id
stringlengths 8
14
| url
stringlengths 40
58
| title
stringlengths 2
150
| date_created
stringdate 2008-09-06 22:17:14
2024-03-31 23:12:03
| text
stringlengths 149
7.14M
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
thread-3430 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3430 | What are the roles and responsibilities of an adjunct faculty? | 2012-09-26T08:26:20.020 | # Question
Title: What are the roles and responsibilities of an adjunct faculty?
Is adjunct faculty's duty limited to teaching? Do they have any role in course design, grading, etc.?
What are the other responsibilities, as an adjunct faculty?
# Answer
There's a wide range of people called adjunct faculty. For example, it may include working professionals in the field who serve as part-time faculty (this is common in law and architecture, and I've seen it with industrial researchers in computer science). Depending on the circumstances, this sort of adjunct may be treated much like the other faculty in the department, except for being part time. However, I assume you are talking about the most common use of the term "adjunct", at least in the US, namely low-paid, low-status faculty typically teaching part time on temporary contracts. (They may be working full time overall, but only part time at any given institution, so the universities can avoid paying benefits.)
For this sort of adjunct, it really depends on the details of the contract, and it may vary between universities, as well as depending on issues such as whether any of the courses are online. A typical arrangement will include some amount of course design (at least at the level of creating a syllabus), lecturing, grading, and office hours. Typically there is no committee work or other service and no research duties.
> 7 votes
# Answer
Being an adjunct faculty may provide the following benefits (and responsibilities):
* Be a PI grants that require faculty status
* Advise / mentor students and postdocs
* Vote in departmental meetings
* Participate in committees
> 1 votes
---
Tags: graduate-school, professorship, career-path, teaching
--- |
thread-4926 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4926 | Currently taking graduate course as an Undergraduate | 2012-10-23T20:19:07.163 | # Question
Title: Currently taking graduate course as an Undergraduate
I am currently taking graduate algebra as an undergraduate (junior) in University of Toronto Mathematics Specialist, and I just took a midterm today. Since I am an undergraduate, the grade matters. In order to get a good chance to go into graduate schools for Math in Canada and USA, do I need to get a A or A+ in graduate courses as an undergraduate? Or, is A– alright? (In my university, C and below are considered fail for graduate courses only) Or should I get at least an average grade on that course as an undergraduate competing with graduate students, instead of worrying about actual letter grade? (this is about absolute vs relative too)
# Answer
> 2 votes
> In order to get a good chance to go into graduate schools for Math in Canada and USA, do I need to get a A or A+ in graduate courses as an undergraduate?
I don't think anyone cares too much about the distinction between A and A+, since the standards for what merits an A+ vary so much between universities or even individual professors.
> Or, is A– alright?
This is a little more meaningful, but it's not likely to be the deciding factor. If you have a great application otherwise, nobody will care about an A- or two. If your application is not so compelling, getting straight A's won't help much. This could make a difference, but it's really a low-order effect.
---
Tags: graduate-admissions
--- |
thread-4930 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4930 | How can I apply to be an adjunct faculty? | 2012-10-23T22:40:05.283 | # Question
Title: How can I apply to be an adjunct faculty?
I am currently a staff researcher at a public research university in the US. While a tenure-track position may be in my future, I would like some of the opportunities and responsibilities now. In particular, I want to be able to write grants as a PI and advise students and postdocs. I believe that I can do this as an adjunct faculty, but I have a few questions about where to start:
* What are common steps required to become an adjunct faculty?
* Where can I find additional information (e.g. would a university-wide policy be given at the university website?)
* Assuming I speak with the department chair, what should I say? Are my justifications sufficient.
* How could I sell my case, other than my (demonstrated) ability to obtain funding and (undemonstrated) ability to be an advisor?
# Answer
> 9 votes
Be aware, too, that the administrative and departmental conceptions of both the privileges and responsibilities of adjuncts vary hugely from place to place. In many places, adjunct faculty do not serve on any committees, and it would be nearly universal that, in particular, they'd not be on the hiring and tenure committees, and not vote on hiring and tenure.
The question of being "allowed" to be an official advisor (as opposed to the obvious possibilities of informal mentoring) also surely has different answers different places. In some institutions, it is quite anomalous for "non-tenure-track/tenured faculty" to be allowed to "advise". You'd need to ask.
At worst, adjunct faculty are marginalized in terms of job security, voice in departmental matters, and are given the least desirable teaching responsibilities, etc. Hopefully this is not the situation at your institution, but, for example, a move from "research associate" to "adjunct faculty" might be, and might be perceived as, a step *down*, with unanticipated negative consequences for you. Hard to know without "being on the ground" there in your particular situation.
Also, beware that various administrative "official" statements on such things do not match *practice*, so unofficial, off-the-record information may be essential.
# Answer
> 13 votes
* What are common steps required to become an adjunct faculty?
Ask your department chair.
* Where can I find additional information (e.g. would a university-wide policy be given at the university website?)
Ask your department chair.
* Assuming I speak with the department chair, what should I say?
"I'm interested in becoming adjunct faculty. What's the hiring process? Why yes, I *do* happen to have my CV with me."
* How could I sell my case, other than my (demonstrated) ability to obtain funding and (undemonstrated) ability to be an advisor?
Ask your department chair.
---
Tags: job, career-path, funding
--- |
thread-4943 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4943 | What are risks or disadvantages in uploading to figshare or related services? | 2012-10-24T12:28:25.453 | # Question
Title: What are risks or disadvantages in uploading to figshare or related services?
Figshare lets researches publish figures and data for long-term archival and public access. I just found out about it and find the idea sympathetic. See for example their F.A.Q..
What risks are involved with publishing my data and figures at figshare? What are the disadvantages? Did anyone actively decide *against* doing so, and if so, why?
# Answer
Well, some journals have a "no prior publication" rule in place. These rules often preclude publishing anything that has already appeared in online databases that are freely accessible, so publishing figures in advance of a publication in a medium like this *could* be construed as violating such a policy. Since anything publicly posted gets published under a CC-BY license, so this almost assuredly counts with those journals as "prior publication."
In addition, anything that could be considered "confidential" or "proprietary" information definitely should not be posted on such a site until you have secured the necessary permissions from project partners and affiliates. That would also apply to "private" hosting of the figures.
Your own university or research institution may have policies that have some bearing on the ability to use such sites, so check with them as well. Better safe than sorry.
(Note: Those cautions aside, I *do* think it's a clever idea, and I hope it can catch on!)
> 9 votes
---
Tags: publications, online-resource, open-access
--- |
thread-4949 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4949 | Can it hurt me to accept a brief "Visiting Lecturer" position? | 2012-10-24T18:59:07.473 | # Question
Title: Can it hurt me to accept a brief "Visiting Lecturer" position?
I must make a difficult decision, so am having to turn to the wider community to gain some perspective.
My situation is the following: I am currently outside USA and am trying to enter academia here. I have been invited as a visiting lecturer at a top US university. However, I am worried that though certainly valuable, a purely teaching position might be a huge negative against me in terms of prospects for a more research oriented position (Asst or Assoc Prof). Or is my trepidation unjustified?
# Answer
> 11 votes
The title of *lecturer* does not necessarily imply that you would teach full time. Sure, it usually implies more teaching than research, but that does not mean it's strictly teaching only. Especially for a visiting lecturer position, one could imagine there be arrangements possible.
So: have you checked the exact term under which you would be employed?
Also: how long would be this “brief” position? And what is your current seniority in your local research system? Those factors will play heavily into the decision.
Overall, I expect it's a net positive for you if you manage to keep some research activity going on, especially if you can travel relatively often to visit your non-US lab. Otherwise, if it's purely teaching with no opportunity to maintain some research activity, and you are not far from getting a job where you are, accepting might be risky.
*“Long absent, soon forgotten”*
# Answer
> 5 votes
These days, I believe having experience in foreign countries is considered a plus almost everywhere. Even if you're strictly speaking in a teaching-only position, that doesn't mean you can't take advantage of that to do some research "on the side," and to make contacts with researchers at the university where you're teaching, and at other schools in the vicinity. You might also have an opportunity for more networking.
The only way this is a real negative is if you're in such a period for an extended period of time (say, on the order of several years), and then want to pivot back to a research focused career. Then you will have to overcome the challenge of proving that you'll be able to raise enough money to sustain a research group. Beyond that, however, I can't see any real downside to a short (one year?) appointment. I think if the choice is between that and being unemployed, the job is definitely the better choice.
---
Tags: career-path, job-search
--- |
thread-4954 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4954 | Military usage of scientific work | 2012-10-24T22:31:49.383 | # Question
Title: Military usage of scientific work
I'm currently writing my diploma thesis (old equivalent of master in Germany) in mathematics. It's about a fairly new combinatorical optimization problem which has military applications. In fact, the problem originates from that, even though in the formulation I'm studying it is a bit more theoretical.
I got this topic without the knowledge of its applications and of course I don't like optimizing the ways of killing people. (Just to clarify: luckily there are other (good) applications too)
It is likely that my research will end up in a paper, thus beeing widely available. Is it possible to restrict usage of such research to non-military applications only?
(side note: Probably no military organization will ever comply with such a restriction. I'm aware of that.)
# Answer
I don't think you have any right to restrict the *usage* of your publications. You might retain the original copyright (or your publisher will), and thus prevent that anyone else (including the army) can publish your work on their behalf, but you can't prevent someone to use your idea just because it's published.
A legal possibility could be to file a patent protecting your approach, but I'm not sure if it covers all usage or only commercial usages (in which case the army could use it as long as they are not making money out of it). You might want to check this with AskPatent.
You could also not publish it, and it could be possible to ask your university to consider your thesis as confidential (I've seen some cases where a thesis was confidential, when some companies were involved in them), but your advisor might not agree.
> 10 votes
# Answer
I was offered an opportunity to work a while back in the same field as you; optimization applied to military applications. It was related to anti-ballistic missile defense. I didn't take the project though, since defense, while perfectly acceptable to me, seemed very unlikely to be ultimate usage of my research. The literature in that field trots out continuously the same bogeymen of Iran and North Korea, but that seems bogus to me. More plausible, is that that research aims to gain us more technical leverage over countries we want to push around; like Russia, India, and China. I'd much rather work on research that has more peacetime applications, the elevate the human condition, rather than empower the worst people among us to impress their personal agendas on not only their own people, but practically the entire planet.
> 6 votes
---
Tags: publications, copyright
--- |
thread-69 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/69 | Usefulness of graduate school extracurriculars | 2012-02-15T04:01:27.693 | # Question
Title: Usefulness of graduate school extracurriculars
All graduate programs have committees such as the "social committee" and "speaker series committees", as well as Graduate Student Organizations and other organizations to work on behalf of these programs. Is there any concrete career benefit to being an officer on one of these committees/organizations?
# Answer
Those volunteer positions may help boost your chances of getting a major award. For example, one of the most prestigious graduate scholarships you can get in Canada is the Vanier Scholarship and the selection board uses your leadership experience as criteria for the award.
In addition to scholarships, it's always nice to have additional things to add to your CV to make you stand out. These skills can show a number of traits that employers may look for.
> 11 votes
# Answer
It's a bit of a mixed bag. While there is certainly a lot of benefit to performing service activities—you *are* giving back to your community, and that is both admirable and expected to advance at all levels of academia—you need to strike a balance. No activities at all makes you look too single-minded (can be a concern for employers). Too many activities and it will look like you're not committed enough to research (again a concern). You need to strike a balance between the two.
> 4 votes
# Answer
More than being useful on my resume, being part of a student organization in a leadership role gave me new perspective. It allowed me to exercise my mind in a different way and allowed me to hone my administrative skills, people skills and time management skills.
It actually had a positive impact on my research because I was more focused as a result of having a "lot more on my plate".
> 3 votes
# Answer
I am a firm believer that if it doesn't lead to a publication, than it is generally not worth the time of a grad student. In my mind the social committee is a no win time suck. The speaker series committee, on the other hand, is potentially worth it for networking opportunities. It might all you to interact a little bit more with speakers. Even mundane interactions (e.g., dealing with their receipts and reimbursement) is good networking.
> 2 votes
---
Tags: community, extracurricular
--- |
thread-4958 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4958 | How do I put professional affiliations on a CV? | 2012-10-25T04:54:30.180 | # Question
Title: How do I put professional affiliations on a CV?
I am currently a grad student in Psychology. I have heard that many professors like to see a list of 'Professional Affiliations' on a potential employee's CV, because it is an easy way to see whether the two people have common interests.
My question is, are there any guidelines for what I can realistically put there? Should I just list conferences in which I am a current, paying dues member; or can I put any conference in which I've paid dues in the past? Or can I be even less strict that these guidelines?
# Answer
> 12 votes
By 'Professional Affiliations' it is meant that one is a member of certain professional association such as IEEE, ACM, ICE, ASCE etc.
These professional bodies often arranges conferences which anyone can attend, so registering for the conferences does not mean that one is a member of a organizing body. Conference participation information may be put into your publication list as conference papers and/or given talks section.
So, **You should only list the organisations as professional affiliations of which you are a member.**
# Answer
> 3 votes
Any professional association in which you have been a member.
Conferences are not included in that category, unless they imply membership in some association. For example, registering for the biannual meeting of the Materials Research Society includes membership fees, so if you participated in a meeting, you were a member.
Regarding past membership, I would only include it if you were a member for a significant time.
# Answer
> 3 votes
Rashed's answer is correct. In addition, though, it is not uncommon to place other notable affiliations towards the end of the resume, if there is space, under whatever title is appropriate. For example, in my resume, I have a "Community Service" section, where I list my membership on various nonprofit boards of directors. If you hold officer position in any other notable groups you could list them similarly.
---
Tags: job, job-search, cv
--- |
thread-4946 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4946 | How can I prepare myself to advise students for jobs outside of academia? | 2012-10-24T15:44:42.827 | # Question
Title: How can I prepare myself to advise students for jobs outside of academia?
The consensus on academic jobs seems to be that we are sending far too many students to graduate school to train for jobs that will not be there when they graduate. Despite this, most of my undergraduate students have aspirations for graduate school. In part I believe that this is due to a saturation of exclusively academic role models during their time in college.
Since virtually all of my experience is in academia and I have basically succeeded in getting a tenure track position, I feel ill equipped to advise these students in making decisions about their future and showing them alternative role models.
Where can I get the experience and resources to show students that would potentially benefit from considering alternatives to an academic career that high quality alternatives exist?
(NOTE: I am in the natural sciences so answers specific to science would be great but if a cross-discipline answer exists, that would be ideal)
# Answer
> 6 votes
Here I briefly describe two ideas regarding to what a professor can do in this situation.
1. **Keep contact with former students**: Frequently, professors establish relationship with students during classes or during an undergraduate or master's thesis. Probably, maintaining these relationships after students graduate may give you some interesting points of view regarding jobs in the industry. You can just send an email to a former student in order to ask her about her job or you can invite former students to give a talk in one of your classes.
2. **Establish relationships with actors in the industry**: If students are required to take an internship, you can contact institutions that receive students for internship and suggest those institutions candidates that you know. I suppose that if you are able to refer to them good students, you can continue the relationship with those institutions.
Another alternative would be to engage in professional activities in the industry. However, this depends on whether you are interested in working as a consultant or something similar.
# Answer
> 11 votes
In our university, we have good experiences with inviting alumni who are now in industry to give career-oriented talks. The students know that the person giving the talk was in the same study program as they are now, and I guess just this alone helps them to see possible role models in the persons giving talks. The best talks are when alumni not only report about the technical points of the project they are working on, but also give a more personal account of their development towards their current job.
These talks are organized by the alumni organisation of the study program, which certainly helps getting the contacts to potential speakers. But I can also imaging getting these contacts in other ways.
# Answer
> 0 votes
My university is only engineering, but I'll try to answer. The administration is working hard to allow graduate program internships (coops), as they are successful at the undergrad level. The other angle is that there are two flavors of master's degree: professional and research. The former is not an academic career path. Most students already have an idea where they want to go when they register, and the ratio is about 4:1.
---
Tags: job, advisor
--- |
thread-4971 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4971 | Are citations in abstracts considered bad style? | 2012-10-25T20:28:41.283 | # Question
Title: Are citations in abstracts considered bad style?
I'd like to know your opinion on citations in abstracts. At my university, there is no rule on that matter so it's basically a question of preference.
Do you think it's okay to have citations in an abstract or do you personally prefer to have the abstract be a \`\`stand-alone'' piece of work?
# Answer
> 70 votes
It is not entirely unreasonable to include a citation in an abstract, if the reason you are citing it is because your paper is a major extension, rebuttal, or counterpoint to the cited article.
In that case, however, you do have the responsibility of providing the reference *within the body of the abstract*. For example,
> We extend upon the results of Smith \[*Journal of Very Important Results*, **1**, 374 (2012)\] to include the effects of a doohickey at the end of the thingamajig.
In such a case, the abstract remains self-contained, with an important citation included. (This is especially essential if an author is well-known for multiple papers, in which case the reference can be used to distinguish the varous works that could be intended.)
Large numbers of citations, however, should be avoided, as should "secondary" citations. Only the most critical literature for a paper should be cited, and that should normally be limited to one or two. Any more than that, and the abstract becomes hard to read.
# Answer
> 9 votes
This issue may depend on the academic field of the publication. In the case of the social sciences, abstract are generally written to be independent of the other sections of the paper or manuscript, so citations in the abstract are avoided. You may include a citation, but sometimes you have to include all the bibliographic details. Considering that abstract are usually required to be short, you may be unnecessarily wasting words.
Moreover, as the abstract is intended to be an interesting summary of the research described in the manuscript, it is not probably useful to include citations. An exception is the case when a manuscript heavily draws on a previous work. For instance, if you are replicating a previous study, then you may have to include a cite. In this paper, the author replicates and extends a study. The title and the abstract have a citation of the previous study.
# Answer
> 7 votes
It depends on the situation.
An abstract for a paper must be stand-alone, because the bibliography is hidden in the paper itself. The abstract must contain all information required for people to judge if they want to read the paper, and as there is no bibliography, the reader does not know what the citations relate to. Therefore, there should be no citations.
It may be a bit different if the abstract is for a conference. Maybe in some situations it's possible to add one or two references at the end of the abstract. In that case, it can be okay to have citations.
So the most important question here is: *can the reader use the abstract as a stand-alone unit?* If using citations cause the answer to this question to be *no*, don't do citations.
---
Tags: citations, abstract
--- |
thread-4975 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4975 | What are some good ways to structure material before writing a theoretical paper/thesis/book? | 2012-10-25T22:49:32.577 | # Question
Title: What are some good ways to structure material before writing a theoretical paper/thesis/book?
Let's say that you are going to write a theoretical paper/thesis/book (that is, you're not conducting empirical work). More often than not, I find it troublesome to just start writing right away, especially when I don't know what the results of my investigation is going to be.
What are some good ways to structure and organize your material, as well as your workflow, before starting to write?
# Answer
> 6 votes
Of course, it's disastrous to be so disorganized that things get lost, work has to be duplicated (even if it's just typing), etc.
On the other hand, I observe that many novice writers over-allocate their time+energy to "planning". I say "over-allocate" exactly because (as in the question) when one doesn't have too many details about the sequel, it is hard to plan. Further, especially in thesis situations, and, even for more experienced people, in book writing, the very process significantly changes one's viewpoint, so that an initial plan/outline/table-of-contents/statement-of-intent easily becomes grossly inaccurate over time+experience.
For example, although it is interesting, and an interesting exercise, to try to write an introduction or preface at the beginning, it will most likely prove wildly irrelevant, and have to be scrapped nearly entirely.
A second crucial mechanism is (as suggested in the questioner's self-answer) feedback, and, equally, iteration of the writing/editing cycle.
The two concepts combine to suggest that one should not waste time doing nothing, but pretending to be trying to fathom what one will think, and what one will discover, some months in the future. Hesitation delays the very experience that will bring to life one's future viewpoint! :)
# Answer
> 2 votes
Stephen Mumford, an english philosopher, has created what he calls the Mumford Method. It is basically a prescription of how to structure your notes as well as how to utilize presentation opportunities to get feedback and redraft the material.
---
Tags: workflow
--- |
thread-4979 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4979 | Is it acceptable to refer to theories to support an argument? | 2012-10-26T01:29:39.203 | # Question
Title: Is it acceptable to refer to theories to support an argument?
In my field, education, there are many named theories, for e.g., the “Atkinson-Shiffrin memory model”, which educators often talk about and debate.
While writing various graduate papers, my professors have often asked me to cite various named theories to support my arguments. Can theories generally be used to support arguments? Are theories more than just names for ideas? Can any person coin a new theory, or is there some process by which a theory gains recognition and support before it is deemed a “theory”? Can I really cite theories to add support to my papers?
# Answer
> Are theories more than just names for ideas?
No, they are just names for ideas.
> Can any person coin a new theory, or is there some process by which a theory gains recognition and support before it is deemed a “theory”?
Anyone can coin a new theory, and the term “theory” does not imply any special status. For example, the flat earth theory is a theory, just not a good theory. As a general rule, people don't spend much time talking about theories unless they are valuable or controversial. If you make up a new theory without some real insight, probably everyone will just ignore it. But that doesn't mean it's not a theory - it's just not a useful or interesting theory.
> Can I really cite theories to add support to my papers?
Part of the point of citing these theories is to show how your work fits into the field. You are engaging with and responding to certain ideas, refining or extending some of them and correcting or refuting others. It's important to describe these ideas in a recognizable way, so readers will see the context for your work and can better understand what you mean. Sometimes the best way to do that involves referring to named theories. If you can explain how these theories help justify your conclusions, then that will add support for your ideas. (You're taking advantage of the fact that many experts already understand and agree with these theories.)
Another factor that may be relevant in graduate papers is proving that you understand these theories and can explain how your work is related to them.
> While writing various graduate papers, my professors have often asked me to cite various named theories to support my arguments.
I'd strongly recommend discussing this with them. People on the internet can offer general comments, but only your professors can tell you exactly what they are looking for and why.
> 11 votes
---
Tags: citations, theory
--- |
thread-1582 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1582 | How important is AACSB accreditation for further study after an MBA? | 2012-05-16T08:52:31.030 | # Question
Title: How important is AACSB accreditation for further study after an MBA?
I have read that many Doctor of Business Administration or PhD in Business Administration programs in the US tend to reject students who did not complete a master's program at an AACSB-accredited school. From checking the list, there are no AACSB programs in the country where I live and it seems that many other foreign students would similarly lack such opportunities.
* Is this true only for American students or also of international students?
* If I complete a non-AACSB-accredited program, how might this limit my opportunities for further study?
* How could I demonstrate that a foreign program has sufficient quality?
# Answer
The best way to find out how important AACSB accreditation is is to ask some PhD in Business Administration programs. I doubt it is a hard and fast rule since most PhD programs do not need to maintain professional accreditation. I would be more worried about DBA programs since they may need to maintain AACSB accreditation.
> 2 votes
---
Tags: graduate-admissions, business-school
--- |
thread-4980 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4980 | Do students in taught programs need to go to their professors before publishing? | 2012-10-26T01:48:59.827 | # Question
Title: Do students in taught programs need to go to their professors before publishing?
I am a student in various graduate taught programs, but not a research student and I am not receiving any scholarships or grants from my institutions. I have prepared a paper which I wish to publish. The subject is within my field, but far outside of the expertise of any of my instructors, mostly because it deals with a language and other technical details which they are entirely unfamiliar with. As such, I highly doubt they could assist me in writing the paper.
I know that graduate research students should not publish works without their professor's permission. Is this rule relevant to students in taught programs? Can I submit my paper for credit in a course, without giving up ownership of the paper?
# Answer
> 8 votes
> I know that graduate research students should not publish works without their professor's permission.
It's a little more complicated than that. Nobody needs permission to publish anything that they did entirely on their own. If you work collaboratively or as part of a team, then it's not 100% your work and you need your collaborators' permission. If you do not collaborate but work under someone else's supervision, then it's still polite to ask for advice/permission. (They might see it as more of a collaboration than you do, and in any case your submission may reflect on their supervision so it is reasonable to get their feedback first.)
> Is this rule relevant to students in taught programs?
If you have no collaborators or supervisors in the research, then you can publish it however you'd like.
> Can I submit my paper for credit in a course, without giving up ownership of the paper?
I don't know of any case where you give up rights to a paper by submitting it in a course, so ownership is probably not the relevant issue here. In the universities I'm familiar with, you can certainly submit for publication an essay that was written for a class assignment (most such papers would not be accepted for publication, but a few could be). On the other hand, you cannot get class credit for a paper that you previously wrote for another purpose. The precise rules in your case may differ, but if you plan to use this paper for a class you should investigate your university's rules.
# Answer
> 6 votes
Although a professor's opinion on your paper could prove to be very valuable and save you the trouble of resubmitting your paper again and again to the same journal. I believe, in case your paper is worth a journal's quality and standard, really, there is no need for your professor's permission. Journal editors aren't concerned with your professor's permission, however they would require you to sign a document stating that your research is your own and that you have the authority to publish your data.
# Answer
> 2 votes
I think you've answered your own question. If you are not a student in the research group of a professor, and you've written the paper on your own, without outside assistance, then you don't need a faculty member's permission to publish the paper.
I would argue that under the circumstances, it would be inappropriate to require the permission of an "advisor"—since you can't even identify who the advisor should be!
As one of the other respondents mentioned, you might have to sign a statement declaring this is your own, independent work, but otherwise, I see no reason why someone else's permission needs to be secured here.
---
Tags: publications
--- |
thread-4991 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4991 | Are there academic reasons to only use journal articles and books when writing? | 2012-10-26T14:21:04.020 | # Question
Title: Are there academic reasons to only use journal articles and books when writing?
Recently I was researching for a paper, but the results of my research got me reflecting on my habits:
Is is at all appropriate for me to use Google (partly also Google Scholar) for academic research, just because I have good experiences with it in my personal, non-professional environment? I noticed I feel slightly too comfortable in sourcing material via Google. As expected, the quality of the resulting materials is "bad", in the sense that the sources I happen to find are rarely journal articles and often chronically difficult to cite. Of course for many topics this is a non-issue, but for my current topic, a lot of government, international institution and NGO content was "on-topic" and needed, so that is how the situation came about in the first place.
While I definitely **won't use** Wikipedia or (online) newspapers, but I also came across e.g. OECD content: while the content itself is strong and academically valid, **by now I sadly had to discard a significant part of it**, also because I initially didn't (exclusively) use their "iLibrary". Specifically: The amount of time I had to spend trying to find e.g. the author of such non-journal content (and other source-data), trying to decide if I should invest my time into reading and citing the content vs. discarding it and that I have to enter bibliographic data by hand for such content make me tired.
Thus my thought is: **Should I intentionally, sternly refrain/refuse to *use* (and *of course* cite) any materials that doesn't carry a DOI, ISBN or ISSN?** There is still a lot of grey literature, manuscripts, working papers etc. and web content out there... My current frustration is so large that I seriously consider such a strict stance going forward, but I fear that I might miss out on crucial facts and that omitting such publication will affect the credibility and well-roundedness of my paper(s)?
In the age of Google I am very happy that academic standards are in place, compared to the lack of cite-ability etc. in documents published by NGO's, think tanks, policy institutes and some governments.
# Answer
If you build your work upon other people's work, whether it be a blog post or postage stamp, then you should cite it, otherwise that's plagiarism. This is especially the case if the work is a primary source of the research (which can even be the case for blog posts).
That said, there are some guidelines you can follow to get the best version of the work to cite.
* *Find the most recent or most authoritative/official version of the work.* If the paper is an unpublished workshop paper, is there a corresponding conference or journal paper that was later published? Or is the work perhaps written up in a masters or PhD thesis?
* *Find the primary source.* Is the blog post (secondary source) a distillation of some other paper (primary source)? If so, go for that primary source. Is the Wikipedia article (tertiary source) based on some well-known book or article (primary source)? If the report from an NGO is original research (primary source) then you should cite it. If not, determine what it is based on an cite that.
> 19 votes
# Answer
From my own personal experience, I have cited non-traditional sources that go far beyond the realm of books and articles, and even repositories like arXiv.org.
In some cases, these included "trade association" documents that cited chemical compositions for blends that we needed to have in order to set up a numerical model. In that case, the document was "official" enough that it could pass muster as a viable source of the data. Similarly, if one wants to cite a source like the NIST Webbook or an online database like the Merck Index, those are clearly curated well enough that one doesn't necessarily have to worry about judging its validity.
