you were affiliated with a program that does grant doctoral degrees *before* you begin recruitment.
# Answer
> 2 votes
I can answer for a specific case: if you are looking to hire PhDs in Theoretical Computer Science, join the THEORYNT mailing list, where you can both send and receive mails about such vacancies. I'm giving an example link that would show you the typical format of such a mail, you can browse through the rest from the website itself.
If you look around, I'm sure there's be a mailing alias for your research specialty as well (if not, maybe you can start one!)
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Tags: job-search, phd
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thread-4 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4 | In U.S., why do many engineering departments care about professional engineer registration? | 2012-02-14T20:29:04.737 | # Question
Title: In U.S., why do many engineering departments care about professional engineer registration?
I have seen many engineering departments want professional engineer registration. Why do they care?
# Answer
> 11 votes
There are 2 major theories about credentials: human capital theory and signaling theory. Under HCT, a license (such as a PE) shows that you have accumulated a credible amount of knowledge (you must graduate from an accredited engineering school) and experience (you need to have worked for 4 years after your bachelors to sit for the PE exam). Under signalling theory, the PE shows that you have done what it takes to legally call yourself an engineer. One interesting comparison of the differences of HCT and ST is The Career Consequences of Failing versus Forgetting. You may know just as much as another person, but the one of you that passes some hurdle signals to prospective employers that the hurdle passer is the better candidate. This is because hiring a person is trying to predict future behavior/success with limited information, and many people use signals as heuristics.
You will also find out that universities hire people who have degrees. A cynical view is that they have a vested interest in maintaining the supply of people who get degrees. A signalling theory viewpoint is that universities think degrees are important enough that they only hire teachers who have them.
In many fields of engineering, your working career will be very short if you do not pass your PE. Civil is one such. Other engineering fields, such as Electrical (which is mine), typically have state exemptions for manufacturing, so very few EEs take their PE. When I was younger, I was quite opposed to licensure. Now, I see it as a way to distinguish myself from other candidates. One interesting blog post that inspired me to sit for my PE exam is this one. Another is a dissertation (which is not online) titled *"Hiring and Inequality in Elite Professional Service Firms".*
My advice is to take your EIT and PE exams as soon as practical. Some US universities require you to take your EIT exam during your senior year (as in they won't issue your diploma without passing it).
Disclaimer: I am registered to take the PE exam this April.
# Answer
> 9 votes
This is because, in the U.S. as in many other countries (like Canada), Engineering is a regulated profession, like medicine and law. To call yourself an engineer, or to perform certain 'engineering' tasks, you need to be accredited (or registered or ..., name changes by country) to do so.
They care for the same reason that they want lawyers that have passed their bar exam to teach law, etc.
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Tags: job-search, united-states, engineering
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thread-39 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/39 | Will people judge me negatively for skipping department seminars? | 2012-02-14T21:53:38.490 | # Question
Title: Will people judge me negatively for skipping department seminars?
I'm a graduate student in the Earth Sciences. The breadth of my departments runs the gamut from geobiology to geophysics and everything in between. As a result, a large number of the department seminars that get hosted are on topics that I have little or no background in and do not relate to my research field in any way.
The expectation seems to be that everyone should go to these type of events to stay abreast of major events and gain some breadth of knowledge, but whenever I go to one that is far outside my sphere of knowledge I end up resenting the wasted time. To me, it seems like a huge waste to sit through a 60 minute talk on something I don't have the background knowledge necessary to understand in even a rudimentary way. Sometimes this is the fault of the presenter for not preparing a talk for a broad enough audience, but with biology talks I know that the fault is my own. Don't ask me the difference between a protein and an amino acid; I have no idea!
So lately I've felt a strong temptation to blow off some of these events reasoning that it would be vastly better to get in another experiment that day than go sit through a lecture I'm not equipped to understand. But I'm worried that other people will think I'm being a slacker as a result.
**Do you look down on colleagues who sometimes skip out on talks far outside their expertise?**
And, **Is skipping an event like this better or worse than showing up but discreetly reclaiming time during bad talks by studying on a smartphone?** Obviously, whipping out a laptop during a lecture would be very rude, but flipping through flashcards on my ipod while sitting in the back of the hall would be a low-key way to reclaim some of that time during talks when I have no idea what they are talking about.
# Answer
I would say that you should always go to seminar, unless you have some very compelling reason not to go (you are away, you are working on an experiment, you are trying to finish writing your thesis, etc.).
There are four reasons:
1. Scientific courtesy. To travel somewhere and give a talk to the 10 people who show up (5 of whom you already knew) is really irritating.
2. Good or bad -- you learn something about presentation. Even if you say "wow, I should never do that in a talk" your hour has been well spent.
3. You get perspective. You never know when something that someone says will make you see your own work in a different context.
4. The speaker may someday be interviewing you for a job. It's better to be able to say "I heard your seminar" than "Oh, sorry, I missed your seminar when you visited."
> 53 votes
# Answer
## Try to always go.
If you're a first/second year grad student, go because you have to.
If you're a third/fourth year grad student, go to learn about disciplines and topics other than yours.
If you're a fifth+ year grad student, go to network.
> 31 votes
# Answer
Let's ask another question: is there at least one good reason not to go at the seminars?
* Time consumption: except if you have a 1 hour seminar each day, you can probably afford the time loss due to the seminar. BTW, it it a time loss only if you go and don't speak to anybody, don't ask questions and don't try to understand a little piece of what is presented.
* It is not profitable: really? A lot of research results start with ideas from elsewhere. Of course, it can be different for earth sciences. Even if you don't see something directly useful, you will probably be confronted to different ways of thinking.
* "I am going to the seminars with my laptop/smartphone, people will think I am rude": and they will be right if you use your laptop for other things that taking notes about the talk. To be fair, this can be considered OK to go with your laptop for working during the talk if your the dean, or the head of the department...
Well, in fact I cannot see good reasons not to go, except if it takes you 5+ hours a week...
> 12 votes
# Answer
Well, there is no universal advice. In general, you should adopt the local policy. If it is really the expectation, then you should go. Try to ask your younger colleagues.
Of course there is an other aspect: usually you never know in advance whether the talk will be good and inspiring or not. Usually it is not, but sometimes there is a surprise. Most of us go to these seminars hoping for a miracle. Unfortunately, in most cases the talks are simply bad.
Finally, there is also the argument that later you will be also giving talks on similar seminars. It is somehow sad if nobody except your fellow buddy listens to your talk.
> 10 votes
# Answer
Part of being a grad student is politics. Skipping out on seminars signals to the presenter that you are not interested (which is probably true). Depending on the personality of the person, it may make them an enemy. In academic politics, revenge is a dish served cold.
> *Is skipping an event like this better or worse than showing up but discreetly reclaiming time during bad talks by studying on a smartphone?*
If the presenter is an older person, screwing around with your cell phone will be perceived as terribly disrespectful, and much worse than not showing up at all.
> *But I'm worried that other people will think I'm being a slacker as a result.*
The perception will come across more as "he is not one of us". That sort of attitude is the kiss of death when it comes to recommendations.
My advice is to suck it up and go to them. It is part of the cost of being a grad student.
> 9 votes
# Answer
Opinions on others may depend on many factors. Some people may not care at all (or even does not notice), but generally not attending seminars may be viewed as
* lack of commitment,
* lack of genuine interest in research by other people and in other fields,
* general laziness,
* lack of respect for work by other people,
* you not feeling being a part of the department.
And while you may care less about the opinion of your colleagues, the opinion of your advisor may matter a lot.
If everyone knows that a certain seminar is of very poor quality, perhaps the reaction may be not so severe. However, I guess here it is not the case:
> Don't ask me the difference between a protein and an amino acid; I have no idea!
It is a sign that even more that you should the seminar. Not knowing sth simple - check wikipedia or ask your friends. Not knowing something more advanced - ask the lecturer (as (s)he is there exactly to explain you, among the others, a certain topic).
**Comment:**
for some reason other answers do not cover the question, which was spelled out three times:
> Will people judge me negatively for skipping department seminars?
>
> Do you look down on colleagues who sometimes skip out on talks far outside their expertise?
>
> Is skipping an event like this better or worse than showing up but discreetly reclaiming time during bad talks by studying on a smartphone?
> 5 votes
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Tags: graduate-school, seminars, community, science
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thread-120 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/120 | Usefulness of prior industry experience before entering grad school? | 2012-02-15T19:12:15.750 | # Question
Title: Usefulness of prior industry experience before entering grad school?
What impact does prior industry experience (2+ years in a non-trivial functional role in any established organization) lend to the profile of someone who is entering grad school for a Ph.D.? In my case, it's Computer Science, but I expect the question to be applicable to other areas as well.
* Do admission committees look upon it as a bonus point, seeing that the applicant has managed real-world responsibilities successfully in the past, thereby improving the chances of acquiring funding (in terms of TA/RA)?
* More importantly, does it help the candidate during (and post Ph.D.), when looking for research internships/post-docs?
In both cases, assuming the position the applicant held is in a completely different area from their research, what other factors become important in the both the above cases? Is it the difficulty of projects the candidate undertook (which, frankly, very few people outside the organization are equipped to judge), or the level of success (promotions, accolades acquired during the stint in industry) that matter, or are there other parameters as well?
Also, in case it is deemed that such a profile offer limited/no advantage to the grad student, it would be nice to know why that may be the case - after all, most (if not all!) organizations are run for profit, and they would tend to have very little use for someone who is not productive or capable of learning.
# Answer
As someone who sits on an admissions committee, this isn't idle speculation, but it is a personal perspective. I agree with the other responders that industrial experience probably isn't of much interest to an admissions committee, unless you get a strong letter of recommendation from a supervisor who can make a convincing case for admission to the graduate program.
The issue is that while you are in industry, unless you're in a position where your actively doing things related to your graduate school education, your knowledge of the "basics" is atrophying, so it will actually be somewhat more difficult to get back up to speed for the coursework typically required for a PhD program. The longer you're in industry, the harder it typically is to play catchup.
That said, industrial experience may be of interest to an individual professor within a department, and would certainly help with employment following the PhD program.
> 14 votes
# Answer
I sit on graduate admissions committees (in computer science, in the US), and I spent 4 years in industry before going to grad school. I agree with others: Industry experience *per se* is not particularly attractive, unless it's directly related to your proposed area of study. (Industry experience may be more attractive in more applied areas of CS; I'm a theoretician.)
But it depends on what you do while you're in industry. Admissions committees are looking primarily for strong evidence of research potential — raw "wattage", intellectual maturity, independence, initiative, creativity, attention to detail, eagerness to fight with hard problems, and most importantly, *real results*. Recommendation letters that specifically address those qualities, whether from academia or from industry, will increase your chances of admission. If you just sit in your cubicle and competently produce the code that your manager asks for, not so much.
My industry experience was a point in my favor during my academic job hunt, but only a minor one.
> 17 votes
# Answer
Industry experience cannot hurt. While it may not help in every case, in many it will. One of the things PhD application committees consider is their mix of students. In my experience (in Computer Science) a typical PhD program consists of students of many ages from many backgrounds. A good program has a diverse mix, including those with "real world" experience. So I bet it helps.
> 2 votes
# Answer
Industry experience will often hinder you, because it is a signal (a **reliable** signal in most situations) that you are not up-to-date with the cutting edge of research; and that your academic skills have atrophied.
Expect to work much harder in the time up to application, and at interview, in getting up-to-date in the field, and demonstrating that you are up to date.
This will vary by subject: for maths, it's often going to be a deal-breaker, as the analytic skills tend to atrophy very very quickly, and also tend to diminish with age. For more engineering-type subjects, it might be easier, particularly if you have been doing cutting-edge industrial research. Nevertheless, your academic skills may be rusty, and the people deciding on your admissions will expect that they are.
You may also be going in without a (recent) publication record; that can impair the funding position of the institute to which you're applying, so you may have to offer something a little bit extra to compensate for this.
Your industrial experience may well bring value to your future department: but you may or may not get any recognition of that at the time of your application.
(I write as someone who entered academia after ~20 years industrial experience.)
> 2 votes
# Answer
I don't think that having industry experience is going to help with a PhD application unless you have actually worked on the project that you want to do your PhD in. It's certainly not going to help if you worked in a completely different area. Also note that PhD students don't usually apply for funding. I'm farily certain that the answer to your first point is "no" in almost all cases.
That said, I believe it would be more help when looking for internships or a (non-academic) job after finishing the PhD. Again it depends what exactly it is you've done and what you're applying to do.
Working at a company and doing PhD-level research are two (very) different things (unless you're doing industrial research) and being good at one doesn't imply that you're equally good at the other.
> 1 votes
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Tags: graduate-school, graduate-admissions, career-path, industry
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thread-164 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/164 | Changing mailing and e-mail addresses as corresponding author--which to include? | 2012-02-16T13:08:37.677 | # Question
Title: Changing mailing and e-mail addresses as corresponding author--which to include?
I finished my undergrad last year and have since been working in the private sector. I'm about to submit a paper with my senior thesis results. Two questions about corresponding author information:
1. I'm listing my current affiliation in the private sector for various reasons. We are moving offices, and our address will be changing in about 3 months. **Should I use the new mailing address or the old mailing address?** I know it's kind of silly since nobody sends mail anymore, but I'm curious either way.
2. I will probably be going to grad school in a couple of years, and my private sector e-mail will *not* be accessible if I leave. **Would it be passé for me to list my @gmail.com address for correspondence to ensure I'm always reachable?**
Thanks!
# Answer
> 12 votes
1. I agree with you and shan23, it doesn't really matter, but the newer is probably better.
2. Well, to be bluntly honest, I tend to have a negative a-priori when I see an author of a paper with a gmail address (especially when I review it, when it's not double-blind). I know it's stupid, because it should only be about the quality of the work, but I can't really help it. Mostly because I know that there is no authentication with gmail address (I potentially could get an alan.turing@gmail.com address). I think it's ok to give an address that will change, after all, few people spend their entire career in the same institution.
# Answer
> 8 votes
1. As you mentioned, the postal address does not matter - but in any case, I'd lean towards the newer address!
2. Its definitely OK to do so - I submitted my Masters thesis with my gmail.com account, due to the exact same scenario as outlined by you (currently working, am hoping to go to grad school this fall).
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Tags: publications, authorship, correspondence
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thread-158 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/158 | How to evaluate potential advisers on grounds other than their research/publications? | 2012-02-16T09:06:01.787 | # Question
Title: How to evaluate potential advisers on grounds other than their research/publications?
While accepting an offer to grad school, one is basically entering into a lasting relationship with one's adviser - most likely, someone whom the applicant has never met before, and the only exposure has been through the potential adviser's website/publications. It is in the interest of both parties to ensure (to the greatest possible extent) that there are no personal/professional traits of either that hamper the formation of a pleasant working relationship - no-one would want to go through the ordeal of having to change advisers midway!
While the faculty has a chance to have a good look at the applicant's profile as well as his motivations (through his grades and SOP), the applicant doesn't have a similar opportunity. So, I'm interested to know what parameters can be used to gauge a potential fit. I've thought of the following:
* Past students:
1. Did anyone ever drop out/change advisers midway, and if so, for what reasons? These would be a bit hard to find though, as I don't expect the faculty concerned would list them on their website. It would be great if anyone could let me know how to find out the list of incoming students to a department for any year.
2. Publication rate, taking into account the venues where they were accepted.
3. Time taken to graduate - though I accept this is more dependent on the student, a median figure should be telling ...
4. What they did post Ph.D. - did anyone get tenure if they went into academia, or is almost everyone unable to break out of being a post-doc?
* Tenure status: I'm a bit unsure about this, so wanted the community's opinions about it. Just so that I'm clear, I'm only trying to calibrate the applicant's expectations about the working style of his potential adviser - and hence need to know to what extent are the following "typical" assumptions valid.
**Tenured professor**
A full professor is more likely to get grant funding, hence less time spent on TAship - but could also mean less time/effort spent on interactions with students (either being busy with other projects/talks, or due to more commitments to family at that age).
**Tenure-track faculty (Assistant profs)**
More likely to be young and energetic, and could translate to more time spent on one-to-one discussions with grad students - but funding may prove to be an issue, and may have to be on TA for a longer period.
What other factors would be relevant in this matter, and to what extent am I correct/incorrect in either the factors considered, or for undertaking this exercise at all?
# Answer
There are a few things I would generally look at in a potential advisor beyond just their research/publications:
* **Who were the co-authors on their papers?** Are they actively collaborating with people in your field - people who could be potentially useful for post-doc posts, etc.? Do their students often show up as primary authors on publications, or are they invariably buried in the middle of a long list of authors?
* **Personality.** This goes beyond just do you like the person. Do they prefer frequent updates, meetings and the like, or is the occasional check-in enough? Are they a morning person and you prefer working nights, or the other way around? If you send a long email, would it get answered, or do they not often fail to answer emails? I've had some professors who I'm very fond of nevertheless would make poor advisors because of wildly disparate working styles.
* **How are their students funded?** Your funding stream can have serious impact on your completion time and productivity. If every semester, its a desperate Pick-N-Mix of funded side projects, TAships, etc. you're going to have a lot on your plate that, while potentially an interesting experience, will slow down your progress.
* **Where do their students end up?** Do they have decent career trajectories? Are they supportive of alternative paths like industry or government?
* **Rank and age.** A young professor might be more aggressive and eager, on the other hand they're less established, don't necessarily have the same level of institutional support, and if they're not yet tenured, its possible they'll disappear. An older professor may be more established and stable, but might not use "cutting edge" techniques, or feel less of an internal drive to publish.
> 30 votes
# Answer
You listed it in your question, but just to state it as an answer, you will **always** want to look into any professor before joining their lab. This includes:
1. Looking up their publications and becoming familiar with their research *style*; do you agree with how he performs research? Does his thinking style seem similar to yours?
2. Speaking with current and past students from that lab and getting their sense of what it's like working for that professor
3. Talking with the professor yourself and seeing whether there's a personality match
4. Simply looking up their name online and seeing what comes up
I would suggest that tenure status is not as important when deciding what lab to join, unless the professor is having difficulty securing continuous funding. You can ask about funding sources when speaking face to face. Most professors are equally dedicated to their job whether they have tenure or not.
Remember, you will be spending numerous years with this person, and there's a very high cost of switching professors as the years add up. Make sure that you not only like their research but you also get along with them.
> 15 votes
# Answer
If you can get any information, don't underestimate the importance of simple personality factors---do you expect to be able to get along personally with your potential advisor? This is hard to gauge if you don't have the chance to meet the person, but talking to current or former students may give you some idea.
Also, I'd add to your list how your advisor is viewed in the rest of the field. Not just on the quality of research (though that's important too), but again, how much people like your advisor personally. Again, a small factor, but having other people in your field like your advisor can make a difference.
Unless you have a very close decision and need a tie-breaker, I'm not sure it's worth trying to read the tea leaves about what tenure status implies, since I suspect the person-by-person variation is greater than the between group variation.
> 14 votes
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Tags: phd, graduate-admissions, application, advisor
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thread-174 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/174 | Advisor isn't advising | 2012-02-16T15:39:07.360 | # Question
Title: Advisor isn't advising
I'm having the problem that my advisor isn't providing me with any real guidance. To avoid making this a rant post, I'll just state the facts: my advisor is an MD/PhD, working almost full-time as an MD. He comes to the lab once a week for lab meetings, and often doesn't have time to meet. He seems to have lost interest in doing research, and isn't being helpful at all regarding how I should proceed with my research.
So far, here's what I've tried and how well it worked out:
* Talking to department graduate chair: marginally useful, scheduled a useless meeting with me and my advisor. Nice meeting, but no results.
* Talk to other members of my committee: pretty useful, gave me some very good advice about my research, but I wonder how often I can use them as a resource
Any other suggestions on how I can handle this?
# Answer
> 19 votes
My answer depends on how far along you are in your research and whether you are in PhD or MD?PhD program.
If you are in a PhD program and you are less than a year in leave the lab. If you are more than a year in at you next Thesis Committee meeting, if it's scientifically reasonable, try to either set a date for graduating or ask for a co-PI.
If you are in the MD/PhD program, you will have to consider your PI's position and whether a lukewarm letter from someone in his position is worth your staying in the lab. If you plan to go into a competitive surgicial or medical subspecialty, it just might be.
I, sadly, think that checked-out PIs- even those without the excuse of having to go see patients- are increasingly the norm. Getting to be a professor is a great way to age rapidly and burn out, especially in the biomedical sciences. Also, professors aren't selected for their mentoring skills so much as scientific productivity. Often scientific productivity means exploitation or disregard because of self-involvement rather than nurturing.
# Answer
> 7 votes
In addition to the department chair, is there a head of graduate studies or the like (e.g., an ombudsman)? You may want to consider talking to them.
Generally speaking though, unless it will *severely* derail your progress, I'd consider changing advisors, and starting to talk to your committee members about shifting who is your chair.
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Tags: graduate-school, advisor, mentoring
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thread-70 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/70 | Do I need to have teaching experience before entering grad school? | 2012-02-15T04:31:56.473 | # Question
Title: Do I need to have teaching experience before entering grad school?
I'm considering going back to graduate school, but I've heard from a number of friends that graduate students are all required to teach. Is that the case? I have no teaching experience at all. Will that negatively affect my chances of getting in?
# Answer
> 17 votes
In general, no, it won't. Having teaching experience might weigh in your favor in exceptional circumstances (a graduate department that needs a lot of teaching assistants, and you're "on the bubble"; you're going into an education program or something similar; or the application specifically asks for teaching experience).
However, most graduate schools don't expect that students have prior teaching experience, and provide training to smooth the transition.
Teaching load also varies widely from program to program: some science and engineering students TA for one semester over a five-year program, while humanities graduate students may have to TA every semester to pay for their studies.
# Answer
> 2 votes
> *I've heard from a number of friends that graduate students are all required to teach.*
This is usually a requirement for doctoral students, and only because most doctoral students are having their education paid for by the university or grants. If you are terrified about teaching, my advice would be to visit your local Toastmasters chapter. While there is far more to teaching than being able to speak in front of others, the fear of public speaking is the largest (in the sense of provoking fear) hurdle that I've heard folks mention.
# Answer
> 2 votes
For doctoral students, you may very well be expected to teach - rare is the department with sufficient faculty and graduate student funding that using TAs is unnecessary. That being said, learning to teach in those institutions is considered part of your training - not something you're expected to have in advance.
I had a small shred of teaching experience before entering grad school, but many of my fellow students did not, and it mattered not even a little bit.
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Tags: teaching
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thread-51 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/51 | Submitting the same research to multiple conferences | 2012-02-15T00:09:35.677 | # Question
Title: Submitting the same research to multiple conferences
I'm aware that it's a violation of terms for most publishers to submit the same article to more than one journal, but I frequently see authors whose papers seem very similar, particularly papers released in a single year. In my field, neuroscience, this is particularly true about conference papers; one researcher will often have numerous posters/conference papers about seemingly the same topic. What are the guidelines for acceptability regarding this type of behavior?
# Answer
> 31 votes
1. According to the Committee on Publication Ethics Guidelines on Good Publication Practice, the term "redundant publication" is defined this way:
> "Redundant publication occurs when two or more papers, without full cross reference, share the same hypothesis, data, discussion points, or conclusions." In addition, it states: "(1) Published studies do not need to be repeated unless further confirmation is required. (2) Previous publication of an abstract during the proceedings of meetings does not preclude subsequent submission for publication, but full disclosure should be made at the time of submission. (3) Re-publication of a paper in another language is acceptable, provided that there is full and prominent disclosure of its original source at the time of submission. (4) At the time of submission, authors should disclose details of related papers, even if in a different language, and similar papers in press." Note that (2) states that it is generally acceptable to present a paper in a conference and then later publish exactly the same paper in a journal, as long as you mention to the editor that the paper has been publicly presented.
2. According to the paper Science journal editors’ views on publication ethics: Results of an international survey,
> "Breaches of publication ethics such as plagiarism, data fabrication and redundant publication are recognised as forms of research misconduct that can undermine the scientific literature." It also stated that redundant publication is an unethical practice. Of 16 ethical issues studied, redundant publication had the highest severity (that is, it caused editors the most concern---more than plagiarism or data fabrication).
# Answer
> 16 votes
Rather than asking what's acceptable, I think it's worthwhile to step back and think about the purpose of scientific publication. Your goal in publishing should be to disseminate useful ideas, not to create a publication record. If you have ten papers that are all very similar, it's hard for people to learn about your ideas because they won't have time to read all those papers. Just write one good one.
# Answer
> 14 votes
Personally, I have no qualms with submitting the same *talk* to multiple conferences; however, in my field (Chemical Engineering), we don't really do conference proceedings. Therefore, it's not such a big deal to present a work more than once; it's being given to different audiences that might not otherwise see the work, and it's not going into the publication record multiple times, so there really aren't any ethical violations going on.
However, in a field where conference papers are required to give a talk, then ethical rules demand that you disclose if a paper has been accepted previously. If you've changed the material enough, or introduced enough new material, then it's a little bit more of a grey area. But it's still better to err on the side of caution than to get caught out.
# Answer
> 7 votes
There are a few things to keep in mind:
* Submitted talks vs. invited talks. Many researchers will have given many talks on a subject, but if most of them are invited talks, the reason they're duplicates is because conference organizers have essentially *asked* for duplicates.
* I'd argue it isn't ethical to submit the *same* presentation, but a topic is a wide ranging thing. Heck, even a single study has a lot of aspects to it, and many conference presentations have less content than a single paper. For example, you might have a presentation at one conference that's highly technical, another for a different audience that's more practical/applied, etc. Those are different talks.
* Consider what you want to get out of it. Unless your field is one of those where presentations trump papers or themselves generate papers (CS comes to mind), presentations aren't that big of a deal on a CV such that an extra one or two will really put you over the edge. In my field for example, everyone knows there's certain conferences that will essentially accept as many talks as they have spaces to fill (and they have *many* spaces to fill), so as long as your science isn't egregiously wrong, you're probably going to get in. What you do get out of that is good contacts, and good advice. If you keep repeating the same thing over and over, your return on "investment" starts to dive.
* If your talk is going to be spun into a paper via conference proceedings or the like, be doubly cautious, and make sure if you are double-dipping in an experiment or the like that the resulting *papers* are clearly different as well. I don't know anyone who doesn't frown on duplicated papers, and more than one venue that will smack you down hard for trying to play a game like that.
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Tags: publications, journals, conference, publishers
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thread-187 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/187 | How early should a graduate student begin their job search? | 2012-02-16T22:19:35.240 | # Question
Title: How early should a graduate student begin their job search?
Generally speaking, are there good "milestones" to suggest that a graduate student should initiate their job search? Roughly a year from completion? More? Less? Is there a particular time of year a job search should be kicked off?
Basically: The job search, how do I time it?
# Answer
The following is condensed from advice for academic job hunts that I've read here and here \- I imagine it should be somewhat applicable for jobs in industry as well:
* If you would be applying for a position at Fall, begin applying from summer the previous year - applications tend to be sorted during committee meets, and the earlier you apply, the fewer applications are there, so there are higher chances of getting your application noticed. Hence, you'll want to draft your research statement, teaching statement and curriculum vitæ (CV) the summer before your search. If you are applying for industrial as well as academic positions, you probably want more than one resume, since achievement, skills, and goal-oriented resumes can be more effective in the industrial setting.
* The middle of January is when most schools stop accepting applications. Even then, keep submitting to any position you find through February, particularly if someone there recommends you apply. You will probably hear back with invitations for interviews in January and February, but sometimes even March and April.