For sites that are not so well curated, then you do have to work as an arbiter of the quality of the website. You'll need to verify if there is sufficient data and evidence to back up the claims that you find in the documentation you want to cite, and if the document is suitable for citation, or if you need to dig further back to find better "original" sources. So long as you can "trace back" your work with suitable confidence, it's probably OK to cite a source from the Web. Once the provenance or accuracy becomes nebulous or tenuous, you should look for alternate (or more primary) sources.
To go the other way is, of course, also *possible*. The challenge will be that if there are very important sources of literature published outside the journal system—for example, government reports or other standard materials that "define" their field, then you will probably be called out if you omit them—and their findings—from your work. Now this may not be true in *your* field, in which case this won't be a concern. If you get a referee report with such a request and refuse to make the change on the ground that it doesn't have a digital identifier, you may find yourself with a rejection notice at the end of the day.
> 8 votes
# Answer
DOI, ISBN and ISSN are very useful tool for managing citations, but nothing more. You **need** to cite every material you rely on. Otherwise it is strongly against scientific ethics (i.e. plagiarism or intentional lack of acknowledgement).
Of course, when you use materials without DOI, ISBN or ISSN you need to put special effort to properly identify the cited material and to have any reasonable chance, that it won't disappear.
But for example arXiv ids, or even links to MathOverflow answers are good candidates.
If you point is "I refrain form citing anything without DOI, ISBN or ISSN just because" then, well, someone can pledge not to cite your journal, or just - any of your works, because why not (and it happens on the same moral ground)?
> 3 votes
# Answer
Interesting question. I think the answer lies in looking for what purpose you cite "anything but journal articles and books".
In this respect, it is important to distinguish between primary and secondary sources in research reports:
* **Primary sources** are all items which were an object of your research, i.e., your research results directly stem from an analysis of these items. An example would be a text where you studied usage of a specific word. Or a telephone book, if you did a statistical analysis of telephone numbers. Primary references are rather rare in the natural sciences and engineering, but they would be more common in social sciences and humanities.
* **Secondary sources** are items from which you cite research results in order to support your arguments. For example theories that you base your hypotheses on, reports on the validity of methods that you are using in your research, or other research results which you discuss in relation to yours.
Obviously, for primary sources, it doesn't matter whether they have been produced with academic standards or not. After all, they are the **objects of research**, and the validity of your research results does (in principle) not depend on the validity of the primary sources.
On the other hand, the validity of secondary sources is crucial for the validity of your research results, or at least your interpretation of the results. That's why you only want to use secondary sources which are up to academic standards, i.e. peer-reviewed scientific publications and books from established authors / publishers.
So the conclusion is that you should in fact try to refrain from using less credible references as secondary sources, while it will be perfectly fine to use anything as a primary source.
> 0 votes
---
Tags: research-process, citations
--- |
thread-5002 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5002 | Taking break/vacation during graduate studies/PhD | 2012-10-27T05:29:14.860 | # Question
Title: Taking break/vacation during graduate studies/PhD
Do people take time out to go home, meet with family etc. during their PhD?
* If yes then for how long and how frequently is it usually?
* How does one deal with this with one's advisor?
* What are the pros and cons?
Given that one basically has just about 2-3 years in practice to do all their PhD work, I don't understand how anything else fits in the schedule except work. The entire idea of a PhD looks quite scary to me that one is expected to produce cutting-edge stuff in that short a time starting from just standard graduate courses!
PS: the question is general, but if it is field-dependent, I am interested in particular in physics PhDs (theoretical high-energy physics specifically)
# Answer
The answer is *of course, yes*. In fact, you need to take a break to recharge your batteries.
The answers to the other questions will depend on what the rules are regarding holidays (which is country dependent). I think that our guys get six weeks annually (where as other countries only offer one or two weeks). Our guys can take them in one chunk, but this is sometimes problematic if there are deadlines that need to be met, or tutorials, etc.
The way to deal with your advisor is simply to ask him with a concrete proposal. It is better that you have *not* bought the plane tickets before you ask, because that will be perceived as an attempt at manipulation by your advisor, which will damage the trust relationship.
When my guys ask for a vacation I simply ask whether it clashes with anything. If not, I grant it.
The pros of taking a couple of holidays is that you will have time to recharge your batteries. The cons of not taking a holiday is that you can burn out.
> 11 votes
# Answer
My PhD was thirty years ago, and in the UK, so how relevant my experience is these days I don't know. However FWIW I think the only reason for doing a PhD is that it's something you really want to do. Unless you're absolutely fascinated by it, three years of hard work and no money is likely to prove too much for you. I **loved** the three years of my PhD even though I've only been cited a handful of times and I ended up in a job unrelated to my PhD work.
Unless your supervisor is related to the Grinch they'll let you see your family a couple of times in the three years :-)
> 6 votes
---
Tags: community
--- |
thread-5005 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5005 | How do we end the culture of “endless hours at work”? | 2012-10-27T07:51:54.753 | # Question
Title: How do we end the culture of “endless hours at work”?
In many of the research groups I’ve worked at or visited, there is a culture that endless hours in the lab equal successful researcher. (I am in a theoretical field, so requirement of long-running experiments are outside of the picture. Let's ignore them in this discussion.) In chemistry, a widely-known example of this culture is the following letter:
> I would like to provide for you in written form what is expected from you as a member of the research group. In addition to the usual work-day schedule, I expect all of the members of the group to work evenings and weekends. You will find that this is the norm here at Caltech. On occasion, I understand that personal matters will make demands on your time which will require you to be away from your responsibilities to the laboratory. However, it is not acceptable to me when it becomes a habit.
>
> **I have noticed that you have failed to come in to lab on several weekends, and more recently have failed to show up in the evenings.** Moreover, in addition to such time off, you recently requested some vacation. I have no problem with vacation time that is well earned, but I do have a problem with continuous vacation and time off that interferes with the project. I find this very annoying and disruptive to your science.
>
> **I expect you to correct your work-ethic immediately.**
>
> I receive at least one post-doctoral application each day from the US and around the world. If you are unable to meet the expected work-schedule, I am sure that I can find someone else as an appropriate replacement for this important project.
---
I have fallen prey to this during my PhD, doing very long hours. Now that I manage a research team, what is good advice to help fight this culture in my team? (Obviously, I don't want students and post-docs to get the message that little work is required either.)
Things I already do to that end:
* When a new group member comes in and they get the out-of-hours building pass (for Sundays and late nights), mention that they are not expected to use it on a regular basis.
* Avoid planning meetings at unusual hours (bank holidays, week-ends, etc.)
# Answer
> 48 votes
In the different groups I worked in, their respective cultures were always the result of the behaviour of the leader. So *lead by example*. In particular, some useful hints from my experience would be:
**E-Mails:** don't send e-mails in non-office hours, especially not requests for help with something. No e-mails on weekends and late night are a signal which everybody "gets" after a short while.
**Social activities:** support group's social life. A group hike to nearby mountains (in office hours on a working day!), or a joint trip to a museum sends a signal that taking time off is an important part of one's life. We used to do it on occasion of having a guest researcher (for a study stay, or just a seminar talk). It's good for group's cohesion and again tells people that rest time is also very useful.
**Personal relationship:** care for private lives of your group members. Build relationship with their families. Speak to them about their personal activities, about their vacations, kids, etc. and do not forget to give back and speak about yours. These kinds of discussions send a powerful signal that you perceive time off in a positive way and even encourage it, since you take it as well.
**Plan well ahead:** clear plans and roadmaps in projects allow people to plan their time off as well. Nothing more annoying than a spurt interfering with one's private life to deliver some report, because the boss didn't care to tell the group ahead.
**Time in the office:** being in computer science, where I do not need to spend time in a lab and can easily work anywhere, I was always lucky to have bosses who cared for deliverables, rather than for my time in the office. After all, most of my good ideas are born in weird places, such as under shower, while on a bike, walking in woods, and by reading stuff outdoors. Making it clear with the group members that you care first and foremost for deliverables and are flexible regarding the actual time in the office (within reasonable bounds and respecting the local laws and regulations) works well. My experience is also that people tend to deliver better if they are given the power to plan their time and process, rather being forced to mantinels set by their supervisor.
Generally, I found it always very comfortable in groups where having kids was something nice and for what the group leader and members cared. Nothing is worse than a group where work interacts negatively with one's family life and where going home before 6pm to care for kids at home is perceived as something bad.
# Answer
> 18 votes
Well, can your postdocs/grad students/whoever compete with their peers if they only spend 40-60 hours working instead of 60-80? If the answer is "no", you're actually doing them a disservice by trying to fix the system on your own. Some fields don't require much thought or brainpower. You can plan a thousand hours of experiments in an afternoon, and then you're left to just do it. In that case, your postdocs/etc. will just be outworked by others, which will negatively impact any future careers they might want in science. It's not very nice, but that's the way things are.
On the other hand, if you're in a field where quality of work and depth of insight are really important, you should not *merely* stress working less, but stress working *intelligently* and *efficiently*. This will help your postdocs/etc. to maintain a less absurd and exploitative lifestyle while still producing results that are as good as or better than those who work under incredible pressure.
---
Tags: management, working-time
--- |
thread-5019 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5019 | Is it ever alright to add a subtitle to a title shortened by publication when citing? | 2012-10-27T21:44:33.677 | # Question
Title: Is it ever alright to add a subtitle to a title shortened by publication when citing?
Let's assume that a paper was submitted under the `"Extremely long and necessary title that explains you are studying pieces of Class A, Class B and Class C of this Bigger (and much more frequently searched) Topic"`.
This, of course, had to be shortened for publication and now is published and cited under the title:
`"Extremely long and necessary title that explains you are studying pieces of Class A, Class B and Class C"`
Still correct but likely to fly under the radar of many researchers. So, is it ever OK in a citation (APA or in general) to add the `[additional subtitles]` when displaying the citation like below? Is it even ethical to adjust the title post publication?
`"Extremely long and necessary title that explains you are studying pieces of Class A, Class B and Class C [of this Bigger (and much more frequently searched) Topic]"`
I'm a new academic and I appreciate any thoughts.
# Answer
> 9 votes
I'd stick with the published title. You definitely shouldn't edit it without indicating that you are doing so, for example with square brackets, and I'd avoid that too. I've never seen anyone do it. If you do edit the title, then the best case scenario is that you'll come across as a little eccentric, and you may confuse or irritate readers. (They may wonder whether you are referring to a slightly different version of the paper than the one they have, for example a longer preprint or working paper that was shortened for publication. Then they may waste time looking for it, or decide you are being sloppy about your citations.) It may also throw off citation counts, which is not in your interests. Incidentally, I assume you are talking about a previous paper of yours - you certainly shouldn't edit someone else's title.
Instead of editing the title, you can convey this information in the body of your paper via your citation. For example, you could write "For background on Classes A, B and C and how they fit into Bigger Topic, see Paper X." If you give the reader enough information, then the shortened title really won't matter.
---
Tags: publications, citations, etiquette, ethics
--- |
thread-4763 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4763 | Relative importance of research publications for grad school admissions (theoretical physics/pure mathematics) | 2012-10-15T15:39:27.707 | # Question
Title: Relative importance of research publications for grad school admissions (theoretical physics/pure mathematics)
A dilemma that is confronting right now is knowledge versus research. I am a second year physics undergrad, with a strong interest in mathematical physics, QFT, and an even more strong interest in pure mathematics. Right now, I am not sure what to pursue, hence ideally I would like to try out a lot of both the fields. However, most of the people I meet are advising against me saying I should just pick and area and stick to it, and try to publish papers, even if I want a remote chance of getting into the top grad programs in the US. So , I am confused if I should stick to a field, and get research papers published or explore a large number of areas. This boils down to the question how much importance does a uni give to a research publication over the knowledge the person has?
# Answer
The main thing that graduate school admissions committees are looking for are good researchers. Publishing papers demonstrates such ability; publishing papers in well-known journals is even better. However, it's difficult, as an undergraduate, to publish papers as first author (which is the most important position when one is applying as a student). Typically, they will be working in consultation with a more experienced student, who will be the lead author. In that case, while the credits are of themselves useful, they need to be *coupled* to strong letters of recommendation from the co-authors, testifying to the student's original efforts in executing the work.
At the same time, one should not totally sacrifice depth in a single area for breadth; grad schools want to see *some* evidence of concentration, but complete devotion to one area is also too much of an extreme. Try to balance the two somewhat, so that you've explored *a few* areas, and worked at least *one or two* areas in depth.
> 8 votes
# Answer
To add to other answers... thinking of mathematics: It is difficult to somehow-deliberately acquire intellectual maturity. Attempting to "force it" or "fake it" will produce outcomes worse than doing nothing. A more honest and productive attitude is "engagement", which may or may not produce papers. Even a very capable novice should not focus on "papers" because this has a corruptive effect on the clarity of one's thinking, and tends to create possibilities to look silly, if not worse.
Awareness of current events, engagement with them, are the most important. No, the GRE Math Subject Test is essentially completely disconnected from this, but does test for a certain facile cleverness and quickness. Grades and standard coursework are relevant only to the extent that they *prepare* one for more serious, *live* things. Getting a perfect score on a drivers license exam does not mean much about one's capacity to drive in Formula One races, or NASCAR, either.
As an advisor and mentor to quite a few PhD students over the years, I've found that the worst liability is believing too firmly that one has already "arrived". True, it can be debilitating to doubt oneself too much, but that is closer to sense than believing that no one knows anything, so that one's trivial observations represent publishable progress that should "impress" people. If anything, one should manage to communicate that one is aware that other people have done many things.
Probably the most essential element in applications is letters of recommendation from experienced research people who know you well, who (hopefully) can attest your *potential*. Being "best in a class" is good, is nice, no downside, but is somewhat tangential to "research potential". Writing childish papers as an undergrad does not certify anything at all about one's potential for serious professional work, and one should be careful about misunderstanding this!
Admission to an elite grad program in math (in the U.S.) is difficult without excellent GRE score (=filter), maybe a good Putnam score to show you're clever, undergrad degree from a "Research I" school with many graduate courses on one's transcript (since undergrad courses at best don't quite get anyone up to the starting line of awareness or knowledge), and *glittering* letters from people who are established research people, who've made a contribution themselves. (Otherwise how in the world would they know what they're talking about when they say you have the potential to do serious things?)
Having said all that... I guess an indirect point is that one ought not *expect* to have any meaningful publications. Sure, one can probably arrange *meaningless* publications, but, if anything, real mathematicians are not moved by that. (Such things are handy for impressing university-wide panels on this-and-that, but that's a different story.) So far as my (limited, but not exclusively anecdotal) experience indicates, a tiny minority of applicants to the best grad programs in math have any *real* publications at all.
> 3 votes
# Answer
Ideally, research publications give a strong indication of not just how much knowledge a person has acquired, but how much has he been able to *contribute* to the existing body of knowledge. That, coupled with the fact that there aren't very reliable metrics to gauge a person's knowledge (grades are a very poor metric in that regard IMO), makes it obvious that you would be best served by focusing on churning out as many high-quality papers as you can!
> 1 votes
# Answer
You should try to think just like a professor. Just think that you are allowed to have some students to work under your supervision. So, do you prefer to have a student who is able to conduct research and publish paper or some one who does not know how to do research but have good grades? Graduate school is all about doing research and showing that you are able to do that will surely help you to get accepted by grad schools. They want to know if you are able to cope with such life as a scientist or not. It is possible if you devote yourself to research your grades become low, but it is normal and no one is able to publish great papers and at the same time obtains good grades. All in all, publishing papers surely helps you. A little advice, make a team with your friends and divide the works to be able to make a balance between both sides.
> 1 votes
---
Tags: graduate-school, research-process, graduate-admissions
--- |
thread-1992 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1992 | How can I make up for weak grades while applying for a masters? | 2012-06-12T19:03:02.673 | # Question
Title: How can I make up for weak grades while applying for a masters?
I feel I've received poor grades in my bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering - Second Class Second Division as per UK grading system. Having finished my bachelors in the UK I wish to enroll into a masters program in Systems or Mechanical Engineering in the US. I am currently employed by a logistics company in Dubai.
How can I improve my chances of getting into a grad school in the US with what I consider as poor grades? What other factors can strengthen my application?
# Answer
I would look for a purely taught program (i.e., no research component) terminal masters program and demonstrate that you can, and expect to, self fund. The expectations of self funded students on terminal masters programs are very different from masters programs designed to feed into PhD programs. I would also target smaller programs where applications are looked at more throughly. The US system relies on standardized tests. Take the GRE and a subject test and do well (really well). Finally, think about why you did poorly in you undergraduate studies and what has changed since then. Then figure out how to express that in your statement of purpose.
> 6 votes
---
Tags: graduate-school, grades
--- |
thread-4941 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4941 | Any risks down the line choosing maths vs. stats PhD programme? | 2012-10-24T10:30:27.587 | # Question
Title: Any risks down the line choosing maths vs. stats PhD programme?
It seems funding for a PhD (at least in the UK) is a lot easier to get for a PhD in statistics rather then maths. Provided one can find a supervisor who has the background and research interestes that would allow one to keep extending ones pure mathematical toolbox are there any major risks in going for a PhD in stats ?
It seems to me that at any given stage there is a lot of flexibility with a degree in mathematics. (For instance people seem very open minded to let a maths MSc do a stats PhD). Is it justified to be worried about losing this flexibility if one opts for the PhD in stats rather then maths?
In particular I am worried about whether it is possible to transition back to the maths departement for a postdoctoral position or something equivalent. So essentially I want to know whether one will get branded to an extend that would make it difficult to go on and work in pure mathematics after the PhD.
# Answer
> Provided one can find a supervisor who has the background and research interestes that would allow one to keep extending ones pure mathematical toolbox are there any major risks in going for a PhD in stats?
There's a small risk, but it can be managed. The first issue is that you need to make the mathematical content of your work very clear, for example by publishing in journals that could be considered both math journals and statistics journals (e.g., IMS journals). However, if you're interested in math departments I assume you'd be doing that anyway.
The slightly more subtle issue is how mathematicians view statisticians. There's sometimes a mild prejudice that people in mathematical statistics are overly specialized and outside of the mainstream of mathematics. For example, it's possible to get a Ph.D. in mathematical statistics while having considerably less breadth of mathematical background than would be considered acceptable for a math grad student. (Of course, the flip side is that you are expected to know other things instead.) There's sometimes a fear that a statistician would be unlikely to talk much with other math department members, or might be unwilling or unable to teach anything but statistics.
Plenty of statisticians have found jobs in math departments, so I don't want to be discouraging. However, I'd recommend focusing on mathematical breadth. For example, if you work with people in combinatorics or algebra, then it will be clear to everyone why a math department is a natural fit. If you talk only to statisticians, it will be less clear. It can still work out even then, but generally when the department either has a thriving statistics group or has decided they really need a statistician (and either way this cuts down on the flexibility of your job search).
> 3 votes
# Answer
I cannot answer about stats/maths directly, but in general the department you get your PhD in matters less than who it is with. This is especially true in places like the UK were there is no course work component. In my current department, psychology, about 50% of the faculty, including myself, did not get our PhD from Psychology departments. That said, if you are only willing to teach in a Maths department, then you should probably go to a Maths department. If you are willing to teach in either Maths or Stats, then it doesn't matter too much.
> 1 votes
---
Tags: phd, graduate-school, career-path, advisor
--- |
thread-1232 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1232 | In universities, how to team up with your colleagues? | 2012-04-22T12:20:20.930 | # Question
Title: In universities, how to team up with your colleagues?
Many times in universities, people don't dedicate much time to build friendly relationships with colleagues. Unfortunately, this happens both in the tenured positions and in non-tenured positions, with many bad consequences (such as for examples, many researchers actually don't know what other colleagues are researching on...).
I've always been thinking that building strong friend relationships with colleagues can be very useful and powerful, for careers but most of all to create a more serene work environment.
I think that a good way to create friendly relationships with colleagues is organizing **extra-work activities**, such as dinners, soccer matches, etc. Last week some of my PhD student colleagues organized a pizza dinner between colleagues. All my department (~150) PhD students were invited, but in the end we were just 9! :-(
What d'you do to build strong friend relationships with colleagues? Could you tell some success stories? Could you give some good advices?
# Answer
In my experience, a lot of academics tend to shy away from things like a pizza party. I would suggest thinking about things that connect common interests. For example, consider starting a book club on some relatively broad topic of interest, or a group where folks read and comment on each other's work. These kind of things can be really valuable of they ring together folks from different specalizations. It is always good to get a different perspective.
As another example, think about setting up a brown bag lecture series. These can be great ways to get folks out of their offices and talking.
Beyond this, I would generaly suggest not trying to set up events that have 150 people invited. Think smaller and more targeted.
> 6 votes
# Answer
In our department, the assistant professors go out for drinks once a month (a fixed day of the week and a fixed week of the month). That tends to work out quite well: we can let off steam, compare notes on our students (and what senior faculty dish out in the name of advice :)), and generally get a nice group. I've had a few collaborations start because of this as well.
The general faculty also do a drinks night occasionally, but not as regularly.
> 8 votes
# Answer
**Eat lunch with people.**
While many researcher don't have very flexible schedules, they do occasionally eat. However, creating a structured lunch environment where there is a daily meeting location at a consistent time with a knowledge that anyone can drop by without feeling excluded, closeted academics might feel like they might have to make time to grab some lunch.
Then there are the occasional department happy hours.
> 7 votes
# Answer
Be a leader! Make a research group, Know what you want to do and divide the works, Do not waste your time on finding friends, Be a person whose character is interesting for other people, Be yourself, be the guy who has big dreams, Then you have a team with people who want to have a role in your work. Never try to be the person who follows the others, Be the person who is followed by others.
> 1 votes
---
Tags: phd, community, extracurricular
--- |
thread-5027 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5027 | Where to Apply for International Relations? | 2012-10-28T05:58:09.933 | # Question
Title: Where to Apply for International Relations?
I'm having some trouble figuring out what schools to apply to for a Masters in International Relations. There are a number of lists I've seen but many of the schools are very focused on the practical side for mid-career people. I'm interested in eventually getting a PhD and being an academic. Also most lists are only of the top 5 or 10 schools so it's hard to tell how good other schools are. My application is a little mixed, some strong parts some weak parts, so I was thinking of applying to a wide range of schools but I could really use some advice in what schools to look at. My undergrad GPA isn't good, 3.14 (3.5 in the major), but my GRE scores are good, 170V 168Q 4.5. I've been living in China for the past 5 years, but only speak a tiny bit of Chinese. I'd love some advice about where to apply or any rankings to look at. Thanks.
# Answer
> 1 votes
International relations at the University of St Andrews are quite highly ranked. They definitely give you the option of eventually moving on to a PhD. I don't know much about their entry requirements though; I'd suggest that you contact them and ask.
# Answer
> 1 votes
International relations is a famous major at American University in Washington DC. The School of International Relations is the speciality of American University. For a nice historical background, it was at American University where JFK spoke:
> Ask not what your country can do for you....
---
Tags: graduate-school, graduate-admissions
--- |
thread-5045 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5045 | From academic collaboration to research contract, best practices | 2012-10-29T08:00:25.910 | # Question
Title: From academic collaboration to research contract, best practices
We started to collaborate with another research group. We make computational predictions and they evaluate them at the lab, for bioactive compounds. We have not yet established a research agreement, just talked in person, but we would like to establish a research contract with them. This is since in our country (Spain) and given the financial crisis, groups that establish such research contracts are more eligible for further funding from national government than those that publish in *Nature* or *Science*. Since we need as many contracts as possible, price is not important, we think we can offer our services for a very small fee. The point is how to convince the other groups that we need to do this not for the money, but for our future. So the question is, what is the best way to propose them a research contract?
# Answer
> 5 votes
The best way is probably to talk very openly with them about your situation and especially what research contracts mean for you. Before you make any suggestions, it would also be good to evaluate the funding situation of your partners, and whether they need your contribution so much for their research that they would be willing to put money in it.
However, most collaborations between academic groups are seen as something that benefits both sides, so it could be seen as a little bit odd that one side pays the other to do something. Still, if your partners have a good funding situation, they might be willing to (co-)fund a PhD student or post-doc in your group, who works specifically on the collaboration project. But I've mostly seen this between groups in the same institution so far, not among different institutions. If your collaborators are in industry, then it will probably be easier.
Another nice way to get such project going would be to apply for joint funding with the other research group, for example within an EU project, and set up a contract how the money from the funded project will be distributed between you and the other group. If your collaborators have good national funding sources, it may also be possible that they apply for funding with the joint project on their own, and outsource the computational part to you.
---
Tags: research-process, funding, contract
--- |
thread-5047 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5047 | Should I write a recommendation letter for a student at a previous job/institution? | 2012-10-29T11:06:52.557 | # Question
Title: Should I write a recommendation letter for a student at a previous job/institution?
I receive requests for recommendation many times, but I have received one from a student belonging at a previous affiliation of mine, asking for a favourable letter in view of their achievements.
I am aware of the fact that if I comment on the performance of the student, it could be used against me, since it is good practice to "erase" all the material, marks, personal information of the students and staff relationship at a previous job. So I am hesitant to go in that direction. On the other hand, I could comment only very generally on the skills of the student, which could backfire their application to a new job
Differently from this question I am not looking for a recommendation, but giving one...
# Answer
When you change job, you don’t erase your memory (well, not in *all* jobs), nor do you all your responsibilities related to this previous job vanish. It is true that leaving a position creates certain obligations in the data you can retain, and how you can use non-publicly available information pertaining to your older institution. However, in the particular case of a reference letter, I don't think it should cause trouble. Moreover, reference letters are confidential.
Actually, I'd go further than saying it should not be a problem. In fact, I think **if you *can* honestly write him a good recommendation letter, it is part of your responsibility to do it**. This responsibility is not to your former institution, but to the student and the academic system as a whole.
> 31 votes
# Answer
You may want to ask the student to send you any material that you need for writing your reference, for example grade sheets and a CV. Bringing in your personal experiences with the student in addition shouldn't be a problem at all. After writing the reference letter, you should erase all confidential material that the student sent you... :)
> 13 votes
---
Tags: recommendation-letter
--- |
thread-5050 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5050 | Publishing an algorithm that may not have many applications? | 2012-10-29T15:17:54.447 | # Question
Title: Publishing an algorithm that may not have many applications?
Suppose I came across a problem, say in graph theory, that I need to solve for my application, or a problem that I just created out of the blue. I find that it is not a standard problem by any means. Also, it may not have many applications. I then solve this problem with some algorithm. The algorithm is non-trivial. My questions are:
1. Is it possible to publish such algorithms?
2. Does it even make sense to publish it? Since it may not even have any applications. And if it did, it is likely that other people have solved the same problem for their respective applications without ever publishing it.
I am sorry if such speculative questions should not be asked here, but I was curious. Thanks!
# Answer
> Is it possible to publish such algorithms?
It's not only possible, it's *far* more common than the alternative. ***Most* algorithms papers do not have real applications.** The vast majority are *motivated* by applications, but there are usually several layers of abstraction and/or simplification between the problem actually solved and the motivating application. But even this "motivation" is often post-hoc rationalization, added by the authors to help draw the reader into their paper. Most people who study algorithms do it primarily because algorithms are *cool*, not primarily because they're *useful*.
Or maybe that's just me.
> Does it even make sense to publish it?
In principle, sure! Of course, to be publishable, your algorithm needs to be both novel and interesting, not just to you, but to the algorithms community as a whole. You need to be *sure* that your problem hasn't been solved before, and in particular that your algorithm wasn't already discovered and published by someone else. You also need to **sell** the problem, the algorithm, or both; it's not enough for your algorithm to be "non-trivial".
I **strongly** recommend running your algorithm past a local algorithms expert, if possible. They may recognize your problem or your technique under a different guise. At a minimum, they should be able to help you start the necessary literature search.
Good luck!
> 31 votes
# Answer
I can't answer (1), but regarding (2), I definitely recommend **publish**.
I would venture that any individual academic is a moderate-to-poor judge of how useful their own research is in practice. While your situation may seem very specific, there may be more general applications that are not immediately apparent to you. Additionally, there's a non-trivial likelihood that someone else will encounter the same problem that you're currently trying to solve, in which case your work will be more useful. Just because you don't think someone will need it doesn't mean no one will :)
> 26 votes
# Answer
You should definitely consider publishing the algorithm, but not before you could say something more than merely a pseudocode.
You should start with a proper literature survey of relevant journals to check if the problem has *really* not been tackled elsewhere, even under a different avatar. If that is done, you could try building value to your algorithm by checking its complexity or by considering variants that could speed it up at the cost of some efficiency, maybe. You could then think about extensive simulations which could test and validate your algorithm. Finally you could conclude by thinking up some practical applications where it could be relevant.
The applications part sometimes may not be present, but it is perfectly acceptable for a paper to extend the theory alone, leaving it for future researchers to develop it appropriately.
> 6 votes
# Answer
I would say that it depends on the **computational complexity** you get out of it.
A naive implementation can always be made for any algorithm, but an algorithm with an efficient (or at least better-than-naive) complexity is always interesting, no matter if the problem it solves is very specific or not: a lot of algorithms are very specific, and generally the most efficient are very VERY specific, sometimes working for degenerate cases that nearly never happens in real life. Later on, somebody else can always enhance your algorithm, generalize it to other cases or build up on it to solve other related problems.
So my rule of thumb based on what I have read from algorithmics litterature:
* if you can make an algorithm that solves a problem,
* and the complexity is better than naive implementation (and, if you're not the first to solve this problem, possibly better than any other algorithm for the same problem under the same conditions),
* and you can *prove* it (see Computational complexity theory),
Then go ahead and publish it, for example on arxiv.org or vixra.org which are free scientific papers pre-publishing services.
> 4 votes
# Answer
You should publish it. History has shown that articles that have no real-life application at the time of their publication can have a real-world application identified in the indeterminate future. A good example is the prefix/postfix arithmetic operation format. When this was created, computers did not even exist (1920s), but 30 years later it was used by Djikstra and others for efficient in-memory representation of arithmetic operations in computers.
So, I repeat, do publish. Maybe someone uses it after you and I are dead, but it will still be useful.
> 4 votes
---
Tags: publications
--- |
thread-5030 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5030 | CS graduate admissions for masters level | 2012-10-28T11:31:56.157 | # Question
Title: CS graduate admissions for masters level
For people applying from unknown schools where one's senior has never hit that department before, what is the evaluation metric for graduate admissions ? Probably all schools are not equal, but what if the applicant's school is unknown or a newly established one without a reputed faculty who are unknown to the researchers in the field.
How do you judge if the candidate is good enough ? What is the value of GRE Subject Test especially in these situations ? How does top 10 programs approach such candiates, do they spot reject them ?
My question is about MS level admissions, please answer considering that fact.
# Answer
Most schools are unknown schools; there are just too many for the admissions committee members to have an idea of the quality of all of them.
So the standard approach is to de-emphasize the GPA and make the decision based more strongly upon the other parts of the application. If the GPA would be troubling if it were from a good school, then it's still troubling; otherwise, it's more of a threshold ("Well, that's good enough--let's look at the rest of the application.").
(This is generic advice for all academic fields; there's nothing special about CS in this regard.)
> 1 votes
---
Tags: graduate-admissions
--- |
thread-4997 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4997 | Why are some research groups not so ethnically diverse? | 2012-10-26T17:20:56.437 | # Question
Title: Why are some research groups not so ethnically diverse?
Some research groups, especially the ones at lower tier schools in the United States, contains an excessive amount of students who have the same nationality as the professor. Some Chinese professors' groups solely consists of Chinese students.
Does this go against diversity, considering the fact that Ph.D admissions are not centralized and is not done by adcom members? Is there a constraint on this implied by school to faculty?
# Answer
> 16 votes
I'm a PhD student based in Sweden, working in a group where everybody except the PhD students are German. Another group in the same building has several Russians, and a recent Russian PhD student had a Russian supervisor. So the tendency to mono-culturalism is not unique.
Probably, many institutes have statements promoting diversity. In practice, these don't mean much, because recruitment depends on academic networks, skills of applicants, etc. There can be different reasons for a group to tend to mono-culturalism. Some reasons I can think of:
* A professor heading a research group in a foreign country probably has an extensive academic network from his/her originating country. Academic networks are powerful sources of recruitment of new staff, either senior staff or PhD students (e.g. via a Master thesis supervisor recommending them). So applicants might simply be more likely to be from the same country as the head of the group, even if the head of the group is 100% honest in his/her selections.
* PhD students may appreciate if they can work with a supervisor that speaks their language, particularly if they are not so comfortable speaking English.
* It's culturally easier to work in a group with several people from ones own country.
All these factors can contribute to groups in country X with group members primarily from country Y != X.
Probably there are other reasons that I didn't think of.
# Answer
> 9 votes
As a faculty member, one of the most challenging things to do is find high-quality people to work in your lab. Faculty generally will use every trick they can to find good people, including asking friends, colleagues, talking to people at conferences, and so on.
If the faculty member is more comfortable in a certain language (e.g. if they find it easier to evaluate a candidate who speaks Hungarian than English), or does not have an ethnically diverse set of colleagues/friends in their field, then you quickly get a non-diverse lab.
There *usually* isn't any bias or prejudice going on here; it's just terribly important to get your students right, so many people will not feel like they can go out of their way to promote diversity.
# Answer
> 8 votes
I think the fundamental issue is not that the groups go against the principle of diversity, but that they're just too small to speak meaningfully about diversity. A population of three to six graduate students is not large enough to make claims that they are or are not diverse enough. Even if they all come from the same country, there may be other forces at work. For instance, those students might be the ones who get "matched" into the group—they list that group as their highest priority, and others don't.
However, in general, there are no constraints placed by a university or a department on *which* students a faculty member can or cannot take. There may be limits and restrictions that determine *if* a faculty member can take students, or *how many*, but never have I heard a restriction about which ones.
---
Tags: research-group, diversity, ethnicity
--- |
thread-922 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/922 | How do I get into a masters course in pure mathematics? | 2012-03-28T04:50:01.763 | # Question
Title: How do I get into a masters course in pure mathematics?
My question is as stated in the title and to elaborate more:
I would like to know if there are any standardized international exams to enter a masters course in pure mathematics (besides GRE Math) and available for a scholarship simultaneously? (I'm a graduate in Automotive engineering, 23 years old and don't have a math degree yet).
I have completed 5 courses related to engineering mathematics during my tenure as a engineer.
I've been prepping only on math (topology, differential geometry, advanced calculus, real analysis, etc.) for the past 6 months and am almost ready for an entrance exam.
Can anyone offer me alternate options or solutions on how to go about this?
# Answer
> 5 votes
There are no standardized international exams for mathematics. Strategies for applying for a masters in Maths is no different from any other program. The best, and possibly easiest, way to enhance your chances for acceptance is to find a means to self fund. Specifics on how to tailor an application are very country and program dependent.
---
Tags: graduate-admissions, mathematics
--- |
thread-3154 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3154 | Neuroscience- NIH-IRTA for a international student | 2012-09-09T09:23:09.963 | # Question
Title: Neuroscience- NIH-IRTA for a international student
I've finished my bachelor in Cognitive science and mathematics and I'm looking for research opportunities in the US, starting in a half year. Are there any programs for people in my position? The NIH-IRTA only works for citizens and permanent residents. A year ago I've been on exchange to a top American college, but didn't make acquaintances with any of the PI, as the classes were lead by TA's; can I still use my exchange to find an internship somewhere in the US?
# Answer
> 1 votes
Most of the major US founders limited their funding of junior people to US citizens/permanent residents. these same funding bodies (e.g., NIH, NSF) will happily allow PIs to hire international people on grants. Your best bet is probably to find a PI who is willing to hire you directly off a grant.
---
Tags: research-undergraduate, internship, international
--- |
thread-3515 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3515 | When to change a research focus | 2012-09-30T20:17:19.557 | # Question
Title: When to change a research focus
Some say that a person should change the work field every 5 to 7 years in order to stay productive and avoid stagnation. How does this apply to academia, for example, changing a research focus?
For example, some universities advise to take a sabbatical every 5 years or so.
Edited as suggested: What are the indicators to show that it is time or an opportunity to change the research area? Perhaps, there is a good answer based on your experience?
# Answer
> 6 votes
I know of no university that advises you to take a sabbatical. Lucky people have departments that allow them to take a sabbatical every once in a while. Sabbaticals don't generally result in a change in research focus.
I think there are three indicators about when it is time to change research focus.
1. You are bored and want to change
2. You can no longer publish in your area and receive rejections along the lines of "This is no longer a relevant area"
3. You can no longer get funding in you area and receive rejections along the lines of "This is no longer a relevant area"
---
Tags: research-process, career-path
--- |
thread-5061 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5061 | How long should letters of recommendation for students be? | 2012-10-30T13:20:39.340 | # Question
Title: How long should letters of recommendation for students be?
I have recently (finally?) had some requests to write letters of recommendation for graduate students. However, it's not really clear to me how long a good letter of recommendation should be. I've seen statements that it should be one page, but many of the best letters I have seen have gone significantly longer than that (two or even two and a half pages).
Is there really a limit as far as admissions committees are concerned? Or is it "whatever is needed" to get the point across, within reason (nobody's going to read a ten-page letter, even if it's written by Albert Einstein or Thomas Edison!).
# Answer
> 24 votes
I'd guess that this depends on the field. In mathematics in the U.S., one factor is your relationship with the student. If you are the Ph.D. advisor or a close mentor, then the letter should be at least two pages long (maybe rounding up a little) or it risks looking unsupportive, and three or four pages is not uncommon. For other letter writers, I'd recommend at least a page, and good letters are often two pages or longer. Of course these aren't absolute rules, and it's possible to write a great letter that's shorter, but it's a little risky.
The reason for the length is to give a chance to discuss the student's work (you can explain what they did, what some of the background and context is, why it's exciting, why the student's contributions are impressive, etc.). You can easily fill most of a page with generalities about other things - what your relationship with the student is, what your general opinion is, a paragraph about teaching and communication skills, etc. It's hard to cover this and say much about the student's work within one page, so a one-page letter sometimes suggests that either the recommender doesn't know the student very well or they don't have much to say about the work.
Overall, I'd say that whatever is needed is OK. The worst case scenario is that the committee will start skimming partway through, but that's not a disaster.
---
Tags: recommendation-letter
--- |
thread-5065 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5065 | How to approach principal investigators for internship/job positions | 2012-10-30T14:56:45.670 | # Question
Title: How to approach principal investigators for internship/job positions
1. What would you recommend as the best way of approach principal investigators for internship/job positions? I'm undergrad, with a planned graduation this winter and I want to get some experience before grad school.
* Should I try 'cold' messaging? I want to go abroad and I'm not well networked there.
* I've been on exchange and performed rather well. Can I use this experience to my benefit?
2. (Somewhat less important) Ideally I'm looking for research experience in Computational Neuroscience. I already have some research experience, I've done graduate work and I majored in cognitive science and mathematics *but* I come from a Liberal Arts & Sciences college. Will my LAS background be seen as a disadvantage?
# Answer
> 11 votes
The absolute best way to approach someone to work in his group is to **be recommended by another researcher in his field**, preferably someone he has heard off previously. So, either a big name or someone with close or overlapping research interests.
So, I would advise you to approach some of the professors in the field you are interested in, at your current institution, and ask them if they know a research group or a professor meeting your criteria. Try to be flexible when you discuss possible names/places with them, to gather a relatively large list, even if you later decide against some of these names. Once you have decided on a few names, either you can get your professors to contact them for you or, barring that, you can contact the abroad PI and mention your shared acquaintance.
# Answer
> 5 votes
Regarding (1), the answer is if you're "not well networked", you'll have to find someone who is. I would try the following, in order of potential usefulness:
1. Ask professors in your department to introduce you to other researchers you want to work with. They may be familiar with other researchers in your field and may be a good source of contacts.
2. Speak with any other faculty you think may be able to help you, outside of your department.
3. Talk to your department's administrators and see whether they can help you find an internship.
4. Try to contact students in the department you wish to intern and see whether they can help you get in touch with an advisor.
Regarding (2), it likely won't have much of an effect. Once you've actually performed research, the quality of your research output is primarily what's used to gauge your usefulness and potential. University and grades are a good proxy before then, but they're only a proxy.
# Answer
> 4 votes
As someone who has done exactly what you're looking for (an international PI hiring an undergrad as an intern), I can tell you that the circumstances are pretty unique, and it's not an easy road, unless you follow eykanal's or F'x's recommendations, and get a referral from someone who's worked with you and who can vouch for you to the person you want to work for.
In this personal case, the reason why I even gave this individual the time of day was that his "cover letter" email was compelling enough and well-researched enough to get me to take notice. I requested letters of recommendation and got good feedback on those, and had a similarly positive phone interview. More importantly, I already had a research project in mind where I could take advantage of the extra manpower, as well as the resources to commit to paying for the work.
Had any of those fallen through, I wouldn't have done it. But everything was properly aligned, and the experience has been successful.
---
Tags: research-undergraduate, internship
--- |
thread-3312 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3312 | How do the completion of online courses impact a Master's application? | 2012-09-19T18:20:53.263 | # Question
Title: How do the completion of online courses impact a Master's application?
I see places like Coursera, Udacity and EdX offer certificates upon successful completion of course work. Also most of the people doing recorded teaching at these places are famous and well known professors.
So if someone mentions those kind of course certificates in CV or application material for grad school, does it have a significant value for the applicant?
Do you consider these kind of certificates at the same level with a grade on an academic transcript?
# Answer
> 10 votes
> So if someone mentions those kind of course certificates in CV or application material for grad school, does it have a significant value for the applicant?
They are better than nothing, but it's unlikely that they would have significant value. Courses are only a small part of what matters for graduate admissions, and elementary or low-level courses matter the least of all. Only a fraction of Coursera/Udacity courses are at a high enough level to matter, and even those courses aren't likely to make much of a difference.
I would not recommend devoting any time to online courses for the purpose of graduate admissions. If they are teaching something you really want to understand and have no better opportunity to learn, then that's a good reason, but the learning will have to be its own reward.
> Do you consider these kind of certificates at the same level with a grade on an academic transcript?
I'd look at a certificate of completion for an online course the same way I'd look at a traditional course taken pass/fail (i.e., without a grade). It's evidence that you have done something, which shows some level of motivation and energy, but it's not evidence that you actually learned much in the process.
However, there's a bigger issue than grades here. Ultimately, good grades don't mean that much: standards vary dramatically, the ceiling is rarely high enough to distinguish between excellent students, and even if the ceiling is high enough it's not clear that this is a meaningful comparison. Letters of recommendation are crucial for supplying the information grades alone can't supply, and this is something MOOCs are currently unable to help with.
# Answer
> 6 votes
> I see these places offer a certificate upon succesful completion of course work.
I agree with Anonymous Mathematician. There is a difference between completion and mastery. Graduate schools need to know that you have **mastered** the prerequisite material. In the future, courses like these may count for something to graduate schools if they demonstrate and certify rigor and mastery.
Currently, these courses are targeting the Professional Development market. Many industries required or encourage their employees to further their education. For professional development, usually **completion** of the course/webinar/workshop/whatever is all that is tracked. A future employer may care that you have taken 2 or 3 MOOCs in accounting, but an MBA program would probably disregard them.
# Answer
> 4 votes
You do realize that MOOC's provide the full syllabus of their courses, and generally give a percentile ranking of the students in comparison to students from all over the world.
I'd be more skeptical about a degree/transcript from a university I have heard little about than a MOOC who's syllabus I can consider and depth which I can evaluate, in addition to the obvious motivation for learning FACT.
In addition most MOOC's clearly mention about the amount of grades they require from the students to get a Certificate of Completion.
70 % was the standard for Most Coursera courses that I completed/audited.
In addition, if Coursera is asked, they can provide (in the future) to employers information about how a student develops his code and how frequently he changes his code before committing, etc.
---
Tags: graduate-admissions, online-learning, mooc
--- |
thread-5076 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5076 | Do academicians consider Challenges on Kaggle to be research-worthy? | 2012-10-31T10:54:04.307 | # Question
Title: Do academicians consider Challenges on Kaggle to be research-worthy?
I am a somewhat new-ish member of Kaggle competitions with 1 submission. Do academics research via Kaggle challenges/competitions? If so are there any prominent names?
If not why? They provide well annotated training data-sets, and typically do not put any publication restrictions as well.
Perhaps they consider such challenges trivial. Just a query on an academic's perspective on the challenges here.
The only thing I've heard about Kaggle from an academic's perspective is from Graduate School Students at Stanford, who need to participate in a challenge as a part of their coursework (which is pretty cool).
# Answer
The main reason "Academics" wouldn't browse Kaggle to search for research problems is that most academics already have a field of interest, and aren't interested in doing data science research for the sake of figuring out some random problem defined by whoever decided to post the contest. Even if an algorithms researcher is looking to test out a particular technique that he just devised, he would probably first apply the technique to whatever dataset he was using originally before randomly testing it out on a dataset available on Kaggle.
For what it's worth, there are hundreds of publicly available data sets to test on; if anything, the data available in Kaggle competitions is probably poor relative to the richness in those data sets.
> 4 votes
# Answer
One of the other uses I've noticed (besides publishing papers on a competition itself) is academics using a competition to demonstrate the application of a particular algorithm that they have developed and published. See Steffen Rendle's libFM (Factorization Machines) winning the Grockit Challenge, and the winning team of academics in the Merck Molecular Activity Challenge with their use of deep learning.
> 5 votes
# Answer
As far as I know, all competitions on Kaggle are on basis "who is the best". So there is no limit on skills; and actually if for someone a problem is trivial, then one can safely claim the prize (e.g. Heritage Health Prize).
From my point of view it allows both to enter interesting data, compare how one's techniques compering with others and learn other approaches (usually winners disseminate their solutions).
When it comes to *the only thing in the academic world which is considered to be a serious stuff*, yes, some works end up as publications, see Academic Papers - Kaggle.
Also, some competitions are research-centric (however, with no cash prizes), e.g. Eye Movements Verification and Identification Competition.
> This in an official competition for BTAS 2012 (The Fifth IEEE International Conference on Biometrics: Theory, Applications and Systems, September 23-27, Washington DC, USA) and all results will be published during that conference (and of course on this web page as well).
However, there are various competitions, so I guess it's hard to make a general statement about "research-worthiness". And for all what matters the most is the result, not its 'purity'.
### Out of my personal stuff:
`<spam>` I made an entry (a graph map of tags) for Kaggle StackExchange visualization competition. `</spam>`
Perhaps I'm starting in DarkWorlds, but more for fun and to practice machine learning techniques, as my field is neither machine learning, nor astrophysics.
> 4 votes
---
Tags: publications, science, data
--- |
thread-5081 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5081 | Why retract a paper for intellectual property protection? | 2012-10-31T21:20:54.747 | # Question
Title: Why retract a paper for intellectual property protection?
A recent entry on the *Retraction Watch* blog (“Tracking retractions as a window into the scientific process”) highlights the retraction of an article in *the Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology*. The retraction notice has the following wording:
> We regret to inform that the published paper included a few parts that disclosed confidential information which should have been protected under patent law. We admit that the request for retraction is due to the indiscretion of the authors, and confirmed that editorial committee of KJPP have not conducted any fault in publishing the paper.
However, as with all retracted papers, the paper is still available online; even if it weren't, it *was* available for some time.
So, given those facts, **what purpose(s) does the retraction serve?** The confidential information was published, and you can't get the cat back into the bag once it's out. This indicates an ethical failure of the authors, but in that particular case isn't that something they should sort out with their employer and the financial sponsor?
It beats me.
# Answer
My answer is based on an understanding of UK patent law. The UK Patents Act 1977 is based on a "first-to-file" patent system. This means, in part, that an application for a patent may only be validly made if that invention was not part of the state-of-the-art at the time of filing. State-of-the-art includes any information made available to the public as of the priority date of the application, which is usually the date of filing.
If confidential information regarding an invention is made available to the public without the consent of the inventor, before a patent for the application is filed for it, then under UK law the inventor may still make an application for a patent without the prior disclosure - the unauthorised release of confidential information - rendering the application invalid for lack of novelty.
In this case, if the journal published the confidential information before the inventors/authors authorised the release of the information - presumably before a patent was filed for the subject matter of the paper - then the retraction of the paper may indicate that the journal is acknowledging that they released the information inproperly, i.e. before an agreed embargo date set by the authors. This may add weight to the inventors' argument that the prior release of the confidential information was made without the consent of the authors and that the authors, as inventors, may still validly apply for a patent.
I am not a patent lawyer. This is not patent advice. My comment is written from a UK patent law perspective.
> 11 votes
---
Tags: publications, intellectual-property, retraction
--- |
thread-5091 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5091 | Is it possible for the international graduate student to take the exam of professional courses? | 2012-11-01T13:05:33.387 | # Question
Title: Is it possible for the international graduate student to take the exam of professional courses?
I would like to know whether the international graduate student can also take the exam of professional courses such as CPA,or CFA?Are there any legal restrictions?
# Answer
> 1 votes
if you are in Japan, there are many people that go to Guam to take the CPA. Essentially anybody can do it, but if you graduate from an American University, there are some modules that you do not need to take, pretty much like the Japanese CPA.
---
Tags: graduate-school, university
--- |
thread-5090 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5090 | Can international graduate student take the free online courses offered in Coursera? | 2012-11-01T12:58:00.640 | # Question
Title: Can international graduate student take the free online courses offered in Coursera?
Is it necessary to notify to the graduate school when taking the free online courses?
# Answer
> 4 votes
As always, it's better to check directly with your advisor, who is in the best situation to answer exactly your question. That being said, as Zenon said, you should be able to do pretty much what you want during your free time, including taking online courses. However, if you take so many classes that it prevents you to work normally for your grad school, then it might be a problem. Furthermore, if you expect the online courses you take to count for your graduate program (i.e., to replace other courses you would normally have to take at your school), then only your advisor can answer that.
# Answer
> 1 votes
I do not think you have to tell your advisor, as long as it does not interfere with your work, you should be free to do whatever you like. Of course you cannot stop doing your mandatory work in sake of the courses, but I do not see a good reason to notify anyone.
You can always tell your labmates, so you can take the course together and get more out of it.
---
Tags: graduate-school, university
--- |
thread-5101 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5101 | Does the eigenfactor ranking depend on number of articles in a journal? | 2012-11-01T20:30:52.017 | # Question
Title: Does the eigenfactor ranking depend on number of articles in a journal?
The eigenfactor is offered by ISI Web of Knowledge as an alternative journal score compared to the impact factor. It is explained on their site as follows:
> The Eigenfactor Score calculation is based on the number of times articles from the journal published in the past five years have been cited in the JCR year, but it also considers which journals have contributed these citations so that highly cited journals will influence the network more than lesser cited journals. References from one article in a journal to another article from the same journal are removed, so that Eigenfactor Scores are not influenced by journal self-citation.
From this explanation, I am not sure whether the eigenfactor depends on the total number of articles that a journal publishes?
# Answer
Wikipedia’s article on the eigenfactor.org ranking of journals answers your question:
> The Eigenfactor score is intended to measure the importance of a journal to the scientific community, by considering the origin of the incoming citations, and is thought to reflect how frequently an average researcher would access content from that journal. However, **the Eigenfactor score is influenced by the size of the journal**, so that the score doubles when the journal doubles in size (measured as published articles per year).
To give a simple example: the *Journal of Physical Chemistry B* is the highest-ranked journal in physical chemistry by this criterion… in good part because it carries the largest number of articles. It is a good journal, but under all other metrics it is not at the very top of its field.
> 6 votes
---
Tags: journals, bibliometrics
--- |
thread-5106 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5106 | Do professors recommend their students on LinkedIn? | 2012-11-02T05:23:08.687 | # Question
Title: Do professors recommend their students on LinkedIn?
Do professors recommend their students on LinkedIn? If they do recommend, isn't it considered a violation of FERPA?
Professors are typically required to recommend without fear or inhibition towards the student who he is recommending. A professor will be much more candid with his recommendation when his student waives his rights to see his recommendation. In that case recommendations on LinkedIn are probably a waste for academia right?
What would your opinion be on taking a letter of recommendation from a professor who has already recommended you on LinkedIn then?
> Third, the letter of recommendation, when completed, becomes an education record. Both the paper copy and e-file are education records… and it makes no difference where they are filed. Since FERPA grants the student the right to inspect any education record, there is also an unwritten obligation to notify the writer of this right.
>
> In this latter instance, the placement office, or student, should initially provide each writer with the knowledge that the student has either waived, or not waived, his right to subsequently review the letter. This knowledge may influence what the writer includes in the letter. It may persuade the person to whom a reference request was made to politely decline to write the letter. Unfortunately, letter writers do not have the same rights that students have in the letter-writing process.
Therefore , students generally waive their rights to view their letters of recommendation. Now, when you post a recommendation on LinkedIn, it will be displayed(provided the student accepts the recommendation). This might actually influence the writer of the letter to write a more positive recommendation than intended for the the student.
Now, an influenced letter is probably a waste for academia right? Or for any kind of work at all?
And if a professor is candid in his LinkedIn recommendation and mentions the student's performance objectively(say perhaps about the student's grades) then it does become a violation of FERPA right?
This is what I'd like to ask Professors in Academia now: If a student asks for a LinkedIn Recommendation , will it hold any value?
# Answer
> 7 votes
I have, in the past, recommended students on LinkedIn, when requested by them. This applies, in particular, to PhD students shortly before or after their defense, who were looking for a position outside academia and in the private sector. In chemical engineering, the situation of that academics tend not to use LinkedIn for looking up/assessing prospective hires, while it is widely used outside academia (and I believe this is true of other fields).
For this reason, I maintain a small presence on LinkedIn myself, because:
1. This is one of the ways I can help (by networking and recommendations) my former students find a job, which is part of a PhD adviser’s responsibilities.
2. I might want a job outside academia at some point in my career, too!
---
Regarding FERPA compliance, I am not US-based so I have little knowledge about it. This webpage on “FERPA Compliance \[for\] Recommendation Letter Writers” implies that compliance mostly puts constraints on the content of the letter (which should not include “education records”).
---
Tags: recommendation-letter, networking, social-media
--- |
thread-5129 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5129 | How do I reference a constitution? | 2012-11-02T21:16:16.827 | # Question
Title: How do I reference a constitution?
I want to reference the constitution of Montenegro in an essay. I have set it in the text as (ME Const. 2§4) etc., but how do I reference it fully, at the end of my essay, in a bibliography?
# Answer
First thing: the exact format will depend on the styleguide your are following. However, apart from variations in the exact formatting, just refer to it exactly as you do. The US constitution, for example, would be cited in APA style as one of the following:
> * U.S. Const. art. I, § 3.
> * U.S. Const. amend. XIX.
> * U.S. Const. amend. XVIII (repealed 1933).
depending on whether you cite an article from the original constitution, or a (possibly since-repealed) amendment.
---
*Somewhat tongue-in-cheek edit:* I could not find a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) for the constitution of Montenegro (nor for the US constitution, for that matter). If you find one, you might want to include it in your citation (in the form of a hyperlink). If it does not exist, you may petition the Montenegrin government to create one.
> 10 votes
---
Tags: citations
--- |
thread-5134 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5134 | How do I withdraw a paper from a journal after it was accepted but before it was fully published? | 2012-11-03T09:58:48.397 | # Question
Title: How do I withdraw a paper from a journal after it was accepted but before it was fully published?
On the advice of a senior colleague, I decided that I do not want to publish the paper anymore and with that journal. I wrote the editor several times; he has received the emails, but refuses to reply. I know he gets the emails because if its on other matters he has replied but not on the paper. I am ready to forfeit the processing fee I gave them but they refuse to reply and have already published the abstract of the paper to their site but not the full paper. Is legal action an option and do I have the right to sue? What are the guidelines in matters like these?
# Answer
> 11 votes
1. Check out the journal’s policy. While they do not always address the issue of what stages a paper can be withdrawn, you can find some indirect information. For example, if the policy says:
> Manuscripts for which page proofs are not returned in a timely manner will be withdrawn from publication.
(here in the case of the *JACS* journal), then you can still withdraw the paper at the proofing stage.
2. Leave a bit more time to the editor… it's a time-consuming job, and he might just be very busy. You can send a gentle reminder. Just mind that you are the one asking for something out of the ordinary, so mind your manners.
3. Where are you at in the publication process? If you have signed the copyright transfer agreement, paid the processing fee (you mentioned one; no all journals have them) and sent back the final proofs with your corrections, you might just be **too late** legally speaking. It probably doesn't hurt to ask, but you might not have legal recourses apart from retraction (and avoid that).
4. Whatever you say, don't ask for **retraction**. Retracting a paper once published is a grave decision to make, and it is not appropriate in your case.
---
Tags: publications, withdraw
--- |
thread-2999 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/2999 | What factors does an admissions commitee use when considering a non-degree candidate in grad school? | 2012-08-27T04:57:58.980 | # Question
Title: What factors does an admissions commitee use when considering a non-degree candidate in grad school?