* Get your letter writers primed as early as possible. You'll need at most six letter writers, but no less than three, and you'll want to ask them at least a month in advance with all your documents.
> 11 votes
# Answer
If you're talking about job searches in general, it's *never* too early to start making contacts with potential future employers. Getting on their "radar screen" early can only help you when it comes time to apply formally for jobs; in addition, if you are their "preferred" candidate, you may find a job posting "stressing" your particular research direction.
When it comes time for the actual submission of applications, academic positions typically operate on an annual cycle that depends on the field, and you should plan accordingly, as given in the response by shan23. The timing for other jobs varies, in particular depending upon the state of the economy. However, at the absolute minimum, you should start applying six months before your anticipated graduation; in the current circumstances, I think twelve months ' advance lead is also acceptable. Further out, the crystal ball is probably too cloudy for both employer and applicant.
> 8 votes
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Tags: job-search
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thread-221 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/221 | What's the net income of a W1/W2 german professor? | 2012-02-17T12:02:30.817 | # Question
Title: What's the net income of a W1/W2 german professor?
I've seen a job announcement where the salary was said to be comparable to the assistant/associate professor level W1/W2 in the German system, and I was wondering how much it would exactly make in terms of net income (i.e. after ALL taxes). I found this link that states that for Western provinces, it was in 2007 between 3400 and 3900 euros gross per month. This other link states that in Hessen (which is where the position is based), the gross monthly salary is 5386 for W2 and 3901 for W1. Then, according to this calculator, a 3900 gross salary means 2167 euros net, after all taxes. So my questions are:
1. Do these numbers make sense?
2. Are there intermediary ranks between W1 and W2?
3. How negotiable is the starting rank in general?
4. Are there bonuses to take into account when you're single with no child?
5. Is the tax system identical for german and non-german?
# Answer
The rules for a German professor are quite different than for a typical German employee. The first thing to note is that you will be a *Beamter*, which is a very special class of government employees. In particular, you are automatically exempted from the public healthcare system, as well as having to make direct payments into the social security system out of your paycheck. Instead, the pension payments are covered by your employer (the government of the *Land* in which you work), while the *Beihilfe* system helps to defray part of your insurance costs (the rest of which you pay for through a private insurance contract). In other words: you get billed for your health care; your private insurance reimburses you for 50 percent of your costs, and 30 percent of the costs for other family members. You submit the remainder of the bill to the university, which reimburses the remaining 50 percent (70 percent).
The net result of this is that you get a much higher percentage of your income as take-home pay relative to a traditional government employee. Your tax status depends on your marital status, so as a W1, you can expect to take home somewhere between 2800 and 3200 euros per month, as reported by the Öffentlicher Dienst website. There are some differences due to cost of living in different states. However, expect to pay about 200 € per month for health care, or more if you have a family.
However, I should also note that just this week came down a new ruling from the German Federal Constitutional Court stating that the salaries for professors hired since 2005 are too low, and need to be adjusted. This has the potential to adjust salaries upwards somewhat—although it is not yet clear by how much. (The state of Hesse, against whom the ruling was made, has until January to adjust its salaries upwards.)
To answer your other questions:
* There are no ranks between W1 and W2.
* The base salary is nonnegotiable, as it's set by the state government for which you will work; however, you can negotiate some terms of your "package" (support for students and other workers), and you may be able to get some "performance bonuses" negotiated into the contract.
* Teaching duties are set by federal law, and are similarly nonnegotiable (although you can negotiate the ability, for instance, to teach in English rather than German)
* Bonuses are not available for single people with no children; instead, according to German law, they're actually taxed at a *higher* rate.
* There is no difference in salary based on nationality.
> 29 votes
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Tags: job-search, germany, salary
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thread-213 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/213 | Is it possible for a student in first year of Ph.D to secure funding for attending conferences? | 2012-02-17T07:21:21.860 | # Question
Title: Is it possible for a student in first year of Ph.D to secure funding for attending conferences?
*Note: I'm primarily interested in answers relevant to Computer Science (Theory), but answers in different areas in CS / totally other disciplines are equally welcome.*
In most (if not all) PhD programs, incoming grad students are supposed to take relevant courses and fulfill their TA-ship duties (I'm assuming not everyone gets a RA from the 1st semester itself). During that time, they are also expected (and highly encouraged) to keep reading on their chosen research field, to have a concrete idea of where all the focus in that field is at that moment.
In my opinion, I would consider that attending important conferences and interacting with leading researchers in their field would play a very important role in the development of a young researcher, as he/she would have the chance to get motivated by the best brains in the business! But, it is unlikely that he/she would have publishable results at such venues within such a short time, and if he/she doesn't have a fellowship/travel scholarship, it is unlikely that he'd be able to afford the registration/travel/accommodation expenses from his own stipend.
So, what are the options in front of such a student to make attending such events possible:
1. Do advisers cover the expenses for their incoming grad students, for attending such talks/conferences, or is there a provision for such funds from the department ?
2. How much does the answer to the above question vary between different colleges - I've heard (unconfirmed) reports that higher-ranked institutions have more funds to burn, and as such students in such departments can afford to attend talks without publishing in them (at least for the first 2 semesters) ?
3. Are there specific scholarships/fellowships that exist to primarily cater to conference related expenses for students? If so, it would be great to get some leads on where to look, and what are the primary qualifications (\>90% of fellowships in US require the applicant to be an US citizen, making it extremely difficult for international students to get one!) ?
# Answer
As Willie Wong says, it depends on your school and your advisor. As an obvious general rule, departments and advisors with more research funding are more willing to spend it. (As a reference point, my department does *not* offer such funding, because individual faculty generally have enough money to support their students' travel.)
A significant number of CS theory conferences have external support for student travel; see, for example, SODA 2012 and STOC 2012. These grants usually require a letter of support from your advisor, so you at least need an advisor. (In many PhD programs, including mine, PhD students do not necessarily have formal advisors for the first year; students are admitted to the PhD program, not to any particular research group.)
> 14 votes
# Answer
For questions 1 and 2: it **depends**: you have to find out from your individual advisor/department/university. Furthermore, you characterisation
> In most (if not all) PhD programs, incoming grad students are supposed to take relevant courses...
is certainly not true internationally. Many PhD positions in Europe, for example, expect the student to already have had a Masters degree and to start doing research the minute they arrive. For those positions attending conferences starting in the first year is almost a must.
For Question 3:
The best place to look is the conference organisation itself. Often funding is given to students to encourage participation. A lot of professional organisations also offer funding for full time graduate students to travel. (But note that preferences for grants maybe given to those individuals presenting \[either orally or at a poster session\] at the conference.) Some examples:
* The American Mathematical Society offers travel grants for any full time graduate student in mathematics to go to one of their sectional meetings, and for any last year graduate student in mathematics to go to the Joint Mathematics Meetings.
* The American Geophysical Union has a host of various travel grants available. And I want to especially outline their Lloyd V. Berkner Travel Fellowship which is *designed* to be given only to 'AGU members under the age of 35 who are residents of countries designated by the World Bank as “low” or “lower-middle" income per capita.' In particular, the *opposite* of the US citizen requirement you quoted.
* Conferences like the Association for Computing Machinery's CCS also offer student travel grants. The website states: "Any graduate student in good standing, regardless of nationality, or any other criteria, except as noted, may apply."
In fact, aside from actual full graduate student fellowships, and some scholarships directly sponsored by the US government, many **travel funding** opportunities do not have the US residency requirement. (What they may have, however, is a pesky requirement for you to travel on US flag airlines.)
> 10 votes
# Answer
As others have said, it depends on your school, department and advisor.
There are a couple ways a first-year student might be able to secure funding:
* If you're already tied to a project with an advisor, they may have travel funds as part of their grant support for some of their graduate students.
* Some conferences have small amounts of awards for graduate students to help pay for the conference - you can apply to these, in hopes of getting them. Some of these do require you be presenting a presentation there.
* Some universities have one-time or (in rare cases) multiple-time travel scholarships for graduate students. In my experience, these tend to be enough to soften the blow of paying for a conference out of pocket, but not enough to pay for it entirely.
The good news is I think the pressure you might be feeling to *go* to a conference your first year is a little off. I got very little out of conferences (including the all-important networking) until much later in my program, when I both understood what was going on better, and had more interesting things to say.
> 7 votes
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Tags: graduate-school, phd, conference, advisor, funding
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thread-241 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/241 | Difference between reference/recommendation | 2012-02-17T20:50:50.940 | # Question
Title: Difference between reference/recommendation
What is exactly the difference between a reference letter and a recommendation letter in Academia? According to Wikipedia:
> Letters of recommendation are very specific in nature and normally requested/required and are always addressed to an individual, whereas letters of reference are more general in nature and are usually addressed "To Whom It May Concern".
However, I've often seen applications where it was asked to provide letters, without being explicit about whether it should be recommendation or reference letters (according to the previous definition).
I only ask letters from persons with whom I have worked closely (typically my former advisors), because I believe they are the best persons to ask about me, but it seems that some people also include letters from persons they just know.
In other words, what exactly is expected when a job application asks to "give references who can provide recommendation letters"?
# Answer
As per the definition given on the webpage of McGill University:
> A "**letter of recommendation**" is one that is specifically requested by someone for a determined/defined employment position, academic program or award application. Generally, these letters are sent directly to the requester and not seen by the student. They can be categorized as:
>
> * Employment Related
> * Academic Admission
> * Commendation or Recognition
> * Performance Evaluation
>
> A "**letter of reference**" is normally more general in nature and not addressed to a specific requestor. Often you will see these letters addressed as "To Whom it may Concern" or "Dear Sir/Madam". These letters are most often given directly to the student and kept for future use. Situations where they are used tend to be:
>
> * Character Assessment
> * Academic Related
> * Employment Related
> * General Purpose
As this site also explains, a recommendation letter is more specifically related to skills and qualifications of a person with respect to a definite position/program, whereas a reference letter is usually more general in nature and refers more to the overall character of a person.
> 13 votes
# Answer
With due deference to Wikipedia, colloquially, the two terms are used interchangeably.
> 13 votes
# Answer
In my experience, a person can **serve as a reference** and be contacted by the potential employer/school, usually by phone. Alternatively, a person can **write a letter of recommendation** which they mail themselves.
So when a job application asks to "give references who can provide recommendation letters," they most likely want their contact information.
> 6 votes
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Tags: job-search, recommendation-letter
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thread-143 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/143 | Balancing coursework, research, and teaching | 2012-02-16T02:12:32.057 | # Question
Title: Balancing coursework, research, and teaching
I'm a first-year graduate student, and I just joined a computational chemistry laboratory. I have three tasks now: pass all my courses, fulfill my TA duties, and start research. I'm finding that I'm spending all my time doing the first two, and very little doing actual research. I'm worried that my advisor will be upset that I'm not getting up to speed quickly enough on my research (currently, learning the python programming language and reading a whole bunch of papers). **Are first-year graduate students typically expected to do a lot of research, while still managing their grades and TA duties?**
# Answer
> 15 votes
I think the answer lies in what your PI thinks you should be doing and how well you can, at least, appear to be doing it while doing things other than research. Even if your PI doesn't enforce a certain allocation it's in your interest to do as much research and little else as possible. **You won't get a PhD by teaching or taking classes.** An overload, in my experience, is unavoidable first year. Is is possible to take electives that your PI teaches? That's about the only coursework he or she won't begrudge you.
# Answer
> 7 votes
A lack of time for research in the first year is pretty common in programs with heavy course requirements, and your supervisor will usually know this especially if she or he has other students. I used to tell my supervisor that I was pretty busy with courses and this was no problem, and I doubt your advisor will get upset if you also have this issue.
On the other hand, I like the comment of DNA. You'd be surprised that even with a busy schedule there is a lot of room for improvement in how you manage your time. If you take a bit of time to examine your schedule, possibly with the aide of a spreadsheet, often you can find ways to improve your efficiency. Courses and TA duties are tiring and it is difficult to work after them. If this is your case you could try getting up earlier to have the best part of your day for a bit of research. Even three hours per week per semester will be around 40 hours in a semester, depending on the semester length, and you can accomplish much in this time.
# Answer
> 5 votes
I think it's fair to expect a first-year student who has course obligations to spend *some* time on course work, but along the same lines as if it were another course—and by no means the majority of time. When the department requires coursework, it's kind of unfair for a faculty advisor to complain about you having to spend your time taking the required classwork. Particularly in a department like chemistry, which tends to have comprehensive qualification requirements, expecting a first-year student to devote more than a modest amount of time to research is rather unreasonable. If you spend too much time on research, and not enough on classes, you could end up failing your qualfiers. If you don't pass those, you won't get your Ph.D., either!
# Answer
> 5 votes
In France coursework is anecdotal since PhD students are supposed to follow only one course a year, and the validation is decided (without grades) by the professor giving the lecture (and attendance generally means validation).
However, the question of balancing research and teaching is of importance. Those that are TA during their PhD have typically 3 to 4 hours a week on average of presence in front of the students during 6/7 months, and most colleagues agree on the fact that 2 to 3 times this amount is spent in preparing/grading (for beginners). So it is on average between 1 and 2 days a week for teaching. I strongly advised my own students not to cross that line: you don't improve significantly your lectures by working more than that, but you clearly decrease the quality of your research work (again, this is for newcomers in academia).
# Answer
> 5 votes
From my experience: You *just* have to make it work. You *just* have to balance all that is thrown at you. Believe me, it is a character building exercise, getting a PhD is. It's not just about publishing journal papers. A PhD degree is also about time management, people skills (which can be tested when trying to appease your advisor!) and learning how to communicate effectively (even if you get only 10 hours work done in a week while the expectation was 15 hours, it is *how* you communicate your results during research meetings).
After a year or so and once you have your qualifiers out of the way you will emerge a stronger person who would suddenly even have downtime! Good luck!
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Tags: coursework, chemistry, time-management
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thread-252 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/252 | Details an applicant should include/exclude in an introductory letter to a prospective grad school adviser? | 2012-02-19T13:21:38.807 | # Question
Title: Details an applicant should include/exclude in an introductory letter to a prospective grad school adviser?
I'm applying for graduate school (PhD in computer science), and I'm considering writing to faculty whose research areas match with what I intend to pursue, to understand:
1. Whether they'd be looking for new students at all in the coming year?
2. If they did, would they be potentially interested in my profile (I know no-one would guarantee an acceptance without me going through the process of application), but it would help to know if they *would not be interested at all in me* \- which would leave me free apply to other schools in which I get a neutral/positive response.
Keeping the above in mind, what would be the best way to introduce myself in the first mail?
* What should be the salutation - I know "Respected Sir" sounds archaic, but was wondering if "Dear Professor X" sounded too informal or not!
* Do I state my credentials (details of where I did my undergrads/masters) first, or do I state my purpose in writing to him/her?
* How to mention my background concisely, without giving too much details, while at the same time not "underselling" myself as a potential grad student?
* I want to give a link to my resume/profile hosted on my website - should I embed the hyperlink, or is it better to write the link in plain text?
* How do I end such a letter - the obvious ones (such as "see you soon" or "till we meet again") being not quite suitable in this case)?
I'm basically afraid of saying too much (causing vexation) or too little (resulting in no response to my missive). I understand that the faculty are accustomed to seeing their inbox flooded with such mails each year, few of which ever get a positive response - which may not always be due to lack of an interesting profile, but the manner in which the mail is worded (*Many* professors have explicitly mentioned on their websites that they would not respond to generic *"Do you have funding"* type of queries no matter what the credentials of the student are!).
Though my interest is specific to CS, I believe it would apply to other fields as well. Also, I would be interested in the opinions of both present faculty members (who have to sort through such mails), and past applicants to grad-school (who have the experience of successfully writing to their advisers before applying)...
# Answer
I have a list of things you should do from my seniors (Some might disagree):
1. Try not to over-sell yourself. There is a fine line between stating facts about yourself and boasting. Stay on the former side.
2. Try not to mention things and leave them abruptly or incompletely. For e.g., Don't say "I was involved with a project in the University of X where we studied Cancer Treatment." (Thats it). What did you do? Where did it lead? What is the status now? Thats the crux of the information and sadly, that is left out.
3. Have an interesting question or comment in the mail. Merely stating that you read a paper or attended his talk is not enough. Billions of other students will be stating the same. What made you like it? Why was it relevant to you? *Side note: Surprisingly, many professors who I mailed have been interested on **how** I stumbled on his paper.*
4. Never ask direct questions that the professor wouldn't like answering (At least in the first mail). Asking him about his funding status isn't the best idea in the first mail. This is true for many reasons: For one, most profs wouldn't like telling you such details without you proving you are worth it (Why would they?). Secondly, your intentions are getting obfuscated. Are you really interested in the professor ( & his research) or his money? If his research was interesting but he couldn't fund you for X years, would you still go?
5. If this wasn't obvious, don't mass mail/mail merge.
6. Be honest about what you say. This includes no exaggeration.
7. Make it short. No one likes reading a billion lines to find out who you are.
8. Emphasize your work and what differentiates you from the rest rather than your grades and scores. Grades and scores (GRE/AGRE) are bonuses (or deal breakers) but they are secondary.
> 25 votes
# Answer
This is another example where internationalization of programs makes an answer more difficult. If the program in question is in the US, for instance, you should probably *never* contact the professor directly until *after* you've been admitted into the program in question. Since admissions decisions are handled centrally, it's just a waste of time.
For foreign professors, however, I believe you should again exercise caution before making contact, and also keep expectations low. For instance, I'm in the role of Assistant/Associate Professor that Charles mentions in his response. However, I will probably not take the time to respond to a request asking for positions in my group *unless* I think a candidate is an exceptional match, and would be one I would actively consider for the group if I had an available opening. Otherwise, I don't reply, just because it takes too much time.
To address the question of salutation, I would **absolutely** use "Dear Professor X," or some other salutation that includes the name of the person you're addressing. Otherwise, it doesn't look like you're doing other than sending out an email blast to a bunch of email addresses—another move which almost guarantees that your email is going to be consigned to the "ignore" pile.
> 15 votes
# Answer
As an adviser in TCS, I don't want *new students*, I want to work/advise someone ***who is in my opinion very promising***.
* First, the email must be concise (not necessarily short, but concise): be respectful, don't ask abruptly if the person needs students. Present shortly yourself: "I am XXXX, currently studying YYY at university ZZZZ"
* Then, present your work interest, and more, show that you are aware of the work of the person you target: "this year, I educated myself on the problem of finding an algorithm of complexity XXX for solving YYY. During this process, I analysed in details the method for finding a lower bound that you present in paper ZZZ"
* Ask for a short scientific discussion, you can either ask for clarification on the aforementioned lower bound, or explicitly mention that you have some ideas about the problem, or that you need some guidance on further reading about the problem. Anyway, make sure that you worked hard before coming to the meeting. If you cannot afford the travel (too far, too expansive, etc.), ask kindly if you can ask a few scientific questions in another mail.
* Once you're known to the person, everything is easier. Then you can ask about your future.
The thing is to make yourself known for something different than job request. For instance, you target TCS, if you are known on TCS.SE, it will be easier to have guidance/advice from TCS researchers that are also on TCS.SE.
Concerning some of the points you mention, don't hesitate to join a resume to your mail or (better) a link your (serious) homepage.
> 14 votes
# Answer
My personal experience relies more on postdoc application rather than PhD application, but here my answers to your questions:
1. Salutations: I think that "Dear Professor X" is the usual salutation, although if the person is using a different title on their website, it's better to use this one.
2. I'd start with the purpose of writing, and more particularly, with a "personal" context, in order to clarify that it's not some kind of generic email. For instance: "Dear Professor X., I have read with much interest your papers Y and Z, (or I attended your invited talk at this conference, etc), and I would be very interested in applying for PhD under your supervision. Indeed, I believe that the idea you have developed is ... (very good) and intersects strongly with my own research interests." At this point, you can start putting your credentials, and to emphasize on the points that are the most relevant.
3. In order to be concise, I would insist on the points that make you potentially different from other applicants. For instance, if you have a regular MSc in CS (i.e. not from a top Ivy Uni), then just mention it, because it won't be the "selling point", since pretty much any other applicants for a PhD got something equivalent.
4. For your CV, if it's light enough (i.e. less than 1MB), I would actually include it in the mail. And I would also put the link in plain text (because personally, I like to know what kind of link I'm clicking on :)).
5. I usually finish my emails with something along the lines "I'm at your disposal for any further information you might need. Best regards".
Also, as a general advice, I would contact the Asst./Assoc. Professors rather than directly the Professor in charge, at least for an informal query.
> 13 votes
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Tags: graduate-school, phd, advisor, application
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thread-264 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/264 | What is the typical time period after which an incoming grad student is expected to start publishing? | 2012-02-19T18:45:15.357 | # Question
Title: What is the typical time period after which an incoming grad student is expected to start publishing?
An incoming graduate student is typically required to help out as a TA, take courses both related to their research and required by the program, as well as to start reading up on the research topics in his field. Unless he has worked in the same research area prior to joining grad school, it is unlikely he would get any publishable results very soon after joining grad school.
To avoid being depressed by this apparent lack of results in the first few semesters, it would be helpful to know what the adviser/admissions committee expects out of him in that time, and by when he would be expected to start having publishable results?
I'm interested in the answers related to Theoretical CS, but as always, I believe it would be applicable to *any* grad student as well - so it should not be specific to this field.
# Answer
> 8 votes
This wil vary significantly according to advisor, but I'd say a typical plan is:
* Years 1-2: coursework, begin research
* Summer of year 2: Small research publications (in my field, 2-4 page conference proceedings, small steps)
* Year 3: Get some real research done, more small papers
* Year 4+: ~1/2 paper a year, ish
However, the variance may be too great for this to be meaningful. I have a friend who published 17 papers during his 6 year graduate student tenure, and I have a number of friends who published zero peer-reviewed papers during my grad school tenure. Take the numbers with a grain of salt.
# Answer
> 5 votes
In France, the PhD is funded for 3 years generally. In our university (Paris-Sud university), PhD students meet a committee composed of the adviser, the head of the lab and the head of the doctoral school each year. In TCS, if you have not published (or have a paper close to be published - that is submitted) during the second year; this yields a big red flag. So, it means that it is expected that some results are ready for publication during the third semester of the thesis (even in a small workshop).
Edit : PhD students are doing a 6 months internship before entering the PhD, with their PhD advisor mostly, so in fact the research is done on 3,5 years, and often 4 without much troubles.
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Tags: graduate-school, phd, publications, productivity
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thread-262 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/262 | Beginning PhD in related field without subject area expertise, will that be a problem? | 2012-02-19T18:18:29.887 | # Question
Title: Beginning PhD in related field without subject area expertise, will that be a problem?
I just finished an undergraduate degree in psychology, with a focus in biological sciences and pre-medicine courses. In looking at my options for graduate school, I've taken an interest in biomedical engineering; tissue engineering, medical devices, medical imaging, etc. My biology is pretty solid, but I'm not much of an engineer, aside from a few math courses. My question is, are students entering a PhD program typically very well-versed in the field, or is there a lot of "learning on the job"?
# Answer
> 6 votes
While shan23's answer is good, it is also somewhat incomplete. There are a few things to watch out for when you're coming in to a field from another department:
* You will need to keep in mind the qualifying procedures for your new department. Will they expect you to pass exams in undergraduate coursework in the new discipline? If so, then you'll need to do a lot more "catch-up" work early on to make up for the potential shortfall.
* Unless the new area is an interdisciplinary one—such as biomedical engineering—they're probably going to want to see some track record in the area. You're going to find it a lot easier to move into biomedical engineering from mechanical engineering than from economics.
* You may find it helpful to try to find a position as a lab assistant or something similar to this in the new field before you try to start the graduate coursework. However, this is by no means required. (But it would help to prove the "dedication" aspect, which is what you'd need to convince a graduate school admissions committee about in order to have a successful application).
# Answer
> 5 votes
I had asked the same question related to CS in TCS.SE (found here) - from that, I'm summarizing the answers I got w.r.t your field:
* Before grad school is a very early stage to change fields. Many people shift then. It's acceptable and expected. In your application, explain your changing fields (so the readers understand why the letter writers are not from psychology, why you took lots of biology courses, etc)
* If you have research experience (especially if there's some angle towards biological subjects in them), it still counts for you, even if it's in a different field
* If you have good grades, it still counts for you, even if they are for courses from a different field.
* Admissions committees are generally looking for "strong" students where "strong" is largely defined via prior research experience. i.e. they especially want to know if you've had the experience of doing research, were successful at it and have a good idea if this is something you really want. The letters are important as experienced researchers' evaluation of your research ability and potential and grades give some indication of overall academic aptitude. Thus, if you have strong letters from your supervisors, it still counts for you, even if they are from a different field (strong = from a professor who knows you well and has great things to say about you).
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Tags: phd, coursework, undergraduate
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thread-260 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/260 | Advisor asking me to work on research not covered by my grant | 2012-02-19T17:47:14.323 | # Question
Title: Advisor asking me to work on research not covered by my grant
I have a rather difficult quandary. I'm a first-year student, and I joined my lab group to work on a clinical psychiatry/neuroscience grant. I've been making slow progress towards familiarizing myself with the grant. However, my advisor (actually, one of my two-advisors... they both run the lab together) has been having me work on a separate project of his, completely unrelated to my work. From what I can tell, this project would take a few months to work out, and the result would be my co-authoring on a small paper with another graduate student in the lab.
My worry is, I receive a stipend from the university every month, and that stipend is paid for my the psych/neurosci grant. By working on the second project, I have the feeling that I'm "stealing" from the first grant. I was told by my advisor that this sort of time-sharing between grants is normal within the research world. My question is, is that true? If it is a problem, how should I deal with this?
# Answer
> 15 votes
I think it's true that the time-sharing between grants is quite normal within the research world, at least, I've observed it a lot, and in any case, you shouldn't have to worry about that, because it's under the responsibility of your advisor.
Actually, one of the problems when it comes to funding is that in order to make a grant proposal, you somehow need to know precisely enough where you're going, otherwise you have the risk not to be able to achieve what you promised. Hence, I know that it's quite normal that when applying for a grant, some parts of the results promised at the end of the grant are already done, although maybe not finalized. So, you can use the time you would have spent doing the research you promised (but already done) to do some other research on another topic, so that you can apply for another grant on this topic.
That's why in the end, the main question is whether it benefits you, as a first-year student, to work on the other project. Clearly, working on a different topic is always a good experience, especially when there is a potential publication at the end. I don't know how long is your grant, but if it's 3 years, then spending a few months on working on something different will not really impact it. Of course, if you have a grant of only 6 months, then maybe you can't really spend half of it working on something different.
So, to summarize: don't feel guilty about it, I believe this kind of things is pretty common, and just consider whether it can be good/interesting for you or not.
# Answer
> 8 votes
Time sharing between grants is extremely common - I've often been asked to work on projects unrelated to what I am formally being funded for.
As @CharlesMorisset mentioned, many grants are now written with a sufficiently robust idea of where they're going, how they'll get there and that they'll work that a considerable part of the research is already done. Additionally, since grants *need* fairly strong preliminary results sections these days, one is essentially forced to use current funding to do the research for "future" projects.
So I wouldn't feel bad about it for the reason you've mentioned. I would consider asking your advisor "why this project?" Do they just need a warm body to do the work? Would they like to give you a shot at an early, modest publication? Is there a particular skill they are hoping you'll develop working on this project?
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Tags: advisor, funding
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thread-248 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/248 | How are the personal assistants for professors usually funded? | 2012-02-18T23:14:56.727 | # Question
Title: How are the personal assistants for professors usually funded?
As examples, the lab executive assistant at http://www.klab.caltech.edu/people.shtml or the lab administrative assistant over at http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~tapio/people.html#admins
# Answer
Funding for non-research positions comes from either direct or indirect sources.
Direct sources means writing a proposal that includes funding for personnel such as a lab technician or an administrator for a research center. In this case, the funding is obtained directly through grants.
Most of the time, however, the funding is *indirect*: the salary is paid by the department, rather than an individual research group. This funding is paid for through the "overhead" charges that are included in research grants. (In some cases, such as public universities in Germany, this funding is also indirect, coming from a grant by the state or federal government given to each professorship.)
> 12 votes
# Answer
I've seen three common ways of funding staff - undoubtedly there are more.
1. For staff directly related to the running of a research lab, for example senior technicians, lab managers, dedicated programmers for computational research, etc. there may be funding written into the direct salary costs of the research grants their faculty member submits. For example, many of the grants in the field I'm in have direct funding for data managers and the like for the duration of a research grant.
2. If a faculty member anticipates needing a particular type of help - most often a lab technician or programmer in my experience - they may ask for their salary to be part of the faculty member's startup package for some small number of years before (hopefully) the faculty member can support them through mechanism #1.
3. Other staff members, such as personal assistants, some research staff etc. are theoretically things that are supposed to be paid for by the rather sizable chunk of a grant budget that goes to indirect costs to the university. Whether or not this occurs in practice is another question all together.
> 4 votes
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Tags: professorship
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thread-251 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/251 | What are the options for fellowships for international grad students in USA? | 2012-02-19T07:38:41.473 | # Question
Title: What are the options for fellowships for international grad students in USA?
I'm looking for fellowships that an international grad student can apply for, to support him/her while working towards a Ph.D. (additional to whatever funding that may be available as TA). So far, I've been able to identify the following:
> The main criteria for selecting award winners are: l) excellent academic records, 2) genuine financial need, 3) admission to a reputable institution of higher learning and 4) thoughtful and coherent educational and career plans. Candidates are also evaluated on their extra-curricular interests and achievements, potential to achieve their goals and likelihood to succeed in a foreign academic environment. Applicants are expected to have some years of work experience in their field of interest.
It would be great if I could get to know of similar fellowships that an incoming student can apply to, *before* starting grad school.
# Answer
The Smithsonian offers fellowships for international grad students, specifically a ten-week summer internship for pre-dissertation grad students and 3-12 months of funding for post-dissertation grad students. Also, you get to work at the Smithsonian.
> 5 votes
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Tags: graduate-school, phd, funding
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thread-293 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/293 | What rules guide whether to put qualifications on an academic business card? | 2012-02-21T00:46:37.730 | # Question
Title: What rules guide whether to put qualifications on an academic business card?
I'm just wondering what rules of etiquette guide whether an academic puts qualifications on a business card. I'm assuming that either "Dr" at the start or "PhD" at the end is important to include where applicable, perhaps with the exception that higher titles such as "Prof" would take precedence over "Dr".
However, what about beyond that?
# Answer
> 6 votes
The accepted conventions also depend strongly on country. As a general rule, though, I'd avoid anything "cute" unless you happen to be your own boss.
For instance, in the US, I'd expect to see doctoral-level degrees listed. I'd also expect to see high-level professional qualifications, such as "PE" for "Professional Engineers." Similarly, if a master's degree carries sufficient professional weight in one's discipline, I'd list that, too. You are also correct in assuming that Prof. "overwrites" Dr.
In Germany, by contrast, one is *expected* to list all degrees of equivalent standing, including honorary degrees. This can lead to rather unwieldy titles such as
> Univ.-Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Dr.-Ing. h.c. Dr. rer. nat. E.h. Johannes Schmidt
(Note: I've seen substantially longer, too!)
However, two additional points are worth mentioning.
First, any degree at the master's or diploma level is considered significant enough to list as part of one's title:
> Dipl.-Ing. Michael Mustermann
would be expected for someone with a "Diplom" in engineering.
Secondly, until recently, non-German degrees were not considered the equivalent of German degrees. An American doctorate holder was
> Joanna Doe, Ph.D.
and was legally **not allowed** to call herself
> Dr. Joanna Doe
However, this has been somewhat relaxed recently, although only for degree holders from certain countries.
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Tags: networking
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thread-217 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/217 | Does doing a postdoc mean a commitment to an academic career? | 2012-02-17T08:52:43.027 | # Question
Title: Does doing a postdoc mean a commitment to an academic career?
I have heard that it would be a bad idea to take up a post-doctoral position, if your ultimate goal is to work in industry. The basis of this maybe that it is harder to be hired for an opening at a company, maybe because you would seem unsure of your direction, or would be over qualified for a junior role.
If there are no ideal jobs available at present, should I take up a post-doctoral position as a safe option, or easy way out, in the meantime?
# Answer
Well, clearly, it depends on many factors (my answer is probably strongly influenced by the Computer Science field).
* If you want to apply for a non-research industry position, then clearly, the postdoc might not appear as a strong point, unless you can travel, attend conferences, manage a budget, develop an application/software/experiment, apply for patents, etc, in general any transversal skill that you can justify. But if the postdoc is just sitting in an office writing theoretical papers for a couple of years, then it's probably not the best choice.
* If you want to apply for a research industry position, then a postdoc can be a good point, although of course, the closer you can be connected to industry, the better it will be.
* Ideally, you could do a postdoc in industry (in CS, IBM, Microsoft, Intel, HP, and many others offer this possibility).
> 19 votes
# Answer
**No**. There are many reasons you may want to do a postdoc; gain experience in a particular subfield, get to know the research of a particular advisor, work with a particular research group or department, or even to work with a industry group, in the case of industry-sponsored postdocs. You may be asked why you chose to go the postdoc route when you are eventually interviewing for industry positions, but it is by no means a declaration that you are going "academia-only". Note that this is particularly true during recession periods; it's much easier to get a postdoc than a "real job".
> 10 votes
# Answer
I'm writing in from the biotech industry. I hold an MSc, but obviously I work with a lot of PhDs and have observed many PhD hires. Most PhD level industry positions REQUIRE time spend at a post-doc position. This would be either in academia or industry, but academic post-docs are infinitely more common. If you are being hired at a company straight out of a PhD program, that position will (9 times out of 10) be a temporary post-doc position itself.
Be aware that there have not been nearly enough PhD positions in industry to go around for the last 5 years at least. And many companies have strict policies against hiring PhDs for non-scientist positions. I've seen many times a research associate (BS/MS) position post, and we receive up to 100 applications from PhDs that go straight to the trash.
My recommendation for a transition into industry would be:
Do your PhD and post-doc research in the most prestigious labs possible and publish in the most prestigious journals possible. This is because other PhDs will hire you and be impressed by your boss' name and publication record - so it's the same idea that holds if you were to stay in academia.
Skill set is important, but in most cases is not what gets you hired. It is assumed that you can be trained to use any protocols or equipment in house.
Maintain contacts with everyone you know who is or moves into industry, including people at the BS/MS level. Referrals are extremely important and sometimes the only way to get in. Seek out projects that are collaborations with industry labs and go to every industry-sponsored event on your campus. Ask the professors in your department if any graduates or former post-docs moved into industry and try to get in contact with them.
And bottom line: no hiring manager will blink if they see a post-doc on your resume, as long as it lasted less than 5 years and you have results to show from it. And in many cases, managers expect or require some type of post-doc experience for a career position.
> 8 votes
# Answer
I am currently involved in a Marie Curie financed Academia-Industry collaboration. I am doing one year in industry (hired as a software developer) then two years in academia (hired as a postdoc) then one final year back in industry (again hired as a software developer). I have no interest in an academic career path for a plethora of reasons that I won't delve in.
The point is that academia has no alternative contractual access for project-oriented hiring (I call them "disposable scientists") hence the "postdoc" is basically a catch-all contract type to get someone to work on an academic project within academia. It can be intended as a professional step to establish yourself on an academic career path, but by no means it must be intended only as such.
> 6 votes
# Answer
> *Does doing a postdoc mean a commitment to an academic career?*
No. However, if your goal is to work in industry, that is where you should be looking for work. A post-doc would be better than a stretch of unemployment. This is because many companies treat recruiting like dating in high school: you are desirable if you already have a date/job and you have cooties (or something else is wrong with you) if you are single/unemployed.
> 4 votes
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Tags: career-path, job, postdocs
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thread-263 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/263 | Failing to deliver promised research | 2012-02-19T18:38:36.770 | # Question
Title: Failing to deliver promised research
Will people look down on me if I say that I plan on doing research that I end up not doing due to various reasons, especially if I'm a PhD student?
I guess it's somewhat expected, and that experienced professors don't always believe that I'll end up doing what I say (because unexpected bugs and events happen all the time). And sometimes you also end up going on detours.
That, and professors always say that they do things on smaller timeframes than what it really takes them to do.
I guess if I always meet my commitments, then people might believe me more. But on the other hand, it always helps to get more feedback on ambitious projects that I don't necessarily believe that I will finish.
# Answer
> 15 votes
The question is subjective in nature, but the answer is almost certainly **no**. Academicians are always applying for funding, looking into collaborations, reading research articles in different fields, and generally taking an interest in new research venues. It's expected that you'll occasionally (maybe even regularly) expand your research interests, and it's the nature of the game that some of your attempts will not pan out.
Anecdotally, my graduate research advisor completed a whopping 10 grants a year for a very wide variety of research projects. Each grant entailed a good deal of preparatory research, in which we would explore a new field and try to find some preliminary results strong enough to drive the grant through. Some of my (and my colleagues) most interesting work (medical ontologies, intelligent systems, lung-powered electricity generators) came from these failed grant attempts.
# Answer
> 14 votes
There is a huge difference between saying that you will do a given research effort, and saying that you will obtain a particular result. If you have guaranteed the latter, you made a mistake, it's research, there is no guarantee on a result !
So, if you give a work planning to your adviser, you have to stick to it. Of course, you can have (once, not twice) a real problem that ruins your effort (house on fire, a relative at the hospital, etc.).
To summarize, you can promise that you will work, but not that it will work ;) If you always fail on your commitments, you will never be seen as reliable, and people won't work with you, it's that simple.
# Answer
> 3 votes
In my experience, the answer to this is *no*. Projects die for various reasons all the time - the funding vanishes and there's no one to work on it, it turns out to not to be a particularly productive line of thought, or as a graduate student, your interests shift.
In my mind, the important thing is that you have put in as much effort as is expected of you. If you've told your advisor you've had a random musing you'd like to pursue, then come back a month later having not gotten very far but decided upon poking around a bit that it's not worth doing, then no harm, no foul.
I also have to agree with aeismail that it depends on what you're framing as "research". Not being wedded to X, Y, Z things must be done, come hell or high water means if thing Q turns out to be *really* interesting, you're free to pursue that instead. But that's a long-term question.
If, on the other hand, you've said "Sure, I'll make a figure for that data by next week" and you consistently fail to do things like that? That is going to have an impact on your reputation.
# Answer
> 2 votes
I lean towards agreeing with eykanal and disagreeing with Sylvain.
A PhD project is inherently a somewhat fungible plan—what you do depends on the results that you've obtained. And obviously equipment failures, unexpected obstacles and delays, and other unforeseen circumstances are a natural part of research. So I wouldn't be too concerned about failing, as a graduate student, to reach the long-term destination of your research project.
In particular, with my own students, I try to sketch out as little as possible the actual outline of the projects they are going to pursue. That way, there is much more flexibility in the future development of their projects, as I plan to tailor them based on the students' expertise and interests. (Moreover, I would suggest that if you know everything you need to do to reach your goal, and you accomplish exactly that, you haven't done any research at all!)
That said, there is the issue of meeting *short-term* goals as well as long-term goals. You shouldn't promise your advisor something will be done in 1 to 2 weeks if you don't intend on having it ready for 2 months. (I would also argue the reverse is a dangerous situation, too, because you could fall into the "competency trap," whereby the advisor thinks you really know what you're doing, and continues to expect you to know what you're doing for the remainder of your time in the advisor's group!)
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Tags: research-process
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thread-317 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/317 | Do school-wide holidays count against personal vacation time? | 2012-02-21T21:53:17.827 | # Question
Title: Do school-wide holidays count against personal vacation time?
I keep hearing different things from different people and it seems there is no clear policy laid out at my institution regarding the definition of graduate student vacation days; I'm curious how PIs and students handle this issue at other places.
**At your institution, do University-wide holidays (such as "Spring Break" or "Winter Recess / Christmas holiday") count towards a graduate student's two weeks vacation?** I always thought the expectation was just that you should be working most of the time, regardless of what day it is, and that seems reasonable to me as long as students have flexibility to take leave when they want/need to without somebody nagging them about the specifics of when/how much time off.
However, recently there's been the assertion by certain bean-counting PIs in my department that students should be working 6 days a week (including nights) and only taking 2 weeks of leave in total (including major holidays). Most people probably work about this much anyway, but being told that it's required leaves a bad taste in my mouth. If people want to get really specific about the "number" of days worked/not-worked, there should be a more standard definition of what comprises a work day (i.e. 9-5, not 9am-12pm). **Am I way out of line here?**
# Answer
> 12 votes
This is not meant to be an official opinion, since obviously the rules depend on the local labor laws.
* We should distinguish school holidays—days on which classes are cancelled—from official holidays, on which the university offices are closed.
* A graduate student not working on a school holiday would be counted as taking leave; however, when the university is closed, that is not normally expected to be a working day for anyone, and thus students would not use a vacation day in such a case.
* Advisors should not have policies in place that *expect* students to be regularly working six days a week, particularly since that would mean that they are potentially in violation of a whole bunch of labor rules.
Given that information, my personal opinion is that research cannot be done according to a timecard. There will be days when you go into the office and figuratively spin your wheels all day, and there are days where you are firing on all cylinders and getting tons done. In my own group, so long as someone:
* is prompt in answering requests,
* attends group functions,
* lets me know if he or she will be out of the office for extended periods, and
* is getting his or her work done,
then I will let that person work in whatever manner is most conducive to getting the job done. That's more important to me than knowing they clocked in 8 hours per workday.
# Answer
> 2 votes
I would answer with a definite **No**, but check with your graduate student handbook or university's graduate student policy documentation to verify.
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Tags: graduate-school, time-management
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thread-290 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/290 | How important are teaching portfolios in obtaining an academic position? | 2012-02-20T14:12:47.437 | # Question
Title: How important are teaching portfolios in obtaining an academic position?
I have been recently introduced to the idea of teaching portfolios, that is a collection of teaching experiences and references made by peer educators. Their supposed purpose is to go along a researcher CV when applying for a position in academia, i.e. assistant/associate professor.
Any first hand experience?
# Answer
This may be useful for someone considering a career at a teaching-first school, but I've never seen such portfolios asked for or even considered at research universities in the US and the larger European countries.
> 11 votes
# Answer
Creating a "portfolio" for teaching used to be the norm for those entering the teaching career on the secondary (high school) level and below. My portfolio is HUGE (a 3-inch binder stuffed full of lesson plans, my philosophy of education, professional development, letters of recommendation, photos of my students, etc.), but I've only had one administrator ever actually LOOK at my portfolio and that was when I was interviewing for my first teaching position.
The move I've seen from many universities is to have their teaching students create virtual or online portfolios. If I were you and I were considering applying for a higher-ed. position, I certainly wouldn't create anything that was a step backwards in technology. If you choose to create a portfolio, spend the time and create a virtual one.
> 4 votes
# Answer
I have to agree with Meg Coates answer, they don't seem to be as important and they are made out to be by the powers to be. I created a "portfolio" and the only person who ever looked at it was a colleague who was part of an interview process. They don't appear to be looked when you go in for interviews. I like that I can look back on my portfolio and see past achievement and progress over the years but to be honest I quit updating mine about 4 or 5 years ago.
My final message would be go for and create the portfolio but don't be disappointed if it does not get reviewed during your hiring process.
> 1 votes
# Answer
I think it's going to depend wildly on the position and very unpredictable factors. In my extremely limited experience in one discipline (mathematics) at one level (research university), a portfolio would probably only be useful if the committee had already decided to hire you, and higher-ups (chairs, deans, provosti) expressed concern about your teaching. In the right situation, they could be very useful, but it's not the most common in the world.
> 1 votes
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thread-341 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/341 | Changing methods/ methodologies mid-project | 2012-02-22T11:00:23.557 | # Question
Title: Changing methods/ methodologies mid-project
Is changing research methods/ methodologies in the middle of running a research project a good thing? Are there any best practices for doing so? Links to projects that document a methodological shift mid-project would be much appreciated.
# Answer
> 2 votes
Do you keep a methodology notebook? If not, it is high time you start now.
It is important in the experimental sciences to always document exactly how the experiment is performed, and it is often recommended to keep a methodology notebook aside from your data notebook. All current and past/obsolete methodologies should be documented and dated (so it is clear exactly when your lab switched to a new methodology). All data on experiments should include reference to the correct methodology. (A lab wiki may be a good way to manage this.) For a bit more discussion you can see this guideline from the neurosurgery department of UCSF.
Changes in methodology may or may not be a good thing. A change of methodology obviously introduces a new variable into your research. And depending on the research outcome, the data pre and post methodology change may or may not be compatible, and it may or may not be ethical to present the data as one single dataset. So if your experiment only has limited number of runs for which systematic bias that may be introduced by the new methodology cannot be statistically ruled out, you may be better off not switching. (Unless, of course, you are in the biomedical sciences where sometimes methodological shifts are compulsory, even though it means essentially aborting the experiment.)
Methodological shifts are not *forbidden* per se, as long as all the methodology are clearly documented. The issue is more with how you interpret the data afterwards: it maybe necessary to present your data as two separate experiments instead of one single experiment. (Depending on your field there are different culturally accepted level of "fudging" when it comes to the methodology section of a paper; you should always have an argument handy as to why changing the methodology does not *really* change the experiment.) As long as each data point can be clearly referenced to the method that was used to obtain that data point, your experiment is reproducible and ethically you've covered your behind.
(This, of course, does not address the *bureaucratic* issue of whether your funding agency and such would frown on deviating from the funding proposal, and whether your research institution have specific guidelines concerning methodology shifts.)
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thread-356 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/356 | When asking research-based questions, what are some good practices to maximize the rates at which people reply to emails? | 2012-02-22T13:59:49.617 | # Question
Title: When asking research-based questions, what are some good practices to maximize the rates at which people reply to emails?
Matthew Might has an excellent article on his website.
But what are some other good suggestions? One important thing is identification (some professors are simply happier to reply to emails than others). Surprisingly enough, I find that famous scientists in my field (for whatever reason) tend to be more responsive to emails than non-famous scientists. I don't know why this is the case, but maybe it could be that they simply know more, so it doesn't take them as much effort to give information/advice?
Sometimes, I even go as far as to look at Rate my Professors site ratings, since the ones with exceptional ratings often tend to be happy replying to emails.
Another thing: maybe taking a class with the professor (in which case they may feel a bit more obligated to reply to them?) Or maybe simply distributing one's emails in such a way that one wouldn't have to email each professor more than an interval of once every few weeks?
# Answer
All of the points in the linked article are very true in academia as well. Some points which may be specific to academia which he didn't mention:
* If you're referencing a specific article or talk, reference it very specifically ("In your presentation at SfN 2012 entitled 'The Amygdala and You', ..."). If you can quote a specific slide/paragraph, all the better.
* Mention (concisely, one sentence or less) why you're interested in knowing. Your problem may very well be something which the researcher is interested in, and s/he may be more interested in responding and following up later on.
* If you're working for someone in the field, mention it at the beginning ("I'm a postdoc working for \<Mr. Bigshot Fancypants whom the professor likely knows\>, and...")
* Note that researchers are more often than not interested in talking about their work, so the very first point from the article ("Don't email") is likely bad advice here. Definitely try to get in touch and talk about your mutual interests (if you have a valid question, of course).
> 26 votes
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Tags: email, etiquette
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thread-278 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/278 | How to format for a useful journal club? | 2012-02-20T01:17:45.633 | # Question
Title: How to format for a useful journal club?
I've been attending my lab's journal club for a while, and I'm wondering whether there are better ways out there of conducting a journal club. To make the question more generic, our club seems to have two purposes:
1. Ensure that the students in the lab are reading papers in the field
2. Discuss the latest research findings in the field
Regarding goal (1), that's kinda what I'm spending all my time doing; I'm doing research, and much of that involves little more than reading a ridiculous number of papers. Insofar as accomplishing goal (2), I'm not sure we do it the best way possible. The journal club I'm currently attending is run by a professor. In general, one person prepares a presentation, and the professor grills that person on the paper. Other people chime in if they're interested, but more often than not it's an hour of watching the prof duel with the student. If the student is well prepared, I'll learn a lot, but when the kid has clearly not read the paper well, it's just a waste of everyone's time. **What successful journal club formats have you encountered?**
# Answer
> 15 votes
This is based on my experience being in some highly unsuccessful journals clubs, and some very successful ones - at least in my mind.
1. You *must* have faculty involvement. I've seen more than one journal club that either didn't have faculty members, or had a faculty member or two who just kind of sat back and didn't say anything. That's bad. Faculty members who can contribute, answer questions, and generally provide some context for papers are excellent. They're good for pointed questions we might have missed - I've had faculty members ask a question about a figure that got into an interesting discussion of research ethics, one that led insight into some politics ("The reason that commentary appeared in this journal is Y"), etc.
2. I prefer to have them separate from lab meetings, and drawing from a wider audience than my specific research group. I find the breadth of experience, diversity of papers, and keeping up with things taking place beyond my narrow little laser-like focus to be both refreshing and more useful than going over a paper half of us already read.
3. Giving the journal club a greater context. Yes, keeping track of the literature is important. But its importance seems to slide if you know your analysis should be done soon, or something needs to come out of the water bath, or midterms need to be graded. One semester we framed ours as qualifying exam preparation, and another as professional development - the people presenting wrote their critiques like responses to requests for peer review.
Overall, I've found journal clubs to be most useful for mid-level graduate students - they need enough experience to have thoughts, insights and feelings about the paper, but if a JC succeeds, eventually they should need it less and less.
# Answer
> 7 votes
Fomite's answer is great. Along the lines of "greater context" - you could form a journal club around a topic, rather than around your laboratory. When I was in grad school for plant biology, a friend of mine in Ag Chemistry formed a photosynthesis journal club. He was able to get his supervisor (photosynth bacteria) and another PI (plant focused) on board as regular attendees, while the student himself proctored the meetings. I participated not because I was studying photosynthesis myself, but because I wanted to learn more about biophysics.
Attendees (including the professors) took turns selecting papers and leading discussions. It ended up being good study for my qualifying exam - and a good way to get face time with others in the department that I wouldn't normally interact with.
This is one way to get around the "students take turns getting grilled by one professor." Take the initiative or find another student who wants to run a club, and find professors who want to participate but not lead. The environment will be different.
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thread-52 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/52 | Obstacles in job hunting for US citizens in non-US nations | 2012-02-15T00:22:10.787 | # Question
Title: Obstacles in job hunting for US citizens in non-US nations
I am curious to know the kinds of obstacles a US citizen would come across when trying to find work in academia outside the US and/or those that a non-US-citizen faces when trying to get an academic job inside the US.
It would seem that, logistically, it would be easier on the department to hire a citizen over a non-citizen. Is there any advice applicants can follow that would greater their chances? Do you have to be extraordinary for a department to hire you over an equally qualified citizen?
# Answer
> 7 votes
There a multiple levels on which this problem operates. This is especially true for places saturated with immigrants. (For instance, USA with Indians/Chinese)
* **Getting the Job**
This problem itself has a million subdivisions. Firstly, it is fairly difficult for immigrants (who studied in that country) to get jobs without exhibiting something really outstanding. The problem is not so bad for sectors such as computer science and electrical engineering wherein professionals are required by the dozen. The problem, however, is really bad in areas such as Theoretical Physics or Chemistry (or basic sciences). With limited vacancies and a million outstanding candidates, it is really difficult to crack that "top job".
* **Working in Sensitive Sectors**
I don't even want to get started on sectors like Aerospace. More often than not, graduates from the top universities in USA and Europe have returned to their homelands because all companies stress on citizenship. For EU, it is fairly difficult for a Non-EU resident to get a job in the first place, add to that defense and secrecy and you have a useless degree. In USA, it's even better, if you graduate with a PhD in Aerospace Control Systems from say, Stanford, you are still worthless for US companies because they don't ask just for citizenship anymore but also Top Secret (or Lower) Security Clearance! That's at least 10 years for a foreign citizen.
* **Immigration and Visa**
Getting a job is one part, getting the necessary immigration documents cleared is another. I mentioned about Aerospace engineering being a potential problem as far as jobs are concerned. But thats not all! USA has published a list called the technology alert list which requires screening of candidates before granting a visa.
The immigration laws in the Europe aren't very friendly for Non-European to begin with but as far as I know, they don't maintain a strict segregation between "things non-citizens can't do" and "things they can". However, rising far-right politics, things don't seem to get any better in the future.
# Answer
> 6 votes
> Do you have to be extraordinary for a department to hire you over an equally qualified citizen?
That really depends on the search criteria. If the criteria specifically calls for international experience—and many jobs around the world now do exactly that—you might not be disadvantaged at all, and in some cases even have the upper hand.
That said, it *is* true that hiring a citizen is generally easier than hiring a non-citizen, and in the EU, it's easier to hire a non-citizen who lives in the EU than a non-citizen who lives outside the EU. The result will be a lot more bureaucracy. Whether or not the hiring unit wants to go through the extra trouble will make a lot of the difference, and it's not something you have much control over. (The same principle applies in the US for non-citizens!)
# Answer
> 2 votes
In the US, if you're employed by a university or a government research lab, then you're exempt from the H1B visa cap. Thus the visa is not usually a problem.
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thread-331 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/331 | Journal publication and acceptance to competitive conferences | 2012-02-22T05:27:48.243 | # Question
Title: Journal publication and acceptance to competitive conferences
My graduate training is in an interdisciplinary field (bioinformatics). I am affiliated both with a genetics department and an interdepartmental program that encompasses everything from genetics to computer science to evolution to statistics to engineering. The life-science-oriented fields seem to place a lot of value in publishing papers in high-profile journals, whereas some of the more quantitative and technical fields (comp sci and engineering especially) seem to be focused on getting accepted to high-profile conferences with low acceptance rate. So far in graduate school, I have focused completely on publishing papers in journals and have not worried about getting into competitive conferences.
My question is twofold: first, is my assessment of the life sciences vs the quantitative sciences accurate? and second, should I consider submitting my research to competitive conferences in addition to journals? Will this make me more marketable as an interdisciplinary scientist down the road?
# Answer
I'll give you my own opinion, as something of an interdisciplinary scientist in a nearby field (I work in mathematical epidemiology) with publications in both places (the conference paper frankly by accident):
First, your impression is indeed correct. CS and related fields very heavily weight conference presentations and proceedings papers in ways the life sciences really don't.
In my mind, there's two things you should be considering:
1. The opportunity to double-dip a bit. We had a question about this recently, but I think it applies to you as well. If your project has "Life science spin-offs" and "Computational science spin-offs", you can submit to both places. For example, I have a project that will end up living in both applied math journals and clinical journals. There's no reason you can't do both.
2. *This part is purely my opinion*. When in doubt, I'd go for journal publications, for a few reasons. I've found most CS and technical people recognize that outside their field, its papers or nothing, better than the other way around. Journal papers are also more likely to get on the radar of people you want seeing your work, get indexed in PubMed (LNCS for example is not indexed in PubMed) etc. Those departments will also probably recognize your technical chops either via talking to you, the technical bent of your publications, or a few conference presentations.