I have an interest in taking some very specific engineering classes at my local (very competitive) university. I already have an MSEE. As it is not close enough to my current career path, I am trying to get a better background in some areas and stay up-to-date in others. Since I don't really want a PhD, I had applied as a self-financed non-degree candidate. But, I was not accepted.
I'm wondering, is any consideration given to degree status during admissions? Is the admissions process typically identical to MS and PhD candidates?
# Answer
> 2 votes
Not typically identical to MS or PhD but some level of relevant competency is expected of you before admission can be given in that field
---
Tags: graduate-school, graduate-admissions, engineering
--- |
thread-5127 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5127 | In the absence of strong references, on which things should I focus so that I can gain access to a PhD program? | 2012-11-02T18:23:00.740 | # Question
Title: In the absence of strong references, on which things should I focus so that I can gain access to a PhD program?
The idea of working toward a PhD came to me very late in my Master's program. As such, my primary professors and adviser didn't necessarily coach me into PhD preparation and may have even seen me as somewhat of a black sheep in the academic community. I don't doubt that they would believe in my ability to research, but rather that it'd be somewhat of a surprise that this was an area of interest for me.
Having said all of that, while I believe that they could give me a good reference, I don't believe it would be the "great" reference that would be characteristic of this internationally-recognized expert in their field. With this in mind, are there things that I can do to make myself a more appealing candidate to a PhD program?
# Answer
> 8 votes
PhD programs are looking for **strong evidence of research potential**. We'll look for that evidence in your recommendation letters (preferably from people who know the field and know what potential stars look like), in your research statement, and in your academic record.
Get the best references you can. You write "*I don't doubt that they would believe in my ability to research*", which is excellent. They may also write about their surprise in your late interest, which will raise some eyebrows, but it's the truth, so you're stuck with it.
In your research statement, be sure to explain **why** you're interested in a PhD, and in particular, what changed in the late stages of your MS program to spark your interest. You need to actively pre-empt the perception that you just want to stay in school because you want to learn More Cool Stuff, or that you tried Real Work and you didn't like it.
You also need to include *credible technical detail* about your research experience and your specific research interests. (Yes, that means you need to *have* research experience and specific research interests.) Otherwise, readers will wonder if you know what research actually *is*. That naïveté might be excusable for someone with only a BS, but for an applicant with an master's degree, it's a serious red flag.
Good luck!
# Answer
> 2 votes
It is important if you have papers published by you as one of the authors in the field you intend to run a PhD, otherwise a good academic transcript will be enough. Sometimes some Universities take PhD students that they can groom and nurture in some fields irrespective of how qualified they are or not. I encourage you to believe in yourself and try your hands on some applications. Best of Luck.
---
Tags: phd, citations
--- |
thread-5141 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5141 | Where does Computer Science background students fit in Theoretical Physics | 2012-11-03T16:39:53.000 | # Question
Title: Where does Computer Science background students fit in Theoretical Physics
I am basically an Electronics student - background in Computer Science (that's where I want to work). I applied for an internship in USA in a research institute where the group is focused in Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics, Chemical Physics, Physical Chemistry, Materials Science.
I got selected. Now, I would like to know where area could someone with CS background would actually work on?
I am looking for a detailed answer.
# Answer
> 9 votes
Given a background in CS, that probably means you have a sophisticated view of software development—at least one that is far more advanced than the average physicist or materials scientist.
It seems to me that you would probably find that you would be working as a programmer on a computational project: perhaps a new numerical method needs to be implemented, or the performance or functionality of the existing code base needs to be improved. Or perhaps they want somebody to help prototype new interfaces between experimental hardware and computer hardware or software? There are a lot of possibilities.
---
Tags: research-process, computer-science, internship, theory
--- |
thread-5131 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5131 | What is the principal investigator’s responsibility regarding data authenticity? | 2012-11-03T07:54:07.330 | # Question
Title: What is the principal investigator’s responsibility regarding data authenticity?
Every now and then, you hear stories of data being fabricated by a graduate student (or post-doc) who felt the pressure to publish groundbreaking results was too much. This unethical behavior makes me wonder: What can a PhD advisor (or group leader, or project principal investigator) actually do to avoid that in her own group? What are her ethical duties in ensuring that all published data is genuine?
Please note: I'm not singling out graduate students or post-docs because I think they are statistically responsible for more ethical misconducts than others… only because it gives a good case of when the PI would have only indirect access to the data (meaning: she didn't actually do the experiments herself, but was only presented the data by others in her group).
# Answer
The PI is responsible for the output of the scientific employees under them, while they are doing work *for the PI*. (I think it would be unfair to hold a PI responsible, for instance, for quality control on the work done by a post-doc on a paper submitted with his or her former group.)
From an ethics standpoint, however, the PI is responsible for encouraging an atmosphere in which errors are caught and corrected, rather than tolerated. If errors are "innocent" in nature, then no guilt or punishment should really follow from catching and fixing those errors. However, a PI is responsible for not sanctioning deliberate lapses. If the PI sets up a culture in which such behavior is viewed as expected or necessary, such failures do lie on the PI.
I would argue that the PI's responsibilities extend to ensuring that the work claimed has been performed, and that the data has been correctly analyzed. Some places I've worked at have instituted *quality control* procedures for doing so, to varying degrees of formality. While I don't think a full review of all of the data is often required in academic settings, I think most groups would benefit from *some* implementation of such measures. As Ana suggests, if you do "random" sampling of the work produced, then it makes it that much harder to falsify *anything*, since you don't know if that will be the work that will be checked.
A PI shouldn't be expected to fall on her sword for a single incident involving an underling. The PI could perhaps be castigated for making a poor personnel decision, but it shouldn't be a career-ender unless the PI is aware of and condones the unethical behavior. Cases such as the Bhrigu tampering case at Michigan, in which a postdoc tampered with the work of a graduate student in the same group, and which led to the PI moving to another university, are unfortunate, and only serve to make things more difficult for everyone. But the aversion should not have been cast upon the PI—which seems to have happened here.
> 9 votes
# Answer
We've talked about this at the institute where I'm doing my PhD, and the best solution seemed the following:
First, make a central database for all raw data, that can be accessed per request. Upload/copy data to it as soon as it's collected, including noisy data that might not enter the final analysis. This ensures that any excluded data has to be properly justified.
Second, let everybody know that every so often a random dataset will be pulled out and some basic checks run on it.
Third, run those basic checks. For this you need someone with knowledge of statistics who can tell you what is appropriate for your type of data. A lot of basic aspects of normal data are difficult to simulate without a lot of knowledge on statistics. To give an example, if you take data that have a normal distribution, split it into quintiles, then plot the mean against the variance in each quintile, they should roughly fall on an inverted U-shaped curve. I know of a case where this relationship was perfectly linear, which raised alarm bells. In any case, these checks should be simple and easy to run.
Fourth, decide who will do these checks, because it takes time and effort.
Fifth, make sure you have some idea of what types of mistakes are honest mistakes, and what constitutes actual fraud. Make sure you discuss mechanisms of dealing with these mistakes (and fraud) beforehand, i.e. don't leave this decision in the hands of the supervisor at the moment it happens.
Edit: I guess the main question was what's the PI's responsibility. My reply reflects my opinion that the responsibility should be more institutionalized, and not left just to the PI. On the other hand, the PI could run some of these steps internally if needed / if there is no other help available. But then it might be too elaborate, so perhaps you will get some better answers from other people.
> 15 votes
# Answer
It's a sad reality. That is why research group leaders should be so deeply involved in their post-graduate students' research that they can detect fabrication of data easily. It is unfortunate when research group leaders only sit in their room and expect the student to do everything for them and put their name for the paper. It is the duty of the leader to scrutinize and question the results and ask for repeats when necessary and go carry out a few experiments too to authenticate results before accepting them.
> -2 votes
---
Tags: publications, ethics, data, supervision, research-misconduct
--- |
thread-5029 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5029 | Are there any accredited universities in the world offering students the option of acquiring a BA/BSc in psychology completely online? | 2012-10-28T10:07:04.937 | # Question
Title: Are there any accredited universities in the world offering students the option of acquiring a BA/BSc in psychology completely online?
I travel a lot and I'm interested in getting a psychology degree but after researching online I still haven't been able to find a good university that offers the choice to complete a psych degree by distance education. I'm a Canadian citizen so programs that accept Canadians is vital. With all the current online offerings I'm shocked that I can't find a quality university offering a BA or BSc in psychology online or by distance offline. Any suggestions? I'm interested in CPA accredited degrees otherwise it's worth nothing in Canada. And, I'm open to programs with a few on-campus requirements if an accredited degree is unavailable fully online. I want to be able to pursue a MA or a PhD in Canada after completing the undergraduate program.
# Answer
> 4 votes
> Are there any accredited universities in the world offering students the option of acquiring a BA/BSc in psychology completely online?
**Yes**
There are likely hundreds of programs. How well they meet your needs will be determined by 1) What you mean by 'accredited', and 2) residency restrictions.
> Accreditation
Are you interested in accredited institutions or accredited programs? Institutions are accredited by organizations recognized at the government level as being able to guarantee that all programs at the institution meet some minimum standards. In the US, *regional accreditation* is king, while the more prestigious sounding *national accreditation* is generally viewed as easier to get and less rigorous. In Canada, accreditation appears to be handled through membership in the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada.
Again, in the US, many of the large flagship state institutions have an online campus to accompany their bricks-and-mortar traditional campuses. For example Univerity of Maryland University College appears to offer an online BS in Psychology. UMUC is regionally accredited in the US by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, just like the the bricks-and-mortar campuses of the University of Maryland system. Certainly, some of the larger schools in Canada also have a similar online presence.
The on-line for-profit schools in the US tend to be nationally accredited, with the notable exception of the much maligned University of Phoenix, which offers an online program in psychology. University of Phoenix is regionally accredited by the Higher Learning Commission as part of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.
Individual programs may also be accredited or certified by various professional organizations. If you are looking for an online psychology program certified by a professional psychology association, try starting at the website of the association and look for lists of certified programs.
> Residency
Attending an online only institution should not have residency restrictions based on your country of citizenship, but it probably does. For example, I would imagine you would need to have a US education visa in order to be admitted into some US institutions, even if the program is entirely online and you never need to step foot on campus.
# Answer
> 1 votes
I work in distance education and often work with canadian researchers. I have a very high respect for the quality of the distance offerings up north (I'm in the US). You have good options at home. The one that jumps out is Athabasca University. Fully online and internationally recognized as a research institution.
```
http://psych.athabascau.ca/
http://www.athabascau.ca/programs/ba4psyc/
```
American Public University System (APUS) has both Masters and Bachelors level programs and accepts international students. They are regionally accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.
```
http://www.ncahlc.org/
http://www.apu.apus.edu/admissions/program-requirements/psychology.htm
http://www.apu.apus.edu/admissions/general-information/international-students/
```
# Answer
> 0 votes
The CPA has a list of all accredit universities and departments. The list is of a size that you should be able to check what the online offerings are.
# Answer
> 0 votes
The University of London has a distance learning programme. You will basically sit the same exam as an internal student at the respective constituent college would sit, and this will be conducted at some GRE / GMAT etc. facilities to guarantee proper exam conditions. In the end you will get a University of London degree just like any other internal student would.
University of London International Programmes
Accreditation should hardly be a problem in the case of the University of London I would think as it's one of the most prestigious UK institutions with members such as University College, the London School of Economics and King's College London.
---
Tags: university
--- |
thread-5079 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5079 | Are there hacks or smaller scientific search engines offering you context-sensitive/semantic search? | 2012-10-31T18:45:38.657 | # Question
Title: Are there hacks or smaller scientific search engines offering you context-sensitive/semantic search?
The many upvots on Gerrit's answer show how the majority of researches currently does search, filter, read scientific journals and books, as **the best way, a context-sensitive search**(X Algorithm near to Y algorithm near to Z database) is not available in scientific search engines to my knowledge? A lot of time has to be wasted for filtering out uninteresting content.
An google WEB search example would be:
```
etching AROUND(4) redeposition
```
Search hits will only show sites where *etching* is separated from *redeposition* by not more than 4 other words between those two. While many research papers often contain many keywords in intro and abstract of a paper (for retelling recent history in a field), which makes finding papers in a special context impossible (measuring effect X with method Y on material Z), in principle the AROUND(x) operator gives you this power back.
The problem is, google SCHOLAR hasn't implemented the AROUND operator, therefore I currently use it sometimes in google WEB search when searching papers (unfortunately only titles and abstracts are indexed by Google, but main body content isn't searchable) in a very specific context.
I'm really wondering if there are secret hacks for free (google scholar, scirus...) and commercial (ISI, scopus) search engines giving you the power of context-sensitive search, as it would make a lot of reading, searching, filtering, rating, sharing unnecessary.
My current way to solve this is downloading many highly-cited papers (withoud reading) as gerrit's answer shows and indexing it with my own desktop search engine (Copernic desktop search software) which has a similar operator. It really ticks me off, that a search technology that is available for years is not brought to the place where it would be most useful?! Maybe we should similar to thecostofknowledge just start to build our own search engines? There are some business reasons (traffic, downloads,..) that make the non-implementation of this operator in commercial search engines very reasonable to me...
**So, am I missing some secret hacks or search engines that are near to context-sensitive/semantic search?**
# Answer
I know it's disappointing, but here goes: **I am not aware of features allowing context-sensitive search in scientific search engines**, with two exceptions:
* Web of Science has a **SAME** operator, which matches *“records where the terms separated by the operator appear in the same sentence”*. Given that Web of Science supports a whooping number of 4 search operators (AND, OR, NOT and SAME), it is pretty safe to say this is sadly the full extent of its context-sensitive search features.
* SciFinder attributes some meaning to prepositions, which have a role in **restricting results to “closely associated” matches of operands**. This basically means “same sentence” (details in the linked page).
Yes, these features are poor and we should hope for better search capabilities. At the same time, it's a start and it can be useful.
> 3 votes
---
Tags: research-process, publications
--- |
thread-5148 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5148 | MSc for experienced professional? | 2012-11-04T14:13:48.633 | # Question
Title: MSc for experienced professional?
I have 8 years of IT experience in India, I want to do a Master of Science in the US. Would my already long professional experience hurt my chances to find a job after the MSc? I intend to settle in the US instead of coming back to India.
# Answer
I would expect that it almost certainly does not hurt your chances. Many people proceed their academic education or career after professional experience. In our Master programme, this is treated as a significant plus, and I would be very surprised if companies wouldn't do the same.
But for the non-academic portion of the question (I infer you mean a job outside academia), you might want to ask at The Workplace and get opinions there.
> 5 votes
# Answer
You will be a very strong candidate in US provided you go to at least a reputable public university.
> 0 votes
---
Tags: career-path, masters, abroad
--- |
thread-3521 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3521 | Research Information System | 2012-10-01T09:27:56.120 | # Question
Title: Research Information System
My employer is considering implementing Atira PURE to help manage grant applications and grant funding at the university level. Seems like it might have some benefits... but could also add a costly and unnecessary layer of overhead.
Any experience with this or the equivalent?
# Answer
We use *pure* at our university to register publications. Maybe we also use it for other purposes, but I have only been affected by the publication part.
The registration of publications is a necessity, because the university uses this information to distribute money to different research groups (e.g. each year there is a bonus based on the number of published peer-reviewed articles in a recognised journal.
I've occasionally been assigned the task for my group to make sure all our articles were "registered in *pure*", and I can say that it works reasonably well. The interface is not superb, and I wouldn't like to work with it all day, but it gets the job done. I don't know anything about the alternatives.
It does also generate a fancy and completely useless person graph.
> 3 votes
---
Tags: university, funding
--- |
thread-5160 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5160 | Publishing an 'ok paper' to arxiv | 2012-11-06T02:31:47.543 | # Question
Title: Publishing an 'ok paper' to arxiv
I worked on an interesting project as a PHD student. It was rejected from a top conference with all but 1 reviewer agreeing that it was an ok paper but not good enough for that conference, because more work was required. The other reviewer said it was in top 15% papers. Do the reviewers mean "trash paper" when they say "ok paper" ? I don't have the time to finish it because I have switched my research area. In the project, I also collected and processed a large amount of data which would be useful for the computer vision community. Should I just put the paper and associated data/code on my website? Or should I put it on arxiv? In either cases, I wanted to acknowledge and include a link to the reviews from the conference. Is that a bad idea? The review process was double blind and hence the reviews are anonymous.
# Answer
> 17 votes
> Do the reviewers mean "trash paper" when they say "ok paper" ?
Definitely no. As Luke points out, since the reviews are blind, reviewers tend to be honest, if not leaning to the negative side. If they were explicit that the paper is fine, though still somewhat preliminary, understand it as a positive feedback.
> Should I just put the paper and associated data/code on my website?
I think the answer is yes, unless you want to "hide" the paper from the public.
I think about these things this way: the public (through taxes, NGO's, etc. and the subsequent redistribution to higher education and research) is paying us to do research with the hope that something good and beneficial will come out. Once you do the work, regardless of whether top-notch, or only somewhat significant, as far as it is a result of a serious effort and of reasonable quality (workmanship-wise), the public deserves reporting back on our work, as well as deserves the results. It is up to others to decide whether our work is useful to the society, or not.
> Or should I put it on arxiv?
Do both. Yes, going for arXiv is a good idea in such a case. If you feel so, you can prepend the paper with explanation of why you publish it as it is.
Either way, my advice is to publish the work. Actually, your situation is quite common. What many people do in a situation you describe, is to publish and present the work in a workshop associated with the (major) relevant conference. Or re-submit it as a poster, or short paper, if the conference has such a track. Those are definitely for quality, but still somewhat preliminary results.
> In either cases, I wanted to acknowledge and include a link to the reviews from the conference. Is that a bad idea?
No. I think you idea is good. Honest and open. How about including the reviews in an appendix of the arXiv submission?
# Answer
> 18 votes
Have you considered submission to a journal? As reviewers are not identified, it is reasonable to trust their judgement that the paper is "okay", and of course "okay" at a top conference in CS could still be quite good, especially as it's within the top 15%. Although perhaps the top-tier journals would render a similar judgement, there may be a venue where it is appropriate (I'm not familiar with the computer vision area), and you could publish without an excess of additional work.
Alongside this you can (usually) always put a preprint on ArXiv, few journals or conferences take issue with this now, which allows you to make it available in the meantime, regardless of what else you decide to do with it in the future.
However I would definitely *not* include the reviews. Although there is no rule against doing so, particularly as the reviewers shouldn't be identifiable, it contributes nothing to your research - the reader should be assessing the value themselves. The inclusion of reviews would only indicate that you want to boast about your work, or that you want people to accept it because someone else said it was good.
# Answer
> 1 votes
Don't feel bad if your paper was rejected, if you really want to publish, you could always submit it to another conference in its current form trying to address some of the concerns of the reviewers.
The problem with conferences (most) is that you don't get a second chance to submit it. There is nothing wrong with putting your paper out there in Arxiv, but remember that if it has not been published before, you could always suffer the danger of being plagiarized to certain extent.
Like Luke mentions, reviewers are most of the time a toss in the air.
---
Tags: publications, arxiv
--- |
thread-5166 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5166 | Which is the correct term, supervisor or coordinator? | 2012-11-06T10:05:02.687 | # Question
Title: Which is the correct term, supervisor or coordinator?
When someone is a postdoctoral researcher, is the person directly "above" him in the hierarchy called his supervisor, or his scientific coordinator?
# Answer
I have seen the term "Line Manager" used in the context of post-doctoral researchers here in the UK.
I have also seen reference made in CVs to the principal investigator for the research project to which the author contributed, e.g. "I worked with Prof. X, Principal Investigator for Project Y". The term "Scientific Co-ordinator" seems to be most closely related to this. Perhaps, therefore, the term "scientific co-ordinator" suits your purposes best.
> 3 votes
---
Tags: postdocs
--- |
thread-5184 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5184 | What are the standard practices for hyphenating/spelling scientific words | 2012-11-07T23:48:08.277 | # Question
Title: What are the standard practices for hyphenating/spelling scientific words
I would like to know what are standard practices when words are spelled differently across the literature and/or dictionaries (when these words can be found in dictionaries). A few examples of the kind of discrepancies I see:
```
flow field vs flow-field vs flowfield
sub-critical vs subcritical
mass flow-rate vs mass-flow rate vs mass flowrate
sub-grid vs subgrid
```
Is the most important thing for my own work (i.e., PhD thesis) to be consistent? For example, just make sure flow-field is always hyphenated?
# Answer
This depends upon what's being written. For a university thesis, for instance, you should follow the guidelines of your particular institution: if they recommend a particular style manual, such as the *Chicago Manual of Style* or the \[*ACS Style Guide*\], then you should follow the recommendations contained therein. If you are publishing in another venue, follow the guidelines of the publisher, if they make those available.
Otherwise, you should follow a consistent set of guidelines. Note that this is *not* the same as saying "always use a hyphen" or "never use a hyphen." For instance, you would write
> "the velocity of the flow field increased"
but
> "the flow-field variables are . . ."
because "flow field" is a noun in the first example, and "flow-field" is an adjective in the second. There the hyphen links the connected words: "flow-field" and "variable" versus "flow" and "field variable."
> 11 votes
---
Tags: phd, publications, thesis, language, writing-style
--- |
thread-5187 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5187 | Will advanced knowledge help my undergraduate research? | 2012-11-08T05:47:17.967 | # Question
Title: Will advanced knowledge help my undergraduate research?
> **Possible Duplicate:**
> Overlearn in undergraduate College- good or bad idea?
I'm about 0.5-2 year(s) ahead of my course plan\* depending on how you see it, but I don't want to waste my time so I want to self study stuff beyond my syllabus. I'm a Physics major freshman now, and I plan to get into research in my sophomore.
Let's say I have self-studied lots of Math/Physics stuff in my freshman year, and get into research in my sophomore. **Will knowing advanced stuff give me an advantage in my research?** (one of) My goal is to have a good grad school application
Here's a related question I asked previously on overlearning in college Overlearn in undergraduate College - good or bad idea?
\*I was preparing for Olympiad so I learn Calculus and Introductory Physics. But I don't get to skip courses in college. So I'm relearning stuff all over again.
# Answer
> 1 votes
I can't think of a single situation where having more knowledge than expected or required was ever a bad thing...
You *will* have to "suffer the system" here and there, that's a sad but simple fact (just because you *say* you know something, does not mean the schooling system will believe you. Nor should they--truth be told, most of the time you actually *do* learn something from courses you thought you mastered).
Anyway, always talk to your teaching assistants/professors about this. Work them a bit, see how flexible they can be. Often, you'll find that some could not care less if you come to class or not, as long as you pass the exams and do all the practical work required to pass the course. Others, unfortunately, will have mandatory attention and the likes, that they consider holy. Going against them and their reules at all costs is pointless and will cost way too much time and effort. Just sit out the classes.
In time, and when your approach is indeed successful, it will get easier and easier to pull off.
Whether it's a good idea or not, that depends entirely on how fast you can learn. No matter how good it might make you feel to know so much more than your peers and to be able to skip so many classes, and get into such high-profile research, the time you spend studying should **never** cost you your social/networking/extracurricular life. In time, the stuff you'll have to master will also become harder and harder to learn. Before you know it, sticking to this approach blindly will cause you to you spend all day and all night, all year round, in some dark corner of some smelly attic. And *that*, is **never** a good idea.
---
Tags: research-undergraduate, online-learning
--- |
thread-5188 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5188 | My work was published and my name was nowhere to be found: how should I handle this? | 2012-11-08T06:58:19.040 | # Question
Title: My work was published and my name was nowhere to be found: how should I handle this?
I worked as a contract researcher with a university-affiliated institute. I ended up doing qualitative analysis and extensive writing for an academic paper. My former supervisor has basically edited and published my work under his name. The papers are different but only in the way that an interim and final draft are different - the structure is the same and some sentences were either paraphrased or identical.
The analysis and final recommendations are also identical, he did not supplement my analysis with his own. Although, the analysis process was a collaborative process, I was the one who did the VAST majority of the writing with him chiming in occasionally about what he did/did not like. The basic distribution of labour was: he conceived of the project, did the interviews, made comments on drafts, performed the final edit and responded to peer review questions. I performed the analysis, performed the literature review and wrote the bulk of the paper.
To boot, I feel like this was a punitive action because at various points after the end of my contract he tried to get me to do various forms of free labour for him which I did not do because it was a substantial amount of work and I was busy working another job. Also, I feel that I should be reimbursed for my time because, quite frankly, I need to pay my rent. I feel that by not including my name on this paper, I am being punished for not being at his beck and call.
I feel that this is extremely unethical, verging on just plain wrong. I am wondering what I can do as this is a research institute setting (not a formal university setting but affiliated) and I was on contract.
What options do I have?
# Answer
This seems to be a real case of Scientific misconduct by your former supervisor. By common scientific ethics, everybody who made significant scientific contributions to a publication must be named as an author.
In practice, violations of this rule occur, and there are several options for you to react to it. In fact, several institutions have a responsibility to follow up on indications of scientific misconduct, any of which you could try to approach on this matter.
1. The research institution itself is responsible for investigating any possible scientific misconduct of their members. The question is of course which organizational level to approach first. The level just above your former supervisor may have conflicts of interest, but any higher levels may suggest that it should be dealt with on lower levels first. This is probably best judged from the local situation.
2. Journals and conferences must make sure that scientific results they publish were obtained in adherence to standard scientific rules. Editors of the journal have the responsibility to investigate problematic cases, and may take measures such as correcting the author list or retracting the paper. If you want to take this approach, it would be best to contact the editor in chief of the journal (if it is a journal publication).
3. National science foundations usually have their own rules concerning scientific misconduct, and investigate cases where violations may have occured. This applies especially if the research was (co-)funded by such an organisation (check the acknowledgments of the paper in question, or it may have directly been your former source of funding), but some foundations also take this role more generally and may feel responsible if the scientist in question gets any money from them. An easy approach will be if the foundation in your country has a contact point for scientific misconduct. Otherwise you could ask the central administration there how best to proceed.
In any case, secure your documents. Drafts or analysis results that you sent to your former supervisor will probably be a very important proof of your claims.
Also, before you take any of these quite serious steps, it could be helpful to confront your former supervisor with the issue. You can clearly state that you see it as a case of scientific misconduct, and that you are willing to pursue the case with any accountable institutions such as the ones I listed above.
> 13 votes
# Answer
First, a generic question on this topic has been posted already, and you’ll find lots of good information (and maybe some advice) there.
Second, there are two facets: legal and ethical. For the legal facet, the solution is clear: **read your contract**. What does it state of the intellectual work produced during your employment? If you want to pursue any kind of action on the legal side of things, then **lawyer up**. Don't shudder at this thought any more than you'd be afraid of seeing a doctor if you thought you were sick. Plus, it doesn't have to be expensive: there are free legal consults in many places (local borough, professional associations or unions, local Bar, etc.).
For the ethical facet, Leon’s answer cover it. I’d add that:
* You should document every action you take.
* I would strongly recommend to **contact the department head or the dean** if your accusations have standing: it is there job to handle such matters.
* If the paper is already published, the only remedial to this issue is **retraction**: you have to be aware that it is a very grave recourse, and picking up this fight might not earn you a lot of friends. (Sorry, but it is better to know in advance where you're going.)
> 8 votes
# Answer
So there are a number of things to analyze in this whole thing.
If the Institution you are is an American University, the paper, and all the research coming from it usually belong to the University unless the Institution releases the rights of said research via some kind of waiver. This applies for all research funded from Public funds, if the research was done using funds from a company, it gets tricky and is up to the joint program agreement.
Now, also, depending on the terms of your contract, the professor might or might not have an obligation to include your name in the paper, ethically speaking, you are right, and your name should be there in the paper, but again, it all comes to the legal side of the agreement.
Why does it came to the legal side? Because you have 3 instances you can go:
* The University itself: Depending on the place, I wish you good luck going against a tenured professor of the same institution.
* The Journal/Conference it was published, and expose your case to them.
* Downright demand the professor and the institution.
Probably for the 3 cases you need a lawyer and some kind of letter where it was stated that your work had to be recognized in the publication of a paper. Also, some kind of proof that you wrote most of the paper.
I hope it helped at least to give some notion on what you are facing.
> 1 votes
---
Tags: research-process, plagiarism
--- |
thread-5193 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5193 | Manuscript in pipeline, corresponding author between jobs | 2012-11-08T09:01:22.333 | # Question
Title: Manuscript in pipeline, corresponding author between jobs
**What happens to manuscripts needing revision while the corresponding author is between academic jobs?**
Not every academic will always find a new position seamlessly after the previous one. For example, PhD students may still have papers *in the pipeline* after finishing their PhD, before finding a post-doc. What do academics do when a manuscript needs revision under such conditions? Note that I'm exclusively thinking of people who do aim to remain in academia; if people leave academia, the situation is different in any case.