I sympathize with your problem - it's sadly familiar. Generally, I'd try to figure out which audience you want to sell yourself to *more*, and do as they do.
> 11 votes
# Answer
I can confirm the much heavier weight on conference publications in Computer Science. You should certainly consider publishing in high-profile conferences unless you want to shift your focus away from Computer Science.
The other thing I would add is that often conference publications become journal publications. This is mostly because of the page limits imposed by conferences -- short papers are often only 2 pages. There is also a fair number of Computer Science conferences that offer fast-track or special issue journal publication for the best papers. I think a lot of people in Computer Science do not consider publication at a conference *or* a journal, but rather conference first and then journal.
> 8 votes
# Answer
As a "classically-trained" engineer who's moved into interdisciplinary work, I would argue that the weighting of conference papers seems to be restricted to computer science, rather than being generally true for "quantitative sciences."
For instance, I don't see any such strong preferences in mathematics, chemistry, or physics, and there's definitely no such bias in chemical engineering (my "home turf"). In engineering, perhaps this is because there aren't as many "prestigious" meetings, and because we don't submit anything more than abstracts in order to be considered for a presentation slot.
> 4 votes
# Answer
I agree with @EpiGrad 's answer.
I'll also add that the lack of a deadlines for journals can reduce unnecessary stress and allows for a better revision process with reviewers. I've found that journal papers are consequently more polished and thorough compared with conference papers on similar topics.
> 4 votes
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thread-379 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/379 | How to assess the quality of a degree? | 2012-02-22T20:43:00.243 | # Question
Title: How to assess the quality of a degree?
In my academic career, I have found that it is pretty difficult to assess the quality of a degree before enrolling. Usually only during the course of your study do you learn what the actual quality of the degree is, which are the best schools, and what your chances in the job market are going to be like.
Getting in touch with students studying at the university is usually pretty difficult if you're not enrolled, and i don't really trust the responses of the professors (who have a vested interest).
What would be a good way to judge the usefulness of a degree? And how can you reliably assess the chances of getting a job with that degree?
# Answer
> 10 votes
Many universities will publish statistics on how many of their graduates are employed or in further education within X months after graduating. If you're only concerned about getting a job, then that's probably your best source of information.
That said, in the end it depends on you. People get jobs with crappy degrees and fail to get jobs with really good degrees. Whether you'll be able to get a job in your chosen field will depend on what exactly you do for your degree.
A good opportunity for improving your chances of getting a job after you graduate is to do an internship while you're at university. Many universities have job centres or similar that can help you with that.
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thread-389 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/389 | Is there a generally accepted format for submitting papers to journals? | 2012-02-23T14:01:15.860 | # Question
Title: Is there a generally accepted format for submitting papers to journals?
I believe in Mathematics and Computer Science journals usually accept LaTeX documents. In fact, the AMS has a number of packages and document classes for just this purpose.
What about other disciplines? I'm not particularly familiar with the humanities. Would a Microsoft Word document be unacceptable?
Does it vary from subject to subject, or even journal to journal?
# Answer
The policies vary entirely from journal to journal about what is considered acceptable. APS journals, for instance, will accept both MS Word-based documents as well as documents formatted with RevTeX, their modified template system. ACS journals and a number of other publishers also offer their own LaTeX- and Word-specific templates for authors to use. Whether the use of the template is required or merely recommended is also a function of the journal. So, as a general rule, you should *always* check the homepage of a journal *before* you start preparing an article for submission to that journal.
To some extent, I prefer working with LaTeX in preparing manuscripts, for the simple reason that their plain-text document format makes it a lot less painful to switch back and forth between different templates, compared to a word-processing format like Word or LibreOffice or Pages.
> 8 votes
# Answer
It does indeed vary from subject to subject, and journal to journal. I once got in a short argument with some math students who had asserted "If its going to be published, it needs to be in LaTeX", a disagreement that only ended when I went and found some submission guidelines. For three fairly good journals in my field (Epidemiology), you have some considerable differences.
*American Journal of Epidemiology* wants everything in either Word or PDF format - LaTeX documents are compatible with this, but its certainly not doing anyone any favors in terms of already being formatted. *Epidemiology* will accept LaTeX documents, but warns that the odds of typesetting and other erros increases in formats besides *Word*. *Journal of Clinical Epidemiology* only requires that an editable version be available.
So the de-facto standard in my field is Word, though of course there are ways around that. And then, as mentioned, there are formatting issues beyond just "what's the file extension?" How references, the text, and figures are reported - must odds ratios be graphed on a log scale or not?. How p-values are treated. What format graphics are allowed to be in, etc. As Fabian said, submitting to a new journal often involves combing through the same content to subtly tweak formatting.
> 8 votes
# Answer
This varies a lot between journals, and probably even more between different disciplines. In the life sciences Latex is rather rare, MS Word seems to me to be the most common format in my subjective observation.
But the actual document format, be it Latex or Word, is only part of the difference between journals. The exact rules on how to format a paper vary so much that you'll have to put significant effort into adapting the same manuscript for different journals anyway. Check out the Author submission guidelines for Nature or those from JACS as an example. They often regulate details like how the axis labelling in graphs has to look like. The journals also often have different length requirements, so you might have to shorten your manuscript if you decide to switch to a different journal.
> 3 votes
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thread-398 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/398 | What are the consequences to the researcher in cases of academic fraud? | 2012-02-23T17:19:03.640 | # Question
Title: What are the consequences to the researcher in cases of academic fraud?
The purpose of this question is to attempt to generate a concise but comprehensive answer to the question, **what happens to the researcher after fraud is discovered?** I'm familiar with some consequences:
What other are some other typical (and atypical) outcomes?
# Answer
As I posted in answer to another comment, more often than not, schools want to avoid the dramas associated with plagiarism scandals. That is why schools like Harvard will prompt researchers accused of fraudulent behavior, such as Marc Hauser, to resign, rather than go through tenure revocation procedures.
But losing one's job is fairly likely, and an unofficial blacklisting is almost certain to result.
One other consequence, though, is often forgotten: the peripheral damage of academic fraud cases. Sensationalized results, such as those in the Jan Hendrik Schön and Hwang Woo-Suk cases, led many graduate students to embark on projects in those disciplines trying to reproduce and expand upon the promises implied by those projects. When those projects collapsed, a lot of graduate students were left in the lurch.
> 8 votes
# Answer
* You would probably find it very hard to find a job or may even get fired from your job, depending on the severeness of the fraud.
* Your employer might start a formal investigation into your behaviour.
* The party you defrauded might sue you for damages.
* Your reputation in your community would be at least severely damanged. Other researchers might refuse to collaborate with you.
* You might be banned from applying for grants and/or have trouble getting grants you apply for.
I'm sure there are lots of other things. Basically, unless you have a very good explanation for it, you're done for (at least in your particular area of research).
> 2 votes
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thread-412 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/412 | How do I specify I do not want to perform a specific type of research on my CV? | 2012-02-23T20:40:48.113 | # Question
Title: How do I specify I do not want to perform a specific type of research on my CV?
A couple of years back I did some research at a company in a field (Computational chemistry) that I am no longer interested in pursuing (To be blunt: I discovered that I dislike computational chemistry, and lack a certain numerical intuition needed to interpret the results). As I have this and a number of computer science classes on my CV several jobs I have applied for have added computational chemistry to my duties, which leaves me in the unpleasant position of explaining that I'd rather not do that type of research. (See edit below for an explanation of the process)
I'd rather not take that experience off my CV, as it explains why my undergraduate degree is taking so long (I was working for a semester instead of taking classes), and my supervisor did offer me a good reference letter, since I was a good worker, despite the fact I didn't get great results. Also, to be frank, I'm an undergrad and would like to list it to stand out from the crowd a bit: Relevant work experience is much rarer then good marks.
Is there a way I can include that position on my CV, but specify that I'd rather not peruse that field of research? Perhaps as a footnote or a comment intside that description of the job that 'This is a field of research I am no longer interested in perusing'?
EDIT: An explanation of how applying for summer jobs tends to work in my experience: I'm an undergraduate chemistry major applying to be a research assistant over the summer. The general process for this is you find a professor doing the type of research you want, and email them your coverletter and CV. If they like you then they either hire you, or apply for a grant to get funding to hire you. Formal or informal interviews can take place at any time during this process, depending on how the professor likes to operate. Formal job descriptions are usually only placed on the grant after the student applies, it isn't listed on the profs website beforehand. Therefore I've applied to several synthetic chemistry groups then been either told I'll be expected to do some modelling as part of my job, or asked if I would be willing to do such research: The second option isn't so bad, but the first is rather awarded to explain, doubly so if I'm not told of this until after the grant is already awarded.
# Answer
Usually, in an academic CV, you can distinguish between "Research Activities", which consist of all the research you've done in the past, and "Research Interest", which consist of all the research you want to do in the future. So, someone who would include a topic that you don't list in your research activities without asking you first would be a bit rude.
However, in order to avoid this kind of cases, and not to be too explicit (that is, not saying "I don't to work on Computational Chemistry"), you can try, in your cover letter or your research interests to put a sentence like "Although I have a good background in Computational Chemistry, my research interests rather lie in ..." or "My background in Computational Chemistry taught me to \[...\], and I'm now interested in broadening/focusing my interest on \[...\]". That's a bit more subtle, but I guess the message should pass.
> 23 votes
# Answer
Typically, the way you would state that sort of preference is by noticeably not including it in the list of interests. Given your experience with the technique, not including it on a cover letter, or in your "Objectives" statement on your CV, should be enough to prompt someone to ask about it during the interview process. If it does not come up during discussion, you will definitely want to proactively mention it at some point during your interview.
That being said, the best way is to not apply to labs which do that sort of work, and focus your search on areas that do interest you.
> 5 votes
# Answer
It doesn't sound like you want to make that explicit on your CV. You could certainly include something in your cover letter though that mentions that you'd prefer not to do work in that area.
> 2 votes
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thread-394 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/394 | What types of industry positions favor PhD over a masters? | 2012-02-23T15:44:25.877 | # Question
Title: What types of industry positions favor PhD over a masters?
I'm coming from a biomedical engineering background, and I'm noticing that almost all job postings ask for either an MS or a PhD, and from speaking with my friends with masters it seems that masters are often favored, because they demand less pay. In fact, the only positions that specifically seek out PhDs seem to be research positions in industry.
Based on that, I'm curious to see if this exists beyond just engineering. **Are there any non-research industry positions that actively seek to hire PhDs over masters students?**
# Answer
> 7 votes
High-tech engineering companies, for one. A friend of mine works at a small system-on-a-chip designer company, and they supply highly specialized chip designs to other businesses which utilize embedded systems -- think leading automotive, aerospace, consumer electronics OEMs. The company is small and every engineering employee has at least a MSc, most of them have PhDs or higher (that would be associate professors and professors).
Another example is automotive R&D -- mechanical engineering. Companies are financing new development of new methodologies in product development -- particularly structural optimization, design automation, manufacturing process simulations. Virtual prototyping is the name of the game for top manufacturers currently, and the demand for highly-skilled experts is great, even in these uncertain economic times.
In the country where I study, PhD projects are financed jointly by interested private companies as well as research organizations, and the companies have a vested interest to receive not only the direct results from the research, but also trained individuals that can integrate the research outcomes into their product development or manufacturing process.
Obviously YMMV by country and research field. PhDs in in mostly theoretical projects might have harder time finding a good position after graduating, while hands-on graduates whose projects were conducted in collaboration with industrial partners are much more likely to secure a senior technical position even before their dissertation.
# Answer
> 11 votes
I am currently employed in the biotech industry. Hopefully this is helpful but it may all just be obvious:
Concerning **research industry positions**, jobs are generally classified as PhD (scientist) or non-PhD (research assistant/associate). For scientists positions, sometimes someone without a PhD will be considered if they have significant experience - e.g. Masters plus 5-8 years, Bachelors plus 10+ years. However, PhDs are generally favored over non-PhDs for outside hires. For research asst/assoc positions, non-PhDs are favored over PhD holders, and many companies have policies that prohibit hiring PhDs.
Concerning **non-research industry positions**, holding a PhD will give you an edge over BS/MS holders, but you have to compete with other specialized degrees. For business developement and upper management positions, you'd have to compete with MBA holders (along with internal hires from research/scientific management). For legal positions, you'd compete with JDs and certified patent agents. For project management, there are certifications as well.
If you were to hold MBA/JD/additional certification AND a PhD, you would be extremely marketable for these types of positions. It's a lot of work to add something like that on after finishing a PhD program, but companies often love to have PhDs on staff in those types of positions - but generally you need to have the other qualifications as well.
Edit: Also, the best people to talk to are professors from your current/old department who are on any company's board of directors. They will know exactly what kind of people a company wants to hire, and will be able to tell you how to target your job search, or what kind of experience/credentials matter most.
# Answer
> 4 votes
I don't have hard numbers to support this statement, but I've been told that many investment banks are quite interested in PhD (although mostly in hard sciences) for quantitative analyst jobs. These positions are not research positions, but it seems that the rigor and the experience of research, in terms for instance of modelling data, acquired during the PhD is appreciated.
# Answer
> 4 votes
I think that the only positions where it makes sense to hire a PhD over a master's degree holder are those which require a lot of analytical skills, plus the ability to be "laterally" flexible. That is, you want to hire someone who can do many different tasks over time, rather than just lead one project or group. These occupations would include quantitative analysis, but would also include more non-traditional jobs such as a journal editor or a consultant.
From an industrial perspective, though, for anything outside of research, it's probably more economical and practical to hire someone with direct or relevant experience at the master's level and train them to do the job you need them to do.
# Answer
> 2 votes
PhD is all about getting qualifications for becoming a scientist/researcher. You learn how to do the research independently, how to present your work, you meet people who might be helpful in your further career, and incidentally you get some hands-on experience in an obscure area of science. These are "hard" skills you get along the way. This means that the *only* type of work PhD is required for, or gives you a real benefit, is a job of a researcher, either in academia or in the industry.
Occasionally you might be lucky to work on something truly useful and job will be a natural extension of your PhD. But since getting a PhD degree is really a learning process, the topics are necessarily moderately ambitious and niche - you have the rest of your scientific career to "make an impact".
Outside the research the only thing PhD gives you is a bit of "prestige". This might be a hindrance, or, at best, make no difference when you search for a job. But in a long term you'll likely find that the ceiling is a bit higher. The good thing is that any job you end up doing will be good - the title automatically "filters out" positions that you would later find unsuitable.
# Answer
> 0 votes
From what I've heard, some companies prefer hiring PhDs over Masters not because of their additional knowledge because people who have done a PhD will in general be more mature and reliable. Some companies also count having a PhD as work experience which will reflect on your salary.
To answer your question, I'm not aware of any specific positions for which this is done, but depending on what the actual job is, recruiters may prefer candidates with a PhD (even if it's not in exactly what the work is going to be) for the reason mentioned above.
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thread-399 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/399 | Ph.D. in UK/Ireland as "Dipl.-Ing." from Germany | 2012-02-23T17:50:30.507 | # Question
Title: Ph.D. in UK/Ireland as "Dipl.-Ing." from Germany
Is it feasible for an engineering student from Germany to get into a Ph.D. program in the UK/Ireland? Specifically, what should one keep in mind/try to accomplish in the last two years before finishing the "Diplom"? How would one apply?
Maybe this question can be extended to other combinations of countries, but I didn’t want it to be too broad.
# Answer
In short, yes. If you're talking about the "traditional" 5 year Diplom, it's essentially equivalent to an MSc, which is what most universities require to start a PhD (although some only require a Bachelor's degree). I don't think you need to keep anything in particular in mind when finishing, apart from making sure that you get good grades for your transcript :)
The application procedure wouldn't be any different from other students, although you may have to explain in some detail what your degree is.
> 4 votes
# Answer
Yes, it is certainly possible.
One thing to keep in mind is that practically all PhD programs in the UK require some evidence of an acceptable standard of English (see here for an example), usually IELTS or TOEFL tests, and depending on your English skills, this might warrant some preparation during the last year of your Diplom.
Many PhD programs also require at least two letters of recommendation, so the sooner you have an idea who might provide these for you, the better.
> 4 votes
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thread-375 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/375 | How much guidance should I reasonably expect from an MSc Thesis Supervisor | 2012-02-22T19:13:38.630 | # Question
Title: How much guidance should I reasonably expect from an MSc Thesis Supervisor
As part of my MSc I have to produce a Thesis/Dissertation which forms an integral part of the program and classification (roughly 1/4 - I imagine the subject can make a difference, so I should say that my MSc is in Mathematics in the UK).
I am wondering to what extend I should expect to be completely on my own in this endeavor. I have a supervisor who has a pretty good research reputation as far as I can tell from his publications and collaborations, so I'm quite happy in that sense, however it s becoming increasingly evident, that he will not provide much guidance when it comes to specific topic selection or anything else for that matter.
Is this normal and to be expected for an MSc Dissertation, or is it a bad sign that should make me think whether it may be better to switch? (I was under the impression that at such a junior level one could still expect quite a bit of hand-holding when it comes to the selection of a feasible topic).
# Answer
> 8 votes
I'm not sure how much of your issue is related to the specific field—mathematicians are known for being somewhat more independent than graduate students in, say, engineering.
That said, your advisor should at least show signs of being interested in your research. If you feel like you need help, and aren't getting any, then you need to make arrangements to get it. At first, I'd recommend talking to other graduate students and postdocs under your advisor. Next, I'd talk to other students outside the group; finally, I'd move on to other faculty.
It really depends on how easy or difficult it is to change advisors. If it's relatively easy, then in the end, it might be necessary as a last resort. If not, you'll need to make do with a rather unfortunate situation.
Ultimately, this is a case-by-case kind of situation: you'll need to talk to more people in your department and find out how widespread this is. Some advisors are completely hands-off, and expect their students to be self-motivating. Others are hands-on to the point of micromanagement. In math, my impression from conversations with colleagues is that the tendency is towards being hands-off, but it's impossible to say what will be the case in your specific department.
# Answer
> 4 votes
Staff at my department have to propose specific projects for MSc theses (possibly together with the student). Even if your university doesn't require that, I would expect your supervisor to help you significantly with selecting the topic of your thesis. For the thesis itself the help will be less, but I wouldn't think it reasonable to expect an MSc student to essentially come up with their thesis topic unless they want to.
# Answer
> 1 votes
It can vary a lot by advisor. You should always talk to current (and former if possible) students of an advisor before committing to one. Some questions you might ask:
* How often do you meet with your advisor?
* Did your advisor help you come up with a thesis topic?
* Does your advisor answer your emails quickly/at all?
* Do you feel comfortable asking your advisor for help? Does he/she give it?
* Does your advisor know and care about your career goals?
* Is your advisor expected to stay around this school for long? (An advisor could be pre-tenure and expected not to get it or could be up for sabbatical soon.)
* When you thought you were done, did your advisor agree or want you to do more? How long did it take to get the advisor to read the thesis?
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thread-409 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/409 | Good source for pre PhD level papers/dissertations in Mathematics | 2012-02-23T19:55:56.513 | # Question
Title: Good source for pre PhD level papers/dissertations in Mathematics
I am looking for a good source to get my hands on some pre PhD level maths papers/dissertations, because I want to get a better feeling what is expected. (i.e. BSc and MSc Dissertations)
My department is unfortunately not at liberty to make MSc Dissertations available for copyright reasons, so I am stuck with asking individual people. In order to get a good overview I'd really like to get my hands on a much bigger selection of papers though, so I'm looking for a good online sources.
# Answer
> 3 votes
Your best source of such information would be to look for electronic repositories that are at least partially "open." The *openThesis* repository offers one such source, and you might find some information on sites like academia.edu.
An alternate source would be to look at individual school's repositories. For instance, MIT's DSpace offers copies of many recent MIT thesis and dissertations, which can be previewed by anyone, although you need to be a member of the MIT community in order to be able to download and print documents from the site.
# Answer
> 3 votes
A quick Google search for "partial fulfillment master science mathematics" finds hundreds of MS theses in several branches of mathematics.
# Answer
> 2 votes
I'm now a PhD candidate mathematician, working towards understanding what really constitutes a paper as well. If you are considering going after a math PhD, I recommend finding an area you're interested in, finding papers in that field, and backtracking enough until you understand what's going on. I think math is very-well suited to this style of behavior.
For example, I'm interested in number theory, and I've recently been hearing a lot about automorphic forms and multiple Dirichlet Series. So I find this paper by Dr. Hoffstein. Some of it is understandable, some of it isn't. Going through it, I isolate 3 potential sources that might help me understand - the first references are frequently on background material, and here he references Selberg's work. Conveniently, my institution has access to electronic archives of his work, so that's great. It also references an Analytic Number Theory textbook by Iwaniec. Finally, I realize that this is largely built on this previous paper, with Dr. Hoffstein as one of the authors, from years before.
And then I can rinse, wash, and repeat. In this way, I both get an idea of what papers are like, how far removed they are from current material, and how advanced the math that goes into them are. A key aspect of this idea is that it's easier to go after particular research papers, theses, and dissertations than it is to find whole repositories that you can go through. So perhaps you should try a similar approach, suited to your interests.
As always, a good place to start is the arxiv.
On the other hand, it sounds like you're preparing to write a bachelors thesis, and that's of a different calibre. I suspect that your school has its own standards, and the best way to prepare for that is to simply do your best and ask your advisor lots of questions along the way. Ultimately, your school can't demand from an undergrad much more than it prepares you for (a vast difference from the life of overgrads, in my opinion).
As a last note, Harvey Mudd has a large archive of their undergrad math senior's theses here, and they might be what you're looking for if you don't like my previous idea.
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thread-288 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/288 | How do I effectively use tags to organize my bibliography? | 2012-02-20T13:48:54.987 | # Question
Title: How do I effectively use tags to organize my bibliography?
I use the online tool citeulike to manage my bibliography. The main tool to organize the library is tags (functionally equivalent to tags here on this site). One problem I seem to be having is I do a very poor job of initially choosing tags, so I need to continually re-tag my library to keep it organized.
Is there any advice on choosing an intitial set of tags? Or will it be necessary for me to continually maintain my library to keep it organized/updated as much as I would like?
# Answer
Tagging is only useful if you use it with discipline. Look at Wikipedia or Stackexchange, most articles can be determined by 5-6 categories (science - math - geometry - euclidean geometry - metric). Stackexchange has a max. of 5 tags, often you only see 1-2 on questions, which is often pointless, as those tags will appear often in the question/paper title and abstract too. Wasted time.
So, if you decide to create a tagging system, **use at least 4-6 tags** depending on how interdisciplinary and specialized your paper/link collection is.
Also consider to **not only tag by topic but also kind** (review, letter, peer-reviewed, experimental results, theoretical analysis, explanation of new measurement method, meta-discussion...), **year, personal rating** (very interesting article you learned a lot from and should read again from time to time), **rarely/often/top cited, new theory/model, strongly discussed in the research community**
A last note. I use myself **Copernic Desktop Search as a supplementary tool**, I download all papers of possible interest (disk space is cheap ;) ), papers I read, will read or maybe will never take a look at. The point is that **Desktop Search software often has more powerful search operators and sorting mechanisms than Google Scholar & Co**. If you know how to use them, you can save a lot reading and tagging time or tagging at all. You know, if you are smart in using Google & search operators and have a good vocabulary, you don't have to ask a lot questions on internet boards.
Conclusion:
**Don't use tagging for creating a pure thematic and linear directory structure**, if finding again your papers or bits of information can be done by learning a good Desktop Search software. Use your tags in a personal way and remember, the point is not to structure your bibliography like a folder directory for categorized files, the point is to find again the bits of knowledge and most memorable papers, which will rather look like a strongly interconnected nonlinear tag cloud. If you look how people tag sites on del.ic.ious, often only 2 or 3 tags, sometimes using up to 10 pure thematic redundant tags, they are doing it imho wrong and waste a lot of time.
> 5 votes
# Answer
I don't use citeulike myself, but I think it's important to make a difference between tags and keywords. Indeed, keywords are usually already included in the paper or at least in the abstract, so you don't need to retag them with duplicate information. Instead, it's better to use tags to give some personal context, such as why did you read this paper in the first place, or which general idea can you connect it to, or for which of your papers you used it, etc. In this case, there is no "wrong" or "right" tag, just some facts.
> 4 votes
# Answer
The best solution of my is Papers from mekentosj. I should also mention that using tags is not an efficient solution for me; at the tagging moment I could not think about relevant tags and later I would not be able to find the paper. In my system I organized papers in collections (like folders) and search for them using keywords (like one would on in Web of Science) or authors or any other usual field.
> 3 votes
# Answer
One of the great things about CiteULike is that you can see what papers you have in common with other people, and what they're tagging them as. That can give you a good clue when you're starting tagging.
However, whatever you choose, it will evolve as you aggregate a larger and larger library of references, so don't be afraid to keep it flexible.
In the end, your tagging system will be unique to you, because your interests are unique. For example, in my library, I've got a medical-epidemiology tag, because that covers around 1% of my library. If I had no such papers, it would be a useless tag. If I were doing medical epidemiology research, it would also be a useless tag, because I'd have to apply it to 90+% of my library.
Learn by your own experience: how do you use tags? Which tags have helped you find things? Which tags have you used to try to find things, that turned out to be dead ends?
> 1 votes
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thread-443 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/443 | Selecting journal reviewers through cover letter | 2012-02-25T22:45:42.000 | # Question
Title: Selecting journal reviewers through cover letter
I was planning to use mdpi.com to submit a paper to "Entropy" journal. The journal perfectly matches the area that my paper covers. However, they require a cover letter to five reviewers selected by myself:
http://www.mdpi.com/journal/entropy/instructions
> Coverletter: Check in your cover letter whether you supplied at least 5 referees. Check if the English corrections are done before submission.
Is this the standard procedure? Can you propose other similar journal? I am getting afraid that receiving feedback is not an easy task, and I can wander with the paper for a year or so.
# Answer
They don't require you to send a cover letter to five referees, but just to indicate in your cover letter the names and contact info of 5 potential reviewers. It's just to help them finding reviewers for your paper (as they say, they might not use those you provided). But I don't think you need to contact the reviewers first.
As far as I know, it's a pretty common procedure, I've seen it for several other journals.
> 10 votes
# Answer
I wouldn't say that a journal asking for reviewers is "standard" practice, but it is by no means rare. For instance, nearly all ACS journals require that the paper submitter provide the names of between three and six potential referees. Other journals that I've submitted to, including J. Chem. Phys. and the Physical Review series do not require referee lists of any kind.
It should be noted that the choice of referees is entirely discretionary on the part of the editor. The editor is free to pick from any or all of the names on your list—or none of them, if it's an area the editor knows well enough to assign referees independently.
> 7 votes
# Answer
I've encountered this before - as aeismail has said, it might not be "standard" practice (implying most journals do it) but its certainly at the very least common.
This is often intended to provide focus and speed for journal editors to get papers out. Finding appropriate reviewers is a long and tedious task, and if editor's come to rely too much on "their" expert reviewers, they're likely to burn them out. The approach of recommending peer-reviewers gives you, the author - and presumably an expert in your field - an opportunity to weight in on who is *qualified* to review your paper, while avoiding people who would have to abstain due to a conflict of interest, or who you feel might not judge your paper fairly.
Essentially, you should be considering people in your specific field who aren't your direct collaborators, but who might be disposed to look on you and your work in a positive or at least neutral light - avoiding people who don't like *you*, or who think "Paper Topic is a waste of time and research dollars, and should never be published".