Some alternatives I can think of:
* Wait until one has a new position. This implies a considerable delay, possibly meaning resubmitting a manuscript needed only minor revisions.
* Make another co-author corresponding author.
* Finish it in their own time. This might have practical issues; for example, they will have no affiliation and might not even have an academic e-mail address (depending on how quickly the previous institution removes accounts).
There may be other alternatives that I'm not thinking of.
What are peoples' experiences about this?
# Answer
**Finish it in their own time** (that is, if they want to) The only downsides you mention are of a practical nature. I'll explain below why they are not actually relevant.
You don't need an academic affiliation in order to publish in journals. But, I believe you might have a misconception of the affiliations listed on paper: affiliations listed are institutions that provided resources for the job. In particular, while your current employer should in most cases be listed as an affiliation, it doesn't mean that stops when you leave. If part of the work was performed with their resources, they should be listed as an affiliation. In particular, if your performed at least part of the work under their employment, you should list them.
As a special case: if an author (not just the corresponding author, but any author) has a new employer, but the work was entirely done without their resources, it is not an affiliation but they can usually be mentioned as a footnote with the text “Current address”.
> 10 votes
# Answer
I have been in the situation where my past work has been published while I have been between academic research jobs. Here is my view on your list of alternative actions.
Waiting for a new position.
No. Publish as soon as possible. What happens if another researcher, a competitor, scoops the findings? While the work may be relevant still, one has lost the intellectual primacy. Another publication to the author's name can only help in his/her job search.
Make another co-author corresponding author.
This seems to tied up with your third point, where you consider not having an academic email address to be an impediment to publishing.
When between academic research posts, I use as my affiliation the institution where I carried out the majority of the work - the "invention" if you like. I have been in the situation where work that I started was completed and published following my departure - both with me contributing to the completion of the work and also where I did not add anything. In both cases I listed the former institution as my affiliation. I also gave my gmail address for contact purposes.
I have also been a co-author on papers as a member of a large research collaboration, again during a period where I am not in an academic research post. In this case, I affiliate myself with the institution through which I derive my affiliation with the research collaboration. I also have my gmail address as part of my contact details.
If the journal won't accept a non-academic (e)mail address one could make the argument that the research is still to be accepted for review and eventual publication regardless of the present contact details of the author. The majority of the work presumably was carried out in a recognised research institution and therefore should be treated with the appropriate respect.
> 6 votes
---
Tags: publications, career-path
--- |
thread-5208 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5208 | Sending a paper to a 'Letters' journal | 2012-11-08T22:45:28.363 | # Question
Title: Sending a paper to a 'Letters' journal
I am at the cusp of finishing my PhD, and my advisor and I have decided that it is time to publish since there seems to be no hole in the theories that I propose. I have always maintained that I'd like to get a publication in the good letters section such as *Physical Review Letters* and then submit a longer manuscript to a more specific journal (in my field that would be the *Physics of Fluids*). My advisor isn't a fan of arXiv as he see it only for preprints with little advantage as it would be easier to just circulate my manuscript among 10-15 established people in the field.
So my question is/questions are:
1. Is it useful to send in a manuscript to a letters section of a prestigious journal such as the PRL for quick dissemination of my work as well as brownie points for having published in the PRL despite a really high rejection rate.
2. Are letters section of journals really quick (with a short submission to publication time)?
3. As a contingency plan, a rejection would mean what exactly to my career/immediate future?
4. I have always had a soft spot for arXiv since several important works were first disseminated on it but I find that in the engineering community there is still some resistance to arXiv, any comments?
As a side note, I have read the several questions about arXiv on academia.SE and somehow I am not entirely convinced that a young academecian would gain much from publishing in arXiv than in a regular journal.
# Answer
> 8 votes
Okay, let's try to attack your questions in order. I assume from your journal examples that you're working in physics, so I'll focus mainly on that in the answer…
1. Useful compared to what? Note that not all “letters” journals have a very high visibility, so it really depends. If we're talking *Phys. Rev. Lett.* in particular, then I’d say **yes**, having a paper published in PRL will look good on your CV. Especially on the short term, it can help publicize your results. (In the longer term, you can hope that your results may get the attention they merit, wherever you publish them.)
2. It depends which journal, and compared to what. In high-level journals, you will know very quickly (within a week) if your manuscript is sent to reviewers or just rejected by the editor. After that, review time can take 2–3 months, and be longer if your paper is controversial (i.e. if referees aren't unanimous).
On the other hand, some letter journals strongly emphasize short review times. The recently-launched *J. Phys. Chem. Lett.* has submission-to-publication times of 4 to 6 weeks, which is unmatched as far as I know (and the quality looks good).
3. Rejection is not part of your academic record, so it means the same as absence of publication. If you intend to publish in a journal that does not frown upon it, you can put the manuscript on arxiv as well as submit to the journal, that way there is nothing for you to lose.
4. No comment on that point.
---
On the matter of publishing in *Phys. Rev. Lett.*, the best advice you can get will be “Successful Letters in Physical Review Letters: An editor's perspective”.
# Answer
> 16 votes
I cannot answer the first question, because it depends mostly of the result itself (if it is strong enough, interesting for reasonably wide audience and can make sense when condensed to 4 pages).
Take a look at Length of publication cycle for peer-reviewed journals from Physics.SE; in on of the answers there are mentioned the following slides:
In short, it takes longer for PRL than most of other PR journals (except for PRE). The difference for Rapid Communications is the highest.
When it comes to risk of rejection - AFAIK the only bad thing for you is that you loose some time. There is no "rejected from PRL stigma" - again, AFAIK.
When it comes to arXiv \- it may mean a lot for you (remember, you do it not instead of publishing in a journal, but along with):
* it becomes visible a few days after uploading,
* some people actively follow arXiv RSS feed on their topic (or even start each morning with it),
* some people don't have access to all paid journals,
* some people even claim that "normal" publication didn't influenced their cite counts once their paper went on arXiv.
So, even before it gets published (which will take at least a few months, and in case of rejections or slow journals - even years) it is visible.
And personally, I had a lot of scientific discussions based on my papers that by that time were 'only' on arXiv. If you are going to hunt for a postdoc position there may be a big difference whether they can see your paper (on arXiv) or "you said them that you had sent it".
---
Tags: publications, phd, arxiv
--- |
thread-5177 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5177 | How to organize a Joint Collaboration Plan and Fees | 2012-11-06T02:09:58.957 | # Question
Title: How to organize a Joint Collaboration Plan and Fees
With today's technology it is very easy to collaborate with people around the world (I totally recommend Vyew for that). When you collaborate with people from different countries, are there any rules for who pays the bills? The expenses could be conference fees, attendance fees, journal fees, etc. For collaborations we use Hardy-Littlewood, but is there any such kind of rules for paying the bills? Or is it just a previous agreement or consensus between your coauthors? How do you normally approach the subject to your fellow coauthors?
# Answer
> 12 votes
In theoretical computer science (which I work in), the most direct answer is **"*What* bills?"**
For remote/electronic collaboration, there really are no significant costs. Each collaborator uses their own computer equipment and their own internet access. They install LaTeX and Skype and svn themselves. They typeset and illustrate their own papers. They each buy their own espresso at their own favorite coffee house. There are no fees associated with submitting or publishing papers.
On the other hand, if you actually want to *travel*, either to give a conference talk or to work in the same physical location as someone else, there are real costs. For conferences, usually each person (or their grant, or their advisor, or their department) pays for their own travel, lodging, and registration fees. For collaborative travel, every trip is different, but some common protocols include:
* The visitor (or their advisor/grant/department) pays all costs for their visit.
* The visitor (or their advisor/grant/department) pays for travel, and the host (or their advisor/grant/department) pays for lodging.
* The host (or their advisor/grant/department) pays all costs for the visit.
I have used all four of these arrangements (and various ad hoc mixtures), as visitor, as visitor's advisor, and as host. For some visits, I've had small joint grants specifically for collaborative travel; in others, I've used travel money from a larger grant; in others, I've paid (either for myself or for my guest) out of my own pocket.
In short, F'X is exactly right: **It depends. Obviously.**
---
Tags: collaboration
--- |
thread-2914 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/2914 | Are PhD scholarships and assistantships taxable? | 2012-08-21T03:54:50.133 | # Question
Title: Are PhD scholarships and assistantships taxable?
I'm currently in the process of applying for various scholarships to fund my PhD.
Many scholarships mention explicitly the approximate amount per year of the scholarship. This is usually the amount *excluding* tuitions, so the amount mentioned is intended to be a stipend to cover living expenses.
I've never seen it mentioned anywhere, nor could I find a definite answer of this online: will this stipend be taxed? E.g., should I subtract a certain percentage off the scholarship amount that's mentioned, to calculate my **real** monthly income? Does this depend on the country the scholarship is given in, or are there international agreements on this?
I'm in the initial stages of setting up my PhD programme, therefore I'm in contact with professors in New Zealand, Australia, the United States and Canada, so ideally, answers to my question apply to any of these countries. If it's relevant: I'm a dual citizen (European/American Citizen).
# Answer
> 12 votes
Taxation does depend very much on the country, as well as the type of award you receive. The amounts similarly vary from nation to nation. To give two examples:
* In the US, scholarships and fellowship stipends are taxed as ordinary income. However, in some cases, for externally funded awards, you need to be careful, as the university might *not* withhold taxes. In that case, however, you would need to make estimated tax payments, as you are still responsible for paying the tax "on time!" Don't forget that your tax burden may also include *state* and *local* income taxes, depending on where you live. Making matters even more complicated, cost of living fluctuates wildly: you're probably better off with a $25,000 award in the midwest than a $35,000 or $40,000 award in New York City.
* In other countries, the system can vary. In Germany, for instance, graduate fellowships are not taxed, while "standard" graduate positions, which are considered employees of the state, are taxed. At the same time, however, people receiving the taxed positions receive health benefits and pay into the social security system. Stipend recipients are responsible for their own health insurance, and do not accrue time in the social security system.
# Answer
> 8 votes
In Belgium, we have two kinds of ways of paying PhD students. One is a bursary, which is untaxed. The other is a salary, which is taxed. The amount the student gets in the hand is roughly the same, though there are factors such as amount of experience, whether there's a family and/or children, etc, that affect the value.
Whether a bursary or salary was offered depends upon where the funding comes from. In practice, the tasks of the students in each case are the same. No additional money is provided for tutoring, though it is expected that students help out with tutoring and other activities.
Tuition fees (less that 1000 euro per year) are not covered by the scholarship. Money for books is not provided, though in our department students can order books for the library and keep them on their desk for as long as they want to. Sufficient money for conference attendance is generally available, independent of the scholarship, as far as the student is concerned (which means, managed collectively by the supervisor).
Belgian PhD students earn a comparatively good amount of money, I think almost the highest among PhD students in Europe. (I can't find a reference for that at the moment.)
# Answer
> 1 votes
When thinking about taxation you need to consider how tuition and fees are handled. Under some circumstances, you could be responsible for paying tax on the money used to pay your tuition.
You also need to think about minimum earnings. If your only income is your scholarship, the tax burden will be small. If you have additional income, then the additional tax burden from the scholarship could be very large.
# Answer
> 0 votes
I am in a similar situation. Based on my research on departments in Canada, Australia, and the US, as already been mentioned the stipend is always taxed. Sometimes though you are in a lower tax bracket.
EDIT: I found this information about the UK
Income Tax 58. Payments made as part of a NERC studentship are not regarded as income for income tax purposes.
Students should note, however, that earnings received during the final year from sources such as teaching and demonstrating should be aggregated with income from post-award employment when assessing income tax liability for the tax year in which the award ends.
---
Tags: phd, funding
--- |
thread-5085 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5085 | Overlearn in undergraduate College - good or bad idea? | 2012-11-01T03:01:38.990 | # Question
Title: Overlearn in undergraduate College - good or bad idea?
I have no choice but to take courses I've already learnt in college. So is it a good idea to overlearn? Would overlearning help me to get into graduate school?
There are many ways for me to spend time: research, gpa, heavy courseload, or **studying stuff beyond my current syllabus**
According to my course plan, I'm supposed to start learning Multivariable Calculus in about 5 months and Linear algebra in about 11 months from now. In between now and then is just some humanities courses and a bunch of Physics/Math courses I've already learnt.
How important is a high GPA and to get into a good graduate school? And why is it important to get into a good graduate school? note: I'm a Physics major...
# Answer
Having a *good* GPA is important; having a *great* GPA is not. Assuming your GPA stays above a certain threshold (about 3.5), other factors like research experience are significantly more important, at least for admission to the best departments.
In particular, if you get a C in a distribution class because you spent "too much" time on that experiment you later published, nobody will even notice the C on your transcript.
> 10 votes
# Answer
The thing about GPA, is that if you want to get into a good Grad School, is one of the few things that basically distinguishes you from your peers (which percentage are you in)
If you're in a known American School, having a good GPA is extremely important then.
Don't you have the possibility to take those courses before, I'm not sure about the American System, in countries like Japan, you can actually take the courses in whatever order you think fits you the most (given certain serialization)
I've also can recommend you studying those topics ahead of time, so when you take those courses, you can ace them, and devote your time to other extracurricular stuff that might pump up your application to a grad school.
Many grad schools love it when you have published work before, so having a couple of papers might help you, and you can get this papers from your extra time.
> 6 votes
# Answer
Research is an awesome way to exploit your knowledge. Just join the undergraduate research program in your college: if you know significantly more than your peers in college, you can do much more **advanced research** which would boost your grad school application.
Of course, as a Physics major, you'd need some basic knowledge. Knowing introductory Physics and single variable calculus isn't enough: try to learn some computer language (C++), Multivariable calculus, linear algebra, differential equations and some upper division Physics courses. Having more knowledge would help broaden your choice of what research project you want to join.
If you've overlearned so much that you're learning graduate courses while you're still a sophomore, you can join the Theoretical Physics research projects: these tend to need lots of knowledge.
> 2 votes
# Answer
(I'm not familiar with what overlearning exactly is, so I go by what Wiki says it is)
Depending on the field of science there are things where overlearning (as in vocabulary) is beneficial or even needed. E.g. I'm chemist. Unfortunately, there are priciples behind chemistry that cannot be explained like you explain how to derive a formula. But knowing lots of these things allows you to extrapolate to new situations. During undergrad studies we all complained that if we had wanted this style of studies, we had chosen medicine and started learning the phone directory by hard. It is a bit like learning a language like children do: without being told, structures will emerge.
These structures of the knowledge that form by experience are also important for topics/techniques that can be explained in a logical way. They allow you to become fast and efficient. They allow to "automate" certain tasks, and that leaves conscious capacity to think about less well-known things. In physics, it will certainly be beneficial if you have your intellectual capacity free for thinking about physics *because* you mastered the relevant maths to a level where you *see* possible ways of solving instead of digging through your brain and notes for that. Ultimately, this level of mastering subjects is also what is needed to arrive at truly new connections ("Good mathematicians see analogies. Great mathematicians see analogies between analogies." - true for physicists and chemists and whole lots of other researchers as well).
This means you need to exercise the stuff you learned. Doing textbook excercises is a boring (but possibly efficient) way of doing that at intermediate levels. But of course, you can try to do this with research projects as well. The important thing also with undergrad research is that you train your research/physics skills and not only do what you are told to do, but also take the time to understand why things are done this way. What alternatives would exist, what would be the disadvantage of that etc.
About studying ahead of schedule: in my university (Germany) it was no problem to participate e.g. in written exams ahead of the "regular" time. If you passed, noone asked you to go to the course. In some subjects, it even gave you the benefit that if you wanted to try again when your year was doing the exam, you could redo it and pick the better mark. Also, noone would have kept you from attending advanced lectures/seminars. Or if you went for subjects that were not strictly on the plan, like another language. I also heard some philosophy, took some computer science and some economics and an introduction to general and patent law - you get the idea. We did not do much research that way, but that was probably because we had research projects on schedule, so the research groups had rather more research students than they could handle (I don't count fetching stuff from the library as research job).
> 2 votes
---
Tags: undergraduate, coursework, online-learning
--- |
thread-5255 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5255 | Advantages and Disadvantages of learning mathematics and physics subjects through lecture videos | 2012-11-13T18:07:22.680 | # Question
Title: Advantages and Disadvantages of learning mathematics and physics subjects through lecture videos
I have been contemplating studying some subjects by watching video lectures, more specifically Topology and Quantum Mechanics. I was wondering, if anyone has tried studying a subject on his own by watching just lectures. Alternatively, I could work systematically through a book. What are the advantages and disadvantages of learning by watching lecture videos, compared to reading a book? I am more concerned more about courses in Maths and Physics.
# Answer
> 8 votes
For postgraduate research, neither watching video lectures nor just reading a book are going to help you enough.
You're going to have to actively engage with the subject matter, by solving problems, and keeping up with current research literature in journals.
Following on from the OP's comment: I do understand that your question is "which is better - books or videos". And the answer to your question is **neither**. It's a false opposition.
Neither are necessary, and neither are sufficient. **You have to learn the core content of maths and physics by solving problems**. And to do postgraduate research, you have to keep up with the current research literature in journals (including preprint archives where appropriate).
# Answer
> 6 votes
The most important advantage/disadvange IMHO is personal preference.
* Advantages of video lectures:
+ a good video can teach the important ideas in a very fast way. It is not that a book couldn't do that, but it may be easier to start with a introductory video and then dig more in-depth into a book.
+ some things (experiments in natural sciences) can much better be shown by video (and even better in reality)
+ lectures by design come in "digestible" pieces
+ It may be easier to schedule time for video, as it is known how long it will take.
* Advantages of books:
+ you can better set the pace
+ you can better decide where to stop in between
+ easier flip back/forward to recall things.
+ things that take much thinking/working time of you fit better with the concept of books. E.g. calculation of examples/excercises. In depth study that derives the formulae. Few lecturers take the time to develop the exact formulae.
+ I find it easier to have a number of books open for quick reference (and papers).
+ The screen is not only needed for video, but possibly also for editor (sorting notes, computing examples, etc.), web pages etc.
Looks rather complementary than exclusive to me. Additional self-study (by book) is usually recommended also for (live) lectures. I think it even more important for video lectures, because you cannot ask questions. It will depend on what level of understanding you want to achieve, though.
# Answer
> 3 votes
I have studied through difficult math topics using basically three approaches:
* Videolectures
* Books
* Tutorial Papers
To get the basics of the topic you are studying and "leveling up" with the other people in the field, I think this three resources are very good. I do not see why would you single one out in favor of the other. I've basically seen like 4 Machine Learning Summer Schools, 3 Online Courses, 3 books, and that was only to be aware of what was happening around me.
After that I had to engage a lot on Online communities, conferences, papers, etc.
I find that a good practice is to set alerts for authors that you wish to follow and are prolific in the specific area you are doing your research on.
---
Tags: mathematics, physics, online-learning, audio-video-recording
--- |
thread-5262 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5262 | Move from my current university or stay with a longer term proposal? | 2012-11-14T07:19:49.323 | # Question
Title: Move from my current university or stay with a longer term proposal?
I'm currently in a disjunctive regarding my professional life, and I would like a bit of an advice.
I'm finishing my PhD next March (is Japan, so is 99.9999% sure that I will finish), and I have 2 proposals.
One is to move away to US, with a very demanding professor in an experimental environment (I do mostly simulations), he seems well connected there with people in good Universities (MIT, Stanford, UPenn, etc). Yet, he himself is not very well known in my particular field, he is in his own application field though. The University is in California with what I guess is a standard PostDoc salary for a one year Post Doc program.
The other is to stay in my current University, with my professor in a more stable and long term proposal (4 years). The problem, is that my professor was never very engaged in my project, and I got mostly marginal help from him. He was always really helpful, and had good resources (conferences, equipment, etc).
I would like to know the opinion of more experienced people. I would really like a future in academia, so I'm open to any suggestion.
# Answer
Noöne but you can make this decision, so here are a few thoughts that sprang in my mind when reading your description. I hope they can be of help in your decision-making.
It looks like your option #1 is more of a gamble (which might be a pro or a con depending on your own character!). It seems that you would go to this new group and change your research topic: if so, you have to realize that a one-year position is quite short for learning/adapting to a different area of research. I think it's good for a post-doc to actually pursue something different than he did during his PhD, but it is more risky on a one-year contract.
Second thing: if you go option #1, would you be burning bridges with your current place? Or would they welcome you back after your one year of US experience, if you don't find another post-doc in this new (sub)field? If you think you can pretty much fall back to option #2 in one or two year's time, then option #1 sounds a lot less risky.
Finally, being a rather “independent” post-doc (i.e. working with a professor who's not fully involved) has some advantages if you can handle it and find intellectual support in other ways (collaborations, conferences, visiting positions, …). It allows you to establish yourself as an independent researcher, which is a first step to become a group leader yourself.
> 5 votes
---
Tags: postdocs, career-path
--- |
thread-5264 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5264 | I am preparing the presentation of a co-authored research, who owns the copyright? | 2012-11-14T08:52:35.307 | # Question
Title: I am preparing the presentation of a co-authored research, who owns the copyright?
I have a question about copyright. When I make a presentation based on my research (together with co-authors from other countries), who owns the copyright of the presentation? I think, only I have the copyright since I give credit to my co-authors.
The problem is now that the university (I'm living in Germany, if that is important) tells me that they have to copyright on my talks since they pay me.
Do you have any answer for this or any comments?
# Answer
German copyright is very different from UK or US copyright. In German law, copyright always belongs to the author(s), and cannot be given away. What you can give away are the various rights of use.
The question here thus should be whether your university has a right to use your presentations, potentially even an exclusive right to use them. In the case of computer programs, §69b of the German copyright law explicitly states that the employer has the exclusive right to use the work.
I am not sure whether a lawyer could argue that your presentation is a computer program - maybe he could if it is a tex file :). Otherwise, as F'x writes, it depends on your work contract. If there is not an explicit statement in your work contract that the university has the right to use any copyrighted works that you authored during your employment, they will generally not have such rights. In the typical employment contracts at German universities, such statements are not included.
> 11 votes
# Answer
Post-scriptum: in addition to the answer below, there are a few things that are crystal-clear:
* The copyright of figures already published has probably been transferred to the publisher; copyright transfer agreements *usually* allow you to reüse them for academic talks and the like, but you don't own copyright for those.
* If you use text or figures produced by others (and not already published), then you don't own copyright for those.
---
**Such questions are *very* specific and are best answered by a professional, also known as *lawyer*.** In fact, it certainly depends on the country your work in, but also the type of contract you signed with them. But, anyway…
**Under US law**, the copyrightable by-products of research (articles, talks, book chapters, etc.) are generally not considered as work-for-hire, and thus **you retain authorship**. Citing Wikipedia:
> However, articles published in academic journals, or work produced by freelancers for magazines, are not generally works created as a work for hire, which is why it is common for the publisher to require the copyright owner, the author, to sign a copyright transfer, a short legal document transferring specific author copyrights to the publisher. In this case the authors retain those copyrights in their work not granted to the publisher.
(I don't regard Wikipedia as a particularly authoritative source, but it happens to match the existing practice of requesting *authors* to transfer copyright to journal publishers, not their universities.) It's somewhat of a gray area, in that some institutions actually claim such ownership, and the merits of such claims have not (to my knowledge) been much tested in court.
Note that situations can be more complex than that. For example, it seems that in German copyright law employment grants the employer an exclusive license to your work:
> While exclusive licences are almost as powerful as copyright transfer, the author always retains some rights to the work, including the right to prevent defacing and to be identified as the author. Employment agreements are frequently construed as granting the employer an exclusive licence to any works created by the employee within the scope of his obligations.
In practice, an exclusive license is pretty much equivalent to a copyright transfers, because the only rights you retain are minor.
> 8 votes
# Answer
I'm going to answer this question based on my understanding of copyright law in the United Kingdom. The general principles are likely to be the same in German law, however, for a definitive answer, you should consult an expert in German copyright law. I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice in any jurisdiction.
The author of a literary work - in this case your presentation - is usually the first owner of the copyright in that work.
However, if that work was created **in the course of employment**, then the copyright in the work belongs to the employer.
The phrase **in the course of employment** requires careful consideration in such cases. I assume that you are an employee of your university, and that you were employed to conduct research. I suspect that you were also expected, as part of your employment, to create presentations of your research. I assume that these expectations were put in a contract **of** service - the usual case for a university researcher. This is distinct from obligations under a contract **for** service - which would be more common if you were commissioned to produce a specific piece of work.
If you were employed to conduct and report research as part of a contract of employment - the most likely case given what I know of your situation - it would appear that any copyright in your presentation rests with your employer, the University.
You mention co-authors. I assume that these are co-authors of the publication(s) regarding the research which you are describing in your presentation. If this is the case, and your co-authors did not contribute to the creation of the presentation itself, then the copyright **in the presentation** rests with solely you as first author or, by virtue of employment, solely with your employer (the most likely situation, as I read it).
If, on the other hand, your co-authors contributed to the creation of the presentation itself, then they - or their relevant employers - may be entitled to be considered joint owners of copyright in the presentation.
I have been discussing the copyright of the presentation - not the copyright arising in any research publication. I assume that you have included in your presentation items such as pictures, plots or graphs which appeared in your research publication. It is most likely that copyright for these works vests with the publisher of the research article.
If this is the case - that your research has been published (including, for example a graph) and that the copyright in that publication has been assigned to the publisher (again, the usual situation), then the use of that work in another work - e.g. using a graph from that publication in your presentation - may be considered an infringement of the copyright in the publication.
There is an exception to copyright infringement in several copyright laws which permits the use of copyrighted works for educational or research purposes. In this case, your University may well lay claim to copyright in your presentation as a literary work by virtue of their employment of you, however, they may also have to consider that they are able to use the copyrighted works included in that presentation (the plots, graphs etc, the copyright of which is held by the publisher of those works, e.g. the research journal) **if the use is for research or teaching purposes.** If, for example, the University decides to include your presentation - including a plot published in your original research paper - in a book, and then sold that book, the University is likely to require a licence from the journal which holds the copyright in the plot.
> 7 votes
---
Tags: copyright, presentation
--- |
thread-5176 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5176 | Outsourcing your research to Kaggle for co-authorship or other non monetary options | 2012-11-07T00:16:26.493 | # Question
Title: Outsourcing your research to Kaggle for co-authorship or other non monetary options
Some parts of our research fall out of our expertise. We thought about creating a Kaggle challenge just for this part. But we lack fund resources for the reward, so we could not offer any money. We are thinking now about offering co-authorship in a paper, do you think this would work? Otherwise, which other things would you offer as reward in Kaggle apart from money?
# Answer
> 6 votes
It's true that fitting the Kaggle competition framework is a bit of a constraint, but if you understand that framework and see how your problem fits into it, I'd suggest you e-mail quote@kaggle.com with a description of the data & problem (and ideally sample data), even if you don't have funding. We can see what comes of it!
(Disclaimer: I work for Kaggle.)
# Answer
> 4 votes
This sounds to me like the textbook definition of a potential collaboration opportunity. I would speak with researchers in the computer science, machine learning, mathematics, and/or statistics departments and try to establish a long-term collaborative relationship. I would also speak with other faculty in your department to see how they handle this problem, which they likely have as well. It may be as simple as paying a grad or reasonably bright undergrad a few bucks an hour to crunch numbers. (Actually, you shouldn't take for granted that the grad student is reasonably bright... but I digress.)
This will be beneficial in both the short- and long-term, in a number of ways. In the short term, you'll hopefully get to analyze your data and generate a publication. In the long term, it's very likely that you'll need such expertise again, and you'll have the resources available for the analysis. Additionally, you'll find that having someone with analytics expertise on hand when *devising* whatever study you plan on doing can be immeasurably useful, as they will help you determine what measurements need to be taken and what data needs to be collected to ensure that you can get the most out of your dataset.
# Answer
> 1 votes
Some competitions have "Kudos" (or "Jobs", or "Knowledge") as a prize, see Kaggle competitions sorted from the smallest prizes. I don't how it does work with proposing a competition (maybe it is not free).
I guess if the problem itself fits in the Kaggle framework (which is a pretty strong constraint), and you can try it for free (I don't know if it is the case), then why not. Especially as even two "Kudos" competitions attract 50 and 153 teams, respectively. Just it is on you to make it as attractive as possible.
Of course, intellectual contribution requires a co-authorship. But if I had the right expertise, I would run for it :).
---
Tags: publications, collaboration
--- |
thread-5275 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5275 | Advice on postgraduate study in experimental/theoretical physics for a 3rd year Mathematics student | 2012-11-14T16:48:52.443 | # Question
Title: Advice on postgraduate study in experimental/theoretical physics for a 3rd year Mathematics student
Firstly I hope this question is appropriate to ask here. I am a third year studying Mathematics at the University of Oxford, with plans to continue to 4th year to complete the masters course.
I have been considering many paths to take so far this year, I started off by looking into finance, this I found however incredibly unintellectuality stimulating. My passions have always been for Maths and Physics, this year I will be studying quantum theory, quantum computing, special relativity and fluid dynamics, which I will continue on into 4th year with the addition of general relativity, theoretical physics and other more general applied courses.
I'm very interested in applying for a PhD after 4th year, mainly because i've never been more fascinated by the subjects i'm currently learning, Quantum theory in particular is amazing and has really changed the way I look at the universe.
Unfortunately I'm only getting a mid 2.1, however it is from Oxford so I hope that this may carry some weight, but because of this I will be mainly focusing on applying to universities other than Oxford and Cambridge.
What I'm wondering is is there any point in following this dream? I'm extremely motivated but I feel not having a first might have ruined it for me. Can anyone recommend any strategies I can use to make myself more competitive?
Currently i'm planning on applying to universities for summer research assistant placements, paid/unpaid. I'm also reading the Feynman lectures to boost my background knowledge of physics, to help bridge the gap between physics courses and my mathematics course. Can anyone recommend any other books/ideas that could help me be able to apply for experimental physics? Also universities with departments that would be good to approach.
To sum up my long and laboured question, i'm extremely passionate about mathematical physics and the idea of stopping learning about it, and say going into a deskjob is sort of horrifying. Any advice anyone can give me I would greatly appreciate.
# Answer
Don't go to graduate school in physics, at least immediately. The best case scenario is a five year program, followed by three years of postdocs, and then THAT will be followed by five years of tenure review, and THEN you might have a chance at having a stable life. All of this happens with a tremendous amount of competition.
Use that Oxford degree to find a job somewhere for a few years, and see if you still really want to do physics at the end of that. If you must absolutely go to school, find a terminal masters program, and learn about research some. If you don't know whether to prefer experiment or theory, you're going to have a horrible time picking a school that has a compatible advisor, and you want to be looking for compatible future advisors far more than you want to be looking for the Platonic "quality physics programs." So, you'll be better suited to start a PhD program effectively (and getting a masters on the way doesn't really slow you down--you are better prepared to start research after that, and the first couple of years between your quals and really starting research is where grad students flounder most frequently). Additionally, if you are in your current situation, this will enable you to rehabilitate your academic record. Finally, if you do your two years and don't like physics, you can find something else to do. As someone who has finished a doctorate, I strongly recommend against immediately entering a doctoral program straight out of college.
EDIT: Additionally, as you go through school, keep some sort of exit plan--sign up for those numerical projects and learn programming. Take the sensor analysis class and learn how to align a laser. Learn the basics of data analysis. There are all sorts of skills that physicists have that are wanted not just in academia, but also in the private sector or government. Make sure that you have the skills to go out and do something enjoyable, even if it is not academic physics. Because the odds are really, REALLY against anyone making it in academic physics (and none of these things will hurt your physics career, to say the least).
> 10 votes
---
Tags: education
--- |
thread-5278 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5278 | Include background to ideas for future work in related work chapter of master thesis? | 2012-11-15T06:23:53.943 | # Question
Title: Include background to ideas for future work in related work chapter of master thesis?
First of all I hope this question is not too trivial for this site. It does say in the FAQ: "This site is for academics of **all** levels". Furthermore, this question should be helpful for other novice researchers who want to write a paper or thesis.
I have worked for a good while with my MSc. thesis and what I did initially was to read a lot of related work in the research area of my project and also in perhaps more peripheral areas that initially seemed very interesting.
This initial review is the basis for a related work chapter that I have written. I was fully expecting to prune a lot of this text and have also done this according to what I eventually ended up doing. However, a lot of the descriptions of research that I have in the current version represent very interesting ideas for extensions to the current approach that I want to write about in a future work section.
Should I keep the sections in related work that are about research areas that I have not ventured into, that are not directly comparable but do represent possible extensions?
If possible I would also like someone to explain how **related** the related work section/chapter should be.
# Answer
> 5 votes
While is always interesting to venture in new areas while writing your thesis, the overall advise I usually get is to keep a solid straight line story, this way the readers won't feel confused on why did you put certain stuff that you did not use at all.
The main objective of the related work, should be to put your own work into context with respect to your peers, but your present work, not your future work. You would be basically citing your future work, which would not be good.
You can always write a Future work section that can be as long as you want.
My overall advise when writing your thesis (especially for Masters) is to keep it simple and straight.
---
Tags: thesis, masters
--- |
thread-4758 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4758 | What to do when you find someone else is working on the same masters research | 2012-10-15T07:53:58.470 | # Question
Title: What to do when you find someone else is working on the same masters research
You've been hard at work for lets say a year on your masters research and you then discover that someone else has been doing the same research as you have. (Let’s assume it’s a coincidence that the same research is done). What do you do in that case? Should you hurry and and get to the “winning line” ASAP? Should you or the other person change their research proposal?
# Answer
> 17 votes
Masters projects generally do not aim to produce top-quality original research, rather they give masters students an introduction in the art of doing research. So the fact that two people at two different institutes are doing more-or-less the same thing does not matter. It would only become a problem if
* One student plagiarized the work of the other.
* The two students collude, reducing their workload to produce one thesis that will be submitted twice.
* Both students tried to publish their work – whoever gets in first will receive the credit and the other will possibly not get published.
Even in the last case, it is not unheard of that parallel submissions of the same results by different parties occurs. Sometimes it is worth publishing both, especially if they approach the problem differently. I have heard of one case where the editors asked the two parties to produce a single combined paper.
# Answer
> 16 votes
**Obviously, you should collaborate!**
In your thesis itself, you need be careful to distinguish *your* contributions from your colleague's. But your thesis is a relatively unimportant administrative hurdle. Your short-term goal should be to work together on a common result that is stronger than what either of you could produce alone. Your long-term goal is to develop a network of collaborators. In the long run, that network will be worth *far* more than "winning" the "race".
# Answer
> 7 votes
You never did *exactly* the same work. Never.
The scenario you describe has happened to my Master's thesis as well as to many times later in my career. Typically you just feel as if they have done the same work but at closer inspection find differences in their approach as well as the research questions that they are addressing. The best thing to do in these cases is to revisit the narrative of your paper and emphasize the parts that make it unique. At masters level a good adviser will help you with that. If not, find some mentor elsewhere. Personally I find it helpful to show both pieces of work to a friend as they are much more likely to see these difference that I ever could. All this is actually simple psychology. After a year of working on your solution, everything looks like your solution to you. Which is also known as "if you have a hammer everything looks like a nail."
# Answer
> 3 votes
From a practical standpoint, you are a year into your masters, so you are likely close to being done. You need to decide if you need the publication. If you do buckle down, start writing, and find a journal with a fast turn around time. If not, it is no big deal, you can still submit your thesis.
Before moving forward on an academic career, and maybe any other career, I would suggest stepping back and considering your communication and networking strategies. Getting scooped (or even racing to publish) is a communication and networking failure. Basically, you need to understand why you and your advisor did not know this other research was going on.
---
Tags: research-process, masters
--- |
thread-474 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/474 | How many weeks of break (per year) should a graduate student reasonably expect to have? | 2012-02-29T03:14:16.273 | # Question
Title: How many weeks of break (per year) should a graduate student reasonably expect to have?
Here are the details for one of my schools so far:
At UChicago, my prospective adviser said that I should expect to have around a month off per year (probably 2 weeks in winter and 2 weeks in summer).
It's probably fairly reasonabl, though it came as a bit of a shock at first but that was because I was used to being an undergrad where I had at least 2 months off EVEN if I included courses during summer quarter.
I'm on a fellowship for my first two years, but I'll still be pushed to produce results (I'm basically being trusted to do a highly ambitious project).
# Answer
The official answer depends on where you are located, and the applicable laws in your jurisdiction. For instance, in Germany, graduate students are almost always employees of the government, and are therefore accorded vacation benefits commensurate to that (between 23 and 29 days per year, depending upon age). In contrast, the United States technically does not have any requirements on annual paid leave, so the answer in principle could be as little as zero, but normally is two weeks per year.
Unofficially, that's a matter to be worked out between you and your advisor. Some advisors will be willing to let you take days off here and there as needed, so long as they don't interfere with either your long-term progress or meeting your day-to-day responsibilities. Most advisors will be rightfully displeased if you ask to take two months of leave all at once, but most will not mind a three-day weekend here and there as needed.
> 23 votes
# Answer
aeismail's answer is very good. Just to extend it a little, you should *not* expect to take breaks with the undergraduate schedule; spring/summer/winter break does not apply to graduate students. Almost all (US) graduate students will take off the week of 12/25-1/1 or thereabouts. At the end of the day, it really depends on your advisor's dispositions towards your taking time off from lab.
> 15 votes
# Answer
I guess one can take 4 weeks off per year if they want to and can. But you hardly have the time to do so, especially if you are working in a wet lab. I probably took 2 weeks max per year, and that also not all at once (more like one of two days here and there to fit my experiment schedules).
> 2 votes
---
Tags: graduate-school, working-time
--- |
thread-5214 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5214 | Extending a result submitted to a conference before acceptance/rejection notification | 2012-11-09T07:31:30.943 | # Question
Title: Extending a result submitted to a conference before acceptance/rejection notification
I recently submitted a paper to a conference whose notification of acceptance/rejection is due to 3 months from now. However I realize that I can extend my results in such a way that it gets much more general and such that the results of the previous paper follows as a special case. The generalization however is non-trivial, in the sense that I will need much more advanced and esoteric techniques, and somewhat more 20 pages to write it properly. It also fits in the scope of a conference whose deadline is in 2 months. Here are my options.
1) Put the first paper at arxiv. Write the second paper citing it and showing where things get different. Submit the second paper. But then the second paper doesn't get self contained enough.
2) Put the first paper at arxiv. Make the second paper self contained by rewriting all results that I need from the first one, but specifying that it is a generalization of the first one. Submit the second paper.
3) Write the second paper and wait for the result of the first conference. If accepted, write the second paper as an independent extension of the first one. If rejected, merge everything into a new piece of work and resubmit to a new conference whose deadline is in 5 months.
Problems:
a) There are two groups working in a very related subject, and I'm afraid putting the first paper in arxiv would lead them to a similar generalization before me. So I wonder If I should wait to put the first paper on arxiv until having finished the second one.
b) If I write the second paper and put it at arxiv before the notification from the conference, could this make the first paper be rejected because the program committee would argue that there is a possible generalization of it? Even though highly non-trivial?
c) If I submit the second paper to a new conference but don't put it on arxiv, would I fall in the case of double submission?
What is the best way to proceed in this case? I believe several researchers might have faced similar situations.
# Answer
Firstly, this question is relevant to your considerations.
In my community it is quite common to publish a (possibly extended/revised) submitted work as a technical report or a pre-print right after, or before the conference submission. The idea is to get a useful reference for future work falling exactly in the period between submission, notification and hopefully publication. ArXiv, or a TR with ISSN is fine for that.
Having said that, the option 2 is something I myself often resort to. Also to consider with this option, if the publication date of the "generalization" is after the submission deadline, such a rejection would be baseless.
As you yourself note, option 1 leads to a non-self-encapsulated paper and option 3, even though fine and correct, prolongs the period between invention and publication.
> 5 votes
# Answer
Researcher does not just stop because you submitted a conference paper. In many fields arxiv is not an option. Waiting when you do not need to is not an option either. But you have another option. Incorporate enough of your first paper in a second one for it to be understandable, and cite the unpublished work for the details. By the time the second paper is published, the first one should be out and the full reference can be included.
> 1 votes
# Answer
I had the same situation where we proposed a method and then generalized it later. What I did (not the best option though) is wrote two papers (yes they overlap in almost 30% of the content) then submitted them for two different conferences. still waiting for the feedback.
> 0 votes
---
Tags: publications, conference, arxiv
--- |
thread-5290 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5290 | Mathematicians publishing philosophy papers and essays | 2012-11-11T04:00:12.200 | # Question
Title: Mathematicians publishing philosophy papers and essays
I have a very brief question: Can a professional mathematician publish philosophy papers, essays, etc.? For example, would a leading philosophy journal, nowadays, consider publishing a paper or an essay about philosophy of mathematics written by a mathematician. If so, does any one have proof of such instances? I am of course aware of the fact that numerous mathematicians were philosophers and vice versa, but the standards have changed, so I seek recent publications (as proof).
Edit: Suppose I wanted to write an article about geometric fallacies and why geometric arguments fail, in general, when we use infinitesimals, limits, etc. or something of this nature. Would this be considered for a publication in a philosophy journal?
# Answer
> 6 votes
Jeffrey Shallit is "a computer scientist, number theorist, a noted advocate for civil liberties on the Internet, and a noted critic of intelligent design." He has a B.S. and a Ph.D. in Mathematics and is currently a Professor in the School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. He co-wrote a paper with Wesley Elsberry (Information theory, evolutionary computation, and Dembski’s “complex specified information”) which was published in *Synthese*, "An International Journal for Epistemology, Methodology and Philosophy of Science" on January 2011.
# Answer
> 12 votes
Just randomly browsed Philosophia Mathematica and found To Diagram, to Demonstrate: To Do, To See, and To Judge in Greek Geometry written by Montelle, who lists his employment as in the department of mathematics. It's from Feb 2012, so recent.
# Answer
> 2 votes
Why do you consider that fields of research have to be separated by clear boundaries well-defined? It's not the case, and there are plenty of examples to prove it. Read about Bertrand Russell for example, is he a mathematician or a philosopher?
If Russell is too old, what about Godel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt\_Gödel), Hofstadter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas\_Hofstadter)?
---
Tags: research-process, reference-request
--- |
thread-5300 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5300 | Methods for finding graduate programs for specific areas of research | 2012-11-16T14:50:11.970 | # Question
Title: Methods for finding graduate programs for specific areas of research
What types of methods are available to students today who want to find a University for a Master, PhD, or postdoc program that supports the student's obscure/specific area of research?
For example, I am looking for PhD programs that specialize in software engineering metrics analysis and process improvement. I have looked at the websites of about 15-20 universities that offer PhD's in Computer Science. Sometimes, I'll find "software engineering" listed vaguely as a research area, but as I research the publications and activities of the faculty, there will be just a single faculty member who does work in an obscure aspect of software engineering, like applying CASE tools to data modeling, validation of aeronautic systems, etc.
# Answer
**Look at affiliations in papers**.
When I was looking for a PhD position, I systematically did an extensive literature survey. I didn't really read the articles, looked mostly at the abstracts, but I particularly looked at *affiliations*. At the time, I simply wrote down all academic institutes I found that were in Europe. In a more extended version, one could somehow assign a score based on the number of papers coming from a certain institution and the impact of each paper.
The big advantage of this is that one will find mostly groups doing active research in the field. Whether we want it or not, published peer-reviewed papers are (at least in my field, atmospheric sciences) *the* method for determining impact. I won't find groups that fail to publish using this method, but I probably don't want to do my PhD there anyway, so nothing is lost from my perspective.
For my PhD I ended up staying exactly where I already was, but now I'm about to do the same for finding institutes with a post-doc. It's one degree more complicated now because of the two-body problem, but even there: my significant other and I both make such a list, then we'll plot them on a map and look at pairs that are close to each other. But it all starts with:
**Look at affiliations in papers.**
> 16 votes
# Answer
A surprisingly effective method (I've tried it) is mailing the people working in your field of interest, something like: "I'll be applying to grad school, I'm interested in areas X, Y and Z. What places for PhD studies can you recommend?" At worst, your email will get ignored \[1\]. Often, however, you can get quite detailed answers even if you don't know the person you're writing to. Esp. if you are specific in what area you'd like to work in - some people are eager to help prospective grad students.
\[1\] To avoid being tagged as "spam", send the mails one-by-one even if you're mailing a larger group of people at once ;)
> 5 votes
# Answer
I have just been going through what you are describing. There is no specific way to go about it. I will be painful and daunting when you don't start from any specific point. I can tell you what I did:
1. Location: if you have certain preferences that might help you make some preliminary decisions. For example initially I decided on certain countries/cities and looked at all major universities there. Then I extended the range to locations that were not a preference. I did find some nice programs , for example in Alaska, but I could not force myself to apply there, I just can't imagine living 5 years in Anchorage.
2. Publications and google scholar: I am in ecology so what I did was going into google scholar and type certain species with which I would like to work and a few other keywords "conservation", "GIS", "spatial modeling", etc. I read the abstract and the authors affiliations. I also limited the search to the last 5 years because people change affiliation and also I want to look at latest research. Then I only investigated the ones that were in places/universities where I want to go or interested in.
3. Specialist groups: not sure how this translates into computer science (even if I am a computer scientist myself), but there are special groups that work with certain species, that was another great source of people.
4. Job posting websites: this came in later but I did manage to find a few positions that were related to what I wanted to do. For example the ecological society of America as a bulletin with PhD position advertised by university directly, nature.com, findaPhd.com.
5. Ask people in the field about good research labs, they should know a few.
I know these are mostly related to ecology but should give you some ideas. I also wasted time going through school's websites one by one and unfortunately there was no way around that. It was time consuming and not the most productive way but I didn't want to have any regrets or places I missed. Also, I know have a personal database of labs I like for my future career and I will have to do minimal research for my post-doc, etc.
> 3 votes
# Answer
In the CS field, Microsoft academic search, google scholar and DBLP are good resources to give a general overview of different *pioneers* in the field.
Also, look for the research interest of the faculty members and the research groups in the department.
One last thing is: **follow with the top conferences in your area** (i.e. ICSE) and see who's doing something interesting to you. Then search for them; see how their past students are doing.
> 3 votes
# Answer
The relevant professional societies may maintain databases of graduate research.
For graduate programs in chemistry in North America, the American Chemical Society maintains a database of graduate research.
The database is searchable by faculty name and institution. However, there are fields for specific topics in the faculty search. If you leave the name fields blank, you can search by topic. For example, a search of "repeating sequence copolymer" gives one hit - my PhD adviser.
If you are looking for a *very* specific project in chemistry in North America, you can find it. It's not perfect. A search for olefin metathesis doesn't find Robert Grubbs, who received a Nobel Prize for his work in it.
> 1 votes
---
Tags: phd, research-process, postdocs, masters
--- |
thread-5312 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5312 | How is PGCHE by distance learning viewed relative to in-class? | 2012-11-18T09:46:16.223 | # Question
Title: How is PGCHE by distance learning viewed relative to in-class?
I've been told by some that online or distance learning PGCHE's (post grad certificate in higher education - basically a certificate in teaching), and distant learning in general, is seen as not serious and that any qualification done over distance learning is disregarded in Europe.
Can anyone from Europe (especially CH) comment on whether distance learning qualifications are 'looked down upon' there?
# Answer
In the UK many universities require new members of academic staff to obtain a PGCHE. The universities that I am familiar with offer the PGCHE curriculum in house via the School of Education. Since it is presented to new staff as a hoop to jump through, I know of no one outside of university administrators and schools of education that think the PGCHE, in any form, seriously. Further, I have seen many job adverts where a PGCHE is a "desirable" qualification, but never one where it is "essential". During hiring, we briefly consider the presence/absence of a PGCHE, but never more than that.
> 4 votes
---
Tags: teaching, online-learning, distance-learning
--- |
thread-5316 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5316 | Substantial update of an arXiv paper | 2012-11-18T14:33:42.127 | # Question
Title: Substantial update of an arXiv paper
I put on arXiv several months ago a paper that has been submitted at the same time to a conference. The conference paper was rejected, and using the reviews, we have started improving the paper, and one thing leading to another, we have substantially changed the paper, to the point that the title has been changed. However, the new paper is similar in many points to the previous one, in particular about the technical results (the most important changes are rather on the presentation of the results).
We plan to submit in a near future the new version to a journal, and to also put this version on arXiv. My question is therefore the following one:
* Should we withdraw the previous version, and submit a new one?
* Should we replace the previous version by the new one, even though the title has changed? The arXiv paper is indexed by DBLP, would the DBLP citation be also updated?
* Should we keep the previous version, and the submit a new one?
# Answer
> 17 votes
You cannot completely withdraw a paper from arXiv; instead, the system can add a retraction notice on it. So, if you follow option #1, you'll end up with 1. an old paper, 2. with a retraction notice, 3. a new paper. It's a bit of a mess…
I would suggest the following:
1. Consider your much-improved version as a new article: get it published, upload it on arXiv. In the arXiv version, you may refer to the older arXiv paper (*“This article is based on the same results as …, but the presentation of results and the whole discuss have been reworked substantially”*). Put it either in the introduction or, if you don't want to disrupt the flow of text, as a footnote or “banner” before the introduction.
2. Most importantly: make a update to your old paper, for a version that links to the new paper. That way, you make it completely clear that a improved discussion is available.
This addressed the only issues I see, namely making sure that people can find your work, and that you're not suspected of duplicate publication (which, on an open platform like arXiv, doesn't make much sense anyway…).
---
Tags: publications, arxiv
--- |
thread-5318 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5318 | What are the pros and cons of applying for graduate study in multiple disciplines? | 2012-11-18T15:07:30.130 | # Question
Title: What are the pros and cons of applying for graduate study in multiple disciplines?
My first attempt at this question was voted to be closed. Here's another attempt at the same question which I have broken into two different questions/posts.
I am an application programmer with 3+ years software development experience. I already have a Masters in Computer Applications from a reputed university in India. I am planning to apply for universities in the US and UK for the 2014 fall semester as I feel that my job is getting stagnant and I have always wanted to study abroad.
I am really not sure whether I want to take up another masters degree or apply for business school instead. Considering my indecisiveness regarding what I want to study, I have decided to appear for both the GRE as well as the GMAT and keep my options open. The first step for applying abroad is to take the GRE or the GMAT and I want to get done with this step by keeping all my options open.
I am planning to appear for the GRE by March 2013 and the GMAT by June 2013. That will give me enough time to apply for masters as well as business schools abroad. I understand that many business schools have started accepting the GRE but appearing for the GMAT will broaden my options.
Given the above information, What are the pros and cons of applying for graduate study in multiple disciplines? Has anyone taken this path and applied for a masters and an MBA in the same year?
# Answer
> 3 votes
The main issues against such a path are the time and expense involved in doing so. Effectively, you have to complete two different sets of testing requirements, and you'll need to write two very different sets of essays. You'll also probably need to get different letters of recommendation, as the emephasis for different fields are probably not likely to be similar. If you apply to US schools, there is also the cost of applying to the additional schools in the other discipline.
Since you're an international student, it isn't likely that you'll be asked to fly in for interviews, so that wouldn't be a big drain on your time.
As for the pros, if you aren't sure which path you want to pursue, this will definitely give you more options. But other than that, I can't think of a "real" advantage to splitting your efforts in such a manner. (I guess one other exception is if there's a special "dual master's" program at one of the school's you're interested in; however, this requires reviewing the information available from each school.)
---
Tags: graduate-admissions, masters, business-school
--- |
thread-5314 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5314 | Publishing the same results at multiple conferences | 2012-11-18T13:18:34.960 | # Question
Title: Publishing the same results at multiple conferences
I presented my psychology thesis at an undergraduate conference, an international conference in France, and am now interested in submitting it to be presented at the 2013 APA conference in Hawaii. Since it's been presented to different audiences at each presentation is this unethical? Also, the first two presentations were simply poster sessions. If I elect to present the paper as a 10 minute talk rather than a basic poster session, would that be unethical?
# Answer
**Ask the conference organizers.**
The ethics of multiple presentation, parallel submission, and multiple publication vary from field to field, and even from venue to venue within any field. Only the conference organizers (aka program committee or steering committee) can answer definitively whether they would encourage, allow, accept, discourage, or forbid speakers to present results that have been presented before.
If the conference has an explicit call for submissions, read it carefully; it may include specific language addressing this issue.
One thing you should absolutely **not** do is attempt to hide the fact that you've presented this result before. Do not seek forgiveness instead of permission. Even if the submission policy clearly allows you to submit a previously presented result, you should make its presentation history clear when you submit. If the organizers accept your submission even with this data in hand, you're clear!
> 12 votes
# Answer
It might depend on the field.
If there are no conference proceedings, there is no publication whatsoever. Therefore, it should be no problem to present the same work at multiple conferences. In fact, this is commonly done to reach a bigger audience.
If there *are* conference proceedings, the situation may be a bit more complicated. It depends on how proceedings papers are considered in your field. In my field, they're not really counted as anything at all, therefore it is still fine to present the same work at different conferences. But if they are counted and considered as relevant in your field, the situation may be different. In this case, I would recommend contacting the host of the session to ask for clarification.
> 9 votes
---
Tags: publications, conference, ethics
--- |
thread-5336 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5336 | Where can I borrow books that my own university's library doesn't have? | 2012-11-19T23:46:26.890 | # Question
Title: Where can I borrow books that my own university's library doesn't have?
I need a book for my teaching and/or research, but my university's library doesn't have this book. I don't think I'll use it enough to justify spending money out of my own pocket to own it. What other ways should I try? I searched Internet, there is no "free" (in whatever sense) PDF of it either.
# Answer
> 21 votes
**Ask your university librarian.**
Usually universities libraries collaborate with each other. They can look whether the other universities have the book (I know this happens within Canadian universities)..
# Answer
> 3 votes
Usually I try to
1. Aks to profs. at the university. Most are happy to lend them for a short time.
2. Public libraries can be nice, but for some scientific literature I must admit they are not optimal
3. A somewhat grey area is buying them used books online. A online interface to physical 'used books' shops is use often is abebooks.com. Buying them a tenth of the price with shipping from Asia most of the time in comparison to the price at the university bookstore does feel like cheating but meh.
The last option could become illegal in the US depending of this court case, but for now it seems legit.
---
Tags: books, library
--- |
thread-5330 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5330 | Prospective PhD contacts potential supervisor but receives no answer after 2-3 emails, what to do? | 2012-11-19T15:07:21.413 | # Question
Title: Prospective PhD contacts potential supervisor but receives no answer after 2-3 emails, what to do?
Say a prospective PhD has a high reply rate (90-95%) to first contact emails with potential superviors. He/She has a well thought out e-mail, but a particular professor (here: USA) that is in the top preferences does not reply after two to three e-mails that were sent within a time frame of three months. I also followed the instructions on the professor personal website in the section "prospective PhD students". The student has already contacted some of the advisor students and has received positive feedback about the professor.
Should the student just give up and move on? Should the student keep trying?
Aside from the obvious "I have too many incoming e-mails to answer" or "I am out in the field", what could create a no response behavior from the professor?
I have seen the simplistic answer "move on, bad advisor, doesn't have time, etc". But this seems a contradiction in this case. The PhD students like the professor and say he/she is personable and no e-mail response after a few well written emails.
# Answer
> 12 votes
I am going to assume we're talking about a student who plans to *apply* to the PhD program that the faculty is affiliated with, but has not yet been admitted. (You didn't say explicitly, but reading between the lines, that is my assumption.)
If that's the case then the student should not expect a response and should not read anything into the lack of a response from the faculty member. Many faculty do not have time to respond personally to all enquiries from prospective applicants.
Please understand that some faculty receive dozens or hundreds of enquiries from prospective students. For example, my understanding is that many Indian or Chinese students are under the mistaken impression that they should contact faculty, or think it will help their case for admission somehow (not true; but they don't know, or have been given bad advice, so they write). Anyway, as a result, many faculty cannot possibly reply to all such contacts. I've even seen a few faculty post a FAQ on their web page which explains why they cannot respond to such inquiries from prospective PhD students who are interested in applying. In many cases, it is likely that few or none of those who contact the professor will be admitted, so professors may understandable decide that they cannot afford to to spend time responding to such contacts until after admission, in most cases.
To learn more about this, I can recommend some additional reading:
---
If I have misunderstood the status of this student:
If the student has already been admitted into the PhD program where the faculty is affiliated with, but has not yet accepted the offer of admission, the lack of response probably indicates lack of interest or lack of time on the part of the faculty member. In this case, my advice would be to move on. As far as I can tell, though, this response would be a bit unusual: if the student has been admitted, it typically means that at least some quorum of faculty think highly of the student.
Finally, if the student is current enrolled in the faculty's PhD program, the student should go visit the faculty member in person. Faculty have office hours; go use them.