> 2 votes
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thread-458 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/458 | Historical data for success rate of grant/project applications? | 2012-02-27T19:02:29.227 | # Question
Title: Historical data for success rate of grant/project applications?
Is there any publicly accessible information regarding the success rate of grant/project applications for science/technology and other research grant programs (e.g. NSF grants) and its variation over time?
I'm not interested in an exhaustive list but some illustrative examples would be much appreciated.
# Answer
Check out the NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools. It may take you some time to find exactly what you're looking for, but there are numerous reports available, with a good deal of detail.
> 6 votes
# Answer
It's surprisingly hard to find that information, I was expecting to get it more easily, in particular when public funding is involved. I've found for the European Union FP7-ICT call 1, there were 1836 proposals for only 318 accepted, with a total 1.2 billion euros funded (Source, slide 18).
I guess a good strategy could be to contact the Research Division of the European Commission, I'm sure they have this information somewhere, and they are probably able to provide it.
> 3 votes
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thread-422 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/422 | How to fruitfully utilize faculty-student orientation sessions at institutes you don't want to attend? | 2012-02-24T11:13:58.700 | # Question
Title: How to fruitfully utilize faculty-student orientation sessions at institutes you don't want to attend?
More than once, I have had (graduate school admissions) orientation sessions where the faculty of the institute introduce their fields, their research and what they expect from potential students (Among other things).
At places I am interested in, this is a useful exercise. However, there are often places which I don't wish to study at but have a few good professors doing some really good work with great knowledge of the field and awesome intuition.
**How does one fully exploit an opportunity to interact with good professors from institutes you are not interested in attending?**
This is very different from a research conference for obvious reasons.
Further,
* If I am not interested in *that* institute but wanted the opinion of one of the professors about another institute/lab (the ones I *am* interested in attending), is that a taboo?
* **How does one stay in touch with such contacts where your only excuse to mail is to ask a question? I really want to be on email terms.** I have read and understood their work but what is it that should be the content of mails written to them? It doesn't make sense to simply send them emails saying that I read your paper or I attended your talk.
(Please feel free to edit this question in any amount if necessary)
# Answer
1. I don't think you can expect to get the opinion of a professor about another institute/lab. You can probably get some facts (like this other institute has more/less money, they are more/less active in this area), but nothing subjective. Academia is pretty small world, and people try as much as possible not to say anything negative publicly (and since everything said is positive, it can be hard to distinguish the real positive from the fake one).
2. You need to have a real interest in their work. As mentioned here, it's already pretty hard to maintain collaboration between people interested, so if there is no clear interest, it will very hard to be on email terms. But, the question is: why do you want to be on email terms?
3. See the previous point. You need to *really* interested, meaning you've read and understood their papers, and are able to ask questions that go beyond "what are the possible usage of your approach?".
As a general remark, professors are usually already very busy dealing with their own research/teaching/students. Of course, they usually are open to new collaborations, but they might lack the time to work with a student who is not theirs. A good solution could to try to visit them, academically speaking, for a month or so, to work on a very specific topic.
> 7 votes
# Answer
From your stated question, you need to tread carefully. The nature of the environment at those presentations is one where the professors are looking for potential graduate students, not collaborators. Even more so, if you're a potential graduate student, you likely haven't done any real research yet, so you can't work out "collaborations" or anything.
That being said, it's perfectly acceptable to simply walk over to them and ask to hear more about their research and interests. They know that you're looking at many labs and many not choose theirs. Just make sure your request to remain in contact comes across as a "Do you mind if I contact you later to discuss your research?" and not "Can we talk later even though I have no interest in joining your lab?" Now is not the setting for that; wait until after having joined a lab to initiate that conversation.
> 5 votes
# Answer
Take the long view. Don't try to go fishing for collaborations for *now*, or even in the near future. Faculty-student sessions, meet-and-greets, etc. aren't completely a waste of time in places you don't think you want to attend however. A few reasons:
1. You will have met them. Yes, by the time you're actually something resembling a peer it will have been some time, but being able to say "We spoke once when I was looking at University X" is never a bad thing.
2. You get a feel for them as people. This isn't just "would I like to collaborate with this person?" The academic landscape is made up of people, and if this is your field, these people will come up. Paper reviewers, journal editors, session chairs at conferences. All of those things are impacted by personality - something you can start to get a feel for while you're there.
3. You get the birds-eye-view of some of the cutting edge research in your field. That can suggest things like where the field is headed.
It's essentially an excuse to meet some people years before you *need* to meet them. I also had some of the best shrimp-and-grits I've ever eaten at one, so there's that.
> 2 votes
# Answer
Why are you visiting programs that you know you don't want to attend? (I want to go further and ask, why even apply to programs you know you don't want to attend?)
*If I am not interested in that institute but wanted the opinion of one of the professors about another institute/lab (the ones I am interested in attending), is that a taboo?*
Yes. For a handful of reasons - the most critical being that you are basically telling the professor that **the department wasted their money bringing you out there**. You are also wasting that professor's time by talking about another university when she's there to talk about her lab and her institution.
And it's also worth saying that most professors don't bother to get to know or remember most students who actually enter the program! This is not the time to get on "email terms," she's not going to remember you. The time to do that is once you are established in a lab and have your own project to talk about.
> 0 votes
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thread-461 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/461 | Publishing a creative, important result – does it create any real finance opportunities (jobs, etc.) | 2012-02-28T01:28:41.107 | # Question
Title: Publishing a creative, important result – does it create any real finance opportunities (jobs, etc.)
I often fantasize that when I will get my work to successful end, then I will have new possibilities open – and that maybe I will even receive scientific job offers. The work is obtaining new important results in computational sciences.
But then I get to the ground, think that giving someone job is rather a necessity for the employer – and not an act of appreciation or even not an act of support. Then, my results are important and useful, so someone may need them. However, the results can be understood, used and further developed by some other scientist. So it will not be necessarily me, who will get the job.
One related example that comes to my mind is Stephen Wolfram, who is independent because he is earning money himself. So he was not appreciated by someone, instead he won his share in software market.
# Answer
> 10 votes
Sadly, there is not a strict correlation between doing good science and being financially successful. It is entirely possible to do "creative, important work" and still not be well rewarded for it. For instance, one could have published these results in an obscure journal that very few people will read. Or, as another example, the researcher might be a poor "salesman," unable to convince readers and fellow scientists of the merit of his work.
In general, you need a combination of both networking and technical skills to forge a successful career as a researcher: the contacts will help you get interviews for jobs; your technical knowledge will get you the job.
# Answer
> 4 votes
When I worked for HP (in the storage area network division), much of the published research articles were for things that it still took several years to bring to market. Generally, it was about 5 years between the first papers and the time a product made it to market. Even things used everywhere - SQL - took 9 years to go from research paper (Codd's paper was in 1969) to first commercial product (Relational \[now called Oracle\] was released in 1978) with several large companies (including IBM) trying to bring a product to market. In software development, academic research runs 5 to 30+ years ahead of in-the-field practices.
As for Wolfram, I don't think he's a good model to emulate, as he fits the model of a crank more than the model I would attribute to a good scientist. Despite that, I bought his book and use his software.
Another example I can think of where creative important results don't translate to success is Long Term Capital Management. Founded by 2 Nobel Prize winners in economics, it was the first massive Wall Street bailout in the 1990s after the Russian financial crisis resulted in Soviet/Russian bonds going belly up. One of the founders was *the* Scholes in the Black-Scholes model, which is one of the most important equations in finanace.
Discovering something great and/or important takes a different set of skills than bringing that discovery to market.
# Answer
> 3 votes
aeismail's response is on target, and just to extend it a bit more, you will find few researchers who make money directly from their research. All your work is owned by the university and patents you file are owned by the university.
That being said, it is fairly common for a researcher to found his or her own company based on their work. There are numerous examples of this, but just to give two examples from my own experience:
Aside from creating a startup, some professors will consult externally for a fee. Anecdotally, depending on how well-connected the professor is, I know a number of graduate students and post-doctoral fellows who did consulting work on the side.
Often, if researchers have business acumen and interest, they will follow one of these two paths.
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thread-479 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/479 | Are there any students at the United Nations University? | 2012-02-29T08:05:02.030 | # Question
Title: Are there any students at the United Nations University?
The United Nations University (UNU) is an academic arm of the United Nations.
If I understood well, it is doing only research.
Are there any people who are actually enrolled as "students" there?
*References appreciated*
# Answer
> 9 votes
The United Nations University does not really work as a normal university, but rather as a research center. The difference is that they recruit students from developing countries as for a period that can go from several months to a year, in order to make them work on concrete research projects, so that they can gain experience (which can help them to apply for a Master of PhD program somewhere else).
For instance, this a job position for students at the UNU-IIST (International Institute for Software Technology). Note that the UNU-IIST also plan to offer a joint PhD program with the University of Pisa. Note also that it seems that each institute of the UNU is to some extent independent, so maybe other institutes provide more academic programs.
So, to answer your questions, technically speaking there are students at the UNU (when I was working at the UNU-IIST, there were something between 10 and 20 students), but they are not "enrolled" by the UNU, it's more like some kind of internship.
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thread-485 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/485 | Are university counseling services usually able to help with the professional troubles that PhD students face? | 2012-02-29T13:51:12.360 | # Question
Title: Are university counseling services usually able to help with the professional troubles that PhD students face?
The thing with PhDs is that it often takes someone who knows the politics and people of the field in order to really understand (or help) a PhD student's troubles (if any arise). At the same time, there are many similarities.
If they don't, who are the other best people to talk to in case issues arise?
# Answer
> 3 votes
Many university mental health centers have PhD-only group therapy programs. These often focus on stress and anxiety. They will be proctored by a professional counselor but are designed to be a space where graduate students can help each other.
The benefit is two-fold - you get to talk to people who are in grad school in your university, perhaps in a similar field or program. You'd be surprised how similar some issues are regardless of field of study (research falling behind, concern about funding, conflicts with PIs/advisers, etc.). But in group therapy you are able to work through issues in an explicitly private space. If you are having a serious issue, it may be good to start here rather than within your department. I'd say that is any grievance you air to someone within your department has the chance to spread.
# Answer
> 4 votes
In general, university counseling should be aware of how to deal with PhD student affairs as well as undergraduate issues. (Perhaps different staff or the two groups, perhaps not.) However, I'll focus on the "if they don't" part of your question.
There is usually a graduate "officer" in most departments, who is tasked with making sure that graduate students complete the requirements of their studies, and that departmental regulations and policies are being followed. This officer should be the first person to talk to if something goes wrong, and the problem can't be resolved between the parties directly.
Beyond that, the members of the thesis committee have an obligation to intervene in the case of severe conflicts that could disrupt the program. Ultimately, though, the chair of the department would be the last "internal" stop before you would have to go to the university-level administration (the office of the dean of graduate students, or a similar position).
If you are looking for advice from fellow students, perhaps you can get information from the student committee that is present in most departments.
# Answer
> 1 votes
Generally speaking, you'll get the best advice from one of the following, in order of usefulness & availability to help:
1. Your advisor
2. Postdocs in your lab/field
3. Other graduate students in your lab/field
4. Close collaborators
5. Your committee members
6. University departmental staff
7. ...
In the past, I have spoken with departmental staff for issues, including my department chair, but often they're pretty limited in what they can offer. Your most useful advice will often come from the top three in the above list.
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thread-435 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/435 | Is it advisable to put entire source of my thesis up on GitHub? | 2012-02-25T01:04:32.900 | # Question
Title: Is it advisable to put entire source of my thesis up on GitHub?
I've been using git for a while and now GitHub. I'm starting to write a master's thesis. Would it be a good idea to upload all the files to online public repositories? Does anyone have any experience with this?
EDIT: Thanks for all the answers. I consulted with my adviser about this, and he said that latex sources were ok, as the document will be open access anyway. My source code however was not, primarily because the collaboration already has a protected wiki for such things.
# Answer
> 20 votes
I'm told for your field that the answer might be yes, because you're slightly less threatened in terms of being scooped than most, with physics (apparently) going largely by who submits first.
*I* would be extremely cautious publishing the source of my thesis in its entirety on a public repository. I'm all for repeatable science and open access, but the public should only have access to your code when this condition is met:
*You have no further use of the exclusive access to your code. All the questions you've programmed have been answered, the papers and presentations that emerge from them are in press, and at this point, it is a question of reproducible research.*
Once that's true, sure. Until that point? You're running the profound risk of your research being stolen.
# Answer
> 21 votes
The answer is in two parts:
* Yes, it's a very good idea to use an online repository with a versioning system to write your Masters thesis. It offers a nice automatic backup, you can easily sync from different locations (office, home), and (this is mostly true for papers rather than a thesis) you can easily collaborate with people outside of your university (i.e. who wouldn't have an account on your university server.
* No, it's not a good idea at to make it public. Plagiarism is real, online versioning systems do not offer any real protection, and you don't want to make it too easy to copy, especially when you're not finished yet. I'm all for the open-access of *finished* documents, that you can put on arXiv, but in this case, there is a real timestamp, and your work can be indexed (for instance, in Computer Science, arXiv is indexed on DBLP).
For these reasons, I've been personally using for my papers BitBucket, that offers academics a free unlimited plan (unlimited public/private repositories, unlimited collaborators). In this way, I create a private repository for each of my papers, give access rights to my co-author(s). It seems that GitHub also provides a way to have private repositories for academics: https://github.com/edu, so you can keep using it for sharing your open-source code (for instance) and use it with a private repository for your thesis.
# Answer
> 11 votes
Talk to your adviser about this. **Do not make anything that is unpublished publicly available without their knowledge.** Any other people who might be co-authors on your papers might also have a say.
Having said that, a *private* github repository is a great idea (I used one myself for my PhD dissertation & papers).
# Answer
> 7 votes
**Code** \- yes, it is a good idea.
**PDF** (perhaps with LaTeX source) - you can (why not? but rather as a place to store it and point to).
However (for finished), there are more dedicated places, e.g.:
* opentheis \- repository of theses,
* Mendeley \- reference manager allowing to upload your publications (including theses),
* arXiv \- base of preprints (but only for theses in English and from a list of topics; there you need to put source as well),
* etc.
When you intend to actually write your thesis in the public - well, it is mostly up to you ( i.e. if you fill comfortable with it).
# Answer
> 5 votes
You should be very careful. As usual, this depends on your field. Mine is mathematics and it is not uncommon for a graduate student's thesis question to be solved much more quickly by someone far more advanced. If your thesis is publicly available then you increase the chances of this. This is more relevant for those working on original research, which is not always the case for a masters thesis, but keep this in mind.
# Answer
> 4 votes
I don't think there is a universal right answer to this. Some factors to consider, during the thesis *preparation* stage:
* Are there intellectual property issues to consider in your thesis work? If so, that would mitigate *against* having a public repository.
* Does your school or institution have rules against such behavior?
* Does your school offer its own service, which may offer better security for your data?
After the thesis is completed:
* Do you hold intellectual property rights to the original materials, so that you can publish it to a repository?
* Will publishing to a repository conflict with your ability to publish the work in journals (you'll need to check the journals in question)?
* Does your institution offer an archival service that will allow such access?
# Answer
> 4 votes
Bitbucket offers unlimited private repositories for academic accounts that you can get by using your uni email id. I'm writing my PhD dissertation using Lyx and use Mercurial for version control, so I store my code in a **private** repo on bitbucket. I think version control is indispensable for large research projects that are completed over a long time frame, so using a repository would obviously fit right in.
But making your stuff public serves no useful purpose, neither for you, nor for the academic community that would be interested in your research. You make something public when it is ready to see the light of the day. Till then, you receive feedback from your supervisor and colleagues, and improve the quality of your work until it is **good enough to be of use to others**
Making half-assed research public is a crime against academia, can reflect poorly on you, and in any case conferences are the best venue for discussing work in progress *and* for getting your work time-stamped by a large gathering of people in your field who know each other, and this can prevent "scooping". However I must say I'm sceptical that such a thing even exists in academia, your research can only be done by **you**.
Journalists search for novelty, and can therefore be scooped. We academics, on the other hand, search for credibility, which only comes from knowing "your" idea inside out. If somebody else can do more credible work with your idea, then they get the Nobel, you get the citation.
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Tags: open-access, version-control
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thread-505 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/505 | When should I tell a potential employer about a spousal accommodation? | 2012-03-02T03:45:13.453 | # Question
Title: When should I tell a potential employer about a spousal accommodation?
The title sums it up: At what point during the interview/negotiations do you let a potential academic employer about spousal accommodations?
# Answer
> 10 votes
I don't believe there's a universal right answer for this question. I think it depends on the level of accommodation required, as well as the particulars of your own situation. In general, if you're not being considered for a tenure-track or permanent-level position, there often isn't a lot you can do in terms of getting spousal accommodations, unless you have a very generous employer. In that case, I wouldn't think there's ever a good time to bring up the matter, because there won't be much in the way of possibilities.
For a tenure-track or equivalent position, on the other hand, I think that I would wait at least until the level of having secured an interview before bringing up these issues. Any earlier, and some employers may (perhaps illegally, depending on jurisdiction) wash their hands of the issue by skipping you in making the list of finalists. Once you've gotten the interview, though, that's no longer a concern.
Whether to mention it during or after the interview depends on the ability of the school to do something about it. I would lean towards mentioning at the interview, and particularly so f the school has a "dual-career" office in place. If you wait, then you may spend your time negotiating and having to accept or decline the offer without a firm commitment of help in hand at the time.
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Tags: job-search
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thread-520 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/520 | How do you make corrections to a published paper? | 2012-03-02T20:18:32.047 | # Question
Title: How do you make corrections to a published paper?
What's the best way to make corrections to a published paper? Should I amend the original paper and mention in a footnote (or similar) what was changed and why or prepare a completely separate document and put that on my website/append it to the original paper?
I'm not so much worried about how to get it to the publishers that handle the paper, but rather about how to go about it. I would especially like to hear from people who have done something like that or know someone who did.
# Answer
It depends on what the error is.
* If the error is the publisher's fault—for instance, if they failed to make a correction you specified in the proofs—then they have an obligation to correct the error. In that case, an email to the editors alerting them of the problem, along with some documentation of the original list of corrections, usually suffices to get the problem fixed. (This will usually be accompanied by a "publisher's note" alerting the reader to the correction, although the original article will usually be updated to provide the correct information.)
* If the error is something discovered after publication, then the best way to fix this is to prepare a short comment detailing the error, the correction, and its implications on your work. The resulting item is then submitted to the journal as a "comment" (or, in some cases, an "erratum," if the journal offers that as a submission option). In this sense, it is like any other comment on a paper.
> 15 votes
# Answer
> What's the best way to make corrections to a published paper?
Although it isn't clear what the "best way" is, I am fairly certain that it is not the standard approaches that are currently used (e.g. as described in aesmail's answer).
PLOS enables authors and readers to post notes, comments, and corrections on published articles. Corrections can be either minor or major corrections, and are reviewed by PLOS staff.
I think that this is a step in the right direction, and by lowering the bar for publishing a correction will hopefully promote better science.
> 6 votes
# Answer
Journals oftentimes make their procedures regarding varying types of corrections available on their website (e.g., Nature). I would speak with the journal and see what their preferred methodology is. This way, you can have the correction listed alongside the original publication, which would maximize the visibility of the correction. Almost no one reading your paper will check your personal website to see if corrections have been posted there.
> 5 votes
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Tags: publications, errors-erratum
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thread-300 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/300 | Doing a PhD with significant external time obligations (e.g., marriage) | 2012-02-21T17:47:53.187 | # Question
Title: Doing a PhD with significant external time obligations (e.g., marriage)
Graduate school has a reputation for being a tremendous time-sink. I'm currently married with kids, and I have a fairly busy extracurricular schedule. Is it common for married people - or anyone, actually, with significant external time constraints - to not finish their graduate work, specifically due to conflicting obligations?
# Answer
I've seen it work both ways: some people realize that they have a limited amount of time to work as a result of their external commitments, and therefore make themselves super-productive during the hours they are able to do research. I think, to some extent, that most of the people with severe external obligations fall into this class.
For a sizable minority, however, the balancing act proves too difficult—although this is often a function of a mismatch in expectations between the advisor and the graduate student. If you believe this could be a problem for you, you should definitely talk with your advisor; if the outcome is unsatisfactory, you should also consider speaking with your thesis committee and the "graduate officer" of your department.
In general, I think that if you are a productive graduate student, your advisor would be willing to work out suitable accommodations for your schedule.
> 24 votes
# Answer
The people who I've seen with considerable external commitments who have still gotten through in a reasonable amount of time all boil down to one thing: They treat grad-school like a job. From 9 to 5 (or 10 to 6, 11 to 7, whatever works for their schedule) they're *working*. No, they're not available for the infinitely many distractions of life, any more than someone at an office is. They pack a tremendous amount of productivity into that time, and then when they need to be with their family, they're with their family.
Those at least are the people who got through it sane. I think the other major trait is to recognize that, because you have a life, this might take a little longer, and not burn yourself out trying to hammer things through to the point of exhaustion.
> 26 votes
# Answer
I had a similar dilemma (mine was whether to become a parent during grad school), and what solved it for me is the realization that, if all goes according to plan, my post-PhD life won't be too different from my grad student life. I'd like to stay in academia, and all the current difficulties will remain (e.g. short-term contracts/grants, traveling, unevenly distributed workload throughout the year, etc.). This realization was one of those: "Aha!" moments for me. If it doesn't work out now, it won't be a viable option for the future either. That being said, I do try to keep a 9-5 schedule, and I don't think it would have worked out well if my partner wasn't as involved in parenting as I am.
Perhaps working in industry is different, and it really is easier to have kids. In any case it might be an idea to ask yourself whether you think your obligations in grad school would really be all that different from what they are at your current job.
> 11 votes
# Answer
I think the answers given by aeismail and EpiGrad are correct, however, I just want to add one particular point, the one of traveling. Indeed, if it's true that many jobs from 9 to 5 can also include some traveling duties, it's particularly true when doing a PhD (and later on during the whole academic life). In this case, I don't think that marriage is a problem, but other external time obligations, such as a baby or an activity requiring some presence can pose problem.
I've known a case of a PhD student who couldn't attend a conference overseas in its entirety due to religious reasons: the conference was ending on a Friday, and this student needed to be home every Saturday. He couldn't attend entirely for the same reason a PhD school, and I think it's a real problem, because these kind of events are also there to socialize with peers, and going there just for a limited time window does not help.
Similarly, I've known a case where a speaker could only attend one day at a conference, the one where he was giving his talk, as he couldn't be far from home more than that, because he had to take care of his baby.
I'm not saying that an academic life means no private life, but in some cases, it can require some flexibility, and an external time obligation might imply to limit oneself, for instance by considering only "local" conferences.
> 9 votes
# Answer
I agree with previous answers: graduate school is a *full-time* job, and should be treated as such. I think it is possible to do so while keeping a healthy marriage life, though it might take more time than usual.
Just to complete the perspective, let me give my personal experience. I have completed my M.Sc. in parallel of working a full-time job (which was really a 24/7 kind of work). Although it was M.Sc and not PhD, it was research-based rather than classes-based and same rules apply: school is a full-time job. Graduating took me 6 years rather than the common 2-year program, but I did it! Don't get me wrong - it wasn't easy at all: I was working on weekdays and studying on weekends, with very little time to do other stuff (if at all). However, I know quite a few people who did the same. The key to success is only to have a strong will. Kids and marriage are a large time-consuming, but certainly not as much as another job.
> 3 votes
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Tags: graduate-school, time-management
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thread-8 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8 | What journals do not allow open access to published material? | 2012-02-14T20:34:32.130 | # Question
Title: What journals do not allow open access to published material?
An increasing number of funding organizations require publications on the research that they fund to be open access, i.e. available to the public without having to subscribe to a journal or pay a fee. Does anybody know where I can find a list of journals/publishers that do not allow material that they publish to be published this way?
# Answer
This answer to a related question points to http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/, which allows you to look up the policy of specific journals.
> 16 votes
# Answer
Directory of open access journals is the most comprehensive listing for the open access ones, so if you find a journal there, it's open. If not, then you need further research. Though usually clicking on an article link should be sufficient.
> 9 votes
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Tags: publications, journals, open-access
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thread-464 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/464 | What are the advantages and disadvantages to completing a Masters program before applying to a Ph. D program? | 2012-02-28T03:05:48.963 | # Question
Title: What are the advantages and disadvantages to completing a Masters program before applying to a Ph. D program?
I've been considering applying to graduate school of some form or another in Mathematics. During my undergraduate years, I did decently on my undergraduate coursework (mostly A-s, some As, a B) but not stellar, and it wasn't until I started taking graduate courses as a senior that I started buckling down and getting solid As or higher. I also had no research experience at this time.
I eventually want to apply to a Ph. D program in pure mathematics. Since I didn't really click until later in undergraduate years, so I was considering applying to 2-year masters programs in mathematics, and then based on my performance there, decide whether I'm fit to work towards a Ph. D.
> My question is, what are the advantages and disadvantages to completing a master's program before applying to a separate Ph. D program?
I know masters degrees are sometimes considered terminal degrees. Would doing well in masters coursework be advantageous in applying to Ph. D programs later on as opposed to immediately after undergrad years? Does strong performance as a masters student make one a more attractive candidate, or do programs have less interest in applicants who already have a masters? Is it wiser to apply for a Ph. D directly? I'm sorry if this question is considered too much of a soft question. Thank you.
# Answer
> 31 votes
I can only speak for my (computer science) department. Students who apply to our PhD program with MS degrees are held to a higher standard than applicants who apply as undergraduates. What we look for in PhD applicants is *strong evidence of research potential*. Most undergraduates don't have an opportunity to undertake a real research project, but MS students do have that opportunity, *by definition*. It's *much* harder for MS applicants without publishable results to be admitted than an undergraduate in the same situation, all else being equal. Grades are much less important (unless they suck, which yours don't).
On the other hand, the fact that your already decent grades improved when you started taking graduate classes is a *huge* point in your favor. Be sure to get recommendation letters from your instructors in those courses, and hit them up for research opportunities. I recommend applying to *both* MS *and* PhD programs; some departments will even let you apply for both simultaneously.
There's a similar effect in NSF's evaluations of graduate fellowship applications. NSF splits the applicant pool into three piles based on the number of years of graduate education: still an undergrad, less than 12 months, and more than 12 months. Expectations are higher for applicants in later piles. In particular, publications are a *de facto* requirement for students in the more-than-one-year pile, *even if their one year of graduate education was in a non-research masters program*.
# Answer
> 20 votes
Many PhD programs require you to do a masters on your way to a PhD, so the point in many cases is moot. That being said,
**Advantages:**
* You'll get a chance to see whether research is something you like before committing to the PhD process.
* You'll complete most of the coursework, so when you get to the PhD work you'll be able to more quickly focus on research.
**Disadvantages:**
* Depending on the masters, you may be spending money on your degree. Many PhD programs will fund your way (in exchange for you doing awesome research).
* You'll be required to do a master thesis, which can be comprehensive, and you may come to view it as a waste to do it twice (one for masters, one for PhD).
# Answer
> 9 votes
Other than what eykanal mentioned, you might want to consider the following points:
**Pros**
* If you have lackluster UG grades with little/no research experience (in terms of publications/term papers/internships), few top PhD programs would be even willing to look at your application, not matter what are your scores in the GREs. I assume your letters of recommendations (LORs) from faculty would be average at best as well, which would really, really hurt your admission chances. So, a Masters degree would help you rectify that - you can aggressively start pursuing research-based projects with the faculty, and work at a publishable thesis. This would both give you something added to your profile (a publication), and you can get much better LORs from your masters faculty - something that may get you into that top school where your dream adviser works!