# Answer
> 25 votes
To try to make a clear point: there is a range of opinions about how to respond to "cold calls" from people I don't know, etc. I myself find it easy to make a one-or-two-sentence response politely thanking an inquirer for their interest, but (if so...) that I "have no open positions in my group at this time" or whatever is suitable. For me, although I get a good number of these of various sorts, it takes less than 5 minutes a day, and I take the viewpoint that it is a good professional-social gesture to make that quick response (perhaps more worthwhile than yelling over the phone at phone-solicitors on old no-caller-id phones).
At the same time, at the other end, I know many people who take the viewpoint that sending them email no more obligates them to a response than do credit-card offers and other advertisements. And, indeed, given the ease with which we can mass-email, even with customizations, this is a fair, not unethical, not harsh reaction. Perhaps if my in-mails of this sort reached 10+ per day, I'd give up "trying to be polite", but my own current scale of "spam on behalf of earnest beginner in the business" is pretty low, so I can easily afford to be (superficially) "gracious" enough to respond.
In case people don't reply, I'm afraid you can't hold it against them, even while we admit that it would be great if they *did* respond, ... because there just isn't a general social principle that demands a response to all possible inquiries one may receive. Yes, it'd be nice, but it is simply not required.
# Answer
> 11 votes
I would say MOVE ON .. Some professors are *full* of students. They are not looking for new prospective students in the next year or so.
Therefore, the simple action to do is ignoring prospective students emails.
The best to do is to phone him/her if s/he didn't answer in 3 months after 2 or 3 emails. Try to meet him in conference and try to contact his/her current PhD students..
# Answer
> 8 votes
* Consider the possibitity of ending up in the spam filter. (I know a professor whos emails were regularly considered spam by his own university)
* (As students of the supervisor are known: could any of those ask the prof whether any of the emails arrived?)
* Students of the supervisor are known: this points to the group not being far away. Drop by in person?
* One may use other communication channels ("just wanted to make sure, my emails didn't get caught in the spam")
---
Tags: phd, graduate-admissions, advisor
--- |
thread-5345 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5345 | Referring to previous work “by the authors” | 2012-11-20T12:56:40.790 | # Question
Title: Referring to previous work “by the authors”
Let's consider two papers, one by authors A1, A2, A3 and one by authors B1, B2, B3. In the case of two publications by the same research group, some of the authors may be the same, some may be new… Typically, the senior author/team leader is the same, which means that A3 = B3 (in fields where the senior author is typically listed last).
Now, my question is: **in which cases is it okay to refer to the earlier work by the words *“the authors”, as in “the authors have shown in \[ref\] that…”*?** Is it only okay if the two author sets are strictly equal? Or is it used when A ⊂ B or A ⊃ B? Or when the first author is the same?
# Answer
> 7 votes
I would avoid "the authors" unless it is exactly the same set of authors (preferably in the same order).
I don't see anything wrong with "B1, A2 and B3 have shown that..." even when A2 is one of the authors of the present paper. It seems a little strange at first, but is quite common. I have also seen phrases like "B1 and the second author have shown that..." to refer to a paper by B1 and A2 while avoiding mentioning A2 by name, but in more complicated examples it gets pretty unwieldy.
# Answer
> -1 votes
What about the passive
> It has been shown that ... (refs)
---
Tags: writing, authorship
--- |
thread-5348 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5348 | Should the personal/research statement be technical? | 2012-11-20T14:19:06.380 | # Question
Title: Should the personal/research statement be technical?
Related: Choosing research ideas to include in a statement of purpose
I know I must describe my past and current research in my personal/research statement or statement of purpose. But do I use technical terms?
I was given the advice that since the people reading my statement are mathematicians (I am applying to US for applied mathematics), they should know what I am talking about.
Although I am applying to applied mathematics, it would also be nice to hear from other fields (biology, computer science, engineering etc) about this.
# Answer
> 17 votes
At least in computer science: **Yes, but.**
What admissions committees are looking for in your application is strong evidence of research potential. One of the indicators of research potential is the ability to write about your chosen field in its native language; not just technical terms, but their proper usage and context. In particular, if you are describing your past research results, or a particular future research problem, you should describe it just as any professional researcher would.
However, there is technical language and technical language, and you want the former. The vast majority of your statements should be understandable to a *general* audience of (in your case) applied mathematicians, not just to experts in your chosen subsubsubfield. For the *really* technical details, cite the literature or point to your own work on your web page. (The ability to effectively explain your research to non-experts, demonstrated knowledge of the literature, and willingness to embarrass yourself in public by posting your work to the web are also strong indicators of research potential.)
---
Tags: graduate-admissions, statement-of-purpose
--- |
thread-5323 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5323 | Applying to top CS PhD programs with a great record but bad GRE scores | 2012-11-19T10:21:51.193 | # Question
Title: Applying to top CS PhD programs with a great record but bad GRE scores
I have a good GPA (over 3.5) from a top 5 CS school. I also have lots of research experience and a few publications. I also expect to have very good recommendations. The only problem is that I did badly on the GRE general exam (just under below average). The exam seems like a big scam, so studying for it felt like a waste of time.
One of JeffE's blog posts mentions that schools filter applicants into three piles based on GPA and GRE: MAYBE, PROBABLY NOT, and NO. Will my GRE scores land me in the PROBABLY NOT pile, even though I have an otherwise excellent record?
Will my GRE hurt my chances of getting into CMU and Stanford? Should I try to retake them, even though it's getting late? Application deadlines are around December 13.
**Edit:** should I say something about my bad GRE scores in the statement of purpose, or do something else if I don't end up retaking them?
# Answer
> 10 votes
Many PhD programs in computer science (like my own) don't require GREs; read the application instructions carefully. If it's not a requirement, just don't submit your GRE scores.
Even when you are required to submit your scores, do not mention your GRE scores in your statement. You want the admissions committee to focus on your **potential for research**, where you seem to have a very strong case, not your ability to take standardized tests.
# Answer
> 6 votes
If you can re-take the GREs without undue burden -- yes, re-take them. You'll feel better, knowing that you did everything you could have. (Why spend the rest of your life wondering about "what could have been"?) And, it might help you a little bit, by eliminating a potential red flag.
That said, even if you don't re-take the GREs, if you have great qualifications, you'll probably be fine. If you have great research experience, great letters, and the rest of your application package is strong, it's unlikely that the GREs will hurt you much. Great research experience and publications will almost always trump poor GREs.
What your bad GRE scores *will* do is raise the eyebrows of the reviewers. The reviewers may then read the rest of your application package (contact your references, etc.) that much more carefully, to try to understand why you bombed the GREs. For instance, if you bombed the verbal GREs, then reviewer might start wondering: can this person write? are they completely inarticulate? am I going to have to spend the next 5 years teaching them how to write and remedial English? And they'll peruse all available information to try to figure out what's going on. So, if you have any explanation (even if it's just "I screwed up and didn't take the GREs seriously; in retrospect, I know it was a dumb move"), it might not hurt to share this story with your letter-writers so one of them can slip that into their letter, to minimize that sort of speculation. The other approach is to mention it in your statement of purpose -- though for some people it may feel a bit less awkward if one of your letter-writers does it.
P.S. A 3.5 GPA is not a great GPA. My sense is that it is a bit on the low side, for PhD studies in a top-5 CS PhD program. That said, grades are not the most important aspect of your application, and will be outweighed by research experience and great letters describing research potential. Research experience that has led to publications is great and a huge plus for your application file.
# Answer
> 4 votes
Despite being nearly the exact opposite question, I will give the same answer that I gave about the importance of GPA
> The importance of any single metric is binary and its value (important or not) depends on the size of the department. If the department is big, admissions committees use metrics to weed out candidates. Basically anyone with GPA/GRE below X is triaged (doesn't matter what school you went to, how good your references are, etc). Smaller departments generally look at all applications. Once your applications is looked at, it is considered as a whole. There is no formula by which good GRE scores can offset a bad GPA. Obviously a better GPA doesn't hurt, but you really want to worry about the things you can control. For example, good research experience tends to trump everything else.
# Answer
> 3 votes
Personally I think if a department throws out a person just based on GRE scores, you should neither apply to such department nor feel bad that you were not accepted. You will be better evaluated somewhere else. I am not sure how the GRE is supposed to rank good researchers. And for admission purposes it is used only in the US.
# Answer
> 3 votes
As far as I experienced last year, a high GRE score by itself **may not** directly bring you an acceptance from a grad school. However, low or moderate scores **may** result in an early elimination in the process. I think this is often the case for other standardized tests such as TOEFL (for an international applicant). Plus, you can consider GPA in this respect as well.
---
Tags: graduate-admissions
--- |
thread-5326 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5326 | What do admissions like to see in online profiles? | 2012-11-19T11:41:19.680 | # Question
Title: What do admissions like to see in online profiles?
I have a website for my academic profile. The content include academic CV, a little bit about the research I have done, a technical computing related hobby of mine etc.
I intend to state the URL for this website on my academic CV for PhD applications.
**Questions**
1. Would the admission committee view the online profile of an applicant when considering his/her application?
2. If so, what kind of information would the admission committee like to see on it?
**(Edit) Additional Information**
I am applying to applied mathematics departments in the USA.
# Answer
Admissions committees are looking for **strong evidence of research potential**; that's what your web site should give. At a minimum, your academic web site should have
* Your academic CV
* A list of publications and research projects, with download links.
You *may* want to include a copy of your research statement, but only if you don't tailor your statement to each department you apply to.
Keep it simple. If your site looks too flashy, you may give the impression that you spend too much time fiddling with your web pages instead of doing research. (Cough.)
Make sure *everything* that you post on your web site is polished and professional. Proper spelling, grammar, notation, and technical language counts, just as it does in your research statement.
Finally, @aeismail is correct: Do not assume that admissions committees will look at your site; some will, some won't. Your application must stand alone. But if you mention any publications, independent projects, or other results in your statement, point the reader to your site. *Even if nobody actually visits your site*, your willingness to display your work in public will work to your advantage.
> 9 votes
---
Tags: graduate-admissions, cv
--- |
thread-5369 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5369 | How far back should one go in citing classic works? | 2012-11-21T09:05:29.910 | # Question
Title: How far back should one go in citing classic works?
I once jokingly included in a thesis:
> The equations of motion \[1\] for a rigid body can be reformulated as…
>
> \[1\] I. Newton, *Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica*, 1687.
While citing Newton's work for his equations of motion might be over the top, there is a valid underlying question: what criteria can one use to know when a work is “such a classic” that it doesn't warrant citation anymore.
I'll give example in my field:
# Answer
The ultimate question is what would the average well-informed bachelor's or master's degree-holder in your field be expected to know.
Something that comes up in an undergraduate textbook, or is a commonly known and easily demonstrated fact (for example, the definition of the error function), probably doesn't need to be cited, because everyone in your field would be expected to know it. On the other hand, if you're publishing in a "general interest" journal, then you might want to assume a lower "base" of knowledge, and cite a commonly available source.
However, if it's something that's a very specific tool or fact (or a derivation, etc.), then it probably merits a citation in any case.
> 24 votes
# Answer
What they taught me, is that the main criterion is:
> is there a standard textbook covering the topic I want to cite?
If there is, then rather point to it than to the original paper. And only don't point to it, when you are sure, that the reader is familiar with the topic (e.g. equations of motions).
However, when you want to point to a very specific observation on discovery, still you might like to point to the original paper.
> 8 votes
---
Tags: citations
--- |
thread-5366 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5366 | Citing non Academic Books | 2012-11-21T06:14:05.477 | # Question
Title: Citing non Academic Books
What is the best way to cite non academic books in papers, for example, if we are writing a paper on economics, and want to say that "Charles Dickens presents a good portrayal of the English society in his book Oliver Twist",
Do we cite it as just another paper:
* "Charles Dickens presents a good portrayal of the English society in his book \[2\]"
Is it enough just to mention it by name:
* "Charles Dickens presents a good portrayal of the English society in his book Oliver Twist"
Do we do both?
* "Charles Dickens presents a good portrayal of the English society in his book Oliver Twist\[2\]"
Third option looks nicer, but perhaps there is an unspoken standard.
# Answer
> 6 votes
The third route is the best option, because it does two things at once: it immediately tells the reader which book you're referring to, and the citation will provide information on the specific edition of the book you're working from.
If the book is well known, it doesn't hurt to make the reference explicit. If it isn't, then mentioning the title won't make a huge difference. And it's always a good idea to avoid stilted academic writing, so anything that allows you to avoid writing something like the first example is a good thing.
---
Tags: publications, citations
--- |
thread-5355 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5355 | Working at a Liberal Arts College in Mathematics | 2012-11-20T21:06:56.930 | # Question
Title: Working at a Liberal Arts College in Mathematics
I am finishing my Ph.D. in mathematics and am currently applying to many different schools. I would like to customize my cover letter somewhat for liberal arts colleges.
**In general, what defines a liberal arts college? What is it like to work at one?** My university career has consisted solely of reasonably large state institutions with a research focus. I have only the vague notion that liberal arts colleges focus less on research and more on teaching.
**What kinds of achievements/work should I point out to a hiring committee at a liberal arts college?** The answer to this may be obvious based on the answer to the previous question, but a little redundancy would be appreciated.
# Answer
> 5 votes
In general, I tend to think of the difference between a college and a university is the presence of graduate programs and multiple "schools" at universities, while the focus of a liberal arts college is the teaching and development of undergraduates.
Research experiences for undergraduates are considered to be important parts of the modern experience, so having experience in those areas are considered useful, but is by no means the dominant concern.
---
Tags: job-search, mathematics
--- |
thread-5297 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5297 | Is hiring a proofreader beneficial in the long term? | 2012-11-16T11:13:44.900 | # Question
Title: Is hiring a proofreader beneficial in the long term?
I am an Early Stage Researcher in a bigger project. I am non-native speaker of English and I find my level of English in my articles not satisfactory, especially when I consider that it is not just my reputation but also the reputation of the project.
I am thinking about hiring a proofreader for my future articles or other texts for publication.
My long term goal is to improve myself enough so I would not need a proofreader in the future. **Does the possibility to see your corrected text help you improve your writing skill in the long term, or are English classes necessary?**
# Answer
> 8 votes
What improves most your English level (or help you maintain it if you have reached a certain level which you deem satisfactory) is **usage of the language** in all its forms: listening, speaking, reading, writing. This is especially easy in this age of globalization and technology: just keep reading texts of all kinds, listening to the radio, watching TV programs in original language (BBC news, series, …), professional podcasts or videocasts, etc.
In addition, comparing the proofread text of articles with your original version can help you better understand some of the mistakes you make, the invalid constructions you may use and the shibboleths that give you away as a non-native speaker. However, unless you write (and get proofread) a large number of papers, this might not be enough to improve significantly.
Another possibility is to **pay a teacher to actually review with you, on a regular basis, texts that you have written**. Although it takes quite a bit of time, I believe it is one of the best ways to improve your written English, along with reading a lot.
# Answer
> 6 votes
If you do decide to get a proofreader, make sure he understands the field you work in. Different fields have very different jargons, and a proofreader who is not proficient in your field will make things worse, not better. I have seen what a native English speaker (but non-psychologist) can do to an English psychology manuscript written by non-native speakers, and the results were not pretty...
It may actually be better to identify someone with strong English skills who may not be a native speaker but knows your field's specific jargon.
# Answer
> 4 votes
I would recommend both, for exactly the reasons you stated. Hire a proofreader to maintain a high quality *current* professional image, and take English language lessons to ensure that you can maintain a high quality *future* professional image (and to ensure you're not paying a proofreader for the rest of your career).
---
Tags: language, writing, proofreading
--- |
thread-4791 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4791 | Why use unique digital researcher ID? | 2012-10-17T06:49:42.197 | # Question
Title: Why use unique digital researcher ID?
I recently discover the existence of unique digital identifier for researchers (such as the one proposed by ORCID or ResearcherID).
I never really heard about it, maybe because it is not common in my field (biological sciences) and I was wondering about the interest and use of such identifier.
So my question is twofold:
> 1) What are the interest of using an unique digital identifier as a researcher?
>
> 2) Is it commonly used in the scientific community (by publishers, databases, commitees)?
PS: related but not the same question here
# Answer
> 17 votes
1. Well, search for publications of a John Smith (no middle name), or a Lee Wang, or any common name, and you'll have a hard time identifying them because of the many homonyms… Publishers and database owners are trying hard to help users, by trying to guess who is who (Web of Science calls this “Unique author set”), but their algorithms don't do very well.
As an example, I have a colleague who has a paper completely outside her main field. None of these algorithms pick it up.
Thus, because a researcher’s name is not unique, many people argue that there is need of a unique ID scheme. (Others disagree: “I’m not a number!”). As a researcher, the benefits are:
* easier for others to identify your articles in databases
* easier to keep track of your citations, especially for items other than conventional journal articles
* possibilities for cool web hyperlinks, like DOI has brought
2. The Orcid registry was launched yesterday, so noöne uses it so far…
---
My own concern about it is that I don't know in detail on the ORCID consortium will use the data they will be able to mine. In particular, this worries me:
> I consent to the privacy policy and terms and conditions of use, including **allowing those who access the database to make commercial uses of the public data**.
# Answer
> 8 votes
There are several purposes for proper and trustworthy tracking of individual's publications. Whether we as researchers like it or not, we are gradually more and more evaluated on the basis of our publications output. That is, our grant applications/proposals and other means of funds acquisition are rated, at least partly, against our publications track and a future projection thereof. If you want to convince the hiring, or grant committees and other fund holders, you show your list of publications. The more trustworthy, the better. Hence a reason for a centralized trustworthy publication tracking service. Also, people change names (e.g., by marriage), affiliations, sometimes fields. Proper attribution by automatic algorithms, such as those at work at WoS, Scopus, Google Scholar, or Microsoft Academic Search is therefore unreliable. Having a real-world and trusted tag which I could use e.g., on my papers to identify myself among the hundreds of John Smiths is useful.
Therefore:
> 1) What are the interest of using an unique digital identifier as a researcher?
1. **trustworthy disambiguation**
2. **central trustworthy register**
3. **semi-automatic tracking of publications, which however should be customisable by the ID owner to fix all the mistakes/misattributions**
4. **citation attribution** \- often e.g., WoS, attributes citations mistakenly to wrong people, because people make mistakes in references/bibliographies, etc. A central register can help with that.
> 2) Is it commonly used in the scientific community (by publishers, databases, commitees)?
If your name is unique, it's easy for the committees to check your track by simply googling you, then these guys don't care much. If you are John Smith of this world, than they are not able to do that and would ask you to prove your track record. And that can be painstaking. Even with just few dozen papers published, I myself am not able to get my WoS record correct. So to set the answer straight: *currently, not many people use it for other than personal purposes, but many (including myself) hope, ORCID will succeed and the academic community will start to use the scheme and life will get a little bit easier.*
# Answer
> 3 votes
The biology equivalent is eRa commons. As that system is strongly linked with NIH funding, it provides a robust system to tie a paper with a particular author that is independent of the author's name and the multiple versions that may be associated with the author.
Where it falls short is that eRa commons isn't associated with anything outside of pubmed and NIH.
---
Tags: publications, authorship, digital-researcher-id
--- |
thread-5377 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5377 | What is the purpose of a Dual Degree? | 2012-11-21T16:52:31.480 | # Question
Title: What is the purpose of a Dual Degree?
I'm in Germany studying a Master of Computer Science, and the program has options of Dual Degrees with other Universities from outside of Germany (US, Europe, Asia). I'm thinking of applying to the Dual Degree, but i have doubts about the purpose of getting two degrees.
Is there a defined purpose or career profile for such double degree programs? In what case should I apply or in what case I shouldn't?
# Answer
I think you should apply if you find both the degrees interesting, and they are complementary. For example, Physics and Computer Science if you aim at writing very good quality physics models (e.g. climate models). Maybe it is hard for you to say what you really want, and therefore it might be hard to judge whether or what dual master (if any) would work for you. On the short term I would try and see if you are drawn towards both masters. If so, you could get a dual degree. Do mind that I suspect two degrees is more work. If you are up to it, and willing to dedicate the time, it could be worth it. On the other hand, I would not recommend just doing it because you feel it might look good on your resume.
> 4 votes
# Answer
*I believe the main questions here are:*
* is the knowledge you will gain from the other degree is of your interest?
* does it will help you to become a better researcher?
If the answer is yes for the both then definitely worth to try it and work hardly to make it.
I found this is useful *specially in Computer Science* (as there are many multi-discipline research areas these days). Some Examples are Computational Biology, Decision Science and of course mathematics.
> 1 votes
---
Tags: graduate-school, degree
--- |
thread-5386 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5386 | Monitoring students in the lab | 2012-11-22T05:51:50.250 | # Question
Title: Monitoring students in the lab
My professor recently had a problem, and he asked me for my help to solve it, and of course I ask for yours.
He was made the School of Engineering Dean, an while it sounds important it takes most of is time through an administrative black hole, also, because of this his office is now in another building so he cannot come to the lab as often as he would like to.
He started noticing less and less people come to the lab, and some only come for a space of a couple of hours and then leave, while he perfectly understands that research can be done everywhere, he is very big on cooperation and discussion among lab members, which can't be done if there is only one guy in the lab.
Do you impose any kind of restrictions on students going to the lab for a specific time? If you are not able to monitor it, how can you ensure they will come. I was looking into some companies that have IP based checking in systems, but seems like an overkill for a 10 person laboratory.
# Answer
There’s one obvious way: **to send a signal that lab presence is important, the research group leader and permanent staff must be more present in the lab**. Most students are looking for opportunities to increase interaction with professors and advisers, thus by being “accessible” in the lab for discussions, you will increase lab presence. In addition to inciting students to come, that will be a even greater stride toward “cooperation and discussion among lab members”.
This also works with post-doc and the more experienced grad students: you need to avoid the idea that “lab presence” is only for the newbies, while the grown ups get out of there as often as they dare!
> 22 votes
# Answer
Two anecdotes that might be useful:
* **9:15 coffee time**: When I was a PhD student, our professor (or the lead assistant) would round-up everyone for "coffee" every day at 9:15am. It was usually only 15-20 minutes, and nobody cared if you went home at 11am. You weren't excused from missing "coffee," even if you worked all night and went home at 5am. Of course, there was some flexibility for jet-lag, vacations, article submissions, etc. The prof was paying our salaries and this kind of request was simply a question of not being insubordinate. The positive side effect was that people were fairly disciplined and there was a good exchange of "status" during those meetings. It made the lab feel like a family. Everyone knew more or less what was going on.
* **Use it or lose it**: My current university has card-access to all the lab spaces. A few years ago, one of our labs was "physically downsized" by the administration, and their argument was it wasn't being utilized enough, and other researchers needed the space. They had the hard data to prove it. So, many of our students complained they had no more cubes for their books, etc. But in the end, I said it was partially their fault for not "occupying" the space, partially our fault for not forcing them to. It's an argument I use to explain the necessity to be in the lab every day.
> 17 votes
# Answer
I cannot stress enough that you need to take a positive atitude towards this. The people, including the students, are there to learn something and do good work. On the whole, these people are motivated, and if they are not, strict enforcement of some rules will not get the motivated scientists you want. Therefore, reward postive behavior, not punish negative behavior.
For example @F'x's suggestion, make the lab a stimulating environment where it is nice to work. This means having senior members (professors, postdocs) present, and stimulate interaction. This can for example be done by organizing literature groups where someone prepares a good paper and the group discusses the content. Or organize weekly sessions where people present their work to each other and discuss it.
In addition, make the students and employees part of the solution. Explain that the attendance has dropped, and tell them why you think this might lead to less coorperation and productivity. Suggest and discuss possible solutions with them, and try to improve the situation.
These things said, at some stage people need to get freedom, especially the PhD's and postdocs. Judge people on their output, not their attendance. Although master students might need more monitoring...
> 9 votes
# Answer
Since you said that the "research can be done everywhere", the same can be said about collaborations. As long as things that needs to get done *are* done, you can't really complain. So: make "cooperation and discussion among lab members" one of the things that needs to get done. Enforce a culture where during the weekly meetings you begin by asking a random member of the lab to describe what some other random member did during the past week. If the goal is "cooperation and discussion", it shouldn't matter whether the lab members do it in the lab, in the office, or over a cup of coffee in the break room.
If, on the other hand, the goal is really to make sure that people come in to the lab and not slack off, then the best way is to tell them to their faces (during the weekly meeting, for example), that "they should come in to the labs regularly and not slack off". Give them an expectation of "working hours" and chew them out for not following it (if he can notice that fewer people are coming in, he can surely pull out 10 minutes every two or three days to do lab inspections during the expected working hours).
If the members of your lab cannot be trusted to behave like responsible adults, then you either really need new lab workers or you should just install one of them video baby monitors. `:-)`
> 6 votes
---
Tags: working-time, attendance, lab-management
--- |
thread-5398 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5398 | Lack of exposure to research | 2012-11-22T21:00:30.553 | # Question
Title: Lack of exposure to research
I am a senior computer science student and I am working on my senior graduation project. My supervisor said that I should implement a job search web portal as a graduation project. But I want to make some research oriented project rather than raw coding. My supervisor insists on this because he won't have to spend time with me.
So I have decided to get involved in research myself without his help because he is not helping me. I had to register for his project class because other slots were full. He does not want to deal with students but due to school constraints he had to open this class.
I have never done research or I don't know what exactly it means. How do I start this myself ?
# Answer
Firstly, note that, from my experience, your senior advisor isn't by any means a research advisor. What you're looking for, admirable as it may be, is a good deal more than he's signed up to provide to students. I wouldn't be too hard on him.
If you want to simple familiarize yourself with "what research entails", I recommend simply talking to people. Ask any graduate student if you can meet them for coffee and just ask them what they do all day (other than surf the web and drink coffee). Search through the faculty profiles on your department's website, find someone who looks interesting, and send an email asking to meet with them for 15-30 minutes to talk about research as a career.
If you're more interested in actually doing research, all of the above still apply, but there are two more steps. First, talk to the undergraduate coordinator for your department and try to set up a research internship over the next semester/summer. Secondly, when you're talking to faculty whose research interests you, ask whether they'd be willing to take undergraduate researchers in their lab. Doing research with them, even if just for a few hours a week, will give you the exposure you need to really understand what research entails.
> 5 votes
# Answer
Since *you have never done research and do not know what exactly it means*, I would suggest **Attending Seminars and invited Talks in your school** before anything else.
Try to understand how they are related to different subjects you have taken. This is a good way to start *thinking about research* and identifying interests. You may not like it and directly pursue a career in the industry after graduation.
* One way to fulfill your supervisor requirements and start being researcher is to look for the *researchy* problems associated with *portal implementation*. A good start in this direction is googling with "portal implementation site:.edu". Try to understand what are the problems in implementing portals and what are the current solutions to them.
This might seems difficult. But remember if you want to become researcher you have to read **a lot** others' work . Actually some master students they graduate by *implementing* some systems. At the end, doing implementation is part of many research projects in Computer Science.
* Another better approach (specially if you are interested in theoretical Computer Science) is to try to find another supervisor for your project that has research projects for undergraduates.
> 2 votes
---
Tags: research-undergraduate
--- |
thread-5400 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5400 | Doubts about writing research paper? | 2012-11-22T23:20:43.903 | # Question
Title: Doubts about writing research paper?
I am writing my first research paper in field of computer applications and artificial intelligence. I have following doubts, please answer them to help me out..
a) When explaining my research, do I need to include the whole code or just algorithms ?
b) Do I have to upload my code somewhere so that people can verify my research and give link of that code in my paper ?
c) I don't know any professor very well. Is it required to get it read by somebody because I am still an undergraduate ?
Any other suggestion from your experience ??
# Answer
1. Definitely not the whole code.
2. It is a conference-specific and depends on the conference area. If the paper is more data related (which is the case in Data Mining field for instance) you are required at least to comment on the data usage and from where you get it. If your paper is about a new *web system* usually referring to it in the text will be helpful.
3. It is not required but ***highly recommended*** since they will be able to provide a constructive criticism for your work. You do not need to know them *very well* and usually they will be happy to help students.
Generally, students (specially undergraduates) publish papers with the help of a faculty member in the school. This said, there is nothing limit them to publish by their own. It is just more helpful to you to be attached to one of the faculty members and do research under his/her guidance.
> 7 votes
# Answer
> a) When explaining my research, do I need to include the whole code or just algorithms ?
The complete verbose code wouldn't fit into the paper anyway, or would it?