* You can get (some of) your Master's course credit transferred to your PhD program, so that you can start working on your thesis much early, and may even finish faster! However, this *really* varies from department to department, so make sure you inquire about this before applying!
* If you are really, really sure of what field you want to research in, you can find the top people in your field (whom you'd want to be advised by during your PhD) - and start corresponding with them during your Masters, asking queries/having discussions about their most recent papers, and using them in your Masters thesis (assuming you'd be working in the same field). That way, when you finally apply, you would stand out in their mind from the other applicants, as someone who is genuinely interested in their research. Mind you, I'm not asking you to fake anything! Be sincere about your passion to work in the same research areas, and they just might be convinced to bat for you during applications review!
**Con**
* On the other hand, if you do not fare well in Masters program, most admission committees (ad-coms) would take it as a red flag - as it would bolster the less-than-stellar impression your undergrads created, and hence they might deem you not fit for PhD at all. This might be the case with even the ad-coms that might've been willing to give you the benefit of the doubt when only presented with your undergrad records - so, tread carefully if you happen to embark on a Masters, as your performance there would undergo even greater scrutiny!
# Answer
> 5 votes
So I'm a first year math PhD student. I did not get my masters before entering university, but I don't think that had a big role either for or against me. I didn't end up applying to any masters programs actually, and I had two major reasons:
* the primary reason for me was money. None of the programs that I was interested in funded masters math programs. I'm sure that there are such programs, but school is expensive. And I'm poor. So it goes.
* the secondary reason was inspiration. I'm going to do original research, right? That's the goal. And I'm impatient ad ready for it (at least in spirit). It happens to be the case that we spend our first year here doing a lot of work, quals, etc. It's the second year where things kick into gear, and I'm already straining for it. (However, if I already knew everything, I would have already passed my quals, so it's not unfair treatment or anything).
If I were to give you my personal recommendation, knowing that you wanted to get a math PhD eventually, then I would say apply to both if you are in doubt. What's the worst that can happen? If you are a strong enough candidate to go straight to PhD, then great. Why not, right? And if not, then a little graduate coursework can't hurt your application.
I would also like to mention that, at least in my program, there is no transferral of credits. You come in, pass qualifying exams, and write a dissertation. The transferral of credits would come in the form of you already knowing enough to pass the quals immediately (I did not know them all, for instance - some people knew more and some less). In all likelihood, you'd still burn at least a semester, more likely a year, just like all of us do. So a masters would likely lengthen your studies (at least at my uni).
On the other hand, it is possible that you don't have a big idea of what area of math, or what field of math in particular, you want to work in. This would be a big issue, perhaps. I knew I wanted to do number theory, and I was interested in the work of some of the number theorists at Brown. But a combinatorialist, graph theorist, or many other people would be hopelessly alone here (there is little love for combinatorics here). I suspect this sort of problem could be true in many schools. But if you know what you want to do, then this is no issue.
To end, I wanted to note that it's fine to test the waters, i.e. to see if you're fit for a math PhD, in a math PhD program. I've known people who have gotten a masters a year or two in, decided that was enough, and left the program. I suspect this isn't uncommon (although it would be uncommon where I am), and you'd get paid to do it.
# Answer
> 4 votes
This is speaking only from my experience in Public Health and Epidemiology, so its slightly more general, but hopefully it will be helpful. Some of these have already been mentioned by other posters.
**Advantages:**
* You have the potential to establish your "research chops", or shore up your grades. If you don't think you have a strong application coming directly out of undergrad, this is probably a plus.
* If you move programs between your MS and your PhD, you get to see two schools. That's good for both perspective on research (rather than only being exposed to "The University X way of doing things"), and it means an extra set of contacts, though admittedly your network from the Masters university will probably end up being somewhat weaker.
* You get the "feel" for your potential research topic. Which means that if you don't like it, you can switch. Getting an MS and a PhD in two different but related topics (like say Pure Math and Applied Math/Operations Research/CS, etc.) is pretty run-of-the-mill. Switching PhD programs mid-stream is a much less pleasant experience.
* In contrast to some of the answers here, in my field at least I'd argue that undergraduate applicants are judged more harshly than their MS-weilding colleagues. Several major programs simply *do not* accept folks directly from undergrad into their PhD programs, and several others say they do, but in practice without someone pulling for you or an act of God they're not going to do so.
**Disadvantages**
* It will probably add time. If you're coming straight from undergraduate, a university's combined MS/PhD track (wherein essentially you get an MS by way of your PhD coursework + a thesis) is likely the "least time" path to a doctorate. While you'll be able to transfer some of your credits from your Masters into a PhD program, some will almost certainly not transfer, and the university may have a core set of courses that they'll want you to take over again. For example, in my program, I'd say having a Masters trims about a year from your time in the PhD program. But most Masters degrees take 2 years...
* You have to move again. The flip side to getting to see two places worth of stuff is you're going to find yourself hopping across the country not once by twice.
* There are potentially some cultural problems. Some places view Masters students (not necessarily incorrectly) as transient, so its hard to command a professor's attention as someone worth investing tons of time into, compared to a doctoral student who is going to be around for 5, 6 or more years. This is especially true for professors outside your thesis advisor and maybe the professor who taught a class you did particularly well in.
* Money. In contrast to @JeffE's assertion (which is absolutely true for doctoral programs) my field doesn't necessarily fund Masters degrees that aren't part of a combined MS/PhD track. It's hard to get faculty to use their limited RA positions on Masters students instead of doctoral students, and because in the field there's actually a very small number of undergraduate programs, there are few TAships available to people who haven't passed through at least some of the coursework. Because the MPH is also heavily used in my field as a terminal/practitioners degree, it's treated somewhat like a professional school - you pay for your degree.
# Answer
> 1 votes
I cannot speak for Mathematics but for Computer Science the importance of getting Maters degree first is multi-fold which of many have been stated above but one which I feel is also very important. Sometimes in the middle of the PhD program you might feel like taking a break for couple of years and consider doing a job either for relaxing or to get a hands on experience in the industry. Having your Masters degree then will help you find a better job than with undergraduate or god forbid you quit your PhD, you will have Masters degree in your hand.
# Answer
> 1 votes
In some fields (this is true in my own experience for some humanities and social science disciplines), there are departments whose terminal MA programs are recognized as being "feeders" for more competitive Ph.D programs. So applicants who go through those are not necessarily at a disadvantage—possibly the reverse, especially if one's undergraduate grades or training are lacking in some respect. You will need to find out, though, what is true of the field you are working in, and of course *which* MA programs, if any, have this reputation.
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thread-555 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/555 | Does a informative and clear professor webpage often increase the number of prospective PhD students who apply to work for the professor? | 2012-03-04T16:38:29.903 | # Question
Title: Does a informative and clear professor webpage often increase the number of prospective PhD students who apply to work for the professor?
Here is what I would call a particularly informative and clear professor webpage.
Of course, it's not the most important thing (for me, personally, I mostly discovered professors through asking current professors whom to contact). But a lot of PhD students do discover professors to contact through Internet searches, which may be especially relevant for PhD students who might not have as many connections (especially international ones). And maybe a strong professor webpage could also increase the "fit" of the applicants who do decide to contact the professor.
# Answer
As an international student who is (was?) looking for potential advisors, I'd say yes (As far as I know)!
The algorithm for me worked as follows:
1. Contact the obvious ones. These were authors of papers I read recently (& liked), editors of journals etc. Basically, the ones with good "academic presence".
2. Look at professors who have written textbooks or survey papers.
3. Look at strong departments for professors. (By strong I mean : Reputation, Rankings and Star Power/Infrastructure)
4. If a professor has a good webpage (Updated recently with list of current/past projects, list of graduate students and alumni), Shoof! Time saved!
5. If a professor has a bad webpage (Last updated in 2001 or with minimal content or whatever), then run him on google scholar. Read his papers and try to find out what his students are upto.
6. Once a professor has been selected, run youtube and ratemyprofessor on him. This is usually worthless but it did yield some awesome results once in a while. It did help get a virtual lab tour at times.
In conclusion:
* Maintaining a good website does help students (especially international) get to know the professor better.
* It does save us a lot of time by having access to all relevant information at one place
* What is most irritating is webpages with very old content. I would prefer limited recent content to old obsolete content.
> 11 votes
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Tags: professorship
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thread-530 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/530 | Can teaching help one's studies? | 2012-03-03T05:30:22.783 | # Question
Title: Can teaching help one's studies?
Most of the questions about teaching assistantship portray TA'ing as a waste of time that only damages research. Although I am not TA'ing this year I consider applying for a TA position next year, because I feel I kind of missing it and it actually helps me to focus on my research.
Are there any clear benefits of TA'ing for one's studies and research?
# Answer
Of course, it depends on how much teaching you would be doing, and how many hours a week it would take you, but generally, I would consider the following pros/cons points:
**Pros:**
* Teaching might allow you to meet other people than those you are doing research with, and interaction with different people can be useful in terms of research (for instance, you can find a nice collaboration idea with a prof or another TA).
* Teaching brings more immediate rewards (positive and negative) than research. When I was doing my PhD, I was also teaching (about 60 hours per year), and sometimes, when I was stuck with some research problems, it was a nice feeling to interact with students and to feel "productive".
* Teaching is a good training to clearly explain ideas and concepts, which an important skill to write good papers.
* Teaching provides you a different activity aside from research, and can help you focus (as you said yourself).
* Teaching is good on a CV, and if you consider applying at some point to a lectureship/professorship position, then having done some teaching during your PhD can allow you to do some more research-oriented postdocs after (and thus get potentially more papers), so it's somehow a good time investment to do it when you're not expected to produce a huge amount of papers.
**Cons:**
* Teaching takes some time, especially if you are teaching in a field where you are not an expert.
* The downside of the immediate rewards is that sometimes, you can get frustrated because of the teaching, and that can have an impact on your research production.
In conclusion, I would say that being a TA has really clear and acknowledged benefits, as long as it does not take too much time on the research activity (I would say no more than a day per week during the official periods of teaching).
> 12 votes
# Answer
I would definitely say that teaching helps you to understand better your teaching subject. Learning something is very different than learning something so that you are able to explain it to others.
As Einstein said it.
```
If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.
```
When I teach, I see different viewpoints while I am explaining. When you see, students do not understand your example, you are forced to think about it. A question force you to see other parts of subject. These things always help me to understand my subject better.
But you should be picky about your subjects. A subject which is completely different from your research topic is not suitable. But a subject which is helpful to your research subject will be better for you. For example I am studying Machine Learning, a lot of courses are offered which will be helpful in this topic.
* Statistics
* Optimization
* Data Mining
* ....
But in the same token, web programming may not be helpful.
> 3 votes
# Answer
The idea that teaching is something that invariably and inexorably damages ones research and study prospects to be entirely opposed to my actual experience.
*Some* teaching experiences are nothing but time sinks that devour otherwise productive periods and leave you no closer to having finished, or produced interesting work. But the same can be said for some research experiences.
There are some definitive pros I found to teaching. First, it provided a second pass at material I thought I "knew", but now had to know inside and out. That was eye opening, to say the least. It afforded me more time to interact with the professor who was teaching the class, and gave me a framework where I was immersed in a topic - said immersion ended up in me adapting some things about my dissertation to a particular class topic I now knew *really* well.
It also teaches you to teach, and while generally an undervalued skill in academia compared to research, it's both something you should probably know, and does train you for some research oriented problems - how to give a new grad student in your lab a rundown of the topic, how to answer questions off the cuff during talks. How to give talks meant to convey *information* instead of a summary of results.
> 2 votes
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Tags: teaching, research-process
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thread-557 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/557 | Alphabetical author list in non-alphabetical journal | 2012-03-04T19:56:45.743 | # Question
Title: Alphabetical author list in non-alphabetical journal
(A followup for this question)
Say your field's convention is to have alphabetical-ordered author list. What should you do when your work is accepted to a (multidisciplinary) journal in which the convention is to order the author by contribution (e.g. Nature)?
# Answer
> 4 votes
My first stop would be checking if the journal has any particular authorship policies. If it does, follow them - if its not the way your field does it, welcome to the perils of interdisciplinary research.
From there, in my mind, it splits into two questions:
* Is it a field-specific paper that *happens* to be going in an interdisciplinary journal. For example, are all the authors from Alphabetical Author List Field? Then put it in that field's ordering.
* Is it *genuinely* interdisciplinary (multiple fields with different traditions)? I'd probably default to the non-alphabetical ordering scheme, as *among people I work with* its the more common ordering scheme, and those who come from other fields that don't do that are generally pretty understanding. Or, if the authorship list is small enough, see if there's a clever ordering of author names that gets everyone what they need (it happens).
# Answer
> 5 votes
If it's a well-known journal like Nature, then I would follow their convention. Everybody who reads the article will assume that you do.
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Tags: publications, authorship, etiquette
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thread-535 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/535 | What does author order indicate? | 2012-03-03T12:09:58.870 | # Question
Title: What does author order indicate?
When you look at a paper, what order to you assume the authors are in? Most important/most work done first or alphabetical? In my group we usually use alphabetic order, but I've been wondering if that might create a misleading impression with lots of people.
On a related note, would you expect the name of a PhD student to be always first on publications related to her/his work?
# Answer
> 48 votes
The answer is strongly conditional on discipline and, to a lesser extent, country of origin. Conventions vary widely, as does the degree to which they are institutionalized. For instance, in some fields (e.g., Philosophy), co-authorship is not common and there is no convention about attribution, so absent an explicit note people are are likely to think the more senior author is the primary one. In Sociology, co-authorship is common and the convention is that the first author is the lead author unless there is a note indicating equal authorship. In Economics, co-authorship has become increasingly common over the past few decades but the convention is to list authors alphabetically, regardless of degree of contribution. In some fields the primary author may be determined by looking to see if there's a note specifying to whom correspondence should be directed, regardless of order of authorship on the paper.
Meanwhile in many lab-based science disciplines, where it's sole authorship that's rare, author order is governed by different norms. In some fields, the first author is the one who is primarily responsible for the paper (what that means can vary, too), the last author is the lab head or primary grant-holder, and the order of authors in between is sometimes influenced by other norms. But other conventions exist, too. Knowing what they are and how to interpret them is part of one's socialization into a discipline.
To make things more complicated, some fields—or some journals, or some labs, or some individual authors—may have their own rules or conventions designed to clarify things by listing credit more explicitly. Even worse, there may be a kind of hermeneutics of author-order where people parcel out credit to different contributors regardless of order of authorship, as when someone says "Sure, X is the first author and Y helped him write it up but it's obvious the paper was Z's idea".
In your case, if your lab or unit is using a convention that's not standard in your field the most straightforward solution is to make a note of this in your articles. This isn't an *ideal* solution because papers will still be cited or referenced without people paying attention to your clarifying note, but there isn't much you can do about that.
# Answer
> 19 votes
Kieran's answer is correct, it really depends on the field, but I couldn't resist the temptation to link to this (funny) paper by Andrew W. Appel, which tries to study which Computer Science conferences are Maths and which ones are Science, based on the assumption that Math researchers publish using alphabetical order while Science (i.e. more applied research) researchers do not.
I wouldn't say that these are hard facts, but at least, that's quite interesting to read!
For info, it was referenced from this question on CS Theoretical SE: https://cstheory.stackexchange.com/a/3126/8030
# Answer
> 8 votes
In my field (Epidemiology) I would always assume that the authorship is appearing in the "Most important work first, PI/major senior contributor last, others in the middle" authorship scheme, but it varies dramatically based on field.
Under that scheme, I would expect the papers that emerge from a PhD students dissertation to have them as the first author. Ancillary papers, those where their results/data are published as part a compendium of findings from a larger study, etc. are where I wouldn't necessarily expect their names to show up first.
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Tags: publications, authorship, collaboration
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thread-568 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/568 | What percent of assistant professors generally receive tenure, and how does this percent vary depending on both school and field? | 2012-03-05T04:58:04.030 | # Question
Title: What percent of assistant professors generally receive tenure, and how does this percent vary depending on both school and field?
Are new assistant professors more likely to receive tenure in an expanding field, like biology? And are they less likely (percentage-wise) to receive tenure at elite schools?
# Answer
This is actually quite a difficult question to answer specifically. Here is a brief paper reviewing some of the reasons why good data is unavailable on even very basic questions, together with some references to what is available. In the U.S. case, everyone agrees that, in general, the higher-ranked one's university, the more difficult it is to get tenure. Departments at some elite schools are notorious for their unwillingness or inability to grant tenure to their junior faculty over a very long period—in some cases, decades. (Just last year in my own field, for example, one of the leading departments tenured one of its junior faculty for the first time in more than twenty years. This is an extreme example, but you get the point.)
Beyond the well-known general patterns and the (sometimes widely-reported) particular horror stories, though, many very interesting questions remain difficult to address systematically—including your one about expanding versus stable fields. The question is complicated by the fact that the institution of tenure itself is changing, as is its role within the university. As Wikipedia notes, in the United States "The period since 1972 has seen a steady decline in the percentage of college and university teaching positions in the US that are either tenured or tenure-track. United States Department of Education statistics put the combined tenured/tenure-track rate at 56% for 1975, 46.8% for 1989, and 31.9% for 2005. That is to say, by the year 2005, 68.1% of US college teachers were neither tenured nor eligible for tenure; a full 48% of teachers that year were part-time employees.
> 22 votes
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Tags: professorship, tenure-track
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thread-570 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/570 | Are the Survey rankings for the National Research Council really more objective than the Regression rankings? | 2012-03-05T05:09:33.133 | # Question
Title: Are the Survey rankings for the National Research Council really more objective than the Regression rankings?
This blog post argues so, but I have my doubts since the author works at a graduate program whose S-rankings are much better than its R-rankings. I have a feeling that R-rankings do capture some things that S-rankings don't capture. Professors who are far ahead of their time, for example, might be recognized as such, but I would expect that their papers probably won't get very high citation counts for some time.
# Answer
> 6 votes
No, both rankings are basically nonsense. Even if you agree with the NRC's choice of a single "quality" model across all intellectual disciplines, the rankings are based on horrendously incomplete and incorrect data. This is especially true in computer science.
Also, the claim in the blog post is an obvious joke. The S-rankings are "better" because writer's home department's S-ranking was better than its R-ranking.
# Answer
> 0 votes
Any ranking that tries to distill a large bunch of heterogeneous statistics into a single number should be treated with a healthy dose of skepticism. There is no inherent reason why a particular set of statistics should be weighted with one set of weights instead of another—and the two different weights could lead to widely divergent results.
That said, if you see a large number of rankings, and they all tend to have fairly similar results, there can be some predictive power in the *collective* set of rankings. And I would say it's a "loose" scheme at best: the difference between #1 and #2 on such lists is probably not indicative of much; the difference between #10 and #30 or #50 is much more meaningful.
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Tags: graduate-school
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thread-582 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/582 | How can a graduate school applicant improve his application for next year's season? | 2012-03-05T19:39:41.510 | # Question
Title: How can a graduate school applicant improve his application for next year's season?
It seems I'm about to have a bad application season, as all schools I'm waiting to hear from have given out offers of admissions to other applicants. I'm trying to come up with a viable plan to turn my application into a successful one for next year's season.
Here are some important things to note:
1. I come from an unknown school, but my reference writers earned their Ph.Ds from well-known schools in the U.S. (top 25 via NRC ranking). They all encouraged me to apply to top 30 programs in the US.
2. I am an international applicant.
3. I am interested in pure mathematics.
Some fall-back plans I have is to actually get involved in research during the summer and fall, and I'm hoping I can get a serious publication out of doing this.
So for the people who have served on admissions committees in the past, what else can I do? Should I not bother to apply to the same programs I applied to this year?
# Answer
**Publish.** I have seen the following pattern more than once. (1) Applicant X applies to my department's PhD program and is rejected, not for any major flaws, but just for not standing out from the crowd. (2) X joins a MS program at a different university. (3) As a master's student, X publishes one paper and has two more in submission (or at least preparation). (4) X reapplies to my department's PhD program, with a detailed technical discussion of his results in his statement of purpose and stellar letters from his new department. (5) X is admitted in the first round, with a fellowship.
If you haven't done so already, show your complete application to the people who wrote your rec letters, and ask for their **brutally honest** feedback, especially on your statement. Often students who write statements without some faculty feedback write them to the wrong audience. ("I'm smart; hire me." makes a bad statement of purpose. "Here is the mathematics I've worked on and what I'm interested in looking at next." is much better.)
It's a long shot, but if your recommenders know faculty at the schools you applied to, you *might* be able to get some second-hand feedback through them. Maybe.
> 12 votes
# Answer
To steal a phrase from real estate, "Network, network, and network". At this point, you can't really improve your GPA, you can't write a senior thesis, and you can't do undergraduate research. Your best bet is to talk to as many people as you can in order to (1) improve your letters of recommendation and (2) network with researchers.
Personally, I would recommend against taking more undergraduate classes, *unless* there's a specific deficiency in your academic record. Simply taking a course to raise your GPA will likely not have a large impact or be a good use of your time and money. However, if you're missing a subject area, this is the time to fix it. For example, I graduated as a psychology major, and needed some math courses when applying to biomedical engineering graduate programs, so I took a course on diff eq's and linear algebra. That course ended up being very helpful later on, both on my application and when joining research labs.
You mention that you hope to do research over the summer. Adding publications to your record will significantly help your chances, as it makes your academic record less important... the reviewing committee will often consider publications as proof that you can "do it". You should expect, though, that you will be grilled extremely thoroughly on your work during the interview process.
> 6 votes
# Answer
There's a lot of helpful advice on this front in the thread How do you get a bad transcript past Ph.D. admissions?
Basically, your situation really isn't all that different from the one discussed in that thread—your credentials don't seem to qualify you for international study. However, you may have some additional possibilities to consider:
* Were your IELTS/TOEFL scores below par?
* How strong were your letters of recommendation? Do they actually attest to personal attributes, or is it merely a recitation of your performance in class? The latter do you essentially no good in admissions to a US-style graduate program.
* Do you have the opportunity to take more classes before you apply in an attempt to improve your standing?
These are some possibilities, but without knowing more about your situation, it's hard to comment further.
> 5 votes
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Tags: graduate-admissions
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thread-588 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/588 | Who pays travel & per diem costs for invited lecturers? | 2012-03-06T00:14:28.563 | # Question
Title: Who pays travel & per diem costs for invited lecturers?
When an academic is invited to give a talk at another university, are their food and travel expenses usually fully reimbursed by the university that invited the professor?
# Answer
In my experience (as a visiting guest lecturer while a grad student elsewhere) the travel expense and accommodation were covered not by the university that hosted me, but by grant money from the professor that invited me. That being said, these visits were for a few days and included both the guest lecture, and some research/discussion on ongoing projects.
I did not claim a per diem for food, but I am sure that if I had it would have been covered, too.
> 7 votes
# Answer
The short answer is that it depends (no surprise there). If it's to give a talk in a department colloquium or seminar, travel cost are usually covered (at least, that's been my experience in mathematics), though that can vary a bit, especially since smaller departments may have very limited budgets for that kind of thing.
Food expenses vary even more wildly, and they depend heavily on the source of funding. I've been at places that had a standard per diem for visitors, places that did nothing, and places where the faculty would take the speaker to dinner and split the cost among them.
> 9 votes
# Answer
When you are an invited guest of a university department, in most cases you will have your travel costs paid by the department, or in the case of an individual institute or professor extending the invitation, by the specific people involved. In the case of a short visit (less than a day, for instance), when a per diem becomes impractical, the cost of the meal after the conference might be split among the attendees.
However, I have been an invited lecturer at conferences that were organized at various schools. In those cases, the conferences were operating on a very limited budget, and the "compensation" was essentially a free registration to the conference.
> 3 votes
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Tags: professorship, travel
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thread-592 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/592 | Do professors benefit from undergraduate research? | 2012-03-06T01:15:29.563 | # Question
Title: Do professors benefit from undergraduate research?
And does it depend on the type of field? Undergrads in biology can do the menial work, but what about undergrads in the computational sciences?
Are they more or less likely to benefit from undergraduate research in schools/fields where the undergrads tend to be especially self-motivated? (I don't know much about the ratio of self-motivated undergrads to non-self-motivated undergrads, but the professors I talked to at Brown and UChicago said that working with the undergrads at those schools was incredibly rewarding since they tended to be very self-motivated).
# Answer
As you suggest in your question, this likely will vary from both field to field, and from lab to lab. In the two research labs I've worked in, one engineering and one neuroscience, undergraduates did a tremendous amount of useful work. In engineering, they would help with circuit design and fabrication, as well as doing background research and presenting their findings to the group as a whole. In the neuroscience lab, they would do cellular recordings and prepare cell cultures, as well as participate in paper writing.
In both cases, the undergraduates benefitted tremendously from the experience in a number of ways; they experienced the life of a researcher, they got to perform actual research work, they published articles and conference papers, and they received excellent letters of recommendation. The lab also benefitted, in that they had a (most of the time) highly motivated student who was interested in doing work performing research, the grad students/professors had more time either prepare other experiments or write papers, and all the benefits of simply having someone else around to bounce ideas off of. All in all, if the lab is organized enough to handle the logistics of providing the students with regular (non-busywork) tasks to perform, it's a win-win situation for everyone.
> 15 votes
# Answer
One other (minor) benefit that eykanal and EpiGrad didn't mention is internal brownie points. Faculty in my department are encouraged to collaborate with undergrads, in part because graduate admissions is highly correlated with undergraduate research experience, and in part so that the department can attract a larger pool of potential majors. Working with undergrads makes my chair/dean happy.
That's not a major reason for me, though. As your Brown and UC profs suggest, the enthusiasm that motivated undergrads bring to research can be very refreshing. And (in my experience, in theoretical CS) there's comparatively little pressure for the research to lead to publication, compared to work with graduate students (where unsuccessful research means they don't graduate).
> 8 votes
# Answer
There are two major benefits I've encountered for professors sponsoring/hosting undergraduate researchers.
1. Grunt work.Yes it extends outside laboratory sciences - everyone has work that, while it needs to be handled with attention, doesn't necessarily need doctoral-level expertise. Parameter searches. Literature pulling. Programming implementation. All of these are valuable experiences for undergrads, give them exposure not only to the field they're interested in but the "act" of research itself, and save time for grad students, post-docs and faculty who *could* do these things, but instead are able to focus on the tasks undergraduates can't do.
2. Recruitment. Promising undergraduate researchers make for decent graduate student recruits. If they're not terribly interested in pursuing graduate education, but have a knack for research tasks and mesh well with a lab, they're also prime material for lab techs, programmers, and other technical support staff.
> 6 votes
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Tags: research-undergraduate
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thread-603 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/603 | Looking for sources of online graduate-level education | 2012-03-06T09:49:05.867 | # Question
Title: Looking for sources of online graduate-level education
Can anyone suggest sources of online graduate-level education, as well as some criticism of them? Both free and paid are valid. I'm familiar with these sources:
and I'm curious to know what other resources are available.
# Answer
> 6 votes
A few points:
1. What subject are you looking at? The answer varies significantly if you are not looking at science/math/engineering.
2. Define 'graduate level' because the Khan Academy (Not Kahn) is far from graduate level.
3. This is a very good link. I'll paste an excerpt here:
> **MIT OpenCourseWare** : undergraduate and graduate subjects taught at MIT.
>
> **Open Yale** Courses : astronomy, biomedical engineering, history, economics, English, philosophy, physics, political science, and psychology.
>
> **UC Berkeley Webcast** : biology, computer science, electrical engineering, physics, political science, and psychology.
>
> **Stanford Engineering Everywhere**
>
> **NPTEL** basic undergraduate science and engineering courses. The courses include biotechnology, civil engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, electronics and communication, and mechanical engineering.
>
> **McGill Univ. COurses OnLine (COOL)** : chemistry, biology and computer science.
>
> **UCLA BruinCast** offers some free audio/video lectures for certain undergraduate courses from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
>
> **Open Learning Initiative | Harvard University Extension School** brings free audio/video lectures on topics in computer science, English literature, history, and mathematics.
>
> **Video & Audio | University of Cambridge** offers free access to audio and video lectures from the University's institutions including the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences and the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy.
>
> **Podcasts from the University of Oxford** provides free access to certain course materials and audio/video lectures on a variety of subjects, including chemistry, engineering, humanities, life science, medical sciences, physics, and social sciences.
>
> **YouTube - UHouston's Channel (University of Houston)** contains lots of video lectures on various subjects: anthropology, chemistry, English literature, history, philosophy, and psychology.
>
> **nanoHUB** Courses contains free educational materials about nanotechnology. The courses cover the following subjects: nanoelectronics, NEMS/nanofluidics, nanomedicine/biology, and nanophotonics.
>
> **Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI)** provides a large number of free video lectures on a variety of subjects in mathematics and mathematical sciences.
>
> **CERN Document Server** provides a huge collection of text documents and video lectures in particle physics and related areas.
>
> **Department of Mathematics, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs** offers free video lectures on mathematics including calculus, discrete mathematics, linear algebra, differential equations and mathematical statistics. Registration is required to access the lectures.
>
> **Indiana Multimedia Distribution System** offers free audio/video courses and lectures in business and management from Kelley School of Business, Indiana University Bloomington.
The pasted website has links to all the places, alternately, you could simply google the words in bold.
# Answer
> 3 votes
At the graduate level there is less and less 'standardized' material like in undergrad. You might take a few introductory graduate courses that are pretty similar across universities, but then you tend to take very specialized courses (at least in my experiences with fields like math, computer science, and physics; and my answer should be taken as only relevant to those fields). Further, the number one skill you are suppose to learn in grad school seems to be **independence**.
If some specialized course is not offered at your university then the standard procedure is to look for good lecture notes on the websites of experts in that field. These experts usually teach relevant graduate level courses and post their lecture notes online. In fact, some of these lecture note become rather famous:
What Lecture Notes (in theoretical computer science) Should Everyone Read?
Then you have to do what *every graduate student has to do*, and that is to *motivate and teach yourself* with the guidance of those lecture notes (and maybe Q&A sites like SE or emails to the relevant experts). Some tricks to make this is easier is to form groups with other graduate students and learn the material together through regular meetings and discussions.
# Answer
> 2 votes
I've found many interesting & diverse lectures in the Education section of Apple's podcast directory (I can't verify that link at work, I hope it's correct). While most are undergraduate, some are taught at a higher level, and they're a good resource for when you need to learn a new discipline in grad school.
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Tags: graduate-school, online-resource
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thread-23 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23 | How many physician-scientists pursue academic tracks? | 2012-02-14T20:55:35.107 | # Question
Title: How many physician-scientists pursue academic tracks?
The National Institues of Health (NIH) funds Medical Scientist Training Programs (MSTPs) also known as MD/PhD programs to create a group of researchers whose work more rapidly effects medical practice. For example, they would help to develop new diagnostic tools, drugs, or surgical procedures.
It sounds good, but how many of the students actually pursue this track? Does anyone know of data about the NIH's return on investment besides the somewhat dated data about three New York programs?
Thanks for your time, Mike
# Answer
I have no idea how you'd find hard data on the program itself and its results, but as an idle musing I checked how many full time faculty members in the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health's Dept. of Epidemiology held an MD/PhD or DrPH. The department was chosen as a very good department in a very good school with a strong medical school that I'm not affiliated with.
Ten of the 94 listed faculty members were MD/PhD or DrPH's. Little under 11% of the faculty. And that's not including other possible "physician scientists" like MD/MPH degree holders...if you do that the number rises to 23 faculty members with an MD degree in a related, but non-clinical research department. Nearly a quarter of the faculty total.
Of course, this is only a very crude proxy for how many physician-scientists pursue academic tracks, and even the representation of clinician-scientists in research departments will likely vary wildly by said department. That being said, I've met a considerable number of them in my graduate school career, either entirely in academic settings, or balancing research with practice. It's absolutely a viable path, though not an easy one.
As another data point, here is the list of alumni for the UNC School of Medicine's MD/PhD program: http://www.med.unc.edu/mdphd/fps/alumni-1 . That should give you a decent glimpse at where those particular graduates go - it looks like a fair number ended up in research or hybrid positions.
> 10 votes
# Answer
I'm a student enrolled in a MD/PhD program in Canada. I don't know about NIH very well, but our experience here is that it is very difficult to continue research. I agree with eykanal: it takes a lot to be a great clinician (and being a mediocre clinician is very hard on one's conscience). 50%+ of students rethink their decision during their first year of medicine and do not begin the PhD portion of the program. Only those who begin 80/20 in terms of devolution (80 research, 20 clinician) seem to be able to continue the research path, with considerable sacrifice of their clinical skills (fewer clinical elective during both medical school and residency), as well as many more years of education.
Once done, however, the career path in academic medicine is relatively good. The PhD really helps with those jobs and their attendant excitement and opportunities, although they often pay significantly lower than a pure clinican job.
I know that in the States, the culture of MD/PhD's is more pronounced than in Canada, since there's a massive amount of NIH funds. I heard that nearly a quarter of the class in U of Pennsylvania at least begin as MD/PhD's (don't quote me). Dropping out of the PhD is harder, because you have to give up your funding. I expect that many of them are able to complete the program, but few manage to continue in the research path.
Many of the professors who are MD and PhD's often complete their PhD separately from the MD - they either had it before the MD or got it afterwards. Materially, it's a more difficult path, with less funding and guarantees, but there's less room to regret and it's easier to cut one's losses, since it's 2 big decisions, not 1.
> 8 votes
# Answer
I don't know where you'll find hard data on this, but from experience working at a hospital/university center (University of Pittsburgh, a subset of which is the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center), very few MD/PhDs end up doing full-time, or even half-time, research. Being a clinician is *very* demanding on one's time, and doing meaningful research requires a significant time commitment. Many of the MD/PhDs I know ended up dropping their research work due to a combined lack of progress and time.
> 4 votes
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Tags: phd, career-path, medicine
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thread-549 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/549 | How good are "For Dummies" books in Academic Study? | 2012-03-04T09:44:39.827 | # Question
Title: How good are "For Dummies" books in Academic Study?
I am often faced with questions in areas which cross my boundaries of knowledge. For instance, as an engineer, sometimes I am needed to study the basics of Anatomy or something like that.
This might be a temporary interest or might be permanent (There is no way of telling beforehand)
During such times, there is an option:
1. Go for the "proper" textbooks used by the students in that field. (Say this one :: 960 pages) and study them well.
2. Get a Schaum's series, Demystified or For Dummies sort of book and get over with it. (Say this one :: 450 pages). Alternately, use this as an entry point for the "better" books.
My professors have always suggested against such books because they provide no motivation for the development of a certain concept but I see that as a valid point only it is your primary field of interest. If an engineer wants to know Statistics or Anatomy, I am slightly skeptical whether such grinding is necessary.
**Are such books a good resource/entry point for a new subject?**
Note: All of this is under the assumption that the student is within the confines of academia.
# Answer
> 9 votes
I would advise against the use of "for dummies" books, firstly because they are not of academic quality, second they are too big.
There are 2 strategies that I myself use for rapid acquisition of quality knowledge:
1. a) Start with Wikipedia, identify the basic strands, but most importantly the correct terms for what you want to learn about. So for instance, you probably don't need to study all of anatomy, but from Wikipedia, you would discover that what you need to brush up on, is anatomy of tissues- histology. b) Now that you have the correct term and a narrow focus, put it into google scholar, and read the abstracts of the top 10 cited journal articles. The oldest articles with 3000 citations are the classics, the newest ones with 500 are the review articles with ideas for further reading and useful summaries. You can read more than the abstracts if it seems relevant, otherwise go with the basics.
2. An even quicker way of cramming in quality information is to use the Annual review series of journals, provided you have institutional access to the journals. These are a comprehensive set of journals in all major fields which have reviews by invited experts on those topics. Not only do you get high quality disciplinary summaries, but also excellent interdisciplinary articles.
The benefit of either of these strategies is focused and quick acquisition of relevant knowledge without having to run around trying to figure out what you need to know in a non-academic book that wasn't written for this purpose. We're talking 50 pages of in-depth reading versus 500 pages of broad but shallow references of minor interest.
Disciplinary dictionaries, like this one,are also a good place to start, provided they have been around for at least 2 editions,
# Answer
> 8 votes
Those books are not only very useful, I would argue they are the *best* option in many cases, as they represent the best use of your time. You will find that, throughout your graduate studies, you will have to learn aspects of many different fields. In most cases, while it would be possible for you to embark on a thorough study I some other discipline, that would take weeks, if not months. These books allow you to quickly learn the basics, giving you a solid foundation of knowledge that you can expand with further study if necessary.
*Edit:* this applies to topics only ancillary to your main field of research; you should *not* use this book on your research topic itself, for the reasons outlined by your professor.
# Answer
> 2 votes
They're a decent starting point. They are aimed at folks who are newbies to the subject and are good at an overview of the subject. From this starting point, you'll get a better idea of where to look.
In one rare case, the author of Google SketchUp For Dummies is also the author of most of the other books on the same product, and the dummies book is the one that covers the lastest version of the product.
> *If an engineer wants to know Statistics*
Probablistic methods were an important part of electrical engineering when I studied it. Several courses in statistics/probability were part of the required curriculum. In such a case, the "for dummies" series would only be useful as something to read before starting the semester, so that the first week wouldn't be a total surprise/shock.
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thread-611 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/611 | How do you join programme committees for conferences? | 2012-03-06T17:37:42.563 | # Question
Title: How do you join programme committees for conferences?
For most conferences in my field it seems to be invitation-only, i.e. somebody has to suggest you/remember you. Are there any conferences that have open calls for applications to the programme committee?
# Answer
> 16 votes
It's rare. I know of one conference though (in theoretical computer science) where the steering committee actively maintains a list of "qualified but has never served", and strongly encourages PC chairs to look over that list when selecting names. Your best strategy might be to approach the steering committee and suggest that they do something like this, so as not to sound like you're shilling for yourself :)
# Answer
> 9 votes
I agree with Suresh, it's rare, I've never seen a call for invitation to a PC in my field (Computer Science). I have actually seen people making fun of emails asking to be in a PC (i.e. if you ask the PC Chair to join the PC, it could be negatively perceived).
From what I understand, there are at least five possibilities to get a PC chair to invite you to join a PC (of course, none of them are automatic, they can just be helpful. In the end, the PC Chair makes his own choices, in order to have a PC that is attractive enough for authors to submit a paper, and serious enough so that the reviewing process can be done effectively):
* if you were in the PC of the previous editions
* if you know the PC Chair, so that he can trust you to do your job,
* if you already are in other PCs of conferences in a related area (i.e. other PC Chairs trusted you)
* if you have published several papers in previous editions of a conference
* if someone you know is invited to join the PC, but he can't and suggests you.
Of course, it's a cycle: the higher reputation you have, the higher are your chances to be invited to join a PC, and the more PC you join, the higher is your reputation.
# Answer
> 2 votes
Talk to members of the current organizing committee? It's tough work, and scientists are always busy, so they'll usually be receptive to having someone else to split the work with, and there's always a chance that somebody is too busy to help with next year's committee, and they're looking for a replacement.
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thread-631 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/631 | How to efficiently read mathematically and theoretically dense books in STEM fields? | 2012-03-07T14:20:51.070 | # Question
Title: How to efficiently read mathematically and theoretically dense books in STEM fields?
When it comes to reading, there are literally thousands of methods from Speed Reading to SQ3R to Sequential(Word by Word till the end). My question is regarding reading mathematically/theoretically dense books as a graduate student. My question is primarily targeted to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields.
I have read the other question on SE and this is designed to act as a question on similar lines but for books (\> 400 pages) typically found on Reading Lists for Quals. I believe how one reads a book differs significantly from how one reads a paper. (This could be a question as well but IMO, the length, intention and structure are sufficient to cause the difference)
In order to make this an objective question rather than a vague and open ended one, I wish to concentrate on the following:
1. Should a book be read from start to finish word by word or through iterations (Skim, Analyse, Summarize)?
2. If I am interested in a particular chapter with a lot of dependencies, is it in my interest to read everything till that chapter or read that chapter \> google unknown terms \> read chapter again and loop?
3. If one gets stuck for over a certain threshold at something is it wise to continue assuming it as true or to persevere till the end and figure it out. **This is true for research papers, is it true for books?**
4. How much time per (mathematically dense) page is ideal? This will vary a lot with field but not so much with person as it would with fiction (IMO).
# Answer
> 18 votes
I have never (as far as I can remember) read a technical book cover to cover from start to end. Most of the time, I have a problem in mind that I want to solve, and I'm looking for tools to solve it; more often than not, if I'm trying to learn out of a book, I'm actually reading three or four books at once. I dive into the middle of a book that seems most relevant; if I don't understand something, I'll back up, and if I don't understand that, I'll back up again, and if I get really stuck I'll put the first book down and pick up a more elementary book, and so on until I'm on firm ground again. ("Getting really stuck" only happens after relying to work through/reconstruct details on my own, in addition to trying to understand them from the book's presentation. I have taken months to read through one page, always feeling just close enough to understanding that I never felt "really stuck".) Whenever possible I pop back up the reading stack with my target problem in mind, skipping entire chapters if they don't seem relevant (but backtracking if I discover later than I'm wrong), working forward again until I either find the tool that I'm looking for, conclude that I've been on a wild goose chase, or give up on the book.
Yes, I miss a *lot* this way. Yes, I get a lot of weird ideas that I later have to kill off. But I just don't have the patience to read large volumes of technical material that doesn't seem at least remotely relevant to some problem at hand, and prioritizing often leads me fairly quickly to tools that work.
Your mileage may vary. Caveat lector.
# Answer
> 11 votes
The types of books you refer to are unlike publications, in that they typically detail the results of research that occurred 5+ years ago. As such, if you're reading such a book, it's typically for one of two reasons:
1. To be brought up to speed on a topic with which you're unfamiliar
2. To learn a specific technique which is discussed in the book
In either case, you'll want to typically be interested in only a subset of the book. I would recommend reading through that section slowly, section by section, as you would a paper. It will probably take a while. I have never read an academic book cover-to-cover. Do note that your speed-reading skills will likely be less useful here, as STEM literature typically does not lend itself to speed reading. There is no "ideal time" that can be stated. When you begin, a single page may take you hours. There was one paper I read where a *single equation* took my lab mate four months to work through. As you get more experience, you'll speed up. Time is a commodity, but information is a more precious one. Spend the time necessary to learn the topic, and especially at the beginning, measure your progress over days, not hours.
> If I am interested in a particular chapter with a lot of dependencies, is it in my interest to read everything till that chapter or read that chapter \> google unknown terms \> read chapter again and loop?
There are two approaches here. The one you mention - google unfamiliar concepts - can work well. However, oftentimes the author of the book will mention exactly where the dependency is (e.g., "As we discussed in the previous chapter, ..."), so you can identify which parts of the book you need to read through. That may be more useful, as any terminology will be consistent within the same book. For some topics (math & engineering in particular), other papers will often use different terminology, needlessly complicating the learning process.
> If one gets stuck for over a certain threshold at something is it wise to continue assuming it as true or to persevere till the end and figure it out. This is true for research papers, is it true for books?
This is simply a function of how necessary the topic is. When you get stuck, figure out what concept is confusing you, read up on that topic, and then continue. This process can take weeks, or even months. If you really want to learn the topic, persevere. If you can continue without that bit of clarity, move on to something more productive.
# Answer
> 10 votes
How you read an academic book depends heavily on what you want from it, but one thing that I think is almost universally true is that you generally don't want to bog down on one page/argument/theorem/definition/whatever on a first read. Later content often adds context and motivation to something that may seem mysterious, so if you get stuck for a while on something, it's a good idea to move on and then come back to it later.
My usual experience reading mathematically dense content, which I think is relatively typical, is that as I go along, the level of my understanding steadily decreases, and eventually it gets to the point that I'm learning very little, so I go back to the parts I understood well and start reading again from there, this time understanding a bit more, and I iterate this until I've learned what I set out to learn.
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Tags: graduate-school, research-process, productivity, stem
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thread-589 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/589 | What should be included when inquiring about the status of my application? | 2012-03-06T00:29:07.417 | # Question
Title: What should be included when inquiring about the status of my application?
I am currently applying for research and faculty positions. After an initial phone interview, how can I politely ask for feedback on the status of my application?
What are the necessary, optional, and unwise topics of such a letter?
As a concrete example, here is a quick draft:
> I am writing to follow up on our discussion a few weeks ago about the position in (My Field) at (Your Institution). I remain very interested in the position and would appreciate the opportunity to work with you and the (XYZ) group.
>
> In particular, have you been able to narrow the list of candidates, and am I included? Is there any additional information that I could provide to support my application?
>
> I also appreciate that you sent me a copy of your unpublished manuscript. It promises to make an important contribution to the field by providing the type of robust approach to (The Method) that is required. I would like to learn more - would you be willing to share the supplementary information with me as well?
# Answer
> 11 votes
The only *necessary* component is the line "I was wondering about the status of my application".
Asking whether you can provide additional information is unlikely to help, as the question is too open-ended. It would be an excellent question to ask at the end of the interview phone call, as well as in the follow-up "thank you" email, but beyond that it appears desperate, which is typically not a good characteristic of an applicant.
The comment about the unpublished manuscript is unrelated, and therefore pretty neutral. It just as well could be sent in a second email.
It's worth mentioning that inquiring about the status of your application is pretty similar to habanero sauce; use judiciously, and very sparingly, and it's often best not to use it at all.
# Answer
> 13 votes
As someone who has been participating in more of these hiring discussions recently, and been responsible for filling some of them myself, I would encourage you to use *extreme* caution before sending out such emails.
Faculty search committees usually consist of faculty members who are already quite overworked, and who have to deal with potentially many candidates who may all want to pester them with questions. If somebody starts acting like a nuisance, they might consider that person "not a team player" and reject the application on those grounds alone.
However, there are a few times when it is appropriate to ask about such deadlines:
* *When you have received an offer from another institution, but the institution you're writing to is a higher-perference choice*. Then you are doing two things: you're making sure that you get an informed decision, plus you're also letting the other guys know that if they're interested in you, they'll need to make a move quickly.
* *If you have a major update to announce.* This might include a change in location (new position, new mailing address, etc.) as well as status updates—you've earned a promotion or a major award. Then it would be OK to mention this in an email.
* *It is well past the "standard" deadline, or a promised deadline.* Then you're just following up on an arrangement, and it's hard to argue against this.
However, you should *never* ask if you are included on the list of finalists. That's considered both rude, as well as unfair to everybody else involved. Like eykanal, I think the last paragraph in your excerpt is always superfluous, and should not be included in an email requesting a status update. (You *could* and perhaps *should* send it as part of a thank-you note to the interviewer.)
# Answer
> 4 votes
They'll call you if they want to call you.
In general, the only appropriate times to contact a potential employer following an interview are:
1. Immediately afterwards, to thank the interviewer for their time (and reiterate your interest in the position). **Do this within 24 hours of the interview**.
2. If you have another offer somewhere else. In that case, it's appropriate to ask the status of your application so that you can have the opportunity to consider both.
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thread-661 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/661 | How should multiple Harvard references with same first author but different coauthors be made? | 2012-03-09T11:34:08.820 | # Question
Title: How should multiple Harvard references with same first author but different coauthors be made?
<sup>This question was written by a friend of mine. I'm helping them by posting it here, with permission.</sup>
How should I use the name-year referencing system (loosely speaking, the Harvard system) in such cases where there are multiple works that have the same first author but a different set of coauthors?
In such cases where the maximum number of authors among all articles sharing the same first author is not more than three, or perhaps four, the solution is very simple. Just mention them all inline and use the reference list as usual. E.g. the following:
> "... the complex formation was observed by Miller and Nelson (1991)"
> "... cf. Miller, Nelson and Byrne (1993)"
However, if there are more authors in any of the articles, this gets quite tricky, since listing a huge number of authors inline is definitely not an option to me. I'd rather change to number references.
Now, making the references unambiguous is not a problem. For instance, the following references could be addressed to inline as "Barton et al." without in any way losing the one-to-one relation between inline citations and reference list entries. That is, the articles are differentiated, as the other is "Barton et al. (1980)" and the other "Barton et al. (1985)".
> Barton, D. H. R.; Crich, D.; Potier, P. (1985). "On the mechanism of the decarboxylative rearrangement of thiohydroxamic esters". Tetrahedron Lett. 26, 5943.
>
> Barton, D. H. R.; Dowlatshahi, H. A.; Motherwell, W. B.; Villemin, D. V. (1980). "A New Radical Decarboxylation Reaction for the Conversion of Carboxylic Acids into Hydrocarbons". J. Chem. Soc. Chem. Commun., p. 732.
What really *is* the problem is the alphabetical order in which the references should be sorted in the reference list. If the articles listed above are referred to just as "Barton et al.", the reader does not know the exact position in the reference list where to find the articles.
One solution might be just ignoring this slight complication.
Other solution is to use "et al" in the reference list, too, if absolutely necessary. Thus, in the example above, the first article would be referred to as "Barton, Crich and Potier (1985)" inline, and the latter as "Barton et al. (1980)".
In the reference list, they would be expressed *and arranged* according to the inline cites:
> Barton, D. H. R.; Crich, D.; Potier, P. (1985). "On the mechanism of the decarboxylative rearrangement of thiohydroxamic esters". Tetrahedron Lett. 26, 5943.
>
> Barton, D. H. R. et al. (1980). "A New Radical Decarboxylation Reaction for the Conversion of Carboxylic Acids into Hydrocarbons". J. Chem. Soc. Chem. Commun., p. 732.
Any other recommendations?
Please don't suggest Google, since I did not find an answer after 30 minutes of search. There are perhaps hundreds of "Harvard citation guides" available, but I found none that addressed this problem.
# Answer
> 8 votes
As eykanal said, journals usually provide their own formatting, and personally, I use latex/bibtex, so I tend to assume this kind of problems will be solved automatically.
That being said, in the case you describe, I would expect the ordering to be (first name, year), and in the case where there are multiple references with the same first author for the same year, then to use (Barton et al., 1980a) (Barton et al. 1980b). So your example would be:
> Barton, D. H. R.; Dowlatshahi, H. A.; Motherwell, W. B.; Villemin, D. V. (1980). "A New Radical Decarboxylation Reaction for the Conversion of Carboxylic Acids into Hydrocarbons". J. Chem. Soc. Chem. Commun., p. 732.
>
> Barton, D. H. R.; Crich, D.; Potier, P. (1985). "On the mechanism of the decarboxylative rearrangement of thiohydroxamic esters". Tetrahedron Lett. 26, 5943.
and the two references (Barton et al. 1980) and (Barton et al. 1985). That way, when I know I need to look first for the first name, and then to the year. Now, if let's assume that there is another reference by Barton and Alice in 1980, then you would have:
> Barton, D. H. R.; Alice (1980a). "Bla bla", p2.
>
> Barton, D. H. R.; Dowlatshahi, H. A.; Motherwell, W. B.; Villemin, D. V. (1980b). "A New Radical Decarboxylation Reaction for the Conversion of Carboxylic Acids into Hydrocarbons". J. Chem. Soc. Chem. Commun., p. 732.
>
> Barton, D. H. R.; Crich, D.; Potier, P. (1985). "On the mechanism of the decarboxylative rearrangement of thiohydroxamic esters". Tetrahedron Lett. 26, 5943.
and the references would be (Barton et al., 1980a) and (Barton et al., 1980b).
As for the question whether you should put the one with Alice first or second, it does not really matter, since the reference is unique anyway, but in this case, I would go for the month of publication if you have it, otherwise with the alphabetical order of the second author (and of the third one if the first two authors are the same, and so on).
# Answer
> 3 votes
This will typically be dictated on a journal-by-journal basis. As you suggested, some journals use first mention, some go alphabetically. It varies significantly by journal (e.g., Nature Neuroscience, seventh paragraph in linked section; IEEE (pdf), fourth page). Check with the specific journal of interest to see what their guidelines are for article submission.
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thread-668 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/668 | Is it the norm to allow professors from different departments on a PhD committee? | 2012-03-10T05:59:01.513 | # Question
Title: Is it the norm to allow professors from different departments on a PhD committee?
Or is this the exception to the norm? I know that it's allowed at Brown - but I wonder if it's unique.
# Answer
At many (most? all?) universities, a committee is **required** to have at least one professor from outside the department (other than the chair, if the chair holds a joint position).
Other requirements are to have at least one professor at rank higher or equal to the rank of the chair (the advisor).
> 11 votes
# Answer
As far as I know, there is no international guideline on what is a correct PhD committee, so it might be hard to answer your question, because each university might have different rules. For instance, the rule of the EDITE (the CS grad school shared by several universities in Paris) for defending a PhD at Paris 6 are (source, in french):
* the reviewers of the PhD (i.e. those who read and approve or not the manuscript, which is the most crucial part of the process) must have an habilitation (i.e. they could apply to full professor positions, even if they don't have one) and must be related to a different grad school and university.
* the PhD jury (or defense committee) should:
+ contain between 3 and 8 members (the reviewers might not be included, although they usually are)
+ contain at least one professor from Paris 6, who must be different from the PhD advisor
+ contain at least half of people not related to the grad school or university.
+ contain at least half of professors (or academics with an HDR).
So, to answer your question, in order to defend a PhD in CS at Paris 6, you need to have reviewers not coming from your university, and half of the members of your defense committee needs can't be from your university (although technically, they don't have to be full professor, so you can have Associate professors from another university, or even someone working in a company).
**EDIT:** After reading Jeff's comment, I realized that I understood "department" as in "university", and not as in "physics department" if you're doing a PhD in the "CS department". Then, in this case, there is no rule at the EDITE, in favor or against, but I have never seen it or heard of it, apart in the case of an interdisciplinary PhD (e.g. bioinformatics).
> 2 votes
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thread-657 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/657 | When is it appropriate to decline a review request? | 2012-03-09T03:43:12.807 | # Question
Title: When is it appropriate to decline a review request?
There are some clear reasons to decline a review request, such as conflict-of-interests or not enough free time (e.g., going on a vacation..). But what if you are just not interested in the paper you got (i.e., it is loosely related to what you do, but not entirely irrelevant)?
On which occasions is it appropriate to decline a review request? Does it matter if the review is for conference vs journal?
# Answer
There are a few clear reasons to decline a review request, although in complete honesty, I've never actually declined to review a paper yet, so these are all at least "in theory" for me. Some of them are one's you've mentioned, but there are some others:
1. Conflict of interest. This one's pretty clear, though with the way some reviews are handled - based on recommendations, closely related expertise, etc. what actually constitutes a conflict of interest can get a little vague.