Seriously, what you need to ensure is that
1. you **clearly communicate** your ideas and the contribution to the state of the art you claim to have made;
2. the evaluation that your proposals are feasible and really as good as you claim is plausibly **reproducible**. In the simplest form, that means that you describe all the conditions and steps which when repeated should yield the same results as you obtained.
> b) Do I have to upload my code somewhere so that people can verify my research and give link of that code in my paper ?
You don't have to, most of the time it is not being done. However, myself, I strongly believe it is beneficial and I hope the field will turn more towards this practice. For ideas about this see also the Science code manifesto, as well as Matt Might's CRAPL license.
BTW, think the same about your datasets you used for the evaluation in your paperr.
> c) I don't know any professor very well. Is it required to get it read by somebody because I am still an undergraduate ?
It is not required, but very much advisable. If you feel ideas are worth anything, try to approach somebody in the field (e.g., an author of one of the most prominent references your work builds upon) and give them time to digest. You might get some good feedback. But even if not, try to submit to a conference/workshop where it would fit, you'll get plenty of feedback in reviews.
> 4 votes
---
Tags: research-process, publications, research-undergraduate
--- |
thread-5360 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5360 | Internships for PhD students (e.g. in data science or programming) | 2012-11-21T00:21:27.103 | # Question
Title: Internships for PhD students (e.g. in data science or programming)
I still have 2-2.5 years of my PhD program, but it want to try my skills in programing, especially in the taste of data science (needless to say, I do it overnight for some hobby projects and I like it a lot).
Moreover, as working in companies may seem as one of the options "what to do after getting PhD", I would be nice to test how does it work for me in practice, and to learn skills, network, etc.
Is there such a thing as internships (e.g. in data science or programming) for PhD students?
If so, where to search for them?
(If it changes anything, I'm doing PhD in EU; but US would be a nice target.)
# Answer
**Yes.** Almost every PhD student in my (US computer science) department has at least one summer internship between admission and graduation. In fact, most PhD students go through multiple internships.
Off the top of my head, I know CS PhD students who have interned at Google (Mountain View, Manhattan, and Shanghai), Facebook, IBM, AT&T, Yahoo, Motorola, Microsoft Research (Redmond, New England, and Bangalore), Disney, Zynga, Los Alamos, Sandia, Argonne, and Livermore. Most of these places regularly advertise for interns on the web.
> 14 votes
# Answer
(Perspective from Germany)
* I've been programming for an IT start up as undergrad student (got in contact when one of the founders gave a presentation in a series of business start-up talks) and later done data analysis a few hours a week as PhD student for another company. It is done, also in Europe.
* Big companies offer positions on their web pages, e.g. Merck
* However, if you receive funding for your PhD project (scholarship), that often forbids further work for hire.
* The PhD may technically be your "private fun", depending on the field/university/country. If that is the case (here), you often get a teaching assistant part-time job assigned to earn some money. The institues have a real problem of getting the teaching done (to the point that I heard rumours that some departments want to make "did so many hours of teaching" a prerequisite for getting the PhD). These job offers are often not offers the student can take or leave. Refusing to teach may create a lot of bad blood (with the prof, who anyways doesn't have enough people to cope with the teaching workload, and with the colleagues who get a slice more of this work). But it will usually go right to the limit which you need to obey in order not to loose the student status. So in fact, you cannot go for a paid industry job, neither. More importantly, the vacations are the only time when you can continuously work on your research.
* These rules, however, do not forbid to volounteer in e.g. in open source projects.
* You may consider Google Summer of Code and similar programs (e.g. Season of KDE).
It may be easier to convince your funder/employer that participating in such a program has much more importance than just earning some money, and that your contract with them could go dormant for the months in question.
*Disclaimer: I've been mentoring at GSoC before and hopefully will again. :-)*
> 4 votes
---
Tags: phd, career-path, internship, code
--- |
thread-5376 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5376 | Measure of review bias | 2012-11-21T15:38:12.520 | # Question
Title: Measure of review bias
I was reading the other day this blog post, about "how to peer review", and one passage struck me:
> **Don't review like a grad student**
>
> Reviews written by graduate students are among the most negative.
>
> Grad students are often on the receiving end of negative reviews, because they are just learning how to write papers.
So, even though I'm no longer a grad student, I sometimes have the feeling that I tend to be a more negative reviewer than others, but it's actually hard to measure (maybe I'm just reviewing mostly bad papers?!), since I don't always have access to the other reviews of the papers I'm reviewing (due to the fact that I've been more often acting as an external reviewer than as a PC member).
I believe that the quality of my writing has improved with the feedback I've received from the reviewers of my paper, but because I don't have any feedback on my reviews, it's hard to know if and how I can improve them. So my question is: **is there a way to measure my own reviewing bias?**
The first thing that would come to my mind would be a set of papers reviewed by many other reviewers, and a result like: "you're in the x% more negative reviewers". Of course, I'm not implying that I would be automatically less severe when reviewing, but sometimes, in case of doubt, it's good to know one's own bias.
# Answer
> 15 votes
There aren’t many ways for your to evaluate how your reviews stand against others, but there is at least one. You can keep a tab of the papers you have reviewed, and look for them a year or so after the review. See if your reviews correlate with the publication (or lack thereof) of the papers in the respective journals… **if papers you have suggested to reject are frequently accepted by the editor**, then you give typically more negative reviews than other reviewers of your community.
Of course, this is a very black-and-white picture (rejection/publication). But, I don't think you can actually do much better, because “negativity” can hardly be measured quantitatively.
---
PS: I wouldn't call it a *reviewing bias*. A review is the editor asking you your frankly assessment of a publication. Toning it up or down because you fell that you do not conform to the “mean” of your field would probably diminish your value as a reviewer. If the editor does not think your reviews are helpful to him, he’ll just stop sending you paper to review!
I'll finish with an anecdote: there's a journal for which I have recently given a series of quite negative reviews (well documented, and justified in my eye), and I have actually received some positive feedback about my reviews from the editor.
# Answer
> 4 votes
Two possibilities, both not ideal:
1) If the paper is revised and resubmitted, it often comes along with detailed replies to each reviewer as to how the authors addressed each review. You may get at least these replies to the other reviews, which will allow you to judge whether they were more or less severe than you. In addition, editors often send the reviews back to the author in ascending order of severity, so "reviewer 1" will be the most enthusiastic and "reviewer 3" the least. If you are significantly more often "reviewer 3" than "reviewer 1", this may say something.
2) You can always gather anecdotal evidence by simply asking the editor to provide a little feedback on your review. Of course, the best of all editors provide this feedback (in a constructive manner) without having to be asked.
# Answer
> 3 votes
I'll tackle the other question: "maybe I'm just reviewing mostly bad papers?!"
I think with the same "right" that lets you ask for your personal bias, you may also ask whether there is an "assignment bias":
Possibly the "nice" papers are reviewed by the more famous people (who refuse to review everything that does not sound extremely interesting because they are always suggested) leaving the not-so-exciting-looking stuff to younger not so famous researchers.
However, the first thing is maybe to calculate whether you really do *more* negative reviews.
Assuming a jounal accepts 1/3 of the manuscripts, and has the policy that if the first 2 reviews conflict, a third is done. Majority wins. This situation is in accordance with 50 - 70% of the reviews being negative:
* 50%: PP for the accepted, PNN for the 2 rejected thirds
* 70%: PPN for the accepted, 2 x NN for the rejected
Do you return less than 2 positive for every 5 negative reviews (or whatever is the acceptance rate for the jounals you review for)?
# Answer
> 2 votes
> is there a way to measure my own reviewing bias?
Why should even think about such a thing, like "reviewing bias"? Isn't scientific pursuit striving for the maxim of pushing the knowledge of humankind? The only thing we should care for then is whether our critique provided in the review is valid, whether its underlying argumentation is correct, to the point and appropriate with respect to the objectives of the field we are in, etc. - that is, as objective as we can do at the moment. There shouldn't be any bias involved. A review should strive for a pure argument why the presented work advances the state of the art (which should be as close as possible to "has an impact on a scientific pursuit in a given field"), or it doesn't.
Now having said that, of course even for the same honest review you can sometimes come up with two different final recommendations in the case the paper is borderline. In that case, I consider whether I myself could fix the paper to a clearly acceptable state. If so, I provide the constructive advice to the authors and lean rather to the positive side. If not, the critique stands. We are not in this game to play our career games. We are here to advance the knowledge of the humankind. Point. Of course, sometimes emotions tend to overrule our reason, if that is the case, the reviewer is most probably in a conflict of interest.
I would strongly oppose to "measure" ones "reviewing bias". We should rather measure correctness and validity of our argumentation for, or against the presented submission. If 100 reviewers of a given paper give it a thumbs up, but you can by no means agree or get in line with their argumentation, why should you try to accommodate? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of peer-review? I am not saying we shouldn't learn from such encounters of course.
Disclaimer: I really appreciate your question. Of course I do share your concerns very much and very often. But it helps me to put the maxim stated above before this concern.
---
Tags: peer-review
--- |
thread-3054 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3054 | OpenOffice Vs. LibreOffice Vs. MSOffice for academic writing | 2012-08-31T12:44:49.810 | # Question
Title: OpenOffice Vs. LibreOffice Vs. MSOffice for academic writing
What office package is good for academic writing purpose? These three are the most popular for a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) style rich text editor.
PS: Avoid LateX reference please. This question is for lazy writers like me who wants to write rapidly and with ease!
# Answer
> 25 votes
If you are in a field with lots of equations, the journals you are going to publish in will almost certainly take .tex. So write in LaTeX. Otherwise you will not be writing your equations rapidly or with ease (compared to those who know LaTeX)\*. Use a front end like LyX if you want some WYSIWYGness.
If you are in any non-equation-heavy field, use MS Office, for the simple reason that every journal takes .doc files and only some take other formats. OpenOffice and LibreOffice are not yet compatible enough for publication-quality work. (I have tried repeatedly.) It's not that OpenOffice/LibreOffice can't do the right thing, it's that the journals only support Word. And so either your manuscript will be full of errors that you have to hope you will catch and correct when you get page proofs, or you will have to end up using Word anyway. Kind of sad, but that's the way things are (and have been for the past decade).
*<sup>Once you know LaTeX, *everything* is faster and easier, especially because you can save old solutions for formatting, shortcut macros, etc. etc., and import them with a cut and paste. But it does take a non-negligible amount of time to learn, so if you're too impatient to learn new skills or under a very tight time deadline right now, LaTeX is not for you. Unless you're doing equations--LaTeX still does those enough better that you may as well just use it regardless.</sup>
# Answer
> 17 votes
The answer depends a lot on one's field of work, where the end product will appear, whether the collaborator's mutually agree upon the package and finally the OS one use.
Most journals or conferences accept manuscripts in `DOC` or `DOCX` format; other than `TeX`. Native formats of *OpenOffice* or *LibreOffice* are not \[always\] supported in most DTP centres/print or publishing houses.
Say, for example if you are in Science; esp in Physics or Mathematics, most of your academic writing will have lot of equations. In that case it better to opt for MS Office (along with MathType). This is because the equation editor that comes with OpenOffice or LibreOffice is not compatible with MS Office and vice versa. The equation either get converted as a figure or appear scrambled when opened in a non-native package.
If the collaborator uses a different package, compatibility is a big problem.
If one has to work in different OS's; compatibility issues comes in there as well. For e.g. MS Office cannot function natively on Linux systems.
So considering the fact that *the academic work always reach a different kind of post-processing mechanism, it is better to use the most popular package*, MS Office.
If typesetting and publishing are done by self/in-house, compatibility is not an issue and any package is as good as any other package.
(As question is about three specific office packages, references to `LaTeX` is avoided; which may be the best choice, irrespective of one's field of work/typesetting environment as @marc-van-dongen has already pointed out.)
# Answer
> 13 votes
all the major conferences and journals provide *templates* to use in order to format properly a submission, and they are circulated mostly in doc (Microsoft) and tex (LaTex) formats.
That said, LibreOffice and OpenOffice are mostly identical, but they're divided by a large political/philosophical diatribe (see here). Generally Libre-/OpenOffice can open the doc templates without problems, but they tend to loose some formatting against the latest docx format (see here), and they sometimes "break" the docx files that coauthors give back to LibreOffice users (like in here)
# Answer
> 8 votes
I would highly recommend using a LaTeX whenever possible or Lyx. For Lyx you can also export to LaTex. A recent submission actually only accepted word, but that is not a problem if you start in Lyx or LaTeX. You can export for Lyx to Tex. I have found that if I do need to move to Word for submission or having someone help with editing, I can take the LaTeX/Tex file and use a converter (there are a lot you can try, here is an open source one on SF) to get RTF which will open in Word just fine.
There are also other editors, Such as Scientific Workplace which are more geared towards technical writing.
Another thing you may want to consider is using something very simple like Markdown with some extension for citations and the such. Here are some related links:
You may also want to check out this Stack Overflow question on WYSIWYG vs WYSIWYM
# Answer
> 4 votes
If you really don't want to have LaTeX, then also GoogleDocs may be an option. It has a big advantage, when it comes to collaboration (even for real-time; no problems with mismatching versions of editors, no problems with "which version is the most recent?" or "where (s)he made the changes?").
But also you might consider LyX:
> LyX is a document processor that encourages an approach to writing based on the structure of your documents (WYSIWYM) and not simply their appearance (WYSIWYG).
>
> LyX combines the power and flexibility of TeX/LaTeX with the ease of use of a graphical interface.
So, in short, you can at the same time write in the way you are used to (without learning anything just to start) and use benefits of LaTeX (formatting, bibliography (!), formulas (!)).
Quite a few of my friends started their adventure with LaTeX with LyX.
# Answer
> 4 votes
# Preamble
I wrote my master's report in Microsoft word. Then I moved on to better environments -- I wrote my PhD dissertation in latex.
# My take on which to use: MS Word/Libreoffice
If you are short on time and are fine with sleepless nights, definitely go for Microsoft word. However, if you have lots of equations in your work, MSWord will just make it look very unprofessional and ugly (but may still be acceptable by your committee).
Your grad school may have "how to do it" videos for MS Word. Have you checked with them to see if they have appropriate templates/packages for MS Word? What does the majority of you group use? If you are short on time, do what is tried and tested, do stuff that you have help readily available for (peers, adviser etc.)
# Advantages of using LaTeX (I had to provide it just for completion)
The other option (much harangued obviously , ) is LaTeX. It takes the strain out of writing as you have to only provide content and can concentrate on actually **writing** instead of spending a lot of time on formatting.
There is a world of difference with LaTeX far superior to Microsoft products, **for academic writing**. Yes, lots (don't quite have a number right now) of people still use MS Office. They write their theses/dissertations/reports, submit it for review to gradschool, it comes back with formatting corrections (even though they use templates provided by the gradschool). So then they spend countless sleepless hours jutting their images around.
# Answer
> 3 votes
As kena said, there are other ways of producting documents. I personnally use **org-mode**. There are saveral reasons :
* The document you type can be **exported into another formats**, including **HTML, OpenDocument (LibreOffice / OpenOffice), or LaTeX**. In that way, your can publish your document without restriction.
* This language is **much easier than LaTeX**, and you can write directly in plain text.
* As you write in plain text, **any editor can fit** (even though Emacs has the org-mode by default).
* As you write in plain text, **an editor in wide screen prevents you from disturbances** (and this is a main point).
* With the references system, you can also write **notes and outlines** in separate files, **as in Scrivener** for example.
* The syntax for tables, pictures and links is simple, so you shall write **the whole book in org-mode, then export it directly**. Few processing may be necessary then, you only have to set your environment in LibreOffice or LaTeX.
When I tried that, I enjoyed it at once :-)
**Note :** Of course ReStructuredText and Markdown can export to HTML, ODT and LaTeX, but I prefer Org-Mode for its flexibility.
# Answer
> 1 votes
To add to the answers, I would definitely NOT use LibreOffice Writer. It is extremely unstable and my Bachelor student and a friend of mine writing his Master's thesis messed up their files completely last minute. The windows version crashes when a large PDF is to be generated.
I had to help my friend convert all the thesis to LaTeX last minute, which worked perfectly, and I'm using it right now to write my dissertation.
# Answer
> 0 votes
I am surprised no one mentioned reStructured text (here, here). This is a markup syntax where you can write your paper using pure text only. It also support math, automatic conversion to both LaTeX and PDF, and rendering on web pages. Check it out!
---
Tags: publications, tools
--- |
thread-5401 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5401 | How to choose participants for a study? | 2012-11-23T00:22:19.497 | # Question
Title: How to choose participants for a study?
I want to know how can I get some participants for an empirical research study I would be conducting. Does universities have systems in place to call/recruit participants or do I have to find them myself?
# Answer
> 8 votes
You will almost certainly have to recruit study participants yourself. As others have suggested, speak with your advisor to out whether there are any participant pools he's used in the past. If you find others that he hasn't used before it's a good idea to make sure he's OK with the pool before you dive in, so to speak.
Note that, in some fields, the pool of participants can be a significant limiting factor to the generalizability of the study results. Think very carefully about exclusionary criterion before settling on something. Note also that your IRB may require you to provide justification for exclusion/inclusion of certain populations (i.e., children, pregnant women, drug users). Try to make sure your population sample is as inclusive as possible.
# Answer
> 5 votes
I am not aware of any university run participant pools. I am aware of many departmental run and research group run participant pools. Some charities and companies also run participant pools.
It is quite possible that you will not have to recruit the participants yourself. Your supervisor and/or colleagues would be a good place to start asking about participant pools. Failing that, all universities have an institutional review board (IRB) or independent ethics committee that might be aware of participant pools in your research area.
# Answer
> 3 votes
At the universities I've worked in North America, human-subject studies (esp. those funded by taxpayer-funded research) must be approved by a research ethics committee. The ways to recruit participants is something that must be stated and approved. Over the years, committee members have offered lots of advice about how to recruit subjects, as they have seen many projects and many experiments. A professor has to submit a project for approval, so you'd have to coordinate it with an adviser. You can probably consult with committee members before you submit the request.
The studies I've managed have recruited participants in simple and effective ways: e-mail lists, university newspapers, facebook, flyers posted on campus, etc. As others have pointed out, the means of recruitment will affect the generalizability of the study results.
I saw one project that had trouble finding enough participants via the declared means (flyers), but it was not possible (because of the ethics committee re-approval) to use another means to recruit (e.g., last-minute facebook campaign) to try to find more participants. Be careful not to lock yourself into a way that's too limited.
---
Tags: research-process, experiment-design
--- |
thread-5433 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5433 | Keeping track of one's academic record and achievements | 2012-11-24T22:36:20.963 | # Question
Title: Keeping track of one's academic record and achievements
> **Possible Duplicate:**
> What tools make it easy to maintain (or avoid!) the N versions of your CV?
When writing a CV (applying for an academic position, workshop or a scholarship), it's important to include one's list of publications, conference talks and posters, awards, etc.
Moreover, the list need to be tailored to the respective scope (and with the appropriate fine-graining).
The question is, **is there a specific workflow (or software) to keep tracks of one's academic records, so that later it's easy to cherry-pick the relevant stuff?**
# Answer
Google Scholar and Microsoft Academic Research (also DBLP for computer science) collect a decent amount of one's publications (in particular Google Scholar).
If you are writing your CV in Latex/LyX, I would suggest finding/creating BIBTEX entries for your papers then import the *.bib* file into your CV.
> 2 votes
# Answer
On my website I keep a list of my academic achievements. This only includes journal publications, official reports, and conference proceedings though. When I need to make a list of my most relevant publications, I take a look at that page. A nice way to tracking your papers and such is to create a Google Scholar Citations page. This automatically looks for your publications and keeps record of the number of citations you receive.
> 1 votes
---
Tags: cv, workflow
--- |
thread-5445 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5445 | Reapplying to same PhD program after one year, should I state I applied the previous year? | 2012-11-25T18:18:40.590 | # Question
Title: Reapplying to same PhD program after one year, should I state I applied the previous year?
I was wondering if someone who is reapplying to the same program after it was not accepted the previous year is seen as a negative thing.
If in the application form I am asked if I applied the program in the past, should I state that I did or would that look bad on my application?
Why is this question been asked? And does not really matter what my answer is? The university clearly states that all application material is destroyed after a few months. Thus the admission commitee look at this question?
# Answer
Lying on an application form is a really bad idea, it would probably destroy any chance you could have to be accepted. So, if the question is asked, you probably should answer truthfully.
As for why it is asked, it also depends on how a program works. If it's a very competitive program, maybe your application was good, but there were just better candidates than you. In that case, it could be worth applying again. If, on the other hand, the committee just decided that your application was not good enough, then applying again is risky. In any case, you would have to demonstrate that you have significantly improved your application during the last year.
> 13 votes
# Answer
EMBL explicitly tells people who haven’t been accepted in the first go (but who passed the initial aptitude assessment) to apply again next year.
They *do* keep record of your application so lying about it would be very stupid, but re-applying definitely doesn’t harm your chances a priori. In fact, at EMBL you wouldn’t even need to re-take the assessment.
Certainly this is a quite institute specific answer but I’d think that it’s a good rule of thumb. Even if your particular University handles this differently (destroy application material), chances are, somebody will remember you.
> 4 votes
---
Tags: phd, application
--- |
thread-5458 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5458 | Transferring knowledge from one field to another | 2012-11-26T06:01:07.327 | # Question
Title: Transferring knowledge from one field to another
A professor once said to me: ***publication is about intelligent copy paste from one field to another***. His claims were right in a sense that he knew what results already exist in one field and apply it to the other non-mature yet field. Ofcourse he didn't mean a literal copying.
> If you are working in a cut-edge research (a new obscure area) and already familiar with another stable mature-enough area, is utilizing one's techniques to the other is a good approach for making contributions to the field?
is it count as a *good* contribution?
is it common in Academia? (specifically for Computer Science field)
# Answer
> 5 votes
Computer Science has many subfields, I remember that there was a running gag in NLP that people just took algorithms from the 1980's and pushed papers out like a treadmill.
Other fields like Statistical Machine Learning has a more math oriented approach and you do have to come up with novel stuff most of the time.
However, when you do interdisciplinary research, it is very often that many good techniques just don't get tested because many people do not know how to use them, or do not have the time to understand them very well.
But to answer your question, I think is a pretty valid practice, very good researchers have great papers where what they did was basically apply a widely known math tool to a novel problem that few people were working on.
An example that comes to mind is how Factor Analysis, a widely known CS method (1993) was just applied in 2007 for the problem of discovering Connections in Gene Networks, not only that, people were using linear regression on that just 10 years ago.
# Answer
> 1 votes
What is important in each scientific work is that it adds to the knowledge that already exists, i.e. there needs to be a new element. Applying a known method from another field into a new field, if this has not already been done before, can be a valid new element. In my view, this is a good contribution. Also, this happens quite a lot in research in general. For example, copula's where very populor already in Financial modelling, but only recently got attention for spatial interpolation.
People who come up with radically new ideas, e.g. Einstein, are very rare. Most of us researchers can be happy to add our little addition to the large pool of knowledge, mainly building on existing material.
---
Tags: research-process
--- |
thread-5356 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5356 | How to withdraw from an application process in a polite manner? | 2012-11-20T21:45:52.493 | # Question
Title: How to withdraw from an application process in a polite manner?
Say a candidate has met with a potential PhD supervisor and it was rather evident that he would be willing to take on the candidate. You have emailed a lot and met in person a few times, but nothing has been formalised yet.
Suppose now the candidate decides to take it into a different direction simply because there are better options.
What is the most polite way to withdraw ? Is it polite to send an email and explain, or does this come across as arrogant since a PhD candidate is not really in the position to turn down a Professor ? Would it be better simply not to get in touch again ? Is there some standard etiquette in the US and/or the UK ?
# Answer
Just send a polite email stating that you found another position or that you simply prefer to take a different direction. Be sure to thank the professor for the time he has put into you. The email does not have to be long, but it should give a reason. You do not need to be overly elaborate, though. And don't forget to be polite.
The thing you do not realise is that the professor wants to find a student who will be committed to his topic for several years to come. If you are not such a student, it is best for the professor to know that before taking you on as a student. In a sense, you are doing the professor a favour by withdrawing.
> 17 votes
# Answer
I had to write a few such letters in the past and the best way is to simply and politely let them know that you've decided to go in a *different direction*. Professors (should) understand that you're looking at a few options during this courting process so in my case, I also mentioned which Professor I ended up working for.
As @user4050 alludes to, I knew that the other professor would be in the same building as I. Thus, it was extremely important to not burn any bridges. I mentioned something along the lines that I hope that our paths would cross again and that we would continue to interact. To this day, if their lab needed anything from mine, I was usually the point person.
This advice is also true when corresponding with Professors of other Universities while looking at potential graduate schools and post-doc advisors. The world is small enough and I have certainly crossed paths with former potential advisors at conferences.
> 4 votes
---
Tags: phd, etiquette, application, withdraw
--- |
thread-5471 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5471 | Transitive copying - plagiarism? | 2012-11-26T17:26:34.113 | # Question
Title: Transitive copying - plagiarism?
I am writing a paper with a co-author. I need to explain some terms in the preliminaries section. I am copying the definitions from my co-authors previous paper. Afterwards, I want to include the paper into my thesis. If I use the same definitions word for word in my thesis, would that be considered plagiarism?
# Answer
Your question sounds like you're asking about a math paper. Definitions in mathematics are a bit of a strange corner case for plagiarism issues because they're not supposed to be "in your own words." My understanding of normal behavior is that you would never put a definition in quotes (unless you're writing about history), that you can nonetheless reuse definitions verbatim, but that you need to either cite the original source or say that they are standard definitions. A typical way to do this would be by saying "We recall some key definitions from X."
> 19 votes
# Answer
You need to clearly reference the definitions.
For example, **Definition 1 \[paper\_reference\]:** or **Definition 1 ( as in \[paper\_reference\] ) :**
By this, it is clearly your are copying the definition of the other paper..
> 16 votes
# Answer
1. If you are going to use their definitions verbatim, then use quotes, or otherwise make it very clear that the words are not your own.
2. In any case, cite the sources.
If you use other peoples' words in your thesis, without making it very clear that they *are* other peoples' words, then yes, you would be committing plagiarism.
Granted, this case would not be extreme, compared with say, including a chapter from someone else's thesis in your own, but it does meet the definition. Given that many universities have adopted draconian anti-plagiarism policies in recent years, you should be very careful to avoid even minor infractions.
> 7 votes
# Answer
You could take two approaches:
* Modify the text slightly, rewording, to make it different.
* or, easier, just refer to the other paper, i.e. "I use the definitions of Doe (2011), which for convienience I repeat:".
In that way it is not plagiarism.
> 6 votes
---
Tags: thesis, plagiarism
--- |
thread-5479 | https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5479 | Student and advisor applying to same job - conflict of interest with recommendation letter | 2012-11-27T00:38:14.430 | # Question
Title: Student and advisor applying to same job - conflict of interest with recommendation letter
I'm currently a Ph.D. student. I'm applying for a post-Ph.D. faculty job, and so is one of my two Ph.D. co-advisors. I think we have a good relationship, and I am thrilled they are applying, and truly hope they get the job. I think this is mutual.
They recently decided to apply. Prior to their decision, they agreed to review my application and be listed as a reference.
Now that we are both applying, they have agreed to review my application, but only after they have finished with theirs, to keep them independent. Furthermore, they suggested they should not be a letter writer, but then said they would remain as a reference if I want, since I don't have that many others to choose from (being somewhat earlier in my career, having collaborated with others a bit less).
I've asked the Search Committee head if they are OK with me listing them as a reference. If my advisor and I agree to do it, does the committee have a problem with it? Their reply will guide my answer.
But I seek advice here too. Is it OK to keep the advisor as the reference? I trust them to write a good letter, even in the unlikely event that we are both selected, or I alone am selected. Is this unwise?
# Answer
It is helpful that you and your advisor have been in contact and have honest communication about this subject. It's commendable, and doesn't happen nearly often enough.
That said,, for this particular job, if you want to have any realistic chance of getting this particular job, you really need to have someone else replace this particular co-advisor. Otherwise, a rather confused hiring panel may take a look at both applications, wonder what the heck is going on, and throw out *both* applications.
However, for any job in which you're not in direct conflict, I think it would probably be OK to have your co-advisor as a letter of reference.
> 9 votes
# Answer
I would personally try and find a different reference. There just too much potential for conflict. The situation is somewhat comparable to borrowing a lot of money from family. Your former advisor is working in the same field, so you will be meeting fo the years to come. If this turns out badly, it will remain a nuisance for a very long. Short answer: just prevent the potential conflict of interest and find a new reference.
> 4 votes
---
Tags: job-search, recommendation-letter, conflict-of-interest
--- |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.