2. Lack of time. This is one that people seem to ignore or discount, but it's a big one. If you can't give a paper the attention it deserves, or your review is going to be late (predictably, not because of unforeseen things), then you should probably decline to review it. You're not doing you, the authors, or the editor any favors by making them chase you down for months to get a review.
3. Lack of expertise. If you read the methods section of a paper and your primary thought is "Huh?" not because the paper is unclear, but because its far afield from your expertise, I'd strongly consider contacting the editor for advice and asking *not* to be a reviewer.
I wouldn't necessarily not be a reviewer due to a failure to find the paper sufficiently interesting. If your expertise is indeed appropriate and the work is not of sufficiently compelling interest, that is a review finding all its own. Additionally, one would hope that you can evaluate the scientific merit of things that - while you are capable of understanding - you might not find directly interesting.
Whether or not it matters if its a conference or a paper likely depends on your field (how important are conferences?) and the *particular* conference or paper. For example, I might make a special effort to "find the time" for a journal I submit to (or would like to submit to) or a conference I frequently attend, but might not for a journal or conference I've never heard of.
> 20 votes
# Answer
Besides the obvious "conflict of interest", the main reason is time. Being an academic requires finding a balance on all the demands on your time. My policy is to accept no more than one major reviewing obligation (e.g. journal article, grant, 3-ish conference papers) per two-week period. When I'm asked, I look at my schedule & tell the solicitor when the next available slot is. Sometimes they take it, sometimes they don't, it depends on their policy, urgency & my schedule.
I'm not sure I have this right: I still sometimes miss review deadlines I've committed to & I don't publish new results as quickly as I think I should. But as I said, it's a matter of trying to find a balance, and I do get quite a lot of reviewing done.
> 11 votes
# Answer
I think that it's ok to decline a review request because you don't find the paper interesting if it's a colleague or somebody similarly close who asks you to do it. If they're the one on the PC/editorial board and have already agreed to do the review, it is, put simply, their problem. Of course, that might not be possible if you're a PhD student and your supervisor asks you to do the review :)
If you are approached directly by a member of the PC/editorial board because of your expertise in the area and not because you happen to be working in the same building, I would certainly do the review even if I don't find the paper interesting. The same goes for bidding processes some conferences use where you commit to reviewing a paper based sometimes only on the abstract.
> 4 votes
# Answer
I've had to refuse several reviews in the past, and it was either because I didn't have the time to write a proper review, or because the topic of the paper was beyond my scope of expertise.
I also found myself in the position where I should have refused a review, because there was a conflict-of-interest that, at the time, I didn't perceive. I didn't know the authors, but I had submitted a paper on a similar topic to the same conference, and after a while, I realised that unconsciously, I was thinking that if I reject the paper (I was hesitating between reject and accept), it increases the chances of my paper to be accepted. I still managed to review the paper objectively (and for the record, I accepted the paper, and mine was accepted too). Clearly, this line of thoughts was not correct, and I'm not particularly proud of it, but once you got it, it's hard to understand how objective you will be able to be, since you could actually over compensate and accept the paper just because you're afraid of the bias.
To answer precisely your question, the situation where you don't *want* to review is different than the one where you *can't*. If you can't (because you don't understand, you don't have time, etc), then just say why, and it's fine. If you don't want to, then it's just a matter of how much you want to please the person who asked you to review the paper, compared with how much time it will take you.
> 4 votes
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thread-664 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/664 | Ways to manage something like a 'work-life balance'? | 2012-03-09T19:14:14.560 | # Question
Title: Ways to manage something like a 'work-life balance'?
According to a recent international study on work-life balance within academia
> "a majority of researchers and scientists had conflicts between their work schedules and personal lives at least two to three times a week."
Nevertheless,
> "about 60 percent of scientists were happy with their work-life balance. The rates for women were lower, at 52 percent."
I wonder what differentiates these 60 percent 'happy people' from the remaining 40 percent. What do you think are good strategies for a healthy work-life balance? How do *you* balance your academic work/life with your personal life?
# Answer
Disclaimer 1: I know the two worlds : academia and the outside world ;) I worked in public and private universities, and in a consulting firm.
Disclaimer 2: I can only speak about life for people involved in theoretical areas, I know that science involving living things / big experiments has **real** constraints.
I heard a lot of people in academia complaining about the conflicts between their work schedules and personal lives (me included, because I'm grumpy). But we have to face it, most of the time there is nothing to complain about it.
* "I have a deadline today at midnight" : I do that all the time, but the calls for papers are out several months before the deadlines, so the problem here is planning, not the nature of the work.
* "I have to finish this grant application before midnight" : hum, grant applications and conferences deadlines seems to be of the same kind.
* "It's 3 AM, I just got that email that needs an answer" : I don't think this email is **that urgent**. An BTW, if something is really urgent, phone still exists for that matter.
* "Someone (supervisor, head of the team, dean, etc.) wants me to work more/at night/etc." : Slavery has been abolished. If you have good results, the thing is that in academia you are master of your schedule.
* "I cannot stop thinking about that problem" : yep, here this is true, we bring our work everywhere. If a researcher cannot live with that aspect of the work (which can be quite stressful), then he should probably consider finding an other job.
My point is that working in academia is working in one of the most flexible field. This is where there is a big difference with the "outside world". This flexibility is the problem: many people have difficulty dealing with it, and thus are giving themselves very strong constraints, so strong that they cannot handle them.
> 27 votes
# Answer
In my experience, there's less distinction between work life and personal life than in other jobs. If you're teaching, you'll get emails from students on the weekend and late at night. A paper deadline at midnight doesn't care that you're supposed to finish at 5. If you're working on an interesting problem, you're going to think about it at home.
I think the way to be happy with that is to simply accept it. If you're counting on having a 9-5 job if you're paid for working 9-5, then you're not going to be happy in academia. If you're uncomfortable with the line between work and personal life being blurred, you should perhaps consider a different job.
> 13 votes
# Answer
Academia, despite talk of positions being "full-time" or "part-time," really doesn't work according to a fixed schedule. It's one of the "perks" of academia—the ability to maintain your own schedule, so long as you get approval from your bosses (if you're a student or postdoc) or from your institute (if you're a professor or higher up).
Of course, the downside is that not everybody is on the same schedule as you are—or cares what your schedule is supposed to be. (Grant agency deadlines, for instance, don't pay any attention to what's going on in your life at the same time!) So, that might mean there will be times when you have to really put the nose to the grindstone.
The key to having a successful balance is to make sure that everybody involves knows what's going on, and so appropriate accommodations can be made.
> 12 votes
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thread-679 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/679 | Is there generally a high amount of variability in the number of hours grad students put to work each week? | 2012-03-10T19:02:02.403 | # Question
Title: Is there generally a high amount of variability in the number of hours grad students put to work each week?
As in, it's certainly not a standard 8-5 job of 40-50 hours per week. Is it common (and expected) for them to sometimes put in 80 hours a week, and to occasionally put in 10 hours? (say, during times of personal crisis or of particularly intense coursework?)
# Answer
I believe that most of the students are event-driven. That is, if they have an important deadline, meeting, exam, TA section (agghh...), then they spend more time to prepare and be ready for that event. Whereas **after** an important deadline, (or finals week, etc.) they allow themselves to be more relaxed and spend less time "working".
However it is quite strange to define how much time one spends on "research". Many people get very nice ideas just before the go to sleep, or while taking a shower... The mind is running 24/7.. Even though those people are not "in office" they *do* work on their research.
I agree also with the answer of Lars that it really depends on the student's personality and preferences. I've known students who really need their schedule to be well defined. They showed up to office daily at 9:00 and left at a fixed time (I guess that being married with kids kind of forces you to have a fixed schedule). So there are no fixed rules.
> 12 votes
# Answer
It depends on you. If you really want to, you could probably have quite regular working hours (except for the odd deadline). I would say that 80 hours a week is excessive and if your advisor expects you to do that, then you should think about changing your advisor/course.
> 5 votes
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Tags: graduate-school, time-management, working-time
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thread-670 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/670 | Skimming through a math paper with a group | 2012-03-10T09:02:46.510 | # Question
Title: Skimming through a math paper with a group
I am an M.Sc. student in mathematics. I was recently invited by some Ph.D. students and Post-Docs (a group of 5 people, including myself) to join their study group. We are reading a specific text, which should get us ready to read some more advanced work. This work is relevant to the research of some of the other people in the group, but my main goal is to experience this learning methodology with the added advantage of getting to know a few aesthetic results in mathematics.
We met around 6 times, and it is not what I'm used to from courses in the sense that we don't completely understand all the details. Nevertheless, we go on reading.
For example:
1. We encounter a definition and we can't find out its exact meaning. In this case we usually know of an example of a mathematical object satisfying this definition (because it's mentioned in the text) and we just try to see how the propositions in the text apply to the specific example.
2. A proof is given with very few details - we manage to fill in some of the gaps, but not all of them, so we just take an example again and simply accept the statement of the theorem so we can use it later.
3. An excercise is given in the text and we only solve part of it.
We allow ourselves to skip some details because this text is only meant to get us ready for some more advanced, but more specific, material. My question is how we can find out whether or not we are gaining anything, and how we can gain more given the fact that we are all busy and don't want to invest much more time in this specific reading (we have a 3 hours meeting every week).
I have a feeling that I'm "getting used" to some ideas and facts while reading this text (in contrast with "completely understanding"), but I'm not sure if I'm really gaining anything or whether it's just an illusion and I'm not sure how to test my gain of knowledge. The exercises in the text allow us to test our understanding of the details, but not of the general ideas.
**EDIT**: I will clarify what the question is, in response to aeismail's comment:
As Charles and Nunoxic say, the question of whether shallow-reading is useful is separate from the fact that we are studying in a group. So, the 2 separate questions are:
> 1. When reading without understanding all the details, how can I find out whether or not I'm gaining anything?
> 2. How can we make the process of studying in a group for 3 hours a week most efficient?
These 2 may have better been asked as 2 separate questions, but I did not notice that (in my mind they were related because the group study was the first time I encountered shallow-reading). To summarize the answers I got so far:
> 1. It **is** possible, for some people, to gain knowledge from shallow-reading and one way to test it is to see if you understand **why** each topic is being developed and **why** the text is structured the way it is.
> 2. When studying in a group, one should test his ability to work out the details himself after the group sessions.
I think the answer I got for (1) is excellent and the answer for (2) is somewhat lacking so far.
# Answer
My answer may not be completely relevant but I still thought it was worth putting in. I have had a few such sessions and I realized a few things. Not all of them could be true in general and I might have been a bit extreme with what I treat as knowledge. Here goes:
Your level of understanding is directly proportional to a few things:
* Your ability to frame and ask grammatically correct sentences as an individual. This also encompasses communication of ideas/questions to experts of the field. For instance, suppose you are learning Linear Algebra in a group. You have a few gaps which are filled by others in the group. However, unless **you** can form sentences using Linear Algebra "handles", its unlikely you'll get far in research. Literature is way to dense in keywords. Unless you can talk in terms of Column Space, Rank and Eigenvectors (Rather than Linear Combo of all column or *the vector which only scales*) you are far from knowledgeable.
* Your ability to participate in discussions. Its not difficult to lag and be left behind in a group of impatient, overachieving academics. Further, it can be a bit demotivating at times when the senior students who read the same content (owing to their heightened intuition) seem to grasp more. As junior students, it is often necessary to substitute the lack of intuition by more work.
* Your ability to appreciate the nuances of the field. I cannot stress this enough from my experience. If you cannot appreciate the subtleties yourself, you didn't learn much. It doesn't take much to learn Elementary Fluid Mechanics per se. But, IMO, you actually "learn" when you go **OMG** when you see the transport equation and play with it till you are satisfied. An extension of this is motivation. When some concept is developed by an author, he doesn't write in random order. One of the most important aspects is to be able to understand **why** something is being developed. For instance, most Aerodynamics books start off with Euler Angles and then move on to Quaternions. Its simple to understand what Quaternions do and how to solve equations based on them. However, unless you know that they are used to prevent gimbal locks, there is no point of knowing about them.
* The usual: Your ability to write alternate proofs, write codes (if possible), interpret the results of these codes and the usual *other-than-textbook* stuff.
One ending comment : Your level of knowledge is a function of how good you are in the group and how good you are without them. If you are able to develop proofs in those 3 hours together but aren't able to get started on your own later, you need to investigate whats wrong.
*If you want to know how good these group sessions are, find out how good you are getting at that field as an individual*
> 10 votes
# Answer
There are two positive points of group reading and shallow reading that I feel were not stressed enough by the existing answers: acclimatization and motivation.
By acclimatization I mean gradually learning as to what is interesting and what to pay attention to in a particular field. When you read by yourself (shallow or deep) you only have your own knowledge and intuition to guide you. As a junior student, you might not know what is considered interesting in a given field. If you read by yourself, it is very difficult to spot what is new and what is interesting, especially for some of the less-than-stellar papers that often comprise the bulk of your reading (sure, if you only read the greats they might make things clear, but usually if you can just stick to the greats you are probably reading something old). This was mentioned in @Nunoxic's answer, by attending the group are you learning how to ask questions? How to use the lingo of the field?
By motivation I mean having the extra commitment that helps you to read more. As graduate students we are highly self-motivated, but that doesn't mean we can't benefit from external motivation. By committing to a group, you force yourself to keep up with your reading and work. Some people can replace group meetings by an equal (or even greater) amount of individual work, but I doubt those are the norm. I always schedule a certain number of group meetings and projects to keep myself committed. This makes sure that even on slow weeks where every proof I try fails, and every idea I have is derivative, I still have something to motivate me: the commitment to the group. Further, when I am the junior student in a group, I usually feel the extra pressure to not "be dumb" and tend to invest more time and effort into understanding the material better. The pressure helps me, but it is definitely not for everyone and you should see what works best for you.
Of course, this shouldn't be taken to the extreme. If it is clear that you can accomplish more in those 3 hours (and associated preparation time) by yourself, then you should stop attending.
> 5 votes
# Answer
If I understand your question correctly, you're asking whether skimming through papers and getting only a "shallow" understanding can be useful? Well, I think the answer depends very much on you, and actually finding it out is an important step for you to understand how you process information.
I don't think there is a global best way to read papers. Some people need to completely a paper, to understand fully, do all the proofs, and then, somehow, they don't need to go back to this paper. I've seen a friend spending several days on the same 10-pages paper, until every tiny detail was clear.
On the contrary, other people (such as myself) prefer to have a global view of many papers, and to process several papers at the same time, which usually implies a lot of go-back-and-forth, and which also means to accept not to understand everything (although of course, sometimes it's needed to go into the details of a proof in order to keep the process going on).
So I would go with Nunoxic's advice and try to find out how good you are getting as an individual (for instance, try to read another related paper on your own, and see how much you can get). But if you're not getting better, it does not necessarily mean that this group is not working, it could also be because you're not working in this way.
> 2 votes
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Tags: learning
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thread-697 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/697 | What are some tips for crowdfunding science off websites like PetriDish? | 2012-03-12T18:58:13.117 | # Question
Title: What are some tips for crowdfunding science off websites like PetriDish?
What are some perks that would increase the amount of dollars that people spend on a venture? And what level of transparency would be useful?
Petridish is a recent KickStarter-like startup for crowdfunding science.
# Answer
These funding mechanisms are in their very infancy, so I don't know if there will *any* "tried and true" techniques for a few months, assuming the funding model proves to work at all. That being said, it will be very similar to that on Kickstarter:
* Advertise in numerous channels. People can only support you if they know about you. Getting the word out is the primary goal in the beginning.
* Provide an engaging, easy-to-understand description of:
1. What you want to research
2. Why you want to research it
3. How humanity will benefit from your having researched it
4. What success will look like
(Note: This last point is often ignored, but it's crucial for the lay-audience. They may expect a particular cancer research project to end with a cancer cure, whereas in reality it will end with the identification of a particular protein responsible for a particular mutation. Stating this will avoid making you as an individual and scientists as a whole from looking stupid in the eyes of the public.)
* Offer a constant (strictly defined, e.g. "weekly" or "biweekly") updates to backers
Regarding useful perks, I've noticed that a few of the successful drives offered things such as:
* Engrave the name of the backer or a loved on the instruments being used
* Paintings of the organisms/landscape/imagery being studied
* Naming a star/organism after the backer/loved one
The final topic, transparency, is more difficult. On the one hand, you will need complete transparency. On the other hand, there is such a thing as *too much* transparency. In brief, your updates should serve to inform the backers about your work, while simultaneously and more subtly serving two other goals as well:
1. Convince your backers that you're actually doing work
2. Maintain their confidence in your ability to do the work
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tl;dr -
1. Make everything - *everything* \- about your proposed project crystal clear for the layperson
2. Make the prizes cutesy and attractive, but not too lavish; they're investing for science, and secondarily maybe a little gift
3. Your updates should, in order: (1) inform about your research, (2) convince the reader of your scienceness
> 7 votes
# Answer
There's a blog post looking at the results of #SciFund! that might be of interest to you: http://www.imachordata.com/?p=1156
It looks, to me, like the predictors of success are probably having a robust social network presence, etc. and modest funding expectations.
> 3 votes
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Tags: funding
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thread-694 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/694 | At loss about CS specialization/sub-field | 2012-03-12T16:27:10.513 | # Question
Title: At loss about CS specialization/sub-field
Unfortunately, I did not know where to post this sort of question as it is very ambiguous. So I figured the Academia forum was the best place to ask, but feel free to point me to another direction. That said, this question is more about getting inspiration, rather than getting answers.
Here's my story: I'm currently studying computer science at college, and finally being top of my class in a particular course has given me the confidence to strive for greater things than I originally thought possible for myself. I want to pursue a job in research, because I would rather help mankind with technological/innovative progress than financial/social progress... So my dream is to acquire myself a well-earned Ph.D.
But here's the thing: I've studied computer security most of my life (leisure-study), and always imagined that this would be my main field of research because I'm very good at this specific area of expertise.
However, recently i've started to rethink this career path. My realization was that this field, albeit obviously not wasteful, was not going to prove beneficial for mankind in general/long-term. Unless we could use these defensive information technologies against a synthetic alien invasion, who's *plan A* was to destroy our Internet, hindering communications. But somehow I still think they would succeed.
So I have started to look into other areas of computer science. I kinda always had a dream of working with quantum computers (probably more a physics/engineering field at the moment), but i'm not really one of those extremely hardcore nerd types (God bless you guys.), so I suppose that's out of reach for me.
I'm leaning towards artificial intelligence, because I imagine that the two most prominent areas of research that will cause significiant improvements on our way of life will be either quantum computers, for their theoretical astonomical computational powers, and self-aware "strong AIs" that can help our race with all our physical, philosophical and economical problems (to name a few).
But I would still like to know if you guys think I should try to pursue something different. I'm not all that great at mathematics, but i'm extremely committed to my work once I begin, so I wouldn't mind becoming one of those "hardcore nerd types". I looked abit on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer\_science , and skimmed the theoretical computer science section, but nothing really sticks.
P.S. Please do not provide an answer such as "just learn what you love to learn", but it's not that simple in this case. I love just about everything that has to do with computers, both theory and applied, and computer science isn't a small genre to pick from.
Thank you most sincerely.
# Answer
> 5 votes
As a researcher in computer security myself, I guess I can try to provide bits of answers to your question.
First of all, I would tend to disagree with your assumption that computer security won't "prove beneficial for mankind in general/long-term". Clearly, you might not find the cure for cancer by working on security, but that's probably true with anything in CS. However, there is a clear increase in global information sharing, that is beneficial to mankind in so many different ways (healthcare, increased scientific communication, reduce travel, etc), and clearly, this information sharing comes with security issues. I'd say that it's the usual deal with research: you might not be the one who makes the huge life-changing discovery, but you contribute to it.
Then, as a general remark, if you're interested in doing research, then you're starting a 45/50 years career in research. If you don't have a clear "passion" (e.g. you want to work exclusively on provable cryptography), then you might as well consider your PhD as the stepping stone to an academic career. So you can just find a subject that you like enough to dedicate the next 3 to 5 years of your life, active enough so that you can get funding and publish, and later on, once you have a PhD (and a bit more of theoretical background), then you can start finding a subject that is more beneficial to mankind (it's even possible that such a subject does not even exist yet, things are moving fast in research).
So, I'm not saying "learn what you love to learn", but rather find a good PhD advisor on a topic that you're interested in *right now*, get some research experience, and then you'll be in a much better position to understand what *you* can do to help mankind. Of course, I'm not saying that you can't be helpful right now, but it's much easier to start your own projects when you have some credentials.
# Answer
> 12 votes
Honestly, you sound like someone who is looking for a Magic Bullet to Save The World, not someone who is really informed about or interested in computer science. You sound like someone in love with the *idea* of computer science research, but with no real idea what computer science research *is*. Computer security against aliens? Quantum computing? Artificial intelligence? These are all dangerously close to science fiction. There's **tons** of good research in all those areas, but nothing — in any of those areas — is close to "saving the world", and everything interesting — in all of those areas — requires a fair bit of mathematical maturity. Sorry, but if you don't like math, you won't like real AI research, or real security research, or real quantum computing research.
If you want to do research, and really do it well, you have to love your tools. You have to love the math; you have to love the code; you have to love the nights in the lab; you have to love the balky experimental equipment. **You have to love feeling stupid**, because researchers spend 99% of their time feeling stupid; they're at the bleeding edge of what mankind understands about Reality, so **of course** they don't really know what they're doing. You have to love to work in the face of almost certain failure. You have to take the world's ignorance, especially your own personal ignorance, as *motivation*, not frustration. You have to get over the idea that you are going to Save to World, because you aren't, but you do the work anyway, because you can't *not* do the work; it's in your blood; it's who you are.
If that's not you, don't bother. There are much better ways to make money. There are much better ways to help people. There are much better ways to be happy than to do something you don't really love because you think it's Cool and Important.
But if you really *can't* live without doing it, then you really have no choice—do it, and do it well. And who knows; you may save the world after all! (But probably not.)
# Answer
> 3 votes
I don't really have an answer for you as it is ultimately your decision, but I think that choosing a subject based on its perceived potential being beneficial to mankind is not a good starting point. I would argue that you cannot judge the benefits society will have from your research until after it has happened. You can have all the best intentions and fail, or do something just for the fun of it and happen to invent something hugely useful. Many of the elements of modern computer interfaces for example were pioneered at Xerox PARC decades ago when nobody was really thinking about the impact their research would ultimately have.
Furthermore it will depend more on your individual contribution than on the field as a whole. Finally, even the most promising research might be not suitable for you because you don't enjoy it/find it too hard/don't like the people you're working with.
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Tags: phd, masters
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thread-574 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/574 | How does making notes of what you read help you in research/teaching? | 2012-03-05T07:18:26.723 | # Question
Title: How does making notes of what you read help you in research/teaching?
I have always refrained from making notes from my childhood. But now, my adviser wants me to make notes of what I study saying that it would be very beneficial for me in future. So, following his advice, I started making notes. But it turns out that it is quite boring and time consuming. And I feel that even if I want to look into something later, I can look it directly from a book. So, my questions are:
1. How does making notes help you in your research or possibly teaching?
2. What other pros/cons are there?
# Answer
It's an old adage that "You don't truly understand something unless you can explain it completely to someone else". Writing notes effectively forces you to explain the topic to yourself. Oftentimes, when writing over notes from a class or from what you've read, the simple process of re-explaining it to yourself will clarify points that may have been confusing earlier.
For this purpose, I try not to write notes as I'm reading, but rather I'll read a section and them summarize that in my notes. Having read the full picture, I can then ensure that my understanding of the topic is more complete, and my notes should reflect that.
On a different note entirely, repetition enhances retention, and writing notes is at the very least doubles the number of times you'll see it (once in the book, and once as you write it), which should help your remember it that much better.
> 14 votes
# Answer
I take lots of notes — when I'm reading papers, listening to presentations, preparing for class, writing a paper, preparing a presentation, attending committee meetings, etc. I rarely look at the notes later (in fact, I often take notes on papers I'm reading on a whiteboard), but the act writing them forces a certain kind of organization in my brain that reading/watching/listening/thinking alone doesn't.
(As a graduate student, I was religious about keeping the notes I took in class. 20 years later, I still consult those notes occasionally when I teach the same material.)
> 6 votes
# Answer
I'm not sure what kind of answer you are expecting, but it should not be surprising for you to learn that people assimilate information in different ways.
Myself, I have a good visual memory and remember a lot by looking at the board/presentation when at a lecture. When the presenter is only speaking without showing anything, I have much harder time remembering everything, and am distracted easier. Note-taking definitely helps, but only when I know I won't be getting any other study materials, or the materials themselves are deficient.
Later on, when I study and read on my own, I can recreate mentally how the board looked like and quickly relate terms and phenomena that I'm reading about with what I heard earlier. This speeds up learning significantly for me.
This is what works for me -- other people have completely different ways of studying. I'd suggest you do it in a way that's comfortable for you. If you don't see the value of taking notes, just don't do it, period. Present your case to your supervisor and explain that you have your own way of organizing information, and you should be able to do so in a way that's comfortable to you. The supervisor should be trusting you enough to let you do so -- in graduate studies, students should have much more freedom to explore their ideas and work on their own without much hand-holding. Otherwise you have a much more important problem to solve -- how to avoid being micromanaged by your superiors.
> 3 votes
# Answer
As others have mentioned, notes help some individuals remember things even if they never reference them again. So I won't stress that point anymore, although I agree with it, especially for class notes.
As for notes on your reading, notes on papers are extremely useful. Depending on your field, you might end up reading lots of papers from which the details of methodology don't matter, but the key results do. If you make note of the results, then you can reference them without having to reread the papers.
Sometimes, when I am doing modeling work and doing background reading on experimental results I will take this to the extreme. As I read the paper, I will takes notes (in Mendeley or a personal wiki) and at the end include a section called "cite this paper in the following contexts" in which I will proceed to write down contexts where I expect these results to matter in my future work.
When I am writing my own paper, I might remember "there was something I read about the involvement of this in the amygdala". I do a quick search on my wiki, and from my notes have access to the relevant papers in a much faster way than going through the countless papers I might have read looking for the result.
**Note taking makes my research (especially writing) more time efficient down the road**
> 3 votes
# Answer
Taking notes helps me focus attention on a talk or paper. I seldom go back to notes, but **when I do it's very important**, and you can't guess in advance when something you'll need to remember will come up.
I currently keep notes in three different ways:
1. Written notes in chronological order. This was my original mechanism (lab notebooks) and was very useful for me as a graduate student. Currently I do this rarely, mostly at meetings, but have found binding the notes in order is still useful and helps me remember and organise my thoughts.
2. My bibliography file. At meetings & talks where possible I have my laptop out and download citations in real time as they are mentioned & write down keywords & ideas & who recommended what paper. I also do this when browsing social media. I use bibtex so including annotations is easy, and getting the full citation only has to be done once.
3. Electronic notes on my laptop. This lets me search for the notes if I can remember a few key phrases. It also lets me edit papers directly when I have ideas. I have a lot of paper & grant outlines filed neatly on my hard disk in folders with papers related to them. This can be very handy. Again I use latex and make comments cross-referencing between note files, papers/grants under construction & citations.
> 2 votes
# Answer
I keep notebooks with short notes and references so that I am not stuck saying "umm, I remember reading something close to that several months ago". Instead, I've got them in notebooks with a brief summary of what the article was about. These notebooks are more of my own index of research, yes, you can always look up in "the book" or "the article", but what you need is a memory aid that helps you remember where to look them up. You could probably use something like delicious or mandelay; I'll probably set up my own wiki.
> 1 votes
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Tags: note-taking
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